Freegans part 36

Cara
"What's that thing he's using?" I pointed to the thingy the Ox (as Ben had told me he was called) was holding to Madiza's head.
"Come here, and I'll show you," said the Ox. We dutifully trooped over to look. It was rectangular, made of some odd metal, and had a view-screen on the side facing us. The Ox was pressing a button on it with his thumb while he examined Madiza.
"This is used to study the brain waves in a person's mind, and calculate how much brain power they use. I invented it." The Ox seemed mildly proud of himself as he said this.

"How does it work?" asked Matt. By way of reply, the Ox held up the scanner thing to the side of Matt's head, and pushed the button. There was a loud humming noise, and then on the screen there appeared a lot of lines, kind of like a graph. The Ox studied it, and then gave a nod of satisfaction.
"According to this, you have the normal brainwaves of someone of your age and intelligence." They were wavy, and changed at a nice, slow rate. Then the Ox held it up to Madiza's head, so we could see, and pressed the button. Loud beeps and chirps came from the thing; the lines, when they appeared, were disjointed and uneven. Some were very jagged, and some were curvy, and one was perfectly straight.
"As you can see, her mental capacity is alarmingly high for someone her age, and also very out of sync. Her thoughts are not evenly organized, and keep changing rapidly. This proves that she is, in fact, Project 112."

When the Ox finished speaking, Madiza stood up and peered into his eyes, looking suspicious. Finally she smiled and said, "You're a good boy, too." Then she reached up and patted him on the head, like she had the Kestrel. He looked at us quizzically. I said, "She had to make sure we could trust you."
"Ah. I see."
Then Lucy spoke up. She asked, "Why is Madiza so important to you?" It was the question all of us had been wondering, but hadn't quite figured out how to ask.