Table of Contents

- Copyright

- 1. Fresh Meat

- 2. A Small Vestibule Of Panic

- 3. This Is What You Came For

- 4. Your Friends And Neighbors

- 5. Getting Prepared For Desperate

- 6. The Writing On The Wall

- 7. Coloring Outside The Lines

- 8. Very Superstitious

- 9. The Waiting Is The Hardest Part

- 10. Nokay

- 11. After Which We Probably Won’t Be Forgiven

- 12. Locked And Loaded

- 13. Outer Limits

- 14. Close Encounters

- 15. In Which I See Something I Wish I Could Unsee Forever

- 16. Truth Or Consequences

- 17. Oh No You Didn’t

- 18. In Which Micah Finally Shows Us His Power

- 19. Vacationland

- 20. Unexpected Company

- 21. Now You See Me…

- 22. …Now You Don’t

- 23. The Butterfly

- 24. Catch And Release

- 25. Beware False Idols

- Dear Reader:

- Book 3, CHAPTER ONE: Get Me Off This Rock

- About the Author

INTUITION

The Division Series, Book 2

LEIGH WALKER

CMG Publishing

INTUITION (The Division #2)

Copyright © 2017 by Leigh Walker

Published by CMG Publishing

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions. V.AMZ.9.9.2017.

Want to find out when the next book in the series is available? Sign up for Leigh’s mailing list at www.leighwalkerbooks.com.

1

FRESH MEAT

“EVERYONE, this is Micah Stevenson. Micah, this is your new team.” Cranston motioned for him to take a seat.

The boy, who had chocolate-brown skin and wide-set brown eyes, clutched his notebook and slunk into his seat, not looking at anyone.

Cranston resumed his lesson, droning on about the branches of government.

I leaned forward in my seat and tapped the new boy on the shoulder. He cringed away from me.

“Hi,” I said, “I’m Riley. And I don’t have cooties, I swear. You okay?”

He nodded, but kept his eyes trained toward the front of the room.

After class, Micah sprang from his seat, but I caught up with him in the hall. “Hey, Micah.”

He didn’t stop walking. “Hey.”

“You’re the new boy, huh?”

He shot me a sideways glance.

“You can talk to me, all right? Because I’m the new girl. I feel your pain.”

He stopped walking. “I’m not new.”

I’d heard Micah had been transferred from another cell, a group vaguely referred to as “the others,” but I didn’t know anything else about him. “Well, I know you’re not technically ‘new,’ but you’re new to our group, so…”

“So?” He kept his voice low, but not so low that I failed to hear its unfriendly undertone.

“So, I’m just trying to be nice. In case you feel alone.”

I had my reservations about The Division, but I’d decided to stay because of our group. The least I could do was make our newest member comfortable.

Although “decided to stay” might have been an inaccurate way to describe my situation. Since being recruited, I’d learned I was telekinetic and had been genetically engineered to be a soldier. There wasn’t a lot of free will involved in staying; it was more a lack-of-meaningful-choice situation.

“I appreciate that—you being nice.” Micah didn’t sound as though he meant it. “But I’m pretty sure there isn’t anything you can do to help.”

“You mean…wait, do you mean I can’t do anything to make you feel less alone?”

He sighed. “Yup, that’s what I mean.”

“Is that a race thing?” I blurted out.

Micah surprised me by laughing. His laugh was strong and deep, like a tuba gurgling. “You think I feel alone because I’m black?”

“Right, but it’s not like you’re the only one who’s different around here. Josh is half-Puerto Rican, Rachel’s Indian, Kyan’s Japanese, and—”

My words were cut off by Micah’s howl of laughter. He leaned against a locker for support. “You really are as crazy as I heard. We’ve got a telekinetic, a telepath, a transporter, some crazy twins, an empath, and a couple of precogs, and you think I feel alone because I’m black.”

He stopped laughing and gave me a long look. “Like I said—as crazy as I heard.” Clutching his notebook, he stalked off.

Finn came around the corner. “What’s his problem?”

Blindsided as always by Finn—his tall form, thick, spiky brown hair, mesmerizing brown eyes, square chin, and the large biceps peeking from beneath his T-shirt—I momentarily forgot everything else.

Finn laughed. “Riley, focus. Enough about my big biceps, at least for a second.”

“Sure,” I said absently. My eyes traced the lines of his hulking shoulders. Did he just come from lifting weights?

“Earth to Riley. You were thinking about Micah, remember?”

“Huh?”

Finn flashed his dimple, indulging me. I’d been ogling him. Again. I coughed and glared at him, as though it were his fault. Then I groaned. “Enough with the dimple. You’re going to blind me with that thing!”

“Sorry.” His eyes sparkled. He didn’t look sorry in the least. “Tell me about Micah.”

“I think I made him upset.” I twisted my ponytail, feeling miserable. “I don’t know. I put my foot in my mouth. He seems skittish, and I said I could help because I’m new, too. But then I asked him if he was lonely because he was black, and that made him crack up—”

Finn laughed, too. “Did you explain that you’re from upstate New Hampshire? And that you don’t, er, get out much?”

I put my hands on my hips. “Don’t make fun of me. What’s his deal, anyway? And who is this group he came from—the others?”

Finn waved me off. “We can do Twenty Questions—or more likely Fifty Questions since this is you we’re talking about—later. You’ve got mail.”

He grabbed my hand, which never failed to make me tingle all over, and dragged me down the hall to the mail room. The Division had taken over a previously occupied high school in Bangor, Maine. It was home base for now while we finished basic history lessons and did more extensive tactical training.

When we finished in Bangor, we would be deployed. No one knew when this would happen, or where we would go. One of my teammates, Josh Lafontaine, had put money on two months. One of my other teammates, Emma West, had put money on two weeks. Everyone was siding with Emma because, as our resident precog, she could see into the future. Josh just liked to gamble.

Finn and I reached the mailroom. Rachel, our team’s resident teleporter, was sulkily assembling small piles of mail. Her glossy black hair snaked down her back in two French braids. “Well, if it isn’t our team lovebirds.” She rolled her eyes and tossed us each a letter. Rachel, who looked like a supermodel but ate like a pro-wrestler and rarely deigned to speak, made eye-rolling look cool.

“Gee, thanks.” I practiced rolling my eyes back at her, but I probably just looked as if I might have a seizure.

“My pleasure. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to hit the gym, which is much less boring than the stupid chores Cranston keeps assigning us.” Rachel stalked off, her long, elegant legs gracefully carrying her down the hall.

If only I could stalk like that. I tended to stomp…and trip.

Finn turned to me. “The chores are pretty annoying, but it’s not like we have anyone here to help us, right? We need to stay incognito.”

“That’s true.” We needed to keep our location secret. Cranston had me cleaning toilets and scrubbing floors, chores I could most certainly live without. Still, our isolation made us safer. We needed to stay secure until we were called to duty.

I shivered. I had no idea what to expect in the coming months. Cleaning toilets was the least of my worries.

Finn was scowling at the envelope he held.

“Who’s that from?” I asked.

He didn’t look up. “My mother.”

He must miss her.

“I do, Hanover. I really do.”

“Finn.”

He looked up. “Huh?”

“Stay out of my head, and stop calling me Hanover.”

He nodded, distracted, and went back to scowling at the letter.

I tried to soften my tone. “Aren’t you going to open it?”

“Yeah, maybe later.” He shoved it into his back pocket. “What’s yours?”

I turned the postcard over and saw the postmark from Florida. “It’s from my mom. I guess she went to the Keys after all.”

Dear Riley,

I miss you! You-Know-Who will most certainly redact this, so I’ll keep it simple. The weather in Florida is nice. It’s so wonderful of the XXXXXXXXXX to pay for my trip. I’m staying at a four-star hotel. Wish you, XXXXXXXXXX were here. And XXXX—I’m telling you, that boy likes you. Hope you are well, honey.

Love,

Mom

I breathed a sigh of relief. My mother hadn’t said anything too controversial, although she’d still managed to get herself redacted.

“She sounds good,” Finn said.

I didn’t know if he’d read over my shoulder or had listened inside my head, but I supposed it didn’t matter. “Yeah, she sort of does, huh?” My mother had quit drinking—at least, I hoped she’d kept to it. But from the upbeat tone of her postcard, she sounded better than she had since Dad and Katie died.

We started heading back down the hall, and I glanced at Finn. “Why don’t you want to read the letter from your mom?”

“Honestly? I get a little sad.” Finn shoved his hands into his pockets. “And as that’s not keeping with my macho image, I prefer to read her letters in private.”

“Does she write you often?”

“Every month.”

“That’s nice.” I didn’t know what else to say. We weren’t allowed to write our parents back. It was a one-way relationship. Finn hadn’t spoken to his mother in years.

As The Division’s newest recruit—before Micah—I’d been allowed to see my mother recently, at the end of the summer. But Cranston, our superior, had said nothing about the future. I didn’t know if I would ever see her again.

“You might.” Finn was apparently unable or unwilling to stop reading my thoughts. “You never know.”

Having a telepathic boyfriend was simultaneously mortifying and extremely convenient.

“Emma told her parents she was dead,” I reminded him. “Maybe that’s better than my poor mother never knowing if I got her mail.”

Finn shrugged. “Emma’s sort of warped.”

Emma popped out from behind her locker, snapping a piece of bubblegum. “Talking about me again, Finn? What are you, obsessed?” She motioned to her face and her ensemble, laughing. “It’s hard not to be. I get it.” Her bleached pixie cut was immobile from all the gel, and she was wearing a Rolling Stones T-shirt and a plaid miniskirt that looked suspiciously like it had been wrangled from a cheerleader. Rounding out her look were her non-military-grade combat boots, which she wore strictly as a fashion statement.

“More like not obsessed,” Finn teased.

Emma peeked around us. “Speaking of obsessed with me, where’s the new boy? I’m wondering if we’ve finally recruited someone worthy of my attention.”

“You haven’t met Micah yet?” I asked. “Weren’t you in class?”

“No, I was in a meeting, remember?” she asked.

Finn’s head whipped around. “Meeting with who?”

“Riley didn’t tell you? Nora. She’s here. She dropped off Micah, and she wants to have one-on-ones with all of us.”

Finn let out a low whistle, impressed. “Whoa, I didn’t know she was here.”

Emma looked pleased. “I was the first one to have a meeting.”

“Wait. Who is Nora?” Emma had told me about the meeting, but because I was a newbie, I hadn’t realized its significance.

“She’s Cranston’s superior,” Finn said. “It’s who he reports to directly.”

Wow. So Nora was a big deal. “Oh. Huh.”

Finn nodded at Emma. “What did she ask you?”

Emma finished reapplying her lip gloss before she spoke. “She wanted to know how the…indoctrination…went.” Her gaze traveled over to me.

Finn put his arm around my shoulder protectively. “You mean with Riley?”

Emma nodded.

My heart thudded. Being noticed, under the best of circumstances, made me nervous, and now that I was part of The Division, any scrutiny made me uneasy. “She wanted to know about me? What, about Levels and my powers and stuff?”

Emma and Finn’s eyes met briefly, but then Emma smiled at me. “She asked how you handled the information you were given, about your origin and your family. She wanted to know how you seemed after you saw your dad and Katie in the tests.”

Over the course of the summer, I’d taken various tests to explore my newfound power of telekinesis. For two of the tests, I’d been injected with a drug that made me hallucinate, and in those illusions, I’d encountered my father and my sister, Katie—who were both dead. “What did you tell her?”

“Just that you were upset by…seeing them…but you handled it well.” Emma shrugged. “I think she wanted to make sure that you weren’t too impacted by the tests. I told her what I thought—that it was cruel. But I made sure to talk you up so you looked good.”

“Thanks. But why are they asking questions like that about me?”

Finn squeezed my shoulder. “They might be reviewing their policies. It’s probably something procedural, nothing to get upset about.”

“Could this have something to do with the new boy?” I asked. “Are they trying to figure out how to indoctrinate him?”

“Micah’s not new,” Finn reminded me. “He’s new to our group, but he’s been around. He won’t need to be fully indoctrinated again. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have transferred him to us.”

What Finn didn’t say, most likely because he wanted me to keep calm, was that they wouldn’t have transferred a total newbie to us right before we went to war.

He leaned down and put his mouth close to my ear, making me shiver. “Easy, Hanover.”

I tried to glare at him, but he was so close that I just wanted to flutter my eyelashes instead. Stupid hormones.

“I don’t know why Nora’s asking about this,” Emma said. “But I think the fact that your monitor blew a couple of times traveled up the chain of command. She’s making sure that not only are you okay, future recruits are dealt with properly. That’s what I think, anyway.”

“Makes sense,” Finn said. “Although I thought you said Riley was our last member.”

Emma huffed. “I didn’t see Micah coming, that’s for sure.” She’d been taken off guard when he arrived. Emma didn’t like surprises.

“But that’s part of his power, I think,” Finn said. “He’s a cloaker.”

I whipped my head toward him. “What the heck’s a ‘cloaker’?”

“It’s someone who can mask their special abilities and remain undetected, even by a very skilled precog.” He smiled at Emma. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. I can’t get into his head, either.”

“I’ll have to find out Micah’s secret,” I mumbled.

Finn leaned toward Emma conspiratorially. “Riley asked him if he was upset because he’s black.”

Emma giggled. “That’s what she’s worried about?”

“Riley.” Cranston suddenly towered over us, and Emma stopped talking immediately. Our superior looked tense, his face pale with dark circles blooming like bruises underneath his eyes. “I need you to come with me.”

I shot Finn a worried look. “Y-yes, sir.”

“It’ll be fine,” Emma whispered before I followed Cranston down the hall.

I hoped she was right. I ducked into Cranston’s mostly abandoned office. The only remaining decoration was a dusty globe, abandoned on a metal bookcase in the corner.

As always, Cranston sat impossibly erect in his chair. His silver crewcut glinted under the fluorescent lights. “I heard you had a letter from your mother.”

“But you knew about it already,” I blurted out before I could stop myself, “because you censored part of it.”

“I didn’t censor it. The postcard went through Central Command, and they redacted it before forwarding it here.”

“Oh.” We had a Central Command? “Sorry, sir. I didn’t know that.”

Cranston looked vaguely annoyed. “I’m happy to clear that up for you, Soldier. Now, there are several reasons I wanted to meet with you this morning. First of all, to let you know you can’t respond to the letter.”

“Am I ever going to be able to talk to my mother again?”

“No,” he said without a trace of emotion.

I swallowed hard. “Will you make sure that she’s safe?”

Cranston’s gaze, ice-blue and steely, met mine. “As long as she isn’t a nuisance and you don’t draw any unwanted attention to her, she should be fine.”

I wanted more of an assurance, but I decided to keep my mouth shut. Cranston got prickly when people questioned policy. “What else did you want to see me about?”

“My commanding officer, Nora, is here at the base, and she’s interviewing everyone. You’re up next. She’ll want to talk to you in private, then we’re going to give her a demonstration of your abilities.”

I licked my lips, which had suddenly gone dry. “Will there be hallucinogens?”

“No,” Cranston said tersely. “Just you in the gym with some objects, like the good old days.”

“Will Finn be kissing Rachel again, sir?” During one of my first tests, they’d trotted Finn and gorgeous Rachel out together, and he’d proceeded to jam his tongue down her throat. I’d been so upset, I’d shattered every light in the gymnasium, unlocking my telekinetic power.

Cranston smiled. “Not if you perform.”

“Gee, thanks. Sir.” I couldn’t keep the sarcasm from my voice.

The smile slid off Cranston’s face as he stood up. “Nora’s ready for you. In the assistant principal’s office.”

“Thanks,” I said, even though I felt as though he were sending me to detention.

I stopped when I got to the door. “Sir? What’s she like?”

He smiled. “She’s a little scary. Nothing you can’t handle.”

I sighed as I headed down the hall, preparing for whatever “a little scary” meant to someone like Cranston.

2

A SMALL VESTIBULE OF PANIC

“RILEY, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Nora nodded and motioned for me to sit. She was a small woman, older than I’d expected, with lines like a spider web running all over her face and neck. Her silver hair was cut in a long, artfully choppy bob, and her lipstick was a bright pink.

Even though she wore a plain charcoal suit, I had a feeling Emma approved of her. Nora was sharply stylish.

“I’ve heard so many things about you. I feel like I already know you.” Nora rested her chin on top of her folded hands, regarding me from across the barren desk. “But of course, I don’t.”

“It’s nice to meet you.” I had no idea if that were true or not.

“Welcome to The Division.”

I nodded. “Have you…been with the agency for a long time?”

“I’ve been with the government since I had my first job, back when I was all of eighteen. But I’ve only been with The Division for the past ten years. I wanted to move to something more exciting than the unit I’d been working with.”

“What unit was that?”

“The Navy SEALs.” She let that just hang in the air between us because, apparently, Navy SEALs were boring.

“What’s your background in?” I asked, genuinely curious.

Nora raised an eyebrow at my directness. “I started as a secretary for an admiral in the air force. He had a heart attack during an air strike, and I took over for him and commandeered our unit. I showed promise, so after that, I trained for the Secret Service.”

“And that’s where you currently are?” I still struggled to understand where The Division fit into the federal government and who—if anyone—watched out for us.

“Something like that. They told me you asked a lot of questions.” Nora pursed her lips. “Now it’s my turn. I’ve been talking to Cranston and some of the other soldiers about your training over the summer. How would you describe the experience? Start from the beginning, please, when you were at Hollingsworth.”

I told her about the supposed summer work-study program and how I’d found out that my senior year at the prestigious boarding school was never going to happen. Nora took notes, her cursive handwriting filled with swooping letters. “And the explanation Cranston gave you?”

“He didn’t really give me one for a while. I found out through the other recruits.” Finn had been the one to tell me about The Division, but the last thing I was going to do was get him into trouble.

“And what did you do when Finnegan Grayson told you that you’d been recruited for a secret government agency?”

Welp, guess I can’t protect him. I swallowed hard. “Uh…I didn’t believe him.”

“But your monitor went off,” Nora said. “So it must’ve struck some sort of chord with you.”

“About the monitor…” I shuddered, remembering Kyan trying to dig his out of the base of his neck. “Where is it, exactly?”

“It’s in the base of your skull. It was surgically implanted there when you were an infant,” Nora said almost casually.

I felt the back of my neck, but there weren’t any bumps. “Thanks for clearing that up.”

“It reads your cortisol levels, which indicate the level of stress your body’s experiencing. I’ve watched yours for the past couple of months. You’ve been through a lot. That’s part of why I’m here.”

“To check on me?”

“To make sure that you weren’t irrevocably damaged by the process.”

I sat back. “I think I’m okay.”

Nora raised an eyebrow. “Back to what you thought when Finn told you about our agency—you say you didn’t believe him. What eventually changed your mind?”

“I…saw what I could do.”

She scribbled more notes. “So, Cranston arranged for you to begin testing without telling you what he expected of you?”

I couldn’t tell if she thought what Cranston had done was wrong. My superior was far from my favorite person, but I didn’t want to get him into trouble—that could make life difficult for me. “What Cranston did worked. I don’t think I would’ve believed him if he’d told me about my powers before I used them.”

She nodded, seemingly satisfied. “Tell me about the first couple of tests.”

Nora continued to take notes, listening intently as I recounted the details of my humble beginnings at the Freel Air Force Base. My face reddened when I told her about the test in which Finn had kissed Rachel. “That’s the first time I used my telekinetic powers,” I explained.

“But it wasn’t the first time,” she corrected me. “You had an episode in high school, in the school nurse’s office. That was the first time you showed real promise.”

“Did Cranston tell you about that?”

“No. It was in your file. You have to know we were watching you for years. It’s not like we’d just leave you loose on the streets in New Hampshire.”

I didn’t say anything, but I wondered how close they’d really been watching me. Mom had been sort of a disaster since Dad and Katie died.

Nora read my doubtful expression and pursed her lips. “We were watching your mother. Don’t hold her behavior against us. We never would’ve left you there if it wasn’t safe.”

Wait—is she reading my expression or my mind? “Do you know…everything about me?”

Nora looked at me levelly. “It’s my job to.”

“Are you telepathic?” I really freaking hoped not—I had enough telepaths to deal with.

“No, I’m just observant. Let’s continue. After that test—the one where you broke the lights—what was your conversation like with Sergeant Cranston?”

Again, I had the feeling I might get him in trouble. I chose my words carefully. “It was clinical and detailed. He gave me a thorough explanation regarding telekinesis, and we discussed the parameters of…my service to the agency.”

She nodded. “What about the tests that contained a hallucinogenic component? I understand there were two.”

“We did Levels testing. That’s where I saw my father, or the image of my father…or whatever it was.” I willed my brain to be quiet. I didn’t want to think anything else about Levels in front of her.

“What was that?” she asked.

“I’m sorry?” My voice came out small.

“About your father?”

I still wondered if she was reading my thoughts. “I saw him in the Levels test. It was disorienting. I got very upset.”

“Because you were angry at your superiors for designing the test that way?”

I nodded. “I didn’t know why someone would do that to me—it hurt to see my dad. But after a while, I think I understood.”

Nora sat back in her chair, her attention firmly on my face. “Go on.”

“You did it because you wanted me to understand that my parents knew about The Division. You tried to tell me that in a way that I could understand. Authentic, that’s what Cranston called it—you wanted it to feel authentic for me, so I would know I was here with my father’s blessing.” I refused to think outside that sentence.

She cocked her head to the side. “Do you feel that way? That you’re here with your father’s blessing?”

“I believe so.” A half-lie. My father had seemed ambivalent, if not downright betrayed, by the agency. But he’d also said it was my destiny. “And my mother told me that she and my father were clear about what they were signing up for when they adopted me.” That was at least true.

Nora inspected her nails. “Your mother is a problem, Riley.”

“But she’s not anymore.” I nervously licked my lips. “She’s sober, and she knows she can’t talk about us to anyone. She knows there’s nothing she can do to get me back.”

“I think I preferred her drunk.”

Too afraid to ask why, I shifted gears. “She’s safer this way, trust me. No more wild outbursts.”

Nora looked up from her nails. “We’ll see.”

“Please don’t hurt her,” I begged.

She tilted her chin. “Why would you think we’d do something like that?”

I swallowed hard. “I don’t. But she just got sober. She won’t be a problem, I promise. She’s had such a hard time since my dad and Katie died. She just needs a break.”

“Let’s talk about what happened at the naval shipyard prison with you and Finnegan,” Nora said, closing the subject of my mother.

“I hurt Finn. I hurt him so bad, he had to stay overnight in the infirmary.” My head throbbed with the memory from that night. Cranston had forced Finn and I to fight each other. We’d both been hallucinating, and when I thought I was helping him, I had actually been throwing him against a wall, hard, with my telekinetic power.

Not my finest hour, but Cranston had been pleased with my ability.

Nora leaned forward. “I want you to tell me what your sister said to you in that test. Verbatim.”

“I don’t know if I remember everything.”

She pursed her lips. “Try.”

Of course, I remembered every second of seeing Katie, and everything she’d said.

She’d said Finn was totally going to be my boyfriend, and that I didn’t have a choice in the matter. Had she known we’d been genetically designed for each other?

She’d known about The Division, and that I couldn’t run away.

She’d said that maybe they would let her come back to me, even if it was just in a hallucination.

I cleared my throat. “She said that everyone who’d gotten me to The Division, and everyone who was training me, was doing it out of love—love for me and for our country—and that there’d been a lot of sacrifices to get me to the agency.”

“What do you think Katie meant by that?” Nora asked.

“I think she meant that my mom and dad had agreed to give me up, and that it was hard.”

Nora tilted her chin. “Anything else?”

She knew I was leaving stuff out. I forced my mind to stay blank. “No, ma’am.”

“Okay.” She got up, went over to the door, and locked it. “Now I want to see what you can do.”

I glanced at the door. “Cranston said we were going to do a demonstration in the gym.”

Nora sat back down and smoothed the hair from her face. “I’m in charge, not Cranston. And I’d like to see what you can do.”

“Okay.” My voice came out small. “I can probably lift some things. I usually have to be pretty agitated to do much more than that.”

“Proceed.”

“You’re not going to…agitate me?”

She cocked an eyebrow. “Not yet.”

I silently vowed to lift as many objects as possible. I spotted a heavy-looking three-hole punch and decided to start there. I could also lift the chair in the corner as my grand finale—I hoped. My powers didn’t always cooperate when I wanted them to. I didn’t have full control of them yet.

I felt a bead of sweat drip down my back as I closed my eyes and concentrated. I started with the metal three-hole punch, picturing the molecules around it agitating and bouncing off of each other. I heard the metal scrape against the desk as the object rose to hover. Once I felt centered, I imagined the pens resting in the mug on Nora’s desk.

I took a deep breath and opened my eyes. The hole puncher hovered over the desk; the pens rotated in slow-moving, mesmerizing circles as they hung in the air next to it.

Next, I went for the paper clips. I’d learned over the past few weeks how to make these exercises more artful, so I imagined the paper clips assembling themselves into a conga line. They zoomed around the room.

When I opened my eyes again, Nora smiled. “Cute.”

I smiled back as I watched the swirling, colorful pens and playful paper clips. “Who knew telekinesis could be so much fun?” I joked.

Nora stopped smiling.

“I can do lots of badass things, too,” I said quickly. “I beat up Finn, and I blew up a bunch of spiders in Levels. I’m working on telekinetically starting fires.”

“Good.” Nora motioned to the objects in the air. “You can put your toys away now.”

“Yes, ma’am.” I maneuvered everything back into its place, careful not to make a ruckus.

She stood up. “Now it’s time to see what all the hype’s about.”

“Hype? What hype?”

Her well-groomed eyebrows went up a fraction. “The hype about you, of course.”

3

THIS IS WHAT YOU CAME FOR

IN ADDITION TO MY BACK, my palms were sweating as I followed Nora to the gymnasium. Even though the school had been vacant for a year, the gym still smelled like sweaty feet. Nora didn’t speak as we entered. She made a beeline for Cranston and motioned for me to go sit with Finn, Emma, and the others, who were on the scuffed-up wooden bleachers.

Josh and Rachel sat together, engaged in deep conversation. Morgan and Maya, the red-headed twins, were looking at something on Maya’s phone. Kyan scowled at me. I scowled back. I hadn’t forgiven him for trying to get me in trouble with Cranston.

Micah was nowhere in sight.

“Hey,” Finn said as I slid up next to him.

Emma leaned forward. “This isn’t good. She’s going to make you do a test in front of all of us, and you’re not going to like it.”

“What did you see?” I asked anxiously, worrying about what my near future held.

Emma’s eyes darted to Nora and Cranston. “It has something to do with Micah.”

“Is she going to make Finn kiss Micah?” I joked, even though my temples were throbbing.

Emma looked as though she felt sorry for me, which was a massive red flag. “You’re going to wish that’s all it was.”

Stay calm, Finn said in my head. I’m right here, and it’s only a test.

I wanted to acknowledge what he’d said, but I didn’t want anyone else to know Finn could talk directly inside my brain. I tried to calm down, which lasted all of three seconds because Nora and Cranston finished talking and waved me over.

“Josh?” I asked quickly. “A little help, please?”

Josh tore himself away from Rachel and smiled at me lopsidedly. “You nervous, Hanover?”

The nickname rankled, but I was desperate. “Can you please calm me down?”

“My pleasure.” Josh ran his hand through his shaggy brown bangs then closed his eyes. A feeling of well-being washed through me as if the sun was finally shining on my face after a long winter.

As our resident empath, Josh could impact the feelings of others. He could also read people’s feelings, which came in handy if someone was lying. From a combat perspective, Josh was extremely important to our team. The fact that he could influence mood could be a huge advantage for us. It would be difficult for our enemy to focus on killing us if they were too busy feeling joyous or sobbing—or better yet, seesawing wildly back and forth between the two.

I opened my eyes and smiled at my friend. “Thanks.”

“That’s what I’m here for. Good luck,” he called as I headed to our superiors.

I took a deep breath as Cranston and Nora watched me approach. “Are you ready for this, Soldier?” Cranston asked.

I shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant. “Can you explain what we’re doing?”

“A demonstration.” Cranston looked as though he felt sorry for me, too. Normally, that would traumatize me a lot because Cranston didn’t exhibit much sympathy for us, but Josh had wrapped me in a tight cocoon of cozy optimism.

“The paper clips weren’t good enough for you?” I asked Nora.

She waved my question away. “Bring out the other boy,” she ordered Cranston.

Cranston stalked off, returning with Micah a moment later.

Micah glared at Cranston, then at Nora, and finally turned his furious stare to me.

I reached for his hand. “It’s going to be okay.”

Cranston looked confused for a second, then he looked at the bleachers. “Josh, cut it out! Riley needs to be normal, not a helium balloon filled with your fake feel-good crap,” he barked.

“Yes, sir.” Josh closed his eyes briefly, concentrating.

The sense of well-being dropped from me suddenly. I felt as if I’d just gotten out of a hot shower and someone had stolen my warm, fluffy towel. I stood there, bereft and shivering.

I pulled my hand back from Micah. “It’s probably not going to be okay.”

“Master of the obvious,” he said under his breath.

“That’s enough, soldiers.” Nora nodded at Cranston. “Take Micah to the chair, and let’s begin.”

Micah followed Cranston to a wooden chair I recognized from the front office. I didn’t know why Cranston had dragged it here, unless he wanted Micah to be comfortable during whatever this was.

He sat down, still giving each of us the evil eye.

Cranston pulled out some sort of gadget from a crate on the floor. It looked like a rectangular flashlight. He worked on adjusting it.

“What’s that?” I asked.

Cranston didn’t look up. “It’s an electrical stun gun.”

There went my theory about concern for Micah’s comfort.

Micah laughed, the same tuba-gurgling sound as before. He looked at Nora. “You really have some nerve, you know that?”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not sure I know what you mean.”

Micah stopped laughing. “Playing innocent doesn’t work for you, Admiral. You might have the new girl fooled, but I’ve been around.”

“Oh, I know.” Nora gave him an icy smile. “Which is why you’re sitting in the chair and not holding the stun gun.”

“That’s not technically the whole story,” Cranston explained to Micah. He carefully calibrated the stun gun. “Riley’s monitor shows she feels sorry for you. You sort of drew the short straw today.”

Micah looked up at me. “Thanks for nothing, Freak Show.”

“That’s enough,” Cranston barked. He flicked a final switch on the device, and it hummed to life. “We’re ready.”

I took a step back. “I’m not doing this—whatever it is.”

Cranston rolled his eyes, and Nora tilted her chin. “You’re going to ignore a direct order?” she asked.

“I’m not ignoring; I’m just not participating.” I took another step back. “I don’t want to be responsible for Micah getting stunned, or shocked, or whatever that thing does.”

“Good.” Nora motioned for Cranston to begin. “Then you better move fast.”

Cranston put the stunner against Micah’s forearm and squeezed the trigger. A loud crackle of electricity shot out of it, and Micah shrieked. Smoke rose from his skin, and the smell of charred flesh permeated the air.

I heard Finn curse behind me. “Stop it!” I yelled at Cranston, but he moved the gun up Micah’s arm and fired it again. “Stop it!”

Nora looked almost bored as she watched. Cranston ignored me, shocking Micah’s arm until the boy broke down and wept. I couldn’t hesitate—I closed my eyes and focused my mental energy on the stun gun.

“Ow!” Cranston yelped. The weapon shorted, shocking him, and flew out of his hands.

I heard it crash against the nearby painted-brick wall and shatter. Its cheap, plastic pieces rained down onto the dusty gym floor.

I opened my eyes to find Micah alternately rubbing his arm and his eyes, and Cranston glaring at me. “I should put you in solitary for that, Soldier.”

“I didn’t shock you on purpose, sir,” I lied.

“Riley, I’d like to see if you can reassemble the weapon,” Nora said, apparently disinterested in the fact that two of her underlings were injured.

“Not until you let someone take Micah to the nurse’s office and patch him up.”

Micah laughed without humor. “I seriously don’t want any favors from you.”

Nora snapped her fingers. “Morgan, take him and get him patched up.”

Morgan jumped up and came toward Micah. Her long, amber curls bounced as she hustled across the gym. Micah glared at her, but she didn’t hesitate. “You have open wounds. Let’s go.”

Micah winced as he got up, and a hot rage curled inside my chest. I waited until Morgan had taken him from the gym, then I looked at Nora. “Was that really necessary?”

She shrugged. “You produced. If you’d just cooperated when I asked you to, your teammate wouldn’t be injured.”

“You never asked me to do anything. You just put Micah in the chair and started shocking him.”

“I asked you to show me your talents,” Nora corrected. “And you showed me a paper clip parade. Now put the stun gun back together, or I’m going to start inviting your other friends to sit in the chair.” She looked pointedly at the bleachers.

“Yes, ma’am,” I said immediately.

“And do you understand that if you ever injure a superior again like you just injured Cranston, you will be punished?”

Cranston cleared his throat. “Admiral, she didn’t mean to hurt—”

“No more interruptions. Riley, put the damn gun back together. Now.”

I had no idea how to reassemble the pieces of the stun gun or keep it together once I had. But the look on Nora’s face told me this wasn’t a teachable moment.

Sighing, I closed my eyes and focused on the plastic shards scattered across the floor.

“HOW DID YOU DO IT?” Emma asked me later while we were waiting for our civics class to start.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I visualized the pieces in relation to each other, and then I…I think I mentally welded them together.”

“You manipulated the energy around them, and quite possibly inside them, and fused them,” Finn explained.

“How do you know?”

He grinned at me. “Because I was listening inside your head, in case I could help you remember how to do it again.”

Finn knew I hated it when he snooped inside my head, but it could be so convenient. I swear, sometimes he understood me better than I understood myself. “Thanks, but stay out of my head, okay?”

He winked at me. “Whatever you say, Hanover.”

I was about to argue, when we heard yelling in the hall outside of the classroom. “You can’t possibly believe that they’re ready to go into combat, Donald! You’re failing them. They’re clueless!”

“I don’t appreciate your tone, Nora, or the way you’re handling my team.” Cranston sounded furious but also as though he was trying to restrain himself. “We’ve got everything under control. I’m re-educating them with the basics, but we’ll get to the more sophisticated points soon—”

“We don’t have time for that,” Nora interrupted. “I just got a missive. Six days, Sergeant. They’ve been monitoring the situation in Scottsdale for six days, and now they know for sure—it’s happening.”

I shivered violently even though I didn’t know why. “What’s a missive?” I whispered to Emma, but she didn’t have time to answer.

Cranston burst into the room, his face white. “Are Micah and Maya still in the nurse’s office?” he barked.

When we said yes, he nodded at Rachel to go fetch them. “Be quick,” he instructed. “I have news.”

Rachel started to run and disappeared before she reached the door, teleporting herself instead of running. Nora came into the classroom and sat down. She didn’t look at us. Instead, she quickly and calmly typed out something on her tablet, acting as if she hadn’t screamed at Cranston only moments before.

Rachel, Maya, and Micah returned a moment later. Micah had bandages running up his arm.

“Take a seat,” Cranston instructed. “You’re going to want to be sitting when you hear what I have to say.”

I held my breath, waiting for him to go on.

Micah sat as far away from me as he could.

Cranston turned his steel-blue gaze on each of us. “The admiral’s just had a missive from headquarters. It’s time, soldiers. The Division has been activated.”

4

YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS

NORA STOOD UP. “Your unit is being transported to Arizona. You’ll need to pack up and be ready to head to the airport. We’ll have transportation waiting. I’ll have a cleaning crew come in to wipe the school down. Try to be careful—make sure you take all your belongings with you.”

“The admiral is needed elsewhere, so she won’t be joining us.” Cranston motioned to Nora. “I’d like you all to thank her for spending time with us. We’ll see her again.”

“Thank you, Admiral,” we said in unison—even Micah.

Nora gave us an icy smile. “You’ll see me sooner than you’d probably like. And I expect you to be in much better shape.” She left and didn’t look back.

Cranston waited a beat before he spoke again. “Get packed up and meet me in the gym in twenty minutes. I’ll debrief you on the plane. We have a long ride.”

“Do you know anything?” I asked Emma as we hustled to the locker room, where we’d been sleeping on gym mats.

She shook her head, looking pale. “Not enough to be helpful. The images in my head don’t make sense yet.”

“Do you know where we’re going?” Maya asked.

“Glendale, to Luke Air Force Base.” Emma scrunched her face and closed her eyes, possibly examining the images in her mind. “Then Scottsdale. Then the mountains…somewhere. They’re dark.” She sounded unsure.

“Great,” Rachel snapped. “Do you think you could get it together? What else are you good for?”

Emma arched an eyebrow at the taller girl. “I’m good for lots of things—unlike you, who only seems good at tossing your hair around and playing hard to get with Josh.”

Rachel put her hands on her hips, eyes flashing. “You’re seriously annoying, you know that?”

I couldn’t believe they were squabbling when we’d just been activated.

Josh stuck his head into the locker room and grinned. “Ladies, we don’t have time for a catfight right now. But maybe on the plane? ’Cause I’m not opposed to watching.”

“I’m putting money on Rachel,” Maya said. “But can you all just knock it off? We have things to do.”

Emma turned her glare from Josh to her red-headed friend. “Thanks a lot! I’m going to remember that.”

Maya grunted as she rolled up her sleeping bag. “Let’s get going. We don’t have time for the hysterics.”

“Cranston wants us in the van in five,” Josh called.

Emma ignored the others, and we started packing. I looked around to make sure no one was watching us then leaned closer to her. “I’m sort of scared.”

She nodded, and I noticed she looked tired. “It’s okay to be scared. Fear is healthy. Fear is what will keep you alive. Panic is what’ll get you killed.”

I tried not to panic as I packed up my things.

“YOU’VE ONLY EVER BEEN on a plane once, right?” Finn asked as he watched me peer out the windows.

The military plane we were on was different from the crowded commercial flight I’d taken years earlier.

“Just once, when my parents took us to Florida.” I stared at the fluffy white clouds. “I was scared, so my dad told me to look for fairies bouncing on the clouds.”

Finn reached out and laced his fingers through mine. “That’s adorable.”

A little shudder of pleasure ran through me. I still hadn’t gotten used to having a boyfriend. His easy familiarity set me at ease, even though I jittered with excitement whenever we were together. I smiled at him. “It was actually sort of pathetic that I fell for it—I was twelve.”

Finn laughed and started to say something, but Cranston interrupted.

“Enough of the social hour, soldiers. Focus!”

We turned our attention to the front, where Cranston was scribbling notes on a whiteboard.

“What do people do when they lose power?” he asked us.

Finn leaned toward me. “He’s preparing us for the mission. Pay attention. This is a recurring theme, something they talk about a lot—the grid going out.”

Cranston had mentioned that we would be studying different emergency scenarios, but we hadn’t gotten far. I leaned forward and listened.

“As soon as people lose power, they tend to get a flashlight and stockpile their emergency supplies,” Morgan answered.

“If it’s at night, they’ll light candles or use those battery-operated ones,” Maya said.

“What else?” Cranston asked.

I raised my hand. “Also, if it’s at night, people look out the window to see if their neighbors have lost power, too.” New Hampshire winters were harsh; we’d had a lot of snow and ice storms that led to power outages. Katie and I had always peeked out the window to see if the whole street had gone out. I’d never minded losing power. I had always found the darkness soothing and quiet, at least until the house started to freeze.

Finn raised his hand. “Wi-Fi goes out when you lose power to your house, but cell phones are still connected to Internet via satellite. So people will get on their phones and check social media to see what’s happening and if the power outage is widespread.”

Cranston nodded and kept looking at Finn. “What do they do after they check social media?”

“They feel better when they know that other people are experiencing the same thing. So once they’ve confirmed that others in their area have lost power and that the electrical company’s been contacted, they wait it out.” Finn shrugged. “No big deal.”

Cranston’s eyes glittered. “But what happens if the power doesn’t come back on?”

Josh raised his hand. “Sir? Does this have something to do with our assignment?”

“I’m not answering the questions here, son—I’m asking them.”

Kyan shot me an I-told-you-so look. He was tired of Cranston dodging questions. After a brief stint in solitary, Kyan’s attitude toward our leader seemed worse than ever.

“Anyone else have an answer?” Cranston asked.

Kyan turned toward him, running a hand absently through his bleached-blond hair. “If the power doesn’t come back on, things are going to get ugly quick.”

Cranston’s lip curled. “That’s a shortcut of an answer, not that I’m surprised.”

Micah raised his hand as Kyan frowned. “If the power doesn’t come back on, sir, people will come out of their homes and talk to their neighbors. They won’t do that for a little while, though. They’ll wait and check social media because that’s what people do now. But if the power doesn’t come on for a day or two, their phones will eventually die. Then they’ll be forced to talk to other humans face-to-face to find out what’s happening. Of course, not everyone’s mobiles will die at once. Some people will get in touch with the police or friends and relatives to find out what’s happening, or connect to the news.”

“And what if no one knows what’s happening?” Cranston asked. “Even the people they reach?”

“They’ll have to venture farther out to find out how extensive the damage is,” Micah answered. “They’ll want to know more.” I was surprised at how calm and civil he was acting toward Cranston after being zapped.

Was Micah used to this type of treatment? Was getting tortured in front of an audience just a typical day at the office for him?

Cranston nodded. “Let’s say that some people take their cars and go to friends or family, or who knows where, and don’t come back. And that the power stays off for so long in a given area, enough that everyone has been cut off from the outside world—no cell phones, no Internet, no news. No one knows what’s happening or why their neighbors didn’t come back. What happens then?”

I raised my hand. “More people will drive farther out to see what’s happening and to find out how far the outage reaches. But why hasn’t the local government made some sort of announcement at this point? If there’s a widespread power outage, there would be some sort of organized effort to come out and help people within the affected area, right?”

“Let’s say the police and the fire department have set up shelters, but they’re using a generator.” Cranston clapped his hands together. “Someone’s turned off the lights, people! And no one knows who did it, or why, or how long it’s going to last. No one knows what happens next.”

I tried to imagine a total power outage in a major metropolitan area. If they’d lost power in Glendale, where the Luke Air Force Base was located, how would we land our plane? What would happen to all the food in the grocery stores? How would people cook and eat?

I raised my hand. “I know you’re the one asking the questions, sir, but why are you asking them? Is something like this happening on the ground?”

“This particular set of questions is pertinent to our mission, yes. We’ve had news that the power has been out in the city of Scottsdale and the surrounding area for six days, and no one on the ground knows why.”

This event was newsworthy, but we’d had no Internet and no television.

Cranston took his time before he continued, looking at each of us. “The admiral told me that I was failing you all. You might have heard her yelling at me outside the class.”

There were mumbled acknowledgements from my teammates and me.

“She has a point.” Cranston crossed his arms against his chest and waited for his admission to sink in.

“Sir?” Finn asked.

“Riley, I’m talking to you, here, as our newest member. The others have already completed this coursework, but I thought I could give them a refresher course. We hadn’t gotten to a lot of the worst-case scenarios because I wanted to give you a full background structure. I thought we had time for that, and I was wrong. To the extent that I was wrong, I am also sorry.”

He looked at his watch. “We have four hours before we land at Luke Air Force Base. I want you to take some time as a group to write up possible outcomes for a massive power outage, and then I want to talk about ways our team can address a situation like this. Emma, Josh, Rachel, and the twins, you’re one group for now. Micah, you’re with Riley and Finn. Kyan, just keep to your useless self.”

Kyan snorted and shook his head.

Micah came back toward our seats, looking wary as he sat. “Nothing like being the third wheel.”

“We only have eyes for you, buddy,” Finn tried to assure him. “I want to know what a cloaker can do to help civilians during a mass power outage.”

“You know what I am?” Micah asked, genuinely surprised.

Finn nodded, looking pleased with himself. “I’m a telepath. I can’t hear you, but I’ve dealt with a few cloakers before. I know your kind.”

Micah looked puzzled. “What do you hear when you try to listen to me?”

“It’s like a buzzing noise. You’re transmitting something; it’s not just silence. More like a white noise to block out what’s going on underneath. I believe the technical term is ‘psychic static.’” Finn scrubbed a hand across his face. “Actually, you’re the first cloaker I’ve been around for any length of time. It would be helpful for us to work together, to see if I can try to break into your mind, and what you can do to mount extra defenses against me.”

Micah raised his eyebrows. “Sounds like a good time. No, really. Maybe Freak Show here can watch, just to round out what promises to be a lovely learning experience.”

“Dude, what’s your problem?” Finn asked.

Easy, I thought at him. He seemed to relax a fraction, but I couldn’t be sure.

Micah shook his head. “My problem is that you’re both too busy making goo-goo eyes at each other to figure out that as soon as we hit the ground, we’re going to be in the middle of mass panic. I thought my old group was bad, but you people are just clueless.”

I leaned forward. “What do you mean? Who was your old group—what can you tell us about them? Why did you leave?” The questions tumbled out before I could stop myself.

Micah looked from Finn to me. “I’ll give you the tl;dr version.”

“Huh?” I asked.

Micah frowned at me. “Too long; didn’t read—it means a brief explanation.”

“Oh.” I tried to look like I totally got it.

“Not because I think you have any right to know my business, but because if we don’t die on the ground later today, you’re going to hear it, anyway. Might as well be from me.”

He leaned forward and kept his voice down. “Finn’s right—I’m a cloaker. Which means I can hide my other powers, I can hide my thoughts, and I present like a civilian. Unfortunately for me, I was born into this gig. The government manufactured me, and they knew who my biological parents were. They knew I’d be able to hide my gifts. I was activated when I was ten, taken in for testing. They couldn’t figure out what my powers were besides cloaking. I never cooperated with them because I didn’t know what my powers were, either. We were all just guessing. They ran tests on me for a year and still couldn’t figure out what to do with me.”

“What did they end up doing?” Finn asked.

“My indicators were off the charts, but nothing specific came through. They sent me to the others, which is a group from the same origin program as all of you but without the external show of psychic powers.”

Finn hung on Micah’s every word. “What did you guys do? How did they train you? What’s their mission?”

“They never told us, and we never got an assignment in all the years I was with them. We were trained strictly in combat. They would pull each of us for testing on a regular basis. But no one ever showed any sort of change except for…me.” Micah’s throat worked as he swallowed. “They set me up in isolation for eight months to test me further and try to bring out my latent powers. Until they finally did.”

“What’s your power?” I asked.

Just as Micah opened his mouth to answer, Cranston loomed over us. “Are you gossiping? Or are you preparing to present to the group in a half hour?”

“Preparing,” Micah said quickly. “We’re running different scenarios. We’ll be ready.”

Cranston smiled at him, but he didn’t look fooled. “Good.”

I wanted to pounce on Micah as soon as Cranston turned his back, but our superior stayed close, obviously still listening. “So…what can we do, as a unit, to help citizens facing a long-term power outage?” I asked, trying to sound businesslike.

“We’re heading to Arizona, and it’s September—the heat’s the biggest factor,” Finn said. “We need to worry about heat stroke and other health issues. There won’t be air conditioning. The temperature usually sits between low eighties and a hundred degrees Fahrenheit, so water’s a concern, too.”

“Can you hear anyone’s thoughts on the ground from up here?” I asked him. “Do you know what’s going on?”

“Not yet,” he admitted. “But Emma just had a vision, and I saw it. Micah’s right—everyone’s getting antsy. It’s above ninety degrees. Schools are closed, government offices are closed, and there’s no one out on the roads. None of the lights are working. It’s already been six days. That’s not long, but it’s long enough, and there hasn’t been any word about why. Cranston will brief us on the scale of the outage, but right now, we need to figure out what we can do to help. I’m thinking that we set up temporary shelters with generators and see if we can bring in refrigerators, microwaves, coolers, that sort of thing. Maybe we can get generators to different neighborhoods and set up local help centers for people who can’t go too far.”

“This might be a dumb question, but why are they sending us in?” I asked. “Why not the National Guard or something?”

Micah laughed, a big, gurgling tuba right in my face. “You’re the most clueless of them all, aren’t you?”

I frowned. “I’m kind of new to this, you know. I’ve only been with the unit for a couple of months, and Cranston isn’t always exactly forthcoming.” My face reddened as Micah kept laughing at me. “You could be a little more useful and tell me something. I did save you from a stun gun earlier.”

Micah immediately stopped laughing. “I told you, I don’t want any favors, not from you.”

I bristled at his tone but tried to keep a neutral expression. “Fine. But tell me what you think is happening and why they’re sending us in.”

He looked from Finn to me again. “Because it’s going to get all zombie apocalypse down there, sooner rather than later.”

“When?” Finn didn’t sound at all surprised.

Micah shrugged. “As soon as they figure out the power’s not coming back on.”

I blinked. “Not ever coming back on?”

My newest teammate looked at me as though I had three heads. “Have you been trained at all?”

“She went through basic. She crushed every test. She got a perfect score in Levels.” A note of pride crept into Finn’s voice.

“But we’d just started our background classes, and I don’t know much about the intelligence behind all of this,” I said.

Micah’s eyes widened. “You’re about to get a crash course.”

Finn squeezed my hand. “Riley always gets the crash-course version. She’ll be fine.”

“Back to what you were saying, about the power…” Was the power gone for good? I didn’t understand how that was possible. It was as though my brain couldn’t compute the concept. “Who did it? Who turned it off?”

Finn frowned. “It could be anyone, really. ISIS, Russia, China, North Korea, the Alt-Right…”

“Or some combination thereof,” Micah finished.

“Does that mean they’re here—whoever is attacking us? On American soil?”

Micah tilted his chin, inspecting me. “They’re not even what we have to worry about, not yet.”

“What do you mean?”

He sat back in his seat. He no longer looked mean, maybe just a little sad. “I mean, we need to worry about our own people right now. They’re the ones who are going to be the problem.”

Finn blew out a deep breath. “So this is it. I thought we’d have more time.”

Micah shrugged. “Humans always think that. That’s what’s good and bad about us—our optimism.”

I turned to Finn, an unspoken question on my lips.

“Micah’s right,” he said. “These people are going to turn on each other and fight for resources. Emma’s seen it.”

“This will get Lord-of-the-Flies ugly real fast,” Micah said. “As soon as they figure out the power’s not coming back.”

My head started pounding. “We’re talking about a power outage, not the apocalypse.”

Micah whipped out his tablet and opened a picture of people in a crowded city, walking from the subway. Every single person in the picture was looking at a smart phone, ignoring the world around them. “See this? This is what we look like. This is what we do. We’re not even aware of the world around us anymore. In my opinion, a definitive power outage is the same thing as an apocalypse. Add a heat wave like the one that’s coming to Arizona, and you’ve got all the makings of a riot situation.”

“They’ll still have an Internet connection through generators. It’s not like they’re cut off from the rest of the world forever,” I argued. “And people aren’t going to riot because they can’t play Candy Crush or check Instagram.”

“The only reason I can log on is because the federal government has a dedicated satellite for us to stay in touch with the network. Once their phones die for good, civilians have nothing, not even with a generator. They won’t know what’s happening, and they’re going to start to panic. You watch, Hanover. You see what’s waiting for you on the ground.”

“How did you know my nickname?” I asked, but the plane hit a rough patch of turbulence, and Micah turned away.

He knows things, Finn answered inside my brain. It’s part of his power. I’m still trying to figure him out.

I squeezed Finn’s hand as the plane bounced roughly through the suddenly tumultuous air. Is he a telepath, too? I asked.

Maybe.

Is he right about the civilians? That this power-outage thing is going to turn into some sort of zombie apocalypse?

The turbulence subsided, and the plane evened out. I let out a sigh of relief even as I dreaded Finn’s answer.

Something like that. He stared out the tiny window for a moment, trying to decide how much to tell me. That’s the thing about a zombie apocalypse, Ri. After it hits and you figure out what’s going on, you realize something: it’s not the zombies you have to be afraid of.

I frowned, not understanding.

It’s the humans, Finn answered, not missing a beat. It’s the humans you’ve got to watch out for.

5

GETTING PREPARED FOR DESPERATE

“YOU NEED to be prepared for anything.” Cranston’s words echoed in my head. He’d said that right before he handed me a weapon.

We waited on the tarmac as he spoke to the pilots, who I noticed wore fatigues and were also armed. I’d never been to Arizona before. I stood on the runway, blinded by the sun, which blazed in the cloudless sky. There were no trees around, just the reddish-hued mountains in the distance. I was used to New England, with its humidity, trees, and greenery everywhere. I felt dry and exposed in middle of the oppressive heat of the flatlands.

“Sir?” I asked when Cranston finished speaking with the pilots. “About the gun?”

“It’s a blaster, Riley. The kind we used at Freel.” His tone was dismissive.

Cranston knew I wasn’t comfortable with guns. We’d had weapons training over the summer, and we’d trained on all different kinds—rifles, handguns, and automatic weapons. I preferred blasters, which were government-issued weapons that used lasers instead of bullets. They were high tech. The red rays that shot out of them looked like something straight out of Star Wars.

I’d thought the blasters were safer than regular guns, but they were just as deadly. I’d hit a chipmunk with a laser beam during training, turning it into a smoking pile of chipmunk-ash on contact.

Finn laughed, breaking my reverie. “Don’t think about the chipmunk. You didn’t know you were going to hit it. Let’s face it, no one thought you could.”

“I didn’t mean to kill it,” I mumbled. We’d been out in the woods when Maya dared me to try. With my eyes scrunched shut, I aimed and pulled the trigger. When I opened my eyes to a smoking pile of former chipmunk, I’d burst into tears.

It was the first and only target I’d ever hit.

Finn warily pointed to my blaster. “Just put the safety on and keep it in your holster. And stay close. If he splits us into teams, you’re with me.”

My breathing sped up as I jerked my thumb toward whatever lay beyond the landing strip. “Are we really going out there? Today?” I didn’t feel ready, not even close, for a real-life, on-the-ground assignment. I didn’t have control of my power yet. Even worse, when I panicked, the telekinesis had a mind of its own. When Cranston had forced me to battle Finn, I’d gotten upset. My powers went wild, and I’d ended up hurting him badly.

Finn reached out and stroked my cheek. “We’re really going out there. But don’t worry—I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you.”

“I appreciate that, but I’ll be fine.” I gently pushed his hand away. “I’m not here because I’m your girlfriend and I’m along for the ride. I was genetically engineered for this gig, remember?” I just don’t have any idea what I’m doing!

“Yes, you do,” Finn assured me. “We’re just making contact with these people. We’re going to reassure them, and watching for any sign that things are about to get out of control.”

Cranston had been clear in his explanation: we’d been chosen for this mission because we appeared nonthreatening. Civilians would believe we were simply volunteers or missionaries.

But we could do things other soldiers couldn’t.

Josh could calm down a crowd and read moods, Emma could predict the future, and Rachel could teleport and clone herself if necessary. Finn could listen to the thoughts of others and read their plans. Morgan and Maya had twin telepathy and precognitive abilities; they formed a powerful team, two halves of the same talented whole. If Kyan cooperated, he had precognitive and telepathic abilities and was particularly good at reading a large group of people. Micah was hiding his talents, but he must have been there for a reason…I hoped.

Then there was me. I could move things with my brain waves. My telekinetic power could lift rocks, people, cars, boulders, and manipulate the environment around me. I had once started a fire with only my brainwaves and some marsh gas.

If only I felt like a badass. I doubted there was any marsh gas in arid Scottsdale.

“You don’t need to start a fire,” Finn said, reading my thoughts. “We need to make sure people have enough water. You don’t need to be a badass; you just need to stay safe—and between you and me, that’s all I care about.”

The anxiety in the pit of my stomach vanished for a moment. I looked into his eyes, a shy smile creeping out.

Finn leaned over, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear.

“Let’s move out, team,” Cranston ordered, interrupting us. “There’s a bus waiting for us outside the gate.”

I sighed and stepped back from Finn before I tripped all over myself. “Is there still power at the airport?” Officers and workers bustled around us, carrying supplies and zipping around the tarmac on small ground vehicles.

Cranston nodded. “They have a generator so they’re still up. Same with the other government agencies. Listen, Riley, you’re the newest member of the team. All the others have handled civilian details like this before. I want you to let them take the lead. You sit back, watch, and learn. Keep your mouth shut and don’t get into any trouble.”

“I’ll keep an eye on her, sir.” Finn stayed by me as we headed to the bus.

Cranston sighed, his gaze running over both of us as we walked. He looked as though he wanted to argue, but he nodded instead. “Keep her safe. But remember that the mission is your first priority. Stay focused on what we’re here for.”

“Yes, sir.”

I climbed aboard the minibus and slid into the seat next to Emma, who was staring out the window. “Do you know how this is going to go today?”

She pushed her bangs to the side. “Not exactly.” She sounded as if she were holding back.

“Please tell me what you know. Micah said it’s going to get ugly.”

“Micah seems like kind of a jerk, but he’s probably right.” Emma sounded dejected. “You need to pay attention. The next few days might not be great.”

My heart sank. “What do you mean?”

She shook her head. “It’s not clear, just a feeling.”

“Awesome.” I settled back against the seat as the bus crawled past the gate. We drove through the vast base, past a large lot filled with army vehicles, then past low-level stucco buildings and scrubby palm trees. We stopped at the security checkpoint, and Cranston spoke to the guard in low tones for several minutes. Then we pulled through, leaving the base behind as we turned onto the highway. Miles of highway, flat, dusty land, and one-story buildings stretched out as far as the eye could see.

“Why are the buildings all only one floor?” I asked as we drove by a community college and a bank.

“It’s because second stories are so expensive to cool,” Emma said absentmindedly. “It gets really hot here most of the year. Like, scorching.”

“Oh.” Arizona was so different than New Hampshire, where we practically froze eight months a year. We drove by a large, spiky cactus, and I felt as if I’d landed on an alien planet.

“The lights are all out,” Morgan noted as we drove through an intersection. The stoplight was dead, a non-issue because we were the only vehicle on the road.

The sun shone so brightly, I hadn’t noticed the streetlights weren’t working. The store signs were off, too, and the whole area was eerily quiet.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“To the Scottsdale police station,” Cranston said. “They’ve set up a temporary shelter, and they’re mobilizing units to do neighborhood outreach. We’re going to travel with them and assess the situation.”

I watched Cranston’s face in the rearview mirror. “Why are we being called in, sir? I don’t mean to be redundant, but I really don’t understand why they need a…talented…unit like ours to handle a power outage.” The whole thing seemed wrong. We should probably just get back on the plane and go back to Maine. Or even better, New Hampshire.

His gaze flicked to the rearview mirror and met mine. “It’s not just a power outage, Riley.” He went back to watching the road.

My stomach tied itself into a knot. “Then what is it?”

“It’s a terrorist attack.”

Emma turned to me. “They’ve disabled the grid. They’re trying to cause a mass panic. This is how it’s supposed to start.”

“Who’s they?”

“We don’t know that yet,” Cranston answered. “But for now, who is not what’s important. We’re here to calm the civilians down, get them what they need, and assess the situation. Emma and Josh, you’re working together. Josh, I need you to pay attention to people’s feelings and see if there’s anyone who poses an immediate threat. Emma, I need you to concentrate on anyone Josh flags and see what you can find out about their immediate future or anything of note about their past.”

“Yes, sir,” they said in unison.

“Josh, I also want you to distribute as much emotional well-being as you can. Spread the love, Soldier. You’re the most important asset for this mission. If we can keep people calm for a while longer, it’ll be easier to sort this out.”

“Thank you, sir.” Josh’s cheeks heated with pleasure. Usually Kyan, the twins, and Rachel teased him about his power; it must have felt good to be told it held real value.

“Morgan, Maya, Kyan, and Rachel, you’re a team. Stick together and pay attention for any signs of trouble. If any of you identify someone who needs to be monitored, speak up immediately.”

The twins and Rachel nodded. Kyan looked sour and said nothing.

Cranston drove the bus well over the speed limit. We flew past the dusty planes, scrub brush, and mini-malls. “Micah, Riley, and Finn, you’re the last group. Riley, like I told you, I want you to hang back and observe. Finn’s in charge—do what he says.”

I love it when I’m the boss, Finn thought, winking at me. I didn’t know how he could be playful. I felt like I might throw up.

“Micah, if Finn identifies someone as a potential threat, I want you to check them. Go through their things if you can. See if there are any weapons and confiscate them.”

Micah frowned, sensing a raw deal. “How am I supposed to do that, sir?”

“You’re stealthy. You’ll figure it out.”

“Yes, sir,” he grumbled.

We got off on an exit, following the signs to Scottsdale. The bus was moving too fast. Time was moving too fast. The holster holding the blaster dug into my leg. In spite of the air conditioning, sweat coated my palms.

Sensing my discomfort—reading my thoughts, that is—Finn reached across the aisle and patted my leg. I tried to smile at him, but my face muscles wouldn’t cooperate.

Breathe, I told myself. And Finn, if you’re listening, get out. I need a moment.

He squeezed my thigh then moved away and out of my head.

I leaned back against the seat. Emma’s eyes were closed, and her mouth was pursed, as though she were concentrating. I waited, watching, until she suddenly sat up. “Oh,” she said. “Oh!”

“What? What did you see?”

She squinted at me, looking almost guilty for a second. “Nothing. I’m not supposed to tell people unless my vision is crystal clear. That’s a directive from management. Otherwise, we run the risk of following a false lead.”

“Please tell me what you saw,” I begged. “I’m already really nervous.”

“It was too fuzzy. It was a feeling more than anything else. Just be careful, okay? I think this is going to be pretty intense.”

“But why? It’s just a power outage. Even if another government or anti-American group is behind it, why is it such a big deal? I don’t understand.” I shook my head, my panic rising.

Emma smoothed her bangs. “It’s just a power outage, but it’s meant to show our people something, to teach them a lesson.”

I thought about what Micah had said—that the situation would devolve into a Lord-of-the-Flies free-for-all. Selfishly, I couldn’t focus on that. All I could think of was myself. My heart pounded. “I don’t want to be here. I’m not ready.”

Emma smiled at me grimly. “You know your service isn’t optional, right?”

“My participation in this might be.” I peered at Cranston, keeping my voice low. “I think I need a personal day. I might call in sick.”

Cranston pulled up next to a large, sprawling building. “This is it.” He turned in to the police department’s parking lot, and my stomach sank.

“Looks like you don’t have time to run away,” Emma said, as if the matter were settled. “Whatever happens, it’ll end up okay in the end—just remember that.”

“You’re not making me feel any better.”

“I’m not trying to.” She arched an expertly groomed eyebrow. “I’m your friend. It’s my job to tell you the truth. At least, the parts of it I’m authorized to divulge.”

“Gee, thanks,” I mumbled as I scooted out of the sticky seat.

“You’ll mean that someday, but probably not any time soon.”

My temples throbbed as we filed off the bus. The sun beat down on me in the unshaded parking lot. I wasn’t built for this climate. The bright, unfiltered light made me dizzy. I longed for home—the large, sheltering pine trees and acres of green grass, covered in dew.

Finn came and stood close. His tall, strong body and calm demeanor almost comforted me, but the pit of dread in my stomach persisted.

He reached for my hand and squeezed it. “Listen, this is an easy assignment. We’re just talking to people, getting them what they need, and watching for signs of trouble. There’s no art to it. You don’t need experience, you won’t need your powers, and there’s no way in hell you’re using that blaster. Chill. And I mean that affectionately.”

“Emma said this could be intense. Then there’s what Micah said.”

Finn shrugged, downplaying my fears. “There might be a larger problem brewing, but we’re at the beginning of it. There’s nothing to worry about, so wipe the frown off your face. You’ll scare Micah, and he’s already having a bad day.”

“Ha-ha,” Micah said, but he didn’t look amused as he came and stood in our group. He looked at my blaster warily as though he knew better than to trust me with it.

Cranston left us standing in the lot as he went inside to talk to the commanding officer on duty. When he came back, he assigned each of our groups to a different police unit and introduced us to the officers we would be working with.

We were assigned to Officer Layne, who was short, Asian, had electric-blue eye makeup, and an intricate fishtail braid that hung halfway down her back. Her uniform was spotless and meticulous, as were her fingernails. They were short, manicured, and her blue nail polish coordinated precisely with her eyeliner. Officer Layne clearly had her act together. She looked largely unimpressed by us, three sweaty teenagers dressed casually in T-shirts and sneakers.

“In the cruiser.” She jerked her thumb toward her SUV and unceremoniously hopped in the driver’s seat.

We scurried after her. She looked as though she might not wait.

Officer Layne pulled out of the lot and looked at us suspiciously. “Why am I carting a bunch of teenagers around? I thought you were Special Forces!”

From the passenger seat, Finn unleashed his signature smile, flashing his dimple at full wattage. “We are Special Forces. We’re just young. I guess that makes us extra special.”

She held up her hand and rolled her eyes. “Easy, Prince Charming. That dimple’s not gonna work on me. I’m married with three kids. My oldest son’s about your age.”

“Really?” I asked, leaning forward. “You look too young to have a teenager.”

Officer Layne finally smiled. “Thanks. I get that a lot. I think it’s ’cause I’m Asian. We don’t wrinkle, unlike you white girls.” She winked at me in the rearview mirror, clearly teasing.

I patted my face, searching for wrinkles, and Officer Layne giggled. “You guys are too much. I might have to leave you at home with my kids. You could entertain each other. They’re lost without their Nintendo.”

“What’s the status in the neighborhood we’re heading to?” Micah asked impatiently.

“We’re heading to the south side of Scottsdale. There are some nice developments over there; we got the cushy assignment today. But even the rich people can’t get power. A lot of them have generators, but they’re going to run out of gas soon. All of Scottsdale, Glendale, and the surrounding suburbs have been without power for six days. The gas stations are starting to run out of fuel and close. No one’s delivering.”

“Are there shelters we can direct the civilians to?” I asked.

She nodded as she navigated the SUV. “The police and fire departments have generators, so we’ve been able to field calls and get temporary shelters set up at our buildings, but no one’s coming in yet. People are stubborn, you know? They want to stay at their own houses.”

“So we’re going out to make sure that everyone in these neighborhoods is okay and just let them know about the shelters?” I asked.

“Right. It’s our job to see if anyone needs medical attention, if there’re elderly people who can’t drive and need help, and to spread word about the shelters. Things are okay now, but it’s hot, and it’s getting hotter. We’re supposed to get hit with a heat wave tomorrow. The temperature is going to get up to the one hundreds. People with medical conditions are going to need to come in for air conditioning. Old people and babies, too. We need to instill a sense of urgency. They’re going to run out of gas for their generators soon.” Officer Layne blew out a deep breath as she maneuvered down the road. “They keep waiting for the power to come back on, but I don’t have anything good to tell them.”

“What’s the official word?” Finn asked. “Because I know that’s going to be the big question.”

“There’s no official word other than we’ve been told to wait and see,” she said. “Do you guys know anything?”

“No,” Finn said. It sounded like a lie.

We pulled into a gated community. The large, sprawling homes boasted red-tiled roofs and three-car garages. The owners were sitting out in lawn chairs at the bottom of their driveways. They waved as we pulled into the neighborhood. Officer Layne drove halfway down the street and parked under a palm tree. As soon as we stopped, people headed toward us, eager for news.

Officer Layne greeted them. “Hey, Jimmy. Hey, Pablo.” She’d obviously visited the neighborhood before. “I don’t have any news, but you guys need to come into the shelters soon. The temperature’s going up—”

“Why in the hell isn’t the power back up?” barked a man with a cleanly shaved head and wraparound sunglasses. “I called the power company, and they said we’d be back up three days ago.”

“Easy, Bruce.” Officer Layne’s voice was soothing. “They can’t reconnect yet. The problem’s more widespread than they knew.”

“That’s not my problem! I need to get back to work, my wife’s nine months pregnant, she’s too hot—”

“Then come into the shelter.” Officer Layne looked at him with sympathy. “I know it’s not ideal, and I know you all want to be home. Trust me, I don’t like staying at the shelter, either. But there’s a heat wave coming, and we all need to keep safe. Temperatures above a hundred and no air conditioning are no joke—it’s dangerous. We can help each other, even if it’s not ideal.”

“I’m not leaving my house open for looters,” one of the other men said. “A neighborhood like ours is going to get hit hard if we leave. No one’s breaking into my house and stealing my supplies. Over my dead body.”

There were claps and whistles in support.

Officer Layne motioned for quiet. “The police have everything under control. We’re watching your neighborhood. Everything will be fine. It’s not looters you need to worry about— it’s heat stroke.”

“You can’t promise to protect our homes,” Bruce said. “The police have enough to do right now. I don’t think it’s safe for us to leave here.”

“I vote we start guarding the entrance,” a woman said.

“With armed guards,” Bruce suggested.

“We have to protect what’s ours,” another man agreed.

“Whoa.” Officer Layne held up her hand and motioned for silence. “Has anything happened here? Did someone try to break into one of your houses?”

“No,” an older man said. His voice and demeanor were calm, resigned. “But you know what happens in situations like this. People get desperate. And if there’s no sign of the power coming back on, we need to get prepared for desperate.”

Officer Layne sighed. “Fine. But anyone carrying a gun better have a permit. We’ll be speaking with everyone individually. Bruce, if your wife wants to come to the shelter, I’d be happy to drive her.”

Bruce shrugged. “I appreciate that, but I can take care of her.”

Officer Layne frowned at him. He frowned back.

“We need to go house to house, to check on everyone, right?” Finn asked after a tense silence.

The officer nodded. “Right. Let’s get going.”

“THAT DIDN’T GO AS WELL as I hoped,” I said later as we drove back to the precinct. Of the twelve elderly people we’d interviewed, none of them had agreed to come to the shelter.

“Like I said, people are stubborn,” Officer Layne said.

“They’re not just stubborn—they’re getting angry,” Micah said.

The officer sighed. “You think they’re angry today, wait until you see them tomorrow when it’s a hundred and five and their generators are out of gas.”

“I think we need to watch that Bruce guy,” Finn said. “He seemed pissed, and his wife’s about to go into labor any second.”

Finn spoke into my head. He’s dangerous.

I’d thought that, too. Bruce’s whole vibe had been angry and aggressive. When we interviewed his wife, he’d stayed close, making sure we didn’t try to persuade her to go to the shelter.

Officer Layne adjusted her uniform. “We’ll go back tomorrow.”

“Okay,” I said. But it didn’t feel okay.

If I’d had a choice, I wouldn’t have gone back to the neighborhood. The people were hot, and they were angry. By the time we left, they’d bordered on ill-mannered.

They were getting prepared for desperate, which was bad enough.

I didn’t want to see what desperate actually looked like.

6

THE WRITING ON THE WALL

“I CAN’T BELIEVE it’s still this hot,” Maya complained. The taller of the twins wiped a strand of hair away from her sweaty forehead. “Redheads are not cut out for Arizona.”

I stopped stacking boxes for a moment and caught my breath. “Neither are blondes.”

As anticipated, the temperatures had climbed above the one hundred mark and hovered there for a whole week. With no end of the heat wave in sight, people had finally started coming to the shelters and taking advantage of the intermittent air conditioning.

The National Guard had brought more fuel for the generators, but we didn’t know how long the supplies would last. Los Angeles, New York, and Orlando had all lost power this week. Even Disney World was closed. That was one of the biggest pieces of news. The theme park had only ever been closed for hurricanes before, and on September 11th.

The president had held a press conference, divulging that the major power companies had been hacked and that power was being diverted. All leads were being investigated, but no foreign government or terrorist group had claimed responsibility for the power outages. The National Guard had been deployed, and military units were setting up stations in the affected areas across the country.

There was no official mention of terrorism, but the news hinted at it. The atmosphere in Scottsdale was paranoid. No one knew what would happen next.

Maya and I were moving supplies from a National Guard truck to the Scottsdale PD shelter. I wasn’t allowed to use my powers, so telekinesis was out. We were relegated to hours of manual labor in the heat. We carried boxes and bags of food and supplies back and forth from the enormous truck to the building. Sweat poured off me. Maya’s face had turned as red as her hair.

“Are you going out this afternoon?” she asked me.

“Yeah.” My stomach roiled with nerves. We’d gone out on patrol every afternoon, and each day, the mood in the neighborhoods had been worse. “We have to go on Officer Layne’s beat to check all her neighborhoods. You?”

Maya nodded, looking grim. “We’re going with our officer. I’m not looking forward to it after yesterday.”

“What happened?”

Maya lifted a huge box and struggled to get it off the bus. “Some of the residents were yelling. There was a lot of new vandalism, a lot of broken windows. Josh said that people’s thoughts were getting erratic. He’s still trying to calm large groups down, but he said it’s not lasting long enough. People are too stressed.”

I helped her bring the box down. “Has Emma told you anything about what’s going to happen?” I’d only seen my best friend in passing this week, and she’d seemed distracted.

We put the box down, and Maya leaned against it, looking exhausted. “No, she won’t tell anybody what she’s seeing, except for Cranston. I don’t think they’re letting her talk to us.”

We looked at each other for a beat. I longed to bring up Kyan, his thoughts about The Division, and how they were keeping things from us, but I didn’t want to put Maya in a bad position.

“I wish she would tell us something,” I whined. What was the use of a precognitive best friend if she never told you what the future held?

Officer Layne came around the corner, looking frazzled. She’d ditched the fancy eye makeup days ago because it kept melting off in the nonstop heat. “Can you come with me now, Riley? I need to go on rounds. Or do you need to finish here?” She eyed the stack of boxes still inside the truck.

“I can come. I’ll send Josh out to help, okay?” I asked Maya.

“No problem.” Maya brushed the sticky hair back from her face again. “I’ll see you later.”

“Bye.”

I followed Officer Layne to the cruiser. Micah was already sitting in the passenger seat.

“Where’s Finn?” I asked.

Micah shrugged. “He’s not coming. He has to do something for Cranston.”

“He’s not coming with us?” For some reason, this made me panic.

Officer Layne started the car but waited to pull out. “Do you need to talk to him before we go?”

“No…” I didn’t want to be a baby, but I felt as though I might burst into tears. Facing the angry neighborhoods without Finn would be difficult.

“Riley, hold on!” Finn was running toward the cruiser and waving.

Officer Layne winked at me in the rearview mirror. “Go ahead. I’ll wait.”

I blushed in simultaneous pleasure and embarrassment. “I’ll just be a minute.”

I hopped out just as Finn reached me. “You have to stay here?” I tried to keep the anxiety out of my voice. I would never admit it, but I always felt safer and more protected with him around.

He grinned. “You don’t have to admit it. I already know.”

I groaned. “Ugh, that is so annoying.”

He put an arm on either side of me, pinning me to the cruiser. “You know you love it—how protected you feel. By me and my big muscles.”

“Who said anything about your muscles?” I tried not to watch as he flexed his biceps, showing off. “Stop flexing!”

His face was inches from mine. “Admit you love it. The muscles and the feelings.”

“Who said anything about feelings?” I groaned. “It doesn’t matter. We don’t have time to argue. I have to go on rounds.”

“I know. I wish I could go with you.” His eyes got dark. “I have to stay here with Cranston. We need to analyze some intelligence that just came in.”

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

“No.” He kept his gaze on mine. “But it will be.”

“I hope you’re right about—”

I never finished the sentence because Finn pressed his lips against mine, and I melted against his touch. Electric shocks ran through me, first in surprise, then in delight, until I remembered where we were and pulled back. “Finn! We’re at work, and in public!”

He smiled, his face still close to mine. “So? I haven’t seen you all day.”

A hot blush crept up my cheeks. “I’m all sweaty, and I’m at work.”

He kissed me again until Officer Layne beeped the horn, making us both jump. Finn laughed, but then he suddenly turned serious. “I know you have to go. Stay safe. That’s a direct order from your superior, otherwise known as me.”

“You’re not my superior,” I reminded him.

“Fine, then let me rephrase: Can you stay safe, please? That’s a request from your boyfriend.” He tapped underneath my chin until I raised my gaze to meet his. “Okay, Hanover? Can you stay safe for me?” His voice sounded gravelly, vulnerable all of a sudden.

He was difficult to argue with, particularly as I stared into his dark-brown eyes. I sighed. “Of course. I promise. See you later?”

He kissed me on the cheek, making me shiver in spite of the oppressive heat. “I can’t wait.”

I got into the back seat, and he watched me the whole time with his hands shoved into his pockets.

I rolled down my window and leaned out. “What is it?”

The muscle in his jaw jumped. “I just wish I could come with you.”

“I’ll be okay.”

He nodded. “Be careful. Promise.”

“I will—I promise. Again.” I slid back inside the car, my nerves thrumming.

“He’s kind of intense, huh?” Officer Layne asked as she pulled the car out of the lot.

I watched Finn out the back window for as long as I could. “You could say that.”

Micah snorted. I tore my gaze away from Finn long enough to give him a dirty look.

When I turned back, Finn was gone.

“We need to be prepared today,” Officer Layne said. I tried to focus on her words, but I kept thinking about Finn.

She maneuvered the cruiser carefully out of the lot. “I think Bruce’s wife is about to go into labor. I wanted to bring a midwife out to check her, but there’re three women in the shelter who are also due soon. I couldn’t steal any of the other medical staff. They’re too busy.”

The news about Bruce’s wife got my attention. He’d been getting angrier and more erratic each day. “Oh boy.”

“Is he going to let her come in for medical attention, or does he think he can deliver the baby himself?” Micah asked.

Officer Layne sighed. “I don’t know. He could be a real problem. We need to make sure we get the wife and baby taken care of. If I have to detain him, I will. But hopefully, it won’t come to that.”

“How’s your family doing?” I asked her.

“Okay. My youngest is psyched that there’s no school, but my oldest hates the shelter. He says none of his friends are there.”

“His friends are all still staying in their houses?” Micah asked.

She nodded. “Most people are. The shelters are only at fifteen-percent occupancy, still. But I told my son we need to set a good example for the community and that he needs to suck it up.” She laughed.

We were quiet on the rest of the drive, each observing our surroundings. Things had changed drastically over the course of the week. Abandoned cars littered the sides of the roads. Trash was strewn everywhere. Storefronts had been boarded up.

We pulled off the highway and into the residential section. There was fresh graffiti scrawled outside the gated community where Bruce and the others lived.

Be Not Deceived; God is Not Mocked:

Whatsoever a Man Soweth, that Shall He Also Reap… Galatians 6:7

“We’ve gone straight to paranoid Bible quotes?” Micah asked.

Officer Layne shrugged it off. “At least they attributed it correctly.”

But when we pulled up closer, we saw more graffiti on the other side of the gate:

…So we’re coming for you

I swallowed hard. “I’m pretty sure that’s a threat, and it’s not in the Bible. I mean, points for attribution on the other side and all.”

Officer Layne cursed under her breath. “These guys are going to be upset.”

“I don’t blame them,” Micah said.

We slowly pulled through the gate and parked in our usual spot. The SUV was immediately surrounded by an angry mob. I could hear them shouting for the others to come.

Officer Layne took out her gun, checked it, and turned to us. “You’re both armed, right?”

Micah and I nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Don’t take your weapons out; don’t say anything at all—not unless I tell you to. Okay?”

We nodded again. I wasn’t sure I could speak.

“Follow my lead. This will be fine.” Officer Layne put her gun back into its holster then took a deep, steadying breath. “Let’s go.” She could barely get her door open. “Move out of the way!” she yelled over the din.

She climbed out of the car, and the people started shouting at her:

“It’s about time you came back!”

“There’s only one gas canister left!”

“Harold might have heat stroke!”

“Where the hell are the electrical crews?”

“Did you see what they wrote? They’re coming for us!”

Officer Layne stayed calm. “All right, everyone, all right. I know you’re upset, but you need to back up and let us do our job.”

Once the crowd abated slightly, Micah climbed out on the passenger side. I got out and stood next to Officer Layne. It was hot, too hot, in the middle of all these people with the midday sun beating down on us.

“We need more water!” One man near Micah shouted. “The water pressure’s going down. We’re going to run out.”

“I want to know what the hell’s going on!” shouted the woman next to him.

“Stop yelling in my face,” Micah said, “and back up!”

There was grumbling, and Officer Layne shot Micah a look. “Easy, buddy.”

He nodded, but a bead of sweat trickled down his forehead as he turned back to face the crowd.

“I have no news to report,” Officer Layne said. The crowd groaned and booed. “But I will tell you that the shelters are open, we have beds for all of you, and we’re running the air conditioning units at intervals—”

“The hell with that!” Bruce yelled, stepping forward. “Did you see what those thugs wrote on our wall? We can’t leave our homes. They’ll loot us and take over! I am not giving my home to a bunch of scumbags who want to take what’s mine!”

More yells and swears came from the crowd. The people looked angry, their faces blotchy and red. The air crackled with tension, and my heart pounded.

“I need everyone to step back and calm down,” Officer Layne commanded.

The crowd backed up a bit more, but some of the people in the front wouldn’t budge. The woman near Micah started yelling again, right in his face. “I said I want to know what’s going on! What is the government saying? Power’s going out across the country, and you all have nothing to tell us?”

“Where’s the National Guard?” asked Bruce from our side of the car. “Where’s the army?”

Officer Layne looked at them all pleadingly. “They’ve shipped in supplies. Everyone’s doing everything they can—”

“The hell they are,” the woman said. Her voice shook. “I want answers. I want you people to do something—”

“That’s enough,” Micah snapped. “Officer Layne has told you everything we know. There’s no reason for you to act like this.”

“Who are you, anyway?” the woman asked, glowering at him. “Some teenager from out of town with no manners? That’s what it looks like.”

Micah took a step forward, his hand on his holstered weapon. “I said that’s enough.”

“Are you threatening me?” the woman shrieked.

Micah whipped out his gun and aimed it at her face. “I am asking you to shut up, for the greater good.”

The man next to her took a step toward Micah then stopped and smiled. “You’re making a mistake, boy.”

Micah started to laugh, a tuba gurgling in the middle of an angry mob in the sweltering desert. He aimed his revolver at the man’s forehead. “Oh yeah, I was waiting for someone to say that.” He took the safety off, an audible click breaking the new silence. “Wouldn’t be a tense situation without someone being a racist jackass.”

“Micah.” Officer Layne’s voice was sharp.

Micah didn’t say a word, and he didn’t put the gun down.

The man stared at him, clearly weighing his options.

“Bruce! Bruce!” a woman suddenly yelled. She ran out of one of the houses and careened toward us, waving her arms. “Heidi’s water just broke! She’s in labor!”

Officer Layne looked at Bruce. “We need to get her to the shelter. There’s medical staff and a midwife—”

Bruce’s face was beet red, the cords in his neck standing out. “I told you, we’re not leaving our home!”

“Your wife needs to safely deliver your baby.”

Everything happened at once. Officer Layne was still talking, when the man near Micah lunged for his gun.

“Micah!” I yelled. I fought my way around the car to help him.

“Everyone, get back!” Officer Layne shouted, taking her gun out and spinning around.

Micah and the man were fighting as I struggled through the crowd to reach them. People ran from the fight, creating a confused swirl of bodies, and blocking my path. “Micah!”

He struggled with the man, their arms entangled. I wondered if I had enough time to telekinetically remove the gun, but we’d been strictly warned not to use our powers in public no matter what. The man wrestled the weapon from Micah’s hand, and Micah cursed then punched the man in the stomach.

As the man doubled over, he aimed the gun at Micah.

No no no!

I threw myself at them, knocking the man’s hand out of the way. But something happened. I heard a shot, then it felt as though something smashed into my shoulder. A bright white bolt of pain ran down my whole body.

The last thing I saw before everything went black was Micah’s stricken face, watching as I went down.

7

COLORING OUTSIDE THE LINES

“I TOLD YOU—GET away from her,” Finn’s voice said.

I could hear him, but I couldn’t see him. I wanted to tell him it was okay, that I was okay. And I wasn’t alone down here—there were people I needed to see. But I couldn’t find my voice. I knew it was around here, someplace…

I must have fallen asleep again. I woke up, but it was still dark.

Someone nudged me. “Are you ever going to get up?” my sister, Katie, asked—my dead sister Katie.

I rolled over and looked for her in the darkness. “Maybe,” I mumbled. “I keep meaning to, but then I get distracted.”

My eyes adjusted, and I saw my sister. Her hair was in its typical high ponytail, and she wore her favorite hoodie. She crossed her arms and looked at me. “It’s Finn. He’s the one who keeps interrupting us and making you tired.”

“He’s probably upset that I haven’t come up yet.” I squinted at the ceiling of wherever we were. Finn and the others were up there, waiting and worrying, while I stayed down here with my dead sister Katie and another very important person.

“Pumpkin?” my dad asked—my dead dad. “You okay?”

I sat up a little, not wanting him to worry. “I’m fine. I just keep getting confused.”

The room got lighter. I could see his handsome face, lined with worry.

“That’s because we’re down here in your subconscious.” Dad rifled through a stack of papers. “And it’s a mess in here.”

“We’re where?” I looked around the space, which resembled a vast warehouse. Individual spaces were organized like little rooms, with couches and tables and dressers overflowing with clothes, one after the other, as far as the eye could see. Some of the rooms were half hidden by makeshift curtains, hinting at the messy spaces behind them.

Boxes were stacked up everywhere, papers and books spilling out from them. The room went on for what looked like forever, an organization project that would take infinity to complete. I wrinkled my nose. “Is this really my subconscious?”

My dad scratched his head and looked around. “Katie and I spend a lot of time down here. All of this stuff is yours.” He motioned toward the boxes and furniture.

“Weird.”

Dad smiled. “No weirder than having a conversation with your dead father, I suppose.”

“Wait—am I dead?” I sat up straighter and willed myself to think clearly. I wanted to be with my family, but I needed to get back to Finn.

“No, you’re just kind of hanging out,” my dad assured me.

“Are you…real?” I asked them.

“Yes, but not in the way you wish we were,” Katie said. She looked so normal in her familiar sweatshirt, her mascara applied meticulously. She wore the same running shoes she’d had on the day she died.

“What does that mean?”

“It means that we’re real, but it’s not really us. We’re your memories of us.” Dad sat down next to me. We were on a couch, a replica of the one we’d had in Hanover.

“Are you different from when I was hallucinating?” I asked.

Katie shook her head. “Yeah, we’re different. When we showed up during testing, that was The Division’s version of us.”

I tried to wrap my brain around the situation. “So you are my versions of you—the versions I keep in my head. And you spend a lot of time in my subconscious.”

“Right,” they said in unison.

I looked around at the immense, messy room, my gaze finally coming back to rest on them. “Why are we down here?”

“Because you got hurt, pumpkin.” My dad sounded near tears. “You got hurt, and we need to keep you safe. It’s safe here.”

“But Finn’s up there,” I mumbled.

Katie sat down across from us and leaned forward, an intense look on her face. “We don’t think you should go back up there. The Division hasn’t done anything except hurt you.”

“That’s not true.” But I wondered if she had a point. The agency had taken me from school, threatened my mother, and put me through horrible tests to unlock my psychic powers. Kyan had wanted to escape so badly, he’d tried to claw the monitor out of his own neck. Nora had tortured Micah to get me to demonstrate my telekinetic power. And I’d been injured…shot? The details were fuzzy, but I remembered the angry mob and the hot sun beating down on us.

“I don’t remember what happened.”

Katie crossed her arms against her chest, looking pissed off. “Those people turned on you and Micah. They attacked you. You couldn’t protect yourself because Cranston ordered you not to use your powers, and you still can’t handle your gun. You almost got killed, Riley!”

I sighed. “Cranston had a legitimate reason for the rule—it wasn’t safe for us to display our powers. We were trying to help those people. Management didn’t want us to freak them out when they were already upset.”

“It wasn’t safe for you not to use your power,” Katie said. “Those people were dangerous! I don’t care about protecting the agency or the stupid people in that neighborhood!”

I looked up at the ceiling. I couldn’t hear Finn now, but I could still sense him somewhere up there. “I have to go back. The power’s going out across the country, and I’m going to have to do…something. I’m not sure what.” I still had no idea what my unit would be used for.

“That’s because they don’t tell you anything, especially the truth,” my dad said.

“How do you know that?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I only know that because, deep down inside, you know that. I’m part of you. I can’t tell you anything you don’t already know.”

“Then let me go see Finn,” I pleaded. “You know that I have to go back. He needs me. The Division needs me.”

Dad pursed his lips. “It’s been a little while, pumpkin. I’m not sure it’s a great idea for you to go up there. You might not like what you find.”

“How long have we been down here?”

They didn’t answer me.

“You don’t know, do you?” I asked.

Katie shrugged. “You don’t know, so we don’t know. But it’s been a while. You slept for a long time.”

I stood up, my body aching. “I have to go.”

Katie and Dad looked at each other. “Do you even want to?” Katie asked. “Really? No offense, but you aren’t exactly a tough person. There’s a lot going on up there that you don’t know about. I’m not even sure you can help.”

“It might be safer for everyone if you stay down here,” Dad agreed.

“I get it.” I paced, looking up at the ceiling. “You’re articulating my self-doubt. I appreciate it, and you have a point. But Finn’s up there, and I can’t just leave him. Plus, I was built for this, right? For The Division? I can’t be a total failure.”

Katie arched an eyebrow. “You might be surprised about that.”

I snorted. “Thanks for the support.”

“Again, I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.”

I continued to pace, looking for an opening in the ceiling, a way back to Finn.

Dad sighed. “You’re going back up there, aren’t you?”

“I don’t think I have a choice. I can’t start something like this and not find out what happens.” Besides, I felt certain that trying to hide in my subconscious was pointless. I’d been hiding in Hanover, back in my old life, and The Division had come to find me.

They would find a way.

Dad nodded, but Katie rolled her eyes. “You know you’re just going back for lover boy.”

I wanted to deny it, but I could feel Finn close by, and I ached to see him. “I wouldn’t like it if he left me and didn’t come back.”

She flicked her ponytail over her shoulder. “You don’t know everything about him. I’d watch it if I were you.”

“Fine.” But her words stung. “I understand if you’re jealous, you know. You never had a chance to have a boyfriend.”

She shrugged. “Maybe it’s a good thing. The way you trust him so blindly makes me think having a boyfriend is stupid, anyway.”

I started to say something, but then I heard Finn again. “Please come back, Hanover. Please.”

I looked at Dad and Katie. “I have to go.”

“We know, pumpkin.” Dad gestured around the room. “We’ll be down here if you need us.”

“T-thanks.” I hugged them both. Dad threw his arms around me enthusiastically, but Katie was stiff beneath my arms.

I took her face in my hands, memorizing every detail again. “I love you.”

“I want you to be smart,” she said.

“I’ll never be as smart as you.” We’d both been high-honors students, but Katie hadn’t needed to work for it. Everything had always come easy for her.

“Not everything,” she said, reading my thoughts. “You’re better than me in lots of ways.”

“Except being stupid about my boyfriend,” I reminded her.

She finally smiled. “Right. Except that.”

“Please,” Finn said again. Even from far away, he sounded as though he might break down.

Katie patted my shoulder. “You sort of have my blessing. Just go—and remember, you have to watch out for yourself. No one can do that better than you.”

“Be safe, pumpkin,” my dad said.

I nodded at them and closed my eyes.

THERE WAS light in the room, I could tell. I scrunched my eyes to keep it out.

“I told you, leave us alone.” Finn’s voice was sharp. “I’m taking care of her. We don’t need you.”

“I care about her too, you know,” Emma said. She sounded hurt. “And I think she’s going to wake up soon.”

“Did you see something?” Finn asked. “I need to know!”

“Jesus, Finn. Back off.”

I squinted, opening my eyes a little. He shouldn’t have been yelling at her like that. She was only trying to help. The light was too bright, but I saw Finn towering over Emma, his hands on her arms, shaking her. “Finn,” I croaked, but no sound came out. Finn, don’t grab her like that.

“Tell me what you saw!” he bellowed. He must be extremely focused if he didn’t even hear my thoughts.

“I don’t know for sure,” Emma hissed. “But I’ve had a bunch of visions about the future recently, and she’s back in them. I think we’re out of the woods.”

Finn leaned down and got in her face. “I don’t feel out of the woods.”

I sat up, wincing. My whole body ached. “Finn.” Again, no sound emerged. I swallowed, and my throat felt dry. “Finn, Finn, Finn, Finn.” All that came out was a sad croak, but I had to keep trying.

Emma jerked out of his grasp and peered at me. “She’s awake. I don’t even like you enough right now to want to tell you, but she’s awake!”

Finn whipped around, and for a moment, I felt disoriented. He had a scruffy beard. When did he grow a beard? He lunged for the bed and grabbed my hand. “Riley?”

I licked my lips. “Don’t yell at Emma like that.” It came out a hoarse whisper.

“Thank you.” Emma gave Finn a filthy look that she dropped as soon as she looked at me.

“Hi.” My voice still didn’t work, but she could get the gist of what I was trying to say.

Emma smiled at me, looking relieved. “Hi.”

“Let me get you some water.” Finn grabbed a cup from my nightstand and positioned the straw close to me.

The sip of cool water was delicious, and it revived me. I sat up a little more and looked around. There was a tube connected to my forearm. My eyes followed it to an IV. Next to that was a monitor showing what I assumed were my vital signs. I looked down. I was in a hospital bed in a johnny. “We’re in a hospital?” My voice came out gravelly but distinct, thanks to the water. “In Scottsdale?”

Finn put his hand over mine, and I noticed the short and scruffy beard again. The circles underneath his eyes were so dark that he looked as if he’d been the recipient of two black eyes. “We’re not in a hospital.”

Emma brushed the hair back from my face, and I suddenly, idiotically, wondered how terrible I looked. “We’re not in Scottsdale anymore. We’re close, but we’ve moved to a base.”

“You look beautiful,” Finn said immediately.

“I kind of doubt that.”

He smiled. “You look alive, which is even better.”

“Finn? Why do you have a beard?”

“Because he hasn’t left your side, not even to shave.” Emma sounded disgusted.

Finn ignored her, beaming at me and lacing his fingers through mine. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I couldn’t…hear you…while you were passed out. It was disorienting.”

“How long was I asleep?”

Emma and Finn exchanged a quick glance. “Not that long. A few weeks.”

“A few weeks?” I couldn’t believe it. “Is everyone okay? Micah, Officer Layne? What happened that day? That man was about to shoot Micah—”

“Easy,” Finn cautioned. “Take it easy. Micah’s fine.”

“What about Officer Layne?”

I thought he paused for a second, but it was too quick for me to be sure. “She made it out that day, too. They called for backup.”

“Did Bruce’s wife have her baby?”

Emma shook her head. “We don’t know. We moved out of the area after you got hurt.”

“Shot. You mean after I got shot.” I suddenly remembered more, like the blinding white pain I’d felt that day. I raised my hands to pat my face and head. “Did I get hit in the head?” I didn’t feel any bandages.

“In the shoulder. You fell and hit your head, though. You lost a lot of blood.”

I shuddered. Blood was so not my thing.

“But you’re fine.” Finn smiled, exhausted but elated. “I mean, you’re fine now that you’re awake.”

“Did the power come back on?” I looked around the small room, which was lit up and filled with working, beeping equipment.

Another look passed between Finn and Emma.

“Don’t do that! Just tell me what’s going on.”

Emma fidgeted by my bed. “The power didn’t come back on. The whole country lost it.”

“Then why are the lights on?”

“Because we’re at a secret military base, and we have high-octane generators. No one else does, though. Everyone else is off the grid…because there isn’t any grid anymore.” Emma shrugged.

“Do we know why?” I asked. “Do we know who did it?”

Finn traced a circle on my thin comforter. “No. We don’t know who.”

“But you know why.” Something in his voice told me.

He nodded, not looking up.

“Won’t you tell me?”

He stopped tracing and lifted his gaze to meet mine. “Because they wanted to start a civil war.”

I blinked at him then turned to Emma to see if she thought he was crazy, too. “You’re kidding, right?”

“He’s not kidding. That’s why we’re here at the base. It’s not safe in the cities or towns.”

I sat up straight, angry with myself for getting injured and missing everything. “Not safe why?”

“Because people are fighting each other for resources. There hasn’t been power for weeks. The major cities went out, and then it became more widespread. Washington D.C., then the whole state of California, then the rest of the country followed.”

“Except Hawaii,” Finn said. “They’re still okay.”

Emma shrugged. “But no one can get there. There aren’t any flights because there’s no power. No trains, no busses, no Uber. The government started a gas rationing program, but no one’s happy about it.”

I struggled to comprehend everything they were saying. “Has there been a revolt or something against the government? Is there really a civil war?” I couldn’t imagine Americans trying to overthrow the government. We had freedom others only dreamed of. We were the happiest, most prosperous nation on the planet.

“Not exactly. It’s more that citizens are competing for food, water, and gas.” Finn tried to sound calm and detached, as if he were explaining a math problem.

I licked my lips, feeling how chapped they were. “Competing?”

Again, Emma and Finn looked at each other.

“Stop it,” I snapped. “Just tell me the truth.”

Finn faced me. “Killing. The winners are the ones who live.”

“Already? It’s only been a few weeks, and they’re killing each other?”

“It’s been eight weeks since you were shot,” Finn admitted. “And yes, they’re killing each other. It got bad pretty fast.”

I sat up straight. “My mother. She was on vacation in Florida—”

“She’s okay, Riley. Cranston had someone make sure she got home safe.”

“But is she safe? Or are people in New Hampshire fighting each other, too?”

“She’s okay. A lot of people in the smaller communities are banding together and sharing. Your mom’s in the best spot possible.” Finn’s voice was tight. “It’s mostly in the cities that there’s been riots, looting, and crime. There weren’t enough resources to last a month. Things devolved after that.”

The cities… I gasped. Finn’s mother was in New York. “What about your mom?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. I haven’t heard from her.”

“Oh, Finn…”

Emma cleared her throat. “Cranston’s doing everything he can to make sure our families are safe, but government resources are limited. It’s chaos out there.”

“Is this worldwide?”

Emma and Finn exchanged another look.

“Stop it and just tell me the truth!”

“We’ve heard reports that it’s happening in other countries—Australia, China, Europe,” Finn said. “As far as we know, it’s global. Cranston is telling us as little as possible, which is seriously annoying.”

“What’s the military doing?”

Emma patted my hand. “They’re doing everything they can, but they have to secure our borders and deal with national security, too. The shelters are being raided and attacked. Homes and stores are being looted. We’re stretched really thin, thinner than ever.”

I wanted to rip the IV needle out of my arm, go outside, and do something. I couldn’t believe I’d been in bed for eight weeks while the whole world fell apart. I felt nauseous.

“What’s The Division doing? What’s our assignment?”

“You don’t have an assignment.” Finn stared me down. “Your only assignment is to stay right here and get better.”

“I’m better.” I turned and put my feet on the cold floor. I felt shaky, but I could probably get up.

“Don’t even think about it.” Finn blocked me. “Get back in the bed.”

“Listen to him, Riley.” Emma sounded exhausted. “You’re no use if you don’t take the time to heal.”

I climbed back, vowing to get up later when they were both gone. “I need to know what you’ve been doing and what we’re doing next.”

“We’re going out there, and we’re going to try and help people.” Emma ignored Finn, who was glaring at her.

“Some of us are doing that,” Finn said. “Others are staying here, waiting for orders.”

“Are you going out there?” I asked Emma.

Cranston suddenly appeared in the doorway. “No one’s doing anything unless I say so, Soldier.”

8

VERY SUPERSTITIOUS

“I WASN’T PLANNING on going rogue,” Emma started, but Cranston’s look stopped her cold.

He came into the room, his steel-blue gaze focused on me. “I’m glad to see you’re awake. You were a little touch-and-go there for a few weeks.”

“I feel pretty good.” I shrugged, and it hurt a little, but I hid it. “What have I missed? Where are we? What’s our assignment? Have you spoken to my mother? What about Finn and Emma’s families, and everyone else’s?”

Cranston rolled his eyes. “You and your questions. I’ll answer them when I have time, which won’t be soon. Actually, I’m the one with the question.”

Finn and Emma both moved closer as if to protect me.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“I want to know if your powers are working.”

The muscle in Finn’s jaw jumped. “She literally just woke up.”

“She needs to rest,” Emma agreed.

Cranston took a step closer, ignoring Finn and Emma. “We don’t have time for coddling. Riley, please sit up. I’d like to see what you’re capable of. There’s a lot to do.”

I sat up a little, wincing as pain radiated through my shoulder and down my arm.

Finn’s brow creased in worry. “Riley, stop.”

“It’s okay. I’m curious, too.” I smoothed my face out and did yoga breathing—in through my nose and out through my mouth. If nothing else, I had to appear okay for Finn’s sake.

“I heard that,” he muttered.

I opened my eyes and winked at him. “Just let me delude myself.”

If this is too much, stop, he thought.

I didn’t acknowledge him. I couldn’t risk it in front of Cranston.

Emma motioned to the Styrofoam cup of water. “Try this.”

“Thanks.” I smiled at my friend, wishing we were alone so I could pick her brain for visions of the future rather than waste my time trying to levitate a stupid cup.

Cranston crossed his arms, waiting for me to perform.

I closed my eyes and visualized the air molecules surrounding the cup. I mentally massaged the molecules and worked them into a frenzy.

It’s sort of hot when you talk like that, Finn thought.

I snapped my eyes open to glare at him, and the cup clattered to the ground, spilling water everywhere. Because he was facing away from Cranston, Finn dared to grin.

Cranston snorted, looking at the cup. “That wasn’t great, but you’re not broken. That’s something. I’ll come back for you after my meeting—we’ll get you up and walking. Emma, clean that mess up.” He stalked off before any of us could object.

I relaxed against the bed, tired from the brief use of my powers. “I see Cranston hasn’t lightened up over the past few weeks.”

Emma bent down to clean up the water. “He’s very tense.”

“Don’t make excuses for him,” Finn growled.

Emma grabbed another napkin. “Nora’s been checking in several times a day. I think she might send us out on active duty.”

“Where are we? Where will they send us?” I sat back up. “And for the record, I’m asking Emma. I’m not speaking to you, Finn.”

He grinned, flashing his dimple. “You just did.”

I shot him a look. Undeterred, he kept grinning.

“What?”

He put his hand over mine. “It’s good to have you back.”

My heart fluttered, and his grin widened. I didn’t have to say anything; he already knew.

Yeah, I know. You missed me, Hanover.

Of course I did, I thought back. Warmth spread through me because of his touch. Finn’s grin turned cocky.

Now get out of my head!

He winked at me as Emma looked disgusted. “Can you two please stop batting your eyes at each other for one second? Sheesh.”

“Can you tell me where we are?” I asked again.

She nodded. “We brought you back to the shelter after you were shot. The medical staff patched you up, but then the riots started, and the shelter was attacked. We needed to move you someplace safe. We’re at a secret military base in the Superstition Mountains. This was the closest off-grid base.”

I licked my lips, which were chapped. “The Superstition Mountains? Isn’t this a national park?”

Finn nodded. “That’s part of what’s here. We’re in a bunker inside one of the mountains. It was built in the eighties, during the Cold War, in case there was a nuclear attack.”

I shivered. “How’s everyone else doing? Is everyone okay?”

Micah came into the room, half smiling. “I’d be better if you hadn’t taken a bullet for me. Finn keeps threatening me—he won’t let me live it down.”

I was relieved to see him in one piece. “Hi. Are you okay?”

Micah scooted around Finn and sat on the edge of my bed. “I’m fine. As long as your boyfriend doesn’t crack my skull open.”

Finn scowled. “If you ever let her get hurt again, I guarantee you I’ll—”

“Is Officer Layne okay? Did Bruce’s wife have her baby? What happened to the guy who shot me?” The questions tumbled out, one on top of another.

Finn tensed, and Emma watched Micah carefully.

“I don’t know if Officer Layne’s okay. I hope she is.” Micah shrugged. “Bruce’s wife had her baby that day, but he was stubborn to the end—he wouldn’t bring her in. The paramedics had to come out, but the baby was fine and so was the mom.”

“What about the guy who took your gun?”

Micah didn’t look up. “He tried to shoot me after he got you. Officer Layne had to take him down.”

I swallowed hard. “Oh.”

Micah frowned. “I heard the neighborhood got looted. Last I heard, they had armed guards patrolling the gate twenty-four, seven.”

“Is everyone okay?” I asked.

“We don’t know.” Micah’s gaze flicked to Finn. “They won’t let us go back and check.”

“Why not? Isn’t that why we’re here?”

Finn scratched the back of his neck. “Something’s going on—something they’re keeping from us. The day you got hurt, Cranston wanted to review some files with me. Remember?”

I nodded.

“He showed me intelligence reports for the power outage. The FBI had been canvassing its databases, trying to figure out who was behind the attack. They’d narrowed it down to about twenty sources. Cranston wanted me to review the files so that I could listen for any thoughts that might reference the suspects.”

“Did you hear anything useful?”

He shook his head. “All hell broke loose first. And he hasn’t shared anything with me or the others since, but I know we have leads. They must have narrowed it down by now.”

“I hate to say it, but I told you so.” Kyan stalked into the room, not sounding or looking sorry at all.

Emma scowled at him. “Oh, joy. The weakest link has decided to grace us with his presence.”

Kyan scowled back. “Say what you like, but when the you-know-what hits the fan and you’re stuck in this creepy cave with Cranston as your only ally, feel free to think of me when I’m safe on the other side of the world.” He wore his typical tight-fitting tank top, which displayed his large biceps. His bleached hair artfully flopped to one side to display the lightning bolt he’d shaved onto one side of his head.

“You’re still thinking about leaving, then?” I asked.

Kyan crossed his arms against his chest, probably to make his biceps bulge. “They have us locked in a secret facility in a cave. No one knows what’s going on except that what looks like a global war is brewing, and we have no clue who’s behind it. Are you seriously telling me you aren’t thinking about leaving?”

“Riley just woke up.” Finn’s voice was tight.

“And we are so glad to hear it!” Morgan and Maya bounced into the room, wielding surgical gloves blown up into makeshift balloons. Morgan handed one to me and hugged me gently. “There aren’t any flowers. These were the best we could do.”

Maya waggled the other inflated glove near me. “Glad to see you’re awake. Sorry these are lame.”

Touched, I took the mini-balloons. “These are sweet. I’m happy to see you.”

“Does the goodwill extend to us?” Rachel asked, suddenly lounging in the doorway next to Josh.

I grinned at them. “Now the gang’s all here. Please come in and tell me everything Finn and Emma won’t.”

Josh came to my bed and very gingerly hugged me. “It’s good to see you, Hanover. It was a little scary there for a minute.”

I sighed, happy to see my friend. “It’s good to be back.”

All of a sudden, I felt a zap in the back of my neck. “Ow.”

Everyone was holding the backs of their necks, looking as though they’d been zapped, too.

“What the heck?” I asked. “Is that our monitors?”

Emma looked sour. “It must be. Are they transmitting something to us?”

“Hold on.” Finn took out his tablet and fired it up. “Let’s see if there’s some sort of message.”

“They’re zapping us now?” I did not care for this development. As far as I knew, our monitors were used by the agency to do just that—monitor our whereabouts and our feelings. I had no idea they could be used as a communication device from Management.

“Turn the tablets on, and the television—any screens we have.” Finn sounded tense. “They might do some sort of intranet communication.”

Emma turned the large flat-screen on, but there was just snow. “There’s no signal. Why would there be?”

“Wait a sec.” Finn grabbed the remote from her and switched the channel or the mode or something. Suddenly, the monitor flickered, and a United States crest filled the screen.

Everyone went quiet.

“What is this?” I asked. “Does it usually show this?”

Finn took my hand. “I don’t know. This is the first time any of us are seeing this.”

We waited, collectively holding our breath, as the image shifted. The White House press secretary stood behind a podium. Normally, she looked flawless, her hair pulled into a smooth bun. But today, her hair was frizzy and loose around her shoulders. Her normally meticulous makeup was nowhere to be seen, and the dark circles under her eyes were clearly visible.

She cleared her throat. “Ladies and gentlemen, if you’re seeing this, you know your power has returned. Please be advised that it won’t last. We’ve received intelligence that the entity behind the outage has turned the power back on for a limited time to make an announcement.”

The reporters in the room erupted into questions.

The press secretary held up her hands. “I’m not taking questions. The transmission is starting in one minute. We don’t have…permission to speak.”

The reporters shouted frenzied questions. “We need permission?”

“What country’s behind this? Or is it a terrorist group?”

“What’s happening?”

But then the screen went dark again, and a new image appeared. It was a woman—the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. Her long, curly, highlighted hair tumbled wildly past her shoulders, and her coffee-colored skin sparkled with luminosity and health. Blue eyes framed by thick, curling lashes stared out at us. The final touch was a tiara on top of her head, reflecting the sunlight.

She was standing in a field. Long, flowing multi-colored robes framed her luscious curves. She looked royal…majestic…triumphant.

“Who’s that?” Josh asked. “She’s totally hot.”

Rachel elbowed him.

Emma peered at the screen. “Is that—wait, is this a music video?”

The woman on the screen resembled a famous singer, but it wasn’t her. “I wish,” I mumbled. “But this is no music video.”

My stomach sank as I waited for her to speak.

“Citizens, I’m so glad to finally have the opportunity to address you.” The woman’s voice was smooth, melodious, her accent clearly American. “I’m sure you’ve all had questions about what’s happening. Maybe some of you have already figured it out.”

Emma looked at me. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

Kyan snorted. “You’re psychic, and that’s the best you can come up with?”

Emma opened her mouth to retort, but the woman started talking again.

“A lot of you have been worried that the United States and major metropolitan cities around the world are under attack. That is not the case. All will be revealed soon. I will hold a news conference tomorrow at noon to be broadcast exclusively from Times Square in New York. Viewers at home will be able to watch. You don’t want to miss it.” She smiled, her even white teeth flashing.

The screen went blank.

“I guess the press secretary doesn’t have permission to come back and speak?” Kyan sounded as though he was joking, but it wasn’t funny, and he knew it.

Finn scrubbed a hand across his face. He got up and started pacing.

“Do you know who she is?” I asked.

“No. She wasn’t in the files I looked at.”

I glanced at Emma. “Do you have any sort of a read on her?”

Emma’s face went slack, and her eyes clouded over as though she were either having a vision or remembering one. We waited in tense silence until her eyes cleared. “I think we need to warn Nora and the others. Tomorrow’s going to be dangerous. Get him,” she told Finn urgently. “Get Cranston!”

9

THE WAITING IS THE HARDEST PART

“I UNDERSTAND that you want to be there to protect civilians, but it’s not your call,” Cranston said.

“I had a vision. I can help them with logistics. I saw things.” Emma anxiously twisted the bracelet her brother had made for her. “I don’t understand why you won’t listen to me.”

Cranston leveled his gaze on Emma. “I’ve been listening to you, and I’ve heard what you had to say. But it doesn’t change my position. Times Square is not our assignment. I’ve passed on the intelligence to Management, and I promise you that it’ll be of use. But our cell is under direct orders to stay here until we’re told otherwise.”

Emma’s cheeks flushed with two hectic spots of color. “I don’t understand why you’re holding us here. Riley’s better! We don’t need to stay in this crypt. We’re supposed to be out there, fighting and protecting civilians.”

“You’re supposed to do what I tell you to do.” Cranston let that sink in. “Now my direct order is to stay put in your bunks or the gym. If something comes up, I’ll buzz you like I did earlier.”

Rachel sat up straighter. “Did you do that—transmit to our monitors?”

Cranston looked pleased with himself. “Yes. It’s something we’ve been working on. Now I can reach you all as a group. It’s like sending out a group text.”

“That’s great, but back to Times Square,” Emma started.

The pleased look slid from Cranston’s face. “We’ll watch the broadcast tomorrow like everyone else, and then we’ll receive new orders. But I want you all to calm down. Go work out. Go eat something. Just stop driving me crazy.”

He stalked off, but I called out, “Sir?”

His shoulders sagged. “What?”

“Am I cleared to take the IV out and start moving around? I can’t sit here anymore; I’ll go crazy.”

Finn opened his mouth to object, but I raised my hand to stop him. “I’m no good to anyone if I can’t take care of myself.”

You need to rest, he thought.

I’ve been laid up for eight weeks. I think I’m pretty rested, I thought back.

Cranston came over, checked the tubing in my forearm, and read the monitoring devices again. “You look fine. Everything’s back to normal, and your vitals look good. You can get up and start moving around, but don’t push yourself. We need you fully functional.”

I watched as he removed the needle from my arm and turned off the IV machine. “Sir?” I asked. “Do you know who she is?”

He frowned. “I can’t tell you anything. Not yet.”

Cranston silently cleaned up the equipment then left us alone without saying another word.

He’d been gone all of two seconds when Kyan started complaining. “I know you guys are tired of me saying it, but I don’t care. We are being played. They are taking us for a ride. It’s time to talk about you-know-what.”

“What’s you-know-what?” Maya asked.

Kyan ran a hand through his hair. “Leaving. Before they get us all killed.”

Finn looked as though he might throttle Kyan. “The last time you tried to leave, Cranston found you in about five minutes—hiding in a ditch, bleeding out from trying to dig your monitor out. With your fingernails.”

“I know you don’t want to hop on my bandwagon, but admit it—we have to do something,” Kyan said. “We can’t just sit here until they finally decide to tell us what’s going on then send us on some crazy assignment.”

Finn snorted. “Cranston probably knows what we’re talking about right now, you idiot.”

Kyan made a show of checking his own pulse. “I’m calm. There’s nothing wrong with my monitor, nothing to alert him.” He looked at the group. “I know I’m the pariah around here, but you have to agree with me: they aren’t telling us anything. We flew out here to help, shit went wrong, and now we’re in hiding. Our own families are out there, and we don’t even know if they’re alive, or who that crazy-hot lady on TV was, or what the hell is going on. Are all of you seriously telling me you’re okay with this?”

“I’m not,” Micah said immediately. “But what’s the alternative?”

Morgan nodded. “If we try to leave, how do you think that’ll work? We won’t have shelter, food, our weapons. And they’ll be after us, following our monitors.”

“Morgan’s right,” Finn said. “I don’t like the way this is playing out, either. I’m totally frustrated just sitting here, but right now, this is the only option we have. If we leave, they’ll bring us back and lock us up. And then we’ll be completely useless.”

“I feel completely useless already.” Emma fiddled with her bracelet. “I don’t understand why they won’t let me go to New York to help, or at least let me Skype with whoever’s going to be running security tomorrow.”

Josh looked up. “No one knows about us—that’s why. We’re a secret, remember? Cranston probably can’t spill that the government genetically manufactured a bunch of psychics.”

Rachel shook her head. “If there was ever a time to go semi-public, this is it.” “This is as close to a global emergency that we’ve had since most of us have been with The Division. So what’re they waiting for? Why are they hiding us like this? Why won’t they tell us what’s going on? I’m with Kyan, at least in theory.”

Kyan looked shocked, then mollified, that the popular girl agreed with him.

Morgan nodded. “I am, too.”

“Let’s just get one thing straight,” Maya said. “No matter what we do, we have to stay together. That’s the most important thing.”

I sat up. “We have to stay together, and we have to be more organized. No offense, Kyan, but just running away makes no sense. We need a plan.”

“How’re we supposed to make a plan when we don’t know what’s going on out there?” Emma got up and started pacing. “We don’t even have a window to look out of! All I know is, tomorrow’s going to be dangerous. After that, I can’t see anything. I’m blocked, and it’s so freaking frustrating.”

“Then let’s wait. Let’s see what happens and get more information before we make any decisions.” My voice, although gravelly, sounded firm.

Finn sat down on the bed next to me. “And like Maya and Riley said, we stick together. No one on the team gets left behind.”

The others grumbled their assent. Emma stared off into space. Finn grabbed my hand.

We had a temporary plan, at least. It wasn’t much, but it would have to get us through the next twenty-four hours.

AFTER EVERYONE DISBANDED, I decided it was time to get up. I shuffled to the metal dresser along the wall. My clothes were in there. I pulled on a pair of sweats and a T-shirt and was surprised at how loosely they fit. I went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. My face was gaunt. I pulled up the T-shirt. The new muscles I’d acquired during summer training had wasted away.

I needed to stuff my face, and I needed to lift weights.

I went to find Finn. My legs felt wobbly as I walked gingerly down the hall. I felt vulnerable—scrawny, slow, and weak.

Finn stuck his head out of his room. “You were shot and laid up for weeks. Stop being so hard on yourself.”

I sighed, annoyed at how my heart was thudding from such little exertion. “Can you stop stalking my thoughts?”

“Can you take it easy on yourself and heal?”

I frowned. This wasn’t the best time to take it easy. “Maybe.”

“Then maybe I’ll stay out of your head. What’re you doing up, anyway?”

“I was hoping you could show me around. I know you guys said we’re inside the Superstition Mountains, but I’ve only been in my room. I’m totally disoriented. I need to get a feel for this place.”

He held out his hand. “I’ll take you on a tour. A brief one. You look tired.”

“Gee, thanks.”

Tired and beautiful, Finn thought.

I clasped his hand. Being around Finn made me feel all shivery and hot at the same time, which he of course knew, which of course was mortifying. I had mixed feelings about what he’d told me—that we were genetically designed to be together. I still didn’t know if I believed it. I did know, however, that I turned into a pile of goo every time I looked at him.

“Easy, my little pile of goo,” he teased. “I told you, just because we’re genetically… whatever we are doesn’t mean our feelings aren’t real.”

“Ugh, stop using your power on me!”

“Which one?” He flashed his dimple and flexed his biceps as he pulled me down the hall.

“You’re lucky you have that dimple.” Not to mention the biceps. “It seriously saves your ass twenty times a day.”

The dimple deepened. “I know.”

I groaned and rolled my eyes. He was incorrigible.

“You love it.” He had the decency to say it under his breath.

We turned the corner and reached the kitchen. “Before we walk, we eat.” Finn rummaged through the enormous refrigerator and pulled out peanut butter and jelly. He grabbed bread and started making sandwiches as I walked around the large room, peeking into cabinets. I found a case of protein bars and vowed to come back later and steal it.

“Why aren’t there any windows?” I asked.

“We’re literally inside the mountains—there’s nothing to see but rock.”

“So, this is a secret military base?” I looked skeptically at the kitchen, which had long metal tables and chairs but was otherwise barren. “Is it abandoned?”

“Cranston told us the military doesn’t like to use it anymore. There were some strange reports.”

“Strange how?”

He shrugged and handed me a plate. “People think these mountains are haunted. I guess even some of the soldiers who were stationed here complained.”

I chewed a bite of the sandwich, which was delicious, then scowled. “Great.”

Finn shrugged. “I haven’t seen anything strange except for that video feed.”

“That woman… I’m worried about what she’s going to do. I have no idea where she’s coming from or what this is all about.”

“I don’t know who she is, and that worries me. A known entity would be easier to prepare for.” He rested his chin on his hands. “But Management’s been aware of a scenario like this for years. They’ve prepped us for it—the power outage. They said the power would go out first and then people would turn on each other. Whoever she is, she wants to cause a disruption. And she’s definitely done that.”

“What do you think’s going to happen?”

“I don’t know, but I can’t wait for that press conference tomorrow. They’ll have to let us do something once we know what’s going on. Our unit needs to be mobilized. People are hurting out there.”

I winced, thinking of my mother and Finn’s. What were they going through out there in the dark? “Can you tell me more—anything I missed while I was passed out? Anything else you learned in training that I didn’t get to yet?”

Finn stood and held out his hand. “First things first. Let me show you around. You haven’t even been up for a whole day—you need to pace yourself.”

We walked back out to the cool, dark hallway, and he led me past what looked like a conference room filled with desks and metal chairs. Nothing hung on the stone walls of the base. Our footsteps echoed in the empty hall as we headed away from the main hub where the living quarters were. “What’s down here?”

“Something creepy.”

My stomach sank. “I thought you said there was nothing creepy.”

“I said there was nothing strange—I didn’t say anything about creepy.” He squeezed my hand. “I got you, Hanover. I’ll protect you. And don’t forget, you’re a badass telekinetic. You can look out for yourself.”

My heart rate picked up. “Should I be afraid? Are we alone here?”

“Yes, we’re alone—c’mon, let me show you.” He pulled me farther down the hall then to a descending set of stairs. We went down silently, and I noticed that the air was moist—we were going deeper inside the mountain.

Dim lighting shone at the bottom of the landing. Finn took out his phone and turned on the flashlight app as he led me down the hall. He brought me to a room and shined the light on it. There were metal bars across the door and a small cot inside.

“A jail cell?”

“There’s a bunch of them.” He walked ahead, shining the light into each unoccupied cell.

“Was this used as a military prison?”

“I don’t know. It’s always been a top-secret facility, so maybe these were used for ‘off-book’ detainees, or maybe for soldiers who were in trouble.”

I shivered again. “Does Emma and everyone else know about these?”

“I haven’t shown anyone until now. I kept it to myself.”

“Does Cranston know?” For some reason, I felt sick as I waited for the answer.

“He must.”

We didn’t say anything for a beat.

“Do you think we’re here…because of these cells? Do you think he’s planning on locking someone up?”

Finn turned off the light, laced his hands through mine, and marshaled me up the stairs. “I don’t know. But I had the same thought.”

10

NOKAY

EMMA CLUTCHED her stomach as we waited for the screen to light up.

I wanted to ask if she was okay, but I didn’t want to embarrass her in front of Cranston. Besides, I didn’t have to be psychic to know the answer.

We sat in the conference room as Cranston paced behind us. Everyone kept quiet. I wondered what the beautiful woman would say.

The television came on at the appointed time, and I held my breath. An aerial shot of Times Square filled the screen. The scene was eerie because all the billboards were dark, a sharp contrast to the lively fluorescence that usually lit up the square. It looked like a gray, drizzly day in Manhattan, and streets were packed with people waiting for the announcement. Policemen, firemen, and military personnel lined the sidewalks. It looked as though no cars were in the square—pedestrian traffic only.

Who is filming this?

Suddenly, the large screens that covered the skyscrapers lit up in varying colors: pink, blue, yellow, and green. The screens bathed the city in an upbeat light, and I relaxed enough to take a breath.

Then the colors drained away, and the woman’s face filled the screens.

The camera zoomed in; the close-up revealed how stunning she was. Her makeup was applied perfectly, and her skin shimmered. A tiara glistened on the curly waves of her thick hair.

She smiled faintly, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Thank you for coming today, and for tuning in. My name is Althea Remington. I’m an American citizen, but I’ve lived outside the country for the past five years. I no longer live in the United States for many reasons. I watched the corporation I worked for systemically destroy the environment with the government’s blessing. They were given tax credits and shelters as they released toxins into the ozone. They were patted on the back and rewarded for maiming the land that had given them everything. And for what?”

She blinked, pausing for a moment. “For greed. For that which you can’t take with you.”

Finn reached across the table and grabbed my hand.

“Since then, I’ve watched the obsession with technological advances possess every able-bodied man, woman, and child. Everyone has a cell phone, a smart phone, a tablet, a Twitter handle. Civil discourse is on the decline as we retreat further into ourselves and our devices. Babies play with cell phones at the grocery store. Cyber bullies encourage young people to take their own lives. A Chinese toddler was hit and killed by a car while her mother was busy texting. And you talk about it, but you do nothing because you’re too distracted, and you enjoy your distractions too much. But I bet you’re listening now.”

The smile finally reached her eyes.

I shivered.

The film changed and showed images of cities all over the world, each with crowded sidewalks and people on their handheld devices, a video of a man walking into another person on the sidewalk as he stared at his phone. There were pictures of smog in China and people with surgical masks over their faces on their way to work. Then the built-out lands of Southern California with houses jammed up against each other, crowding out the land all the way to the Pacific.

“Just look at what we’ve done.” Althea now sounded as though she might weep.

The images continued—trash in the streets of Vietnam, abandoned factories in Georgia, a junkyard filled with acres of rotting cars, and on, and on, and on.

“We have effectively destroyed our environment. Right before we went dark, a large chunk of ice broke from Antarctica. We have polluted the earth to a point that, given the rapid rate of desecration, we are unable to sustain our current trajectory.”

I looked at Finn, but he was transfixed, watching her.

“I’m sorry; I misspoke. I meant, given the rapid rate of desecration, you are unable to sustain your current trajectory.” Althea Remington didn’t look sorry. “I, on the other hand, have a different agenda in mind.”

The image on the screen zoomed out, back to the scene in Times Square. Thousands of people stood watching the screens, surrounded by the police and the military.

Then something happened.

It was too small to make out at first. It looked as though hundreds of windows from the surrounding skyscrapers shattered, causing glass to rain down on the spectators. But there was something else. Small rocks appeared to be thrown from the windows, hurtling down after the glass.

There were a series of explosions. Bright lights, like fireworks, erupted around the people on the ground.

They shrieked.

No. No no no no

Emma stood up. “Oh my God.”

Fireworks exploded on the ground, and they were all wrong. The camera zoomed in, and I could see the people on fire, shrieking, trampling each other.

“Jesus Christ.” Cranston crossed his arms and watched the footage, his face immobile.

The fireworks—the bombs—and the screaming continued. I could see uniformed men on the ground, firing guns up toward the broken windows. Then the whole scene just went smoky, with more explosions, bullets, and screaming. Flames crept up the sides of the buildings.

“This is my vision: wipe out the desecrators. Raze the cities,” Althea said in a voice-over as the civilians on the screen writhed in pain and died. “We had no business destroying our own environment. It may be too late, but I can’t stand by and watch the mother be desecrated anymore. Say goodbye to life as you know it. It’s not coming back.”

One last image flashed of Times Square on fire, then the screen went blank.

Emma leaned over and threw up into a trash can.

Finn put his face in his hands.

The twins and Rachel were crying. Josh, Kyan, and Micah were dead silent.

Cranston left the room. He didn’t look back.

“WHO IS SHE—ISN’T there anything?” I asked Finn as he used his tablet to search an Intranet government database.

The muscle in his jaw jumped. “I don’t know. I don’t see anything in here.”

I wanted to ask Emma, but she’d gone to her room to lie down. She had a headache, which probably meant she had a ton of visions flooding her…unpleasant visions.

I started to pace, itching to look out a window so I could see that the world was still standing. “We need to know what’s going on out there.”

“I agree.” Finn tapped the tablet. “Let me run some more searches, and then we’ll go talk to Cranston.”

Micah nodded. “I’m coming.”

“Me too,” Kyan said.

“We want to talk to him, too.” Maya flopped down next to Morgan. “We need to get out there and do something.”

Rachel came in. “I just checked on Emma—she’s sleeping. She had some visions about Althea, but I’ll let her explain them to you.”

“Anything clear?” Finn asked.

Rachel shrugged. “I don’t think she understands what they mean yet, so she’s resting.”

Finn put the tablet down. “Althea Remington’s a ghost. There’s no aliases for her that I can find.”

I stood. “Then let’s go see what Cranston knows.”

Kyan looked as though he was about to make a nasty comment, but he stopped himself.

“Shut up,” Finn said to him, anyway.

Kyan cracked his knuckles as we headed down the hall.

I’m going to beat him up soon, Finn thought. Dude hasn’t learned his lesson, and I am seriously sick of those frickin’ bangs. AND the tank tops. I swear to God, those tank tops—

We have bigger problems to deal with, I thought, and that was when we reached one of them: Cranston. He sat at his desk, tapping his pen, a sour look on his face.

Finn leaned against the wall, making room for us all to come in. “Sir, we’d like to know what information you have about the attack.”

“We know that it was well-orchestrated and that she had lots of help. Also, Althea Remington’s not her real name.” Cranston scrubbed a hand over his face. “Seems like she invented it just for this debacle.”

“Next.” Finn waited.

“Her real name’s Vivian Markham. She’s from South Jersey, and no, I’m not kidding. She grew up in an affluent suburb, went to Miss Porter’s private high school, then went to MIT for her undergraduate degree in environmental engineering. She did a brief stint at a lab in Cambridge then went to work for a big oil company in Texas. She was supposed to help them ‘go green.’ They hired her as a head researcher and government liaison, someone to work on regulations and compliance. Her uncle was a vice president there, a bigwig. She worked there for ten years. She’s thirty-eight, divorced. She had a son, Theodore, but he died when he was seven.”

“Of what?” I asked.

“Brain cancer. Ependymoma, which can be linked to environmental toxins.”

“Does she have a record?” Finn asked. “Is she on a watch list?”

“No and no,” Cranston said. “After her son died, she left the company and moved to Greece, but her trail goes dark from there. The only things of note in her file are her memberships in Green Peace, Earth First!, and the Animal Liberation Front. The last two groups are sort of radical, but nothing with an army that kills hundreds of civilians while broadcasting it live.”

“How many…people died?” I braced myself for the answer.

“Eight hundred thirty-two casualties and another three hundred in the hospital with life-threatening injuries.”

No one said anything for a moment. I sank down into a nearby chair.

“What’s next?” Finn asked.

“We’re awaiting further orders.” Cranston turned back to his computer, effectively dismissing us.

“Sir?” Morgan stepped forward. “We’d like more information. We’d like to leave the base, if possible—maybe head back into Scottsdale to see what’s going on there, to check on the neighborhoods we were monitoring. None of us like being cut off like this.”

Cranston didn’t turn around. “I’m afraid that’s not possible.”

“Why not?” Micah didn’t hide the tension from his voice.

“Because I just spoke with the admiral, and she’d like us to maintain our position for right now.”

“‘Right now’ is how long, exactly?” Maya asked.

“It’s as long as I say, Soldier.” Cranston finally turned around. “This situation’s more complicated than it looks. There are lots of moving pieces. Our top priority is keeping this unit secret and safe until we can do our real work.”

Maya put her hands on her hips. “I’m sorry, sir, but with all due respect, hundreds of people were killed today—American citizens! You’ve been keeping us here, locked up, and we’ve been patient so Riley could heal. But she’s better, and there’s no reason to keep us here. We need to get out there and help.”

The computer behind Cranston came to life. Nora blinked at us from the other side of the screen. “Cranston, I see you called that meeting.”

He nodded even though he’d done no such thing. “Yes, ma’am. I just told the team that our direct order is to stay here, concealed, until we’re notified otherwise.”

Finn stepped toward the screen so Nora could see him. “Are you here with updated orders?”

Nora pursed her lips. “Just exactly what Cranston said. We need your group to stay sequestered until the right time. Further instructions are coming soon.” The screen went blank before we could argue.

Micah grunted. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

Cranston stood, towering over us. “No, I’m not, and that sort of tone’s not acceptable, Soldier. You heard the admiral. Now get out of here. Go back to your rooms until I come and get you.”

Finn was the first out the door. “Yes, sir.” His quick compliance surprised me, but I didn’t say anything.

My mind whirled. None of us said a word until we made it to the dorms. Emma was still sleeping on her bunk, facing the wall. I sank down onto an empty bed, realizing I was shaky from all the activity. I ignored my fatigue and instead thought about all those people, screaming and afraid.

Finn paced the room. “This is crap.”

“Eight hundred and thirty-two people are dead.” The images from the broadcast played over again in my mind. “There’s absolutely no reason for us to stay here when we could be helping. It’s inexcusable.”

Morgan frowned. “I don’t respect the fact that they aren’t telling us more. We don’t even know what’s going on out there.”

“You guys didn’t leave the base at all while I was out?” I couldn’t believe we’d been in this facility for eight weeks and I had no idea what the world outside looked like, aside from the video we had just seen.

“No—we weren’t allowed to leave,” Kyan said. “He told us we had to stay here for you, that our team couldn’t operate without you. All we’ve been doing is working out. And going crazy. I know I sound like a broken record, but this is crap. I think there’s something going on—that they’re holding us here on purpose, like prisoners. They don’t want us out there, and I don’t know why. I only know that I don’t trust them anymore. We’re people, but they treat us like we’re property. I don’t care if they made me—I’m still my own person. I would leave tonight if I could.” He dropped down on the bed across from me.

Surprisingly, Finn sat down next to him. “I don’t disagree with you,” Finn told him after a moment. “Ever since they brought us here, Cranston’s been dodging all of our questions. I let it slide while Riley was down, but she’s awake, and after what happened today… We are under attack. This is what they’ve been training us for since the beginning. They’re hiding something—I can feel it.”

“What do you think we should do?” Kyan asked.

Finn shrugged, trying to appear calm, but anxiety rolled off him.

Kyan assessed him. “I know you. I know you’re not going to let innocent people get killed while we sit in here and look pretty. I’m about to go storm the castle, but I’d like to at least get farther than the door this time.”

Finn turned to me. He didn’t bother to think-speak into my mind. I didn’t have to be receptively telepathic to know exactly what he was thinking.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

He shrugged again. I knew he wanted me to make up my own mind.

“It’s not okay for us to just sit here while people die,” I agreed.

Finn grinned. “It’s so hot when you say exactly what I’m thinking, and we don’t even use our psychic powers.”

“Oh, will you two stop already!” Emma sat up, grumpily rubbing her eyes. When she’d finished, she glared at Finn. “I’ve seen it—your plan—and it’ll work, but we only have a small window. And we have to put it to a vote. I don’t want to drag anyone into this without their actual consent because we are crossing some serious lines.”

“Works for me.” Finn turned to Kyan. “Are you a part of this team or not?”

“Of course I am. I only wanted to get away from Management and their lies, not the rest of you.” He tilted his head at Finn. “Although you can be pretty annoying, especially with that metrosexual beard.”

“Shut up.” Finn protectively rubbed his beard then turned to the others. “Are you ready for a new, unauthorized course of action?”

“What are we doing?” Maya was pacing the room like a caged animal. “What can we do?”

Finn stood up. “We’re taking matters into our own hands and going out there without permission. But you have to understand, Cranston’s not going to forgive us easily. Or ever.”

“He’ll forgive us eventually…I think.” Emma wrapped her arms around her knees. “We’re genetically designed special snowflakes. They’ve invested a lot of time and a crap-ton of funds into us. If we decide to come back, they’ll take us, and not just to lock us up as deserters.”

“Is that a prediction?” Josh asked.

“No.” Emma scrubbed a hand across her face. “It’s me being optimistic. Let’s get going, before I have an actual vision. I’m thinking it might be pretty dire.”

11

AFTER WHICH WE PROBABLY WON’T BE FORGIVEN

“DO you need me to get them?” I asked as we peered around the corner into Cranston’s office.

He’s in the bathroom, Finn thought. Can you do it from here?

I nodded. Finn had insisted we wait a couple of days so that I could get stronger. I’d hijacked the case of protein bars and started doing pushups. I felt better, but I still wasn’t myself.

But I can do this. I have to do this.

Finn nodded, encouraging me. Yeah, girl—go get it.

The keys were in Cranston’s desk drawer. Finn had found them weeks ago after he’d stumbled across the prison cells. He wanted to know if there were keys. He also wanted to know if Cranston planned to use them, but Cranston had a knack of keeping his plans to himself.

I closed my eyes and concentrated on the cool metal desk. I pictured the atoms surrounding the handle agitating and bumping against each other.

I heard the drawer slide open, and I sighed. It felt good to use my power. Like a muscle, it needed to be worked. I flexed it, pushing out and searching for the keys inside the drawer. I lifted the objects inside, feeling with my thoughts, until I heard something jangle.

I held my breath, lifted the keys up, then sailed them across the office and into Finn’s outstretched hand.

I heard the toilet flush and quickly closed the drawer. Luckily, it slid into place silently as Cranston turned on the water to wash his hands. Finn pulled me next to him. Cranston came out of the bathroom and headed to his desk. We pressed ourselves against the wall just as Josh ambled down the hallway, right on time.

He winked at us before he went into Cranston’s office. “Sir? I need to talk to you about something.”

“I don’t have time right now—”

“It’ll only take a minute.” Josh’s voice was as calm and soothing as the mood relaxer he was psychically dispensing to Cranston.

“Are you doing someth…” Cranston’s voice trailed off.

Josh must’ve hit him with the mental equivalent of a double dose of Vicodin. “Are you okay, sir?”

“I’m fine.” Cranston sounded calm and benign, unlike his normal, high-strung self.

“Good. Listen, I was wondering if we could take a look down the hall. I think there’s a leak. There’s water on the floor.” Josh’s explanation sounded smooth, seamless. He led Cranston out of the office, and they headed away from us, down the hallway.

Finn and I followed a few steps behind, gauging the situation. Was Josh’s power over Cranston strong enough to get him downstairs without a fight?

Cranston’s head whipped around. “What’re you two doing?”

Finn smiled easily. “Josh said he needed help cleaning up the water.”

“Riley, you need to rest more.” Cranston turned back around. “But fine, help clean up first.”

I really wished Josh could change Cranston’s mood all the time. He was much less cranky.

Wait until afterward when you see how pissed he is, Finn thought. You think he’s usually a jerk…

I didn’t want to picture it. We were taking a huge risk.

We got to the stairwell, and Cranston stopped. “I thought you said the leak was here?”

Josh ran a hand through his hair. “It’s actually downstairs.”

Cranston only made the slightest movement—reaching toward his back—but Finn and Josh were on him in an instant. Finn grabbed Cranston’s arms and wrenched them together. Cranston cursed while Josh disarmed him, taking the blaster from behind his back and grabbing a large, scary-sharp knife from his calf.

Cranston struggled, but Finn held him roughly. “You better let go of me. I’ll make you pay for this!”

Josh held the blaster up, pointing it at Cranston’s face. “That’s enough, sir. Let’s try to keep this civil.”

They dragged him down the stairs, and I hurried close behind.

“Riley, get the keys,” Finn grunted when we reached the landing. I grabbed them out of his back pocket and fumbled with the cell door.

Finn clutched Cranston’s arms. The older man was thin, but sinewy muscle stood out on his forearms as he struggled. “Josh, he’s fighting me.” Beads of sweat stood out on Finn’s forehead. “You might want to be more aggressive with your feel-good juice.”

Josh undid the safety on the blaster. “I’m trying to calm him down, but the gun in his face isn’t helping.”

Cranston looked at Josh and snarled, “You stay out of my head!”

I finally opened the door to the cell, and Finn shoved Cranston inside. I slid the door closed and locked it immediately.

Josh had the blaster trained on our superior the whole time.

Cranston snorted as we stepped back. “The three of you are so frickin’ dumb.” He shook his head. “Nora will be looking for me in about five minutes. What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“We’re going out there.” Finn wiped the sweat from his face, but anxiety still rolled off him in waves. This was a big deal, no matter how cavalier we’d all been about it. “You can’t keep us locked up like prisoners. We have a duty to our country. There’s a war going on out there.”

“I can’t lock you up, but you think you’re going to get away with this?” Cranston motioned around his cell. “And FYI, dumbasses, your monitors will show management your whereabouts. Even if you manage to get out of here, they can come to get you at any time.”

“We just want to see what’s going on.” Finn paced in front of the cell, and I hoped he wasn’t having second thoughts.

He looked at me. “I’m not. But this is sort of a big deal.”

Cranston sneered. “It’s going to be a hell of a big deal when I get out of here and come after you and your precious girlfriend.”

Finn stopped pacing. “Jesus. I thought you understood! This is what you’ve been preparing us for.”

Cranston crossed his arms against his chest. “There’s a reason I haven’t let you out, a very good reason.”

Josh tucked the blaster into the waistband of his pants. “I’m all ears.”

“It’s not for you to know—not yet,” Cranston said.

Finn leaned closer to the bars. “That’s not going to work for me anymore. I’m not your telepathic minion. This is a partnership, but you continue to treat us like we’re preschoolers. Enough. If you won’t tell us what’s going on out there, we’re going to go find out.”

Cranston sank down onto the bench inside the cell. “You go ahead and do that. See how far you get. I treat you like preschoolers because you act like a bunch of four-year-olds. And here, I thought Kyan was the biggest ass in the group. I’m not usually wrong, but when I am? Jesus, you people are idiots.”

Finn’s eyes flashed. “Maybe Kyan had more of a point than I realized.”

“Keep telling yourself that.” Cranston ran his steely gaze over the three of us, looking disgusted but also sort of amused. “I’ll see you all back here soon. And I’ll be happy to vacate this cell so you have plenty of room in here.”

“Shut up,” Josh said, surprising me. He rarely said an unkind word.

Josh headed up the stairs, and Finn and I followed, leaving Cranston locked up and alone in the semi-darkness.

I waited until we were up the stairs and out of earshot before I spoke. “I feel sort of sick about this. We’re going to get in big trouble.”

“Cranston needs us more than we need him,” Josh reasoned. “I bet he lies to cover this up. He’ll tell Management he ordered us to go out on a mission. How bad does it make him look if they find out we locked him up and went out on our own?”

“That’s true, but if they find out he lied, he’s done.” Finn grabbed my hand protectively as we hustled to meet the others, who were assembling supplies to take off base.

“Has Cranston ever been disciplined for something?” I asked.

Finn shook his head. “No. Cranston’s record is spotless. That’s why he runs The Division—they’d only trust us with someone who has absolute loyalty to the government. But I told you, when we’ve had recruits who didn’t work out… Management isn’t messing around.”

Some of those recruits were in prison, serving lifelong sentences. Some were dead.

I felt sick. I didn’t say anything.

Finn squeezed my hand almost painfully. “They don’t hesitate to hurt people or take them away from the life they knew. Look at what they did to Micah. He was with the others for years even though they couldn’t figure out what to do with him. We’re the government’s special, secret program—just like they keep telling us.”

My stomach roiled as we got closer to the supply room. “So you think Cranston is going to get… You think something bad’s going to happen to him because we’re doing this?”

“Maybe, but we have to weigh what’s for the greater good.” Josh’s voice was calm. “Think about the people who died in New York today. Think about all the people who’re scared out there, who need our help. Then worry about Cranston and whatever his reason is for keeping us penned in like psychic-minion sheep.”

I didn’t know what to think. I barely liked Cranston, and I didn’t agree with him keeping us here. Still, I didn’t want to hurt him.

“It’ll be okay.” Finn pulled me into the supply room, where the twins and Kyan were engaged in a deep discussion about how many sleeping bags they should pack.

I grabbed my backpack and started adding food packets to it. “You really think we need sleeping bags? How long will we be gone for?”

“Scottsdale is an hour from here, but we don’t know what the road conditions are.” Kyan neatly folded a blanket and grabbed another one. “We don’t know how long we’ll be gone.”

“We can’t just leave Cranston locked up here alone with no food and no water.” The enormity of what we’d just done was sinking in. “What if something happens and we can’t make it back? He’ll starve to death.”

“Josh and I have it covered,” Finn said. “We’ll leave him with supplies, enough to last a week. If we don’t make it back by then, Nora will have sent someone to see what’s going on.”

“You should probably tell everyone what happened when you locked him up.” Emma didn’t sound enthusiastic.

“He said Management could come and find us whenever they wanted because of the monitors.” Finn sat down on one of the benches. “You guys should know, he’s super pissed.”

“It’s not like we were expecting something different,” Rachel said.

Finn looked a little pale. “I know, but I’m worried that we won’t be able to come back. I don’t know what they’ll do to us.”

Maya held up a sleeping bag to Morgan’s face. “Then we should probably bring an extra one of these, like I said.”

Morgan slapped the sleeping bag away from her face. “It doesn’t matter if we come back. They can find us wherever we go, anyway.”

“Maybe we should just let Cranston out and erase his memory? Can’t any of us do something cool like that?” Maya looked at Micah. “What about you, new boy—can you zap him?”

Micah shrugged, continuing to fill his bag with dried food. “I could do some stuff, but I think we’re missing the point.”

Maya put a hand on her hip. “You mean besides the fact that we locked up our commanding officer and are about to trek outside to a war we don’t even have a grasp of? Or the other point—that Nora and Management are going to come for us and drag us back here, or do something worse to us?”

“I thought you wanted to do this,” Morgan said softly.

“I wanted to, but now that we’ve started, the possibilities are getting a little clearer. And none of them are good.” Maya sat down. “Micah, what was the point that I’m missing that’s so important?”

“No one can do what we do, and no one knows about us.” Micah read the label on a packet of mixed nuts then shoved it in her bag. “We’re a secret weapon. We can help people, and we can find out more about this Althea-terrorist-lady, and we can try and stop her before more people get killed. We’d be in a better position if Management had given us some intelligence, but they’re hiding things from us, and they won’t tell us why. So the point is, I know it’s not safe out there, but it’s not exactly safe in here, either.”

“What do you think will happen if Management comes after us?” Finn asked.

Micah calmly kept packing. “They’ll probably lock us up, but not forever. They’ve been sinking money and time into us since we were microscopic enzymes. We are seriously expensive, irreplaceable equipment. So I’m not worried about being locked in a room and never being let out. I’m worried about being locked in a room and then let out to do something I don’t want to do.”

“What do you want to do?” Finn asked.

“I’d like to help people. I’d like to have choices and maybe not get stunned by my boss so they can teach the new girl new tricks.” Micah’s gaze traveled over to me.

My shoulders sagged. “I said I was sorry.”

Micah zipped up his backpack and sat down. “I know you did.”

“So…” My voice trailed off as I thought everything through. “Are we talking about leaving to see what’s going on, or are we talking about deserting?”

“We’re talking about both.” Finn surveyed the room. “I think we need to take another vote. Now.”

12

LOCKED AND LOADED

“I’LL SHOW you mine if you show me yours,” Emma said.

Finn tilted his chin, inspecting her. “I’d like to know what you think first.”

“What I think? Or what I can see?” Emma still seemed tired. She rubbed her eyes and leaned against the wall behind her bunk.

“What you think about what you can see,” Finn said.

Emma sighed. “If we go, they’ll follow us and try to get us back. But we have a few tricks up our sleeve, and we’ll be able to accomplish at least a few things before we get dragged back.” She looked pointedly at Micah, who looked pointedly at the ground.

“Does that mean we’ll be safe?” Finn asked.

Emma shook her head. “If we leave here, we’re leaving the only sanctuary for miles. From what I can see, and it’s jumbled, it’s chaos out there. Some of the highways are closed. It was bad before the broadcast today, but people are desperate now. They’re trying to steal any guns and other weapons they can get their hands on. It’s a free-for-all. The police and the military are outnumbered, and civilians are targeting them to try and steal from them. So, it’s not ‘safe’—and I’m not even talking about what’ll happen when Management catches up to us. And they will. I don’t have to be psychic to know that.”

“But they won’t hurt us,” Micah said. “You said so yourself—we’re special, genetically engineered snowflakes.”

“Special snowflakes who went rogue and tried to escape,” Emma said. “They’ll treat it like a malfunction.”

I started to pace. “A malfunction? Like we’re robots or something?”

“Something like that.” Emma nodded. “They might try to…reset us.”

“Um…” My mouth went dry. “What the heck does that mean?”

“It means they could do something to our monitors to try and control us,” Micah said. “Remember when ours all buzzed when the broadcast was about to start? I think that’s just the beginning. They were testing something similar in the other group.”

“What did they do?” Morgan asked.

Micah played with the zipper of his backpack. “They zapped a kid.”

“Zapped him with the monitor?” Maya asked.

Micah nodded. “He’d been on probation for bad behavior—mouthing off, not following directions, stuff like that. So one day, they came and took him to the lab. They said he was being used for some research stuff for a couple of weeks. They acted like it was no big deal. But when he came back, he was different.”

Finn leaned forward. “Different how?”

“Jumpy,” Micah said. “And quiet. After a while, he seemed to relax a little. But one day, he mouthed off to one of our coaches. And then he got zapped, right there in front of us. Dude screamed and fell down.”

“How do you know it was his monitor?” Josh asked.

Micah finally looked up. “Because he was clutching the back of his neck. And in between screaming, he kept begging them to turn it off.”

“This is perfect,” Rachel said. “They can track us and barbecue us!”

Finn shook his head. “We don’t know for sure they can do that to us yet. The kid that Micah’s talking about was reset manually. No one’s gotten their hands on us.”

“I think we should leave—as in, leave and not come back.” Josh stood up. “I want to get away before they do something like that to me. I’m done being their pincushion, seriously.”

Finn nodded. “This could be our chance. Maybe this is what we’ve been waiting for.”

Everyone started talking at once, but I couldn’t focus enough to listen. I felt torn—I didn’t want to leave the agency without thinking it through. Could we really just walk away right when all of this was happening?

I looked at Finn. “I thought you wanted to stay. You said we should, to fully develop our powers. I barely know how to use my telekinesis…I’m like a telekinesis preschooler. I’m just getting started. Do you really think I’m going to be able to go out there and fight a war? Especially without any backup or intelligence? With our own people chasing us, trying to…barbecue us?”

“They won’t hurt us.” Finn sounded sure. “They’ve invested too much.”

“They’re not exactly going to just let us walk away, either,” Morgan countered.

“Let them come and get us, then,” Kyan said. “I’m not going to sit around here and wait for them to modify my monitor so it works like a shock collar for a dog. I’m done being their psychic pet. Screw them.”

Finn got up and started pacing. “Again, I hate to admit it, but I agree with Kyan. I’m done being Management’s whipping boy. Maybe this is the sign I’ve been waiting for.”

“My gut says go for it.” Josh grabbed his backpack and rummaged through it. “And because I’m psychic, I’m going with it.”

“I don’t want them to zap me.” Maya stood and resumed packing. “They might have genetically engineered me, but that doesn’t mean I have to let them control my body for the rest of my life. I’m with you guys. Let’s go.”

Morgan nodded. “Me too—you go, I go.”

Rachel didn’t say anything, but she started stuffing clothes into her bag.

It appeared that a vote had been taken. But I still wasn’t ready to cast my ballot.

Finn turned to me. “I know you think you’re not ready, but you’re strong.”

Panic bubbled inside me as the others hurried to finish packing. “I can’t shoot. I can’t even really fight.”

His face softened. “I’ll teach you. You’re further along than you think.”

“Finn! We want you to look at this.” Josh and Micah waved him over. They had a map spread out on the bunk.

Finn smoothed the hair back from my face. “Everything’s going to be okay. I promise.”

I nodded, wishing that were enough to convince me. As soon as he was busy with the other boys, I headed to Emma’s bed. “I need to know what you think—what you really think about this.”

Emma neatly folded a T-shirt and put it in her bag. “I think Finn really wants to make a break with the agency, and he’s not going to change his mind. The fact that they’re trying to keep us in the dark—still—it’s the last straw for him.”

“We’re seriously going to run away from the United States government, the people who manufactured us? You think that’s going to work?”

“From what I’ve seen, we’ll be able to make it out of here and to a city or a town. We’ll make it somewhere, anyway.” Emma screwed her face up, concentrating. “I can’t see it clearly. All I see is a pool.”

I crossed my arms. “A pool? Seriously? What about Cranston or the secret agency that we’re supposedly leaving behind? Did anything like that make it into your vision?”

“I don’t see that part clearly, but of course they’ll be coming for us. We’ll have a head start. We also have our special skill set—that’ll keep us a couple of steps ahead of them.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. Cranston is going to try to kill us when he gets out of that cell.”

“But he can’t actually hurt us, and he knows it,” Emma said. “Each of us is worth billions of government research dollars. But enough about all that—let’s put it into a different perspective—think about the people we can help who’re out there. If we can save a life or calm people down and bring some order to the chaos, it’s worth whatever punishment they throw at us. I think we have to try.”

Panic squeezed my chest as the scenarios flew through my mind. “But what if we don’t come back? What if we go out there and something happens, or the rest of the group decides they don’t want to go back? What if we get separated? What if we get hurt?”

Emma tilted her head. “What are you really worried about, besides getting killed out there, or dragged back here and then killed?”

“I think that’s plenty to worry about.”

“But there’s more, I can tell.” Emma waited for me to go on.

“I don’t feel like I’m ready to leave the agency—I don’t know if I want to,” I admitted, picking at the blanket on her bunk. “My dad came to me in Levels testing. Katie showed up in the naval prison. I don’t want to lose my connection to them. I know there’s more I need to find out, and if we go rogue, I’ll never understand the things they were trying to tell me.”

My father’s words during Levels came back to me. …there is someone who needs your forgiveness… I still didn’t know who he was talking about. If I left, I might never know.

“What do you mean?” Emma asked. “What do you think they were trying to tell you?”

I shrugged, not wanting to say too much. “My dad said he had friends in The Division. He said there were people who believed what he believed. I want to know what that means…I feel like he was more involved with the agency than I know. I feel like there’s more to the story. But if I leave now, I’ll never find out.”

Emma tried to reassure me. “Just because we’re going out there doesn’t mean we’ll never come back. They made us. They need us.”

“If they need us, maybe we shouldn’t go.” I was stalling.

I was scared.

“The reason they need us is the same reason we need to go out there—we’ll make a difference. So stop being a baby, Ri. You’re telekinetic. You’re strong, and you’re in better shape than the rest of those poor people out there. Think about them and stop whining.”

I blushed. “You’re right.”

She nudged me and winked. “I’m sorry for the tough love, but you respond so well to it! Let’s get packed and go before Cranston shimmies out of his cell.”

“Have you seen a vision about him?” I asked. “Finn said he was going to get in big trouble.”

Emma snorted. “Cranston loves to call us idiots, but he’s the idiot who let a bunch of teenagers lock him up in his own cell. I’ve always defended him, but I’m done. He’s told me nothing for the last time. We need to go out there and do something for once. I’m like a pure-blood racehorse who’s been waiting at the gate for too long. If I don’t do what I was born to do, I’m going to lose it.”

I stood. “You aren’t afraid?”

She arched an expertly groomed eyebrow. “Of course I’m afraid. I might be a genetically engineered precog, but I’m still human.”

13

OUTER LIMITS

FINN ASSIGNED Kyan the unwelcome task of bringing down enough food and water to last Cranston a whole week.

“Dude’s toxic.” Kyan sniffed when he came back upstairs. “He actually insulted my hair.”

Finn sighed. “Did you give him everything?”

“Against my better judgment,” Kyan said. “I don’t care if he starves to death.”

“Did he have any parting words, aside from insulting your hair?” Josh asked.

“He told me not to get killed and not to break protocol by showcasing our powers out there.”

“Still holding the party line,” Josh said. “I think he’s going to try and cover this up, which is good for us.”

Finn adjusted the straps on his backpack and motioned for us to move out. “I disconnected the server. There’s an outgoing error message now, so Management might believe we’re just experiencing technical difficulties. It’ll buy us some time, anyway.”

“You really think they’re going to fall for that?” Maya asked.

He shrugged. “We are in the middle of a global assault. It’s at least a possibility that we’d lose our ability to communicate. But we should get going—let’s move out.”

We’d packed weapons, enough food and water for at least a week, sleeping bags, and other camping supplies. On top of our other crimes, we also planned to steal the minibus. It was parked in a vast, empty cargo area inside the mountain.

Kyan and Josh finished packing the bus up, and I asked, “How the heck do we actually get out of here?”

Finn grabbed my hand, pulling me onto the bus. “You’re about to find out.”

Everyone took their seats—Finn slid behind the wheel, and Maya sat down next to Micah. The key hadn’t been turned in the ignition before she started peppering him with questions. “What’s your power, Micah? Why did they ship you over right before we were deployed? What was it like with the other group? Who was your superior? Who did they report to? Had you heard about us before?”

Finn snorted and pulled the bus around. “You’re starting to sound as bad as Riley.”

Maya ignored him and concentrated on Micah. “Another question—why can’t I hear your thoughts?”

“He’s a cloaker,” Emma said.

Maya continued to stare at Micah. “What are you cloaking?”

“What do you care?” he asked.

“I’d like to know before we go out into a war zone and I trust you with my life.” Maya watched him, clearly not giving him an out.

He sighed. “Emma’s right—I’m a cloaker.”

She arched an eyebrow. “Please tell me you’ve got other talents.”

“I’m a medium.”

“Shut the hell up,” Maya said. “That is so cool!”

Micah shook his head. “Not really. Having dead people talk through you is sort of freaky.”

“And you called me Freak Show?” I teased gently.

He gave me a side-eye. “I call it like I see it.”

“So, you can really channel dead people? Like, on demand?” Maya scooted closer, and Micah slid to the edge of the seat, trying to get away from her.

He sighed. “It’s not always on demand. I can only do that under certain circumstances. But what usually happens is that I get a sense from a place that there’s a spirit nearby. This place—the mountain—is crawling with them. I can’t wait to get out of here. They don’t call them the Superstitions for nothing.”

Maya listened with rapt attention. “That is so cool. I have a whole bunch of dead celebrities I’m dying to talk to.”

Micah rolled his eyes. “You don’t have a strong sense of irony, I guess?”

Finn stopped the bus. Josh got out, popped the keypad on the wall, and inserted the code.

“Cranston gave you the password?” I asked, incredulous.

“I’m telepathic, remember?” Finn grinned at me in the rearview mirror. “I listened in when we first got here, just in case.”

I grinned back. “You’re so smart.”

Kyan snorted. “You two are seriously disgusting.”

“You’re just jealous,” Finn said under his breath, “with stupid hair.”

Kyan looked as though he were about to throttle Finn, but the enormous garage door opened to the darkness outside. I looked at my watch—nine o’clock at night. I’d hoped to see the sun, but the moon would have to do.

“This is safer,” Finn said in response to my thoughts. He didn’t even apologize for snooping inside my brain.

Finn slowly drove the bus outside, and Josh hit the code, closing the giant door behind us. We pulled out onto a landing. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust, but then I saw the stars blanketing the sky. We were halfway up the mountain. I looked toward the top, but the peak was barely visible against the night sky. I looked down, but I couldn’t see any lights below.

It was dark, ominously dark.

“It’s so quiet,” Emma murmured, looking out the window.

Finn put the bus in Park and closed his eyes for a moment.

“What’re you doing?” Emma asked.

“Listening to see if there’s anyone near here.” He went quiet, concentrating. “Nope, just Cranston.” He winced a little bit then snapped his eyes open. “That’s enough of that.”

“What’s he thinking?” Morgan asked.

“Something to do with duct tape, a fire hose, and all of us begging for mercy.” Finn shrugged. “No big deal.”

I stole a glance at the door to the base as Finn slowly descended the hill. If I didn’t know the entrance was there, I never would have seen it. It blended seamlessly with the surrounding rock. I imagined Cranston down in his cell, trapped and alone, cursing our names. I shivered.

“It’s okay,” Emma said. “We’re going to save more people than we’re going to hurt. You have to remember that, because people are going to be hurt.”

I nodded, unable to speak. Now that we were outside, I felt vulnerable. The tires crunching down the gravel road broke the deep silence surrounding the mountain. Finn maneuvered the large vehicle easily—he was good at everything, of course.

He chuckled.

Ugh, get out and stay out!

You love it, he thought, how good I am at everything. Not to mention all my big muscles.

I groaned. I wasn’t sure if I did it out loud or in my head, but did it even matter?

Finn grinned, and I decided to ignore him before I decided to help Kyan throttle him.

I settled in next to Emma. “How long is the drive?”

She looked out the window and watched our dark descent. “It’s under an hour to Scottsdale—that is, if we make it.”

My stomach fluttered. “What does that mean?”

“It means there are a lot of crazy, desperate people in between here and Scottsdale. And some of them might be very interested in our bus.”

“Great.”

Emma sighed. “Not really.”

IT WAS TOO dark to see much as we drove through the park. The mountains surrounded us on all sides as Finn drove the bus carefully through dirt road, surrounded by scrubby underbrush. Once, I thought I saw something white out in the distance, the ghostly outline of some sort of temporary structure. “Is that a tent?” I asked Emma.

She peered out the window. “I can’t tell. But there could be people camping out here. Finn, can you hear anything?”

“He’s driving,” Morgan said. “Let me try.” She closed her eyes and concentrated. Morgan and Maya often bristled because we relied so heavily on Finn’s telepathic talents. They were both similarly gifted, but Finn had a much easier time picking up other people’s thoughts, particularly those of strangers.

Morgan opened her eyes. “I don’t hear anyone, but they could be asleep. I would think quite a few people would come into the park to camp. It’s desolate, but maybe it’s safer than the towns.”

“Except for the coyotes.” Maya shivered. “And the spiders.”

Morgan wrinkled her nose and went back to staring out the window. “Yeah, except for them.”

We drove in silence through the rest of the park then came out on the main road. It was dark and quiet, but seemed different than when we first landed in Arizona. The road was empty then silent. Now the silence seemed loaded, as though someone was waiting nearby…hiding and holding their breath.

“This is creepy.” Emma’s statement mirrored my thoughts. “I feel like we’re being watched.”

I leaned closer to the window, trying to make out anything, but it was impossible without the streetlights. There was no ambient light from any surrounding towns. The headlights and the stars were the only things cutting through the darkness.

I watched the road. Finn swerved through broken down cars and trash. “Maybe driving at night wasn’t the best idea,” he admitted. “I can’t believe how many abandoned cars there are.”

“Where is everybody?” I asked.

No one answered.

We drove to the freeway, but once we got on the exit, Finn stopped. Hundreds of cars blocked the road, a traffic jam of abandoned vehicles. It was spooky quiet. “What the hell?” Finn turned around. “I don’t think we can go through here. I can’t navigate it at night.”

“We should go back and find a place to camp,” Josh said.

“Near here?” Rachel asked. “We’re barely twenty minutes away from the base. Cranston could practically spit on us.”

“I don’t think we have a lot of choices,” Josh said, “unless we can figure out a less-crowded route.”

“We don’t have to go to Scottsdale,” Emma said. “We can go anywhere. Maybe this is a sign.”

I couldn’t help it—I laughed. “Our resident precog is looking for signs. I guess we’re in pretty bad shape.”

No one else laughed. I promptly shut up as Finn whipped the bus around and headed backward down the exit ramp.

We were in pretty bad shape.

Micah spread a map out on his lap and positioned his flashlight over it. “If we go back past the park, we can head in the opposite direction. We can use back roads, which might be a safer bet than the highway.”

“What’s over that way?” Finn asked, remaining calm as he navigated back down the road, circumventing the abandoned cars and trucks. Our headlights roamed over broken glass and trash, strewn all over the road.

Where is everybody?

“No way. You have gotta be kidding me.” Micah startled me by laughing, a big tuba gurgling in the middle of the bus. “This has to be a joke.”

“What?” Maya asked.

“There’s a town called Truth or Consequences a couple hours east of the mountains, in New Mexico.”

Kyan shook his head. “No way there’s a town named that.”

Micah shoved the map in front of him and held the flashlight up. He jammed a finger on a spot. “It’s right there.”

“Can you read me the directions?” Finn asked.

Micah took the map back, grumbling at Kyan, then recited the directions to Finn. “It’ll take us over six hours if we use the back roads.”

“It might be safer to go farther away from base,” Rachel offered. “Management might expect us to head for one of the big cities, not something off the beaten path like this.”

Finn parked the car and turned to us. “I think we should go. We’ve wasted an hour already, and the people who’re coming for us don’t need any more of a lead. Plus, the highways look like people were trying to get out. The back roads will hopefully be passable. What do you think?”

Emma raised her hand. “I vote for Truth.”

Josh raised his. “I vote for Consequences.”

The others murmured their assent.

Not me, I thought so Finn could hear me. I vote for puking. Or hiding at the base, where it’s nice and safe and there aren’t miles of abandoned cars or spiders and coyotes or eco-terrorists that are going to get us. Or maybe zombies.

Riley, Finn thought, chill.

My panic rose, hot and bubbly—the opposite of chill. Do you think there are zombies out here? There definitely aren’t any back at base.

Hanover, Finn thought, calm down. I told you to stop watching The Walking Dead!

I snorted out loud, so I was one hundred percent sure he heard me.

Finn put the bus in drive and headed east. “I guess we have a new destination.”

“Um,” I mumbled to Emma after we’d been driving for a few minutes, “am I the only one who has a bad feeling about this?”

“No, but that name’s too good to pass up. We’ll be fine, I think. I mean, I hope.”

“You’re not really doing a great job of comforting me, you know that?”

She smiled. “That’s not really my strong suit. I’m more of a rip-the-Band-Aid-off kind of girl. If you want to be coddled, I can always get Josh. He’s afraid, too. You guys can whine together.”

“I heard that!” Josh said.

Emma leaned back against the seat and closed her eyes. “No matter what we find out here, no one can do what we can. We’re the freaks—we’re basically the ones to be afraid of.”

“Is it wrong that I hope you’re right?”

“There’s nothing wrong with having people be afraid of you.” She looked at me through one squinted eye. “As long as you have a plan.”

“Do we have a plan, exactly?”

“Um, no, not exactly. But look at the bright side: we have a medium, so we have someone to talk to the dead. And we have me, and I can see the future. And we have you, and you can lift things up with your mind, and under the right circumstances, you can set things on fire.”

“Yay?”

Emma smiled. “And we’re going to a town called Truth or Consequences. I doubt it’s going to be boring.”

I didn’t bother saying yay.

14

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

FINN DIDN’T LET anyone else take a turn driving, but he didn’t seem tired. We got on a different highway near the base and headed in the opposite direction. The road was empty as though everyone had fled in the opposite direction.

My bad feelings persisted. There were no yays.

Emma dozed next to me, but I was too scared to close my eyes. Finn got off on an exit at some point, and we headed down a quiet road. Even though it was still dark, I could sense that there wasn’t much to see.

As the night turned into dawn, I could see that we traveled on a two-lane highway. Scrubby grass stretched out for miles on the flatlands bordering either side. Mountains rose in the distance, a sharp contrast to the level uniformity surrounding us. We drove through Doña Ana County, then a town called Williamsburg, then took the exit for Truth or Consequences.

We didn’t pass anyone. We didn’t see a soul.

Emma opened her eyes as the sky started to lighten. “We’re still on the road?”

“We just got off the exit,” Finn said.

The others started to rouse, rubbing their eyes and looking out the windows. “Have you seen anyone?” Josh asked, his voice still thick with sleep.

“No one,” I answered.

Finn’s gaze met mine in the rearview mirror. “It’s pretty weird, isn’t it?”

“Especially with that traffic jam going the other direction,” Emma agreed. “I wonder if there was someone directing them, some sort of reason everyone was going that way. I don’t know why I can’t see anything. It’s so frustrating.”

“Didn’t you have a vision after the broadcast?” I asked.

She nodded, but she looked sour. “I had a few, but they didn’t make much sense. Something about Micah kneeling on the ground. And then in another one, we were at some weird party, at that place with the pool. It was nothing that resembled reality.”

“This is it.” Finn pulled the bus off the exit and into the town. He drove down what looked like the main street because it was filled with small shops that looked abandoned.

He parked the bus. “I gotta get off for a minute and stretch my legs.”

“Good idea.” Micah was right behind him.

We all filed out and stood on the sidewalk. I ate a protein bar while I stretched my legs. The boys went around the corner to pee.

Morgan rolled her eyes. “They’re so lucky they can do that.”

“We can probably go into one of these stores to find a bathroom.” Maya gestured farther down the block. “They look deserted. Let’s check it out.”

We followed Maya down the street. She ducked into the first storefront she saw but then stopped in her tracks. “Did you hear that?”

“No,” Emma looked around. “What was it?”

Morgan cocked her head to the side. “I hear something.” She looked at Rachel. “You don’t?”

Rachel shook her head. “Maybe it’s thoughts—”

“Shh,” Morgan closed her eyes.

Maya closed hers too, looking tense. She held up a finger, indicating we should wait a minute. “Someone’s in there.” She opened her eyes and looked at the door.

Unease formed in the pit of my stomach. “A bad someone or a good someone?”

“Whoever they are, they’re giggling.”

Emma frowned and peered past Maya to the door. “Giggling in an abandoned store? This I have to see.” She stepped around Maya and opened the door. The bell jingled.

Whoever had left it hadn’t locked up. Or maybe the store was actually open.

For whom, I wasn’t sure.

We followed Emma inside, but I stopped when we got through the threshold. The shelves were bare. The place had been ransacked. I walked tentatively to the checkout area. The two cash registers were open and empty. Almost all the candy was gone, with just a few packages of forlorn-looking sugar-free gum remaining.

“There’s not a lot of inventory left.” Morgan looked at the remaining boxes on the shelves. “Does anyone need a hemorrhoid cream?”

Emma’s lip curled. “I hope not.”

Maya eyed an empty refrigerator. “All the wine and beer’s gone. Maybe someone’s planning a party.”

A giggle echoed from the back.

“Um…” Maya peered down the aisle and removed the blaster from the small of her back, where she’d tucked it in her waistband.

My heart started pounding. Emma leaned close enough to whisper, “Please, for the love of God, don’t take your blaster out. I’d like to live to see what all the giggling’s about.”

I frowned, but I knew better than to take it out.

Morgan and Rachel each took out their weapons and headed down different aisles. I followed Morgan, and Emma followed Rachel.

The person at the back of the store giggled again.

Morgan took the safety off her blaster as we crept toward the back. I tried not to either (a) pee my pants, (b) throw up, or (c) both as we headed toward the noise.

We sprang out, using the element of surprise, and all the other girls pointed their blasters at the form sitting on the floor.

And that was when he really started laughing.

“Oh my God—girls.” He cackled. “Hot girls. No way.” He laughed until tears leaked out of his eyes.

He was slightly older than we were, maybe in his very early twenties, and he looked normal enough, except he was drunk. He wore a T-shirt with a green alien on it that said Roswell, and his shaggy brown hair was a little long and tucked behind his ears. He had a likeable, handsome face; he wore glasses; and he had a dark tan, as though he worked outdoors and had for years.

He had the face of a kind, responsible person…from Before.

But who was he now?

He clutched an almost-empty bottle of pink wine. When he caught me staring at it, he asked, “Are you going to judge me because it’s pink?”

There was an empty bottle next to him, against the wall. “I might judge you because you’ve been guzzling it, and it’s pink.”

“I needed a break, a brain break.” He clutched his bottle, and his gaze traveled over to Maya, who had her blaster trained on his face. “You planning on firing that, Red?”

She smiled, but it wasn’t friendly. “Maybe, if you call me ‘Red’ ever again.”

He took a gulp of wine. “I’m Dave. Where are you ladies from?”

“Out of town.” Morgan squatted down so she was eye-level with him. “Are you from here?”

“Wow. Look at that hair.” He ogled Morgan’s amber waves then studied her face, eyes agog. “You are stunning.”

Morgan flushed, caught off guard. “Uh, thanks.”

“Back to where he’s from?” Maya reminded her, tersely.

Dave smiled at Maya. “Born and raised in Truth or Consequences. Not everyone can say that.”

“How many people are here, still?” Morgan asked.

He put the bottle down. “About three thousand, which is half of what lived here before.”

“Where did everyone else go?”

“Different places. There was a rumor the power was on in Scottsdale, so a bunch of people went there. Some went to Tucson; others headed to Albuquerque. A bunch of families went into Gila to camp. They thought that would be safer. But the rest of us, we stayed.”

“Because why?”

“Because this is our home, and I don’t think it’s any better out there.” His face sagged, making him look older. “Did you see what happened in Times Square?”

She tucked a curl behind her ear and nodded.

Dave grabbed the wine and swallowed another mouthful. “I think she’s going to do it again. Last place I want to be is in a city. It’s suicide.”

Morgan stood up. “Why’re you sitting in here, getting drunk alone in the middle of the day?”

Dave shrugged. “It seemed like a good idea.”

“Are you with a group?” Morgan asked.

He sighed. “Yes, and I should be with them, doing work. But I took a sabbatical. I can’t stop thinking about all those people. I have a cousin in New York.”

Morgan nodded, as if she understood.

Then she held out her hand for him.

WE FOLLOWED Dave’s directions to his group’s compound. Finn maneuvered the bus carefully through the town’s streets, keeping a watchful eye on the road, as well as Dave himself via the rearview mirror.

“Couldn’t you guys have at least run it by us that you picked up a civilian?” Finn asked under his breath. “Especially one that reeks of cheap wine?”

“You can hear him,” I whispered. “Can we trust him or not?”

Finn gave me a funny look. “All he’s thinking about is Morgan.”

“Is he also thinking that he’s luring us to some sort of death trap?”

He rolled his eyes. “No, Hanover. He’s clean. Drunk and hormonal, but clean.”

I sighed. “Then let’s see what’s going on with these people and what we can find out from them. This is the first chance we’ve had to talk to anyone.”

“I sort of love it when you’re bossy, Hanover.”

“I sort of hate it when you use that nickname, Finn.”

“Take the next right,” Dave called from his seat. “The resort’s down there.”

“The resort?” Micah asked.

Dave turned to him and smiled. “It’s actually a spa. We sort of took it over. It’s cool.”

Finn hit the brakes and turned around, glaring at Dave. “Anything you want to tell me before we get there? Do we need to be worried about these people?”

Dave shook his head. “Not at all. It’s a lot of people I grew up with and some families with kids. Everyone’s mellow. We’re just trying to do our thing and live in peace while we can. We don’t want any trouble.”

Finn closed his eyes for a second, and I knew he was listening to Dave’s thoughts.

Finn opened his eyes. “You think you’re all going to die, anyway?”

Dave shrugged, but then he looked confused. “How did you know that?”

“I can see it in your face,” Finn lied. “And I can smell it on you.”

“I just want to be happy with the time I have left. The others in my group feel the same way. I’m not going to hurt you, and neither are my friends. But can I trust you guys? I don’t want to bring any trouble here. We’re just trying to do our thing.”

“We aren’t going to hurt any of you,” Morgan said, her voice soothing. “We want to make sure everyone’s okay and just talk to people. We won’t be staying long.”

Dave nodded—it wasn’t as though he had a choice—and Finn drove down to the spa.

“We’re going to need to talk to them about letting random strangers into their compound,” Finn said under his breath. “This dude’s too buzzed and distracted with Morgan. He’s lucky we’re good guys because bringing people back like this isn’t safe.”

I briefly looked at Dave. “He’s having a hard time. Give him a break.”

“Someone who wants to steal from them isn’t going to care that he’s been crying in his beer. They’re just going to take advantage of any vulnerabilities they can find. Trust me.”

I frowned, thinking about that, until the resort came into view.

I sucked in a breath. “Oh, wow.” The massive pink-stucco building had an enormous bubbling fountain in the courtyard. Small palm trees and large rocks were arranged artfully around the space, making it feel private and luxurious.

“Nice digs,” Kyan approved.

Dave stood as the bus stopped and stared at the property. “It’s paradise.”

We climbed off the bus, and Finn whistled when he saw the fleet of cars parked nearby. There was a Hummer, three Range Rovers, and a smattering of BMWs and Mercedes. “I guess this is where Truth or Consequences’ one percent went after the power went out.”

Dave jerked his chin at the fleet of vehicles. “The people who left those behind said we could have them. They said they weren’t coming back.”

Finn opened his mouth—probably with a nasty retort—but I nudged him. He stopped and closed his eyes, listening to Dave.

I leaned forward. “He’s telling the truth.”

Finn opened his eyes. “You’re right, but how did you know?”

“You don’t have to be psychic to tell he’s actually a nice guy.”

You found him getting wasted in the middle of the day, alone, in the back of an abandoned store, Finn thought. Dude’s wearing a T-shirt with an alien on it. If I didn’t personally know better, I’d say you needed better taste. He flashed the dimple.

Ugh, ENOUGH WITH THAT THING.

A large man, with tattoos that were hard to make out against his dark skin, came out of the main building, carrying a sawed-off shotgun.

Finn cursed and drew his blaster, but the man had already trained his weapon on Finn.

“Dave, you drunk idiot, did you pick up some strays?” the man called.

Dave went pale beneath his tan. “They’re just kids.”

“Just kids with some type of new-fangled gun I’ve never seen before.” The man trained his shotgun on each of us, pausing for a moment on each of our faces. “You know what they look like to me, Dave?”

“What?”

The man smiled. “Target practice.”

15

IN WHICH I SEE SOMETHING I WISH I COULD UNSEE FOREVER

“LUKA, YOU’RE SCARING THEM—”

“Just kidding.” The man named Luka smiled and put down the shotgun. “I’m working on my tough-guy routine, in case any of those looters show up over here.”

I tried to swallow, but my mouth was dry. “L-looters? Has there been a problem here?” The town itself had seemed fine except for the fact that it was empty.

“No,” Luka said. “But some of the folks from the nicer neighborhoods, the ones who left, said their houses had been broken into. That’s one of the reasons they took off—they didn’t feel safe.”

“Where did they go?”

Luka shrugged. “I don’t know that they got anywhere. Some of the people who left came back, said the highways were so clogged they couldn’t get anywhere.”

“And the others?” Finn asked.

“Like I said, I don’t know.” Luka frowned at us. “You guys just gonna stand out here in the hot sun all day, asking me questions, or are you going to come in? We have an audience watching us.” He jerked his thumb at the building behind him. “You might as well say hello before you go on your way.”

Finn holstered his gun.

“Don’t take that out again,” Luka said. “We got kids in here.”

We went into the building to meet a large group of people—about forty—standing in the rustic, shabby-chic lobby. Tiled floors kept the room cool, and the ceiling soared above our heads, showcasing an intricately carved chandelier. The people watched us expectantly. There was a vast age range. Small children hovered near their parents’ legs, and there also were men and women with silver hair and walkers.

“Hi,” Emma said to them. “We met Dave downtown. He brought us here so we could ask you a few questions.”

But the people erupted into their own questions before we could speak.

“Where did you guys come from?”

“Have you seen a lot of people?”

“Have you heard any news?”

“Is it true the power’s back on in Scottsdale?”

“Do you know how many people got hurt in New York?”

“Do you know anything about that woman? She looks like somebody famous.”

“Did you hear about the highways? Some of our people came back; they said it was chaos, and you couldn’t get out.”

Finn held up his hands, and they eventually calmed down. “We’re coming from the Superstition Mountains. We tried to get back to Scottsdale, but the highway was impassible.”

“Impassible how?” Luka asked.

“There were hundreds of abandoned cars on it. I don’t know what happened, but there wasn’t anybody left to ask.”

One of the women stepped forward with a little girl clinging to her legs. “That’s what my nephew said. He tried to go out that way, to head to Phoenix, and he said the freeway was blocked—he said it was a ghost town.”

“Where did everybody go?” one of the others from the crowd asked.

“I don’t know,” Finn said. “But there wasn’t any sign of trauma. No fires, no explosions, no…bodies.” The little girl winced, and Finn’s shoulders slumped.

Emma stepped forward. “We don’t know much about Althea Remington. But I believe she’ll try to attack again, probably soon. What are your plans? Have you been stockpiling supplies? And I want you to know, we’re not planning on trying to steal from you. We don’t need to. I just want to make sure you’re taking care of yourselves and thinking about the long-term.”

“Not just guzzling wine and crying,” Finn said, looking in Dave’s direction.

The woman with the little girl nodded. “A lot of people left T or C. Some of them thought it would be better to get to a major metropolitan area, and some other families went to Gila to camp. They thought it would be safer to be away from other people.”

“But what about you all?” Emma asked. “Why did you stay? What are your plans?”

“You’re looking at them—and I don’t mean that in a flip way,” Dave said, flopping down onto one of the couches. He looked as though he’d sobered up quite a bit.

“What do you mean?” Morgan asked.

Dave gestured around the lobby. “When the power first went out, we saw a lot of people start to lose it, start to do bad things—steal from each other, threaten each other. Everybody started stockpiling weapons and being paranoid.”

“Like me,” Luka said. Then he smiled. “Still just kidding.”

“But everyone here—at the resort—we all pretty much grew up in town, and we all know and trust each other. And we have a similar philosophy.” Dave shrugged. “We all sort of felt like we knew this was coming.”

“What was coming?” Morgan asked.

“The apocalypse.” Dave met her gaze. “Things were never going to keep going the way they were going. They couldn’t.”

Morgan’s jaw dropped. “You’re not saying you agree with Althea Remington.”

“Of course not.” Dave traced a pattern on the tiled floor with his flip-flop. “But the world is full of crazies. I figured one of them would do something like this, sooner or later.”

“You said you all have a similar philosophy?” Finn appraised the group. “What’s the plan?”

The woman holding her daughter’s hand spoke up again. “We’re staying here, no matter what happens. This is our home, and we’re going to take care of each other for as long as we can. We aren’t going to run away, and we aren’t going looking for trouble by stealing from others or getting into some kind of a turf war. We’re going to protect our property and just enjoy each day.”

Does that mean they’re giving up? I thought at Finn.

I think it means they’ve decided to enjoy what’s left. Maybe it’s smart. Finn looked around the lobby. It’s pretty here.

I looked, too. The floor-to-ceiling opening at the back of the building showcased the pool, lovely and secluded, surrounded by palms. It’s beautiful.

It’d be nice to stay for a couple of days.

“Why don’t you guys stay for the night?” Dave asked. “We can talk more, and you can get some rest. You all look pretty beat.”

“That’d be nice,” Morgan said, but then she yelped and grabbed the back of her neck.

I felt a zap at the base of my skull, and I clapped my hand over the area. The civilians didn’t seem to notice—the monitor behind the desk suddenly came to life with a loud whine. Everybody jumped then burst into activity.

“Oh my God, get to the game room.” Luka hustled ahead of us and looked over his shoulder at Finn. “That’s what happened before Times Square—the computer came on like that, then the TV lit up.”

Did you feel that? I asked Finn, still rubbing my neck.

The muscle in his jaw jumped. I think we all did

Does that mean Management knows where we are?

Finn shook his head. “I don’t know.”

My stomach sank as we followed Luka to a massive room with a pool table, a chess set, cozy leather couches, and giant flat-screen television. A picture of the earth filled the screen.

“I’m guessing the zap isn’t a good sign,” Micah said under his breath.

I nodded at the television. “Looks like we’re about to find out.”

A moment later, Althea Remington’s luminescent face filled the screen. My heart sank. She wore a jewel-encrusted tiara, and her makeup was perfect. I wasn’t sure how she reconciled wearing makeup that was manufactured in a factory somewhere with her current agenda of eradicating the planet of everything manmade…or whatever her agenda was.

“Citizens,” her voice suddenly boomed, making me jump. “I’m here for a brief but important announcement. The United States and other governments around the world have refused to negotiate with my team. We are here to send a message. Beginning today, we are purging the cities. It starts now. I have loyal followers deployed in multiple locations. They believe what I believe—that our own kind has become a pestilence and that we’re scorching the earth.”

No one in the room made a sound. I couldn’t breathe.

Althea’s eyes shone. “They’re all prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice. To my followers in Boston, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Chicago, and Houston—go forth. Thank you for your service and goodbye.”

She waved at the camera, her curls bouncing over her shoulder.

“My calculations indicate that up to thirty-eight percent of the United States’ carbon dioxide will be reduced by this correction,” Althea continued. “Maybe after this demonstration of my intent and capabilities, the governments that claim to care so fiercely about the welfare of their people will actually agree to meet. Let’s watch and see, shall we?”

She smiled at the camera. She actually smiled.

Parents grabbed their children and ran from the room before the image panned out. We all knew what was coming. Someone started sobbing. First, there was a picture of Boston, images of the museums and parks, the swan boats, then Harvard Square, then a quaint neighborhood with redbrick townhomes and potted plants on the steps. People strolled down Newbury Street, laughing and shopping. The image zoomed out, and we could see the pretty city from the sky—the skyscrapers, the boats bobbing in the harbor.

Then bombs went off, several of them—maybe several hundred—and the screen filled with the image of gauzy ribbons of smoke circling insidiously up from the city.

I watched, shell-shocked, as they played similar video feeds from the rest of the cities.

Boston. Phoenix. Los Angeles. Chicago. Houston.

One of the men watching slumped over, passed out. Everyone was crying. Emma ran outside as though she were trying to run away from it.

Finn held my hand through the whole thing, but I could barely feel it. My whole body was numb.

I found myself trying to do math. Five cities. The population of Los Angeles was close to four million people. Boston had close to a million. How many people…

How many people just died? Did ten million people just—

“Ri. Riley!” Finn was shaking my hand. His face was pale, his skin slick with sweat. “Come with me.”

I followed him sluggishly out the back door to the courtyard. My legs dragged as though they were filled with lead. The sun was setting, but the heat still felt intense. I staggered behind Finn as he led me to the pool. He grabbed some water and patted my face. “Sit down before you pass out,” he commanded. He placed me on a deck chair then went over to where Emma sat, vacantly staring at the sky. He bent down to talk to her as Micah, Kyan, and Josh shuffled out toward me.

“Where are the girls?” I asked. Panic tightened my chest.

“They’re helping inside,” Josh said. “People are hysterical.”

“Shouldn’t you be in there? You can help.”

Josh shook his head, his face white. “I need a minute.”

I patted the chair next to me, and he sat down. We leaned against each other, and I didn’t even bother to pretend I was strong or that I only needed a minute.

I needed to go back. I needed that to not happen.

But because this was After, and this was now the world we lived in, I just cried and cried.

16

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES

“WE SHOULD GO TO PHOENIX.” Micah paced the pool deck. “I think I could—”

“We should go, but not until tomorrow,” Emma interrupted. “It’s getting dark, and we haven’t slept in close to two days. I say we eat something, get some sleep, and leave first thing in the morning. It’s a six-hour drive.”

“I can drive—I don’t need to sleep,” Finn said as he paced, his shoulders taut and eyes too bright. Nervous energy rolled off him in waves. He’d been doing pushups, one of his many odd ways of dealing with stress. “I’m not tired.”

“No way.” Emma’s voice was firm. “You haven’t slept in days. You barely slept while Riley was passed out. We can’t fight if we’re exhausted. I’ve seen what happens when one of us gets fried. It’s not pretty when our brains don’t work.”

“She’s right.” Micah didn’t sound happy about it. He looked around to make sure none of the civilians could hear us. “If our brains aren’t functioning properly, our powers will fritz. It’s happened to me, and it wasn’t pretty.”

“I say we stay here tonight and leave before daybreak,” Emma suggested. “Does anyone object to that plan—besides Finn, who I’m happy to ignore?”

I’d stopped crying long enough to listen. I raised my hand, and Emma sighed. “I’m not just siding with Finn, I swear. I just…all those people…if we can do something to help them…”

Emma’s eyes softened. “They’re dead, Ri. They’re all dead.”

The lump in my throat throbbed. “How do you know?”

Emma rubbed her eyes. “I saw us in Phoenix tomorrow, in a vision. There isn’t anybody left. I don’t know what type of weapon they used, but it wiped everybody out. Some sort of gas… I don’t know. All that’s left are the bodies.”

Morgan clutched her stomach. “I feel sick.”

Maya rubbed her twin’s shoulder. “It’s okay.”

Morgan looked up “No, it’s not.”

Maya sighed. “We need to go after Althea. I’ve only seen her twice, and I’m already tired of all that hair and her ecoterrorism and her…everything.” She got up and stalk-paced across the pool deck, her red ponytail whipping behind her like an angry cobra. “I want to crush her, like, with my bare hands.”

“I do, too,” Micah said, surprising me with the vitriol in his voice. “And I want to go to Phoenix tomorrow because I have an idea.”

“You guys are going to Phoenix?” Dave asked. He came out to the pool deck slowly, as if he were out of gas. He sank down onto the chair next to Morgan. “Why would you go there? It’s dangerous. It’s…terrible…those poor people…” He put his face in his hands.

Finn looked at the rest of us before he answered Dave. “We need to go there, to see if there’s anything we can do.”

“Are you”—Dave peered at us before he continued—“some sort of vigilantes? Or rescue workers?”

Finn crossed his arms against his muscled chest. “Something like that.”

“What will you do in Phoenix?” Dave asked.

“See if there’s anyone left to help,” Finn said.

Everyone looked down, or away.

“You should stay here tonight,” Dave said after a minute. “There’s plenty of extra rooms, and we have lots of food. Have dinner, go for a swim, then get some sleep.”

Morgan looked at Finn. “That actually sounds really nice.”

Finn motioned to the rest of us. “What do you guys want to do?”

Kyan raised his hand. “I’d like to stay for the night. I want to forget about…everything. I’d love to get one last good night’s sleep.” He looked at the casitas wistfully, and I knew exactly what he meant—this was our last night in civilization. Once we went out there and saw the things we couldn’t unsee, all bets were off.

“Fine,” Finn said. “We leave at first light. Micah, please work on finding us an alternate route to the city. Dave, is there somewhere we can fuel up? And if you meant it about dinner and sleeping over, we’d appreciate it.”

Dave got up. “Of course I meant it. I can help you out with fuel. And if you guys have any tips you want to share—any ideas about how to secure this place—we’d appreciate it.” He eyed Maya. “You seem pretty handy with your weapons.”

Maya nodded. “We’d love to help.” The tall, redheaded girl stalked closer. “We can walk through the property and identify areas you need to set up watch. I’ll also organize a self-defense clinic for anyone who’s interested.”

“Wow. Thanks.” Dave turned to Morgan. “Want to help me? I’m not doing anything exciting—nothing vigilante related—just getting fresh vegetables from the garden for dinner.”

He smiled shyly as Maya glared at him and Morgan twisted a curl.

Morgan got up, smiling back. “Sure. I’d love to help.” She followed Dave out, pointedly ignoring the fact that her twin was now glaring at her.

Maya pointed in their direction. “He needs to stop hitting on my sister.”

“It’s okay. They’re only gardening,” Emma said. “I think it’s cute. Plus, Morgan knows how to handle herself.”

Maya whipped her ponytail around as she glared at Emma. “No, she doesn’t! That guy’s been tripping over himself around her all day. It’s not like she gets out much or has a lot of options for male attention.” She eyed Kyan, Micah, and Josh with derision.

“Take it easy,” Rachel said. She’d been so quiet, I’d forgotten all about her. “Morgan’s got a good head on her shoulders. She found Dave in a puddle of pink wine—she’s not going to run away with him. Let your sister fend for herself.”

Josh eyed her with admiration. “I love it when you talk.”

She scowled at him. “Seriously? You love it when I talk?”

Josh nodded, beaming at her. “Uh-huh.”

Rachel expertly rolled her eyes as I filed away my questions about her and Josh—they’d seemed a little too cute lately. Unfortunately, we had less pleasant things to deal with.

Luka came out with a master set of keys. “Please stay with us tonight. We’d like to have a dinner in your honor.”

“Why?” Finn asked.

“We’re trying to look at the bright side and celebrate what’s good in the world. We’re viewing you as new friends.” He gave Finn a look. “So don’t disappoint me, dude, okay?”

Finn nodded. “Okay. We appreciate the hospitality. In return, we’re going to do a run-through of the property, and help you guys come up with a security protocol. And the twins and I are running a self-defense clinic later.”

“Cool.” Luka grinned. “I have a bunch of casitas for you. This place is huge. It was going to go bankrupt before all this happened—too much land, the operational costs were too high. The owners overestimated people wanting to take luxury vacations to T or C.”

“How did the town get that name, anyway?” Finn asked.

“The game show.” Luka laughed. “Did you ever hear about the show? Truth or Consequences? It was zany. The contestant could choose to answer a question or accept a challenge. But there were never any legitimate questions—they were all crazy hard—they just wanted the contestants to have consequences, to make them do funny things.”

Finn scrubbed a hand across his face. “No, I never heard of it.”

Luka shrugged. “It’s an old show. I guess they always did something nice for the contestants on each episode. Reunited them with family in the military and stuff. Our town broadcast the show, and then we renamed ourselves after it.”

“It’s funny that the name stuck.” Josh scratched his head. “Do you guys ever play?”

Luka laughed silently, his big shoulders shaking. “Every night since we got here. You in?”

“Oh yeah.” Josh smiled “We are so in.”

WE TOURED the property with Luka and Dave, then Finn, Morgan, and Maya led a self-defense class. The entire compound showed up for it.

One of the women in the front row approached Finn during the break. “I have to try and protect my daughter,” she said. “Can you show me how to shoot a gun, too?”

Finn offered to do basic weapons training before dinner.

The woman’s comment made me think of Althea Remington, or whatever her real name was. The mom here wanted to protect her daughter. Had Althea committed her crimes in the name of her dead son? My mind whirling, I left the class and walked back outside to the pool.

The stars were coming out. Without any light pollution, I could see thousands of them. Or maybe there’d never been any light pollution in T or C, and it was one of those special places. I wandered farther, to the grounds surrounding the property. The lack of sleep made my thoughts jump from one thing to the next as I walked. Althea Remington had a son, who had died. I didn’t know much about her—except that she was capable of terrible things—but was she so different from the mother inside? The one who wanted to learn how to shoot?

My own mother had been fierce once—fierce in her love, fierce in her protection of her family. Then she’d lost Katie. Maybe in her eyes, she’d failed her older daughter, so she’d retreated to the relative safety of a box of wine.

Althea Remington hated what we’d done, collectively, to the environment. Her son had died from a cancer possibly caused by man-made toxins. She was an environmental scientist, but she hadn’t been able to protect him from what was in his system. He’d been too weak, too vulnerable, the toxins too insurmountable.

But she hadn’t retreated to a box of wine.

She was too pissed to drink herself to death. And ten million people had paid the price.

Althea planned to destroy the world, starting with our country, in order to take revenge.

I thought of the mom inside, the one who’d begged Finn to teach her to shoot. Her daughter had clung to her legs when we’d come into the lobby. The woman had carried her daughter out of the game room before the latest broadcast had aired. Of course she wanted to protect her child. It was instinctual. I shivered, thinking about my own mother. I knew she loved me. But her own demons had taken residence for a while after the accident, and she hadn’t been able to see past them.

I looked up at the stars. Is Mom okay? Had she really made it home like Cranston said? Or was that another lie to placate me into staying with The Division and being obedient?

“It didn’t work out too well, if that’s the case,” Finn said, surprising me.

I jumped a little. “Ugh…you need to stop doing that.”

He came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me. “Which thing?”

“Listening to my thoughts. Coming up behind me and scaring the bejeebles out of me.” I leaned back against him, not really angry.

“I thought you were teaching a shooting class.”

“I postponed it. I wanted to see where you were. I thought you might need me.”

I bit my lip as he wrapped his arms tightly around me. Too many emotions were jumbling around; I might burst into tears.

Finn kissed my shoulder. “No one would blame you. I’m pretty close to tears myself.”

I shivered. “I just can’t believe it. What’s happened…”

Finn sighed. “That’s because it’s unbelievable. It’s terrible. So many people died today. I feel sick.” He suddenly released me and walked away, looking at the stars.

“Do you think Cranston’s okay?” Our superior probably didn’t know about the attacks because he was locked inside that cell.

“I have no idea. I don’t know if I care anymore. I don’t even know if I want to go back,” he mused, staring at the sky. “I wonder if he knew, or if Management knew, that she’d do something like this…something this big.”

“Why would they hide it from us? Especially if we could’ve done something to prevent it?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. But I can’t believe they had no idea.”

“I don’t know…but I do know, whether we go back to the agency or not, we have to do something. We have to go to Phoenix to see if we can help and then try and find Remington. I know we need to do that.”

“But?” Finn asked. “I can tell there’s a ‘but.’”

I gazed up at the stars and studied them, fidgeting. “But honestly? Part of me just wants to stay here and hide.”

“Which part is that? The human part?”

I sighed. “The cowardly part.”

“Doesn’t seem too cowardly, or even like a bad idea.” Finn turned to me. “It would be sort of nice, wouldn’t it? Just to stay here and learn how to garden?”

“Of course it would.” The people in T or C were lovely, and they were preparing a generous feast for us tonight, complete with fresh vegetables and a roast. The children were adorable and sweet. The resort, tucked just far enough away from the rest of the town, seemed almost magic, a utopian world where bad things would never think of happening.

“You could learn to cook.” Finn came over and laced his fingers through mine. “We could set ourselves up in our own little casita.”

“I’m not sold on the ‘learning to cook’ part. The casita would be nice, though.” I looked back up at the sky. “It’s a beautiful view.”

I could feel Finn watching my face. “I agree.”

I blushed, grateful for the darkness. “But I was just activated—it’s like I just woke up. I know it was for a reason.”

“It was for a reason, and I’m hoping the reason was me.” Finn smiled. “I’m glad you woke up and you’re here. I want to protect you.”

My blush deepened. “That’s very alpha of you.”

“I’m an alpha sort of dude.”

I squeezed his hands. “I know part of the reason I’m here is for you, just like you’re here for me. Because together, we’re stronger. You’ll protect me, and I’ll protect you. But I also know there’s more to it than that. We have a bigger role to play.”

Finn kissed the top of my head. “I know it, too. But part of me wishes we could stay here in funky little Truth or Consequences. We could look at the stars every night, and you could learn to cook and wait on me,” he teased.

“Ha-ha.”

He nudged me. “We need to go back. I have to teach that class, and then it’s dinner. And later, we have to play the game. Everybody wants us too.”

I wrinkled my nose. “We have to play Truth or Consequences?”

Finn grinned. “When in Rome…”

I HELPED with the dishes after dinner. The familiar chore was comforting, as was the chatting among the people I cleaned up with. It seemed so normal. Juxtaposed with so much darkness earlier in the day, it made my head spin.

People are good, I found myself thinking, People are kind.

People do not deserve to be slaughtered.

After we finished, I found Emma and the others were already in the pool, floating on fluorescent loungers. They were laughing and talking. “Oh, good!” Emma splashed in my direction. “I was wondering if you’d show up!”

“Here I am.” I adjusted my running shorts and stuck my feet into the pool. The cool water felt glorious.

“Are you ready to play?” she asked.

My gaze skidded to Finn, but he just grinned and stuck his feet into the pool, too.

“Sure.” I noticed most of the civilians had already come out. A fire was lit in the fire pit, and a lot of the adults had drinks. The atmosphere was oddly celebratory, like a Friday night after a long week.

Not like after… I shook my head. I couldn’t bear to think about it.

“I’m ready,” I told Emma.

She arched an eyebrow. “Truth or consequences?”

My stomach dropped even though I had nothing—much—to hide. “Truth?”

“Okay.” Emma’s eyes sparkled in the light of the pool and the fire. “Did you know immediately that Finn was the one for you?”

I knew she was asking for selfish reasons. Emma hadn’t had the experience yet and was curious about it, but my cheeks still flushed. “Yes.”

“The second you saw him?”

My group watched my face with interest, particularly Finn. “Yes.” My voice was thick with embarrassment. “The first second I saw him.”

“It was the same for me,” Finn offered, and my heart did a somersault.

“That’s not really true, though,” I corrected him. “You pretty much hated me when you first met me.”

“Incorrect.” He shook his head. “And we’ve already discussed this, Hanover.” I told you I knew from the second I saw you that you were the one for me, Finn thought. I acted badly because I wanted to spare you the pain I felt—the pain of being different, of being committed to a life you knew nothing about, of having to follow orders you might not agree with.

I know, I thought back. But you still acted like I had the plague.

The kind I wanted to catch! Finn waggled his eyebrows.

I shook my head, laughing. “You are so weird sometimes.”

“Enough, you two.” Emma tsked. “Okay, Riley, your turn. Ask someone for truth or consequences.”

“Josh,” I said immediately, excited to seize the opportunity and get the spotlight off me and Finn. “Truth or consequences?”

“I’m going for truth.” He ran his big hand through his thick brown bangs, pushing them over to the side.

“Have you ever had feelings—like the ones I was talking about—for someone?”

Josh floated in the middle of the pool on a long, pink inflated lounger. He cocked his head, feigning confusion. “Not sure what you mean, Hanover.”

“Feelings feelings,” I explained. “You know, when you have a special feeling for someone.” My eyes flicked to Rachel. “When you think that someone is the most gorgeous, most special person in the whole world, with the best hair, and you just love it when they talk.”

Josh snorted, but I caught a flash of panic. “I’m comprised of special feelings. You know that.”

I sighed. “Please remember that our guests asked us to play this game. You should at least be honest—and if you can’t handle the truth, go for the consequences.”

Josh stuck his tongue out. “Fine. Consequence me.” He liked to gamble.

Fine by me. “You have to play spin the bottle with all of us.”

He threw back his head and groaned. “I feel like I’m in middle school.”

“Then you should have answered the question.” I hopped out of the pool and grabbed an empty beer bottle from a nearby table. “Assemble,” I instructed the group.

Everyone gamely splashed out of the pool and sat in a circle except for Josh, who pouted as he climbed out. He sat down, giving me a sour look as I spun the bottle.

I concentrated on it as it spun. I manipulated the atoms around the bottle, causing it to spin wildly for a few loops then slow down.

It stopped and pointed at Rachel.

Rachel smiled at Josh. Josh looked too scared to smile.

“You’re such a baby.” Rachel got up on her knees and leaned across the circle, waiting to be kissed.

Josh glared at me before he moved closer to Rachel.

“C’mon, Joshy,” Morgan cooed. “It’s not like it’s going to hurt.”

Josh ignored her. He reached for Rachel, pulling her closer and softly kissing her on the lips. She smiled as she kissed him back, tilting her head to the side. Josh moved a little closer and tentatively ran his hands down Rachel’s long, glossy hair.

Morgan and Maya hooted and hollered. Micah wolf-whistled, and Josh and Rachel broke apart, laughing but looking elated.

Someone turned the music up, and people started dancing. Dave sauntered over to our group. He smiled and extended a hand to Morgan. “Care to join me?”

Morgan hopped up immediately. “I’d love to.”

Maya shot daggers out of her eyes at them until Micah nudged her. “Wanna dance? We can talk about all the dead celebrities you want me to channel and what a weirdo you are.”

She shrugged but got up.

Kyan turned to Emma, but she held her hand up in disgust. “Don’t even think about it.”

Finn pulled me against him. “Do you want to dance?”

I wrinkled my nose. “I thought you could read minds. I just want to sit here with you and relax against your big muscles.”

A cocky grin spread over his face. “Sometimes it’s just nice to hear it out loud.”

I laughed, then I leaned against his warmth and his big, protective muscles. And we just watched the dancers and the fire beneath a blanket of glittering stars.

WE STUMBLED into our casita late, too late. “I’m so tired,” I complained, which was ridiculous.

Ten million people were dead. I was lucky to be able to be tired.

“S’okay, Hanover.” Finn yawned and scrubbed a hand over his face. “I’m tired, too. But that was pretty fun.”

“It was.” I walked through the living room to the bed, suddenly nervous. “There isn’t a lot of room in here.” The kitchenette opened to the living room, and the bed was just a few feet away.

“I don’t mind sleeping on the couch.” Finn smiled, flashing the dimple that I loved. “All the better to protect you, Your Highness.”

“Ha-ha.” My chest felt strangely tight.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, even though he must’ve known.

I swallowed hard. “You don’t have to sleep on the floor.”

He reached out and stroked my cheek. “Yes, I do—all the better to protect you and your virtue. I consider it an honor.”

“Thank you.” Thank you. I said it twice for emphasis.

You’re welcome. He gently kissed my cheek. “Goodnight, Hanover.”

“Good night, Finn.” Too exhausted to argue about the use of my nickname, I got into bed. As soon as I pulled the blanket up, I fell asleep. It seemed as though I’d only been dreaming for a few minutes before I heard, “Riley! Get up!”

I sat straight up in bed. “Wass that?”

“There’s noise outside,” Finn said quietly. “Get your weapon and follow me.”

My consciousness sharpened immediately. I grabbed my blaster and followed Finn as he crept outside. Our casita was near the pool, but I could see that the lights were on in the lobby of the main building. I didn’t know if that was normal for this time of night.

I heard a shot ring out; it sounded like it came from the front courtyard. Finn cursed under his breath.

We ran to the backside of the building, where Morgan and Maya waited, weapons drawn. “Emma and the others are around the other side,” Maya whispered.

“Have you seen anything?” Finn asked.

She shook her head.

Finn closed his eyes. “I’m telling Emma and Rachel to circle around the front and watch for us, then go when we go.” He opened his eyes and looked at me. “You ready?”

Too scared to speak, I nodded.

Another shot was fired, and we heard yelling from the front courtyard. “Go!” Finn hissed.

The girls took off, with us close behind.

My heart thudded as we scrambled through the scratchy grasses and dust to get around the building.

“I told you, get the hell out of here!” a voice boomed.

Is that Luka?

Finn made a signal for the twins to cover us, and we sprang from the darkness with our weapons out. There were people in the courtyard, but I couldn’t tell who was who—except for Luka, who had his shotgun raised to his shoulder.

There’s three of them, with more on the way, Finn thought. They’re here to take what they can and kill anyone who gets in the way. Be ready.

I took a deep, calming breath, preparing to fight—but Kyan suddenly flew around the corner, his arms pumping as he launched himself at one of the men. He knocked the guy down, and they wrestled on the ground until Kyan took his pistol and whipped the other man across the temple.

The man stopped moving after that.

One of the other men trained his revolver on Kyan, but I closed my eyes and whipped it out of his hands. “What the hell?” he screeched. “Who did that?”

“My girlfriend, you asshole.” Finn launched himself and punched the man in the face, knocking him out cold.

The third man, the one in front, whirled on Finn, but Josh got to him first. Josh closed his eyes and concentrated until the guy started laughing, then crying, then sobbing. He turned his gun on himself.

“Josh, stop!” I yelled. I’d seen enough death for one day.

“Fine,” Josh huffed, hustling over and disarming the man. He held the gun against the man’s rib cage as the guy wiped at his face, looking dazed.

Luka stepped off the porch, his shotgun at his side. “What the heck was that? What did you people do to them?”

“There’s more coming.” Finn secured his opponent’s hands behind his back then checked to make sure Kyan had done the same. “They have a van full of men with weapons hidden close to here. They’ll be here soon.”

Luka looked stricken.

“Can you get me some rope?” Finn asked. “We need to tie them up.”

“Sure,” Luka said absently, but he didn’t move. He watched the men writhe on the ground. “What am I going to do? About the other guys coming for us?”

“Start with the rope,” Finn said gently. “Then we’ll send their friends a message. After we’re through with them, they’ll tell anyone else they meet to stay away from this place. Consider it free advertising.”

17

OH NO YOU DIDN’T

“MAKE sure his hands are tied tight,” Finn instructed as Dave tightened the restraints on the man I’d started mentally referring to as Jerk Number Two. None of the jerks were struggling—they looked too petrified. Dave finished then stepped back to check his work.

“Good,” Finn said. “I think we’re making a statement.”

Luka took in the whole scene and then let out a deep whistle. “This is messed up. People are going to think we’re freaks.”

Finn nodded. “That’s what we want.”

I walked around the front of the spectacle to see the ultimate effect. The three assailants were tied to the sign for the resort, their arms bound behind their backs and their mouths covered with American-flag duct tape.

A makeshift banner, comprised of an old tarp we’d found in storage, soared above the sign.

OH NO YOU DIDN’T, it read. TOO MANY PEOPLE ALREADY DIED TODAY. STAY AWAY OR YOU’RE NEXT!

“I’m afraid,” I admitted.

Luka eyed Finn. “Dude’s crazy,” he said under his breath.

“In a good way.” I sounded defensive to my own ears.

“Totally. I meant it as a compliment,” Luka backtracked.

I wondered if he was scared of Finn.

Finn finished with his work and came over. “We need to pack up and get ready to go.” He nodded to Luka. “We won’t leave until we’re sure you’re going to be safe. How many weapons do you have?”

“About ten.” Luka motioned to his shotgun. “Including this.”

“I can give you more,” Finn said.

Luka’s face went slack with shock. “You’d do that?”

Finn clapped him on the shoulder. “You were kind to us. I’d be happy to return the favor.”

“Thanks, man.” Luka looked touched. “But…I still don’t understand everything that just happened. How did you guys do that? How did that dude’s gun go flying out of his hands? Why did that other guy start crying like that, and how did you stop him?”

Finn smiled easily. “I think maybe the stress made you see funny things. We fought them, and we won. That’s all.”

“Okay,” Luka agreed, but he didn’t sound as though he meant it.

We walked back to the property, and I noticed that Dave stayed close to Morgan’s side. We were behind them, and they kept bumping into each other, using any excuse to keep touching.

“Do you really have to go?” he asked her as we reached the courtyard.

Morgan blushed, something I’d never seen before. “I do. We’re…needed.”

He smiled at her, but he looked sad. “I wish you could stay.”

She nodded, her curls bouncing. “Me too.”

“Maybe we could try to meet up after you go to Phoenix… Maybe we could go to dinner.”

Morgan giggled. “Where on earth would we go to dinner?”

Dave shrugged. “Good question! I’ll figure something out…for you.”

“That’s enough,” Maya hissed, stalking forward. “Stay away from my sister.”

“Maya.” Morgan’s tone was sharp with embarrassment. “You’re being rude.”

Dave stepped in front of Morgan, shielding her from her twin. “Morgan’s an adult. She can make her own decisions.”

Maya’s eyes went a little wild and almost popped out of her head. “I don’t need to hear from some rosé-swilling civilian what my sister needs.”

Dave put his hands up defensively. “What do you mean civilian? Who are you, anyway?”

“Josh,” I said under my breath, “for the love of God, can you incapacitate someone? Anyone?”

Josh scoffed as he looked at me. “Why should I help you after last night?”

“Stop being such a baby! I did you a favor!”

Josh squinted at Maya, but Morgan waved him off, stepping up next to Dave. “Enough, you two.” She looked at Dave. “I’m sorry, but this has to be goodbye. I have to go with my friends, and I don’t think I’ll get to see you again.”

“That’s too bad,” Dave said softly.

Morgan started walking away but then she paused, and her cheeks heated. “It was nice to meet you. Stay away from the pink wine, okay? It makes everything seem better until it makes everything seem worse.”

Dave laughed. “I’ll never touch another drop.”

“Good.”

He watched her as she stepped back. “I’m going to wait for you, you know. I’m taking you to that dinner.”

She gave him one last smile, blushing furiously, then she followed Maya to their casita to pack up their things.

“Okay, enough with Romeo and Juliet.” Emma tugged on Finn’s sleeve. “We need to get going. We have”—her eyes flicked nervously to Luka and Dave then back to Finn—“things to deal with.”

“Will these guys be safe, do you think?” Finn asked her.

Emma nodded. “I have a good feeling about it. I can say with ninety-five percent certainty that the deterrent will work like you wanted.”

“Okay, then.”

Luka watched them, dumbfounded. “How does she know that?”

Finn smoothed his features out. “She’s pretty good at guessing. You want to get those weapons now?”

Luka nodded, not looking convinced. “Yeah.”

Finn leaned toward him. “I wouldn’t leave you guys if I didn’t believe you were safe. You have my word.”

Luka nodded again. “I know, dude. I can tell. What I can’t tell is how.”

Finn arched an eyebrow. “Would you believe me if I told you that you don’t want to know?”

“Yeah,” Luka said. “Yeah, I would.”

WE PACKED up the bus and were ready to go. Emma reported that the assailants’ team would find them, cut them down, and speed away, not to be seen in T or C again. Still, Finn and the others counseled the community about increasing security measures. Finn left them with five extra guns, a veritable treasure trove in the current circumstances. Luka assigned shifts of armed guards to monitor the perimeter of the property, which made everyone feel more secure.

Luka clasped Finn’s hand as we said goodbye. “Thank you.”

Finn just smiled and shook his hand.

We got on the bus, and I tried not to stare at Morgan, whose features were so artfully composed that she looked like an ice sculpture, except for the flaming-red hair.

Dave stood outside the bus, waiting hopefully for some sort of acknowledgement from her.

But she didn’t look at him, and even as we pulled away, she never looked back.

MICAH HAD MAPPED out a back roads route to Phoenix. The trip was a long one, and we didn’t know what we would find at the end of it. Emma had a vision of us making it safely to Phoenix, so there was that, but it was cold comfort. The landscape in the early morning light looked desolate and eerie. I found myself wondering if it was always like that, barren and dusty, or if the area was more deserted than usual because of the attacks.

In any case, we were the only ones on the road.

I missed New Hampshire. I looked out at the acres of flat, scrubby expanse, and I longed for the pine trees, the hills, and the vibrant, humid landscape of home. Here, the dry heat permeated everything, sucking the fluidity from the environment, robbing it of the chance to weep, and giving me a dull headache. I might as well have been in another country. The land was foreign to me, strange and indifferent, as the sun rose in the sky and began to beat down on us again.

Emma nudged me. “You should sleep.”

I tried to stifle a yawn. “So should you.”

She smiled. “I know, and I will if you will. Otherwise, I’ll just sit here and keep worrying about you.”

“Why are you worried about me?”

“Because of what we’re going to see in Phoenix,” she said. “It’s going to be terrible for all of us, but you’ve been through so much. You never even got to adjust to being recruited, and everything was so jarring about your powers and your family…”

“Have you had any visions about my mother?” I asked. “Is there any way to check if she’s okay?”

Emma shook her head. “I’m so sorry. I had a flash of my own family when it first happened—their panic—but I haven’t seen anything since. And I can’t locate specific people in my visions; it doesn’t work like that. Images just come to me. I don’t have any control over when they come or who stars in them.”

I nodded then went back to staring out the window.

Emma leaned back against her seat. “Go to sleep. It’ll look the same when you wake up.”

I made myself close my eyes. “Okay.”

I might’ve had a dream about my dad or Katie. I wasn’t sure. But when I woke up, I had this glow of okay-ness, as if everything was right with the world and I didn’t need to worry about anything.

I woke up with a smile on my face.

And then I remembered what we were doing.

Hours passed, and we saw no one on the roads. There were abandoned cars, but the roads were passable. “Where did everybody go?” I asked whoever else was awake.

“I don’t know,” Maya said. “I can’t hear anything out here on the roads. Can you, Finn?”

He shook his head. “No. I don’t think any of these drivers stuck around.”

I finally saw the exit sign for Phoenix. Beyond the exit, black smoke curled into the sky.

We turned off and encountered the “Welcome to Phoenix” sign. It had graffiti scrawled across it:

The righteous will inherit the land and dwell on it forever. Psalm 37:27-29

I shivered and nudged Emma awake so she could read it.

“There was a bible quote outside the neighborhood we were monitoring in Scottsdale. Is this Althea’s mark, then? Quotes from the Bible?” I watched the smoke curl insidiously into the sky. “I thought we weren’t dealing with a religious zealot, but I guess I was wrong.”

“I don’t know that Remington’s people are zealots.” Emma peered past me. “But people love to justify their actions—it’s really a classic move. It just gives your cause that patina of authenticity, fire, brimstone, and fate.”

“Do you think she brainwashed them?”

Emma shook her head. “I don’t think she had to. I doubt it took a lot of convincing to get people to join her cause. There are a lot of misplaced people out there—people who want something, but they don’t even know what it is. And then there are the crazies—there’s plenty of those, too. Social media makes it easy to identify people looking for something. That’s ISIS’s model, and they’ve been very successful. Althea must’ve studied how to start a platform, and then she tapped into it.”

“You really think people want to destroy the world?”

“No, I think people are crazy, and they’ll believe something if it has a particle of truth to it,” Emma said. “Think about it—what Remington said about what we’ve done to the environment is true. You can’t refute the science behind it.”

“But mass murder’s hardly the answer.”

“I know that, but bringing people over to a radical point of view is surprisingly easy. It’s how all successful cults work. You have a leader who seems infallible. The group offers an identity, a sense of belonging. It also offers a world view that resonates with people. The group makes the world seem more clear-cut—right and wrong are clearly defined. You are either with them, or you are against them. She’s probably been orchestrating this for years, and we knew nothing about it.”

“I don’t understand,” I said. “How could Management have missed this?”

“I don’t know if they did.”

My stomach sank. “What does that mean?”

“I don’t know, but Remington’s been too organized and successful for the government to have been completely blind to what she was building. Maybe that’s part of the reason Cranston wouldn’t let us out. Maybe they had some intelligence about what she was going to do.”

“And they just let it happen?” That didn’t compute.

“I’m not saying that. I don’t know. I can’t come up with a scenario where that makes sense. But the whole thing strikes me as odd on management’s side. They had to know about this woman. How she coordinated these massive attacks… she has to have thousands of followers. Loyalty like that doesn’t happen in a vacuum. I guess I just can’t believe her name wasn’t in blazing lights on some watch list.”

I traced a pattern on the window. “Will we get to meet her? Someday?”

My friend nodded. “I’m not sure when, but yes, someday. Maybe sooner than we’re ready for.”

“I’m afraid, but I’m also sort of looking forward to it. We need to stop her.”

“I’ve never been to Phoenix before. I’m pretty sure this isn’t going to count—I don’t see any skyscrapers.” Emma looked out the window.

I crossed myself, a habit from when I was little and my parents brought me to church. “I think they’re gone.”

Emma nodded. “I’d like to pull that pretty hair of Althea’s and make her cry. And then do a lot worse to her.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

We drove farther down the exit, and I could see buildings flattened.

“Last night, Micah said he had some sort of idea…” I sat up and looked for him. “What was it?” I asked him.

He turned around and rubbed his puffy eyes, looking as if he hadn’t slept. “I want to find the bombers. I want to see if I can channel them to get any information we can about Remington.”

“That’s a great idea,” Emma said. “But how will we know where to find them?”

“I thought you had some retro-cognition powers,” Micah said. “How do they work?”

“If we could locate the area where one of the weapons detonated, I could probably concentrate and figure out who the attacker is.” She bit her lip, looking thoughtful for a minute. “The visions I had about here—the bodies were intact. I don’t understand how the weapons worked. The buildings are obviously in shambles.”

Kyan leaned forward. “She’s an environmental engineer. Maybe she created something that left organic material intact and destroyed anything else.”

“Yikes,” Josh said. “I don’t want to give her credit for being that smart. But I think I can help with locating the bombers. I can read the mood of a place, too. If something bad happened there, it’ll have a certain vibe that I can pick up on.”

“Impressive,” Emma said. “Rachel, isn’t that impressive?”

Josh scowled, but Rachel stuck her pretty head around him, smiling. “It’s very impressive. But let’s get off this bus and get to work—I like the idea of being able to trace Remington. I want to find her so we can beat the piss out of her.”

Maya slapped Rachel a high five. “That’s my girl.”

Finn got off the exit, stopped the bus, and turned around. “Morgan, Maya, are you hearing what I’m hearing out there?”

Morgan nodded silently, and the grin slid from Maya’s face. “I was hoping it was just me,” she admitted.

“No, I hear it, too,” Finn said.

“Hear what?” I asked.

His gaze locked with mine. “Nothing. The city is silent.”

18

IN WHICH MICAH FINALLY SHOWS US HIS POWER

“YOU MEAN… EVERYBODY’S DEAD?” I asked, echoing what Emma had told me last night.

“It sounds like it.” Finn’s voice was flat.

None of us said a word as he put the bus in Drive and we descended into the city.

But it wasn’t really a city anymore—it was a graveyard. Bodies were strewn everywhere. I didn’t let myself look, concentrating instead on studying the rubble of the buildings. The former skyscrapers were decimated. Wreckage littered the streets along with broken shards of glass. Steel beams were splintered and bent as though they’d been struck by lightning.

The mountains, untouched, seemed to mock us from a distance.

I closed my eyes as Finn maneuvered the bus through the debris, finally coming to a stop. “We’re going to need to go on foot from here.”

The others got up, grabbed their weapons and packs, and made sure they had water. Emma was busy beside me, but I couldn’t bring myself to get up yet.

“Ri.” Finn had come back to our seat. “Why don’t we stay here and guard the bus?”

I shook my head. “I’m fine. You don’t need to babysit me, and I don’t need to stay here.”

Finn and Emma exchanged a glance, and I felt my blood pressure rise. “I’m not a child. I’m an agent. I have psychic powers, and I’m one of the government’s very special, secret snowflakes. So get out of my way, okay? We have a dead body to find.”

“Okay,” Finn said immediately, but Emma frowned.

I grabbed my backpack, assembled my stuff, and shoved past them to get off the bus. Morgan and Maya were already outside. Morgan was weeping. I squinted out at the destruction. The bodies were everywhere.

I promptly threw up all over what was left of the sidewalk.

“I told you she was going to pop,” Emma said to Finn. They stood near me as I wiped my mouth with my sleeve, cursing the hot sun above me and everything else.

“Get away,” I hissed. “I just need a minute.”

Finn put his hand on my back and rubbed gently. “Ri, we don’t have to go out here.”

I shoved him off. “I said, get away! I’m fine.”

I straightened myself, deciding not to look at the bodies again. I would just concentrate on staying with my group and paying attention. I would help when I could.

“It doesn’t make you a baby to feel sick about this,” Finn said. “It makes you human.”

Please don’t be nice to me, or I’ll cry, I thought.

“Okay.” He sighed and motioned for me to follow him. I carefully stepped over a dead civilian on the ground, but I didn’t let myself think about it. I couldn’t. Maybe that made me a bad soldier or an even worse person, but I just had to deal.

We walked farther, but Micah stopped and put his hands over his ears.

“Are you okay?” Finn asked him.

“It’s all the voices… You can’t hear them?”

Finn shook his head. “I’ve never been able to hear the dead.”

Micah’s eyes were wide. “You’re lucky.”

“Do you have any sense of where we need to go?” Emma asked. “Because all the visions I’m getting from this place are so confused. I don’t even know where to start.”

“Me too,” Josh said.

“I just need a minute.” Micah sat down in the middle of the rubble and closed his eyes.

This is terrible, I thought to Finn.

Just don’t think about it until we’re done, he thought back.

Micah was quiet for five excruciating minutes. Finally, he opened his eyes and looked at the rest of us. “I think I know where to go. It’s about a mile from here.”

He got up slowly, and we followed him through the wreckage. It was slow going, with furniture, glass, and chunks of building all around us.

“Did the people die instantly?” I asked.

“I think so,” Emma murmured. “From what I saw, the gas took effect immediately.”

“These people didn’t know what hit them,” Micah agreed. “In that way, she took mercy on them.”

I couldn’t find it in my heart to be grateful, but at least it was something. We walked in silence, carefully making our way through the aftermath. What was most unnerving was the utter quiet of the ruined city. There was no breeze, and there were no other sounds—not even of insects or birds. I wondered if Althea had knowingly destroyed the entire local ecosystem, if the trade-off was worth it to her.

“She knew,” Finn said, reading my thoughts. “It was one of those things she decided to ignore. For the greater good, of course.” He snorted as he picked his way past another dead body.

Micah picked up speed a little bit, pulling away from the group. When he got to the base of a large, obliterated building, he motioned for us to follow. “Check these bodies,” he commanded. “I hear something in this area that might be helpful, but we need to figure out which person it was. Josh, Emma, if you have anything useful to contribute, this would be a great time.”

The rest of us started working as Emma and Josh closed their eyes and concentrated. Micah watched them with interest.

I bent down and started examining the bodies near me. I wanted to throw up again. I wanted to scream. Instead, I checked the men’s wallets and the women’s bags for identification and anything that we might have deemed of interest—guns, knives, or any sort of clue that might have provided a link to Althea Remington.

We continued like that for what felt like forever, although it was probably just a few minutes. I worked my way backward, checking each person quickly and thoroughly, then moved on to the next. I came across the body of a boy, probably no older than ten, wearing a Star Wars T-shirt. I choked back a sob as Finn immediately appeared by my side. “Let me do this,” he said gently.

I just nodded. I couldn’t speak.

After a few more minutes, Emma, Josh, and Micah were conferencing around one of the bodies. I stood up straight. “Did you find something?”

“I think so,” Emma called. “Micah wants to try something.” She turned to him. “Is it okay if we watch, or is that going to interrupt things? I’m just so curious about how this works.”

Micah shrugged. “As long as I don’t feel your thoughts getting in my way, it’ll actually be helpful. Does anyone have paper and a pen? It might be good to write whatever they say down.”

I reached them and looked at the body they were gathered around. It was a woman in her forties with glasses and shoulder-length curly hair. She wore a blue button-down shirt and khaki shorts. “This was the suicide bomber?”

“The backpack that contains her photo identification also has some sort of bomb-making equipment in it. And she was holding this.” He held up a small metal object, like a canister. “We need to bring it with us to see if we can figure it out, but I think this is her. I know, she looks normal. Like a teacher or a banker. Or somebody’s aunt.”

Micah peered at her face. “Let’s find out what she was thinking.”

He sat down and picked up the dead woman’s hand, cradling it in his. I shivered.

“This is going to be a little weird,” he explained to us. “Try not to get too freaked out.”

“Do we need to be worried about anything?” Maya asked.

“Do you mean, do you need to worry about this lady trying to possess my body and run the hell out of here, or hurt you?” Micah scratched his head. “Nah, that’s never happened before. We should be all right… I think.”

“Um, okay?” Maya sounded unsure. “Can we ask the spirit questions?”

Micah shrugged. “You can, but they don’t always answer. They don’t always know they’re dead or what the heck is going on. So this might be helpful, or it might not.”

With that, he closed his eyes.

Morgan scrambled in her backpack and took out a notebook and pen. We waited, all tense. I tried not to think about the ocean of dead bodies surrounding me.

After a minute, Micah opened his eyes. But his eyes were now blue, the same blue of the dead woman whose hand he held.

“No one said anything about the letters,” he said, but it wasn’t his voice. It was the dead woman’s voice coming out of Micah’s mouth.

“Oh Jesus, that’s freaky,” Finn said under his breath.

“The letters are going to go everywhere, and that’s going to make a mess, and I wonder if they thought about the waste of paper we’re going to cause.” The woman tsked, her voice scolding. “I wonder if Althea knows—I bet they didn’t tell her. She would never have approved something against the rules like that.” Micah frowned, his face puckering into sour disapproval. “I guess it doesn’t matter. Because they’ll be cleaning up the letters, and I’ll be getting all the glory.” Now the woman’s voice turned satisfied, gloating in a way that made me feel ill. “I’m one of the chosen ones. No one can take it away from me, not after I do what she asked. And I know the secret that the others below me don’t know. I’ve made it to the next level, the gold level.”

Micah—or the woman—went quiet for a minute, then he giggled. “I don’t mind all the rules. I sort of like them, actually.” He shrugged and shivered a little, as if excited. “Rules make things easy. Then I know which way is right and which way is wrong. I always do it right. I always do it right, and that’s why I’m one of the chosen ones.”

Finn leaned forward. “Do you know Althea Remington?”

Micah blinked as if he were looking around for the first time. “Who said that?”

Finn looked at me wildly, but I had no idea what to say. He closed his eyes and listened to her briefly. “One of the angels,” he said then held his breath.

Micah grinned and put his hand over his heart. “So it is true,” he gushed. “I made it! I knew I would; I knew it was real!” Micah rocked from side to side. “It’s so dark in here. I thought I was asleep, but I must be in some sort of transition—or is this it?” He looked around then up at the sky. “Is heaven pitch-black?”

“You’re in transition, just one stop away.” Finn’s voice was soothing. I didn’t have to be telepathic to know that he had no idea what he was doing. “But we’ve heard reports that you know Althea Remington. Are they true?”

“Oh gosh, yes.” Micah patted invisible long hair and nodded. “I know her well. I’m one of the gold-level leaders.”

“One of the ones who made the ultimate sacrifice,” Finn said, his voice approving. “I’m honored to meet you”—he took out the woman’s driver’s license—“Kathryn. Amazing that you were brave enough to see your mission through.”

A tear ran down Micah’s face. “Oh, I’m so relieved. I’m so glad you understand. I struggled, in the beginning. I kept thinking about the children. I didn’t want to hurt the children. But Althea made me see she was being merciful. There’s no future here, not like this. I did them a kindness. They wouldn’t have to suffer, not like Althea’s poor son or the kids all over the world who live with daily violence, abuse, and oppression. Because that’s what we’re doing to the world and to ourselves. We’re desecrating our only home. There’s no other way—we have to start over.” Micah sniffled.

“You’re very brave,” Finn said.

Micah wiped at his face, trying to compose himself. “Thank you.”

“What was your reward for your sacrifice?” Finn asked.

Micah sat up straighter, shoulders back, a look of quiet pride spreading over his features. “Well, I made it here. Althea said I would, and she was right. I knew she was right. She also let the gold-level volunteers find out about the ultimate plan. She said only we could know because we’d proven ourselves.”

“What’s the plan?” Finn asked.

“Oh.” Micah laughed, shaking his head. “I can’t tell you. Not even an angel can know what she has planned. I swore an oath.”

“I understand,” Finn said, “and I admire your commitment, even in death. I can’t wait to meet Althea.”

Micah clasped his hands together. “Oh, but you might not ever meet her. I believe she’ll live forever. She’s safe in her cave, and she has all of her good science with her, all of her medicine and experiments. She has her test subjects. She’s going to fix everything, make the earth beautiful the way it once was, restore natural order to the ecosystems and the whole planet. When she’s done with that, she’ll begin to cure all the illnesses. She’ll eliminate toxins from everything we eat and drink, and then she’ll help every person left on the planet.” Micah’s eyes glowed with fervency.

“Where’s her cave?” Finn asked. “I’d like to watch over her.”

Micah sat back, biting his lip. “Why, I don’t actually know. I’ve never been there because her safety’s of the utmost importance. I’ve just seen it on the computer. It’s so beautiful. The stalactites grow like icicles. They look like crystals, sparkling behind her when she speaks. Some of them even look like butterflies! She told me that she lives there because it’s a perfect example of the earth’s unspoiled beauty.” Micah spoke with awe. “And Theo’s there, of course. She always wants to be with Theo.”

That’s her son, I thought to Finn.

“Of course she does,” Finn said approvingly.

Micah jerked her head as if he heard something. “Someone’s coming. Do you hear that?”

“No—”

“I have to go!” Micah hopped up, but he let go of the woman’s hand, and then his whole body went slack and crumpled. He collapsed into a heap.

We all ran to him. Josh propped him up, and Emma checked his pulse, but he jerked away from her and sat up, rubbing his eyes. He looked at the woman he’d been channeling and scooted away as if she disgusted him.

“Do you remember what happened?” Emma asked.

Micah nodded, still rubbing his eyes. When he took his hands down, I was relieved to see that his eyes were their normal dark-brown color. “She’s a piece of freaking work.” He eyed the woman with disdain. “Crazy all the way to the store.”

“It was the weirdest thing,” Finn said, “because I could hear her thoughts inside your head. And she’s dead.” Instead of looking grossed out, Finn looked awed. “That was amazing. I saw the caves she was talking about. Give me that paper,” he told Morgan.

Instead of handing the notebook over, she held it up. “I heard it—and saw it—too.” She’d quickly sketched a picture of a cave complete with stalactites, some which looked like delicate butterfly wings.

“Give me that.” Kyan snatched the notebook from Morgan. He studied the picture, frowning. “Didn’t Cranston say Remington worked in Texas?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Finn said. “So what?”

Kyan pointed to the picture of the cave. “So I think I might know where this is. I grew up in Eldorado. There were caves nearby…the Sonora Caves. My parents took me there when I was a little kid. I got in trouble because I tried to ‘catch’ one of the butterflies and I broke off part of the stalactite. We got kicked out.”

“Seriously?” Finn asked. “You think this is some sort of crazy coincidence?”

Emma stood up and brushed herself off. “I don’t, but I also don’t believe in coincidences anymore.”

“Then what do you believe in?” Maya asked.

Emma put her backpack on. “Fate,” she answered, then headed back the way we came.

19

VACATIONLAND

“THERE’S nothing we can do here,” Emma said to Finn as we picked our way back to the bus. “There’s no one to save. We have the information we need—we should just go. We’ve already been gone from base for three days. If we’re going to accomplish anything and get back before Cranston runs out of food, we need to move.”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. We’re going to ambush her like this, based on a sketch we got from a dead woman’s memory? Without any backup?”

Emma shrugged. “I don’t know if we can ambush her…but if we can find out where she’s hiding and what sort of security she has, we’ll be in much better shape to kiss and make up with Cranston. And then we go back to Remington’s compound with enough full-scale military support to crush her.”

Finn raked a hand through his hair. “I would agree to that, but I don’t know if I want to get Cranston. I don’t know if I want to work for the agency anymore.”

He stopped walking. “I should be honest with all of you—I don’t know if I can go back.”

“We might have to.” Emma’s voice was firm. “We can’t let her do this”—she motioned to the city—“ever again.”

“I agree that we can’t let this happen again, but if we go looking for her compound, it has to be a strictly surveillance mission. I don’t want to put our team at risk.” His gaze traveled over to me. “I don’t think we’re prepared for a full-scale strike right now. If Remington’s got operations coordinated down to the second all over the country, I can only imagine what security’s like at her base. I don’t want to sign us all up for a suicide mission. We need to be smart about what we’re doing so we can eventually win.”

“I want to find out what she’s working on in her lab,” Micah said. “If we could get our hands on some of her technology, maybe we can help prevent another tragedy. And if we can get Remington herself, so much the better. I had that suicide bomber in my head—I know what sort of crazy Remington’s spreading. We need to gut her.”

Finn held up his hand. “Let’s take this one step at a time. We need to look at the map and see how far we are from these caves. Then we need to see if there are more back roads we can take, and we need to find fuel.” He looked around Phoenix’s decimated downtown. “I’m guessing we won’t find much else here.”

Micah shivered. “I need to get out of here. There’s too many dead people trying to come through.” He looked pale.

“Okay, let’s go.” Finn ushered everyone onto the bus. We all took our seats, not talking. I glanced out the window as he started the bus and turned it around, heading away from the ruins of downtown.

“What’re you thinking?” Emma asked.

“I’m thinking I don’t know what to think,” I admitted. “Hey, wait—Kyan—is your family still in Texas? Can we check on them?”

Kyan ran a hand through his hair. “If they’re still alive, they’re definitely still there. But there’s one problem with checking in on them: they think I’m dead. They buried what they thought was my body ten years ago.”

AFTER GETTING gas and deciding on a back-roads route, we set out on an eleven-hour drive.

“The driving’s getting tedious,” Emma said.

“Everything’s so spread out down here,” I agreed. “But at least we don’t have to watch a middle-aged woman inhabit Micah’s body, because that was all sorts of gross.”

Emma nodded. “I wouldn’t like to have a spirit in my body like that—unless it was a hot spirit. You know, like Ryan Gosling.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Ryan Gosling’s alive.”

She shrugged. “I know, but at least he’s hot.”

He was too skinny man-boy for my taste, but I didn’t feel like arguing with her about such ridiculousness.

“What do you think about…what Finn said?” I asked a little while later.

“About not going back to the agency?”

I nodded.

Emma sighed. “I’m not surprised he feels that way, but I don’t think we can walk away so easily.”

“Why aren’t you surprised?” I kept my voice low even though it didn’t matter. If Finn wanted to listen to us, he certainly could.

Emma watched him as he drove. “It’s…complicated for him. I think they’ve pushed him to do things that he didn’t want to do in the past.”

“You think, or you know?”

She frowned. “He’s your boyfriend. If you want to ask someone about it, ask him.”

“Fine.” But I pouted because I would much rather pester Emma than Finn.

Emma and I took turns dozing. I woke up in time to see the sign welcoming us as we crossed the state line into Texas. I nudged Emma. “We made it—this far, anyway. It’s kind of freaky that we haven’t seen anyone.”

I looked out at the barren landscape, feeling unsettled. We’d driven for hours, and we hadn’t seen a single person.

“It’s too quiet,” Emma agreed. “Everyone’s in hiding, and I don’t blame them.”

“Is that what it is—why we haven’t seen anybody?”

“Yeah. That, and a lot of people are dead.”

We didn’t have much more to say after that.

Later, after the sun had set, I went up and sat next to Finn. “Can we stop soon? I have to go to the bathroom, and you look tired.” I ran my hands through his coarse, springy hair at the base of his neck. “You should let one of us take a turn driving.”

He shook his head. “I’m fine, but I’ll find a place to pull over soon. Are you okay?”

“I’m as good as I can be.”

He reached over and patted my leg. “You’ve been really brave.”

“I threw up and cried. That’s not exactly heroic.”

“You threw up and cried, but you didn’t run away. That’s not for nothing.”

“Thanks for trying to make me feel better. You’re sweet.”

He flashed the dimple. “I know.”

After a few more miles, there were signs for a campground. Finn pulled off the road and down the long driveway. The main camp came into view. It was a small white clapboard building. About ten small cottages were spread out behind it. There was also a fire pit and a swimming pool.

The campground appeared abandoned.

Finn parked the bus then nodded at Morgan and Maya. All three of them closed their eyes and listened for anyone’s thoughts in the nearby area. After a minute, they opened their eyes.

“There’s no one here,” Morgan said.

“It’s clear,” Finn agreed. “We should get out, eat, and stretch our legs for a little while.”

“If it’s really empty, why don’t we make camp here?” Josh asked. “Finn, you look beat. If we sleep for a few hours, we can make it to the caves before the sun comes up.”

“Josh is right,” Kyan said. “We need to be rested before we tackle this. You get some sleep. I’ll take first watch.”

Finn sighed, but then he gave up and grabbed his pack and mine. “Do you want to sleep for a while?”

I wrinkled my nose. “In one of the cabins?” The little cabins kind of creeped me out.

We’re about to try and find the lair of the mass murderer Althea Remington, and you’re scared of a little dingy cabin?

I raised my chin in defiance. Then I nodded.

“Okay.” Finn chuckled and walked ahead a little bit until he came to a piece of land that was empty, grassy, and inviting. “I’m thinking right here looks good. Is this up to your standards, Your Highness?”

I nodded. Even though I’d slept a little on the bus, exhaustion was catching up to me.

Finn spread out our sleeping bags, constructing makeshift pillows with our two sweatshirts. Kyan and Maya gathered some kindling and built a fire in the fire pit. The crickets chirped in the woods surrounding the camp, and the quarter moon rose in the sky.

I climbed into my sleeping bag and snuggled against Finn. We were just far away enough from everyone to have some privacy, but close enough to be safe.

He put his arm around me, and I relaxed against his chest. “Maybe when we’re done with all the craziness, we could…I don’t know…go to dinner? See a movie?” I joked.

Finn laughed and kissed the top of my head. It felt so good to be in his arms. I felt safe and protected, which was saying something after what we’d seen today.

“Would you like that—to go on a date with me?” Finn asked.

I nodded, pressing myself closer.

He wrapped his arm tighter around me. “Imagine if we could do that, if we could be normal…”

“But we’re not, and I don’t think there’s even a ‘normal’ anymore.”

“You’re right.” His voice was thick. “The world won’t ever be the same.”

My eyes filled with tears, thinking about all the bodies we’d seen. “I know. We’re not ever going back to before. It’s only ever going to be after now. And all those poor people…”

He held me and let me cry. I might’ve imagined it, but I thought he might have cried a little, too.

I tried to calm down, and I wiped my face. “Some secret agent I am. I can’t even make it through a day without bawling.”

Finn’s big hand gently captured my smaller one, and he kissed the tears away. “I’d be more worried about you if you didn’t cry.”

I nodded, silently thanking him.

You’re welcome.

I giggled then rolled over onto my back, a hot, messy mix of emotions as I looked at the stars.

We were both quiet for a few minutes.

“It’s beautiful here,” Finn mused, finally breaking the silence. He pointed to a constellation, tracing it with his fingers. “That’s Orion. And over here’s the Big Dipper.”

I watched, mesmerized, as he traced the Little Dipper and Cassiopeia.

“Do you think it’s better like this?” I asked, feeling like a traitor for having those thoughts. “Without power? I feel like I’ve never seen the stars this much.”

“Maybe. I don’t think we could keep going the way we were going. The latest climate report that came out said that the earth was going to heat up three degrees Fahrenheit in the next eighty years. Species are going to go extinct, the sea levels are going to rise”—he turned to face me—“but killing everyone isn’t exactly the best way to deal with global warming.”

“I know.”

“But I can see how easy it must’ve been for her to recruit people, like that poor lady Micah channeled this morning.” He shook his head.

“She believed she was doing the right thing.” The whole scene had shaken me. “She thought she was helping people.”

“People want to believe that they’re special and that they can make a difference,” Finn said, his voice turning bitter.

I sat up a little, watching him. “Why do you sound like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like you know how that feels—wanting to believe you’re special and that you can make a difference.”

He frowned. “Because I do know how it feels.”

“But you are special. And you can make a difference.”

Finn shook his head. “I don’t know about that.”

“What do you mean? And why do you keep saying you don’t want to go back to the agency? Are you worried about what Cranston’s going to do to us? I mean, I get it—he has to be furious. But I think the others are right—he can’t actually kill us.” He can probably just maim us a little.

“I’m not afraid of Cranston. I just don’t know if I can work for him anymore. I don’t know if I can go back to…being his witch-with-a-capital-B.”

I smiled. “That’s my line.”

He smiled back, but it was forced. “I know.”

“Back when I first got recruited and I wanted to leave, you talked me out of it. Remember? You said that being with the agency was the safest thing for us because of our powers. You’ve been with The Division since you were a little kid. What’s changed? Why do you want to leave now, when all of this is happening?”

Finn shrugged his big shoulders. “They didn’t tell us about Althea. They had to have known something about her. I don’t believe this took them one hundred percent off guard. It just feels like another lie in a long string of lies. And they wouldn’t let us fight, and I’m ready to fight. I want to have free will. I want to make my own choices.”

“Haven’t you always made your own choices?” I asked.

He snorted. “Uh, no. Remember when I made out with Rachel in front of you to get you to use your power? Remember when I had to sit and watch you get beaten up by Maya? Do you think that’s what I wanted?”

“No.”

“All I ever wanted was to protect you—even before I ever saw you. I knew you were out there, and I knew what they were going to do to you, to us. And I still followed their orders blindly for years. I made the excuse that I didn’t know any better, but that’s a lie. Because you always know the difference between right and wrong. You don’t need someone ranked above you to explain it to you. It’s either right, or it’s wrong, and even an idiot knows the difference.”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

He sighed. “That’s because I’m not saying anything.”

“Did they make you do something that you regret? I mean, aside from that stuff with Rachel.”

“Yes, Riley. They made me do things that I regret. But I’m the one that did them, and that’s what I regret the most.”

“What? What did you do?”

He wouldn’t look at me. “Bad things.”

“What do you mean?”

“When someone says something oblique like ‘bad things,’ it usually means they don’t want to talk about it, Ri.”

“O-okay.”

We sat in awkward silence for a while.

“Whatever you did, it couldn’t be that bad,” I said after a minute. “You’re a good person—the best person I know. Even if you did something wrong, I’m sure you had a good reason.”

“You might not think that if you knew the truth.”

My heart thudded in my chest. “Try me.”

“The timing’s not right. But I promise to tell you, someday. You have my word.”

“Okay.” I trusted Finn completely. I trusted him enough to give him the space he needed.

Thank you, he thought.

You’re welcome.

He chuckled.

“Finn.” I scooted closer to him, my heart still pounding, but now for a different reason. “I’ve been wanting to tell you something ever since I woke up.”

“What?”

I swallowed over a lump in my throat. “Remember when we were at my mom’s and we were talking about our…um…genetic predisposition toward each other?”

He laughed, relaxing a little. “Of course. Top ten most un-romantic romantic conversations of all time.”

I giggled, remembering that night. “I still thought it was pretty romantic.”

He put his arm around me and kissed the top of my head, pulling me against him.

“Anyway, I’ve been wanting to tell you…” My voice shook, my heart fluttered, and I almost lost my nerve. But what if I died tomorrow? What if I never told him?

I felt him tense, waiting for me to go on. “Yes?”

I squared my shoulders, deciding to be brave. “That night, you said you had real human emotions for me. I just wanted you to know that I…I have them for you, too.”

He relaxed against me, nuzzling his face into my hair. “Aw, that’s sweet. I love you, too, Hanover.”

“Wait!” I spluttered. “Didn’t you say it first?”

He kept laughing until he felt me stiffen with embarrassment. He pulled back and tapped my chin until I looked up at him, mortification strumming through me.

“Riley.”

I could barely look at him. “M-hmmm.”

“Why are you freaking out right now?”

I opened my mouth then closed it. Instead of saying anything, I visualized myself dying from embarrassment.

Finn chuckled. “You’re ridiculous.”

I nodded. “I know. I just thought…I just wanted…I wasn’t sure…” You are just super gorgeous, and super muscular, super smart, and super hot, and I just want to make super-duper sure that this is reciprocal, okay?

Riley! Finn thought, exasperated. I said it, too.

It’s the “too” that’s getting to me. I thought I was saying it a safe, secure, and completely confident-in-your-feelings-about-me second. So either say you love me, without the “too,” or let me go find a hole somewhere so I can hide. Forever. And yes, I know I have issues.

He snort-laughed for a minute, and I almost got up to look for the hole.

“Riley—stop.” He quit laughing. “You underestimate yourself in more ways than I can even count, and I’m super good at math, too.”

Ugh.

He grinned a cocky grin. “But seriously—I love you, Riley Payne. And I did say it first. I have loved you from the first moment I saw you, maybe even before. And I will love you forever, or until you stop asking me ridiculous questions and/or wondering if you can die from embarrassment, whichever comes first. Okay?”

My cheeks heated in embarrassment but also in satisfaction. “Okay.”

We smiled at each other for a moment. Then Finn leaned down and very gently, but very firmly, put his mouth on mine.

I melted underneath his kiss. He ran his hands over my hair and pulled me closer, his touch filled with longing. I wrapped my arms around him, relishing the feel of his muscular body underneath my fingertips.

When he finally pulled back, we were both breathless.

I smiled at him. “I love you, too.”

He brushed the hair back from my face, laughing. He took my hands in his and kissed them worshipfully, then his gaze locked with mine. “Run away with me.”

My heart did a somersault. “Finn. We can’t.”

“We could.”

“We can’t leave the others, and we can’t let Althea Remington keep waging war on our way of life.”

He squeezed my hands. “It doesn’t have to be our responsibility. She doesn’t have to be our responsibility. We could run away and just live a normal life somewhere. We could find our mothers, protect them…” His longing was palpable; it rolled off him in waves.

“Oh, Finn.”

The muscle in his jaw jumped. “I never wanted a normal life, not until I met you. Now that’s all I want.”

My eyes filled with tears. “I want that, too, but we can’t just walk away from this. I think it’s our”—Destiny. I think it’s our destiny, even though I don’t want to say it out loud because it scares the bejeebles out of me—“responsibility. You said so yourself: no one knows about us. We’re the best chance the people have of fighting Remington. We can do things that normal soldiers can’t, and nobody thinks a group of teenagers is anything to be worried about, anyway. We know where she might be hiding. We can’t just leave her out here to destroy everything.”

“I’ve always been ready to fight, but I don’t want to fight her,” Finn admitted. “Now that I have something to lose, it doesn’t seem as important.”

“But it is that important. It’s, like, good versus evil. This is it.”

“Evil sucks, but I don’t want to lose you.”

I clasped his hands. “You aren’t going to lose me. Never. But this all happened for a reason, and now we have to see it through.”

“You’re ready for this? To fight?”

“No,” I said immediately. “I want to run away with you, and be safe, and eat popcorn, and hold hands, and watch Netflix…with our moms, at least until they start bugging us. That sounds amazing, but in light of what we’re facing? It’s immature and impractical. And trust me, I want to be immature and impractical—I am a teenager—but I don’t see it as a real option at the moment.”

“It’s a real option if we choose it.”

I reached out and stroked his face. He’d shaved the beard, but he had new stubbly whiskers growing in that were still somehow impossibly sexy.

“I choose you,” I told him. “And I choose staying with the team and kicking Althea Remington’s butt, or at least finding her lair and spying on her. Oooh, and maybe telekinetically removing some of whatever she’s been working on in her lab.”

“You want to stay and fight.” He raked a hand through his hair, making it stand up. “You’re braver than me.”

“I’m brave because of you, because I have you by my side.”

Finn leaned forward. “Promise me you’re going to stay safe. Promise me you’ll stay alive.”

“I promise, but you have to promise, too.”

He nodded. “I will.”

We lay back down and curled against each other. “When this is all over, let’s talk about being normal,” I whispered. “I would love to find our moms, to make sure they’re okay.”

He leaned down and kissed me goodnight. “It’s a date, Hanover.”

“Good night.” I took a deep, shuddery breath. “I love you.”

It still scared me to say it out loud. See? I’m trying, but I’m not as brave as you think.

You’re braver than you know, he thought back, and I love you, too.

20

UNEXPECTED COMPANY

I WOKE up to a hand pressing down, hard, over my mouth. I tried to scream, but no sound came out.

Please tell me this is a nightmare

Please let this be a nightmare

I opened my eyes and found Cranston above me, the sky lightening to pre-dawn gray above his silver crew cut.

He held a gun pointed at my forehead.

Panic seized me. I closed my eyes, trying to work the molecules around the gun to get it out of his hand, but fear sliced through me. I couldn’t concentrate.

I squinted my eyes open. He was still holding the gun.

I closed my eyes and tried again, trying to push my fear to the side but losing.

Get it together, Riley!

I heard the safety click off the weapon. I opened my eyes and realized I’d heard Finn’s blaster, which he had aimed in between Cranston’s eyes.

“Put your weapon down,” Finn said calmly. I got you, he thought at me.

I tried to relax, but it was sort of difficult with Cranston smothering me.

Cranston fake-smiled at Finn. “How about you put yours down, or I shoot Riley in the head?”

Finn sighed, sounding bored. “We both know you aren’t going to do that. She’s worth too much. We were coming back for you, anyway. We need your help.”

Cranston blinked at him. “I don’t believe you.”

“It’s true. We found out where Remington is. We’re heading there this morning to check it out.” Finn kept his voice even and steady.

Why are you telling him this? I thought at Finn. I thought we didn’t trust him!

He can help. We’ll make him help, and honestly, I don’t know if we can take her on our own. So let’s be mature and practical… and make use of him.

I would have smiled, but Cranston still had his hand clamped over my mouth.

“Get off her,” Finn snarled, out of patience.

Cranston removed his hand, and I scooted back immediately until I was next to Finn.

Our superior watched us warily. “I’ll put my gun down, but you need to know something.” Cranston lowered his weapon then scrubbed a hand across his face. “If I turn up dead, there’s an encrypted video message waiting to be sent to Nora. She’ll be able to find you immediately. I linked it to a satellite I have tracking your monitors.”

“We’re not going to kill you,” Finn said, “or you’d already be dead.” He jerked his chin toward Kyan and the others, who’d crept up and surrounded Cranston, their weapons trained on him.

Cranston nodded at them gruffly. “Hey. No offense, but I’m surprised you all made it this far. Not the sharpest tools in the shed.”

“Um, how did he get out?” Kyan asked.

“Local soldier came by to check the base,” Cranston said. “I heard him come in, and I started screaming my head off. He came down and found me.”

“What did you tell him?” Josh asked, stepping forward.

“That my unit flipped out because of the attacks and that they locked me in the cell and deserted.” He shrugged. “I was ten clearances above him. It’s not going to get out.”

“So… Nora still doesn’t know what happened?” Finn asked.

Cranston shook his head, looking disgusted. “I used to think you were my best student, son, but you’re really turning out to be a dumbass.”

Finn glared at him over the barrel of his blaster. “What did you tell her?”

“When I finally got out of the cell, I’d told her our system had been malfunctioning and we’d lost our signal. And that I sent you all out on a local scouting expedition for supplies and assessment. She doesn’t know about your little episode. I didn’t want to get fired—or worse—for losing the stupidest and most expensive team in history.”

“I’m already done with him,” Kyan said, sounding terse. “Anybody have any duct tape so I can tape his mouth shut?”

“Where the hell’s Emma?” Cranston barked, ignoring Kyan as usual.

Emma came out from behind the twins. “What?” Her voice was so flat, it sounded more like a statement than a question.

He sighed. Emma had always been his little pet, but she apparently didn’t want to play nice. “What did you see about Althea Remington? Is she really nearby?”

Emma looked at Finn. They seemed to have some silent communication before she turned back to Cranston.

“Young lady,” Cranston said, “just remember that I am your superior. Not him.” He jerked a thumb at Finn.

Emma rolled her eyes at Cranston. If he’d been a cartoon character, smoke would’ve poured out of his ears.

“Is it true?” Cranston asked her. “Do you know where Remington is?”

Emma jutted her chin out. “We might. What’s it to you?”

He clenched his fists together. “I get it—you weren’t happy with the way I was running things. I admit I had you all on a pretty short leash. I see that now. I underestimated you—I won’t make that mistake again.”

Kyan snorted.

Cranston pointed a finger at him. “My new and improved attitude might not apply to you, Soldier. I need to see if you can tell your ass from your elbow first.”

Finn sighed. “Enough. Yes, we have a verified lead about where Remington is. Emma, have you seen anything new?”

Emma looked at him, and when Finn nodded, she turned to Cranston. “We believe we’ve found her location a few hours from here. She’s in a cave. We’re not sure what the security is, but from what I can see, it’s very tight. We’re going to conduct surveillance and possibly try to infiltrate tonight.”

Cranston’s eyeballs almost popped out. “You’re going to try to infiltrate—with just this group?”

“We weren’t planning a combat mission, but we want to see what she’s working on, sir,” Micah said. “We have intelligence that she’s developing weapons. We need to get a handle on what she’s doing. And if we get a chance to abduct her—or better yet, harm her—in the process, I’d consider it win-win.”

Cranston looked baffled. “Where did you get this intelligence?”

“Micah channeled one of the suicide bombers. She gave us detailed information,” Emma said proudly.

“Nice work, Soldier. Okay.” Cranston clapped his hands together. “I think this plan has legs. Let me call Nora for backup, then we can proceed to the location.”

Finn stepped forward. “I don’t think calling for backup’s a great idea.”

“Why not?”

“Because we’re not sure that she’s really here. I’d like the chance to investigate first. This is our first big assignment, and I’d like to deliver. This could be a big break for us with Management, sir.”

Cranston nodded, his blue eyes sparkling. “Makes sense. Plus, if you screw it up, I won’t have to cover for you.” He smiled at Finn coldly.

“Great,” Finn said. “Let’s pack up, everyone. That is, if that’s okay with you, sir.”

Everyone was already packing. Cranston didn’t bother to respond.

Finn and I cleaned up our area, waiting until Cranston was out of earshot to speak. “Do you believe him, about how he got out?” I asked.

“He killed the officer who freed him.” Finn kept his voice low. “I heard his thoughts, which is unusual. He must feel sick about it for it to leak out like that. He didn’t want the fact that we’d locked him up to get back to Management.”

“Jesus.”

“It’s on us.” Finn shrugged it off, but he looked pale.

“So…what are we doing with Cranston?”

“We’re going to see if he can do anything to help us. If not, we’ll have to decide if we want to continue the relationship.” He stopped folding his stuff and looked at me levelly. “I’m not working for Cranston anymore—he’s working for me. Whether he knows it or not.”

“I like it,” I said.

He flashed his dimple. “Good.”

We finished up and headed to the bus. Cranston had an enormous jeep, probably from the officer he’d killed. I shivered at the thought.

“You okay?” Emma asked me, keeping her voice low.

“I think you can probably stop asking me that now. The answer’s gonna be a hard no from here on out.”

“Got it.” We filed onto the bus and took our respective seats. Micah told Cranston to follow us, and our superior got into his jeep.

I felt relieved to be away from him.

“So,” Finn said as he put the bus in Drive, “that was not how I expected to start my day.”

Everyone started talking at once.

“How did he really get out of that cell?” Rachel asked.

“Our monitors must still be active, so Management must know where we are—he’s full of crap,” Josh said.

“Can you believe he hadn’t been back for five minutes, and he was already insulting me?” Kyan asked.

“All right, everybody, calm down,” Finn commanded from the front. “Micah, how long of a drive is it to the caves?”

Micah checked the map. “Three hours.”

“Then let’s go.” Finn pulled out of the campground and headed back to the main road with Cranston behind us. “We’ll get there when it’s full daylight. We have to lay low. We’re strictly doing surveillance. If we get the opportunity to go in tonight, we can consider it. Does everyone agree with that?”

Everyone agreed.

“Now, about Cranston…he killed the guard that found him. He was so scared about what Management would do, he covered his tracks.”

“You could hear him?” Maya asked.

He nodded, meeting her gaze in the rearview mirror. “It’s one of the few times he’s come through. He must be upset about it.”

“That doesn’t excuse it,” Morgan said hotly.

“Of course not. But like I told Ri, that soldier’s death is on us. We left Cranston there. I didn’t have the balls to kill him when I had the chance, and this is what happened.”

Emma went pale. “You can’t kill him.”

“He’s driving the jeep behind us. I didn’t kill him.”

Emma sniffed. “If you do something like that, we’re waging war with the United States government. I think we have enough problems right now.”

“I’m not killing him,” Finn said. “Not yet, anyway.”

“Finn told him we were going to ask him to join us,” I volunteered. “That seemed to make things better. Cranston told Management that he’d sent us out on an assessment mission, so they understood our monitor feed while he stayed at the base. Back to harming Cranston—Finn’s just kidding.” I think. “Cranston said he had an encrypted message ready to be sent if we pulled anything. So we should all behave.” I looked pointedly at Finn.

He pointedly ignored me.

“One other thing I want to bring up—when Cranston surprised me this morning, I couldn’t get my powers to work. I was too panicked. I couldn’t concentrate. Is that…normal? Does that ever happen to any of you?”

Morgan nodded and tossed some trail mix into her mouth. “It happens to all of us.”

“So, uh, how is this going to work? I already feel like I might pass out and/or throw up because we’re headed to Althea Remington’s lair. How can I control my fear so I don’t freeze up? When I’m scared is when I need to access my power most.”

Rachel nodded. “You disarmed the man in T or C, and that was a high-stakes situation. But you didn’t hesitate. How did you manage that?”

“It was pure adrenaline. And I was worried Finn was going to get hurt.”

“That’s like when they were tazing Micah,” Emma said. “Your powers kicked in immediately.”

“I guess they don’t work as well when there’s a gun to my own head,” I mused. “I guess I need to work on that.”

We settled in for the ride, and I looked back at Cranston trailing us in the jeep. He wore his sunglasses, the wraparound kind. I had no idea what he was thinking.

I sighed and rested against my seat. Dawn was just about to break, but it had already been a long day.

21

NOW YOU SEE ME…

WE DROVE FARTHER INTO TEXAS, and Finn almost swerved off the road as we drove through tiny rural towns with actual people in them. Some kids played in their yard with their dog. People peered at us from their driveways.

We kept driving. Still, it was a relief to see actual living people.

“We can stop on our way back,” Finn said. “We can check in with people and see what’s going on, see if anyone needs help.”

Dread formed in the pit of my stomach. Would we actually make it back from this?

Emma said little during the drive. She half-slept, sometimes moaning, and I wondered if she was having visions. She didn’t say anything, though.

Maybe she was having bad ones.

I practiced my yoga breathing for a while, but then I got bored. I scooted past a sleeping Emma to sit with Josh and the others, who were laughing and telling stories.

“Do you remember that time Joshy puked all over Cranston after Levels?” Maya whooped.

Josh swatted her, but Rachel scolded him. “Just let her tell the story. Please?”

Josh pinched the bridge of his nose, but he couldn’t say no to her.

Maya leaned forward, eyes alight. “We did Levels, and it was gross. Cranston stuck us in this mud pit, and we had to climb over each other to get out. We were covered in mud. And it stank. Like, to high heaven. We didn’t have time to discuss it, but when we came to, Cranston told Josh it was cow poop. And then Josh puked all over him, projectile-style.”

They howled with laughter. Josh turned maroon with embarrassment.

“Then there was the time we shaved Finn’s eyebrows off, remember?” Morgan was laughing so hard, she was crying. “Cranston gave us such an intense workout, Finn passed out cold afterward, in a dead sleep. And we shaved his eyebrow off. Why did we do that?”

“Because he was a total prick before Riley showed up,” Maya said, “and he deserved it!”

“I resemble that remark,” Finn quipped from the front.

They couldn’t stop laughing.

We passed a sign for Eldorado, and the laughter died down. “Are we going to stop to check on Kyan’s family?” I asked.

Kyan shook his head. “It’s not safe. I don’t want to draw attention to them, especially with Cranston here and what we’re doing. And I’m worried me popping out of a bus after everything that’s happened might be a bit much. After all, they do think I’m dead.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “It must be so hard to be this close and not see them.”

“I don’t even know if they’d recognize me,” Kyan mused.

“Of course they would.”

He shrugged. “Maybe I can see them again someday. I haven’t thought about it in a long time.”

I was going to ask why not, but I thought better of it.

“It’s coming up,” Micah instructed as we followed the signs for Sonora. “You ready?”

“I have no idea.” Finn sped down the dusty, isolated road. “But I guess we’re about to find out.”

We passed signs for Big Bend National Park then saw a sign for the Caverns of Sonora. The way Kyan had described it, the caverns were an underground system of caves filled with incredible stalactites that glistened like jewels. A family had taken care of the caverns for decades, installing lighting, stairs, and pathways throughout the underground system so the public could enjoy its unusual subterranean beauty.

I quickly looked at Emma. “Any advice?”

“Don’t get shot—or worse, captured,” Emma said. “That much is very clear.”

I sighed. “Haven’t you seen anything?”

She shook her head. “I’ve seen all sorts of stuff, all of it crazy. I just know that we can’t try to get into this place during the day. There are armed guards outside. They are instructed to shoot first, ask questions later.”

“Great.”

“Finn, the only advantage we have is that they have no idea we’re coming, so we need to hide the bus. If they see it, we’re dead.”

Finn nodded then drove past the marked entrance to the caves and into the parking lot of the adjacent shopping plaza, which looked as though it had been looted. “This place is empty—no one’s inside.” He pulled behind the building and drove the bus into the scrubby woods as far as he could. “We’re going to have to camouflage this. I’m not sure what we can find, but let’s use whatever we can.”

We all grabbed our weapons and filed off the bus. Cranston pulled up next to us, and Emma explained what we were doing. Finn immediately began hunting in the woods for fallen branches and anything else that could be leaned against the bus to help it blend in.

After about an hour, we’d covered the vehicles with as many leaves and branches as we could. If anyone viewed the woods from the back of the property, they wouldn’t notice anything. Not at first glance, anyway.

We took our packs and headed carefully into the scrubby woods separating the shopping plaza from the cave property. Thank goodness for the trees, which provided cover and shade. It was already hot, in the low nineties, and sweat poured down my back. Finn walked directly in front of me, holding branches aside so they didn’t whack me.

“Are you ready for this?” he asked.

“I doubt it.”

He laughed. “I don’t. Just stay close. We’ll be all right.”

There was a mile of forest between the two properties. We trekked carefully and slowly. The only noises were the buzzing of insects, the scurrying of small animals, and the occasional call of a bird. Still, it remained mostly quiet. Even the animals were sluggish in the solid heat of the morning.

We reached the edge of the woods, and Cranston motioned for us all to stay down.

A look traveled through the group, from Morgan down the line, ending at Finn.

“Sir?” Morgan asked after a tense silence. “We’d like Finn to run this mission. We’ve been working together since we’ve been out here. We’re kind of in a…rhythm.”

Cranston’s insanely erect spine straightened even further. He looked at Finn. “Soldier? Do you feel you’re ready for that level of responsibility?”

Finn nodded, and my heart swelled. “Yes, sir. I’d like the opportunity to prove myself.”

To you, he thought at me. And to the others.

I reached out and squeezed his hand.

Cranston nodded, standing down. “But I will not hesitate to insert myself if this turns into a shit show.”

“Fair enough, sir.”

Finn pointed to the property as we all crouched low. “There are out buildings here.” He pointed to two small buildings, bordering the parking lot. “And that’s where most of the soldiers are. There are three guards patrolling right now. I can hear them.” He closed his eyes. “Get down, everybody.”

We all went flat on our stomachs, watching the large, dusty parking lot from the ground. A tense minute later, one guard stalked around the corner. He had what appeared to be an automatic weapon, and he wore full-body armor.

He spoke into a headset and continued to survey the perimeter. We were far enough away to be undetected, but I still held my breath. Once he moved on, Maya exhaled. “He didn’t see a thing, thank God.”

“So, is this the plan?” Cranston sneered at Finn. “We lay in the dirt and listen to stray soldiers’ thoughts?”

Finn ignored him. “Kyan, where is the entrance to the caves?”

“It’s behind the main building.” He pointed to the largest building, which was made of gray stones and adorned with a long porch with red beams. “I think we went in there to buy tickets, and then a guide took us around the back.”

“You think?” Cranston asked.

“Shut up, sir,” Kyan said. “I was, like, six.”

Finn gave Kyan a look that said shut up, then turned to the rest of us. “Let’s head toward the back of the property. Keep your weapons out; there’s more guards back there.”

We army-crawled through the roots and thick brush, and I had to hold back my complaints about getting snagged by branches. Finally, Finn slowed down and motioned for us to come up beside him.

I peered at the entrance to the caves. Four guards all stood at attention, protecting the opening.

“They’re bored,” Morgan whispered. “They think no one knows about this location, but Remington insists on total-paranoia coverage. They want to please her.”

“They’re all thinking that?” I asked.

“That, and that she’s gorgeous.” Morgan shrugged. “They’re hoping for some action so they have a chance to perform well and get her attention.”

“Just perfect.”

Great. Those guards would be happy to wring my neck just to please their pretty boss.

“Can you guys hear anything inside?” I asked.

Finn motioned for us all to wait as he, Maya, and Morgan closed their eyes. They were quiet for a long time. Emma closed her eyes, too. She had a sour look on her face, so I turned away. It made me nervous to watch her.

After what seemed like forever passed, the twins rubbed their eyes and opened them. Finn took a minute longer. The three of them had some sort of telepathic conversation, then motioned for the rest of us to come closer.

“There are a lot of guards down there,” Maya said. “I heard at least twenty-six different voices, and these guys heard more. Althea is down there, too, but I don’t know where. I only heard one distinct female voice. From what I can make out, there are several different chambers with hallways connecting them. I stayed with one of the soldiers when he walked through. Kyan, does that layout sound right to you?”

He nodded. “I don’t remember much except that there were a lot of stairs. And that room with the butterfly—”

“That you broke.” Morgan winked at him.

Cranston just watched. He had no idea what we were talking about.

Micah looked at his watch. “We have a few hours before dark. What’s the plan?”

“Let’s send a smaller group to go around the perimeter of the caves. I want eyes on any other exits,” Finn said. “I also want to find out what they have for additional security around the back. Let’s watch and see when the guards change shifts. We’ll go from there.”

Micah nodded. “I’ll go look for the exit.”

“Morgan, Maya, Kyan—go with him.” Finn turned to Josh. “I want you to stay here, and Rachel, too. Start working on the guards in small doses. I want them calming down over the next few hours. Can you do that?”

“No problem, boss.” Josh grinned at Finn until he noticed Cranston glaring at him.

Josh coughed.

“What about me?” Rachel asked, tossing her hair. “I don’t want to just sit here and look pretty.”

Finn chuckled. “You’re an important part of the plan, but not until later.”

Rachel perked up. “I just want to do my part.”

“As long as it’s not too dangerous,” Josh said.

Rachel sighed. “Easy, Joshy. I can handle myself.”

Cranston pinched the bridge of his nose.

I raised my hand. “I need a job.”

“Your job is to stay with Emma.” He looked at her pointedly. “I’m heading out to do a perimeter run.”

“I’ll come with you.”

He shot me down with an arch of his eyebrow. “You’ll stay here, with Emma.”

My hackles rose. “Okay, boss.”

His eyebrow moved up higher, and his eyes sparkled.

“I didn’t mean that in a good way.”

He flashed the dimple and leaned forward to kiss me. “I still liked it.”

Emma made a gagging noise, and Cranston looked as if he might snap the bridge of his nose right off.

Finn kissed me briefly, then took off before any of us could haze him. He headed into the woods, fast and silent, while I prayed for him to come back to me.

22

…NOW YOU DON’T

FINN CAME BACK, thank God. I started to breathe normally when finally I saw him again. Micah and the others were slower to return, but they looked excited when they got back to base.

“The exit’s around the other side, to the right. You have to circle the entire property to get there from this spot. We got this, which should help.” Micah put a folded brochure into Finn’s hand.

He opened it and saw it was a map of the interiors of the cave to guide the tourists.

“Where’d you get this?” Finn asked, impressed.

“What, you weren’t eavesdropping on me the whole time?” Micah grinned. “It was blowing around in the woods. Litter. I thought it might come in handy.”

Finn clapped him on the back. “Good work.”

“We must’ve gotten closer to Althea because I could hear her better,” Morgan said.

Cranston leaned forward incrementally, listening.

“And?”

“And she seemed to be working on something complicated. She was running equations and monitoring some sort of compound.”

“I want to go in there tonight,” Micah said. “I want to get a sample of what she’s working on.”

“Why don’t we just kill her?” Cranston asked.

We all blinked at him. “I don’t think we’ll be able to get that close with all the guards.”

A deep V of disbelief formed in Cranston’s forehead. “But you think you can waltz into her secret laboratory and steal what she’s working on?”

Micah shrugged. “I’ll try to kill her.”

“I’ll do it.” Cranston jerked his head toward the entrance to the caves. “I’ll go in there with you tonight. You go to the lab; I’ll go for Remington.”

“If we’re attacking and not just snooping, shouldn’t we all go in?” Emma asked. “We work best as a team.”

“I’d like to do this myself,” Cranston said.

Finn and Emma looked at each other for a beat.

“Cut that out, soldiers!” Cranston barked.

“What, sir?” Emma asked innocently.

Finn tucked his blaster into the waistband of his pants. “I’ll go, too. I can be backup.”

No. No in every language. NO.

I didn’t ask you for permission, boss. Finn flashed his dimple, hoping it would stun my brain or something.

“I’ll come, too.” I smiled at them. “Finn and I work best as a team.”

“I need you out here,” Finn said, his voice firm. “You’re going to have to disarm the guards after Josh calms them down and Rachel mesmerizes them.”

Rachel looked displeased. “My job is mesmerizing?”

“Easy, Rachel. I’ll explain it to you in a little bit.” Finn turned to Cranston. “You’re really up for this?”

“I know there’s an insult in there somewhere, but I’m choosing to ignore it. I’ll take care of Remington. I’m sure Management would appreciate taking this as a win.”

Josh shook his head. “Management still thinks this is about winning?”

Cranston snorted. “It’s a figure of speech. Jesus, I’m tired of the teenage dramatics. I hope my next assignment’s with adults, for Christ’s sake.”

None of us said anything, but we all looked at each other with expressions that asked, who invited this guy?

The sun began to set, streaking the sky with pink. Pink sky at night, sailor’s delight.

I went and sat near Emma, who’d been quiet. “I’m going with Finn whether he says I can or not.”

“No, you’re not. You’re staying with me like he told you to. He’ll be fine. I’ve seen it.”

I got in her face. “You better swear on your precious combat boots that you’re telling me the truth.”

“It’s going to be okay.” Emma wrinkled her nose a little. “Although I don’t love that Cranston’s going in, or Micah. I typically have a hard time with Cranston coming through in my visions, and Micah’s a cloaker—stealthy little bugger. I don’t always see him, and it’s frustrating.”

“But Finn’s going to be okay?” I persisted. “And I care about Micah and Cranston, too—at least, I care about Micah—but I need to know that Finn’s going to be okay.”

“He’ll be fine. I can’t tell what we’re going to get from this raid, but I have a feeling it could be important.”

My heart hammered as I looked up and saw the sky darkening.

Finn came over. “Riley? Can I talk to you for a second?”

“Of course.”

We walked deeper into the woods, away from the others. “I need you to promise me something.”

“Stay alive? Don’t follow you into the cave? Be obedient?” I asked sarcastically.

“Uh, yeah. At a minimum.” The muscle in Finn’s jaw jumped. He reached for my hand, but I stepped back, still angry that he was going down there without me. “I can handle myself, you know. You just have to give me a chance to prove it.”

“I know you can—that’s why I need you out here, to lead the rest of the group.”

I licked my lips. “You want to leave me in charge?”

“Yes. But you have to promise that whatever happens, you don’t send anybody else into the cave. We’re going in to get what we can from the lab, and we’re getting out.”

“That’s not what Cranston’s doing.”

Finn shook his head. “Cranston can take care of himself. We decided before we got here that we weren’t going to try and assassinate Remington tonight unless we had a clean opportunity.” He motioned toward the cave, where the guards stood. “I don’t consider this clean. There are a lot more of them down there.”

“So why are you going down there?” I wanted to shriek the question, but then we would be dead for sure.

“Because we need to find out more about what she’s working on.” Finn shrugged. “She can’t gas another entire city, Ri. Not on my watch.”

“Do you think Cranston’s going to be able to get to her?”

“No way. I don’t think he’s even going to get close.”

“So why is he doing this?” I fidgeted as the woods grew darker. I didn’t want Finn to go.

“Maybe he wants to prove something after we locked him up like that. I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t care. We need to get back to the others to talk about the plan.” He held out his hand for mine.

I wanted to ignore his outstretched hand, to make him suffer for going down there and leaving me alone to freak out without him, but I couldn’t bear to. I laced my fingers through his.

He smiled, relieved that I seemed to be cooperating, and we headed back toward the others.

Kyan had the map out, and he was reviewing the different parts of the cave with the others. “When you first go inside, you go down a set of stairs. I don’t remember much except that I felt like I was walking around inside a brain. The stalactites are moist—they seem almost spongy—and they’re flesh-colored.”

Micah’s face looked pinched. “I thought you said it was beautiful.”

“Beautiful in that amazing, only-nature-could-make-it, but-nature-also-makes-brains-and- maggots sort of way. You know…beautiful and disgusting, all at the same time.”

Micah blinked at him.

“It’s cool. You’ll like it,” Kyan assured him.

Micah peered at the map. “So it looks like we go down the stairs, and then there’s the Hilton Room, and then there’s the Devil’s Pit”—he looked accusingly at Kyan—“and then the Sponge Rooms and the Valley of Ice. The exit’s near there, but the caves go on to Halo Lake, the White Giants, The Butterfly, and the Crystal Palace.”

Josh let out a low whistle. “Those are some serious names.”

Micah put the map down and sat back. “You can’t make this stuff up. It’s crazy town down there. The White Giants?” He laughed, the tuba-gurgling sound almost bubbling too loud.

I sat down next to him. “You don’t have to go down there.”

“But I am going down there.”

“Why does it have to be you?”

“I think it’s about time I did something.” Micah looked warily at Cranston, who was cleaning his nails with a knife. “I lost years of my life with the others. And as soon as I got shipped out, I watched you get shot for me. And then Miss Cray-Cray”—he jerked his thumb toward the caves—“decides she’s going to massacre all of us. I have family in LA. I don’t even know if they’re still alive. And then this lug-nugget”—he jerked his thumb at Cranston—“can’t even tell me anything about it. So forget about him and forget about the others, and Nora and her taser and all the rest of it. It’s just us now. We are going to be the ones to save the planet. And I am going to help.”

I opened my mouth then closed it. I wanted to steal his speech.

Micah cracked his knuckle. “Plus, I’m a cloaker. I’m a stealthy little bugger, just like Emma said.”

Emma sniffed. “I meant it as a compliment.”

“I know.”

“Okay.” Finn crouched down. “Let’s go over the plan. The most important thing is they can’t find out what we are. So whatever happens—if we get captured, if we’re in a tight spot—don’t show them what you can do.”

“Why not?” Kyan asked.

Finn didn’t look up from the map. “Because if Althea finds out what we’re capable of, she’s going to want us. And we can’t let that happen. No matter what.”

WE WAITED LONG into the night, until it was pitch-black out except for the moon.

I should have been exhausted. I should have been asleep. Even better, Finn and I should have been safe watching Netflix, and Althea Remington should have been a pop star, busy filming a music video.

Instead, we were here, and Althea was in the cave, mixing volatile chemical compounds. Adrenaline thrummed through me, making my body twitch and my heart pound.

Finn didn’t give me much notice that he was ready to leave—he suddenly leaned down and kissed me tenderly then ran his thumb along my chin. “I love you.”

I tried to be brave and smile, but instead, my voice quivered when I said, “I love you, too.”

He flashed his dimple then released me.

“Will you be long? Are you sure you have a route mapped out? Do you have any idea if the lab itself is heavily guarded? Does everyone have a weapon?”

“These questions, and more, will be answered when I return.” He grinned, trying to keep his tone light. “Who am I kidding? I’ll never be able to answer all your questions!”

“Ha-ha.”

“Riley.” He pulled me close again, making my pulse kick up. “I’ll be back before you know it. You do your job, and I’ll do mine. Okay?”

I nodded, although I felt something monumentally short of okay.

One final group meeting later, I watched as Finn, Micah, Cranston, Kyan, Morgan, and Maya disappeared into the darkness. They were going to incapacitate—that was the word Finn used—the guards at the exit. Maya and Kyan would keep watch, listening for danger, as Finn and the others accessed the caves from the man-made exit. Morgan was watching the rest of the perimeter and would circle back with us when everyone was out.

“I don’t know if I love the plan,” I whispered to Emma.

“You don’t have to love it,” she whispered back. “It just has to work.”

I took a deep breath, waiting for Josh’s sign.

The tall boy sat cross-legged against a tree, leaning his head back. He closed his eyes and left his palms open on his lap, facing the sky.

He looked relaxed. I tried to do some yoga breathing so I might relax, too, but my heart was pounding too fast.

The guards had changed shifts an hour ago. The fresh men sported the same expression—bored but wary—as the earlier men. As Josh continued to work on them, their shoulders relaxed. I watched as they began chatting with each other a little, loose and easy.

Josh had been trying to control the moods of the soldiers since we got there. This new shift seemed easy to manipulate. Had some of his vibes leaked down the stairs, relaxing the others?

I hoped so. I really freaking hoped so.

Once the men were visibly relaxed, their weapons holstered, Rachel stepped out of the darkness. “Can you help me?” she whimpered. She stepped out more into the clearing, and the moonlight shone down on her. She sniffled and wiped her face, pretending to cry. “I’ve been walking for hours in the dark. I’m so scared.”

Not only was she fake crying, she’d unzipped her top halfway, provocatively displaying her ample assets.

I thought I heard Josh curse when he got a good look at her.

“We can help you,” the lead guard said, stepping forward. He didn’t draw his weapon, a clear sign that Josh’s mood relaxer had worked on him.

Rachel got just close enough to him that he could catch a glimpse of her beautiful face. “Please, I’m so scared.”

“Come here,” the guard said, but Rachel backed up toward the woods.

“Can I trust you?” she asked.

“I’m not going to hurt you.” He stepped closer, transfixed, while behind him, one by one, Rachel’s clones stepped out of the woods and beckoned to the other soldiers. Rachel could teleport, but she could also astrally project copies of herself. Her clones cried prettily, begging each of the stunned soldiers for help. As if in a trance—which they basically were, courtesy of Josh—they headed toward her projections.

They all disappeared, following the Rachels into the woods.

That was my cue. I visualized all of their weapons, the molecules agitating and spinning around them. I raised them up out of their holsters and sent them sailing across the clearing to land silently near the opening of the woods.

“It’s working,” Emma whispered. She crept up, gathered the automated guns, and brought them back in bundles to our hiding spot.

I opened my eyes. It took a moment for them to adjust. “Can you hear anything?” I asked.

“No.” Josh’s voice was urgent. “Just get them away from her!”

I closed my eyes again and imagined the soldiers in the woods. I had to be careful with this—the last time I lifted a human, I’d almost broken him. I pictured the four soldiers, each in their separate part of the woods. I lifted them as gently as I could, moving slowly, so slowly, and brought them back to the clearing.

Josh concentrated next to me, sending out a potent dose of well-being. No one said a word; no one yelled. Had I gotten them?

I squinted my eyes and saw the four guards floating in the moonlight. This was the tricky part. The plan had been to float them over to the woods, place them gently in a spot we’d cleared, then secure them.

Finn had suggested “incapacitating” them, but I’d argued that we should “secure” them instead. Incapacitating sounded so…final.

That had been the plan, anyway. The plan did not include what was currently happening. The soldiers whooped and giggled, obviously high from Josh’s power, enjoying their telekinetic trip more than they should.

“Crap. What did you do to them, Josh?”

“I guess I overdosed them a little.”

“WHEE!” one of the guards yelled, holding his arms out like wings. I thought of Finn in the cave, surrounded by danger.

I unceremoniously dropped the guards onto the ground to shut them up. There were several sickening crunches, possibly bones breaking, but at least they stopped giggling.

Rachel rushed out of the woods toward the bodies. “Riley, what did you do?” she hiss-whispered.

I came out, too scared to look. “I panicked?”

Emma and Josh came out, and we checked the bodies. “Alive,” Emma said, “but they’re all…incapacitated.”

We each grabbed a passed-out soldier’s hands and dragged them toward the woods. I struggled with my guard, who was beefy, but I was too scared to try telekinetically lifting him again.

“It took you long enough,” Rachel huffed as she pulled her guard up even with mine. “This guy was starting to get a little handsy.” She dragged him over some jagged roots and didn’t flinch when his head thunked against the base of a tree we passed.

We dragged the bodies to the clearing and secured them with the rope and duct tape we’d assembled.

“Don’t you think we should just shoot them?” Emma asked without emotion. “They’re bad guys.”

I shook my head. “We have to be better than they are. We have to stand for something—something like not killing everybody we meet.”

“Okay.” But Emma didn’t sound so sure.

We waited for Finn and the others. I had no idea how much time had passed, but I started to sweat. We moved away from the soldiers and watched the entrance to the caves, but no one came out.

After what seemed like forever, Cranston emerged.

Alone.

23

THE BUTTERFLY

I WAS on him in an instant. “Where’s Finn? Where’s Micah?”

Cranston staggered a little and blinked at me. “I don’t know. But they know we’re here—Remington’s people—so we need to move out.”

“Did you see her?” Emma asked him.

“No. I couldn’t get into her headquarters.”

“Why are you limping, and why didn’t you wait for Finn and Micah?” Rachel asked. “Never mind, answer the last part first—I don’t care why you’re limping!”

Cranston leaned toward her. “You keep your voice down,” he seethed. “That’s an order!”

Josh closed his eyes and clenched his fists, and in an instant, Cranston’s face relaxed into a smile. He stepped back from Rachel. “Sorry. I’m not myself. But I didn’t see which way they went. We separated as soon as we went down.”

“Can you give him a truth serum or something?” I asked Josh.

“I wish.”

I studied Cranston. “What happened down there?”

“I tried to get to Remington’s private area, but I was outnumbered. A lot. I had to fight my way out.”

“Fight?” I asked, my heart plummeting. “Or shoot?”

Cranston rocked back on his heels. “Shoot.”

I put my hands over my face. “How many?”

“Four.”

Maya and Micah ran around the corner. They struggled to catch their breath when they reached us. When she could finally talk, Maya looked at me miserably. “Finn’s still down there. We left Kyan to watch the exit. I need to go around the other side and check on Morgan. I keep trying to reach her, but I haven’t heard back.”

I nodded, and Maya took off immediately.

“What happened?” I asked Micah.

“I don’t know about this dude”—he jerked his thumb at Cranston—“’cause he disappeared as soon as we made it down the stairs. Seemed like he knew where he was going.”

Cranston ignored him.

“What happened?” I pressed.

“Finn used his power to listen to the guards, and after we hid for a minute, we headed down to the chamber they’re using for a lab. That’s when things got complicated.”

“Where is he?” My voice shook.

“One of the guards cornered us. Finn started to fight him. He threw me these”—Micah held up several sealed vials—“and told me to run.” He handed the vials to Emma. “Guard those with your life.”

Finn’s down in the cave. Finn’s down there, surrounded.

Micah squeezed my shoulder. “Now that these are safe, I’m gonna go get him out. Don’t worry.”

“I’m not going to worry. I’m coming with you.”

“Riley.” Emma’s voice was sharp. “No, you’re not. Finn wouldn’t want you to.”

“We’ll all go.” Josh stepped forward. “We’re a team.”

“No.” Micah shook his head. “We risked ourselves to get these samples. You need to keep them safe. They did not want us in her lab. These might be important.”

“I can watch them for you,” Cranston offered.

Maya put her hands on her hips, staring at Cranston as if seeing him for the first time. “I don’t think so.”

“Will someone please lock him up again?” Micah asked. “He gives me all sorts of bad vibes, and don’t forget, I’m a psychic. They have to mean something.”

Emma frowned at Cranston. “I agree with that.”

“Do you agree with me that I have to go down there?” I asked her.

“No,” she said stubbornly.

“That’s too bad—because you’re my friend, and I want your approval—but I’m still going. Please take these.” I handed her the keys to the bus. “Get the vials and the others there safely.”

I grabbed Josh’s wrist. “Do something with…” I glanced at Cranston, and Josh nodded. “I would err on the incapacitation side of things rather than the securing side.”

“Copy that,” Josh said.

Morgan and Maya rushed back then, breathing hard.

“You two, wait for Kyan,” I said. “I’m going to send him back in a minute. Get him on the bus with the others. And watch out—there’s a bunch of tied-up soldiers in the woods. Josh and Rachel know where they are, but be on the lookout. They should be waking up soon.”

“Okay. Got it.” Morgan caught her breath. “Some of the soldiers in the cave have formed a search party. They want to know where Finn came from. They found the soldiers Cranston killed, and they saw Micah, so they know Finn wasn’t alone.” Her gaze reached mine. “They’ve got him, Ri, and they’re coming for us.”

“It’s okay.” The words came out of me automatically, but they sounded all jittery. I realized my teeth were chattering. “I’m going to get him out.”

I gave Josh one last look, hoping he would take care of Cranston, before I turned to Micah. “You ready?”

He nodded then took off at a jog. “Let’s move it.”

Kyan was hiding in the woods. “You guys,” he hissed, “this is not good! They’re out here, looking for us.”

My heart stopped. “Already?”

“Yes—about ten of them came up from the exit a few minutes ago. They went the wrong way, thank God, because they thought we came in from a farm adjacent to the back of the property.”

“How do you know that?” Micah asked.

“Because I’m frickin’ telepathic,” Kyan huffed.

“How come you never use your power?”

“Just because Finn, Morgan, and Maya don’t include me in their reindeer games doesn’t mean I don’t have powers. They’re just not as defined.” Kyan stalk-paced the perimeter of the woods, raking a hand through his hair. “Enough about me. Aren’t you guys going to do something? We have to get out of here!”

“We’re going to go in and get Finn. Go back to the others, but make sure you aren’t followed. Let them know the guards are already after us. The twins are waiting for you back at base. The others are headed to the bus.”

“The bus,” an unfamiliar, cocky voice said from behind me. “What bus is this?”

Micah’s eyes went wild, and he put his hand on his weapon.

“Not so fast, you,” the voice said, sounding pleased.

I closed my eyes. Before I did anything, I sent up a silent prayer to the universe, begging for forgiveness.

I gathered my powers, imagining the man behind me. Quickly—faster than I’d ever been able to before—I lifted the guard high into the air.

“What the hell?” he screeched.

And that’s when I threw him, hard and on purpose, against the roof of the building.

There was a sickening crunch, then silence, until the body slid from the roof and collapsed in a heap on the ground.

“Gnarly,” Kyan said, backing up.

“Stop it—just get out of here.” Micah waved him off.

Without further commentary, Kyan nodded, then ran like the wind toward the others.

“You okay?” Micah’s voice was low and even.

I shook my head.

“Can you do this, or do you want to wait here?”

“I can do this.” I refused to look at the soldier I’d killed. “I have to do this.”

“Okay. Stay with me because the layout’s a little funky down there. I have a silencer on my gun, so if we need to shoot someone, let me do it.” Micah headed to the cave’s exit, which we would use as an entry point. “Everyone’s going to be on high alert. We’re going to be shooting people whether you’re comfortable with that or not.”

“I don’t think my comfort level’s important right now. I just want to get Finn out of there.”

Micah nodded once, took his weapon out, and headed silently down the stairs to the caverns.

I took my blaster out even though the sweat from my palm made it slide in my grasp. This was literally life or death—Finn’s life or death. I needed to be brave.

More than that, I needed to be effective.

We descended the narrow stairs, and I sucked in a breath when I saw the interior of the caverns, artificially lit from within. Kyan had been right—they were beautiful. The stalactites covered the ceilings and the walls in dripping, organically formed gloriousness.

It looked like the inside of a human brain, lit from within.

It was warm and moist; I struggled to keep my footing as we crept down the sides of the passageway. Micah peered around the first corner then came back beside me and cursed.

“Guards?” I whispered.

He held up his hand. Five.

I motioned for him to give me a second then closed my eyes. Finn, we’re down here. We’re coming for you.

…, Finn thought back.

What the heck did that mean?

“We need to move,” I said. “Let me deal with them.”

Micah held up his blaster, waiting for me.

I pictured the guards around the corner, all five of them. I could feel the cool metal of their guns with my mind. They would shoot us if we went around the corner. They wouldn’t hesitate.

I couldn’t hesitate, either.

I imagined giant parentheses of molecules around them. Then I lifted them all up and slammed their heads into the wall of the cavern. I heard the impact, but no one screamed, so I kept smashing them against the wall—in the same way I would squeeze a spider in a paper towel after I’d caught it to make sure it couldn’t come out of the trash and get me. Just to be sure.

We peered around the corner, and the soldiers were lying in a heap, on top of each other.

“Did I actually kill them?” I asked in horror.

“I don’t know, and I don’t care right now. It’s just good that they never saw us, so they won’t be able to report what happened to them. Get their weapons.” We grabbed all five heavy automatic weapons and struggled farther down the passage. When we reached a small bridge, we threw them over the side. They splashed into the pool below.

Finn, where the heck are you?

…, was all I heard again.

My heart seized with panic. “Which way is the lab?”

Micah motioned for me to follow as he picked up speed. I struggled to keep pace in the narrow passage. The cavern opened up on the left, and I stumbled. There was a blue, winding stream lit up with artificial lights. Massive stalactites gleamed like icicles from the ceiling, giving the cavern a magical, winter-wonderland feel.

“The Valley of Ice,” Micah explained. “C’mon, we’re almost there.”

He veered down the tunnel to the right, and we entered a “room” with low ceilings covered with smaller mineral growths. Again, the space glowed with artificial light, showcasing the strange beauty of the cave. Small, delicate stalactites covered the ceilings. It looked as if thousands of butterflies were resting on the top of the cave.

This was the room Kyan remembered, the one where he’d gotten into trouble.

“I got those vials in here, toward the back,” Micah whispered.

Noise came from the other side of the cavern, just far enough away to be difficult to make out. I heard a thud, then talking, then another thud. I recognized the sound and simultaneously couldn’t place it as my brain frantically scrambled to make sense of what was happening.

Finn? Are you in here, with the butterflies?

Nothing for a moment, then I heard another thud and someone curse.

Get…out…

I grabbed Micah’s hand and dragged him around the corner.

It wasn’t Finn who’d cursed. It was the guard who was beating him to death.

Finn’s hands were tied above his head, his face bloody and slack. A guard punched him in the stomach, which was the thud I’d heard. “Tell me who you work for and how you got here.”

Finn peered at him through swollen eyes but said nothing.

The guard cursed and punched him again.

“Get away from him!”

The guard looked at me, surprised. I didn’t even think about it—I could only feel white, seething rage—and his body flew to the opposite wall of the cavern, smashing against it and falling to the ground. Bits of crushed stalactites showered down on top of him.

“What the hell?” Another guard that I hadn’t even noticed got up and trained his weapon on us.

Rage pulsed through me, and I threw him against the wall, too. I heard his bones break. He slumped to the ground, immobile.

I didn’t bother to be horrified.

“Finn!”

Micah had already reached him and was untying his arms. “I got you, big guy.”

Micah staggered under Finn’s weight, so I pulled one of his arms around my shoulders. Micah took the other, and we started to limp out of the cavern.

Finn’s head lolled against his neck. He seemed to pass out, then he opened one swollen eye. There’s more. They’re coming. So pissed at you, Finn thought.

“Be ready,” I told Micah. “Finn said there’s more.”

We rounded the corner but then stopped dead.

Because there, blocking the entrance, stood Althea Remington, surrounded by her guards.

24

CATCH AND RELEASE

THEY DISARMED US IMMEDIATELY, while I tried not to stare.

She was even prettier in person. With the artful lighting and the stalactites dripping eerily behind her, she looked like an alien queen in some science-fiction movie.

Which was probably sort of by design. She wore long, colorful robes and a headdress. She was certainly overdressed for hiding out in the Texan caves but probably right on point for eliciting awe, loyalty, and unrequited longing from her all-male guard.

“This is unexpected.” She smiled at us. “I don’t remember inviting three dirty teenagers to visit.”

She sounded almost normal. Why does she sound almost normal?

She’s a mom. She knows what she’s doing, Finn thought back.

I squeezed him gently, relieved he was regaining consciousness.

Micah peered past Finn to me. “Do you want to…you know?”

Don’t! Finn thought. Don’t let her see what you are.

“How did you find me?” Althea stepped closer, and I sucked in a breath at her beauty. Her dark skin glistened in the iridescent cave. Her heavy robes rustled as she inspected us. “Some of my guards are dead. Others are missing. Are you three responsible for all this?”

She smiled, revealing her straight, perfect white teeth.

“No, ma’am.” Micah jutted his chin out. “We didn’t know anybody was here. We were just looking for a place to camp.”

“Really?” She arched a perfectly groomed eyebrow. “What a coincidence. What about these two dead guards behind you?”

“These two guards were beating our friend to death, so we had to fight them,” Micah said.

“It’s interesting—the guards who died near the lake were shot, but I didn’t hear any gunfire in here.” She stepped closer, looking deeper into the cave at the bodies. “What did you do to them?”

“I shot them.” Micah jerked his chin toward the guard who’d taken his weapon. “Silencer.”

“For someone so young, you’re pretty matter-of-fact about killing.” Althea stalked around us. “Seems like no big deal.”

Micah blinked at her. “You’re seriously saying that?”

Althea’s jaw tensed. Apparently, Her Highness didn’t like being spoken back to. “Take them to The Pit and secure them,” she told two of her guards. “I’ll question them at my leisure.”

She swept off, surrounded by a group of armored men.

The remaining guards headed for us, weapons trained on our faces.

I waited until Althea had disappeared around the corner to disarm them. I made their weapons fly into the air and clatter to the ground on the far side of the cave—except for the one that landed in my outstretched hand.

“Nice,” Finn croaked.

“What the—” But the guard couldn’t finish his sentence because I lifted him into the air and threw him into the other guards. They collapsed in a surprised heap, but surprised wasn’t as effective as incapacitated. They started to get up again, blocking our only exit.

I mentally threw the guards out of our way, hard, and smashed them repeatedly against the cavern’s walls until their bodies were mangled and limp. I dropped them on the floor. Cave dust sprinkled down on top of their inert bodies.

“Dude,” Micah said.

Finn said nothing, not even in my brain.

I secured Finn’s arm around me and started to run.

A distant part of my brain started doing math, adding up all the dead bodies I was responsible for, but I ignored it. We whipped around the corner, heading back the way we came. Finn struggled to keep up, so we slowed slightly. As we headed back over the bridge, the cavern’s paths converged.

Althea Remington stood on one path, surrounded by guards, watching us with a surprised look on her face.

Curse word that rhymes with truck

Curse word that rhymes with truck

A number of guards moved protectively in front of her. The rest of them hurtled toward us.

We sprinted down the path, but I tripped, collapsing in a tangle of my own limbs. Micah and Finn skidded to a stop.

“Go!” I shouted at Micah. “Get him out of here!”

“Riley!” Finn screamed, but Micah dragged him down the path as I scrambled to get up, get the hell away from Althea Remington and her sentries, and out of the humid cave.

“Get the girl,” Althea commanded.

The guards bolted for me. I untangled myself and tried to stand, but they were on me in an instant, surrounding me, grabbing every part of my body.

No! No, no, NO!

My survival instincts kicked in—even though I knew I shouldn’t do it, my powers unleashed. I closed my eyes and threw the men’s meaty hands off me. I lifted the guards up and crashed them into each other and the cavern walls. Boom, crash, smash. One of the guard’s mouths formed a surprised “O” as he sailed through the air.

It was almost comical—until I smashed his head into another man’s and they both crumpled to the ground.

Althea pushed through her guards and stepped forward, her eyes flickering with awe. “What are you?”

Curse word that rhymes with ever-loving truck! Finn had warned me not to show her.

“RILEY!” Micah hollered from down the passage.

I locked eyes with Althea, but her largest guard stepped in front of her, shielding her from me.

“HELP!” Micah suddenly screamed.

I closed my eyes and flew toward him. Like, literally flew. My feet lifted off the slippery floor, and I shot through the cavern, skidding to a stop at Micah and Finn’s feet.

“What the hell?” Micah asked, looking at me.

Babe? Finn thought. Did you just…fly?

I didn’t have time to respond. The passage was blocked by six guards. I blasted them out of the way. The sound of even more skulls smashing echoed around us.

We ran up the stairs. I could hear more guards coming behind us, but I refused to think about them. I put one foot in front of the other, grabbed Finn, and held on for dear life, my muscles and lungs burning.

We made it up the stairs and outside. It was dawn. Pink clouds hovered on the eastern horizon, where the sun was about to rise. Pink sky at morning, sailors take warning.

“There are soldiers out here,” Finn said, “and more coming.”

“Can you make it? Do we need to carry you?” I asked. My heart broke as I looked at his bloodied face and his eyes, which were swollen almost completely shut.

“Can you put him on your back and fly?” Micah asked.

“I don’t know—I have no idea what just happened.”

“I got it.” Finn shrugged his arms free then clasped my hand. “If I need to stop and rest, just go on without me.”

“Shut up, dude,” Micah said.

Yeah, dude. What Micah said.

Finn looked as though he tried to smile, but then he winced instead.

There were a lot of things to say, but at the moment, there wasn’t time.

We ran. We ran like crazy people across the property and into the woods, diving over roots and through brush to make it back to the bus. We passed the group of guards we’d tied up, who looked as though they were…dead?

We ran past them.

My lungs blazed. I had no idea how Finn kept up, although my sprint was normally an easy jog for him.

We made it to the parking lot.

There was no one there.

“Oh my God,” Micah said, panting hard. “Where the hell did they go?”

Tires suddenly squealed, and the bus tore out of the woods. Josh slammed on the brakes and opened the door. “Is he okay?”

I pushed Finn ahead of me. “They’re coming. Just go!”

Finn and I collapsed into a seat, Micah close behind us.

My eyes traveled over the other seats as Josh peeled out of the parking lot, skidding onto the street. “Do we have everyone? Is everyone okay?”

“We have everyone—Kyan’s following in the jeep. Whether everyone’s ‘okay’ might be another matter.” Josh motioned toward the back of the bus.

Cranston was back there, in the last row, handcuffed and gagged. He still managed to glare at me.

“Making it on the bus is more ‘okay’ than dead,” I offered.

Josh chuckled. “Tell Cranston that.”

“I think I’ll pass. He looks mad.” Not that I cared.

“So, where are we going?” Josh nervously checked the mirrors as he gunned it down the road.

“Is anybody following us?” Finn asked.

“Just this guy.” He motioned out the window, and we saw Kyan tearing up next to us in the jeep, his hair flying back from his face. He looked into the bus, located Cranston, and promptly gave him the finger.

Cranston cursed underneath his gag. I couldn’t clearly make out what he said, but it sounded suspiciously like “douchelord.”

“I think we should go back to the Superstitions,” Finn said. “We need to deal with Cranston. I don’t think it’s safe to stop and talk to any of the civilians we see on the way—I don’t want to alert anyone to their presence.”

Whether he meant Cranston or Althea Remington, I didn’t know.

Morgan came forward. “Do you think we could stop…to check on our friends in T or C? I just want to make sure those thugs didn’t come back for them. I keep thinking about it.”

“We can’t risk bringing outsiders there,” Finn said lowly so Cranston couldn’t hear. “And what if Althea has us followed? I don’t want to risk it.”

Morgan nodded, but she looked close to tears.

“We’ll figure it out.” He patted her hand. “We’ll get back there, I promise.”

I arched an eyebrow when she went back to her seat. “You’re making promises now?”

He grinned, but the movement made him wince. “What can I say? I know she likes Dave. I’m a sucker for a happy ending.”

“I don’t know if happy endings are on the menu.”

“I probably shouldn’t leave it to chance.” He sighed and looked out the window. “I’m sure Kyan will appreciate being included in a mental text message for once.”

Finn closed his eyes. After a moment, he snapped them open. “Josh, pull over. We need to let Morgan off the bus.”

Josh didn’t hesitate. He just pulled off behind Kyan, who was already idling on the side of the road.

“Morgan?” Finn beckoned to her. “Kyan will take you to check on our friends.”

Morgan’s face lit up as her twin’s fell. “Really?”

“But you have to go now.”

Morgan hugged Maya, who remained stiff beneath her sister’s arms. “I love you.”

Maya frowned. “I love you, too. Do you care that I think you’re making a big mistake?”

“Of course I care.” But Morgan still bounded off the bus, pausing only to speak to Finn. “Thank you.”

“Stay safe and come back to the base immediately. I’m not a fan of us separating—don’t make me regret my choice.”

Cranston started arguing beneath his gag as Morgan hopped in the jeep with Kyan and sped away, but we ignored him.

I started inspecting Finn’s wounds. His face and chest were red and welted. He would be covered with purple, black and blue bruises by morning. “You’re pretty beat up, but you’ll live.”

“Great.” He leaned back against the seat. “But I am seriously pissed at you for coming after me, Hanover.”

“You don’t look it. But maybe that’s because you can barely open your eyes,” I joked.

“Ha-ha.” His voice was gravelly.

I gently laced my fingers through his. “So…that was interesting…down in the caves.”

“Did you ever try to do that before?” he asked. “Fly?”

I shook my head, still unable to process what I’d done. “I don’t even know how it happened.”

“It’s probably the same mechanism you use to lift others into the air. We can practice when we get back. I can listen to what you’re doing and help you figure it out.”

“She saw me, you know.” I swallowed hard. “She saw what I could do. She saw me fly.”

“I know.” Finn squinted at me. “We’ll deal with it. Exposed is better than dead.”

I snuggled carefully against him. “I guess we’re going to find out.”

Emma scooted up a few seats. “Hey.” She patted Finn’s arm. “I’m glad you made it back in one piece, even if it’s an ugly piece.”

Finn managed to scowl at her before he collapsed back against his seat. “Gee, thanks.”

“Riley, I have to tell you something.” Emma leaned closer to me. “I had to kill those guards.”

“I know. I saw them.”

“We couldn’t risk them telling the others what we could do.”

I sighed. “You could’ve let them live because I royally screwed up. I used my power in front of Althea. She knows what I can do. And she didn’t look afraid—she looked excited.”

Emma grimaced. “It’ll be all right.”

“Why do I doubt it?” I snuggled closer to Finn, careful of his wounds, and refused to think about Althea. Finn was alive, and he was here, and we’d gotten the vials.

At least I hadn’t managed to ruin everything.

25

BEWARE FALSE IDOLS

THE DRIVE WAS LONG, but I barely slept. I kept counting and recounting the number of people I’d killed.

You had to do it to survive, Finn reminded me. And to save me. Which would be hot if I didn’t feel sort of emasculated.

Get over it, I thought, and go back to sleep. I need to wallow a little while longer.

We checked for surveillance periodically, but Althea’s team hadn’t followed us. Maybe there weren’t enough of them left to make the journey.

“What’s the plan?” I asked Finn when he finally woke back up.

“You think I have a plan? You’re so supportive.”

I giggled in spite of my heavy heart.

Finn sat up stiffly. “We need to figure out what’s in those vials.”

“How can we do that?”

“We’re going to have to test them. We need lab equipment.”

“Is there anything like that back at the base?”

Finn shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

“So…”

“So we have to either find a working lab to take over, or we need to play nice with Management.”

“What’re we going to do about them?” I kept my voice low enough that Cranston couldn’t hear.

“They know where we are, and they have this whole time,” Finn said. “I don’t believe Cranston was able to keep everything from them. They can track our monitors—they had to know we went off-mission. But they might not know what we did to him. That’s actually the only thing we have in our favor. He doesn’t want them to know we ran off. That information is the only bargaining power we’ve got—that and the vials. And the bomb-making equipment we got from that woman in Phoenix; they’ll be interested in that.”

“What are we bargaining for exactly?”

“Lab access and the freedom to check on our families. We need to know they’re okay, and I don’t trust Cranston’s assurances. I’ll put it to a vote, but that’s what I think we should ask for.”

“What if they say no?”

“Then we move on to Plan B.”

“What’s Plan B?”

“Aw, Hanover, you think I have a Plan B? You’re so cute.”

EMMA AND FINN spoke in low tones for a long time. We neared the outer limits of the Superstitions, and the mountain range loomed large on the horizon. I hadn’t seen the mountains in the daylight yet. They rose—stark, craggy, and majestic—against the skyline.

“Do you agree with me?” I heard Emma ask him.

Finn nodded. “I’m willing to try. Bring him up here.”

Emma went back and grabbed Cranston by the handcuffs and led him to the front of the bus. Emma removed the rag that had been gagging him and gave him water to drink. Once he’d finished, he cleared his throat.

“You two have a hell of a nerve, treating me like this.”

Emma’s shoulders slumped. “You haven’t given us a lot of choice, sir.”

“I’ve been training you since you were ten. I’m your family, goddammit.” His voice shook. “I’ve helped you both more than you deserve, and now you just throw me out like I’m trash?”

“It’s my fault, sir.” Finn’s face was so puffy, it surprised me that the words came out correctly. “It was my idea to lock you up and go out on our own. I didn’t want to wait anymore, and I convinced the others to go along with me.”

“So? Is that an apology?”

“No, it’s an explanation. I don’t want anyone to be punished but me.”

I sat forward. “Finn, that’s not—”

“Stop it, Riley.” Cranston turned to me. “I’m starting to think you’re the real problem here. Finn was my best soldier until you showed up.”

“Sir.” Finn’s voice was a growl. If I didn’t love him, I might have been a wee bit scared of him at the moment, with his mangled face and the terrorizing way he was looking at Cranston. “Do not ever speak to her like that again.”

Cranston shook his head slowly, as if we’d given him a headache. He exhaled. “Fine. I was just expressing my opinion, but fine. I want to know what to expect when we get back to the base. Are you coming back in?”

“What if we say no?” Finn asked.

“Then we’re going to have a problem.”

“We’d like to talk about coming in—acting like this never happened, if you want—but there’s conditions.” Emma was using her “nice” voice, the good cop to Finn’s menacing one.

“I’m listening.” Cranston sounded as if he wished he weren’t.

“We want more information on a consistent basis, a daily briefing at the least. And we want to have a say in what we do. If we think we can help, we want to be able to present it to Management and actually be heard.”

“What else?”

“We want to be able to check on our families…personally.”

Cranston nodded, and hope rose in my chest. “I understand, but that’s not my call. We’ll have to speak to Nora about it.”

The hope took a nosedive.

We pulled through the gate to the mountain range, and I saw one lone white tent in the foothills of the mountains—I’d seen the outline of it the night we left.

“Do we know who’s camping there?” I asked.

The others turned to the tent. “We should check it out,” Finn said. “See if they need help.”

“They don’t need help,” Cranston said. “That was the camp of the soldier who came in and freed me.”

No one said anything. We knew what had happened to the soldier.

The uncomfortable silence continued as we drove up the mountain to the entrance. Josh hopped out and punched the code in. Cranston grimaced as he watched; we weren’t supposed to have that code.

When we made it up to the living quarters, Finn turned to Cranston. “When was the last time you talked to Nora?”

“Right before I came out to get you.”

“Do you need to check in?”

“Of course I need to check in.” Cranston raised his cuffed wrists. “Do you mind removing these? I don’t think the admiral would respond well to my unit holding me captive.”

Finn nodded to Emma, who released the cuffs.

Cranston smiled. “Thank you. Well, let’s get this over with, shall we? Let me do the talking.”

We went into the conference room. Cranston pressed some buttons on a console, and the large flat-screen came to life.

The image was of a room somewhere with large computers and screens blinking in the distance. Nora turned around to face us. “Cranston, it’s been a while.” She tucked a strand of silver hair behind her ear and peered at us. “Is everything all right?”

“The unit’s here with me. We just got back.”

“What sort of update do you have for us?”

“We found Remington’s headquarters.”

I bristled at his use of the word “we.”

Nora pursed her lips and tapped something into her tablet. “The location in Texas?”

“Yes ma’am.”

Nora looked back up. “I’m assuming she’s still alive?”

He nodded, and a look passed between them. “But the team got samples from her lab. They’re ready to be tested.”

“Excellent. I’ll send a drone shortly.”

Finn coughed. “Actually, Admiral, we’d like to be involved in the testing process.”

Cranston gave him a sharp look, which Finn ignored.

“That’s not possible, soldier. You know the protocol—none of you have lab clearance. Leave it to the experts. We’ll notify you of the results.” Nora went back to her tablet, dismissing us.

Cranston coughed. “My unit has some other requests, based on their recent operative.”

Nora looked up, arching her eyebrow. “Yes?”

“They’d like more information about what’s happening. They’d like an update on their families, and the opportunity to reach out to them personally.”

“Anything else?” Nora asked.

“We’d like to know what happened to all the people, ma’am,” Finn said. “When we went out there, we encountered thousands of abandoned vehicles. We saw very few civilians. Where is everyone?”

Nora snapped her tablet closed. “We have them.”

“Have them where?”

“In a secure network of facilities. We’re keeping the civilians safe from what’s coming, soldier.”

“What is coming?” Finn asked.

“You want to be more involved? Maybe you shouldn’t have scampered off,” Nora snapped. “Take a look at this.”

Her image disappeared, and a shot of a stunning glass building took its place. The picture panned out, showing the large, empty parking lot.

There was an enormous tarp spread out over the lot, scrawled with graffiti:

…MY BELOVED, FLEE FROM IDOLATRY… 1 Corinthians 10:14

“This is a corporate building in Silicon Valley,” Nora said in a voice-over. “They manufacture artificial intelligence.”

“Did Remington get to them yet?” Finn asked.

“She had a team go in and take the entire staff,” Nora said. “I’ll make you a deal, Finn.”

“What’s that?”

“If The Division can rescue these people, I’ll let each of you have contact with your families.”

“What if our families aren’t still alive? How can we make a deal when we don’t even have all the information?”

The image changed back to Nora, who was leaning against a desk, her arms crossed against her chest. “Your families are all fine. I know that for a fact.”

“How?” Finn asked. “How do you know?”

“Because I have them. All of them.”

A heavy silence filled our room.

“Have them where?”

“I’m not at liberty to disclose that, soldier. But what I am able to tell you is that if you and your unit run off again, your families will pay the price. Now, turn over the compounds to Cranston. I want you to write up a complete report of everything you’ve seen since you left the base. File it tonight. In the morning, your team’s going to California.”

The screen went blank, and everyone started talking at once.

“I told you we couldn’t trust them—”

“Oh my God, they have our families?”

“They knew about everything, the whole time. I knew it—”

“That’s enough,” Cranston snapped. He put his hand out to Finn. “The vials—give them to me. And I want that bomb you got in Phoenix.”

Finn didn’t bother to ask him how he knew about the bomb. It didn’t matter. He handed Cranston three vials.

“I want them all, soldier.”

Finn gave him the fourth.

Cranston turned to Maya. “You better send a mental text to your sister to get her ass back here.”

Maya nodded, looking pale.

“Micah,” Cranston snapped, “get me the bag and the stuff you got from the bomber.”

And with that, he dismissed us.

FINN and I sat on his bunk. He was dictating the report we had to turn in. I typed as fast as I could on the laptop I’d borrowed.

“Are you going to tell them everything?” I asked.

“I’m pretty sure they have a decent grasp of the truth, anyway.” He traced a pattern on his thin blanket. “This is my fault. They took our families because we left.”

I captured his hand with mine. “We all wanted to go. It’s not your fault. The fact that they rounded our families up says more about them than it could ever say about us. This is who we’re dealing with. They’ll do whatever it takes to keep us in line.”

His gaze rose to meet mine. His eyes looked hollowed out. “You don’t even know how true that is.”

“I see who they are. And I see who you are. There’s no fault with you, Finn. You just wanted to do what’s right.”

His face darkened. “You shouldn’t put me on a pedestal. I don’t deserve it.”

“Yes, you do.” I leaned forward and kissed his cracked lips lightly. “Let’s finish the report. There’s no time to wallow. The sooner we do what we’re told, the sooner we can see our families.”

Unless they’re lying, Finn thought.

Right. Unless they’re lying. But if they are…then we run for good.

“I don’t know if we can, Hanover. I don’t know if there’s anywhere to hide.”

I was about to say more, but there was a ruckus coming from the hall.

“What the hell?” Maya yelled.

We ran to see what was happening.

Kyan and Morgan were in the hall, arguing with Maya.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“My sister’s an idiot!” Maya shrieked.

“Keep your voice down,” Morgan hissed. “I don’t want Cranston to hear us!”

“What did you do?” Finn asked, but I could tell from his voice that he already knew. “Where is he?”

“In the garage,” Morgan admitted.

We stole out to the garage. Maya didn’t say anything out loud, but I would bet she was giving her sister a telepathic earful. We made it to the cavernous room, and Kyan hit the lights. “Come on out,” he called.

Dave shuffled out from behind the bus, smiling sheepishly. “Hey, guys.”

Maya death-glared at her sister. “What the hell were you thinking?”

Morgan shrugged, but she blushed furiously. “We didn’t know if we’d ever be able to see each other again if I left him behind. So I just…brought him.”

“You brought a date?” Emma scoffed, coming up behind us. “That might be the stupidest thing I ever heard.”

“I would agree with you, but this—the way our lives are—this is the new normal. I didn’t want to leave him behind. And it’s not like we’re going to stay with the unit forever, right?” Morgan asked defensively. “We might leave and go look for our families.”

Maya blew out a deep breath as Dave came forward. He laced his fingers through Morgan’s, and Maya rolled her eyes.

“Actually,” Maya told her twin, “we have an update. And it isn’t pretty.”

EMMA SNIFFED. “She can’t just hide him in her bunk bed.”

I sighed. “She’s on her way to tell Cranston.” I turned to Finn. “Can you listen in and hear what he’s saying?”

Finn closed his eyes for a few minutes, then he coughed. “He’s not really saying anything…it’s more like yelling. Something about her not being able to bring a pet on active duty.”

“Huh.”

“It’s probably not going to end well.” Emma sank down on her bunk. “Any of it.”

Josh and Rachel came in. They sat together on a bunk. They weren’t holding hands, but they were awfully close.

I arched an eyebrow at him. He threw a pillow at me in response.

Micah and Kyan came in, followed a few minutes later by Maya and Morgan.

“Where’s Dave?” I asked.

“Cranston’s got him in a separate room,” Morgan said. “I have to get permission to go see him.”

“Is he safe?” I asked.

Morgan nodded. “For now, anyway. But Cranston said I have to break it off and send him back. He said we can’t be in…a relationship with a civilian.” Her lower lip wobbled.

I leaned forward. “I’m so sorry.”

She raised her gaze to meet mine. “Don’t be. I don’t have to do what they say. I’ll figure it out.”

“You know we’re leaving for California in the morning?”

She nodded then went back to staring at the floor. “I’ll make sure he’s safe. I can at least do that.”

Finn patted the laptop. “We have to finish the report.”

I opened it and started typing as he dictated. The others half-listened, adding in details as we went along. When we’d finally finished, I saved the document and got up. “I’ll go give this to Cranston.” I held my hand out for Finn. “And we should probably hit the medical supplies and get you some fresh bandages.”

He took my hand and followed me out to the hall. He winced and held on to his lower rib cage.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

He nodded. “I think I have a cracked rib.”

“Let’s go tape it up.” We dropped the laptop off with Cranston, and he grunted at us. I didn’t bother grunting back—I preferred Cranston incapacitated and mute. The idea of him being back in charge didn’t sit well with me, but what choice did we have?

I brought Finn to the tiny med room and had him lie down on the metal table. I found some medical tape, and he took his shirt off. My eyes filled with tears when I saw the bruises covering his torso.

“It’s okay, Ri. I’m okay.”

I shook my head. “Nothing’s okay.”

He grabbed my hand and brought it to his lips. “Nothing’s okay except you and me.”

I let out a shaky sigh. “Right.”

He leaned up a little, wincing. “I don’t want to be back here. I don’t trust Management anymore, obviously. But I’m going to do this so we can make sure our families are okay. After that, I’m done.”

“They seem pretty adept at getting us to stay.”

“I know. But we’ll find a way. I meant it about us running away together. We’re strong. We might have a shot at a normal life.”

“Finn, Morgan was right. This is the new normal.” I motioned to his bruised body then vaguely toward the world beyond the mountain. “I don’t even know where we’d go if we got out, what’s even left to run to.”

“We can figure it out. Together.” He took my face in his hands. “The old world’s gone. All that’s left is you and me.”

I grabbed his hand, pulled it to my lips, and kissed it softly.

“Promise me, Ri.”

“Promise you what?”

“That we’ll make it.”

I clung to his hand. “We’re in this for the long haul, remember? That whole genetically designed til-death-do-us-part thing? You never have to worry about me leaving your side. It’s never going to happen.”

He smiled, and I was able to make out the dimple I loved in the ruin of his face. “Never as in never ever?”

“As in never ever,” I assured him. “I love you, Finn.”

The dimple deepened. “I love you, too, Hanover, just as much as if I’d said it first.”

“You did say it first!” I argued. My heart lightened a bit, and I gently pushed him back on the table. “Let’s tape that rib up. I don’t want that pretty body of yours sustaining permanent damage.”

“I love it when you boss me around, babe. It’s seriously hot.”

I giggled. Stop.

Not ever, he thought back, as in never ever.

DEAR READER:

Thank you so much for reading this book! It means everything to me!

If you enjoyed INTUITION, please consider leaving a review here: Amazon-INTUITION. Short or long, reviews help other readers find books they’ll enjoy. This is a brand-new series, so your review means a lot!

I have lots of titles planned for this series. You can subscribe to my newsletter for new-release notifications: https://www.leighwalkerbooks.com/subscribe.

Thank you again. It is THRILLING for me to have you read my book. Please sign up for my newsletter and come along for Riley and Finn’s wild ride!

xxoo

Leigh Walker

BOOK 3, CHAPTER ONE: GET ME OFF THIS ROCK

SNEAK PEEK OF BOOK 3, PERCEPTION!

Micah sat in the corner, arms around his knees. “I need to get out of here. All the ghosts keep talking to me.”

We were leaving the secret base located inside the Superstition Mountains soon, but apparently, it wasn’t soon enough for Micah.

Micah was a medium. Dead people talked to him. Sometimes, they talked through him.

“Is it soldiers who died here?” Finn asked.

Micah shrugged. “It’s the prisoners—the deserters who were locked up downstairs. And that guard Cranston killed is still wandering around here, too. He hasn’t accepted what happened to him. He’s not a hundred-percent sure he’s dead.”

“That’s messed up. Sorry you can hear him.” Finn scowled as he grabbed a shirt and folded it neatly, tucking it into his bag. “At least we’re taking a flight to Cupertino in an hour—you won’t have to listen much longer.”

“Yay.” Micah didn’t sound very excited. “It’s not like we have a choice, right?”

Finn sighed. “Right.”

We absolutely didn’t have a choice. Cranston and Nora, our superiors in the agency, told us they had all of our family members. They offered an ultimatum: everyone would be kept safe, as long as we cooperated. We were heading to our new assignment in Silicon Valley, to find out what happened to the entire staff of an Artificial Intelligence company. They’d all gone missing.

All signs pointed to Althea Remington, the eco-terrorist who was apparently taking over the world. I didn’t know what she wanted with AI, but I didn’t have time to think about it—I needed to make sure my mom was okay, and that Management didn’t do something terrible to her.

“You ready to go, Riley?” Finn asked.

I nodded as I sat on the cool stone floor. “I’m getting there. Just need to finish packing.”

Finn grinned, flashing his dimple. “Are you doing it hands-free?”

“That’s the plan.”

I closed my eyes and started mentally moving my clothes from their drawer to the open duffel on my bunk. I needed to practice controlling my telekinetic power. Recently, Finn, Micah and I fought guards who were trying to capture us. I’d used my power to…incapacitate them.

Except ‘incapacitate’ wasn’t really the right word.

The thing was, I hadn’t meant to kill them—at least, not all of them. But when I’d gotten scared and upset, my powers lashed out.

I mentally organized my clothes as they rose in the air, jeans and running shorts on the bottom, tees and sweatshirts on top. I peeked at my work, pleased as I managed to neatly insert them into my duffel bag.

Folding laundry wasn’t exactly on par with escaping from Althea Remington and her thugs in an underground cavern, but I’d learned that my telekinetic ability resembled a muscle. I needed to use my power regularly; the more I flexed it, the stronger it got. I raised my toiletries into the air, marching the toothpaste, soap and deodorant in an organized line. I packed them snugly into the bag’s side pocket.

“You want to finish packing for me?” Finn sounded hopeful.

“I’m pretty sure you can handle it, big guy.” I opened my eyes and smiled. “I should go check on Morgan, anyway.”

I headed down the hall, to find my friend and her…friend? New boyfriend? Morgan met Dave when we stayed at his compound, a resort in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. The two had immediately hit it off. Still, we’d all been surprised when she’d shown up at the base with Dave in tow.

We were secret agents on assignment. We were at war. We weren’t entirely sure who to trust anymore, including our own superiors. So what were we going to do with Dave, a civilian with shaggy brown hair, an easy smile, and a collection of Roswell T-shirts?

Morgan and Dave were sitting in the cafeteria, talking in low tones. I hated to interrupt, but we were leaving soon.

I sank down next to Morgan and she offered me one of the mini-pizza bagels they were sharing. I took one and smiled. “Thanks. How’s it going?”

Morgan reached out and took Dave’s hand. “Okay…Cranston offered to drive Dave back to T or C, but Dave wants to wait here, instead.”

I tried not to let the shock show on my face and kept my mind blank—Morgan was telepathic. I concentrated on eating the pizza bagel.

“I’d like to be here when you guys get back,” Dave said. He squeezed Morgan’s hand. “I want to make sure Morgan’s okay.”

She smiled at him, but I could see the tension in her face. “I need to go with Riley to pack, for a couple of minutes. Will you be okay?”

“Sure.” He kissed her briefly. The way they looked at each other as we left made me wish I was in another room.

Morgan pulled me down the hall to our room. “You don’t have to say it—I don’t think leaving him here’s the best idea, either. I don’t know if it’s safe.”

“With Cranston?”

Morgan bit her lip. “Yeah. I’m not sure what to do.”

“I don’t know if it’s safe, either,” I admitted. Cranston had done some questionable things lately, including killing a soldier who’d helped him.

Not to mention kidnapping all of our families and blackmailing us into submission.

“I don’t trust Cranston anymore—I’m sure none of us do—but having Dave stay here is the lesser of two evils. If I send Cranston to T or C, we’re putting everyone at the compound in jeopardy.”

I nodded. “You’re right. But what is Dave going to do here?”

“I don’t know…I need to talk to Cranston.” Morgan abruptly turned down the hall toward our superior’s office.

I didn’t know what to do about Dave. I went to find my best friend, Emma. Her precognitive abilities would sure be handy right now.

She glared at me when I found her in the bathroom, applying a thick coat of lip gloss. “I already know what you’re going to ask me, and I don’t have an answer for you.”

“A little testy, are we? What’s the matter, did they discontinue your favorite shade of lipstick?”

“Ha-ha.” Emma twisted the tube shut and moved on to pushing her expertly-gelled bangs to the side for a sexy, side-swept look.

“You know we’re going to California for a battle and not a runway show, right?” I teased.

Her face puckered. “My hair and makeup are about the only things I can control right now, so I’m going for it. Go ahead and make fun.”

“I’m sorry. I know you’re upset—we all are.” Emma’s parents and her younger brother were in Management’s custody, too.

Emma whipped out her eyeliner. “Morgan seems more upset about her stupid boyfriend than her parents.”

My shoulders slumped. “Give her a break. She’s never had a boyfriend before. This is all uncharted territory. Have you…seen anything about him? About what happens to Dave?”

Emma carefully applied her eyeliner. “I don’t know if they live happily ever after, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“I mean…I’m asking if he lives. Or if Cranston’s going to do something bad to him while we’re in California.” I shivered.

“I don’t think so.” She frowned at herself in the mirror, and I couldn’t tell if it was because of her makeup or what we were talking about. “I don’t think Dave’s going to be alone with Cranston for long.”

“Because…? Because he’ll be dead?”

Emma finished smudging her liner and groaned. “I told you, I don’t know what’s going to happen to him. But I don’t think he’ll be dead this week. He won’t be that lucky.”

“Lucky?”

“Kidding. Sort of.” She threw her makeup into her tote and motioned for me to follow. “C’mon. We need to get going—I can’t wait to get off this rock.”

The plane landed on the base’s secret airstrip. The skeleton crew, comprised of two pilots and a technician, refueled and restocked while fielding questions from Cranston. He finished harassing them and strode toward us, his silver crewcut glinting in the harsh Arizona sun.

“Everyone in. Dave, you’re coming, too.”

Dave blinked. “I’m sorry?”

“You waste anymore of my time or get in my way once, you’re going to be more than sorry. Get on and get settled. That’s an order.”

Morgan beamed and leaned into Dave, until Cranston death-glared her into stepping back.

We filed onto the plane, stowing our packs securely and buckling up. The pilots didn’t make eye contact with us, they stayed in the cockpit. The technician, a wiry man in his late twenties, nodded as he walked to the back of the plane to take his seat.

Finn leaned toward me when the tech was out of earshot. “He’s wondering why the heck a bunch of teenagers were at a secret base and are being flown covertly into Silicon Valley. He can’t figure us out.”

“We should probably expect that.”

Finn smiled. He’d been trying to stay upbeat since we got the news about our families, but he was worried sick about his mom.

He put his hand over mine and motioned to the window as the plane taxied down the runway. “Are you ready to see the clouds—and look for the fairies bouncing on them?”

I mock punched him. “You remembered, huh? So embarrassing.” I’d told him my dad had tricked me into looking for fairies on my first flight. I’d fallen for it, even though I was twelve.

“Just another little Riley-Payne anecdote that makes me love you even more.” Finn flashed his dimple and I felt my own cheeks heat as he leaned closer. He gave me a brief, chaste kiss, then waggled his eyebrows when I sighed, wanting more. “I’m not going anywhere, Hanover. But I didn’t think making out on the job was something you’re comfortable with.”

I sighed again. “You’re right. Good call.”

He kissed my forehead. “Boring call, but good call.”

We held hands as the plane rose into the sky.

The flight was short, but I still fell asleep at some point. I woke up to Micah staring down at me.

I bolted upright, confused and annoyed. “What?”

Micah looked around to make sure no one but Finn could hear before he spoke. He handed me a folded-up note. “This is for you.”

“Okay…” I smoothed the paper and sucked in a deep breath.

It was my father’s handwriting, scrawled in blue ink.

Riley,

We need to talk.

Dad

My heart thudded. “Where did you get this?”

Micah held up a small notebook and a blue ball-point pen. “I think I wrote it. Or…I think your Dad came through and used my hand to write it.”

I opened my mouth and then closed it. Because really, what the heck could I say to that?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Leigh Walker is a recovering lawyer who loves Riverdale (OMG—Riverdale!!!), Game of Thrones, and The Walking Dead. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and their three children.

To be notified when Book 3 of The Division series goes live, sign up for Leigh’s newsletter at https://www.leighwalkerbooks.com/subscribe

Stalk news about The Division at its Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/divisionbookseries/

www.leighwalkerbooks.com

leigh@leighwalkerbooks.com