Table of Contents

- SNEAK PEAK OF BOOK #2!

- ABOUT THE SERIES

- In Which My Mother Completely Loses It

- The Cold Shoulder

- The Cutest Boy Ever

- The Invitation

- Proper Motivation

- That Sinking Feeling

- WTF

- No Pain, No Gain

- A Walk To Remember

- Stress Test

- In Which I Seriously Consider Scaling The Fence

- Meditate That

- The Other Ninety Percent

- Fact Or Fiction

- All That Glitters

- The Bright Side

- Better Off Dead

- And Now, For Something Completely Different

- The Other Side

- Follow The Leader

- A Reliable Source

- No Matter What

- Me Vs. You

- Checkmate

- The Same Old Town

- Dear Reader:

- About the Author

- Fresh Meat

PREMONITION

THE DIVISION #1

LEIGH JAMES

CMG PUBLISHING

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.7.14.2017.

Sign up for Leigh’s mailing list at www.leighwalkerbooks.com.

CONTENTS

ABOUT THE SERIES

1. In Which My Mother Completely Loses It

2. The Cold Shoulder

3. The Cutest Boy Ever

4. The Invitation

5. Proper Motivation

6. That Sinking Feeling

7. WTF

8. No Pain, No Gain

9. A Walk To Remember

10. Stress Test

11. In Which I Seriously Consider Scaling The Fence

12. Meditate That

13. The Other Ninety Percent

14. Fact Or Fiction

15. All That Glitters

16. The Bright Side

17. Better Off Dead

18. And Now, For Something Completely Different

19. The Other Side

20. Follow The Leader

21. A Reliable Source

22. No Matter What

23. Me Vs. You

24. Checkmate

25. The Same Old Town

Dear Reader:

About the Author

SNEAK PEAK OF BOOK #2!

Fresh Meat

ABOUT THE SERIES

THE DIVISION

For fans of The Hunger Games and Divergent, this exciting new science-fiction romance series, filled with twists and turns, will take you for a wild ride!

When Riley heads off to boarding school for a summer work-study program, she knows it’ll be demanding. What she doesn’t expect? To be thrust into an intense physical training program described as special, exclusive, and—worst of all—top-secret. She signed up for tuition assistance, not to be held in a secret government facility for boot camp.

Welcome to The Division, the government agency that’s so classified, most United States senators have never heard of it.

The Division wants Riley bad, but she can’t figure out why. Skeptical of what she’s being told, Riley’s determined to uncover the truth. Boot camp is intense, physically and mentally draining. The upside? One of her new teammates is the cutest boy ever. Watching Finn hit the gym wearing a tank top doesn’t suck—although sometimes, his brooding attitude does. But when training forces Riley to confront her tragic past, even Finn’s big biceps aren’t enough to make her want to stay.

Beware: The Division isn’t something you just walk away from. You’d better run.

Riley realizes her capabilities and strengths are greater than she’d ever imagined. But she also learns she wasn’t just chosen for this special program…

She was made for it.

1

IN WHICH MY MOTHER COMPLETELY LOSES IT

I FINISHED PACKING EARLY. As a reward, I grabbed my blanket, a bowl of popcorn, a bunch of mini candy bars, and the remote control. Snuggled on the couch with my snacks, I turned on the television. For my last night at home, I planned to enjoy a Walking Dead marathon that lasted until my eyeballs popped out.

There was a sudden thud outside our apartment door. “Oh, crap!”

My mother’s words sounded slurred from in here—but they were still clearer than I wished they were. Oh crap, indeed. So much for my final cozy night on the couch…

My crazy, drunk mother was home.

She tried to shove the key into the lock, but she must’ve dropped it. She cursed and banged on the door again. “Riley! You in there? Open the door!”

I gave the television one last, longing look. I shoved a mini Twix into my mouth, braced myself, and headed to the door.

I opened it, and she fell through, landing in a heap on the cheap industrial carpet.

“Hey, Mom.”

She squinted up at me through her bangs. She was wearing a jean jacket, Capri pants, and rubber flip-flops. She would’ve looked almost normal, except for the fact that she was crumpled on the floor. Her toe nail polish was a bright, crazy blue, a color she never would have tried before…

Mom slowly picked herself up, her eyes trying to focus on my face. “I realized something tonight. Something big.”

I nodded, even though I had no idea what she was talking about. I gingerly took her arm and led her inside, trying not to breathe too close. She reeked of the VFW. Once we got to the couch, I dropped her as if she were a hot potato about to explode. “Okay then. Good night!”

She collapsed onto my blanket, probably crushing the remote. “Oh no you don’t. I said—I realized something tonight!”

“Oh.” Oh joy.

She scrunched up her eyes, waiting for me to say more.

“Yay?”

“Don’t you be fresh to me, young lady!” Even drunk, she managed to be irritated by me.

“Well, maybe you can tell me about it in the morning, when you’re feeling…better.” I knew she wouldn’t be feeling better, but it would be easy for me to avoid her as she slept it off.

I tried to escape to my bedroom, but she caught me by the wrist.

“Riley.”

I had to fake enough patience to avoid a fight. “Yes, Mom?”

She warily released me. “I know you don’t want to talk about it, but I had an epiphany.”

I wanted to ask how many drinks had brought it on, but I kept my mouth shut.

She leaned forward conspiratorially. “It has to do with your dad. Your sister.”

I recoiled as if she’d slapped me. She never mentioned my sister. As in, never. As in, not once since the memorial service. “What?”

She held up a finger, shaking it at me. “When you’re number’s up, it’s up.” She sat back, her glazed eyes shining in triumph.

“That was your big epiphany?”

“That’s right.” She nodded, two hectic spots of color in her cheeks. “Both of them—it was their time. It was fate. You can’t fight fate. When it’s your number come up on the wheel—BOOM!” She clapped her hands, making me jump. “That’s it. There’s nothing you can do.”

There was nothing I could do. It was official: the cheap Chardonnay had finally eaten her brain.

“Well. That’s—that’s deep, Mom.” I coughed “Really.”

“I told you not to be fresh to me!” Her voice, thick and miserable with booze, carried the sharp edge I hated.

“I’m not being fresh.” I struggled to keep my voice from shaking. “It’s just that you never say anything about Katie, and when you finally do, it’s gibberish. I wish you’d respect her memory more.” I wish you would talk about her when you weren’t shitfaced.

She sat up straight. She’d become small, shrunken, her collarbones jutting out painfully from underneath her jean jacket.

I’d feel sorry for her, but I wasn’t big on feeling these days.

“I don’t talk about your sister because I can’t bear to,” she said, teetering precipitously close to tears.

Aw, hell no. “It’s okay, Mom! I’m sorry I said anything…I’m just being sensitive. You know—teenaged hormones.” I smiled at her brightly, knowing she would never remember this conversation tomorrow. Hormones, my butt. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d talked to my mother about something personal.

“Oh honey, I know. I mean, I don’t know…but you’ve been taking care of yourself, right?” In a rare moment of maternal concern, she looked me over. She must not have liked what she saw because she frowned.

“Yes, Mom. I’m fine.”

Her shoulders slumped. “You’re going to Hollingsworth tomorrow, and I don’t even know if you’re ready. You don’t have to go…”

“It’ll be good for me. It’s the best school in the state.” I fake-smiled so hard my jaw hurt. I’d applied to Hollingsworth, the town’s exclusive boarding school, when I realized my mother was never going to sober up. Number one in my class at my public high school, I’d received a full scholarship. I was moving into my dorm tomorrow morning to start my summer work-study program. My senior-year classes didn’t start until after Labor Day, but I’d jumped at the chance to move out of the depressing basement apartment I shared with my mother and work on the grounds crew all summer.

Anywhere but here sounded good.

“I need to go to bed. I have to get going early tomorrow.” Eager to flee, I backed toward my room.

She shook her finger at me. “You remember what I said. When your numbers up, it’s up.”

“Okay, Mom. Go to sleep.” I rushed to my room and closed the door, relieved to be away from her. I grabbed my headphones and flopped onto my bed. I turned my music way up, blocking out any other noise. If my mom fell on the way to her room, I wouldn’t hear it.

That was fine by me.

I must’ve fallen asleep with my headphones on because there was music in my dream, and then there wasn’t, and then there was someone sitting on my chest and yelling in my face.

“Jesus!” I yelled, coming awake all at once and knocking my mother onto the floor.

“I was trying to tell you the other thing,” she yelped.

I looked at the clock. It was midnight. My mother was slurring. I put my headphones on the nightstand and sat up a little. “Well, you’ve got my attention. Tell me then let me go back to sleep. Please—I have an early run.”

“Good girl,” she croaked from the floor. “You keep up the running. You’ve always been a good girl.”

This was news to me. “What did you want to tell me?”

“Don’t be a sheep.”

I opened my mouth but it just hung there, dangling from its hinges.

“I said, don’t be a sheep, Riley!”

“Okay…”

“Don’t just okay me—I mean it. Don’t follow directions blindly. Think about everything you do.”

“You’re seriously giving me this advice? You can’t even talk straight.”

She sat up a little. “I’m not online. There’s that.”

“You’re not a sheep because you’re not on Facebook?”

She either shrugged or her neck lolled. “If you’re online, they can find you.”

I smacked myself in the forehead. “Who? Who can find you?”

“Are you online?”

“No,” I admitted. It’d be pretty sad to have an Instagram feed filled with…my drunk mother, my homework, and my runs because that’d be about it.

I flopped back onto my bed, studying the water-stained popcorn ceiling. “Why are you telling me this?”

She sighed. “Because even though I haven’t helped you in a long time, I want you to be safe.”

“Okay…I think I’ve got it. (A) When my number’s up, it’s up, and (b) don’t be a sheep—in other words, stay off Snapchat. Are we good?”

“No, we’re not. But you remember what I told you.”

I started to drift off, trying to get away from what she’d said. I didn’t understand it, but I didn’t think that was a failure on my part. It was a cardboard box of Chardonnay talking, disguised as my mother.

She snored from her spot on the floor.

Oddly comforted by the sound, I finally drifted off to sleep.

2

THE COLD SHOULDER

I WOKE the next morning feeling vaguely annoyed, and then I remembered what’d happened. I rolled over, but she was gone.

I’d slept in my sweats on top of my comforter. Even though it was early June, I shivered, feeling stiff. New Hampshire was like that: sweatshirt weather until late June, followed by three months of ninety-degrees and one-hundred-percent humidity, followed by winter. Rent was cheap in Hanover for a reason.

I changed quickly into my running clothes, wanting to be safely out of the house before she woke up. She might’ve staggered back to her room, or maybe she’d passed out somewhere in the kitchen-slash-living room. If I had to step over her on my way out the door, that would be bad. A pang of guilt hit me. I shouldn’t have left her like that last night, passed out on the floor.

But it was the fact that she’d mentioned Katie… She must have been off-her-rocker drunk.

I cautiously left my room, but she was nowhere in sight. Relieved, I went and made myself a piece of toast, drinking some orange juice out of the carton while I waited. When it was ready, I slathered butter on it, folded it in half, and popped most of it into my mouth on the way out the door. I might choke, but I was in a hurry for a good reason. I wanted to get a decent run in before I headed to Hollingsworth. Nervous and excited about going to the dorm and meeting the other students, I knew nothing could calm me down like running.

I put my ear buds in as I started the loop around Occom Pond. There were a few other runners out, getting their miles in before it turned unbearably humid. I wondered if my mother would wake up before I left for Hollingsworth—probably not. Her weekend ritual involved drinking until she passed out, sleeping till noon, rinse and repeat.

During the week when she worked at the laundromat, she skipped the sleeping-till-noon part.

I couldn’t wait to get away from her. This made me a bad daughter, but I needed to get the hell out of Depressing Central, where every day was a hung-over memorial service for the people we’d loved, lost, and didn’t dare talk about.

I rounded the corner on the path. A tall, sinewy man with a silver crew cut ran toward me, and it was too late for me to get out of the way. I bumped into him, and he glared at me, his lip curled into a nasty sneer.

“Why don’t you take out those ear buds?” he yelled without stopping.

“I’m sorry.” My voice probably came out too loud because I was blasting my music.

The man didn’t turn around again.

I hurried through the rest of my run, wanting to get home and take a shower, eager to put the last twenty-four hours behind me.

MY MOTHER SNORED in her room. I snuck to the shower. It would be so nice to avoid a messy scene, especially after last night. I rushed through the shampoo and conditioning process, impatient to finish and finally get out of there.

As I towel-dried my long, thick hair, there was a familiar snuffling outside the window. One of the quirks of our basement apartment was a window located in the shower. I stuck my head around the shower curtain and was greeted by the friendly face of my landlord’s bulldog, Ernie.

“Hi, buddy.”

He snuffled in approval and scratched at the screen.

I reached out my hand, and he put he put his face down so I could pet him through the dusty screen. “I was going to say goodbye to you, you know. And I’m only going to be on the other side of town. I’ll come back to visit you.”

He sneezed, blinked at me then went to roll in a patch of mud. My eyes burned with tears as I watched him get filthy. Ernie had been the one bright spot of moving here. “Don’t get too dirty,” I warned him, “or you’ll have to take a bath.”

He ignored me, gleefully rolling on his back.

I went back to drying my hair, which took forever. I peeked back through the screen, but Ernie had gone inside. I quietly grabbed the things I’d packed and literally snuck out of the apartment to the sound of my mother’s snores. I went around the side of the building, hopped on my old mountain bike, balanced all my crap, and rode down the sidewalk.

I had a sleeping bag, my laptop, my sneakers, pajamas, my journal, and a couple changes of clothes. These things comprised my most cherished possessions. I could come back for the rest. And when I did, I wouldn’t have to stay, and that was everything. I did a mental fist-pump as I headed down Main Street toward the Hollingsworth campus. Thrilled that I’d been able to work this one thing out, I pedaled happily, the wind blowing the hair back from my face.

I couldn’t wait to start over. I so needed to start over.

It took me twenty minutes to reach the ritzy boarding-school campus. I stopped and locked my bike, looking around. Growing up in Hanover, I’d been around the school my whole life. The campus was pretty, but I’d taken it for granted. Now, it looked different to me. The red-bricked colonial buildings were stately, imposing, and full of promise. The green that connected the campus was enormous—a place I’d be able to spread out, have a snack, and read a book around others like me—quiet, serious and introverted.

“What’s up, girl?” A loud voice boomed, making me jump.

A tall, dark-haired, coffee-colored skin boy stood next to me, all bones and bright-white teeth, sporting a black hoodie and smiling expectantly.

I opened my mouth then closed it.

“You speak English? Or…” He furrowed his large eyebrows. “¿Hablas español? ’Cause I’m half-Puerto Rican. I can roll with that.”

“I speak English. You just surprised me.”

He smiled again, easily. “Oh, okay. I wasn’t sure. You looked a little lost.” He held out his hand. “I’m Josh. Nice to meet you.”

“I’m Riley. Are you…a student?” I’d never seen him before. He was so tall and smiley. I would’ve noticed him if I’d seen him around town.

Josh shrugged. “Something like that. I’m here for the summer work-study program. You?”

“Yeah. I just transferred here for my senior year. I’m checking in for the summer work-study program, too.”

He flashed those teeth again. “Ah, I get it. You’re poor.”

“Uh,” I stammered, flustered.

“I’m just teasing you, sheesh!” He eyed my bike. “Are you local?”

I nodded. “I’m from Hanover.”

He patted my shoulder, which was way below his, and beamed at me. I might need sunglasses to look at those teeth. “Riley Payne from Hanover…wow. I’m honored to meet you.”

“Huh?” I swallowed hard. “Why are you honored to meet me? How do you know my last name?”

“I never met anybody from here before. And I saw your name on the list, of course.” He flashed me another megawatt smile. “I have to get going, but I’m looking forward to seeing you around. You’re my newest friend.” Josh got on his iPhone and sauntered off. I watched his big thumbs as they fired off a rapid text.

“Nice to meet you,” I mumbled.

The sun warmed my face as I headed toward the steps of the administration building. Josh seemed nice, but he was definitely weird. Still, he’d called me his friend, and friends were something I’d been in woefully short supply of at Hanover High.

Maybe Hollingsworth would be good. Maybe I’d make friends. Maybe I could salvage my thus-far painful high-school experience.

I started up the stairs. That’s when I saw him.

3

THE CUTEST BOY EVER

HE—WHOEVER he was—wore a backpack with both straps over his muscular shoulders. He stood on the steps of Fallon Hall, staring at me, all six-foot-three, tall, dark and handsome of him. He had on a snug-fitting T-shirt with his ripped torso visible beneath it.

My mouth went dry. If I could create an ideal boy out of my imagination, here he was. Here he was, and he stared in my direction.

I looked over my shoulder to see who he was looking at. But there was no one behind me, so…

I turned back. He was still staring.

“Hi?” I made it a question. Hi, you are the cutest boy EVER. Are you staring at ME?

He didn’t answer. Instead, he scratched his head and kept staring, as if something didn’t compute.

I looked wildly around for whatever had stymied him, but there was no one near us, no one except little old me. “Are you…okay?”

“No.” He shook his head. “Not at all.”

“Can I help?”

“Definitely not.” He turned, cursed, and stalked up the steps.

My stomach clenched. What had I done to offend him?

Why did you say ‘hi’ to him, LOSER? When had a guy like that, or any guy for that matter, ever stared at me?

Never. Never ever.

I groaned, trying to shrink back into myself as I watched him go into the administrative building. I needed to go in there, too. I needed to go in there, and I’d just said ‘hi’ to him, the cutest boy ever, and he’d looked at me like I’d offered him a plague sandwich.

I sighed as I went up the stairs, a pit in my stomach.

The boy was already at the desk. The secretary laughed at something he’d said. She smiled at him, visibly charmed, as they chatted easily.

“Can I please see the student list for the summer program?” he asked.

She twisted a lock of her hair. “Of course, dear.”

The boy looked at the list. From behind, I swear I saw his shoulders tense as he read the names. He thanked her, and she practically fanned herself. When he finally turned around, he gave me the once-over with his dark-brown eyes but didn’t say hello.

I shivered, feeling my face turn beet red.

“Miss? Miss?” The secretary sounded annoyed, probably that I wasn’t tall, dark and handsome—and an asshole.

I shuffled up to the desk as the boy left the building. “Hey. I’m here to check in for the summer work-study program.”

She peered at me over her glasses. “Don’t sound so excited about it.”

“I am excited… I guess I’m just nervous.” I forced myself to smile at her.

“Don’t be nervous. Everybody’s nice. Here, take these.” She handed me a stack of papers, a map, and a schedule. “The place I circled is your dormitory, which is the Tate building. You’re in the west wing.” She gave me directions through the green. “And you have orientation this afternoon, which they’ll do on the quad. Any questions?”

I gathered the papers together and put them into my backpack. “Are all the other students here for the work-study program? Or are some of them just taking summer classes?” I hoped I sounded nonchalant.

“Some are here for classes.” She smiled. “Don’t be nervous. You’re going to love Hollingsworth, and everybody says good things about the summer-work program. If you ever need any help, I’m Gina.”

“Thanks, Gina.”

I grabbed my map and headed out the door, wondering if I’d ever seen the Tate building before.

The handsome boy was out on the green, talking to a group of other students. I mentally crossed my fingers that he was a summer student and wouldn’t be on the grounds crew.

Although seeing him sweat in a tight-fitting T-shirt wouldn’t suck, my mind argued, but he wasn’t nice enough to even say hello, so I wasn’t interested.

I held my head high as I followed the map to Tate. When I finally found it, nestled among the other dormitories, my heart soared. It was red brick with black shutters and skylights—the perfect blend of classic and modern. This was my new home. I smiled as I slid my key card in the slot and went through the doors. The lobby was sunny, immaculate, and best of all, silent—no drunk moms waiting to spring out at me.

I headed to my room—number three—and put my hand over my heart when I got inside. It was spacious and sunny with enormous windows facing the quad. I unpacked my things, carefully spreading my sleeping bag out on the mattress. I’d go home at some point, preferably when my mother was at work, for a set of sheets and my comforter.

I sat on the bed and looked at my schedule. I had two hours before the meeting. Tired from my run, my mom waking me up last night, and the weird encounter with the handsome boy at the office, I got into my sleeping bag. It smelled like home, which surprisingly, made me ache.

My eyelids drooped, so I grabbed my phone to set the alarm in case I fell asleep. I curled around a patch of sunshine on my bed, letting the heat seep into me, feeling warm and comfortable. I didn’t know if I was the only person already in the dorm, and I didn’t care. I thought about the boy again, wondering why he’d looked at me that way, wondering if I’d imagined it. I probably had. I possessed a very wild, overactive imagination, probably a side effect of having no social life.

I started to drift off. Maybe, now that I’d started Hollingsworth, things would be different…

I knew I’d fallen asleep because my dad was there. He was unpacking groceries in the kitchen of our old house. My heart hurt. I yearned both for him and that house. The white kitchen cabinets were nicked, the refrigerator sagged, the old pine floor planks were warped, but it was home.

Dad smiled at me, his eyes crinkling. “I’m going to make soup, pumpkin. Do you want to help?”

“No,” my dream-self said. I wanted to slap her, to jump in and say, “Of course!” It was my dad, and he was so close to me, and he wasn’t dead…

He picked up the milk and smiled. “Go have fun. I understand.”

I left the kitchen, but part of me screamed to go back, just let me go back to see him for a little while longer! But instead, I ran outside, to the dirt driveway and picked up rocks. My hands got dusty as I piled them high.

A shadow appeared across the pile I’d assembled.

I looked up to find the man with the silver crew cut from my run that morning. He stood over me, looking unimpressed. Then he opened his mouth and bleated. Like a sheep.

I sat up suddenly, yanking myself from sleep. What the heck? I looked at the time—crap. I’d fallen asleep for almost two hours. I’d accidentally muted my phone. The meeting started in fifteen minutes. I got up and hustled to the shared bathroom on the floor, trying to shake off the dream. I brushed my teeth and hair as fast as I could. A toilet flushed. I grabbed my things to flee, but a girl sprung out from the stall.

“Hey. I thought I heard someone out here.” She was a little taller than me with gorgeous, porcelain skin and a short, strawberry-blonde pixie haircut. She washed her hands. “I’m Emma.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Riley.”

She dried her hands, looking me up and down, and I had the odd sensation I’d somehow disappointed her. “I’m Emma West. I’m from Indiana.”

“Huh. I’ve never been to Indiana…”

“You’re not missing anything. Except for the Hoosiers—they’re pretty awesome.” She looked at me, as though she were waiting for me to say something.

“Huh,” I said again.

She continued to inspect me, her sharp, green-eyed gaze cataloging every detail. “Are you a student or part of the grounds crew?”

“I’m both. But I won’t start classes until the fall.”

“What did you say your name was, again?”

I licked my lips. “Riley. Riley Payne.”

Her gaze laser-focused on me, as if it were about to gamma ray my face off to see behind it. “And where are you from?”

“From here—from Hanover.”

“Wow.” She didn’t sound wowed.

“Um, I have to get to that meeting.” I backed out of the bathroom, desperate to get away from her.

“I’ll see you out there.” Emma sounded vaguely disgusted.

Again, I’d offended someone I didn’t even know. I grabbed my phone and my notebook, hustling out to the quad. Maybe life at Hollingsworth wasn’t going to be so different, after all.

4

THE INVITATION

THERE WERE about thirty kids gathered for the meeting, more than I’d expected. I made a beeline toward the back, hoping to avoid Emma and perhaps spy on her, to see if everyone else disgusted her as much as I did.

“Hey, Hanover! Over here!”

Josh waved from the front row, where he sat cross-legged on the ground. I waved but kept heading toward the back.

“HANOVER! Come sit with us!”

I winced as he patted the ground next to him and looked at me, smiling and expectant, a Labrador retriever waiting for his new buddy. I headed toward him and then noticed the person sitting on his other side—Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome, already scowling at me.

Ugh. My stomach dropped as I sat down next to Josh, trying to hide myself in his shadow. “Hey.”

“Hey yourself!” Josh said, his smile blinding. “Did you settle in?”

“Pretty much. How about you?”

“I’m all set. Good to go.”

The boy next to him still scowled, a sharp contrast to Josh’s easy enthusiasm.

I wanted to keep talking to Josh, so I didn’t have to deal with his disapproving sidekick. “Where are you from, originally?”

“Arkansas.”

“Is Arkansas…nice?”

“It’s great.” Josh smiled at me again, and it dawned on me that he might always be this upbeat. “Have you met Finn?” He jerked his thumb in the direction of him.

I swallowed over a sudden lump in my throat. “Not exactly.”

Josh leaned back so Finn’s glorious, glowering countenance was revealed. “Finn, this is Riley. Riley, this is Finn.”

Finn didn’t look up from watching the blade of grass he was ripping with his fingers. “Why did you call her Hanover?”

“’Cause she’s from Hanover. Duh.”

“Ah.” Finn brought his gaze up to meet mine. He was so gorgeous, I almost threw up right there on the quad. “It’s nice to meet you, Hanover.”

“It’s actually Riley—”

“Emma!” he yelled suddenly. “Over here!”

Emma nodded to him, heading our way. She wore a cute, spaghetti-strapped dress that showed off her toned body. She also sported stylish combat boots, which just made her more intimidating. She was in perfect shape to kick my ass, should she be so inclined, all while looking better than me.

She rolled her eyes when she saw me. “I see you guys have met Riley.” She flopped down, sounding thoroughly underwhelmed.

“It’s nice to see you, too,” I said, under my breath.

“Good afternoon,” a female voice called from the front of the quad. “Welcome to your first day of summer session! I’m Mina Yang, and I run the program. I will be calling out your names to send you to your specific group. You’ll meet your other team members and your group leader. You will find out about your summer work-study placement.”

Josh nudged me. “I hope we’re all together!”

I forced myself to smile and be polite. “Yeah, that’d be nice.” I refused to look at either Finn or Emma.

Ms. Yang’s long, dark curls fell over her shoulders. She smiled kindly at us. “When I call your name, go to the appropriate area. They’re marked with signs. Your group leader will explain the expectations for each group.” She went through the list of names, assigning people to groups such as irrigation crew and shrubbery. My name wasn’t called for a while, until she said, “Next is the off-campus crew. Riley Payne, you’re first.”

I dragged myself up and headed to the appropriate sign, wondering who would join my crew. Ms. Yang called Emma West, Josh Lafontaine, and Finnegan Ryan shortly thereafter—the prosecution’s Exhibit A, B and C in support of this turning out to be one of the worst days ever. Well, Josh wasn’t that bad.

Emma glared at me as she came over. Finn looked at the sky. Ugh. Double Ugh.

We stood together awkwardly for a minute. Josh was the only one who looked pleased. No one else’s name was called for our group.

My heart sunk. “This is everyone?”

“Tell me about it.” Emma snorted.

I felt my indignation mounting. “And what does the off-campus crew even do?”

Josh smiled at me. “Don’t worry, Hanover. I’m sure we won’t be bored.”

A man carrying a clipboard headed our way. I recognized him immediately. It was the silver-haired man from my run this morning, the one I’d bumped into, and the same one who’d bleated like a human sheep in my dream. The hair stood up on the back of my neck. This seriously wasn’t turning out to be my day.

Finn watched me, the muscles in his jaw taut. “You okay, Hanover?” He kept his voice low.

“I’m great,” I lied, “and my name’s Riley.”

He went back to ignoring me.

“Ah, now all of our questions will be answered,” Josh said as the man approached.

“That’s our group leader?” I held my breath as the man approached, the silver bristles of his high-and-tight glinting in the sun.

“Well, well, well,” he said. “The off-campus crew. Handpicked to be the best, the finest, of all the grounds-keeping crews. And I am Donald Cranston, your group leader.”

I assumed he was kidding.

“You four were chosen because of your special skill set.” He checked off something on his clipboard. “Are you ready for a real-life summer of adventure?”

He was kidding, right?

Finn crossed his arms against his chest, and I looked away, trying not to ogle his bulging biceps.

“Can’t wait,” Finn said. “How far off campus are we going?”

“Not far enough.” Emma sounded bored.

Cranston looked down at his clipboard. “So we have Emma, Finn, Josh and, drum roll, please—Riley. Hi, Riley.”

“Um…hi.”

Emma groaned. “You say ‘um’ too much.”

I opened my mouth and then closed it, while Josh elbowed her in the ribs. “It’s annoying,” she explained to him. “Someone needs to tell her. I’m trying to be a friend.”

Cranston frowned at me from under his silver crew cut. “So you’re the new girl, huh?”

I looked at the others, confused. “Aren’t we all new?”

No one answered. Josh shrugged, Emma arched an eyebrow, and Finn looked as though he might feel sorry for me.

“Sure,” Cranston said easily. “Now Riley, are you comfortable coming to a private group meeting? I’ll bring pizza.”

“Sure.” I didn’t feel sure, but also didn’t know what else to say. I just knew I couldn’t say “um.”

“Great. Meet me outside of Tate at zero-eighteen-hundred hours. See you all then.”

Then he was gone, leaving me and my three teammates. “Well—see you.”

Josh smiled, Finn looked at the ground, and Emma groaned.

Can’t wait. No, really.

I CHANGED into my nicest T-shirt, brushed my teeth, and put on some lip-gloss. I headed down the stairs. Voices drifted up from the lobby.

“This is ridiculous,” a female voice said. Emma. “She’s blonde, for Christ’s sake.”

“You’re blonde,” said a boy’s voice. Josh.

“I highlight my hair. It’s a fashion statement, not a handicap!”

“I don’t see what the big deal is,” he said, “I think she’s nice.”

“Nice isn’t exactly appropriate,” said a third voice. Finn. “I’m hoping we have this wrong.”

I had no idea what they were talking about, besides me. Appropriate for what? But I had to face them, so I cleared my throat as I came down the stairs. “You don’t have to worry about it. I’m not really that nice.”

They all stared, but I ignored them, pushing through the door and trying to feign indifference. It was getting cooler, so I zipped up my sweatshirt, shoving my hands in the pockets, thankful for something to do with myself besides start crying because three strangers were dissecting me.

Mr. Cranston waited outside, tapping away on his smartphone. He was tall with a lean runner’s build. He looked sinewy and strong beneath his light sweatshirt. He grinned when he saw me. “Riley, it’s good to see you. It’s nicer meeting this way, rather than you bumping into me because of those god-awful ear buds.”

My face flamed. “Oh, you recognized me. I wasn’t sure, Mr. Cranston.”

“Ha-ha,” he said, even though I wasn’t trying to be funny. “Please, call me Cranston.”

My three so-called teammates shuffled out. Finn came to stand next to me. Maybe this was his lame version of an apology.

“Let’s go have some pizza. Follow me.” Cranston herded us to the nearest dining hall.

Josh caught up to me while we walked. “Sorry about before, Hanover.”

“You didn’t say anything wrong. You don’t need to apologize.”

He leaned close. “I have guilt by association.”

“I don’t blame you.” I glanced at Emma, who stared straight ahead.

Josh put his arm around me. “You’re the best.”

Finn turned, his eyes flicking to Josh’s arm around my shoulders.

Josh sighed, let me go, then held the door open for me. I didn’t normally like people touching me, but Josh’s easy attention set me at ease. Besides, our group needed at least one gentleman.

Cranston ushered us past the main dining area to a smaller, private room. There were already boxes of pizza stacked in the corner. My teammates headed directly for it, loading up their plates and grabbing drinks. I took a slice of cheese and sat down, picking at it.

Emma shoved a huge bite of bacon pizza into her mouth. “Go ahead and eat, Riley. You don’t have to worry about smearing your lip gloss,” she said, through her food. “We really don’t care.” Her eyes flicked to Finn. “None of us.”

Josh shot her a look. “Shut up, Emma.”

I ignored her and took a bite, stubbornly careful not to smudge my lip-gloss. I planned to stuff slices of bacon pizza into each of Emma’s precious combat boots later, while she slept. I might squirt some lip-gloss in there for good measure.

Emma rolled her eyes at Josh. “You’re so annoying when you’re chivalrous. Like, seriously.”

Cranston shook his head as he sat down. “That’s enough, everyone.” He took a bite of pizza and considered me as he chewed. “So…the off-campus crew. Are you ready for this?”

I put down my drink. “I’d like to know more about it and what we’re doing. What’s considered off-campus, technically?”

“Anything that’s not the main campus.”

I wrinkled my nose at his non-answer. “There’s another part of campus? Is it in Hanover? Does Hollingsworth own other property nearby? I’ve never seen it.”

“Okay, okay. You have a lot of questions. I get it.” Mr. Cranston put down his pizza, looking serious. “Riley, this assignment might be a little more involved than you were expecting. There’s a…travel aspect to it.”

I looked at the others, confused. Emma shoveled more food into her mouth. Josh watched me with interest, and Finn stared at the table. “Did you guys know about this?”

“Yeah, we knew.” Josh shrugged. “It’s part of the deal.”

I turned back to Mr. Cranston. “Part of the work-study deal? Do I have to travel to get my tuition? I thought we were going to be here all summer, working on the grounds because we’re the grounds crew.”

He watched my face carefully. “Is there some reason you need to stay in town? For…family?”

I pictured my mother, passed out on the floor. “No.”

“Good, because this part of the summer program is…selective. You’ve been chosen specifically because of your record. Only certain students are chosen for this group, and you have the privilege of working off-site. It’s part of the deal if you want the scholarship.”

“Okay,” I said, but none of this sounded okay. It sounded off. “But why do I feel like I’m the only one who didn’t know about this?”

I looked at the others, but no one met my eyes.

“I had the opportunity to meet with your teammates before, to explain,” Cranston said, his voice soothing. “The four of you represent a very special segment of the student population. The fact that you’ve been assigned to this group speaks very highly of your potential.”

I looked at Emma, who gnawed on her pizza crust. “This is the ‘special’ grounds group?”

Cranston nodded. “Yes.”

“Special how?” I couldn’t be the only one with great grades here. Hollingsworth was a top-notch boarding school. Most of the graduates went on to attend Ivy-League schools.

He pursed his lips. “Each of you has special abilities.”

“I don’t think I’m particularly gifted with bark mulch.”

Cranston leaned forward. “I think you might be.”

“We’re going to be working down at Freel for a while,” Finn interrupted, probably sensing the conversation going nowhere.

“We have a campus at Freel?” Freel International Air Base was located two hours south, at the bottom of New Hampshire, in Portsmouth.

Finn nodded, raising his gaze to hold mine. “We do. And we have some very important work to do there. So…will you come, Hanover?”

“It’s Riley.”

He smiled at me, and it was like the sun coming out. “Right…Riley.”

Suddenly, off-off campus didn’t seem like such a bad idea. “When would we go?”

“Soon,” Finn said, his voice soothing. “But it’s not like we’re going very far.”

I could feel them all watching me as I processed. FINN wants me to go! FINN is asking me to go to Freel Air Force Base with the work-study program, and he is using a soothing tone on me to be persuasive!

I wanted to say yes, but my mouth couldn’t form the word with them all staring at me. And…did I only want to say yes because he’d been the one to ask me? Hunky though he was, I didn’t know him, and he hadn’t been nice to me until now. The whole proposition seemed a little sketchy, a little out of the blue. I also didn’t like the fact I was the only one who hadn’t known about the travel aspect. It’d been sprung on me, and I couldn’t begin to understand why.

Don’t be a sheep. My mother’s slurry words suddenly echoed in my head.

I shoved my paper plate away. “You know what, guys? I don’t think so. I’d like to ask for another assignment.”

Without another word, I grabbed my water and hustled from the room.

5

PROPER MOTIVATION

I WANTED to go back to my room and curl up into a ball again, but I didn’t want to be in the same building as Emma. Instead, I grabbed my bike and rode around campus aimlessly for a little while, ending up over by the sports complex.

Luckily, the football team had gone home for the night. It was twilight, quiet, and peaceful in the stadium. My dad had taken Katie and me here years before for a couple of home games, and we’d been bored to tears. Now, relief flooded me as I sat on the bleachers to watch the stars come out.

I didn’t understand what had had happened today, and I needed to process. My grounds crew had been handpicked because we were supposedly special. But I had no special skills. I’d never worked as a landscaper before, and I only had a rudimentary understanding of how to mow a lawn and make it look pretty. I’d never even weeded a garden.

“Hey.”

I jumped, startled as Finn sat down beside me. “You’re speaking to me?”

“I speak. I’m speaking,” he said, a little defensively.

“Did they send you to convince me to go?”

“Something like that.”

“Why you?”

“I think you know.” He smiled at me in the semi-darkness, and I caught the flash of a dimple.

Because they want me to go, and they don’t think I’ll say no to you.

“Because of your dimple?”

He laughed. “It’s usually pretty effective.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure it is, but I’m not saying yes because I don’t understand what’s happening. Why are we going to Freel? Why am I on the special crew when I have no special skills?” Why does everyone but Josh hate me?

Finn leaned back against the bleachers, looking up at the stars. “It’s pretty up here, huh?”

I sighed because he’d ignored my questions, and I had more. “Where are you from?”

“New York.”

“The city?” He suddenly seemed even more exotic.

He laughed again. “Yeah, we can’t see the stars there.”

“Huh.” I looked back up. “I can’t imagine living like that. Did you like it?”

“This is nicer.”

“Are you going to answer my other questions?”

He turned to face me. “Are you going to keep asking more? That’s eight so far, Hanover.”

“Can you please stop calling me that?”

“Nine. Nine questions.”

I sighed. “Tell me what’s in Freel, and tell me why they want me to go. Those are commands, not questions.”

“Hollingsworth has an off-campus facility in Freel. Everyone in our group was chosen because we each have something special to contribute.”

“Can you please tell me what I can contribute to the grounds crew that’s so special?”

“That’s ten. And no, I can’t tell you. They’ll show you an aptitude test.”

“Who’s they? And they have an aptitude test for landscaping? And stop counting my questions!”

“When I say ‘they,’ I mean the people who run the program. And yes, they have an aptitude test.”

I studied his profile. His jaw was strong. He had high cheekbones, dark brown eyes, and his thick brown hair was kept short. I’d never had this much handsome sitting next to me, and since he’d finally started being nice, he seemed even better looking.

I feared that’s why they’d sent him.

“Why do I feel as though there’s something you’re not telling me?”

He shook his head. “Because you’ve asked me so many questions I can’t keep up, and I probably didn’t answer them all. But you shouldn’t worry, Hanover—I mean, Riley. Portsmouth will be fun.” He stood to go.

“How do you know?”

He grinned down at me, as if to say, because my dimple and I will be there—duh. “’Cause I’ve been there. I think you’ll like it.”

LATER, I crawled into my sleeping bag, thoughts swirling. Of course, I would show up for work tomorrow. That wasn’t an issue. But what was waiting in Freel? I knew I didn’t have the full picture, but did it matter? It was the summer-work program. It couldn’t be all that exciting.

Still, I was…excited. I tossed and turned, unable to sleep. I told myself it was because I’d finally started at Hollingsworth and gotten away from my mother, and that it had nothing to do with Finn.

But I sucked at lying, even to myself.

THE NEXT MORNING, I went for an early run. Pink clouds streaked the sky as the sun came up.

I groaned when I got back to the dorm. A beat-up minivan sagged against the curb outside of Tate. It was my mother’s car—no mistaking it. She’d probably been up all night. Ugh. I held my breath as I approached the driver’s side, but it was empty.

“Over here.”

She sat on the dorm’s front steps, smoking a cigarette.

I hustled toward her. “You can’t smoke on campus, Mom.”

“Oh, Jesus.” She inhaled deeply. “Is your work-study job campus security? Or the campus holier-than-thou team?”

“No, Mom. Please put it out.”

She took another stubborn, deep drag then stubbed it out. “Such a warm welcome from my daughter.”

I sighed. “What’s up?”

“I brought you some sheets and your comforter.” She patted an oversized bag by her side. “I know you only packed that ratty old sleeping bag.”

I sat down next to her slowly, the muscles in my thighs protesting as I sank down. “Thanks.”

She eyed me warily. “Are you settling in okay? Are the other kids nice enough? I know it’s a bunch of rich kids.” Her voice became gentle, and I realized that not only was she sober, she was actually making an effort.

Touched, I smiled at her. “They’re pretty nice except this one girl—Emma. She’s only nice sometimes.”

She patted my hand. “She’s probably just jealous.”

“Ha. I don’t think so. If you saw her, you’d know what I mean.” I paused for a second, wondering if I should tell her about the trip to Freel. If we were gone for a few weeks, I should let her know.

In case she drowns in a pool of her own vomit, and they need to find me.

I shivered. “So my group’s been assigned to deal with some off-campus properties. We’re actually supposed to go down to Portsmouth tomorrow to work at the Freel Air Base.”

My mother wrinkled her nose. “Freel is a government-owned property. Hollingsworth doesn’t have a campus down there.”

“I know—I mean, I don’t know all the details, but it’s just going to be for a few weeks.”

Her brow wrinkled. “Who’s going?”

“Me and the other kids in my group. And the man who runs the program.”

My mother suddenly looked soberer than she had since Dad and Katie died. “And who’s that?”

“His name is Donald Cranston. You don’t know him.”

“I don’t think you should go.”

I whipped my head toward my mother. “Why not?”

Her face flushed. “I don’t think it’s a good idea, Riley.”

“Could you be a little more specific?”

“No.” She cursed under her breath. “Just please, don’t go.”

Panic seized my chest. “Are you sick? Do you need me to stay because you’re sick?”

“No—it’s nothing like that.”

“Then what?”

She wrapped her arms around her legs. “I don’t…I don’t think it’s a good idea. That’s all.”

I started to feel seriously annoyed. “You need to say more than that. I don’t understand.”

She didn’t speak for a minute, but anxiety played out on her face.

“Mom—what is it?”

She turned to me. “I already told you. You need to remember what I told you.”

My mind raced back to our last night together, to her drunken proselytizing. When you’re number’s up, it’s up. And don’t forget our other fan favorite: don’t be a sheep!

“I don’t think I’m being a sheep by fulfilling my work-study duties.”

“What do you know about it, huh?”

I threw up my hands. “I know that you’re not making any sense, and you’re not telling me anything to support your objections!”

“I can’t. I can’t tell you.”

I stood to go. “That’s crazy, Mom. Not that it’s anything new and different.”

“Riley—listen to me, honey—”

“But you’re not saying anything!”

She shook her head. “I know you’ve been making plans. Isn’t that what you’ve been doing, with all this National Honor Society and boarding-school business? Hollingsworth is one of the hardest schools to get into in the whole country, honey. You’ve worked so hard to get here. I know that. But it’s not going to keep you safe.”

The crazy train has arrived! Next stop, the psych ward!

“Where are you going with this?”

She stood next to me, and even though I outweighed her, she suddenly managed to make me feel small. “Your plans aren’t going to save you, Riley. Nothing can, not once they get their nails into you.”

“Who?”

“Them, Riley. Them.”

A bolt of terror shot through me. My mother had gone certifiably insane. “Mom.” It was all I could manage because my eyes filled with tears.

Her own eyes swam with tears as she squeezed my arm. “You remember what I told you. You remember, and when the time comes, baby girl, you run.”

She hustled to the minivan without another word. She peeled out, probably to embark on a drinking binge like no other.

I grabbed my sheets and comforter and shuffled into Tate, feeling confused and as though I’d taken a beating. I showered because I had to, crying in the stall as the hot water ran over my miserable, puffy face. Over the past two years, I’d learned the shower was the best place to cry. You could conveniently wash the tears away, and no one could hear you.

I skipped breakfast, opting instead for a granola bar and a yogurt. I packed up, realizing I hadn’t said goodbye to my mother. Tears threatened again, but I pushed them back. I didn’t have that many tears left. I had to save them for what mattered.

I thought about what she’d said. I ran through the conversation again and again, but I still didn’t understand. Was she upset that I was leaving town, leaving her alone once and for all? Or was she hiding something?

I can’t tell you.

Can’t tell me what?

Your plans aren’t going to save you, Riley. Nothing can, not once they get their nails into you!

I roughly packed my few belongings. No one wanted to get nails into me. My mother was a drunk widow bent on self-destruction. I had one word for all the drama. Whatever.

I WAS PACKED, ready, and waiting outside on the sidewalk before everyone else.

Josh rolled out of Tate next, his hair still wet from the shower. He smiled when he saw me. “You’re coming, Hanover?”

“It is my work-study assignment.” I shrugged. “It’s not as if I have anything better to do.”

Finn came out next, looking freshly showered and alert. He smiled. “Good morning, team.”

I nodded, trying to ignore the burning in my cheeks. Emma smirked at me.

Cranston pulled up in a silver Mercedes mini-bus, something fancier that I’d pictured. He opened the passenger door. “Everybody in.”

He nodded at me. “Nice to see you this morning, Riley. Wasn’t sure you were going to make it.”

I shrugged again.

We grabbed our backpacks and filed in, each of us choosing our own rows, while Cranston doled out bagels and juice. “Try not to get crumbs on the floor. I hate crumbs!”

Finn sat across from me. I pretended not to notice him.

“Is everybody ready to get to work?” Cranston pulled the bus out onto Main Street.

“Ready!” Josh called.

Finn nodded.

“Whatever.” Emma put on her headphones. Maybe it wasn’t personal, and she typically terrorized everyone.

“I’m ready,” I said. But as I swallowed over a lump in my throat, I knew it was another lie.

6

THAT SINKING FEELING

I WATCHED the streets of Hanover with interest as we drove through downtown. The shops were all closed, their colonial brick facades immaculate and quiet in the morning light.

We got on the highway, and I watched the world fly by. I hadn’t left town in a long time. The last time had been for a Chess-club tournament in the neighboring small town of Lebanon. My mom and I didn’t venture out often by choice. Two years ago, my father and my sister Katie had died in a car accident on Route 89, coming back from a swim meet in Vermont. I never got my license after that. I didn’t want to. And my mother avoided driving on highways.

“What’re you looking at?” Josh sounded amused.

“Just the other cars…and the road.”

“You don’t get out much, huh?”

I turned to face him, feeling sheepish. “Not really.”

“You’ll like Portsmouth. It’s pretty.”

“We won’t be going out,” Cranston interrupted.

“Why not?” I asked.

His flinty gaze flicked to me in the rearview mirror. “Because we’ll be working.”

Josh rolled his eyes. “She can still see the city. Have you ever been there, Hanover?”

“Not since I was a kid. My parents took us to the beach.” My heart hurt at the memory—my parents setting up their chairs way down on the beach, watching my sister and me body surf in the freezing, dark-blue water. We went to an outdoor, waterfront restaurant afterward, the red-and-white-checked tablecloth oily to my fingertips.

We’d watched the tide go out, smelled the sharp odor of the mud. My skin was tight from the salt and the sun, and Katie’s nose got burned. My family rarely took trips. I’d never forget the details of that day.

Josh smiled at me. “Maybe we can get to the beach. That is, if Mr. Cranston stops cracking the whip for a little bit.”

“What exactly is the project we’ll be working on?”

“It’s kind of hard to explain…” Josh looked away and fiddled with his phone, effectively ending the conversation.

Finn looked out the window, lost in his own thoughts.

Emma bounced along to whatever music streamed through her headphones.

Cranston squinted at the road, pretending not to hear me.

I sighed, looking out at the road at the early-summer trees, their green leaves stretching toward the rising sun. I had no idea what I’d find in Portsmouth.

The sinking feeling in my stomach told me it wasn’t just bark mulch.

TWO HOURS LATER, we pulled up to Freel International Tradeport. Formerly operated solely as a military base, it housed a group of commercial buildings near the airport, which Cranston explained was used primarily for cargo flights. We drove past an odd mix of buildings, including the US Department of State Consular affairs, private high-tech companies, a brewery, and a clothing store. Then we passed a golf course and a track before turning off at the sign marked “National Guard Base.”

“Why are we here?”

Josh didn’t look up from his phone. “We’re staying at one of the bases. It’s private, just for our use.”

Before I could ask why, Cranston turned and drove slowly through a series of barricaded routes. He stopped the bus when we reached the security guard. “We’re here for training. Summer recruits.” Cranston handed over a file.

The guard nodded as he inspected whatever the file held. “We’ve been expecting you, of course. The private base at the back’s been prepared for you, and some members of the team are already there. Supplies have been ordered and will be delivered on a regular basis, along with meals. You have complete privacy and control of the facility.”

Cranston smiled. “Perfect. Take care, soldier.”

The guard looked at him worshipfully. “It’s an honor, sir.”

I leaned forward. “Um, excuse me? What was that all about?”

No one looked at me, and no one answered.

We drove slowly through the base. There were fatigued troops out running, working on military vehicles and loading trucks. “Why are we inside a military facility?”

Cranston’s eyes flicked to me in the mirror. “This is where we’ll be working.” He drove past the busy streets of the base to a low, redbrick building located away from everything else.

Josh turned around and patted my shoulder. “This is it—our new home.”

“For how long?”

Finn finally turned from the window, his dark eyes twinkling. “That’s twenty.” Those were his first words the whole trip.

“Twenty what?”

He arched an eyebrow. “Twenty-one.”

“Ugh.”

Emma took off her headphones. “What’re you complaining about now?”

“I’m not complaining—”

“Here we are,” Cranston said. “Let’s get a move on.”

Finn stood and motioned to me. “After you.”

“Thanks.”

“Finally,” he said, under his breath.

“Finally what?”

“Twenty-two,” he said.

I decided to stop talking.

We filed out, carrying our packs, and followed Cranston into the low brick building. There were cars parked outside. Some of your team is already here. We went into the building, and there were voices, although I didn’t see anyone yet. It smelled like a high-school gym, and there were mats on the floor. “Are those wrestling mats?”

Emma peered at me. “That depends. Can you wrestle?”

“No.”

She sniffed. “Then I wouldn’t worry about it.”

Cranston motioned toward a door on the other side of the room. “Riley, that’s the girls’ locker room. Go ahead and store your stuff in there then get changed.”

They were all watching me.

“Get changed into what?”

“Your training clothes. There are extra sets in there in different sizes. Emma’ll help you figure it out.”

Emma put a hand on her hip. “Don’t make promises about what Emma will do—”

“Training clothes? Did you mean a uniform? I’m so confused! What’re we even doing here? I don’t really see anything to landscape. Are we going to be working on the golf course? Is that even Hollingsworth property? I don’t understand—”

“Hanover.” Finn’s voice silenced me. “It’s okay. It’s clothes for the assignment are just a T-shirt and shorts.” He looked at what I wore—a T-shirt and shorts. “You’ll live.”

Other voices drifted from the back of the gym. “Who else is here? Who else is on our ‘team?’” I used air-quotes around the word, which I hoped communicated my frustration clearly.

“There are other students.” Cranston kept his expression neutral.

“From Hollingsworth?”

“From other schools.”

I looked at each of them, desperate for more of an explanation, but I encountered averted eyes and blank stares. Sighing, I headed toward the locker room.

“Go with her,” Cranston instructed Emma. “They’re in there.”

Emma said something mouthy, but I didn’t listen. I was too concerned with who they were.

I went through the door and encountered a typical locker room: dented blue lockers, a row of showers, and benches. There were voices coming from somewhere in the back. I spotted a rack filled with clothes marked in various sizes. I grabbed a shirt and shorts and headed to a corner to hide and simultaneously change.

Never one to enjoy gym class, I grimaced as I pulled on the shirt, wondering what Cranston had in store for me. The shirt fit tighter than I wanted, so I headed back to the racks—and encountered two redheaded girls, both tall and lean, with super-model cheekbones to match.

One, slightly taller than the other, wore a ponytail. She narrowed her eyes at me. “Are you from Hollingsworth?”

“Yes.” I swallowed hard. “From the work-study program.”

She nudged the other girl, who had thick, curly hair past her shoulders. “I told you. Just look at her…Oh, my God, this is crazy. Pay up!”

The one with the curly hair arched an eyebrow. “Oh, I don’t know. I’m not calling it yet.”

The one with the ponytail whipped her head around, and I realized they were identical twins. The only differences were their heights and the texture of their hair. “It’s exactly what I saw. She can’t possibly be—”

“Maya, that’s enough.” The curly haired twin narrowed her eyes. “Let’s give this a chance.”

I stood there, gaping. “Am I the ‘this’ you’re talking about?”

Maya, the one with the ponytail, stalked closer, inspecting me. She looked vaguely disappointed, which was becoming an all-too familiar feeling. “I think so.”

The one with the curly hair looked me up and down. “What’s your name?”

“Riley Payne.”

The sisters looked at each other for a beat then turned back to me.

“I’m Morgan,” the one with the curly hair said, her voice soft. “This is my twin, Maya. Did you guys just get here?”

“Yes.” I blushed under their curious stares.

“Is Emma with you?” Morgan asked.

“Yes.”

Maya’s ponytail whipped around again. “Is Finn?”

“Y-Yes.”

She clapped her hands together. “Oh, good! At least we have eye candy!”

I ignored the twist in my gut. The mean redheaded Amazon supermodel had a crush on Finn. Perfect.

“What school did you say you were from? Do you know what our assignment is?” I asked.

Suddenly, the sisters were all business. “We’re from Riveredge,” Morgan said.

“Is that another boarding school? I’ve never heard of it,” I said, confused.

Maya put her hands on her hips. “You don’t have to be such a snob about it.”

“I didn’t mean it like that—”

Emma burst into the room. “What is taking you so long?” She stopped short when she came around the corner and saw me with the twins. “Oh, joy. It’s Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Ditz.”

Maya pulled herself up to her considerable height. “I beg your pardon.”

“Don’t call my sister a ditz!” Morgan said.

And then they all started laughing, including Emma. They hugged each other as I stood there, confused.

Emma looked at me through Morgan’s curly hair as they embraced. “I see you’ve met…our newest recruit.”

Morgan tossed her hair as the three of them turned back to me. “She’s different than I expected.”

“Pay up,” Maya said. “Because she’s exactly how I told you she would be!”

The floor seemed to swerve beneath my feet. “You…you knew I was coming?”

“Of course we did,” Maya scoffed. “We’ve been waiting for you for a long time, Riley.”

Emma crossed her arms against her chest, looking sour. “That’s why this is so underwhelming.”

Morgan reached out and tucked a hair behind my ear. “Oh, I don’t know. It might be better than it looks.”

I licked my lips, which had gone dry. “Am I the ‘it’ you’re referring to?”

Morgan arched an eyebrow and turned to Emma. “Haven’t you guys told her anything?”

“No.”

Maya draped an arm over her friend. “Why not?”

Emma sighed. “Cranston wanted to wait. He’s worried about impact.”

“Oh,” the sisters said in unison, wincing.

What the hell were they talking about? “Impact of what?”

“The impact of recruitment.” Morgan looked at me in sympathy. “It can be rough, especially…if you haven’t been through the background processing.”

Maya whistled. “So this is her initial processing? Wow, that’s unusual. Why’re they doing it this way?”

Emma shrugged. “There have been some issues with the hosts. They needed to make it clean.”

“Make what clean? What hosts?” My eyes burned. Tears weren’t far off. “Please say something that makes sense. I’m so confused right now. I don’t understand what’s so special about this work-study program!”

“Oh. honey.” Morgan’s voice lit with sympathy. “You are seriously in for it.”

“In for what?”

“She asks way too many questions.” Emma ignored me. “She’s getting on everyone’s nerves.”

“Really?” Maya asked. “Because I thought—”

“It can’t be true.” Emma looked at me, shaking her head in disgust. “I will seriously throw up if I’m wrong.”

“WRONG ABOUT WHAT?”

There was a knock on the door. “Girls! Stop lollygagging. It’s time to get going!” Cranston barked.

Maya rolled her eyes. “Be right there.”

Morgan looked at Emma. “Is Cranston being difficult, as usual?”

Emma shrugged. “He’s not being easy. But because he has to deal with this”—she gestured to me—“what else can we expect?”

I crossed my arms against my chest. “I beg your pardon.”

Emma headed toward the door, looking resigned. “Save it. You’re going to be doing all sorts of begging soon enough, Hanover. Let’s go.”

7

WTF

CRANSTON WAITED as we silently filed out. He nodded at the twins, his eyes coming to rest on me. “You ready, Riley?”

My heart pounded. “Sure…for what, exactly?”

He smiled while the girls watched me, curiosity burning in their gazes. “We’re going to start training.”

Finn walked up, his jaw muscles taut. “I can help with the introductory stuff.”

“Thank you, soldier.”

“Really.” Finn waved him away. “I got it.”

“Check in with me later.” Cranston nodded then headed off.

I turned to Finn as Cranston’s figure retreated. “Introductory grounds-crew training?” My voice sounded hoarse. “And did he just call you soldier?”

Finn shrugged. “C’mon, Hanover. I’ll show you around.”

But the twins were on him in an instant, hugging him and fussing about while he stood there, teeth gritted.

“Hey, Finn!” Maya cooed.

Morgan wrapped her arms around him. “How are you? It’s been too long!”

He pried Morgan off and stepped back. “I’m fine. But we have lots of work to do, and I’m trying to keep our newest team member from jumping ship.” He jerked his chin at me. “Hanover? You ready?”

The twins watched us with interest while Emma looked annoyed. She sighed. “She needs to know what’s going on already. I’ll be the one to tell her if you guys don’t. And trust me, I won’t sugarcoat things.”

“Leave it alone. I got it.” Finn stalked off, motioning for me to follow.

I followed him through the middle of the gym. An Indian girl with long, dark hair was doing a full-on headstand in the corner; she ignored us.

“What’s with her?”

“That’s Rachel. She’s meditating.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “She likes to.”

I eyed the upside-down girl as we walked past. “Is she from that other boarding school—the same on the twins are from?”

“Yep.”

We headed toward the door and encountered another recruit, a buff Asian boy with bleached hair. He scowled at us from his plank position, his thickly muscled arms shaking slightly.

“Who’s that?”

“Kyan. Watch out for him. He’s a pain in the ass.”

“I heard that.” Kyan didn’t break form. “And I am mentally giving you the finger. Is this the new girl?”

“Duh. It’s not your mother.”

Kyan broke form to give Finn the finger.

I stopped walking and looked back. Emma and the twins were on a mat far in the corner, doing what appeared to be downward-facing dogs. Josh had set himself up with weights and was doing chest presses. Rachel was still upside down in a headstand. Cranston was nowhere in sight. “Finn? What the heck is really going on, here?”

“If it’ll stop you from asking me non-stop questions, I’d be happy to tell you. But we have to work out while we talk. Let’s start with some light stretching.” He dropped down onto a mat and patted the space next to him.

I warily sank down.

Finn pulled his arm across his chest, stretching his shoulder, and I momentarily forgot everything else, which was probably exactly why he’d been picked to ‘help’ me.

I tore my eyes away and gestured to the girl maintaining her headstand. “This doesn’t look like grounds-crew training to me. And these people don’t even go to our school.”

He leaned back, watching me carefully. “You need to think of a bigger ground.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I don’t expect you to.”

I blushed as I considered his dark-brown eyes. His eyelashes were thick the way only boys’ lashes were. My eyelashes felt jealous in comparison.

“You’re a runner, right?”

I nodded.

“Want to go for a run before I make you start throwing weights around or stand on your head?”

I exhaled in relief. “I’d love to.” I’d already run this morning, but it still sounded good. I itched to get out of the gym.

Cranston appeared out of nowhere and stopped us on our way to the door. “Do you need backup?” he asked Finn.

Finn snorted. “I think I can handle it. We’re just going to do the loop.”

We started to jog as soon as we reached the sidewalk. “How long’s the loop?”

“Six miles.” He glanced at me. “Can you handle that, Hanover?”

I gritted my teeth. “It’s Riley, and I can handle it just fine.”

He laughed. “All right then.”

We ran in silence for about a mile, past another outdoor track and some buildings that looked like they were used for storage. Back here, the base was completely quiet. We couldn’t see the road or anything else—our own world. It was late morning, almost time for lunch, and the sun was climbing in the sky. Still, a faint sea breeze came from somewhere, which saved the day from being too hot.

“You know Freel used to be a full-scale military base, right?” Finn asked.

“Yeah, I read that. Wasn’t it closed for a long time?”

Finn nodded. “There was a soil contamination problem back in the early nineties. They had to shut the base down. It hit the area hard and caused a recession. After they cleaned up the site, they re-opened for the airport, the trade port, and National Guard use. But there’s also a lot of retail space and offices, as you saw. Most of that’s new.”

“And what about the building we’re in?”

“It’s government owned. The whole base is. Our section is reserved, so no one will bother us.” Finn moved out in front a little bit, leading me down a wooded path. “How often do you run?”

Was he changing the subject? “Every day.” I worked to keep up with him, but I controlled my breathing, refusing to let it show.

“How far?” He hadn’t even broken a sweat.

“Four’s my minimum. I’m on a schedule.”

“Are you training for something?”

“It’s sort of my thing. I’m not really good at sports, per se, but I like to work out.”

“Why?”

I shrugged as we followed the running path down next to a stream. “It helps me clear my head.”

My dad had gotten me into running. Once middle school hormones hit, and I started having bad days, he bought me a pair of sneakers. “Best therapy there is, pumpkin.”

“We’ll do a lot of running over the next few weeks. You’ll like it, at least that part.”

“Huh. Sounds good.” I ran for another minute, processing, then I came to an abrupt halt. “Finn. Why are we running? And lifting weights and doing yoga? Any why does everyone know what’s going on besides me? Emma said I hadn’t been background briefed—”

“She shouldn’t have said that.”

“But she did, and I want to know what she meant.”

Finn sighed, sounding frustrated. “Do you want to know the truth?”

“Of course, I want to know the truth! That’s what I’ve been asking for!”

“Do you have any guesses?”

I watched the water gurgle in the stream, clear and cold. “No. I really don’t understand. My mother…”

He looked at me sharply. “What about your mother?”

“N-Nothing. Will you please tell me what this is? I feel like I’m going crazy.”

He paced for a minute, looking as if he couldn’t decide what to do.

“I’ll keep asking questions until you can’t take it anymore,” I threatened.

“Fine—here goes.” He sighed. “You’ve been drafted to an elite government unit. You’ve been…activated into an American terrorist-fighting cell.”

I burst out laughing, my sides shaking violently as I bent over.

Finn watched me as I collapsed against a rock, still laughing. “What’s so funny?”

I tried to catch my breath enough to respond. “That might be…the stupidest thing…I’ve ever heard.” I erupted into a fresh fit of hysteria.

“I’m not kidding, Riley.”

My laughter subsided, and I drew myself back up. “Well, that’s unfortunate because it means you’re crazy.” And you’re too cute to be crazy! “It doesn’t make sense on any level.”

Finn stood very still. “It will, once I explain everything to you.” He spoke to me cautiously, as if I were an unpredictably rabid dog about to bite.

My hysterics veered in a different direction, and I struggled to calm my ragged breathing. Everyone around me was acting crazy—seriously, certifiably crazy.

He watched me carefully. “Are you okay?”

“Of course.” I forced myself to calm down. I fully expected someone to jump out of the bushes, wielding a camera, informing me that I was being punk’d. “I’m just processing your ridiculousness and organizing my list of objections.”

“Can we keep running while you go through your list? I have a feeling this could take a while, and I’m hoping the endorphin rush will help your hysterics pass.”

We jogged as I collected my thoughts.

Finn picked up the pace a little. Maybe he wanted to give me less time to talk. “I’m waiting. Bring on the list!”

How could he sound so normal when what he’d said was so freaking crazy?

“Okay…okay.” My mind whirled. “There’s a lot of insanity to cover.”

“Then you’d better get going.”

“First of all, why would a program affiliated with Hollingsworth actually be a cover for a government operation?”

“The federal government gives Hollingsworth a huge subsidy to run the program through it,” Finn said, without missing a beat. “The government likes the cover, and Hollingsworth likes the money. The school would probably be bankrupt without it.”

“That’s ridiculous. It has an enormous endowment—”

“Courtesy of the federal government.”

I blew out a deep breath as we rounded a hill. I didn’t believe this, but Finn seemed sure of himself. Perspiration ran down my back as I worked to get to the top of the hill. Finn looked as if this was easy for him. The only visible sheen of sweat was on his temples.

“Moving right along,” I huffed. “I’ve never heard of a government agency that operates this way.”

“That’s because it’s top secret—the most secret thing you’ve never heard of.”

“You know it sounds like you’re making this up, right? Because you’re making this up. You’re being ridiculous!”

“It would be ridiculous if it wasn’t true—but it is.”

I watched him run. He seemed calm and confident, his impressive muscles rippling under his T-shirt. “You can’t be serious.”

“I’m totally serious.”

“Okay—then how about this: why, of all the people in this country, all the athletic, patriotic, willing people—why have I been ‘activated’ or whatever crazy thing you said? It doesn’t make any sense. The armed forces have people volunteering every week to serve. Why would the government trick me and smuggle me away from school to put me into some training program with a bunch of sociopaths?”

“They didn’t think you’d come in on your own, and we need you.”

I stopped running again. “That is frigging ridiculous! Need me for what?”

Finn blew out a deep sigh. “This is where the debrief would’ve come in handy.”

“Well…debrief me now. No time like the present.”

He lifted up his shirt to wipe the sweat from his face, and I turned away, but not before I glimpsed the chiseled lines of his six-pack.

“I can only tell you about our group,” he said. “Your official debrief—about you, personally, your background and your history—that’s not my place.”

“What is your place?”

“I’m a member of the team. I’ve been active for a long time, and they usually put me with the new recruits to help break them in.”

“How old are you?”

“Seventeen.”

“So you’ve been part of a special, secret unit for how long?”

“Since a long time ago.”

I put my hands on my hips. “What were you, some sort of preschool, special-forces ninja?”

The muscle in his jaw jumped, and he didn’t look at me.

“You said you were from New York, right?”

“That’s right.”

“But you’ve been with this group since you were a kid?”

Finn looked straight ahead. “Why are all the questions about me?”

“Why won’t you answer any of them?”

“There are other, more important things to talk about right now, like about what our group does.”

“I’m listening.”

“As I said, we’re part of an elite government unit. This particular group, our cell, has been activated.”

“Not that I believe any of this—because I don’t—but what does that mean, ‘activated?’”

Finn motioned for us to start running again and spoke after we settled into an easy pace. “It means that we’ve been called to duty. So we’re going to complete a course of training this summer, and we’re going on assignment later this fall. These next few months are crucial, making sure that our team is working together well and ascertaining our individual and group strengths.”

I struggled to keep up with Finn, just as I struggled to comprehend what he’d said. I gave one last look around the bushes, to see if Ashton Kutcher was waiting to jump out at me.

“So…do all the other kids know what’s going on?”

“Yes.”

“I’m the only new recruit?”

He nodded. “This year, yes. As far as I know.”

We rounded a corner. The trail reached out for another visible mile. Good. I had about a thousand more questions, and I wasn’t ready for our run to end.

“I know you have more questions. Bring it. I’m not afraid.”

“What about my school? I applied to Hollingsworth because I wanted to go there. I don’t want to miss my senior year because I’m off…” I didn’t know how to finish the sentence. Miss my senior year because I was off fighting a war? Being indoctrinated into a cult? Drooling over Finn’s dimple and/or his chest?

Finn laughed. “You’re funny.”

“What? What’s funny?”

“Nothing.”

“You know, I’m not sure I like you very much.”

He shrugged. “You will. I tend to grow on people, the longer they look at me.”

I groaned, concentrating on running instead of his cocky attitude.

“About school—you’ll still get your degree.”

Panic rose. “But will I actually attend any classes?”

He shot a look my way. “Probably not.”

I stopped running again. “What if I don’t want to do this, huh?”

“It’s not really a volunteer program.”

“I haven’t even signed up for anything. If I was drafted, it was without my knowledge and consent. I think I need a due-process hearing or something. It doesn’t seem like I had proper notice about this, if any of this is even real.” I half-wondered if I was dreaming, but I could feel my heart thundering in my chest. “The government can’t just make me a soldier!”

Finn looked as if he had something to say about that, but we were interrupted by the sound of tires squealing. Mr. Cranston hopped out beside a beat-up white truck pulled up at the end of the field.

“Riley Payne,” he called. “Get over here. Your number is up!”

8

NO PAIN, NO GAIN

I SHIVERED VIOLENTLY, my mother’s words coming back to me. When your number’s up, it’s up!

Finn came closer. “You all right, Hanover?”

“Sure,” I lied. “I guess I should go.” I hustled to the car, not wanting to upset the older man.

My thoughts swirled with everything Finn told me. My steps were unsteady.

Cranston motioned to the passenger door. “Let’s go.”

I turned to wave at Finn. He watched us with a sour look on his face. I didn’t want to get in the truck. I wanted to go back to Finn. “I’m not finished with my run, sir,” I told Cranston.

“You are now.” He slammed his own car door, not waiting for me to argue further.

“What about Finn?”

He rolled his eyes. “He knows the way back.”

We drove the few miles back to the base in silence. I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I didn’t know Cranston’s role in all of this, and what—if anything—he knew or believed of Finn’s story.

He put the car in park and unfastened his seat belt.

“Wait. Mr. Cranston, I’ve decided I don’t want to be here anymore. I’d like to go home.”

He turned, his ice-blue gaze flicking over me. “Is that so?”

I shivered, thinking about what Finn had said. “Yes. No one’s explained to me why we’re really here, and I’m not…comfortable. I’d like to go back to Hollingsworth and ask to be reassigned to a different group.”

He crossed his arms against his chest. “You would, huh?”

“Yes.”

“Well, tough.” He opened his door and hopped out.

“Excuse me?”

“Get out of the car, Riley. You’re no special snowflake. You got assigned this unit, and you’re staying until I say otherwise.”

My heart pounded in my chest. He couldn’t keep me against my will. Could he? The keys were still in the ignition. I didn’t have my license, but I knew how to drive…

The passenger door opened, and Cranston stuck his face in. “Don’t even think about it.” He jerked his chin toward the keys. “Get out of the car. I’m not going to tell you again.”

Afraid, but also genuinely curious, I asked, “What if I say no?”

His face was inches from mine, his jaw taut. “Then I’ll pull you out.”

Finn ran up to the building in a flat-out sprint. He leaned over, breathing hard for a second, then looked up at Cranston. “Leave her alone.”

Cranston whipped around. “Really? You’re going to start with me? You know why I came out to get her?”

Finn shook his head, still trying to catch his breath.

“Because her monitor was going off. Do you want to explain how that happened, soldier?”

They kept talking, and I sat there, listening but not comprehending. One part of my brain wondered, what monitor? Meanwhile, another part was desperately trying to figure out how Finn had gotten back here so quickly.

That had to have been three miles. He got here in five minutes.

Being both a runner and a terrible geek, I knew that wasn’t possible. A Moroccan runner currently held the fastest mile record, clocking in at three minutes and forty-three seconds.

Finn couldn’t run three miles in five minutes or whatever it had been. But he was here. I watched him catch his breath and stand up, facing Cranston. He didn’t even look winded.

“Riley.”

I jerked my head. Cranston was staring at me, annoyed.

“What?”

“I said, if you don’t pass the challenges I have set up for you over the next week, you’re free to join another group. Understand?” Cranston asked.

I looked at him, but I couldn’t focus. What the hell was really going on here? Finn couldn’t have been serious about what he’d said…and he couldn’t have run back here that fast…

But Finn stood right in front of me, and he wasn’t even sweating.

“Did you hear me, Riley?” Cranston asked.

I nodded, but the ground seemed to spin beneath me. “Sure.” I’d thought living with my mother had been crazy. But this…

A week. I could survive anything for a week.

I hoped.

IN A FURTHER SLIDE toward rock bottom, I got assigned a bunkmate: Emma. We were in a room with the twins and Rachel, the dark-haired girl I hadn’t met yet. Right side up, Rachel was stunning, with long legs, silky black hair that cascaded over her shoulders, dark-brown eyes, and flawless, caramel-colored skin. I didn’t bother introducing myself to her or chatting with anyone.

I would be out of here in a week. I didn’t need to make friends.

The other girls chatted, brushed their hair, and generally ignored me, until everyone left the dorm except Emma and me. Busy pretending to read a book, I didn’t look up when she sat on my bed.

“Riley.”

I peered at her over the top of the pages. “What?”

“Stop pretending to read. I need to talk to you.”

I sat up straighter. “Are you going to say something that actually makes sense?”

“I can’t say a lot, but I can confirm what Finn’s told you. It’s true.”

My eyes filled with tears. My shoulders shook.

Emma looked horrified. “Are you crying?”

“No.” I wiped my eyes roughly. “But why are you all lying to me like this? What’s the point? Is it some sick game, like, ‘Let’s Scare the New Girl to Pieces?’ Because it’s not funny, and I’ve just about had it—”

“Riley, you need to calm down. I know your monitor went off earlier. Getting upset isn’t going to help—”

“WHAT FREAKING MONITOR?”

“Riley, Jesus, stop. I can’t talk to you if you’re acting like this. It’s not safe.”

I took several deep breaths, trying to calm down even as questions swirled in my mind: Not safe, how? What f’n monitor? And how did Finn run that fast? Why would you all lie to me?

“Riley. Open your eyes.”

I took one last calming breath then faced her. “Please tell me something true that also happens to make sense.”

“You have a test now. Cranston’s waiting for you.”

I leaned forward. “I need something more than that.”

“Fine.” She lowered her voice. “A lot of us go through this. The adjustment can be shocking. But the way they’ve done this to you, it’s…worse. So I’m going to help you when I can. If you get out there and pass this test, I can tell you more, at least more than Finn told you. I’ve gotten permission for that much.”

“Permission from whom?”

“Cranston. He sets the rules, and we have to live by them.”

My stomach sank. “What happens if you break the rules?”

“You don’t want to find out, trust me.” She patted my hand, a surprising show of empathy. “C’mon. Let’s get you ready for your test. There might be an audience; I’m just warning you.”

“Perfect.” I laced up my sneakers, pulled my hair back into a ponytail, and stomped out behind her.

Cranston waited outside, wearing a whistle around his neck and holding a clipboard and stopwatch. Josh, Finn, and the others stood together, talking. Finn nodded at me, which of course made me blush. Rachel stood next to him, staring at me with a faint scowl, as if she didn’t approve. Kyan crossed his arms against his chest, his enormous biceps bulging, and nodded at me. I noticed he had a lightning bolt etched into the shaved portion of his hair.

Cranston patted his clipboard. “Riley. We’re going to do your first test. Are you ready?”

“Sure,” I mumbled.

“Let’s head to the track.”

Without saying a word, I followed him. I started to feel better. This must be a physical test. I was a decent runner, but I knew I couldn’t pass a bunch of challenging exercise-related examinations. I’d be back in Hanover by the end of the week, away from the crazies.

“Wait up.” Josh easily caught up with me. “Are you doing okay?”

I didn’t look at him. “No, no thanks to you.”

“What’d I do?”

“You haven’t told me anything, not one word! I thought you were my friend, but I guess I was wrong about that.”

“I haven’t told you anything because I can’t. Please don’t be mad at me,” he begged.

Kyan caught up with us. “You should totally be mad at him. There’s a lot he’s not doing for you.”

I arched an eyebrow. “Like what?”

Kyan leaned closer. “Let’s talk after. I can fill you in on all sorts of things. I’m much more useful than the rest of these deadbeats.”

I was about to ask what he meant when the track came into view. There were hurdles lined up all the way around. “Can someone please tell me why there are hurdles on the track?”

Josh scratched his head and looked sheepish. “Because you’re going to jump them?”

“Is that a guess?”

“No,” he admitted. “You’re totally going to jump them.”

“Fine.” I knew I’d fail this test and be going home. I just hoped it wasn’t in a full body cast.

“Riley, come with me.” Mr. Cranston walked through the opening in the fence, motioning for me to follow him.

I met him at the starting line. Finn, Emma, Josh and the others all climbed on the small set of bleachers. My stomach sank. I would have an audience to witness my failure and all the gangly, uncivilized tripping that would come before it.

“Have you raced on a track before?”

“Yes, sir. I did track my freshman and sophomore years.”

“I see.” He wrote something down. “Ever try hurdles?”

I nodded. “Once, and it didn’t go well.”

“Did you fall?” When I nodded again, he patted me on the shoulder. “Everybody does, even people who train every day.”

“Can’t I take some practice jumps?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because you won’t fall today, and I don’t want you to think it’s because you took a practice run.” Cranston tapped his clipboard, his eyes finally sparkling with some warmth. “Today, you are going to concentrate really hard. Before you run, you’re going to visualize yourself clearing every hurdle on the track. You’re going to do some breathing exercises until your mind is clear, and then you’re going to crush this thing.”

“I don’t think that’s possible, sir.” Everyone else called him sir. I figured I should, too, so he’d be civil until I left the program or until he had to drive me to the emergency room after I broke my neck on a hurdle.

“Banish your negative thoughts, Riley. All of them. That’s an order. Now visualize.”

I felt Finn watching me as I closed my eyes. Cranston had issued his first command, and he’d been almost kind. I should at least pretend to follow orders. I pictured myself clearing each hurdle with ease, rounding the track and crossing the finish line. I took several deep breaths, trying to concentrate on the image.

Maybe I should try to pass this test. I wanted to go home, but not in a body cast.

I didn’t know how much time passed, but once my breathing stabilized, I opened my eyes. “I’m ready.”

He motioned to the line. “Go get situated.”

I blew out a deep breath as I headed to the starting line, shaking out my hands and thighs. You can do this. You might not crush it, but hopefully you won’t die.

Cranston waited until I crouched down. “Take your mark…go!” He blew the whistle.

I took off, not at a full sprint, but at a good pace. The first hurdle approached quickly, and I ran over it. All I did was take a bigger step. I cleared it easily, and I didn’t stop. I took four steps between each hurdle, and I didn’t waiver. I hit the one hundred-meter mark, clearing every hurdle in my path. Then I went down the back half of the track, the next two hundred meters, maintaining my pace. Four steps, hurdle. Four steps, hurdle. They kept coming, but I didn’t change my steps. I incorporated the hurdle into my pacing, matching it to me instead of me to it.

I cleared the next hurdle, then the next. My steps didn’t even stutter.

I hit the three-hundred-meter mark, the top of the track. The last hundred meters stretched before me. I felt Finn watching me from the bleachers.

Don’t trip

Don’t trip

Don’t trip

I ran faster, finally breaking into a sprint, as if someone had flipped my switch. I found my faster pace: three steps, hurdle. Three steps, hurdle. My mind remained clear of everything else—even fear of falling in front of Finn.

Laser-focused, I crossed the finish line a few seconds later. Sparse cheers erupted from the bleachers—Morgan, Emma, Finn, and Josh clapped. Maya and Rachel looked bored. Kyan scowled, as if he were disappointed I’d finished.

Mr. Cranston clicked off his stopwatch and smiled at me. “I told you! Good job, Riley.”

Breathing hard, I realized that I’d done exactly what he’d wanted—and the opposite of what I’d set out to do.

“Get some water, and meet me in the gym. Weights are next.”

I smiled as I caught my breath. I sucked at weights. I’d be back in my comfortable single in my dorm before I knew it.

“Do you know what you’re doing?” Finn appeared beside me as I headed to the station.

“No. I don’t know anything except that I have to get out of here. Oh, and that you’re crazy—I know that.”

He arched an eyebrow, seemingly undeterred. “Wasn’t I complaining not that long ago about you being too nice?” He grabbed his chin, pretending to pontificate. “Hmm, I guess I didn’t need to worry about it.”

“Ha-ha.” I wanted to say more mean things, but he dropped back to talk to Josh and the twins.

Kyan caught up to me. “You’re probably going to regret that.”

I shrugged. “I didn’t want to land on my face.”

“There are worse things than landing on your face,” he said, his voice mysterious. “Come see me later. I’ll tell you about them.”

Emma came up beside me and shooed Kyan away before I could ask what he meant. In a surprise move, she grabbed me and squeezed briefly. “Good job. I knew you could do it!”

“You did?”

“Not really,” she admitted, “But I’m trying to be supportive so you don’t crack.”

“Gee, thanks. But don’t you owe me information, because I completed that task?”

“Let’s go for a walk when you’re done with Cranston. I can tell you more then.”

“Okay.” A small hope sparked inside me.

The spark crashed and burned as soon as I got inside the station. Cranston had set up a series of barbells and kettlebells leading up to a bench-press station.

I might not ever make it back to Hollingsworth or anywhere else. I would probably die this afternoon.

The group gathered along the wall to watch, and I inwardly cursed them.

Cranston tapped his clipboard, looking more excited than he should. “Okay, Riley. Let me show you this circuit. You’re going to be lifting these barbells in repetitions of three, then the kettlebells, then we’re moving on to the bench press…”

I tried to listen, while I simultaneously prayed to survive.

9

A WALK TO REMEMBER

“TIME FOR A BREAK. You’ve earned it,” Cranston said, kindly.

He’d softened toward me over the course of the afternoon after I’d performed each test with more strength and agility than I’d thought possible. At each test, Cranston had coached me through an intense visualization process, followed by some breathing techniques, and it had worked surprisingly well. I completed the weight circuit easily and then a pretty vigorous aerobic yoga set. Maybe I was stronger and more coordinated than I’d ever given myself credit for? Maybe my performance had been enhanced by a rush of serotonin because I really hadn’t wanted to make an ass of myself in front of Finn? Or perhaps the visualization had worked. I couldn’t know. But thus far, I’d passed the tests with flying colors. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Emma waited for me beside the doors. She handed me a berry-colored shake. “Protein berry-blast with antioxidants,” she explained. “You need it after today.”

I took a sip. It was delicious. “Thanks.”

“It also has chamomile in it. You clearly need to chill, and it’s a natural relaxant.”

“Okay?” She might be insulting me, but I couldn’t be sure. “Where did you get it?”

“There’s a full kitchen here. Meals are supplied by the base, but we never see any staff. There’s also a fully stocked panty, with desserts and snacks and drinks. You can go in and get whatever you want, whenever you want. And they have all the makings of great smoothies.”

I took another sip as we headed for the door. “At least there’s an upside.”

“It’s not all bad. You’ll see.”

We got outside, and I pulled on my hoodie. My sweat had cooled, and the temperature dropped as the sun set. The western skyline glowed pink, a sure sign that tomorrow would be another beautiful day. I shivered, wondering what else tomorrow would hold.

Emma headed toward a walking trail. “You did well on the tests.”

“Thank you. I’d planned to flunk all of them, but it didn’t work out that way.”

“Riley…you can’t flunk the tests. First of all, I don’t think you’re physically capable of flunking. You’re too competitive. I can see it in your eyes. Second of all, Cranston wasn’t being honest with you when he said you could leave. He’d never let you switch groups, even if you failed every test.”

My stomach plummeted, but determined to get to the bottom of this once and for all, I refused to lose my cool. “Why not?”

“Because he can’t discharge you. You were chosen for our group for a reason—a reason I can’t tell you. That’s not my place. But trust me when I say that it’s not something you can walk away from.”

“But what would happen if I did walk away? I mean, really—what could they do?” I struggled to keep my voice even.

Her eyes flashed. “They would come and get you.”

I stopped dead in my tracks. “I don’t understand who ‘they’ are and all the secrecy…and the stuff that Finn told me. It’s crazy, Emma!”

She started walking again, motioning for me to follow. “It’s not crazy, though. I swear it’s not.”

We walked in silence for a minute. My thoughts whirled.

Emma glanced at me. “Okay, are you calm?”

“As calm as I can be, given the circumstances.”

“Good—I don’t want your monitor going off again.” She held up her hand to stop me before I could ask about it. “I swear I’ll tell you everything I can, but you have to promise me you’re going to stay on an even keel.”

“I promise.” My voice sounded far away. For some reason, I didn’t think Emma would lie to me. I braced myself for whatever she was about to say.

“Here’s the thing. I might not look like it, but I am a career military specialist.”

I looked at her fluorescent pink short-shorts and combat boots, which were clearly a fashion choice and not government issued. “Jesus, Emma. C’mon.”

“It’s true. I know it’s hard to believe because I’m so young, and yes, I’m very fashionable, but it’s true. I was drafted to this unit when I was ten. I’ve been with Mr. Cranston and most of the others ever since. Sometimes, we break into smaller pods, like over the past few weeks when we were up at Hollingsworth, but we always come back together. I’ve never fought in an actual war, but that’s about to change.”

I licked my lips, which had suddenly gone dry. “Why is it about to change?”

“Our unit’s been activated, and that’s why we came to get you. You’re the last person we needed in the group. As far as I know, you complete the circle.” She sounded completely sure of herself.

I kept walking, but I felt dizzy.

Emma grabbed my wrist and checked my pulse until I jerked my arm away.

She shrugged. “You look pale. I’m making sure you’re not about to pop.”

“Go on. I’m listening, and I swear I won’t pop—whatever that means.”

Emma led me further down the path. “We’re a secret division of the FBI. We actually go by that name; The Division. Most Federal employees have never even heard of us, not even a lot of people at the CIA and the FBI. We’re governed by the Executive Branch, but we are decidedly off the books. You won’t find us as a line item in a budget report or anywhere else.”

I tried to suspend my disbelief. “How long has it…The Division, I mean…been around?”

“I don’t know the exact number of years. It was in development for a long time before they could start actively training us. The Division is designed specifically to fight domestic terror threats.”

I shoved my hands into my pockets.

“What?”

“You seem like you believe what you’re saying, and maybe it’s even true.”

Emma looked at me, her eyes wide. “It is true. I swear.”

I didn’t want to believe her, but I did.

“But even if it’s true…it has nothing to do with me. It can’t! I don’t know anything about the military or terrorists or anything!” Before Hollingsworth, I’d been a lonely, straight-A geek. The only remarkable thing about me was that I had a dead father and a dead sister. There had never been anything special about me. This didn’t make sense.

“We’ll teach you what you need to know.”

Unable to articulate a proper response, I shook my head and kept walking.

“Now that you’ve been recruited, you need to open your mind to accepting this new reality.”

“I don’t…I don’t know what to say…”

“We need you, Riley. I didn’t want to believe it, especially when I met you. You seemed so unprepared, so normal that I didn’t want to believe it for your sake. But it’s true, and I’m sure of it now.”

My head hurt. I trudged along the path, mind whirling. “I don’t understand any of this, but most of all, I don’t understand why me. I’m nothing. I’m no one.”

“That’s not true.” Emma glanced at me. “And I know you don’t believe it, but we’re going to prove it to you. And it’s not going to be fun for any of us.”

My heart thudded in my chest. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean, you are going to have to uncover what you’re made of over the next few weeks. We only have this summer to train, then we’re being deployed.” She held up her hand again, to stop my impending litany of questions. “I know you want to talk about going back to Hollingsworth and matriculation and a thousand questions about all that, but forget it. None of that matters anymore.”

“I can’t just be…deployed…” The word tasted funny on my tongue. “I can’t quit school. My education matters to me.”

“I know, I know. You think it does. Let it go for now, okay? You weren’t taking classes this summer, anyway. You’re getting the work-study credit you signed up for, even if you didn’t sign up for the rest of this.” She laughed.

“It’s not funny.”

She rolled her eyes. “It is if you can’t locate your sense of irony. You’ve been drafted into an elite government unit that pays Hollingsworth to act as a cover, and all you care about is your silly, overpriced high school diploma.”

“My silly, overpriced high school diploma that I’ve been working toward since kindergarten! Please stop making fun of me.”

“I wasn’t. I’m not.” Emma shook her head. “Sorry. I forget how sensitive civilians can be about these things. We don’t worry about degrees and stuff like that in our group. We worry about national security.”

I stopped walking. “But I won’t be able to help. I can’t fight. I can run, and I’m in decent shape, but I’m not strong. I don’t have any special skills. I don’t even know a second language!”

“All of that will come in time.”

I shook my head, my breathing ragged. This might be what a panic attack felt like.

Emma’s face softened. “Listen—”

“No, you listen. Even if I accept everything you’re saying as true, and I don’t.” I said this even as I had a sinking feeling I should. “What I CANNOT accept is that I’m somehow so special that I’m supposed to be here!”

Emma reached out and patted my hand. “The thing is, you are special. Really special. And that’s what you’re going to find out next.”

I swallowed hard over a sudden lump in my throat. “You’ve certainly had a change of heart about me.”

“That’s true.” She laughed. “And it’s because I know the truth now. So we’re going to show you how special you are, but it’s going to get ugly. Remember, no matter what happens, that you and I are friends now. Promise?”

…it’s going to get ugly…you and I are friends now… Her words whirled through my mind, leaving me with a stabbing headache.

“Why do you want to be my friend now? You haven’t liked me from the beginning.”

She blew out a deep breath. “I was trying to vet you. But like I said, I know the truth now. And I’m getting on the right side of it. Okay?”

I looked at her miserably. “If you’re really my friend, please tell me why this is happening to me.”

“The same reason it happened to me,” Emma said. “Fate. Or whatever you call it when your life turns out the way someone else wants it to.”

“Who wants my life to turn out this way?”

“The Division, Riley. And they always get what they want.”

AFTER OUR WALK, Emma headed to the dormitory. I headed to the kitchen, because…cake. She’d mentioned there was cake. With too many warring thoughts in my head, cake was the only thing that made sense.

Kyan was in the kitchen, rummaging through the large refrigerator. He grunted when I came in and eyed me. “You look like you need some chocolate.”

Sweaty and disheveled from my long day, I sat down at a table with a thud. “You could say that.”

Kyan slid a large piece of chocolate cake in front of me. “I’m here to help.”

I shoveled a bite into my mouth and inspected him as he sat down. His bleached hair was slightly long and swept back. Both sides of his head were shaved underneath. “What’s with the lightning bolt?” I asked.

“I’m the fastest on the team. I just like to remind everyone.” He took a sip of his drink, a green, healthy-looking smoothie. “I’m glad you’re here. I wanted to talk to you before you went any further in this process.”

I sat up straighter, instantly on alert. “Okay…”

Kyan played with his straw. “Not everyone is happy to be here.”

“At Freel?”

“With the team. Not everyone’s happy to be with the team.”

All thoughts of chocolate cake ceased. “Why not?”

Kyan leaned forward, and his cologne wafted across the table—something exotic and expensive, I guessed. “They’re not telling us enough. We don’t know anything about what our upcoming assignment is or what type of danger we’ll be in. Then they go and recruit you, and you don’t even know what the hell you are.”

I had so many questions. I didn’t know where to start. “How long have you been with The Division?”

“Long enough to know that they won’t tell me anything they don’t want to—and they won’t tell you anything, either.” He ran a hand through his hair, artfully pushing back his long bangs. “I’m telling you this so you keep an open mind. Don’t blindly accept their directions. I say, if you want to leave, leave.”

“Emma said I couldn’t. She said they wouldn’t let me go, even now.”

“She might be right. She knows things,” Kyan said.

“Are you thinking of leaving?”

He shrugged his muscular shoulders. “Maybe. I just want to be smart about it. And I wanted to talk to you, so if you have any questions, you know you can come to me. You can trust me. Some of the others, not so much.” He cocked his head to the side for a moment and seemed to be considering something. “You should go now. Cranston wants us in our dorms if we’re not training.”

“Okay.” Nervously, I stood to go.

Kyan reached for my plate and pulled it toward him. “I’ll take care of this for you.”

“Thanks.” Appetite long gone, I hustled to the door.

I almost jumped out of my skin when I ran into Finn in the hallway, standing just outside the kitchen. “Were you listening to us?”

He shrugged, his jaw taut. “No.”

I didn’t believe him, but I was anxious to go to bed and put the confusing day behind me. “Well, see you tomorrow.”

He stepped in front of me. “Riley…you did well today.”

“Thanks.”

I tried to move around him, but he blocked me.

“Not everyone’s going to be happy about that.”

“Why not?”

Finn jerked his head toward the kitchen. “Some people aren’t as…dedicated…as they should be.”

I raised my chin. “Some people have questions, is all. I don’t think that’s wrong.”

Finn’s dark eyes searched mine. “No, it’s not wrong. But talking about it is dangerous. Don’t get sucked into anything, at least, not until you know have all the facts and know where you stand.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“If you say so.” He stepped away so I could pass. “Fine.”

“Fine.” But as I hustled to bed, I’d never felt less fine in my life.

10

STRESS TEST

FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS, I completed each the physical test Cranston set out for me. Other than that, all I did was eat and sleep. I was completely physically exhausted. I had a feeling that was by Cranston’s design. He wanted me tired, too tired to ask questions, too tired to run away.

I considered the conversations I’d had with Emma, Finn, and Kyan. I still didn’t know what to make of everything. But as I watched everyone in our group work out, day after day with laser-like focus, it became clear they were training for something—and it wasn’t how to artfully distribute bark mulch.

Josh, Finn, and Emma mostly made themselves scarce. When we talked, it was about the weather, how I’d done in the trials that day, and the dinner menu. A forced, tense normalness descended on our group. Everyone pretended to be ordinary. Kyan didn’t approach me again, and I wondered if Finn had warned him not to. My teammates smiled at me over their bowls of cereal in the morning and their bowls of ice cream at night, but I struggled with what I’d been told.

No one mentioned The Division—not even me. I didn’t know what to say or what else to ask. I went through each day in a sort of trance, turning in an almost flawless physical performance in spite of my desire to return to Hollingsworth.

But even as my body performed, my thoughts wandered a million miles away.

Emma stayed friendly, but she didn’t tell me anything else. I had the feeling she couldn’t, so I didn’t push it. She’d given me enough to think about.

Even though Cranston worked me to the bone, I continued my daily solo runs. I didn’t ask Finn to go with me. I considered this time alone, the precious hour I got, a mental-health break. On the third morning at Freel, I grabbed a protein bar from the kitchen, popped in my ear buds, and headed outside. I planned to run the trail Finn had shown me. I should be able to finish the six miles before it was time for my next test. Hopefully, the exercise would give me the emotional clarity I needed to make it through another day of this charade.

The problem? I worried it wasn’t a charade. I worried The Division was…real. And where the hell would that leave me?

I started toward the stream, music blaring, when I caught some movement in my peripheral vision. Finn was over at the track, laughing and talking to someone—the tall, Indian, perfect-looking girl. Rachel. She smiled back at him, pulling up her lithe thigh to stretch it.

My stomach bubbled with acid as I turned away. Were they a couple? I hadn’t seen them interact a lot, but those smiles gutted me. They looked stunning together. Rachel was loads more appropriate girlfriend material for Finn than I could ever be. They were in the same league.

I ran faster, my eyes filling stupidly with tears.

I made it to the woods, where I wiped my eyes and turned up my music, wanting to block my thoughts. I concentrated on my pace and pumping my arms. After a few minutes, the rest of the world fell away. I pushed myself hard so I could focus only on taking the next step as my lungs burned. I checked my watch. I’d run a seven-minute mile, very fast by my standards.

I rounded the path’s corner when suddenly, someone grabbed my shoulder from behind, yanking me backward.

I screamed.

They yanked out my ear buds. “Jesus, Riley—stop it!”

I staggered backward as Cranston towered over me, his face red and angry. His ice-blue eyes darted over my face. “I told you not to wear these goddamned ear buds! You didn’t even hear me coming up behind you!”

He wasn’t the only angry one. “You didn’t need to grab me like that!” I spluttered.

“Yes, I did! I yelled your name for five minutes. You didn’t even turn around!”

“What do you want?”

“I want you to start listening to me. I don’t want you out here by yourself with those things in. It makes you vulnerable. Anybody could sneak up on you.”

I crossed my arms against my chest. “Who would sneak up on me, besides you…sir?”

He pointed at me. “Lose the attitude, soldier.”

I threw up my hands. “I’m not a soldier.”

Cranston regarded me. “Emma told me what you two talked about. She told you the truth, Riley.”

“Well, if it’s true, and you’re my commanding officer, you’re doing a crap job.” The words were out of my mouth before I could think it through. “You haven’t told me anything, and you’re not exactly encouraging me to want to work for you. You came out here and scared the bejeezus out of me and then yelled at me. Not exactly great motivation!”

“I was trying to prove a point—”

“But that’s not what’s important, and you know it. You might know what Emma told me, but you haven’t said one word about why I’m here and why you’re making me do all these crazy tests. Forget the stupid ear buds!” I didn’t typically yell at adults, but my nerves were stretched taut, close to fraying.

The image of Finn with Rachel bubbled right below the surface, but I vehemently ignored it.

He said nothing for a minute. “Are you finished?”

No. Not even close. “Yes. Sir.”

“Would you like to keep running? We need to get back for your tests. I can explain more on the way.”

“Fine.” I jogged alongside him. It took three of my steps to keep up with each of his long, lanky ones.

“I haven’t talked to you about why we’re here because you said you wanted to switch groups. I made you a promise that if you weren’t up to our standards, you could do that. Remember?”

“I remember, but I still think some sort of explanation about what we’re doing here would be appropriate.”

“I haven’t told you anything for a reason. I did it to protect you so that if you still wanted out at the end of trials, I could let you go.”

His words chilled me. I wondered if he would actually let me leave.

“We’re doing exactly what I said—testing you to see if you’re supposed to be in the group. So far, you’ve passed with flying colors. Today’s the last scheduled day, but unless there’s some complete aberration, you’re in.”

I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t. I’d wanted to leave, but my curiosity was getting the better of me.

“What’re we doing today?”

Mr. Cranston looked straight ahead. “The stress test.”

That didn’t sound promising. “Will it…hurt?”

“I don’t know how to answer that.”

“Uh…will I be bleeding at the end of it?”

“No—nothing like that.” He still wouldn’t look at me.

“Then what do you mean by stress?”

“Jesus, Finn was right. You sure ask a lot of questions. Let’s go, soldier. Try to keep up.”

CRANSTON’S PACE WAS FIERCE, but I managed to stay with him. I could barely breathe by the time we reached the top of the trail. That worked out perfectly because Finn and Rachel were still at the track running laps. I had to focus on catching my breath instead of considering what a perfect couple they were.

Even though I had no right, the sight of them together made my blood boil.

Cranston abruptly stopped running and wiped his face with this shirt. He had a fighter’s body—long, lean muscles and a few nasty-looking scars. I didn’t ask him about them. It seemed too personal.

He watched Finn and Rachel for a moment. “You ready, soldier?” he asked me.

“Sure.” A stress test, whatever it might be, was better than watching Finn and his apparent supermodel-athlete girlfriend chase each other around the track.

“Finn! Rachel!” Cranston yelled. “In the gym, let’s go!”

Finn stopped running, and his eyes met mine for moment, but he quickly looked away.

I hustled to the gym. My gut hurt, and my temples throbbed, for more reasons that I could even keep track of.

Emma met me at the door, flanked by Morgan, Maya, and Kyan. “Hey.” She looked pale.

“You okay?”

She nodded. “Sure. Are you ready for today? Did Cranston tell you what you were doing?”

I pretended not to notice Finn and Rachel as they walked in together. They started talking to Josh and Cranston. “The stress test.”

“Right.” Emma blew out a deep breath. “It can be…stressful, for lack of a better word. Remember what I said, okay? We’re friends, no matter what.”

“Why would you say—”

“Riley!” Mr. Cranston barked. “Over here.”

Giving Emma one last confused look, I headed over. “I’m ready, sir.”

“Good.” He smiled at me. “I’m sorry if I scared you earlier. I just want you to be able to protect yourself.”

I felt oddly touched. I had the feeling he didn’t apologize often. “It’s okay.”

“We’re starting with a circuit.” He motioned to jump ropes, a tires course, weights, climbing ropes, and several other obstacles. “I’ll walk you through these, but you have to complete each section, and it’s timed. You need to rest from the run, but are you almost ready to go?”

My body was used to running, and it recovered quickly. “Sure.”

“Okay. We’ll start soon.”

I examined the course. We hadn’t done something like this yet, but it didn’t seem too far out of the ordinary. “Why is this called the stress test?”

Mr. Cranston stayed focused on his clipboard. “You’re going to have audience participation. And competition.”

“I’m sorry?” My voice came out small.

“You’ll see.”

He turned away. “Maya? Let’s go.”

My stomach sank as the taller of the twins stalked over. Her hair was in its typically high ponytail, which swung, snake-like and insidious down her back as she approached. She stood next to me and arched an eyebrow. “This should be fun.”

I tried to not feel intimidated. “Yeah?”

She snorted. “Not for you, cupcake.”

A slow burn filled my muscles. I looked back. Finn still stood next to Rachel. With a dull sense of satisfaction, I noted they weren’t holding hands.

Yet.

I clenched my fists and glared at Maya. “I’m not a cupcake, you Amazon. Let’s do this.”

My opponent looked amused, but Mr. Cranston shook his head. “That’s enough, girls. Let me show you the route.” He walked us through each portion of the course, explaining what the expectations were. I realized that there were two sets of obstacles. I eyed Maya’s six-foot-tall, muscular frame. Maybe I could climb over—or duck under—her to get to the finish line.

“As Riley said, let’s do this.” Cranston smiled at us. “Line up. Riley, you haven’t done one of these before, so you need to know two things: nothing’s off limits, and you have to ignore everything but the course. Got it?”

I licked my lips. “I think so.”

He nodded to Maya. “Maya? You ready?”

“Yes, sir.” She aggressively positioned herself on the start line. I blew out a deep breath and followed her, every muscle in my body itching to move—itching for a fight.

I knew I was going to lose, but I refused to lose this.

If I did, I’d be on a bus back to Hollingsworth. That was what I wanted, right?

But what I wanted didn’t matter: I couldn’t let her win. And it wasn’t just Maya; I was like this with everyone. My competitive nature wasn’t something that made sense—I didn’t have the strength and agility to back it up—but I’d never been able to control it. That was one of the reasons I’d quit track. The last eight-hundred-meter race I’d run, I’d almost taken another girl out by elbowing her in the ribs when she’d tried to pass me…

“Take your mark!” Cranston’s voice jolted me back to the present.

I leaned forward, shoulder to shoulder with Maya.

“Go!”

The first obstacle was the tires. Maya shot out in front of me and started running through her set.

I sprinted to catch up and had almost reached her when Josh’s voice boomed, “You suck, Hanover!”

I turned to look at him, trying to keep my balance.

Josh laughed and pointed at me. “You’re losing, loser! You SUCK!”

“What?” My heart hurt. Of all of them, I considered Josh a friend.

He laughed. “I said you suck. Pay attention!”

Reeling, I turned away and realized that Maya was now through the tires and already climbing the rope. I threw myself through the rest of the tire course, almost tripping several times, desperate to catch up.

She’d almost made it to the top when I started to climb. When I hit halfway up, she was already on her way down. She sneered at me as she slid back toward the ground. “You have no chance, cupcake. You might as well give up now.”

“Shut up!” I huffed, and kept climbing.

That was when she reached over and shoved me, trying to knock me from the rope.

I clung to it. “What the hell?”

The crowd clapped and cheered. “Maya! Maya! Maya!”

“Girl fight!” Josh yelled, sounding way too excited. “Get her, Maya!”

Maya shoved my shoulder, sending my rope swinging out.

“What the hell!”

She waited, poised to shove me again.

“Get her, Maya!” Emma hollered.

Emma’s earlier words came back to me. …I know you don’t believe it, but we’re going to have to prove it to you. And it’s not going to be fun for any of us.

I managed to angle the rope away from Maya as I swung back. “Don’t TOUCH me!” I shrieked as I held onto the rope for dear life.

She laughed as she slid the rest of the way to the ground. “See you at the bottom, sissy. Looking forward to it.”

Thunderous applause erupted from the crowd as she landed on the mat and dropped into a curtsy.

“Maya! MAYA!”

I looked over to see them yelling, even Kyan—everyone except Finn. He stared at the floor as if he couldn’t bear to watch.

But Cranston was watching me.

“Is that okay? Can she hit me?” I asked him. It came out like a cry.

“I told you. Nothing’s off limits. Ignore everything but the course. Now get moving, soldier! You’re about to lose!” His voice boomed.

Rage filled me as I dropped back down to the mat. The list of people I needed to beat up was growing. Cranston was going to get it and Maya and Josh, not to mention Rachel…

I stood and steadied myself. The next part of the course was a climbing wall, which looked over twelve-feet tall. Maya was already at the top of it, springing over to the other side. She was winning. She was winning by a mile.

She was winning by a mile, and she’d tried to knock me off my rope. That Amazon bitch...

I took a step back and got a running start. I jumped up, trying to find a place to hold on or to reach the top of the wall. I couldn’t grab onto anything and slid immediately back down. My lungs burned as I took another deep breath and another running start. This time, I jumped higher, and my fingers found purchase on the wood. I pulled myself up, arms shaking, until I reached the top. Breathing a sigh of relief, I swung my leg over and steadied myself. I put my head down, catching my breath. I’d made it to the top. I’d made it!

Maya was on the other side. As I prepared to jump down to join her, she reached up and shoved me backward. Hard.

I screamed as I fell, collapsing in a heap on the other side. I lay there for a second, stunned and wondering if my ribs were broken.

“I told you you sucked, Hanover!” Josh yelled.

I sat up, wincing at the pain, and glared at him. I had some choice words for Josh, but they would have to wait. I needed to kick Maya’s butt first.

My body ached from the fall, but I ignored it. I took another running start and grabbed the top of the wall. I catapulted over the top, not even stopping as I threw myself over to the other side.

I landed in a crouch, and it hurt. Everything hurt. I didn’t care. There was only the pounding in my head, my singular focus on finding Maya.

She was already jumping rope. We were supposed to do a set of one hundred before moving on to the next part of the course. I ran to her and punched her, hard, in the stomach. Cranston wrote something on his clipboard. Maya doubled over, and I elbowed her in the back, knocking her to the ground.

I’d never hit another person before, but I didn’t stop to think about it and acted purely on instinct. I put my knee on Maya’s back to hold her in place, and before she could move, I took her jump rope and grabbed her hands, tying them together. Then I grabbed another jump rope and tied her feet, even as she tried to kick me.

She kept fighting, but I didn’t stop. I realized I was cackling.

Cranston scribbled something else. Finn looked up from the ground to watch, a faint scowl on his handsome face.

“What the hell?” Maya screamed, writhing on the ground as I tightened the knots.

She tried to head-butt me as I finished, but I jumped out of her way.

“Do something!” she yelled at Cranston.

He stuck his pen behind his ear and sighed. “That’s your job, young lady.”

I grabbed my jump rope and moved safely away from her, counting each jump out loud to one hundred. “Take that, cupcake!”

I grinned as I stepped around her and moved on to the next obstacle and the next. I didn’t look back.

And then I beat her. I beat her by a mile.

SOMEONE UNTIED Maya and let her loose while I got some water. I didn’t look at the stands. The audience had hooted and hollered when I won, but I couldn’t forget that they’d cheered for my competition first. I didn’t want to talk to anyone.

I’d won, but I was ashamed of myself.

Cranston intercepted me coming out of the kitchen. “You got an almost perfect score.”

“Does that mean I have to stay?”

He scratched his head. “Do you even think you can go back to normal after that performance?”

“I don’t know. But I do know Maya’s probably going to kill me.”

“Maya!” he barked, making me jump.

She stalked over, rubbing her wrists and sniffling. “Don’t even look at me.”

I turned away while Cranston cleared his throat. “Maya, you’re a professional. Please tell Riley that you aren’t going to kill her for beating you and putting you to shame.”

Maya cursed under her breath.

“That’s not very professional, soldier,” Cranston warned.

“I’m sorry, sir, but she took me by surprise today.”

“No one was more surprised than me,” I mumbled. I’d never been in a fight before. The fact that I’d beaten the tall redhead baffled me.

“You rose to the occasion, Riley. It was good work.” He faced Maya. “And you were taken by surprise, that’s all. It was a good lesson for both of you.”

“Yes, sir. And I promise I won’t kill her…but only because you said I had to.” She sounded miserable.

Cranston shrugged. “Works for me. Riley? Is that good enough for you?”

“Yes, sir.” My gaze flicked to Maya. “I’m sorry I hit you and tied you up.”

She tossed her ponytail over her shoulder. “Don’t be. I’ll make you pay for it soon enough.” She stalked away.

“I told you she’d kill me.”

Cranston rolled his eyes. “Enough with the drama. She’s not allowed to kill you. Now, go get some dinner. You did great today, soldier.”

I didn’t bother to ask him not to call me soldier as he turned and walked away.

I’d crossed a line, and I didn’t know if I could go back.

11

IN WHICH I SERIOUSLY CONSIDER SCALING THE FENCE

AT DINNER, I grabbed a plate of food and a table in the corner of the dining room. I felt some of the others watching me, but I didn’t make eye contact. I wanted to be alone. I also wanted to go home, but it appeared that I’d done too well for that.

It was my own stupid fault. Me and my pride.

“Riley! There you are.” Emma ran over and patted me on the back, breaking my reverie. “You did so great today!”

I glared at her, my brow furrowed.

She nodded, as if she understood my expression perfectly. “Right. I told you it was going to be a rough one, didn’t I?”

“You didn’t tell me I was going to have to fight someone—”

“You’re going to have to show me how to tie a knot like that!” She interrupted, gleefully. “Okay, I’m going into town with Maya to run some errands. I’ll catch you later.”

She skipped off before I could complain about her rude jeering or more importantly, ask her any follow-up questions.

Josh came and sat down next to me. I refused to look up from my spaghetti. “You have some nerve, coming over here.”

He played with his food, but otherwise, he didn’t budge. “I had to do that. We all did, and it’s no big deal. You were being hazed. We’ve all been through the same thing. It’s a rite of passage.”

“I’m still not speaking to you.”

“Suit yourself, but I’m not leaving.” He shoveled spaghetti into his mouth, the way large, skinny, perpetually starving boys do. Half of his food disappeared in three bites, and if I still cared about him, I’d be worried he was going to choke.

Josh finished chew-inhaling and looked at me, his eyes shining. “You kicked ass, Hanover. Seriously. I had money on you anyway, but I didn’t expect such an explosive performance. It was righteous.”

Unable to stop myself, I asked, “You put money on me?”

“And I lost to him,” Morgan huffed, slamming her plate down and sitting right next to me. “No one beats my sister that way!”

Worried she might seek revenge for her twin’s humiliation, I shrank away.

Morgan looked wounded. “I’m not going to hurt you. I think you’re awesome.” She looked at Josh. “Right? It was worth losing twenty bucks to see Maya tied up like that. Ooh, and I got pictures. Blackmail!”

Josh held his hand out for the phone. “Let me see!”

I stopped eating and watched them, confused by how friendly and normal they were acting. “Weren’t you guys both rooting for me to die earlier?”

Morgan shrugged. “The word ‘die’ is too harsh—although I was sort of hoping you’d get knocked from the rope. That would’ve been cool!”

“Cool? I could’ve broken my neck!”

She scrunched up her nose. “You would’ve been fine. You’re tougher than you think.”

Josh looked up from the pictures. “Can you please forgive me? I had to tell you that you sucked. It’s part of the stress test!”

I put down my fork. “Why is it part of the stress test? And why did my supposed teammate have to fight me?”

He looked excited. “This is good. Now that you finally passed, we can tell you more.”

“Well, please do because I don’t understand.” Except that the test was supposed to stress me out, which it certainly did.

Josh leaned forward. “In early training, we work to open recruit’s minds to…other possibilities. For instance, you wouldn’t expect your own teammates to turn on you. That’s a surprise, and surprises are stressors.”

I nodded. “Go on.”

The test measures your response to stress. What they’re looking for is a positive response, which you showed today by the boatload. You turned something potentially negative into a positive, and you did it fast. Unusually fast.”

I swallowed a bite of spaghetti. “That was unusual?”

“Very,” Morgan said. “Usually new recruits fail the stress test the first couple of times. They cry, they vomit, like little Joshy over here—”

“You don’t have to advertise that.” Josh’s cheeks flamed.

Morgan ignored him, smiling at me. “But you knocked it out of the park.”

“Oh. Huh.” I went back to toying with my food.

“Tomorrow morning should be interesting,” Josh said.

I looked at him sharply. “What do you mean?”

“There’s another test.”

“Cranston didn’t mention it—”

His plate clean, Josh abruptly stood to go. “Then neither did I.” He grinned and loped away before I could question him further.

Morgan shoveled one last bite into her mouth. “That’s my cue. See you tomorrow.” She scurried off, too.

Sighing, I brought my plate and utensils to the restaurant-grade dishwasher, stuffed everything inside, and shuffled to my room. Today weighed on me, and my limbs were heavy. I needed to get to bed, to physically rest and mentally take a break from this weird reality.

As I headed down the hallway to brush my teeth, I ran into Finn. He had on a gray T-shirt and sweats and looked ready for bed. He stopped, raising his arm to scratch the back of his neck, his bicep popping out.

My face flushed before I could even open my mouth.

“Hey.” He sounded miserable.

“Hey?”

“Good job today.”

My stupid heart pounded in my chest. “Thanks.”

His gaze met mine, and the muscle in his jaw jumped. “Well, see you tomorrow.”

He hustled off before I could ask him what was wrong.

Maybe he had a fight with Rachel, I thought as I brushed my teeth. I wished the thought brought me some satisfaction, hope or a sense of relief. But thinking about them together, even fighting, made me feel slightly sick.

On the way back, I ran into Kyan. “You did well today. Tomorrow’s going to suck even worse, you know.”

“Great?”

He rolled his eyes. “Talk to me after tomorrow. You might want to hear more of what I was trying to tell you the other night.”

“Okay.” Of course, nothing was okay.

I shuffled back to the dorm room, still wondering what Finn’s problem was and what Kyan meant, to find the bunks quiet and dark. None of the other girls were in bed. Again, it seemed planned. Maybe they wanted me to fall asleep so I couldn’t ask any more questions.

Tired of all the fighting, I let them win. I drifted off to sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow and dreamed of the obstacle course all night long. Maya’s red hair floated in front of me, just out of reach.

IT WAS quiet when I woke up the next morning. The other girls were all still asleep. I grabbed my running clothes and sneakers and snuck out quietly. My muscles ached, but I’d gotten used to it. I wanted to go for a run and collect my thoughts before Cranston made me do the next test.

I quietly left the building and popped only one ear bud in, I’d learned my lesson. This way, I could listen to my music and still hear the world around me. I didn’t want our leader to sneak up on me again and chastise me. I needed this run. I had to process what had happened yesterday, how I felt about it, and what I planned to do.

My win yesterday had surprised me. Even more shocking? Once I’d gotten over my initial shame about hitting Maya, I’d been pleased. Winning thrilled me…and fighting her had felt good.

That was messed up, and I knew it.

But it didn’t make it any less true.

Something else about the test bothered me. I’d known that winning would make it harder for me to go back to Hollingsworth, but I’d wanted to win, anyway. I’d wanted to win. Bad.

Then afterward, what Morgan had told me…pride surged through me for being one of the few recruits to pass the Stress Test on the first try. It gave me the patina of specialness I needed to feel as though I belonged here—here, with The Division.

Belonging felt nice. It was new to me.

But what I really needed to process was this: at some point, I’d suspended disbelief about the organization. It couldn’t be real, and yet, my teammates believed they were working for a secret government organization. I knew when someone lied to me. I’d always had a knack for it. I didn’t know if The Division was real, but I believed they believed in it.

And I had a bad feeling they were right.

I followed the path down by the stream, enjoying the cool dampness of the morning even as the thoughts swirled in my head. Let’s say it IS real…

I considered the argument: The Division is legitimate. It’s an agency so secret I’ve never heard of it, and no one else has either. Its members are exclusively young and exceptionally attractive, and they’re recruited at a young age. The agency runs covert recruitment operations through a front of private schools, quietly growing its ranks as it trains its recruits to deal with domestic terrorist threats. Finn, Josh, Emma, and the others had been drafted into the agency at a young age and indoctrinated. They’d trained for years to defend our country against terrorist threats.

I ran through the opposing argument: The Division was a complete fabrication. Emma and the others believed the government-agency story because they’d been brainwashed, lied to, or some combination thereof.

Or maybe I was wrong. Maybe they were all lying to me, and I just couldn’t tell.

Whatever the truth was, I still couldn’t understand what they wanted from me. If the Division was a lie, and this was an attempt to brainwash me into some sort of cult, they’d be disappointed. I had no money and no connections, nothing to offer them. Maybe they saw me as vulnerable, I mused, an easy target because I was alone. Maybe they were right. Still, there was no reason for them to come after me. I didn’t believe for a moment anyone would orchestrate a façade so elaborate just to recruit the likes of little old me into a cult, when I had no money and no family to speak of to blackmail.

On the other hand, if The Division was real, they’d still tapped the wrong person to recruit. As far as I knew, I had no special skills. I kept running, breathing hard, struggling to make sense of the situation.

I believed I’d beaten Maya based on sheer force of will. If that was a special, recruit-worthy skill, I had it. It and only it. I believed Finn, Emma, Kyan and Josh were telling me the truth, as they understood it. I also believed they were leaving out a lot.

I believed I had a crush on Finn, for better or more likely, for worse. And there was something between him and Rachel. But what did I actually know?

There was nothing waiting for me at home, except my drunk mother and a houseful of memories I yearned to forget.

But…

Do you even think you can go back to normal? Cranston’s words echoed in my mind as I ran up the hill. I turned left and headed for the fence at the edge of the base. You could see the road from here and people heading to their offices to start their days—normal people, who’d probably dropped their kids off at school and were eager to start their second cups of coffee and dive into their work. They probably had plans for the afternoon, taking their sons and daughters to sports practice, meeting a friend at the gym, making dinner then watching a show.

I stopped and laced my fingers through the chain-link fence, watching the cars. Since Dad and Katie died, I hadn’t thought much about the future. I’d only worried about my grades, getting into Hollingsworth and getting the hell out of my house. I’d had no friends to speak of. I’d completely closed myself off. I’d tried to focus on one step at a time, probably because I couldn’t bear to imagine the future without the people I loved.

Katie and I had always planned to live on the same street in Hanover, so our kids could ride their bikes and back forth between houses. We wanted to live near Mom and Dad, of course. I figured I could work from my sunny, cozy home office lined with bookshelves overflowing with books. I didn’t know what I’d do for a job since I hadn’t thought it all through. Katie was the planner, the one who’d had notebooks filled with what our lives would be like: our weddings, our careers, our husbands, our children. Our futures.

But then she was gone, and so were those dreams.

“Hey.” Finn ran up beside me, coming from the opposite direction.

“Trying to get a run in before it gets too hot?”

“Yup.” He nodded toward the fence. “Thinking of scaling it?”

“Maybe.”

He linked his fingers through the fence. “I get it. You’ve been through a lot. You’ve handled it well, for what it’s worth.”

“Gee, thanks. I’m not sure if punching another girl in the stomach and hog-tying her into submission translates into handling this well, but whatever.”

He sighed. “It’s not whatever. You didn’t have a choice about what you did to Maya. She would’ve done the same to you, if she’d had the chance.”

“I’m not sure how that’s supposed to make me feel better.”

“I don’t think I can make you feel better. In fact, I’m about to make you feel worse.”

Panic seized me as I regarded him. Dark circles bloomed like bruises underneath his eyes. He looked resigned and pale, as if he hadn’t slept.

“Why do you say that?”

“Cranston just sent me out here to get you. It’s time for your next test, and it’s worse than yesterday.”

My heart sank. “How’s that even possible?”

Finn shrugged his big shoulders, looking even sourer. “Come with me. You’re about to find out.”

In typical Finn style, he didn’t elaborate at all as we jogged back to the barracks.

We stopped in front of the building to catch our breath, and I remembered his speed from yesterday. “I forgot to ask you something.”

“What’s that?”

I tried not to ogle his bulging thigh muscle as he stretched. “How did you get back to the barracks so fast yesterday?”

He didn’t blink. “I ran.”

“But you ran fast.”

A cocky smile lit up his face. “I’m a fast runner.”

“But you can’t be that fast. You got back here in five minutes. We were over three miles from the base. It’s not physically possible for you to run that fast.”

His smile widened. “Is it physically possible that you were wrong about where you left me and incorrectly calculated the distance?”

“No. Because I know where we left you, and I know it was three miles from here.”

“I think the more logical explanation here is that you’re remembering it wrong—not that I have superhuman speed.”

He sounded sure of himself, but there was something off about his face. “Finn Ryan, you are lying to me.”

He rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

“To borrow your phrase, it’s not whatever. Why don’t you just tell me the truth? It can’t be any crazier than all the other crap you’ve told me!”

“Fine.” He leaned closer to me, as if he were about to tell me a secret. “I ran all the way back here in five minutes. And you were wrong about the distance. It was three-point-five miles, not three.”

I sucked in a breath. “How did you—”

Finn stepped closer. “How did I do it? My superhuman speed, like you guessed.”

Before I even knew what I was doing, I reached out and pinched his arm, hard.

He yelped and jumped back. “What the hell?”

“Sorry. I wanted to see if you felt human.”

He laughed, but it sounded hollow. “I’m human. All too human, I’m afraid.”

“What does that mean?”

Finn’s face went sour again as he rubbed his arm. “It means it hurts when I get pinched. Now, enough is enough. Just stop with the questions. They won’t help you right now. We need to get inside for this test.”

He wouldn’t look at me as he headed to the door and held it open. “By the way, this is going to suck. Just so you know, I didn’t have any say in the matter.”

My stomach tied itself in a nervous knot. “Gee, great. I’m really looking forward to it.”

His gaze briefly met mine. “For the record, I forgive you—but I don’t expect you to forgive me.”

12

MEDITATE THAT

I FORGIVE YOU. For the pinch? For tracking his running time? …but I don’t expect you to forgive me. I didn’t know what he meant, but Finn’s foreboding words rang in my ears as I headed to where Cranston stood, going over his notes. “Sir, Finn brought me back for the next test.”

“Okay. Good.” He flipped through his papers and scribbled.

“Can you tell me what we’re doing?” In addition to my nervous stomach, my palms had started to sweat. “Is it something like yesterday?”

“No, not at all.” He didn’t look up. “Why don’t you got get some water and get ready, huh? I’ll meet you at the mats in two minutes. Then we’ll get started.”

“Okay.” I shuffled off to fill my water bottle. It was dead quiet in the gym, which usually buzzed with activity at this hour of the morning. Finn had disappeared, leaving only Cranston and me in the large, empty space. Hoping we were going to be without an audience, I dutifully filled my bottle from the fountain. I headed to the mats and flopped down to stretch, my heart thudding in my chest.

Cranston came over after a minute. “Okay. Today’s test is different because it doesn’t involve a physical test. It’s a mental one.”

“Mental as in, you give me a piece of paper filled with multiple-choice questions, and I choose the correct answer?”

“Mental as in—no, that’s not what I meant by mental at all. You are going to sit here and close your eyes. And then we are going to test your brain.”

I opened my mouth and then closed it, feeling a bead of cold sweat run down my back. Why the word-that-starts-with-an-F and rhymes with “truck” would they want to test my brain?

“Be right back.” Cranston disappeared into the supply closet and came out a moment later, wheeling a cart with some sort of equipment on it. He pulled up next to me and selected several electrodes. “Can you stand up for a second? I need to put these on you.”

I stood up on wobbly legs, trying to be patient as Cranston attached a sticky, circular electrode to each of my temples and one low on my forehead, between my eyebrows. He carefully adjusted the wires leading to them, making sure everything connected to the machine.

“You can sit back down now, Riley. Just don’t jerk your head.”

“O-Okay.” The word came out jittery as my heart skidded in my chest.

“Hold on.” Cranston grabbed my wrist and checked my pulse, counting to himself while monitoring his watch. He released my wrist and peered at me. “You need to calm down. The last thing we need is your monitor going off again. This test won’t last long, and you won’t get hurt. I promise.”

“Then why did Finn say it was going to be terrible?” And Kyan. Kyan said it would be bad, too.

Cranston shook his head. “Finn shouldn’t have said that. The only thing that would be terrible is if we’re not prepared.”

“Prepared for what?”

“Enough, Riley. I don’t want to get you any more upset. Please do some yoga breathing and start to meditate. We’ll begin once you’ve calmed down.”

We’d started a daily yoga practice, which I found did calm me down and helped me center myself. We’d also begun working on meditation, which I found difficult. Trying to quiet my mind, which typically raced around at one thousand miles per hour, was not an easy task.

Still, I was eager to get started so I could put this test behind me. I sat cross-legged on the mat and focused on my breathing. It was too late to run away, and my inquisitiveness was getting the better of me again. I wanted to know how they planned to test my brain and why.

I also wanted to know what was so terrible about the test. Morbid curiosity burned inside me. I closed my eyes and tried to forget about it all. Cranston left me alone, but he wouldn’t be far. I didn’t know how much time had passed, but I focused, and after a while, my breathing became even and regular. I tried to concentrate on my inner eye and ignore the electrode attached to my exterior one.

For me, meditating felt an awful lot like sitting still and pretending to meditate. So that’s what I did until Cranston came back.

“Riley? You ready?”

I opened my eyes and nodded. I’d managed to calm down.

“Good.” He favored me with one of his rare smiles. “I’m going to have the others come in. Ignore them unless I instruct you otherwise.”

I winced, remembering yesterday. “Do we really need an audience?” I didn’t want anyone else in the room.

“We do. You’ll see why in a couple of minutes. When this is done, you and I are going to have a meeting to discuss the results and what you want to do going forward. Sound good?”

“Absolutely.” I took a deep breath. I simply had to get through this test.

Cranston patted my shoulder. “Good. Okay, I’ll bring in the others.” He tapped out a text, and a minute later, Emma, Josh, Kyan, and the twins filed in…everyone except for Finn. And Rachel, I realized.

I watched as they took their seats in the bleachers. Emma nodded at me but then looked away. That probably meant this was about to get ugly. I breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth, the way we’d learned in yoga. My heart still beat erratically as I wondered—what in the hell could be so terrible about a mental test?

“Are you ready to begin?” Cranston asked.

“I guess so.” My voice sounded hoarse.

He nodded at me, his silvery hair winking under the lights. “I want you to close your eyes, Riley. And I want you to visualize something happy. It can be a memory, a place, or something you enjoy, like ice cream.”

“Ice cream?”

He shrugged defensively. “It’s a suggestion. I’m going to monitor the output on the machine. Understand?”

I cleared my throat. “Yes, sir.” My gaze drifted nervously to the bleachers, but no one turned my way.

Why wouldn’t anyone look at me? All I had to do was visualize my happy place!

“Let’s begin.”

I closed my eyes and panicked for a moment, wondering what I could think of that would help me relax. But a vision came to me almost immediately, as if it had been waiting in the wings: my father, Katie, and me out in the backyard of our old house. The sun was setting, and we played cards at the table. It was the same game we’d played for years—Uno. Katie always won, which annoyed me, but we still had fun. My mom was inside doing the dishes and getting us cupcakes. The peepers, the tiny frogs that came out in the summer, called out to each other in the small pond. The last rays of the sunlight warmed my face.

It was the night before they died, the night before they went to Vermont and never came back.

Something beeped. “Riley,” Cranston whispered in my ear, “stay in the moment. Don’t think about anything other than the image in your mind.”

How did he know what I was thinking? But the beeping monitor must’ve tipped him off. I took another deep breath and went back to the memory, turning it over in my mind, remembering Katie’s green tank top and the way her hair frizzed out of her braids. I saw the shallow acne scars on my father’s cheeks, something he hated about his face but that I loved. Otherwise, he would’ve been too handsome, too perfect. My mother rattled dishes inside the kitchen. My mother, before she turned into… I cut off the thought.

“Good.” Cranston startled me, and I opened my eyes. He read the output from the monitor, seeming pleased. “I think we’re ready to move on.”

“Okay.”

“I want you to think about the day your father and sister died. I want you to go back to the moment it happened, and I want you to remember everything about it.”

Too stunned to respond, I opened my mouth but no words came out.

“Riley?”

“How—how did you know about that? About my sister and my dad?” I croaked.

“I know everything about you.” Cranston watched the monitor, not my face.

I swallowed hard. “I thought you didn’t want my monitor going off.”

“I want you to do what I asked. Now.”

My gaze flicked to the bleachers. Emma watched me, a scowl marring her pretty face. I closed my eyes. Afterward, I would wonder why I did it. Curiosity killed the cat…

I sat on my bed, reading Titus Andronicus for English class. It was gory. “It’s Shakespeare’s take on a horror film,” my English teacher explained—and the more I read, the more I agreed. The bodies were piling up fast. I grimaced and got up to stretch, wandering downstairs to grab a glass of water. I found my mom in the kitchen, staring at her phone.

“What’s up?”

She didn’t look at me. She just held the phone and shook it. Her face was pale, and her mouth hung open.

“Mom? What’s wrong?”

Her face crumpled. “It’s Katie and your dad. There’s been an accident.” She turned toward me. “How do you call 9-1-1? HOW DO YOU CALL 9-1-1?”

“What—what are you talking about? Who called you?”

She didn’t answer so I grabbed the phone from her, panicked. My mother had never been good in a crisis. Katie broke her arm riding her bike when we were younger, and part of the bone poked through the skin. Mom passed out on the sidewalk as soon as she saw her, and then I’d had two people who needed medical attention.

I sat my mother down before she fell and called my dad’s phone. It went straight to voicemail. I quickly scrolled back through the call history. There was a listing for a Vermont number. I called, gently taking my mother by the hand while I did. She looked like she might pass out again. Her face hadn’t changed expression, and she was breathing funny and loud, like she was hyperventilating.

The operator picked up after one ring. “Randolph Dispatch. Is this an emergency?”

“I don’t know.” I licked my lips nervously. “We got a call from this number. My mother said something about an accident?”

“I’ll put you through to the officer on duty.” The woman immediately patched me through.

“Randolph PD. This is Tracy. This call is being recorded. How can I help you?”

“This is Riley Payne. My mother said she just got a call—something about an accident? I found the number in her call history, so I called right away.”

“Is your mother there?” Tracy asked.

My mother’s face had gone gray. “Yes, but I don’t think she can talk,” I said. “She looks like she might be in shock.”

“Okay. Where are you?” Every few moments, there was a beep on the line.

“We’re at home in Hanover—in New Hampshire.” I gave her the address.

“I’m going to call Hanover PD and have someone come over now. I’ll have them bring a paramedic.”

“Can you please tell me what happened? Is my dad okay? My sister?” I looked at the clock. They should be home soon. The meet was supposed to end by two. Katie and I planned to order a pizza and watch a movie, our Saturday-night ritual.

“There was an accident. I can’t release more information than that right now, but I promise the Hanover officer will. I’m going to put you on hold for a minute while I call them. Is your mom okay?”

I peered at my mother’s slack face. “I’m not sure.”

“Don’t hang up,” Tracy ordered. “I’ll put you on hold to make this call and be right back.” Tracy seemed orderly and efficient. Nothing bad could happen while she was in charge.

“Mom?” I asked, while I waited for Tracy to come back on the line. “Can you hear me?”

Her eyes turned to me, but they didn’t seem to focus. “I knew this was going to happen.” She suddenly burst into tears. Deep, hysterical sobs wracked her chest.

“You knew what was going to happen?” I pulled her against my chest, trying to rub her back while holding onto the phone for dear life. I needed Tracy to come back, for her warm voice to explain that everything was going to be just fine, that I didn’t need to worry, that I never needed to worry and that this wasn’t really happening…

“I knew they’d do this,” my mom choked out the words in between sobs. “Oh, God, I’m going to be sick.” She leaned over and vomited on the braided rug.

“Mom! You’re scaring me!”

She wiped her mouth and looked back at me. “You should be afraid, Riley. We both should be.” Her voice didn’t sound like hers. It was deep and strange, guttural.

“Riley?” Tracy’s chipper, efficient voice came back on the line, promising orderly safety. “Is everything going okay over there?”

“No. No! My mom’s really freaking me out.” I started sobbing and found my mom watching my face, as if she was trying to memorize something or piece something together. “She just threw up, and she’s hysterical—”

“Okay, okay, it’s going to be okay,” Tracy said soothingly. “The officer’s on his way with the paramedics. Are you in danger?”

I backed up from my mom, who was still crying and looking at me with a puzzled expression. “I don’t think so?”

“I’ll stay on the phone with you until the officer gets there. I’m not going anywhere. Now, get your mother a blanket. Can she talk?”

I held out the phone to my mother. She took it and listlessly held it up to her ear while I got a blanket from the closet and draped it over her. She listened to Tracy, but her gaze stayed on my face.

There was a knock on the door. “Hanover PD!”

I opened the door, and the officer came through with a paramedic. Everything was happening too fast and not fast enough. There was a lot of talking, a lot of questions, and my mother tossed down her cellphone at some point. No more Tracy. Tracy went home, probably to fold towels warm from the dryer and get her son a bowl of goldfish crackers. Her house was sunny and organized and everything was okay…

But everything was not okay in my house, and it never would be again.

The officer explained that Dad and Katie had been in a head-on accident with a tractor-trailer on the highway. “They were killed on impact,” he explained. “So at least no one suffered.”

“No one suffered?” I heard the question screamed out then I realized it was me who’d screamed it, that I was crying hysterically, and that my mother’s face was gray again.

They put her on a gurney and said we had to go to the hospital, that her blood pressure had dropped, and she was in shock. “What about my Dad? What about Katie? Where are they?”

The officer’s throat worked as he swallowed. “They’re being taken care of. We’ll notify you when they’re brought back to town.”

“Their bodies.” I couldn’t stop crying, but I needed to understand.

“Yes. Their bodies.”

“They’re…dead.”

He put his hand on my shoulder and patted it. “Yes.”

“Oh, my God.” I sank to my knees, crying so hard that tears and snot and drool all mixed together on my face. “No. No, no, no.”

“Riley.” My mother was being rolled out of the house. “I can’t believe it’s you.”

I wiped my face, trying to understand her through my hysteria. “What?”

She sat up a little, and the paramedic said, “Easy, now. Lie back.”

“That’s my daughter. That’s my daughter, and she’s the only one left alive for a reason. Don’t you tell me to calm down! They’re gone! They’re both gone!”

“Ma’am—”

“Don’t ma’am me! Riley, don’t let them give me anything! Don’t let them knock me out, they’ll try to take you away from me!”

“Riley.” The officer squeezed my shoulder. “Your mother’s in shock. I promise we won’t hurt you. Come with me. We’ll follow the ambulance to the hospital.”

“Don’t get in the car with him, Riley!” my mother shrieked and tried to rip off the gurney belt. Her wild gaze focused on the officer. “Don’t you take her from me. She’s all I have left now! Don’t you dare!”

The officer nodded at the paramedic, who wheeled my mother quickly out the door.

“It’s okay, Riley. Your mother’s suffered a terrible shock. I’m not going to hurt you, I promise.”

I wrapped my arms around myself. My body shook uncontrollably.

“We need to get you medical attention, too.” The officer held out his hand to help me up.

“Riley.” Cranston’s voice jolted me from the memory. I opened my eyes and wiped my face, which I realized was covered in tears. He handed me a tissue and I took it, noisily blowing my nose.

He took it from me without wincing. “Good work just now.” He kept his voice low.

Emma and the others looked miserable. I wondered what I’d said aloud.

“It’s time for the next part of the exercise.”

I roughly wiped my face. “Wasn’t that enough?”

“I’m afraid not.” He picked up his phone made a call. “Finn, we’re ready. Come in.”

I looked sharply at Cranston, but he ignored me as Finn came in. He’d changed into a button-down shirt and jeans, all rugged and handsome. He headed straight for me, his face pale. He reached the mat and got down on his knees in front of me. I tried to scoot back, mindful of my face—puffy with tears, and covered with sensors—but he reached for my hands and held me in place.

His hands gently captured mine, and he stared into my eyes. “I’m so sorry about your dad and Katie.” He looked as though he might cry, too.

I blinked at him. “How do you know about it?”

His eyes flicked to Cranston, who didn’t look up from the machine. “We all know about it.”

A million emotions jumbled inside me, but relief was the winner. Finn’s touch soothed me. Being near him felt right. It made everything seem okay. My cheeks flushed as I cringed, imagining what the monitors were saying.

“C’mere.” Finn carefully put his arms around me, mindful of the sensors, and held me against his chest.

Enveloped by his warmth, his clean-laundry scent, and touched by the kind gesture, I relaxed against him. For a moment, I didn’t care who was watching us or what the machine said about my brainwaves. “I don’t think about that day often—ever,” I corrected myself. “I don’t think about it ever.”

“It’s okay.” He tightened his grip around me and sighed.

I moved back, remembering myself. “You can let go, now. This is all so weird. I never talk about my dad and Katie. Being exposed like this in front of all of you is kind of freaking me out.”

He released me and brushed the hair back from my face, and I died a little against his palm. It felt so good to have him this close, touching me. My nucleus accumbens, aka the pleasure center of my brain, throbbed like a strobe light. The monitor went a little wild.

Finn’s brown eyes delved into mine, but he looked sad, as though he were filled with regret.

“What’s the matter?”

Cranston nodded at him. “Get up.”

Finn didn’t take his eyes off me as he pulled away, leaving me instantly cold and longing for his closeness. “Nothing…” He rose and headed back to the other end of the room, where Rachel waited for him.

She looked slim and pretty in a pair of black jeans and a white T-shirt. Only someone so beautiful could turn such simple clothes into an intimidating outfit. She gave me a dirty look then composed her features before holding out her hand for Finn. He shot one last haunted look my way then turned and took her hand.

She pulled him in closer, putting her arms around his neck, gazing into his eyes.

Um…WTF? Confused, I turned to find Emma looking at me in sympathy. Once we made eye contact, she shook her head and turned away, as if she couldn’t bear to watch me.

Kyan shot me a look that said, I told you so.

Grimacing, I turned back to Finn and Rachel. Already raw from the testing, my stomach roiled as Finn wrapped his arms around her, stroking her back and whispering in her ear. She laughed and looked at him adoringly, then looked over to make sure I saw. Evil you-know-what-word that rhymes with witch!

What…the hell…is this? Why had he held me, only moments ago? What were they doing? But it became painfully clear pretty quick. Rachel leaned up and kissed Finn on the lips. He responded instantly, taking her face in his hands, and then they were full on making out—in front of me, in front of Cranston, in front of all of us. Jealousy ran hot through me. I had no right to the emotion, even as it claimed me. Finn and I weren’t together. He owed me nothing. But a giant, iron fist squeezed my heart as they kissed. My whole body shuddered with the injustice of it. Finn shouldn’t be touching her that way. She shouldn’t be running her hands over his big shoulders. She should get her hands off him—

No, no, NO! Get your lousy hands off him! Finn, you jerk, STOP! STOP IT! The thoughts screamed in my mind as the monitor beeped like crazy. I clenched my fists and closed my eyes, wanting to escape from the room, wanting to escape from the truth. My poor brain, completely overwhelmed, went white-hot.

I heard a series of small explosions, and the people in the stands screamed. I opened my eyes. The lights in the ceiling were blowing up. They exploded one by one, in order, working their way down from my side of the room to Finn’s. He stopped kissing Rachel and stepped back, watching the ceiling warily.

Pop, pop, pop! The lights showered glass all over the floor. When the last row of lights exploded over Finn and Rachel, they covered their heads as the glass rained down on them.

No one spoke as the beeping calmed down, and the last of the shattered glass hit the gym floor. Cranston clicked on a flashlight to read the monitor output in the darkened room.

“Okay, Riley,” he said, his tone calm and completely normal, “that’s a wrap.”

13

THE OTHER NINETY PERCENT

I PEERED down at Finn and Rachel on the opposite side of the room. He was helping to pick tiny pieces of glass out of her hair. Emma and the others were carefully shaking themselves off.

I turned back to Cranston. “What the hell was that?” My voice came out gravelly and weak.

“That was the test to monitor your brainwaves.”

Despite my exhaustion, fresh anger seeped into my veins. “You know what I meant. What the hell was that with the lights?”

Someone turned on the backup lights, and the room brightened. Cranston jotted down some notes and finally looked up. “I told you we’d talk afterward.”

“It’s officially afterward.” I stood up, my legs wobbling beneath me. “Tell me right now, or I’m leaving. Tell me what happened with the lights.”

He looked as though he wanted to make some sort of quip, but he stopped himself. “I’m pretty sure you already know.”

“I’m pretty sure I know no such thing.”

“You blew up the lights, Riley.”

I’d had a bad feeling he’d say that. I ignored the sudden urge to sit back down before I fell. “That’s not possible. I didn’t touch them.”

“You didn’t have to touch them.”

“Something had to touch them. They exploded.”

Cranston scrubbed a hand over his face. “I misspoke. You’re correct. Something had to touch them for them to explode. In this case, it was an electrical current.”

“From where?”

“From your brainwaves.”

“That might be the stupidest thing you’ve ever said to me, which is really saying something.”

“Enough of the back talk.” Cranston’s steely gaze, devoid of humor, ran over me. “In my office, Riley.” He nodded at the others, who were still picking glass out of their hair and hoodies. “Get this mess cleaned up, soldiers.”

They mumbled their assent as I followed Cranston down the hall. I didn’t look back. I’d seen enough.

Cranston closed the door to his office and motioned for me to sit. I sank down, not even able to process what he’d just said. He pulled a bottle of water out of his small refrigerator and handed it to me. “You need to drink this. And listen to what I have to say.”

I wanted to argue but instead drank the water, which I sorely needed. Utterly exhausted, my muscles shook from…thinking too hard?

Cranston sat down behind his desk and arranged his notes in front of him. “Has anything like this ever happened to you before? Anything to do with lights or electricity?”

“I thought you wanted me to listen.” I sounded haughty, my fear masked.

“Jesus.” Cranston threw down his pen and looked up at the ceiling. “Why did it have to be teenagers?”

“Huh?”

“Never mind. Answer the question, Riley. Has something like this happened to you before—maybe around the age of thirteen?”

I still couldn’t process what just happened, but it did remind me of something weird. Right around the time I started getting my period, I suffered from pretty bad headaches. My pediatrician assured my mom is was normal hormonal fluctuations but that I should lie down in a dark room when the headaches came.

One day at school, I got a headache. It came on fast. I went to the nurse—the perennially skeptical Mrs. Wilfork—who ignored what I told her about the doctor’s recommendation. She took my temperature, dispensed two ibuprofen, and told me to get back to class.

“But I can’t.” I rubbed my temples. “It hurts.”

“Get used to it,” she snapped. “You’re going to get your period once a month for the next forty years.”

“Gee, thanks.” I shuffled back to class, feeling like there was broken glass jangling around inside my head. I stopped outside the door, unable to make myself go in. I don’t know what happened next. I think I passed out because I woke up back in the nurse’s office, on the cot.

Mrs. Wilfork was on the phone, presumably with my mother. “Well, I don’t know what happened because I wasn’t there. If you ask me, it’s just a little adolescent drama.” She kept talking as my head continued to ache.

I just wanted her to shut her ever-loving mouth and let me go to sleep. Shut up, shut up, shut up!

“Well, I’m not exactly certain what you’re accusing me of,” the nurse said indignantly. This was back when my mother still used to accuse people of things. “But I am sure I don’t like your tone.”

My head throbbed, and I pulled the pillow over my face to block the light and the noise. Oh, for the love of God, shut up! That’s when I heard it—a loud whining sound. I peered out from behind the pillow to see everything in the room go crazy for an instant. The clock hands zoomed around the face of the clock. The microwave beeped. The defibrillator crackled, and Mrs. Wilfork was holding the phone away from her ear as it emitted a high-pitched whine. A power surge.

Then everything stopped, and all the electricity went out.

“What the heck?” Mrs. Wilfork asked. She turned to me, seeming to be genuinely concerned for the first time that day. “You okay?”

I nodded. For some reason, my headache was gone.

“Riley.” Cranston interrupted my reverie.

“Yes?”

“I’m assuming you have something you’d like to share, after spacing out like that.”

I shrugged. “Not really.” What on earth could that memory have to do with today?

“Just tell me what you remembered. I’ll tell you if it relates or not.”

I told him the story, leaving out the part about my period.

“And you said this happened when you were in seventh grade?” He scribbled some notes.

“Yes.”

“Around the time you started menstruating?”

My lip curled. “Ew. You did not just say that.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Yes, I did. Answer the question.”

“Yes.” I clutched the water for dear life.

He put down his pen. “What happened just now in your mental test was exactly what I’d hoped for.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You broke the lights, Riley. You accomplished that by exercising the power of telekinesis, a form of psychokinesis. Have you ever heard either one of those terms before?”

I swallowed hard. “No.”

“Telekinesis is a psychic power, one of many. There’s also clairvoyance, precognition, telepathy… Any of those familiar to you?”

“A little.”

“You’ve heard of extra-sensory perception—commonly referred to as ESP, right? That’s another term for clairvoyance.” When I nodded, he continued, “ESP is a developmentally advanced brain’s ability to send and receive communication to others without speaking or moving. Some people with developed ESP can both send and receive information. Some people can just do one or the other. Some people have poorly developed skills and don’t even know that’s what’s happening inside their heads.”

“Okay…” Was he saying he believed this?

“Telekinesis is related to ESP in that it’s a function of a developmentally advanced brain. It differs from ESP in that it’s a more active type of energy. People with well-developed telekinetic powers can physically manipulate their environments with their brainwaves. The other types of powers—clairvoyance, precognition, telepathy—these are all related, too. Do you know that the average human only uses ten-percent of their brain?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Psychic powers are indicative of a formatively advanced brain, one that can access the typically latent other ninety percent. Your brain is developmentally advanced, as you just proved in the mental test by exhibiting telekinesis. Does that make sense?”

“No.”

“What about it doesn’t make sense?”

“None of it makes sense. Sir.”

He sighed. “You don’t believe in the possibility of psychic powers?”

“No, I don’t, sir.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s nuts.” I leaned forward in my chair. “You said that you would explain things to me after I completed the test. I completed it. So now I would like you to explain some things to me, such as why you’re pretending to draft me into a make-believe government agency and why you are apparently trying to convince me that I have some sort of weird superpower that was all the rage in the 1980s!”

The psychic-powers craze was before my time. I only knew about it because my parents had a penchant for Stephen King books and scary movies like Firestarter, Poltergeist, and The Shining. They loved their eighties movies, even though Katie and I moaned and groaned through them when we were old enough to watch. I remember Drew Barrymore being so mad in Firestarter that she set a bunch of stuff on fire, even though she was eight years old and extremely cute. And she did it with her brain.

“Are you saying I’m like Firestarter or something?”

Cranston blinked. “Can you set stuff on fire?” He sounded a little more excited than he should.

“No!”

“Then no, I’m not saying you’re like Firestarter. What I am saying, based on your aptitude test, is that your brain activity indicates that you have a developmentally advanced frontal lobe. I expected that, anyway, based on your performance in the stress test and other data, but today’s test confirmed it. You have an exceptional aptitude for telekinetic activity and are probably gifted in other areas as well. You first exhibited the aptitude in seventh grade, during that episode in the nurse’s office. These types of abilities present in females at the onset of puberty. You’re a textbook telekinetic, Riley.”

My heart sank. “You really are crazy, aren’t you?” And here, I’d started to believe at least some of what they’d been telling me, started to feel as though I finally belonged somewhere…

Cranston leaned back in his chair. “I’m not crazy, and I am not trying to pull something over on you. The truth is, The Division is real. You’ve been activated into this cell—my cell—because we knew you had a predisposition for this sort of special power, as well as some others.”

I tried to ask what he meant, but he held up his hand to stop me. “Just listen. The reason our unit is so secret is due to the nature of our talents. Every member of our team has a unique talent like yours. That’s what makes us great, and that’s what’s going to help us win the war.”

“War?” My voice came out small. “What war?”

“The war that’s coming, Riley. The one that’s already started all over the world, with all of the terrorist attacks. The Division is designed to protect Americans on home soil. That’s what we’re here for. We’re training all summer to get ready because our cell is being called to active duty. That’s why we came and got you, finally.”

“Finally?”

Cranston shrugged. “It was time.”

My mind reeled with too many questions. Came and got you finally…the war…protect Americans on home soil…a predisposition for this sort of special power, as well as some others… My breathing turned shaky and uneven. My mind whirled, and I held onto the seat, as though I might topple out of it.

“Riley?” Cranston sounded a little worried.

“Why…why did you put Finn and Rachel in the room with me like that?” I blurted out—as if that were the most pressing question I had.

“I knew you’d have a strong emotional reaction to their behavior. That was the point.”

My cheeks flushed miserably. “How did you know?”

“Remember when I mentioned your monitor?”

“Yes—you said it was going off the other day.”

Cranston nodded. “It’s a way I have of keeping track of you and the others—monitoring your emotions and making sure you’re not experiencing any difficulties.”

I checked my arms then peered inside my T-shirt, looking for the device. “Am I wearing the monitor?”

“Something like that,” Cranston said smoothly. “I can tell from your monitor’s output and other data that you react strongly to Finn. I chose to have him and Rachel at the test because, based on my analysis, odds were good you’d have a significant reaction to their behavior.”

“Well, you certainly got that. You humiliated me.”

“I didn’t mean to, but you shouldn’t be embarrassed. Everyone on the team goes through the same thing, and no one cares about the personal aspects of the test. You wowed them with the results. That’s the only thing people will remember.”

Hot tears threatened. “I’m pretty sure Rachel will remember having glass shatter all over her perfect hair.” And Finn, ugh. Finn would remember everything.

“Don’t worry about it. Just like Maya, Rachel’s a professional. Nothing fazes her.”

“I don’t know if that’s true—like everything else you’re telling me.”

Cranston rested his hands together, forming a pyramid. “What will it take to convince you? I thought the results of your testing would be enough for you to see what you’re capable of.”

Angry tears still threatened. “I don’t… I can’t…”

“Please calm down. You’ve been through enough today, and I can appreciate that it’s hard to process all this information. Your case is unusual. Usually, we do a debrief earlier on, but that wasn’t possible with you.”

“Why not?”

“There are reasons, but I’m afraid they’re classified.”

“That’s convenient.”

“It’s not, actually, but it’s out of my hands. So…we need to be on the same page. Your testing is complete, and your training will be intense for the next few weeks. I need you to focus. What can I do to prove what I’m telling you is real?”

“To prove I’m telekinetic with a developmentally advanced brain?” My voice rose, almost to a shout. “And that I’ve been drafted to a super-secret government agency to protect Americans on home soil against an impending war? Uh, I don’t know what you can do to convince me of that…sir.”

“Even though you have a developmentally advanced brain, you’re still certainly a teenager.” Cranston sighed. “First thing tomorrow morning, meet me in the gym. I’ll show you exactly what you’re capable of and also what some of your teammates can do. Go get some dinner, soldier. You’re dismissed.”

I hopped up. “Don’t I have to actually sign something or say yes to something before you continue holding me prisoner and ordering me around? And please stop calling me soldier. I’m not your soldier!”

Cranston stood, too. “Pursuant to the Homeland Security Act, your assent, either verbalized or written, is unnecessary for me to hold you. You’ve officially been drafted. After your performance on today’s test, that’s non-negotiable. Now, if you want to go google your rights as a draftee, go ahead. But you’ll find that pursuant to our Constitution and the interpretations of the Federal courts on several key cases, I am well within my legal rights as a member of the armed forces to hold you here and to require your participation in our unit until you are dismissed.”

“You can’t do that—”

“Do you have any medical conditions that would prohibit you from active duty?”

“No—”

“Do you have any religious beliefs or affiliations that would bar you from active duty?”

“No, but this is crazy—”

“Then welcome to active duty, soldier. Now go get some dinner, and go to bed. That’s an order.”

14

FACT OR FICTION

I WANTED TO SKIP DINNER, but my stomach howled in protest. I stopped in the bathroom to splash cold water on my face before I headed to the dining room. I looked terrible. My eyes were puffy from all the crying. My skin was blotchy from what quite possibly had been an enormous amount of telekinetic-brainwave exertion.

I peered into my own eyes. Do you believe this? Any of this?

I didn’t want to answer the question because I was afraid.

In the dining room, I grabbed two slices of pizza and a Caesar salad. The others sat at tables, talking in low tones. Finn sat at a far table with Emma and Josh. Kyan sat with the twins and Rachel. I slunk off with my tray before anyone noticed me.

The gym was quiet, clean, and peaceful. The glass had all been cleaned up. The lights had been replaced, and someone had put away the monitoring equipment. It looked as though nothing had happened.

I sat on the bleachers, devouring my food in semi-darkness, lost in my thoughts. Today had shocked my system—almost literally, ha ha. But I couldn’t locate my sense of humor. What Cranston said about my powers baffled me. I struggled with the idea. Was it possible that I had special powers? That I was telekinetic?

What if everything he’d said was true?

My gaze ran over the mat as my mind retraced the steps of the mental test. I didn’t often let myself dwell on the day Dad and Katie died, but the memory throbbed. I thought about them again, about that terrible day. I managed not to cry. Then I remembered what happened afterward.

My mother had never been the same after the accident. They’d given her a sedative, but when she’d woken up in the hospital, she’d still screamed and cried until they’d brought me to her room. She thought I’d been “taken.” That was the word she’d used.

Had she been talking about something real? I’d never considered it.

“Hey.” Finn stepped out of the shadows, and I jumped, dropping my silverware in between the bleacher seats.

He came over, reached down, and grabbed my fork, wrinkling his nose at the dust on it. “Sorry.” He sat down. “Are you doing okay?”

“Yes,” I said automatically. “No.”

He wrapped his arms around his legs and stared at the empty gym. “I get it.”

“You get what, exactly? What it feels like to humiliate yourself in front of a bunch of people you barely know? What it feels like to be told that your brain’s somehow extra special—oh, and by the way, that you’ve been officially drafted into a secret government agency and have no legal right to leave?”

He nodded. “I know it’s hard to hear, Hanover, but you’re really not a special snowflake. We all go through it.”

I gave him a dirty look. “Cranston seems to think I’m pretty special.”

“Well. Maybe he’s onto something.” Finn’s gaze rose to meet mine, and the memory of him holding me made me melt—until I remembered what he’d done with Rachel, and the melting turned to steaming.

As if he could read my thoughts, he patted my knee. “Easy. Don’t go getting all upset. We already replaced all the lights. I think we’re out of light bulbs.”

“You’re joking about this?” I shot to my feet. “It’s not funny! My whole world’s messed up, and you’re making fun of me?”

“I’m not. Please sit down.”

I warily sank back down.

“I told you today was going to be brutal. The mental test is always difficult, but for most of us, we at least have an idea what we can do—what our powers are—before we take the test. That wasn’t the case with you.”

“Why not?”

“Because of the way you’ve been recruited. My understanding is that your debrief is classified, so Cranston can’t release all the information in your file to you.”

“There’s a file on me?”

Finn nodded. “Everyone here has a file.”

“Have you seen yours?”

“No. But I have a pretty good idea what’s in there because I was brought in when I was younger, and Cranston and his superiors have been forthcoming with me.”

“Why will they tell you things about your background, but they won’t tell me?”

His brow furrowed. “Our circumstances are different, I guess.”

“I wonder if they’ll tell me, eventually?”

“Probably. If they think it will help you, they will. But back to the mental test—when I took it, years ago, I already knew that they were trying to ascertain the parameters of my…gift.”

I swallowed over a sudden lump in my throat. “What’s your gift?”

“Promise not to run away?”

I nodded, my hands clammy.

“I’m a telepath.”

“I’m sorry?” This information did not compute.

“A telepath—I can hear other people’s thoughts and read their emotions.”

“I’m sorry?” I asked again, my face reddening. This had implications I didn’t want to consider.

“You don’t have to be embarrassed. I can tune the thoughts out, once I get to know somebody.”

“I’m not embarrassed. Wait, how did you know I was embarrassed?”

Finn watched me. “Your face is turning red. And I was listening to what was going on inside your head.”

I opened my mouth and promptly closed it. Finn could hear my thoughts?

“Yeah. I can.”

“You heard what I just thought.”

He nodded, looking wary.

Get out of my head!

“Sure, Hanover. Whatever you say.”

“I didn’t say anything!”

“Right, but I could still hear you. I told you that you weren’t the only special snowflake around here.”

“You could’ve guessed what I was thinking.”

He smiled. “That’s true. I can usually guess what you’re thinking, especially when you’re checking me out.”

“Stop it,” I moaned. Remembering how often I’d ogled him, I almost threw up. “This isn’t funny—and I don’t ever check you out.”

“I’m just trying to lighten the mood, and yes, you do so check me out.” He leaned back and put his hands behind his head, making his biceps pop out from behind his short sleeves. “Stop thinking about my biceps, Hanover.”

I put my face in my hands. “I wasn’t,” I lied. Please, stop calling me Hanover.

“Okay…Riley.”

“Can you please stop? I feel like my brain might burst or something.”

He sat up, looking more serious. “I don’t want your monitor going off. I’ll stop. And I don’t always hear your thoughts. When I first met you, I couldn’t turn them off. Now, I only listen when I want to.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

“Do you want to tell me about your special power?” he asked, clearly changing the subject.

“Not really. I’m pretty sure Cranston’s making it up.”

“I saw you in action today. You have real power.”

I shook my head, looking up at the lights. “I didn’t shatter the lights.”

“But you did. I was here. I saw you.”

I turned to him. “That’s not possible.”

“I heard your thoughts when it happened. It’s entirely possible. I heard you send out the energy that shattered the lights.”

“You heard what I was thinking? When you were kissing Rachel?”

He looked away. “Yeah.”

I sat there, waiting to burst into flames. When it didn’t happen, I realized I couldn’t die from embarrassment. Otherwise, Finn would be calling the coroners right now.

He grinned, obviously in on the joke. “You’re funny, you know, when you aren’t trying to annihilate me and the rest of your teammates.”

“I’m not trying to be funny. Please stay out of my head.”

“I’m sorry. Sometimes it’s more efficient than waiting for you to talk.”

“Well, wait for me to talk.” I cleared my throat, deciding to try and act mature about what had happened instead of blowing up more electrical-current-conducting infrastructure. “I didn’t know you and Rachel were together. I was just surprised, I guess, and I didn’t react well to the news.” I tried not to think anything else, instead singing la la la la la over and over in my mind.

“We’re not together.”

“You had your tongue jammed down her throat, Finn. You’re something.”

“We’re soldiers. We had an assignment. We completed the assignment.”

“Your assignment was to play tonsil hockey with the hottest girl in our group?”

“I didn’t say it was a bad assignment.” He laughed.

I gave him a death glare. “You can spare me the details. I saw enough.”

He stopped laughing. “I actually didn’t enjoy it. You were too upset.”

“Why would you care if it made me upset?”

“I didn’t say I cared.” He shrugged. “And I also didn’t say she was the hottest girl in our group.”

We sat there awkwardly for a moment. I wanted to ponder his words. Instead, I kept repeating la la la over in my mind. This surely annoyed him, which suited me just fine.

He sighed after a minute. “Don’t be difficult. We don’t need to talk about Rachel anymore. Tell me about your power. If you still don’t believe in it, tell me what Cranston said.”

“He said that I have telekinetic powers. That’s the ability to move things with my brainwaves, in case you’re not familiar with it.”

“I’m familiar with it.”

“Is there another telekinetic person in the group?”

“Not exactly,” Finn said. “We’ve come close a couple of times, but no one has been able to do what you did today. Some of us have telekinetic abilities, but nothing as developed as what you have.”

“What other powers are there?” I wondered again about how fast he’d run the other day.

“Sorry, I just overheard you.”

“It’s okay. Tell me about it.”

He nodded. “My running isn’t a special power, per se—but it’s definitely something I’ve acquired since I’ve been with The Division.”

I filed that non-answer away as he continued, “We have some other telepaths, and several people in the group are gifted with clairvoyance. The range varies. Maya and Emma have twin telepathy, which means they can communicate with each other without speaking. They can actually do quite a few things as a unit, but I’ll let them show you themselves. Josh is an empath. He can read the feelings of other people around him and can set people at ease. He can also sense movement before it happens. Emma has precognitive and retro-cognitive abilities, which means she can see into the future and past. Maya and Morgan have that ability too, to a lesser extent.”

“What about Rachel?” I asked, embarrassed by the sharp tone of my voice.

“She has a couple of powers. She’s a teleporter, which means she can jump through space and time without actually moving. And she’s a projector, which means she can make herself appear in places she’s not.”

“So there can be more than one of her?” That’s just perfect.

“Sort of. Only one of her can be the real deal. The rest are some sort of projected illusions, I guess—like a movie.”

“Oh. Huh.” My brain could not compute. “What can Kyan do?”

“He’s a jack-of-all trades. He can teleport—he’s fast—and he has some precognitive abilities. He also has some telepathic powers, although they’re not as developed as mine.”

I sat there, reeling.

“I know it’s a lot to take in.”

“Cranston said we’re meeting here tomorrow morning, so some of you can show me what you’re capable of,” I said.

“Good. Our teammates love the opportunity to show off.”

“Do you feel like you can control it? Your power?”

“Absolutely,” Finn said. “It’s taken me a long time and a lot of training to understand what I can do, but I’m in control of it. As I said, once I get to know someone, I can stop listening to them.”

“Have you always been able to do that? To stop yourself?” In the back of my mind—the part of me that had already accepted this new reality and had commenced panicking—I already feared my power. What if I couldn’t control it? What if I hurt someone?

“Not when I was younger. Telepathy is different from telekinesis and some of the other psychic powers. Telepaths can hear other’s thoughts from the time we’re born. When I was growing up, I couldn’t stop the flood of information coming from other people’s brains. I didn’t know I could control it. Now that I’ve worked with my power, I’m better at handling the flow. That’s why The Division is good for people like us. The training we do helps us manage our gifts and get them under control so they don’t run out lives.”

I shook my head. “But my power, if I even have one—it didn’t run my life before. I wasn’t even aware of it. I’m thinking I might have been better off not knowing…”

“But your ability surfaced when you were under stress. It would’ve come out eventually.”

“But would it?” I asked. “I’ve been through a lot, and I’ve never caused a power surge before. Except once, but that was a long time ago.”

Finn shrugged. “Things like this—our powers—have a way of rising to the surface. Maybe yours was masked for so long because of what you went through after you lost your dad and your sister. You were in survival mode, pretending everything was okay. You were also your mother’s caretaker. Maybe your power got buried under everything else that was going on.”

I swallowed hard, remembering what he knew. “So…you could hear me during the mental test? When I visualized that day?”

“Yeah.” His hands clenched into fists. “I’m so sorry, Riley. You have no idea.”

“It’s okay. It’s not your fault.” I had the odd urge to comfort him, even though this was my personal tragedy.

Finn didn’t look at me. “It seems like it was difficult…afterward, with your mother.”

“She had a hard time handling the accident.”

“She lost her husband and her daughter. I don’t know how you get over something like that.”

“You don’t.” I shook my head as if I could shake off the subject. “What about you? You know my sordid family history, plus you can listen to my thoughts on an ongoing basis. It hardly seems fair. I don’t know anything about you, except that you have superpowers.” And bulging biceps—oh, for the love of God, Riley, please stop thinking about them! He can hear you!

Finn grinned, relaxing a little. “I don’t mind.”

“Great. Just great.” I looked around in vain for a hole to swallow me up.

“There isn’t much to tell you,” Finn said, smoothly circumnavigating my irritation. “Like I said, I realized I could hear other people’s thoughts at an early age. It took me a while to figure out that other people couldn’t do the same. I used to respond to my mother’s thoughts all the time when I was a toddler, which really freaked her out.” He laughed.

“Is your mother still in New York?”

“Yes, but I don’t see her.” He turned to face me. “That was one of the difficult things about joining the agency—I had to let my mother go. It’s too dangerous for her to be in contact with me. If our enemies found out who she was, they could use her against me.”

I shivered, a bubble of panic rising inside me. “Does that mean I can’t talk to my mom anymore?”

“I don’t know,” Finn admitted. “Would you care?”

“Of course. She’s not exactly mother-of-the-year material, but she’s all I’ve got. And I’m the only family she has left.”

“I didn’t mean to be a jerk, but I’m genuinely curious, based on the way you think about her. It’s harder to tune people out when their emotions are raw, and yours are always very raw when you think about her. I can feel your pain.”

I winced. “It’s complicated. We don’t have a great relationship, but I need to check in on her. There’s no one else.”

“Just tell Cranston that. They can make exceptions.”

I put my face in my hands. “This day has gone totally off the rails. I can maybe comprehend, like, a tenth of what’s happened.”

“You should go to bed.” Finn stood up and pulled me with him. “Even though you didn’t move your body, using your power is very physically draining, especially early on. Did you eat enough?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Except my skin feels hot where you just touched me—oh SHUT UP, Riley!

Finn played the perfect gentleman, either by not listening or pretending to not listen. His calm expression didn’t falter. “You need to make sure you increase your food and water intake. Your body’s tapping this new ability, and your whole system is going to be buzzing. You’ll be burning triple to quadruple the calories from now on, even when you’re sleeping.”

I smiled for the first time in what seemed like forever. “Finally, an upside.”

“It’s not a joke, though. You need to take care of yourself and get enough rest. So off to bed, Hanover.”

I gave him a look. “You don’t need to read my mind to gauge my reaction—read my face.”

“Got it.” He grinned. “Good night, Riley.”

EMMA and the others weren’t back yet as I crawled into bed, my limbs heavy. I would say that the day had knocked me out, but Finn’s smile had the same effect on me.

Ugh. I’d better stop thinking. Was he like a short-range walkie-talkie, or could he hear me all the way down here in the dorm?

I shut my eyes tight, trying to quiet my brain. I knew all too well that my thoughts could get me into trouble. Luckily, sleep came quickly, a reprieve from the tumultuous day.

Then Finn showed up in my dream, making my heart race. So much for a reprieve. He was on my cot next to me, wearing sweats and a T-shirt. He lay down next to me.

“What’re you doing here?” I mumbled.

“Shh,” he said, “come here.” He pulled me against his chest the way he’d done during the test.

His touch both comforted and frightened me. I felt relieved to be in his arms, but the depth of my emotion scared me. It felt so right as I nestled against him, it had to be wrong.

No good could come of this.

He brushed the hair back from my face. “I’m sorry for what you’ve been through. Your memories were so painful.”

“You could see my memories?” I asked, horrified even though this was only a dream.

“I saw them earlier, yes. You were visualizing, projecting a very vivid picture.”

“So strange that you could see what I remembered.”

“Telepaths are a pretty talented bunch. We can listen. We can see memories. We can sometimes visit others in their dreams.”

I pulled back. “Are you doing that right now—visiting me?”

“Are you dreaming about me?” he asked innocently.

I sat up and rubbed my eyes. “I think so?”

He held out his arms. “Then come back and let me hold you. It’ll be our little secret. No one ever has to know.” He kissed the top of my head as I nestled against his chest. “Not even you.”

15

ALL THAT GLITTERS

I WOKE up the next morning to find Emma sitting on my bed, her hair already perfectly gelled, pink lip-gloss shining on her lips.

“Hey,” I mumbled, sitting up. “Is something going on?”

“We’re going to meet in the gym pretty soon, but you already knew that. You slept in a little, but that’s to be expected after yesterday.” She grabbed a small package from the floor and handed it to me. “This came for you.”

I took the package. My mother’s shaky scrawl had sent it “care of Sergeant Cranston.” How did she know his name? Via text message, I’d told her we’d made it to Freel. But as far as I knew, she didn’t have any more information. Puzzled, I started to open the package.

“I’ll let you have some privacy.” Emma got up to leave.

“No—wait.” Desperate to talk to her, I didn’t want her scurrying off. “I’ll open this later.”

Emma smiled. “You’re going to like it.”

“You know what’s in the package.”

She nodded. “I didn’t mean to peek. Not into the package—I’d never be that tacky—into the future.”

“No, it’s okay.” I sat up straighter. “Finn told me you have precognitive abilities. You didn’t peek. You just saw the future, and in the future, I like what’s in the package, right?”

“That’s right.” She sounded proud. “It’s so nice to finally have you in on the secret. Hiding our talents from you has been a bore, not to mention it’s been killing me that you didn’t even know what you were capable of.”

“I still don’t know what I’m capable of or if I’m capable of what Cranston said.”

“You are.” Emma’s eyes shone. “I’ve seen it. I saw you in action during the mental test yesterday, and I’ve seen you use your power in the future. Now that you’re here, the future that involves you has presented itself to me a couple of times. I’ve seen how you develop your power. It’s going to be awesome.”

I processed her words for a moment, ignoring the spark of hope inside my chest. Awesome. When have I ever been awesome at anything?

Several things nagged at me, however. “But why…” I fumbled for the words. “Why were you so underwhelmed when I first showed up? You seemed disappointed in me.”

“I already told you. You seemed too normal. I didn’t want to blow up your life.”

“But you knew about me. You’d seen me—so you had to know I was destined to be part of The Division, right? If that’s true?”

“Sort of.”

“You sort of saw me? I was sort of destined to be your telekinetic co-soldier or whatever the heck I am?”

She squirmed a little. “It’s complicated. My power’s not always one-hundred percent, and there were some things blocking out what I could see about you.”

Exasperation and self-doubt brewing, I asked, “Like what?”

She fidgeted. “Nothing you need to know about.”

“Why not? You can tell me everything, now. I’ve officially been drafted. I’m on the team. Cranston basically told me I can’t leave, even if I want to.”

“But you don’t want to leave,” Emma said quickly. “You need to stay with us, where it’s safe and where you can develop your talents.”

“I want to know what you saw about me. Tell me why you reacted to me the way you did when we first met.”

Emma groaned, got up, and started pacing. “I’d heard about you for a long time before we came to get you.”

“Okay…”

“There was a lot of buzz about you, Ri.” She looked at me quickly. “We were hoping you were going to be able to deliver on the telekinetic front.”

“What was the buzz about me? I’m not exactly buzz-worthy.”

“It was talk about your power,” she said, soothingly, which raised a red flag for me. “And there were some other things I’d heard about you, just rumors, really.”

“What sort of rumors?”

“That you were important—stuff that’s tied up in your destiny.”

“Care to let me in on it?” My voice rose. “Since it’s my destiny?”

“I can’t.” Emma’s glance flicked away. “I can’t always tell what’s true. The future’s always in flux.”

“So are your visions—wait, do you actually have visions?”

Emma nodded. “Sometimes, they’re just feelings, a sense about the way something’s going to go or how things will work out for a person. Other times I have actual visions. I can see scenes from the future or less often, the past, and I watch them like a daydream in my head.”

“That’s so cool,” I said, forgetting for a moment she wouldn’t tell me what my destiny was.

She smiled. “I know, right?”

“But you were saying that they can change—your visions?”

“They aren’t an exact science. The future is always in flux, dependent on a billion moving pieces like the free will of every single person involved. And people are fickle. They change their minds. People are also fearful and lazy, so they don’t always follow through on their plans. Sometimes, they’re acting on impulse, and that’s when things get really interesting.”

“Wow. But have you seen the war? Do you know that it’s really coming?”

“It’s already started,” Emma said softly. “It started on 9/11 and it hasn’t stopped. There are terrorist attacks all the time. You know that. Our job is to track down verifiable homeland threats and stop them before anyone can get hurt.”

“Your power must be extremely important for that.” I pictured Emma sorting through terrorism threats on social media, identifying the real danger amidst all the haters and the ugly noise.

“It is important. But enough about me and my awesome power—we’ve got to get you to the gym, so you can show us more of what you can do. Get dressed and grab a bagel. We’ll see you out there in a few minutes.”

I grabbed her hand so she wouldn’t walk away. “Wait—I thought you guys were going to show off.”

“We all are.”

“Can you please tell me my destiny?” My voice came out small, small but clearly begging.

“No, I can’t. It depends in large part on your actions and what you choose at any given moment. If I told you too much about what I’ve seen, you could make choices based on what might be false knowledge. It could lead you down the wrong path. That’s dangerous, and it’d be unethical of me.”

“Can you tell me anything?”

She shook me off. “This is so typical. Everybody does this once they find out I can see the future. It gets old, let me tell you.”

But I could tell she was flattered. Emma loved attention.

“Just one tiny thing? About my destiny?” I begged.

“Oh, fine.” She rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically. “You’re important to the cause, Riley. I’ve seen it, and I know that for sure. You’ll underestimate your worth until the bitter end, I also know that.”

That sounded promising—except for the part about the bitter end—but I had more burning questions. “Okay…anything else? Like about, um, my personal life, or anything?”

“You non-cogs are all the same, I swear.” Emma snorted and stomped out. “See you in a few.”

I sat there for a while, my head spinning with everything she’d told me. It was probably going to spin every day for the rest of my life, based on the way things were going. I remembered the package and opened it quickly, anxious to see what my mother had sent. There was a maroon velvet box inside, long and light. The box looked familiar, but I couldn’t place it.

Inside, I found a necklace—a delicate gold chain with four colored stones. Katie’s necklace. She’d gotten it for her sixteenth birthday. The stones were her favorite color, a bluish green.

I hadn’t seen the necklace in years. I’d been the one to pack up Katie’s belongings after the accident, but I’d never been able to find it. I grabbed the note from my mother out of the package, wondering why she’d sent this to me. Parts of the note were crossed off:

Dear Riley,

I’ve been holding onto your sister’s necklace because I couldn’t bear to let it go. I’m sure you understand. But I thought it was time for you to have it.

You might not realize it, but I couldn’t bear to let you go either. I had to numb myself. I knew what was coming, and I couldn’t bear it.

There are a lot of things I can’t bear.

I hope you can forgive me for everything I’ve done. It’s a lot. I hope the people you’re with can protect you, but please don’t forget XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.

If parts of this letter are XXXX, it means XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.

I want you to have this necklace because Katie would want that. So would Dad. They loved you so much, sweetie, and so do I, even though I’ve done a terrible job of showing you. I couldn’t bear to show you, not after everything we’ve lost, and what I knew XXXXXXXX. I hope you understand that, too, even though I know I’m asking a lot.

Don’t let XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. He’s not the God he thinks he is.

I love you, sweetie. Stay safe. I hope I get to see you again.

Mom

I dropped the note onto my bed. I didn’t understand some of what my she’d said and not just the redacted parts. There were too many questions spinning around in my head, and I couldn’t find the strings to pluck them and examine them more closely.

I put the letter aside and clasped Katie’s chain around my neck, fingering the delicate beads.

KYAN WAITED IN THE HALLWAY, wearing a tight-fitting white tank top and skinny-leg sweat pants. He practically pounced on me. “Told you that test was going to suck.”

I sighed. “Yeah, you did.”

He smiled, smug. “I was right.”

“Yeah, you were.”

He looked around to make sure no one was near. “It only makes me feel better because it shows you what jerks they are. They don’t care about us. They use us.”

I shivered. “How long have you been with Cranston and the others?”

“For seven years, like everyone except you.”

It was silly, but I felt left out. “Why am I the last one to come in?”

Kyan shrugged. “I don’t know. But what I do know is, you’re my last hope.”

“Hope for what?”

“Hope for getting out of this mess. I want you to join me, Riley. Maybe together we can find a way to get away from them. They haven’t brainwashed you yet. You can still see them for what they are.”

“Okay—hold on a minute. Who is the ‘they’ you’re talking about?”

“Cranston and the leaders of The Division, the ones who run the show. I don’t trust them.” Kyan bounced on the balls of his feet, nervous energy radiating off him.

“Do you trust the others? Finn, Emma, and everyone?”

He shrugged. “I do, but they won’t listen to me. They think we have to stay. I disagree.”

“What do you want to—”

“I told you to stay away from her!” Finn’s voice boomed as he strode down the hall toward us.

“Keep your voice down.” Kyan puffed his chest up.

“Put the pecs away, you idiot.” Finn reached my side and glared at the shorter boy. “If I had time, I would totally punch you right now.”

Kyan’s chest puffed bigger. I worried he might pop. “As if.”

Finn’s lip curled into a sneer. “Just shut up. Stop putting ideas into Riley’s head.”

Kyan started arguing, and Finn started yelling, drowning out each other’s words. “Shut up!” I hissed. “Finn, I wanted to hear what Kyan has to say. He has some concerns about The Division, and as its newest and most clueless member, I should listen to him.”

Kyan looked smug. “See? She knows she should listen to me.”

Finn’s eyes glinted. “I’m going to shave the word ‘dick’ into the other side of your stupid hair tonight, so you’ll officially be a dickhead.”

Kyan and Finn squared off, so I stepped between them before one of them threw a punch. “Stop it! I want to know what he’s talking about. He says he doesn’t trust Cranston and the other leaders.”

Finn sighed, finally backing down. “Why did you open your big mouth?” he asked Kyan.

“I thought she should know what she’s getting into.”

I whirled on Finn. “Are you keeping something from me?”

He grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “Not about this, I swear. Kyan and some of the others have concerns about leadership. They don’t like how they run things, keeping us in the dark about the upcoming missions and other intelligence. Cranston doesn’t tell us much, and it’s a concern for a lot of us.”

“Do you agree with what he’s saying?”

Finn shrugged, but his eyes stayed intense. “I don’t disagree, but our group needs to stick together. We’re all we have. No one can know about our powers, and we have to protect each other.”

“But there are other things they aren’t telling us,” Kyan spat, “and I know it. We need to get away from them while we can—before we’re deployed. This might be our last chance.”

The muscle in Finn’s jaw jumped. “Riley needs to learn how to use her power. She’s got to understand how to control it. This is still the safest place for her to do that.”

Kyan took a step forward. “They’re going to send us into the war blind. Do you really want that for her?”

“Of course not, but this isn’t the time to talk about it.” Finn looked at his watch, effectively ending the conversation. “We’re late. I don’t want Cranston to come looking for us. Let’s go.”

I fell in line behind Finn, in step only, as Kyan’s words raced through my mind.

16

THE BRIGHT SIDE

A TENSE SILENCE settled over us as we hustled to the gym. As I could barely keep track of who could read my thoughts at this point, I tried to put the upsetting conversation with Kyan out of my mind.

Finn stopped before we went through the doors. “Game faces, everyone.”

Kyan relaxed the scowl from his face, and I fake-smiled.

Finn shook his head. “Ri, the fake-smile has to go. Just act normal.”

The boys slipped past me to the bleachers as Cranston motioned for me to stop. “You’re late,” Cranston said.

“I overslept. Yesterday was a long day.” I pulled the brim of my baseball hat lower. “Do you want me to join the others?” I motioned toward Rachel and the twins, praying he didn’t send me over there. I didn’t want to deal with Rachel.

“Just take a seat for now. There’s a presentation.” A rare sparkle lit his eyes.

I did as I was told, sliding onto the bleachers next to Emma and Josh. Finn and Kyan sat behind us, quietly watching. At least they weren’t brawling.

I watched the twins and Rachel with interest. As soon as the words ‘Rachel’ and ‘interest’ knitted themselves together in the same sentence in my brain, I could sense Finn listening in on me. I started thinking la la la until we both probably got sick of it, but it served its purpose.

Cranston motioned to the girls. “All right, let’s get started, ladies.”

Morgan and Maya nodded, smiling jovially, and came out to the middle of the room. “We’re going to show you twin combat.” Maya looked directly at me.

These were the first independent words she’d spoken to me since the stress test, and I sighed in relief that she (a) was, in fact, speaking to me and (b) wasn’t showing me twin combat firsthand.

Morgan’s eyes glittered. “You might especially enjoy it, Riley, because we’re fighting Rachel.”

I didn’t say or think anything in response. I did, however, feel my face flame—always a dead giveaway.

I was probably going to suck pretty hard at being a covert agent.

“I plan to enjoy it also,” Rachel called, “because I am going to kick some red-headed ass.”

“Whatever,” Maya said.

“Bring it,” Morgan called.

Rachel smiled at them then sprinted toward their position in the center of the gym. Her dark hair flew behind her as she picked up speed—but then she disappeared.

I watched, mouth agape, as Rachel reappeared two seconds later, on the other side of the gym. Both the twins’ ponytails fluttered in her wake.

“Big deal,” Maya called. “You love to do your run-fast-and-reappear routine, but we know you only do it because it makes your hair look good.”

Rachel shrugged, tossing her hair prettily over one shoulder. “My mother warned me about girls like you—always picking on me because you’re jealous.”

Maya put her hands on her hips. “As if!”

But Rachel ran at them again. I watched carefully as she disappeared into thin air, leaving no sign or trace, no sparkle or ripple in the air around her. She reappeared, laughing, in between the twins.

Maya turned, swinging, and landed an open-handed wallop on Rachel’s cheek. Rachel swayed then disappeared, only to materialize again right in front of Maya. Rachel landed a hard roundhouse kick on the tall redhead’s chest. Rachel disappeared again, materializing with her arms around Morgan’s head, holding her in a headlock and grinning.

“You might want to stop laughing and incapacitate them,” Josh called to Rachel. “They’re going to seek vicious retribution shortly. They’re starting to run a little hot.”

Snorting, Rachel yanked Morgan’s curls and disappeared again.

Josh turned to me as the twins put their backs together in a defensive stance, scanning the room for signs of Rachel. “Finn let you in on our powers, huh Hanover?”

“Yes.” I couldn’t tear my eyes from the gym, searching for Rachel. She suddenly reappeared, lying on the floor. She logrolled through a tangle of twin legs, collapsing them.

“Ouch!” Morgan yelled.

Maya clenched her fists together. “You’re gonna pay for this, hot stuff!”

But Rachel had disappeared again.

“I can tell,” Josh continued, “using my special empath powers, that the twins aren’t going to take much more of this. So Rachel had better watch out. They can be mean when they want.”

“Your special powers are very nice.” I sensed he was looking for a compliment.

Josh shrugged, but he looked pleased. “They’re no telekinesis.”

“What you can do is very important for the cause,” I said, my voice soothing. “You’ll be able to sense if our enemies are tense and about to strike.”

“Shh.” Finn motioned to the gym floor. “This is getting good.”

I refocused on the action, annoyed by Finn. He probably just wanted to watch Rachel embroiled in a catfight with the twins, complete with lots of hair tossing.

“I didn’t say that,” Finn said, “but it wouldn’t suck.”

I resisted the urge to pummel him and did not dignify his statement with a response, the thought-snooping, hormone-riddled lowlife.

“Lowlife’s sort of a cheap shot,” he said under his breath, “but the rest is pretty accurate, I guess.”

“Ugh. Pay attention like you wanted, and leave me alone.”

“Whatever you say, Riley.” He leaned back against the bleachers so his biceps flexed.

I refused to look. Instead, I bit the inside of my cheek and concentrated on how badly it hurt so I would neither look at his sculpted muscles nor think about looking at them.

I wasn’t sure, but he might’ve laughed.

Rachel finally appeared again, at the top of the climbing rope.

“Coward!” Morgan yelled.

“Cheater!” Maya said. “Come down here, and fight like a girl!”

“If you say so.” Another Rachel appeared on the mats next to the twins, her hands up and ready to strike.

I looked back up. Rachel Number One still hung at the top of the rope, smiling mischievously, while Rachel Number Two prepared to strike.

“This is where it gets interesting,” Emma leaned back and whispered. “The twins’ll have to figure out which one is the real Rachel.”

“Is one of them a projection?” I asked, remembering Finn’s explanation.

“Yes. And she could send more. It’s one of her signature moves.”

“Oh. Huh.” Of course, Rachel had to have the absolutely coolest power.

“I beg your pardon,” Finn said.

Get out, and stay out!

He waved me off.

We watched with interest as the twins started after Rachel Number Two. Maya and Morgan seemed to be using their twin telepathy as they circled their opponent, staying low and poised to strike. They moved intuitively, angling toward each other and repositioning themselves around Rachel in tandem.

Rachel held her arms up in defensive position, bouncing on the balls of her feet, ready for them. Morgan struck first and lightning fast, a right hook straight to Rachel’s jaw. But the fist moved right through her.

“I knew it!” Josh yelled.

Morgan turned to Rachel Number One, who sat grinning and unscathed at the top of the rope. “You really are a coward!”

A new Rachel appeared on the floor out of nowhere. “Who’re you calling a coward?” She performed some karate-like moves, jabbing Morgan in the stomach. When Morgan doubled over, Rachel elbowed her in the back, sending her crashing to the floor.

“Can a projection beat the crap out of someone?” I asked.

Emma, Kyan, Finn, and Josh shook their heads. Josh pointed to the Rachel on the floor. “That’s the real Rachel.”

Emma put her hands over her face and peeked at the fight from behind her hands. “Maya’s going to kill her.”

Finn cursed. “I have money on this. She can’t.” He closed his eyes and seemed to concentrate for a moment.

Rachel whipped her head around and nodded at him. Then she turned, doing a high roundhouse kick intended for Maya’s face. But Maya was ready and waiting for her. She captured Rachel’s foot in her hands and twisted, spinning the dark-haired girl around and slamming her to the mat.

“Did you just tell Rachel something, in her head?” I asked Finn.

He nodded but didn’t answer. He was too busy wincing as Maya took Rachel’s head and bashed it against the mat.

“That had to hurt.” Josh smiled and held up his hand toward Finn. “Looks like you owe me. I’m currently accepting payments.”

“Just wait,” Finn muttered. “This isn’t over yet.”

We turned our attention back to the fight. Morgan had managed to get up, and she circled Rachel and Maya. Maya had the other girl flat on the floor and was pulling her arms tightly behind her back.

“Doesn’t that hurt?” I asked Emma, but she shook her head.

“It’s not a big deal. Not unless you hear a crack.”

“Or a crunch,” Kyan offered.

Rachel yelped as Maya flipped her over and drove her elbow into her chest. Morgan went over and grabbed Rachel’s feet so that she couldn’t kick. And then Maya punched Rachel in the head, hard.

The projection at the top of the rope, aka Rachel Number One, disappeared as the real Rachel passed out—or died. I jumped to my feet. “Is she okay?”

Finn grunted and handed Josh a handful of bills. “She’s fine. She’s a loser, but she’s fine.”

I turned to Emma, aghast. “Shouldn’t we go help?”

“She’s okay. We do this, like, five times a week.”

“Why do you hurt each other so badly?”

Kyan’s lip curled in a sneer. “They think it’s funny.”

“It’s not that. It’s just that we know our limits.” Josh ignored Kyan and looked at me. I felt my heart slow from its erratic, worried pounding to normal. “We’re in training. Military training. We have to learn to deal with pain, recovery, and fighting while recovering. The enemy’s not going to care if we feel good enough to keep fighting. They’d be thrilled if we didn’t.”

I put my hand over my heart. “Did you just do something to me? To calm me down?”

Josh shrugged. “It’s like a little love-dose of Xanax, from me to you.”

“Will you please shut up?” Finn sounded sour.

Rachel started to stir. “Oh, thank goodness,” I said. “She’s alive!”

Emma shook her head. “You’re so silly.”

I sighed. “I’m still adjusting to this new reality, if that’s what this is. Speaking of new, Finn, can you please explain how you and Rachel were talking when you weren’t…talking?”

“I can speak inside her mind. Rachel has telepathic talents, too. I can communicate with her silently.”

I suddenly wished Rachel, with her telepathic talents, burnished skin, and gorgeous hair, would pass back out—and possibly slip into a permanent coma.

Finn tsked. “Now, now, Riley. If it makes you feel better, the twins and I are working on the same thing. So are me and Kyan.”

“Ugh,” Kyan said.

Cranston stalked over and nodded at me. “You’re up, soldier.”

“I’m sorry?”

“We’re going to see if we can get you to barbecue something without making you cry first.” Cranston motioned for me to follow him.

I carefully headed down the bleachers, dreading trying to summon my power.

“Don’t be nervous,” Cranston said over his shoulder.

“Please don’t tell me you’re a telepath, too.”

“I’m not. The dread is plain on your face, soldier.”

I tried to compose my features and followed him to the far end of the room. He had a metal cart set up with a lamp, an iPhone, and a sandwich assembled on top. “Is that a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich?”

“Yes. Maybe you have superior powers of perception, too,” he joked.

“Ha-ha.” I watched as he wheeled the cart over to the center of the room. The twins and Rachel joined the others on the bleachers. They laughed and joked, even as Rachel held an icepack jammed against her head.

Not only were these people special, they were especially weird.

“Okay.” Cranston addressed all of us. “Riley here is going to try to harness her nascent telekinetic powers for our entertainment today. We’ve assembled a lamp, a smartphone, and a sandwich.”

“Fry it, Riley!” Josh whooped from the stands.

Cranston looked at him sharply. “That’s enough.” He turned back to me. “I’m trying to ascertain the nature of your power. Yesterday and previously, that episode when you were in school, your power presented itself as fulgurkinesis. That’s a special form of telekinesis that deals specifically with electrical currents. I want to know what else you can do.”

“Uh…” My voice trailed off. “I have no idea what I can do or if I can even do anything. And what the heck was that term, again? Fulgur—wha?”

Cranston ignored me. “Let’s get to work, soldier. I want you to do some breathing exercises and focus on these objects. Try to actively send out energy to them—make them do something.”

“Like what?”

“Like anything. Give it a shot.”

“Okay.” I sat down cross-legged on the floor, staring at the inanimate objects on the cart. I swallowed nervously, but what was the point of being afraid? I probably couldn’t do anything, anyway. If I made a fool of myself, what else was new?

“Hey.” Finn hopped down from the bleachers. “Don’t sell yourself short. Relax your mind, breathe in, and open yourself to all the possibilities inside of you. I’ve seen what you’re capable of. I know everything you need is in there, even if you don’t.”

“Do I have to pay extra for the pep talk?” I asked.

“You can thank me later.” He headed back to the stands. “I’ll be receptive as long as there’s some groveling.”

I rolled my eyes, which even though he couldn’t see, he’d know about.

Telepathy was so inconvenient.

“I heard that,” Finn said.

I ignored him, focusing instead on the dreaded inanimate objects I was supposed to fry. Or whatever. I blew out a deep breath and closed my eyes, focusing on my breathing. Trailing my fingers over Katie’s necklace, I quieted my mind, waiting for my heart to follow. I mentally thanked Josh for giving me the preliminary calming boost because otherwise, I would be a complete mess as I faced this newest challenge.

I concentrated on the objects on the table, mentally turning each one over in my mind. The lamp might be easy. Maybe I could turn it on. Was it even plugged in? Did it need to be in order for me to manipulate it? The iPhone I wasn’t sure about…maybe I could fry it? And the sandwich? What the heck could I do with that?

What to do… What to do…

I tried to push my brainwaves out toward the objects. My mind grabbed, pushed. I tried to visualize the wires inside the lamp. How many were there? What color were they? Who made lamps? How were they made? Why didn’t I know anything useful?

I groaned in frustration and tried to focus. I might not know how the wiring worked, but I was familiar with the end result: light. I imagined the warmth of the light, the heat of it, the positivity of all light. I pictured the light in my mind, wanting to touch it, to hold it…

I forced my mind out toward the lamp. I didn’t know how much time passed. I wanted the light to turn on. I wanted to feel the bright light in my hand, its warmth, its power…

“Yeah, girl!” Josh yelled. “Go get it!”

I squinted one eye open. The light bulb in the lamp flickered. I opened my eyes wide and clapped my hands together. “No way!”

The light immediately went dark.

“Jesus, Riley,” Cranston said, “can you please take this seriously?”

“Yes, sir.” I squinted at the lamp again. Please come back on. Please.

But nothing happened. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes again, blocking out everything around me—Cranston, the people in the stands, the conversation with Kyan, my own disbelief and desires about my power. I focused on the idea of the light again, its warmth and promise.

My mind opened up as I accepted the possibility that I’d been responsible for the light flickering, that I’d been the one to shatter the overhead lights yesterday. Me. Little old me, who’d only ever been good at reading books and taking tests.

And then something else opened up, something in my chest. It felt suspiciously like my heart hoping for something. Hope. I almost didn’t recognize the feeling.

I pictured the lamp again, and this time, I focused my entire will on the object. I vaguely hear Josh whoop again from the bleachers, but it sounded as if it came from far away. My total concentration was on the lamp. After a minute, even though my eyes were still scrunched tight, I knew it was on. I could feel the light, the warmth of it.

I concentrated hard until my body started to shake, little jitters that caused spasms through my muscles. I opened my eyes. The light flickered then the whole lamp lifted off the table and shuddered. My vision tunneled, and the light went dark. Feeling woozy, I wanted to lie down but was too confused. The lamp crashed to the floor and shattered. “Help?” I asked, as I tipped over.

“She’s going down,” Finn yelled. “Make sure she doesn’t hit her head!”

I AWOKE SOME TIME LATER, head aching, to Finn still yelling.

“Jesus, do you think we could evolve here? She’s obviously not getting enough calories or rest. There’s been too much stress.”

“It didn’t help that her mother sent that damn package,” Cranston huffed.

“Don’t blame her mother. This is on us. She’s just accessing these powers, and we all know that can take a toll. We need to let her do this slowly.”

“We don’t have time to do this slowly. We have eight weeks left of summer training, and then we’re being deployed to active duty. Do you want me to send her out there like this? Huh? Completely unprepared and unfamiliar with her own power and the recovery time?”

“Maybe she’s not ready to deploy.” Finn sounded angry.

“Maybe that’s not your call, soldier.” Cranston’s voice had a sharp, dangerous edge.

“Maybe you two should stop talking about me in the third person,” I croaked, sitting up on the couch in Cranston’s office. The movement made my head wail with pain, but I ignored it.

Finn scanned me. “What’re you doing up?”

“I’m processing.”

Literally reading my mind that I felt thirsty, he handed me a glass of water. “Tell us what you come up with.”

I gratefully took a sip. “I turned on that lamp.” Awe etched my voice.

Cranston crossed his arms. “You saw it before you passed out, right?”

“Uh-huh.” I rubbed my temples and sat up a little. “I did it—just like I shattered the gym lights yesterday.”

“That’s right,” Cranston said.

The truth of it dawned on me and everything else—all my concerns and worries—fell to the side. The realization was glorious. “I have power. Real power—fulgurkinesis—the telekinetic ability to manipulate objects with my mind, which seems to be predisposed toward objects of the electrical kind.”

“Correct.”

“That is so awesome,” I blurted out. The new and shiny of my power eclipsed everything else. “Now I want to see what else I can do!”

Finn rolled his eyes while Cranston rubbed his hands together.

“Excellent, soldier, excellent. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but I know you’re equal to the task.”

I finished the water and handed the empty glass to Finn. “I’m ready when you are, sir.”

17

BETTER OFF DEAD

“IF YOU’RE PLANNING on becoming a full-fledged, telekinetic, secret-agent warrior, you should really stop passing out,” Emma joked as she sat down next to me at lunch. “Or at least start eating more.”

I inspected my plate—a chicken-Parmesan sub, fries, pasta salad and an enormous, soft chocolate-chip cookie for dessert. “I think I have enough to get me through dinner.”

“We’ll see, All-Star.” She smiled at me. “You’re wearing the necklace, huh?”

I fingered the small stones at the base of my throat. “It feels good to have something of my sister’s with me.”

Emma nodded. “I get it.” She held up her wrist. She wore a faded yellow-and-orange braided bracelet I’d never noticed before. “My baby brother made this when he was in his weaving phase. He had this little, plastic loom he used to make friendship bracelets. He made them for all of his classmates and of course, for his big sister. I don’t take it off, even though it is not fashionable.”

“How old’s your brother?”

“Thirteen. I haven’t seen him in years, though.”

“Do you have other siblings?”

“No. And Hudson doesn’t think he has a sister, anymore, either.”

My stomach dropped. “Why not?”

“It’s too dangerous for my family to know I’m alive,” Emma said, matter-of-factly.

“Your family thinks you’re dead?”

“Yes. Now, before you start demonizing the agency for this, you have to understand it was my choice. I could’ve let them know I was alive but that they’d never hear from me again—which is what Finn did to his poor mother—or I could let them think I was dead. I chose dead.”

“Why?”

“Because dead is easier. Dead is so much easier.”

“I couldn’t do that to my mom. Not after everything she’s been through.”

Emma tilted her chin. “You don’t have to be clairvoyant to know what I’m going to say, right?”

“What?”

“It might be easier on your poor mother if she thinks you’re dead. Otherwise, what’s she going to do? Worry about you getting killed in the war? Worry that you’re hurt, r starving, or that you’ve been taken captive? And eventually, you are going to die. She’s going to be devastated. Why not get it over with, huh? Just rip off the Band-Aid, I say.”

“Sensitivity’s not really your strong suit, is it?”

She shrugged. “I literally don’t have time to be sensitive. I have enemies to fight and outfits to pick out.”

I wanted to tell her about the conversation I’d had with Kyan to see what she thought, but I didn’t know if it was safe to talk. I grabbed my tray. “I have to go see Cranston. I need to call my mother since she sent me that letter and all. I can tell she’s worried.”

“Remember what I said: you’re better off dead.”

“Thanks?” I hustled away before she could say more on the subject.

Cranston sat in his office, ramrod straight and typing away on his laptop.

“Sir?”

“Come in.”

“I need to call my mother. I know you said I should clear that sort of communication with you, so that’s why I’m here.”

“It’s fine for you to call her. Use the phone in the empty office next door.”

“Can’t I just use my cell?”

He shook his head. “The land line is safer. The cell signal isn’t encrypted, and it could get picked up.”

“Okay, thanks.”

“Riley.”

“Yeah?”

“We’re going to get into intensive training with you over the next few weeks, focusing on identifying your talents and developing them further. You can decide what you want to do about your mother when we’ve completed training. Some of the soldiers opt to send notifications…” His voice trailed off.

I nodded, swallowing over the sudden lump in my throat. “I know. Emma and Finn told me about the choice I have to make, but I haven’t decided what I’m going to do.”

“Take your time. Just remember when you talk to your mother right now, you can’t tell her anything specific. Everything we’re doing is highly classified.”

“I know, sir. I’ll keep it to normal conversation.” I headed for the office next door.

She picked up on the first ring. “Hello?”

“Mom, it’s Riley.”

She exhaled deeply. “I was worried you weren’t ever going to call me again.”

“I promised you I would. I’ve been busy. I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch.”

“Did you get my package?”

“Yes, thank you for the necklace. I’m wearing it right now. I haven’t taken it off.”

“Good.” She blew her nose. “Don’t.”

“How are you doing?”

“Not good.”

Panic tightened my chest. “Are you sick? Did you lose your job?”

“No. Did they let you see the letter?”

“Yes. Parts of it were crossed out, but I got the gist.”

“Did you?” Her voice was sharp.

“You feel bad that you weren’t a great mom, and that you…started drinking.” I winced, wondering if I was being insensitive. Maybe I’d been hanging out with Emma too much.

“Those weren’t the only things I said.”

I wondered if the line was tapped. I decided to risk it. “Well, tell me.”

“It’s that I’d known they were coming to take you, I’d known for years, and after what happened with Dad and Katie, I couldn’t face it—”

“Whoa, wait. You knew they were coming for me?”

“Yes, I did.”

“How?”

“Because that was part of the deal. That was how I got you.”

The world spun beneath my feet, but then I remembered who I was talking to. “Mom, are you…drunk?”

“No. But I wish I was.”

I sighed. “Can you please explain what you’re talking about? What do you mean, that was how you got me? I don’t understand—”

“Listen to me. They don’t want you to know the truth. Don’t let them cut you off from me. I’m the only one who’ll have the decency to tell you. I should’ve done it before, but I didn’t want to ruin the time you had left.” She started crying. “They’re going to come now. They won’t let you call me again. You remember what I told you.”

Cranston appeared in the doorway.

“I have to go, Mom.”

“Don’t be a sheep, Riley!” my mother shrieked. “Don’t let them take everything away from you. It’s not theirs to take, no matter what they say—”

I hung up the phone, hands shaking. What on earth was she talking about? “That was how I got you…” What did this mean?

And how much more crazy could I take in a long line of crazy?

Dead is easier. Emma’s words rang in my ears. I didn’t want to leave my mother alone after everything she’d been through, but maybe it would be best for her…this whole thing seemed too much for her to handle...

“Are you okay, soldier?” Cranston peered down at me.

I exhaled shakily. “I’m fine—I’ll be fine.”

“Let me know what you decide about your mother. About the notification.”

Was I imagining it, or did it sound as though he was gloating a little?

“Yes, sir.” But it felt like another decision I was ill prepared to make.

OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS, training got even more intense. I didn’t hear from my mother again. Kyan kept his distance—maybe because Finn had threatened to malign his hair.

We settled into a structured routine: a long morning run, showers, breakfast, then we split into individual groups. Mine was comprised of me and whatever object I tried to manipulate that day. After we broke for lunch, we had weight-training and combat practice, weapons training, dinner, then yoga. Every night, I fell into a dead, dreamless sleep, only to be woken early the next morning to do it all over again.

It was hard, but at least I was getting somewhere. I’d learned to move objects, and not just electrical ones. It didn’t happen right away. At first, the only things I could affect were lights and flashlights, leading me to believe that my power only worked on lights. Cranston asked me to try to manipulate all sort of other electrical appliances, a hairdryer, a microwave, a printer, and finally, a small alarm clock when he started to worry he was choosing too many big things. None of them worked—or rather, I worked on none of them.

Stumped, he had me try to master turning lights on and off.

“At least I can help if someone attacks us with the lights off,” I joked, secretly worrying that I had the worst psychic power ever.

“That’s true.” Cranston scratched his chin and examined the latest array of items he’d set out for me: a computer, a blender, a television set, and a coffeemaker. “You know what, Riley? Sit tight for a second.” He went outside and came back a minute later, setting several small stones on the floor in front of me. “See what you can do with these.”

“With rocks?”

He nodded. “Spend some time thinking about them, and see if you come up with anything. I’ll check back with you later.”

He left me alone with the rocks. I stared at them for a long time.

Then I focused on the energy surrounding them. In science class, we’d studied the states of matter—matter being everything that takes up space and has mass. Matter could be changed by energy, such as heating water to the point of boiling. I wondered about the rocks. I didn’t want to change them, necessarily. I just wanted to impact them.

With my brainwaves.

Maybe I’d been approaching this wrong. Perhaps, if I thought about my energy impacting the matter in a different way, I could get something going. Instead of trying to infiltrate the object, maybe I could affect the space around it…

I concentrated hard on the idea of moving the air around the first rock. My muscles started to quiver a little, and I snuck a peek. The rock had risen a little. It wobbled in the air. I took a deep, calming breath and willed the stone to stabilize and soar higher.

My muscles calmed down, and I didn’t open my eyes again. Instead, I settled into a deep, meditative state, highly unusual for me. Hours or minutes passed; I didn’t know which.

After a while, Cranston came back. “Huh. Nice going, soldier.”

I opened my eyes. The same rock calmly floated in the air. Thrilled, I said, “I can’t believe I did it!”

Cranston’s eyes almost popped out of his head. “Well I can, and I’d say it’s about time. Now you have to figure out how to do that super fast and also how you’re going to deploy that as a weapon.”

The stone clattered to the floor. “Uh…okay.” And here, I’d been congratulating myself.

“Don’t get down about it, Riley,” Cranston said. “Just don’t get too up, either.”

I spent the rest of the day playing with my rocks. I had yet to figure out if I could turn them into weapons, but I did manage to get three of them floating at once.

Finn sat next to me that night at dinner. I stopped shoveling lasagna into my mouth once he sat down, but he made a face. “You need to eat. I heard you had some success today. Success burns calories.”

“You heard, or you snooped around in my brain?” We’d been so busy over the past few weeks, I hadn’t had ample time to argue with Finn. I’d still been ogling him, of course, but he didn’t need to know that.

He grinned at me.

Ugh. Now he knew about the ogling. “I told you to stay out of my head,” I hissed.

“I don’t have to be in your head to know you’ve been checking me out.”

“I’m sure you get that from all the girls.”

He shrugged good-naturedly. “You get the most embarrassed about it, though. That’s what makes this fun.”

My face got hot.

“I didn’t sit next to you to ruin your appetite,” he said, kindly. “Keep eating. And tell me, have you heard from your mom again? I know you were upset after you talked to her the last time.”

“How did you know that?”

He smirked.

“Oh. Wow, that is so annoying.”

I took another bite and chewed listlessly, on the verge of losing my substantial appetite. I wanted to forget about the whole thing, along with the crazy conversation I’d had with her.

“I haven’t talked to her.” I hadn’t decided what I was going to do. “What happens if I decide to have Cranston tell her that I’m…you know?”

“They’ll send a government representative with ashes so that the family can have some closure.”

I wrinkled my nose. “What kind of ashes?”

“Usually squirrels—multiple squirrels, of course, because they’re so tiny. Sometimes road kill. Kind of depends on what’s on hand.”

“Are you serious?”

“Totally.”

“That’s gross.”

Finn shrugged. “It’s better than having a grieving family with nothing to bury.”

I put down my fork, appetite gone. “I guess you’re right. But what will they tell her?”

“They’ll tell her you were drafted into a division of the FBI. They’ll explain that it was top-secret, and that’s why you couldn’t tell her the truth. They’ll give her paperwork to verify the story, so there are no loose ends.”

“Your mom still knows you’re alive. Right?”

Finn played with the edge of his water glass. “Yeah, but I can’t contact her. She knows that, too.”

“What does she tell people about you?”

“That I moved to Europe to ‘find myself,’ and that I met a girl there. She tells them I’m not coming back, but that I’m doing well.”

“And she’s…okay with that?”

He didn’t look at me. “Okay might be too strong a word. But I don’t talk to her, so I don’t know.”

“Emma said she wanted her family to think she was dead because it was easier than having them worry…”

“Emma has very unusual logic.”

“So you don’t agree?”

“It’s not my place to agree or disagree,” he said. “But I know you get upset when you think about your mom, so think about it. It’s not the sort of thing you can go back and change, and you don’t want to regret it.”

“I still don’t understand how this works. If my mother thinks I’m dead, what happens to all my records? Am I legally deceased, erased from the planet?” I’d tried to make peace with the fact that I wouldn’t be attending Hollingsworth in the fall, but was going all-in with The Division a mistake? What if I didn’t like active duty? What if I got seriously injured? Would I ever be able to go back to my civilian life?

What if Kyan was right, and The Division didn’t care about me?

“Woah, Ri—I’m sorry, but you’re broadcasting right now. I can hear everything.”

I don’t know if I can just walk away from my old life.

“I know you don’t want me listening in. I’m sorry. But when you’re upset, your thoughts are hard to ignore.”

“I’m upset, but not that you can hear me right now. I want to know what could happen.”

“You might not like the answer,” Finn said, “because you won’t ever be able to go back to civilian life. It doesn’t work that way.”

“So…I’m going to be a secret agent for the rest of my life? I’m only seventeen. What’s The Division going to want with me when I’m too old to fight?”

“They’ll use you for intelligence, training, and testing.”

“How do you know what they’ll do?”

He shrugged his big shoulders. “I had the same questions, and that’s what they told me.”

“We can’t ever go back to normal life?”

“We aren’t normal.” Finn’s gaze held mine. “It’s complicated.”

“I know that I’m telekinetic, you’re a telepath, and Rachel’s a projector, and blah, blah, blah, but why do we need to be sequestered from the rest of society forever? Why can’t we, like, retire someday? I don’t think it’s legal for the government to try to keep us as soldiers forever—”

The muscle in his jaw jumped. “Who said anything about legal?”

“What do you mean?”

Cranston never ate with us, but Finn still leaned closer, keeping his voice down. “I mean, who says they have to follow some arbitrary legal guidelines? They haven’t so far. Who do you think is governing this unit?”

“The State Department?”

“The State Department doesn’t know we exist.”

“The Department of Defense?”

He shook his head. “Nope.”

“Homeland Security?”

Finn looked thoughtful. “We were under their jurisdiction for a while, but we got moved off-book.”

“So who do we go to, if we have a grievance?” My mind raced with the questions. I should’ve considered all of this before, but I’d been too busy playing with my superpowers and staring at Finn’s biceps. Stupid hormones!

He laughed. “I strongly recommend not having a grievance. There’s not a lot you can do about the hormones, though.”

“It’s not funny.”

“It’s important to keep a sense of humor. The fact is, if there’s a problem, you have to go to Cranston. He has superiors, but we don’t often have access to them. There are files on all of us, records, but the agency controls the files. We don’t have a lot of options.”

I swallowed hard. “Have there ever been any recruits who didn’t…work out?”

“Only a couple that I know of. Two guys who were recruited after me couldn’t develop their powers. Another one had powers that were too wild to control. And there’ve been some recruits who didn’t want to stay, even after they completed training.”

“What happened to them?”

“The ones whose powers didn’t work right got transferred to another department. The ones who wanted to leave were treated like defectors—enemies of the state. Last I heard, they were in a maximum-security federal prison for life, each one being held in isolation.” He ripped his napkin into little pieces. “The one with the defective powers is…dead.”

I gaped at him. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Riley…no, I’m not.” He sat back a little. “You still don’t get it, do you?”

An icy chill ran up my back, and I thought about what Kyan had said. They don’t care about us. They use us. “But they can’t treat us like they own us—we’re humans, American citizens who have rights. We’re not their property.”

“You sound pretty sure of that,” Finn said, “but you shouldn’t.”

“Are you saying…wait, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying that you and I have special powers and that the government thinks our powers will protect our country. We are assets. We are necessary for homeland defense. You might have been able to get out before you knew what your power was and knew what the rest of us could do, but you know the truth now. And you can’t un-know it. You’re a lifer, Hanover. Welcome to the club.”

“So…does Kyan have a point? Should we try to leave?”

Finn shook his head. “Kyan’s an asshat. He has no idea what could happen to us if we bailed.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about all this that day at the fence, when I wanted to leave?”

Finn didn’t look at me. “I couldn’t. Cranston gave me a direct order.”

I couldn’t read minds, but I could tell there was something else.

I didn’t think he’d say anything more until he finally looked up. “And I was being selfish.” He smiled without humor. “One more thing to never forgive me for.”

18

AND NOW, FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

“TODAY’S GOING to be a little different,” Cranston announced the next morning at breakfast.

“Thank God,” Emma said under her breath. “My ribs are so sore from all the training. I feel like I need to tape them, and athletic tape is not a good look.”

I blinked at her groggily. I’d barely slept with Finn’s words running through my mind all night.

“We’re doing levels testing today in the sweat lodge,” Cranston said.

Kyan and the others groaned.

“Why?” Emma whined. “We just did it last summer!”

“Because we need to check your levels.” His eyes flicked to me. “Not everyone’s been tested yet. All of you, meet me in the sauna in ten.” He stalked out.

“Sweat lodge?” I blinked at Emma.

“He calls it the sweat lodge, but it’s a sauna, and it’s gross. Ugh, I hate levels testing!”

I wrinkled my nose. “Isn’t it cultural appropriation to call it a sweat lodge? The Native Americans built special structures for sweat rituals, meant for cleansing and unification. So shouldn’t we call it something else because we’re not Native Americans, and we’re doing it in a sauna?”

“Of course we should call it something else, but don’t think for a second that Cranston cares.”

“What sort of test is it?”

“It’s pretty weird.” She grimaced. “They dope us up with this psychedelic drug that puts you into a dreamlike state. Then they stick us in the sweat lodge, a.k.a. the sauna, so we have a group hallucination.”

“They drug us?”

“Don’t get your panties in a twist. It’s perfectly legal. The government developed the serum for military purposes.”

“The military purpose being a group hallucination.”

Emma nodded. “Cranston can observe us on our monitors, and it helps him see how we’re interacting on a higher, more mindful level. The drug’s supposed to simulate a combat environment where confusion and adrenaline are running high. Have you ever taken anything before, like LSD or mushrooms? Any kind of psychotropic drug?”

“No. Never. I don’t like drugs or alcohol. Not my scene.”

She nodded. “Most people with psychic power don’t like drinking or drugs. Altered states are not good for us because we already have so much going on in our heads. This drug is specifically made for people with developmentally advanced brains, and it’s low-dose, so it won’t make you flip out the way a street drug would.”

My stomach rattled nervously. The idea of a drug-induced mind trip did not sit well with me. “Why are they making us do this?”

“It lets Cranston measure things he couldn’t otherwise and also helps him prepare a combat strategy, based on how we work together with our skills. It’s also a litmus test to measure our levels—how developed our psychic powers are at a given time.”

“It sounds…scary.”

Emma shrugged. “It’s not that bad. The medicine just makes you feel sort of sick for a while afterward. He probably wants to do it because you’re here, and we’ve never had a true telekinetic before. He’ll want to see how it changes the group dynamic.”

Maya came over, looking sour. “The drug itself isn’t that bad, but sometimes, Cranston likes to mess with us. Do you guys remember the bugs?”

The others groaned and nodded while I swallowed, hard. “What happened?”

Maya grimaced. “I hate bugs, especially crawly things and spiders. Anything that creeps near me and could disappear into my underwear should be doused with lighter fluid and burned in the eternal pits of hell. Ugh. Anyway, it’s become a borderline phobia. I’ve been working on it for years because it doesn’t pay to have phobias when you’re a trained secret agent for the government, right? Cranston knows about it because it’s in my file. So he puts me under—this was three years ago, I think? And he’s having us run this course, and all of a sudden, I trip and fall into a ditch crawling with every type of centipede imaginable.” She shivered. “I could throw up just thinking about it.”

I clutched my stomach. “Me too.”

“He wanted to check my response to the stimuli, so he had the chemist add in that part about the centipedes just for me. Wicked, huh?”

I winced. “Wicked disgusting.”

Maya nodded solemnly. “Needless to say, my psychic levels went up a lot in that test because I had to scramble to get out of the ditch and kill everything with more than two legs. There was no way I was leaving all those crawlers in there, even if they weren’t real. But it was so gross—totally not worth it.”

I processed the information, still unable to form an expectation about what lay ahead. “What happens once he puts us under?”

“You feel as though you’re awake. It’s like dreaming while you’re awake. We all experience the same basic hallucination. It’s usually some sort of predesigned course,” Morgan explained. “But Cranston loves to throw in some intimate touches for each of us, to personalize the experience. He watches what’s happening on our monitors. No matter what’s in store, it won’t be boring.”

Josh patted me on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, Hanover. You’re going to do fine.”

Emma shot him a look. “Don’t sugarcoat it. He’s going to put us through the wringer, you know. He’ll probably think it’s fun.”

“Can you stop?” Josh asked. They glared at each other for a moment, and I felt alternatingly calm—courtesy of Josh—and about to throw up—courtesy of Maya’s story about the centipedes.

I got up, leaving them to their pissing contest, and headed down the hall, wondering what this test was going to be like. What surprises did Cranston have in store for us? Curiosity was getting the better of me, again…

…I just hoped it didn’t deliver the cat treatment.

“MOST OF YOU KNOW THE DRILL,” Cranston explained. “I’m heating the sauna to one- hundred-fifty degrees, hot, but not so hot you’ll pass out. At least, I hope not. We all know Josh has that propensity.”

“Can you please stop bringing that up?” Josh’s face reddened.

Cranston ignored him. “I’ll administer the drug out here, then you need to change and head into the room. There’s water in there for everyone. The test only lasts about an hour, but it feels longer than that. I’ve updated your monitor settings with a specific chip for the simulation. I’ll be following along during the test.”

Curious about how it worked, I asked, “So…can you can see what’s going on inside our heads?”

“Not exactly,” Cranston said. “It’s not the same thing as Finn’s ability. I can’t hear your thoughts. But I can monitor the activity, get some visual modeling, see how you’re working together, how you use your powers, and what sort of combinations you come up with.”

“Combinations of what?”

“Of fighting units. I want to see how you use your power in simulated combat and how you guys complement each other. We learned that Emma and Josh, for example, are extremely well-suited to fighting together. Emma can tell in advance who’s going to pop, and Josh can incapacitate them before they do. It can be very useful to ascertain smaller pods to break into for deployment.”

“Oh,” I said, as if this were a rational conversation.

“Are you ready, soldier?” Cranston asked.

HELL no. “Yes, sir.”

“The shot goes in your shoulder.”

My vision blurred. “Shot?”

Josh came over and grabbed my hand. “It’s okay, Hanover. It doesn’t hurt—”

“Ouch!” A sharp pain fired in my shoulder.

“—much.” Josh smiled sheepishly.

“Thanks.” I rubbed my shoulder and gave Cranston, who was backing away with an enormous syringe, a dirty look. “To Josh, not you.”

Cranston shrugged and shot up Morgan.

“When do you start to feel it?”

“It takes a little while,” Josh said. “Go get changed with the girls, and head in. It doesn’t kick in usually until we’re all in the sauna and meditating.”

“Okay. Thanks for trying to keep me calm, by the way. I appreciate it.”

“My pleasure, Hanover.”

Finn stalked over, rubbing his freshly shot-up shoulder, and glared at Josh. “She’s not a delicate flower, you know. She doesn’t need rescuing every five minutes.”

Josh deflated. “You know I don’t think that about her. You can see inside my head.”

“I don’t like what I do see in there.”

Josh’s eyes flashed. “Then feel free to stay out.”

Finn opened his mouth, but Cranston interjected. “Enough, you two. Let’s get going.”

Josh walked away, shoulders slumped, but Finn stayed. “Are you ready for this?”

“No.”

He reached out and brushed the hair from my face, which made me swoon, but only a little. His harsh words to our friend annoyed me. “I’m not a delicate flower, true. But I also don’t need to be rescued by you. I’m pretty sure I can handle Josh.”

He opened his mouth but then closed it, still looking pissed.

“Okay?”

“Yeah, I got it, Hanover.” He stalked off before I could complain about the nickname.

I headed to the girls’ locker room, changed into a white tank top and running shorts, and quickly went into the sauna. It was hot, of course—too hot already. “Does it stay this temperature?” I complained, sinking down and grabbing a bottle of water. Emma was right. The sauna was gross. It was wood-paneled and dingy, with sticky benches, spider webs in the corners, and questionable stains on the concrete floor.

Emma scrunched her nose and gingerly maneuvered herself to sit next to me. “For a super-secret top elite government agency, you’d really think we’d have better perks. I suppose they don’t want us to get too soft.”

“It’s really yucky in here.” I eyed a nearby spider web, close to panic.

She patted my thigh. “It’s okay. I mean, it’s gross, but it’s going to be okay. Pretty soon, you aren’t even going to know you’re here.”

I nodded, even though it didn’t make me feel any better. “When we’re done with this, do you want to come back and clean this room so we don’t have to deal with the gross-factor ever again?”

“That’s a good idea. Yes.” She smiled at me in approval as we watched, Morgan, Maya, Rachel, and the boys file in. “Are you ready for this?”

“It doesn’t matter, does it?”

“No.” Emma leaned back, her eyes fluttering closed. “Try to relax. The experience is sort of like throwing up—you just have to let your body do its thing, and go with the flow. Only in this case, it’s your mind’s lead you have to follow. Trust your instincts. Remember that no matter what happens, there’s a time limit on this. It’s like a dream. You’ll wake up. It’s not forever.”

“Okay.” My stomach roiled. “Do you guys ever throw up from this drug?”

Emma looked thoughtful. “Josh has passed out a few times—”

Josh gave her a filthy look. “Shut up!”

“—and I think Rachel puked the first time. Right, Rach?”

Rachel rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I was a sweat-lodge virgin.”

Rachel didn’t often speak. When she did, everyone listened, as though there was a neon-colored sign above her head that read, “Drop What You’re Doing! The Popular Girl is Talking!”

“So I might pass out, and I might throw up.” I tried to sound matter-of-fact. “I can live with that.”

“Just pray there aren’t any centipedes,” Maya said.

I crossed myself. “I will.”

The door opened, and Cranston stuck his head in. “Your monitors indicate a change in brain activity. You need to stop talking, collect yourselves, and get ready.”

He shut the door, and Emma turned to me. “I’m right here, if you need me.”

“It’s going to be okay,” Josh said.

Kyan snorted. Finn rolled his eyes.

“Unless you puke.” Rachel smiled.

“Or unless there’s a ditch full of centipedes.” Maya shivered. “But if there is, I’ve got your back. I know what a fighter you are, ever since you hog-tied me and left me for dead in the middle of the gym.”

My head pounded. “My killer instinct kicked in—”

“I’m over it,” Maya interrupted, “and I want you on my side.”

“Okay. I am.” I nodded a little erratically, noticing that my vision was blurring. “Is anyone else feeling this?”

“A little.” Morgan sounded sleepy. “I just want it to be over. And I really hope there aren’t any centipedes or rats. I hate rats.”

“Shut up!” Maya swatted her sister. “Let’s think happy thoughts. Maybe that will help.”

Their voices faded out as I rested my head against the wooden paneling. The fear left me, replaced by sluggishness and a dull curiosity about what might happen next. It seemed as though this were happening to someone else.

Even though that wasn’t the case, the thought comforted me, and I drifted off.

Think happy thoughts. Think happy thoughts.

I tried not to make them too happy. After all, Cranston could see in my head.

19

THE OTHER SIDE

“HANOVER.” Finn’s voice brought me back to reality. “You here?”

I blinked and opened my eyes, which had fully closed. “In the sauna?”

He smiled, and I realized he stood above me. I was lying on the ground, in the grass. “There’s grass in the sauna?”

His face relaxed, his dimple peeking out. “We’re not in the sauna. We’re in the test.”

“Oh.” I felt the sun, the blades of grass gently tickling my face. “I thought it was going to suck. This is actually nice.”

Finn beamed down at me. “It is sort of nice, isn’t it?”

“Why are you mad at Josh?” The question slipped out. It had to be the drugs. Stupid drugs.

“Josh thinks he can protect you better than I can. And he spends too much time thinking about your face and the shape of your lips.”

“Oh.”

“I don’t like it when he thinks that. It makes me want to punch him, and he’s my best friend.”

“Oh.” My voice came out small.

“I wish I could shut up.” He scrubbed a hand over his face, looking annoyed. “Does it bother you when I say things like that?”

“Not at all.” I cursed inwardly, wondering if the drug was making me admit things I normally wouldn’t, just like Finn. “It makes me feel good. It helps bolster my false hope you have some sort of special interest in me.” Yep, drugs suck. I’m a babbling, leaking, psychotropic mess.

“The false hope, huh.” Finn held out his hand for me. “You’re pretty annoying, you know that?”

I sat up, avoiding his hand. “No, I don’t know that. Why would you say something like that?”

“Because it’s true. You are annoying.”

“Takes one to know one.” I staggered to my feet and squinted out at the field surrounding us. “Where are we? Where’s everybody else?”

“We’re in the course. We’ll come across the rest of them when we’re supposed to. Cranston’s paired us together, for now.”

“Why?”

“I’m pretty sure he wants me to keep tabs on your mind during the test because he can’t.”

I looked around the empty field, the blue sky stretching as far as the eye can see. “He wants to know what I’m thinking about a grassy plain? Or does he want to know what I think about you?”

“Neither,” Finn said, motioning to a figure in the distance heading toward us. “I think he wants to know what you think about that.”

A strange, fluttery feeling took over my heart as I watched the figure approach—tall and narrow-chested… The person’s gait seemed familiar, a long stride and an almost optimistic-looking arm swing.

My father walked that way.

My dead father.

“Finn? Who the hell is that?”

Finn rubbed my shoulder; I didn’t even bother trying to pull away. “It’s not real. Just remember that, okay?”

“Is this bad?” I whispered. “Is he some sort of zombie or something? Do I have to fight him?”

The muscle in Finn’s jaw jumped. “No, not at all. I think this is to gage your emotions, not your loyalty.”

“My emotions?” Tears streamed down my face as the figure came closer, and I could clearly make out the lines of my father’s familiar face.

“Daddy?”

The figure stopped, holding his arms out toward me. “Pumpkin?”

I shook Finn off and ran. I stopped short of the man in front of me, reminding myself that it was just an image, a trick. But oh, my heart ached. “Hi, Dad.”

He held his arms out for me. “Don’t be afraid.”

I went to him, and he enveloped me in a hug. His arms were strong, familiar, and pleasant. It was the same as he’d hugged me hundreds of times before. But…

“Hi, honey.”

I buried my face in his chest, so I could only hear the sorrow in his voice. I was glad I didn’t have to see it.

The only off thing was the smell. The figure didn’t smell like my dad. It didn’t smell like anything. Everything else was perfect. I’d have to tell Cranston about the smell…

“So you’re already loyal to him, huh?” my father asked.

I pulled back, drinking in the image of his face in the sunlight. “Loyal to who?”

“Cranston. You’re loyal to him?”

“I don’t know. I’m trying to be loyal to the agency, but everything is still so new, I don’t even know what we’re doing.” I stopped for a second, noticing he wore a denim button-down shirt and cargo pants, the type he’d always favored. “How did you know what I was thinking?”

He shrugged.

“How do you know who I’m talking about?”

“Cranston? I know him,” my father said.

At the moment, I appreciated all the drugs I’d taken. Similar to Josh’s influence, they slowed my reaction time so I couldn’t freak out. I had a friend who’d taken Prozac. He’d said it gave him the space to step back from his depression and analyze it at arm’s length.

I took a step back from my father, inspecting him. “How do you know Cranston?”

“Let’s just say we go way back.” Dad smiled at me. “How’re you doing, anyway? I’m sure things with your mother have been difficult…”

“We miss you.” My eyes filled with tears. “We miss you and Katie. Do you…” I let my question trail off, unsure of how to verbalize what I wanted to know.

“She’s fine. Yes, I see here. We’re together. We’re all going to be together again, someday.”

I burst into tears, my shoulders shaking. That’s all I want. That’s all I ever wanted.

I know, Pumpkin.

I jumped back. “Did you—”

Don’t say anything. Please. Just listen—we don’t have much time.

I opened my mouth and closed it.

You need to be very careful. Not everything is what it seems. Be meticulous about who you trust.

Can you…can you hear me? I tried to project the question into his mind.

His face split into a grin. Good girl. I knew you could do it.

If you’re a simulation, and the government manufactured you for me… I struggled to keep the train of thought straight in my head. Is this a special message from the agency?

Not an authorized one, Dad thought. I still have friends, though, people who believe what I believe.

The thoughts whirled in my head, veering off in crazy directions. You have friends in The Division?

The Dad-figure nodded. We don’t have much time. Remember this: your mother and I love you. We always loved you and Katie more than everything, even though we made some bad choices. I understand if you can’t ever forgive me. I’m prepared to accept that. But there is someone who needs your forgiveness. Try not to get so broken that when it’s time to search your heart, it’s too jagged to find the right answer.

Panic seized my chest. What are you talking about?

My dad reached out and ran his fingers down my cheek. “Goodbye, Pumpkin.”

The figure wavered then vanished.

I dropped down to my knees and clutched my face where he’d last touched me, crying.

Finn was beside me in an instant. “What did he say, Hanover?”

Don’t tell me the truth, Finn spoke inside my head.

“Oh, what the actual hell?” I yelled. Another person could talk inside my head?

Finn didn’t say anything else out loud or inside my head. Every muscle in his body tensed as he waited to see what I’d do next.

“Why did they do that to me?” I asked, tears still coursing down my face. “Why did they show me my father?”

“I don’t know,” Finn mumbled. “They’re probably testing what that sort of stress does to your psychic levels.”

We’ll talk about it later, Finn thought-spoke into my head. Don’t share any details of what he said or how he said it.

“Well, that was a shitty thing to do.” I stood up and dusted myself off. “Cranston’s going to hear it from me. I don’t know what he wants from me.”

Good job. Let’s move on, okay?

“Talk to Cranston. It’ll be okay.” Finn motioned for me to follow him across the field. “Let’s see what’s next, soldier.”

“If there are centipedes involved, I quit.”

“Ha-ha.”

I trudged after him, the troubled thoughts still swirling in my mind. “I’m not kidding.”

“Stay with me. We’re going to get through this,” Finn said.

Ahead, a slow-moving river cut through the field. “How’re we going to get around that?”

“We’re going through it.”

We got closer to the river, which looked cold and muddy. “I don’t want to.” Icy trepidation needled my back.

“Hanover, it’ll be fine. C’mon.” As we reached the river’s edge, Finn held out his hand for me.

I took it, shivering as I followed him onto the bank. The river’s murky water ran up and over my sneakers as we waded in. “It’s freezing!”

“You’ll live,” Finn said, teeth already chattering. He pulled me further out, the water up to my shins and then my knees in no time. Finn took another step and promptly stepped into water that rose to his chin. “It’s deeper than it looks,” he joked.

I tugged on his hand, trying to pull him back.

“We have to go across,” he called. “Stay with me. I don’t want to get separated.”

“I don’t want to go under.” My chest tightened with panic. I could swim, but I Finn was already fighting the current.

“I’m not going to let anything happen to you. Let me hold you.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but he didn’t give me a chance. He came back, picked me up with both arms, and started back across. The cold water covered my body as Finn pushed me forward.

We were halfway across. My clothes were stuck to my skin, and I smelled the pungent, brackish water as Finn continued to carry me. His steps sometimes faltered, and we both got half-submerged. Coming back to the surface, I wiped the water from my eyes. And then I saw something—movement.

“Finn, wait. There’s something out here.”

A giant, lavender tentacle broke the surface of the water. The size of a tree trunk, it skimmed across the top of the water before going back under, a slow, lazy wave hello from the depths of the river.

“Finn! There’s something in the river!”

His gaze held mine, steady and reassuring. “Even if there is, it’s okay. I’m going to get us to the other side, and we’ll be all right—”

The tentacle resurfaced, right next to Finn’s shoulder. “Finn!”

He turned and saw it just before it wrapped itself around his shoulders. “Get to the bank!” He pushed me away as the tentacle wrapped itself around his chest and yanked him under.

“Finn!”

I tried to bob above the water, looking wildly for him. There was no unusual movement on the surface.

Oh my God Oh my God Oh my God

I took a deep breath and went under, eyes open. I caught a glimpse of Finn being dragged away in the murky water. No, no, no. Panic rose, but I ignored it, swimming after him. The giant, slimy, multi-tentacled monster-thing, whatever it was, propelled itself along the bottom of the river, pushing off against the silty bottom, its appendage wrapped tightly around Finn’s torso. It would crush him.

Curse word that rhymes with truck

Curse word that rhymes with truck

I quickly resurfaced, gasping for breath. I had to reach him before that thing broke his chest in half. I went back down, looking for him in the dark water. Movement flashed in my peripheral vision, and I struggled toward it—a glimpse of Finn’s limp leg as he was dragged further down underneath the river. “Finn!”

Can we die in this test?

Test…test…test. The word reminded me of what we were doing in this mess. Cranston wanted to see what we could do. I cursed again, wondering how the hell levitating small rocks could help save Finn from being manually compacted by a giant squid-thing.

Underwater, petrified and clueless, I still had to find a way out of this. I scrambled after Finn as I remembered what really happened with the rocks. I hadn’t lifted them. I’d manipulated the environment around them. I could do that. I could do that here if I could figure out how. I concentrated, hard, thinking about the water surrounding me. I needed to impact the river without killing us both—so I couldn’t boil or freeze the water—not that I was even capable of that.

I caught one last glimpse of lavender tentacle before I resurfaced, taking another deep, ragged breath. Heart thudding, I forced myself to calm down. I inhaled as much air as I could and dove back under. Don’t you leave me, I thought at Finn. Don’t you dare.

I couldn’t see him. I didn’t know which direction the thing had taken him. Blind panic seized me, but I fought it off. I closed my eyes, feeling the water all around me. I remembered lifting the rocks, moving the air underneath them. I visualized gently stirring the river, atoms and molecules churning, objects at the bottom rising to the top. I kept my eyes closed, feeling at first only the water moving in the inevitable direction of the current. Panic squeezed my chest, but I kept focused on the water, envisioning the molecules stirring in a gentle but firm way.

The water started to move in another direction. Against the current.

I put my hands over my face and gave it everything I had, every ounce of energy and focus I possessed. The water moved more rapidly, pushing back against the current and creating a funnel. I felt silt, decomposed leaves, and small rocks brush up against me as they were lifted to the surface. I started to feel myself lift up off the bottom.

The current was underneath me, propelling me back to the surface of the water. It lifted me slowly at first then gained speed. I broke the surface, spluttering, and found the water bubbling as though it boiled all around me.

There was no sign of Finn.

“Finn! Finn!” I swam back to the middle of the river, struggling against the churning water, looking desperately for him. Things from the bottom of the river bubbled up next to me: a surprised-looking fish, an old bottle, leaves and muck and stones.

Finn, where are you? My breathing ragged, I realized I was crying.

The water broke suddenly, near the bank. The tentacle rose up and threw Finn up onto the beach, as if spitting him out in disgust.

Finn lay limply on the river’s edge. The monster paused, and I caught a glimpse of its eye, smooth obsidian against its moist lavender skin. It sank back underwater. I thrashed through the roiling water to the bank and dragged myself up the bank. “Finn?”

I rolled him over, and he started coughing, choking out water and gasping to catch his breath.

He’s breathing. Oh, thank God.

“Riley,” he said, when he could finally talk, “nice job.”

“I think we’re done with the testing.” Images of my father and the tentacled monster flashed in my mind as I helped pull him to his feet. “At least, I’m feeling pretty done with it. What was that thing, anyway?”

Finn shivered and wrapped his arms around himself. “Some sort of…river monster.”

“Are you hurt?”

“Nah, I’ll be fine.” He looked down at his feet for a minute. “Thank you for saving me.”

“I’m not sure I did. It sort of looked like your buddy just got tired of you.”

“The churning water upset it. I think it got confused about which way the current was going. Then a rock got kicked up and hit it. I think it got tired of playing with us.”

“I’m sorry it took me so long. I was really scared.”

He looked up. “You were really brave.”

“I thought I was really annoying?”

“You’re still really annoying. And really brave.” He made his way up the bank and held out his hand for me. “C’mon. If I know Cranston, he’s not done with us yet.”

“Cranston’s not my favorite person.”

“Cranston isn’t anybody’s favorite person.”

I grabbed his hand, ignoring how it thrilled me. We crested the small hill, moving slowly. Finn’s steps were jerky, as though he were still extremely cold and beat up. Our clothes were plastered against our skin, and I could feel mud in my hair. Finn had a brackish leaf sticking to the back of his shirt. I pulled it off as we spotted the others, waiting at the bottom of the hill.

“Whoa,” Morgan called, “you two look like you’ve been through the wringer.”

Finn shook his head, dislodging a small pebble and some sand from his ear. “You could say that. What have you guys been up to?”

“We had to deal with a burning house. Emma got locked inside,” Kyan said.

Emma picked at her hair. “My bangs are totally singed.”

“Josh and I got locked in a closet, and he imploded,” Rachel complained.

“I told you I’m sorry.” Josh’s face was beet red.

“Josh was worried about Rachel getting hurt,” Maya said, in a taunting tone. “He’s such a softie for all the girls.”

He gave her a look that was not at all empathetic.

Emma yawned and stretched. “We’re not done, but I sure would like to be. My lungs hurt from all that smoke.” She looked at Finn. “And you look like you need a nap. You sure you’re okay?”

Finn looked pale but he shrugged. “I’ll live.”

“He got abducted by a tentacled river-monster,” I explained. “We also ran into my dad. Err—the ghost of my dad. Or a hallucination who looked like my dad—ugh, whatever.”

Emma let out a low whistle.

“We should keep going. I can see the portal over there,” Finn instructed. He pointed toward the far side of the field. “The sooner we’re done, the better.”

I squinted into the distance, but I didn’t see anything. “The portal?”

Finn nodded. “It’s how we get back. Once we reach it, we’re done. I see the outline against the sky.”

“I’d go ahead, but Cranston won’t shut it down until we all reach it together,” Rachel explained.

We picked our way carefully across the field, but the ground became softer as we went on, eventually turning into a swampy, foul-smelling marsh. Our feet stuck, and we struggled to pull them from the muck to take each step.

“This is disgusting,” Kyan complained.

“It’s taking so long,” Morgan moaned. “And no amount of twin telepathy is going to make this move faster. You think Cranston could have devised something more on point.”

In front of us, Maya kept struggling. She bent over, trying to free her foot from the sludge, when the ground opened up in front of her.

“Oh!” She stumbled and crashed down into the crevice.

“Maya!” Morgan tried to sprint through the mud, but she couldn’t speed up.

Rachel teleported herself ahead of us and materialized at the edge of the ditch. She peered down, putting her hand over her mouth. “Oh, Jesus. Oh, no. Hurry!”

Maya screamed bloody murder then went quiet—too quiet. Rachel leaned down, whispering encouragement to her as we finally reached the edge of the ditch. I looked down. Maya writhed underneath a crawling mass of spiders, thousands of them, in all shapes, colors and sizes.

A large, hairy one crawled across her face, and the ground spun beneath me.

“Oh, my God!” Morgan looked stricken. “I can hear her thoughts. She’s going into shock. We need to get her out of there!”

Finn reached his long arm out toward the stricken girl, who remained just out of reach. “Maya, listen to me. Give me your hand. I’m going to pull you out.”

She looked at his hand, eyes wild with terror, but didn’t move.

“She can’t move—god-dammit!” Maya closed her eyes and started shifting her arms, as if willing her twin’s body to respond in kind. “It’s not working. She’s too stressed. Her heart…Oh, my God, I’m worried she’s going to have a heart attack.” Tears streamed down Morgan’s face.

Josh stepped up. “I’ll calm her down.” He leaned down, closing his eyes and concentrating.

It didn’t seem to be working. Maya looked on the verge of passing out.

“I’m going down there.” Finn looked around for something to hold onto.

“Wait—just wait. Let me see if I can help.” I closed my eyes and focused on…the spiders. I thought about the air around them, the dirt underneath them.

“Hurry, Riley.” Morgan’s voice was thick with fear.

I squinted one eye open. The dirt around the ditch started to shake and fall into the hole.

Morgan’s head whipped toward me. “Don’t bury her!”

“Shh.” I closed my eyes and focused on the air, swirling atoms, crashing energy together. I started to lift the spiders. And Maya.

“It’s working,” Finn said, his voice level and calm. “Keep doing what you’re doing.”

I focused on the air around Maya. I hoped the spiders fell off her and went…anywhere else. I knew how I’d feel in Maya’s place.

I visualized lifting her all the way out and out of the ditch and placing her gently on the ground. I didn’t stop until Morgan said, “Oh, thank God! I’m here honey. Everything’s going to be okay. Get those god-damned things off her!”

I opened my eyes to find Morgan tending to Maya, whose eyes were wide open, staring into space. Finn quickly swept all the spiders off her, back into the ditch. Josh bent down, taking Maya’s hand in his and whispering softly to her. I watched Finn corral the last of spiders back into the ditch.

He looked back at Maya then at me. “We need to get her out of here—but Cranston won’t let us leave until we deal with these spiders. It’s the last part. I know it. Can you help me move dirt back into the ditch to cover them up? We need to incapacitate them so we can be done with this.”

“Are they all in there?”

He kicked in a couple of stragglers. “They are now.”

“Back up.” I turned to Morgan. “Make sure Maya’s safe. Cover her up.”

“What’re you doing?” Finn asked.

I closed my eyes, clenched my fists, and concentrated my surroundings. One of the good things about growing up in backwoods New Hampshire was that we learned some crunchy, survivalist things in science class. A few of my AP teachers were crazy-smart doomsday-preppers, who taught us some weird stuff—things I’d taken for granted at the time, but was oh-so-grateful for now. For example: if you were stuck out in the woods with no source of fire and happen to stumble upon a marsh, bingo. Decaying organisms contained in marshes release methane, also known as ‘marsh gas.’ Methane, along with another swamp-ish compound known as diphosphane, can lead to spontaneous combustion—i.e., a nice little burst of fire from ‘nothing.’

A little bit of marsh gas was all I needed to get something going. I concentrated on the methane and the diphosphane emanating from the marsh around us. I pictured warming it, a trillion molecules changing and gathering energy, bouncing of each other. I clenched my fists, concentrating.

I mentally collected the gas and shot it into the ditch, a torrential flood of hot energy and matter.

Boom! Heat warmed my face.

I scrunched one eye open. All the spiders were on fire.

Rachel’s eyes shone as she stared at me from across the ditch. “Yeah, girl!”

I smiled at her for the first time ever then turned to Finn. “I am officially done with this test.”

He looked at the fire and arched his eyebrows. “I’m pretty sure you passed.”

20

FOLLOW THE LEADER

CRANSTON WAS on me the second I came to. “I thought you couldn’t set things on fire.”

I looked around the sauna, utterly disoriented. “I didn’t…I didn’t know I could.”

His eyes glittered. “That was nice work, soldier. Your potential’s shining through.”

“Where’s Maya?” I peered past him. Like I gave a crap about my potential—my friend had almost had a heart attack. I darted around him, legs wobbly, and found everyone in the hall outside.

Maya was slumped on the floor, visibly shaking, but alert and drinking water. “Riley,” she croaked, “my hero. Glad I made up with you before test.”

I crouched down next to her. “Are you okay?”

A wan smile lit her face. “I’m going to have nightmares for the rest of my life, but that’s to be expected. You were awesome back there. Thank you.”

I shrugged. “I’m sorry it took me so long.” I winced, the image of the spider crawling across her face coming back.

“I have a feeling Cranston’s going to have a field day with your performance,” Maya said.

“He already seemed pretty excited.”

Maya nodded. “You should get some water. We usually all feel sick after levels, and water’s the only thing that helps.”

I stood up then leaned heavily against the cool cement wall. My legs were jelly.

Finn came up and handed me a bottle of water. A huge bruise ran from his collarbone to his jawline. “Take it easy.”

“Jesus, you’re hurt. The things in our hallucination can bruise us? How does that work?”

He grimaced. “Cranston showed us a tape once. Sometimes, we throw our bodies around in the sauna, acting out what’s happening in the test.”

I shook my head. “This is messed up.”

“That’s one way of looking at it.” I need to talk to you, but we need to play it cool. That’s very important.

“I think I need to go take a shower and lie down,” I said, feeling miserable. I had a million questions, but it wasn’t safe to ask them, and I didn’t understand why.

Finn nodded. “Yeah, go get some rest. I’ll see you at dinner.”

I hustled past Kyan, and he shot me an I-told-you-so look. Ugh. I needed to deal with him, but I barely had the energy to nod as I passed.

I showered, the hot water running over me, cleansing the imaginary river mud from my hair and body. I shivered in spite of the warm water. That river had felt real. Those spiders had seemed real, too, and the mud…and my father.

I dried off and grabbed the blow dryer, beginning the arduous task of drying my hair.

My heart ached. My father…my father… Why had he been in the hallucination? Who could be that cruel? And how did they know he called me Pumpkin and the type of clothes he wore? And what about all the crazy things he said to me?

I still have friends, though, people who believe what I believe.

What on earth did that mean? I went over every word he said to me. I wanted to believe some of it, especially the part where he said he and Katie were still together. My eyes filled with tears. I yearned for that to be true. But the image and its words weren’t my father. They were a chemical presentation of my father, designed to elicit a response from me.

Someone was messing with me.

Someone knew my deepest wish—to be reunited with my family, to be together forever—and they were playing me the way they’d played me by making me watch Finn with Rachel, attempting to get me to unlock my power.

Cranston was behind this, or his superiors were. The Division. Why had I accepted this new life so easily? I fumed at myself as I finished drying my hair and brushed my teeth. The blame lay squarely at my feet. I’d liked the feeling of belonging and the tiny taste of special-snowflake status my new powers gave me. I’d wanted more.

I’d wanted more, and I’d gotten more than I could handle.

I shuffled into the dorm. Thankfully, the others hadn’t come back. I crawled into bed, feeling queasy from the drugs and my own thoughts.

If the hallucination could be believed, my father knew about the agency, and he knew Cranston. But nothing in my memory supported this. Dad had never done government work, and he’d never mentioned anything about an agency that even remotely resembled The Division. I knew all of his friends and most of his co-workers. I didn’t believe he had some sort of secret background.

I struggled with what he’d said—rather, what he’d said via telepathy. Had my dad been a telepath? Did he have secret powers I didn’t know about? His words were troubling, inscrutable: I understand if you can’t ever forgive me. I’m prepared to accept that. But there is someone who needs your forgiveness. Try not to get so broken that when it’s time to search your heart, it’s too jagged to find the right answer.

I rolled over, pulling the blanket over my head. Really Dad? What the what?

Exhausted and wanting to escape my thoughts, I fell asleep. In my dream, I was back at the river’s edge, and Finn was further down the beach, heading toward me.

“Don’t go in there,” he called.

“I have no intention of ever setting foot into a river again.”

He finally reached me. “Good.”

“Hi.” I grinned at his handsome face. “You’re so pretty.”

“Oh. Thanks.” He grinned back. “But Riley, I should tell you—this is real. I mean, I’m really here. In your dream.”

I coughed. “Oh.”

“It’s okay. I already know I’m pretty.”

“Ugh.” Finn talking to me like this reminded me of something, but I couldn’t place it. “What do you want?”

He laughed. “I have to tell you about the test, and this is the only safe way to do it.”

“But what if I don’t remember what you tell me? I never remember my dreams.”

“If I think it seems like you don’t remember, I’ll come back. I’ll keep coming back until I’m sure you’ve got it. But I can’t ask you about this while we’re at Freel. We’re being watched. I need to limit my telepathic statements to you because I’m worried the activity’s going to show up on my monitor.”

“Who’s watching us? What’re you afraid of?”

“Who said anything about being afraid? I just don’t want you getting involved.”

“You’re telepathically transporting yourself into my dreams to tell me something. I think I’m already involved.”

The muscle in his jaw jumped. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Why not? Is your concern for me some sort of civic-duty thing? Or something else?” Dream-me was more daring, less self-conscious, than awake-me.

He sighed. “You really are annoying. No, it’s not my civic duty. It’s something else.”

I smiled, even though he hadn’t said anything particularly promising. “Good.”

“Let’s stay focused. Your dad said something to you today, during the test. What was it?”

“You couldn’t hear what he said?”

He looked down. “I heard most of it, but I stopped listening. I figured you deserved some privacy.”

“Thanks. You probably didn’t miss a lot. He just said I needed to be careful who I trusted and that he and my mother had made mistakes, but that they loved me and Katie.” I crossed my arms against my chest. “Then he said something about someone needing my forgiveness…that I needed to make sure my heart didn’t get so broken that I couldn’t forgive this person. At least, I think that’s what he said.”

Finn kicked a pebble. “What do you think he meant?”

“I have no idea. I don’t even know if that was actually a message from my father—who, I might remind you, is dead. So I don’t know what the message meant, who it’s really from, or why the agency is messing with my head like this. I was sad earlier, but now I’m just pissed.”

He nodded. “The reason I came tonight is to tell you I believe that message was from your dad. I’ve never seen a telepathic communication like that in a levels test before. I’m not saying it’s impossible that the agency planted it, but I don’t believe it.”

I knew Finn was trying to help, but he shouldn’t make assumptions. “I’m not sure where you’re going with this.”

“I’m trying to tell you I think that message was legitimate.” His gaze reached mine, and I felt that pull toward him. “I knew your father. He’d want you to know those things. The Division would not.”

The edges of my vision blurred. “You knew my dad?”

“A little.”

“How?”

“Remember when Emma told you we’d been waiting for you for a long time?”

I nodded, feeling as if I were about to be sick.

“Well, we knew about you, and we knew about your family.”

“What did you know about them?”

“It’s not important—”

I threw up my arms. “Don’t you dare say that! My family means everything to me!”

“I knew who they were.”

“Did they know who you were?”

“They knew about the agency.”

I opened my mouth and then closed it, my vision tunneling.

“Easy.” Finn wrapped his arm around me, catching me before I fell.

I sank down onto the sand, my mind whirling. “They knew about The Division?”

Finn sat next to me and stared straight ahead. “Yes.”

“How?”

Finn opened his mouth to speak but then looked up, as if he heard something. “Someone’s coming. I have to go. Remember, don’t talk about this stuff when we’re awake. It’s not safe.”

“Wait!”

He leaned over and kissed the top of my head, sending shockwaves through me. “You never remember your dreams,” he explained, flashing his dimple. Then he disappeared.

I jerked awake, breathing hard and tangled up in my sheets.

“You okay?” Emma asked. “You were having a nightmare, I think.”

I sat up and realized I was thirsty, starving, and nauseous all at the same time.

“It’s normal to have weirdness going on after levels. The drug’s a shock to the system, and you dealt with a lot of other stuff, too.”

I sat up and grabbed some water off the nightstand. “Yeah, I feel lousy.”

Emma nodded. “How did it go with your father…the image of your father? Did they make you fight him?”

“No!”

She looked relieved. “Thank God. They do that, sometimes. They might do it to you someday, but I’m glad you were spared this time.”

“They make you fight your family?”

“Not your real family,” Emma corrected me quickly, “simulations designed to mimic your family.”

“That’s terrible.”

She shrugged. “I know it makes them sound like monsters, but think about it. What if our enemies were able to manufacture something similar? A likeness of people we care about? We would have to fight them and kill them while dealing with the shock of it. The Division wants us to be prepared for every ugly possibility. It’s tough love, but it’s still love.”

I wanted to ask how she was sure, and I wanted to tell her what my father had said, but I held back the specifics. Still, I wanted to know where my friend stood. “Do you…do you trust them?” I asked quietly.

She leaned forward conspiratorially. “Has Kyan been trying to recruit you?”

I exhaled shakily. So she knew about his objections. “He mentioned something.”

Emma sat back next to me, propping herself up. “He has a lot of concerns—questions we’ve all asked ourselves. But he goes about it like a bull in a china shop. You need to watch out for him, Ri. He’s not careful. One of these days, it’s going to get him into trouble.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” I reminded her.

She looked me in the eye. “That’s because I don’t know how to answer it. Do I trust everything I’ve been told? Not necessarily. Has the agency given us enough information to fight a war? Hardly.”

“But?”

Emma tilted her chin. “But Cranston’s the one who showed me how to harness my power. He saved me from myself. What would I have done if my visions had come on, and I’d been out in society? I would’ve lost it. I would’ve thought I was crazy.”

I nodded, taking in her words.

“The people on our team are my family now. I would die for them.”

“But are we…safe? With The Division?”

Emma’s blue eyes grew larger. “I don’t know. But I do know we’re safer if our team sticks together.”

I picked at some lint on my blanket.

“What do you think?” Emma asked.

“I think…I think I’ve finally made some friends.” It should seem silly how important this was to me, but after being lonely for so long…

Emma patted my shoulder. “You have.”

“And I have this power…I should do something good with it. I don’t think I could go back to my old life.” I shivered, picturing the basement apartment I’d shared with my mom, the empty days that’d stretched out forever.

“I know I couldn’t.”

“Since we can’t go back to our old lives, can we go to dinner?” I asked, trying to lighten the mood. “I think a large amount of food is in order after this crappy day.”

“Amen. You need to eat extra, anyway. I know Cranston’s going to be all over you in training tomorrow. He’s going to see if you can start another fire.”

“Great.”

“I’m sure you’re afraid and probably pretty sour about everything that happened. But your new power is a gift, Ri. I’ve seen what you can do, remember?” Emma linked her arm through mine as we headed to the dining room. “You don’t think I decided to be your friend just because I finally decided I liked you, right?”

“Ha-ha.”

“Seriously, the twins and I are fan-girling over you right now. Even Rachel thinks you’re all right.”

“Don’t let me get a big head.”

“Don’t worry.” Emma’s face darkened. “The world usually has a way of taking care of egos.”

“Are you making a prediction?”

She swatted me. “No, I was just being philosophical. Sometimes it can seem like the same thing.”

“Can you give me a positive prediction? Something you’ve seen that’s good, about my future?”

“It doesn’t work that way.”

“But you’ve seen things; I know you have. Please,” I whined, “after everything I went through today, I could use a little boost.”

“I swear, you non-cogs drive me crazy.” She rolled her eyes. “But here’s a prediction: no spiders will ever mess with you again. If they see your ass coming, they’ll run screaming in the opposite direction.”

“Except spiders don’t really run, and they can’t scream.”

Emma grinned. “Except for that.”

I rolled my eyes. “That wasn’t good enough. I want another prediction.”

Emma stopped. “Ugh, I know what you want, okay? But I don’t have to use my psychic powers to tell you Finn likes you. Any idiot could see that.”

“Really?” I squealed.

She headed into the dining room, shaking her head. “Present company excluded, I guess.”

21

A RELIABLE SOURCE

CRANSTON LOOMED over me at breakfast. “We need to talk.”

“I have to swallow my food first,” I said through a mouthful of cereal.

“Finish up, soldier.”

Cranston had let me eat dinner and go to bed in peace last night, so I should have known he’d be eager to discuss the test first thing this morning. I followed him to his office without saying a word.

He motioned for me to sit and closed the door. “You did well yesterday—very well. There are a couple of things we need to clear up, though.”

My stomach tied itself into a knot. “Okay.”

Cranston stood behind his desk, his spine ramrod straight. “Your father was in the test yesterday. Your monitor indicated you had a strong reaction.”

“You’re surprised about that?”

“Not at all. I want to know what he said to you.”

I lifted my chin up. “He said he knew you.”

He nodded. “I figured as much.”

I started in my chair. “It’s true?”

“Yes, I knew your father. I met him several times.”

“Why?”

Cranston sat down. “Riley, your background is complicated.”

“Not to me, it isn’t. To me, it’s very simple, so please explain what you mean.”

“I’ve been cleared by Management to tell you a little. That’s why your dad was in the test yesterday. They were looking for an organic way to introduce the information to you.”

“I’m sorry?” My voice came out small.

“What I’m saying is, Management wanted your father to tell be the one to tell you he knew about the agency. They figured it would communicate the information with an immediate level of authority.”

I tried to follow the words, but they were drowned out by the blood rushing in my ears. This can’t be true. What I think he’s saying…it can’t be true. “You’re going to need to say that again. Use words that make sense.”

He sighed. “We wanted you to know more about how you got here. You have questions. We’re trying to make it easier for you to take it all in.”

“So you sent my dead father to me in a hallucination? That was supposed to make it easier?”

“Not necessarily easier. But you need context. Your father’s appearance in the test yesterday provided that.”

I gripped the seat of my chair. “You could’ve just told me you knew him!”

“Would you have believed me?”

“No.” My father had always been very open with me, or so I’d believed. I waited for a moment, gathering my thoughts. “What about my mother?”

“I know her, too. We’ve met several times.

“Why? And why didn’t you tell me?” Why didn’t she tell me?

Oh, my God, is this what she was trying to tell me?

“You weren’t ready to hear it, yet,” Cranston said. “And I didn’t have the authorization to disclose the information to you.”

“Why do you have the authorization now?”

“You’ve proven your power. You’re officially part of the team.”

“I still don’t understand why you put my dad into the test.”

Cranston straightened the papers on his already-immaculate desk. “It wasn’t my decision. The psych department thought it was for the best.”

“I don’t understand how anyone could think doing that was for the best.”

He sighed. “They reviewed your file and our current circumstances. This was their recommendation. We’ve used a similar approach before with some of the others.”

I snorted. “Emma told me she had to fight her family.”

“That’s right. We’ve done things like that to prepare our soldiers for combat. Trust me, our enemies are capable of much worse.”

“Who is our enemy, sir? Who are you talking about who would do such terrible things?”

Why are you doing terrible things to me to prepare me for them?

“America has lots of enemies, Riley. Any number of other countries and other factions would love to tear us down for various reasons—ideology, religion, greed, power. Take your pick. We’ve got enemies in ISIS, Russia, North Korea, other groups you’ve never even heard of. The list is endless.”

“And they’re planning attacks against us?”

“No, Riley. They’re already attacking us. Attacks are happening on American soil as we speak.” He scrubbed a hand across his face. “We’ll get to the history and tactical section of training once we finish this physical training. Apparently, you could really use it.”

“I don’t think the sarcasm’s necessary, sir.”

Cranston raised an eyebrow but said nothing, a shining example of self-control in sharp contrast to me, who was losing mine quickly.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm down. “I’d like to know how you knew my parents. And then I want to call my mother. Please.”

“You can’t call her right now. You need to let that quiet down.”

I sat back, feeling angry and trapped.

“Your father knew about The Division, Riley. So did your mom. That’s how I knew them. They both understood you’d eventually be drafted into the program, but they didn’t know when. That was part of the deal.”

My heartbeat quickened. “What deal?”

“They needed to keep you safe and healthy until the time came. Your mother almost failed at that over the last few years, but you did a surprisingly good job of taking care of yourself.”

“You were…watching me? Before?” I almost fell out of my chair.

“We’ve been monitoring you, yes, to make sure your powers didn’t independently materialize and scare or hurt you.”

I tried to accept that. But I couldn’t accept my parents keeping a secret as big as this. “Why didn’t my parents tell me?”

“Because they couldn’t. They weren’t authorized.”

I didn’t want to believe any of it.

“It’s the truth, soldier. They knew all along.”

Tears threatened. “What did they know, exactly?”

“That you were going to be an integral part of a very special, secret government agency that would protect our country—that your service was an honor.” Cranston smiled at me, setting off a warning bell in my head. “You’ve been through a lot. Let’s get back to training, okay? The psych department recommends releasing information to you in small doses. You’ve heard enough for one day. Baby steps, Riley.”

The psych department can suck it. “Yes, sir. But when you have the authorization, I’m ready to hear more.” I decided to play it safe and not argue. Cranston didn’t seem to handle emotional outbursts or threats very well. I needed to bide my time.

“That’s what I like to hear. I have some new tests I want you to try.”

“Great.” I stood up obediently. “I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do, sir.” That, at least, was the truth.

MY STOMACH DROPPED. Kyan stalked the hallway near my dorm.

“Were you waiting for me?” I asked, half-wishing I could duck past.

He ran a hand through his hair. Perspiration dotted his forehead. “Do you see what I mean, now? They’ll use anything—a dead parent, a secret fear of spiders—anything they can find to use against us. You want to fight a war for them? You don’t even know who they are!”

“I need time to figure it out. This is all so new, and so’s my power…”

He crossed his arms against his chest. “Your power is our ticket to escape. We need to do it soon.”

I winced. “I can’t make a commitment like that right now—”

“But you can make a commitment to join them for life?”

“My parents knew about The Division. They thought it would be best for me—maybe. I don’t know.” I groaned in frustration. “But I need more time to figure it out! I’m not ready to run away. You might have your reasons, but I don’t. I need to understand more.”

He leaned closer, and some sweat trickled down his cheek. “I’m leaving. Soon. You can either come with me, or stay here to get used up. And die.”

He turned and stormed off.

I checked the dorm. It was empty, so I went and sat on my bed, nerves thrumming.

Part of what bothered me about Kyan’s words was that they struck a chord. I didn’t fully trust The Division, either. I didn’t trust the way they’d “recruited” me, the stories about my parents, all the secrecy surrounding the agency.

But. They’d chosen me, and I was meant to be a part of this team—or at least part of something. I needed to understand more about The Division—and my father, my mother, my power…all of our roles in it.

But. For the first time in forever, I wasn’t alone. The people in our group were my friends, and I couldn’t walk away. I needed to think.

Actually, I needed to talk to my mother. I needed to ask her what she and Dad knew, when, and why they’d never told me about my future with The Division.

It was a bit of an ominous omission.

But how could I get in touch with her? My cell phone wasn’t safe. Cranston made it clear I wasn’t allowed to call her, so trying to use the landline seemed ill-advised. Still, I needed to figure it out. Maybe I could sneak a call when everyone was asleep.

I needed to do something. Fast.

I didn’t like what Finn had told me, either. “I knew your father. He’d want you to know those things. The Division would not.”

How had so many people lied to me, about so much?

What did my father want me to know that The Division would want to keep from me? Not everything is what it seems. Be meticulous about who you trust.

And then there was Kyan. Poor Kyan, angry and sweating. Your power is our ticket to escape.

Gee, thanks, buddy. No pressure.

“Hey, Ri.” Emma and the others traipsed into the dorm. “We got leave to go to the beach for an hour tomorrow. You want to go?”

Bingo. “Yes,” I said immediately. “I can’t wait.”

“PHONES IN THE BASKET,” Cranston instructed. He watched as we turned off our phones and turned them in.

“We can’t even keep them for GPS?” Emma asked, annoyed.

Cranston’s lip curled. “You have GPS in your head.”

I put my phone into the basket, eager to go, but Cranston stepped in my way. “You remember our conversation from the other day? No contact with your mother.”

“Of course I remember.”

He let me pass. “Have fun at the beach.”

I shivered. Fun didn’t seem like Cranston’s thing. “Sure.”

Josh climbed behind the wheel of the van. The rest of us filed past him and took our seats. Kyan went to the back and took a seat by himself.

Maya slid in next to her sister, in the seat in front of Rachel and Emma. “I can’t wait to go to the beach. I am the champion stone skimmer.”

“I’m better,” Morgan said. “I’m the queen.”

“We’ll see.” Maya tossed her hair and turned my way. “How about you, Riley? Do you like the beach?”

“I do, but I’m pretty excited just to get off the base. It’s been a while.” In fact, it had been weeks. I’d lost count of how many. The others often ventured off to run errands or get ice cream, but I’d never tagged along.

“You haven’t left Freel since we’ve been down here?” Emma asked.

“No.” A weight lifted off me as we escaped the isolation of our private base, checked in with security, and drove through the gates. In an instant, we were among the offices and restaurants, the streets buzzing with cars and activity. Civilization. Relieved, I turned to find Finn staring at me from across the aisle. I shivered, remembering my dream. Was that real? Were you really in my dream?

A flicker of recognition lit up his face, and he smiled faintly but didn’t answer. He turned away to stare out the window, lost in his own thoughts.

“Is everybody okay with Newcastle beach?” Josh expertly maneuvered the van around a traffic circle.

“Sure,” Rachel said, “as long as there aren’t too many screaming kids.”

“They’ll be at the playground,” Emma said. “Newcastle is fine.”

Josh headed down a winding road, driving past stately homes and people out running and riding their bikes. It was a beautiful New Hampshire summer day. The sun shone brightly through the trees, which burst with green leaves. Long, brutal winters always led back here, to summers where everything grew lush, each branch and leaf straining to finally feel the warmth of the sun.

I peeked at Kyan. He stared out the window, but he didn’t look pleased.

We drove past an ice cream stand and a country club. I smelled the water before I saw it. We crested a bridge, and there was the ocean, dark, bluish green, the smell sharp and familiar. Josh drove past a yacht club and the Wentworth Hotel, a historic hotel that had been restored and reopened. Its gleaming white façade overlooked the boats and the water. When we’d driven by the hotel with my parents when I was younger, I’d asked if it was the White House. Katie claimed I was an idiot, but my father defended me, declaring it a legitimate question. After all, I’d never seen something so grand before.

We followed signs for Newcastle State Park and pulled into a mostly empty parking lot. Most of the families had gone home for the day. I followed the others down a rocky path to a small beach. The tide was going out. Rocks and shells dotted the dark, gray sand.

I looked back to see Kyan staring at the water from the grass.

Emma glanced at him and nudged me. “Remember what I said: bull in a China shop. There’s nothing we can do about it now.”

She skipped off, down toward the water, leaving me to ponder what the heck she meant.

“Let’s see what you got!” Maya called to her sister. They laughed, taunting each other and searching for the perfect skimming rocks. Josh and Rachel waded down past the seaweed to some large rocks, climbing them and inspecting the tidal pools.

I watched the water, mesmerized.

“It’s pretty, huh?” Finn appeared beside me.

“I want to live near the water, someday. I could stare at it all day.”

“Why do they call it the seacoast in New Hampshire? Every other state, it’s the coast. But it’s always the seacoast here. I don’t get it.”

I wrinkled my nose. “I don’t know. I guess that is sort of weird.” I hadn’t given my state’s quirks any real consideration.

“Have you traveled much?”

“Not at all. We came down here when we were kids, and we went to Florida once. But we didn’t have a lot of money.”

“So…wow. You’ve been in upstate New Hampshire all your life?”

“Yeah, pretty much. What about you?”

“My mom and I traveled a little. We do a fair amount of traveling for work, too. You’ll probably get to see more of the world.”

“I don’t know if I want to.” The words came out before I could stop them. “I don’t know if this is for me. Maybe upstate New Hampshire is more my speed.”

“What did Cranston say?” Finn knew exactly what was bothering me.

I continued to watch the water. “He said my parents knew about the agency. My mom said she did when I talked to her the last time, but I didn’t believe her.”

“What else did he say?”

I stole a glance at him. “That there was some sort of…deal. I don’t understand what he meant.”

Finn stared straight ahead, his handsome face troubled. “I can’t tell you about that. I want to, but I can’t.”

“I need to call her. Can you cover for me? I don’t want to get you in trouble, but I need to know the truth. I’m going crazy.”

He held out his hand for me. “Okay, but I’m coming with you. Let’s go get you a phone.”

We hustled up the beach. “Where’d Kyan go?” He’d vanished from his spot on the grass.

Finn frowned. “I don’t know.” He closed his eyes briefly. “I can’t hear him. He does that sometimes. He can cloak his thoughts.”

“Huh.” Even though his absence troubled me, I hustled across the parking lot to a large field with a playground. Kids played and laughed, scaling the climbing walls and whizzing down the slide. A pretty, sweltering and very-pregnant-looking mom pushed her small son on a swing.

“You want me to push him?” Finn offered. He gave her a dazzling smile. “You look like you could take a break.”

“Oh—that’s really nice.” She wiped the sweat from her forehead. “But Max would probably scream if I let you touch him. Stranger danger.” She winked at Finn.

He held up his hands. “Got it. Can I ask you for a favor, though? We don’t have our phones, and my friend needs to call her mom to check in. I’ll pay you.” He held out a twenty-dollar bill.

“Don’t be silly. Here.” She handed him the phone, smiling. “Take your time.” She had a mom voice, sweet and doting. She looked as if she might ask Finn if he’d like some crackers shaped like goldfish or perhaps a juice box.

“Thanks.” He flashed that wolfish smile again, and I almost reminded him not to flirt with the pretty pregnant lady, even though she was coddling him.

I nodded to her and dialed my mom’s number, moving to the far edge of the bench. Finn chatted easily with the little boy and his mom, giving me privacy. He was very cute with little Max, and I suddenly wondered if he he’d lied to me about not leaving small siblings behind.

“Hello?” My mother answered immediately, sounding suspicious.

“Mom! Can you talk?”

“Oh, my God! Is that you, Riley?”

“Yes.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, but I don’t have a lot of time. I need to ask you something.”

She didn’t respond for so long, I thought the call had dropped. Finally, she spoke. “What?”

“Did you know about the agency?”

Her breathing quickened. “Yes.”

I put my face in my hands. “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

“I tried to tell you when you called me the last time, but you didn’t want to hear it.”

“Forgive me, but I thought you were drunk.”

“You don’t need my forgiveness, honey.” Her voice softened. “I need yours.”

“Why didn’t you and Dad ever tell me?”

“We couldn’t, honey. It wasn’t safe for you.”

I wanted to berate her about the irony of trying to keep me safe, juxtaposed with all those years she was neglectful—but I realized in that moment that I needed to let it go. There’d been more going on than I’d ever realized, and my mom had been self-medicating for reasons I could only begin to comprehend.

“Wasn’t safe how?”

“Honey, I think you understand that these people aren’t playing. They don’t know you’re calling me, do they?”

“No,” I admitted.

“Then you get it. If you cross them, you’ll pay. You’d better make sure they don’t find out about this.”

“Okay.” I blew out a deep breath and closed my eyes. “I need you to tell me. What did you know? And what was…the deal? Cranston mentioned some sort of deal.”

“I knew they were going to come for you, honey. That was part of what we agreed to.”

“What else did you agree to?” I turned back to Finn and the woman, who were still chatting.

“You need to understand something. Your father and I made mistakes, but everything we did was for you and your sister. We loved you both, honey. We weren’t perfect, but we loved you both.”

“That’s what he said.”

“Who?” Her voice was sharp.

“Dad. It wasn’t really him. It was a hallucination.”

“What did he say? It’s urgent that you tell me.”

“Just that you guys knew about the agency and that you weren’t perfect…and that he didn’t expect my forgiveness. Oh—and that he still had friends in The Division, people who felt the way he did.”

“Oh.” She started crying. “Wow.”

“It was a hallucination, Mom.”

“It was a message from him, honey. It wasn’t just a hallucination.”

“How?”

She took a shuddery breath. “He probably left instructions with some of our friends. They were more loyal than I ever gave them credit for, I guess.”

Questions whirled through my mind, but I didn’t have time for all of them. “If you knew the agency was coming for me, why didn’t you tell me? And why are you afraid of them?”

“Some things happened… They did some things I never expected. It changed how I felt about them. It changed how I viewed what was going to happen to your life. I always thought it would be this glorious thing. You were going to serve our country and protect people, and you were so special and important. But then when I saw what they were really capable of…” She erupted into sobs. “I didn’t want to see something terrible happen to you, sweetie.”

The sun beat down on me. I had to give this poor woman her phone back before she passed out from heat stroke.

“What was the deal, Mom?”

“I got you. In exchange for giving you back, someday.”

“I’m sorry?”

“You were always theirs, sweetheart. Your father and I thought we could stand it. We were wrong about that and quite a few other things.” She laughed, but it was wild and without any trace of humor.

“Are they bad, Mom? I need to know.” My eyes scanned the park for Kyan, but he’d disappeared.

“They’re not all bad. But they aren’t all good, either.” She sounded as though she’d calmed down. “Some of what they do has a slippery slope though, Riley. That’s the stuff you have to watch out for. Like I told you, don’t follow orders blindly. Question everything, honey. Don’t make a move unless it’s your move. Do better than Daddy and I did.”

“Riley.” Finn motioned for me to get going.

I turned away, but I still felt him watching me. “I have to go now. They’re probably going to tell you I’m dead.”

She started crying again. “That’s what I deserve.”

“No, it’s not. I love you, Mom.”

“Wait!” She sounded desperate. “One last thing—don’t let them know you’re questioning them. That’s what got us into trouble in the first place! Keep your thoughts to yourself, and watch your back.”

“Riley.” Finn sounded borderline urgent.

“I really have to go.” Tears threatened, but I held them back. My tears couldn’t help me.

“I love you honey,” she said, “and I am so, so sorry.”

Tires squealed in the parking lot. I turned to find a Freel truck slamming into a spot, kicking up dirt and rocks behind it.

Finn handed the kind mother a wad of cash. “Go buy yourself a new phone,” he instructed. “This one’s too dangerous for you now.”

The woman’s mouth hung open as she watched Finn grab the phone from me and rip out the sim card. He hit the phone against the metal bench, repeatedly, until it crumpled. He threw it unceremoniously in a nearby trashcan then held his hand out for me. “Your monitor must’ve gone off. Let’s go face the music.”

“I’m sorry,” I told the woman as Finn hustled me away.

Cranston waited next to the truck, arms crossed against his chest.

“Oh honey.” Her mom voice tinged with worry as she took in the scene. “It’s okay. Do you need help?” she asked me

“No.” She was so nice, I found myself near tears again. “But thank you.”

When we reached the truck, Cranston’s steely gaze ran over Finn and then me. “Get in, soldiers.”

“Sir—”

“That’s enough. You’ve done quite enough damage already, Riley. Get in the truck, and don’t talk.”

I silently climbed in. Waiting as Finn slid in next to me, I worried about what my mother had said…and what, exactly, I’d just gotten us into.

22

NO MATTER WHAT

CRANSTON PUT the truck into drive without saying a word. He didn’t have to. I could sense the disapproval coming off him in waves.

“Don’t we need to tell the others we’re leaving?” I asked.

Cranston rolled his eyes. “Emma already knows.”

“Did you tell her?”

He shot me a look.

“Oh. Right.”

Finn sat, looking out the window. I had the sense he wanted to reach out and touch me, comfort me, but he didn’t dare.

Cranston didn’t drive back the way we’d come. Instead, we headed out toward another bridge over an inlet then through a quaint downtown with a post office and a red-brick library. We left the town behind us and headed over another bridge, one I recognized. A huge, deserted stone building dominated an island to our right. It looked like an abandoned, haunted hotel, a cold echo of the lovingly restored Wentworth we’d seen on the other side of the beach.

I stared at the massive structure. We’d driven this way on our one trip to the seacoast. I could never forget that building.

“What’s that—an old hotel?” Finn asked.

“That’s the naval shipyard. See the cranes?” I pointed to a construction area past the derelict building, further in toward the mainland. “And that old building is actually an abandoned naval prison.”

“Really? It looks like a castle.”

Finn was right. There were turrets adorning each corner of the building, and ornate carvings decorated the top of each of them.

I remembered Katie asking my dad the same thing—if it were a castle. Then it had been my turn to tease her. Still, the building looked eerie and had spooked us both. I’d had a nightmare about it that night, something about being locked inside with ghosts. The structure had deteriorated over the years and had grown positively derelict. Many of the windows were broken, and parts of the roof were caved in.

“Why don’t they use it anymore?” he asked.

“It got too expensive to operate.” Cranston’s unexpected answer made me jump. “They’ve tried to lease it out to private companies over the years, but nothing’s worked out.”

I’d forgotten, with all the craziness, that Cranston was military and would know about such things.

“It’s a shame,” he continued. “It used to be a beautiful building. Looters have been in there, stealing the copper and defacing it with graffiti. I don’t know what they’re going to do with it.”

“It’s huge.” Finn stared as it disappeared behind us.

We drove for another minute until Cranston suddenly pulled over by a bike path that veered off into the woods. “Get out, son.”

Finn shot me a quick look. “Sir?”

Cranston pointed down the path. “A monitor in my possession indicates that one of our soldiers is hiding down that path, somewhere in the vicinity. And the dumbass actually thinks I’m going to let him stay there.”

Finn’s jaw set. “Yes, sir.”

Cranston and I sat in stony silence as Finn disappeared down the wooded path. I wondered if he knew about the call to my mother, but I didn’t dare ask. I didn’t dare ask about Kyan either because soon enough, Finn dragged Kyan back to the truck. A river of red ran down Kyan’s neck, soaking his tank top with blood.

“Stupid—” Cranston let out a string of expletives I’d never heard before.

“He’s hurt!”

“He’s a dumbass,” Cranston said. “Idiot tried to remove his own monitor.”

I gaped as Finn brought him to the truck and threw Kyan in next to me. Finn hopped into the back, not saying a word. Kyan gripped the door handle.

“Don’t even think about it.” Cranston stepped on the gas.

There was a hole in the back of Kyan’s neck. It looked ragged, as if he’d dug it with his own fingernails. “It wasn’t in there,” he muttered to himself.

Cranston sneered in disgust. “You really are my dumbest recruit. You know that?”

“Stop it!” I balled my hands into fists. “He’s hurt!”

“Don’t try to help me,” Kyan spat. “This is all your fault!”

“What?”

Cranston smiled a little. “What’s that, soldier?”

Kyan peered past me to Cranston. “Riley asked me to escape. She was supposed to meet me out here, but she baled.”

I whipped my head at him. “That’s a—”

“So this was all her idea, huh?” Cranston asked, “even the part where you ripped a hole in your neck?”

“Yes, sir. She’s been after me to help her desert since you recruited her. Now that she has her powers, she’s got all she needs.”

I closed my mouth. I couldn’t believe him.

“Is that true, Riley?” Cranston asked, his tone mild.

I stared straight ahead. “I’m not going to dignify it with a response because I would never disrespect a teammate, sir.”

“So now you’re going to be all holier-than-thou.” Kyan put his hand on the back of his neck to try to staunch the bleeding. “That’s just perfect.”

Cranston drove toward downtown but then confused me by taking a sharp right and heading over the bridge toward Maine.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“To the shipyard. We have some business there.” Cranston didn’t look at me, but he sounded cheered.

We crossed to the other side of the bridge and drove past a sign that read: “Welcome to Maine! The way life should be.”

My palms started to sweat.

Calm down, Finn spoke into my head.

I might’ve imagined it, but Cranston shot him nasty look right afterward—as if he’d heard him. Maybe I didn’t imagine it. Finn didn’t say anything else.

Cranston followed the signs for the shipyard. He presented identification for all four of us to the armed security guard at the entrance. “It’s an honor, sir,” the security guard said, his eyes huge.

I wanted to offer him my spot in the truck, but I kept my mouth shut.

We drove over a long bridge that connected the base to the land, and then he drove the truck slowly through the base, past huge piles of scrap metal and buildings and ships that were being repaired. The shipyard was its own island, its own little city sparkling in the sunlight.

My dread abated a little until he drove out past the hub and slowly approached the enormous, abandoned prison.

“Where are we going?” My voice came out high and strained.

Cranston pointed at the prison. “Right there.”

“Why?”

He didn’t answer me, but after a moment, he pulled over in front of another building and honked his horn. A tired-looking man in scrubs came out. A stethoscope hung around his neck.

Cranston presented his identification. “I need you to take one of my team members and patch him up.” He jerked his thumb at Kyan. “He needs to be restrained. And no pain meds.”

The doctor didn’t blink. “Yes, sir.”

Kyan opened his mouth to object, but Cranston held up his hand. “Don’t even start. You’re being punished, soldier. This is only the beginning.”

Kyan had the decency not to look at me while he got out of the truck. The doctor led him away, showcasing the deep wound in the back of his neck one last time.

“Idiot,” Cranston muttered and drove the truck to the prison.

“Sir? Why are we going to the prison? Am I being punished for what Kyan accused me of?”

Cranston snorted. “He’s lying. His monitor shows that clearly. But I do know he’s been talking to you about leaving the team. Anything you want to tell me?”

“He asked me about it.” I swallowed nervously, not wanting to get Kyan in any more trouble. “But I said no…sir.”

“That’s good, but I need to see some more loyalty. I need a direct display.” Cranston parked the truck at the entrance to the building. “That’s why we’re here.” He turned to me. “I gave you specific instructions not to contact your mother. I issued a direct order. You violated that, and your friend over there helped you to violate it.” He jerked his thumb back toward Finn. “So now, you’re both going in the brig.”

I didn’t know a great deal about the military, but I knew that the brig meant prison. I peered at the creepy building, heart pounding.

“Get out of the truck, Riley.”

Finn hopped out and stood next to me on the sidewalk, not saying a word. I wanted to reach for his hand, to tug on it and drag him away. I glanced behind me, eyeing the water wildly. Deserting suddenly seemed like a great option. Could we swim to the other side from here?

Cranston stalked to the door of the abandoned building, opened it, and motioned for us to go through.

It was pitch black inside. “I would rather not go in there, sir.”

“That’s fine. Go anyway. This is a good lesson for you: don’t substitute your judgment for mine.”

Finn went ahead into the dark hallway. He reached out for me. “It’s okay, Riley.”

Cranston shook his head. “You do understand that in combat, there’s no handholding?”

Finn ignored him and held out his hand. “It’s okay. We’re going to be okay.”

I took his hand, not looking at Cranston. The hallway was dark. Broken tiles littered the floor, and ivy crept up the walls. The place had gone wild, nature coming back to claim the land.

Cranston shook his head as he came in. “Such a waste.” He used his phone as a flashlight, and we followed him down the dark hall. The walls pressed in on me, making me claustrophobic. Finn squeezed my hand, as if to say everything was okay.

But everything was not okay. Cranston took a left, leading us down an interior hallway, farther away from the exit and the light. I started breathing in deep wheezes.

“Sir,” Finn said, “is this really necessary?”

Cranston stopped and used his flashlight app to illuminate the room in front of us—a small, dirty cell, complete with bars across the front. “Get in. Both of you.”

Finn didn’t move. “I have never once questioned your authority, and I’ve followed every one of your orders—except about the phone call, and that’s because I was helping my friend. I’ve even done the things I don’t agree with, sir. But this isn’t necessary. Riley had questions—”

“I said get in—”

“—and because of the issues with her file, she needed answers. It’s not fair—”

I jumped into the cell and pulled the bars across. “I should be punished, sir. I violated your direct order. But Finn didn’t do anything except be a friend. He has nothing to do with this.”

“He has everything to do with this.” Cranston pulled the door open and pushed Finn inside next to me. Then he pulled the bars back across and locked the door. He took a step back, the light from his phone illuminating his face. Shadows bounced in his wrinkles and crags, making him look menacing. Maybe the fact that I hated him in this moment made him look intimidating and ugly. Or maybe it was that he’d just locked us in a jail cell in a deserted prison.

“I will be back for you later, soldiers.” Cranston headed down the hall, taking the light with him. “Don’t do anything you’ll regret.”

I started crying immediately. Some soldier I was going to make. “I’m so sorry. You shouldn’t be in here with me. You were just trying to help, and look at the mess I got you into.”

“It’s okay.” In the darkness, Finn groped for my hand. “I’m the one who’s sorry. I should’ve known your monitor would go off, and he’d track us down. That conversation was too upsetting, and then Kyan bailed… Of course we were going to get dragged in.”

“What’s going to happen to Kyan?” I tried to focus on our conversation, not on the fact that the cell was pitch black and God-only-knew-what could be crawling around us.

“I don’t know, and I don’t care. I told you he was an asshat. I can’t believe he tried to rip out his own monitor. He’s dumber than I thought.” He almost sounded amused.

“I hope he’s going to be okay.” I shivered. “Because we’re not.”

“Listen.” Finn squeezed my hands. “Nothing bad is going to happen to us right now. I mean, this is bad, but we’re safe. Anything Cranston does to us is military standard. He’s not going to kill us, maim us, or leave us here to go insane. I mean, not forever.”

“So you agree with what he’s doing?”

“I didn’t say that. I’m trying to explain that even though this seems crazy, Cranston won’t do anything to hurt us—er, kill us. Actually, he’ll probably definitely hurt us, but he can’t kill us.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

Finn didn’t answer my question. He simply held my hand in the dark.

“Before he comes back, I want to understand what my mother said. She said they got me from The Division, but that they had to give me back, that ‘I was always theirs’—The Division’s. What the heck does that mean?”

“You sure you want to talk about this now?”

“In case you’re wrong and Cranston’s going to kill us, yes please. I would like some answers.”

He sighed deeply then didn’t say anything for a full minute. “Your family got you the same way my mother got me: through a government adoption process.”

I took a step back, shaking my head. “That’s not true. My mother gave birth to me. She showed me her C-section scars. She had two of them. One from Katie, one from me.”

“My mother gave birth to me, too. But there’s a reason I’ve never mentioned my father. It’s because I didn’t have one.”

“That’s okay.” I said, not understanding what he was getting at—not wanting to understand what he was getting at. “Lots of people are raised by a single parent.”

“That’s not what I meant. My mother didn’t have a partner—not ever. She was artificially inseminated by lab workers from the United States government. She adopted me, so even though she gave birth to me, she’s not my biological mother.”

I didn’t care if there were spiders and rats crawling nearby. I felt along the wall for the bench and flopped down onto it before my legs gave out on me. “The government doesn’t do that.”

“Not often,” Finn agreed. “And certainly not for regular civilians. But it did it for the future agents of The Division. All of us were adopted that way—Josh, the twins, Rachel, Emma—you.”

“That’s not possible. I look like my dad. We have the same hair, the same eyes.”

“You were placed with him for that reason: a close physical match.”

“That’s crazy,” I said. “I look like my sister—exactly like my sister, not the sort of exact you can closely match. People could always tell we were sisters. Sometimes, people thought we were twins—”

“That’s because you were sisters.” Finn’s voice had a jagged edge to it, like he was delivering a sharp blow. “Katie was from the agency, too.”

My eyes filled with tears. “You shut your mouth. Don’t you say things like that.”

“I’m sorry. I know you don’t want any of this to be true, but it is.”

I jumped back up. “It doesn’t make any sense! She’s dead, Finn! They were watching me for years. Cranston told me! You think they’d just let her get killed in a car accident?”

“No. I don’t.” I couldn’t see his face, but the misery was clear in his voice. “Accidents like that don’t just happen.”

“What the hell does that mean, Finn?”

“Nothing. I’ve already said too much. Cranston’s coming back for us soon. We need to calm down.”

“I will not calm down! Tell me what all of this means! Who are my actual parents? Why were our mothers artificially inseminated with embryos from the government? What are you implying happened to my sister?”

“I don’t know the answers to all of those questions—like who your actual parents are. I don’t know mine either. All I know is that the government was developing The Division for decades. The people who donated embryos were part of that development. My understanding is that our biological parents were all gifted like we are, and the government wanted to preserve that power. I don’t know what happened to them or why they weren’t allowed to raise us.”

“Are you saying I was…manufactured?” My head spun, and I literally couldn’t think straight.

“Not exactly. I don’t know.”

We were quiet for a minute. I wasn’t sure he would speak again until he said, “I don’t know why the government had us adopted. I do know that all of our adoptive parents signed agreements stating that they would raise us as their own and keep us safe, but that one day, we’d be activated. And we wouldn’t be able to come back.”

“Why would anyone in their right mind agree to an adoption like that?”

“People had different motivations. Some wanted to help the government. It was a patriotic privilege, a way to serve. Others were desperate to adopt and had been turned down by traditional channels. Some people did it for the money.”

I almost threw up. “I don’t believe this.”

“I don’t blame you. I only believe it because I know it’s true.”

“My parents agreed to this?”

“They must have.”

“Tell me about my sister.”

“I know she was part of the program. She was adopted, too.”

“You said it wasn’t an accident,” I whispered.

“Riley, I—”

Footsteps echoed down the hallway. A light appeared, getting closer. “Are you ready, soldiers?”

“Whatever happens,” Finn said quietly, “I want you to be safe, okay? I don’t care if it looks like I’m hurt. Even if I’m bleeding, passed out, whatever—I want you to take care of yourself.”

Anxiety rolled through me. “What are you talking about?”

“The next test. It’s going to get ugly, Ri. Just remember—you come first. No matter what.”

23

ME VS. YOU

“ARE YOU TWO HAVING A GOOD TALK?” Cranston asked as he approached.

“I’m filling Riley in on some of her background,” Finn said. “I was able to get the sentences out, so I’m assuming the disclosure was authorized.”

“But you didn’t tell her everything, though, did you?” Cranston’s voice curled in a taunt.

“No, sir. I did not. But I will when the time comes.”

“Oh, I know you will.” He rolled back the door as I tried to decipher their conversation. “It’s time for you next test, Riley. This is the last one before we wrap up training camp. We’ll be moving on after this to another base where we’ll work on the more academic and tactical portions of training. But before we do that, we’ll head back up to Hanover.”

“Why?” My voice came out sharp.

“So that you can say goodbye to your mother.”

“I thought I couldn’t talk to her again.”

“I’ve made special arrangements and had the visit cleared. You shouldn’t have called her just now, but it makes me see that you need closure. You’re a valuable asset to our team, Riley, and Finn’s right—a lot of this has been a shock to you. You deserve to be able to say goodbye to your family. Every soldier has that right.”

“Thank…you.” The words tasted bitter on my lips. I was suspicious of his change of heart, but I wanted to see my mom.

“Follow me. And watch your step. There’s a lot of crap thrown in this hallway.”

We picked our way down the narrow passage, guided by Cranston’s phone light. Finally, more natural light started coming through, and it became obvious that we were headed out of the interior space that held the cells.

I breathed a sigh of relief as we entered an enormous room filled with windows. We were in the largest part of the building. I recognized the curved windows. I walked over and saw the water and the bridge we’d driven across. The sky was getting darker as the sun trekked west, about to set. I turned back to the men. “How long are we going to be here? It’s going to be dark soon.” I had no desire to be in the prison at night.

“That depends.” Cranston stalked the middle of the large room, his footsteps echoing. “They used to have a basketball court and a bowling alley here. Can you believe that?” He turned in a circle, looking around. “I hate to see these old buildings go to waste. That’s why I brought you here.”

I waited for him to say more, heart hammering.

“You two are going to have what we call a ‘brother battle.’ Finn, you go on the far side of the room. Riley, stay where you are.”

Finn gave me a long look before he headed over.

“Don’t look so glum, soldier,” Cranston called to him. “If you follow instructions, this will all be over soon.”

I raised my hand. “Sir?”

“Yes, Riley.”

“What exactly is a ‘brother battle’?”

“It’s when we pit team members against each other, and you have to fight until someone clearly wins.”

“I have to fight Finn? I don’t really have a great chance.” I eyed him from across the room—all muscled six-foot-three of him.

“Of course, you have a chance. Do you think you’ll only be fighting female soldiers who weigh less than you when we’re on active duty?”

“Is that too good to be true?”

“This isn’t a joke, Riley. You’ll be fighting men bigger than Finn, men who want to kill you. You aren’t just going to be fighting them with your body, even though you’ve become quite proficient with your combat training. You’ll be fighting them with your mind. That’s what makes you deadly.”

“You don’t expect me to try to kill Finn, do you, sir?”

“I don’t want you to kill each other. I want you to beat each other senseless, so I can see what you’re capable of in this context.”

I tried not to panic at the phrase, beat each other senseless. I had a bad feeling that there would be a lot of hurting before I got anywhere near senseless. “Are you expecting me to lift him up or set him on fire?”

Cranston perked up. “Do you think you can?”

“No, sir.”

Cranston waved his hand dismissively. “Let’s see what happens.” He walked over to the wall. A bag lay against it, and he opened it up, pulling out two syringes.

“Oh, God. Oh, no.” I did not want to be put on psychedelic drugs in the middle of an abandoned military prison as night fell.

Cranston shrugged. “You’ll be fine. This is a lighter serum than what you had before. It doesn’t induce a full-on, immersive hallucinatory experience. It just mixes up reality a little. You might hear and see some things that aren’t real.”

I jerked my arm away when he got closer. “I don’t want to do this.”

He grabbed my arm and held it firmly. “It’s a direct order. You don’t have a choice.”

I stared across the room at Finn while Cranston injected me. His gaze held mine steadily, soothing me even though we were about to…beat each other senseless.

I had a sinking feeling Cranston wouldn’t let us leave this room until we’d done just that.

I didn’t feel anything from the injection as Cranston stalked over to Finn and administered the drug to him. I watched Finn rubbed his shoulder.

Nothing seemed to happen for a minute until there was a peripheral movement to my right. I looked out the window.

My sister was outside. She banged on the window with her fist, waving me over.

My sister. I ran for her. “Katie!” I shrieked.

I couldn’t see her clearly until I got up close. In the fading light, she looked the same as the last day I’d seen her—blue hooded sweatshirt, her hair pulled up in a ponytail, her signature mascara perfectly rimming her wide, blue eyes.

“Riley.” Her voice was a little muffled, but she smiled when she saw me and put her face up closer the glass.

“Why are you out there?” I asked, my voice thick with tears. “I want to touch you.”

“I can’t come in. I’m not official enough, I guess. Even now.”

“What does that mean, Katie? I’ve heard all these things, and I don’t know what to believe.” I put my hand against the glass, desperate to touch her. I knew she wasn’t real, but I still had a real reaction to her.

“Aren’t you supposed to be over there, beating up your boyfriend?”

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Yeah, right. It might not be official, but he’s totally going to be your boyfriend.”

“We’ll see.”

“It’s not like you have a choice, right?”

I almost asked what she meant, but I had more pressing questions. Cutting right to the chase, I said, “I need to ask you a couple of things.”

She laughed. “You and your questions.”

I drank in every detail of her face. “How did you die?”

“In a car accident on 89. You know that. Next question?”

I sighed, relieved even though I didn’t know why. “Did you know about The Division?”

“A little bit. That’s not why I’m here, though. Are we about done with the Q and A? I’m here to tell you something, and it’s important.”

She’s not real. That’s not really Katie talking. It’s them. “What is it?”

“I know a lot of what you’ve learned is…difficult. But every single person who got you to this point did what they did out of love. Love for our country, love for our ideals and our freedom, love for our family, love for you. All of us—me, Mom, Dad, everyone at the agency—every choice we made was for you. I need you to remember that. There’s been a lot of sacrifices to get you here.”

I traced the outline of my sister’s palm against the glass. “They programmed you to say that, right? So I wouldn’t run screaming from the whole thing?”

Katie tilted her chin. “You still think you can run?”

Sensing we were running out of time, I changed the subject. “Did you know we were adopted?”

“No,” she admitted, “not until later. In my case, it didn’t matter. This was all about you. It’s always been all about you.”

“Katie—”

“You need to go now. Cranston’s going to make you fight him, no matter what. It’ll show what you’re really capable of, more than any other test.”

“Why is that?”

“Because it’s going to hurt so bad.” She put her palm against the glass to touch my hand from the other side. “I love you, Ri. Always did.”

“I love you, too.” Even though she wasn’t real, and I knew it, I still couldn’t stop the tears.

“I have to go now. Maybe they’ll let me come back again.”

“I hope so.”

I watched as she backed away into the darkening evening. She made her way out across the front lawn, dove into the swiftly moving water, and disappeared.

Hand over my heart, I turned back to face the room.

At first, I didn’t see Cranston or Finn. The flashlight was off, and the room had darkened as the sun set. “Finn?”

He stepped out of the shadows. “I’m here, Riley.”

I moved closer to him. “I really don’t want to fight you.”

His shoulders sagged “I really don’t want to fight you, either.”

“If you ever want to leave this place,” Cranston boomed from a dark corner, “you’ll follow orders.”

I took another step toward Finn. How could I beat him senseless? Nothing in me was motivated to even shove him.

He moved closer. His skin shimmered slightly. “You’re…glowing.”

He cocked his head to the side. “So are you—actually, it looks like your face is dripping.”

“Ew, so does yours.” I moved closer, watching him in fascination. His face looked like it was made of wax, and someone had lit a candle underneath. I reached out to touch him and recoiled as my fingers touch something runny, the consistency of Jell-O. “Gross.”

Finn wrinkled his nose. “I always think you’re pretty, but you look gross right now, too.”

“Aw, that’s sweet.” I watched as part of his face melted and fell off, exposing the tendons and muscles underneath. Bile roiled in my stomach. “But ditto. Part of your face just fell off.”

He came closer, inspecting my skin. “I don’t even want to tell you what’s going on with you right now. It’s gnarly. Drugs are so disgusting.”

The rest of Finn’s skin dripped off, and I looked away. “Ugh, I know. It’s like being awake in your own nightmare.”

Shrieks and ghostly laughter emanated from the ceiling. I raised my head to look at the ceiling. What looked like white, ghost-like spirits circled above us.

“Do you see that?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“This is so messed up. Those ghosts—it’s just like the nightmare I had about this place when I was a little kid. How did they know that?”

Finn scowled up at the ghosts. “They have a knack for that sort of thing. They get in your head.”

“How did they get in my head? Oh that’s right—they made my head! That’s how they knew!” I laughed. It sounded maniacal, like I was close to losing it.

I was close to losing it.

“Riley—”

“I don’t want to be here anymore!” I wailed. “I hate ghosts, and I hate old, abandoned buildings. I hate your face when it’s dripping off. I hate that they keep sending my dead family members to give me messages!”

“Riley.” Finn sighed. “We have to fight.”

“I don’t want to fight you.” I scrunched my eyes shut. I could still hear the ghosts above us.

I cringed and opened my eyes. Finn stood before me, fully intact, his handsome face restored. In his hands, he held a large knife…up against another Finn’s throat.

I staggered backward. “Why are there two of you?”

The one holding the knife answered, “This is a hallucination designed to get results. I’m now going to cut lover boy’s throat, so you get moving and actually do something.” He moved the knife against the other Finn’s throat. Bright red blood flash against white skin.

“No! Stop it!”

“I don’t know what you see in him,” the knife-wielding Finn said, as blood ran in rivulets down his victim’s neck. “He really is a piece of shit.”

“Shut up!” I shrieked. Glass shattered all around us, raining down on our heads.

Victim-Finn didn’t look up or blink, but the mean one smiled at me. “There she is—the Chosen One. At least you got rid of the ghosts.”

I shook the glass off myself and looked back to the ceiling. He was right. The ghosts were gone. “Let him go.”

“No problem.” He dropped Finn to the ground and threw away the knife. He flashed me a nasty smile. “Let’s get this over with, shall we? I’m going to enjoy this more than you know.”

He kicked the other Finn in the gut. The boy on the floor screamed and pulled his knees up, trying to protect himself.

“Coward.” Finn kicked him in the back, in the bottom, and was about to stomp on his head when I rushed him.

“Stop hurting him!” I punched Finn up under the jaw, the way we learned in class, and shoved him away. “Are you okay?” I bent down to tend to the other Finn.

He blinked up at me. His neck bled heavily. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Ri.”

“Don’t you ever get tired of your own bullshit?” The other Finn came back and grabbed the body out from beneath me. He lifted his bleeding twin up and looked him in the eye. “All you ever do is apologize. It’s hollow. Those are words, and your actions speak louder than your words.” He threw him back to the ground and punched him in the face, hard, and Finn’s head lolled back. That didn’t stop the other Finn. He lifted his twin by the shoulders slammed him against the floor.

“You’re going to kill him—stop it!” I shrieked, but he didn’t stop slamming Finn’s limp body against the stone floor.

My power surged through me. I concentrated and reached out, not knowing what I was doing. Mean Finn’s body flew into the air. He hung, suspended in the middle of the room, a surprised expression on his face. My powers held him up. I quickly moved my arm forward to keep him away from the bleeding boy on the ground, but I must’ve moved too fast. Mean Finn flew across the room. He crashed against the wall and crumpled to the floor.

“Finn…Finn!” I crawled over to the boy near me, sobbing. I rolled him onto his back, and his eyes rolled back into his head. I checked his pulse, but there was nothing. “Cranston!” I shrieked. “He’s dead! Finn’s dead!”

The body beneath me wavered, and then it disappeared.

“Oh, my God!” I shrieked, my whole body shaking with adrenaline and fear. I had no idea what was going on. “Where is he?”

“He’s over here,” Cranston called. He’d pried open Mean Finn’s eye and was peering into it with the help of the flashlight app. “And you got him pretty good.”

“I’m sorry?” The words barely made it out of my lips.

“This is the real Finn.” Cranston pointed to the boy he held, who seemed half-dead.

The world spun around me. “I’m sorry?” I said again.

“You heard me, soldier.” He slapped the real Finn across the face, and Finn moved a little.

I ran to them and knelt down, chest heaving. Finn’s eyes kept fluttering, as if he were struggling to open them. “What did I do?”

I’d been trying to protect him. Instead, I’d almost killed him.

Cranston slapped each of his cheeks. “Wake up, soldier. You’ve got a lot to answer for.”

“What?” Finn jerked upright, his eyes opening. “Riley?”

I reached for him. “I’m right here. I’m so sorry—”

“You don’t have anything to be sorry for,” Cranston interrupted, “but Finn here is in big trouble.”

“For what?”

“For not fighting.” Cranston stared hard at Finn. “I gave you a direct order. I expect you to follow my orders, son.”

Finn leaned back against the ground and shook his head. “I’ll never raise a hand against her.”

Cranston got in his face. “You will if I tell you to.”

Finn didn’t flinch. Face pale, he steadily met Cranston’s gaze. “I’ve already ruined her life, sir. I think I’ve done enough.”

24

CHECKMATE

“YOU LOOK like you’ve been to hell and back—again.” Emma patted the top of my hair as I lay in my bunk. “Do you want to talk about it?”

I sat up a little. “Finn’s at the naval base medical center.”

“I know. Cranston said he was being released later tonight.”

“Is Kyan back?”

“He’s back, but Cranston’s got him locked up.” Emma shrugged. “It’s his own fault. What happened with Finn?”

“I hurt him.” My eyes filled with tears. “I hurt him bad.”

Emma squeezed my hand. “He’s okay. Nothing’s broken, just a few bruises. He’ll need to rest for a few days, but he’ll be fine. I had a vision. He’ll be up and at it by the time we’re ready to leave.”

“Do you know what Cranston made us do?” My voice came out hoarse.

She nodded. “I saw some of it in my head. Did your sister show up?”

I fingered her necklace, the beads cool against my fingertips. “Yes. I couldn’t touch her, though.”

“That’s too bad.” She brushed the hair back from my face. “Were there ghosts? I thought I saw ghosts.”

“There were, the same ones that were in a nightmare I had when I was a little girl.” I pulled the covers up to my chin, weary and chilled.

“I hate it when they do stuff like that. Nothing is creepier than old nightmares.”

“Part of Finn’s face was dripping off. That was pretty creepy.”

Emma wrinkled her nose. “Gross. I’m sure the whole thing was very intense. Are you two…okay?”

“You can see the future. You tell me. He’s probably not talking to me right now.”

“Was it that bad?”

“It was too much. It was just…” My voice drifted off, and I sighed. “Cranston made us fight each other, and we didn’t want to. But Finn knew he wouldn’t let us leave until we followed orders, so he…” I searched for the words to describe what had happened. “He basically twinned himself, so there were two of him. He almost killed his twin with a knife, and then he beat the crap out him. He said horrible things. I thought that the Finn being beaten was the real Finn, so I hurt the other one. I lifted him up with my mind and threw him against the wall, hard.”

“Riley, it’s okay. It’s not your fault.”

I blinked back tears, remembering how he’d crumpled in a heap on the floor. “I could’ve killed him. I didn’t mean to throw him that hard. I was just trying to keep him away from the hurt Finn.”

“Shh, it’s okay.” Emma sat quietly with me for a moment, letting me calm down. “You have nothing to feel bad about. You were put into a terrible situation and asked to do something you never wanted to do. And you were hallucinating. You can’t exactly hold yourself responsible.”

“I don’t want to hurt people. And I don’t want to kill people. Emma, I need to get out of here, out of the agency. I have no business being part of something like this. I’ll get us all killed.”

“But you won’t,” Emma said simply. “You proved it tonight. You’ll fight to protect the people you care about. That’s all we’re doing. Cranston asks us to do terrible things sometimes, but he’s not asking in a vacuum. You have to remember that.”

“That sounds like what Katie said. She asked me to remember that everyone who’d gotten me here did it out of love.”

“It’s true. I know it seems like the opposite of the truth right now, but it isn’t.” Emma patted my blanket. “I should let you get some rest.”

“Wait—Finn said something I didn’t understand.”

She raised her eyebrow.

“He said he wouldn’t fight me, that he’d never raise a hand against me.”

“You really need me to explain that?”

I shook my head. “He said he’d already done enough because he’d ruined my life. What the heck does that mean?”

She pursed her lips. “I don’t know. But Finn has a flair for the dramatic.”

I waited for her to say more on the subject, but she didn’t.

“Get some rest. We’re wrapping things up here, over the next few days. Then we’re going back up to Hanover and then to the next part of the training.”

“What’ll happen to Kyan?”

“I haven’t seen his future. Maybe that means he doesn’t have one.” She didn’t appear to be joking. She got up and patted my bed. “I’ll check on you later.”

I pulled the covers up again, trying not to think about the prison. Then I gave up and went out for a long, punishing run, trying to make sense of everything that had happened to me over the past weeks. If only such things could make sense.

I stayed outside for a long time, only wanting to fill the hours before I could see Finn again and make sure he was okay. By the time I headed back to the base, I was a sweating, frizzy mess.

I passed Cranston on the way to the showers. “Have you heard anything about Finn?”

“He’s back, resting in his bed. He’s fine.” He held up three fingers. “Three days, soldier. That’s how much longer we’re staying here. Hit the showers, and meet us in the gym. We need to start packing up and preparing.”

“Yes, sir.”

“By the way,” he called over his shoulder, “he was asking for you.”

“Thank you, sir. By the way… what’s going to happen to Kyan?”

“That’s for Management to decide—not your concern, soldier.”

I nodded and hustled down the hall, eager to get away from him. I took a shower in record time, dragged a comb through my wet hair, threw on my hoodie, and padded down the hall toward the boys’ room. I headed into the room with a heavy feeling in my chest, unsure of what to say or where to start. Finn sat propped up on his bed, staring at a wall.

“Hey.”

He didn’t turn around. “You don’t take no for an answer easily, do you?”

“Did you say no to me? I must’ve missed that part. Can I sit?”

He shrugged, still not looking at me.

I sat down carefully, not sure of his pain level. “I’m so sorry I hurt you.”

He picked at his comforter. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for. Cranston made us fight. I tricked you so you’d go after me. I didn’t think there was another way to get the whole thing over with, and I wasn’t about to hit you.”

“Why not?”

He snorted and rolled over. There was a nasty bruise above his right eye. “Because I would never hit you.”

“Even if it was a direct order?”

“Even if it was a direct order.”

“Is it because I’m a girl? You had Morgan in a chokehold during combat training, if I remember correctly. You fought her.”

“Morgan’s not you.”

We looked at each other for a second. My heart hammered in my chest.

Finn reached out and grabbed my hand. Don’t say anything, he thought-spoke at me.

I felt panicked. Why? Is someone listening to us?

No. I just don’t want you to ask me a million questions. My girlfriend just beat me up, and I’m tired.

You’re GIRLFRIEND?

That’s Question 1,082, I think. I’ve lost count. He patted the bed next to him, and I climbed in, giggling.

I snuggled next to him, careful of his wounds. For once, I didn’t ask him a thing.

25

THE SAME OLD TOWN

WE PACKED up the barracks over the next few days. Finn was still recuperating, so we didn’t see a lot of him. Kyan was sequestered from the rest of us. We boxed up his things. I didn’t know if he was coming with us.

We headed to Hanover so I could visit my mother. Cranston hadn’t given me any details. Worried he would revoke the unexpected privilege, I didn’t dare ask him anything. Finally, the bus was packed and it was time to go. I climbed to a seat in the back. Finn got on and winked at me but sat with Josh toward the front. I didn’t have time to be disappointed as Kyan climbed aboard. This was the first I’d seen of him. He stalked past without looking my way. The back of his neck was bandaged.

Ignoring the snub, I asked, “Are you okay?”

He pushed his bleached bangs out of his eyes. “Like you care.”

I leaned closer to his seat. “I didn’t rat you out. Cranston read your monitor. He already knew everything.”

“You could’ve helped me. You didn’t help me.”

“I told you I wasn’t ready for a decision like that. You made your choice, and then you tried to blame me for it. You’re lucky I’m still speaking to you.”

He arched an eyebrow and held up his wrists, which were handcuffed. “I don’t feel lucky.”

“Ew, don’t talk to traitor-boy.” Emma plopped down beside me. “You need to get your roots done and shut up, Kyan. Not necessarily in that order.”

He glanced up at his bangs, and Emma nudged me to turn away. “Don’t bother with him. He’s damaged goods.”

I wondered what would happen to him, but I got distracted as the barracks disappeared behind the fully packed Mercedes mini-bus. I watched the base recede into the distance, the water tower disappearing from sight. “I sort of feel like I’m going to miss it here.”

“It’s because you made a lot of new discoveries. You were initiated.”

“I’ll say.” I waited until we’d made it to the highway before I spoke again. “Where are we going after Hanover?”

“Another base, probably in Maine because it’s close. We’re going to catch you up to speed on planning and tactics, and them we’re going into the field.”

My chest tightened. “Will we be together in the field? All of us?”

“I don’t know,” Emma said. “I hope so, but I don’t know.”

“Do you feel ready?”

“I don’t know that it’s the sort of thing you’re ever ready for. I think you just go out there, and you do it. What about you?”

“I still have no idea what I’m getting into,” I admitted. “There’s a lot of stuff I need to think about.”

“It’ll be good to see your mom and to get some closure. Did Cranston give you a list of things you can and can’t say?”

“No—but he will, won’t he?”

Emma fidgeted. “I don’t know. It’s pretty unusual for us to do a reconnect visit, but nothing about your indoctrination’s been typical. What will you do with her?”

“I have no idea. But I’m sure it won’t be boring.”

MY MOTHER’S EYES SHONE. “I didn’t think they were going to actually let you come home.”

I dropped my bag on the living room floor. “I didn’t either. How are you doing?” I scanned the room, surprised to find it tidy.

My mother noticed. “I cleaned for you. And I don’t have any booze in the house, in case you were wondering.”

“Did you quit drinking?”

“I did for this weekend.”

I tried to mask my disappointment. “Well, that’s good. That’s something.”

“So…” Mom looked a little lost. “Are you hungry?”

I was starving, but there was never any food in the house, and I didn’t want to make her feel bad. “Not really.”

“I’ll just set out some snacks.” She grabbed a platter from the fridge with different cheeses, hummus, fruit, and crackers. She placed it on the kitchen table then wrung her hands.

“This is really nice, Mom,” I said, touched. “It looks so pretty.”

“Well, eat.” She looked relieved. “We have a lot to talk about. I’m so surprised that this is authorized… Did something—"

Someone knocked on the door, and I said, through a mouthful of rosemary cracker, “Are you expecting someone?”

“No.” My mother looked suspicious as she peered through the peephole. “He looks familiar… Maybe he’s a friend of yours?”

She opened the door, and there stood Finn, his hands shoved into his pockets, smiling sheepishly. “Hi, Mrs. Payne. I’m Finn Ryan.” He held out his hand.

My mother blinked at him then tentatively shook his hand. “Do you know my daughter?”

“She’s my friend,” he said, his dimple working overtime. “May I come in?”

“Riley?” My mother didn’t take her eyes off him.

The dimple strikes again.

“Sure, come on in.” My cheeks reddened as he came over and nodded at me.

His jam-packed backpack was over his shoulder. My heart sank. Was he here to take me back already? “Why do you have a bag?”

“I was hoping I could stay with you guys, you know, and get to know your mom.”

My mother arched an eyebrow at him. “Really.”

Finn gave her a winning smile. “Only if that’s okay with you, Mrs. Payne.”

“Only if it’s okay with my daughter. And only if you sleep on the couch.”

I groaned. “Mom, we’re just friends.”

My mother snorted and grabbed a grape off the platter.

“So…” I looked back and forth between them, feeling lost. “What should we do?”

“Go for a walk?” Finn suggested. “It’s beautiful out.”

“Then we could play Uno and order a pizza?” My mom sounded eager to please.

Something happened in my chest. It was as if my heart untied itself from a very, very tight knot. “Okay. That actually sounds really great.”

“SHE DIDN’T ASK YOU ANYTHING?” Finn asked later, helping himself to another enormous handful of popcorn.

I tore my eyes away from the episode of The Walking Dead we’d been watching. I’d missed my show. “No. I think it’s maybe because you’re here. Is that why Cranston sent you? So she’d be on her best behavior?”

“No. I asked to come, and he approved it after I told him why.”

“Okay…Why?”

Finn shrugged. “The whole reason Cranston let you visit is because he wants you both to have closure. He wants your mother to calm down, probably because she’ll be easier control—I’m not going to lie. And he doesn’t want you freaking out, probably so you’ll be easier to control—I’m not going to lie.”

“I already knew that. But why are you here?”

“She should know that you’re going to be with people who care about you, people who are your friends. I thought it might help her, is all.”

Touched, I handed him the remainder of the popcorn. “That’s really nice. Thank you.”

We watched the show in silence for a few minutes. “This is the first time she’s been…sober…since my Dad and Katie died.”

“She’s really making an effort.”

“Maybe she knows this is it, that this is the last time…”

Finn patted my hand. “Don’t think about it, Hanover. Just live in the moment. I’d give anything to go back and see my mom. Maybe that’s the real reason I’m here: to live vicariously through my girlfriend.”

“Shh, don’t let my mom hear you. You said we were just friends!”

Secretly, I was thrilled. And then I remembered I couldn’t keep secrets from him, and settled on just being thrilled.

FINN LEFT THE NEXT MORNING, saying he had to work out for a few hours.

“I’ll bet he does,” my mother said, archly.

“Mother.”

“Aw, come on. He is a fine-looking boy. I’m old, but I’m not blind!”

I couldn’t help laughing. My mother hadn’t cracked a joke in a long time.

She put a hand on her hip. “Do you think he really went to work out, or do you think he left us alone on purpose?”

I opened a cabinet, searching for more crackers. “I think he really went to work out, and he left us alone on purpose.”

“Riley…do you want to run away from them?”

I turned to face her, only I wasn’t just facing her—I needed to face the truth. My truth. “No, I don’t. Not yet, anyway.”

My mother pursed her lips. “That’s probably for the best. I don’t think they’d let you get away. They’re too invested in you.”

“How do you know? How do you know what they are and what they want?”

“Jesus, I wish I could have a drink.” When I winced, she said, “I’m sorry, honey. But it’s so hard to tell you the truth. I feel terrible about what I’ve done, all the things I kept from you…”

“You mean, that you and Dad adopted me from the agency?”

She nodded.

“And that you lied to me about it?”

“I couldn’t tell you. We weren’t allowed to.”

“Finn’s mother told him when he was little,” I complained.

“But he must’ve had his talent from an early age. Correct?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

“What’s Finn’s talent?”

I looked nervously out the window, wondering if Cranston would come for me for revealing too much. “He’s a telepath.”

“And what’s yours?” she asked softly.

“I…I can move things. With my mind. Sometimes.”

“Ah. You’re telekinetic.”

I nodded, unable to risk saying more. “Did you know?”

“No. Your father and I weren’t privy to the details of your background. We only knew that you were special, gifted, and that we needed to make your life as normal as possible.”

“What about Katie?”

“She was your biological sister. I’m sure you must know that.”

I nodded. “But was she gifted?”

“I don’t think she was as gifted as you.” She looked like she wanted to say more, but she stopped herself.

“What? What aren’t you telling me?”

My mother shook her head. “I can’t tell you more about your sister. I have a confidentiality agreement that prohibits it.”

“What happens if you break it?”

“I lose…” Her chin quivered. “Money. And they would come after me, maybe incarcerate me. Or worse. And I’m no good to you then.”

“They’re paying you?”

She closed her eyes. “They are now.”

“They’re paying you to stay away from me, to stop sending me crazy letters and telling me things you shouldn’t?” I felt my blood pressure rise.

“Please don’t ruin our time together. I’m doing this for both of us just like your father and I went through the whole program for you and your sister. Everything I’ve done has been for you and Katie.”

“Your taking money for my benefit?” I asked, my voice an angry taunt.

“They told me they’d kill me.” Her shoulders slumped. “Do you think I want to leave you completely alone? You think that’s what I want, after all this?”

“I didn’t…I didn’t know.” I swallowed back some of my anger. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. And honestly, if you weren’t in the picture, I’d be happy to be dead.” Her voice went flat. “Dead is so much easier.”

TRYING TO SALVAGE THE VISIT, we went out for ice cream. I dug into my black-and-white soft serve with rainbow Jimmies, my favorite.

“Do you think they let me come and see you so I’d know that they’d threatened you?”

My mother stopped drinking her mocha frappe and nodded. “That sounds about right. That’s how they operate.”

We regarded each other for a moment.

“What are you going to do?” I asked.

“I’m going to take the money and do what they ask. Right now, that’s staying in Hanover and not reaching out to you, not sending you more letters that require redacting. But I want you to know—I’m always here for you, no matter what.”

“Are you still working?”

“Not at the laundromat. I don’t need to now because of the money. I was thinking that maybe…” She looked down, picking imaginary lint from her shorts. “That maybe I could start attending meetings. But I don’t know if I can do it on my own. I might have to go to rehab.”

In a very un-Riley-like move, I reached out and squeezed her hand. “Mom, that’s awesome.”

“Then I thought I could try to take some classes and get my vet-tech license back up to date.” She didn’t look at me, but she squeezed my hand back. “Maybe if I start taking care of animals again, I can start to take care of myself. And you, if you ever come back to me.”

I squeezed her hand, hard. “Oh, Mom.”

FINN CAME BACK LATER. We played Uno with my Mom until nine, when she begged off and went to bed.

“Do you want to go for a walk?” he asked me.

“Sure.”

We headed outside. Something snuffled from the gated back yard of the apartment. “Oh, that’s Ernie, my landlord’s dog. He must have heard us, and he likes to go for a walk.”

“Then let’s get him.”

Finn followed as I unlocked the gate, grabbing the leash from its peg. Our landlord didn’t like to walk Ernie, so he left the leash for me or any of the other tenants who wanted to take pity on the slobbery English bulldog.

Ernie raced to me, his stumpy tail wagging, his breath coming in wheezy puffs.

“Is he okay?” Finn asked, as I patted the dog.

“He’s fine. He always sounds like this. Good boy,” I told the dog. He sat proudly, his tongue lolling to the side, as I attached his collar. I led him out to the sidewalk, enjoying the warm air.

Finn reached out for my hand. I laced my fingers through his, a tingling running from my hand all the way down my spine. He pointed at the sky. “You can see all the stars tonight.”

“Yeah—it’s so pretty.” I couldn’t believe Finn was holding my hand, and we were walking down the street with Ernie. My mother was safe asleep in our apartment.

It almost seemed normal, except for the fact that I was still me, and I was a nascent telekinetic holding hands with my hunky, arrogant, telepathic friend, who was more than a friend.

Tomorrow, we would leave with The Division for the next phase of training. After that, we’d be deployed. But for tonight, for the first time in a long time and maybe for the last time, I was an almost-normal teenager.

“How are you feeling about everything?” Finn asked.

“I’m glad I got to visit my mom. She’s doing so much better.” I let Ernie stop to pee. “And as for everything else… I don’t know. I don’t feel as though I’m ready to fight a war, but I’m not ready to walk away.”

“So you feel loyal? To The Division?”

I thought about it. “I feel loyal…to you.” I was glad it was dark so he couldn’t see me blush. “And to Emma, and Josh, and the others. To our team.”

“Does that include the twins?” Finn asked.

“Yes. Of course.”

“Rachel?” He was laughing, and I almost smacked him.

“Yes, ugh.”

“Kyan?”

“Kyan is an asshat!”

“But you still didn’t really rat him out.”

“I couldn’t do it.” I shrugged. “He’s part of our team. And no one on the team gets left behind, even if they’re an asshat.”

“What about Cranston?” Finn asked.

“I don’t know about that. Not yet.”

Finn pulled me closer. “Do you know about me?”

My heartbeat kicked up. “Yes. Do you…know about me?”

He leaned down and brushed his lips against mine. My whole body tingled. “I know everything I need to.”

He pressed his lips to mine, and I wrapped my arms around his neck.

Ernie tugged on the leash, pulling us apart. We started walking again, and I peeked at Finn. “You say that now, but at the prison… why did you say you’d ruined my life?”

“I don’t remember saying that,” Finn lied.

When I scoffed, he said, “I hit my head, remember?”

“Tell me the truth!”

Finally, Finn asked, “Remember when I told you we were…genetically engineered for the agency?”

I swallowed hard. “Yes. I still can’t process it.”

“Well, some of the engineering was pretty specific. For instance, I was designed specifically to have telepathy powers. I was bred from two strong telepathic donors. The agency watched me from birth and confirmed early on that I was gifted.”

“So my biological parents were telekinetic?” The idea that there were others like me was surprisingly exciting.

Finn looked thoughtful. “Probably. I don’t know any specifics about your parents, though.”

“Did the agency do this for all of us? Design us to have… gifts?”

“I believe so. They also had us coded strongly for physical strength, health, high intelligence, bravery, and above-average looks. Obviously.” He motioned to his face and laughed.

“Anyway, they also designed us—and I don’t understand the science behind this; it’s above my pay grade—for loyalty. Everyone in The Division has a fierce capacity for allegiance. Loyalty to our unit, to our cause, to our country, to…each other.” His gaze rose to meet mine. “And some of those loyalties are specific within the unit.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Each of us was designed to be devoted to another member of the team.”

This did not compute. “Huh? You mean, like a BFF?”

Finn’s face went slack with annoyance. “Not exactly.”

“What the heck are you talking about?”

He groaned in frustration. “You were made for The Division. Can you accept that now?”

I considered everything that had brought me to this point, everything I’d seen, done, and learned over the summer. “Yes. I’m still struggling a little, but I accept what you’re saying as the truth. I was genetically designed to be part of this team, and that’s how I got my telekinetic powers.”

“Good.” But he didn’t sound good; he sounded stressed. “You were made for The Division. You were also made…for me. I mean, we were made for each other. I think. I’m pretty sure.”

I couldn’t help it—I laughed. “Aren’t you kind of getting ahead of yourself?”

He scrubbed his hands across his face. “No.”

Realizing he wasn’t kidding, I asked, “How do you know?”

“Because I know.”

I tugged on Ernie’s leash so he stopped. “If this is true, why did you react the way you did the first time you saw me—that day, on the steps of Fallon Hall?”

“React like what?” He sounded nonchalant.

“Like I was a leper.”

“Oh—that.” He didn’t say anything for a minute. “It’s because as soon as I saw you, I knew that…you know.”

“Why were you rude to me?”

Finn sighed. “I wanted to protect you from what was about to happen—The Division, the discovery of your powers, all of it.”

“Were you disappointed it was me?”

Finn grimaced. “No Riley. But when you love somebody, you want to spare them pain. Okay?”

“Okay.” My voice came out small. Did he just say…

“Did you forget your boyfriend’s telepathic?”

“N-No.”

He rocked back on his heels. “Maybe I shouldn’t have told you about this, but I thought you deserved to know.”

“Explain how it works.”

“I don’t understand exactly how it works. All I know is, they coded us for compatibility within the group. And when I saw you, I knew.”

I swallowed over a sudden lump in my throat. “Did Cranston confirm this?”

“There isn’t a test you can do, Ri. You either feel it, or you don’t.”

“That sounds like…” I couldn’t finish the sentence.

“A human emotion.” Finn smiled at me. “That’s because it is a human emotion.”

“And you never felt it for anyone else in the group? Anyone, say, with perfect hair and perfect skin, who has boobs way too big for her stick-thin but still ridiculously strong and athletic, perfectly proportioned body?”

He laughed. “No. It’s never been Rachel.”

“Not even when you were making out with her?”

“No.” His gaze locked with mine. “All I could think about was you.”

“Oh.” I blushed in pleasure. “Huh.”

Finn grabbed my hand again. “We should finish our walk.”

We walked back to the apartment in silence, my mind whirling.

Finn stopped outside the door looking stressed, his usual swagger gone. “I’m trying to be a good boyfriend and not listen to your thoughts, but could you please tell me what you’re thinking?”

“It’s just that… I don’t want this”—I pointed back and forth between us—“if there even is a this, to be something I have no control over. Something that isn’t natural. That takes all the… naturalness out of it.” I reached down and patted Ernie’s head.

“It’s still natural, Riley. We’re not robots that are attached to each other via electrical currents or coding. We’re human, all too human, complete with real feelings.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?” He sounded alarmed. “Don’t you have, like, five thousand questions to ask me?”

“I’m sure I will. But for tonight, I just want it to be you and me. Just normal.”

Finn held out his hand, and I took it.

He grinned. “Normal isn’t really an option.”

I grinned back. “At least I know I won’t be bored.”

“Not ever.”

I squeezed his hand as I contemplated the future. “Do you mean ‘not ever’ as in never ever, because we can’t ever retire and we’re genetically designed for each other?”

Finn laughed. “Was that one question, or two?”

“Why?”

He kissed the tip of my nose. “I’m trying to figure out if it’s Number 1,083 or 1,084. I have a feeling keeping track will be fun. We might hit googolplex.”

“Stop.”

“Not ever, Hanover. As in never ever.”

DEAR READER:

Thank you so much for reading this book! It means everything to me!

If you enjoyed PREMONITION, please consider leaving a quick review on Amazon: Amazon-PREMONITION. Short or long, reviews help other readers find books they’ll enjoy. This is the first book of 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

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Leigh Walker is a full-time writer who loves Outlander, Game of Thrones, and The Walking Dead. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and their three children.

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SNEAK PEAK OF BOOK #2!

Intuition – Chapter One

Coming September 15th!

You can pre-order Book 2, INTUITION, here: INTUITION (The Division #2)

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 without looking at anyone.

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

I leaned forward in my seat and tapped the 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 he kept his eyes trained toward the front of the room.

After class, Micah sprung 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. So 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.

“I’m just trying to be nice so you don’t feel alone.”

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

To be honest, ‘decided to stay’ might be an inaccurate way to describe my situation. Since I’d been recruited, I’d learned I was telekinetic and had been genetically engineered to be part of the group. There wasn’t a lot of free will involved; it was more of a lack-of-meaningful-choice situation.

“I appreciate that—you being nice,” Micah said. “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. Kyan’s Asian. Rachel’s Indian, and the twins were raised as Jehovah’s Witnesses—”

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, 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.

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

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

Finn laughed. “Riley, focus. Enough about my big biceps, even though I can’t ever really get enough of your obsessing over them.”

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

“Micah. You were thinking about Micah, remember?”

“Huh?”

Finn flashed his dimple, and I realized I was ogling him. Again. I coughed then glared at him, as though it were his fault.

“Enough with the dimple. You’re going to blind me with that thing.”

He smoothed out his features. “Tell me about Micah.”

“I think I upset him.” I miserably twisted my ponytail. “I don’t know. I think I put my foot in my mouth. He seems pretty miserable, 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 again. “Did you explain that you’re from upstate New Hampshire? And that you don’t, err, 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 mailroom. The Division had taken over a previously occupied high school in Bangor, Maine. The city had built a new school, and the old school had been donated to the Federal government. It was home for now, while we finished basic history lessons and did more extensive tactical training.

When we were done in Bangor, we were being deployed. No one knew when this would happen. 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 sided with Emma because, as our resident precog, she could see into the future. Josh claimed he was developing his own precognitive abilities, but no one believed him. He said he would prove it to us. But I’d put money on two weeks, even though I hated to hurt Josh’s feelings.

We reached the mailroom. Rachel, our team’s resident teleporter, was sulkily assembling small piles of mail. Her perfect 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 was sure it just made me look like I was about to have a seizure.

“My pleasure. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to hit the gym, which sucks less 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.

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

“Right.” Cranston had me scrubbing vegetables and cleaning toilets, chores I could most certainly live without. Still, we needed to keep our location secret, so we weren’t hiring any outside help. Everyone had chores. We were making sacrifices as a team.

Finn scowled at the envelope he held.

“Who’s that from?”

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.

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

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

I turned the postcard over in my hand. It was postmarked from Florida. “It’s from my Mom. I guess she went to the Keys, after all.”

Dear Riley, it read.

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 XXXX to pay for my trip. I’m staying at a four-star hotel. Wish you, XXXX and XXXX were here. And XXXX—I’m telling you, that boy likes you. Hope you are well, honey.

Love,

Mom

A breathed a sigh of relief. My mother hadn’t said anything too controversial, although she’d still managed to get her postcard 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? And she thinks a boy likes me.”

Finn grinned. “Go figure.”

We headed back down the hall. “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 in 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—next to Micah—I’d been allowed to see my mother at the end of the summer. But Cranston, our superior, had said nothing about the future. I didn’t know if I’d ever see her again.

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

Having a telepathic boyfriend was simultaneously mortifying and extremely convenient.

“Emma knows. And Emma told her parents she was dead,” I reminded him.

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

“Talking about me again, Finn? What are you, obsessed?” Emma popped out from behind her locker, snapping a piece of bubblegum. “It’s hard not to be. I get it.” She motioned to her face and her ensemble, laughing. Her bleached pixie-cut was immobile with gel, and she wore a Rolling Stones T-shirt and a plaid miniskirt that looked suspiciously like it had been wrangled from a real-live 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.

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

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

“No, I was in a meeting, remember?”

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

“Riley didn’t tell you? Nora. She’s here, dropping 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’s 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. “She’s who he reports to directly.”

“Oh. Huh.”

He 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 protectively around me. “You mean, with Riley?”

Emma nodded.

My heart thudded. Being noticed, under the best of circumstances, made me nervous. 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. “A little. I think her questions centered more around how you handled the information you were given about your origin and your family. She wanted to know how you seemed after some of the tests—the ones where you saw your family.”

Over the course of the summer, we’d performed various tests to explore my newfound telekinesis. In two of the tests that involved hallucinogens, I’d encountered my father and my sister, Katie, both of whom were 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 that you looked good.”

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

Finn squeezed me. “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 transfer a total newbie to us right before we went to war.

He leaned down and put his mouth 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 news that your monitor blew a couple of times traveled up the chain of command. I think she’s just making sure we’re proceeding the right way so that not only are you okay, but that future recruits are dealt with properly. That’s what I think, anyway.”

“That makes sense,” Finn said, “although I thought you said Riley was our last member.”

“I didn’t see Micah coming. That’s for sure.” Emma huffed.

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

I whipped my head toward Finn. “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 conspiratorially toward Emma. “Riley asked him if he was upset because he’s black.”

Emma guffawed. “We just rescued him from the Others, and she’s worried about—”

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

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

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

I hoped she was right as I ducked into Cranston’s office, which he’d taken over from the former administration. The only remaining decoration was a dusty globe, abandoned on a metal bookcase in the corner.

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

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

“I didn’t censor it. It 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.”

“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, I need 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 it without a trace of emotion.

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

Cranston’s gaze, all 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 decided to keep my dissatisfaction with his non-answer to myself. It was safer that way. Cranston got prickly when you questioned policy. “What else did you want to see me about?”

“I report directly to my commanding officer, Nora. She’s here on base, and she’s interviewing everyone on the team. You’re next. She’ll want to interview you, 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, soldier.”

“Gee, thanks, sir.”

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 didn’t mean it.

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

“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.

Here is the link to Book 2 on Amazon, which publishes September 15, 2017:

INTUITION (THE DIVISION #2)