Ionic Attraction

by D. R. Rosensteel

  He bent his knees to loosen the pressure on his throat then leaned backward with all his weight, hooked her ankle with his foot, and kicked. Jane squealed as they both went airborne. Zach, suddenly terrified that he would hurt her, twisted in midair, spinning his body beneath her to cushion her fall. He crashed onto his back with Jane’s full weight on top of him.

  Simulated pain, my butt. That hurt.

  Zach lay on his back, the wind knocked out of him for the third time, struggling to breathe, eyes closed. It…felt…so…real. He couldn’t imagine how they built a virtual reality machine that was so physical. The circuitry, the algorithms. If he was still seated in that plush chair, he had absolutely no sensation of it. As far as Zach could tell, he had just been in a cage match with a gorilla. That’s when he realized that the gorilla was on top of him, and it smelled like a sugar cookie.

  He opened his eyes. Jane was staring straight down at him, her stomach pressed against his, their noses almost touching. Her breath was warm on his cheek. She was…pretty. Very pretty. Zach decided not to get up. If this wasn’t real, there was no reason not to just lie there and enjoy the sensation.

  Suddenly he was back in his chair.

  Jane was seated beside him, smiling.

  “What happened?” Zach stared at his chair. “Did the simulator freeze? Is it broken? Let me see if I can fix it.”

  “The simulator is fine,” Jane said, still smiling.

  “Oh. Okay. I, umm, really like the tech.”

  “The tech?”

  “Yeah. The tech.” Zach swallowed. “Can I get a do-over?”

  Chapter Ten

  Jane

  Jane chuckled to herself. Zachary wouldn’t attack her in the simulation. That was sweet. But the way he panicked when she lost her balance… He took her completely by surprise when he spun them both in midair to break her fall. Excellent technique. She almost hated for the exercise to be over. Simulation or not, she enjoyed lying in that position with Zachary a bit too much. She disconnected from the chair. “How do you feel? Any pain?”

  Zachary rubbed his chest. “None. I would have sworn you fractured my clavicle when you landed on me, but I feel great. I mean, that was amazing. When is my next lesson?”

  “I didn’t actually teach you anything, Zachary. That was just a demonstration of the tech.”

  “Your hologram smelled like sugar cookies. Do you?” Zachary leaned close to Jane from his chair and sniffed. “You do! This tech is awesome.”

  “That’s my hand lotion.” Jane was suddenly worried. Maybe he didn’t like sugar cookies. Maybe he had allergies. Maybe she shouldn’t enjoy the simulation so much “Is it too strong?”

  He grinned at her and slowly shook his head. “I love sugar cookies.”

  “Well, we have another session scheduled for tomorrow. A real lesson.” Focus. It was only a simulation. No big deal. Purely a simulation. “But for now, we have to discuss the mission.”

  “I’d rather fight some more. I’m feeling rusty.” Zachary’s eyes were brighter than Jane had ever noticed before. “I need training. Intense training. Lots of it.”

  “Sorry, we have a schedule.” Jane couldn’t hold back the smile. Zachary was right. The “tech” was awesome.

  “Okay.” Zachary’s eyes slowly darkened. He stared off into space for a moment. “Can I tell you something?”

  Jane nodded. Did he not like having a schedule?

  “I don’t like Benson.”

  Oh.

  “Can this thing simulate me punching him in the face? I’d like to know how it feels.”

  “I can tell you how it feels.” Jane leaned her head against the chair and gazed up at the ceiling. “Pretty good, actually.”

  Zachary laughed. “You are just full of surprises, aren’t you?”

  That was the first time she’d ever heard him laugh. It sounded nice. “So, about the mission.”

  “Let’s talk about the part where I get to hit Benson.”

  “You don’t.” Jane decided she’d better stay focused and show Zachary the other features of the Simulation Room. She tapped the touch screen on the arm of her chair and a holo appeared in the center of the room. “Let’s take a tour.”

  “That looks like Quantum City University,” Zachary said.

  “It is. We know that HAVOC has activities all over campus.” She zoomed in on the tallest structure. “But this building is of special interest to us.”

  “That’s the Astronomy Building.” Zachary got out of his chair and walked to the holo. He pointed to the lower part of the building. “Why is the fourth floor dark?”

  “That’s what we have to find out.” She tapped the touchscreen and the holo changed to a live shot of the lobby. People streamed through, stopped at the information desk, sat in lounge chairs, ordered drinks from robots. She swiped through the second and third floors, both alive with activity. But when she swiped to the fourth floor, the holo went blank. “The University has security cameras all over campus, in every building, in every room. Anna hacked them all. We can see everything that goes on. All except this floor. If they have cameras, they aren’t on the main system. We haven’t been able to access them. Which leads us to believe that HAVOC’s headquarters are there.”

  “It’s a public building. Let’s go visit. We can accidentally hit the fourth-floor button on the hovervator.”

  Jane shook her head. “I already tried that. There is no fourth-floor button. It goes straight from three to five. The fourth floor is off-limits to the public. The official word is that it’s used by Quantum City University professors for research.”

  “And the unofficial word?”

  “That’s the curious part. There is none. No rumors. No gossip. Nobody talks about the fourth floor.”

  Zachary stared at the holo then sat down and tapped his fingers on the arm of the chair. He bit his lower lip.

  “What’s wrong?” Jane asked.

  “If it’s off-limits to the public, and we get caught, it’s breaking and entering. That’s why I was sent to juvie in the first place.”

  Waves of guilt rippled through Jane. Zachary’s juvie sentence was the last thing she wanted to talk about. “There’s no need for us to go to the fourth floor. Now that Michael is working with Anna, I’m sure they can hack in. They’ll get us what we need.”

  “It’s not that,” Zachary whispered, still staring at the holo. He turned to Jane. “I know my profile says I did it. But I want you to know I didn’t.”

  “Zachary, I—”

  “I gotta tell you something else.”

  Jane gazed into Zachary’s eyes, wondering where this was going. “What?”

  “We’re the same, Jane. You were tortured. You have a record for a crime you didn’t commit. I know how it feels to be you.”

  “That’s the second time you said that. What do you mean? What did they do to you in juvie?”

  “Tried to break me.” He smiled weakly. “Didn’t work. Not important.”

  So Zachary had been tortured in juvie.

  “Look,” Zach said, “maybe we can use LYDIA to prove that you’re innocent. Get rid of your restraining order. Take Benson down.”

  “I’m fine with my restraining order. To tell the truth, I don’t want to be within fifty feet of Benson.”

  “I do.” Zachary ground his fist into his palm and scowled. “But he won’t like me if I get that close.”

  “You would go straight back to juvie, and there would be nothing Mr. Parker could do to stop it. Stay away from Benson. He’s not worth it.”

  He was silent a moment. Then, “You believe me, don’t you?”

  “That you don’t like Benson? Yes. It’s obvious.”

  “That I’m innocent.”

  Tension hammered Jane like a meteor shower. She didn’t have to believe. She knew. But she couldn’t
tell Zachary, so she simply nodded. “I believe you.”

  “Thank you.” He sounded so defeated. “Just so you know, you’re in the minority.”

  “I’m really sorry about what happened to you,” she said. “You’re right. We’re the same.”

  Zachary raised his eyebrows but said nothing. Then he crossed his arms and a huge smile winged across his face.

  “What?” His smile made her warm.

  “It seems like we just made up, but we never had a fight.”

  “Does it have to be a two-step process?”

  “It doesn’t,” Zachary said quietly. “One more thing.”

  Jane laced her fingers together and tilted her head. “Do I want to hear it?”

  “Maybe not, but here goes.” Zachary’s face turned slightly red. “I like making up without fighting.”

  “I sense a but coming.”

  “No, it’s an ‘and’.”

  “And?”

  “And…I can’t wait for our next self-defense lesson.”

  Jane was pretty sure her face matched Zachary’s now. “What’s the point? You won’t fight back.”

  “I promise to fight if you promise we can make up.” Zachary held out his fist.

  Jane bumped it. She fought the urge to get back in the simulator. “Our ninety minutes are over. Time to get to class.”

  Her phone pinged. “Oh. Class has been rescheduled. We’re meeting in Mr. Parker’s office first.”

  “Does this happen often?”

  Jane shook her head. “No. Something’s up.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Zach

  Jane was obviously concerned over the canceled class. Zach wondered whether he should be, too, but he couldn’t wipe the grin off his face. The simulation played over and over in his head. He followed her past the War Room into Parker’s office. As he passed through the door, he was shocked at how different the wood-paneled office was from the rest of the Mastermind Complex. Curtains covered the windows, making the large room feel dark and musty compared to the bright War Room. Parker sat at a large oak desk in the center of the floor. An antique quill and inkwell lay on the desktop. Mahogany bookshelves lined the wall behind him. The rest of the group was seated in antique armchairs in front of Parker. The office reminded Zach of an old library.

  Zach’s brothers gave him a high five.

  “Last ones back,” Nolan said. “Looks like the self-defense lessons went well.”

  “Any injuries you can talk about in public?” Mikey elbowed Zach when he took his seat.

  Heat rose in Zach’s face. The memory of Jane landing on top of him was stuck in his head. “All I can say is Krav Maga is an awesome sport.”

  “Let’s get started.” Parker’s gravelly voice was tense. “I was just informed that HAVOC is on the move. LYDIA has new intel. Our timeline has been shortened. I want you to understand what we’re dealing with, but what I am about to show you is not pleasant.” He nodded. “Jane.”

  Zach turned to Jane, wondering if she was thinking about their next self-defense lesson, too, but her face was all business. Crap. Maybe he had misread her. He had hoped that the simulation had the same effect on her as it did on him. Wrong.

  “Do we have to show this?” Jane asked quietly.

  Parker nodded. “They need to know what Mamont is capable of.”

  Jane’s hand slid beneath the arm of her chair, and a hidden panel popped open. She reached in and tapped a button. A holo materialized above Parker’s desk, casting a bluish glow against the dark wood that lined the room. Zach was about to comment on the brilliance of high-tech equipment hidden inside early twentieth century furniture when he realized what he was looking at. The hologram was a town.

  He gasped. The buildings were pristine, the storefront signs and stoplights still glowed with electric life, but corpses littered the streets. Bodies lay everywhere, eyes wide open, as though they had all been taken by surprise and died where they stood. The holo panned from street to street, but everywhere was the same. The abuse that Zach suffered in juvie suddenly seemed trivial. He immediately understood Jane’s expression.

  “When did this happen?” he whispered, struggling to find his voice.

  “A month ago.”

  “Where? Why wasn’t it all over the news?”

  “The video was made in a small village in North Korea.” Jane’s voice trembled. “A black hole for news. Privately owned media is not allowed in, and freedom of expression doesn’t exist. This is the type of place where HAVOC conducts their experiments because cover-up is easy. The public never hears about it.”

  “That was an experiment?” Zach went numb. “Science is supposed to help people. How can those mass murderers call themselves scientists?”

  “This is not simply mass murder,” Parker said. “This is blackmail.”

  “Who are they blackmailing?”

  “The free world,” Mina whispered.

  Anna twirled her long ponytail around one finger, staring at the floor. “All of us.”

  Jane tapped the panel on her chair, and the holo disintegrated.

  “What you just saw is insignificant next to what HAVOC is planning.” Parker folded his hands. “We suspect their latest weapon will be more destructive than a nuclear warhead.”

  “I understand the mission now,” Zach said. “I’ll get inside HAVOC and destroy the weapon. I can do it.”

  “No, you cannot,” Parker snapped. “I already told you. You are to find it. I will destroy it. You are not to engage in any way. I need to know before I allow you to go in that you will follow my orders to the letter. Your job is to send information to me. Nothing more. Am I clear?”

  Zach’s cynical side abruptly reared its head. Why was Parker so intent on destroying the weapon himself? Zach was totally capable of it. Did Parker really want it destroyed? Maybe there was no weapon. Maybe Parker just wanted to get something on Professor Mamont.

  “Okay,” Zach said. “I find it, you take it out. Got it.”

  “Good,” Parker said. “We have a solid plan for infiltrating HAVOC. How is our exit strategy coming?”

  “Hovercraft pickup,” Mina said. “The Library’s penthouse. That’s our extraction point.”

  “And the backup plan?” Parker asked.

  Mina’s eyes narrowed. “Well, there’s Plan B, but it’s not been tested outside this building. Y’know?”

  “What is Plan B?” Nolan asked.

  “Get it tested.” Parker ignored Nolan. “We don’t know what will happen once Zachary is on the inside. I need to know we can get him out. Professor Mamont is unforgiving. If he suspects that you aren’t who you say you are, he has the technology to destroy your mind and release you into society with no memory of who you are or where you came from.”

  “I’ll take that chance.” Zach crossed his arms and turned to Jane. “You said you have a solid plan for getting me in. What is it?”

  “The Geomagnetic Convention,” Jane said. “All the Halo Agents are registered.”

  “Why would they attend that convention?” Zach asked. “I mean, I’m all for going. They’ll have the latest Geoelectric Hazard Maps, the InterMagNet Consortium—there’s even a workshop on magnetic observatory instrumentation—plenty of stuff that I’d like to see. But nothing for HAVOC.”

  “They’re recruiting,” Jane said. “But the fact that they’re attending that particular convention makes me believe they need a special kind of expertise for the weapon they’re building. An expertise they don’t have in their current Halo Agents.”

  “Knowing how to measure solar flares isn’t all that useful for building a weapon of mass destruction,” Zach said.

  “I have learned to trust Jane’s intuition,” Parker said. “As I told you, she has the ability to see connections where none seem to exist. Michael and Anna, you will access t
he security system at the convention center. Jane and Zachary will need to know the location of every Halo Agent. You will be their eyes and ears. There can be no surprises.”

  “What about me?” Nolan leaned into Parker’s desk. “What’s my part?”

  “I’ll fill you in,” Mina said.

  Nolan cocked his head, then smiled at Mina and nodded. Sparks registered on Zach’s Bro Link.

  “And what do Jane and I do? Buddy up to the Halo Agents?” Zach asked.

  “We have laid out a rather intricate plan.” Parker laced his fingers together. He ran his tongue over his teeth and cracked his knuckles. “You and Jane will attend the Geomagnetic Convention as a happy couple.”

  “A couple.” Zach’s eyebrows arched. Was Parker joking? “What am I missing?”

  “Your target is Piper Dane. Have you studied her profile?”

  “No, but I—”

  “Then I’ll let Jane explain.” Parker held up a finger. “She identified a very subtle connection that the rest of us missed.”

  Jane closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “We need to give Piper a reason to target you above all the other young scientists who will be attending the convention.”

  “Okay…” Zach said.

  “Piper is a kleptomaniac. Which is why she’s HAVOC’s top recruiter.”

  “What does shoplifting have to do with recruiting me?”

  “Kleptomania is a form of impulse control disorder. Piper has an impulsive urge to steal purely for the sake of gratification. But she doesn’t steal things. She steals people. She’s most attracted to talented people who are happy with what they’re doing. Happy people are very difficult to recruit. They have no reason to leave. She sees that as a challenge and finds ripping their world out from under them extremely gratifying. Recruiting is like an extreme sport to her.”

  Got it. Zach saw where Jane was going. “So when Piper finds out I’m finishing high school in the Mastermind Complex, which is like the supreme private school for science in the known universe, she’ll want to recruit me for Quantum City U’s Young PhD Program and rip me away from the place I love.”