Two

by LeighAnn Kopans

  “Hold on,” I say, getting to my feet. “You don’t have to worry about this. I mean…you don’t owe us. We obviously have to figure it out now.” I run my hand through my hair, trying to accept that now I have to be concerned about microscopes and labs, too. “But we could be getting into some serious trouble with this.”

  That’s the understatement of the century. If we really are uncovering the Biotech Hub’s biggest secret of…well…ever, the implications could be universal. If there really is a cure, a way to eliminate Supers, we could all be in big trouble.

  “Are you freaking kidding me?” Merrin jumps to her feet, glaring at me. “Elias, I know you’re all about us keeping to ourselves, but this… It’s not only about me or you or even just Ones. If the Biotech Hub is trying to engineer a cure for Supers, that affects everyone.”

  I exhale and press the heel of my hand to my forehead, rubbing small circles, trying to ignore the fear burning in my core. The one that says I’ll end up without her if she barrels down this path of digging deeper than we really should be, the one that says we’ll cause more harm than good.

  “We have to be reading it wrong. Why would they be manufacturing a cure for Supers? The Biotech Hub is completely dedicated to supporting Supers. Plus all that money they sank into a fancy testing arena… Fisk was all about trying to make Ones more Super, not the other way around.”

  “Can you think of any other way to read that?” Merrin’s eyes are wide but focused, hard. They dare me to make any more excuses for the Hub, for my parents, for the childhood of testing and lies I grew up in. The truth is, I’m pretty damn sick of hearing myself do it, too.

  “Do you really think your parents were all trying to take our Supers away? That’s insane,” Hayley murmurs.

  “Maybe they don’t know,” I say, even though I know they did. My dad had to at least. He was the vice president.

  “I hope they don’t know,” Merrin says, but the look in her eyes tells me she doesn’t believe it. Maybe she’s trying to hold on to the same hope I did for so many years — that not everything I believed was a lie.

  Hayley stares at the screen in disbelief. “That’s probably why Eisenhardt is acting so chill about the two of you being here. She just doesn’t know what to do with you yet. Of course, there wouldn’t be a universal comm about it if it was something serious, but she really is trying to figure out whether to turn you in or protect you.”

  “So they really never talk to the other Hubs? Ever?” I ask. I know I’ve heard it in every other way, but I’m trying to grasp onto any piece of information that would tell me we’re somehow mistaken, that this isn’t what it looks like.

  “Really, never. Not Biotech. There are whispers, but I know we never get any scientists from there and definitely never any kids. You two are the first I’ve ever met. And comm-wise, it’s silent as the grave. ”

  “What about from the other Hubs?” Hopefully, it’s some weird kind of competition between all the Hubs. They all keep to themselves. It can’t just be us.

  But Hayley says, “Sometimes, we get guest lecturers or a kid transfers from somewhere else or a scientist moves here from the Weaponry or Clandestine Services Hub. But never Biotech. Nobody talks about it. No.”

  “We should have been smart enough to protect our damn cuffs on the way in,” I murmur, digging my fingers into the couch cushion again. “I hate that we can’t even see the news.”

  Of course. They got ruined on the trip in, just like your clothes, didn’t they? Supersonic speeds can break bones, so of course they’d destroy a cuff.” Hayley screws up her face for a second, thinking. “Tell you what,” she says, collecting her computer. “Let me go in the back and see if I can scrounge some up.”

  “Really? That would be awesome.” I stand and stretch my legs. I don’t know why Hayley is being so helpful, but I’m grateful for it.

  “I’m sure we have a couple standard-issue Hub ones that some old students had wiped when they left.” Hayley walks back to the girls’ side of the hallway, mumbling something under her breath.

  “I didn’t know there would be a computer watching everything those spectrometers did,” Merrin says, standing up beside me and searching my eyes.

  Suddenly, I regret that I didn’t try harder to stop her. If it really was pinging some system — and after whoever it was on the other side of Merrin’s file saw Click hacking into it — the Biotech Hub is watching more carefully than anyone thought.

  I take a deep breath, scanning the living room. That group of kids we saw earlier files back into the common area and sits in a circle on the floor. They start to play a game on their tablets, and for just a second, I’m transported back to my past life, one where I used to sit around with my friends and waste time on a tablet. One where the question of whether someone was actively trying to kill me never crossed my mind.

  “It’s gonna be okay,” she says. Her eyes shine a little too excitedly, but they’re so beautiful — stormy blue and ever-changing — that I can forgive it. She floats up and presses her lips to mine, one hand cupping my jaw like she wants to keep me forever. She whispers, “I love you, and we’re gonna be okay.”

  My chest squeezes with too many feelings to pull apart and count — relief, exhaustion, fear, and love for this girl who wanted to stay put at fifteen minutes ago but is now more excited than anything to leave it.

  “Okay,” I say, closing my eyes and letting my forehead rest against hers for a second. I’m still scared to leave again, but I’m even more afraid to stay.

  Just as I touch my lips to Merrin’s, something screams through the air outside. A deafening boom vibrates through the air, followed by a massive tremor that shakes the walls and sends dust and glass flying everywhere. The sick sensation of my feet wobbling while standing on what was, just seconds ago, solid ground makes my stomach roll. Merrin’s head whips back and forth, and she presses one arm against her forehead to shield her face.

  Her other hand grips mine even tighter in the slow-motion span between when the bomb hits and when everyone panics.

  From the safe circle of children, Amber’s scream pierces the air, and the other kids shout. I want to go back and help them, I do, but instinct tells me to protect myself first, then Merrin. Her insistent tug on my arm as she floats higher pulls me into flying mode; we’re so in sync that my body reacts to her without even thinking. I pull my glasses off and fold them over the collar of my shirt — another thing that’s becoming a reflex.

  Whatever just hit the Hub has caused part of the ceiling to crumble away, invading the room with claws of sunlight, viciously bright as they cut through the dust. Merrin and I are already headed there. We’ll be out in a second. I look back and scream, “Kids! Take cover! All of you get in the doorway!”

  One of the boys is crying, but they all get up and do it, cramming into the space protected by the thickest beams in the room. If the building falls, it’s better than nothing.

  We’re almost out when Hayley’s voice floats up to us, somehow making it over the screams of the kids and the tremors that rocket through the walls as another bomb hits further away. Two black rectangles — cuffs — dangle from her fingertips, and she cups her other hand to her mouth so we can hear her better.

  “It was Biotech!”

  “What?” I yell back. The information twists my insides into a knot. I know Biotech did this, even if I don’t want it to be true. I don’t want the organization my dad is vice president of to be hunting us.

  “A transmission came through on everyone’s cuffs when we were hit. It was from Biotech. All it said was ‘Give them back.’”

  “Holy shit,” Merrin spits into the smoky air. Her blue eyes are scared as they look into mine.

  Hayley nods. “Holy shit is right. So where are we going?”

  “We’re not going anywhere,” I call. “We just…we can’t take you. Not if we’re running. We have to be fast. I’m sorry.” We start to fly again, but Hayley’s voice stops us.

 
“Wait!” she screams, fast on our heels. “I’m coming with you. I don’t feel safe here either.”

  “I get it,” Merrin yells, a sad look on her face, “but they’re not hunting you. You can’t come.”

  Hayley’s shoulders slump a little before she stands up and squares them. She nods at both of us. “I hear Clandestine Services has killer security,” she shouts. “The safest of all four Hubs. It’s out in Langley, but that shouldn’t be a problem for you two.”

  “Thanks!” Merrin calls as she digs her nails into my waist, begging me to cooperate, to help us fly out of there.

  Behind Hayley, orange flames lick at the far wall, just fifty feet or so from the kids. An alarm whoops through the air, burning tinny loops of noise into my eardrums. Another surround-sound roar and boom rip through the air.

  “I’ve gotta put that out.” Hayley looks Merrin in the eye, then me. “I’ll see you guys later. Good luck.”

  She turns and sprints back to the residential wing. The last thing I see is her crouching next to the scared kids, trying to comfort them and shield them as much as possible.

  We pick up speed quickly, bursting out of the smoky building into a bright, hot swath of daylight. Outside, smoke fills the air, enveloping the pristine white walls and lush gardens in a fog of dirt and debris. The acrid smell of fire burns my nose. Thank God stucco doesn’t burn easily. The Hub should be fairly okay if they can put out the fires fast enough, and luckily, they have Hayley to take care of that. Sure enough, when I glance back, the thick, choking steam of water hitting heat billows up from the residential wing, quelling the flames.

  Even the clear blue of the sky looks dirty now, and suddenly, all I want is for the two of us to be up in the clear air again.

  Merrin looks at me, nods, and wraps her arms around my waist tighter than she ever has before. And then we’re gone.

  SIX

  The force with which we fly up startles even me this time.

  “We’re getting fast!” I yell over the roar of the air, and Merrin beams.

  “We have to go supersonic,” she yells in my ear. “They’ll see the boom, but it’ll be much harder for them to track us. They won’t be ready.”

  “Are we going to Clandestine Services?”

  “I think it’s as safe a bet as any. Maybe we’ll be able to make contact there.”

  The word “contact” makes my gut flip. I don’t know whether she means getting in touch with Leni and Daniel, with my sisters, or even with our parents.

  I don’t want to talk to my parents. I don’t want to find out that they did it intentionally or viciously. I want to keep alive the possibility that there was a good reason for all they did to me.

  Carrying these vials with us is damn close enough to talking to them anyway. When the first bomb sounded and Merrin looped her arms around my waist, she wedged that messenger bag full of clinking glass between our bodies. Anything not shielded by the invincibility my sisters transferred to me would be shredded and shattered in less than a second of supersonic wind.

  I really wish she’d forgotten. Now that we found out the Biotech Hub was trying to engineer a cure for Supers — and that our genetic freakiness may have been the key to finalizing that cure — seeing those formulas bursting in midair would feel really, really good. Even though it would kill Merrin.

  We’re gathering speed to go supersonic, and the rush of air is becoming too much to shout over. I just nod as the inevitable force builds inside me. I lock my arms around her, feeling the bulk of the messenger bag. I hate that damn thing, hate what it stands for, but at least Merrin’s here. She didn’t get caught and captured or hit with a bomb or injected with anything that would hurt her. At least she’s okay, even if my sisters aren’t.

  The wind whips our super-strength Hub clothing wildly around our ankles, and then the air ripples around us in a sonic boom. My skin burns and heats in a way that feels like part of me now, even though it’s only the third time I’ve done it in my life.

  Only the third time we’ve done it. I may not care that much about my One, but there’s still nothing like flying with Merrin. Even though I’m indestructible and can push air, those two things don’t really add up to an impressive Super. Not yet. I’d be useless without her.

  Flying along the coast of California, the blur of colors is incredible — deep blue on one side and lush green layered with warm brown on the other. We’ve spent most of the day at the Hub, and only now do I realize how late it is. As we zoom through the air, the bright blue of the sky begins to dim, and a refreshing coolness permeates the air around us.

  I was so terrified and weak after our escape from Biotech that I didn’t bother to notice what it’s like to fly this way. In my dreams, it’s always been a blur of colors, the golden expanses of the post-harvest cornfields blending together with the muddy creeks and green patches of forest that make up the Nebraska landscape. I lift my head from Merrin’s shoulder, and I’m surprised to see that, while the sky immediately next to me blurs in waves of blue and white, the earth below and objects further away stand out in detail. Individual white roofs and tree lines, labyrinths of suburban streets, cars that look like tiny moving jewels glinting in the setting sun.

  My heart still pounds with the terror of escape, but this is like traveling in a bubble of calm and quiet.

  Merrin’s expression is still, painted with peace. Every couple seconds, she blinks hard, and I realize I’m doing it, too. Invincible only goes so far, I guess, before super-speed winds dry your eyeballs out.

  I shout again, “We can see everything so clearly! Isn’t that strange?”

  She shakes her head, closes her eyes, and smiles gently. “No,” she yells back. “Motion parallax. Because we’re so far away, our brains have more time to record and interpret the data out there.”

  I laugh because the technical words coming from her mouth don’t match her reverent expression. I decide to just enjoy the view as much as she does.

  Brown desert turns ruddy and then yields to the pocked, craggy Rocky Mountains. Slowly, the clear blue sky deepens to royal blue, while the landscape below me turns slowly back to green.

  “I guess we just stop when we see the ocean, huh?” I say in Merrin’s ear after what must be at least an hour up in the air.

  She smiles. “All we have to do is watch for Chesapeake Bay, and we should be able to find it. Good thing the moon is full, huh?”

  I let out a laugh, and as we fly over the bright lights of Nashville, she snuggles back into my shoulder again. Logically, I know we’re not safe, and I know the world around us isn’t calm and picturesque. But, just for this moment, it damn sure feels like it.

  When a massive white building stretches across on the horizon, I know we’re close.

  “We’ve gotta stop soon!” I yell, and Merrin nods into my shoulder. “That’s Langley, and Clandestine Services is pretty much adjacent. We should land and regroup before we go in!”

  Her hands fist into my shirt at the change in speed. Slowing down is more difficult than speeding up, and the lazier wind feels strange against my skin as we sputter to 60, then 50, then 40 miles per hour, which used to feel like top speed to us.

  Now flying as fast as a car is child’s play.

  The wind roars around us as we eye what looks to be a quiet backroad and identify it as our landing spot. As we slow, the wind roars in my ears, so oppressively it’s hard to see or feel anything outside of it. Our feet hit the ground with a loud thud, and I force my knees to bend and hop along the ground like Merrin does so we don’t skid painfully to a stop. Invincibility is nice, but from what Daniel told me, injuries still hurt like hell. Mercifully, there’s not a single car or person in sight, though I doubt there’s any chance the Clandestine Services Hub didn’t detect our arrival.

  “Well, we’re oh-for-two with Hub safety success.” She pauses to smile, even though she knows I won’t like the joke. “I really think Clandestine Services is our best bet.”

  “Yeah.” I
roll my shoulders, then wrinkle my nose as I fit my glasses back onto my face “Biotech knows we’re out here anyway. If we see any red flags, we can probably break out of Clandestine Services, too.”

  “And they’ll be the best way to figure out how to find your sisters,” Merrin says, catching my eye.

  I run my hand back through my hair and nod. I’m terrified that, even at Clandestine Services, I won’t be able to find Nora and Lia or keep track of them once I’ve located them. I don’t want to consider the possibility that there might not be anything anyone can do to help them.

  Doesn’t change the fact that it’s all I can think about.

  As wary as I am of making a snap decision, our options are dwindling. The only Hubs left are Weaponry and Clandestine Services, and given our goals, it makes no sense to roll into a Hub whose sole purpose is making the world’s best firearms and ask them to help us track down two missing girls. Though, they definitely might be able to protect us better than anyone else.

  Merrin steps forward and loops her arms around my waist again. “We could try going it alone for a while,” she murmurs. “But I want answers, like, yesterday.”

  “Me too.” I sigh, frustrated at the lack of choice. “So…it’s next to Langley?”

  “I think it’s kind of weird how close it is to the CIA. Don’t you?”

  I see what she’s saying. We grew up with Supers and Normals being essentially separated our whole lives, so the close proximity of one Hub to a U.S. government agency for the same purpose is kind of freaky.

  Once we get back up in the air, our flight feels lazy at 30 miles per hour. I watch the cities and neighborhoods pass beneath us; tiny white boxes curve in close-spaced lines that make the ground look like it’s covered in repetitive, snaggle-toothed smiles.

  “Down there,” I call when I see a huge compound stretching beneath us, made up of hundreds of windows and slightly domed gray roofs. “That’s CIA headquarters. We should be able to find the Hub’s entrance if we snoop around a little down there.”