Two

by LeighAnn Kopans

“And this is where we really have Elias to thank,” Merrin’s mom says. Her hand jerks forward like she wants to touch me, but my gaze remains hard. “My theory — and it’s just a theory — is that Merrin’s ability to float would have strengthened quite a bit from flying around with you. Not that we loved the secret-keeping, but I have to admit, I was grateful to you for that. She always wanted to fly.”

  I close my eyes tight, pushing back every emotion, trying to get past them. All I manage to do is shake my head slightly. “She always wanted to fly. And because she wanted it so damn badly, she never will.”

  “Don’t say that,” Leni whispers, covering my hand with her own.

  Gallagher clears his throat. “I can get you from room to room quickly, but there are just a couple problems. First, I can’t go anywhere without knowing where it is or being able to visualize it, so I’ll need to hang on to someone who knows the layout of the place. Second, their surveillance will pick up on any disturbances, and since I was just recently there, they’ll be looking for an invisible teleporting guy. Motion detectors will still see me.”

  “So we have Daniel to hack into initial security, then he’ll help Leni and Doctor Grey burn out some cameras and the mainframe security system,” Hayley says. She’s back to cracking her knuckles, and by now, I know it means she’s serious. I smile my thanks.

  “If it’s even back up yet, after what we did to it.” Daniel smirks. “But even without the cameras, there will be physical guards.”

  Merrin’s dad clears his throat. “I’ll get both of us past the guards. Gallagher, I’ll go with you and Vera. I’ll be able to direct you through the Hub, and maybe we’ll speed up a little bit, too.”

  For the first time, I realize that I have no idea what his Super is, but my eyes narrow and my mind whirs. Both Michael and Max are so fast they walk on water. They had to inherit that from someone, and it wasn’t Merrin’s mom. Her speed is all firepower. “Super-speed?”

  Merrin’s dad nods.

  “They have guns,” Hayley says.

  “I’m actually faster than a speeding bullet.”

  There’s an odd, tense silence, and Gallagher’s the first to snort. Then we all laugh for a few seconds. For the first time, things feel like they might be okay.

  Hayley clears her throat. “And I’m just going to cause some general chaos, right?”

  I grin at her. “You got some water bottles to strap to your belt? Because, yeah, I think that’d be a great idea.” I try to hide the disappointing thought that helping add a little wind to her hurricane is about the best I’ll be able to do.

  Gallagher’s gaze shifts to me. “When they sent us on that mission, I thought we’d have plenty of time to go back to get her. I’d never have left her otherwise.”

  “Okay, but there’s one problem. How do we know which rooms they’re holding Merrin and those formulas in?” Vera asks.

  Merrin’s mom frowns. “I was thinking I’d fly through at top speed, looking for her. With the fire, no one will touch me.”

  Hayley’s eyebrows go up. “She’s a human fireball,” I explain.

  “Unfortunately,” Merrin’s mom continues, “the formulas are spread throughout the compound, for increased security. Fisk shifts them to different locations all the time.”

  “But he always has them,” Merrin’s dad says. “He’d never let them out of his reach. The Cure project is that Hub’s entire nest egg. The case for his tablet, on the inside flap. There’s a panel he invented to scramble the names of the locations every hour. I think it’s a very simple cipher, but we would have to get our hands on that tablet.

  My breath catches in my throat, and I pull myself up to full height. “I can’t get my hands on it, but I might be able to get my eyes on it.”

  Chapter The look of shock on Gallagher’s face when I tell him about the Funnel, how I think it basically copied itself onto my brain and made me hear things even when I was far away from its central nervous system, is almost worth the pain and panic of the whole damn situation.

  “Well,” he says, his eyes sweeping down over me like he expects me to spontaneously combust. “Can you do it now? See if you can find Fisk?”

  As we stand together in my little room, I close my eyes and concentrate, imagining I’m back in that big empty room, waiting for the lights that represent Supers to glow. After a few seconds, the whispers come back, building slowly, snaking into my brain up my spine. This time they feel less invasive and more like a body of radio signals. It’s like I could pick one and tune in if I wanted, make it louder and clearer. If this had been yesterday, it would totally freak me out. Today, the possibility of the power feels enticing, full of potential. I could find my sisters, or any Super, anywhere, any time. Before I met Merrin, I’d be focused on shoving my One away somewhere where it just wouldn’t bother me.

  But now, the power is unique. Huge. Indispensable.

  I think about what Merrin would tell me to do if she were here, watching me.

  Just let it happen, Elias. You have a Super now. Use it.

  I slow my breathing, absorbing the voices. When I concentrate on letting them just be there, instead of fighting them, they soften. They’re still intense but easier to manage.

  I really hope I’m right and that what happened was the Funnel’s computer copied into my brain. I tell it to focus on the longitude and latitude of Superior, Nebraska, which Merrin made me memorize. It would be fun, she said, so I’d obliged — I just liked being with her. A girlfriend obsessed with longitude and latitude doesn’t seem so cutesy anymore; now it’s something that will save her life. My eyes pan up, and the pixels zoom toward me, like I’m skydiving into the cornfields of Nebraska.

  I close my eyes, listening to the rush of voices growing thinner, more delicate, and trying to sift through each one. I know I won’t see Merrin now — the Funnel only works on Supers — but I can try to see Fisk, to hear him. And then, in the cacophony of whispers, I hear it, like a horsefly buzzing through the room: President Fisk, holding a tablet. I command every cell of my brain to focus, hone in on the whispers and words that stack together into senses and feelings, search for Fisk and his voice. For a few seconds, everything’s fuzzy, a mess of static, and the frustration and the strain nearly makes me scream.

  The skin at my neck and across my shoulders breaks out into a stinging sweat. My breathing quickens, and I can’t help it. The picture is finally falling into place. In an instant, the buzzing in my brain eases, like it’s going into cruising mode. I can see Fisk standing there, with another official.

  Fisk holds out a tablet and talks to the official in a quiet voice, pointing at some numbers and letters in a neat list on the screen. They’re blurry, like the first lines on those vision tests, the ones I can’t read no matter how much the doctors tweak my prescription. But this isn’t my eyes doing the spying, I remind myself. This is the Funnel and whatever strange connection my head has with it.

  Focus, Elias. Focus. This is going to save your sisters. This is going to save Merrin.

  I can see it — he’s got a list of tests he wants to do on Merrin. He’s telling the official just loud enough for Merrin to overhear because he wants her to be afraid. I can feel it rolling off of him — the desire to control her, to make her finally understand that she’s nothing more than a test subject. His reason for doing it skitters through my brain behind his voice. He wants Merrin to know he’s planned this out, he knows what he’s doing, and this time, he’s going to have his way.

  I can’t focus on that list though. I have to see whatever codes are on the inside flap of that cover, right next to the crook of his elbow. He thinks they’re in the safest place possible, but he doesn’t know I’m in his head. And I’ll be damned if I’m not going to beat him.

  Just like that, with that little extra push of concentration, the type becomes clearer. I have no idea what any of these strings of letters mean, but according to Merrin’s mom, it doesn’t matter.

  The cuff Clandestine Se
rvices gave me is different, sleeker, but the interface is the same. My fingers swiftly open the note-taking program and tap out the numbers and letters as I see them clearly. They are words I don’t understand, but I know from being inside Fisk’s brain that they are exactly the ones I need, that they are significant.

  Mutagen. Terminative. Deanimator. And after each substance, a series of numbers. I have no idea what they are, but hopefully, Merrin’s parents will.

  As I finish typing the last number of the last line, my brain knows; it can relax. I wish Fisk’s face wasn’t so hidden because part of me wants to glare at it, but he’s just going to die in a few hours anyway, so part of me is just as glad not to see it. The voices soften, and I break my concentration, inviting the pure, shining white of the Funnel room to take over my vision again.

  But when my eyes crack open, a searing pain meets them instead. It’s like rays of green light slicing into my eyeballs, leaving nothing but a deep, black slate in my entire brain. I scream and fall backward, landing in a sitting position.

  Someone will come to interrupt this. Something will break this vision. It’s like nothing I’ve had before — not only stronger and more certain, but agonizing in its intensity.

  The pixels fall around me like cinderblocks, thunking into place with such violence it’s as though they’re trying to rattle me. Someone’s skin presses against my forearm. Warm brown eyes, framed by light brown hair, brittle and scratchy, stare into mine. Lia. Oh, God, it’s Lia. I struggle to prop her up, to make her more comfortable, but she only winces and licks at cracked lips.

  “I feel…so…weak…” Her body jerks, once, twice, and then she lets out a low, soft moan. Panic seizes my whole body, and I clutch her to me.

  In an instant, my arms are empty. Half a second later, Lia’s body fills them once again. I draw back and stare down as her entire body — made up of green pixels but somehow so real, so expressive — flickers in and out of existence. No, I realize, almost the moment I think it. Out of my presence. She’s teleporting, or trying to, but she can’t make it stick. She’s wearing down, like a battery that has used up the best of its energy.

  Once the flickering slows, her eyes fly open again, meeting mine hard.

  “Where are we?”

  I have no idea. But when my lips open, I say, “Texas. I knew they probably wouldn’t have anything for you here, but it’s worth a shot, I just didn’t…oh, God…”

  My voice is so high, and I have no idea where the words are coming from.

  “Nora.”

  Nora? How deep am I inside the Funnel? Am I really this far inside Nora’s brain? And if she’s not using her Super, how am I even seeing her at all?

  “Biotech,” Lia gasps. “We have to go back to Biotech.” Her eyes roll back in her head, and her whole body goes limp. Still. I press my forehead against hers and allow myself three seconds to cry. I don’t know whether I’m Elias or Nora or pixels or pain because everything hurts too much and everything is impossible.

  But three words run on a loop through my mind: back to Biotech.

  And then it’s like I’m being sucked back through space, definitely Elias now, and each cinderblock pixel flies away, a speck of a dust mote in my vision.

  TWENTY-THREE

  Everything is black, and my body is heavy. Slowly, I crash back onto the floor, my muscles and bone flattening as they collide. I vaguely recognize my skull cracking back against the tile, maybe bouncing. I don’t know. Because at that moment, a thousand knives slice beneath my skin, everywhere. I can’t move. I can’t even blink.

  I don’t know what happened, and I don’t care. Pain is my only reality.

  It could be seconds later, or it could be a lifetime. An aching pulse reverberates through my skull and syllables from somewhere in the air above me become clear. In a few seconds, it becomes clear that the sounds make up my name.

  “Elias…”

  Other voices drift in the air around me, and slowly, slowly, words start to make sense, begin to break through the searing blindness of the pain.

  “Still unconscious…”

  “What happened…”

  “Should we call the med units?”

  I’m not unconscious. And we don’t have time for med units. I don’t know how long I’ve been knocked out, but I know it’s eaten up precious time we need to get to Merrin before Clandestine Services blows up the Biotech Hub.

  I pry my eyes open to find Merrin’s dad staring at me. When I blink, he leans back, sighing. “Are you okay?” We thought you were dead. We thought we’d lost her forever. I don’t know what I would have told the boys…

  A kind smile remains settled on his face. It doesn’t match the words I just heard.

  The words that he didn’t really say.

  Holy shit. I’m reading minds.

  Even if I could think of any words to say at this moment, there’s no way I could organize them into coherent thoughts. I just know I’m overwhelmed with pain and discovery and worry and fear. I force the primary thought, the thing that’s always been the most important, to the front of my mind:

  Merrin. The Cure. My sisters.

  ”Okay, guys. I’m fine. Let’s get going.”

  Thank God, Merrin’s mom thinks. “Did you do it? Did you manage to locate Fisk?”

  Pride and hope swell in my chest. “Yeah, I did. I got everything.” I bring the whole list up on my cuff, and she bends over it.

  Merrin’s mom shakes her head, looking at me in awe. “So you found him just like that?”

  “I had to focus on the coordinates of Superior, and then sort of search for his voice. But, yes, I could see him. I could feel what he was thinking.” She holds my gaze for a few seconds, and I want so badly to ask more questions. I can tell by the look on her face that she knows more, but after what I saw, we can’t waste any more time.

  “Okay, Vera? I’m going to need you to memorize the list of things we need. Deanimator. Do you know that makeup?”

  Vera rattles off a long list of orgo-sounding terms that I’m sure would make perfect sense to Merrin but only sound vaguely familiar to me. Of course, I didn’t have private freaky Hub tutoring with Professor Hoffman either.

  Merrin’s mom looks pleased. “That’s actually outstanding. How old are you?”

  Vera’s cheeks flush “I’m nineteen. But I know all of them that well. I can see them, so it’s hard not to have memorized them by now, honestly.”.

  Merrin’s dad moves to stand beside us and continues. “We’ll have to figure out those locations. Daniel, Helen tells me you’re a good hack. Can you handle old-fashioned code?”

  Daniel joins us, his hand connected to Leni’s. “Of course. E, send that over to me. Let me see what I can do.”

  With a few taps, I’ve sent the list of numbers to Daniel’s cuff. He taps his fingers quickly over the touchpad as he squints and makes lots of hmmming sounds.

  I hear a strange murmur coming from him, even though he’s not speaking. He’s thinking in words, but half of them are cut off and turn from sentence to sentence so quickly that I can’t keep up. This guy’s brain really does work a mile a minute.

  After a few more seconds, he holds his cuff up to Merrin’s dad. “Do these words have any meaning to you?”

  Dammit. No. Merrin’s dad thinks as his face falls. But after a few second, lines crease his forehead and his expression lightens. “Yes, actually. They do. They’re anagrams. Those are names of labs and coolers scattered throughout the Hub.”

  “Pretty amateur code,” Daniel snorts as Merrin’s dad types the locations of the formulas into his cuff.

  “Biotech’s going to start Cure testing by releasing it into a couple of elementary schools near one of the Hubs at 2 PM Eastern,” Gallagher says. “It’ll have a high concentration of young Supers whose genes are most malleable. If that works, they’ll test greater populations.”

  For the first time, Hayley’s buoyant mood tenses. It’s like I’m experiencing her feelings.


  Gallagher’s eyes widen, and he takes a deep breath. “Ortiz, I…”

  “Which. Hub,” she growls, and everyone takes half a step back. Even I’m afraid of her.

  “I didn’t want to tell you until we got here because I didn’t want you to do anything hasty, but….”

  Hayley lunges forward, letting forth a stream of curse words in Spanish so quickly I couldn’t separate them if I tried. She grabs Gallagher’s t-shirt, and I swear she’s about to lift him up off the ground. Her nose almost touches his, and her face is red. “They’re targeting the Social Welfare area elementary schools, and you didn’t say anything to me? My brothers and sister are there.”

  “Well, now you know,” Gallagher chokes. “And we’re going to have to do this Cure-snatching with some serious stealth because, if Fisk figures out what we’re doing, he’ll release it everywhere, I’m sure.”

  She lets him drop, and he stumbles backward a bit but doesn’t fall. A whisper of dread, something in the air, swirling around me, overwhelms my senses. My gut twists in the worst way, and I spin around, looking for whatever might be around. And then, echoing through the darkest recesses of my mind, someone crying. I’d recognize that sob anywhere, from breakups with boyfriends to a tearjerker on movie night. Nora’s freaking out. And I don’t hear Lia at all. Not even thinking.

  My whole body shakes. I want to be everywhere, take care of everything, all at once. “It’s getting bad, you guys. Nora and Lia’s powers are out of control, and it’s killing them. Lia’s barely holding on. Let’s get in and get out so we can help them.”

  Gallagher gives a curt nod and takes each of us, one by one, to just outside the Biotech Hub. Hayley first, then Leni and Daniel — our most powerful diversions. Then Merrin’s dad, then Vera. Each transport takes about thirty seconds, and Gallagher’s not even winded. Merrin’s mom turns to me when we’re alone, waiting.

  “Your sisters gave you invincibility when you left, didn’t they? We heard about a sonic boom.”

  I nod. “Yes, ma’am.” For the first time, I don’t feel indifferent about something my body can do. I feel charged, ready to use it for whatever I have to do to help the girls I love.