by Tonya Kuper
And because of that, no one would think Reid was being overprotective for suspicious reasons. “Thank Thor.”
His feet slowed and mine matched his. “That means I’ll be staying in your room.”
My face was suddenly on fire and my palms turned sweaty. An image of him holding me at night flashed in my mind. Then the image of him kissing me in the Jeep.
A tiny giggle escaped from me. To cover it up, I began walking fast again. I needed to change the subject. “I’m going to the practice rooms. I need to learn how to use and control that Force Push. And I want to start learning to observe without using my eyes.” My biggest strength and my biggest weakness. “If I’m going to take down this mole, I have to do those things. And we’ve been here too long already without finding this traitor.”
“Hey.” Reid stopped before we reached the intersection of hallways. I turned and stopped a foot in front of him. “Okay,” he said. “But the accident with the Force Push happened because you were upset. I want to make sure you’re okay and not stretched too thin emotionally before you do it again.”
“I— Uh, okay.” I wasn’t sure I understood what he was saying.
“I have a surprise for you.” He pivoted and headed up the stairs behind him to my room. I followed, totally confused. Was he going to make out with me? Was that going to help me emotionally?
Well, it wouldn’t hurt.
At the top of the stairs, I could see the entire living quarters area. The homes incorporated into the mountain were impressive and surreal. The overhead lights shined brighter than I’d remembered from the night before Reid lead me through the door to my room and closed it behind us. He entwined his fingers in mine and tugged me into the kitchen where a laptop sat open. “The computer?” I made sure not to sound disappointed.
His hand landed in the small of my back. “No. What’s on the computer.” Guiding me around to view the screen, Reid’s warm hand found its way to my waist and he moved me into the chair.
I sat in the chair in front of the computer as he stood at my side and pressed keys. The screen flickered on and he squatted down next to me. “I’ll be out in the hall until you’re done. Keep it brief; I pulled some strings and have it untraceable for four minutes. She’s already expecting this video chat so she knows you’re with me. Don’t tell her where you are, though.” He sprung up and kissed me on the forehead, pushed a key, and darted for the door.
I had no idea what he was talking about and was utterly confused. “Who are you talking about? Reid?”
Pausing at the door, he flashed me a grin.
“Josie!” the computer yelled.
“Hannah!” I grinned, leaning as close to the computer as I could.
It had been less than a week since I’d disappeared without a good-bye, but it seemed like eons since we’d seen each other. So much changed for me in the span of a few days, yet she looked exactly the same. Lively hazel eyes, the dark hair I’d always envied, and happy.
“Where are you? Are you okay?”
“I’m perfectly fine.” That was an exaggeration, but I needed her to stay calm enough to talk. “Mom and Eli are with me and we’re with Reid.” I squinted to make out her background. “Where are you?”
“I’m in my car. At school.” I’d lost track of time in the real world. It was Friday; she had class. “Reid contacted me.”
What could I tell her? Nothing. I wiped my sweaty palms down my thighs. I wasn’t supposed to reveal anything to Plancks. But when Reid left the room, the only thing he warned me about was telling her our location.
Hannah pulled her phone closer to her face. “Josie.”
She was my best friend. Sometimes, when I didn’t think I knew myself, all I had to do was go to my best friend and she’d remind me of who I was. I missed that. I missed her.
“Reid told me. Well, he showed me.”
My stomach dipped like I was on a rollercoaster. “What?” I whisper-yelled. He broke the biggest, most important rule. “I don’t understand. What did he show you? When?”
“He made stuff appear. Disappear. Change.” Her voice was quiet but excited. “It was so weird. I thought he was a fruit loop. Then I thought I was the fruit loop. He called me first thing this morning, like before the sun was up, asking for a video chat, blah, blah. The only reason I agreed was he said if I did I could talk to you.” I could imagine her freaking out.
I realized what she’d said—Reid called her early this morning. He knew exactly how much this would mean to me.
Wait. Why wasn’t she flipping out more now? How could she be so calm learning all this in a video chat just a few hours before? But, that was the beauty of Hannah. She was the perpetual optimist, always looking for the silver lining.
“Then,” she continued with wide eyes, “Reid told me that you’re, you know, like him—a reality-changer.” She shrugged. “Or whatever. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because the first the rule of Fight Club is ‘You do not talk about Fight Club.’ I’m not supposed to tell anyone. Reid wasn’t supposed to, either. You can’t tell anyone anything. Ever. We’d get in trouble. Or, maybe, you.” I pictured Santos on Hannah’s doorstep. She’d already had a Consortium person at her home. “Hannah, I don’t know. Just promise you won’t expose Oculi. You could end up hurt. Or—”
She held a hand up. “Okay, okay. I won’t. But are you okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah. But these rules—”
“Why can’t you tell anyone? Why are you guys hiding from normal humans if you have these superpowers?” She twisted her mouth, her usual perplexed look. “If you’re more powerful, it doesn’t make sense.”
“I think because Plancks, uh, regular humans, wouldn’t accept us. But—” I paused, an unnerving feeling blooming in my gut. “I don’t know, really.”
“Who do the rules benefit? Normal humans? You? The people who made the rules?”
Good question. I’d been so stuck on learning how to Push and Retract and delivering the serum and staying alive, that there was a lot I hadn’t questioned.
“I don’t know. I’m out of my league. I can handle science and equations, but not the politics, the secrets. I don’t know who to trust. People want to kill me and—”
“Kill you?” she screeched.
“Shhh.” I held my forefinger against my lips. “Yeah, it’s okay.”
“No, that’s not okay, Josie. In what world is that okay? We aren’t in one of those Avengers movies.”
“You’re right, we’re not. It’s scarier.”
Hannah’s hand cupped over her mouth, her eyes bulging. I needed to stop freaking her out. Think fast.
“But.” I held up a finger. “Reid’s friend Cohen looks similar to Falcon in Avengers. So there’s that.”
Her hand dropped away from her somber face. “For cereal?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. A hot dude always stopped her in her tracks. “I’m totally cereal. Oh, and you were right. I do like Reid.”
She rolled her eyes. “Duh.” I knew she was going to say that.
A countdown of thirty seconds started in the corner of the screen. No. I didn’t want the chat to end yet. I didn’t know when I’d see her again. Or if. An entire group of people wanted me dead, let alone someone trapped inside the mountain with me. “I have less than thirty seconds.” My throat went dry. “Hannah.” The word was long and raspy. “I’m scared.”
“J, you were able to manipulate life way before you received superpowers. Regular people do amazing things daily.” Tears puddled in her eyes. “Normal humans beat the odds, they defy reality and triumph. You have one up on us regular peeps. That means you can do, well, almost anything.”
I wiped a tear from the corner of my eye before it could fall. “I’ll see you soon.”
She smiled through blurry eyes. “Hells yes you will,” she yelled.
The screen went black. I stared at the laptop, inhaling through my nose and exhaling through my mouth, trying to calm myself, keeping a leas
h on the threatening tears.
My head spun. Humans couldn’t know about Oculi. Who did that rule benefit? Plancks? Oculi?
That was it—the rule. Why were rules put into place? Usually to keep people safe and orderly. Or to make them do what you want them to do.
Or to help the people in power stay in power.
Ding, ding. Thank you, Hannah.
Reid
Josie and I weren’t able to be alone for the rest of the day. We spent the afternoon in the training room with Cohen, Zac, and Kat. So far we’d practiced hand-to-hand combat and Josie had performed well. Her tae kwon do was still fresh. We then moved onto Pushing and Retracting, allowing us to use our defensive shields, but not Josie’s new Jedi trick.
When we came back from a restroom break, Cohen had a table of equipment set out. I liked how his brain was working. The five of us stood in a loose circle, all eyes on Cohen. “We’ve all had combat training, but Josie and Zac haven’t. With the Consortium being even closer to being able to identify and kill Anomalies, we need to know some of this info. Remember how you have to see it, know it, visualize it in order to Push it into existence?”
Josie and Zac both nodded.
“Well, take a look at the equipment on this table. Protective armor, all variations of what national militaries all over the world use.”
Tables and racks of vests, undergarments, padding, guards, helmets, and ballistic shields laid before us. We spread out along the table, picking up the equipment and accessories, inspecting them.
I stepped behind Josie, getting a whiff of her perfume or whatever she used. Gardenia, my mom’s favorite flower. “Just like with the weapons last week in Florida, you want to handle these pieces.” My mouth was inches from her ear, giving me a great view of her neck. “Take note of how they look and feel, commit it to memory. You know, so you can Push them immediately when needed.” Not only was Josie naturally intelligent, but her memory was like nothing I’d seen before.
She picked up a pair of unassuming glasses. “Ballistic protective eyewear,” I said.
After examining the lightweight, souped-up sunglasses, she slipped them on. “Yeah, it’s the smallest piece here but the most important.”
Zac, standing a few feet down the table, turned to Josie. “Why do you say that?”
Josie turned around to Zac with the protective eyewear in place. “Without our eyes, we can’t observe. The act of observation is what makes one of the two possible wave length superpositions collapse into a state. Copenhagen Interpretation, Heisenberg. So if we don’t have the use of our eyes, we can’t observe reality. We can’t Push or Retract.”
I could’ve heard a pin drop. Everyone stared at Josie. Zac’s mouth had dropped open.
“Whoa,” Cohen chuckled. “You’re right, Josie. Unless, of course, you’re Reid. Then you can Push even with your vision taken away.”
I tried on other protective gear, ignoring Cohen.
“Our boy here,” Cohen continued, gesturing to me, “is the only one in recorded history able to do it.”
“I’m going to learn to do it. I need to,” Josie said.
Cohen rubbed his hands together, like he was ready to jump in. “All right. Only one way to find out. We can try—”
I stepped between Josie and Cohen. “No. I’ll work with her on it in private. It’s not fun.” Twisting to Josie, I leaned toward her. “You don’t want people watching you try the first time or two. Not pretty.”
After we spent a while going through all the protective gear that could be useful if we were attacked by the Consortium, I cleared my throat. “Okay, it’s time to practice Josie’s power move.”
Josie threw her shoulders back. “Let’s do it.”
Cohen moved to Josie’s side. “I had a thought. I want you to be conscious of how you want to use it and the intensity, kind of like you have your own gauge. Let’s keep it in the green and yellow, not venturing into that red zone. Maybe if you can categorize how you feel when you exert the energy, you can start to gauge it better. Make sense?”
Josie twirled her ponytail and nodded. “Okay. Yeah.” She did that, fidgeted when she was nervous, but she put on an awesome game face.
Zac jogged out to the opposite side of the training room in his damn skinny pants. He looked like a preppy Justin Bieber sans tats. “You can try on me first. I want to help somehow.” I still wasn’t fully convinced of him wanting to help as much as he wanted to maybe appeal to the girls, but whatever.
Thick pads appeared behind Zac on the wall and floor. Josie widened her stance, rolled her neck, and let her hands relax at her sides.
Nothing happened.
Kat looked to me and I shrugged. “Maybe Zac had to be closer like Coh—”
Zac flew backward. His shoulder hit the wall first, and he landed with a thump on the floor. He’d tucked his head into his chest, which was a smart move so as to not hit his head. A muffled groan came from Zac, face down on the mat. Cohen got him to sit up and took a look at his shoulder. “Uh, I think it’s going to be sore.”
Josie, now squatted at Zac’s side, played with the hole in her jeans. “Ugh. I’m sorry, Zac.”
He shook he head. “Psh. It’ll be fine.”
“My turn.” Kat was at the long end of the room, blue mats already covering the walls and floors. “Now, how that felt? See if you can take it down a notch. I’m going to stand a little closer to you, though.”
Josie stood and glanced to me, uncertain.
“Try to do what Kat said. What you just did to Zac would be in that red zone. See if you can bring it down to yellow at least.” I walked backward toward the back wall where Kat would probably end up.
Josie lowered her chin, looking at Kat from under her brow. Kat sailed back in the air as if hurricane winds picked her off the floor. A rope appeared in Kat’s hands, tethered to the ceiling. The slack in the rope caught and tugged Kat back toward Josie, essentially keeping her from slamming into the back wall.
A big fluffy, bouncy house mat manifested under Kat and she let go. Her body made the mat pucker, but she sprang back, laying unharmed on her back. Kat sat up with a smile on her face, scooted to the edge, and hopped off.
Josie’s hands covered her face. I ran to her, pulling her shaking hands away. “Hey. It’s okay. You did great.”
We all convened in the middle of the room. “Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but I could swear that was a little less harsh,” I said. A light tremor shook Josie’s shoulders, arms, and hands. I moved behind her. “I’m going to massage your shoulders.” I announced it trying to make it seem like I was acting as her trainer, not a boyfriend getting handsy with his secret girlfriend.
Zac held an icepack on his shoulder. “I think maybe it wasn’t as hard.”
Cohen high-fived Kat. “Nice job, Kat. Josie, maybe it’s like working out. You’re going to get muscle cramps, be sore, but if it’s consistently used, you’ll gain more control.”
Kat took a peek at Zac’s shoulder. “I think they’re right, Josie. I had time to think and Push my way out of your force shield, or whatever we’re calling it.”
Josie’s shoulders shrugged under my palms, her muscles rock hard. “I don’t know, guys. Right now, I feel like the Hulk. It just feels uncontrollable.”
I pulled my hands off her so I could see her face. “Let’s take a break and make a list of people we know are not the mole.”
Josie nodded and three plush purple sofas appeared behind Cohen. If anyone else wasted energy that way, I might have scolded them, but this was Josie. She still wasn’t showing signs of even temporary energy depletion except after these huge blasts. She grabbed her bag and led us to the couches. I sat next to Cohen, hoping it would reinforce that Josie and I didn’t have a relationship outside of Oculi stuff.
After passing out copies of the master list of Hub occupants, Josie extended her legs on the couch and made a list of everyone in the room when she reunited with Eli and her mom. Since the traitor had been impersonat
ing Eli at that exact moment, it couldn’t have been anyone she’d seen in that room.
“Meg, Eli, Josie, Harrison, Cohen, Zac, Kat,” Josie announced. “Those are cleared. And Reid, who was with the Eli imposter.”
Anger ignited in my gut just hearing her say those words.
“We know that everyone in that room, us plus our parents, isn’t the mole. But we also have to remember that the mole could have recruited someone within the Hub to help him,” she said.
Kat, sitting on the same couch as Zac, with her knees drawn up to her chest, raised her hand. “Idea. How about we divide up this master list. Like, I’ll check out everyone who has regular communication outside the Hub.”
I glanced to Josie, who was already eyeing me. Josie smiled. “Great idea. What other divisions would be useful?”
“Right on.” Cohen, lying way back on the couch, had Pushed a footstool under his feet. “I can check on those who hold a position of power.”
Zac dropped his icepack on the floor and shifted in the couch. “I don’t think I have access to much yet. I’ve only been here a few days.”
He was right, but he could be useful in other ways. I didn’t like the timing of when he showed up at the Hub, but he had been in the room with Josie at the time Eli was impersonated, meaning he wasn’t the mole, so we could trust him to do something. “Would you be comfortable digging in to where your dad is, what communication he’s had lately, or whatever with the people you know in his office?”
“I can do that.”
“Good. I’ll check on the fringe, those who may leave the Hub more often but aren’t necessarily in a power position.”
Josie’s lips pulled upward in a slight smile. “That’s a great start. Thank you, everyone. I’ll keep practicing the shield Push. But not with Kat and Zac. I don’t want to hurt you guys. You have to be well and ready to fight in case the Consortium attacks.”
“Agreed,” Cohen said, standing. “Dinner, anyone?”
Josie shoved off the soft couch. “Thanks, but I’m going to eat with my family. Reid, will you escort me?”
