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Chapter 14

GENERAL TAYLOR STOOD at the front of the Caf. She’d called a meeting with my whole task force. Well, everyone except Xona. When I’d come down the hallway earlier Xona had been arguing with Tyryn about why she should be able to go with us. But only Tyryn was in the room now, so I guess she’d lost the fight.

The General paced the front of the room until everyone had gathered and was seated. “I’ve called you all here to discuss an important mission. One that only this particular task force can perform, now that all of your members are ready.” She glanced over at me, and I felt my face redden. Had she been waiting for me to get control of my powers before she okayed the mission?

City’s eyes lit up and she grinned at Rand.

“Bright travels all over the Sector as Underchancellor of Defense,” Taylor continued. “We’ve been able to map each place she goes, thanks to Ginni.”

Ginni blushed at the acknowledgment and looked down.

“For the most part we can correlate each location to her official activities and duties. However, there is one building that remains unaccounted for, one that doesn’t officially exist on the Uppers’ property registration database. I believe it is Bright’s version of our Foundation. We know of ten individuals staying regularly at the facility, and several of them had been on our glitcher watch lists. We were planning on sending Rez units into the Community to collect them, but Bright got to them first.”

I shivered, imagining how different my life would have been if the Chancellor had gotten to me in the Community before Adrien had.

“Bright has been tracking our spies and using her compulsion on them to make them double agents, cracking at least half a dozen other Rez cells the agents were in contact with. In short,” she put her hands down on the nearest table and leaned in, “Bright is winning. This is our first opportunity in a long time to deal her a huge blow.”

Rand grinned and turned to high-five Eli, the ex-Reg sitting next to him. Eli didn’t budge or react at all. Taylor paused, narrowing her eyes at Rand until he lowered his hand and sank back into his seat.

“But wait,” City interrupted. “If Ginni can locate Bright wherever she goes, then why don’t we just bomb her in the air or something? We’ve got the weapons tech, right?”

Taylor shook her head. “We’ve tried that already, twice. Both times, the missiles were shot out of the air in spite of Henk’s cloaking tech. We don’t know why. The larger transport vehicles utilizing the cloaking mechanisms are never detected. We suspect that a glitcher Gift is involved somehow. That is why we must choose stealth and strike while the Chancellor is absent. Our task is twofold on this mission: infiltrate and retrieve. There will be glitchers under the Chancellor’s command, and there will be Regulators on guard.”

Her eagle eyes locked on mine. “Zoel, you will first disable any Regulators on-site. Then Adrien will hack the system to get past their security and get us in.”

“Excuse me, General Taylor,” I broke in. “When you say disable, do you mean—”

Taylor stared at me a moment as if she was unused to interruptions. “You need to neutralize the threat. Deactivate them.”

“But,” I sputtered, almost standing up. “I can’t just kill them.” I thought about the ex-Regs on our own team and how easily they could have been the ones guarding the Chancellor. They wouldn’t have had a choice.

Taylor’s face was hard. “Believe me, I would love to send my Rez fighters to do the job. But you are the one with the invisible powers that can reach through walls and snap necks. Not to mention we don’t have solid intelligence on the nature of the glitcher powers we’re up against once we’re inside. It’s one of the reasons I put off this mission until you were ready.”

Well that answered that question. “But I—”

Taylor’s nostrils flared. “We are fighting a war here. We all must play our part.” She swept her arm. “Look around you. This is the Rez’s finest, most expensive facility, and even here you can see we’ve had to fight for every inch we have. In war, it’s either them or us. It’s as simple as that.”

I felt all the eyes in the room on me.

“Rose, they’re just children,” the Professor spoke up.

“They are soldiers,” Taylor said sharply. She took a breath and calmed herself, though it looked like it took some effort.

“Now as for the rest of you,” she pulled back and gestured to the Professor. His brow was still furrowed, but he came forward and clicked on a projection cube in the center of our table. A squat building rotated in the illuminated space. We all pushed closer as the Professor touched the apex to expand and enlarge the image.

“We enter here.” Taylor pointed to one side of the floating image and spun it so we had a clear view of the back loading dock.

“Rand, City, and a detachment of Rez fighters will retrieve the glitchers who are held in locked cells here.” She touched the 3-D image again to show the hallway that split like a T from the dock. She pointed down the hallway that led to the left. The model animated, moving like a camera on a trolley down several long hallways until it opened to a larger circular room at the end.

“The cell doors are here. Rand can melt through the doors to get to the glitchers.”

Rand grinned again and rubbed his hands together.

“The team of Rez fighters will tranq each glitcher as soon as Rand gets a hole opened. The Chancellor won’t be there to use her compulsion power, but there’s always a chance some of them may be working for her voluntarily. That’s where you come in, Filicity.”

City sat up straighter in her seat while Taylor continued, an excited flicker of blue electric current shooting across her palm.

“We don’t know what we could be facing, so we want to knock them out before there’s even a chance for them to start using their powers against us. Filicity is the backup in case something goes wrong with the tranqs. Sophia informs me you’ve recently been able to manipulate your electricity to an amperage that will only stun, not kill, is that correct?”

City nodded. “No problem.”

“Good. We want, if possible, to take all the glitchers alive. Then we not only deprive the Chancellor of her weapons but gain more for ourselves.”

I frowned at glitchers being referred to as weapons. Was that really how General Taylor thought of us?

She clicked the image again so that it zoomed back out. “There is a secondary objective. Adrien, Zoel, and I will head this direction to retrieve an object located on-site.” The camera started again, this time following the hallway leading right and then dropping five stories down an elevator shaft.

“At the bottom of the elevator, there are three barrier doors that not even our best tech hackers would be able to crack in a timely manner. Zoel, this is your second task. I’ll need you to open them with your power. Disrupting the first door will signal a breech,” Taylor continued, “but the Regs on-site will be deactivated. The response time for an external security team is sixteen minutes. We should have plenty of time to complete the mission and be out before their reinforcements arrive. This mission hinges on it being a quick surgical strike. We hit fast, get what we need, and are out of there in fifteen minutes flat. Understand?”

We all nodded, our group uncharacteristically silent.

“The mission has been planned down to the smallest detail, and you will be well prepared. You have your schematics and detailed instructions downloading onto your arm panels as we speak. Memorize them as we prepare. Ginni,” she looked at the frizzy-haired girl, “you are to keep constant watch on the Chancellor’s location. After I feel everyone is ready and able to accomplish their personal mission objectives, we’ll wait until the Chancellor leaves the site again, and then we’ll strike.”

All we did was train, eat, and sleep for the next two weeks. As the days passed, my power buzzed to life faster and faster, and the more practiced I became, the further my control seemed to expand. The looks that came my way in the halls and cafeteria now had a hint of respect, or at least were no longer openly hostile. A new energy of anticipation filled the halls.

“Now find the four ex-Regs,” Jilia instructed.

I closed my eyes and let the buzzing expand inside me for a moment before sending it outward. I could easily feel out the entire shape of the room, but I pushed beyond it, farther and farther until the entire Foundation was a vibrating projection inside my head. It was a strange sensation; I could sense movement tugging at my scalp and from behind my eyes, like ants crawling in my skull. I tried to ignore it and focus on my objectives.

Moving bodies dotted my mind’s projection. One right outside the Med Center had the bulk of an ex-Reg. I paused, then continued exploring down the hallways. There, another one was in the corner of the Caf. The third stood by the wash-down station at the exit, and the fourth … where was the fourth?

I passed body after body—too slim, too short—but still couldn’t find the fourth ex-Reg. I breathed deep and pushed out a little farther, up the elevator shaft and all the way to the transport bay. I hadn’t gone this far before, and the projection shimmered and faltered in my head, as if it would collapse at any moment. I gritted my teeth and took several moments just to breathe, holding the image still. Two people stood in the transport bay, but one was larger than the other. Definitely an ex-Reg. He was standing beside the largest transport vehicle.

I squeezed my eyes shut tighter, only holding on to the four ex-Regs and letting some of the other details of the rooms go. These were my targets. I pushed past their skin, through the metal and muscle and all the way to their spines. I counted down the notched vertebrae from the top to the C2. Jilia had assured me spinal reattachment was an easy surgery. I was glad to have found an alternative to killing the Regs. Even Taylor had reluctantly approved.

I stayed there a moment, holding the four spines with my mind before pulling back out of their bodies to the hardened plaster poles they held in their hands. I snapped all four poles at the same time, feeling them clatter to the floor beside the ex-Regs. I finally breathed out and pulled back.

I’d learned to sever my telek connection gradually, since doing it too quickly left me dizzy and nauseated. I slowly worked my way back, letting each room dissolve in my mind’s projection cube until I was back in my own body, looking out of my own eyes.

I felt Taylor’s narrowed gaze on me. “It’s done.”

“Good,” she said. “Let’s keep going, to make sure your stamina can hold up. Can you continue?”

I swallowed. The truth was I felt light-headed and tired, but I didn’t want to admit it. “Be honest, Zoe,” said Jilia gently. “It won’t help anyone if you get on-site and aren’t able to perform.”

“I can keep going.”

“Good,” Taylor said. “Get into your suit; I’ll meet you in the transport bay.” She spun on her heel and left without another word.

I changed and took the elevator up. The bay was a low, wide space, with steel struts crisscrossed over our heads and down the walls. It was open to the Surface on one side, an uneven rectangle of light so bright I had to look away. I tugged nervously on my glove and took one more glance back at the green beyond the opening. I shivered despite the warmth of the suit.

General Taylor stood off to the side with Rand and one of the ex-Regs. A mountainous jumble of metal was beside Rand, melted beyond recognition. Parts burned orange around the edges. The ex-Reg, Eli, reached forward with a coolant tank. He released the top valve and liquid sprayed over the melted slag. Steam billowed off in clouds, but it didn’t injure the ex-Reg’s metal reinforced hands.

I came forward, familiar with the routine. Since we didn’t have spare giant metal doors lying around, Taylor had us train with a pile of steel left over from construction on the Foundation. Rand melted down more metal into the heap each day, making it heavier and heavier. By the time I reached them, the steam was gone, and only a swath of glistening icy coolant was left behind on the surface.

“Lift it,” Taylor said, a bit unnecessarily. I’d been doing this all week; I knew the drill. I closed my eyes and let the telek expand again. Almost immediately the transport bay filled the projection cube in my mind. I surrounded the slab of metal with my telek.

It was melted solid into the rock underneath, but as I poured more of my energy out, like a web surrounding it, I felt the satisfaction of knowing it didn’t matter. Weight didn’t matter, gravity didn’t matter. It was an object filling a space, and I could move any object as I chose. I knew later I’d feel the exhaustion of having used so much energy. But right now all I felt was the powerful sense of being in control. I’d been afraid my power was too much for a human body, but now that I’d managed control, all I could do was revel in it. My focus was sharp as I imagined molding myself and the rock together into one entity.

I am that.

I lifted the half-ton weight with ease, dropped it down, then lifted it again three times.

When I put it down the last time and opened my eyes, I felt Rand’s and Taylor’s stares.

“Whoa,” Rand said.

Relief and anxiety both reared up in my chest. I’d passed the test and I felt ready, but at the same time, I’d never been truly tested in a mission before. Taylor led us back toward the elevator. I hurried after her, but when we got to the elevator, Adrien stepped out.

“Adrien,” I said in surprise. “What are you doing here?” We’d both been so busy with our separate training schedules that I’d barely seen him the past couple weeks.

He smiled. “I hoped I’d catch you. I thought since you were in your suit already maybe I could show you something.”

He looked at the General standing beside me and the edges of his smile drooped a little. “General,” he said with a slight nod.

She stiffened, but nodded back before stepping into the elevator.

I stared a moment, watching the General frown as the doors closed behind her. “Sometimes I don’t think the General likes glitchers.”

“She might not like us,” Adrien said, “but she knows she needs us.”

He looked down at the clock on his arm panel. “Come on, we’ve gotta go or we’re going to miss it.”

The grin was back on his face as he tugged on my arm and led me toward the bright Surface opening. As we got closer, the sunlight almost hurt my eyes, it was so intense. A small wave of anxiety swept over me. I knew I could trust my suit to protect me, but the Surface still filled me with an instinctual fear.

The light cut a sharp line at the end of the tunnel, like a dividing edge between underground and the Surface. I paused at the shadow’s edge.

Adrien had walked straight into the light. He held out a hand to me, and finally I reached for it. We stood there, arms stretched out between us for a long moment, one in sunlight, the other shadow, until he tugged me forward.

“Good,” he murmured, looking out. “We got here right at sunset.”

My eyes widened when I realized we were at the edge of a cliffside. Brush and tree branches extended overhead and around us to the side, but there was still a clear view of the valley and mountains in the distance.

“Amazing, isn’t it?” Adrien whispered. “I thought you might like to remember what beauty looks like. That, out there, that’s freedom. Beauty. Life. Everything we’re fighting for.”

Mountain ranges spilled over each other, cascading down as if they’d been planted there just for the purpose of looking pretty. Peaks one after another, each giving dramatic backdrop to the last. And then there was the sky, full of colors like I’d never seen before. Purples, blues, pinks, and other hues everywhere in between.

I’d never thought of the Surface as beautiful. It was always a scary place, but the scene in front of me made my breath catch in my chest.

“It’s incredible,” I admitted with surprise. I turned to look at Adrien. The setting sun lit up his blue-green eyes, making them brilliantly translucent against the black of his pupils. He seemed so much lighter than he had been the last time we’d been alone together. Less weighed down. Even the shadows under his eyes didn’t seem as deep.

“There was a place like this where Mom and I lived for six months, in a cave up in the mountains. Every morning I’d walk down to this little stream that was half a mile from the cave. Everything was so green. Mom was always tense and on the lookout for flyovers. But I just looked.”

His eyes were bright as he talked. “I’d sit for hours underneath one of the thick trees near the cave. All kinds of animals would come up to me after awhile, if I sat still long enough. Squirrels would run right over my legs like I was just part of the tree roots, and I’d get this amazing sense of connection to everything around me. Life calling to life.”

He looked down, his smile dimming slightly. “I forgot about it for a while when I was training so hard to become a Rez operative. But you brought it back to me. It’s how I felt when I met you too, you know.”

“Like what?”

“First when I had visions of you, and then after I met you in person, I felt it even stronger: I thought—here is a soul that calls out to my soul.”

I felt a deep, singing happiness at his words. He slipped behind me and tucked his hands around my waist, pulling my back into his chest. His chin nuzzled my neck as we looked out together. The colors shifted as each minute passed and, right when I’d think it couldn’t get any more beautiful, another shaft of light would break through and light up the earth with a new color. I was so swept up in the color and sharing it with Adrien that the moment felt magical. Unearthly. Incredibly fiery purple-gold rays shone from the edge of the horizon right as the sun finally dipped down behind the mountains.

“What changed?” I turned to look up at Adrien. I bit my lip hesitantly. I didn’t want to ruin the moment, but I couldn’t help asking. “You seem different now. Did you have a new vision? Something good?”

“I have had some visions,” he said slowly. “They don’t always make sense. Some visions seem to contradict others.” He stared out at the dimming light. “Then there are things I’ve seen that have to happen if there’s any hope for us at all, even if they’re bad. I used to worry about it constantly, trying to follow the threads that connect the whole chain of events together. I spent countless sleepless nights trying to understand which visions I might be able to change and which ones I shouldn’t and which ones I would make happen by trying to stop them. It was making me sick.” He was quiet a moment. “But I had some long talks with the Professor and he’s helped remind me of some things I’d lost sight of.”

I swallowed. “Like what?”

“Like that the world is far bigger than just me.” His face was barely visible in the twilight, his strong cheekbones cutting a sharp shadow. “And I think I’m finally getting it in my head that having visions doesn’t make me personally responsible for everything that happens. I’ll still try to change what I can, and make happen the visions that need to come true. But I can see that I was spending so much time worrying about the future, I was losing out on the moments I have now.”

He looked at me, his voice soft. “Time is more precious than ever. And I want to spend every moment I have with the people I love. I want to spend it with you.” He pulled me close, wrapping his arms tightly around me and burying his face at the nape of my neck. “All I want is you,” he whispered. His body was so warm against mine, like he’d soaked up the sun and was reflecting it back to me. “All I want is you.” He repeated, his voice a low rasp.

Darkness fell around us, and it suddenly wasn’t enough to feel the pressure of his arms around me. I wanted to be able to touch him.

As if reading my mind, he pulled away and laced his fingers through mine. He tugged me back through the transport bay to the elevator. We didn’t say anything during the ride down. His words—All I want is you—kept pinging around my head. A flush crept up my neck. When I glanced up at him, he was watching me with a heart-thumping intensity. Something in the air had shifted. We were still just holding hands, but even through my glove, the touch felt electric.

The elevator pinged as we arrived back at the Foundation level. Adrien stepped out and gestured to the wash-down rooms. “You go first.” His voice was a little higher pitched than normal.

After moving quickly through the wash-down chambers, I hurried into the changing rooms and pulled on a fresh tunic set. I toweled off my hair and let it hang long and damp down my back.

Adrien emerged from the shower right as I came out of the changing room. He’d wrapped a towel around his waist. His chest was sturdy and wide, with the lightest tufting of hair.

He paused, watching me watch him.

The temperature of the room seemed to burn ten degrees hotter. He crossed the space between us and dipped his lips roughly to mine. He cupped my jaw and pulled me in closer.

I became aware of how little cloth was between us. I kissed him deeper and felt the buzzing explode in my ears, but I managed to keep the power inside me. I felt another burst of heat as I realized what that meant. With my newfound control, my power wasn’t a barrier between us anymore. We could finally get as close as we wanted to, with nothing to stop us.

I pulled my tunic over my head, leaving only a thin camisole beneath. Adrien paused, eyes widening for a moment before he pulled me back in tight. I kissed him harder, wanting to draw him as close to me as possible now that I could.

Sensation pulsed through my stomach like a sound wave. The intensity of it grew the longer I kissed him. His hands slid down my back, moving slowly from my shoulder blades down to my waist. I pressed my chest to his, letting out a low moan as he kissed from my neck down to my collar bone. I grabbed his head and forced his lips back to mine.

The pulsing heat sizzled inside me, building up and up—

But then suddenly both of our arm coms buzzed loudly at the same time. Adrien pulled away, breathing heavily, and I looked down at my wrist.

I swallowed hard as I read the words on the small readout screen, the moment shattered.

Ginni confirms that Chancellor Bright has left the site. Mission commences in one hour.