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Chapter 25

I FELL BACKWARD in my surprise, tumbling off the lip of the box and falling hard on my tailbone. I barely looked up in time to see a dark shadow jumping deftly down from the bed.

“How are you here?” The breath was knocked out of me from my fall and the question came out as a whisper. Max was alive!

But then my eyes widened with the ramifications of what Max being here in Adrien’s bed meant. How long had he been impersonating Adrien?

Max’s bulky frame towered in front of me, his shock of blond hair catching the light from my forearm panel before it turned off again.

“What have you done?” I shrieked, my voice finally back. “Where’s Adrien?”

I heard Rand swing his curtain open. “What’s going on?” He sounded still half asleep and couldn’t see us in the dark.

Max swept to the side and twirled behind me. One of his thick arms slipped around my neck, choking me so I couldn’t call for help. Any question of Max’s intentions were answered. After all the excuses I’d made for him, here he was attacking me after impersonating Adrien for who knew how long. The buzzing exploded in my head. I used my telek to send a shoe across the room, hitting the alarm button. A siren began wailing and the lights turned on bright overhead. Just in time for me to see Max reaching for a knife at his ankle and swinging it toward me.

I ripped the blade out of his hand with my telek and flung it to the ground.

Rand and Juan jumped down from their beds, ready to attack. I lifted a hand, trying to warn them to stay back. I knew everyone in the compound would be here any second, and we needed Max alive and conscious to find out what he’d done with Adrien. My buzzing power swarmed around him, but I was sure I would kill him in my panicked rage if I used it. He squeezed tighter, cutting off my air supply, and pulled me backward toward the exit. The pressure squeezed tears out of my eyes.

I turned my head sideways in his grip like Tyryn had taught us in training and then with my free arm reared back and elbowed Max hard in the stomach.

With a surprised gasp of pain, he lessened his grip, and I used the moment to drop to the ground and wriggle out of his grasp. Rand was on Max the next second, catching him and pinning both of his arms behind his back.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?” Rand growled as the door opened. Sophia ran into the room, with Tyryn and Professor Henry right behind. Tyryn started typing on his arm com and firing off commands.

“Where’s Adrien?” Sophia asked, swirling one way and then the other as she searched the faces in the room.

All I could do was stare at Max. He blinked hard, like he was just waking up. Everyone was talking at once. Max looked down at the knife on the ground, then back at me.

“I didn’t mean to attack you, Zo, I swear! Chancellor Bright must have implanted some kind of sleeper compulsion to kill you if my cover was blown. I would never hurt you, you have to believe me!”

It felt like I was watching the scene through a marbled pane of glass, separate from it. None of this made any sense.

Sophia screamed, knocking Max out of Rand’s grasp and kicking him hard in the gut when he hit the ground. “Where is my son?”

Max didn’t say anything and she kicked him hard again.

“Stop it, Sophia!” I crouched down beside him. Even though it repulsed me, I put my hand on Max’s face. “If you ever had any love for me, just tell me where Adrien is.”

Max looked up at me, his eyes unsure. “I don’t know, Zoe, I swear. The Chancellor took him.”

My legs threatened to give out from under me. “How long? How long ago did she take him? How long have you been here pretending to be him?”

Max looked down, avoiding my eyes. “Since your raid on our facility.”

I stepped backward. No. It couldn’t be true. He’d been imitating Adrien for a month and a half? I would have noticed. How could I not have noticed?

The buzzing became a screech in my head and I lost control for a moment. The table and chairs flew against the wall with a loud clatter, startling everyone. I backed up a few steps. None of this was real. It couldn’t be.

A sudden explosion of pain across my cheek startled me back into my body. Adrien’s mom had slapped me. I blinked and looked at her as she raised her arm to strike me again. Tyryn grabbed her, trapping her arms against her chest to hold her back.

“I knew you’d get him hurt!” she shrieked, fighting to get free from Tyryn. “I tried to keep him away from all this. But he wouldn’t listen, because of you!”

Everyone’s attention was turned toward us. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Max disappear. Literally disappear.

One moment his body had been clearly there on the ground, and the next there was only air. I gasped and lurched forward to the space where he’d just been.

Tyryn turned to his com again. “Lockdown! Full facility lockdown,” he said. It lit up everyone’s forearm panels and came over the loudspeaker. “Intruder alert. I repeat, intruder alert. Everyone rendezvous at the training center and await further instructions.”

Tyryn ran out the door, Rand and Juan on his heels. I raced after them.

“Max can make himself look like anyone, so don’t get separated,” I shouted. “And he can somehow make himself invisible now too. Make sure to com me if you bump into something that shouldn’t be there.” It felt ludicrous even as I said it. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. Jilia had said that most glitcher powers expanded as we grew into them. In a way it made sense. His power manipulated the minds of the people around him. Instead of making you see another person when you looked at him, now he could make you see nothing at all.

We turned a corner and saw City, Xona, and Ginni sprinting toward us.

“Stop right there!” Tyryn yelled to the approaching girls. “Don’t move!”

Xona stopped immediately, grabbing the elbows of the girls on either side of her. “What is it?” Xona asked from about fifteen paces away.

“It’s Max,” I said hurriedly. “He’s infiltrated the Foundation. He could be impersonating anyone.”

“Have you been out of one another’s presence for even a moment?” Tyryn asked, eyeing each of them intensely.

Ginni and Xona exchanged a look, then stepped back from City.

“What?” City asked in an affronted voice. “You think I’m him?”

“We just met you in the hall.” Xona’s voice was cold. “You were alone.”

“We don’t have time. Show us your power!” I yelled over the both of them.

City turned back to my group and huffed. She raised her middle finger, electricity exploding from the single fingertip in a spiral up to the ceiling.

“It’s not her,” I shouted, sprinting forward again, passing them and heading toward the central exits. My mind raced. The compound might be in lockdown, but if Max had been here for a month and a half already, he could have found a way to subvert the security system.

Then I frowned. I was sure I knew something about the security at the Foundation. The more I thought about it, though, the less I could remember. It was like the thought teased at the edges of my mind, but whenever I tried to look at it directly, it was gone. But obviously Max must have encountered some problem too, or else the Chancellor would have already come for us.

My mind flashed to every time Max had held my hand or kissed me since the raid, pretending to be Adrien. I felt sick to my stomach. I forced my legs to keep moving forward. As I turned into the foyer leading to the elevator, I saw General Taylor standing right inside the barrier security door. Her hair was still wet from the wash-down chambers.

“Don’t move!” I shouted.

Taylor swirled around to me, surprise on her face. “What’s going on?”

She took a step toward me, but I held up a hand. “Stay back.”

Footsteps filled the space behind me as Tyryn, the Professor, and a group of Rez fighters came in.

“Stop,” I said over my shoulder. “It could be Max.”

“What’s going on here?” the General asked. “I came back as soon as the remote alarm for my office was triggered and now the compound’s on lockdown? I barely made it inside myself before the security door shut.” She glared expectantly at all our uncertain faces. “Well?”

“Max would have to come this way to escape,” I said, eyeing Taylor. “Which is conveniently right when she shows up. The security door could have trapped him inside before he could leave.”

Taylor’s face became rigid. “Max. You mean Maximin? The shape-shifter who works for the Chancellor? He is the security breach?”

The Professor stepped forward again. I put a hand on his sleeve to stop him, but he pulled away. “Ask her something only the real General would know,” I said. “And Tyryn, restrain her while he does it.”

“How quick you are to fulfill your destiny,” Taylor said with a bitter smile at me. “I leave for a day and suddenly you’re the one barking orders?”

My face reddened.

Tyryn pulled Taylor’s arms behind her back while the Professor leaned in to ask his question. He spoke quietly in her ear, so we couldn’t hear.

She pursed her lips. “Top of my left thigh,” she said, not bothering to whisper. “Now let me go!” She pulled against Tyryn.

The Professor nodded.

As soon as Tyryn let her go, she straightened her tunic. “Now report about Maximin.”

“He infiltrated six weeks ago,” Tyryn said. “So far we haven’t yet ascertained if he has been able to communicate with the Chancellor.”

“We’ve got to get this door open.” I pounded the door in frustration. He could be long gone already. “His powers changed. He can make himself invisible now. He could have gotten through the security door before it closed and run right past you without being seen.”

The General turned to Tyryn. “The whole Foundation could be compromised. Get our best techers to the security hub. Maximin will have covered his tracks, but see if there’s any trace of his outgoing communications. Anything. And get someone up here to open this door!”

Tyryn nodded, turning back to his com to relay the order. Taylor turned to me.

“Didn’t you report seeing Maximin during the raid?” Taylor asked. “You said he was tied up when you left him behind!”

Her words stopped me short. “His powers are way more extensive than I ever knew. I don’t know if he was keeping it from me or if they hadn’t developed yet last year.” My mind raced, working it out. “His power affects the minds of the people around him. If he can make himself disappear completely, then he can probably project his face onto other people’s. That boy I saw could have been anyone.”

I breathed out and closed my eyes. I kept seeing the building collapse after we escaped. Where had Adrien been when it fell? Did he survive? Max said the Chancellor wanted Adrien’s power. She was the one who’d rigged the building to explode. That had to mean she would have protected him somehow. Max would have the answers.

I turned back to the door and tried to project my telek beyond it to see if I could feel the shape of Max’s body, but my mind was too chaotic. I barely made it halfway up the elevator shaft before it cut out again. I took a deep breath. I had to get to the centered, calm place where I could access my power steadily.

A boy with round cheeks and unkempt dark hair ran in. He seemed somehow familiar, but I couldn’t remember his name. He inserted a drive into the wall near the door projection panel. The heavy door slowly began moving in its tracks just as I got hold of my telek again.

“Stop!” I suddenly screamed and ran forward. The boy jumped, pulling out the drive so that the door closed again.

“What is it?” the boy asked nervously.

I closed my eyes, centering myself and managing to calmly call my telek. Something didn’t feel right, but I couldn’t pinpoint what.

“There are only ten of us in this room,” I finally said, blinking hard and trying to sift through my confused overlapping senses, between what I saw and what I felt.

“And?” Tyryn asked, shifting so his hand was on his weapon.

“I feel eleven bodies.”