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  Oscar and Thad pushed their way through the crowd toward her. She stood up when she saw them.

  Thad was frowning, and that was never a good sign.

  “Jessica,” Thad said as soon as they were in earshot, “we need to talk.”

  “What is it?”

  “Billy Jackson’s apotheosis—” Thad said.

  “Stone’s Change.” Oscar said.

  Jessica looked at them both and saw in their expressions something as inevitable as an oncoming train. The two of them stood there, perhaps wanting to be taken somewhere where they wouldn’t be overheard. To Jessica, the secrecy didn’t seem to matter anymore.

  “What do you mean, ‘Stone’s Change?’”

  Oscar looked around at the students streaming around them.

  “What do you mean,” Jessica repeated, harshly, “‘Stone’s Change?’”

  Thad spoke. “The rumors are all over the place, but Oscar managed to read from a primary source.”

  Oscar nodded. “Dr. French, genetics. She was at a meeting last night. Apparently Billy was affected by Allison—”

  “Christ,” Jessica said, “I could see that.”

  “No,” Thad said. “Oscar means physiology, not psychology. That was the reason for the post-mortem you were concerned about.”

  No. Not now.

  Oscar nodded, “Billy was a latent Class III when he came back.”

  They kept talking to her. She’d been right. The secrecy didn’t matter. The rumors had already leaked from the staff. The students around her already knew that something unprecedented was going on, something that trivialized all of Jessica’s efforts since arriving here. What was she, if now they could ignite a given talent in anyone’s skull?

  She was just another cipher, a null, a lab rat—

  Nothing had changed since her father had died. She was still only someone’s toy. Stone’s toy. All her dreams were nothing more than something else to keep her in line. What were they going to do to her now? Now that she knew she was worthless to them?

  “Jess?” Thad asked.

  She ignored him. She walked toward the medical building, through the mass of students. Inside that building was Allison Boyle, the person who’d made worthless everything Jessica was.

  TWENTY SIX

  NAVARRO COUNTY, TX: Tuesday November 2, 1999

  3:38 PM

  They’d left Allison strapped to the table for a long time after their tests concluded, long enough for the fluid in the tube going into her arm to change to clear, and for her to recover a bit from the drug. The giddy high was replaced by a dull ache behind her temples.

  She’d had ample time to curse herself for a lack of caution. Tearing apart their machinery was not going to help things. She was supposed to cooperate and gain their trust, make it easier when she decided to escape from here.

  Though, if Chuck was right, she didn’t have time for the subtle approach.

  Of all the people to have the psychic hotline to.

  She looked at the tube going into her arm. She waited to feel her teek being drugged away again. Her senses were wrapped around the needle in her arm. She could yank out the needle, or the tube from the machine, but that would only be a delaying tactic. If she was going to do something, it had to be something they wouldn’t notice.

  She had to block the stuff flowing into her arm. She couldn’t crimp the IV tube with her teek. That required moving two surfaces in different directions. She could move a whole segment of the tube up down or sideways, but that wouldn’t block the flow.

  It took her a moment to realize that she could also rotate the tube. She slid her teek up the tube, feeling along its length. The plastic felt as if it was woven by silken fibers finer than hair. She felt back until she had reached inside the machine itself, then she rotated a length of tubing a few times, counterclockwise.

  Even though she could barely sense the fluid with her teek, she could tell when it stopped flowing inside the tube. It suddenly became that much harder to sense. She held the tube like that, until they came to unstrap her.

  Without that to worry about, all she’d had to think about was escape, and Chuck. When they did come for her, the techs were apologetic for making her wait so long.

  “Sorry to leave you here for so long. There were some technical problems we had to deal with.”

  Is that so?

  To her immense relief, the first thing they did was remove the needle from her arm.

  She noticed they removed the wires a little more gingerly than they’d applied them, giving her a little more respect. Could they be afraid of me?

  Of course they’d be afraid, even if they thought she was drugged. She had a history of leaving destruction in her wake. She’d already killed one person, and she had torn apart a piece of industrial-strength testing equipment in front of these people. If she wasn’t so preoccupied, it’d frighten her.

  “Be careful standing, Miss Boyle,” said one of the techs as he unstrapped her. “You may feel somewhat disoriented.”

  The fact was she didn’t feel disoriented at all. Her head felt clearer than ever, especially now that she wasn’t teeking that damn tube. The tech must be expecting some residual effects from the drug they’d intended to be feeding into her arm.

  Allison tried to act as drunk and mushy-headed as she had when she disembarked from the plane. She got to her feet unsteadily.

  “We’ll take you to your room. You can rest until your six o’clock meeting.”

  Does everyone here know my schedule?

  Allison leaned on the tech, because that’s what he seemed to expect. He led her out of the testing area, followed by the other one. As they left, Allison noticed that many of the scientists that’d been hovering around the area seemed to have left as well. Apparently they’d seen all the interesting bits and had better things to do now.

  The testing area had been below ground level. The techs took her up in an elevator. Allison wasn’t thinking about where she was being led, so she didn’t notice Jessica until they had walked into the lobby of the medical building.

  The techs walked her toward the glass doors that led out to the student courtyard. Allison glanced around and noticed Jessica watching them from one corner of the lobby. Jessica glared at them, and Allison straightened up, because she now noticed something that the techs seemed to have overlooked. The guards here were unconscious.

  When Allison straightened up, the tech who’d been supporting her seemed to realize something was wrong. He noticed the guard by the front door, and started walking toward him, leaving the other tech by Allison.

  Allison looked up for the omnipresent security cameras. When she saw one, a haze of white smoke hovered around it.

  Oh no…

  The tech who’d gone to examine the guard never reached him. The tech broke out into a sweat and collapsed halfway there. “What are you doing?” Allison said, looking at Jessica. She felt the hard edge of panic slicing into her.

  “I’m not letting you take everything away from me,” Jessica said, her voice cold and affectless. It scared her more than Chuck had.

  The remaining tech edged away from her.

  Allison backed away from Jessica. “They aren’t going to let you get away with this. They’ll drug you, or worse.”

  Jessica shook her head. “With you alive, I’ve already lost Prometheus.”

  “You can’t—”

  “Can’t what?”

  Ten feet away, Allison heard a weight hit the floor. She turned and saw the last tech slump.

  “I can’t what?” Jessica said. “Who’ll stop me?”

  Good question. Everyone here was unconscious, and the cameras were blinded. How would anyone know something was going on here? “One of their spotters must have seen you doing all this.” Allison waved her arm across the lobby.

  Jessica shook her head. “They took their best spotter in with you, trying to force an apotheosis on him. They took him out on a stretcher. He and every scientist in this bui
lding went to the Ward about ten minutes ago.”

  Allison felt out desperately with her teek as she kept backing toward the doors outside. Jessica slowly walked toward her.

  “There are other guards in this building,” Allison said. “One of them must have heard something—”

  Jessica shook her head. “If they have, it’s too late. With you gone, I’ll have everything back. They won’t dare harm me if they don’t have another Class III to fall back on.”

  Allison had almost reached the doors to the outside, but she had to stop because of the heat the doors emitted. She turned and saw that the glass seemed to be glowing slightly.

  Allison looked up at the sprinklers.

  “The water’s shut off,” Jessica said. “The smoke detectors and the fire alarms are melted. It was the first thing I did.”

  The carpet around Allison turned black. The char stopped about fifteen feet away from her. Why isn’t she attacking me directly, like the guards and the lab techs?

  At the moment it didn’t matter. She had to get out of here.

  Allison grabbed the door with her teek as small jets of fame began shooting from the carpet around her. She pushed the door open as hard as she could.

  Several things happened at once.

  The stressed door flew open against a warped frame, and the stressed glass shattered.

  A wind blew in from the outside, sucked in by the burning carpet.

  The small flames exploded toward the ceiling fanned by the sudden wind.

  Someone outside the building screamed “Fire!”

  Jessica yelled “No!” as Allison dived out the broken door.

  The transition from total isolation to chaotic mob was instantaneous. She stumbled out into the courtyard to be absorbed into a converging mass of PRI’s students.

  She turned and saw the front of the lobby engulfed by a wall of flame. As she watched, more glass shattered, and she saw Jessica emerge from the flames, apparently unscathed. Jessica glared at the crowd around the front of the lobby. A pair of kids emerged from the crowd and started toward her. Everyone else kept their distance from the burning building.

  Jessica looked the crowd over, and her gaze locked on Allison. She looked about to say something, but she was interrupted by a muffled pop. Allison saw a large dart sprout from Jessica’s neck.

  An expression of surprise crossed Jessica’s face before she collapsed. One of the approaching kids caught her as she fell.

  Allison backed away from the scene, into the crowd, as Prometheus guards converged on the front of the medical building.

  She tried to kill me. The thought wouldn’t go away. It kept repeating itself, over and over.

  “My God,” Allison whispered. “What about the people in that building?”

  The guards erupted from the crowd, surrounding Jessica and the two kids. From somewhere, Allison finally heard an alarm going off.

  5:53 PM

  Allison never got that rest before her six o’clock meeting. Guards from Prometheus hustled her into a tiny little meeting room, and people shot questions at her for two hours. They acted as if she was the one who’d gone nuts, not Jessica. As if all of this was, somehow, her fault.

  She went over what happened at least three times, each time she neglected to mention the fact she wasn’t drugged anymore. She was gambling that they didn’t know, and couldn’t tell. Allison was also using her supposedly drugged state as an excuse to give them slow and muddled answers.

  Chuck was right. She had to get out of this place. Some of the people questioning her, the scientists mostly, seemed to be trying to defend Jessica, to find some excuse for her actions. The security people questioning her weren’t any better. The incident gave them leave to be paranoid about everyone.

  Allison considered herself lucky that they released her to go to her meeting with Macy.

  Even then, the anonymous Gary Busey type escorted her the whole way, even through the blue student areas where she was supposed to have free rein.

  Security is going to be a nightmare after this, Allison thought. Even if I keep from being drugged, even with my teek, they’re going to be watching me under a microscope.

  I’m going to need help.

  ◆◆◆

  The guard left her in the familiar, institutional living room. She hoped that she’d be able to get her plan across to Macy in the hour they’d be given. Zack had given her the idea how to communicate under everyone’s nose. But when she’d had the idea, she’d believed she was going to have time, that she’d have more than the one visit.

  Macy was smart. She’d pick up on what Allison was doing. She’d have to. Otherwise, Allison would be completely alone in this.

  They let Allison stew for a few minutes before they opened the door and let Macy in. Macy stood in the doorway for a few moments, looking at her, before she said, “Hey, girl. How you doing?”

  Allison stood up and hugged her. “I’m doing all right. God, I’ve missed you.”

  “Same here,” Macy said. “No offense, but your dad ain’t the greatest company.”

  They separated, and Macy wobbled a bit. Allison took her arm and asked, “Are you all right?”

  Macy shrugged. “They gave me stuff to take after they stitched up my feet. It’s got me a little twirly—” She sighed when they both collapsed on the couch. “Boy did we screw up, didn’t we?”

  Here goes nothing. Allison took Macy’s hand in both of hers. “Do we have to dwell on it? You know we’ll get through this. These people are just trying to understand what I can do. I’m just glad you’re here to see me, so we can talk.”

  With each sentence, Allison squeezed Macy’s hand, emphasizing a specific word. It was fairly simple, “Do… You… Understand… Me…”

  At first Macy looked at Allison as if she thought she was nuts, but then a confused expression crossed her face, as if she could tell Allison was doing something and she was trying to figure out what.

  Allison kept going, trying to weave the important words into sentences that didn’t sound contrived, “They chose to hand—” squeeze— “us an opportunity to talk—” squeeze— “to each other. Even if they—” squeeze— “forced us into this, can’t—” squeeze— “we try to see—” squeeze— “a more reasonable way through it…”

  Hand talk, they can’t see it. Understand?

  Allison felt as if she talked for twenty minutes, saying aloud what her captors wanted to hear, desperately trying to emphasize what she wanted Macy to hear. But, eventually, after an eternity, Macy squeezed her hand back.

  Yes.

  8:41 PM

  After her meeting with Macy, Allison spent her time looking for Zack. The powers that be had allowed things to slip back to a normalcy that felt even more of a facade than usual. The only evidence of Jessica’s outburst were sheets of plywood covering the entrance of the medical building, and a slight smell of smoke hovering over the courtyard.

  There were still kids around, walking in the floodlit courtyard. But everyone was quiet, their conversation muted. It was as if everyone Allison passed had suffered some private tragedy that they couldn’t bring themselves to talk about.

  The area of the courtyard next to the medical building was deserted. No signs warned anyone away from the scene. Everyone seemed to be avoiding it automatically, as if some unspoken fate would descend on anyone who showed too much of an interest in what had happened.

  Allison didn’t want to draw attention to herself, so she avoided the area along with everyone else.

  She finally found Zack in the gym between the dorms.

  The gym was a large open area, surrounded by an indoor track. Half the lights were out, and it seemed Zack was the only person here this late. He was running along the track, alternately passing from light to dark, visible to invisible.

  Allison watched him make a circuit of the track. He seemed to run effortlessly, his face lost in concentration. He didn’t even appear to notice her watching. It was the first fully seriou
s expression she’d seen on him. He wore shorts and a tank-top. What she saw made her think that skinny wasn’t the right word to describe him. He was thin, but she couldn’t think of anyone that well-muscled as skinny.

  The bracelet on his wrist wasn’t his only tattoo. A tiger rode his right bicep; the image seemed to take a feline stretch every time Zack swung his arm. Allison caught sight of another tattoo on his back. She could only catch a glimpse of green when his collar flapped. She wondered what it was.

  “Hey,” Zack said as he rounded the corner in front of her for the second time.

  Allison didn’t know why, but she suddenly felt embarrassed for watching him. She did her best to ignore the feeling. She stepped under a light as Zack slowed to a walk. “I need to talk to you,” she said.

  “You need to talk to me?” Zack asked, still walking. Allison paced him around the track. “What the hell happened between you and the ice queen today, Allie?”

  Allison shrugged. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s Jessica’s problem. The PRI people can deal with it.”

  “Allie, that’s not just cold. It’s wrong—”

  Allison shook her head. “I didn’t expect her to get sympathy from you.”

  “Damn it. She’s one of us, trapped here as well as everyone else. And it isn’t just her the techs are going to deal with. If they get paranoid about the psychokinetics we’re all three in trouble.”

  Allison grabbed Zack’s arm. “Like I said. It’s Jessica’s problem. It’s Prometheus’ problem. And I need to talk to you.”

  Zack nodded. “Ok, let me get a towel.”

  ◆◆◆

  They walked out into the courtyard, away from the buildings. Zack wiped his face with a towel and said, “So talk.”

  From his voice, Allison could tell he was disturbed. There was little of the wise-ass tone he’d had before. For a few moments Allison wondered if she could trust him. But who else did she have? She hadn’t any time to coordinate with Dad and Macy. They were as much on their own as she was. She needed help to get to them, and Zack was the only person she had.