When we arrived at the hangar, it was a bustle of activity. Three black backpacks sat at the base of the steps leading up to the underbelly of a mid-sized camouflage hover-plane. One of the bags was distinctly larger than the other two. Henri grabbed that one and climbed into the plane. Erik and I followed suit. I took a seat in one of the oversized chairs and waited while Henri spoke to the pilot. My apprehension from earlier hummed behind my confident exterior.

“Move all the stuff you brought from the cabin into the black backpack and then strap yourself in,” Henri instructed, his voice serious.

I did as I was told. The atmosphere was so charged that I could nearly feel the tiny sparks of electricity. No one spoke again until we were in the air.

“The plane will drop us off in a rural area approximately fifty miles outside of Mexico City. There is a road-car there that we will use to drive to a safe house approximately twenty miles outside the city. The laboratory we are looking for is on the outskirts of town,” Henri explained.

We had gone over all of this numerous times, but I nodded my head and listened. I knew Henri was anxious and reciting the plan helped calm his nerves. I tried to prevent his feelings from intensifying my increasing unease. I had to stay focused. I had to sustain my composure.

The flight took several hours, most of which I slept. I was still tired from my sleepless night—the respite after my run hadn’t been sufficient. We finally touched down in a small clearing in the middle of nowhere. The humidity engulfed me as soon as the plane door opened. Thankfully, the hunting suits had temperature regulators; it only took seconds for the interior of my suit to adjust, returning my body to a comfortable level. My hair was another matter. My dark curls absorbed the moisture in the air immediately and expanded exponentially. I fished a bandana out of my bag and used it to contain my hair. I tightened the straps on my backpack until they fit snugly against my body and climbed down the shiny metal steps. As soon as all three of us deplaned, the steps retracted and the plane rose silently, flying off into the inky-black night sky.

This was it—we were actually on the mission now. I was a bundle of nervous anticipation. Breathe, focus, I reminded myself. You can do this. You can do this, I repeated over and over again in my head.

I followed Henri and Erik out of the clearing and into the surrounding woods. The trees were thick, and I had no idea how Henri knew where we were going. When I opened my mind to him, I could feel his senses on overdrive.

We only walked for a couple of minutes before we reached the most dilapidated barn that I’d ever seen. The heavy wooden doors protested loudly when Henri pulled them open. I walked several paces behind Henri and Erik, afraid the barn would collapse once we entered. My senses were not quite as good as the boys—theirs came naturally with their talents—so it took my eyes several additional seconds to adjust to the pitch-black barn interior. Once my eyes could distinguish shapes, I realized that the barn wasn’t nearly as unstable as it looked. In fact, there were large support beams holding the roof and sides up in an odd configuration, which gave off the impression that the building was falling in on itself. I stared up in wonderment.

In the middle of the barn were several road vehicles. Henri selected a small rusted-looking one with a layer of grime covering the windows and got in the driver’s seat. I opened the back door and climbed in, leaving the passenger seat for Erik.

The interior and the exterior were a study in contrast. The outside looked like that of a vehicle that had been sitting in an abandoned barn for years, while the inside looked as pristine as the Crypto Bank at Headquarters. The seats were soft, black leather and the dash and the doors were covered in buttons that lit up in a rainbow of colors when Henri powered up the car. The backs of the headrests and center console were equipped with small touchscreen computers. I stared wide-eyed at all the gadgets.

Henri drove out of the barn and turned down a path situated between two large trees.

“Talia, eat something from your pack,” he ordered after we’d been driving for a couple of minutes. His tone was serious and he was in charge, so I obliged without comment, even though my stomach was so knotted that I doubted any food would fit.

“I want to stop by the safe house and make sure everything is copacetic, and then we’ll go locate the laboratory while it’s still dark. It’s probably about ten miles from the house to the location, and we are going on foot, so make sure you have the energy,” Henri continued.

I found several bags of dried fruit in my pack and started munching on them noisily. I didn’t know how long it actually took us to arrive at the safe house, but it felt like forever. Every passing minute compounded my mounting anxiety. When we finally pulled up out front, I was saddened to see that it looked much like the barn on the outside—extremely run-down. I didn’t know what I’d expected. I knew we wouldn’t be staying at a four-star hotel, but I’d hoped the rumors of the poor living conditions on hunts were exaggerated. Apparently, they weren’t.

“Only mental communication from now on, understood?” Henri’s mental voice filled my head.

Both Erik and I nodded.

“Erik, go around back. I will go in the front. Talia, stand guard outside. Keep your mind as open as you can.”

I nodded again, swallowing over the lump of sugary fruit lodged in my throat.

“Get your weapons ready and be on full-alert,” Henri continued.

I immediately rummaged in my bag and withdrew a belt with eight knives fastened to it. I threaded it through the belt loops at the waist of my suit. Next, I strapped two larger daggers to the outsides of each of my legs, blades running the length of my thighs. I could feel my heart beating in my throat. I was suddenly terrified. It wasn’t until I actually strapped the weapons around my waist that reality hit me. I was actually in the field. This was not practice. The weapons were real. I could really die. I started to panic.

Erik reached back and put his gloved hand over my mine. “Just stay calm, you’re going to do great. Remember your training and focus.”

I nodded and gave him the closest thing to a smile that I could muster. Inhale. Exhale. Repeat.

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I waited for Henri and Erik to get out of the car before opening my own door.

“Count of three,” Henri said once we were all standing outside of the vehicle. “One, two, three.”

Erik silently jogged around to the back of the house. Henri moved deftly towards the front door. I positioned myself outside of the entrance that Henri had just disappeared through. I closed my eyes and opened my mind wider. I had a strong connection with both Henri and Erik. I couldn’t feel a flutter of mental activity anywhere in the immediate vicinity, which calmed me slightly.

Several minutes passed before Henri called, “All clear.”

“Ditto,” Erik responded.

“All quiet out here.” I tried to make my mental voice calm but it came out frantic.

I could feel both Henri and Erik moving through the house. They emerged a minute later.

“Let’s check out the target location. I’ll take the lead. Erik, take the rear. Tal, stay between us.”

Henri took off at a steady jog through the woods. I focused on his back. Keeping my mind as open as I possibly could, I cast the net wider and wider as we ran. I couldn’t feel anything human in the woods, but I didn’t honestly expect to since it was the middle of the night.

Sweat drenched my hair, soaking my bandana. The rest of my body was covered by the suit and remained nice and cool. Henri’s strides were much longer than mine, but I was surprised to find that it wasn’t that hard to keep up with him. It took us over an hour to reach the target location. I felt the distinct buzz of another human brain when we were about three miles out.

I was unable to read minds without an established relationship. It only took a few exchanges with a person to establish a relationship and probe their thoughts, but with a complete stranger, I only heard a murmur of brain activity. However, that was enough to let me know when there was someone in the vicinity.

“I can feel someone,” I announced.

“How far?” Henri inquired.

“Maybe three miles? I’m not really sure. The buzz is faint.”

“I can feel it, too but just barely,” Erik chimed in.

“Talia, take the lead,” Henri ordered.

Great. Following Henri was comfortable and mindless. Leading the way added a level of responsibility that I wasn’t ready to take on. But Henri was in charge, so I silently jogged ahead of him and stretched my mental net. I focused on the buzzing and followed it to the edge of the woods.

I went to step out into the open, but Henri placed his hand on my shoulder to hold me back. The three of us crouched down in the leaves, and I pulled the focus from my mind and redirected my energy to my eyesight. It took longer than I would’ve liked but finally the buzzing dulled, and I could see a house that I recognized from the intel. I could also see the source of the buzzing—he was sitting in the dark by the front door. He looked as though he was sleeping, but I knew better. Sleeping minds didn’t buzz.

“How many people total do you feel awake, Tal?” Henri asked.

“Just the one.”

“Can you tell how many are sleeping?”

“No, I’m sorry,” I responded regretfully, feeling as though I’d let him down.

Henri unhooked his backpack and searched inside. He pulled out his Communicator and a heat scanner. He attached the Communicator to his wrist and the scanner to his Communicator. It gave off a faint glow that wasn’t visible from more than a couple of feet away.

“There are ten inside,” he said.

“Ten?” Erik sounded surprised. “I thought there weren’t supposed to be more than a handful of them at any given time?”

“That’s what our intel said but who knows. We aren’t going in tonight, anyway. Hopefully, there won’t be as many tomorrow or the day after,” Henri answered him.

Henri spent the next few minutes collecting heat images of the house and the surrounding areas. Then he repacked the devices in his bag.

“Erik, we should morph. Give your bag to Tal,” Henri said.

Erik took off his boots and all of his weapons, packed them in his bag, and then handed everything to me. I draped his long rifle across my chest and secured his backpack to my front. Henri also removed his boots and weapons and handed me his backpack.

“Tal, after we morph, strap the extra packs to my back, and then get on Erik. He’ll carry you back.”

I desperately wanted to argue with him, to tell him that I could make the run back on my own two feet. But the first thing that Henri had taught me was not to argue with the person in charge—it could get everyone killed. Unfortunately, our minds were so connected that both boys heard my mental struggle just as clearly as if I’d been speaking out loud.

“Okay, Henri,” I finally agreed, ashamed that they’d heard me warring between my stubbornness and his authority.

Both boys transformed into large wolf-like dogs. The suit’s material stretched to conform to their new body shapes. I’d seen it plenty of times over the past several weeks but it never ceased to amaze me. I quickly fastened the packs to Henri, before climbing onto Erik’s back and winding my hands into the fur around his neck. The boys took off into the woods at a breakneck speed. I clung to Erik as we weaved in-between trees, thankful that Henri had chosen a wolf form when they morphed.

Like Donavon, Henri was a Polymorph and could, therefore, transform into any animal of his choosing. Like most Polymorphs, Henri favored one animal in particular—in his case, an extremely large bird, since it made the most of his tremendous wingspan and was the fastest way for him to travel. The trouble with a bird-morph was that I had yet to master riding it. In practice, we had been working on me riding on one of them while they were in bird form, but I tended to fall off more often than not. I never would’ve been able to stay on while Erik flew through the dense trees of this forest.

Even in wolf-form, it took considerably less time to get back to the safe house. I jumped off of Erik’s back as soon as we arrived. I unfastened the packs from Henri and then watched as the human forms of both boys rematerialized in front of me.

Henri silently led the way into the house. Immediately, I noticed that, like the barn, the house was designed to look more decrepit from the outside. It was nowhere near luxurious on the inside but it was clean and all of the walls and staircases appeared intact. I was relieved. As soon as we closed the door, I pictured all of the doors and windows from the floor plans and mentally locked them. The sound of all the locks clicking simultaneously into place was faint but both boys heard the noise. I felt safe for the first time that night.

“We’re going to sleep in shifts,” Henri announced, speaking out loud for the first time in hours.

I hadn’t realized what a toll maintaining the mental connection was taking on me until it was broken. I sagged with relief at the reprieve.

“I’ll take the first watch. The bedroom is upstairs. Both of you need to get some sleep. Erik, I’ll wake you up in a little while,” Henri continued.

Exhaustion was beginning to set in as I followed Erik up the stairs. There were three rooms on the upper floor. One was a bedroom and one was a bathroom, while the third room looked like a command center. There were touchscreens lining the walls and panels decorated with buttons and switches. I walked directly to the bathroom and took off my suit, replacing it with my pajamas. My skin was immediately thankful to be free of the constricting material and allowed to breathe. I quickly brushed my teeth to erase the fuzzy film. Sleep couldn’t come fast enough.

Erik was standing awkwardly in the bedroom in his pajamas when I walked in.

“There’s only one bed. If you want me to sleep on the floor, I will,” he offered.

“The floor is wood, not exactly comfortable,” I observed. “Haven’t you ever been on a hunting team with a girl?”

“Yeah, Henri and I had a girl as a Floater before he requested that you be permanently assigned to us,” Erik confirmed.

“Did you sleep in the same bed with that girl?” I asked.

“It never came up.”

“Just don’t grope me in my sleep and I think we’ll be okay,” I replied dryly.

“I don’t plan on it, but I make no promises.” Erik’s eyes twinkled mischievously in the darkness.

I rolled my eyes and climbed into bed. Erik headed towards the bathroom. I was vaguely aware of him climbing into bed a couple of minutes later, but I didn’t have the energy to speak.