Vai

I had wanted to contact Alessandra the day after I talked with her in the lab, but Shel's mother had told me to wait. I wasn't sure Alessandra would contact me. I was the one who had invited her to dinner and she was older than I was so she might think it wasn't appropriate. El had assured me that the miasmids would have her contact me. They wanted me specifically. I assumed it had something to do with my father. Maybe they thought if they could take over me they could find out what my father was working on. They had tried and failed on Mars.

Three days after the lab, I was in Owen's room with Owen and Esther and Warpaint. Esther hadn't left Owen's room since we killed Adi. Adi had been well loved and the Security checks on the restricted levels had increased to a point where it was too dangerous for any of us to be there. That meant we were limited in how much we could spar. There was only so much we could do in Owen's room. Mostly Owen and I went to the gym. I did boxing while he practiced martial arts. I wasn't sure what Esther did. Maybe she was so good she didn't need to spar.

When we were together in Owen's room, we tried to discover new things with the light. Esther had discovered she could actually make herself float a little off the ground.

Owen could make a tiny flame anywhere on his person - not just on his hands.

And then there was me. I sat on Owen's bed. Warpaint stood by my side. I called the green light to the palm of my hand.

Do something, I thought at it. My palm tingled a little, but nothing else happened.

"Maybe it's just raw power," Esther said to me as she floated above the gray floor. "Try to float, like me."

I had tried that already, but nothing happened. I hadn't told Owen or Esther I had tried though so I stood up, focused the light on my feet like I did to enhance my jumping. Nothing happened.

"Jump a little," Esther encouraged.

I jumped only slightly, but with the enhancement from the light still banged my head into the ceiling. I didn't float, but immediately fell back to the floor. I landed hard with one knee on the floor.

I looked at Owen's closed bedroom door expecting his dad to come in. Esther had already retreated to the bathroom. Her head peeked out from the doorway. No parent came to inspect the noise.

"My dad left already," Owen said. He sat at his desk completely at ease as he tossed a white little ball of fire from hand to hand.

"I don't think floating works for me," I said.

"Fire then," Owen said. He closed his little fist around the fireball and it went out.

I sat back on Owen's bed. "I already tried fire. That didn't work either. Nothing happens except a little tingle."

"Maybe it can help you be super strong, my friend," Owen said.

"Maybe," I said. I hadn't thought of using the light in that way. I stood up. "Your parents never go in your bathroom, right?"

"Of course not," Owen said. "Esther would have been discovered long before now if they did."

I walked past Esther and into the bathroom. Warpaint was close behind me. I looked around the little bathroom. The walls were a cream tile, same as the floor. There was the toilet, the sink, the shower and a little cabinet. I formed the green light around my hand and hit the sink as hard as I could. Nothing really happened to the sink other than a loud noise when I hit it. I immediately recoiled my hand and held it to my chest just before I realized that my hand didn't hurt.

"I don't have super strength," I said, "but I didn't get hurt so maybe that's my specialty."

"I don't think so," Esther said. "It's just a shield. I can form one to. Everyone on the Lion of Judah Research Station could."

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So I still didn't have anything special with my light. My okulus buzzed. Alessandra. Shel's mother had been right.

"Alessandra is calling me," I said.

"Answer by the wall of the bedroom," Owen said. "All the walls are painted the same. She won't know it's in my room and not yours."

Owen and Esther stood away from me so they wouldn't be in the call. Warpaint was by my side as always.

"Hello," I answered the call.

"Hi." It was the first time I saw Alessandra not in her lab coat and with her wavy hair down. "I'm free now. Do you want to meet at the Museum Delectables?"

"Yes." My heart started to beat against my chest. My stomach started to twist. My hands grew cold. "I'll see you there." I ended the call.

"Owen and I will go in the maintenance shafts and meet you in the corridor behind the Museum Delectables," Esther said. "You just need to get her there with her back to the maintenance hatch. I can take care of the rest."

I nodded. I tried to ignore the torrent inside. I tried not to remember I was luring someone to kill her.

"I'll send El a message to let her know," Esther went on.

I looked at Warpaint expecting a protest, but he was silent. His protests had halted once Shel's mother got involved. I guess having a former Jo-Dinun on our side finally convinced him.

"Let's go, sir," Warpaint said. "I won't let the miasmids hurt you. I can use the Aether shield if I need to."

"I know. Thanks, Warpaint." I wasn't really worried about my safety. I was now convinced my father had programmed him to protect me with miasmids specifically in mind. When I was young, I had imagined myself fighting the K'thaktra in the war and being a hero. I had imagined myself killing hundreds of them. Now, actually going to kill someone - someone with the real enemy inside - I didn't want to do it. She wasn't a nameless K'thaktran face.

"Let's go," I said.

I started to head out when Esther said, "Make sure your distorter is turned on."

I waited until I was out in the corridor and then I turned the distorter on that would hide me from the cameras.

"What about your thing, Warpaint? You said you had something similar?" I felt rather than saw Esther and Owen in the corridor behind me. I heard the maintenance hatch open.

"I've turned it on already, sir," Warpaint said.

The maintenance hatch closed.

I nodded. Warpaint and I headed down a level on the elevators. Alessandra didn't arrive before us. We were seated near the back, but I positioned myself so I could see her when she came in. I ordered a lemonade as I waited.

I saw her before she saw me. Her expression as she came in was dark, serious, as if she was on a mission. She might have been on a mission for the miasmids. They couldn't take over me now that I had the light though. Did they know I had the light? I didn't think so. The first person Esther had killed before Owen and I had the light. The second one she had killed on her own. I hadn't been present for the third one. It didn't seem like the miasmids knew for sure who Esther was or where exactly she was at or that Owen and I were involved so however they communicated, I think Esther killed them - or in the first one's case sedated - before they could communicate with each other.

She saw me and for the briefest of moments I saw the pink glint in her eyes. Then her eyes were brown again and she smiled and waved. I smiled back. She slid into the seat across the table from me.

"We can't call this a date," she said. "You're too young still."

"It's just a precursor date," I said easily. It belied the roil inside. "It's less than a year until I turn 18."

"I'm not sure your father would like you dating either," she said.

"I'm sure he'd rather I date a scientist like you than . . ." I had almost said Callie. I had almost revealed my other life.

"Than what?"

"Than a girl with an old Levitric repulsor who would take me high above Olympus City."

"Someone real?" She put her elbows on the table and rested her chin in her hands.

"Just a dream I had once," I said. "My father hated that dream."

She nodded. "It does sound like something he would hate."

The waiter came to take our order. We talked about meaningless things over dinner - what school was like in the ansible, what it was like to work in my father's labs. Mostly my thoughts were occupied on how I was going to get her into the corridor behind the Museum Delectables. She never even looked at Warpaint through dinner and the mechatronic didn't say anything either as he stood by me.

We finished dinner. I still hadn't come up with an excuse to go in the corridor behind the restaurant, but there was no reason for me to have stressed over it so much as she said, "Let's go for a walk." She immediately headed directly where I wanted her to. I didn't follow right away because something didn't feel right. My first thought was that it was a trap the miasmids had set for me. But the miasmids didn't know about Esther and Owen in the maintenance hatch and I had Warpaint. I stepped in beside her.

Neither of us said anything as we walked along the corridor. There was no one around. The maintenance hatch wasn't that far away. It was in view, but not close enough. I needed to somehow position her so her back would be to it.

Warpaint made a strange mechanical noise behind me. I turned. Electrical currents ran along his white surface and he was stiff like he couldn't move. It took me a moment before I spotted the disruptor Alessandra had placed on him. I hadn't expected that. Disruptors like this one were illegal and it looked like she had made it herself.

"I'm sorry," she said to me. Pink was in her eyes. I heard a noise beyond the maintenance hatch, but it didn't open.

The Corruption came out of her ears in a pink smoke and rushed me.