10

Kai looked out across the group in front of him. They sat in the afterglow of their time of singing, some chatted quietly, others lay stretched out with their feet crossed, staring up at the stars, nobody in a hurry to leave. Kai’s Affinity pulsed through his veins, and in a flash he saw a deep sea of green lodged over each and every one. How was it possible that nothing had changed?

"This is the dumbest army training I've ever seen." Zap picked his way through the rooftop full of blinking kids.

"Yeah! We wanna fight." Paintbrush sat at Kai’s feet, as close to him as she could get without being bopped on the head by his guitar. She jumped to her feet and boxed the air in a flurry of fists that made her paintbrush ponytails bounce alarmingly.

Kai tucked both her fists into one hand and lowered them. He frowned at Zap. "How did you get on in the lab?"

"Yeah, about that. I came to tell you that we might have found a way to un-taint the serum."

"Might?"

"I'm still running tests, but it looks promising."

"Promising isn't enough. We have to figure out how to destroy or neutralize room-full’s of the stuff. Might and promising don't cut it."

"When did you become such a pain in the rear? I know all that. I've been in that lab now for days. Barely slept."

"Bree's dad—"

"I know that too. He's running out of time. Why is he so important anyway? It's not like any of us have ever really had a dad, and we're all OK. Right?"

Elden stepped out from the edge of the group. “A word with you? Away from here.”

Kai’s belly twisted in the usual contradiction of whether to trust the man or not. Elden’s face gave no clues. “Sure.”

They moved away from the crowd, closer to the edge of the rooftop.

Night lay thick, but the black canopy was peppered with stars and the air was fresh and cool, laced with the smoky aroma of barbequed sausage from a street vendor. This darkness was wholesome, natural, lit slightly by the lone streetlight below. Nothing like they’d been trapped in before.

“What’s up?”

“You know I’ve been involved in recruitment and training on the other side.” Elden coughed, looking like a lizard on a hotplate.

Was it guilt, or was he hiding something? “I know that.”

“There’s something else you need to know. I’ve watched you work with these kids to reverse the training they’ve been through. Tell me if I’m wrong, but you don’t seem to be getting anywhere.”

“If you’re here to gloat, I can save you the trouble. I know. I’m just out of options.”

“I’m not trying to rub it in. I just know something that might help you.” Elden fidgeted, flicking his thumb off his forefinger. His gaze darted.

Kai watched the pulse in Elden’s neck beat faster. Kai rested on the edge of the rooftop wall, leaning casually, but his mind zoomed, trying to suss out what Elden was attempting to achieve and whether he could be trusted. What kind of man allows his friend to be marked and does nothing to stop it?

Elden rubbed his chin. “Let me get this straight. You want to reverse the effects of the training so that you can send these kids home, right?”

“I want them untwisted. Free.”

“You’re not going to achieve that with what you’re doing now.”

“But it worked on Paintbrush.”

Elden’s nose crinkled up.

Kai realised he’d need to spell it out. “The little Chinese girl. She’s free.”

“Oh, you mean Ziqi? The one with ponytails that stick out like this.” Elden waggled his fingers next to his head.

“Like paintbrushes. Yes.” Ziqi. Now she had a name. Kai wished he hadn’t found out. Some things are better not to know. As much as he hated to admit it, Elden was right, Ziqi was the only one he’d seen a change in. “What do you suggest I do?”

Elden took a deep breath, and hunched towards Kai as if he were scared of being overheard. “The process they go through in training is brutal. They get pumped full of dark Affinity Enhancer and then they get put into simulations that are designed to annihilate trust and belief. Let me put it this way, you can’t free something in the natural that is locked up in the spiritual world.”

“It was the opposite with Runt.”

“Exactly. While her body was locked up in a dingy room, nearly starving to death, her spirit was free and full of life.”

“So I need to go back? Where, though? This building is ours now. Nobody is trapped here in either realm.”

Elden shook his head. “I don’t mean it like that. During their training, certain things can get,” he struggled for the right word, “siphoned out of them and stored. At headquarters, the Crux, there’s a vault—”

A drawn-out screech of tires skidding on tar screamed from the road three stories below. The crash shook the building. An explosion of shattered glass rocked the air. Streetlight dipped, replaced by a dirty orange glow that flickered.

Ruaan ran towards the edge of the roof but stopped before looking over. His eyes glowed grey in the dark. “The building is on fire.”