“Put that down!”
Startled, Kayla fumbled the computer notebook. Jack grabbed it before it hit the ground.
Kendra stood in front of them, her eyes ablaze with fury. “Who are you?” she demanded.
“They’re my friends. I didn’t think you’d mind,” Amber explained nervously, stepping forward.
Kendra’s eyes bored into Kayla. “You’re one of us.” She lunged for Kayla’s arm and examined the fake tattoo on her wrist. “It’s not real.”
“Why do you think that?” Jack asked cautiously, keen to know what flaw she’d detected in his meticulously crafted fake.
She pointed to the bar code on her forehead. “The bars are wrong,” she said, her voice angry. “Our bar codes are all the same.”
“No, they’re not,” Kayla disagreed. “Every bar code is individual; all of them are different because they contain different information.”
Kendra pushed her hard on the chest, sending Kayla sliding to the ground. “Moron! Idiot! Imbecile!” she screamed. “Our bar codes are all the same! Everyone else has an individual bar code, but ours are the same!”
“What do you mean, ours?” Kayla asked, staying on the ground, feeling safer there.
“Don’t you know me? Don’t you have the visions?” Kendra screamed.
“Hey, lay off her,” Amber insisted boldly. “She has visions.”
Jack extended his hand to help Kayla get up. “Visions? I know you’re telepathic but … you see actual visions?”
“Sure!” Amber answered. “She’s had them since we were about thirteen. We were at camp together when she saw a mental image of me nearly drowning in the lake. The next day it happened. I got a cramp while swimming. If she hadn’t kept her eyes on me the whole time because she was worried about the vision, I would have drowned.”
Kendra peered at her. “Then you must know. You must have seen me. I have seen you.”
“I’ve seen you, too,” Kayla admitted, slowly walking toward Kendra. “What are we to each other? Sisters? Cousins? Who was your mother?”
“My mother was not my mother,” Kendra said, staring at Kayla with steely eyes. “And you are not my sister.”
“What are you saying?” Kayla asked imploringly. “Do you know the answer to this?”
“My visions are the most powerful. Their experiments enhanced my ability more than any of you. I am the culmination of their efforts. My suffering at their hands has made me invulnerable, and there is no longer a need for the lesser selves!”
Kayla shrank back from Kendra, frightened by the maniacal gleam that had come into her eyes and the fervor of her words. What others was she talking about? What lesser selves?
“These tattoos armor me against them,” Kendra continued her rant. “I have eluded capture and in so doing have transformed into a new creature, one who can outwit and intimidate.” As she raved on, she lifted her arms. Kayla noticed that the undersides of both of them were tattooed with feathers, a gorgeous pattern of blue, green, and brown. Wings!
With her arms still raised, Kendra turned, displaying the feathered tattoo that extended all the way to the two protruding wing bones of her muscular upper back. “I am a being of the future!” she shouted. “I cannot be bound to this desultory, mundane plane of existence.” This was the voice Kayla had heard in her vision, the same monomaniacal, enraged ranting.
“Who are the others?” Kayla dared to ask.
Kendra swung around to face her directly, stepping in front of her and speaking aggressively in Kayla’s face. “You are KM-1. The thief is KM-2. The corporate fool is KM-3. The palm reader is KM-4. At each step they added more and more power. I have seen you all because I am KM-5.”
“Who is KM-6?” Kayla asked, remembering the file on Grandma Cathy. “I read a file that talked about KM-1-6.”
“We are all KM, one to six! But KM-6 is dead! They tried to surpass my power, to fly higher. But like Icarus who fell from the sky, they overreached themselves.”
“Do we have the same mother?” Kayla pressed, frightened but desperate to know.
Leaping forward, Kendra abruptly yanked Kayla’s hair and, in a flurry of agile movement, drew a switchblade from her back pocket. “Our mother is us and I am her perfection. All the lesser selves must die! I will not rest until I am all that remains.”
Kendra raised the knife to Kayla’s throat — but in the next second, Amber twisted the arm away and sent Kendra staggering back.
Whirling around, infuriated, Kendra knocked Amber to the ground. Still clutching her switchblade, she lunged at Kayla again.
This time, Jack jumped between them and landed a punch directly to her jaw. Kendra stumbled but recovered instantly, returning the punch and connecting squarely with his nose, sending blood streaming from it.
Just as Kendra prepared for another punch, Kayla swept up Jack’s pack and swung it at Kendra, hitting the side of her head.
As Kendra careened, flailing for balance, Amber, Kayla, and Jack darted outside the tent and leaped into the swing-lo. Amber squeezed between Jack and Kayla, sitting on the back ledge of the two-seater craft. Jack activated the control panel, his hands flying with lightning speed. The craft lifted just as Kendra burst from the tent, eyes ablaze and waving her knife.
Kayla grabbed Amber’s hand to steady her as Jack brought the craft to full speed. In minutes, they’d put a good distance between themselves and Kendra.
Jack slowed the swing-lo. “Everybody okay?”
Kayla and Amber nodded.
“Well, that was not like anything I ever expected to happen,” Jack remarked, turning the craft in the direction of the cave. “How on earth were you living with that lunatic, Amber?”
“Honestly, I never saw her as banged out as she was today,” Amber insisted convincingly. “From the moment she saw Kayla she got extra flippy.”
“I wonder what kinds of experiments they did to her,” Kayla said. Despite Kendra’s bizarre, aggressive behavior, Kayla felt sympathy for her. Perhaps it was hard not to feel for someone who gazed at her with her own eyes. It was as though Kara and Kendra were living alternate realities. They were like Kayla, but surviving under vastly different circumstances, their personalities shaped by different events and different environments.
Kayla felt powerfully connected to all of them. Even Kendra, murderous maniac though she was, was only trying to survive. Somehow, Kayla felt she understood her struggle.