Chapter One
The days of watching his back were suddenly over. So was the terror of the torture machine.
The neutron force field across Zachary Keen’s cell dissolved. The guard named Ace grudgingly waved him out. Zach grunted. He should have been thrilled at his unexpected early release, that he wouldn’t have to carry out his threat. He’d sworn to Ace that they’d have to kill him before they would put him back in the machine. And he meant it. But as he walked down the long, monitor-lined hallway in front of the jailer, his footsteps echoing, gibes coming from the other kids’ cells, two thoughts burned in his mind. One, how badly he’d disappointed Mom. Would she ever be proud of him again? And two—revenge on the snake that set him up.
Zach did a double take at the enormous wall monitor. That was him on the screen. His shoulders seemed wider, muscles tighter than he remembered. He’d lost count of the pushups he had done. To say that he worked out for his health was on par with calling the Tiananmen Square Massacre a difference of opinion.
The faux-hawk hair wasn’t bad. A transformation generously provided by the juvie barber, and a far cry from the run-your-hand-through-and-be-done hairstyle he wore in his high school sophomore days. Maybe the shorter hairstyle would make Mom believe he’d cleaned up his act. Seeing him in jeans and a tee instead of juvie orange wouldn’t hurt, either. She never said anything during her visits, just looked at him and shook her head. All his life, she’d told him how proud “her boys” made her. Then this.
The day they arrested him was a blur. The only clear part was the way they cuffed him and treated him like a serial killer. Humiliated in front of his whole family. His year in juvie was hell. It had changed him, he knew. He went in naive, a geeky sixteen-year-old. He came out bitter and scarred.
Zach missed his family, couldn’t wait to see them. He hoped they felt the same.
“I don’t want to see you back in here,” the warden said when Zach came to the end of the corridor.
Ace sneered and filled his lip with snuff. Zach flinched when he reached out to deactivate the cuffs.
“No, sir.” Zach kept his head down. He had learned that lesson on Day One. Never look authority in the eye, or your life would be miserable. On Day Two, he’d learned another one.
Trust no one.
“Somebody pulled strings,” the warden said. “You’ll finish high school at the Mastermind Complex with your brothers.” The thought of seeing them again put a lump in his throat, but he wasn’t about to give Ace the satisfaction.
He and his brothers were geniuses. Zach’s quantum physics prowess had earned him accolades from the science community, but none of it mattered once Ace shoved him into that cell. Ace owned him. High school bullies were amateurs next to prison bullies. Being a genius put a target right square in the middle of his back, so Zach had to learn to fight. Like everything else, he learned quickly, and he learned well. It became his super power on the inside, and the only thing that kept him alive. His brothers knew all the details of juvie life. The bad food. Laundry duty. School work. The fights. Everything.
Except the machine. There was nothing they could have done about it anyway. It would have just stressed them.
“Record’s expunged. Nice second chance, Keen, don’t you think?”
“Yes, sir.” He knew that. Didn’t know who did it or why.
“You and your brothers close?”
“Yes, sir.” Extremely.
“Triplets, right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Do you have that mind bond thing that triplets are supposed to have?”
They did. They called it the Bro Link. And it was strong. “No, sir. That’s just a myth.”
“Keen?”
“Sir?” Zach shrugged off the impulse to look up and instead stared at the warden’s shoes.
“Good luck. You don’t belong in here.”
He nodded and left the warden’s office. When they got to the prison gate, Ace smirked. “You’ll be back. Your kind always comes back. Then you belong to old Ace again. Remember that, boy.” He spit black tobacco juice onto Zach’s shoe and shoved him out the door. Zach stumbled but caught himself. He glared at Ace then turned away. Spitting on him was the nicest thing the man had ever done to Zach. Scads nicer than shoving him in the machine. As the locks clicked behind him, Zach wiped his shoe on the grass and took his first breath of free air. Smelled wet. It was raining. Papa was supposed to pick him up at the gate, but the street was empty. His first day of freedom wasn’t off to a good start.
Would Mom even come?
Suddenly the Bro Link triggered, and Zach was inside his brothers’ heads. Movies about twins and triplets had the mind bond all wrong. Zach couldn’t see what his brothers saw. He couldn’t hear their thoughts. It wasn’t like that. There were no images, no voices. There was just…knowing. And Zach knew his brothers were excited about something. About him.
A grin that he couldn’t control spread across his face. He couldn’t wait to see them. Ignoring the downpour, he looked up and down the street for signs of Papa’s SUV.
“Zach!”
Nolan’s voice made Zach’s heart leap. There, across the parking lot, his family was waiting in the August rain. Mom… And Papa, Mikey, and Nol. They were all there. Like Zach, his brothers were thin with black hair, piercingly dark eyes, and light porcelain-like skin, but Mikey’s hair was pompadoured, while Nolan had a buzz cut. Zach took off at a dead run and dove into open arms.
“Hey, buddy!” Papa pulled him into a tight hug. Mom and both brothers joined in, and Zach squeezed hard. Tears streamed down his cheeks. Mom began to sob, saying his name over and over. She reached up and touched his cheek. Zach hadn’t felt that for a year, and it sent waves of comfort through him. Mom didn’t hate him. She’d come for him. He was rescued.
“I missed you.” Zach buried his face against her cheek. Then Papa broke down, and Zach’s brothers lost it, too. The whole family held one another, sobbing silently, warm rain drenching them, until the tears stopped.
“You grew muscles, dude,” Mikey said when they finally pulled away. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “And got a new do. Aren’t you afraid it’ll ruin your geek image?”
“Hopefully.” Zach grinned and scrubbed a hand through his brother’s black pompadour. “Compliments of the Quantum City Detention Center for Juvenile Offenders, greatest rehab center this side of Chicago.”
“You’re still using words with multiple syllables,” Nolan said. “That’s a good sign. I figured your brain would be fried after all that time hobnobbing with the criminal element.”
Fried brain. A tremor passed through Zach at the memory of the machine. Best that his brothers didn’t know. The machine even blocked the Bro Link. It blocked everything. “You have no idea.”
Mom kissed him on the cheek. “Let’s go home, honey. I’ll make your favorite.”
“You’re the best. They don’t serve dim sum in jail.” Home. Zach hadn’t seen it in so long. The first thing he would do is settle in and enjoy his missed family time. The next thing…
His eyes met his brothers’ as they climbed into Papa’s SUV. The Bro Link clicked. Mike and Nol scowled at each other then nodded at Zach.
“Gotcha, dude,” Mikey said. “We already have a plan.”
Nolan’s jaw clenched. “The jerk who set you up is going down.”