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Thankfully, Pops was thinking along the same lines. “Waitress?” He tipped his hand in the air. The young woman walking past him jerked around, sloshing a cup of water over her shirt. She squawked, but did her best to regain her composure.
“Yes?”
He clasped his hands together, putting on a pleasant smile. I automatically relaxed, then cringed. His persuasion powers were working on me, too. “We are visiting from out of town and wanted to pay our friend, Bob Kuzmin, a visit. Could you direct us to him?”
Behind us, Quin motioned for his grouchy friend to follow him into a corner. They sat.
“Certainly.” The waitress hastily wiped water from the tray. “Would you like me to tell him you’re here?”
“No-no, this is meant to be a surprise.” Pops tilted his head as if he was embarrassed. He leaned forward and, like a magnet, the waitress did the same. “Do you think you could alert security to those two in the corner? The ones who are improperly dressed? They seem to be following us, and that certainly isn’t safe for a man of my position.”
The waitress drew back. Her blond curls bobbed as she nodded. “Of course, sir. I’ll get right on it.” She bit her nails, and then quickly stopped herself.
“Thank you.” Pops’ lips tightened in a satisfied grimace. “The Community is safe.”
The waitress dashed off, not even remembering to finish her part of the mantra. I scooted toward Lance, unnerved by the whole exchange.
“That should take care of that problem,” Pops noted. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have an old friend to visit.” He patted me on the back before disappearing down yet another hall—
A sad thing, how easily people could be convinced to sign their lives away. The treatment for theophrenia almost always resulted in a loss of personality. But if Miss Black’s training went well, I might be able to convince her grandfather that my powers were better used elsewhere—
I was back in the cafeteria.
I groaned. These flashbacks were getting worse. Back and forth between memories I’d seen and memories I hadn’t. There was something shady about that particular memory, rippling on the surface like an oil slick in the airship’s hangar bay.
Lance leaned over the table, watching a couple converse with their waiter. “I wonder how many times we’re going to hear, ‘The Community is safe,’ today.”
“No idea,” I muttered.
“Hey, look.” Lance jerked his head at the two men who’d been following us. Three guards stood around them. Quin looked embarrassed, rapidly trying to talk his way out of the situation while the other guy sulked.
Served them right for coming after me and my family.
One of the guards looked toward us—the one who had examined our IDs earlier, but before he could question us again, a young woman our age plopped into a seat across from me. She had shoulder length brown hair pulled into one of the few “stylized” cuts the Community allowed, and she wore a pale blue shirt and pale gray pants, nothing that stood out.
I blinked. “Uh... hello?”
“I can’t believe you’re back! Chris... Kate...” She propped her chin on her knuckles. “So good to see you again.”
I stared at her, dumbstruck. How did she know what our fake IDs said? Was she a Special Forces agent in disguise? A telepath?
Lance chuckled nervously. “I’m sorry. Do we know you?”
“Of course!” She laughed. “It’s me, Anna. Don’t you remember? We shared chemistry in high school.”
I tried picturing my classmates from chemistry, but honestly, I couldn’t remember more than a few of their faces. I certainly didn’t remember this “Anna.”
Lance and I exchanged glances. Quin seemed to be fast-talking the guards toward the exit, both groups too busy to worry about us. Was Anna a merc? If so, she fit in way better than the others.
She gave us a mischievous grin. “Now that you’re back, there’s a question everyone wants to know—are you two dating?”
I blinked. Why would anyone care about that?
Lance shrugged. “Sort of.”
I froze. What was he doing?
Anna’s eyes popped open. “Seriously? Oooo... just wait until I tell everyone! I told them it was bound to happen.”
“Yeah...” I shuffled uneasily in my seat, suddenly wishing we were dealing with the mercs. At least it was clear what they wanted.
“That’s so exciting!” Anna clapped her hands together and glanced over our shoulders. She quickly diverted her eyes back to us. “You should totally see my room here. It’s great. I’ve been living on my own ever since I moved from my parents’ house.”
“I’m not sure—”
“Sounds cool,” Lance said smoothly. “Why don’t we go check it out?”
I glared at him. What if this is a trap?
Lance flinched. “It’ll be fun,” he murmured, his voice forced.
Dear Community—
This flower charm was obnoxious. Technically, it was a telepathy artifact—artifacts were objects enchanted to mimic certain powers—and I’d accidently used it to project my thoughts. At least I had directed the thought rather than broadcasted it across the room. That would have been terrible. What if everyone thought they had theophrenia? I shoved the charm between my shirt and my coat, where I wouldn’t have to worry about accidently using it.
“Come on!” Anna grabbed us both by the wrists and yanked us from our chairs. Since I didn’t want to cause a scene and attract more guards, I didn’t resist. She dragged us through the hall and into an apartment room a bit bigger than our old dorm rooms combined. Her walls were covered in pictures of similar people with similar hairstyles—all smiling like cheerful leaders on cheesy self-help brochures, except these were beauticians’ posters.
If I took off my hat, it would be painfully clear I did not fit in.
“How’s college going?” Anna closed the door behind her and plopped on her bed. She motioned to the chairs against the wall. We sat. Lance put his hand on my shoulder. He smiled, his eyes glancing over me, and I nearly jumped. His confidence gave me a warm fuzzy feeling that tickled my ribs, and it had been over a month since I’d seen the kind of smile he’d had when he got his first sword.
Was Val right? Did he actually like me?
Heat rose to my cheeks. I pressed my lips together to keep from saying anything. We weren’t dating, never mind that Lance had been hinting at it for the last month. I’d been focused on recovering from extensive burns and getting the Coalition’s stolen car back from the Camaraderie. I didn’t have time to worry about dating.
“It’s... going,” I told her. I couldn’t very well say I’d dropped out of college to join a band of freedom fighters. Especially when I had no idea who this person was. Granted, if I used the flower charm I could try to get a sense for who she was and what she wanted—
No. I wasn’t going to use the charm.
Lance squeezed my shoulder. “History is as bland as usual.”
“Naturally.” Anna flipped her hair and tapped her finger against her lip, examining us. She grinned. “You guys are actually dating? I knew I should’ve seen it coming. I mean... what’s more romantic than a couple of students from St. Petersburg failing the scan and then fleeing together for safety?”
My heart skipped a beat. Lance’s hand went to his sword. “We didn’t fail—”
Anna held up her hands. A sly smile crossed her lips. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell anyone. If I really wanted you caught, I would have let the guards get you.”
Lance didn’t move his hand from the hilt of his sword. “What are you talking about?”
“Why don’t you take a look at each other?” she suggested.
I frowned and hesitantly did what she said. I blinked. Lance looked... different. His jaw was a little rounder, his eyes blue instead of green. And his hair was less shaggy—
I stood abruptly. “Get out of my head!” My vines twitched beneath my coat sleeves. It was like being in one of Lady Winters’ memory attacks, except it felt far too real.
Anna shrugged. “I’m not in your heads. But, given your reaction, I take it you know the truth behind theophrenia?”
I scowled at her. Of course we knew the truth. Theophrenia—the hallucinogenic “plague”—was a lie, a cover-up for the existence of superpowers. “Who are you?”
Anna leaned back in her chair. “I’m a radiation elemental.” The lights above us dimmed, then cracked, fracturing into a rainbow of colors that drizzled around us. I let out a breath. It was pretty. Not realistic, by any means, but definitely not something a normal Community citizen would dream of. “I haven’t been taking the pill, and I figured out that I could control light. I’m supposed to take the Health Scan soon, which unfortunately means my time here” —she gestured to the room around us— “is limited.”
I cringed. If security found out she had powers, she wouldn’t be studying beauty very long. Quite the opposite, really.
She raised an eyebrow. “You know what happens, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” I mumbled. Thanks to Lady Winters’ memory seeds, I had a mind’s-eye view of innocent students being transformed into hideous, mindless beasts. Of me going through those terrible transformations, of the stinging green liquid and the helpless sensation of being trapped inside a glass tube—
“Do you know where they go?” she pressed, dispelling the image before it became a full-blown attack. “The people who fail?”
A knock sounded at the door. We all froze, but when the door pushed open, Pops stood in the doorway, his fingers interlaced over his cane. “If you three have caught up, we have errands to run.”
Anna stared at him, her eyes wide. “You’re... you’re him.”
Pops quirked his head before quietly stepping inside and closing the door behind him. “You would do well to lock the door before having private conversations.”
Anna shifted in her seat, chastised. “It’s not often I find someone with outside information. If you know where the students who fail the scan are taken—”
“They’re not taken anywhere near here,” Pops said flatly. Anna winced. “But we are on an important mission that may eventually help them. Do you know anything about Pete Sokolov? I need to speak with him. I have a location, but no way to convince him of who we are.”
Anna blinked. “I can help.” She hopped from her chair and grabbed a piece of paper from her desk. She scribbled something in blue ink and handed it to Pops. “Give him this passphrase. That should let him know you’re safe.”
Pops eyed the paper before folding it neatly and slipping it into his coat’s breast pocket. “Thank you.”
She nodded. “Good luck, Dr. Nickleson.”
His whiskers twitched and I flinched at her using his title. Thankfully, the memories didn’t surface. “Thank you. Stay out of trouble.”
Anna grinned, then turned to me and Lance. “Keep in contact, okay? I want to hear all about you two once you become official.”
I gnawed at the inside of my lip, wishing everyone would forget about this whole dating thing. One, we wouldn’t be contacting her anytime soon. Two? We had bigger things to worry about. Like my parents. And those mercenaries. And making the Community truly safe, with no Health Scans and students being turned into beasties when they failed.
Students like Anna, if she didn’t get out in time.
“Nice meeting you.” Lance smiled and squeezed my hand. I stiffened.
“Stay safe,” I told her. She gave me a puzzled look, but I pretended not to notice as I followed Lance into the hall. I didn’t want to think about what would happen to her if she went through with the scan.
Back outside, Pops kept his eyes on the sidewalk, his cane tapping the concrete and leaving little circles in the dusting of snow. I glanced around for any sign of the mercs, but the streets were empty. “Where are we going?”
“The slums.”
“Slums?” I asked, puzzled.
“The poorer part of town,” Pops explained, his voice quieter than usual as he led us to the edge of the city.
