I felt like the air had been knocked out of my chest. I looked over at Adrien, a tumble of confusion in my mind. Of course. For the first time since the incident at the train platform, I looked, really looked, at Adrien. My anger and hatred must have blinded me. His body was rigid, his face carrying the same blank expression that I had just seen on Molla’s. The Chancellor was controlling Adrien, too.
The realization tore through me. It was possible, just possible, that the Chancellor could have made Adrien share his visions with her and then forget. Could it mean— My heart seemed to expand outward as a rush of emotion washed over me. Had he not betrayed me after all? Could Adrien really love me?
So many emotions struck me at once, I could barely sort them out. Joy that he could still be the boy I had fallen in love with, that the past few months hadn’t been a lie. Pain and guilt at ever having doubted him. And terror. I was terrified for him, now that I knew he was a prisoner in his own body, unable to control himself as the Chancellor made him hurt Molla.
“This is your last chance,” the Chancellor said. “Will you join me voluntarily?”
I turned to her, letting the anger I felt inside of me begin to rise up and grow. She was lying about everything. She never really wanted to help glitchers be free, she just wanted to use them. She was building an army of glitchers, controlled and manipulated completely by herself. But she couldn’t control me. For whatever reason, her compulsion power didn’t work on me.
“This is the difference you want to make in the world? This is how you want to save glitchers?” I gestured at my friends in the room. “We’d never be free with you. We’d just be trading one form of mind control for another.”
The Chancellor smiled, only thinly veiling her anger. “The ends always justify my means.”
She sighed. “It is clear to me that you have made your choice. But unfortunately, you have made the wrong one. Now I will be forced to take other measures. Would you like me to demonstrate my Gift?”
She looked at the others. “Hurt yourselves.”
Max began beating his head savagely with a fist. Adrien had dropped the knife from Molla’s neck and stabbed himself hard in the leg while Molla threw herself into the wall, headfirst.
“Stop it!” I screamed, running over to stop Molla from hurling herself at the wall again.
“Cease,” the Chancellor said calmly. They all froze where they stood. Blood seeped through the leg of Adrien’s pants. A thin line of blood dripped from Molla’s forehead.
“You’re a monster!” I screamed at the Chancellor, going to Molla and tearing some cloth from her shirt to wipe her head.
“Am I?” the Chancellor said calmly. “I can make them do much worse. Molla,” she said, tossing a small device at her. Molla caught it and stared at it in confusion.
“Deactivate yourself with this weapon if Zoe attempts to harm me.” The Chancellor turned back to me. “I can order them to kill themselves and they’d do it.”
My eyes widened in horror.
“Don’t worry. I won’t, at least not Adrien. He’s much too valuable. Molla on the other hand,” she said, waving a hand as if swatting a fly. “She’s entirely expendable. Seeing through walls is useful enough, but we have cameras for that.”
A cruel expression settled on the Chancellor’s face. “Zoe, there really are no other options for you. I compelled Adrien to inject you with a whole host of new Surface allergens. The outside world is completely deadly to you, even if you think you could somehow escape me. No amount of immunotherapy can change that now.”
She frowned, appearing sad but not quite apologetic. “I know I must seem harsh, but I’m unused to having to find ways to persuade people to do as I ask. I haven’t had to do so in so long, I’ve almost forgotten how.”
She put her hand on my shoulder. “You will stay here with me. There’s nowhere else to go.”
She held out her hand to me, waiting. I stared at it. If I didn’t go along with her, everyone in this room would be lost. She’d kill Molla and enslave Max and Adrien. And what about my brother?
I glared at the Chancellor. Every option in front of me was horrible in its own way. She was the one putting me in this corner with her cloying mixture of threats and promises. I could join her and protect all the people I loved, but everyone else was still doomed to live and die without ever knowing what it ever truly felt to feel alive.
All the moments since I’d begun glitching began parading in my mind—that first glimpse of color, the fear of my nightmares, the wild joy of drawing and capturing beauty on paper, the exquisite taste of strawberries, the unimaginable blue-green of Adrien’s eyes, the horrible depression I’d felt after I found out about Daavd. All the things I could do and feel by choice.
If we didn’t fight, if we just stayed here and built on what the Community had created, the drones might have a peaceful life, but it wouldn’t be a life they’d chosen for themselves. How could I not fight with every last fiber of my being, even if I knew it was hopeless, for the chance at something better? Suddenly I knew I had my answer. Really I’d known all along.
Anger bubbled up inside me, itching in my balled fists. My eyes flashed between the Chancellor and the hair-trigger weapon Molla was holding to her own temple. On the periphery, I could see Adrien, still bleeding, with the knife poised to slash his skin. My anger burned into a searing rage.
The high-pitched hum raised to a scream in my ears. It flooded through me like a burst dam. The entire room sharpened in detail—the overwhelming rush of rage at the Chancellor and love for Adrien brought a focus I’d never had before. It was without effort. It was instinct. I had been trying so hard to control my power, to rein it in and hide it inside of me, but I’d finally learned to let myself go completely. The power was part of me, and I could use it as instinctively as walking. The realization flooded in as every part of me sizzled with power: Control over my power only came when I abandoned control.
With a burst of invisible energy, I hurled my mind outward until it encompassed the entire space. I could feel the sloping contours of each of the other four bodies in the room, the rustle of their clothes against their skin, every micromillimeter of space in between them, and lastly, the hard lines of the weapons.
Again, I had the sensation that the room was inside me, like it was a 3-D image held captive in my mind. I could zoom in on any part of it, passing easily beyond the inconsequential barriers of metal and skin. I zeroed in on the Chancellor’s chest and suddenly I was inside—I could see the blood vessels and feel the four chambers of her pumping heart.
My hatred rose up inside me. It would be so easy to deactivate her. I saw the Chancellor’s eyes widen as if she could feel the intrusion. I felt the single beat of her pulse as she made the decision to make Molla pull the trigger.
My rage seared red, burning away all doubt and fear.
No.
I felt Molla’s finger shift infinitesimally and I surrounded the metal in her hand and ripped it away from her just as it fired. The laser shot across the room in a flash. It sliced into the wall with a sizzle as it fell.
I turned and time seemed to slow. Adrien jumped to his feet. He ran straight toward me, knife raised.
I looked at him but reached out through my web of energy to where the Chancellor stood. No matter what, I had to save them from her. I closed my eyes and located the main blood vessel leading to her brain. But could I kill her? Could I take that final step and risk becoming a monster myself? Just as Adrien jumped toward me with the knife, I closed my eyes and squeezed the vessel shut.
I turned in time to see awareness come back into Adrien’s face, but his momentum was already set, the knife coming right at my chest. He swerved to the side at the last second, and the knife crashed so hard into the concrete floor that the blade broke from the handle.
The Chancellor’s body crumpled to the ground.
Molla shook her head, eyes widening in terror as she looked around her. Her whole body was shaking. “I was
there inside, watching but I couldn’t stop myself. I couldn’t stop it!” Her cries edged on screams.
I ran over to Molla and smoothed down her hair, tugging her trembling body into my arms.
“Get Max up if you can,” I yelled to Adrien. “We have to get out of here now.”
“After what he did?” Adrien said incredulously.
“Is she dead?” Max’s voice was oddly calm. I spared a glance for him, still curled up on the floor. He was looking at the Chancellor’s ashen face.
“No,” I said, looking away. “I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t be like her. I stopped the flow of blood to her brain for a few seconds to make her pass out. So we have to get out of here now. All of us,” I said pointedly to Adrien, gesturing to Max.
Adrien’s nostrils flared but he nodded in one sharp motion and hauled Max up to his feet. Arm still around her back, I led Molla out the door. Max could barely stand but Adrien dragged him along behind us. Adrien’s leg was bloody and I knew it must be hurting, but he walked forward steadily.
We hurried down the hallway with the metal holding cells. “Which cell is Juan in?” I asked Molla, slowing down.
“We don’t have time!” Adrien yelled.
“Which cell, Molla?” I said, just as loud. She looked up at me, her eyes glazed with terror.
“Molla, focus.” I grabbed her face so she was only looking in my eyes and not everywhere around us. “Are there any people in these rooms we’ve gone by?”
“There was a boy,” she finally said, voice trembling.
“Where?”
“Two doors back on the left.”
I ran back, not caring that Adrien was cursing loudly. I heard him drop Max and come after me.
“This one?” I pointed at a door. Molla nodded. I let the rage swirl back up again until the humming was singing through my mind. I thrust a web around the door and forced it sideways in its track. It made a grating noise as cables snapped. The boy on the other side jumped up in surprise.
“Juan?” I asked.
He nodded, looking terrified.
“Come with us,” I yelled, grabbing him by the shirt and pulling him out of the room before he could ask any questions. “Keep up.”
I ran back to Molla while Adrien grabbed Max around the chest to haul him back up again. Juan came up behind us and we made our way to the end of the hallway.
“Help with Max,” I commanded him, pointing. Juan hurried to shoulder Max’s sagging body and Adrien ran to the access panel in front of the door blocking our path. I heard him say the manual-override commands and tapped my foot impatiently.
“They aren’t working!” Frustration rang out clear in his voice.
His face suddenly paled. “I must have told the Chancellor about the manual-override codes I’d learned to access. Oh God, Zoe, what else did I tell her?” The horror widened on his face as he realized all the possible ramifications.
I took his face in my hands. “Hey, look at me,” I said gently. “We can’t think about that right now. We have to focus on getting out. Okay?”
He closed his eyes for a short moment, then opened them and nodded a quick sharp nod.
“Good.” I stepped up beside him. “Now, move out of the way.”
“Wait, Zoe,” he said, grabbing my arm, “this gate is a quarter ton of steel, there’s no way—”
I thrust my power outward again in a way that was becoming comfortably familiar. It was flowing all through me, sizzling with electricity on my scalp and in my fingertips. Adrien didn’t understand, but I didn’t have time to try to put it into words for him. It wasn’t about how big or heavy something was. It was about shifting objects to occupy a different space. I thrust both doors backward into their tracks. The screeching sound was deafening.
I smiled at Adrien. “You were saying?”
He shook his head, staring wide-eyed at the opened doors. He looked at me and grinned. “I am way crackin’ out of my league being with you!”
I laughed, feeling half-delirious with adrenaline, and raced through the door. “Where to now?” I asked Adrien. “How do we get out of here? Tell me you memorized the blueprints of the holding cells.”
“Of course. Follow me,” he said. He took Max’s other arm to help Juan carry him.
“Why are we dragging him with us again?” Adrian asked.
“He was just like me, Adrien,” I said, looking at him over Molla’s head. She was following mutely, eyes only on Max.
“We were both scared and alone,” I said. “The Chancellor made him promises of things he thought he wanted. I’m sure she told him everything he ever wanted to hear. He couldn’t have known it was all a lie.”
“But he figured it out eventually,” Adrien said, all the lightheartedness gone from his voice. “And he put all of us in danger. He put you in danger.”
“So did I. With Daavd,” I said as we came to the end of the hallway.
“But you didn’t know what you were doing!”
Molla stiffened beside me. “Regulators,” she whispered, terror making her body start shaking again. She grabbed Max’s arm, I wasn’t sure if it was to steady herself or shield him.
“Where?” Adrien said, looking around in confusion.
“Twelve of them on the other side of the door up there,” she said. “They’re waiting for us.”
“Cracking hell,” Adrien and I said at the same time.
Chapter 23
ADRIEN SHOT ME a grave look.
“Are their guns laser or bullet rounds?” I asked Molla.
“I don’t know.” Molla’s voice was shaking. “How do you tell?”
“Can you see through the guns with your vision?” Max asked Molla, his voice still horse, but he was standing more on his own now. “To see if there are clips filled with bullets?”
Molla leaned in closer to the wall, squinting. “Yes, bullets. I see them.”
I nodded. Adrien glared at Max, then looked back at me. “Zoe, what are you thinking?”
“Is there another way out?” I asked Adrien.
“No,” he whispered.
Max managed to whisper, “I’m too weak to shift and become the Chancellor. Besides, she’d have warned them about me.”
“That decides it, then,” I said. I called up my power and it responded, crackling and eager. It sang to me again, the immense sense of energy pulsing throughout my body. “We’ll have to go through.” I focused all my power on the door. “Stay back, all of you.”
“Wait, Zoe,” Adrien said, “you can’t!”
I let out a feral yell and poured the momentum of my mind forward. The door ripped outward with a roar of crumbling concrete and twisting metal. I sent it crashing forward into the Regulators who waited on the other side.
The door was only big enough to knock half of them down. The others pulled their triggers, pumping bullets toward us. I felt the bullets whizzing through the air, and I dropped to my knees with my hands to my forehead.
The hum in my mind was taking over. It felt like a giant wedge splitting open my skull. My shout became a scream, but before it overwhelmed me, I wrapped webs of air around the hundred and twenty-three bullets in midair. Only then did I see that Adrien had taken the same fraction of a second to throw his body in front of me. He knocked me down and spread his arms over my head, face clenched, ready for the bullets to hit him.
Instead, the bullets fell harmlessly from the air like metal raindrops as they all clattered to the concrete floor. Molla, Max, and Juan huddled in the corner by the wall, looking stunned.
I threw Adrien off of me. “Stay behind me,” I yelled furiously at him, then turned my attention back to the Regulators. If they were surprised, their blank faces didn’t show it. They probably weren’t capable of surprise. They set new clips in place in the silence and raised their reinforced arms to release another volley of bullets.
I dropped the bullets again before they got to us, but I didn’t know how long I could keep this up. It was exhausting to focus hard
enough to catch each of the speeding bullets in time. Most of the Regulators knocked down by the wall had managed to free themselves from the rubble. I couldn’t keep an eye on everything else that was happening.
I felt the consuming energy bubbling up in my chest and let it seep out of my pores, my eyes, my fingertips. I focused it on the twenty-four lightweight alloy guns, pushing through the outer casings. I felt out the inner contours of each weapon, almost tasting the metallic oil on my tongue.
And then I ripped them apart from the inside out. The guns exploded in the Regulators’ hands. Flying shrapnel from the weapons wounded a few, but most of them shook it off and stood up, ignoring their bleeding hands and faces.
Without a word, they arranged themselves into a block formation and ran at us, mindless of the pain under the control of their V-chips. My vision flooded with rage at both the violence these men intended and the fact that they themselves weren’t to blame. They were all so young—the same Regs-in-training that were everywhere in the Academy. It wasn’t their fault they’d been chosen for Regulator duty. But I still had to stop them. I had to end this.
Adrien’s shouted warning behind me, Molla’s screams, and the sound of the Regulators’ feet pounding the floor all twisted together into a crazed cacophony. I closed my eyes and sent the energy out one last time, flowing over the block of the twelve Regulators coming at us.
I screamed as the hum became a burning pain in my head—this might finally be too much for me. I felt myself start to fracture, to rip into pieces in the attempt. I pushed onward anyway, through their skin, through the hard metal plating around their skulls, then deep into their brains. I located the sliver-thin outline of the V-chip architecture in one body, then the next and the next, straining with my hands pressing against my own head as if I could somehow keep myself from coming apart.