Two

by LeighAnn Kopans

  “Merrin,” another Fisk — the real Fisk, some flicker in the corner of my brain tells me — says with a mocking lilt, “welcome back to consciousness.”

  She gives a halfhearted, dragging moan, and I realize that the bastard still hasn’t ungagged her. “How do you feel?”

  She lifts her head slowly, just so she can glare at him.

  He helps her off the table, and as soon as she’s standing, she shakes his arm off of hers and rips the gag out of her mouth. She stares at something in the distance, her eyes full of contempt. I can’t see them, but for the first time ever, I can sense her emotions. Cautiousness. There must be a wall full of guards just beyond my line of vision.

  “All right, Merrin,” he says with the same voice someone uses to talk to a small child or a puppy. “I’d like you to do something for me. Do you think you could do just one little thing for me?”

  She shakes her head roughly and glares. I know she’s dying to spit in his face.

  “Are you absolutely sure about that?”

  I can’t see them, but the crystal-clear sound of guns cocking — four, no five — rattles through my spine.

  He leans in and speaks slowly, like he’s enjoying every torturous word more than the last. “Let me ask that again. Can you do something for me?”

  Her shoulders slump forward, and she growls, “Do I have a choice?”

  Fisk chuckles. “Stand up tall, girl. Just one little thing, and we’ll be done with you for now.”

  The intensity of their stare stretches every corner of my brain for the seconds she holds his gaze. Merrin knows what Fisk is going to ask her to do. Both she and I know that she would rather die than do it at the same time she’s desperate to find out.

  The tear rolling down her cheek tells me she already knows what is going to happen.

  Fisk, that stupid, sniveling, tiny bald man, chuckles. “All right, Miss Grey. Float.”

  She closes her eyes in that soft, fluttering, fleeting way I sometimes see when we are together and she is daydreaming. Her lower lip drops, and she tilts her head back, like she’s begging to be closer to sunlight that’s not there. She stands up tall, arching the small of her back in, the first steps to going light.

  Only she doesn’t. Her feet remain firmly planted on the ground.

  A shuddering breath passes her lips, and she squeezes her eyes shut, wrinkles her brow.

  After a few more seconds, Fisk’s slow nod and ever-growing twisted grin become more pronounced. Merrin’s eyes squeeze tighter and tighter, and then Fisk claps. She collapses forward like someone kicked her in the back of the knees. A stuttering moan pushes past her lips, and the way her face is screwed up, she’s doing everything possible not to cry.

  She would never cry in front of Fisk. Not even one of his dupes.

  It’s only then that I realize the pace of my breaths match hers — deep and gasping, begging for an action to match them, yet unable to move anywhere.

  And slowly, though all I want to do is be next to her, the image of her broken, powerless body fades to black. But then something weird happens. As the vision recedes, a whisper, a murmur that would sound like her if it had more volume, more presence, creeps in, spiraling through my ears. The words aren’t direct like speech; they drift and dip and moan and repeat and echo oddly. But what they mostly are is this: I’m sorry Elias. Now I’m a zero. Now I’m nothing.

  Complete defeat washes over me.

  My eyes fly open, and I gasp. Leni falls to her knees beside the bed, and I turn my head to stare her straight in the eyes. Pain stabs through my heart. I don’t want to say the words because saying them will somehow make them more true. “They used the Cure. On Merrin. The gas, and…it worked. Right away.”

  Leni gasps and covers her mouth with her hand, shaking her head, wide-eyed.

  “You’re shitting me,” Hayley says, her mouth hanging open.

  I arch my back, trying to get up, but I don’t quite make it. A strong hand reaches down and grasps my forearm, pulling me up. When I sit up, I’m looking straight into Hayley’s eyes.

  “I’m sorry,” she says softly.

  I look around, and Leni’s staring at me with tears in her eyes. Daniel looks at his shoes with a sad expression.

  All of us knew how much the possibility of being a Super meant to Merrin.

  A soft, thoughtful voice comes from the corner of the room. “Did it work?” Vera’s staring at the carpet. She already knows the answer. When she looks up at me, I nod.

  “Well,” she says, “what are we going to do about it?”

  I shake my head. “I may have a brand-new Super, but it’s damn useless now, isn’t it? I can’t do anything by myself. I can see where she is, but that’s all.” I feel as defeated as Merrin looked.

  “So you need me to come with you since I can look at a vial and identify the formula in it in a split-second. And I will. All we have to do is break in there, snag the Cure formula, and get it back here to reverse engineer it. The degenerative formula we tested in the lab took all night to work on my genes. If we get to her in time, I think I can help her.” Vera cracks a one-sided, determined smile.

  If it were me in there, Merrin wouldn’t stop until I was not only safe again, but I had my One back, too. I owe it to her to do at least as much as she did for me.

  Then it hits me how right Merrin was. Getting her back and stealing the Cure formula might be able to help save my sisters — just not in the way she thought.

  “Vera,” I ask, “if you gave the Cure to someone whose Super had gone haywire, like so badly it was killing them, would it help them?”

  Hayley purses her lips and gets a sad look on her face. “Your sisters, huh?”

  I nod, swallowing hard. “They’re getting worse. Lia is, at least. When I went in the Funnel, I saw them. Lia can’t even control herself anymore, and Nora just follows her around, trying to keep her conscious. She has no idea what to do.” The room spins. Everything is falling apart around me so fast that I feel like I’m going to fall apart, too.

  Except this is the one time when I can’t.

  “It would slowly erase your sister’s ability,” Vera says. “It would be permanent.”

  “So would death,” Hayley says. “I’m in on this mission. I said I wanted to be a superhero, right? And I have siblings, too. I know how it feels.”

  “We’re going with you guys,” Leni says, reaching down and squeezing Daniel’s hand until her knuckles turn even whiter.

  A knot forms in my throat. I could argue or make some sappy statement, but I believe they really do all want to help. So instead, I just choke out, “Thanks.”

  “With the short time we have, the ideal would be teleporting in. Taking them by surprise,” Daniel says, glancing at Vera.

  “Yeah,” Leni says. “Especially after the way we broke in there last time, they’ll be looking out for grand entrances.”

  A two-toned dinging, like a doorbell, sounds from the ceiling. “Elias,” Kara says, “Mr. Gallagher is here to see you.” Vera bolts up and opens the door in a flash. An exhausted-looking Gallagher falls into her, arms around her neck. He spins her in a slow circle, and the look on her face is one of relief and soft happiness.

  When he makes eye contact with me, he lets his arms drop and stands up straight. “VanDyne. You have to understand. I couldn’t get her out. There was no way. They would have caught us both.”

  Suddenly, the fear burns through my muscles and turns into pure anger. I charge him, fists clenched and ready to do some damage. “You asshole!”

  I don’t know exactly what I’m planning to do to him, but it doesn’t matter because Daniel steps in front of me and stops me in my tracks. The kid is freakishly strong for someone so much shorter than me, or maybe the combination of his palm against my heart and the sight of Vera holding onto Gallagher is more effective on my weakened body and emotional state than I thought it would be.

  “Chill out, Elias,” Daniel says in a low, strong voice. “I know yo
u’re pissed, and I’d want to kill him, too. But we need him to help us.”

  I glare at Gallagher over Daniel’s shoulder, but I lower my arms and stand back to show Daniel that I’m no longer in fight mode.

  “You cool?” he asks, checking my eyes.

  I give him a curt nod and raise my hands, palms out. We all stand there looking at each other for a few tense seconds.

  In a low voice, Gallagher says, “The bad news is that we know the Cure works. The other bad news is that your sisters are batshit crazy, and Biotech is watching their every move as they run around tearing up America. The worst news is that Biotech has solid plans to start releasing the Cure. Tomorrow.”

  “So what’s the good news, genius?” Hayley snaps. “I have six little brothers and sisters in a public school in New Los Angeles, and I’ll be damned if they’re getting cured.”

  “The good news is we can go back to Biotech to steal the Cure and their distribution plans right now.” He cracks his knuckles like he’s looking for a fight. I can give the bastard one if he wants it, but he’s agreeing to help me — to help us.

  The doorbell-like sound rings again. “Elias,” Kara says, “Official Hub personnel are here to see you, with guests.”

  Gallagher presses his lips together and shakes his head quickly. The doors behind him open again, and the two last people in the universe I expect to see walk through.

  Merrin’s parents.

  TWENTY-TWO

  Thank God Leni is there because when she breathes, “Doctor Grey. And, uh, Doctor Grey,” it fills the fraction of a second taken up by my shock.

  “We’re just trying to find Merrin in this enormous Hub,” her dad chuckles, but when he sees the look on my face, he and her mom share a worried look.

  Even though Masters told me all about how they’re on the right side, it’s still hard to shake the image of them bringing in their twin boys for testing at Biotech or standing over me while nurses stuck electrical nodes to my chest.

  From either side of Merrin’s parents poke a small, dark, curly heads of hair. A strange, total sense of relief washes over me for just a second. My mouth breaks into a smile, and I stride forward, shaking each boy’s hand and clapping him on the back. I kneel down to talk to their grinning faces.

  “Michael, Max. How are you guys? I’m glad you’re here safe.”

  “You too,” Max pipes up, his eyes glowing. Michael, on the other hand, stands there staring at me with a creased forehead, and his eyes evaluate everyone in the crowd. I know who he’s looking for. He fidgets and cranes his neck.

  “Merrin came here with you, right?” he asks, his voice high and reedy.

  Oh, God. I shoot a glare up at Merrin’s mom, and she casts her eyes down. I should not have to have a conversation like this with a little kid. I don’t even want to be having it with myself. “Yeah, she sure did, man. She’s, uh…working on something for the Hub right now — the good Hub — but you’ll see her soon, okay?”

  Heels click against the smooth floor behind Merrin’s parents, and Amanda appears in the doorway and holds a hand out to each boy. “Michael and Max, we’ve set up a room for you two near your parents’. Can I show you?”

  “Does it have a holoscreen and games?” Max asks.

  Amanda winks at them. “Are we the best Hub in the country?”

  “Yes!” Max says as she leads them away.

  The glance, full of doubt and fear, that Michel shoots back over his shoulder twists my insides all over again.

  “We were just in debrief.” Merrin’s mom’s voice trembles as she watches the boys trundle off with Amanda. “They told us she went, but they didn’t say anything about her coming back. She didn’t come back, did she?”

  I run my hand back through my hair and stare Merrin’s dad hard in the eye. I wouldn’t have had the balls to do this a week ago, but I’ve grown up a lot since then. Attempted genetic manipulation, bombing, and hearing voices you can’t explain will do that to you. “No. And she’s not going to, either.”

  Merrin’s mom puts her fingers to her mouth with a gasp, and tears form at the corners of her eyes.

  Merrin’s dad puts an arm around her shoulder. “What makes you say that? They had no intel for us when we debriefed.”

  “No one has any intel,” I say. “Except me. It’s a long story. The point is, she went back so she could find the same thing she was always looking for: a way to boost her One up to a Super. And instead, Fisk got her and used her as a test for the Cure.” My voice breaks on that last word. Merrin without a Super, even without a stupid One, won’t be the same Merrin at all. So much of her happiness was in being able to break free of the earth.

  “So,” I continue, “I’m glad you came and all, but you’re a few hours too late. Why don’t you concentrate on protecting the other two and not shooting them up with anything else?”

  My voice echoes around the room. I know I should be kinder to Merrin’s mom and dad, that all their work back at Biotech was just trying to protect their kids and help prevent the Cure from happening, but they still watched a lot of kids being shot up with a lot of stuff in their years there. And my sisters and I were among them.

  Merrin’s mom doesn’t let it go that easily. There’s fire in her eyes — exactly the same kind I see in Merrin’s when she’s set on doing something. “You’re going after her, aren’t you?” she asks, her voice daring me to lie.

  I know I can’t defy the strength and determination I see in her face because I know the consequences. Merrin is just like her mother. Crazy-strong and stubborn as hell.

  She starts in again. “Vera, we know all about your abilities, but you can’t help as much as you think you can. You’re good, but that Super vision won’t help you if you’re looking in the wrong room. And you’ll only have so much time.”

  Beside me, Leni watches Doctor Grey with a mix of wariness and awe.

  Merrin’s dad clears his throat, blinks rapidly for a few seconds before talking. “We’ll need to leave. Immediately. We don’t have a lot of time.”

  “Wait — what do you mean? What do you know?”

  “Now that they have the information you gave them, CSH’s plan is to destroy the entire Hub, formulas and all. Just bomb it out. It’s the only way to ensure the Cure and all its research is destroyed.”

  I suddenly can’t move, can’t speak. If they do that, Merrin dies. And my hope of saving my sisters’ lives dies right along with it.

  “Well, then,” Leni says, clearing her throat. “We’d better get there. Fast.” She catches my eye and nods, like she’s reminding me to that I have to keep my damn head on straight. It works. My brain clicks into planning overdrive.

  I look back at Merrin’s dad. “When are they running the raid?”

  “Two hours from now.”

  “And it will destroy everything?”

  “Clandestine Services isn’t evil, but they have their priorities. That’s how they’ve made it this far.”

  I look down and clear my throat. I can’t say anything, don’t know what to say. Thankfully, Merrin’s mom steps up. She raises her hand to touch my arm but brings it down right before she makes contact. “Elias, I know you don’t want to trust us, but we all want Merrin back. Let us help.”

  I nod, tears stinging my eyes and panic constricting my chest. But I still can’t look at them. Instead, I look into the eyes of the one person who can help break into the Biotech Hub best — by teleporting us right into the center of it. “Gallagher, let’s make some plans.”

  “Are you asking me out, McCoy?” Gallagher winks at Vera, and her cheeks turn a shade of deep red-purple, cartoonish against her hair.

  Gallagher leans forward, speaking low. “It helps that we have a wide variety of Supers here. We can use Leni and Daniel to burn out any cameras. Sounds like they already have experience in that area.”

  Leni and Daniel grin at each other.

  “To engineer an antidote for Merrin, we’re going to need the whole history of r
esearch,” Vera says, her eyes growing wide.

  “Yes,” Merrin’s mom says. “There are lots of layers. The Cure research dates back years. Each experiment is essential to understanding what kind of a formula would negate mutations universally under any kind of time constraint.”

  Just hearing those words sends another shiver down my spine. Time isn’t something Merrin doesn’t have much of.

  “Okay, but if the serum negates the Supers that quickly, isn’t it too late for Merrin?” I ask, running my hand over my head for the hundredth time today.

  Vera shakes her head. “Based on the little research I was able to do with the formula Merrin brought in, we know it creates an alteration to the body’s immune system that teaches the body to attack the mutated genes. The effects would be seen right away, which is why Merrin can’t use her One right now, but it won’t be completely eliminated for at least a few hours.”

  “That’s actually exactly how it works,” says Merrin’s dad, nodding appreciatively. “Impressive.” Vera blushes again.

  “Of course, the length of time for the Super to be completely eliminated takes a different amount of time depending on the particular mutation,” Merrin’s dad says, stitching his eyebrows together. “They only just recently began that research, but it’s anywhere from a couple hours to a couple days.”

  “The Cure would work on Ones more quickly though, right?” I ask, thinking of how Ones are basically open-ended mutations.

  Vera nods like this all makes perfect sense to her. “It would happen sooner on Ones. The weakest ones first.”

  “Yes, for two reasons,” Merrin’s mom says with a sigh.

  “Because the gene isn’t that prominent in the first place,” Daniel says.

  “And because the gene was weakened by lack of development,” Gallagher says.

  “But not in Merrin’s case,” Leni says. “She practiced her One. It’s got to be stronger than most others.”