The Invincibles (Book 1): Trapped: A girl. A monster. A hero.

by Brittany Oldroyd

  Zane

  “The Black Kat went missing last night. Her whereabouts remain unknown. Meanwhile, Chicago wonders. Where is our fearless champion?”

  -Newspaper article, “The Black Kat: Dead?”

  Sixty-Eight

  I haven’t seen her all night. She wasn’t here when I woke up. She hasn’t been home since.

  And neither I, or Alec, or any of the others can get a hold of her.

  She must have woken up from another nightmare, left the basement, gone patrolling on her own again.

  I hope that’s all it is.

  She’s been weird the last couple of days. Nightmares, patrolling alone all the time, avoiding everyone. And then she lied to me the other day. Whatever happened when she was stabbed, it was a bigger deal than she led me to believe.

  I’m a good enough liar to know when someone isn’t being entirely truthful with me.

  “Zane!”

  I glance. Alec. Unhappy, worried, distraught. Something is wrong.

  Running upstairs, stopping in the kitchen, I glance at the four of them sitting in front of the TV. I’m about to ask but then I don’t have to. I can see what’s on the TV.

  It’s her. In a glass room, wrists tied together, suspended above her head, ankles tied together too. A strip of tape across her mouth. Her body shakes as she yanks against the chains holding her there.

  The camera shifts. A very composed Richard Glass.

  “This message is for the Invincibles,” he says. “Or the ones remaining. As you can see, your fearless leader has run into some trouble.”

  The chains are clinking loudly in the background. She’s still fighting.

  “You have a decision to make,” Glass continues. “You can surrender yourselves and pray that it won’t cost both your lives and hers. Or you can leave it her to her fate and run. I don’t care. Leave Chicago and abandon her. Or surrender and join her here.

  “The choice is yours.”

  The camera shifts back. Back to Kate.

  “You have until midnight,” Glass says. “If you continue these ridiculous attempts at heroism, the Black Kat will die tonight.”

  The message ends. The TV goes dark. Flashes back to news. Everything is chaos in the newsroom and Alec turns it off.

  I’m numb. “We can’t leave her in there.”

  “I’m not surrendering.” Fury in Zandra’s voice, in her eyes, in the way she crosses her arms. “I’m sorry but I am not walking back in there.”

  You’re abandoning her.

  I’m glaring, glancing at Jay. He shakes his head. “Zane, they’re going to kill anyone that gets anywhere near her.”

  Tatyana, staring out the window, looking so thoughtful, sighs. “Perhaps, this has been a long time coming,” she says. “I don’t belong here. I never have. It’s time I go home.” She looks at me. “I’m returning to Russia. The time to fight is long gone.”

  She stands slowly, walks over to the door, picks up the keys to her motorcycle, and slams the door behind her.

  Silence lasts for a short time.

  Zandra stands. “I’m sorry. I’m not staying.”

  “Zandra—”

  “I am not letting him kill me too!”

  She storms out and I look at Jay. Please Jay, don’t go too. I can’t help her, not alone, not without help. Don’t make me try.

  He sighs, shakes his head. “I’m sorry. I can’t fight with just the two of us. There’s not enough time and not enough of us.”

  Alec speaks up. “She would go in alone for any one of you. We have to try.”

  Still shaking his head, standing, he turns to the door. “Be careful. Richard Glass has enough blood on his hands without adding you to that list.”

  Zandra

  “Order to Richard Glass’s soldiers: Guard Glass Tech in preparations for the Invincibles.”

  -Order to Glass’s Soldiers

  Sixty-Nine

  I am not a hero.

  I thought that maybe I could be. If I tried. I thought I could help people, protect them, save them from Richard Glass.

  I’m a coward.

  Every time I close my eyes, I see her face. I see the tape across her mouth. I see the chains around her wrists, around her ankles. I see the defiance, the fury, the reckless hatred for Glass.

  I wish I knew how to be that brave. I wish I knew how to be like her. I wish there was more to me than the need to survive.

  She hasn’t just survived under impossible odds. Kate McCallister lived.

  Maybe that’s the problem. I’ve never been given the opportunity to live. I’ve never known what it’s supposed to mean to be alive. All I have ever known is the darkness of a basement and the cold of a lifeless man.

  Until Echo was born, Zandra Glass was made of ice.

  Standing on a rooftop, biting my lip hard, I start to finger the scars lacing my skin. Kate has scars like these. Tortured like me. For the sake of another.

  And now I’m smiling, thinking, remembering.

  “Clone Dalton Knight?”

  Kate nods, solemn, serious, worried. “Think about it, Zandra. An army of Daltons. There’s not a thing we can do against that. He heals like we do and he’s stronger than any of us. Imagine a hundred of them. I can’t even handle one of them.”

  I’m shivering, shaking, trembling. “I was a test,” I whisper. “He was seeing if he could clone someone.”

  She’s watching me, studying my face, staring with burning gold in her eyes. “Who did he clone?”

  I shrug, finger my whip. “I don’t know.” Gritted teeth and clenched fists. “I don’t know a thing about myself. I don’t know who I was made to look like, who I was made to be a replica of. I don’t have an identity because I was created to be a direct copy of someone else. Someone I’ve never met.”

  “Oh.”

  “What?”

  She’s almost smiling now. “I think I understand you, Zandra Glass. Your hatred for Richard Glass revolves around your hatred for what you are,” she says. “You’re a clone but you wish you were human. You’re a copy but you want your own identity.”

  “Thank you for reminding me why I loathe myself.”

  Anyone else would be defensive at my tone. But Kate is too used to rude behavior and harsh words.

  “Zandra,” she says. “You don’t have to just be a clone. Just like I don’t have to be a crazy teenage girl. He made you look like another person. But you can act however you want. No one can control you.”

  She’s smiling now. “And that makes you very human.”

  Human. It’s a new kind of thought, a new idea. Being human because I have the power to choose who I want to be.

  It’s kind of beautiful.

  I close my eyes, we are so alike, her and I. The clone who wants to be human, who wants to choose. And the teenage girl who wants to be brave, who wants to fight.

  Scarred bodies, angry souls, fiery hearts.

  She and I want the same thing. We always have. Justice. Richard Glass’s reign of terror over.

  “No one can control you,” I whisper. Nod. Straighten. Wrap my fingers around the whip. Turn to go back.

  I’ve made my choice.

  Kate

  “The Black Kat seems to have failed. Her purpose has failed. I have failed.”

  -Dr. Pelletier’s notes

  Seventy

  I can feel it. Swirling in my bones like poison. My whole body shakes with it. The way Zane shakes the moment before he turns into a wolf. I can feel a roar in my throat, where it stays, held in place by a piece of duct tape and my resolve to not lose myself.

  But anger is a powerful thing.

  And it multiplies when Richard Glass steps into the room, with Pelletier and Dalton right behind him.

  I pull, jerk, yank at the chains holding me in place.

  Glass smiles. “It’s amazing how easily a few chains and a piece of duct tape can hold you.”

  I pull harder.

  “Do you understand, Miss McCallister, what it i
s that makes you such a threat?”

  Silence greets him.

  “Your open rebellion,” Glass says. “Many have sought to bring me down.” A sick smile. “But no one has ever posed the kind of threat you do, Miss McCallister.”

  Good.

  “Most that have tried to stop me have failed because of attempts at secrecy,” he continues. “But secrets don’t last forever and eventually it is always their secrets that become their downfalls.”

  He glances at Pelletier. “Take Dr. Samuel Pelletier, for example.”

  Pelletier is stone. Cold, still, frozen.

  “Dr. Pelletier has a secret,” Glass says, still smiling, still watching the scientist. “You see, he has secret hopes that you will kill me, Miss McCallister.”

  Surprise is a sledgehammer. Because he experimented on me, because he was awful, because I hate him. Because I don’t understand why he would hope I would kill Glass.

  Glass is laughing at my perplexed expression. “Doctor, why don’t you explain to Miss McCallister why you became involved in the first place?”

  Pale and afraid, Pelletier steps forward, looks me in the eye. Takes a deep breath. “I was a geneticist, working on a somewhat secret project. I wanted to see if it was possible to take the human body to the next step, improve it, through animal DNA.”

  Glass is leaning against the wall. “I was looking for a scientist to create my Invincible.”

  Pelletier is still looking at me. “But I never wanted to be a part of this,” he says. “I swear I never wanted to experiment on humans, or even animals, until I was sure it wouldn’t hurt them. I didn’t want to play any part in this.”

  I’m not inclined to believe my enemy.

  “I had Dr. Pelletier brought here by a couple of my soldiers,” Glass says. “At his initial reluctance to help me, I warned him of the danger his family would be in.”

  Blackmail.

  I’m staring at Pelletier now. Glass was threatening his family. He was blackmailing him into being one of the bad guys.

  “Evidently,” Glass says, “It wasn’t enough.” He shakes his head. “Doctor, would you like to admit to your crimes or shall I?”

  Pelletier looks down, knowing it’s over, knowing he’s been caught. “Before your experimentation,” he tells me, “I did everything I could to make you feel wronged and victimized. I knew it would make you violent toward your creators. I wanted you to stand up against Mr. Glass.

  “During your experimentation, I took a chance. And added more DNA than the other experiments have.”

  Still staring.

  “Did it never seem odd to you,” Glass asks, “That you have so many more genes than any of the others?”

  “I risked your sanity to make you as close to invincible as I could,” Pelletier admits. “I gave you too many traits. But it made you stronger than any past experiment. I knew you would rebel and it would make you the most dangerous person in Chicago.”

  I can’t stop staring, can’t stop gaping. He used me. As a weapon. He made me far stronger than any before me. And I’m not sure how I feel about that.

  “And, when he tried to kill you with a lethal injection, I switched the injections out. What you received simply gave you the appearance of a corpse.”

  “The ultimate betrayal,” Glass interrupts. “You created a warrior to destroy me.”

  “I’m sorry,” Pelletier tells me. “I put your life and sanity at stake. But I knew I couldn’t let Glass destroy Chicago. And I knew you were my best chance to stop him and save my family.”

  I wish I could speak. I wish I could tell him I understand, it’s okay, you were protecting your family, you were trying to save the city.

  But I can’t say anything with the tape on my mouth.

  “You see, Miss McCallister,” Glass says, “No one can keep their secrets forever. The only enemy that cannot lose is the one that has nothing to lose. There was nothing for you to hide, nothing for you to use as a secret weapon.”

  He’s smiling again. “However, Dr. Pelletier here is a completely different story.” He looks at him. “You have lost everything. And you are no longer of use to me.”

  And with that, he pulls out a handgun, and shoots Pelletier in the head. He crumples to the ground, dead.

  I scream.

  Tatyana

  “Moscow, Russia. Flight leaves: 6:00 PM.”

  -Flight ticket, Chicago to Moscow

  Seventy-One

  It was never my intention to return to Russia.

  I’m standing in the airport, buying a one-way ticket for Moscow, boarding a plane. But I am not leaving Chicago.

  I still have to make it look like I am.

  Someone has been following me. Out the window, back at Alec’s house, after Glass’s video, I saw him standing there. A soldier of Glass Tech. Checking if our team would fall apart without the Black Kat or if we would rush to our aide. And now he thinks it’s completely fallen apart.

  He’s wrong.

  I’m going back. I’m going to save her. I’m going to stop him. I’m not going to be a coward anymore.

  I failed her before. I failed to take her up on her offer and help her break Zane out, help her start her war against our creator. It almost cost her life. It should have cost her life.

  I will not make that mistake again.

  Standing from my seat, I turn to look at the man that followed me onto the plane, followed me all the way from the house. I wink at him, give him my best smile, nod to the front of the plane. Walk into the bathroom.

  And wait.

  A minute later, the man that has been tailing me steps into the bathroom. Shuts the door. He thinks he’s going to get to kiss a pretty girl.

  Wrong.

  I wrap a hand around his neck, pull him close, and spit on his face.

  The results are instantaneous. He freezes, falls against the wall. Completely paralyzed.

  I sit him down, pat his cheek. “Stupid American,” I say. “You think I’d actually kiss a man who works for a monster like Richard Glass?”

  He doesn’t move, frozen by my venom.

  “Have fun in Russia.”

  I leave the bathroom, shut it quietly behind me. Whoever steps into it next will likely have a heart attack.

  Walking off the plane, into the airport, back into the parking lot, I find my motorcycle. My father’s old bike. The one thing I’ve managed to keep. The ride that is quickly becoming known as belonging to Viper.

  I swing a leg over the bike, turn the ignition. And zoom out of the parking lot, back the way I came.

  Seventy-Two

  There’s a militsiya car outside. I think it’s called a police car in America.

  I’m about to go in. But then I stop.

  Jay.

  He’s standing down the street, stilled by my appearance, wearing a very surprised expression. “Tater Tot?”

  And now I’m very angry with him. Because he left, because he’s just now coming back, because he had full intentions of never returning.

  “You idiotic American,” I say, turning off the bike, striding over to him. I slap him. “You ran.”

  Shocked now. “So did you,” he says. “You said you were going back to Russia.”

  “Richard Glass had someone watching. I made him think I wasn’t going to help Kate and paralyzed him on the plane. By the time he wakes up, he’ll be in Moscow.” I’m shaking my head. “I was always going to come back. My decision to go wasn’t supposed to affect yours.”

  He’s reaching for my hand. “But I came back.”

  I push him back. “But you still left. After we already abandoned her once. After seeing her corpse on a table. How could you do it a second time?”

  “Why are you so angry?”

  A guy. Through and through. Oblivious.

  “Because if you really left, I would never have seen you again!”

  Jay stops. Steps closer. Understanding on his lips and surprise in his eyes. And then it’s like everything clicks, knits i
tself together.

  He grabs me, pulls me close, kisses me.

  “I think I’m in love with you, Tater Tot,” he whispers.

  I’m smiling, laughing, rolling my eyes. “Don’t think I’m not mad anymore,” I say. “You abandoned us.”

  “He’s not the only one.”

  Jay and I both turn, see Zandra leaning against a lamppost. She’s wearing a wry smile.

  “You guys have any idea why there’s a police car here?”

  Zane

  “Richard Glass is to be brought down at all costs. Bring him in for questioning, if possible.”

  -Order of Chicago Police Captain to all officers

  Seventy-Three

  “Richard Glass is a criminal.”

  Go figure. The man kidnaps teenagers, murders anyone who stands in his way, performs experiments that are far from humane. He’s not just a criminal, he’s a madman.

  I study the officer’s expression. “What’s your point?”

  He opens his mouth, starts to speak, gets cut off by the sound of a doorbell.

  I glance at Alec. “Expecting company.”

  He shakes his head. “No.”

  Nod, straighten, go to the door. Open it slowly, make sure it’s not a soldier. Not an enemy. Not one of Glass’s men.

  It’s not.

  I’m grinning, laughing, shaking my head. “You guys just can’t make up your minds, can you?”

  Zandra grins, steps inside. “Don’t act like you aren’t happy to see us, Zane.”

  “Why is there a police car here?” Jay asks.

  I nod to the other room. “The city of Chicago is now involved. The mayor wants officers to bring Richard Glass in. They want to take him to jail.”

  Tatyana shakes her head. “I’m not sure that’s a possibility.”

  “Glass is never going to go to jail,” Zandra says. “And if he did, he’d break out. I’m sure of it.”

  “I agree. But we could use some help. There are a lot of soldiers.”

  They’re all quiet and I wave them forward. “Come on, we’ve got a few hours to work out a plan. Are we in agreement that we need the police’s help?”