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“Something, actually.” My thumb points to the right and I almost laugh at the irony of using my depowered hand to point for the atrocity that took the power from it. “The depowering machine is gone. Where is it?”
“Um...I don’t, I don’t know.”
I lift an eyebrow. Her eyes flicker from her MOD screen to the phone and back. “Do you want me to ask someone?”
“Who would you ask?”
“I don’t know. I’m new. I do know that they moved pretty much everything out of here, to other floors. It’s all classified now.”
“Then what is this floor for?” I ask, annoyed that the Heroes weren’t made aware of this change.
“It’s for recovering patients. But we don’t have any right now.”
I feel like smashing my good fist through something but I take a deep breath and think about how my brother would handle this situation. “Okay fine,” I say with a sigh. “Call someone and ask.”
Her fingers fly over the MOD screen until it lights up in a call. Another white-uniformed Super answers, his face appearing in the tiny square on the desk screen. Casey explains that she has a Hero asking for the depowering machine and needs to know where it is. The man on the other end runs a hand over his sandy blond hair and shrugs. “It was moved somewhere confidential. That’s all I know.”
“Can you ask someone?” Casey says through clenched teeth. I know she hates every second that she’s stuck here with me, an impatient Hero. She doesn’t have to say it because I learned it in training: the last thing any Super wants to do is piss off a Hero. The guy shakes his head again. “I don’t know who to ask. I’m sorry.”
Time is freaking ticking away and I’m getting nowhere. “It’s fine, hang up.”
She does as she’s told and ends the call without saying goodbye. All my instincts are telling me to call Max and ask what to do, but I’m pissed off at him so my stubbornness will prevent me from doing that. No worries though, I get a better idea a second later. “Could you make another call for me?” I ask with my sweetest smile. Casey nods. “Call President Might, please.”
It’s best that I call him from the medical ward, that way he won’t answer the phone with Nova in view or accidentally say something he shouldn’t when I’m around other people. It’s better if he sees Casey calling instead of me. Unfortunately, Casey doesn’t command her MOD to dial my father-she sits at her desk, stone faced and pale.
“Call him,” I repeat.
“I-I can’t. He’s the president.”
“And I’m his daughter. Call him.”
Dad answers after several rings. I step in front of a very nervous Casey, relieving her of talking to my dad since she’s obviously terrified at the idea of it. He barely gets out a hello before I speak. “Dad, they moved the depowering machine and I need it and I need you to find out where it is.”
The look he gives me slaps me across the face. I am a total idiot. “I thought we decided you wouldn’t be the one to go searching for it.”
“I, uh, something came up with Max. He doesn’t have time for it.” Now I really really wish I hadn’t made this call in front of Casey.
Dad surprises me by smiling. “Wish I could help you, kiddo, but I’m not sure where it is. I know they moved it to a more secure location somewhere in Central. I have another meeting with the elders in a few minutes. I’ll find out, but it’ll take a while.”
My finger hovers over Casey’s MOD screen. “Thanks, Dad,” I say before ending the call.
“He seems really nice,” Casey says with stars in her eyes. My thoughts go to Nova, hiding out in our home in what is probably the biggest act of defiance against Central that’s ever happened. “Yeah he is,” I say. “You have no idea how nice he can be.”
Max hasn’t returned home by nightfall. I’ve been skimming his signal on my BEEPR all afternoon, waiting for his map dot to appear back at home and not where it’s been lately-hovering over Tokyo. Dad is still at his meeting and Nova isn’t in the living room when I get home. I assume she’s hanging out in the safe room which she’s kind of made her own room lately, so I don’t bother her. No matter what, she always slips into bed with me at night. I know it sounds weird, but I can’t begin to imagine the life she’s had and what she’s been through, so if my sixteen-year-old twin sister wants to sleep next to me at night, just to feel the comforting rhythm of someone breathing next to her, I’m okay with that.
But I’m not okay with being alone.
My heart aches for that one boy who makes me feel lighter than air. I know I should probably be focusing on my missing persons case or trying to find the depowering machine without Dad’s help, but my heart acts on its own accord by dialing up Evan.
He tells me he’ll be here in five minutes.
Even with Hero status, I’m still a loser. My cheeks turn red when I realize I’m actually tiptoeing through the house so Nova won’t hear me welcoming Evan inside. What kind of mature Hero is embarrassed to be seen with her boyfriend? This one.
I open the door, grab Evan’s arm and pull him across the living room, down the hall and to my bedroom without saying a word. He closes my bedroom door behind us, turning around and facing me with a big grin. He smells like saltwater and body wash. His hair is a little wavy in the back as if he’s recently been sleeping on it. A goofy grin pulls at my cheeks when his slips his arms around my waist and pull me close.
“You’re all scruffy,” I muse, sliding my fingers up the dark blond stubble on his face.
“I’ve been working so hard I haven’t had time to shave.”
