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  A thunderous explosion erupts in the hallway, shaking the building and raining dust from the ceiling. Blinding light makes me shield my eyes, stumbling to hold my balance. The hairs on my arm stand straight up.

  “That doesn’t sound like cooperation to me,” Dr. Cass says.

  Feet pound against the floor. I raise my head and blink to refresh my vision. The situation has dissolved into chaos. Test subjects fight PSECT in the hallway. Gunshots sound.

  I ignore it all and rush toward Dad, but Derrek grabs the collar of my shirt in a fist and lifts me off the ground, then slams my back into the floor so hard my ears ring and the floor cracks beneath me. For a moment, my vision goes dark. This isn’t the same Derrek. He was strong before, but now…

  Derrek’s fist connects with my cheekbone, and I can hear it crack. Tears prick my slowly returning vision. The weight of his body presses against my chest. I try to move or kick to get him off, but my body resists moving.

  A blurred form crashes into Derrek’s side, throwing him off me. Broken tiles scrape the floor. I roll over, tasting copper, and spit a mass of red on the floor.

  It takes a moment to regain my surroundings. Dr. Cass calmly steps through the window and disappears, followed immediately by Forrest and Hilde. The window doesn’t crash or break. They don’t fall to their deaths. They’re simply… gone.

  Derrek and two other security guards are fighting Bianca and Dad. I try to stand, but my limbs resist, and I slip, hitting my stomach and chin against the floor, causing pain to lance through my head.

  The window is the exit from the simulation.

  “Run, Ugene!” Dad yells. Somehow, his weak muscles have strengthened, and some part of me knows that what he’s doing is dangerous, deadly.

  “No. Dad, stop!” I push off the ground, and a set of hands grab me and haul me to my feet.

  Enid supports my weight. “We need to go now,” she says.

  “Everyone, go through the exit,” Sho is calling out to the other test subjects. “Before it closes!” He and Leo are at the window, ushering test subjects through. They filter through the hallway door and rush toward the window, plunging into the unknown.

  “Dad!” I try to push Enid off, but Derrek did a number on my head, and everything swims with each movement. I can’t stand without her help. A concussion, most likely.

  “Get him out of here!” Bianca yells at Enid, kicking one of the PSECT guards in the knee to bring him down, then punching his head so hard he rebounds off the wall behind him. His body collapses to the ground.

  Dad’s strength wanes and Derrek slams him against the wall. The blow makes me flinch. Dad’s head sags, then his muscles twitch and grow again. He’s pumping everything into his muscles.

  “Dad!” I scream, pushing against Enid to escape her serpentine, coiling grip on my body. She doesn’t relent. Tears burn in the wounds on my face. “He’s killing himself! Stop him!”

  Dad punches Derrek so hard it sends the boy sailing across the room into the wall where he sticks, head slumped forward and limbs limp. Dad sags against the wall and slides down to the floor.

  “The exit’s closing,” Miller calls from the window. “I can’t hold it open much longer. Let’s go!”

  But the words barely register. I finally push Enid away and skitter and slip across the broken floor to Dad’s side.

  “What are you doing?” The voice that comes out isn’t my own. It’s thicker, desperate, filled with grief.

  “What I should have done from the start,” Dad says. His hand lifts, shaking like a feeble old man, but his grip on my neck is solid as he pulls me closer. “I’m sorry. I should have protected you from this.”

  I shake my head, clinging to him like he’s the edge of the world and letting go will make me fall off. Maybe it will.

  “Dad…” But no other words will come out. Everything chokes in my throat.

  His eyes droop, and I shake him until he blinks lazily at me.

  “Ugene, we have to go now,” Bianca says, crouching beside me. “Miller is losing his grip on the exit.”

  “Go,” Dad says. “You’re stronger than I ever was. Go.” He pushes me away, and it feels akin to having my heart ripped from my chest. The pain is intense and blinding. “I’m proud of you, Ugene.”

  Multiple sets of hands grab my arms and waist, dragging me away from Dad as his hands go slack and his head droops against his sunken, unmoving chest. The Muscular Degeneration has taken him. I scream and cry and kick, knowing that this is it. I’ll never see him again. But even in my grief-induced hysteria, I’m not strong enough to resist the hands pulling me through the window.

  And just like that, Dad disappears from my life forever.

  45

  Everyone else moves around the room busy with something, but I can’t bring myself to care. I curl up on the ground where they deposited me on the other side of the exit and let the grief sink in. The reality of what happened to Dad left a gaping hole in my chest. All of this, being here at Paragon, I did for him, and none of it mattered. His illness still took him in the end.

  Or maybe it didn’t. Was he even really there? Could Paragon do that—just put a realistic projection of him in there to mess with me? They did it with Murphy, but it’s too slim a chance to hope on.

  Distantly, someone in the room calls my name.

  I’m proud of you, Ugene.

  Dad’s final words echo in my head, and I squeeze my eyes shut to try and stem the flow of tears, but it’s too late. They still leak out down my cheek, across my nose, then fall away as tears on the other side of my face roll back into my ear. I lace my hands behind my head and pull my knees tight against my chest, trying to squeeze out the pain. But it doesn’t work.

  Cold hands touch my arm, but I don’t look up. Dad’s gone, and it’s my fault. We had our differences, fought a lot, but I still loved him. Pins and needles prick my skin, pulling it tight. The bone in my cheek heals. The pain in my back and head disappear. But the healing does nothing for the aching pain in my chest. No Divinic Power can fix this pain.

  Except…

  Sniffling, I shift, sitting up to see Rosie kneeling in front of me. Her face is pale and exhausted. I clutch her, desperation in my grip. Tears roll unchecked down my face.

  “You… you can bring him back…” Even as I say the words, the look of sorrow on Rosie’s face crushes my hopes. My hands crawl up to her shoulders as I move to a kneeling position in front of her. “You did it to that Electromancer. You brought him back. Please. I can’t… Rosie…”

  Rosie pulls me into an intense, tight hug. “I’m sorry. The window is closed. He’s gone, Ugene.” She strokes the back of my head.

  And then I hug her tight, clinging to her as my body shakes with sobs. Rosie doesn’t pull away. She hugs me close and doesn’t let go, soothing my grief with soft words. At some point, Rosie pulls away, and someone else takes her place, stroking away my sorrow. I sniffle and catch a whiff of citrusy sweat.

  “Ugene, I…” Bianca’s voice is filled with anguish. “Your dad was always so kind to me, so welcoming.”

  I pull back and gaze into Bianca’s coppery eyes. Her lower lip quivers, dimpling her chin, and tears roll down her cheeks. Her hand brushes my cheek, wiping away my tears.

  “I loved him, too,” she says, the words so soft I barely hear them. “He gave his life to save ours.”

  The two of us just sit like this as something elsewhere in the room booms and cracks. Bianca’s lips part to say something, but nothing comes out. Then she kisses me. Under any other circumstances, I would relish this moment, but it doesn’t feel right.

  I lean away. “What—?”

  “Sorry, I just…” Bianca pulls away.

  “Hey kid, we need your genius!” Miller calls out. “We aren’t out of this yet!”

  Test subjects all huddle on one side of the room, their backs to me. The walls around us are slate gray, and I don’t need Powers to know they are protected against the use of Powers.

/>   I do my best to pull myself together. So many lost, and these few who remain are looking to me for guidance. It’s impossible to just brush aside the aching pit in my chest, and grief has seized my throat, making it hard to speak at all. I swallow to try and break it free.

  The walls are unfamiliar, unlike the clean, institutional walls on our floor. Which can only mean one thing. “This isn’t our floor.” I suck the words in, testing them to see if they’re real. It’s more of a revelation than a hope of affirmation from anyone else.

  Bianca shakes her head. “Best I can tell, we are in one of the PSECT installation rooms on the ninety-ninth floor.” At my confused glance, Bianca stands, helping me to my feet as she explains. “These rooms are designated as entry points into simulations with test subjects. Each is reinforced with extra protections from Powers and extra security measures in case…”

  “In case someone escapes,” I say, brushing the grimy tears off my cheeks before they can fully dry. “Which means this was a possibility all along.”

  Bianca nods. Did she already know that?

  “Genius!” Miller calls out again.

  I glance once more at the wall that was once the window into the simulation. Pain seizes me again, but I push it down. Miller is right. We aren’t out. I will grieve later. I can’t do it now.

  About two dozen subjects count down from three, then the wall booms and shakes, and electricity crackles across the surface, but it has no other effect.

  “Save your energy,” I say once the sound fades away. “It won’t work.”

  Celeste reaches into her backpack and pulls out a caramel, offering it to me. “Eat this. It will help you feel better.”

  I want to resist and tell her there’s no way a piece of candy will help fill the void inside, but the absolute innocence of her expression sways me. I huff out a sigh and take the candy, unwrapping it and popping it into my mouth.

  The flavor instantly explodes, and despite the tension and the pain inside, it really does help. Slowly, everything relaxes as I nudge through the crowd to the door and run my fingers along it.

  I debate asking if someone else tried to see through the wall or find out how it’s locked but realize the question is pointless. No Power can penetrate the wall. So how do we get through?

  Paragon had to have put an emergency trigger in the room somewhere for security to use. But Bianca would know something about that, and if it existed, she already would have said so. Having someone sitting and watching a camera all day on these rooms seems pointless. Plus, I don’t see any cameras. Sure, Paragon used them in our rooms to see everything, but the ceiling in this room is different, as are the walls. If what Bianca said is true, the walls, floor, and ceiling will be made of reinforced carbon polymers that you can’t just put cameras in. Which means one of two things.

  Either the doors are on timers—which is unlikely since Dr. Cass and everyone else escaped this way—or they have some sort of sensory detection with manual overrides.

  We don’t need Powers to get through the door. We just need to trick the door into thinking we aren’t here.

  “Ugene…” Miller cocks his head, arms crossed over his chest. “You there?”

  Boyd waves a hand in front of my face. The hand blurs as it moves up and down, leaving a streak behind, like the residue from his hand. I blink slowly, stepping back and reaching out to touch it.

  “Didn’t you heal him?” Enid asks.

  “Yes,” Rosie says indignantly. “He’s fine.”

  Suddenly Celeste’s rhyme starts to make sense. A ray of hope—us finding the exit. A final breath—Dad’s last words. A chance to cope—my moments of grief.

  “Earth to Ugene!” Miller says.

  That just leaves… A kiss of death. Bianca kissed me, but neither of us is dead. And all the stars shall fall. I thought I knew what the stars were, but it didn’t happen.

  “Hey!” Miller claps his hands in my face.

  I flinch. “Hmm?”

  “Jeez—” Miller throws his hands up. “What the hell did you give him?” he asks Celeste.

  “Just a piece of candy.” Celeste shrugs and pulls one out, offering it to Miller.

  I can’t help but grin at the idea of more candy, reaching out for it. Miller slaps my hand away.

  Leo leans toward the candy, then turns to Miller. “It’s a drug. He’s drugged.”

  “It’s an illusion,” I say, taking Leo’s hand. “Power. We need Power.”

  “Any Divinic Cleansers here who can get this crap out of his system?” Miller asks the room at large.

  The room shifts. Or I do. Who knows? Then a guy with a crooked nose steps out of the sea of heads and puts his hands on my chest.

  “Frisky,” I tease.

  The world bursts with light, and I can’t keep from shaking. Am I laughing?

  “He’ll need rest,” the boy says, voice growing distant.

  “We can’t afford it,” Miller sighs.

  Their voices stretch away from me. Sleep. Wonderous, blissful, glorious sleep. And I heartily succumb.

  46

  A shock jolts me awake screaming. Miller crouches over me, his hands poised over my chest. Everyone else is huddled in clumps around the room.

  “Have a nice rest?” Miller asks.

  “Did you just use your Power on me?” I ask.

  “We don’t have time to rest,” Miller says. “We have to move before Dr. Cass can mount a full offensive against us.”

  I glance back at the wall we walked through before, thinking about my dad.

  “It hasn’t opened again,” Enid says, staring at the wall as well.

  “I didn’t figure it would,” I grumble. “Paragon has us pinned in here.”

  “Do us a favor,” Leo says, “don’t eat any more of that candy. I don’t know where that girl got it from, but it’s laced with some sort of drug. A barbiturate at my best guess, but I haven’t really studied their atomic structure.”

  Barbiturate? Why would Celeste have caramel barbiturates? I close my eyes and sigh. Right. If she’s really as strong as Miller says, then those candies would lessen her Powers, weaken her.

  Enid motions Celeste forward, and Celeste cautiously inches past them, offering her bag to me. I’m tempted to resist, but something tells me they decided this during my drug-induced state. I slip the strap over my shoulder.

  “Forget that for now,” Miller interrupts. “We need to stay on track here. How do we get that door open and get out of here?”

  I look at Bianca, who is leaning against the door with her arms crossed. “You’ve used one of these installation rooms before. So how do the doors open?”

  Bianca licks her lips and glances at the door, then shrugs. “I don’t know. It just opens when I leave the simulation. I’m not really sure how it works. All I can tell you is that it’s heavily reinforced.”

  Something occurred to me earlier, and I struggle to pull it back. Something about how the door operates.

  “Leo,” I say. “Do you see any traces of surveillance?”

  Silence settles as Leo looks around the room, then shakes his head. “But that doesn’t mean—”

  “Yes, it does,” I continue. “Because to be able to see us or hear us, you, at least, would have to be able to catch some trace of it, even if you can’t see it.”

  “I don’t see it either,” Sho adds.

  Good to know.

  “Which means somehow there is a trigger that knows we are in here,” I say. “A while back I read an article about the potential applications of technology allowing people to lock and unlock their homes using nanotech.”

  “Dork,” Enid teases, but her expression is affectionate.

  “Yeah, well, this dork may know what’s going on,” I say, no humor in me to return her teasing. Bianca rolls her eyes, and I clear my throat, getting back to the problem. “We were injected with nanomonitors when we came to Paragon, which means that door knows we are all in here. To get out, we have to trick it into thinki
ng we aren’t.”

  “And how, exactly, do we do that?” Boyd asks, giving the door an uneasy glance.

  I bite my lip before saying, “But killing the nanomonitors.”

  We don’t have much time to debate. It’s a bold move, asking everyone to let Miller shock us all to kill the nanomonitors, and the only way the plan works is if everyone participates. “We either let him do it, or we all will end up in Paragon’s control again for certain,” I tell everyone.

  No one is thrilled about this, but we all want the same thing, so no one protests.

  “I can’t do this alone,” Miller says, staring at the floor. “I’ve been using my Powers for days and haven’t rested enough.”

  “A simple touch is a simple solution,” Celeste says, cocking her head and gazing intently at Miller.

  He shakes his head. “A touch. What…?”

  “You said it yourself,” I say.

  Miller’s eyes are wide as he meets my gaze. “No.”

  “You can’t do this alone,” I say. “She is powerful. She can amplify your Powers, sort of like a conduit. Yes?” I look to Celeste for confirmation, and she nods.

  Miller has no trust for the girl. But I do. He opens his mouth to protest but snaps his jaw so sharply I can hear his teeth clack.

  After a few more minutes, we’ve managed to gather a few more Naturalist volunteers to act as conductors to help the Power move through the whole group carefully and safely.

  It is a dangerous plan. Now, as everyone collects together in a tight clump and Bianca positions herself by the door, Miller moves away from Celeste like he’s ready to resist again.

  “This is stupid,” he says, glancing at Celeste from the edge of his vision. “Someone could die.”

  “If we don’t get out of here, we die anyway,” I say. “Besides, if we want to escape Paragon for good, we have to kill these nanomonitors, or they will track us down and throw us right back into those rooms.”

  Miller’s jaw twitches, but he nods stiffly.

  A few people behind me whimper. I notice the girl at my side ducking her head away, as if not looking will make it any easier.