Override

either.”

Ginni looked at me, a secret smile playing on her face. She got that look whenever one of us started talking about a boy at the Foundation. She’d always nudge me with an elbow or nod and wink. It probably had something to do with the books she was always reading. She’d pause periodically to look up from the words, clutching her reading tablet to her chest and sighing loudly.

“And…?” Ginni prompted.

Xona smirked, leaning back to lazily entwine her fingers behind her head. “And I gave him a quick elbow to the throat. Now he knows better.”

Ginni gasped.

“City saw me do it and reported straight to Jilia. So, anger management meditation it is.”

“But what if he was following you because he likes you?” Ginni asked. “Maybe he just wanted to talk.”

Xona glared at her, all traces of humor gone from her face. “Don’t try to turn ex-Regs into romantic heroes like in your books. They’re killers. That’s all they know how to do.”

“Well it’s not like we have a lot of options.” Ginni’s face soured. “Adrien’s with Zoe. All the other students are too young. Which only leaves Rand.”

Xona scrunched up her nose. “Oh honey, you can do better than Rand.”

Ginni looked down at her sewing again. “He seems to like City anyway. They’re always flirting.”

“Rand flirts with everybody,” Xona said.

“You should give Cole a chance,” I said to Xona. “He’s not like the other Regs. He even smiled at me when I knocked him over during training.” Sophia had brought him in to train with me after I’d thrown her against the wall a second time. She figured an ex-Reg could take the hits better.

“Are you finally getting control of your power?” Ginni asked excitedly.

“Sort of.” I sighed. “I can call it up sometimes, but usually only when Sophia gets me mad. And then I never direct it the way I’m supposed to. I just knock things over. I might as well not have the power at all.”

“Well as long as you’re banging up a Reg, it sounds great to me,” Xona said.

“And it does sound like you’re getting somewhere,” Ginni said, with a comforting smile.

“Maybe.” It wasn’t exactly progress, but maybe it was something after all. I hadn’t had any more seizures because I was releasing my power regularly. I still had to be Linked when I slept, but that wasn’t so bad.

“So do you think they’ll let you go on a mission soon?” Ginni asked. She averted her eyes and flattened the fabric on the table.

Xona looked over at Ginni curiously. “Why? What do you know?”

Ginni bit her lip. “Well, I might have heard something about it is all. Word is that General Taylor is prepping for another big mission.”

“I heard a rumor about it too.” Xona sat up straighter. “Tyryn let me borrow some practice weapons, and I’ve been training every minute the center is free.” She popped two shiny weapons out of her holster.

“Not that he’ll let you take any ammunition outside the training room,” Ginni reminded her.

“Well, some live rounds might have accidentally fallen into my bag in the equipment room.”

“Xona!” Ginni sounded appalled.

“What? I’m the only non-glitcher on the team. When we get into battle I can’t hocus-pocus my way out of it. I need these beauties,” she patted her weapons affectionately. “But about the mission. Tyryn wouldn’t tell me any details. What have you heard?” She looked back at Ginni.

“Well, I might have overheard that the General is planning to pit us against the Chancellor’s group of glitchers.”

Xona let out a low whistle.

“I wonder what kinds of powers they’ll have,” Ginni said. “What do you think, Zoe?”

She turned to me and I felt like shrinking down in my chair. I was sure the General was well aware of my lack of progress. Sophia would have made sure of it. If the General was planning a mission, she wasn’t going to take me.

“I don’t know,” I mumbled. But then I really considered the question. If we were going up against the Chancellor’s glitchers, would that include Max?

“Ginni—” I sat up suddenly. Why hadn’t I thought of it before? “You can locate anyone in the world, right?”

She looked up in surprise. “Yeah.”

I grabbed her hand. “Can you find my friend Max?”

“I’m sorry, Zoe. Molla’s already asked.” Ginni’s eyebrows drew together. “Whatever it is about being a shape-shifter, it makes him invisible to me. He can fool anyone into seeing him as someone else, and it fools my power, too.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling a mixture of relief and disappointment. I tried to picture him escaping the Chancellor and running off on his own, impersonating an Upper somewhere and living the luxurious life he’d always wanted. But I knew it was unlikely. He’d gone back to the Chancellor. She wouldn’t have trusted him again and would be sure to keep him under constant control with her compulsion power.

“I don’t see why you or Molla even care,” Xona said. “He chose to join the Chancellor. He helped her.”

“It’s more complicated than that,” I said. “He made some really bad choices. The Chancellor got to him right when he was new to glitching. He thought working for her would keep us safe. He didn’t realize what she was planning—”

“Yeah, maybe,” Xona scoffed, “but then he stayed behind when he had the chance to escape. After he knew how evil she was.”

I opened my mouth, but then closed it again. I couldn’t deny she was right. Max had done some horrible things. But I truly believed he’d started out with good intentions, and I wasn’t blameless either. If I deserved a chance at redemption, after what I’d done to my older brother, didn’t Max? After all, no one had died because of him.

And he’d only stayed behind with the Chancellor because he couldn’t bear to come with me. I didn’t know how to explain that, if circumstances had been different, I was sure Max could have been a much better person. Or how, in spite of everything, I still considered him family. “I’ve got to believe there’s still some good in him.”

Xona smirked. “I knew it. You really do think you can save everyone.” She turned to me, her face dark. “Look, you’ve been protected in one bubble or another your whole life. You haven’t seen what’s really going on out there. But I have. Trust me, sooner or later you’re going to find out that not everyone makes the right choice when it matters most. Not everyone is worth saving.”

I felt my face heat up. “Who are you to decide who’s worth saving and who’s not?”

“I don’t really care who we save and who we don’t.” She leaned in. “I just want to kill as many Regs as I can and, maybe if I’m lucky, take out some Uppers too. I want to make them all pay.” She spun one of the guns around her finger and then resheathed it.

Ginni had been ignoring our conversation and kept pushing material through her machine, but she stood up and dramatically twirled the fabric in a circle. “All done. It’s called a skirt!” she exclaimed. The skirt was patchwork, made from odd-shaped squares of old Community uniforms, some ex-Reg coverall blue, browns from the service worker uniforms, even the surgeon’s reds. “Isn’t it pretty?”

Xona touched the cloth skeptically. “Looks like it’d be hard to run in.”

This time it was Ginni who rolled her eyes. “It’s not for running. It’s for looking pretty.” She grabbed the skirt back from Xona.

“Who you trying to look pretty for anyway?” Xona asked.

Ginni turned to us, mouth open like she planned on mentioning something or someone. But then she paused and frowned. “I can’t remember.”

Chapter 13

“GOOD AFTERNOON LADIES,” Jilia said, settling herself down in front of us.

I sat down on the cushion while she put a box on the ground beside her. Xona leaned over and opened it. A