I followed Janet out of her office, through the lobby, past Pink Lipstick, and out the front door. Even though the sun was low on the horizon by this point, the air was warm, and my workout clothes were still sufficient for keeping me toasty. Or the liquor might’ve been the real culprit. I concentrated hard on my feet and not falling as I ran to keep up with Janet. We finally came to stop in front of the Crypto Building, one of the few places on the School’s compound that I’d never been inside.

  “What are we doing here?” I asked suspiciously.

  “Be patient, you’ll see,” she smirked.

  Curious, I waited while Janet entered her security information in the keypad by the door. Once she was cleared, the huge glass doors opened and we entered a giant sterile room, several white leather couches in the middle forming a square. A glass coffee table sat in the center of the square, a fluffy white rug underneath.

  Janet walked past the waiting area and down an equally white and sterile hallway. We passed several closed doors that would have been undistinguishable from the walls if it weren’t for the chrome door handles. Our footsteps echoed loudly in the empty corridor. We walked for what seemed like hours before the floor began to slope ever so slightly downwards. Two chrome handrails appeared and I instinctively reached out for one, holding on as the ramp became steeper.

  The spotlessly clean building was so impersonal it reminded me uncomfortably of Medical. The air was cool and felt stale. I wrapped my arms tightly across my chest to ward off the unpleasant feeling. Janet appeared oblivious to the eerie emptiness of the Crypto facility as she marched forward.

  At the bottom of the slope sat a large room covered with computer screens and barricaded by a thick, glass wall. When we were a foot away from the glass wall, two panes slid apart, allowing access to the main Crypto Bank. A tall girl, so thin that she could only be termed gangly, with bright red-orange hair turned in her swivel chair at the sound of our approaching footsteps. She jumped to her feet and covered the distance between us in three strides. Her lime-green eyes were shining with excitement. She flung her arms open and engulfed me in a huge hug.

  “Penny!” I exclaimed as I stood on my tippy toes to return her embrace. I hadn’t seen Penelope Latimore, my best friend, since leaving Elite Headquarters for my ill-fated mission. Mac had forbidden communication with anyone since I’d been hurt, so I hadn’t even been allowed to call her. Penny had been the same year as me in school, but we hadn’t become friends until we were both Pledges. One night, I’d run into her in Hunters’ Village and she’d invited me to hang out. She had been the first person besides Donavon to go out of her way to befriend me. I’d felt an instant kinship with Penny and we’d been best friends ever since.

  “What are you doing here?” I squealed. I was so excited to see Penny. I’d missed her terribly over the past couple months, but I hadn’t realized just how much her presence comforted me until her arms were around me.

  “She’s been so worried about you that she pestered Mac and me to death.” It was Janet who answered. “I figured that if we didn’t let her see you soon, she might explode.”

  “No one would tell me anything,” Penny said, sounding exasperated. “Erik and Henri wouldn’t talk about what happened, and everybody else kept telling me it was classified.” Her eyes were wide with concern.

  “I figured that we needed a Crypto here to go through the personnel records, anyway, and since Mac needed a person we could trust to be discreet, I suggested Penny,” Janet said, grinning at both of us. I beamed back. After my solitary confinement, I was overjoyed to have her again. Gretchen was great and all, but she was no Penny.

  “And this,” Janet declared, gesturing to a small brunette with a pixie cut and hazel eyes, “is Gemma Samuels. She will be here mostly as back up. She will still be responsible for her regular work, but since time is of the essence, she’ll be able to assist with anything extra the two of you need.”

  “Hi, Gemma.” I smiled at the slightly older girl and gave her a small wave.

  “Hey, Natalia. It’s nice to meet you,” she replied shyly.

  “Well, I’ll leave you two to catch up,” Janet smiled at me and Penny. “Talia, tomorrow you go to all your classes, no more freebies.” I rolled my eyes, but nodded my understanding. Penny looked at me questioningly. I just shook my head. Don’t ask, I mouthed.

  “I was just about to get some dinner. Would you guys like me to pick up anything?” Gemma asked, standing to go as well.

  “No, thanks, I already ate,” Penny told her. I shook my head, even as my stomach grumbled.

  “So, tell me EVERYTHING.” Penny turned to me as soon as Janet and Gemma made their exits through the glass doors.

  “I don’t even know where to begin,” I said, shaking my head.

  “If you don’t want to talk about it...” She trailed off. The look of open curiosity on Penny’s face told me all that I needed to know. She wanted desperately not to pry, but her curiosity and longing were written all over her face. I was going to tell her that I didn’t want to talk about it, but before I could communicate the thought, my mouth began to form the beginning of the story.

  Penny had been part of the Crypto team that intercepted the information regarding Crane’s trip to Nevada, and therefore knew the basic details of my assignment, so I decided to start with meeting Kyle, the guy I’d manipulated into taking me to Crane’s temporary estate. Once on the grounds, I’d ordered Kyle to stay in his bedroom while I searched for information. In Crane’s office, I downloaded the contents of his computer to my communicator. When I finished pilfering the office, I moved on to the basement. I told Penny about the strange resistance that I’d encountered when I tried the basement door. It had been like trying to reach into a blocked mind—my Talents had been ineffectual against the security.

  I took her through my physical attack on one of Crane’s men in the basement hallway, rage mingled with shame nearly consuming me when I recounted how I hadn’t seen the second man until he plunged the syringe into my neck. That was the chemical injection that now caused my seizures. I relived the panic that I’d felt waking up shackled to a bed, staring at the man who’d killed my parents. Penny listened with rapt attention as I told her about my conversation with Crane, gently probing me on the exact nature of our exchange. Despite my earlier resolve to work out the meaning of Crane’s words on my own, I told Penny about his claims that he’d known my father. Her eyes grew rounder, but she didn’t comment.

  I faltered in my story when I reached the part about being shot. That was the last thing that I remembered. I couldn’t really recall my escape. Everything that had transpired from the time the bullet entered my back until right before I lost consciousness was blurry. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t grasp the memories that eluded me; it was like trying to collect raindrops in my hands.

  I had no recollection of stealing a hover vehicle from Crane’s home, but the extraction team had found and disposed of one. I had no recollection of driving nearly one hundred miles to the clearing where I’d been found. I had no recollection of cutting the tracking unit out of my hip to activate it, but I now had a two-inch scar to prove that I had, and that was the signal that the team had used to locate me. I had no recollection of stumbling into the woods and covering my body with wet leaves. These were all details that Mac pieced together for me over the ensuing months.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Once I’d activated the tracking unit, a signal had been sent to the Crypto Bank at Elite Headquarters. The Crypto on duty had immediately contacted Mac, who sent out an extraction order to all of the Operatives in the area. Luckily, a medi-craft with cloaking capabilities had been able to respond in under an hour. Later, Mac had told me that I’d lost more blood than the medi-craft had on board. He’d arranged for the craft to land in a small town in Kansas with a fairly advanced Medical facility.

  The doctors in Kansas had done everything in their power to stabilize my condition. But the loss of blood, coupled with the internal damage from the bullet, had left me in a precarious state. Two weeks passed before I was deemed “fit-to-transport.” I’d been flown on one of the Agency’s luxury crafts, complete with my own entourage of medical personnel, back to Maryland, to the McDonough School. Once on campus, I remained in the Medical facilities for nearly three months. The first couple weeks had been touch and go as the medics fought to neutralize the effects of the foreign drugs in my blood stream and stop the seizures.

  I spent the following weeks slowly gaining strength back in my legs. The medics on the hover craft had saved my life, but they didn’t have the resources or the technology to repair the nerve and tissue damage caused by the bullet. The Medics at School had done everything they could, too, but too much time had passed for tissue regeneration. It had been up to me to slowly learn how to walk again. After several long months of intense regeneration therapy, Mac took me home to his house, where I’d stayed until this morning.

  There was one part of my long journey that was seared into my mind: Erik’s letter. I’d thought a lot about his words while sitting in my old bedroom, but Erik’s letter was not something that I had shared with anyone. It wasn’t part of my official report. I didn’t want to share his past with others. It would be a gross violation of his trust. I might have been willing to trust Penny with Crane’s admissions about my father, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell her about Erik’s letter.

  Penny listened with rapt attention to my whole story, her eyes wide and unblinking the whole time. Her green eyes filled with tears that began to spill over and mascara streaked down her cheeks like black snakes. Her front teeth bit into her lower lip so hard that blood began to pool around them.

  “Don’t cry, Penny,” I said softly. “It’s over. I’m better.”

  “You could have died,” she sobbed, smearing her makeup further.

  “That’s a risk with any mission I go on,” I said evenly, reaching out to take her hand. “Besides, I was foolish. I let my guard down when I thought I was in control of the situation. It won’t happen again.” This only made her cry harder. I reached over and hugged her.

  “You smell like liquor,” she choked, her voice muffled by my shoulder.

  “I had a little meltdown this morning and Janet thought that a drink might help me relax,” I replied, laughing.

  “What happened?” she sniffed.

  “Donavon,” I replied, rolling my eyes in an attempt to cover my unease. Penny pulled away and looked at me, shock written all over her face.

  “Donavon is here?” she asked, wiping her nose.

  “Uh… well… yeah. He’s an Instructor at the School. I think he’s undercover trying to figure out if one of the other Instructors is the leak. He’s part of the same team we are.”

  “Oh, I didn’t know. The Director just called me two days ago and said to pack my bags, that I’d been temporarily reassigned. I met with him briefly yesterday, but he didn’t mention Donavon. He just told me what I was supposed to do. I didn’t even know that he was forming like a team or whatever,” Penny explained.

  “When did Donavon leave Headquarters?” I asked uneasily.

  “I don’t know,” she said, averting her eyes. “He was on a mission when you were hurt, and he never came back. Harris told me that he’d been suspended from the Hunters for a while. Some people are saying that he was too upset to come back after what happened to you.”

  “Upset? Over me getting hurt?” I laughed at the absurdity of the rumor even though Penny’s words nearly mirrored the sentiments that Janet had expressed earlier.

  “Well, it’s no secret that you two dated, and a Pledge was assigned to Harris and Arden’s team at the beginning of the year, so…” She let her voice trail off.

  “Right, but after the breakup, we didn’t speak. He couldn’t have been that upset.” The breakup had ended in me destroying the cabin that he shared with his Hunting teammates, so I seriously doubted that my injuries caused him to leave the Hunters. Donavon had wanted to be a Hunter for even longer than I had.

  “I don’t know, Tal. There are a lot of rumors swirling around about what happened to you and why Donavon left, but no one actually knows the truth.” Penny searched my face as if the reason for Donavon’s presence was written in the wrinkles on my forehead.

  I let Penny’s words sink in. What was the truth? Sure, if the situation had been reversed, I would’ve been worried about Donavon, but I wouldn’t have left the Hunters.

  My stomach was starting to feel queasy, reminding me that I hadn’t eaten since breakfast with Gretchen. Or maybe it was a reminder of how much Donavon’s presence had affected me that morning. It was only the second time that I’d laid eyes on my first love since the night I’d caught him with the other girl.

  “How’s Erik? Have you seen him much?” I asked hesitantly. After Donavon and I had broken up, I’d gotten involved with one of my teammates: Erik. Much like my relationship with Donavon, it had sort of ended in disaster. Right before I boarded the plane to Nevada, our other teammate, Henri, gave me a letter from Erik. That was the letter that I’d read just before passing out in the clearing. Unlike with Donavon, I desperately wanted to see Erik, but I wasn’t positive the feelings were mutual.

  “I’ve seen him a couple of times,” she answered with a small smile.

  “How’s he doing?” I repeated. He was the only person I missed more than Penny. My inability to get Donavon out of my head had led to a colossal fight between me and Erik, culminating in him storming out of my room the night before I’d gone to find Crane.

  “He’s good. You know, he’s Erik.” She shrugged, but didn’t offer any further explanation. She didn’t need to; I knew what “being Erik” entailed.

  “So he’s frequenting the city, boozing and womanizing?” I laughed, even though I didn’t find any of that the least bit humorous. In fact, the thought of Erik with another girl twisted ugly knots of jealousy throughout my entire body, causing my peripheral vision to go red. I knew that it wasn’t exactly fair. I’d been the one who was still hung up on my ex-boyfriend, but I couldn’t help the way that I felt. Erik hadn’t tried to contact me at all. I guess that his attention span really was as short as the rumors claimed; as soon as I was out of sight, I was out of his thoughts.

  “Um, well, he goes into the city a lot,” she answered evasively. “But I think he really misses you.”

  The weight that had settled on my chest lifted slightly, and a glimmer of hope broke through the sadness like a ray of sunshine. “Did he say that?” I asked.

  “Well, not in so many words, but he’s been really mopey, and he asks about you whenever I see him,” Penny admitted, bobbing her head up and down encouragingly.

  “That’s good, I guess,” I tried to match her enthusiasm, but Erik asking Penny about me and Erik actually calling me were very different things. Petty as it was, I wanted him to be pining in his room, missing me.

  “How’s Harris?” I asked, wanting to change the subject to something more pleasant.

  “He’s good… I guess,” Penny said regretfully. “We kind of broke up a couple of months back.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” I said honestly. She’d really liked him when they’d first started dating, and they were really cute together, so I was bummed the relationship hadn’t worked out. “What happened?”

  “Oh, you know… it kinda just ran its course. We’re still friendly and all, but Harris wasn’t really looking for a serious relationship,” she rolled her eyes. “Besides, there are too many other great looking boys running around Elite Headquarters to stay tied down to just one.” Penny winked at me. Since becoming friends with Penny, I’d noticed her fondness for crushing on guys; even though she said that it was Harris who didn’t want a serious relationship, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Penny really hadn’t been looking for one either.

  We sat for a couple long moments in silence, neither of us really sure what to say to the other. It wasn’t uncomfortable, we were both just absorbing the revelations of the evening.

  “I should probably be heading back to my room.” I smiled apologetically at Penny.

  “Already? You just got here!” she protested.

  “I know, but I haven’t eaten, and I need to run by Medical,” I replied. She looked so disappointed, I almost told her that I would stay a little longer, but the hollowness in my stomach made me change my mind. I was pretty sure that the ache I was feeling had nothing to do with my lack of nourishment and everything to do with my longing for Erik.

  “Tomorrow night?” she asked hopefully.

  “Of course, I’ll be over after dinner.” I smiled at her reassuringly. I gave Penny one last hug before making my return trip through the glass doors and down the sterile white hallway.