The humans in Operations watched Alex as the party came through the doors. Jack was in front of her, but their eyes drilled through him, almost painfully. She dropped her own eyes as if she was a bad child come to receive punishment. They marched straight through Operations and into a conference room on the other side.Janice waited for them, her arms crossed over her bosom. She leaned back in her chair and gazed over her charges. Jack filed in, then Alex, and finally Jimmy. The rest of the guards stayed outside with the door closed. Alex held the sleeve of her shirt over the gash in her arm."I told you she was dangerous." Jimmy clenched his fists.Janice gave him a look that put him in his place. He hung his head, as if he too, was being scolded."This..." Janice said with meaning, "is unacceptable.""I'm sorry. I will take my belongings and leave. You ca" Alex began, trying to take responsibility."No, this isn't her fault. Sh" Jack took a step forward."She's a hybrid, of co

Jack woke from his dream. He had been chasing something, couldn't remember what. It seemed important. He had been weighted down, something slowing him, like a great big weight on his chest. Oh well, a dream's just a dream.He still felt weighed down. And the air smelled strangely sweet, like honey. Not sugar sweet, but musty sweet. What a strange smell for a room full of men.His hand moved over something soft and silky. Hair? Oh man, how much did he drink last night? If this was Brooke, he would never forgive himself.The room was dark. One of the other men in the room snored soundly. He ran his fingers through the sleeping girl's hair. Her head lay on his chest, a gentle weight. Her breathing steady and quiet. The hair was long and straight to the touch. Please don't be Brooke, please. It didn't smell like Brooke, she was more of a cinnamon smell, or at least she used to be. It had been a long time, maybe she changed perfume or shampoo or whatever it is that made girls smell so good.

"We can't just let her keep running free. She's freaking out the population," Jimmy growled."We need to know why she's here," Janice said calmly. "When we figure out what her angle is, we can decide if she is a threat to us.""I'm telling you, she's not like that. She's not malicious. If Alex was here to hurt people, don't you think she would have done it by now? You saw how she handled those ingrates." He shot a look at Jimmy. "She could have killed them, but she didn't. It was self-defense.""Self-defense or not, we have to consider the five thousand other people living here. They don't want a hybrid here. People don't feel safe," Jimmy said."Yes, why is a hybrid living among the humans? Does she think she is so much better than us? She can walk around and lord over us?" Sherry of the department of information distribution said."I find it surprising she doesn't want anything in return," David, the headmaster of education, said, tapping his fingers together as he leaned back i

"Almost finished," Alex said to no one in particular as she sat back in her chair and stretched her tired wrists. She had been flicking up this file for the past week and wanted nothing more to do with it. Even though she had it memorized in her head, writing it out allowed her to go over every stitch of information. Alex was able to piece the plan out for Lexi's rescue, incorporating the magnetic pole predictor algorithm that Ellie finished. She was almost done.The door to the lab flung open with a sudden heavy blow. Jimmy entered, red faced and stomping straight towards her. Jack was on his heels shouting at him. "It's not her fault. You can't do this!""I'm head of security on this base. I can do whatever the hell I want," he said, swinging towards Jack, trying to tower over him. Jack rose to his full height and pulled back a fist.Alex darted from her chair and in between them. Pushing her back to Jack, she looked up at Jimmy. She raised her hands up in front of her. "Whateve

The water pressed in, dark and suffocating. Jack hated being underwater. As he sunk lower, his nerves started up. The water always made him nervous. It was like being in an endless night. He wanted to be on the surface again, in the wide open. No restraints. No restrictions.Passing through Security had been a breeze. They really should make it more difficult, but with the system hacks the humans had, and the fact that most people who worked security were human, it wasn't really even an obstacle. He stroked his naked face with the back of his hand. He missed his beard, he felt exposed. It was necessary though. They hadn't recognized him with his haircut. He ran his hand through the short cropped brown hair on his head. He shook his head. He couldn't believe the things he was willing to do for this woman. He was back down here again.The lights of his pod illuminated the murky water. The signal of a building blipped on the monitor. It read "Truex Industrial Building 704C." The pod sun