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Rob was breathing hard, a little frightened by as happening The energy was a crackling, spinning mass now, so hot and dense that he could barely hold onto the crystal It was like trying to control a high-pressure fire hose And trying to sendto pu had to give

Soe flew out of Marisol’s third eye The force of the energy behind it chased it down her body and out the soles of her feet almost faster than Rob’s eye could follow

Gold everywhere Marisol’s entire body was encased in gold as the energy raced around, rushing through veins and capillaries, circulating at a wildly accelerated speed An internal whirlpool bath God, it was going to kill the girl Nobody was y

Rob jerked the crystal away fro, her back arching as the energy shot through her Now she fell back and lay completely still for the first time since they’d walked in Her eyes were shut Rob realized suddenly that one of heroff

Then, as he watched, her right hand began to ers unclenched, the wrist relaxed It looked like a norain

"Oh, God," Lehispered "Oh, look at that"

Rob couldn’t speak The alar And Marisol’s eyes opened

Not halfway All the way Rob could see the intelligence in them He reached out to touch her cheek, and she blinked and looked scared

"It’s okay," he told her, loud over the alarht, you understand?"

She nodded uncertainly

Running footsteps sounded outside the door A sturdy nurse burst in, got almost to the bed before she skidded and saw Rob

"What do you think you’re doing in here? Did you touch anything?" she deood look at Marisol

"Ma’a a little better," Rob said, and s frorin, switched the monitor off, and took Marisol’s pulse

"How’re you feeling, darlin’?" she asked with tears shining in her eyes "You just hang on oneto be so happy" Then she rushed out of the rooo before Doctor Hirata gets here," Lehispered "He rinned at Marisol, touched her cheek again "I’ll tell your brother you’re awake, okay? And he’ll be over here as fast as he can drive And your parents, too"

"Rob," Lehispered urgently

They ht On the second landing they stopped and whacked each other in glee

"We did it!" Rob whispered, his voice echoing in the empty stairwell "We did it!"

"You did it," Anna said Her dark eyes were glowing and wise It wasn’t true, it had been the crystal, but her praise ed Lewis and felt happy Then he hugged Anna and felt a surge of soerwar like it once before-when he’d found Kaitlyn alive down in Mr

Z’s basement It was almost like pain in its intensity, but it wasn’t pain

Then he pulled back, shocked and mortified How could he let himself feel like that about anyone but Kaitlyn? How could he let himself feel even a little like that?

And he knew Anna could tell, and that she was upset, because she wouldn’therself shielded She was disgusted with hi was for certain It would never happen again, never

They walked down the rest of the stairs with only Lewis talking

"All right, this is the place," Gabriel said It was an i on a one-way street in the financial district of San Francisco Through the uard at a little booth

"Joyce said the guard won’t give us any trouble We sign in with the naby, Hamilton, and Miles, the floor is sixteen"

He didn’t look at Kaitlyn as he spoke and he didn’t glance at her as they went inside She didn’t seeo in pairs, and Kait was supposed to walk by Gabriel

She tried to do it without showing anya red coat and talking on a cellular phone He barely looked at theh papers on a clipboard Gabriel signed, and then it was Kait’s turn She wrote Eileen Cullen, Digby, Hamilton, and Miles, 16, and 11:17, on the appropriate lines The 11:17 was the "Tined in and they crossed the tile mosaic floor to a bank of brass elevators Athe brass, and Kaitlyn stared at her neat brown A tie black button for floor sixteen The button stuck The elevator started, slowly, and with a wheeze

Renny was snickering and Frost let out a torrent of gasping giggles

"Do you knohat I signed for ned Jimi Hendrix And I put for the company, Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe Get it? Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe for a law fir

Kaitlyn’s heart gave a violent thud and began racing She stared at them, appalled They looked norantly and she earing only one earring in each ear and Renny could have been a junior accountant But underneath they were still the sauys nuts?" she hissed "If that guard takes a look at that sheet-oh, God, or if the next person who signs in just glances up-we are dead Dead How could you do such a thing?"

Renny just waved a hand at her, ith laughter Frost sneered

Kait turned to Gabriel to share her horror It was a reflex-she should have known better However horrified he ed and flashed a quick,smile

"Good one," he said to Renny

"I knew you had a sense of huernail up Gabriel’s gray wool sleeve She ran it all the way to his crisp white collar, then toyed with the dark hair behind his ear

Kaitlyn gave her a blistering glare through narrowed eyes Then she stared at the elevator buttons, fu silently She didn’t like this job She still hadn’t been told what they were doing-what can you burglarize in a law firm? She didn’t even knohat psychic powers Frost and Renny had And now she had to worry about what other insane things they ht decide to do

The elevator doors opened

"What a dump," Renny said, and snickered Gabriel cast an appreciative look around The walls were paneled in soreen lass doors Kait could see what looked like a conference rooo right"

They passed rest room doors-even those looked opulent-and entered a hallith dark green carpeting They stopped when they ca their way The doors were very big and heavy; they looked like metal, but when Kaitlyn touched one it ood And locked

"This is it," Gabriel said "Okay, Renny"

But Renny was gone Frost, standing a little way

Dack, said, "He had to go to the little boys’ rooht face

Kaitlyn clenched her fists She’d seen the graffiti at the Institute; she could just bet what he was doing in there "Nohat?" she snarled at Gabriel "Look, are you going in there to get hihtness of his jaw He started toward the bathroom, but at that moment Renny came out, his face the picture of innocence

"I would have thought," Gabriel said without looking at Kait, "that you’d be happy if we screwed this up

After all, you’re not really one of usare you?"

Kaitlyn felt chilled "I a to put sincerity in her voice

"And s, but I don’t want to get caught and sent to jail, either" As Renny approached, walking cockily, she added in an undertone, "I don’t even knoe brought him"

"Then watch and see," Gabriel said tersely "Renny, this is it From here on you need a security pass"

The device on the wall looked vaguely faas station that you slide a credit card through to charge gas autolasses back with an index finger on the nosepiece and ran a hand over the security pass reader "Anybody looking?" he said

"No, but do it fast," Gabriel replied

Renny stroked the device again and again His face rinkled up, monkeylike Kaitlyn chewed her lip and watched the central area fro out of an elevator would see them

"There you are, baby," Renny whispered suddenly And the right hand door swung open

So now Kaitlyn knew Renny had PK, psychokinesis; he couldthe little mechanisms inside security pass readers, apparently

Just like Lewis, Kaitlyn thought I wonder if there’s souys

The door closed behind theh

Gabriel led them quickly down the hallway On the left other hallways branched away; on the right were secretaries’ carrels with computers on the desks Behind the carrels were office doors, with names on brass nameplates beside them Kaitlyn saw one na than I thought

They ca doors and Renny dealt with them in the saot into private territory, the ht the to do Joyce hadn’t given the that Gabrielfor, anyway?" Kait whispered to Gabriel between her teeth "I ?"

"Keep your stupidup one of those hallways could hear us"

Kaitlyn was stunned into silence Gabriel had never spoken to her like that before And he hadn’t said a word about Renny and Frost doing really dangerous things

She blinked and set her teeth, deterain, no matter what

"This is it," Gabriel said at last The nameplate on the door said E Marshall Winston "Locked," Gabriel said "Renny, open it Everybody else keep your eyes out If anybody sees us here, we’ve had it"

Kaitlyn stared down the hall until she saw red afteri onto her white silk blouse

Then she heard a snap and the door opened

"Frost, keep watching out Renny, come with , too, but couldn’t bring himself to name her She followed Renny into the dark office Gabriel was pulling the shades, cutting out the night

"She said Mr Z thought it would probably be in the file cabinet-I guess that’s this" He went over to a wooden credenza with file drawers built in "Locked"