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We left the fruit on the floor in a shady corner of the roo black shirt She was still clapping her hands in delight, bouncing on her toes She couldn’t have been more than fourteen or fifteen and seee of each ear

"I knew you’d be happy, Lizzie," Mike said, tossing her a grapefruit

"We haven’t had fruit in ages," she said, her pitch rising with every word "I hope this all keeps for a feeeks"

Mike led us out of the rooes "Let’s go upstairs He should be donewith the security team by now Hayes handles hits, but Olivia--you’ll meet her--coordinates watch duty around the perietting you assigned there"

He looked down at Zu "But unfortunately for you, h lessons"

That caught Chubs’s attention "What kinds of lessons?"

"School stuff, I guess Math, a little science, soe It’s iets the basics down" Mike stopped at the top of the stairs and looked over his shoulder "I know you never liked using them, but there are lessons on how to use your abilities, too"

Chubs cleared his throat behind ht me"

"Jack…" Mike’s voice trailed off "Man, I miss that kid"

On our walk over, he had explained that there were five kids fro in the Slip Kid’s camp Mike was the only one froirls, one Yellow boy, and a Green who had soinia

The second story of the building was more of an attic; the entire floor was one open roo for the "Co to twist the handle I heard Chubs let out a nervous squeak, and I was surprised to feel my own heart skip a beat

The door opened to the ht was a white curtain, drawn all the way over to hide what I thought was probably the living area Thebehind the curtain let in enough afternoon light to hint at the shape of a bed and dresser

The other half of the room was set up like an office There were two bookshelves filled with binders and books of every shape and size An oldblack paint sat in between There were two si table pushed to the far left wall, with all sorts of electronic equipment A TV was on, set to one of the news channels President Gray’s face filled the screen, flanked by two As His mouth moved, but the TV had been muted The only sound, aside froers striking the keys of the sleek silver laptop

I would have recognized him even if he had shaved his head of thick, wavy black hair--if he had tattooed his cheeks, or pierced his long, straight nose I had spent six years staring up at every single one of his portraits at Thur every mole, the shape of his thin lips--I was even intimately fa like seeing the real thing Those portraits hadn’t captured his dark eyes, and they certainly hadn’t been able to predict how striking he’d turn out to be as he aged

"Just a sec--" He glanced up from his screen in our direction and immediately did a double take