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"Shouldn’t you--"

"No, it should be you" He nudgedthe narrow expression on Chubs’s face "Go get ’e the purr of Clancy’s voice in my ear Zu scooted back andthe circle

"So this" I began, only to catch myself Suddenly, it wasn’t about the faces that were there, but the ones that weren’t I turned to Chubs, as plucking at a hole in his jeans, the perfect picture of forced nonchalance "Where’s Liam? And Kylieand Jaed to squeeze out, his voice unnaturally high Then, all of a sudden, no one could look at ainst the steady rise of panic Tella weapon to protect yourself

"They left," a small voice whispered I looked around but didn’t catch who it had co the tail end of this "One of--"

I knew theHe went still, his expression controlled and blank It was the look of someone just before they calmly and methodically stabbed someone

"Why did they leave?" I asked

"So ould have soo?" I had to keephim as hard as I could

"The next town over," Lucy said "They proround the words out "Well If they get their asses killed, that’ll at least bring the average IQ of this place up Do not"--he addressed the whole group now--"go outside until you’ve had the training you need to survive, and until we’re stocked eapons I’ to take care of each other, but you have to listen to what I tell you, otherwise this won’t work All right, guys?"

Several nods Several affirmative noises

"Okay," I said Daht" I forcedyou need to know is that the flash drive containing the research Cole stole from Leda Corp, about whatever caused IAAN, iped by the EMP"

Vida must have told Chubs and Zu this, because they didn’t look nearly as rattled as the others did Seeing their faces, a sharp stab of hopelessness hit ain, aware of Cole’s eyes on et it back?" To The files are gone"

"We still have the research on the cure, though," I said quickly The Greens had copied it down again and uploaded it into our lone laptop All fifteen indecipherable pages of it "And we’ll work from there But in thethe cay to hold Gray accountable for what’s happened to us But I--we--" I motioned back to Cole, "there’s no e can do this alone So I have to ask, are you guys with us? It’s okay if you’re afraid, or you don’t want to participate in the Ops It really is, and it’s nothing to be ashamed of There’s so much to do here that you’ll still be a part of it Or, once it’s a little safer, we can find a way for you to go ho, or had voiced their consent "The best way to do this, then, is to think through a potential plan for a caroups,about hoe could pull so like this off--it doesn’t matter if it seems crazy, or if we don’t have the materials we need now Just be creative and we’ll run from there"

I let them divvy theue tea with Zu Cole slapped a hand onhis rounds I sh to jump from the floor to the rafters above

And just like that, the sensation was gone A silent, heavy presence ca over me like a shadow I didn’t need to turn to knoas Chubs Irritation crept in the longer he punishedVida perched like a queen in the ue kids They crowned her with praise and wonder and adoration for a good three ive her input to their proposal

"When are you going to start looping us in on these things earlier?" Chubs finally asked "It feels like you’re springing things on us because you knoe’ll disagree with sohhis hard stare with one of my own "It sounds like the real issue here is that you don’t trust ood calls without you"

Cole had warned me this would happen--he’d toldin on my choices, and that hy I never felt fully secure inthem They’d told me over and over that they trusted me, that they had faith Clearly that wasn’t actually the case