Chapter 6

Episode 1 - On the Brink

“Apricots.” Brady opened his eyes and glanced around the table.

Dash’s brow wrinkled, and Rachelle’s eyebrows lifted, waiting. Okay, so maybe that hadn’t been the clearest way to get his point across.

“It’s—yeah, okay. Someone—I don’t know who—was eating apricots at this table. I can’t tell you when. All I know is I can smell it. Something with apricots.”

Rachelle and Dash exchanged a questioning look, but then Dash’s head started to shake.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to prove, but you’re completely off your rocker. We haven’t eaten anything with apricots in I don’t know how long. Mangoes or pineapple, maybe, but—”

A wave of doubt that was almost panic threatened to swallow Brady for an instant, but another deep breath steadied him.

“No, it’s apricots. I’m positive. Someone’s been doing something with them, right—” His hand brushed a sticky spot on the edge of the table, and he leaned just a little closer. “There. See that spot?”

“Where?” Rachelle leaned closer and touched the area carefully with a finger. “This? My word, that’s barely tacky! And I don’t get any smell from it at all.”

“I’m telling you—” Brady started, but Rachelle suddenly cut him off with a gasp.

“Dash! Saturday!”

“Is ‘Saturday’ supposed to tell me something more than ‘apricots’?” Dash growled the words, but Rachelle didn’t seem to care as she crossed her arms on the table and leaned toward him.

“Saturday Grace was complaining that she was so bored of both strawberry and grape jelly, remember? So I passed it along to DeAndre, and he sent her…”

“Oh, of all the—” Dash closed his eyes and let his head fall.

“Go on. Tell him.” Rachelle shot a brilliant smile at Brady, but he had the feeling that she wasn’t actually talking to him. “A sandwich made with what?”

“Apricot preserves.” Dash barely mumbled the words, but Rachelle appeared satisfied.

“Which she hated even more than strawberry or grape, by the way.” Her grin flashed wider for just a second as she turned her attention fully back to Brady. “And you’re right, this is the chair she would have sat in. I still don’t know how you could smell it from such a tiny spot, and having a plate full of broccoli right here.”

“It’s, um—a gift, I guess?” Brady gave a self-conscious shrug, and Dash lifted his head and pierced him with a glare.

“So you’ve got what? The nose capacity to smell four-day-old preserves? What kind of ridiculous power is that, and what good’s it supposed to do? Super gas leak sniffing?”

“That’s not such a useless job.” Rachelle’s encouraging smile warmed Brady’s heart. “But it’s not all he can do either.”

To be fair, he still wasn’t sure exactly what kind of good these powers were to anybody, least of all him. But he couldn’t let Rachelle down—not with that proud, confident look in her eye. Brady turned his attention to the wall and let his vision blur. Wow, it was weird to do this on purpose! And would Dash take his word for having seen Dr. Mattox cross the hall from one of the labs to her command center? It wasn’t likely.

He turned his gaze slowly toward the end of the room and froze. Now there was something unusual—and maybe provable. Did the building have any kind of security feed? Well, he’d find out if he was challenged. He’d better take the chance now if he wanted it.

“Okay, so I’ve never been on this level before, right?”

“Couldn’t have been.” Rachelle’s answer came quickly. “You need a security code.”

“And which way did you bring me in here?”

“The east door, straight from the data center.”

“Okay, so how do I know that the therapy pool is that way and to the left?” Brady pointed toward where the far wall connected with the ceiling. “Beyond that, how can I see a girl in a bright blue warm-up suit who’s just left the stairs and—” Oh, wow, this was better than he’d hoped! “—is going to hit the door at the other end of the hall in five, four, three, two…” He waited while the girl worked the keypad with the same code Rachelle had used. “One.”

From the shocked look on Dash’s face when he pulled his focus back to the room, it wasn’t just his accelerated hearing that had caught the heavy click of the door.

“Well?” Rachelle laughed. “Satisfied?”

“That—is beyond freaky!” Dash rolled back a pace and surveyed him with eyes that seemed to be stuck somewhere between wide and narrowed. “What…exactly are we dealing with? Does Mattox know?”

“Ohh, he’s awake!” The girl in blue bounced into the room and plopped herself into the chair next to Dash and across from Brady. “Hi! I’m Harper. I go invisible; how about you?”

Brady’s attention was caught by the fact that what he had assumed was a hood was actually the girl’s very blue hair, and it took a second for her words to register.

“You—what?”

“He somehow saw you coming from the stairs.” The scowl on Dash’s face deepened, but Harper giggled.

“I’m kind of hard to miss. Ohh, wait, you mean he saw me from here? Like x-ray vision? That’s so cool!”

“Something…like that, I guess.” Brady shrugged. “It’s like—all my senses are cranked up to twenty. Pretty overwhelming, honestly.”

“Pretty creepy is what it is!” Dash slapped the arm of his wheelchair. “You’d better sleep on your right side is all I have to say. Better yet—” His face paled suddenly, and he shook his head. “No, you know what? Just sleep on your right side.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Dash’s room is next to yours.” Rachelle’s soft smile and the pressure of her hand on his arm were a lifeline in this world where everything seemed to be shifting beneath him at a moment’s notice, and Brady closed his eyes and let it anchor him for a second before turning back to Dash.

“Look, man, I have no intention of becoming some nasty superpowered peeping Tom, all right? I sure didn’t ask for any of this, and I’m not—”

“Hey, we get it.” Harper shook her head and scooted her chair a little closer to the table. “I can do the same kind of thing—see stuff I didn’t mean to or wasn’t supposed to—I just have to go in the room on purpose. You’ll figure out how to work it, just like the rest of us.”

“You—said you turn invisible?” Brady focused his attention on her again, relieved to be able to shift the question, if only for a little while. “How is that even possible?”

“How is any of this possible, really?” Harper shrugged philosophically. “I have a skin condition, secondary to a blood disorder. Polycythemia and erythromelalgia, if you want to look it up. Basically, too many red blood cells, which causes extreme redness and burning, especially in my face, hands, and feet. The injections clear up the redness—and all the other colors with it. Just wait till you see me—or don’t.” She giggled again. “On my invisible days, I go by Shadow. We’ll have to figure out a name for you too. Super senses…hmm…”

“So what kind of weird disorder would make the injections kick your senses up like that? What are you on normal days, some kind of vegetable?”

“Dash.”

It was the first time Brady had heard sharpness in Rachelle’s tone, but he couldn’t let her fight this battle for him. This was his cross to carry—had been since he was thirteen—and the sooner he got it out in the open, the faster he’d know where he stood in this group of misfits, or if he had a place with them at all.