“Don’t move!” I shouted.
Taylor swirled around to me, surprise on her face. “What’s going on?”
She took a step toward me, but I held up a hand. “Stay back.”
Footsteps filled the space behind me as Tyryn, the Professor, and a group of Rez fighters came in.
“Stop,” I said over my shoulder. “It could be Max.”
“What’s going on here?” the General asked. “I came back as soon as the remote alarm for my office was triggered and now the compound’s on lockdown? I barely made it inside myself before the security door shut.” She glared expectantly at all our uncertain faces. “Well?”
“Max would have to come this way to escape,” I said, eyeing Taylor. “Which is conveniently right when she shows up. The security door could have trapped him inside before he could leave.”
Taylor’s face became rigid. “Max. You mean Maximin? The shape-shifter who works for the Chancellor? He is the security breach?”
The Professor stepped forward again. I put a hand on his sleeve to stop him, but he pulled away. “Ask her something only the real General would know,” I said. “And Tyryn, restrain her while he does it.”
“How quick you are to fulfill your destiny,” Taylor said with a bitter smile at me. “I leave for a day and suddenly you’re the one barking orders?”
My face reddened.
Tyryn pulled Taylor’s arms behind her back while the Professor leaned in to ask his question. He spoke quietly in her ear, so we couldn’t hear.
She pursed her lips. “Top of my left thigh,” she said, not bothering to whisper. “Now let me go!” She pulled against Tyryn.
The Professor nodded.
As soon as Tyryn let her go, she straightened her tunic. “Now report about Maximin.”
“He infiltrated six weeks ago,” Tyryn said. “So far we haven’t yet ascertained if he has been able to communicate with the Chancellor.”
“We’ve got to get this door open.” I pounded the door in frustration. He could be long gone already. “His powers changed. He can make himself invisible now. He could have gotten through the security door before it closed and run right past you without being seen.”
The General turned to Tyryn. “The whole Foundation could be compromised. Get our best techers to the security hub. Maximin will have covered his tracks, but see if there’s any trace of his outgoing communications. Anything. And get someone up here to open this door!”
Tyryn nodded, turning back to his com to relay the order. Taylor turned to me.
“Didn’t you report seeing Maximin during the raid?” Taylor asked. “You said he was tied up when you left him behind!”
Her words stopped me short. “His powers are way more extensive than I ever knew. I don’t know if he was keeping it from me or if they hadn’t developed yet last year.” My mind raced, working it out. “His power affects the minds of the people around him. If he can make himself disappear completely, then he can probably project his face onto other people’s. That boy I saw could have been anyone.”
I breathed out and closed my eyes. I kept seeing the building collapse after we escaped. Where had Adrien been when it fell? Did he survive? Max said the Chancellor wanted Adrien’s power. She was the one who’d rigged the building to explode. That had to mean she would have protected him somehow. Max would have the answers.
I turned back to the door and tried to project my telek beyond it to see if I could feel the shape of Max’s body, but my mind was too chaotic. I barely made it halfway up the elevator shaft before it cut out again. I took a deep breath. I had to get to the centered, calm place where I could access my power steadily.
A boy with round cheeks and unkempt dark hair ran in. He seemed somehow familiar, but I couldn’t remember his name. He inserted a drive into the wall near the door projection panel. The heavy door slowly began moving in its tracks just as I got hold of my telek again.
“Stop!” I suddenly screamed and ran forward. The boy jumped, pulling out the drive so that the door closed again.
“What is it?” the boy asked nervously.
I closed my eyes, centering myself and managing to calmly call my telek. Something didn’t feel right, but I couldn’t pinpoint what.
“There are only ten of us in this room,” I finally said, blinking hard and trying to sift through my confused overlapping senses, between what I saw and what I felt.
“And?” Tyryn asked, shifting so his hand was on his weapon.
“I feel eleven bodies.”
Chapter 26
“WHERE?” TAYLOR ASKED. Everyone swung around to look at the people around them.
I closed my eyes, trying to feel out the shape I’d sensed a moment ago. But there was too much movement in the room. I couldn’t track down which one was Max.
“Everyone stop moving!” I shouted in frustration.
They stilled, but then I was thrown by the entire lack of movement. Where did he go?
I opened my eyes and tried to match up the objects I sensed with the things I saw. I gasped. “There!” I pointed. “Hunched by the door!”
He bolted toward the hallway at the sound of my voice.
I ran after him. I sent my telek ahead and locked on to him as he sprinted down the hallway. It was easy now that there was no one else around. I expanded outward as we ran, keeping the projection of the whole corridor in my head. My fury focused my telek. I was single-minded. When Max ducked into the training center, I easily followed him.
I knew what he was doing—trying to get lost among the shapes of all the other people—but I wouldn’t let him. Jilia and City looked up in surprise as I ran past, but my focus was only on Max. He was still invisible to everyone else, but I’d locked my telek around him. I knew when he looked over his shoulder. I could feel the adrenaline pulsing off him. I could probably use my power to stop him mid-step, but I didn’t dare do anything that might split my focus.
He made it out of the training center right as I got close. The door dropped shut behind him, and I slammed into it with my full body, unable to stop in time. The pain disrupted my telek for a second. I impatiently clicked the door open, the whole time feeling beyond it. I locked on to him again as he slipped through the next door into the equipment room. He was probably counting on me continuing to chase down the hallway, not realizing he’d stopped to hide. He’d either underestimated me or was too desperate to think straight. All he’d really done was trap himself.
I opened the equipment room door, then tore it off the tracks and lodged it mangled sideways into the door frame so it wouldn’t open again. Max wasn’t going anywhere.
“What have you done?” I screamed, barely conscious of the wild rage in my voice.
Only silence greeted me, but I could feel his form huddled in the far corner. I lifted my arms and shook the shelves around him with my telek.
He flattened down on the ground.
I lifted one arm, teleking a net around him and then hefting him upward by his neck. I heard a gasp of pain and walked closer, my arm still raised.
He flickered in and out of invisibility, probably from the shock of pain, and I could once again see his face. His hands were at his throat, trying to pry the invisible grip of my power off him. I threw him against the wall hard and pinned him there. I tightened my fingers, cinching his throat closed and lifting him higher off the ground.
“No more games. No more manipulation. Just the truth.” My voice was ice. “What has she done with him?”