Glitch

even looking at me. I
    felt sick. Max tripped as one of the Regulators caught up
    and grabbed his coat.
    Max.
    I instinctively spun around and thrust my hand out. Time
    seemed to slow, then stop. The high- pitched buzzing in my
    head consumed all other thought. The Regulator who held
    Max was thrown backward into a column, his head crack-
    ing against the concrete with a sickening thump.
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    G L I TC H
    Max transformed again, this time into a short man. He
    ran to me and pulled my hand, but I didn’t move. Instead, I
    lifted my arm, and all the other Regulators who’d come
    running after us were yanked backward as if an invisible ex-
    plosion had sent them fl ying.
    The drone subjects on the platform stood silently, watch-
    ing with indiff erence, typing their anomaly reports on their
    arm panels.
    My power pounded in my head, taking my fear and rage
    and pain and channeling them down my arms in electric
    currents to my fi ngertips.
    Adrien walked straight toward me.
    “Zoe!” Max screamed in the man’s low voice. “Let’s go.”
    “Run, Max. Go!” I said, calling to him over my shoul-
    der. “I will hold them off for you. But I have to stay. I have
    to know!”
    I turned away, my focus all on Adrien. I zeroed in on
    him, sensing the planes and curves of his body with my
    mind. There had to be something, some explanation.
    And then I felt it with my mind.
    A tiny hard drive stuck in the back of his neck port. I
    knew it.
    This wasn’t him— he was under the control of some hard-
    ware. A joyous relief washed over me, but it was quickly re-
    placed by determination. I tried to yank the drive out with
    my mind, but in all the chaos, I couldn’t focus long enough
    to get it out. The Regulators had been such big targets. But
    this felt like searching for a pebble in a pile of boulders.
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    Heather Anastasiu
    Max transformed again and looked back and forth be-
    tween me and the exit tunnel that led back the way we’d
    come. His eyes pleaded with me. His head turned back and
    forth between me and the exit. But I had already made my
    choice. I turned back to Adrien.
    “Subdue her!” The Chancellor’s voice rang out across the
    silent platform.
    I was tense, walking on the balls of my feet. I knew what
    I had to do. Just a little closer and I’d be able to pull out the
    port drive manually.
    “Adrien,” I said, “I know this isn’t you.”
    He was a step away now, far enough away from the
    Chancellor that she wouldn’t be able to stop us when we
    ran. With Max’s help and my power, we’d be able to escape.
    I was sure of it. I reached out again with the humming en-
    ergy, my blood pounding in my temples at the eff ort. I
    reached with every fi ber of my being, my mind trained solely
    on the port on Adrien’s neck where the tiny port drive had
    been inserted.
    Adrien reached out for me, and in one fi nal burst of en-
    ergy, I was fi nally able to grasp the shape of the small drive
    with my mind. I yanked it out, sending it shattering against
    the concrete wall.
    Adrien blinked once. I sighed in relief, nearly collapsing
    to the ground in exhaustion.
    “Subdue her!” the Chancellor screamed.
    Adrien hesitated only a moment and then reached for
    me. He jammed a syringe into the side of my neck before I
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    G L I TC H
    could even scream in disbelief. I felt the needle’s pinch and
    saw the ground rushing up. As the world went black, I looked
    up and saw a pair of aquamarine eyes gazing coldly down
    into my own.
    315

Chapter 22
    i woke with a start, but when I felt the pillow under-
    neath my head, I breathed out slowly. My neck was sore and
    my throat felt dry, like I hadn’t had water for days.
    I slowly tried to sit up, but my head felt full of rocks.
    “Where is Max?” a voice asked anxiously. “Is he safe?”
    I blinked and saw Molla sitting across from me on a small
    cot in a tiny gray room. It was little bigger than my bed-
    room, just big enough for two cots and a small square space
    in the corner for a toilet. Molla jumped over to my cot and
    beside me.
    “Where’s Max?” she repeated.
    With a forceful blow, it all came back to me. It was all
    real. It had really happened.
    Adrien was a Monitor and he’d betrayed me. I’d been so
    worried about hurting others, I’d never thought about be-
    ing betrayed myself. The pain cut so deep that I felt it in my
    bones, in my toes, in my fi ngers, and most of all, in my
    heart. How was my heart still beating? It should have