Hunger

me,” Diana said. “I just need to hold your hand.”
    “What’s happened? Why won’t anybody tell me anything? Where are all the adults? Where are your teachers?” Orsay had a voice with a built-in tremble to it, like she’d always been nervous and always would be.
    “We call it the FAYZ. Fallout Alley Youth Zone,” Diana said. “You know about the accident at the power plant back in the day, right? Fallout Alley?”
    “Hey, Caine told you to read her, not give her a history lesson,” Drake snapped.
    Diana wanted to argue, but Orsay’s expression, her look of terror mixed with pity for Diana, was weirding her out. It was as if Orsay knew something about Diana, like she was a doctor with a fatal diagnosis she hadn’t quite nerved herself up to deliver yet. Diana took Orsay’s hand.
    As soon as she took Orsay’s hand she knew her power level. The question was whether she should tell Caine the truth. InCaine’s universe there were only two possible categories of mutants: those who were unquestioningly loyal to Caine, and those who needed to be disposed of.
    At least Orsay wasn’t a four bar. If she had been, there was little doubt in Diana’s mind that Caine would have turned her over to Drake.
    “Quit stalling,” Drake growled.
    Diana released the girl’s hand. She ignored Drake and spoke to Caine. “She’s a three bar.”
    Caine sucked air and sat back in his chair. He considered the terrified girl. “Tell me about your power. Tell me the truth, all of it, and you’ll be fine. If you lie to me, I’ll know I can never trust you.”
    Orsay looked up at Diana as though she might be a friend. “Do what he says,” Diana said.
    Orsay twined her fingers together. She sat with her knees knocked, her shoulders pressed in as though she were trying to get them to meet.
    “It started happening, like, maybe five months ago. Mostly at night. I thought I was crazy. I didn’t know where it was coming from. My head would be filled up with these pictures and sometimes sounds, people talking, flashes of faces or places. Sometimes they were really short, just a few seconds. But sometimes they went on for a half hour, one thing after another, craziness, people being chased, people falling, people having…you know, like, sex and all.”
    She looked down at her twisting fingers, embarrassed.
    “Yeah, we get it, you’re all sweet and innocent,” Drake sneered.
    Diana asked, “How did you figure out you were seeing people’s dreams?”
    “It usually only happened at night,” Orsay said. “And then, one night I had this really vivid dream of this woman’s face, this kind of nice, red-haired woman, right? But she wasn’t even around, yet. She arrived the next morning. I hadn’t seen her before, not in reality, just in her husband’s dream. That’s when I figured it out.”
    “So you’ve been up in the forest this whole time? You must have been lonely.” Caine was applying a bit of his smile, a fraction of his charm, putting her at ease.
    Orsay nodded. “I’m used to being lonely.”
    “How are you at keeping secrets?” Diana asked. She made her voice casual, but she stared hard into Orsay’s eyes, hoping she would get the message, hoping she knew how great a danger she was in.
    Orsay blinked. She was about to say something, then blinked again. “I never told anyone anything I saw,” Orsay said.
    Caine said, “Interesting question, Diana.”
    Diana shrugged. “A good spy needs to be discreet.”
    When Caine looked blank, Diana added quickly, “I mean, I assume that’s what you’re thinking. We have Bug, who can sneak into a place, maybe overhear some conversation. But Orsay could actually get into people’s dreams.” When Caine’s expression remained skeptical, Diana added, “I wonder what Sam dreams about.”
    “No way,” Drake said. “No way. You heard her, she gets anyone’s dreams who happens to be nearby. That means she’s in our heads, too. No way.”
    “I doubt she wants any part of your dreams, Drake,” Diana said.
    Drake uncoiled his arm and lightning quick wrapped it around Orsay, who yelped and froze stiff. “I brought her in. She’s mine. I say what happens to her.”
    “Just what is it you want to do with her?” Diana asked.
    Drake grinned. “I don’t know. Maybe I’ll cook her and eat her. Meat is meat, right?”
    Diana glanced at Caine, hoping to see some sign of revulsion, some acknowledgment that Drake was going too far. But Caine just nodded as if he