Override (Glitch)

yawning emptiness.
    “Say the trigger words to un-Link yourself. Beta Ten Gamma Link.”
    “Beta Ten Gamma Link,” I repeated after him. Noise and color and sense washed back in a rush. After we’d left the factory, Jilia had suggested that I Link myself so that I could sleep without fear of losing control of my power. The Link controlled REM patterns, making dreaming impossible. It was horrible to have to put myself back under the Link’s power. I shook my head like I could get rid of the lingering fog it created. But as I looked around me, I saw everyone was safe. It had worked.
    “Where is here anyway?” Xona asked. She looked at Tyryn and Jilia. “You never said where the Foundation was.”
    “No one knows,” Adrien said. “Even the driver won’t know for long.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “There’s a glitcher who lives here. He makes the place invisible in people’s minds, so you can’t remember where you’re located, even when you’re here. I think.” Adrien frowned. “The details are a little fuzzy. Like the more I try to think about him, the less I can remember. But I feel like maybe we’re in a mountain?” He looked to Jilia.
    Jilia nodded in appreciation. “It’s the best defense mechanism I’ve ever seen. I know I’ve done a brain scan of the boy, but at the moment I can’t even recall what his face looks like.”
    “Must be lonely to be him,” I said.
    The door to the container opened. I stood up, excited to meet more glitchers. But the person who’d opened the container was Adrien’s mother, Sophia.
    She hadn’t exactly liked me the last time I’d met her, when Adrien and I had attempted our first escape to the Surface. If his mom had had her way then, Adrien would have left me behind and never looked back.
    She glared at Adrien. “I can’t believe you just left without telling me. Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been? What you’ve put me through the last forty-eight hours? Whenever it comes to that girl, it’s always trouble.”
    Adrien stared back at her, his jaw tensing up. “I didn’t have a choice.”
    Sophia lowered her voice. “We’ll talk about this later.”
    We took an elevator down, and when the doors opened, a diminutive man with a cane was waiting in a brightly lit, white-paneled hallway.
    “Welcome to the Foundation,” he said, with an enthusiastic smile. “I’m Professor Henry.”
    He limped slightly as he walked, but it didn’t seem to slow him down. He shook everyone’s hand as introductions were made and gave Adrien a quick embrace. “Come on in, I’ll show you our little operation.”
    He led us down the bright hallway. “Ever since we started recovering glitchers the past few years, we realized we needed a safe place for you to live and study your powers. A lot of glitchers have difficulty breathing the Surface air. It’s part of living underground your whole lives. So we always intended to have a sealed-off air-controlled facility as a safe haven. Of course,” he chuckled, looking back at me, “we didn’t quite anticipate anyone with quite your level of difficulty, Zoe, but we’ve almost finished the necessary modifications.”
    “When do you think the air-filtration system will be ready?” Adrien asked.
    “Probably a week. Maybe less if we’re lucky. Ah, now we’re passing some of the classrooms.” He gestured to his right. The lights weren’t on in the rooms, but I could see a little bit into the square spaces. Smooth metal chairs were arranged in a circle.
    “So we’ll have classes?” I asked. “I thought this place was mainly for Rez fighter training.”
    A slight cloud passed over the Professor’s face. “Well, I did first envision it as primarily a school and residence for rescued glitchers, but Rosalina, I mean General Taylor, impressed upon me how important it was for us to consider the military applications of some of your gifts. Especially in these dangerous times. So we’ve set it up as both school and training facility.”
    “How many students are there?” I asked.
    “About twenty glitchers,” the Professor said. “All with an array of abilities.”
    “Is everyone here a glitcher?” Xona asked. Her mouth was a tight line.
    “The students are, yes,” the Professor said. “But I hope you know you are just as welcome, Xona. The Foundation has become more and more of a military base, since our invisibility gives us such a valuable tactical advantage. The military personnel are on the level