Override (Glitch)

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