Override (Glitch)

of me. My raging telek was still focused inward on my mast cells, and I could sense that if I let go for even a moment the swelling would start again. I tried to figure out what I’d done unconsciously with my telek and how to hold on to it willfully now.
    Get up. Get up now, I ordered myself. I stayed still. Too much hurt. How could I move?
    “GET UP!” I whispered in a rasping, barely audible voice. I closed my aching eyes for one last moment, then said it again. I tried to think of the strength of Taylor’s voice when she gave commands. There was no other choice but to obey when she spoke. I had to do that now.
    “Ginni,” I rasped into my arm com. “Where’s the Chancellor now?”
    “Zoe!” Ginni’s voice crackled in my ear. “I’ve been trying to com you for the last ten minutes. I saw Adrien come out of his room and join you, but then he left again and now he’s with the Chancellor! What happened?”
    The hallucinations the red-haired glitcher boy had cast on me had been so complete, I hadn’t even heard her com.
    “Where is he?” I asked again. I didn’t have the energy to explain right now.
    “On an elevator, heading up.”
    I rolled onto my knees, then slowly, achingly, grabbed on to the nearby wall and dragged myself to my feet. The movement cost my focus a bit—I could tell by the sudden itching on my left side. I breathed out and gathered it back. The itching calmed, but I felt split in two trying to hold on to all the mast cells internally while also moving my outer body. I took one step forward, then another, and then another. Every few moments I lost it and I’d feel a bit of swelling or itching. I caught it again just in time.
    I staggered to the elevator behind me and swiped the card. It pinged open almost immediately. They must have gone up a different elevator.
    “They’re on the roof now,” Ginni said over the com.
    I pushed the button for roof access and then sagged against the wall while the elevator lifted. It stopped and pinged open. My breath was heaving and unsteady as I stepped out on to the roof. The morning sunlight hurt my eyes, but I could make out figures and two vehicles on the transport landing pad. I recognized Adrien’s tall frame immediately. The Chancellor stood with her back to me, her hair oiled back slick like she always used to wear it. She whipped around and her eyes widened in shock.
    I saw her reach for a weapon and gave up a moment’s control over my mast cells. I thrust my telek outward and yanked the gun out of her hands. It clattered to the ground only a few feet away from me.
    “It’s not possible,” she managed to choke out. “You’re supposed to die. Adrien said he saw you go into an allergy attack and die!”
    The effort of pulling the gun away was too much. I fell to my knees the next second and scrambled to get a hold of the instantly erupting cells.
    I reached my hand in her direction. This was it. After all these months, she was finally in my grasp. If I’d been in my biosuit, I could have snapped her neck in an instant. But I wasn’t, and the more I tried to split my telek focus between my mast cells and reaching outward toward her, the more it felt like I was caught between two magnets ripping me apart in opposite directions.
    “Don’t waste your energy on me, darling Zoe,” the Chancellor called out. The fear that had flickered on her face had disappeared at the sight of my struggle. She smiled instead.
    I looked up and saw that Adrien had walked away from her to the edge of the building. The very edge. And on the opposite side of the building, Taylor stood just as precariously perched.
    My heart skipped a beat. Why was Taylor even still here? She’d promised she would take off again as soon as she’d dropped me off. We must have underestimated the Chancellor’s reach.
    I took a step forward.
    “Stop,” the Chancellor commanded. “They’ll throw themselves off if I command it. In your condition, I don’t think you’d be able to pull them back.” Her eyes narrowed as she looked me over. “In fact, I’m not even sure you could save one of them if you tried. But there is another way. All you have to do is pick up that gun,” she gestured at the weapon I’d ripped away from her, “and kill yourself.”
    I glanced at the gun, then back up at the Chancellor. Hatred poured off me in waves. If I could just manage to get control …
    “Kill yourself and I will let them live.”
    “Stop,” I said. “You don’t