Pulse

what kind. There was no way of knowing how many pockets lay hidden inside his coat, but she knew from experience that Clooger was a master of many war crafts. He knew a hundred different ways to kill a man and had the tools to accomplish them all.
     
    “It wasn’t my fault. It just . . . happened . It got crazy is all.”
    Wade Quinn was in an empty classroom staring into his Tablet. The only other person within earshot was Clara, who stood by the door watching for anyone who might walk down the long, empty corridor. She loved nothing more than seeing her brother in hot water, and this situation was boiling over a gas flame. She was all too happy to throw some grease on the fire.
    “He was with a girl,” Clara said, loving every second of where this was going. “I told him not to, but you know Wade. He can’t keep his hands off the ladies.”
    Wade took his eyes off his Tablet long enough to shoot his sister a cold stare, but it didn’t last long. A hand slammed down onto an unseen desk in the video feed. When Wade looked back, the face in the Tablet was not pleased.
    “I told you both to control yourselves, and you didn’t.”
    “Hey, whoa,” Clara said, moving over in front of the Tablet feed. “I had nothing to do with this. It was all Sasquatch here. This is on him.”
    “Shut up, Clara.”
    The command came from a female voice neither Wade nor Clara could see. She was on the other end of the Tablet feed, standing off camera. It was a voice they knew not to mess around with. “Go back to the door. Keep quiet.”
    Clara slunk away, staring bullets at her brother as she went.
    “Just a bunch of Drifters anyway,” Wade said under his breath, trying to make himself feel better. “Nobody’s gonna miss ’em.”
    “They’re more important than you think; I’ve told you that a thousand times. Did you kill them all?”
    Wade thought this was an odd question to ask until it crossed his mind that if there had been more than ten and one had ran away, this whole thing could come back to haunt him in a hurry. He decided it would be better to lie, then clean up the mess later if he had to.
    “It happened really fast. They jumped me, and I lost control; that’s it. Took maybe two minutes. But yeah, they were all dead when it was over.”
    The person on the video screen wasn’t so sure, but he let it go. “And you disposed of the bodies?”
    “God, this is so gross,” Clara said. She opened the door and walked out, leaving Wade to deal with the situation on his own. Wade started to yell at Clara, but the person on the Tablet stopped him.
    “Let her go. She’ll be fine if you give her some space.”
    Wade returned his gaze to the Tablet, trying his best to stay focused.
    “Yeah, I know where the bodies are buried. It was some work.”
    “You’re lucky to be alive. Drifters are dangerous and unpredictable.”
    “A plague on the earth,” the unseen female voice added. “I can’t say I mind fewer of them taking up space.”
    There was a pause as the man looked at Wade for a long moment. “Did you know what you were doing, or did it feel like something else was in control?”
    Wade didn’t want to answer the question. The Wire Code had made him more violent and alert. He’d never felt that powerful; and it really had happened very quickly, like a bolt of lightning, and it was over: dead bodies everywhere, Faith sitting in the cart shaking uncontrollably. He’d given her a second Wire Code so she’d block out everything. It was risky, especially for a first-timer, and he’d felt badly doing it. But he couldn’t let her remember what he’d done. Not an option.
    “They attacked; I went for it,” Wade said. “To be honest, it’s all kind of a blur. I don’t remember exactly.”
    The whole thing had been crazy, and while he thought Drifters were subhuman losers who were too stupid to live in the States, he couldn’t wrap his mind around the idea that he’d actually put ten of them out of their misery.
    “Stay away from the girl,” the man in the video feed said. “It’s a distraction you don’t need right now. Get stronger, do the training, and be ready. I’m going to need you at your best.”
    The feed went dead, and Wade was pleased that the Wire Code hadn’t come up. He breathed deeply, like he’d been holding his breath during the conversation and finally he was allowed to get it all out and feel what he was really feeling.
    “Holy shit, Wade,” he said to himself. “You