Pulse

killed ten Drifters.”
    His emotions were all over the map. Part of him was amped at how incredibly powerful he was. Drifters were bad people: killers, thieves, con men. He’d had that drilled into his brain for years. He was thinking about taking on fifty, a hundred Drifters. Bring on the ninjas, send in the mixed martial arts champ; he’d take them all at once without breaking a sweat. Another part of him was struggling to make sense of what he’d let himself become. He didn’t feel like a guy who’d take out ten people in a matter of minutes without thinking twice, but that’s exactly what he’d done. He thought of Faith, and what she’d think of him if she knew. He liked her, and that was becoming a problem. It wasn’t in the plan, and Wade Quinn was all about the plan.
    All those thoughts were swirling around a more central one occupying a huge piece of real estate in his brain.
    Something was up with that Wire Code.
    Wade snapped his Tablet to small, put it in his back pocket, and went in search of an answer he could only get from one person.
    Hawk, you better shoot straight with me, he thought as he opened the door and started down the empty hallway. Otherwise you might be number eleven.
     
    “You realize what he’s done,” Andre said. Gretchen stood at his side, unmoving but clearly pleased. Talking to the twins always got her blood boiling.
    “He’s started a war,” she said. “I would have expected nothing less.”
    “It’s not the timing I would have chosen.”
    “The games are only a month away. We stick to the plan. This changes nothing. And you should encourage him more. He needs to get used to this. Ten Drifters was just the beginning for Wade.”
    “I don’t know. Meredith can be unpredictable. This may set her off.”
    “You worry too much. She’s only one person, and she’s surrounded by castoffs and fools. I think it’s good Wade did this; it shows how stupid she is. If she thinks Drifters will be of any help to her, Wade has made it clear they’re going to be useless in any kind of real confrontation. She’s running scared. Trust me.”
    Andre couldn’t look at his wife. She was striking in the meanest way he could imagine, a characteristic that had been enticing and powerfully attractive when they’d met. In situations such as this one though, he felt nervous about her energy. She wanted power, lots of it, and as fast as it could be gotten. And there was something else, a thing that Andre understood all too well that Gretchen did not.
    Meredith was a lot more powerful than he was. If things got complicated, their hope rested with the twins. It was a risky bet he wished he didn’t have to rely on.
     
    “Where have you been?” Hawk hadn’t seen Faith for a week. She’d gone off grid, locked the door to her house, vanished.
    “I was sick. It happens.” Faith hadn’t felt right for days and decided to take her classes from home, give herself some time to regroup. It was allowed, and in some ways even encouraged, this idea of schooling on one’s own. Mr. Reichert and Miss Newhouse only asked that she check in every day with her Tablet, let them know she was getting her work done, staying out of trouble. It had taken six days to shake the headaches and the bouts of fever. She’d felt adrift, lost to the world, unable to reconnect.
    “You were already skinny enough,” Hawk said. He looked up at her face, which was bordering on gaunt. “You wanna hit the cafeteria? We have time, like fifteen minutes before the first bell.”
    They sat together eating pancakes and cold cereal, the only two things besides milk that were always available for breakfast at Old Park Hill. Ten or so other kids were there, too, scattered in little groups around the cafeteria, eyeing Faith like she’d come back from the dead.
    “Can I ask you something, Hawk?” Faith asked, slurping on a spoonful of wet cornflakes.
    “As long as you keep eating, you can ask anything you want.”
    Hawk was careful to look up every few seconds in case Wade or Clara appeared. He’d been dodging them like a secret agent for days, steering clear of any trouble.
    “What do you know about Wire Codes? I mean, are they dangerous or just fun?”
    Hawk’s throat went dry.
    “It’s okay; you don’t have to answer me. I thought maybe, you know, since you’re all techie and stuff, you’d know more than I do.”
    “Why are you asking?”
    “Because I think I might have been given one without knowing