Pulse

believed it would last forever. It was only a matter of time before Valencia, too, fell victim to the rising Pacific.
    Valencia, California, had been chosen for this very reason. A place that was but might not be for long had a certain appeal for a rebellion. Abandoned buildings lined the streets like empty coffins. Time was what they needed. Time to prepare, to plan, to gain skills they hadn’t yet acquired.
    “We’ve got at least four months,” Hawk said. He’d calculated the time it would take for the unrelenting ocean to devour their hideaway. “That enough time?”
    “Yeah, that should do it,” Dylan answered. He’d been quieter than usual during the first two weeks, but now he wondered aloud how Hawk’s parents were doing. “I’m glad we could bring them along. They okay today?”
    Hawk shrugged. Both of his parents were second-generation Intels, two of the last remaining of their kind. They were part themselves, part Hotspur Chance, and slowly losing their minds.
    “I don’t think they’ll be leaving when we do,” he said. After being recruited and talking to Meredith alone, he understood that once the real downward spiral began with his parents, it was only a matter of months, not years, before they’d be gone. He sometimes couldn’t believe how recently they’d seemed only bookish, reading away most of the day in silence. Now they were more like idiot savants, staring at things for hours on end, almost never speaking, typing unintelligible nonsense into their Tablets. The idea that he might end up the same way, if he lived that long, was something he preferred not to think about unless he was forced to.
    “I’m sorry to hear that,” Dylan said clumsily, not knowing how to comfort his young friend. Hawk was smarter than Dylan could ever hope to be. It was hard to say how he dealt with certain emotional traumas. It had been Dylan who’d taken Hawk’s Tablet more than once, each time passing it to Meredith so she could see for sure. Over the course of several different opportunities with Hawk’s Tablet she’d come to know for sure that he was an Intel, possibly the youngest of his kind. And she’d known, too, that someone of his intellect would be necessary if they stood a chance in what lay ahead.
    Hawk shrugged, a reaction that was becoming more commonplace as the weight on his shoulders grew heavier. He would be counted on for many things in the days to come, tasks no one else could achieve. Sometimes, he knew, saying nothing was the safest response. This was certainly true when it applied to his parents.
    “And her?” Dylan asked. He’d spent another night watching Faith sleep. He’d become accustomed to this during the long months of her early training, and he’d enjoyed watching her for as many hours as she would stay in bed. Now he only wished she’d wake up.
    “She’s not losing brain functions, as far as I can tell,” Hawk said. He’d been monitoring her vital signs since their arrival ten days earlier. “But she can’t stay like that forever. She needs to wake up pretty soon.”
    “How soon is pretty soon?” Dylan asked. Hawk shrugged. It was one of the few questions he couldn’t answer.
    Dylan glanced into the corner of the room and felt a wave of regret. The ball and chain lay in a heap on the tile floor. Looking at it reminded him of how he’d failed her. Hawk followed his gaze.
    “What a couple of a-holes.”
    “You said it,” Dylan replied, and he couldn’t help smiling.
    “Let’s don’t let them win,” Hawk said, then he passed through the doorway and left Dylan and Faith alone in the room.
    Dylan spent the next hour trying to coax her awake. He did this by concentrating on her, lifting her a foot off the bed with his mind, holding her in his arms in a weightless state of dreaming.
    “Come on, Faith. I can’t do this without you. I won’t make it.”
    Between himself, Hawk, and Faith, they might stand a chance. Wade was dangerous and unpredictable, and he was a second pulse. It would take everything Dylan had when the time came, and he wasn’t near ready yet. Wade would get stronger, he was sure of that much. Dylan would need to get stronger, too. But Clara was the real problem.
    “We won’t be able to stop them without her. Not with Clara on their side.”
    Meredith had come into the room, or almost in. She was standing in the doorway, looking at her son.
    “I know,” Dylan said. “Clara Quinn, the only one with all three.”
    Meredith