Ionic Attraction Read online

  “Fingerprint recognition?” Zach was getting more and more impressed by this place.

  Jane shook her head. “Retinal, voice, and facial recognition.”

  Zach’s brothers followed Jane inside the hovervator, but Zach stopped short. He didn’t like the feel of the thing. Reminded him too much of— No. He terminated the thought before it had a chance to derail him. Reluctantly, he entered the sphere. No sooner had he passed through when a neutron blanket hummed into place across the opening. The hair on his neck stood up. Close your eyes. Close your eyes. You can do this.

  “Excuse me,” Jane said, and brushed by Zach to lean against the wall. Even though all his concentration was on steadying his heartbeat, he couldn’t help noticing how nice she smelled. “Brace yourselves. Penthouse, please.”

  Going up. LYDIA echoed from inside the hovervator, an exact copy of Jane’s voice. Please enjoy the experience.

  That was weird, Jane standing right there, lips unmoving. It was like she was a ventriloquist. The hovervator slowly rose from the floor, then, to Zach’s surprise, shot at an upward angle across the lobby, toward the ceiling. He lost his balance and awkwardly fell against Jane. She glanced up at him and smiled but didn’t say a word.

  “Sorry.” He put his hand against the hovervator wall to right himself and stared out at the lobby to take his mind off the all-too-familiar terror that was threatening to shut him down. The floor shrunk away beneath them. As they rose, Zach noticed a massive monitor with a video of a comet-shaped geomagnetic storm erupting in the solar winds, and the words The 101st International Geomagnetic Convention. As the hovervator climbed, Zach could see just how enormous the place was. Masses of ant-sized people moved in organized patterns, streaming like data packets to processors.

  Without warning, a swarm of drones surrounded the hovervator, latching onto the surface, totally blocking the view of the Complex. Everything faded, and Zach’s heart began to pound. Déjà vu boxed him in. A loud clicking sound reverberated inside the hovervator, and he couldn’t breathe. His knees began to shake. Just as abruptly, the drones pulled back and veered away.

  “Are you okay?” Nolan took Zach’s arm. “You look like a ghost.”

  Zach realized he was sweating. He wiped his face. “I’m good.”

  But he wasn’t. And he knew that his brothers knew. But not even the Bro Link could clue them in on the terror of the prison torture machine. Ace called it the Blackbody. That clicking sound… Zach wanted to forget. He glanced at Jane. She had the same concerned look as his brothers. He had to pull it together.

  “That was awesome!” he said, forcing his enthusiasm. “Totally caught me off guard. What was it?”

  Jane’s eyes were shrewdly fixed on his like she wasn’t buying it. “Symbiosis. Hovervators tend to overheat. The drones absorb their excess power. It charges the drones and cools the hovervator.”

  “Cool,” Zach said. He knew without looking that his brothers weren’t buying his act, either. No getting around it now. He’d have to explain the Blackbody to them later.

  The hovervator stopped, and the neutron blanket dissipated. LYDIA’s voice came from somewhere outside the hovervator. You have arrived at the Penthouse lobby. May all your experiences be mutually beneficial.

  “That’s got to be weird,” Zach said to Jane. He swallowed involuntarily, still shaken by his memories of the Blackbody. “Hearing your own voice. Does it make you do the Do-I-really-sound-like-that thing?”

  “No.” Jane shook her head. “You’re still pale. Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “Never better.”

  Jane cocked her head and exited the hovervator. “Welcome to the Penthouse, then.”

  As Zach shook off the terror of the machine, the first thing he noticed was how bright everything was. The sunlight filtering through the glass was brilliant white, not refracted into rainbows like the lower levels. And the view of Quantum City was as good as Jane had said it would be. Zach felt like he was on a mountaintop looking down on the world. The city spread out as far as he could see. To the west, another building stood out above all the others. The Research Center at Quantum City University. The only place on the planet that rivaled the Mastermind Complex with the caliber of scientists it attracted.

  Zach suddenly realized that Jane had resumed her tour guide speech. “The lobby has ample meeting space, tables, desks, anything you need to interact. There are multiple offices, conference rooms, and work surfaces off the lobby.” She pointed to a nondescript, windowless door. “But the real action takes place here. We call it the War Room.”

  “Why do you call it that?” Zach asked.

  “All the best strategy rooms in the world are called the War Room. Google it.” Jane pushed the door open to reveal a bright room with a long, shiny table surrounded by plush chairs. The walls were covered in high-def monitors. At the far end of the table, a man in a dark suit waited. Impeccably dressed, he had an air of confidence. His face was serene, his chin held high. He watched in silence as Zach and his brothers followed Jane into the room. The moment they entered the room, he stood and extended his hand.

  “Allow me to introduce the head of ORDER,” Jane said. “Mr. Parker, please meet Zachary, Michael, and Nolan Keen.”

  “Welcome,” Parker said in a gravelly voice. He was tall, and his unruly eyebrows reminded Zach of a beardless Gandalf. “Jane has put together a wonderful orientation package to ensure that you’ll enjoy your time at the Mastermind Complex. I have heard many good things about the Keen triplets. ORDER needs minds like yours.”

  “Order?” Zach was confused. “What does order have to do with it?”

  “I think he’s referring to an organization,” Nolan said. “O-R-D-E-R.”

  “Oh. Yeah.” Zach felt his face flush. “I knew that.”

  ORDER. He got it now. Most scientific organizations were known by acronyms. NSF was the National Science Foundation. WISE was the center for Women in Science and Engineering. Zach tried to imagine what ORDER stood for but couldn’t recall any organization by that name.

  “Thank you for having us, sir,” he said. Sound professional. Sound like a scientist. “It’s an honor to be here. My brothers and I are really looking forward to this internship.”

  “The honor is mine.” Parker shook hands with both of Zach’s brothers then turned to Zach. Parker’s face darkened just slightly, and he took Zach’s hand hesitantly as if it badly needed washing. Parker’s grip never tightened as they shook, and his dark blue eyes drilled into Zach’s. He abruptly pulled his hand back and waved toward the table. “Please, take a seat.”

  That was totally weird. Zach didn’t know how to interpret Parker’s dead-fish handshake or his sharklike stare. As he took a chair beside his brothers at the long table, he noticed Jane in his peripheral vision. She was standing. He thought he’d caught her throwing a nasty glare at Parker, but when he looked directly at her, there was no glare, just a funny expression like she didn’t want to be there. And that was just as confusing.

  Parker cleared his throat.

  “You mentioned the internship, Zachary,” he said. “The fact is, I didn’t call you to the penthouse to discuss the internship. I have something more appropriate for people with your talents.”

  Zach clenched his fists, his gut wrenched. The urge to panic surfaced with a vengeance. Ace always used the phrase “something more appropriate.”

  Right before he threw Zach into the Blackbody.

  Chapter Six

  Jane

  Jane noticed the change in Zachary the instant the drones covered the hovervator. His reaction seemed odd, because the tourists loved that close encounter with technology. But Zachary was trembling. This was terrible.

  Zachary’s profile was so wrong. He seemed vulnerable, not combative. Frightened, not arrogant. Even when he’d tried to recover, his false bravado couldn’t hide the sweat beading on
his forehead. By the time they’d reached the penthouse floor, some of the color had returned to his face, and he seemed perfectly fine when they entered the War Room. But at the mention of a better offer, the blood had drained again.

  “What is this, another setup?” Zachary whispered, staring right at Jane.

  Another setup? Jane’s mind flashed back to the investigation two years earlier. She cringed at the memory—the information she had given the police. Her impetuous words had sent Zachary to juvie. If she had known what the police were going to do, why they had come to her, she would never have talked. It was her fault. No matter what her father said. By the time she discovered what she had done, it was too late to help him. Did Zachary know? Was he blaming her?

  Zachary ran his fingers through his hair. “If you don’t want us in the internship, then what?”

  “No one is setting you up.” Jane composed herself and took her seat in front of a stack of folders. There was no way he could have known. “Mr. Parker was about to offer you and your brothers the chance to be a part of something bigger.”

  “You said you were only in charge of orientation, but you act like you’re in the middle of this whole game.” Zachary’s words had a wary edge. “What are you not telling me?”

  “This is not a game.” Nice work, Jane. You’ve managed to lose his trust before you earned it. “I said I was in charge of orientation. You assumed it was only orientation.”

  Zachary’s eyes narrowed. “And you want me to believe that this is not a setup.”

  Why was he making this difficult? Didn’t he realize she was trying to help him? “Believe what you want. Despite what you learned in juvie, there are people you can trust.”

  “I’ll let you know when I find one.”

  “I am one.” Okay, maybe his profile wasn’t totally inaccurate. Still. Be calm. Stay in control.

  “Prove it. What if I don’t want to be in the special program?” He slashed air quotes around the words. “Maybe I want the internship. Do I have that option?”

  “I’ll have to—”

  “You don’t,” Mr. Parker interrupted. “Conditions of your parole. You have to be engaged in one of the Mastermind Complex’s special projects.”

  Zachary’s brows pulled together. He glared hard at the table for a moment then said, “So…take it or leave it. Do what you tell me or violate parole and go back to juvie to complete my sentence.”

  “That’s not—” Jane was on the verge of losing it. He was so frustrating! She had put herself on the line with her father and this was the thanks she got. Arguments at every turn. “Why—what—quit putting words in my mouth, Zachary Keen!”

  “Right.” Zachary pushed back in his chair and tilted his head. His eyes and mouth seemed to droop as though the Earth’s gravity had suddenly increased. “Look, the truth is, I just got out of juvie and don’t want to be in a program that says Juvenile Delinquent. I’m a scientist. Isn’t there any way I can be in the internship with my brothers?”

  There might have been if the situation had been different. The fact was, Jane had gone out on a limb to get him on her team, not only because she owed him, but because she needed him. His talents, and those of his brothers, would give Jane’s team the best chance of stopping a major disaster. That was why she had fought so hard convincing her father to have Zachary’s record expunged and bring him on board. But she never saw this coming. In her wildest dreams, Jane never suspected that she’d have to persuade Zachary to join the mission. How could she gain his trust?

  “May I speak with you in private?” Jane asked Zachary.

  “We are running out of time.” Her father shook his head. His face was like stone. “Whatever you have to say, say it in front of everyone.”

  The Keen brothers huddled together at the end of the table staring out at Jane like wolves protecting their pack. Even though their eyes were on her, she had the distinct impression that they were having a conversation among themselves.

  Jane caught Zachary’s gaze. He turned away. She crossed her hands on the table, leaned forward, and willed Zachary to look her in the eye. She had to choose her words carefully. “Zachary, you are obviously not interested in the Special Program. And to be honest, I’m terrified of what HAVOC might do to you. But I would still like to explain this mission.”

  “What havoc might do to me?” Zachary crossed his arms. Anger flashed across his face, then was gone as quickly as it had come. “Havoc is what happened in that detention center. You have no idea what havoc’s already done to me. You say this isn’t a game, but it sure feels like one. You don’t want me here. Okay, I get it. Nobody wants the burden of an ex-con on their team.”

  Jane flinched. She knew too well the pain of feeling like a burden. “Zachary, you’re not listening. I’m trying to explain how badly we do need you.”

  Zachary bit his lip. “Oh. I, uh…”

  Her heart went out to him. “I think I can make this work if you’ll give me a minute.”

  He grimaced but then nodded.

  Jane steeled herself. “The world knows the Mastermind Complex as the home of LYDIA. What they don’t know is that she was developed for a top-secret government operative known as ORDER.”

  “Never heard of it,” Zachary said.

  “No one has. The Organization for Radical Defense Enforcement Recon. It’s a highly classified operation. Only the president of the United States and her closest advisors know about us. We failed to mention that in your invitation letter for obvious reasons.”

  Zachary frowned. “Go on.”

  Jane couldn’t tell if he was interested or defiant. “We were formed to stop a terrorist-for-hire agency led by a scientist named Isaac Mamont.”

  “Professor Mamont is the head of the Young PhD program at Quantum City University.” Zachary shook his head and fisted his hands. “I’ve read his papers. He’s no terrorist. He’s brilliant.”

  Mr. Parker drummed his fingers on the tabletop. “And he’ll be the first to say so. The man is a megalomaniac. We’re at war, but nobody knows it. He has recruited a company of scientists to develop a weapon using top secret U.S. government information. Isaac is a gifted thief. I’m putting a team together to stop him.”

  “So, you’re recruiting spies?”

  Jane nodded. “You’ll be government agents, yes.”

  “Secret agents. Okay.” Zachary’s face softened as though the idea had lowered his blast shields a bit. “But why us? I mean, the Mastermind Complex already has the best minds in the world.”

  Jane smiled. Evidence that Zachary’s profile was wrong about his arrogance. She opened a folder, arranged its contents on the War Room table, and slid them toward him. “Mamont calls his organization HAVOC. The Halo Agent Valor Operative Cadre. These are his Halo Agents.”

  “Halo Agents? Do they think they’re angels?”

  “Some of them do.” Jane smirked. “Mamont likes to play God.”

  Zachary fanned out the profile photos in front of him then poked his thumb at the monitors lining the War Room walls. “This place has the best tech on the planet. So why are we looking at paper?”

  “Security.” Jane patted the folders. “Those files contain highly classified information.”

  “And?”

  “HAVOC is high tech. Low tech is the best defense against them learning that we’re on to them. You can’t hack paper.”

  “That’s brilliant, actually.” Zachary flipped quickly through the photos once then did a double take. “Hey, these Halo Agents are teenagers.”

  Jane steepled her fingertips. “Not just teenagers. Teen geniuses. Superior intellect, highly energetic, incredible mental stamina. Which is why Mr. Parker asked you here. He’s forming his own squad of teen geniuses. We need to infiltrate HAVOC. Adults would never get inside.”

  Zachary looked up at the ceiling and said nothing for a moment. T
hen he turned his gaze on Jane. “Makes sense. Teens can get close to teens easier than adults can. So we get cozy with the Halo Agents. Then what?”

  Zachary’s eyes were dark and intense, like deep space. Jane hadn’t noticed that before. She looked away and forced herself to focus. “HAVOC has implied threats against our nation. LYDIA picked it up during her routine scans. We know that HAVOC is building a weapon powerful enough to destroy a city, but our intel stops there. Our mission is to find out what they’re building, where they plan to use it, and how we can stop them.”

  “So you want us to get inside and destroy the weapon.”

  “I do not.” Mr. Parker leaned into the table. “Your job is to provide me with information. Period. You are reconnaissance. You are not to engage. I will destroy the weapon.”

  “Why me?” Zachary asked. “Why my brothers?”

  “This is no ordinary war,” Jane said. “It’s a war of the minds. HAVOC specializes in acquiring top secret government information to be used for what they describe as the greater good. Isaac Mamont’s greater good usually happens at the expense of people’s lives. Collateral damage he feels is worth the sacrifice. As Mr. Parker mentioned, Isaac is gifted. Gifted at theft, gifted at cover-up, and gifted at bringing people fully into his cause. He operates HAVOC out of Quantum City University under the guise of the Young PhD program. The program is wildly successful, making it the perfect cover for his more criminal activities.”

  Zachary arched a single brow and shook his head. “I get why ORDER needs teenagers. But why did HAVOC recruit them? Quantum City U has plenty of brilliant scientists, too. Why doesn’t Mamont use them?”

  Jane sat back in her chair and folded her hands on her lap. “Mamont’s ego requires total compliance. Scientists of the magnitude he needs for his work don’t get to their level of accomplishment by following orders. Did you hear about the explosion at the data center in Argentina last month?”

  Zachary nodded. “It was all over the news. An entire team of scientists died. They’re still investigating the cause.”