Part 21 (1/2)

Me.

It has to be easy, like . . . a letter-number cipher? The simplest cipher there is a.s.signs a number to each letter of the alphabet. A is 1, B is 2, C is 3, and so on. I rush through the alphabet in my mind, counting on my fingers. Sandline translates to 19-1-14-4-12-9-14-5. Is that it?

I type in 191144129145. The light stays red.

No, maybe it's a standard eight-digit code. I have to break it down further so each letter has only one digit. S is 19. Add the 1 and 9 together and get 10. Add the 1 and the 0 together and I come up with 1.

S is 1.

A is 1.

1-1.

N is 14, which is 5. I go through the rest of the word, and then I have it.

1-1-5-4-3-9-5-5.

I cross my fingers with my left hand and type it into the keypad with my right. And then the light turns green.

The safe holds all sorts of goodies. I go straight for my watch. I enter the same code, and the robotic voice of the briefcase echoes throughout the room as the case clicks open. I mutter a ”Hus.h.!.+”

After the watch is around my neck, I go for the money box. It's all organized by decade. I have no idea what to take, so I just start opening the drawers and shoving fistfuls of cash into the duffel bag. Then I run down the hallway and step into the gravity chamber.

I have to go to Peel. To the day Alpha died. I know what Red said; I know about the dangers of running into myself. But that's the only date when I know I had Alpha's notebook on me, and that notebook is the only way I'll be able to find out the XP missions.

And so I shut the watch. Time to rendezvous with myself.

CHAPTER 21.

It's a February morning when I land, and I instantly realize I didn't pack a coat. I'm wearing the old, olive-green hoodie and yoga pants I wore to Mike's, but that's not exactly winter weather gear. I have a coat hanging upstairs in my closet. A warm, puffy down one. But I was a wanted woman in February. I need to get out of Annum Hall. Now. So I open a door in the gravity chamber, the one that leads outside. An icy wind blows right through my hoodie, penetrating my skin.

I hunch my shoulders and tear across the Common to the Park Street T stop. I buy a new Charlie card, and soon I'm huddled inside the bus depot at South Station, my teeth chattering. An old woman sits on the bench across from mine. She looks at my hoodie, then frowns and hugs her oversized purse and bag of groceries closer, as if any second now I'll leap over the aisle at her. Do I really give off such a crazy vibe? Maybe I am my mother's daughter.

I'm grateful for the warmth on the bus. I sit next to a window and put my hands against the slatted heater. The metal burns, but I don't move my hands. It's a good pain.

A half hour later, the bus dumps me a short distance from Peel. I take the shortcut through the woods, then squeeze myself through the hole in the fence.

And I'm on campus. In just a few minutes, Alpha is going to be here. Then most of my team is going to project here from 1982, from when they found Yellow and me. Yellow will have been shot. Later, Abe and I will arrive. Then there will be helicopters and a SWAT team, and Alpha and I will go running across campus and into the science building. Where Alpha will die and I will cause an explosion.

I stare at the science building. At its plain brick exterior. It has none of the charm of the old New England prep schools. There are no notches in the bricks; there is no arched wooden door, no wall of ivy snaking up the side. No, this building is like every other building on Peel's campus. A big rectangle. Tilt walls hoisted up with a brick facade slapped on top. Efficiency and cost savings; that should be Peel's real motto.

In less than an hour, that building is going to be on fire.

I need a game plan, but I can't think of where to start. I can't be seen. Certainly not by my Annum Guard teammates, definitely not by myself, and really, not by anyone on campus. Peel doesn't have that many students. We all basically know one another. And that long-lost twin explanation only flies on soap operas.

This is a suicide mission. But before my brain can come up with another thought, there are footsteps pounding right toward me. I look up to see Alpha and Red running in my direction, and I slip back through the bent bars of the fence and flatten myself against the hedge. I drop the duffel bag to the ground. My heart is hammering in my chest.

”They'll be back soon!” Alpha yells. ”Capture immediately, and use any force you deem necessary.”

Red doesn't say anything. I wonder if he's already suspecting that Alpha isn't being entirely truthful. After all, he's about to save my a.s.s and call in SWAT after he learns the truth about Alpha.

Less than a minute later, there's a series of loud zips, followed by lots of screaming.

”My sister!” Indigo wails. ”Help her! Help her!”

My entire body is shaking, and it's not from the cold. I don't even feel that anymore. I slide a branch out of the way and peek my head around. Yellow is on the ground. Indigo and Violet have crouched down next to her. Indigo's hands are covered in blood. Green is holding Blue-Tyler Fertig-with his hands clasped behind his back. Red rushes over to Yellow. He pushes Violet and Indigo out of the way and puts two fingers on her neck.

”Still breathing!” he yells to Alpha.

Alpha doesn't move.

Red keeps one hand on Yellow and puts the other to his ear. He bends his neck into his chest and says something into his earpiece. I take a step forward to try to hear.

A stick cracks and breaks beneath my feet.

Red's head whips up, and I let go of the branch and drop to the ground. No more peeking. I'm trapped here until the old me chases Alpha into the building. Making a move now is too risky.

And so I stay here, crouched on the ground, reliving one of the worst days of my life. An ambulance wails onto campus. More sirens follow. My teammates pile into cars. The tires squish in the mud, leaving a damp smell when they depart.

Now only Alpha and Red remain, and I take a slow breath. I close my eyes. I need to prepare for what's about to happen.

And then there are two pops. Abe and I are back. I hear my own anguished cry when I think Abe's been shot. I have to clasp my hands over my ears, but it doesn't block out the sound.

I'm trembling. A wave of nausea bubbles in my stomach, then rises up into my throat. I thought I was past this day, that I'd come to grips with everything. I haven't.

The old me is shouting at Alpha now, and in the distance, I hear the helicopters. There's another buzz as Alpha Tasers Red, and then I prop myself up and peek through the bushes again.

I watch myself chase after Alpha.

I have to follow.

I push through the bars and pull my hoodie strings tighter. I keep my head down and jog across campus.

”Is that Amanda Obermann?” someone gasps, and I think my heart stops.

But then I glance up to see Jackson Rybaks pointing to the old me who's just sprinted into the science building.

”What's going on?” Ashlee Chroma yells as I brush past her.

I don't look at her. I don't look at anyone. I slip inside the science building and head for the stairs.

”When are you going to give up?” I hear myself shout from the floor above.

I rub my temple and linger in the stairwell. Listening. Waiting.

”Don't do anything stupid,” I hear myself say to Alpha.