"Nope. Try again."
I put the soup down and switched to our made-up language. "Don't you guys find it odd that we all got sick after our recent 'vitamin' injections?"
Lucy's eyes fogged over, then cleared. "I feel fine, Sam. I don't know what you're talking about."
I looked to Luke for support. "You both were like zombies, and then I came down with this flu. And now you seem... different. Less suspicious."
Luke smiled, but with a shadow of his normal brightness. "Lighten up, Sam. Life's too short to worry so much."
I cried out to Drake in frustration. "What do I do?"
'Maybe if we work together, we can push them to remember. Help clear their minds.'
"It's worth a try, I guess. Okay, you stay with me while I link to them. Instead of pulling their thoughts from them, I'll try to push my thoughts into them."
Messing with my best friends' minds made me nervous, but so did their way-too-carefree new personalities.
With Drake in tow, I focused on Luke first. Once again, a haze of heaviness settled on me and lured me to sleep, but Drake's mental tether kept me alert. I imagined the haze lifting and clarity returning. I pushed my will into the thought and felt Drake do the same. Almost immediately, my link weakened as the amount of power it took to create this level of connection drained me. After being so sick, I had very little energy left, but I couldn't give up.
It worked. With one last push, Luke's mind regained some of its former energy.
We pulled out and did the same with Lucy.
When we were done, I closed my eyes and wiped away the tears that slid down my cheek. I'd never felt more exhausted in my life.
Luke's voice had more energy than before. "You okay, Sam? What did you do? I feel like I just woke up from sleepwalking."
Without opening my eyes, I answered him. "Do you remember the shot the doctor gave you? Being sick?"
Lucy's voice joined the conversation. "Yes, I do now. Damn, I'm so sorry we doubted you. It's weird. Part of me still thinks everything is okay and I should just chill out, and another part feels a panic at what's happening.
My friends were back.
"Thank you, Drake."
'I'm glad it worked.'
Now that they could think for themselves, it was time to talk about our future.
***
"Do either of you wonder about our parents?"
Luke's face hardened. He and Lucy had been left by their parents at a hospital as babies. Rent-A-Kid somehow got to them before Social Services could intervene. "Not really. It's better that way."
With the residual mental link to Luke still active, flashes of memory fluttered into my mind: A woman with large brown eyes and a soft smile humming a lullaby and rocking him and Lucy.
Their mother.
I looked to Luke, but he didn't make eye contact, so I pushed it aside and continued our conversation.
"But if my parents were just doing what was best for me, then why haven't they been allowed to visit? Why don't any of us have contact with them? What if... what if they didn't give us up willingly?"
Lucy stiffened. "Where is this coming from, Sam?"
I kept my voice calm and reasonable. "As you said yourself, Higgins lied to you. Someone stole Kyle's powers and sabotaged my art project. Mr. K disappeared, and now they've drugged us. Our future may not be as secure as we'd hoped. What if we aren't released and let into the world when we turn eighteen?"
Lucy's voice sounded hollow as she spoke. "I just can't bring myself to believe that it's not true, Sam. Why don't we just focus on one problem at a time? We have to figure out what happened to your painting."
I suppose we all were desperate to believe, because to doubt the truth of this place meant questioning everything about our lives. Exploring the alternatives made my stomach clench worse than this flu. We were nearly eighteen, and Drake's ideas left me unsettled and fearful of my future. I wanted to let it go, to just stick to the current problem, but my birthday was fast approaching. Suddenly, the loss of my painting paled in comparison to these new problems.
"You guys, Drake made some good points, things we'd have thought of already if we weren't too scared to face the truth. Why have they taken him and locked him up? If they were really saving him from a threat, why haven't they released him? And why don't we have any contact with the outside world except on assignment?"
"It's for our protection," Luke straightened in the chair, his muscles tense. "If they knew what we could do, we would be locked up and tested like a bunch of lab rats."
"I don't buy it. By the time we were old enough for assignments, we were old enough to keep our own secrets and control our powers. So what secret are they keeping from us?"
"I can tell when people are lying," said Lucy. "Don't you think I would know if there was a big conspiracy?"
True. We called Lucy our human lie detector. And I could read minds, so how could they keep the truth from us? What would be the easiest way—