I start mentally sketching the chemical structure of my latest test formula. Saves me from paying attention and wanting to answer when I shouldn’t.
“We have to move the lab.” Mom spins around and storms toward the back of the room. “This facility isn’t secure.”
I sigh.
This is how Mom always reacts to danger. She overreacts.
Don’t speak.
Take immunity serum.
Move the lab.
For a woman who chooses to work in the world of heroes and villains—and who was married to one of the greatest superheroes of his generation—she doesn’t deal well with violence and conflict. At all. Then again, having your husband wiped off the face of the earth by villains will do that to a woman.
She crosses to the far corner, where one of Nitro’s fireballs did a number on the file cabinets. There are papers strewn everywhere.
Mr. Malone goes after her and I follow.
“Jeanine, stop,” he says, moving to her side as she starts grabbing folders off the floor. “You don’t have to leave the lab.”
She whirls around to face him. “Villains broke in here tonight,” she says, her voice bordering on a shriek. “Nitro broke in here. He blew up my lab and tied up my daughter. Someone mind-wiped her. It’s not safe here anymore.”
“It is,” he insists. When she glares at him, he amends, “It will be. I’ve already called the Cleaners. By morning it’ll be like villains were never here.”
Mom shoves the stack of folders into my hands. “The mess isn’t the problem. The security breach is unacceptable.”
“That will be dealt with.” He takes the files from me and places them on the nearest counter. “I’ve called an emergency meeting of the Superhero Collective. We will institute new protections to make the facility more secure than ever.”
When Mom reaches for the files Mr. Malone just put down, he gently but firmly puts his hand on hers. “I promise, Jeanine. You and Kenna will be safer here than anywhere else on the planet.”
Mom looks like she’s going to argue. Then she crumbles. Head in her hands, she starts sobbing.
I rush to her side and wrap my arms around her. I can’t stand to see her cry. She might not be perfect, but we’re a team. “It’s okay, Mom,” I promise. “Everything will be okay.”
“I can’t lose you too,” she says. “I can’t.”
“I’m fine.” I rub my hands up and down her back like she used to do for me when I was little.
I feel Mr. Malone’s reassuring hand on my shoulder.
“You two go on home,” he says in that authoritative tone that sounds like he was born to be in charge. “I’ll coordinate the cleanup efforts and get those extra protections in place. The whole incident will be a bad memory by morning.”
“No, no, I’m fine,” Mom says, wiping away her tears. She straightens and I can tell that in-charge Mom is back. “Kenna, can you come with me to my office? I want to check on the damage in there.”
That’s Mom code for It’s time for your immunity shot.
As I follow her out of the lab, I really hope Mr. Malone is right. Between everything that happened with Draven, Dante, and Nitro, plus being tied to a table and then lying by omission to both my mom and the president of the League, this is pretty much a night I would love to forget.
Too bad there’s never a memory wipe around when you need one.
Maybe I can pretend that Draven’s power worked on me. After my shot, I’ll go home, get a good night’s—or day’s—sleep, and then come back to the lab to finish my work as if nothing happened.
Villains may have stolen one night of research time from me. I won’t let them take any more.
? ? ?
To the uninitiated, Mom’s office would appear to have been hit by one of Nitro’s fireballs. There are stacks of papers and boxes everywhere. It’s amazing the door even opens with all the stuff packed inside.
But there’s been no villain destruction in here. This is how it always looks—everyday, disaster chic. She swears she knows where everything is. I don’t believe her.
I’ve volunteered to sort and organize everything a million times, but she loves the chaos. I, however, can barely think in here. A grizzly bear could be hiding in this clutter forest and you’d never know.
“I swear, sometimes that man just—” Mom drops into her desk chair and shakes her head.
She and Mr. Malone have had their conflicts over the years. I often wonder why she keeps working for him. Any genetics lab in the country would be thrilled to have her, even if she can’t include all of her work at ESH on her resume. For whatever reason, though, she stays on. Her research drives her, and I don’t think she could walk away from it before she’s finished.
I suppose I understand. I feel the same way about my research. It’s my passion and it’s personal.
I remove the half-empty box of petri dishes from the stool next to her desk and sit down.
“Do you believe him?” I ask. “Do you think the new security measures will keep the lab safe?”
Mom scoffs. “He doesn’t even know how they got in. How can he know what will keep them out?”