Berkshire is supposed to be our safe place. Sure, it’s in a crappy location, but it’s safe. If the Doctor is willing to work with the government, though . . . if he’s willing to share our secrets, then we’re in danger. Every student at the academy, most of the teachers—we’d all be put under a microscope. Tested. Used. Treated like freaks.
Just like the witches in Salem. I glance back at my computer. I can’t afford this distraction. I have to focus on Sofía. But what kind of future am I bringing Sofía back to if she’s going to be just as persecuted here as she might be there?
“You tell me,” Ryan says. “What will those officials see when they watch those videos?”
I cringe. “They’ll see Gwen summoning fire from the tips of her fingers,” I say weakly. “Harold speaking to the dead. And you. Moving things with your mind.”
Ryan nods slowly. “And think of the damage they can do with that information. That . . . proof.”
“But why would the Doctor—?”
“I don’t know,” Ryan snaps. “But we have to make sure those suits don’t see us using our powers on film, that they don’t know what we can do, what Sofía could do. The fact that there are only two of them here—and that they seem to be rather low-rung—means they probably just have some vague suspicions, if that. If we nip this in the bud now, we can survive this and go back to being anonymous and safe.”
I lean over the table. “They have the files, though.”
“Really?” Ryan says, a smug look on his face.
My eyes widen. “What did you do?”
Ryan pulls an innocent face. “Maybe the reason I asked to be excused from class was because I saw Dr. Franklin take those two officials out for a tour of the school. Maybe I didn’t come straight here. Maybe I went somewhere else instead.”
“What did you do?” I ask again.
Ryan pulls a USB drive out of his pocket. “And I took care of the backup files too. Dr. Franklin needs a password that isn’t just his cat’s name.”
I look around. There’s a librarian in here—somewhere—but she’s usually just playing solitaire on her computer near the front, only ever actually doing real work when a student calls her over. “You’re going to get in so much trouble!” I say in a low voice.
My words trigger a complete change in Ryan’s attitude. All playfulness and smugness disappear, replaced by harsh ferocity. “I am not going to get in trouble, because you’re not going to tell one damn person about this, you understand?” He leans over the table, getting in my face. “And if you do, you’ll regret it.”
Ryan’s never been exactly friendly or easygoing, but I had no idea his demeanor could flip so easily.
I raise both my hands. “I wasn’t going to say anything,” I say defensively. “But it’s not like they’re going to just be like, ‘Oh well, lost all the files, no big deal.’”
Ryan leans back, a satisfied grin on his face. “Yeah, we’re going to get searched for sure.” He pulls out a brand new pack of gum, unwraps it, drops the cellophane on the library floor, and selects a piece to start chewing. He doesn’t offer me one.
“So what’re you going to do?”
Ryan appraises me. “What are you going to do?”
I shrug. “I dunno, dude.”
Ryan rolls his eyes. “Look, even if I smash this thing with a hammer, they’ll find the pieces and know that it was one of us who stole the drive. When they can’t find the drive on us, they’re going to search the trash and everywhere else. It’ll make them even more suspicious if they find it destroyed, and besides, these things are shitastically difficult to break. The trick here is to make them think they just lost it. It was all a bad accident. I didn’t delete the Doctor’s backup files, I just corrupted them. It’ll make it look like he formatted things wrong when he copied them to the drive. All a bad accident, no one to blame. Especially not us.”
“Why don’t you just alter the files?” I say.
“I did; I told you I corrupted the Doc’s backup.”
“No, I mean with . . .” I raise my hands near my head and waggle my fingers. “With your powers. Why not just make it look like we’re normal and not powered?”
Ryan snaps his gum, thinking. “I tried that,” he says. “But I haven’t really done that sort of thing much. Maybe I messed up. Maybe they’ll break through what I did.”
“So what are you going to do with the drive?” I ask. “Throw it in the ocean or something?”
“Nope.” Ryan winds the chewed gum around his finger, then bites it off. “That’s where you come in.”
“Me?”
“You.”
I stare at him blankly.
“You and Gwen are the only two people in our unit who go home for the weekends.”
“So?”
Ryan stands up, drops the USB drive on the floor, and crushes it with his heel, grinding the black plastic into the hardwood. Then he leans down, pulling out the wad of chewing gum, and sticking all the little pieces to it. “So,” he says, cramming the gum and the broken drive under the table, “when you go home, stop by here first. Grab the drive and put it in your pocket. Throw it away at your house. The evidence will just disappear.”
Ryan stands up. “Come on,” he says cheerfully. “Time to get back to class.”
CHAPTER 16