Chapter 35

Marlene piled them all in her small car, evidently the one they had stolen the day before. Zane felt partially bad about it but she assured them that it was fine. She hadn't wanted Marcus to die either. In fact, she seemed to be most fond of him. She seemed especially drawn to protecting him upon learning details of his past, his experiences. She was once again playing the mother for them. Zane found this heartwarming and smiled every time he saw her. In this new and terrifying world, she was the only one to notice them, care about them.

She flitted her gaze to the rearview mirror, catching Zane's eyes. "I can get you into the building," she said, her fingers clutching the wheel as she curved through the throng of vehicles with lifelong ease. "But I can't guarantee getting you much farther than that."

Zane looked at his hands, wiggled his fingers. His gaze, as always, fell to his shortened pinkie finger and then the bulge in his pocket, indicating the syringe. His mind flashed back to the ace of spades in the weapons room, when Joseph had made him a blanket fort. He smiled at the memory. "No problem," he told Marlene. "I can get us further."

She sighed. "If what you're doing will be illegal, spare me the details." She cringed.

Zane chuckled. "Thanks for helping us get in, Marlene. I hate to ask you this, but do you know where they'd be holding the maps? There's no way that I'll be able to get my bearings when I'm in a glass skyscraper."

She shared the chuckle. "Forty-fifth floor," she answered. "They may not be there, but it's your best chance." She dropped her eyes back to the road. Zane hated having to make her worry, but she knew he could handle himself, if not all of them. Wawrzynski had intended to make Zane the most powerful weapon in the universe, but he had created the most powerful enemy in the universe.

Wawrzynski's serum had been powerful enough to allow Zane to alter the nature of matter itself. The simple recreation and deconstruction of everything imaginable. Zane knew he had yet to reach relatively close to the limits of his power, but he was afraid if he reached any further, there would be no turning back. Wawrzynski would get what he wanted; a rampage. Utter annihilation.

Daisy leaned over to Zane. She and Anastasia were seated on opposite sides of him in the back row of Marlene's car. Joseph had taken the front seat, and Mallory and Marcus had occupied the middle row. Jonas, being the skinny human being he was, was squished between Mallory and Marcus's seats. He looked very uncomfortable, but claimed he was fine.

"What happened last night?" Daisy hissed, for once as quiet as she intended to be. "Did you do it?"

Zane rolled his eyes as a strand of her blue hair flew across his nose and threatened to make him sneeze. "No, we didn't," he told her. "We kissed a couple times, but nothing else happened."

She scoffed. "I gave you the perfect opportunity!" she whispered viciously. "Why didn't you take it?" Anastasia and her each raised an eyebrow.

"Is that any of your business?" It was his turn to hiss this time. "That is between me and Joseph, I don't care if you've declared yourself my wingman, you don't get to know every detail of my personal life!" He crossed his arms, the universal gesture of stubborness.

Daisy leaned back. "I understand that, Zane," she said. "But I also understand you're new to practically everything that's been thrown at you. The wilderness, London, Wawrzynski's serum, weapons. But I'm trying to help you get a sense of normalcy in the midst of all of it. I know you're new to relationships as well, but they can be excellent coping mechanisms, especially when with someone you really care about, and I know you really care about Joseph. It may seem like I'm just trying to be a pain, but I'm really trying to help you."

Zane could think of nothing to say but, "Thank you,"

Daisy laughed. "I'll calm down a little bit if you'd like. I realize I've been kind of obsessive, but I want to make sure you get everything you deserve. I know that what you deserve is Joseph, and I know he deserves you."

Zane smiled at her, his previous anger completely forgotten. "Thank you for trying to help, Daisy, but I think I can handle most things on the hot guy front now." He leaned closer. "By the way, I acted like I didn't, but I totally loved the outfit you picked out in the room. I still have that shirt with me, in my pack."

Daisy quietly squealed. "The one Joseph had the hots for?"

"If that's what you got from that day, then sure." He patted her on the knee.

She smirked. "At least I know that I'm helping you get into his pants,"

Zane grimaced. "Don't tell people that, it makes it sound like I can't undo his belt by myself." He chortled softly.

"Can you?"

"Oh, you sneaky little bitch," he snarled, catching her head between his arms like Mallory had when he'd first met them. He gave her a noogie before she laughed hard enough to make Zane think he was killing her. She wheezed hysterically, her chest heaving with each booming laugh. Anastasia watched all this, her face deadpan.

"You didn't answer my question," Daisy chuckled. She grabbed at her stomach.

"We'll just have to see," he said, watching amusedly as Joseph fiddled with the radio dials. Marlene slapped the boy's hand away and he jumped and then gave her an apologetic look. "And by we, I mean me. You won't be there when I get his belt undone."

"I beg to differ,"

"I beg you to shut up,"

"You don't have the balls,"

"Please shut up,"

"I guess you do,"

She quieted.

He smirked.

She harrumphed.

Anastasia sighed. "Are we there yet?"

Jonas, squished uncomfortably between the two middle seats, repositioned himself slightly, grimacing softly. He may have been discontent with his seating position, but he didn't say a word about it. "What's our plan today?" he asked curiously, twisting around to face Zane, like he expected Zane would have all the answers.

Mallory interjected, saving Zane from stumbling over his words like he surely would have done. "We get into FEPE. That's our first step. Thanks to Marlene, it shouldn't be a problem," she said, nodding curtly in the woman's direction, a nod that displayed admiration and trust. "Our second step is to head to the forty-fifth floor, where the maps are. If those two are trying to find us, they'll be checking those maps for everywhere we could possibly have gone to stay without money. Once we find them, it should be easy to overpower them. We think Wawrzynski only injected the girl, so it'll be seven destructive powers against one."

Joseph clicked his tongue. "If Wawrzynski felt the need to only send one enhanced person after us, we can assume she's very powerful. We have to be prepared for absolutely anything. Wawrzynski, however much we like to think it, is not predictable. We are. Seeing as he monitored all of us when we were locked up together, he may have already assumed we'd go after those two. If he thinks the girl is powerful enough to stop us, we should understandably be terrified."

He was right. The man was clearly not injected because of the inherent look of pure fear he'd shot at her out of the corner of his eye. Mallory had not seen it, so she could not understand the magnitude of it. The man was scared for his life because of a thin, brightly-dressed teenage girl sitting beside him.

Zane felt the need to contribute something. "Also, we have to do anything we can to avoid killing them. If we do, we'll know no more than an hour ago. These two are our only link to Wawrzynski right now. They're obviously here to assassinate us, but we need to question them. They may have valuable information that we could use to our advantage." He tousled his hair because he realized he had absentmindedly smoothed it back into New Vancouver regulation style. He felt slightly disgusted with himself. He thought he had managed to tear himself away from that.

"I agree," Daisy stated. Any traces of goofy Daisy were gone, replaced with business Daisy. "We can't afford to have them die. We need every little tidbit we can get."

Nods circled the car, and Marlene's eyes stayed fixed on the road ahead, not wanting to partake in their conversation. Jonas grunted. "We need to find out what Wawrzynski is planning, and how we can stop it. Their plane is still down in the city square, unless the police removed it, and I'm sure London has aircraft. If we can get anything from them about where he's planning to attack, we can head there and prevent it, hopefully." Zane didn't like the sound of the hopefully at the end of his sentence.

Anastasia sighed. "World wars have happened before, why don't we just let it run its course? I mean, sure, bad things happen, but that's human nature, isn't it? What authority do we have to go meddling in international affairs? If Wawrzynski wants to wage war with the world, fine by me. I have no home anymore, I have no allegiance to anybody besides who is in this car. I don't see why we have to do anything."

Joseph turned around from the front seat, his eyes sparkling with anger and fear and betrayal all at once. Zane wanted to wipe those emotions off his face. "We're not working to prevent a world war, Anastasia," he snarled, enunciating every syllable in her name viciously. Daisy didn't seem to mind him speaking that way to her sister. She may have even felt the same way. "We're working to prevent more people dying. Wawrzynski, along with Japan, has a stupefying arsenal of biological weapons designed to wipe a population from the face of the earth. I intend to stop him from using them, because, whether you like it or not, that population includes us, and we are on the top of his kill list."

"But we're powerful enough to escape his grasp, run away from him,"

"Oh, I'm sorry, do you think you're 'powerful' enough to escape an unseen bacteria that makes you throw up your stomach? A virus that slowly poisons your skin until you're covered in boils and scars? Wawrzynski's weapons can affect billions, and he's genetically altered them to make them unstoppable once they're free. I don't want to see billions of innocents die, so I'm going to stop him. If you want to die along with them, don't help."

Daisy cast a glance at her sister filled with judging. Zane felt the urge to rush forward and hug Joseph, make him feel better, take all the anger out of him. Joseph was extremely tense and, Zane could tell, nervous. Anastasia's judgement had only pushed him over the edge; he had been teetering over the precipice already.

The ride was quiet the rest of the way. Joseph's outburst had shocked most of them. He was usually quite easygoing, but he was very adamant about stopping Wawrzynski. Anastasia had struck a nerve.

Marlene pulled in next to the large glass building Zane had marvelled at when they flew in. Up close, it was far less spectacular. The floors and ceilings were all opaque, so you couldn't see all the way to the top once inside. Half the rooms on every floor were blacked out, either bathrooms or private offices. But the main work areas, including the cubicles, were all glass. Zane even spotted several glass coffee mugs and pens. He wondered how long it took someone to find their glass pen so they could write something on a post-it note. He chuckled.

They all followed Marlene into the lobby, a tall room with a receptionist's desk nearby and a glass elevator waiting patiently for its next passenger. Potted plants stood near the windows, eagerly drinking up the sunshine pouring through the many panes of glass.

Marlene rang a small glass bell and a young man, maybe twenty years old, walked out from a blacked-out room behind the desk. His black hair was perfectly swept back and over his head, oiled up beyond recognition. He had startling blue eyes, similar to Joseph's, and was wearing a light jean jacket over his environmentally-active green uniform. It was not a flattering look. He smiled. "Hey, Marlene," he said. Then his eyes swept to Zane and his friends. He continued to smile, and Zane had painful flashbacks to his first encounter with Wawrzynski. "Who are they?"

Marlene pointed at Zane. "That's Zane, one of my newest, and oldest, foster kids. These are his friends. They've come from Dover High for a school project. They've been asked to check out the maps and statistics of London for the past twenty years, and I told him I could get them in here. You think that could be a possibility?"

The young man frowned. "I don't know, Marlene, they don't have clearance."

"Trip, I know we have guest passes here." Marlene leaned her elbows on the glass countertop. "Charge them to my name." An invisible look passed between them, and they seemed to be in agreement.

The man, Trip, shook his head. "They can have guest passes, but you do not get to pay for them, Marlene," he said, reaching into a cubby behind him and pulling out seven lanyards. Large ID cards hung off of them, reading Guest. "Iris and I will cover them. You did foster us, after all."

"Thank you, Trip," Marlene told him gratefully.

Trip smiled and leaned over the counter toward Zane. "You're an awfully lucky kid to be taken in by Marlene. She's the greatest, kindest person I ever met." He looped the lanyard over Zane's neck, and his fingers brushed Zane's collarbone. Zane shivered, both from the chilliness inside the building and the chilliness of the man's hands.

"I know," he answered as Trip deposited lanyards over his friends' heads as well. Marlene was smiling and Trip was smiling back, and Zane felt the immense love between the two. Marlene had given him his life through foster care, and he was grateful.

Trip offered to come with them to the forty-fifth floor, and be a volunteer tour guide. "Iris can handle the desk," he said, tossing a dismissive gesture in the direction of the back room.

"I'm half-blind, not deaf, you bastard!" a woman's voice yelled back at him. He rolled his eyes and strode over to the elevator, pressing the button. Zane was hesitant to let him come with them, but his friends seemed enthralled. But Zane had to admit, this guy was quite the character. He was easy to warm up to.

Marlene hopped off the elevator halfway up for her shift.

Small talk was exchanged, and Zane felt bad about lying to Trip, but he wasn't about to tell this guy all about the horrible things that had conspired in the past month. He felt obligated to talk to him, though. Out of kindness and common courtesy.

When the door to the map floor opened, Trip stepped out and started to speak, his mouth opening. It almost appeared he was about to make an accusation.

He was interrupted by a lead pipe to the temple.

He dropped like a rock.