Hikari sat in her school cafeteria the next morning studying the crowd and taking notes. Jace had been left at home with strict instructions to pretend to be sick. He had whined and complained about how he was supposed to be her sidekick, but she had given him some dramatic and overblown talk about the importance of keeping their cover, and he had swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. When she left, he had been walking around with toilet paper stuffed up his nose to make himself sound as sick as possible just in case their dad called.

“Just don’t overdo it if Papa calls,” Hikari told him “Or he’ll be on the next plane back to take you to the ER and have them give you an enema or something.”

Hikari was one of those girls that had friends in every crowd, and she thought this was a great advantage concerning recent developments. At first, she thought she would go it alone, (Jace didn’t count) but soon realized this would be a mistake. There was definitely power in numbers.

After deliberating, and making columns, and scratching off names, she’d come up with a list she thought she could live with. In fact a damn good list when she thought about it. She was amazed she could assemble a team (but really she was thinking rebellion, wasn’t she?) from her own Pacific Palisades high school.

Across the room, Yerik played king at the jock table, but Hikari knew he was really the court jester. He just didn’t know it. He was definitely in because he was her Yerik, her best friend, and she thought those good looks and goofy ignorance could come in handy in the right situation. And in the right situation he might just be a hero.

Across the cafeteria were the cool, edgy kids. Part geek, part alternative. It was from this group that Hikari would naturally cull the most people. They were smart and sneaky, and unafraid of almost anything.

There was Dimitri Pavlovi, dark and quiet. He had an almost sixth sense ability to use connections, the internet, and deductions to find anyone or anything, and he was always in the right place at the right time. His abilities had been used for good and bad, making him money through side jobs for not so legal purposes. Dimitri had a very fuzzy definition of theft, but Hikari knew that sometimes it helped if the “good guys” had some bad morals too.

His girlfriend was Kym Parker. She had a rebellious nature and got a thrill out of knowing things that other people didn’t. She was awkward with regular people, but a total social butterfly in the counter-culture crowd. She was a master at coding viruses or bots, and had gotten away with every hack she’d ever run. She was currently making $10,000 a month with a money skimming scheme, just for the hell of it. She’d bought gear and clothes for herself and friends, as well as a crash pad in West Hollywood that Hikari thought they could use as mission control for the time being. If Kym would go along with it.

Add in Metti and Dave Harrison, double trouble. Metti was a quick thinking tomboy that was good under pressure, the one everyone looked to when everybody was freaking out. She was pretty in an unassuming way, of the ponytail, t-shirts, jeans and sweatshirts variety, and was more likely to punch you if she liked you, than to hug you.

Dave was a guy’s guy. He liked to wrench on vehicles better than girls, and so he was terminally known as the shoulder to cry on, but never the romantic interest. He was always doing something with his hands, twirling a pencil, or quarters, or drumming. His jeans always had oil spots on them and his hands were perpetually black. Of all of them he was the one that worked with things that really existed and weren’t just theoretical.

Hikari had re-added Eileen “Shake” Eisley after crossing her out four times. She was bubbly, loud, abrasive, and Texan. She had enough energy for three people. Shake could literally shake up the room with her voice, and her body almost visibly buzzed. Whether she knew it or not, her mood shaped everyone around her. For the most part, she was pro-team and tried to help in any way she could, but she had moments of klutziness and haphazardness that could either be comical or detrimental. It was as if the world was a little too small to contain her.

Hikari had finally decided to go with her because she grew up on a ranch outside of Dallas, was a crack shot, could expertly throw hatchets, and had gone bow hunting since she was five-years-old. She could ride or drive anything, bull, motorcycle, or tractor.

Hikari didn’t exactly imagine throwing hatchets at Angine would help, (though she would’ve loved to see it) but it might come in handy to have Shake, just in case they ever got into trouble, which was exactly what she was planning.

Now, she just had to figure out how to talk to them, to convince them that she was telling the truth. She decided her best bet was to send them all a message to meet at her house and see who showed up. My house, she texted them, Tonight at 9. Don’t tell anyone.

She hoped that was enough, that their curiosity would bring them to her.

She grabbed her backpack and signed herself out of school early, telling the office she had to go home to take care of her sick little brother since her father was away.

No one would ever accuse the daughter of Congressman Suzuki of being up to something. They smiled at her as she left, looking at her as if they wanted to kidnap her and keep her for their own.

Jace was on the couch eating Cheetos and drinking one of their dad’s beers.

“What are you doing? You’re twelve!”

“You can buy him some more.”

“No, I can’t. I’m not old enough!”

“Oh.” He considered the bottle and then drank the rest of it down.

She was about to tear him apart when she realized he must have been stressed out by their dad’s secret life too. She sighed and snatched the bottle out of his hand. “Don’t make things worse,” she said. “Come on and help me clean up. We’ve got company coming.”

Jace sat up and stared at her with slightly glazed eyes and a Cheetos mustache. “A party?”

“You’ve had enough party today,” she said. “No. A meeting.”

“Ugh, your creepy friends. Is Yerik coming?”

“Probably.”

“That’s good.”

Hikari thought Yerik would probably happily share a beer with Jace. “Look, don’t cause any trouble. Just stay in your room.”

“No way!” He scrambled to get out of the deep, plush sofa. “This is the biggest thing that’s ever happened in my life, and you’re gonna make me stay in my room?”

Hikari bit her lip. “Okay, fine. Then just sit there quietly, okay? Don’t say anything.”

“No worries,” Jace promised.

Hikari doubted that very much.

Yerik showed up first, raising an eyebrow at her. “Dave and Kym are coming too.”

So much for don’t tell anyone.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on? Is this about Angine?”

“Yeah, but just wait until everyone gets here to talk about it.”

He shrugged. “Whatever. I need food.”

By ten after, everyone was there.

Kym slouched on the sofa with her combat boots up on the table and Dimitri draped around her shoulders. Shake was busy looking at the pictures on the wall, moving from one to the next and talking to herself.

Dave and Metti stood by the window looking down. “Check out this view!” Metti called. “Totally cool. It’s like we’re angels.”

Yerik came out of the kitchen with a plate of hot pretzels, a bottle of mustard, a jar of pickles, and some hostess cupcakes.

“Man, are you pregnant or something?’ Dimitri asked.

“Does it show?” Yerik said, dumping his load on the coffee table next to Kym’s feet.

“You know what would go good with that?” Jace so far had been quiet. “A beer.”

They all turned and looked at him.

Yerik tossed Jace a cupcake. “Totally right. Way to go, little bro.”

Hikari sighed. She was suddenly overcome with the feeling, more of a premonition really, that soon none of them would be the same. That flopping down on the floor, and laughing, and eating junk food would become a luxury. She could see this so clearly, feel it like it was a hot stone someone had just handed her, that she wanted to throw the image away, not to say anything at all. She wanted to stop this now.

But they were all looking at her, up at her really, waiting to hear why she had brought them here. It was too late to go back.

“Young people have to hide in the closet,” she said, and the guys sniggered.

Yerik paused with a pretzel half in his mouth. “Are you going to tell us you’re gay?”

“No.” She stared him down with the hairiest eyeball she could summon. “I mean, we can’t just stand in the middle of something and say, ‘Hey ,what’s going on?’, and expect to get an answer. We have to hide in dark places, and sneak around, and lie, because for some reason no one thinks we’re capable of understanding or taking part in anything really important.”

Kym yawned. “Is this supposed to be uplifting?”

“My father is helping kill people,” she said.

That got their attention.

“It’s true,” Yerik said, “I saw him.”

They all swung their heads around to him.

“Well, I mean, I heard him while I was in the closet with Hikari and Senator Angine... well, Angine wasn’t in the closet with us, but he knew where we were and… I’ll just shut up now.” He inserted a cupcake.

“Thanks.” Hikari felt like she was standing on slippery ice, in her socks, and underwear. “My dad’s in league with Senator Angine and they’re hunting certain people down and something is going to happen in August, something really bad.”

“It’s written in red,” Jace added, but they ignored him.

Hikari wanted to sit down, take the pressure off, get out from under their eyes, but she had put herself in this role and she had to follow through. “Something’s going on, something big, and I don’t know what it is, but I have a feeling it’s going to change everything for all of us. I want your help figuring out what it is.”

Shake was actually holding still. “Why us?”

“Because you’re the best people I could think of. As a group we have the skills to do almost anything. Dimitri, you’ve got this crazy luck and ability to figure out a situation to your advantage. Kym, you can hack anything and not get caught. Metti, you’re brave and strong. Dave, you can lay your hands on anything mechanical and heal it. And Shake… you’re for protection.”

“Cool.”

Jace waved his hand like he was in class waiting to be called on.

“Yes, Jace?”

“What about me?’

“You’re small, we can stuff you into places.” He looked so disappointed that she added, “And you’re smart, really, really smart.”

“What about me?” Yerik had mustard on his nose. Hikari wasn’t sure whether he knew it or not. “You’re here to keep us from all killing each other.”

“We’ll distract ourselves by killing you instead,” Dave said.

“And you’re my best friend. I wouldn’t do anything without you.”

Kym put her feet on the floor and leaned forward. “So what do we do first?”

Hikari took a deep breath. She had been awake almost the entire night before thinking about this. “First, we break into the Congressional offices.”

She expected them to laugh at her, or refuse to do it, to tell her she was crazy, but instead, they were all nodding.

“Sweeet,” Kym said.