“Dr. Lauren Aeirsah.”

              The smile she gave was paper-thin toward the man across the table from her. “You can cut to the chase, Fallock.” Glistening eyes lifted to the ceiling and around the small room. “I know full well coming to this room means bad news.” Then, turning to meet the man fearlessly in the eyes, “You’re going to let me say good-bye, at least.”

              The man shook his head ever-so-slightly. “That wouldn’t be appropriate.”

              “Not appropriate?” Lauren almost scoffed, eyes blinking quickly. “You’re about to tell me a child I have raised as my own for fifteen years is dying, and it’s not appropriate for me to say goodbye?”

              He seemed to have no answer to the question, and only lowered his eyes to the page on the table in front of him to read off the first question. “Ms. Aeirsah, how would you describe your life with Phase 21, Arius Etsel?”

              “Arius.” Lauren’s lips closed into a trembling line, and for as long as she could, she stared at the man in front of her. But when his unwavering gaze offered nothing, she glanced away. “My son.” And right there, she froze in time, the unnatural hold of her position suggesting she had just been put on pause.

              Nessa Raeborn shifted her cursor away from the pause button and looked up from the video recording on her computer monitor as someone entered her office.

              Dr. Peter Welles stopped beside Nessa’s desk and rested an arm on the backrest of her swivel chair. “The tape from Monday?” he guessed easily at a glance.

              “Yes,” Nessa confirmed, checking the relaxed smile on her superior’s face.

              Peter watched her for a moment. “What are you trying to find in the tape?”

              “Nothing.” She shrugged. Then, attention straying back to the monitor, “How long does he have out there?”

              “Hard to say.” Peter paced around to the spare seat at the other side of Nessa’s desk and sat down. “A week, maybe. Maybe less.” He glanced at the ceiling. “They’re city boys, though. We’ll find them in less time.”

              “Fallock said it’s odd we haven’t found them already,” Nessa spoke up stiffly. “He said the fact that they didn’t go straight to the police suggests they know more than they should.”

              “It doesn’t really matter how much they know,” came the unconcerned answer. That easy smile still rested across Peter’s lips. “We’ll find them, it’s only a matter of short time.”

              “Or he’s delusional.”

              “Who?”

              “Lauren’s son. Gabriel Aeirsah.”

              “How so?”

              “Either he knows tremendously more than he should—in which case, it makes no sense that he acted as he did—or he is deluding himself with what is, in fact, the truth.” Nessa glanced stiffly at the man across from her. “He may be avoiding authority in fear that his idea of what happened in the clinic will be proven wrong. He must know by now that he has put Arius’s life in danger by fleeing the clinic. If it’s been this long, he may only fall deeper in. He could avoid authorities indefinitely. Police, hospitals, transportation means that require ID, public institutions of all kinds.”

              The smile on the doctor’s face did not waver. “He’ll go home.” Dr. Welles raised his hands in a casual gesture. “He’s a twenty-two-year-old boy with a dying phase trial in his charge. He’ll see no choice but to retreat to familiar ground.”

              “What if he’s paranoid?”

              Dr. Welles shook his head. “It’s too much pressure and responsibility. The urge to go home and find his family will far outweigh the baseless paranoia that we might be there waiting for him.”

              “What if he doesn’t go home?” Nessa pressed. “Are we relying on that as our one means of finding them?”

              “There are always backup means of finding a tethered species of abnormal.”

              Nessa seemed to freeze slightly. Her green eyes widened a little. “Amana,” she realized.

              Dr. Welles nodded slowly. “The anquorette.”

****

              “Amana.”

              She looked up at him, those big brown eyes wide, little mouth curved into a frown, hands folded behind her back. Gabriel smiled at her. He reached out through the open passenger window and gently pinched her round cheek. “Why so frowny-faced? You know I have to go to school.”

              Amana’s eyes lowered to the concrete of the driveway between her feet, and her hands changed positions. She muttered something unintelligible, and her weight swung from one side to the other.

              “What’s wrong with her?” Becca asked from the driver seat, leaning over a little to get a better look at Gabriel’s disgruntled foster sister.

              Gabriel gave her an uncertain grin before turning back to the waif. “Amana. Sweetheart. What’s up with you, today? Ari’s staying home, you know.”

              “Arius is sick again?” Becca asked. Her face drew into a concerned frown. Somehow, after all these years she had been friends with Gabriel, she still wasn’t used to how often Arius had to take sick days from school.

              Gabriel only gave his friend a backward glance and had no time to answer her anyway.

              Amana’s explanation came in one breathless outburst. “I told you not to take the bus!” She exclaimed, hands lifting in emphatic disgust. “No buses! No buses! I said, ‘no buses!’ and you didn’t listen!” Her eyes grew wide at the end of her exclamation, hot, betrayed tears welling up in the oval-shaped orbs.

              “A-Amana, I’m not taking the bus,” Gabriel attempted, gesturing to the minivan he was sitting in and the fellow college student who was driving.

              “Yes. You. Are!” Amana returned ferociously, foot stomping in emphasis.

              Gabriel stared at her hopelessly for a long moment before shrugging in defeat. “Amana, why don’t you go inside and find Mom, okay?” He gestured toward the front door of the house. “Arius is going to be home all day. You can spend time with him, okay?”

              Amana’s composure immediately melted into pleading puppy eyes. Her shoulders sagged, and her arms hung lifelessly at her sides. “If…If you have to take the bus…” she whimpered, “At least…” One foot shuffled across the concrete. “At least get off before the C-1248 stop, okay?” She hiccupped.

              Gabriel stared at her in bewilderment for a few seconds, then nodded compliantly. “I will,” he promised seriously.

              “Okay…” Amana seemed somewhat relieved and turned slowly away from Becca’s car. Dragging her feet as she went, she started up to the front door.

              “The what stop?” Becca asked the moment Gabriel’s window was rolled up and they were pulling out of the Aeirsah’s home driveway.

              “I don’t know,” Gabriel muttered. “She plays these imaginative games, sometimes. But then her games sometimes get confused with reality.”

              “C-1248,” was burning like a neon sign in Gabriel’s mind as he startled awake to find darkness all around him. He jerked bolt upright, then sat panting, listening, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the dark. The first sound his ears registered was a soft, repetitive tapping coming from the direction of the window. But before Gabriel could recognized the sound of raindrops on glass, he heard something different that immediately swallowed his full attention. The sound was quieter than the tapping, and much more definite.

              Arius was curled up on the floor by the wall, blanket lying discarded closer to Gabriel. With his head cradled in his arms, the boy looked like little more than a heap in the corner.

              Sucking in a foreboding breath, Gabriel crawled over. He reached out in the darkness, feeling for the movement of the irregular breathing he could already hear.        Gabriel’s hand found Arius’s shoulder, immediately setting off a series of stiff shivers. “Arius.” Gabriel’s hand felt carefully across the back of Arius’s shoulders, then down along his spine. The boy was hot and a little sweaty. By the tension in Arius’s body, he was certainly awake. “What’s wrong? Arius, come on. Talk to me.”

              There were several seconds of silence before a quiet, “No,” and Arius huddled closer to the corner.