My footsteps squeaked in the empty, cold hallway. Two security guards stood like statues at either end of every passage. Even the juvenile detention center had been better than being locked up with a bunch of weirdos and mad-scientist types.
Though I had been locked away from the outside world before, with all ISAN’s rules, I might as well have been back in prison. Not one window existed in the whole complex. Not a single one. Creepy.
What did I expect, though? ISAN was located underground, after all.
I’d had a wonderful life before ISAN with my mom, but unfortunately, she’d passed away four years ago. Foster care became my only option.
I missed my mom. I missed my mom’s tender voice, her loving touch. I missed her gardenia-scented perfume, and especially her home-cooked meals. Gone were the days I’d binge movies with her and chat about the love of digital books. The warm hugs and late-night talks had been replaced by curfews and resentful foster-siblings. I’d have given anything to hear her nag about keeping my room clean or see her eyes narrow at me right before a scolding.
The ache in my heart stretched too deep, and I closed myself off. Drowning into an empty heart was better than living with gut-wrenching pain. So, I buried the viselike ache clawing deeper and deeper as every year passed, until I couldn’t recall the pang. It helped me move forward and be strong willed. Helped me survive.
But sometimes in my dreams, she planted her favorite flowers on our high-rise apartment balcony. She stopped tending to the roses to smile at me, to remind me I wasn’t alone. That she would always be in my heart, my memory, and she would watch after me. And that no matter how deep I buried her, she would surface when I needed her.
Later, I’d run away from my abusive foster family with only a few dollars in my backpack. I’d rather live by myself than have strangers pretend to care about me. Life on the streets had made me grow up fast, and I’d become independent and resourceful.
When you’ve got nothing, you learn to steal.
I hadn’t watched my back one winter night and got caught. Juvie had kept me warm during the harsh cold season, but nothing compared to freedom. Nobody, including my foster parents, had claimed me. Thank God they hadn’t.
Russ had come for me when I turned seventeen; I’d thought a savior had come to my rescue.
One year ago ...
One of the juvenile detention guards escorted me back to the meeting room after some guy administered a blood test. When I entered, the same blood-test guy sat by a square table for two.
“Ava, do you remember me?” He scooted his chair out a bit and reached inside a black bag.
I recognized his tender voice and his pretty green eyes. “Yes. Your name’s Russ.”
His neatly pressed suit and grown-up tie contrasted with his youthful face. My eyes kept flashing to the glass of water so close to the edge of the table, but I didn’t say a word.
“That’s right. Please, have a seat.” He waited until I sat. “The results showed you have a special DNA marker we’re searching for. That means, if you want, I can take you out of here.”
Take me out of here? You better not be lying to me.
I raised my eyebrows to hide my eagerness, especially since I had no idea if he could deliver. But my heart hammered from the excitement of the possibility.
Russ came around the table and held out a syringe without a needle. “This is another test. It won’t hurt. May I?”
What the hell?
I jerked, chair scraping the tile floor. I almost tipped it back in the process. Rubbing my arm, I’d anticipated the pain.
“I promise it won’t hurt.”
His tone calmed my racing heart.
“Okay.” I’d trusted him before, so I figured it would be fine.
“I’m going to show you what I mean when I say you’re special. Give me your arm, please.”
“Is it a shot?” I hesitantly extended my arm and rolled up my sleeve.
“No. Don’t worry. You won’t feel any pain, just some pressure. It’s a volatile compressed gas that passes through the permeable layers of your skin.”
The what? Passes where? I didn’t want to look stupid so I just nodded.
After Russ finished, he went back to his seat while I unrolled my sleeves. He placed the item back in his bag and gave me his attention.
“I’m offering you a place at a secret institute called ISAN, better known as International Sensory Assassin Network. Don’t be afraid of the word assassin. We’re highly classified, and only people in the highest levels of government know about us. If you decide to join us, you’ll be trained to kill criminals. I won’t paint a pretty picture. You’ll work hard; however, you’ll be compensated. Your needs will be fulfilled.”
You’re freakin’ kidding me.
I laughed, thinking he was crazy. “Look at me.” I tapped my chest for emphasis. “I doubt I could kill anyone. I’m tiny. They don’t feed us well here.”
He frowned and nodded as if to tell me he agreed. “Believe me, Ava, you’ll be well taken care of. You’ll eat three full meals a day. You’ll get your own room and sleep on a comfortable bed with fresh, clean sheets and blankets. You’ll have your own clothes. You’ll even get your education. You can make a difference in the world. You can be somebody. It’ll be better than being here, wasting your life. Let me show you something.”
Tingling heat coursed through me as Russ reached inside his bag again. My heartbeat escalated in a way it hadn’t before, and my breathing sped up. The blue stripes on his tie appeared more vibrant. Musky scent from his cologne permeated the air heavier and thicker. My hands on my lap hotter at the touch. Voices I hadn’t heard earlier murmured in my ear.
What’s wrong with me?
My senses sharpened in a superhuman way.
Impossible.
I rubbed my temples, trying to calm the rush of adrenaline racing.
When Russ swung around with a paper and pen, his left elbow knocked the glass. I caught it before it could fall, my hand moving on its own accord. Not even a drop spilled. Bending low, I stared open-mouthed at the glass and how it seemed to have happened in impossibly slow motion. My gaze shifted to Russ, his green eyes somehow brighter, like the sunlight reflecting on emerald stone.
“How?” I sat back down and placed the glass on the table with trembling hands. My mind whirled with questions.
“HB77 or just simply Helix.” He beamed a smile. “I injected you with a serum called HelixB77 to show you what you can do. With the proper training and practice, you can be so much more. Ava, you can be a superhero. There are other girls like you where I’m from.”
“I don’t understand.”
“With Helix, your senses become heightened. You’ll experience an increase in ability—especially the five senses. Images will be sharper, colors brighter, and you’ll see farther. You’ll be stronger. Your reflexes will be faster, and you’ll be able to hear from longer distances. However, your senses will tame a speaking voice not to boom in your ear. The reason why it doesn’t sound like I’m yelling at you.”
“Incredible.” The word barely left my mouth.
“Some lucky ones have more. We call that extrasensory perception. Based on the blood test, I think you might be one of the lucky ones.”
Something flashed. I caught it with my right hand, then another projectile with my left. Again, my reflexes had taken over and when I looked down, I’d caught two golf balls. I gawked, trembling. The hair on my arms rose.
“Like I said, fast reflexes.” His lips spread in satisfaction.
I clenched my jaw and stiffened. “You could’ve hurt me.”
“No, Ava. Helix doesn’t wear off quickly. I’d never hurt you. I bet you feel pretty powerful right now. Pretty special. What if you can do something good with that? What do you say?”
“Are there side effects?”
I rolled the golf balls over my fingertips. I imagined the balls colliding with my face. The thrill of what I had done—there was no d
enying it made me feel amazing.
Russ slowly curled his lips to a grin. “I like the way you think. It’s been thoroughly tested and we’ve seen no side effects in all the years of the program. We give you just enough to do a job, and then it’s out of your system.”
I nodded.
“So ... Will you be joining ISAN today?”
I shivered, not just from the cool draft from the vent, but the thought of being an assassin, even if my victims were criminals. Could I really do it? Trained or no.
My mother’s last words echoed in my mind. When life shoves you down, you get right back up. Be strong. Be brave, Ava. Be someone important.
Oh, Mom, what do I do? I feel so alone and I’m so scared.
My chest caved in. I wanted to burst into a sob, but I slammed it back down. As tears pooled, thoughts of my mother twisted the dagger in my heart. My heart leaked, bleeding from the mountainous pain of missing her, needing her guidance.
I wouldn’t be in juvie, desperate to get out and resort to being an assassin if she were alive. Having no choice, I succumbed to the reality of my life and the cards I had been dealt. I pushed back my shoulders and held up my chin. Boring my eyes into his, I gave him an answer that would change my life forever.
I will be brave, Mother. I will become someone important.
* * *
Thinking I’d be taken care of, have warm food to eat and a roof over my head, not to mention a get-out-of-jail-free card, I didn’t have to think twice. My mom hadn’t believed lives were given to be thrown away and neither did I. I wanted to be somebody important, to make something of myself. I still had my whole life ahead of me. ISAN seemed like my only chance.
But ISAN proved no better than jail. I couldn’t go out into the real world except on special assignment, which I’d done twice. Russ told me the next one would be even more difficult and dangerous. If it was like any of my mental tests, I might as well go ahead and die.
I had net access, but with restrictions. Rule number one: No contacting family and friends. A useless rule for me since I didn’t have any. Rule number two: Net access is limited to fifteen minutes daily, and if I went beyond the time allowed, the TAB shut down. Rule number three: No social connections. No contacting or communicating with strangers.
I curved the corner of the drab gray wall to get to my room and passed another security guard. Standing in front of my door, I placed my palm on a square metal plate. The cold steel warmed to the touch as it took the imprint of my hand, red laser zigzagging back and forth.
The laser passed over the web between my thumb and forefinger, where the tiny silicon-based chip used to be. Every citizen got one when they turned sixteen. But ISAN had taken mine out and given me another one in the middle of my inner forearm—less likely to be damaged in physical combat. Not only was ISAN’s chip used to track me, a cyanide capsule was attached it. Triggering the capsule would induce a massive attack and I would die.
With a whoosh, the metal door slid open.
My room—a perfect cube—barely fit a bed and a small desk. When I’d first come to ISAN, I’d had no possessions but what I wore. Not even a photo. Once in a while, the inspectors checked my room unannounced. I had no idea what they thought they’d find. My room stayed clean and pretty much empty. No evidence of the past; no evidence of the Ava before ISAN.
I changed into something comfortable and waved my hand over my metal desk to initiate the voice-activator. The voice-activator could do pretty much anything in my room, like release my bed out from the wall, open my closet, or turn off the light. Or I could simply do it manually. Sometimes I turned the activator off when I didn’t feel like talking to a fake person. It gave me the creeps.
“Turn TAB on,” I said.
“Good evening, Ava,” the female with no name said. “Initiating.”
“Thanks.”
The TAB projected in mid-air. Searching the net had become my comfort, where the walls around me didn’t exist. I stripped away Ava the assassin and became Ava the normal teenager.
It was my time, my freedom, and my world.
Reading about fashion, movies, TV shows, and actors’ gossip entertained me. As I searched for news about my celebrity crushes, a word appeared on the bottom right of the projected screen.
At first, I thought Russ or one of my teammates from ISAN had messaged me, but their faces would’ve popped up. Puzzled, I debated whether to click on it. One of the ISAN leaders might have sent me a message to see if I’d break their rules. I didn’t want to find out or get in trouble, so I ignored it.
The screen shut down automatically. Had it been fifteen minutes already? I cursed and commanded the voice-activator to open the door. When it slid open, I jerked back, startled by Brooke peering at me from under her long eyelashes.
Brooke and I had hit it off pretty well from the start. Maybe Brooke being the same height as me, same gray eyes, and having brunette hair just past the shoulder blade like mine, bonded us. From behind, I could pass for her twin.
Being new together at ISAN also made a difference. She would stick up for me, fight for me, and even get in trouble for me. She wasn’t like that with everyone, but working as a team built trust between us. Brooke still kept her guard up, though—like everyone else, she pretty much kept to herself. I understood. I’d been burned before.
“Hey, Ava.” Her gray eyes beamed and she flashed her white teeth.
“Hey. Did you need something?”
“Nope, just waiting for you.”
“You hungry?”
“Starving.”
“You want to move out of my way so we can go to dinner together?”
She blinked, stepped aside, then cruised down the hall with me. I veered right, then took another right, and came into view of the cafeteria door.
“I wonder what we’re having tonight,” Brooke murmured.
The aroma of pot roast and mashed potatoes spiraled through my senses when I stepped in, replacing the sterile scent of the hallway. My stomach churned, reminding me of my mother’s cooking, reminding me of my home before. For a second, I let myself feel the pain, and then quickly shut out my thoughts. I inhaled again, moaning, my mouth watering.
“Don’t have an orgasm over food, Ava.” She chuckled. “Better yet, go ahead. It’s the only one we’re getting.”
True. So damn true. I snorted as I picked up a tray and got in line. For Brooke’s ears only, I moaned longer.
I giggled when she moaned loud enough for everyone to hear. Brooke, on the other hand, not only made her audience bellow a laugh, she caught the guards’ attention.
Two guards stood at the front entrance with their hands behind them. Tasers hung from holsters on their belts. Shaped like a gun, the Taser was silver to distinguish it from a regular firearm. It had one purpose: to incapacitate an opponent for roughly thirty minutes.
The Taser had a laser attachment to allow precision accuracy when shooting from a distance and fired an electrically charged pellet that stunned on impact. Since the Remnant Councils had a no killing policy, guns had been outlawed. Only the most elite possessed them.
One of the guards looked away when no problem arose, but the other one surveyed mine and Brooke’s bodies from the corner of his eye. He tried not to make it obvious, but his eyes did not lie.
I wanted to say, “Do you like what you see, or are your eyes burning from staring at our asses?” but I held my tongue in check. Asking guards questions or even talking to them was prohibited. And I didn’t want to find out what my punishment would be. Rumor said it had something to do with our fears, and that alone hit the brakes for me.
Brooke tapped my tray with her spoon to get my attention. She smiled giddily while piling mashed potatoes on her plate and mine. Then Brooke groaned when the girl in front of us took too long scooping pot roast.
I snorted. “The food isn’t going anywhere.”
“I know, but it’ll be on that girl’s face if she doesn’t hurry.”
I knew
she meant it, so I tried to reason with her. “She’s probably deciding how much to take. What’re you going to do, start a food fight?”
Brooke’s eyes twinkled, and she flashed a wicked smirk. “Not a bad idea.”
I chuckled, catching the girl’s attention in front of Brooke. She glanced over her shoulder and scowled. Brooke gave the girl the finger after she turned and held it up longer than needed, so I crushed it down. Sometimes Brooke’s temper flared from something small—unpredictable.
The girl whirled, fury in her eyes. “I saw that, bitch. I’ll break your finger next time you flip me the bird.”
The clanking of the utensils stopped and the room went silent.
Brooke parted her lips to say something, but I stepped between them when the guards focused their attention on us again, their hands on their Tasers.
“Stop. Enough.” I said it more for Brooke’s sake. I didn’t want her to be sent to isolation over something trivial.
They both cursed and then went back to minding their own business. I looked at the ceiling and released a long breath.
Finally, I passed through the line and searched for empty seats. The tables were full—not that there were many of us. There must’ve been fifty girls from different cultures. I knew only a few by name. Selected groups trained on different schedules; not to mention girls were regularly shipped in and out unannounced. I hoped Brooke stayed in the same group as me for the sake of my sanity.
Brooke picked a seat across from Justine. I sat between Brooke and a newbie.
“Hello,” the girl said. “My name is Tamara Lee. I mean Tamara. Just Tamara. I was told I don’t have a last name anymore.” She twisted her inky hair with her finger, and her brown eyes beamed when she smiled. “I’m new here ... well, since last week, but I’ll be easy to recognize since it looks like I’m one of the few Asians here.”
“My name is Ava. And you’re in good company. I’m actually half Asian myself, on my mom’s side.” I pointed to my teammates. “Brooke and Justine.”