Free Shutdown (Glitch) by Heather Anastasiu Page A

Xona. Maybe the pheromones are working on you and you don’t even know it.”
    Xona rolled her eyes and hurried down the hallway to catch up with Cole. I stared for a moment as she talked with the hulking ex-Reg. He leaned down to hear what she said and then let out a hearty laugh. I watched with surprise. It still startled me anytime he laughed. He’d always fought hard for his humanity, but in the past six months, ever since he’d saved Xona’s life and she’d finally stopped hating him, he’d positively flourished.
    I watched the pair of them walk down the hallway. Her laughing response echoed off the walls.
    “Don’t think your pheromones are gonna work on her,” Ginni said with a giggle.
    Rand didn’t look daunted. “Well, there’s still you fine ladies,” he said, putting his arms around City and Ginni.
    “Gross!” City shouted, pulling away from him and making a big show of gagging. “Can’t you smell how much you reek ?”
    “Aw, you don’t mean that,” Rand said with an impish grin. “Stop trying to fight your primordial attraction to me.”
    “The only attraction I feel for you,” City said with a falsely ingenuous smile, “is the electrical kind.” She reached out a fingertip and the tiniest spiral of electricity hit Rand between the eyebrows.
    “Shunting hell, Citz,” Rand cried out, rubbing his forehead. “That hurt!”
    City only smiled back as we came to the entrance to the Caf. I followed in beside Ginni until I looked up and saw Molla and Max at the central table with their baby son.
    He was only let out of his cell for lunchtime and for Gifted Training, because as much as everyone disliked and distrusted him, we couldn’t deny that his power was incredibly useful. Adrien’s mother always locked herself away in her room during this part of the day to keep herself from attacking him.
    Most of the time I handled seeing him with a degree of equilibrium, but today I paused as sudden intense rage flooded through me. It wasn’t fair. Max was a horrible person who had done horrible things, and yet here he was, free except for his ankle monitor, playing with his cooing son. Molla loved him too, in spite of everything. Her eyes were wide and adoring as she watched Max play with the baby’s fingers.
    Max had a family. All the while Adrien was stuck in a sensory deprivation tank trying to regrow parts of his brain. Because of Max.
    The image of Adrien’s hand meeting mine on the glass of his tank rose like a mocking ghost. Because I knew, as much as I wanted it to be otherwise, the moment had only been the illusion of connection, not the real thing.
    I set my jaw and forced myself to look away from Max as I got in line for food.
    The memory of Adrien in the tank last night made an icy spike of loneliness stab through me. Adrien had been my family, the only one I had after leaving my younger brother Markan behind in the Community. My parents were lost to the adult V-chip. Adrien had been the one person in the world who cared about me more than any of the other people scattered over the earth. My friends cared, sure. Even loved me. I looked over at the table where they were gathered. Rand was making some exaggerated gesture that had Ginni and City laughing. Xona just shook her head and went back to her conversation with Cole.
    They cared, but I wasn’t first in their consideration—they didn’t put me above all others. Losing that connection made me feel so disconnected from the world around me. I could disappear or be killed and people would mourn me (or mourn the loss of my Gift, at least), but it was a wound they’d get over in time. It wouldn’t tear a hole in anyone’s heart like losing Adrien had done to me.
    I stepped forward in line, averting my eyes from my friends.
    No , I reminded myself firmly. Adrien wasn’t lost. Not yet. And neither was my brother Markan. He was years away from the adult V-chip. I made a mental note to ask Ginni to track his location for me later. Her