Free Powerless by Tera Lynn Childs, Tracy Deebs Page B

worse. For the first time tonight, I’m not sure that I’m going to prove my doubts wrong.
    The idea is devastating. Terrifying. Incomprehensible. Even though I’m almost positive Mr. Malone is gone, I open the steam-room door slowly. Creep out. Peer around the door into the office. The empty office. Thank God.
    The best chance I have to get answers is to follow Mr. Malone and the others. But I have to be careful. Something tells me, Rebel’s best friend or not, things won’t go well for me if I’m caught snooping.
    I cross Mr. Malone’s office and peer through the interior windows. He’s walking down the hall with two men, both in slate-gray suits .
    Damn, the Ray-Ban brigade. I knew those guys were bad news.
    I start to follow them, making sure to leave a good distance between us. It’s not unheard of for me to be up on the third floor, even at this time of night, so if Mr. Malone sees me it won’t be the end of the world. But he can’t think I’m following him.
    When the men reach the elevator bay, I dart into an alcove, press myself against the back of it, and hold my breath until the elevator car arrives.
    The doors swoosh shut and I peer out. They’re gone. The coast is clear.
    I press the call button, and the second elevator starts up from the lobby. As I wait, the first elevator’s indicator light stops on sub-level two. My heart beats double time as the second elevator arrives and I step inside. Clearly they’re not going to my mom’s lab to see the new security measures, because that’s on sub-level one.
    When I swipe Mom’s security badge on the access panel and press sub-level two, the elevator descends quickly, bypassing all other levels. It only takes a few moments, but it feels like forever. I clench my hands into fists to keep them from shaking.
    The elevator opens onto a containment hallway, a long, empty space with no labs or rooms on either side. Sub-level two is laid out differently than sub-level one. They conduct far more volatile experiments here, so additional safety precautions are in place. No one wants a nuclear blast getting out of the basement.
    Mr. Malone and the gray suits are nowhere to be seen. Where could they have gone? I’m only a few seconds behind them. And since Mr. Malone doesn’t have super speed, it makes no sense. They can’t have made it out of the containment hallway already. They couldn’t have just disappeared into thin air, right?
    I step off the elevator, wondering if I made a mistake. But when I press the call button, both elevators’ doors slide open. No, Mr. Malone and the Ray-Ban brigade definitely came to this level.
    So where did they go?
    I start running, and still it takes me a full minute to reach the end of the hallway.
    No way did Mr. Malone turn the corner before my elevator arrived. No freaking way. Which means…what? I don’t have a clue, but something shady is going on.
    I head back and push the elevator button again. Again, the doors to both elevators slide open. I get in the one on the left this time, the one Mr. Malone and the gray suits took.
    I don’t press any buttons. Instead, I just stand there as the doors close in front of me.
    What am I missing? They got in this elevator, descended to sub-level two, and…what? Vanished? I know I live in a world of superpowers, but that just doesn’t happen. Only about one percent of superheroes have the power to go invisible, and Mr. Malone isn’t one of them. Which means they are somewhere.
    I tap on the floor, push on the walls. Nothing. I’m frustrated now, really frustrated. I press the button to take me back up to three. The elevator rises effortlessly. At the top level, instead of getting out, I press the button to go back down to sub-level two.
    It’s crazy, but I can’t help thinking that the answer is here in this elevator. I just need to find it.
    Come on, Kenna. Think.
    The elevator goes back down, but when it stops at the second sub-level, the doors don’t open. It just sits