Free Linked by Imogen Howson Page A

million weird terrifying ideas from horror movies. Cosmetic surgery. Identity theft. Clones—not just the partial clones routinely used for life-saving procedures, but full-body clones—somehow spontaneously developing self-awareness. The girl looked exactly like her. Was her thumbprint the same as well? Her DNA? If she, Elissa, disappeared now, in this minimum-security wilderness, her parents not even knowing she was out of the house, could this girl take her identity, take over her life, and no one would ever know?
    Elissa set her teeth, biting down the thoughts before they flooded her whole body with panic, before the instinct to run took over completely. All the time she’d been growing up, she’d had glimpses into this girl’s mind. Whoever she was, whatever she wanted, Elissa had never caught a hint of anything that indicated the other girl was dangerous.
    Elissa put her hands out deliberately, keeping them steady, fighting back the panic, and clasped the other girl’s hands.
    They were the same as hers. Which shouldn’t have been a shock—the girl had the same nose as her, for goodness’ sake—but was, nevertheless. She suppressed a wave of something more akin to revulsion than fear—this was wrong, it just felt wrong —and as she got it under control, she registered the second thing, that the girl’s skin was damp, and radiating heat like a glow that seeped out into the air around her.
    The girl’s fingers curled around hers, clung. She blinked, focusing on Elissa’s face, and the girl’s face stilled suddenly. Something swept into it, a wave of something more thanrelief, more than recognition, something Elissa couldn’t name. The girl opened her mouth. Her voice was ragged, scratchy and sore-sounding. “Lissa?”
    She knows me. She knows my name . Elissa’s stomach turned upside down. For the first time she realized what she should have thought of before, that the window she’d had into this girl’s brain hadn’t been just one-way. It was one thing to get glimpses of someone else’s life; it was something else entirely to think someone else had had glimpses of yours .
    The girl’s hands tightened. “Please—don’t be scared. I swear . . . I’m not here to hurt you.”
    “You know my name.” Elissa’s own voice sounded unsteady, not just frightened but completely off-balance.
    The girl wasn’t listening. “I just wanted to see you. Just . . .” Her head dipped, but she brought it up with a jerk, her face tight with effort. “I haven’t come to ruin your life. I know you have parents. I know I can’t—I know I’m not legal. I just wanted . . .” Her voice faltered, her head sagging again. Her hands were all at once even hotter where they clutched Elissa’s, and a flush burned in her cheeks.
    She’s really sick. She needs a doctor. But I can’t just call one. I don’t know who she is, or who the people are she escaped from. I can’t do anything the auto-repair, c that might let them know where she is.
    Elissa bit her lip. She’d thought she’d felt helpless and out of control before, but that was nothing compared to how she felt now.
    Okay. This is why I brought medicine. I can at least sort out the infection, get the fever down .
    She slid her hands from the other girl’s, slipped her bag off her shoulder, and dug through it for the meds and the half bottle of water left over from her day at school. She shooktwo of the antifever tablets into her palm. “Here, take these.”
    The girl’s eyes opened again, focused on the tablets—and she jerked back, so violently that the tablets flew out of Elissa’s hand and disappeared in the grass. The water slopped out over Elissa’s hand.
    “What are you doing—” She broke off. The girl’s pupils had contracted to pinpoints; her whole body was stiff, her mouth clamped shut. With a sudden shock of cold, Elissa noticed the bruises that extended along her jawline, down onto her neck. Bruises that were an exact match to