Free Hyde and Seek by Viola Grace

Chapter One
     
     
    Amly Hyde walked to her day job at the Coroway Tea Shop. When she passed the first agent on the street, she didn’t flinch. She kept her mind pleasantly blank with her duties for when she got behind the counter rippling through her thoughts.
    She felt the agent follow her and her heart sank. They were on to her. Today was the day. She had hoped she would have had more time.
    There was nowhere for her to escape between her current location and work. They had planned it carefully. She was going to have to use her final option. This was going to happen at the shop.
    Amly walked into the shop with four more agents trailing her. “Morning, Herial.”
    “Morning, Amly. Have you seen all the agents around? There must be a talent in the vicinity.” Herial was serving the early-morning customers, and they were all craning their necks around to see what or whom the agents were after.
    Amly went behind the counter and put on her apron after stowing her purse. She put cash in her bra and went to work. The agents wouldn’t close in on her until there was less of a crowd. She had an hour before she had to make her move.
    She went about her daily task keeping the visible tier of her mind on her job. Amly smiled at the customers and poured tea and caf while she handed out pastries over and over.
    It was a morning routine that her customers depended on and she needed to keep up her subterfuge. Nine years ago, her cousin had been taken to the domed city. Two years later, they got news of her death. Suicide. She hadn’t been able to live in the confinement of the bio-suit and in the environment of frustrated and depressed talents. Nola was gone now, but Amly tried as hard as she could to get others out of the path of the agents and into the relative freedom of new names in new communities or the wilds of Resicor.
    Now, Amly was the one hunted, but she had planned for this. It wasn’t a great plan, but it would get her out and away from the agents. After that, running was going to be her life until she could connect with the Resistance. She was either going to get off Resicor or die trying, there was no other choice. Her talent could quickly be skewed for evil and she didn’t want it falling into the hands of those who would cull the population to suit their own ends.
    After the morning rush eased, she looked to Herial. “It seems that whatever they are looking for is still in the area.”
    He nodded. “I think you need to head to the back and check the inventory.” He reached out and grabbed her wrist. In all the years she worked with him, he had never touched her.
    She recorded his genetic coding and looked at him with wide eyes. “The inventory?”
    “The inventory. You need to check the inventory.” His eyes were blank.
    Amly walked into the storeroom and closed the door. Hands grabbed her, and to her surprise, she fell through the floor.
    She felt the layers of ground as changes in temperature and variations in speed. When they ceased falling, they were in a maintenance shed in the underground.
    The hands released her. “Shift forms and come with me.”
    She transformed into Herial and looked at her rescuer. She saw nothing but a flicker of grey shadow.
    “I can’t quite see you.”
    “That is the way it should be. I would hold your hand, but you don’t need to work out control of my talent.”
    “I only copy a basic mental template and physical appearance.” Herial’s voice sounded strange to her ears. She rarely wore masculine bodies. Amly was never quite sure what to do with the genitals.
    “Well, that said, just follow the shadow that I cast. We have miles to go before we arrive at the pickup. I intend to get you there if I have to haul you through the strata itself.”
    Fake Herial nodded. “I will follow the shadow.”
    “Then follow me now. It is time to get you out of here.”
    She/he nodded and the shadow pulled the door open, leading her into the hall that would connect them with the