Luck was with her. She hit every intersection with a green light. As a result, she made it to the complex in record time. She slung her ID over her neck. Extracting her key fob from her purse, she shoved the device into her pocket before stuffing the purse underneath the front seat.
Security gave her a questioning look when she entered the building. But since she’d used her key card to enter, he made no move to stop her. She gave the lone guard no explanation, and she wondered if the pissed off expression on her face had anything to do with it.
Same for when she exited the elevator on the first sublevel. Obediently, she handed over her keycard to the guard stationed at the decom chamber. The process only took a couple of minutes, during which she continued to fume. She also got a chance to check out her reflection in the chamber’s shiny chrome-like surface. Although her features were somewhat distorted, her eyes never changed shade. Her lanyard was returned to her when she emerged, and she proceeded into C Block.
Fortunately, the corridors remained lit twenty-four seven. She hustled through the connecting hallways until she reached the section that housed the Chimeras’ apartments. She almost expected her key card to be rejected when she swiped it across the pad. The light went green, and she wondered if Bill and Dorsey had something to do with that. She wouldn’t be surprised if they had, considering they were willing to give her full access to the children after hours.
She stopped after she entered the short hallway. There were nine doors—four on her left, four on her right, and one directly in front of her. As there were only six children, that meant three of the apartments had to be empty, and none of the doors bore a number or the name of their inhabitants. She had no idea who lived where.
“Screw this. If I have to wake every single one of them, I’m going to get answers.”
She banged on the first door to her right with her fist, and continued pounding it until she heard the click and saw the handle move. The door opened an inch, and K8 peered at her. Behind her, Cydney saw the others were gathered in the brightly-lit room. Without waiting for an invitation, or for the woman to ask her why she was there, Cydney shoved the door open wider and strode into the room.
N8 was sitting at the end of a sofa. Like the others, he was shocked to see her there, and scrambled to his feet.
“Cydney?”
“What did you do to me, you son of a bitch? What did you do to me?” She raised her fists to strike him on the chest, but he grabbed her by the wrists before she could hit him. She struggled to release herself, her breath coming in gasps as her eyes clouded with tears. “What did you do to me?” she berated him. She didn’t care if the others heard. They were probably in on it. Maybe they had instigated this whole thing.
N8 suddenly stiffened. His eyes widened to the point where his pupils were huge black pools in his sheet-white face. She gave her arms another jerk, and he released her. But instead of facing her, he fell back onto the couch, silent and unmoving.
K8 and P8 immediately went to him, shaking his shoulder. “Hey, buddy! Come out of it!”
“Wake up, N8!” K8 whispered urgently, then glanced at Cydney with undisguised fear. “What is wrong with you?”
“He did something to me!” Cydney pointed to her face. “He changed my eyes! He’s got some sort of power we don’t know about, and he used it on me!”
A hand grabbed her arm and turned her around. T8 stared down at her. “What do you mean he changed your eyes? I don’t see anything wrong with them.”
“He changed their color! I’m blue-eyed! He changed them to the color ofhiseyes!”
T8 slowly shook his head. “Nope. Sorry. Your eyes are blue.”
She paused, her mouth partly open to protest, when he stated, “Go look for yourself if you don’t believe me.” He released his grip on her and stepped away to point to a short hallway off to her left. “Bathroom’s there.”
She had to see for herself, even though she knew he was telling her the truth. Flipping on the light switch, she took a good look in the mirror. Leaning close to verify, she blinked in astonishment. He was right. Her eyes were blue again.
Whirling around, she stomped back into the front room. The children were gathered protectively around N8, who continued to sit unnaturally still, almost statue-like. She hesitated momentarily as her worry for him surfaced. Her initial burst of anger was quickly deflating, but she still had to have her say.
“I didn’t make it up,” she insisted.
“We believe you,” G8 bluntly replied.
“We just never realized it changed our eye color,” P8 admitted.
“You never realized?” She straightened. “He’s done this before? Am I right? So he does have a power we’ve never known about?”
K8 pointed to the opposite end of the couch. “Sit,” she ordered in a hard voice. “We’ll answer your questions in a moment. But right now we have to get N8 out of this catatonic state before it harms him.”
“I’m…okay.”
T8 rushed into the kitchen, returning with a glass of water. Pressing it into N8’s hand, and curling the man’s fingers around it, he continued to hold it as he guided it up to N8’s lips. N8 took a few sips and sighed. The color started to return to his face as he gradually came around. Giving those around him a grateful smile, he settled his gaze on the woman sitting across from him.
“Don’t blame Cydney. There were a few extenuating circumstances I never foresaw. Neither did any of you.”
F8 gave his arm a little squeeze. “What kind of circumstances?”
“The strength of emotion. The more agitated, or stressed, or enflamed a person gets, it throws my psyche into a tailspin. It was like…like falling from a great height with no parachute, and all I could do was wait to hit the ground.”
