“Tee, what are you doing!” Miko shrieked.

  Saeda and Kie said nothing, watching their two teammates on the verge of conflict.

  Zod’s face and the sword Tee held at his neck flashed white for a second. The deep thunder rolled above, and everything felt ten times duller—but she didn’t take her eyes off him.

  Zod stayed silent, eyes wide. What had he stepped into? That look on Tee’s face meant she was truly angry.

  Kie let out a fake laugh. “Alright, joke’s over.”

  He stepped forward and patted Tee on the shoulder.

  Tee dismissed her sword, taking a deep breath as she glared into Zod’s eyes. No, she wasn’t going to kill him. That wouldn’t solve anything. She needed to remain in control.

  The deep rolling of thunder from one side of the sky was followed by tapping that grew louder from millions of droplets hitting everything.

  “Oh no, it’s raining,” Miko said, raising her hands above her head to shield her hair. “We need to find shelter.”

  Another flash lit the grey sky. The trees offered no protection from the army of cold droplets falling through the leaves. A strong earthy scent filled the air.

  “How did the weather change so fast?” Zod yelled over the patter and howling wind.

  “Is the Leak close by?” Saeda asked Tee as they huddled under a tree.

  “I never got to search for it,” Tee admitted. “I couldn’t activate my ability, but I really tried.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us that?” Kie snapped. “You had us following you like blind mice.” He wasn’t yet in a relationship with her, but she was starting to drive him crazy.

  Tee turned her back to him. The rain and shivering cold matched her mood. The thunder should have drowned his voice, but she was grateful for the rain hiding the tears beginning to fall. She didn’t want anyone to see her cry.

  As the wind battered the trees, they couldn’t get any wetter than they already were. Miko was the last person they expected to dash through the rain.

  They all followed her to the water tank tower to take shelter beneath its tall metal legs. When Miko saw the chap standing under the tower, she paused, considering staying in the rain rather than approaching. Her teammates passed her before she finally moved under it.

  “The weather’s been like this lately,” the young man said, huddled with them under the tower. “One minute it’s pouring rain, then thirty minutes of blinding sunshine.”

  “Thirty minutes?” Zod blurted. “Are we going to stay out here that long?”

  The young man rubbed his head. “I can take you underground to dry off while you negotiate. You can even stay for breakfast. I already told my father you’re here, and he’s eager to meet you.” His lips stretched into a wide grin.

  Though it meant straying from their duty of eliminating the Leak, Kie couldn’t complain. He had allowed Tee to go see that Jack person at her Mid-Guard. He already knew the answer.

  When no one spoke, Saeda said, “That sounds better than staying out here. Lead the way.”

  The chap rushed from under the tower, weaving under as many trees as possible to lead them to a small steel building. The glass door slid aside automatically as he stepped in front of it.

  Miko sighed in relief at being out of the rain. She still didn’t like being near the chap.

  “This way,” he said, guiding them to an elevator wide enough for twenty people.

  To their surprise, it was occupied. The person inside wore a dark uniform, holding a large sword with its tip touching the ground. The golden badge on the chest identified them as an MG official.

  Miko shivered, imagining a Xenosapian appearing in such a tight space. She glimpsed the chap, still smiling brightly, and gulped. Like her, the MG official’s eyes stayed locked on him.

  Apart from the guard, a thick metal pole ran down the center of the elevator. Faded letters on its surface were illegible, but signs on the walls instructed them to stay away from it.

  The doors closed, trapping the five teens with the two strangers. A hard jerk in the elevator forced them to hold the metal railings. The markings on the pole moved upward as the floor seemed to descend.

  The walls were made of translucent material—scraped and smudged from years of use—but allowed them to see the earth passing by below.

  When the last stretch of earth rose past the walls, a blinding light hit them. The teens had to shut their eyes from the sting, especially Tee, whose sensitive eyes burned the most.

  “Dammit!” Zod cursed.

  The chap and the MG official on elevator duty were used to it. The elevator’s walls had lost their tint, and the artificial light lining the underground ceiling passed through clearly.

  As they approached the second-level ground, all the light from above shone on top of the elevator. They could open their eyes wide enough to see the underground space stretching for miles.

  Colossal metal columns reached toward the bright ceiling, supporting the wide cavern. Low grass was the only greenery, but aside from that, the houses and people resembled the surface. Nothing there made them gasp.

  The chap stepped out with a flickering smile. Miko was the last to leave, keeping her slow pace to stick with Tee at the back.

  A sheen from something nearby caught Tee’s attention. She looked at the group of MG officials walking around—one held a blade thrower. Something sank in her stomach.

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  Why were MG officials carrying that in public? In some districts, blade throwers were banned altogether. She wondered which district they were in—the ones closer to Dreden were always the creepy ones.

  The chap stopped after receiving a throat-cutting glare from one of the MG officials. Tee nearly bumped into him, but he resumed walking. Miko had paused, so he didn’t come within arm’s reach.

  They reached tall, rusty gates leading to a two-story house. Inside, the air was warmer. The wooden floor creaked underfoot, but the gleam from the well-kept furnishings distracted them.

  “How will we know when it stops raining?” Kie asked, uneasy about wasting time when their mission wasn’t complete. He still needed to decide whether to kill the ten-by-four Xenosapian or only the Leak.

  “My walk-pal would let me know,” the chap replied, removing a device from his belt. “This keeps us informed about happenings on the surface. Practically everyone has one.”

  They passed through several grilles, the steel bars curved into stars and crescent moons.

  The wide room the boy led them to had an impressive display of wall swords to distract from the sharp eyes observing them. Every wall had one, their sheaths ornate. The thought that they were for defense against a Xenosapian never occurred to them.

  “Welcome,” greeted the elder at the far end of the long table. “We are forever grateful for your presence. Please have a seat—we have dire matters to discuss.”

  The five fake MG officials had no idea what that meant, and Kie began to wonder what Saeda had gotten them into.

  The occupied chairs around the table held a mix of bright, alert eyes and those distant from the world.

  The elder, the chap’s father, put on large glasses that magnified his eyes. “Surely I am not mistaken—but shouldn’t you have your golden badges, as all certified MG officials do?”

  The creak of the last person pulling their chair echoed in the silence. They were screwed. Tee, like the others, looked to their team leader for an explanation.

  A squeaking trolley barreled into the room, shifting attention to its occupants. Five identical-looking people carried the meals.

  The elder forgot his question, eyes glued to the approaching food. A hologram displayed the latest news as the servers dispatched the meals.

  Tee stared at the food as if she had a feast for breakfast and she had doubled up during dinner the previous evening. The little boy beside her thought the same, stabbing her meat and pulling it onto his plate. When her sore eyes met his, he smiled with large gaps in his teeth.

  The consistent clanks from the trolley drew everyone’s attention to the father. He lowered his fork from the glass and stood.

  “On behalf of my family and the surface fields that bear our name, I sincerely offer you five brave Mid-Guard officials payment for the troubles we will cause today.”

  He gestured toward a golden chip in a case on the table. “Five thousand—”

  “What the?” Zod blurted, realizing the amount.

  “What is this?” Kie asked, glancing from the case to the elder’s wrinkled eyes. “I thought you wanted help from certified officials.”

  Several heads turned. The murmur faded before the father responded.

  “Y-Yes, that is true,” he stammered, the ball at his throat shifting. “Our eldest son was injured scouting the monster on our field, so Allan volunteered to take over. The MG officials are more concerned with lands below the surface. Eliminating a ten-by-four Xenosapian would be troublesome. I didn’t expect a response so soon after releasing our notification on the mutation hotline, and we are grateful. We want to show our appreciation—”

  “We’re not taking your money,” Kie interrupted. “We get paid by the government, in case you forgot.”

  A younger male spoke up. “He and most of us here know that.”

  “The last time we requested help from MG officials, they demanded payment,” another family member added. “We weren’t prepared to pay, and they destroyed our transformer—six months of combined income. This time we took a loan to pay for the demon now lurking in our fields.”

  “We’ll get rid of the demon,” Kie said, fork raised to his mouth. “But we’re not requesting payment.”

  “Very well,” said a lady at the table, her lips wrinkled with age. “Once you deliver us from the threat above, you may change your mind.”

  Kie ignored her and began eating. That discussion was long over, and he wasn’t arguing with people too old to see the scars on his face.

  The room got noisy again, and Tee let the boy beside her pick the food from her plate. Miko’s mumbling about what to make for dinner was uninteresting. Even worse was Zod’s theory about beasts—his endless comparison of Xenosapians and Leaks. Saeda pretended she was listening to the news, hoping Zod would notice she wasn’t hearing a word he said.

  Though Tee sat at the far end from her teammates, she caught every word from the lady Kie spoke with at the other table. He told her about his time in the Mid-Guard but dodged every question about his parents. Tee grew convinced he was hiding something.

  She decided she needed to stop eavesdropping and find the chap. The rain must have stopped—they could finally get back to the slave work they came to do.

  Her mind went blank when she spotted the young man. He sat behind a grille, apart from his family, focused on his walk-pal. Tee’s eyes widened at the white crest around his neck. A sharp pulse ran through her chest and spread through her body. She turned away, staring into her lap as the mark on her neck began to itch. She ignored it.

  The noise around her faded. Her thoughts grew silent—then her inner voice spoke. That young man was a Xeno-victim, a good one, one who wore his crest. He had a jacket on, but Tee was certain the white fabric around his neck was a collar, not a crest. How had she missed it?

  When she looked again, she saw Jack. Her heart clenched. She bit her lips and lowered her head, wiping away the tears that came rushing.

  “Lady, are you alright?” asked the little one beside her.

  “I’ve got something in my eye,” Tee said softly. “I need to use the bathroom.”

  The chair at her side creaked, followed by two soft steps on the wooden floor. “Okay, you can follow me,” said the boy.

  Tee slid from her chair and followed his reflection across the smooth floor. She couldn’t bring herself to speak—not with how hard she bit down to keep her face composed.

  When she reached the bathroom, she shut the door and let the tears come. They rolled freely down her cheeks. She hung her head over the sink and turned on the faucet, letting the running water drown out her sobs. But then, a voice cut through the sound as if it were inside her head.

  “What are you doing?”

  Tee looked up at the mirror. Her red, tear-filled eyes stared back, but no one was there. Great. Now she was hearing voices. The nightmares and flashbacks hadn’t been proof enough that she was losing her mind.

  “Since when did you start crying out of pity?”

  She froze. That voice—Jack’s.

  She clamped her hands over her ears, pressing hard as if that could block him out. But his voice only grew louder, echoing through her mind.

  “I may be dead, but you are alive. Have you forgotten—our code of conduct? What we bound our lives to. You and I swore to prove that we deserve to live as much as they do.”

  Tee blinked hard.

  “You were chosen as a Sentinel of the planet. You represent us—every Xeno-victim, our pain, our oppression. You’re part of the team that will save this world, and through you, they’ll see we were needed. We’re not a plague to be wiped out!”

  Tee slammed her fists against the countertop. The marble dented under her strength, but she ignored it. Her reflection stared back, fierce and trembling.

  Her mind went quiet again. Something stirred within her—something powerful, determined.

  Yes, that was why she was here. Super healing, strength, speed—none of it was a coincidence. She was a Sentinel. The Harbingers were real. The world was in danger. Primus wasn’t a scam. She was chosen—anointed by the planet itself.

  Her brows furrowed as she wiped the last teardrops from her cheeks.

  “No longer will I cry over you, Jack,” she said. “I’ll become the best of the Sentinels, even if I have to carry the entire team. I’ll prove to this pathetic world that we’re needed. I won’t let the MG dogs win.”