Daughter of Zeus ✔

15.5

Ada juggled a large box while reaching for the doorbell. Before she pressed it, the door opened, and two hands dragged her inside.

"Whoa, now, take care of me."

She threw off the stranger's hands with a small jolt of electricity traveling over her shoulders.

"Shit, somethin' shocked me!"

The boy rubbed his hands together and jumped away from her.

She took in the dilapidated condition of the house, which wasn't much better than the outside. Sheet rock peeked through holes in the wall, and every piece of furniture had a large chunk missing.

"Here." She thrust the box at the boy.

"I'll take that."

The dark-haired girl from the interface took the box from her. She peeked inside, nodded, and handed the package off to the boy.

Though the box was bigger than his lanky frame, he hoisted it over one shoulder and left them alone.

"Hello again." Ada offered a small wave. "I'm Ada, and you're Shana."

Shana scowled. "What kinda intel you want? Seems you got enough already."

"Not the right kind." She took a breath. "You're here because the State took someone from you, right? Someone...special?"

A rose bloomed on Shana's cheeks. "Yeah."

"Say, theoretically, I wanted to see where they kept Specials. Where would I start to look?"

"Theoretically, I have no damn idea," Shana said. "And if that's what you wanted intel on, you wasted a trade." She whistled, and two others appeared, looking ready to escort Ada out.

One of them was the boy from earlier, and he hesitated. "I don't wanna touch her."

"What? You're no Prominent, so get her the hell outta here!"

He fidgeted. "She did somethin' to me, last time."

"What's that?" Shana sized Ada up.

"Dunno." He rubbed his hands together again, as if recalling the pain that had shot through them. "Hurt though."

"Eh, he might be talking about this." Ada put her arms out in front of her and allowed small trickles of light to travel over her skin.

Everyone stepped back.

"No wonder you hacked my interface," Shana said, hypnotized by the blue sparks.

Ada lowered her arms. "Now you know why I'm interested in Specials, and why I need to know where they keep them."

She left out the part about their mutual hate of Moretz. She wanted to keep things simple for the time being.

"You should know where the place is, being a Special yourself."

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't need the intel. Will you help me or not?"

Shana sighed. "I'll think it over. Following Sammies is dangerous work, and even if I find the place, there's more than one. Wherever your friend is could be any number of their facilities."

"How do you know I'm looking for someone?" Ada asked.

The girl tapped her head. "I've got a method for gathering intel, and it starts here."

"It's a good guess, anyway. I'm not really looking for a friend. More like a friend of a friend. Someone I owe."

The thought of Cybil's daughter locked up by the State kept her up some nights. There wasn't much difference between one Special or another, and Ada could've easily ended up lost in one of the State's black sites. She hoped if that ever happened, someone would be able to get her out, if she couldn't fight her way out first.

"I'll help you, only if you can promise us shielding from the State. A job like this could get us noticed and slapped with more than just N.A. status."

Ada held out her hand. After several moments, Shana shook it.

"We'll help each other, and find who need to find, together."

"Yeah, yeah, no promises," Shana said.

"Sure, sure." Ada neared the door and opened it. "We might not ever find any site, let alone all of them!"

The door slammed as soon as Ada scooted out of the house. Out on the porch, she heard Shana's yell and smiled.

"All of them?"