Minutes after they reached the main road, where the ride was much smoother and less jarring, Sam drifted off to sleep on the couch. Elena couldn't blame him. He'd been through enough, and even though they were fairly minor, his injuries would need plenty of rest to heal. She made her rounds to all of the animals in the room, feeding the ones that needed to be fed and comforting the ones she could, then she took her usual place at the kitchen table.

Patrick sat down across from her. He let out his breath, and she did the same. "Week two of camp, for me," he said.

A deep pang of guilt stabbed her from within. She'd spent most of week one criticizing his techniques and getting down on him for his mistakes. But this week, the errors had been all hers—much more, and much worse, mistakes than the ones Patrick had made the week before. She'd failed to set up activities that worked, fixated on a single camper with the end of result of injuring him for no reason, and made a terrible impression on an evaluator from the company that funded them.

All Patrick had done wrong was break a couple of beakers and short circuit some batteries. He didn't know anything about science, but she barely knew anything about kids.

Elena breathed in to apologize for being hard on him, but what came out was, "Sorry this week isn't going the way you hoped."

He shrugged. "I was looking for an adventure. I got it."

She smiled wryly. "You're still getting it. We're not out of the woods yet, and I can't imagine how this could possibly end well."

"Can you ever?"

Elena flinched.

He shook his head. "Elena, what would be a good ending to you?"

She looked away, setting her hands on the table. He had a point. They couldn't run forever, but how could they give Sam up? Who could be trusted with him?

They could learn what his needs—his gifts—were. Somehow, science didn't work quite right on him—if that was the right way to say it. They could find out how the rules were different, they could learn to work with them. And maybe . . .

"We can teach Sam to control his abilities."

Patrick raised one eyebrow.

Her words started to pick up pace as she went on. "If he can control his abilities, it won't matter if Tech United catches up to him. He can just stop the anomalies from happening, and they won't find anything worth studying. We'll still be kidnappers, but if Sam can talk about what Tech United was trying to do to him, and how we rescued him, maybe we can explain ourselves. And they'll be the ones that look crazy, if there aren't really any anomalies."

"I see."

"That's what we should do, right?" Elena kept looking right at his eyes, but he was looking away from her at this point. "It all comes down to that. We have to teach him how to control his abilities."

Patrick sighed. "If you say so."

Elena glanced out the window. She recognized a few of the shops and gas stations they'd passed on their way into the part of the city where the host school was.

She was breathing in to ask him what he thought would be a good ending to their situation, when Michelle called out to them. "Hey, team, we're almost there. I'm going to park a few blocks away from the school. I need you all to stay in the car, I'll head over on my own to scope out the site."

Elena bit her lip—Michelle would stick out like a sore thumb hanging around an elementary school during the summer. Elena, on the other hand, might be able to aim her walk around the time a local high school let out its summer students, and casually pass by wearing a backpack. "Shouldn't one of us go? I mean, won't people notice you?"

"Maybe, but I'm not sending any of you into danger."

"You're putting us in more danger if you leave us and get caught."

Michelle winced, and she watched the road for a moment before letting her breath out. "Okay. Patrick, you go."

Patrick blinked. "What? Why me?"

"Because you can keep a calm look on your face even when you're stressed. Elena, sorry, but you can't. And it's not like we can send Sam."

Patrick stood from the couch, but Elena could see his knees shaking. "Okay, but if I'm out there walking by myself, that might not be the best."

Elena stood to stand beside him. She wouldn't have expected him to be the one to be afraid at this moment. "What if we both go?"

"Okay, fine, just—be careful. One of you hang back a little so you can watch the other one's back."

"I'm—I'm happy to hang back," Patrick said.

Michelle pulled the camper into the parking lot of a shopping center. Elena bit her lip. There was no way they could avoid being conspicuous with a motor home in the middle of the city, but that was the thing about San Francisco. There were already enough weird things around that no one would specifically target them as the odd ones.

"Remember," Michelle called as they left the camper, "you're ordinary teenagers. You're not up to anything weird. You're just trying to get home."

"Hey!" Sam raced to the door and leaned out. "What about me?"

"Sam!" Elena took a step back toward him. "I thought you were asleep!"

"I woke up. Where are you going?"

"We have to run an errand."

"Cool!" He jumped down out of the camper.

"Get back in there, someone might—" She stopped herself. They hadn't talked to him much about what was happening; they'd have to be careful when they did, or he would panic for the rest of the time they had him.

"Sam." Patrick knelt down in front of him. "You go back in and take care of the animals while we're gone. Can you do that?"

His brow furrowed, and he nodded and ran back up the stairs.

Patrick let his breath out. "We'll be back in a few, Michelle. No worries about us."

"I'll keep the engine running in case we need a quick getaway."

Patrick turned away, so only Elena saw him grimace. She let herself smile. "Hey, now. Didn't peg you for a coward."

"You should talk." He kept his eyes forward as they walked down the street.

"I worry when there's someone judging me, but when it matters—" She shrugged. "I do what needs to be done."

"Yeah. You worry about things that don't matter. I worry when people I care about are in danger. So you're right. I worry when it matters. And you know what?" His pace quickened a bit as his jaw set. "I'm still doing what needs to be done. So keep it to yourself, Elena."

His words stung more than she would have admitted. She'd only meant to tease him initially, to lighten the mood. For the second time that afternoon, she breathed in to apologize, but this time she couldn't say anything. She didn't even want to. She'd teased him; he'd insulted her, hard.

They walked in silence, tension thick enough to feel tangibly in the air. She didn't want to walk side by side with him, but she certainly didn't want to fall behind and follow him, and every time she quickened her pace to pass him, he sped up as well. So they walked side by side, avoiding eye contact.

It wasn't a long walk to the camp site, though it felt like hours. Elena stopped abruptly when they were a block away. "Hey," she said, "Michelle said someone should hang back."

Patrick's jaw pulsed. "I'm not hanging back. I'm not a coward."

Elena rolled her eyes. "I didn't mean it."

"I'm not an idiot, either."

"I didn't say you were an idiot."

"You didn't have to."

Elena had never seen him even annoyed until today. He was the loose, carefree one; she was the one who was supposed to get stressed and worried and offended by insults. "You choose now to start caring about things?"

He breathed in as if to speak, then closed his mouth, shaking his head. "Just go. I'll wait here."

Elena winced. "I didn't mean—"

"Go before someone notices us. Michelle is going to wonder where we've been."

She clenched her fists, then turned to continue walking toward the school. Only her legs froze.

What would they find there? Would Tech United have returned to the place where the anomalies were first found? If it was Elena's first idea of a place to go to learn more about them, other than putting Sam into an enormous MRI-like scanner, she wouldn't be the only ones who thought of it.

If she was spotted, they would take her in. They'd find a way to get her to talk. Maybe they'd even manipulate her, convince her that what they were doing was right. She could run—but she'd lead them back to the camper, and even if she didn't, they'd know the camper was near, and then—

"Thought you were going."

Elena swallowed hard and turned back to Patrick.

He nodded. "Let's go together."

Again, they walked side by side. "When we first get there," she whispered, "we just do a walk by. See if there's anyone there, but just pass by so they don't know we're trying to get in or anything."

"Okay. Good idea."

Elena squeezed her eyes shut, then forced herself to put on a smile. "Patrick, we have to act like high schoolers. Like, normal teenagers."

He nodded, and his facial features settled, calming. It was the exact expression he usually wore during camp—like there wasn't a care in the world.

It didn't make her feel much better, but it was better this way. "Okay. What do we pretend to be?"

"What do you mean?" His nearly-flippant tone from camp had returned.

"If someone does ask, we have to say what we are."

"If someone talks to us, don't we just run?"

"Only if they figure out who we are. Running is suspicious. We're normal teenagers."

"Okay, fine. What do you want to be?"

"Friends from summer school. We're heading home to study."

He scoffed. "That's believable."

She raised her eyebrows. "Should we be brother and sister?"

He laughed. "I'm white, you're Asian."

"Half," she said. "We could be adopted."

"Nah. We're cutting afternoon classes."

"Just the two of us?"

He held out his hand. "Elena Homes, would you do me the honor of being my fake girlfriend?"

She glared at him while placing her hand in his.

"Hey, there," he said, "that's not the face you'd be making walking hand in hand with your boyfriend."

Elena wouldn't know. The drama at home had kept her from pursuing anyone, even if she had wanted to. Besides, her focus was on college. Still, she made herself smile and even scoot a little closer to Patrick as they approached the school.

"Don't look toward it," she whispered. "Just, like, out of the corner of your eye."

She couldn't see much, but it didn't take much. Two people were exiting in the building in hazmat suits, carrying a few pieces of equipment Elena had left behind in the hurry to reach the facility. A man in a suit stood outside the door and took a step back when the two emerged. She could just make out a few more on each side of the school, carrying pieces of machinery, scanning the premises.

"Okay. We're not going to be able to go in," she said.

"Back to the camper?"

Elena couldn't help it—she turned to face the school building, just for a moment. She locked eyes with the man in the suit.

Jim.

"Cover blown," she whispered.

"What do we do?"

"Run."