It was Jim Baker.

Elena half expected Sam to jump out of her arms and start running. He did just the opposite—he froze in her arms, eyes wide and fixed on Jim.

Patrick charged straight for Jim and swung his fist. Jim caught it and pushed Patrick back; he stumbled back fell down the little flight of stairs on the porch, his head slamming hard on the ground. He didn't move.

Elena could come back to him later. She turned around and ran for the van, clutching Sam tightly.

"Elena, you can't run anymore!"

For a moment, she kept running. Her lungs burned, her back strained under Sam's weight, her stitches pulled and her knees threatened to buckle with every step.

But Jim was right. There was nothing she could do. They had nowhere to go—if this had been a trap, they had no more leads on how to solve the mystery of Sam's powers.

She stopped just short of the van, put one hand on the driver side door. "How did you find us?"

"Planted an address in the CPS database. We figured you'd be trying to figure out where Sam came from."

"Great." She set Sam down beside herself, and held onto his arm to steady him. "So you know where his home really is."

"It's a dead end, Elena."

"How do you know?"

"Don't you think we would have tried to find Sam's parents? Don't you think that's the first place we would have gone?"

She swallowed hard.

"Where's my mom and dad?" Sam asked.

Jim kept his eyes on Elena. "His father is long gone, and his mother is dead."

"No!" Sam's face crumpled, and he buried it in Elena's side. She reached down and rubbed his back, her own eyes stinging.

"You're out of options, Elena. You need to come with me. I can help."

"I won't let you hurt him," Elena said.

"We don't want to," Jim said.

"How do I know you won't?"

"If I had wanted to kill him, I would have shot him as soon as you opened the door."

Sam's cries grew louder.

Elena glanced from Sam back to Jim. "Do you know why the anomalies are happening?"

"His mother was a physicist, but other than that, we don't have any leads on why he is the way he is. Right now, we're focused on what's happening and how it works."

The off-colored world around her spun—the headaches seemed to be getting worse by the moment.

"Come with us. We'll try to save him. We'll try to save all of you." Jim reached toward her.

Elena tried to jerk away, but it was too late. A massive electric shock passed between them—she screamed as she collapsed to her knees. Her shoulder where he had touched it burned—it felt like the time she'd stuck a paperclip in an outlet as a child.

Jim was the first to pull himself together. "We have to get back to the facility."

"Do you know what's wrong with Sam?"

"We have a good guess, yes."

"Do you know how to stop it?"

"No."

She placed an arm around Sam.

"But we want to try."

"I've been trying! He can control the area of the anomalies, the range, but the flux is always the same."

Jim's eyes widened. "He can change the affected radius at will?"

"Um . . . yeah, something like that."

"And the intensity grows as the volume shrinks? Proportionally, every time?"

She blinked a couple of times. "Yes."

A small smile. "That fills in some gaps for us. We think we can fill in some gaps for you."

Her voice caught in her throat—she could have sworn the pain in her head grew even stronger as they spoke. "You really think this will work? You think I'm going to come with you?"

"I don't think you have anywhere else to go."

She looked over at Sam. What did it matter if Tech United were the ones who killed Sam? The anomalies were killing him already. They'd kill her, too, and Patrick, and anyone else who was nearby enough.

She'd learned that research and science and discovery were the way to ensure things would go well, ensure that she would be safe. But they were useless in the face of the unexplainable, and uncontrollable. Since she'd discovered these anomalies, every time she tried to make things go well, every time she tried to control something, it turned against her. She couldn't hold on any longer. She had to let go.

Maybe Tech United could solve the mysteries of the anomalies and save them. Maybe Sam would die.

But if she gave into them, maybe he would be the only one to die.

"Just . . ." She winced, putting a hand to her head. "Just give us a minute, okay?"

"Of course," Jim said, and he stepped back toward the house, just out of earshot.

"What's going on?" Sam asked through teary eyes.

Elena knelt down and wiped his tears away. "Your anomalies are dangerous, Sam."

"I know."

"I mean . . . they're really dangerous."

"I promise I won't hurt anyone anymore. I'll be careful! I can . . . push further . . ." He squeezed his eyes shut, and the pain lessened for a moment.

Then he let his breath out, and it all returned.

"It's okay, Sam," Elena said, brushing back his hair. "But . . . we don't know how to help you."

"But you're the smartest person ever! You solved that one problem no one could solve!"

"I know, but I can't solve this one." Elena wiped her eyes. "Tech United wants to help you."

"They're going to experiment on me!"

"I know. But they're going to try to help."

"They're the bad guys!"

"We don't have any other choices, Sam."

"No! You can't work with the bad guys! Then you'll be bad guys!"

"Sam—"

"No! You can't make me!"

Elena looked him right in the eyes. "I need you to listen to me. Can you do that?"

Sam sniffed and nodded.

"Okay. We don't know what's happening with your abilities. But you know how your head hurts right now, and your skin, and your muscles?"

"Yeah?"

"That's going to happen to a lot more people. And we don't know how to stop it."

"Am I . . ." His eyes widened. "Am I the bad guy?"

"It's not . . . it's not that simple. But your anomalies . . . your powers . . . they're really strong."

"Is Tech United going to take them away?"

"They want to help you control them."

"And what if I can't?"

"Then . . ." Her eyes fell closed. She could not tell an eight year old that he was going to die. But at the same time, lying had gotten them nowhere.

"What if I die?"

She took a deep breath. "We're going to do everything we can to save you."

His eyes filled with tears once again, and they pierced straight through her. But he nodded. "Okay, Miss Elena."

She lifted Sam in her arms and stood. The sharp, sparking pains all over from the anomalies stood out far above and beyond the already-unbearable burning from her exhaustion. "Okay."