Ba-da-doop.
Ba-da-doop.
Anna rolled over in bed and willed her eyes to open.
Ba-da-doop.
She still had a trace of a headache, and the morning light seemed too bright and hit at odd angles. The bedroom window was open and the curtains rolled in the breeze, exposing a bright blue sky and a late-morning sun.
Ba-da-doop.
Anna looked over at her phone on the nightstand. 11:15 a.m. It buzzed with a new text message.
“Stop already,” she moaned.
Ba-da-doop.
Anna grabbed her phone and squinted to focus. Forty-two messages in a group chat with Scout Master, Fi0na, and L00L-A.
Ba-da-doop. Forty-three messages.
Anna’s fingers felt thick as she typed her response.
Anna-kin: Slept in late zzzzzzzzzzz. SRY
Scout Master: Did you see my text!?!?!?!
Anna-kin: Which 1
Scout Master: All of them. We r being invaded! Did you see Summerfield’s video?
Fi0na: Why is HE on this chat?
Fi0na: Heading out to Potter rd later where Katie took the video. Wnat to come?
L00L-A: Lol
L00L-A: we sound like the scooby gang
Anna-kin: Sure. I’m bzy this morning. But meet me at my place this evening. Sounds fun :)
She signed off with a smiley face but didn’t feel much like a smiley face. She yawned as she made her way downstairs. There was muffled conversation in the distance, but the voices didn’t register. Nothing registered except the desire to crawl back into bed. She yawned one more time for good measure and turned toward the kitchen.
No one was there. For a brief moment she headed toward the refrigerator out of habit, then realized she didn’t have an appetite. She glanced out the window to see where the voices were coming from, then froze. Her heart skipped.
Uncle Jack was in the front yard with his back to the house. Across from him stood Mara. She was wearing a brilliant white shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a pair of worn blue jeans. Her hair was pulled back in an ornate braid spun with mathematical precision. She was radiant.
Anna opened the screen door and stepped out onto the porch. Uncle Jack heard the hinges squeak and turned.
“Hey, she’s alive,” Uncle Jack said. “I was just going to come drag you out of bed. No need to thank me for doing your chores.”
Mara glanced up at Anna with a knowing smile and wink.
“Good morning, Anna. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you face-to-face.” Mara preemptively walked over to Anna and extended her hand.
Anna shook Mara’s hand in return, her face showing a combination of confusion and an oxygen deprivation–hangover headache.
“I’m surprised you didn’t tell me we were going to have a visitor today.” Uncle Jack smiled, his face flush. “And what’s this about an Albright Fellowship? That sounds amazing.”
“Yeah—amazing.” Anna looked over to Mara for help.
“It’s part of the Albright Fellowship program, where they match gifted young students like Anna with teachers like me,” Mara explained without missing a beat. “Anna had agreed to meet on a daily basis over the summer—that is, if it’s not an inconvenience to your family.”
“Well, considering the family is just me and Anna, there’s no inconvenience here. I just wish Anna would have told me sooner.” Uncle Jack looked down at himself, a little embarrassed. He was covered in streaks of dirt and grease. “If you’re interested, I could show you around the farm later. That is, after you two have finished and I shower, of course.”
“I’d like that very much,” Mara said.
Anna detected a different tone in Mara’s voice—lighter and more playful. And Uncle Jack was goofier than usual, unable to stop smiling and holding onto glances just a second too long. There was an uncomfortable pause when the two seemed unsure of how to finish the conversation or where to go next. Anna wasn’t sure if it was because this was Mara’s first encounter post-exile or if there was something else. Uncle Jack smiled again and made an awkward wave before heading inside the house. Anna waited for him to leave.
“Albright Fellowship?” Anna asked. “Is that even a thing?”
“It’s a thing now. SID and I created it last night. It even has a website in case someone gets nosy.”
Anna looked behind Mara and noticed a new motorcycle in the driveway.
“Wait. Did you create that, too?” Anna pointed.
“Of course not. I bought it this morning. I need a form of transportation other than flying, don’t you think? And I always wanted to ride one of those things.”
“But how? Where did you get the money?”
“It was a lot easier than you’d expect.”
“You stole?”
“That sounds so harsh when you say it that way. Of course I didn’t steal. I just generated cryptocurrency and created my own bank accounts. Anonymous and untraceable,” Mara said. “Come here, I have something for you.”
Mara walked over to her motorcycle and removed a metal box that had been strapped to the rear seat with bungee cords; it was a box like the one Mara had given her yesterday, only slightly larger. She handed it to Anna, who immediately held it to the side of her head and shook it.
“What is it?” Anna asked.
“Part three of your training. Now, go upstairs and try them on. We have a lot of work to do today,” Mara said. “And bring your goggles down with you after you change.”
Anna bounded upstairs while trying to place the tip of her index finger into the indent at the top of the box. She finally made contact and the top of the box instantly slid open. Anna flipped the box over and dumped its contents onto her unmade bed. Laid out in front of her were a pair of gray jeans and a white long-sleeve shirt with seamless red stripes running down the sleeves. The fabric glistened with iridescent light as she held it up in front of her.
She tried on the jeans first. No surprise, a perfect fit. But the fabric felt much softer than jean material and almost weightless. The shirt was weightless too. She stood in front of the mirror and was surprised by the figure in front of her. Like Mara had said yesterday, she had changed. She wasn’t the bean pole with a mop of light brown hair she had been her entire life. For the first time, she was able to look at herself—really see herself—without cringing. A faint smile crossed her lips. Then she remembered the goggles.
Anna rummaged through unfolded clothes in her dresser drawer and grabbed her goggles. Before she headed downstairs, she glanced out her side window. Down below, Mara was sitting on her knees beneath the shade of the old bur oak tree. She seemed to be lost in a dream. Her hand moved slowly back and forth across the grass. Her gaze focused on the ground beneath her. It was strange seeing Mara in this new context, away from the protection of her hidden fortress.
The noon sun bore down hot as Anna walked across the lawn. But the material in her new shirt reflected the heat and kept her cool. As Anna crossed the line of shade from the leaves above and joined Mara at the foot of the tree, she felt a marked decrease in temperature.
“What are you looking at?” Anna asked.
“I’ve counted over twelve different species of insects in the last two minutes. Twelve,” Mara said wistfully without looking up. “I could sit here for hours and watch this procession of ants. There’s so much to learn.”
“Sounds like fun. Now what did you want to show me?” Anna held out her goggles.
Mara ignored her, leaning back against the tree and looking up into the network of fractal limbs and branches above her head. Pinpoints of sun broke through the leaves as they fluttered in the light breeze. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply.
“Are you okay?” Anna asked.
Mara smiled but kept her eyes closed. “The air feels so different here. In this time.”
“You mean the farm smells?”
Mara chuckled and opened her eyes.
“No. I’m talking about the sheer diversity of smells and sounds. Just life.” Mara sat up tall. Her attention back. “Now let me take a look at you. How do the clothes feel?”
“Kind of weird, like I’m wearing nothing,” Anna said as she held her arms out and shrugged.
“You’ll get used to it. Now put on your goggles.”
Anna wrapped her goggles behind her ears and jumped. The red lines on her sleeves glowed like neon stripes. She held her arms up and admired the light show.
“Whoa, that’s new,” Anna said.
“Just wait. Now tap the small divot just above the right lens of your goggles.”
“Here?” Anna ran her finger along the frame until she felt a small divot she hadn’t noticed before.
“Yep. Right there.”
Anna pressed the divot and felt a tight suction form around the edges of her face and underneath her chin, as if someone had just shoved a giant plunger against her face. She instinctively grabbed for her face in alarm, and her fingers tapped against a hard, transparent surface. She moved her fingers along a faint seam that ran around her forehead and ears and down her face to under her chin. It was a transparent mask. A perfectly fitted mask. Anna could hear her own breath.
“What the heck is this?” Anna shouted. Her own voice sounded loud in her head. She tried pulling at the edges of the seam but the mask felt welded to her face.
“Don’t even try. When activated, your mask has an almost impenetrable seal. Trust me. That is a good thing. In zero-oxygen environments it provides approximately twelve hours of oxygen,” Mara said, her voice clear through the iCom.
“Well, thanks for telling me that now! Might have come in handy last night when I almost died of oxygen deprivation!” Anna stood up and put her hands on her hips.
Mara ignored her as she flipped on her own mask. It was almost invisible except for the slight seam that ran around her forehead and underneath her chin.
“Okay, now we match.”
“Huh. I can barely see it,” Anna said as she reached out and touched Mara’s mask.
Mara swatted her hand away.
“That’s the point. The less people see, the better. Which brings me to this.” Mara stood up, placed her hand on her iCom, and smiled. “Ready?”
“Ready for wha—” Anna stopped mid-sentence.
Mara was gone. Vanished. The spot she’d occupied just seconds before was empty. Anna instinctively flung her arm out where Mara had just been standing and hit a solid, invisible object that felt like a wall of muscle.
“Oof!” Mara grunted through her iCom. “Please don’t do that, Anna. I’m invisible. Not permeable.”
Anna laughed out loud while still poking the invisible figure in front of her with her index fingers. “Invisibility. That is awesome! How did you do that?”
“If you quit poking me, I’ll show you,” Mara said.
Anna felt a small static surge over her body then looked down. There was just empty space where her legs had been. She waved her hands in front of her face but there was nothing there. A phantom limb. Disoriented, Anna felt herself stumble backward only to be caught and steadied by an invisible hand.
“Invisibility is a little disorienting at first, like flying, but you’ll get used to it,” Mara said. “There are a couple of different cloaking settings. This setting here—no one can see you. You can’t even see you.”
“It makes it kind of hard to grab ahold of stuff.” Mara reached out to the tree but misjudged the distance and jammed her invisible index finger into the trunk. “Ow!”
“If you hold still for a second, I’ll show you a different cloaking setting—the one you and I will be using most often,” Mara said.
Anna heard a slight buzz then Mara instantly reappeared, this time surrounded by a neon light-blue outline. Anna looked down at her hands and legs. Her body was outlined with the same thin blue line.
“Why am I glowing?”
“You’re not. Our visors have been set to bypass the cloaking device. As long as I have my visor on, I can see you and you can see me. But to the rest of the world we’re invisible.”
“So no one can see us?”
“Or hear us. Our masks block out the sound of our voices. The only way we can hear each other is through our iComs. We are effectively ghosts to the rest of the world. Want to try it out?”
Mara took two steps away from the oak tree and gently floated twenty feet above the ground, her body a silhouette against the sun. Anna looked nervously past the tree to the barnyard where farm workers busily hustled between research barns. No one seemed to notice the figure floating in the air just above their heads. Mara motioned for her to follow.
Anna took a couple of bounding steps then floated to Mara’s side. It felt glorious to be flying again, especially in the light of day. She looked down and expected to see her shadow, but there was nothing there except gravel and dirt from the driveway, brightly lit in the noonday sun. She looked over to the house. She was eye level with her bedroom. Her brain tried to process this new perspective: different angles and patterns on the roof, hidden from her previous earthbound view. She silently glided over to her bedroom and placed her hand on the window to peer in. She could see her hand, but there was no reflection in the glass.
“Come on,” Mara called out. “Let’s get to a higher vantage point.”
Anna kicked away from the house like a swimmer pushing off from the side of a pool and joined Mara as they glided several hundred feet above the ground. Warm air wrapped around them like a blanket, and the horizon opened before them as they ascended. Bright green patchwork fields, irrigation lines, and a loose grid of dirt roads lined the valley floor. Anna could see the entire shoreline of Tyson Lake from this height. Across the lake, Mara’s home, invisible to others, shone like an alien outpost—the white dome and crystal spire reflected light. Anna figured Mara’s house must use the same cloaking setting.
“This should be good. Let’s stop here,” Mara said.
She placed her hand on Anna’s shoulder and slowed them both to a stop. The two bobbed in the air currents like swimmers on the surface of a lake. Anna was mesmerized by the view and the quiet. This wasn’t like flying in a plane, where circular steel walls box you in and the view out the window is like watching the sky through a small TV screen. Up here like this, there was nothing but sky in all directions.
“Can you show me where the creature was sighted last night?” Mara asked.
“The quarry is about ten miles that way. Potter Road should be about halfway in that direction,” Anna said, pointing. “My friends are headed over there this evening to check it out. Should we wait?”
“No. That may actually prove useful. Look for footprints or tracks. Anything that might help us,” Mara said.
Mara casually laid back with her hands behind her head and looked up into the brilliant blue sky. Anna tried to do the same but did a cartwheel first before finding her center of balance. After a moment of spinning back and forth, she was able to come to a stop with her body in a supine position. She imitated her older friend and placed her hands behind her head. She looked up into the sky, no ground in sight, and felt adrift on an infinite blue sea.
“This is sooo weird. We’re literally floating on air.” Anna smiled.
“I do this sometimes when I just want to think. It feels like a blank slate up here. Helps to clear the mind,” Mara said. “So, let’s talk about last night. What can you tell me about the creature we saw in the video? Its characteristics.”
“Its characteristics? I don’t know. It was dark.”
“Really? That’s all you could piece together?”
“Uh, well. It had two arms, two legs like us—but not like us.”
“Your powers of observation are astounding.” Mara grinned.
Anna frowned.
“Okay. It had super big eyes.” Anna paused. “And it seemed to be sensitive to light.”
“Go on.”
“Which means it probably evolved in a dark environment, right?”
“Exactly. And what was the world like that you visited last night?” Mara asked.
“Really bright. It had two suns, and with the way they were positioned, it was probably bright and sunny most of the time,” Anna said, then paused again. “Okay, I get it. You don’t think this creature came from the same world I visited last night.”
“Which means there is another wormhole in our area.”
“Great. We’re leaking all over the place,” Anna said.
“I don’t know how we missed it, and that’s what troubles me,” Mara said quietly. “While you’re out with your friends this evening, I’m going to run some different models with the new data we collected last night.”
“Do you think anything else made it through the wormhole?” Anna asked. “Like another, you know . . . visitor.”
“I don’t know. But it’s possible,” Mara said, then turned to face Anna. “I want you to be careful tonight. Promise me that you will be careful. If you see anything—I mean anything—out of the ordinary, I want you to contact me at once. This is a search mission, not a capture.”
“I got it.”
“No. I don’t think you do.”
Mara spun in a half-circle to an upright position and shoved Anna’s shoulder, knocking her off-balance and sending her spinning like a leaf in a current. Anna flailed her arms until she regained her balance.
“Hey, what did you do that for?” Anna shouted.
“Because I don’t believe you. I know exactly what you’re going to do if you see the creature. You’re going to try and communicate. You’re going to get too close.” Mara folded her arms.
“How do you know?”
“Because it’s exactly what I would do if I were you,” Mara said. “Which means I can’t stop you. So you’d better at least find a way to protect yourself.”
Mara glided over. Before Anna could move, Mara grabbed ahold of both her wrists and turned her palms face down.
“Are you going to throw me again?” Anna flinched.
“Not yet.” Mara smiled. “Now, take a look at your iCom. See anything different?”
Anna looked down and saw something unfamiliar: a tiny, pulsing red diamond on the bottom corner of each iCom.
“That’s new.”
“I just activated your defense mode,” Mara said as she let go of Anna’s hands. “Triple-tap the diamond with your index finger.”
“Does it matter which hand?”
“Either hand. Just triple-tap.”
Anna tapped the red diamond on her left wrist three times. Three holographic shapes outlined in red appeared above the back of her left hand: a circular ring, a sine wave, and a starburst.
“Cool! This is just like a video game. What’s this do?” Anna asked as she flicked the red ring.
Instantly, the display disappeared, and a strange pressure formed around Anna’s fist, like someone had dipped her hand in concrete.
“Do you always act first and then ask questions?” Mara asked.
“Pretty much,” Anna said. “Hey, why does my hand feel funny? It’s like I’m wearing a tight glove.”
“That’s your first defense. It’s a vortex cannon. It fires pressurized air.”
Anna pointed her arm out and closed her right eye like she was sighting a gun.
“Nice. How do I shoot it?”
“Watch me,” Mara said as she held her arm straight out in front of her. “Point your arm where you want to fire, like this, then double-clench your fist. That primes the canon. When you want to fire, just clench your fist again.”
Mara clenched her fist, and a small ring-like puff of vapor burst from her hand in a blur, so fast Anna could barely track it. Mara held both her arms out in front of her and began firing off vapor rings in rapid succession, her hands pulsing like an air machine gun. Vapor trails began to form in front of them like small wispy clouds.
“Wow! That is awesome. Let me try it.” Anna held her arm out.
“Do you want me to finish showing you—”
“No, I’ve got this.”
Anna held her left arm out in front of her. She double-clenched her fist and could feel pressure build. She relaxed her hand for just a moment then clenched her fist again. Anna immediately felt the pressure release from her hand—an explosion—and then she was spinning in the air, hurtling backward. The sky and ground kept taking turns in her field of vision. After multiple spin cycles, she was able to regain her bearings and stop her washing-machine motion. Her stomach felt queasy. She allowed herself to float for a second just to make sure she didn’t throw up first.
“Newton’s third law, Anna,” Mara called out from thirty feet away.
How did she get all the way over there?
“Ugh. I know. I know. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction,” Anna said as she glided back to Mara’s side.
“Would you like me to finish showing you how it works?” Mara asked.
Anna nodded, her face still a little green.
“You need to plant your feet using your antigravity boots. It takes some practice to get the timing down, but once you do, it’s second nature,” Mara said. “Want to try again?”
Anna nodded. She tapped her left wrist three times, swiped the red ring, and then held her arm in front of her. She focused on her right boot and tried to visualize planting her foot. She double-clenched her fist and felt pressure steadily build around her hand.
“What if I just keep clenching my fist?”
“The longer you clench your fist before releasing, the more powerful the vortex,” Mara answered. “You want to be careful, though. The objective is to incapacitate your opponent or buy yourself some time, not to blow it to pieces.”
Anna planted her foot, then fired. She felt a recoil in her arm but stood firm. She tried again, this time with both arms, and within a minute she was firing small blasts of air just like Mara had been doing moments before.
“See? It pays to follow instructions.”
For the next two hours, Anna practiced turning her invisibility mode on and off at will. She learned how to fire not only pressurized air but also sonic waves and ultra-bright light bursts of rapidly changing wavelengths that could temporarily blind an opponent—and in some cases induce vomiting. Anna questioned whether that last part was necessary.
The light in the sky had shifted, and now the westerly sun cast small shadows that dotted the landscape below. After her final practice run, Anna rolled over onto her stomach midair, exhausted—her arms out to her sides like she was floating facedown on a raft. Her head was clearer now, but she was parched.
“Does my iCom have anything else awesome—like a bottle of water or a sandwich?” Anna asked.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Anna,” Mara laughed. “I didn’t realize the time. You must be starving.”
“I am. Next time, can we bring a picnic?” Anna asked.
Mara glided to her side.
“That sounds like a great idea. A picnic in the clouds. That would be a first for me too.”
Anna smiled. She was kidding when she said it, but the idea of sitting on a cloud and eating sandwiches and cheese and sliced apples hundreds of feet above the ground sounded like heaven. She scanned the farm below her. A red-tailed hawk was riding the same wind currents just one hundred feet below, circling in a wide arc above the trees that lined the lake. At ground level, toylike figures bustled back and forth across the barnyard.
“Hey, look! That’s Uncle Jack down there. See? And Dr. Gloria,” Anna said as she pointed to the ground. “I can tell it’s Dr. Gloria’s hat even from here. That’s funny.”
“You want to know how you can tell for sure?” Mara asked. “Hold your index finger down on the temple of your goggles. Watch me”
“Like this?” Anna asked. A symbol appeared on the right upper corner of her goggles.
“Now slide your finger back. It works like an optical zoom,” Mara said.
Anna slid her finger back along the frame of her goggles. The numbers increased from 1x to 100x as her lenses zoomed in so close to the top of her uncle’s head that she could count individual hairs. She could even hear her uncle talking now, clear as day.
“Are you kidding me? I have super vision and hearing too?” Anna looked over at Mara and could see the pores deep in her friend’s skin. “Oops. How do I turn this off? I think I see your insides.”
“Just double-tap the right upper corner of your goggles,” Mara laughed. “You know, in no time you’re going to be able to activate these controls by just thinking about them. You just need to practice.”
“Do you have anything else to show me?”
“I think that’s enough for now,” Mara said. A sly grin spread across her face. “But if you’re not too tired, do you want to have some fun before we stop for the day?”