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on her computer screen again. She didn’t want to think about what life would have been like if she’d never come to Chicago. She was here now, and that was that. There was no use in playing the regret game.
    A sharp knock on her cubicle wall pulled her out of her mental ruminations. Storm looked up and saw Maria, another low-level employee whose dreams of making a difference were slowly being crushed.
    “Hey, Maria. What’s up?” Storm asked, trying to keep her voice pleasant. Maria had a bad habit of stopping by to talk for hours, keeping Storm from her work. Normally, this annoyed Storm. But today, maybe wasted hours wasn’t such a bad thing.
    Maria squeezed into Storm’s tiny cubicle, and looked around suspiciously as though she was being followed.
    “Did you hear?” Maria finally asked, her voice barely above a whisper. Maria’s eyes sparkled with excitement, and Storm couldn’t help but smile. Yup, Maria was in a gossiping mood. Whatever she was here to discuss was probably going to waste quite a bit of time.
    “Hear what?” Storm asked in a normal tone of voice. Maria instantly hushed her.
    “Shhh. Not so loud. We’re not supposed to know.”
    “Oh, sorry,” Storm said, lowering her voice to a whisper, then repeating. “Hear what?”
    “The President is coming to town,” Maria whispered, her eyes dancing. She couldn’t hold back a little squeal.
    Storm was instantly paying attention. But, unlike Maria, her reaction was not one of joyful excitement. “The President is coming? When? Why?”
    Maria smiled, pleased that she had grabbed Storm’s interest with her juicy gossip. “I don’t know why, exactly. But the Mayor has several meetings planned with him over the next two days. It’s pretty exciting. I’ve been waiting years for this. Maybe I’ll have a chance to actually shake the President’s hand. Or even get a picture with him! Can you imagine? All my Facebook friends will be so jealous!”
    Storm could feel her heart sinking. She had a pretty good idea of why the President was coming to town. If she was right, this was bad news for the shifters.
    “Maria, who told you about this? Did they say anything at all about why the President is visiting?” Storm probed.
    Maria shrugged. “No one told me. I overheard one of the higher-ups whispering about it. No one is supposed to know yet. They said something about the President wanting to discuss safety concerns with the Mayor. My guess is it has something to do with the Mayor’s failed safety summit from last week. After that fiasco, the Mayor probably wants a way to regain credibility. And who better to help him with that than the President? Oh, I hope I get to meet him!”
    Storm bit her lip and felt her heart pounding. As soon as Maria said the words “safety concerns,” Storm knew the shifters were in trouble. Not only was the shifter situation on the President’s radar, but it was also apparently of high concern to him. He wouldn’t be visiting Chicago otherwise.
    “I have to go,” Storm said, standing suddenly and pushing past Maria.
    “Wait, what? Don’t you want to plan out with me how we can get our picture with the President?” Maria called after her.
    “Later,” Storm said, barely turning around as she spoke. “I just remembered something important I have to do.”
    Storm made her way to the stairwell and started climbing the steps to the fifth floor, where the mayor’s office and the other executive offices were located. She had no idea what she was going to do when she got up there. She just knew that her heart was beating like crazy and that her days on this job were numbered, anyway. Once the mayor knew she was a shifter, he would fire her for sure—or worse.
    Storm paused in front of the door that led to the fifth floor, leaning her head against the cool, concrete wall. What would the mayor and president do with the shifters, once they knew how to find them? Would they push to have them all locked up? Or, worse,