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She ran the last few feet toward the edge of the rocky cliff and jumped, arcing out and down into the ocean. She entered the water vertically, leaving barely a ripple.
    Tala swam down beneath the waves, kicking powerfully with her legs. She activated a dial on her left wrist and a light sprang forth, illuminating the dark, cold waters off the coast of Washington. She played the light over the submerged rocks until she saw the formation she was looking for and then swam toward it. The underwater cliff face shimmered as she neared. Tala kicked harder and headed straight at the octagonal design. When she reached the wall, it absorbed her like a pool of mercury and then regained the look of rock once she was within.
    Holding her breath easily, Tala kicked and pulled with her arms, propelling herself through the roughly hewn tunnel as it sloped down and under the coastline above. The tunnel angled down at a forty-five degree angle for a hundred feet before leveling off. Ahead, a light shining down from the top of the tunnel pierced the darkness. Tala swam upwards and emerged in a pool, which was in a cavern lit by blue-white electric lights. She gasped for air and pulled herself out of the water, then removed her cap and shook out her long blonde hair. Another girl—who looked identical right down to the eyes and figure—was standing at the edge of the pool holding a silver-edged video screen.
    “How are we looking, Faye?” Tala unzipped her suit partway, revealing her petite breasts, and pushed the cap into a silver tube on the left side of her belt. Her skin was a darker shade of brown than her eyes, and her aureolas were darker still.
    “Final tests underway. Almost ready to go. What about them ?” Faye watched the status indicators scroll by on the handheld screen.
    “Daelius? They are close. They know enough to get in the way—if we let them.”
    “Then we mustn’t wait any longer.”  
    “If we screw this up, there won’t be any human race.”  
    “People die every day while we check and double-check.” Faye tapped on the display. “The DNA splice and metamorphosis looks good. Better than the early experiments. A Minus is ready.”
      “Let’s take a look.” Tala headed down a metal corridor that formed the only above water exit to the cavern. Faye fell in step beside her. “Are the others accounted for?”
    “Vena is still out. Checking on the wild card.”
    “And the empath?”
    “They have her.”  
    They walked for two hundred yards, passing small rooms filled with electronic equipment, flashing lights, and dials. And then the tunnel opened up into a huge rectangular room with stainless steel walls. The room was lit with blue-white lights and smelled of chemicals. There were other girls dressed in the same black bodysuits attending to equipment. They all looked identical to Tala and Faye. Against the far wall were rows upon rows of canisters labeled A Minus. A whirring of centrifuges and the sound of fluids bubbling through tubes filled the air. Different colored fluids ran through transparent pipes that criss-crossed the room like an Escher spiderweb.  
    Tala smiled then looked over at Faye. “Ready to change the world?”
    Faye nodded. “Before it’s too late.”

Pain

    I looked down at my hands. The faint green glow of healing was flickering. Jagged red lines shot across it. The energy felt different—stronger. I hid my hands and looked up at the cameras.  
    You changed me when I healed you, Silas. I can’t let you come for me. They’ll kill you. I have to get out on my own. And they aren’t likely to fall for the same trick. Don’t come, Silas.  
    I stood up, walked across the padded cell to the single metal door and banged on it. “Bathroom!” It had been days since they had brought anyone new down for me to heal. Maybe they were running out? The room smelled of antiseptic from the last scrub down, and it was empty—except for me. There was nothing to fashion into a weapon or