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make it up to you. I’ll make up a story for Natalia about
how all the nurses at the hospital were hitting on you, but you turned each of
them down.”
    “Please
don’t.” Brickert shook his head. Jeffie watched him as he got lost in his own
thoughts for a moment. “You have to admit, though, it was nice to get away from
headquarters for a few days. I bet everyone at headquarters thinks we’re
lucky.”
    “Are
we lucky?”
    “What
do you mean?”
    Jeffie
hugged herself as she spoke. “A crazy person shot us, Brick. He snuck up on me,
got into your bedroom—he could have killed us if he wanted to. I don’t even
know why he didn’t. Neither does Byron. When he visited me, I asked him about
it. All he would say was that Wrobel isn’t a murderer. That’s it. No more
information than that. But Wrobel could have killed any of the Betas anytime he
wished. Are we really safe? How much can Byron protect us from what’s out
there?”
    “Of
course we’re—! Byron is watching out for us.”
    Jeffie
hugged herself tighter and shook her head. “I don’t know. Think about it:
Commander Wrobel broke in, shot me and you, and took Sammy out of the building.
Martin Trector was killed in Rio. Cala and Kobe almost died. Sammy was
abandoned—”
    “All
those are connected to the same person. And Sammy was found.”
    Jeffie
rolled her eyes. “Only after six months. Look at the state of him now! All
those injuries happened to him after he got back.”
    “I
still can’t believe he’s really back, I’ll tell you,” Brickert said for the
umpteenth time. His eyes shone with wild giddiness. Jeffie knew exactly how he
felt. “After waiting all this time, it’s so—so . . . what’s the right word?”
    “Crazy?
Surreal? Awesome? Mind-blowing?” All the words fit appropriately in Jeffie’s
mind.
    “Crazy,
yeah.” Brickert chuckled. “And awesome. And mind-blowing. I don’t know what
surreal means. Think about it: as soon as he’s back, things can go back to the
way they were before he left!”
    How
were they before? Jeffie pictured herself hanging out with Sammy,
talking until late, laughing out loud with ice cream drooling down their chins.
Not too long ago, her only worries at headquarters had been winning each Game
and improving her ranks in the simulation statistics. How will I handle it
when Sammy has to go on more missions with other Betas when they graduate? The idea of not freaking out over Sammy’s future assignments and missions
(which would indeed come, she had no doubt) seemed unfathomable. Can things
really go back to the way they were?
    Lately
life was so filled with drama, and she didn’t see things getting better with
Sammy returning to headquarters. Jeffie had wanted to date him for months
before he’d left, and despite waiting for him to come home and hanging on for
any word of his survival, she’d ultimately chosen to move on and renew a
relationship with Kobe. Now her knee-jerk reaction was to cut ties with Kobe
and see where things went with Sammy, but the situation wasn’t so simple. She
enjoyed her time with Kobe and she had developed strong feelings for him since
they’d begun dating again. During her time in the hospital she pondered her
upcoming decision. Stay with Kobe? Go for Sammy? Date neither? She had a pretty
good idea that if she continued a relationship with Kobe, late night talks with
Sammy would be frowned upon. So would most activities that cut into time spent
with her boyfriend. That’s why the kiss had been so important. She needed to
decide. Kissing Sammy in the hospital had seemed safer and less like cheating
than kissing him at headquarters.
    “What
are you thinking about?” Brickert asked her. The look in his eyes told her that
he already had a good guess.
    “Nothing.”
She answered too quickly and she knew it. “You know . . . wondering how—if—are
we really safe?”
    Brickert
jumped and grabbed his eye in pain.
    “What
happened?” Jeffie asked.
    “Your
nose