"You've been distant lately."

"Have I?"

"We need to have a talk. Soon. Are you listening to me?"

Opal—

Ivy was right, there wasn't much to do for fun around the island. But one free afternoon, we invented something to do—hide n' seek.

"You know the rules." Alan started in his official Oldest Kid voice. "Powers are allowed, D wing only, keep the hiding places REASONABLE, and when someone finds you, you can fight them to get away. First one to get caught steals sandwiches from the kitchen. All understood?"

The five of us in a circle agreed. Don't know why Alan had to state the rules every time a new round started—maybe because Sean and Brandon got all of us in trouble when they tried to hide in the ceiling. Alan's fault for not being specific, really. "Reasonable" is a word with a lot of grey area.

"Ready?" Alan said.

We all put our hands in the circle.

"Set…"

Ivy and exchanged mischievous glances and she indicated the right corridor with her eyes—we were the Dynamic Duo in this game. And we were in it to win it.

"Go!" Alan turned to the wall and started counting.

Suddenly the hallway burst into motion. Kids were running everywhere, pushing, snickering, and running. Ivy and I dashed down our corridor and didn't stop until we couldn't hear Alan anymore. D wing was really like a maze, of old tech offices and conference rooms. Perfect for shenanigans.

Guards yelled at us when we darted past. (We did knock coffee out of that guy's hands, so maybe that was justified.) I yelled a quick "Sorry!" back at them. Ivy laughed and grabbed my hand. We ran through endless side hallways, until—

"Hey!" Sean yelled as we crashed into Brandon and him. (My ears would be ringing for a while after that outburst.)

"You guys can't hide with us!" Brandon, Mister That-ceiling-tile-looks-good, shouted at Ivy and me.

"Weren't trying to, flame boy!" Ivy retorted. (She needs to work on the nicknames.)

"Alan's probably done counting—we have to move! We'll go this way, you go that way!" I grabbed Ivy's hand.

"Got it!" Brandon turned the corner—

And screamed.

I nearly jumped out of my skin—just around that corner was Crystal, and in response to Brandon's shock, she just laughed. A very evil sort of laugh.

Brandon noticed his fingertip was on fire and quickly shook it. "Not fair!" he protested.

"Watch out next time!" she said. "One floor down, there's an entrance an abandoned tram system—the door doesn't close properly. If you want a really good hiding place, go there!"

Then she was gone, down that shadowy hallway. I shot Ivy a "what the hell?" look, because weren't the lower levels off-limits for this game?

"I call it!" yelled Brandon, taking off in some direction.

"NO! Get back here, you're gonna get your butt kicked!" Sean cried, racing after him.

"By who?!"

"ME!"

Ivy and I burst out laughing, then kept running. When we'd gone a long way (and almost knocked over a few techs), I picked a door and shimmied under it as a moth.

An empty conference room. I have great door-picking skills. I flashed back into my human body and unlocked the door for Ivy.

"Get in, get in! We're gonna get caught!" I hissed at her, trying not to giggle.

"Right-o!" she said casually. As soon as the door was shut, I dove under the long table, keeping the lights off for added security. Not like that would protect against Sean's echolocation, but every little bit counts, right?

We hid in silence for a few minutes. (Silence counts even if you snicker occasionally.) We heard something odd, like a short alarm, and an automated voice saying "Code 9. Code 9. All personnel report to stations." Then—the lights turned on.

Crap.

Ivy looked at me, hand clapped over her mouth. I tried to communicate "We're dead" with my eyes.

Two people—an old married couple, apparently—stepped into the room. I saw their shoes—not guards. Part of the tech team. They sounded like they were in a hurry.

"I can't believe you lost it again. Now some asset used it to get out—" the first voice said.

"No, I just left it in here, I swear!"

"Lee, if it was your badge…"

"I know, upper management will have my head. But it's here somewhere."

Ivy rolled her eyes at them while I was in panic mode. We definitely weren't supposed to be here. We were probably the Code 9.

"This is just like that time with the blueprints…" Voice #1 grumbled as they started to search the room.

Ivy gestured wildly to my foot. I looked down and yep, a security badge was under my shoe. I grabbed it. One of the techs started getting closer and closer to our hiding spot. We geared up to run for it.

"It's probably under the table." Voice #2 said. Keeping one hand firmly over my mouth, I placed (or tossed) the badge onto a chair near him, and moved away.

Voice #2 pulled out the chair. "Hey, wait, here it is. How'd it get in the chair….?"

"I don't care. Let's just go."

"Hope they have more luck finding that asset…"

"Not this again."

"Come on, you act like you don't care, but I know you do. There's all sorts of stuff out in the jungle a little kid could get killed by—cliffs, deep rivers, wild animals, pitfalls, thermal vents…See? You looked away!"

"What are you, my therapist? Let's just get out of here and report. You get me in enough trouble as it is."

We held our breaths as they turned off the lights and walked out the door. Panic was rising in my head the whole time, like alarm bells.

Finally—when the techs had been gone long enough—we let out the breaths we'd been holding and turned to each other.

"Someone's escaped!" Ivy said.

"We have to go. We have to find them, Ivy, it can't be Sean!" I took off without hearing her reply.

Sean can't be out there, I couldn't stop thinking as I went wolf. He's just seven. He shouldn't have even tried. Something one of us said probably gave him ideas. I'm responsible for him. He can't be out there.

There were TONS of scents all around, it was almost overwhelming. Ivy just kept pace with me. Teams of guards were running all over the place but with my senses we barely—BARELY—avoided being spotted. It was twelve frustrating, agonizing minutes before I could get a lock on a familiar scent. That trail I followed like there was no tomorrow.

It led me right to—or right into—Alan.

"Hey!" he cried when my head hit his leg. "What gives?!"

"Alan, thank God." Ivy said. I turned human again and stumbled sideways a few steps—his leg hurt my head, darn it!

"You know, I think we need to go over the basic rules of hide and seek…" Alan said.

"You heard about the code 9?" Ivy asked.

"Yeah, I was just looking for—"

I held my head and cut him off. "Where's Sean?" (My head was going to hurt tomorrow.)

"He was with me a just second ago, helping me seek!"

"All right, split up!" Ivy directed.

We did, but kept each other in yelling range. It probably helped that our captors were busy elsewhere.

If Sean's out in the jungle….

I didn't want to think about that.

Cliffs, deep rivers, wild animals, pitfalls, thermal vents…and those guards were armed.

First door? Nothing. Second door? Nothing. Closet? Nothing. Armory? Locked. Storage room? Someone was crouched behind boxes.

"Found you!" I said.

Ten year old Brandon jumped out and struck a karate pose—"Not if I defeat you!"

"Game's over!" I commanded. "Where's Sean?"

"I dunno, he got himself caught!" Brandon said.

"Stick with me, we gotta find everyone else."

"Aww, okay…"

I brought him to where I saw Alan searching and caught the teen when he walked out of a room. Ivy came jogging up to us, saying she had no luck. No one had found Sean.

I was about to go into full Panic Mom Mode.

"Maybe we should just ask the guards." Ivy suggested.

"No, do you want us to get in trouble? We're not supposed to be out here." Alan countered. "We've still got two missing, we should keep looking—"

"Aren't there cameras everywhere? Can't you just hack into them and find him?" I demanded.

"My powers don't work that way—"

"Hey, what's all the yelling about?" a small voice said. It was Sean—at the end of the hallway, looking confused. All my anxiety melted away.

"Thank God, you scared me!" I chided. Alan and Brandon were silent.

"…But that means…" Ivy started.

We all looked around our little group, and one by one realized who wasn't there.

The Code 9 was Crystal.