hello friends!

here is chapter two! enjoy!

please everyone review and tell me what you think!

thanks everyone!

peace out!

The next two days pass just like the first—exciting and full of hospital classes. On Saturday, I get up to go rock climbing with my siblings. It's kinda a tradition—we go at least twice a year.

I'm woken up by a knock on my door—a loud, repeated knock, as if someone has been standing there banging for a really long time. And I know exactly who it is.

"I'm coming!" I insist sleepily as I get out of bed and stumble over to the door. "Hang on just a sec, Momo…"

I pull open the door to see my sister standing outside it, dressed in a blue-and-black bodysuit and twirling a graphene blade impatiently. Her blue eyes are narrowed as she glares down at me.

"You overslept, Kai," Momo informs me. "Just like last year." She tosses me my backpack, climbing harness, and shoes, and I somehow manage to catch them. "Hurry up and get dressed."

"It's not my fault!" I protest. "I was tired! Hey, do we have breakfast?"

"I swear all you think about is eating and sleeping," Momo sighs. "Just hurry up, and we'll pick up some donuts on the way to the Wasteland."

I give her a thumbs-up and retreat into my room, changing into a short-sleeved shirt and cargo pants. I tie my shoes tightly, fill my hydration backpack with water, and strap my harness around my waist. We're boulderers, but we like to keep carabiners and ropes on us just in case. Accidents have happened before.

When I'm finished, I step out of my room, and Pippin ambushes me, leaping on my back and wrapping his skinny arms around my neck. "Hi, Kai!"

"Hey, Pippin," I gasp, trying to loosen his grip. "Could you—get off?"

Pippin reluctantly slides to the floor. "Didja know we're gonna have donuts?"

"Yeah, I did," I tell him, ruffling my little brother's hair. "I call first dibs on chocolate."

"I call maple!"

Pippin races downstairs, and I follow him—a little more slowly, because I'm kinda clumsy and I think I would just fall down the stairs. Besides, Dad just mopped them, so they're really slippery.

When we get downstairs, Momo and Saber are waiting for us, dressed in their climbing gear. Mom and Dad sometimes come with us, but Dad adamantly refuses to let Mom go when she's eight months pregnant. Mom insisted that Dad has to stay with her, so neither of them are coming today.

"See you kids later," Dad says, giving me a hug. "Don't die!"

"It'd be a lot of paperwork," Mom adds.

We set out in Momo's Jeep, grabbing donuts and then driving across the Ubuntu toward the Wasteland. My sister flashes her pass at the gate guard, and he lets us through into the expanse of black rock. Thankfully, the sky in this part of the Wasteland is no longer dark—it gets like that several miles out, near the old Eternal Flame headquarters. In our normal climbing spot, Ishi Cliffs, the sky is its normal color, and there are no terrifying lava flows to fall into—just the black rock cliffs. They have lots of different climbing walls, too, so that's a bonus.

"I'm gonna climb a giant rock today," Pippin declares, cramming half a maple donut into his mouth. "The biggest one we've ever climbed."

"I'll climb higher," Saber insists.

"No you won't!"

"I think I will."

"How about I just climb higher than both of you?" I tease, turning around to face the backseat. "Then you don't have to worry about which one of you goes higher."

"I will crush you all," Saber says coldly, and I whip around to face the front again.

Momo laughs, turning to me. "How have the past few days been, Kai?"

"Pretty good," I tell her, hoisting a smile onto my face and taking a bite of a chocolate donut. "I get to work in the NICU with the babies, and I might even get to go in the delivery room after a couple months—it's gonna be so cool! The hospital cafeteria has really good food, too, so that's a bonus."

"Your work sounds quite interesting," Momo agrees, the letters on her ISTP wristband glowing yellow against the black carbon fiber as she turns the steering wheel. "Mine is not nearly so exciting."

"Architecture's pretty cool," I assure her. "What buildings have you designed lately?"

"New housing, mostly," Momo sighs. "It's terrifically boring. However, we have a more exciting project beginning soon—a new library downtown. Hiro's helping with the robots that will run it."

"That's awesome! How are the kids?"

"Out of control as always," Momo complains, but her eyes are sparkling. "Koji's going to be an ESFJ, I can tell—he loves to play with the other toddlers at daycare, and he's always apologizing for something or other. Karu will probably be an INTP—all he wants to do is sit on the computer and make robots like Hiro. He's a little more of a critical thinker than his dad, though."

"I've gotta come over and see them sometime," I decide. "Are you planning on having, you know, any more?"

"Two is more than enough," Momo says firmly. "I dislike being pregnant, and two-year-old twins…I would not wish them on my worst enemy. I don't know how Tadashi does it."

I laugh, thinking of Tadashi and Honey's four kids. Soon to be seven, I guess—I can't wait to get more cousins. Sure, maybe we're not biologically related, but we're all a family. I'm really lucky that I get to have such a big one.

We pull into the parking lot, and I stuff another chocolate donut into my mouth, holding it there while I get the crash pads out of the back. Pippin scampers over to the nearest black rock cliff, climbing up a little ways and then disappearing into a tiny crevice.

I set the crash pads down at the base of the rock and peer up into Pippin's crack, watching my baby brother scramble higher up and farther away. Momo and Saber come too, and Saber immediately climbs in after Pippin.

"Come on, Kai!" Pippin calls from maybe twenty feet up.

I shake my head. "I'd get stuck."

"No you wouldn't! I bet you could do it!"

"He couldn't," Saber tells him. "But it'd be kinda fun to watch. Do you wanna come, Momo?"

"I don't see why not," Momo decides, hoisting herself up. "Come on, Kai. You'll be fine."

I sigh and climb up to the crevice, knowing full well that I might be about to get seriously embarrassed. But the crack is a little wider than I thought, and I'm able to climb up after my siblings.

"I made it!" Pippin cheers from above. "Come on, you guys! The view is awesome!"

Saber scrambles up after him, and Momo follows her. I do, too, but the crevice has narrowed down, and it's a tight squeeze. I'll make it, but not fast. That's okay—it's not as easy for Momo as it is for Pippin and Saber, so I'm not the only one. Of course, my sister is a full-grown woman, so that might not say much.

"You need some help, Kai?" Momo asks as I grind to a halt, trying to decide the best way up.

"I'll be fine," I growl as I haul myself upwards. "But this wasn't the best idea."

I shift a little to the right, and then I climb up, panting and wiping sweat off my forehead. Looking out over the Wasteland, I can see that the view is indeed spectacular—on one side, the glittering city skyline and the bay, and on the other, the black, desolate Wasteland, flowing with its lava rivers. Both are beautiful in their own ways. I pull out my phone and snap a picture, wanting to paint it when we get back.

"Let's climb up those rocks!" Pippin exclaims, pointing at a cluster of larger rocks on top of the cliff. "That's higher than we've ever been!"

"But I left the crash pads down there," I tell him. "We'll have nothing to land on."

"I won't fall."

"Maybe you won't. But I will." I like rock climbing, but I'm so clumsy that I wouldn't put it past myself to tumble off every cliff I attempt to scale, regardless of how easy it should be to climb.

"We have our carabiners," Momo reassures me. "We'll be fine."

"Do we have any rope?"

"It's in my pack."

I sigh and follow her over to the rocks, which Pippin and Saber have already started climbing like little monkeys. Momo and I climb up after them, and I scramble over the relatively horizontal surface. It slopes up a little bit for a few hundred feet, then soars upward into a fifty-foot, rocky cliff. All in all, it doesn't look too hard to climb.

When we reach the vertical part, I dig my fingers into a crack and pull myself up, sweating even though the day is overcast. I guess it is July in California, though—what do you expect?

I scramble over a jutting boulder and lay sprawled over the top of it for a moment, resting. Above me, Pippin lets out a little squeak, and I look up to see him clinging to the rock with only his hands, his skinny legs churning frantically as he tries to get a foothold.

"Pippin!" Momo shouts. "Are you going to fall?"

"No!" my little brother yells back. "Just a sec—"

But then his hand slips, and then he's holding onto the volcanic rock with just one hand. And it also appears to be slipping.

"Pippin, let go!" I yell, standing up and bracing myself on the boulder. "I'll catch you!"

"We'll both fall!" Pippin wails, scrabbling at the rock—but his fingers can't seem to find a handhold. He's going to fall, no matter what. But maybe I can slow it down a little.

"Just trust me!" I call up, stretching out my arms and balancing carefully on the rock.

Pippin starts to protest again, but then he loses his grip and plummets the twenty feet down to me with a shrill shriek of terror. I stretch my arms up to catch him, but the second my little brother's weight hits me, I lose my balance.

"Kai!" Momo yells, just as Saber announces, "I made it!" How she can care about making it to the top of the cliff first while her brothers are falling to their deaths, I don't know. It must be an ENTJ thing. Or maybe just a Saber thing—I don't wanna discriminate against ENTJs.

Pippin and I fall backwards, and I hit the rock first with my shoulder, then bounce and hit another rock with my hip. The world is suddenly a vortex of gray sky and black rock, and I'm unsure if it's ever going to let me go.

But then it does—I hit the stone one more time, roll over twice, and then crash into a boulder. My vision continues to spin, and I hear Pippin squeak in pain as he, too, comes to a stop.

"Saber, stay up there!" comes Momo's sharp voice as I sit up, trying to figure out whether I have any broken bones. Suddenly, my sister is kneeling between me and Pippin, grabbing my face in her hands and turning it toward her. "Kai, do you require medical attention?"

I shake my head, trying to clear my blurry vision. "I—I don't think so." All I can feel are a few scrapes and bruises, no excruciating pain or pouring blood. "Nothing's broken. Or sprained. Probably."

"Good. Because we would have to cancel the rest of the rock climbing if I had to take you to the hospital." Momo releases my face and turns to Pippin. "You okay, kid?"

"Noooo," Pippin moans. "I think my nose is bleeding."

"But I trust you don't need to go to the hospital?"

"Nope," Pippin says proudly, standing up, albeit wobbling a little. "I'm fine. But a Kleenex would be nice."

"I've got one," I volunteer, pulling a tissue out of my pocket and handing it to my brother, who presses it to his nose.

"Sorry I knocked you over," Pippin mumbles through the tissue. "Didja get hurt?"

"I'm okay," I reassure him, getting rather shakily to my feet. "Promise. Do you wanna climb some other rocks? We can get the crash pads so we don't fall like that again."

"Let's go!" Pippin exclaims, running down the rest of the rocks to the crevice we climbed up through. "Race you to the bottom!"

"Aw, come on!" I complain. "I can't beat you!"

"You can try!"

Pippin dives into the crack, and I squeeze in after him, panting in the tight space. I'm somewhat claustrophobic, so this kind of place isn't great for me to be in. I hope I don't get stuck—although I didn't on the way up, so I should be fine.

As I edge around a boulder, Pippin lets out a yelp of shock from up ahead, and then I hear a scraping noise, followed by a thud.

"Pippin!" I yell. "Are you alive?"

"Yeah!" comes my little brother's voice. "I fell in a cave! Come see!"

I carefully creep forward along the narrow path, and about a hundred feet later, I discover a hole in the side of the rock, maybe a foot high and two feet wide.

"It's huge!" Pippin exclaims from below me. "I think there's a river or something in here!"

If he falls in that river, Momo will kill me. I abandon all pretense and slide into the hole, suddenly racing down a short, steep slope until it spits me out onto more rock. Scrambling up, I turn on my phone flashlight and look around for Pippin—but my little brother isn't there. All I see is what looks like a small chamber of rock and a little tunnel leading off it, with a roaring sound in the background.

"Pippin, you in there?" I call, poking my head into the tunnel. No answer comes, so I sigh and wiggle inside, wincing as I bump my bruised shoulder against the rock. This had better be worth it.

As I scramble out of the tunnel, I find myself standing on a ledge, which Pippin is at the very edge of, staring out into the cave with an expression of utmost surprise. I look up too and gasp.

An enormous waterfall pours down into the darkness, originating from a spot about a hundred feet above us. Far, far below the ledge is a river, flowing through a positively massive cavern. Standing at regular intervals along the riverbank are large, metal shapes, and veins of crystal run through the towering walls of rock.

"What is this?" I breathe, looking down at the roaring waterfall and river. Suddenly, though, I realize something strange.

I can see.

We're underground—we shouldn't be able to see anything. Yeah, my flashlight is on, but it shouldn't illuminate the whole of the enormous cavern.

"There's lights on the ceiling!" Pippin exclaims, pointing upward. I look up and indeed see strips of light running across the rock, casting the waterfall and weird riverside shapes into sharp relief. Why would someone put lights in this kind of place?

"Kai?" comes Momo's voice from outside. "Pippin? Where are you? I swear if you've run off—"

"We're down here!" I yell back. "Hang on a sec!"

I crawl back through the little tunnel and go over to the first hole, looking up at Momo's stern face. "It's some kind of cave, Momo—you and Saber have to come see!"

"I'm in," Saber says immediately, sliding into the hole. I leap aside as she crawls rapidly through the tunnel, following Pippin.

"You coming, Momo?" I ask.

She sighs. "Why not."

Momo slides inside and follows me through the tunnel, her eyes widening when she sees the huge cavern. "We should rappel down to the riverbank. I wish to see what those things are."

She ties a rope firmly to a carabiner, then loops it through itself and fastens it around a spur of rock. "I will go first. You may come down if I deem it safe."

My sister leaps away into the shadows, plummeting at least two hundred feet down the wall—I had no idea Momo had that much rope. She must be really good at judging distances, because the end of the rope positions her about five feet from the ground.

"It is safe!" Momo calls up. "Clip the rope to your harness and rappel down—do not jump! You must hold on to the rope!"

I pull the rope back up and clip the carabiner to my harness, tightening it so I can't fall out, then step carefully off the edge of the rock. I've rappelled before, but it's still kinda scary, and my hands are shaking as I lower myself carefully down the wall. I really hope the rope doesn't come undone.

At the bottom, I'm left dangling five feet up, unsure of what to do.

"How do I get down?" I call over to Momo, who is inspecting the riverbank, searching for a way across.

"Simply unclip the rope," Momo tells me. "Hold onto it while you do it, though—I don't want you to fall."

I grab the rope tightly with one hand and unclip the carabiner with the other, then drop to the ground. Saber pulls the rope up, then rappels down the wall, much faster than I did. Pippin comes last, doing exactly what Momo told him not to do—jump. He stops abruptly at the end of the rope, then unclips and falls to the ground with a thump—after which he pops back up and says cheerfully, "That was fun!"

"I've found a bridge," Momo calls from fifty feet down the riverbank. "But it's slippery. We have to be careful."

"Pippin won't," Saber says as we start toward our sister. "Kai probably won't, either."

"I can be careful!" I protest. "I'm just—"

"Clumsy," Saber finishes.

I cross my arms and glare at her. Momo sighs and climbs onto the bridge, which consists of a single large metal beam. It does look really slippery—I'll probably end up falling off.

"Do we have any food?" Pippin asks as we cross the bridge. "I want another donut."

"I have the donuts," I tell him, pulling off my pack and opening it in the middle of the bridge. "They might be kinda squished, but they probably still taste good."

I pull out the donuts to discover that they are indeed a little squished, but they still look awesome. Pippin grabs a maple donut, and I take the last remaining chocolate one.

"Donuts aren't good for your physique, you know," Saber reprimands us. "I don't think you'll be able to fit through the crevice when we come back out, Kai."

"It's one donut, Saber! And I just haven't had my growth spurt yet!"

"You'll never have it if you keep eating like that."

"Hey!"

"Stop bickering, you two!" Momo snaps as we reach the end of the beam. "It's fine, Saber. Kai and Pippin can eat what they wish—and if it backfires on them, it's their fault. Let's go see what's over here."

I walk over to one of the metal shapes and reach up to touch it, realizing that it's vaguely humanoid. What is this?

"Robots!" Pippin exclaims. "Oh my gosh, you guys—they're robots! Isn't that awesome?"

"He's right," Momo says softly, running her hand down the side of one. "And they appear to be state-of-the-art. Who would put robots down here?"

"Maybe it's some kind of protection system," I suggest. "How do you think we turn them on?" Maybe there's some kind of button, or a controller, or a voice activation system. That last thing would be the coolest way to turn them on, I think.

I fish out another donut—glazed this time—and eat it slowly as I walk around the robot. What on earth are these things for?

Pippin, apparently bored of looking at robots, scampers off to climb a rock wall. I kind of want to follow him, but I also want to examine the robots. What could they be for?

"They are too similar to Governor Callaghan's robots for my liking," Momo whispers. When Saber and I look at her questioningly, she elaborates. "He used robots to mine uranium for his atomic bombs. These are of a similar design, only much larger and higher-tech. Perhaps it is simply some kind of government experiment, but I believe we should report this to Wasabi as soon as we return."

"Are we still gonna go on the rest of the rock-climbing trip?" Saber asks. "Because it would be stupid not to."

"We can," Momo agrees. "Besides, I do not wish for anyone to find us in here. We should go back up. Pippin, come back!" she calls. "We're leaving!"

Pippin hurtles back over to us, and we cross back over the bridge to the rope. Instead of all of us climbing, Momo scales the rope rapidly and then pulls all of us up.

I scramble through the tunnel, back out through the hole, and into the crevice, happy to find that Saber was wrong—I can still fit through it. We all climb out and head over to another rock wall, which we spend the rest of the day climbing.

When we drive back through the Wasteland, I take a picture of the sunset—maybe I'll paint that, too. I really love painting landscapes, especially the Wasteland. It's just a really cool concept.

We stop for pizza when we get back to San Fransokyo, then head home. Momo drops us all off at the mansion, and I hug her goodbye before she drives back to her place. "See you soon, Momo."

"See you, Kai. Don't do anything stupid."

My sister hops back in the Jeep and drives away, and I follow Pippin and Saber up the stairs to the front door. There's a lot of stairs—I wish we didn't have so many. It's kind of tiring.

After saying hello to Mom and Dad, I drag myself up the stairs to my room and stumble into the bathroom to take a shower. I wince when I pull off my shirt and see several scrapes and bruises from my fall earlier—they're not too bad, but the scrapes sting. It'll take a few days for them to go away, but they're a fair price to pay for saving Pippin's life. Okay, he probably wouldn't have died falling off that cliff, but he would've gotten a lot more beat up, so I think I at least did something.

I shower quickly and then change into pajamas, climbing into bed and curling into a ball. I try to fall asleep, but I can't stop thinking about those robots. Why would they be hidden in a cave in the Wasteland?

And who would put them there?

On Monday, I get to visit the NICU again, and I spend at least three hours in there. Tadashi shows me how to check the babies' vital signs and make sure nothing's wrong, and though I keep getting distracted, I still learn a lot. I just get distracted kind of easily, because of my ADHD. It doesn't mean I'm incapable of learning. Tadashi knows this, which is good—my teachers in elementary school never understood the little autistic kid who couldn't pay attention. My uncle is a lot better at gently reminding me to stay focused.

After my workday is done, I run to the cafeteria for a quick snack—a donut, of course—and then rush outside to catch the bus. But, to my dismay, the trolley car is disappearing around the corner when I get outside.

"Fred!" I call to no avail. "Come back!"

The bus vanishes, and I sigh. I can either wait for the next bus in half an hour, or I can try to walk home. It's really far away, though—maybe if I could find a shortcut, I could make it back at my normal time.

I put on my hoodie, then cross the street and start looking for a shortcut home, preferably some kind of alley that just cuts right through the buildings so I don't have to walk around them. After a few minutes, I come to Good Luck Alley, which I've heard terrible things about—but how bad can it really be? The people in it can't be that scary.

Good Luck Alley is dark and silent, but the full moon illuminates it enough that I can see vaguely where I'm going. I pull my hood up and step into the alley, shoving my hands into my pockets and ducking my head.

An uneasy feeling starts to creep up my spine, and I wonder if taking a shortcut through a dark alley is a good idea. In all honesty, it probably isn't, but I think I'll be okay. I don't have all that much money anyway—even if I did get mugged, they'd probably let me go out of annoyance. I should be fine.

No terrifying figures leap out at me from the shadows as I pass the halfway point of the alley, and for a moment, I dare to believe I'm safe. But suddenly, I hear voices up ahead, and I press close to the wall as several silhouettes come into view.

"Everyone clear on the plan?" whispers a female voice. "Nora, you're our assassin. Do you have the blade?"

"Of course I do," replies another woman, her voice younger than the first. "And the shurikens, and the poison darts. Don't worry, Abby. I'll complete the mission. No-Ginger will be dead by morning."

Oh my gosh, they're gonna kill Wasabi!

I have to get home and tell my parents, or go back to the capitol building and tell Wasabi himself. This is even worse than I imagined—there's a gang of criminals hiding out in Good Luck Alley, and they're planning to commit murder! Which sounds like it might be tonight!

I edge backward, not wanting to alert any of the mysterious silhouettes to my presence. But I accidentally brush against a stack of boxes, knocking them to the ground.

Oh, crap. Who put those there?

"Who's there?" calls a sharp voice, and I try desperately not to move.

"Find the intruder," says the first voice from earlier, and several shadows step forward. I have no choice—I turn around and bolt, racing back down the alley as fast as my (rather short) legs will go.

Suddenly, though, several figures drop from the buildings on either side of the alleyway, cutting off my path. One draws a glowing white blade—graphene, I realize—and yells, "A spy! From the capitol!"

I realize with a jolt of horror that the capitol's insignia is printed on my hoodie—I only have it because my parents work there. Apparently these people don't like it.

Deciding that turning around is safer, I skid to a halt and whirl around, plowing back through the attackers and sprinting toward the other end of the alley. One of them, shouting in surprise, throws a punch at my cheek, and I gasp as it collides, staggering sideways into the wall and hitting my bruised shoulder. I shake it off and keep running, sprinting down the alley as fast as I can. Almost there…

Shouts echo behind me as I run, panting. I'm so out of shape—why don't I exercise more? It's probably gonna end up getting me kidnapped.

The end of the alley draws near, and I discover that, to my dismay, it's blocked by a fence. What am I gonna do? That thing is at least eight feet high—there's no way I can jump over it.

But then I see a hole—a plank has snapped halfway up the fence, creating a gap that looks just barely big enough to squeeze through. It'll be a tight fit, but I have to take it if I want to get away from these assassins—if they have the guts and the tech to break into the capitol building, then they could very easily kill me.

I dive into the tiny gap, but the hole is too small—I stop abruptly about halfway through, the splintered edges of the wood digging into my midsections. I struggle to pull myself free, squirming frantically, but it only serves to scrape me up further. Desperately, I attempt to retreat from the hole, but I can't get back out.

"Crap," I groan. "Crap crap crap crap crap crap crap…"

Footsteps pound up behind me, and I start to panic. I suck in my gut as far as it will go and try to squirm free, but it's not working—I can't move forward or backward. Stupid cinnamon rolls, stupid pizza, stupid chocolate, stupid donuts—Momo was right about them backfiring on me. But I'm a stress eater. It's not my fault.

Help, I pray desperately. Just get me out of here before they come, and I'll exercise every day for the rest of my life and I'll never eat pizza again and I'll—

But it's too late.

"What's he doing?" asks a voice behind me as the footsteps slow to a walk.

"I think he's stuck," says a second voice. "This shouldn't be hard."

Suddenly, two dark figures, both dressed in black—including masks—and holding long white blades, seem to drop from the sky. They land in front of me, and I stop struggling, staring at them and realizing how ridiculous I must look, stuck in the fence in my scrubs and hoodie.

"Who are you, kid?" asks the taller of the two figures. The voice is female, but not one of the two I heard. "Are you here to spy?"

"My name's Kai," I mumble, fidgeting uncomfortably as I speak. "I swear I'm not spying on you, I'm just trying to get home—my parents work at the capitol, that's all—can you get me out of here? Please?"

"He's telling the truth," says the smaller figure, and I realize it's the second voice I heard, also female. "But he knows too much. We can't let him go. And no, we're not getting you out yet," she adds. "You might run."

"I don't even know what you're gonna do to him!" I wail. "I don't think anyone would even believe me if I told them about you!"

The first figure steps forward and grabs my wrist, and I yelp as she raises it to her masked face.

"ENFJ," she says dismissively, dropping my hand. "Pretty likely to expose us, but also pretty likely to be disbelieved. We could let him go, but it might be best to question him further, see if we can use him for anything."

"Please don't," I beg, resuming my struggles to extricate myself from the fence. I stop as the sharp edges of the wood dig into my soft skin, wondering if I'll ever get out of here and wishing I hadn't eaten so many donuts.

"I guess we'll question him," says the second girl. "He doesn't look like much of a threat, but it's best to be safe."

She steps forward, grabs my wrists, and pulls as hard as she can, but I remain stubbornly hung up in the fence. The girl tries a few more times, then stops when she's forced to conclude that it won't work.

"Kona, help," the girl sighs, dropping my hands and stepping back.

The other girl—Kona—takes my wrists and pulls, and I let out a yelp of pain as a sharp splinter of wood stabs into my gut and the wood scrapes my back. "Ow! Stop it!"

To my surprise, she does stop, instead pulling out her white graphene blades.

"Please don't kill me," I plead.

"I'm not going to. Don't move."

It's not like I can move, but I stay absolutely still as Kona digs her blades into the fence, wedging them between me and the boards. A flash of white, and suddenly, the hole has widened considerably. I pull myself free and stand up, rubbing my sore, scraped stomach.

"Um, thanks?" I mumble, wondering it that's the right thing to say.

I quickly decide that it's not the right thing to say when Kona puts me in a headlock and holds her blade to my throat. "No talking, kid. First question—who sent you?"

"No one!" I insist. "I missed the bus, and I was just trying to get home! It was an accident! I only have this hoodie because my parents work for the governor—he's my uncle, you can't kill him!"

"I don't care if he's your best friend," Kona hisses. "Things need to change, so he needs to die."

"What are you gonna do?" I ask, my voice shaking.

"We can't tell you that, kid," Nora says. "You'd run off and tell everyone. Second question—are you in close contact with the governor?"

"Yeah, because he's my uncle! Look, you guys, maybe you could talk to him—ask him about whatever's bothering you—and he could fix it! No assassination necessary!"

"It goes beyond talking," Kona tells me. "He needs to die. It's a personal grievance with our leader."

"Who is…" I ask, wondering if I can at least get some information to take back to Wasabi.

Kona gives a short laugh—almost a bark, but not like a dog. It reminds me more of a wolf. "Can't tell you that either, kid. All you need to know is that we've got the same idea No-Ginger does—to make San Fransokyo a utopia. We've just got different ways of doing it—and the old way was the right one."

"But—"

"Last question," Nora hisses. "Do you know any other prominent individuals in the government? Perhaps any members of, oh, I don't know…Hiroshima Rising?"

"No," I tell her, which is half-true. I don't know anyone else in the government, but I know every surviving member of Hiroshima Rising. "I swear I don't know anyone else—I mean, I've heard of them, but I've never met them. They're the ones who stopped Governor Callaghan, right?"

"Indeed," Kona whispers. "You're absolutely certain?"

I nod, trying to seem as much like a scared little kid as possible. "Positive!"

I wait a few seconds, then ask, "Can I go now?"

"I suppose," Kona sighs, releasing me. I turn to walk away, but she grabs my hood and hisses, "If we find out you've lied to us at all, or if you inform the governor of our plans, we will know. And you will be punished. Severely."

"Got it," I squeak, and Kona lets me go. I hurry away into the darkness, and when the assassins have disappeared from view, I break into a run, heading for the capitol building.

I have to tell Wasabi.