“I don’t know how,” Jack said.

“Really?”

“Really.”

“I could teach you.”

“I’d be too embarrassed.”

Brianna shrugged. “It’s not like anyone is going to laugh at you.”

“Yes, they would.”

Brianna shook her head. At normal speed. “No way. Everyone is hoping you’ll fix the phones and the internet and all. Everyone likes you. Well, not exactly likes, but everyone hopes you’ll do it.”

“I told you I fixed the phones already,” Jack said.

Brianna’s eyes narrowed. “Jack-O, watch what you say about that. It’s supposed to be a secret, right?” Then she shifted focus to someone just behind Jack’s shoulder. “What did you hear?”

Jack twisted to see the shaved-head kid shrugging. “What? I didn’t hear anything.”

That voice. Jack knew that voice.

“That’s right you didn’t hear anything,” Brianna said pointedly. “And you better not repeat what you didn’t hear.”

He knew that voice.

He stared at the kid with the voice.

And suddenly, he saw.

“So come dance with me,” Brianna said, tugging at Jack’s arm.

He pulled away. “I uh . . . I have to go,” he said, unable to tear his gaze away from the shaved-head “boy.”

“No one will laugh at you,” Brianna pleaded.

But Jack just shook off her hand and fled toward the door.

“Okay, fine, forget you,” Brianna yelled. “Jerk. Computer Jerk.” Then, loud enough for everyone to hear, she said, “I guess he’s scared of girls.”

SEVENTEEN

22 HOURS

DIANA FOLLOWED JACK from the McClub. It was a relief to get away from Brianna and Dekka. Both girls knew Diana well. Neither had any reason to like her.

Fortunately, Dekka had eyes only for Brianna, and Brianna was focused on Jack. There had been a terrifying moment when Brianna had spoken directly to Diana, but she’d quickly looked down at the ground and Brianna had not recognized her.

Jack was moving, ignoring Albert’s polite “Good night,” walking quickly away from the club. Not quite running but looking as if he wanted to.

She caught up with him. “Jack.”

He stopped. He looked around, fearful that someone might overhear. “Diana?” he whispered.

“Mmmm. Yep. Like the new hairdo?” She rubbed her hand over her brush cut.

For a boy with the strength of ten grown men, he looked awfully nervous.

“What are you doing here?”

“I need you, Jack.”

“You? You need me?”

She tilted her head to the side and sized him up. “So, you like Brianna, huh? And here I thought I was the girl of your dreams.”

Flesh tones were all blue in the harsh streetlight, but Diana was sure he was blushing.

“Come on,” she said. “Let’s walk on the beach. We’ll have some privacy there.”

He followed her obediently, as she knew he would. He might have a crush on cute little Brianna, but Diana had missed none of the covert looks Jack had sent her way over the months she’d known him. She still had some power over him. They climbed the low sea wall and labored across the sand under the night sky. Diana wished she could live down here, close to the beach. As shabby and damaged as Perdido Beach was, it was still so much more alive than the Fear Factory, as some kids called Coates Academy.

“What is it you want?” Jack asked. His voice sounded desperate.

“So. You got the cell phones working. I was wondering what was taking you so long,” Diana said. “You always used to tell me it would be fairly easy.”

“I can’t talk about it,” he said miserably.

“Sam won’t let you do it, will he? Why?” When he didn’t answer, she provided her own explanation. “Because we’d be able to use it, too. Interesting. Poor Caine: always underestimating his brother.”

Jack plodded along beside her. The strength in his limbs drove his feet too deep into the sand.

“Caine knows about you now, of course, about you being a mutant. With a serious power, no less.”

“He knows?” Jack’s voice rose an octave.

Diana smiled to herself. Still scared. Good. “Yep. He knows everything. He knows it’s not your fault you ended up over here. He knows that was me.”

“Did he make you cut off your hair?”

The question caught Diana off-guard. She laughed. “Oh, Jack. No. Caine forgave me. You know how he is. He gets mad, but really he’s very forgiving.”

“That’s not how he seemed to me,” Jack said.

Diana chose not to argue that point. “How’s the internet project going?”

“I need a decent server. I need a serious router.”

“Are those pieces of equipment?”

The question allowed Jack a moment of superiority. She heard the familiar pedantic tone in his voice. “Yes, those are pieces of equipment.”

“Have you looked everywhere?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you look at Coates when you were still with us?”

“Of course. I know every piece of technology at Coates, and probably every one here in Perdido Beach.”

So, Diana thought, that was the bait she had to lay out for Jack. Of course. What else? He might lust for Diana, and long for Brianna, but Jack’s true love was made of silicon.