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He’d wanted to tell her to call him Hawk, but he’d been afraid she’d laugh. Still, there was the comfort of her word, vigil. Like he was a knight. A holy warrior. The Hawk, keeping his vigil with silent dedication. After all, they were behind enemy lines. Or, maybe not really enemy, because the Holdfast was for gifted, but still, Erik Epstein’s security forces could discover them at any moment, everybody said so. Aaron didn’t exactly want that to happen, but if it did, and he was on watch, maybe he could warn the others. Or even help. Drop down behind the intruders and steal one of their guns.

Idiot. They’d be brilliants. What would a fourteen-year-old normal be able to do against them?

Still. They wouldn’t be expecting it. And if he took down the one inside the door, he could sneak up on the others. He was a good shot, had practiced until his trigger finger bled. If he had a rifle and was behind the soldiers, they would be dressed in black and have helmets that made them look like insects, and they’d be pointing their guns at Tabitha, who for some reason was wearing a torn white teddy—

Fast footsteps snapped him to attention. Two scientists were hurrying down the hall, carrying a gurney between them. As Hawk watched, a fist of cold wind punched open the front door. Haruto Yamato, who they all called sensei when he taught hand-to-hand classes, staggered in along with Ms. Herr, who scared Aaron. Between them they slung an old guy to the gurney and dumped him. Next through the door was a big man who moved gingerly, like something hurt pretty bad.

John was last, but like always, it seemed like he was first. Aaron had put a lot of thought into why that was, and he suspected it had something to do with the way everyone looked at him. Like they were all compasses and he was the North Pole. John spoke to the scientists, who quickly strapped down the old man’s wrists and ankles.

“Charly, Haruto, handle security. You’ve seen what Couzen is capable of. I don’t want any surprises. Paul, go with them, get that wound looked at.”

“No, I’ll stay with—”

“Paul.” John put a hand on the big man’s shoulder. “I’m going to need you.”

Aaron felt a stab of jealousy, imagined John doing that to him, putting a hand on his shoulder and looking in his eyes and saying, “I’m going to need you, Hawk.”

Don’t be dumb.

The old guy on the gurney was directly beneath him, and Aaron took a careful look, mindful of what Mom had always said, how most people wandered through life with their eyes closed. That led to a flash of memory, in a car, golden sun, a couple of years ago, coming back from McDonald’s, both of them munching fries from an open bag while she quizzed him, asked him what the nametag of the cashier had read, how much the order was for, the colors of the cars that had been parked next to theirs when they’d left, and the way she had glanced over with a grin when he’d known all the answers, that smile where she showed her teeth, not the polite one she did in pictures but the real one when he made her laugh—

Stop.

The old man was thin, with a big nose and a bald head. He was unconscious, but still looked angry. There were vicious scratches all over his face, which was weird, because Aaron couldn’t imagine Sensei Haruto scratching like a little girl, and Ms. Herr definitely wouldn’t have, not even when she’d been a little girl, if she ever had, and so Aaron looked closer, and that’s when he noticed the stains under the old guy’s fingernails.

“One, two, three,” said one of the scientists, and on three he and the other guy stood up, raising the gurney with them. Sensei and Ms. Herr and the muscular guy followed. They were headed toward the lab, and he thought about following. But John wasn’t going; he stood by the wall until they were out of sight, and then he sagged, like a lot of weight had landed on his shoulders. He sat down on a bench, elbows on his knees, staring at nothing.

Without looking up, he said, “Heya, Hawk.”

Aaron felt a flush of something he couldn’t quite name, similar to but different from the feeling he’d gotten when Tabitha smiled at him. He thought about working his way back to the electrical pipe, but instead he grabbed the bottom of the strut and lowered himself to dangle. He regretted the move immediately, the floor seeming somehow to get farther away instead of closer, but the only option was to wriggle and kick his way back up, and no way was he doing that in front of John, so he just took a breath and made his fingers open before he could think too much. The fall was about ten feet, and landing hurt, but he was proud that he didn’t show it. “Hi, Mr. Smith.”

“John.”

That flush again. “Hi, John. Who was that?”

“A scientist named Abraham Couzen.”

“A brilliant?”

“No. Just a genius.”

“He’s going to help us?”

“You could say.”

Aaron thought about that. “So he’s not one of us, but he knows something.”