“I guess we’ll find out,” she said ruefully, and typed in the last command. Her finger hovered over the Enter key in a moment of tight hesitation. The she pressed it and held her breath.

The screen went blank.

No cursor. No data stream. Nothing but a black void.

Harper silently counted to sixty and still nothing. She let her breath out and shook her head slowly. She couldn’t even find the words to describe the misery threatening to overtake her; she felt as if she were underwater, unable to break the surface.

She chanced a sideways peek at Rome. His intense blue gaze was glued to the screen. Watching. Waiting.

“I guess I messed up,” Harper said quietly after another eternal minute passed. Rome reached over and pulled her hand onto his thigh. Enveloping it in his grip, he gave it a comforting squeeze and let out a long breath.

A flicker.

Both she and Rome straightened, gawking at the monitor.

A cursor began to dance among the blackness like a frenzied shooting star. The display went black again. Then they watched in sheer fascination as manic data streamed down the screen, drizzling characters like the northwest rain.

And it stopped abruptly once more.

Once again, the empty black screen flashed bright characters and then morphed back to the original innocuous blue desktop.

With a new yellow folder in the bottom right corner, simply titled Harpie.

Harper dragged her finger over the keyboard’s touchpad to open the folder. With a click, the folder opened and showed two subfolders. One named Research and the other generically named New Folder.

Harper clicked on the Research folder first to open it. The screen lit up with subfolders of various natures. They were organized by type and date, all with titles that included dates. She randomly clicked on one, opening a document inside.

Trial 1517.5.

Vegetation subjects 6-7 under incandescent light fail to respond to serum. Dosage immaterial. Vegetation subjects 15-17 under fluorescent light fail to respond to serum. Dosage immaterial. Vegetation subjects 4-5 under simulated sunlight respond to serum. Dosage immaterial.

Harper narrowed her eyes. Vegetation subjects responding? What was that all about? She closed the document without reading further and opened one dated later.

Trial 2761.5

Vegetation subjects 3-6 survive deep freeze. 4 of 25 branches frozen. Deep freeze duration 361 hours. Survival span 167 hours current. 3 of 4 frozen branches fully regenerated.

“These are Bobby’s research notes,” she explained, her mind in turmoil. “Considering the number of files, it must be everything he was working on. The serum mentioned here must be what’s inside me.”

“I’m sure it is,” Rome agreed, deep in thought. “We’re going to have to read through all those to figure out just exactly what he was doing.”

“Thank goodness Bobby’s notes are concise.” Harper sighed, but cracked a smile.

She was happy for the first time in a while. Actual for-real happy. The information about the mysterious serum that flowed through her blood, that was now part of her essence, surging in her mind, was all there. It was just going to take some time to read through it all.

“Open the other folder,” Rome suggested. She closed the Research folder and opened the nonspecific New Folder.

Inside was a single document. She started to read from the beginning.

Lower Interior Five Watch facility Section 21-244. Witness to testing on human subjects. Using serum derivatives.

A crash made them both jump, startling them out of their reading trance. A young server had knocked over a mug while clearing the two tables that had seated the group of teenage girls. Its white shards, among dark droplets, sprinkled the hardwood floor. The matronly woman strolled out from behind the counter with a dustpan and broom, calmly bending to sweep it up.

Harper rubbed her weary eyes and stared back at the screen. The typed words were in Bobby’s crisp voice, but uncharacteristically rushed and clipped. She wanted to keep reading, but as she turned to watch the unhurried cleanup, she realized they needed to get somewhere private to go through it all as carefully as they needed to. She didn’t want to miss a single detail.

“Maybe we should take this somewhere else,” Rome suggested, reading her mind.

“Sounds like a plan.” Harper closed the files after protecting them with several encrypted passwords. She saved the Harpie folder to the flash drive and erased any remnants of it from the computer. Then she pulled out the drive and slipped it into her jeans pocket. She shut down the computer and stood, smiling at Rome. “Let’s go.”

“Drive safely, kids,” the elder woman called out to them as they reached the door, giving them a hearty wave with the broom. “Have a nice honeymoon,” she added with an exaggerated wink.

Rome gave her a friendly wave back. Harper stopped abruptly in alarm, but was shoved out the door by his strong hand at her back.

“H-h-honeymoon,” Harper sputtered as they reached the car, almost stumbling over her own feet. “What was that all about?”

“She asked about us,” Rome answered as he held the Bug door open for her and then slammed it shut. She watched him get into the driver’s side and then turn to face her. He took a deep breath that sounded a tad strained. “I couldn’t very well tell her that I’m a covert government agent hired to hunt you down because you suddenly have superhero-like mind power that came from a mysterious serum that your secret scientist brother developed and was then murdered for. But now we’re working together and on the run to find out what it’s all about, how it works, and how to stop the bad guys who keep trying to kill us.”

A moment of silence.

“You could’ve just said we’re friends on a road trip,” she suggested quietly. That sounded simple enough to her. The idea of that kind of commitment almost made her want to forget this all and run away into the night.

“Yes,” he said quietly. “I guess I could’ve just said that.” She saw his grip tighten on the steering wheel before he reached to shove the keys in the ignition and start the car. The Bug rumbled to life and he pulled out of the newly paved parking lot onto the street just as raindrops started to splash against the flat windshield.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The bright beam of light cut through the darkness, illuminating the quiet scene. The flashlight’s trail was garish against the stark ground as Jeff Donovan searched for anything that could lead him to Harper Kane.

And Rome.

Jeff hadn’t wanted to believe that the agent was a part of Ms. Kane’s desperate actions, but he couldn’t deny the facts. This was Rome’s warehouse, and it was apparent that the two of them had spent time there. And now were gone.

A shame, really. Rome Lucian was an exceptional agent. One of the best. Jeff had even considered Rome for being a subject, but hadn’t wanted to use the serum on him until the formula was perfected. The agent had invaluable skills. Now Rome would be another necessary sacrifice to the imperative project Jeff was trying to implement for the military sector.

But he had to find the two of them first. And his enhanced troops were proving to be less than adequate. Case in point, Jeff had no idea where their bodies were. He was getting very tired of Ms. Kane killing his men. Just one had survived the encounter, barely escaping, only to die soon after he’d relayed what had happened here at the site.

Jeff paced toward the dense tree line, looking for any lead. But again, Rome was very, very good. And obviously so was Ms. Kane.

His toe kicked something that made a hollow clink and skittered across the pavement. Jeff darted the beam from the flashlight around the immediate area, searching the ground for the source.