Fang touched my hand, and I turned to him. He nodded atIggy.

“I know,” saidIggy. “I can see it.”

40

OKAY, I’M GOING to float out a theory here, and maybe it’s crap, but I’m thinking that the complete absence of color had something to do with the blind kid suddenly being able to see stuff.

’Cause he really could. I waved my hand in front of his face, and he blinked and pulled away.

“What are youdoing? ” he asked, frowning.

I let my jaw drop open, looking from him to Fang and back, and thenIggy was smiling huge in a way he hardly ever does, and Fang was grinning in a way he hardly ever does, and I felt like skipping around like a ballerina, which, I promise you, I never, ever do.

“What’s going on?”Gazzy asked, coming over to us.

“Iggycansee, ” I said, still unable to believe it.

ExcitedlyIggy whirled to see the Gasman, and then stopped dead, frowning. He blinked several times.

“It’s… it’s gone,” he said in a hollow voice.

“What?”

“You could see?”Gazzy asked.

Iggyturned around again, his head hanging. He sighed heavily, then stiffened. “No! I can see again! I see the white mountains again!”

So here’s the deal:Iggy could seewhiteness. He could see the shapes of the cliffs and glaciers, the occasional gray rocks jutting out from the snow, the horizon line where land met sky. When he turned around, the ocean, the rocky shore, everything, went blank.

“I’m cold,” I said after we’d been standing around looking atIggy look at stuff for a while. “Let’s go inside.”

Lucirstation consisted of about fifteen metal buildings raised up on steel stilts. Some of them were connected, like stepping-stones, going up the nearest hill. A few stood alone. Most of them hadsnowcats and bobsleds and ice trucks parked underneath.

We climbed the stairs, and once againIggy had to rely on touching the hem of my jacket and concentrating on the sounds around him. I could feel him seething with disappointment.

The door of the building opened into an air lock. We took off our jackets and stuff there, then went through another door into the actual station.

We met the scientists who lived and worked at the station, ignoring their curious looks and unspoken questions. They showed us to the guest quarters, which were in a separate metal hut. It was small but cozy and comfortable, with one room full of bunk beds, four high; a small living room; a bathroom; and a tiny kitchen.

“Hey!” saidBrigid, knocking on our door. “You guys want to see some penguins?”

“Yeah,”Iggy muttered bitterly. “Make ’emstand against a white cliff.”

Fang and I looked at each other. Some of us had had new skills show up lately. WouldIggy’s be his eyesight?

And here’s another question: When was all our world-savinggonna start?

41

THE UBER-DIRECTOR’S ASSISTANT looked up from a computer monitor. “The mutants have arrived at the station, sir, as expected.”

TheUber -Director couldn’t nod, but he blinked. “They’re all together? None of them stayed on the boat?”

“No, sir.” The assistant gestured to his monitor and pressed a button. Instantly the screen showed a somewhat grainy image of the six mutant children trooping across packed snowdrifts toward theLucir station. The screen split, and the other half showed a still image taken from inside the dining hall of theWendy K. Quickly the assistant zoomed in on the faces of the small group heading inside the station and compared them with close-ups of the faces on the boat. They matched.

“All six are accounted for,” the assistant said.

“Very good,” said theUber -Director. “Send a message to our contact, saying that the schedule will continue as planned.”

“Yes, sir,” said the assistant, turning back to his computer.

TheUber -Director sent a thought command, and moments later the door opened. A hulking creature almost seven feet tall and easily over three hundred pounds stepped into the room.

“Ah,Gozen,” said theUber -Director.

The assistant stiffened in his chair and slowly sneaked a peek. If the soldierscreeped him out, thisGozen thing positively terrified him. Not only was he huge, but he had a human face patched onto a Frankenstein body. A curved, shiny metal plate covered part of his bare skull where they couldn’t get skin to grow. One arm was a foot longer than the other, and the hand had metal spikes grafted onto the knuckle bones. His other arm, tinted faintly greenish as if the circulation had never worked properly, was hugely veined and muscled, the result of injecting human growth hormone directly into the flesh.

The face was human, but when the creature spoke, you could clearly see the bolts in his jawbone right beneath the skin. Just the other day, the assistant had seenGozen reach out, snatch a songbird from the air, and casually break its neck, tossing the light, brightly colored body aside. The assistant didn’t know whetherGozen had morals or ethics or any sense of right or wrong. Mostly what he had been given was extreme, astonishing power.

“Gozen,” theUber -Director said again as the hulking thing stood near him, at attention. “It’s almost time. Prepare your troops.”

“Yes, sir,”Gozen said without moving. His voice sounded like a tape of a human voice played too slowly.

A chill went down the assistant’s back.

42

AS IT TURNED OUT, all the world-saving started the next day.

Now, someone who doesn’t know better might think that playing with penguins wouldn’t really do a lot to prevent the apocalypse, but hey, we were just there to help.

“Look at this! I’m a penguin!” Angel yelled, flinging herself onto her stomach and sliding down a steep, hard-packed snow slope. She raced incredibly fast toward the bottom, where about twenty emperor penguins waited for her, flapping their wings.

“Me next!”Gazzy didn’t wait for Angel to get out of the way, he just threw himself down the slope, cackling maniacally. He collided with her, of course, causing her to skid into a few penguins who, frankly, should have been paying more attention. Two of the big heavy birds went down, one right on top ofGazzy. I heard his breath whoosh out from where I was standing, taking scientific notes.

Here’s a sample of my contribution to the world’s scientific knowledge.

Place:Lucir station, Antarctica

Date: Remind me to check and fill in later

Time: Hard to tell, what with the midnight sun and all, and I hocked my watch ages ago

Subjects: Emperor penguins

Quantity: Twenty-seven adults- no way to tell at a glance who’s male or female, and Iain’t checking under their hoods. Twelvefuzzums littlechickums. Five avian-Americans.

Size: These penguins are surprisingly big- about four feet tall. Solid and heavy, judging from the wayGazzywhoofed when one fell on him. I’d say- sixty pounds? We’re talking major birds here.

Birds’ condition: They’re hefty little suckers, built for comfortand speed. And they’re sure not feeling the cold. I’d put them on the “chunky” end of the scale.

Activity: Basically, sliding on ice, just for fun. Leaping into the frigid water every once in a while, then popping back out as if shot from a toaster. Noticeably fishy smell afterward. One barfed up part of an octopus, almost onIggy’s boots. Good thing his vision was out again. I almost heaved myself.

“How’s it going?” Brian Carey asked, snowshoeing up to us. He and Sue-Ann, who was with him, had clipboards and special pens that wrote in extreme weather. Did I mention how freaking cold it was? Like, thanks, Mom!

– Sue-Ann looked at the penguins popping up out of the water and laughed. “They’re so cute-,” she began, as a whole horde of the tuxedoed birds shot up onto the ice. They were squawking and waddling away from the water as fast as they could.