Marina breathes out through her nose. “How will we know if you’re in trouble?”

Ella raises her hand. She hasn’t said much since yesterday, and I’m glad for that. The last time we talked, it was a bit too much to take in. The glowing spark in her eyes is a little dimmer than it was yesterday.

“I’ll check on them telepathically,” Ella says.

“And if we’re in trouble, you’ll hear me calling,” I add.

“Oh,” Marina says, her head tilted. “You can do that now.”

Lexa leans against the cockpit door, listening to everything we’ve said without comment. “I’ve got a second cloaking device installed on our ship,” she says. “We’ll bypass the force field no problem, but you’ll need to leave a door open for us.”

“It won’t be necessary,” I tell her.

Six snorts. “We’ll leave you an opening, Lexa.” She flashes me a meaningful look. “Better safe than stupid.”

“And bring some of the Canadians along,” Adam adds. He glances at me. “You know, if we do hit a snag.”

I double-check that everything is secured to my vest and that the cloaking device is active, then take one last look at the others. “We good?”

When no one replies immediately, I head down the metal ramp, off Lexa’s ship and into the misty morning air. There’s a squad of soldiers standing nearby, waiting to see if we’ll need them for anything, the rest of their unit forming a loose and stealthy perimeter in the trees. It’s still strange to me, being constantly surrounded by armed men and women who are expecting me to command them. Or save them. I take a deep breath and tilt my head back, looking up at the gray sky and the pointy tops of the pine trees.

“You sure you know what you’re doing?”

That’s Six, next to me, her voice pitched low so the others won’t hear. Adam trails a few yards behind her, still on the ramp.

“I have to do this,” I tell her, my voice quiet as well. “I need to know what I’m capable of.”

“You know it sounds a little suicidal, right?”

“I’m far from suicidal,” I reply grimly.

“Just remember, you aren’t doing this by yourself,” Six replies, and pats me on the shoulder. “I know the feeling of wanting to throw yourself at the enemy until they break or you break but—”

As she speaks, a memory flashes to the surface of Six’s mind with a force that’s impossible for me to ignore. I’m still trying to master this whole telepathy thing. The most difficult part about it is letting the thoughts of others stay private. They just come rushing into my mind, unwanted, like this vision of Six standing in front of a gaping hole in the ground, wind swirling all around her, metal and rock debris tearing through the air. Across the gap from her is Setrákus Ra, fleeing and on his heels, pushing against her with his own telekinesis. And next to her . . .

Next to her is Sarah. She pulls at Six’s arm, tries to get her to retreat from the whirlwind of shrapnel around them.

Mexico.

I flinch at the memory—all this floods into my brain in less than a second—and Six stops talking to look at me funny.

“You okay?”

“I’m fine,” I reply, and brace myself telepathically, close off my mind. I need more practice with a lot of these powers, but there’s no time for that.

Six frowns at me but doesn’t press. She reaches into her pocket and produces an old-looking flip phone that she pops open to check the display. “What’s that?” I ask, wanting to change the subject.

“Sam’s attempt to mimic the cloaking device,” Six replies, holding up the phone. “He wants me to try it out before the battery dies.”

I didn’t realize Sam had made progress with that. The phone doesn’t look like much, but Sam’s never let me down before. I touch the Mogadorian cloaking device hooked to my vest. “Should we use that instead of this?”

“Uh, let’s not experiment while we’re flying through the air,” Adam says, joining us. “If all goes well, we’ll have plenty of opportunities to test Sam’s device.”

Six nods in agreement and puts the phone away. I look between the two of them. “Ready?”

“Ready,” Adam replies.

Six eyes us. “How exactly are we doing this?”

It takes a little work to get us arranged. Six gets on my back in a piggyback position, her legs hooked around my waist. I hug Adam from behind, my hands locked across his chest. From there, Six is able to reach past me and put a hand on Adam’s shoulder, in case she needs to take over and make us invisible. I feel BK and Dust squirming around in my chest pocket trying to get comfortable. We must look pretty ridiculous; I can see some faint smiles and raised eyebrows on the faces of the nearby Special Ops, and I’m pretty sure I hear Nine catcall us from Lexa’s ship.