Love you, Jaxson said to me alone as he turned and winked at me. The lights on the roof was like a halo around his head.
Ditto. I smiled back as I kissed my finger tips and extended my hand back out.
He pretended to catch it and placed it on his own lips.
Drake and Troy leaped into the helicopter first and started to help the rest of us up. I took a seat next to the door. The adrenaline was now in full effect. All residual tiredness was gone. My knees bounced up and down in anticipation, and I had to resist the urge to bite my nails—a habit I had broken myself of when I was fourteen or fifteen years old.
One other female was on my team. She was from the Illinois community. She gave me a nervous smile as she took the seat across from me.
“Hi,” she said shyly.
I had trained with her this past week, but I hadn’t been extremely social due to the pressure I had been feeling with my family, grades, and relationships. Plus, training had been so ramped up I had only seen her more in passing. She seemed like she was a few years older than me and was pretty in a girl-next-door way.
“Hi,” I replied back as I tried to give her a reassuring smile. “What did you do before coming here?” I asked hoping to get her mind off our mission.
“I was going to school for elementary education,” she responded back giving me a grateful smile.
“What grade would you like to teach?” I inquired, wanting to keep communicating with her.
“Third or fourth grade,” she replied. “I don’t have to teach them to read. They know how to tie their own shoes. They’re more independent but not too independent that they think they know it all. Boy and girl craziness hasn’t set in yet either.”
I laughed. “My sister and brother are in the second grade. I think my sister harbors crushes now and again, but my brother still thinks girls have cooties.”
She laughed as well. “Are they the children that sit with you at breakfast and dinner?”
“Yes,” I replied back.
“April didn’t give us the exact specifics to everything, but she did tell us that some of our previous beliefs of the gifted are incorrect. Those children and teens that are around you often, are all your siblings?” she asked hesitantly like she still couldn’t believe it.
“Most of them,” I answered. “On base, I have three brothers and a sister.” She didn’t need to know that Ella was technically my cousin.
She looked over at Troy and Drake who had taken seats on either side of me. She looked like she wanted to continue the conversation and but was unsure of how to proceed without offending me.
“My connections.” I smiled in understanding as her eyes widened. “All of them.”
One of the other Illinois community members swore softly beside her. “You’re lying. That’s not possible.”
“I assure you,” Troy chuckled softly as he linked his fingers through mine. “She’s not. We are connected.”
“Show us,” another guy from the Illinois team insisted.
Troy raised an eyebrow at him before the girl gently punched the other guy in the arm. “That’s so rude and you know that. Not everyone carries marks that are easily visible.”
“I have a feeling by the end of this mission you’ll have no doubt the truth in their words,” Gavin stated as he closed his eyes and leaned his head back.
He had the right idea. We had little over an hour before we got to our destination, plenty enough time to take a nap.
When we landed, I was surprised how unassuming the government labs looked. There was no fencing around the tall glass building. In fact, it looked more like a prestigious office building than a lab. The only thing tipping it off to its importance were the men seen walking the perimeter and the fact that it was in the middle of nowhere.
I noticed the temperature difference immediately. There was a mild nip in the air, but it wasn’t the cold I had become accustomed to.
“They’re already here,” Herman stated gravely the moment our feet hit the ground, bringing me out of my reflections.
“Negative,” one of the techies stated immediately. “We’re looking at the cameras right now and we don’t see anything out of the ordinary.”
“Where is our point of contact?” Troy asked suspiciously.
“He’s in his office,” one of the techies responded.