Everfound (Skinjacker 3)

Allie took a deep breath. “Just sit down.”

“But Ms. Gutierrez—”

“I’m not Ms. Gutierrez.”

He stared at her with the same lost expression Allie had seen on TV. He came forward and lowered himself into his chair, never taking his eyes off of her.

“Listen to me very carefully,” Allie said, “and don’t do anything that might make the guard come in again, okay?”

Seth nodded, clearly frightened beyond words.

“I saw into your mind. I know you’re innocent . . . and I’m going to get you out of here.”

“But . . . but my fingerprints,” Seth said, “and all that evidence they planted . . .”

“It doesn’t matter, because you’re never going to go to trial. I’m getting you out . . . do you understand?”

When he realized what she was saying, he nodded and bit his lip nervously. “How?”

Allie tried to explain it to him as best she could. “I can be whoever I want to be. I jump into people and I take them over. And no, you’re not crazy, this is really happening.”

“You . . . can read my mind from over there?”

“No, I just guessed what you were thinking.”

“Good guess.”

Allie leaned closer to him. “If this is going to work, you’re going to have to trust me, and do exactly what I say.”

“Oh, yeah. Sure. Why not?” Clearly he still wasn’t convinced that this was real, and that was a problem, because if he doubted her for an instant it would all fall apart.

“Listen to me,” Allie said as sternly as she could. “If you don’t do what I say, you are going to be tried as an adult—and you won’t last very long in a real prison.”

That made him squirm. “Okay,” he said. “What do you want me to do?”

“Tonight,” Allie told him, “you’re going to hurt yourself. Not enough to cause any real damage, but enough so that they have to take you to the infirmary.”

“There’s security at the infirmary, too,” Seth said.

“That doesn’t matter,” Allie told him. “It’s not the guards I’m worried about, they’re predictable. But if the other prisoners figure out that something’s fishy, there’s no telling what will happen.”

“Okay,” said Seth. “Okay. So . . . how will I know you? I mean, if you can be anyone, how will I know who you’ll be?” It was a good question.

“Code word!” Allie said. “I’ll say a code word, so you’ll know.”

“Great. What is it?”

Allie thought for a moment. It had to be something no one would accidentally say.

“Hightower,” Allie told him, and shivered at the name spoken aloud in the living world.

“High tower,” said Seth. “Got it.”

“Now, I’m going to wake up your lawyer and leave. But you’ve got to act like nothing happened; as if she just walked into the room, sat down, and you’ve been waiting for her to say something. Can you do that?”

“Hey, I’m not an idiot,” said Seth. “I even had an acting class before I quit school.”

“Right,” said Allie. “Okay, then I’ll see you tonight.” Allie prepared to wake up the woman but just before she did, Seth said, “So, who are you?”