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“One of them was gifted,” Kaiden said. “A very strong mind reader.”

“Did you get the package?” Pipsqueak asked.

The frustrated looks on their faces answered for them.

“You’re both safe,” Alex said. “That’s the main thing. It was a reckless task to begin with, something Hunter never should’ve asked us to do.”

“But that envelope holds the next Bubbledoor,” Pipsqueak said miserably. “We need it to get out of here.”

“What do you suggest we do, Pip?” Tom sounded irritated. “The entire compound will be on high alert now. And if there’s a mind reader in there, they’ll all know the moment any of us enter that command centre.”

Alex froze and looked up at Jordan. His eyes begged her to stay silent, but she knew what she had to do.

“I can get in there,” she whispered. The words stuck in her throat, so she made herself repeat them, loud enough for the others to hear.

“Weren’t you listening, Alex?” Tom said. “There’s amind readerin there. We won’t be able to get within twenty feet of that envelope, not while he’s around.”

“He won’t be able to read me.”

Her classmates looked at her as if she was crazy, all except Jordan, who seemed resigned to accept her decision.

“My gift allows me a certain amount of… um…choice, when it comes to other people using their gifts on me,” she explained vaguely. “The mind reader won’t be able to sense me at all, let alone read my thoughts. I’m the only chance we have at getting that envelope.”

“Prove it,” Pip said.

Alex glanced at her. “What?”

“Prove it,” Pip repeated. “Touch my hand.”

Giving her a searching look, Alex did as ordered.

Pip’s face scrunched in concentration and her grip tightened almost painfully. She was breathing heavily by the time she let go of Alex’s hand, staring at her with incredulous eyes.

“Blink, you try,” the small girl said.

For the first time since Alex had met him, Blink seemed uncomfortable. But Pipsqueak was determined, and she reached for his hand and joined it with Alex’s.

“Do it, Blink. We need to know if she’s telling the truth.”

Blink looked at Alex in apology and slowly closed his eyes. His body began to vibrate and Alex felt the tremors shake all the way up her arm, but after a few seconds he stilled again.

“You don’t look like you’re in any pain,” he observed, appearing awed.

Alex raised her eyebrows in question. “That’s because I’m not.”

Pip was still looking at her in amazement. “I should have been able to manipulate your emotions and Blink should have caused your blood to boil, but you didn’t feel any of that?”

Alex shrugged, trying not to think of her blood boiling. “I told you…” She felt like a scientific experiment from the looks on her classmates’ faces. “Now that your test is over, I’m good to go, right?”

“What’s your plan?” Tom asked, the first to shake off his shock. “Regardless of your gift it’s not like you’ll be able to just waltz in there. And you won’t have Jordan to keep you invisible.”

“I have an idea,” Alex answered, thinking quickly. “But you’re going to have to trust me.”

Her idea wasn’t something she could reveal to any of them, not without compromising one of her best friends.

“We trust you,” Declan said, speaking for everyone.

“Skyla, I need you to do my makeup,” Alex said, her unexpected statement prompting raised eyebrows from her classmates. “I need to look, um, regal,” she continued quickly. “But also like I’ve been dragged through the desert. Can you do that?”