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Jericho grits his teeth to form a sort of I-should’ve-kept-my-mouth-shut expression as I continue to speak. “To be perfectly frank, I have some information that indicatesthat earth-formation testing near the University of Virginia and the University of North Carolina is showing signs of core soil erosion. So it’s a good and dangerous place to be.”

Burbank, the wise guy of the group, can’t restrain himself. He looks straight at Jericho and says, “Ah, both goodanddangerous. You should fit right in.”

I let the laughter subside before I take the perfect opening to tell Burbankhisassignment.

“Burbank, you will be headed to the Kyoto destruction site to sift through the rubble. Take multiple samples and calculate causes as to what—or who—is behind the geological disaster of the ages.”

“With honor,” says Burbank, who seems to know that the time for jokes is over.

“Excellent,” I say. “And you, Tapper, will do the same with the sea around Copenhagen.”

But Burbank’s personality can be held at bay for only so long. Before Tapper can respond to his assignment, Burbank interjects with, “I just want to say that surveying an entire city sounds like a very big job for just one person… even if that person is me.”

“Don’t worry,” I tell him. “Margo and I will be there with you.”

“But I’m going to handle an entire sea on my own?” asks Tapper.

“You won’t be alone for long. After we finish our work in Kyoto, we’llalljoin you as soon as we can.”

CHAPTER 40

DACHE HAS NEVER been generous with praise to anybody. So Maddy, during this most recent training section, is astonished to hear him say, “I observe, Madeline, that there is significant improvement in your development.”

“Yes, uh, thank you, sir,” Maddy says.

They are concentrating today on one of the most advanced abilities—shape-shifting. This allows an ordinary person to actually transform their body into something else. A human being with this rare power can become a vicious writhing snake, a twenty-foot cement wall, an insect, a race car… whatever best fits their situation.

Dache has taught Maddy to immerse her entire body and soul into a different mental state, a state so flexible and strong that she’s able to bring herself into a new plane of existence.

“This is not fantasy, Madeline. This is not the banal art of hypnosis. This is so much larger, a new reality. It is a reality that exists beyond who you actually are,” he says.

Maddy thinks she might be ready to try. It has taken many lessons to override her own logic, to believe that her body can transform into something else. It’s a perspective shift that can take years to master. Margo—who’d only been able to influence the minds of others when Maddy first met her—could harness the ability over the past few years, thanks to Dache’s rigorous instruction.

Whenever Maddy feels doubt, the ability abandons her. But when she pushes herself, when she meditates so strongly that her mind seems to actually leave her body, then—and only then—can she become a speedboat, a leaf falling from a maple tree, a grain of sand, a raging wild horse, a child’s toy.

Dache reiterates today what he has said during other lessons. It is Dache’s mantra, and Maddy knows it must become her own.

Problems belong to all people. Solutions belong only to the chosen few.

When this most recent lesson ends, Maddy is a mass of nerves and pain. Her head aches and she wants to fall into a swimming pool of icy water to recuperate.

She lies on her bed, unable to sleep. She keeps hearing Dache’s mental proverb over and over in her head, until she suddenly grasps the full meaning of the words: Like Lamont, Maddy is one ofthe chosen few.

She must seize the power. She must fix the problem. Lamont and Margo, Burbank, Jericho, Tapper, andHawkeye are all busy literally trying to save the world. She can’t ask them to drop everything to help with her problems. She must become the solution herself. She knows she can only succeed if she actually plunges into Belinda’s grim world. She must go undercover. She must join them.

CHAPTER 41

HERE’S A PIECE of wisdom that I should permanently embed in my brain: just when you think you’ve seen it all, you can be almost certain that you haven’t even come close.

That is certainly true when we disembark after landing in Kyoto. Margo, who has joined Burbank and me for the Japanese leg of our trip, literally freezes in place as we stand on the tarmac. That is how shocking the devastation is: mountains of rubble. No. I don’t exaggerate. Mountains. Billions of pieces of concrete and marble and steel piled high into the air.

Our driver, Mr. Fujita, apologizes for the absence of a welcoming committee. He explains that so many people in Kyoto have been displaced or have disappeared that the city is barely functioning. In fact, Kyoto’s famed super-speed railways have totally vanished. What few streets exist are narrow; the sparse traffic is slow. With so few people left to drive around, I’m not surprised.

“Look at this car I am driving, Mr. Cranston,” says Mr. Fujita. “It is not even a car.”

He’s correct. The four of us are riding in a sort of a jerry-rigged tank, half jeep, half bulldozer. Few people walk the streets, and those who do, walk with their heads bowed. Some look sad. Some look angry.

For me the most astonishing sight is this: actual tunnels have been carved through many of the massive rubble piles, passageways for the few cars out on the streets.