A Million Suns by Beth Revis

earlier.
    Luthor snorts in contempt. “You think that boy can stop me? You think that boy can stop any of us?” He sweeps his arms wide, indicating the entire crowd of people who are now staring avidly as we scream in the middle of their usually silent hall.
    â€œWe can do anything we want,” Luthor says in a low voice only I can hear. He grins broadly and looks around him, then lifts his voice in a mighty roar, “We can do anything we want!”
    I see it in the faces of the people around us.
    The realization that what he’s said is true.

9
    ELDER
    â€œELDER?” A VOICE CALLS OUT AS ELDEST’S DOOR ZIPS SHUTS behind me.
    â€œThe frex?” I mutter, peering around. No one has access to this level but me.
    Red hair swings around the door frame of the Learning Center. “Amy?” I ask, shocked, rushing forward.
    She smiles—not a grin, just a gentle curve of her lips that doesn’t quite reach her eyes.
    â€œI hoped you’d be here,” she says.
    â€œHow—how did you get here?”
    She steps all the way out of the Learning Center and into the Great Room with me. She raises her left hand.
    â€œDoc gave it to you!” I say, examining the wi-com encircling her wrist.
    Amy nods. “I figured . . . it used to be Orion’s, so it would probably give me access to the Keeper Level, and . . .” She shrugs. “It did. I tried to com you before, but you didn’t pick up. Or did I do it wrong?”
    â€œNo, I got some coms that I ignored.”
    Amy punches me lightly on the shoulder. “Ignoring me, huh?”
    â€œI couldn’t if I tried,” I say.
    She smiles again, another wry twist of her lips with no light behind it. We stand a few feet apart—her near the Learning Center door, me closer to the middle of the Great Room, and the silence falls between us like a tangible, awkward thing. She pulls her necklace out from under her shirt and twists the charm in her fingers.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?” I ask.
    â€œNothing,” she says immediately, dropping the necklace.
    I narrow my eyes but let the moment slide by.
    â€œI haven’t seen you in a while,” she finally says. She hasn’t moved away from the Learning Center door, so I move closer to her. She puts one hand in her pocket and looks for a moment as if she’s going to pull something out.
    â€œI had to go settle some problems in the City and then . . . on the Shipper Level.”
    â€œNow it’s my turn to ask you,” Amy says, withdrawing her empty hand from her pocket. “What’s wrong? Did you see the message that was on the floppies?”
    â€œYeah,” I growl. “The Shippers were able to reverse the hack, but . . .” I shrug, and although I mean to appear nonchalant, even I know the gesture is bitter. “Damage done. I’ve asked Marae and the first-level Shippers to serve as my police force.”
    â€œ
Good
,” Amy says with such vehemence that I stare at her. “It’s just—I’m glad you’re finally doing it. Getting police I mean,” she adds when she notices my look.
    â€œI should have done it a month ago.” I say, then wait for her reaction.
    Her hand twitches, as if she’d like to reach out to me, but she doesn’t. “You’re still not telling me something,” she says softly.
    Neither are you,
I think, but I can tell from the hardness of her eyes that she won’t tell me whatever it is that’s bothering her. Instead, I confess my truth. About the engines. And the lies. How we’re not moving, and we don’t even know where we are. I tell her what I haven’t told anyone else on board.
    â€œAnd we can’t tell them,” I add. “If the Feeders knew . . .”
    Amy bites her lip but doesn’t argue. For now.
    I run my fingers through my hair, trying to pull my answer up through the