The Seven by Sean Patrick Little Page B

lifted Kenny off the ground as if the lanky hacker was an infant.
    Kenny felt like a rag doll. He lay limply in Andy's arms. It made him feel even weaker.
    "What's the new passkey, Kenny?" asked Indigo.
    "One...one...one...one."
    "Eleven eleven? That's it?"
    "Didn't want it to be too difficult."
    "Why not just one number then?" said Andy. "Seems to me that'd be even less difficult than four numbers. How about no numbers? That'd be easier, yet!"
    Indigo punched the numbers and the pneumatic door hissed and slid open. The six made their way down a dimly lit corridor and opened a second door---same pass code. Kenny had recoded the entire security system.
    The main lab was at the end of a system of corridors and down several stories. It was buried deeply beneath the Home. The elevator at the end of the hall was rigged with a security camera and another security code separate from the pneumatic doors.
    "Security might see us in the camera," said Sarah.
    "Anybody got a power to disrupt a camera?" asked Andy.
    "I might...but, I don't know if I have the strength," said Kenny.
    "Anybody got a better idea, then?" said Andy.
    "Let me do it," said Kenny.
    "We need you to get through the elevator code," said Indigo.
    "Why don't you just telekinesis it off the wall or something?" said Holly.
    Indigo stuck out her tongue at Holly. "If the camera just stops transmitting, they'll know."
    John shrugged. "We've all been in the elevator before. We could just go down as a group, no big deal."
    "You don't think they'll get suspicious---six potentially powerful teenagers just out for a morning elevator ride before dawn?"
    John gave Indigo a shove, sending the small girl stumbling.
    "Jerk!"
    "Wait!" Holly hissed. "Do you hear that?"
    They all froze. Holly walked over to a door along the corridor; one of the adjacent labs where secondary experiments were examined. Holly opened the door and froze.
    Andy peered into the room over her shoulder. "Bugs!"
    "They want to help," said Holly.
    "You can hear them?" said Andy. "Creepy."
    "I can," said Holly. "They want to help." Holly walked over to a floor-to-ceiling cage where dozens of bright green swallow-tailed moths were fluttering in desultory patterns.
    "How?" asked Sarah.
    "Watch," said Holly. Her eyes began to mist and haze to a foggy white. She opened the cage and the swarm of moths began to flit out of the cage, looping and crossing, bumping into lights and objects, but heading out of the room as a green-and-red cloud, nearly silent, with fuzzy red antennae guiding them as they flew. They landed on everything, tasting, sensing, and moving on once again.
    "This is so gross," said Sarah.
    "It is not," hissed Holly. "And watch your tongue. They're sensitive. They think they're pretty."
    "Oh, they are," said Sarah. "Very pretty. But, they're still bugs !"
    The moths meandered toward the elevator. The door was standing open. The moths entered and began to gather over the light in the ceiling and the lens of the camera. In moments, the entire elevator light was covered and the camera was blanked.
    "If I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't have believed it," said John. "Holly, you have one truly wicked power."
    Holly didn't say anything, but the look on her face was not pride.
    "Let's do this, then," said Indigo. "Kenny? You ready to break into this elevator?"
    Kenny swallowed again. His throat was parched. "Yeah. I think I got one more in me. Andy can you...move me over there?"
    Without a word, Andy moved him into the elevator and held him in front of the keypad by the door. Kenny reached out his hand and placed his palm onto the buttons. Instantly, the electrical tingle and the data streams began to wheel through his mind. This combination wasn't nearly as difficult to reroute as the pneumatic blast doors, but given how drained he was, it was still a Herculean task. The cement blocks did fall, though, and Kenny reclined in Andy's arms, too weak to speak or keep his eyes open. The elevator doors closed, plunging the