"What?" I asked.

"Callie." His eyes examined my face, traveling over my cheeks, my eyes, my lips. "I don't know why, I can't explain it, but I feel connected to you."

"I know. Me too."

"But do you know why?" he asked.

I didn't know. I just felt it inside. "I guess sometimes there isn't a reason for everything."

"It just is."

"It just is." My heart was beating so hard, he must have been able to hear it.

He held my face with his hand. It was warm and smooth.

"You are really something special," he said. Then he leaned in and kissed my lips.

Tentative.

Gentle.

He pulled away with a boyish smile, like a five-year-old at the fair who had just won a goldfish bot.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

I went back home and slipped into Helena's bedroom. I knew it was a luxury and a distraction to think about Blake. But I was drawn to him. He had the manners and easy ways of someone who had never had to scrounge on the streets. Maybe that was what I liked about him, that he brought me back to the civilized life I used to have. Not that we were ever wealthy, but we had structure. Stability.

But I refused to think of myself as being that shallow. I liked Blake because he was kind and thoughtful, good to me and to his great-grandmother Nani. My mother always said, look to how a boy treats his mother to see how he'll treat you one day. I guess how he treated his great-grandma worked just as well.

I really wished Blake's grandfather hadn't been mixed up in this, but at least it wasn't my fault. Helena must have gone to him in her own body first, to appeal for help when Emma went missing several months ago.

I went to Helena's desk to try to find some evidence that she knew Senator Harrison would be at the awards event at the Music Center. Nothing in her computer about it, but I found a folder in a drawer. Inside was an envelope. I pulled out two tickets for the Youth League Awards, 8:00 p.m., Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Music Center.

That confirmed it. I gripped the tickets with both hands. If I was still in control of my body, then no problem. But if I blacked out, Helena would try to go through with her plan to kill the senator.

Blake's grandfather.

I tore the tickets into two pieces, then four. I ran to the bathroom, shredding them in my hands, and dumped them into the toilet.

With one touch, I flushed away Helena's opportunity to kill the senator.

I didn't want to be sitting around the house when the awards were going on in two days. That would make it too easy for Helena in case she was able to get inside my body. I needed a plan.

I went to the closet and pulled out the dressy purse I'd had at the nightclub. Inside was the card from Madison, or rather, Rhiannon. The hot, funny girl who was really a frumpy, funny Ender.

I was glad Rhiannon was still using her Madison body rental, because it made it easy to spot her the next morning. I showed up at our arranged meeting place, a super-blading rink.

It was freezing inside, with all that ice. Only the wealthiest of teens and a few courageous Enders were skating, all in state-of-the-art skating suits designed for maximum speed and body safety. Not that they needed any help. Super blades, the sign explained, had tiny lasers mounted right above the ice, controlled by buttons in the gloves. These melted the ice slightly so the skater could get better speed. But the real fun was in the jet-stream buttons, which drove a blast of air that made you slightly airborne. They could only be used for a few seconds at a time, and only raised you a couple of inches, but the sensation was compared to flying.

The things you could do if you were rich. The cost of one day here could feed ten friendlies for a week.

I spotted Madison doing spins in the center. She stopped, and I waved to her. She waved back and glided over to the side of the rink.

"Callie, this is so much fun. I feel so limber. Put on some skates and try it."

"Some other time. Madison, I need to ask a favor."

"Anything." She leaned forward. "We renters have to stick together." She pulled back and laughed. "What can I do for you?"

"You live alone, right?"

"Sweet pea, who'd want to live with me?" She laughed. "My housekeeper has her own place."

"Could I come over tomorrow? And stay overnight?"

"At my place?"

I nodded.

She clapped. "Girly slumber party!"

"That's great, thank you."

She grinned. "So, are we, like, best friends, then?" She extended her pinky.

I felt like a child, but I put mine out too, and we shook on it.

I sat in my car at a drive-thru, third in line to pick up my flash meal. Madison was the perfect choice to keep my body out of trouble on the slim chance that Helena regained control the night of the awards. She was ditzy enough not to figure out that something was wrong with my rental. I did like her, but making friends with a 150-year-old wasn't at the top of my list of priorities. I just wanted to finish up the two weeks left on my contract without any snags, like assassinations.

The car in front drove away with its order, and I moved up in the line. I eased my car forward, reached in my purse to get money. Then I felt it.

The dizziness. The fainting.

It was happening again.

When I came to, I had an assault rifle pressed against my cheek, my eye aiming down the scope. My finger started to squeeze the trigger, pulling it in slow motion. I was leaning against a wall, by an open window, aiming at a crowd of people below.

No. No, no, no!

My breath stopped. I carefully eased my finger off the trigger, letting it slowly move back to a neutral position. The world-and all its sounds-stopped for a frozen moment. Then I noticed a noise, like some demon hammering. It was my pounding heart.

A single bead of sweat escaped from my forehead and stopped at my eyebrow.

My mind was racing a million miles an hour, wondering what had happened. Was I too late?

I stood inside a hotel room. Outside, about ten stories below, a crowd was gathered in a square, facing a stage with an empty podium.

My heart beat even faster. Was the senator already dead?

Please, no.

I examined the rifle. It was loaded. Fully. The barrel was cool to the touch. Below, the crowd was calm.

I breathed out. I hadn't shot anyone.

Where was I? The tall buildings looked like downtown L.A. The park below, Pershing Square.

On the desk, there was a leather folder embossed with The Millennium Biltmore Hotel in gold foil. Nice place Helena had picked to kill someone. I lifted the rifle to remove the cartridge.

Callie. Please don't.

Her voice came in more clearly than ever.

Don't unload.

"Helena?"

Yes.

"You can hear me?" I asked.

Now I can. We have a better connection.

"How's this possible?" I shivered, as if to shake her out of me. "What have you gotten me into?"

I took the cartridge out of the rifle and put it on the desk.

Could you reload the rifle, please? We don't have much time.

"No, I'm not going to reload!" I shouted. "You shouldn't have a weapon in the first place." I threw it on the bed. "Where did you get it?"

If you destroy it, the way you did my gun, I'll just get another.

"I didn't destroy it. I threw it away." I went to the window and looked down.

Senator Harrison was arriving. He climbed to the podium area and began addressing the crowd.

"I'm not going to shoot anyone for you, and I'm not going to let you use my body to kill." I reached up and slammed the window shut.

Listen to me, Callie. I want to prevent a crime. One that will affect tens of thousands of people your age.

I shook my head. "You've got a bad track record for telling me the truth."

I decided it would be smart to get far away from the rifle and such a dangerous vantage point, just in case. I stormed to the door.

Callie, stop.

I slammed the door behind me and ran down the hallway. "What kind of person plans something like this?"

Don't run. You just had surgery.

My feet slowed to a walk. Was she making this up? To control me?

Your chip.

I touched the back of my head. It was sore. More sore than when Blake had touched it.

"What'd you do to me?" I screamed.

An Ender couple came out of their room and stared at me. I was a crazy girl in the hallway, shouting to no one. I rushed ahead to the elevators and slipped into an open one. As the brass-plated doors closed, I saw my reflection in them. I was wearing a black jumpsuit and my hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail. What look was Helena going for, ninja chic?

We altered the chip.

I gripped the railing inside the elevator. "You had someone operate on me?"

He's a biochip expert. And a surgeon. We had to alter the stop-kill switch.

"The what?" The elevator stopped and an Ender joined me. I had no choice but to shut up and listen to Helena.

The chip's design prevents renters from killing. My friend disabled it when I began the rental. But there were the problems, the sporadic blackouts, me getting pushed out of the-your-body, the bouncing back and forth. At that point I asked him to try to fix it. The best he could do was make it so we could communicate like this.

I glanced at the Ender in the elevator with me. He seemed to like the way I was dressed. Great. When the elevator stopped at the lobby level, I let him go ahead of me, until he was out of earshot.

"Well, I don't want you messing with my head. And I don't want you in my head," I said to Helena. "That wasn't part of the deal." I felt my cheeks on fire.

The lobby was swarming with people pressing against the windows to get a glimpse of the senator speaking in the park across the street.

"Where's the car?" I asked Helena.

Please, don't go.

I reached in my pockets and found a valet ticket. As I exited the hotel, I handed it to the doorman.

A microphone amplified the senator's voice so I could hear him from where I stood. I watched as he addressed the crowd from the podium.

"Our youth could have a productive role in our society," he said.

He is such a liar.

"All politicians lie," I said. "It's a requirement for the job."

His lies are big. The kind that kill children.