"What, you know this guy or something?" He motioned to his body. "Honey, I'm going to have a great time with it. Why do you think I did this? I'm gonna go wild. Nothing's gonna hold me back." He roared with laughter.

I was breathing so hard I was afraid fire was going to come out my nostrils.

It just made this lowlife grin. Whoever he was.

"You're really sweet. You his girlfriend?" he asked. "Then maybe I got a bonus with this body, huh?"

He put his arm around my shoulder. I threw it off.

"Don't touch me," I said. "Because I don't want to bruise that body."

Passing Enders stared at us. Then the creep did something I never would have imagined. He leaned in close, stuck out his tongue, and gave my cheek a long lick from jawline to eye. I pushed him away hard and wiped the slime with the back of my hand.

"Stop it," I said, gritting my teeth. I wanted to punch him so hard. But that was Michael's body.

"Well, it was fun having this little reunion and all, but I gotta go," he said. "So much excitement, so much life out there, waiting ... for me."

He winked, backed away, and then turned to hustle off. The guard was still staring at me from across the street.

I'd found Michael, but I hadn't found him at all. The guy who I could always count on, the thoughtful, sensitive guy, wasn't there. Some slimy, ignorant old Ender, maybe two hundred years old, whose real body smelled like moldy cheese, was occupying Michael's skin.

Renting Michael. But he hadn't said "rented." He'd said, "It's mine."

What if he had bought Michael? Was this one of the first official permanents?

No. Please, no.

I looked down the street but couldn't see him anymore. I ran, pumping my arms. When I got to the corner, I looked up and down the cross street. Was that his brown jacket to the left? I opened my purse and snaked through the crowd of strolling Enders. My right hand slipped into my purse and gripped the gun.

When I caught up to him, I pressed the gun into his back, covering it with my body so no one else could see.

"Stop," I whispered in his ear.

I grabbed his arm to make sure he obeyed. He spoke over his shoulder.

"Please don't hurt me. I'll give you my wallet." The voice was too high.

I turned him around and saw an acne-scarred face on the verge of tears. This was some normal Starter.

"Sorry," I said, and let go of him.

He froze there on the sidewalk, in shock.

"Run," I said, and he did.

I spun around, scanning the faces of the sidewalk crowd, but it was hopeless. I'd lost Michael. I'd had one precious chance to protect him as his body left the body bank. But I'd let him slip away.

I wanted to cry, but all that came out were panicked breaths.

This was worse than if I'd never found him at all.

I stood in a daze while the sea of silver-headed Enders flowed around me.

Which way back to my car? I had gotten disoriented. The last thing I wanted to do was to get any closer to the body bank. I took a second to get my bearings and then went north. Ahead, in the crowd of Enders, three familiar young faces headed my way.

Briona, Lee, and Raj, their arms loaded with glossy shopping bags.

"Callie!" Briona waved at me.

They were wearing the latest fashions, from their ultra-hip sunglasses to their pointy designer boots.

"Briona," I said, trying to sound normal. "What a coincidence."

"No coincidence," Raj said. "Everyone knows the best shopping is in Beverly Hills."

Briona gave a bright smile to Raj. "We popped in at Prime," she said. "To ask about the new services."

"We just noticed your number came up on ours." Lee held up his cell phone.

"My phone's not on," I said.

"Uh. Yes it is," Lee said.

I opened my purse, angling it away so they couldn't see the gun. My old phone was lit.

"How'd it get on? I turned it off."

"Purse call, happens all the time," Briona said.

I shut off the phone.

"Did I see two phones in your purse?" Raj asked.

"Yeah, one's mine." I closed my bag. "And one's the donor's."

"Here, let's sit," Briona said.

Before I could protest, she pulled me by the elbow to a nearby table outside a small cafe. We were the only customers there.

"Raj, go inside and get us some lattes," she said, and he obeyed.

"I can't stay," I said.

"Only for a minute." Lee sat too close on the other side of me.

Nervous glances shot across the table. What was going on? Briona tapped her nails on the tabletop. Lee stared at her and she stopped.

"So, did you hear about the announcement?" Briona leaned forward. "From Prime?"

"Yeah. What'd you think?" I asked.

"Can't wait to go permanent," Lee said. "Stop playing around, settle down and focus on building a new life."

"You have your eye on something special?" Briona asked.

"No," I said. "Do you?"

"I have my eye on a cute little blond sixteen-year-old," Briona said. "I could do a much better job of using her body than she could. And I'm so much smarter." She rested her chin on her palm.

Lee's legs bounced up and down nervously. That reminded me of someone. I tried to remember.

"It's like that old expression, 'Youth is wasted on the young,' " Lee said. "How about you, Callie, are you going to go permanent? With this body or another?"

"Something wrong with this one?" I asked.

"Nothing that I can see," he said. His legs continued to bounce.

"Going permanent sounds scary," I said.

"I guess if you're unhappy they'll let you exchange," he said.

"But then what happens to the donor body?" Briona asked. "I mean, you can't exactly let that little blonde come back to life three months later. She'd be all like, 'What happened?' "

"Maybe she wouldn't notice," I said.

"As soon as she looks at her calendar and sees she lost months instead of days," Lee said, "she'll know."

"The advantage to renting is you can try new things," Briona said. "If I had a permanent, I wouldn't dare do anything dangerous, like boxing, for example. But with a rental, it's no big deal."

"Except for the whopping penalty fee," Lee said.

"That's what rental insurance is for," Briona said. She winked.

"But permanency is a bargain," he said. "Huge savings over renting."

These Enders were driving me crazy. How could they talk about us this way? We were just vehicles for their pleasure, for their stupid fantasies. If we died, so what, it was covered by insurance.

They fell silent. Lee's legs bounced up and down and Briona drummed the table with her long nails. Where had I seen those habits before?

Lee caught me staring at Briona's hands. Nervous glances flashed like lasers. I pulled my purse closer to my body.

A chill washed over me. I knew who they were. They weren't some random Enders.

An SUV pulled up to the curb with Raj at the wheel. That was why all the chat. They were waiting for the car.

"Guess we're taking our coffee to go." Briona stood.

Lee also stood. He slipped his arm in mine. "Ready, Callie?"

I yanked away and opened my purse. "No."

"Come with us." Briona moved closer.

I pulled out the gun and pushed it into her side. "I don't think so. Doris."

"Now, careful," Lee said quietly. "Don't do anything stupid."

"What are you worried about? It's not your body, Tinnenbaum," I said.

Raj, in the SUV, looked over at us. He couldn't see the gun and was still pretending everything was fine. He held up a paper cup of coffee in an inviting gesture.

"All this time, you were hiding in those bodies," I said. "Spying on me."

Lee moved to block my way. He was on one side, Briona on the other.

"Just get in the car, Callie," she said.

"I don't need any coffee," I said. "I'm wired enough."

I pushed Briona away and she stumbled into Lee's arms. I ran into the shop and out the back entrance.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO.

I didn't turn around to see if Lee or Briona was chasing me. No, make that Tinnenbaum or Doris, now that I had figured out who they really were. Who they had been all along. Raj, at the wheel, was probably Rodney, the guy who had escorted me to see Tyler and Michael. Why would the body bank have them spying on me like that, pretending to be normal renters? Had they known about Helena's plan all along? Or had it started after she altered the chip?

I came to the street where my car was parked and got in. As I pulled out, I saw a black SUV do a U-turn and follow me. Was that them? I couldn't see, because a truck got between us.

I pulled out the new phone and called Tyler's hotel. I wanted to tell Florina about Michael. "Room 1509, please."

"That party checked out this morning," the operator said.

"What? No, they couldn't have."

"I'm sorry, but they left this morning."

My stomach sank as if I were in an elevator with a cut cable.

I demanded to speak to the manager who had checked us in. She got on the phone and confirmed what the operator had said. My brother and Florina had left no word as to where to reach them. The manager also said she had seen them get in a car with a man, a senior. He had said he was Florina's grandfather.

I felt a numbness come over me like a wave. Florina didn't have a grandfather. She wouldn't have been living on the streets if she did. And she would have left me a note.

Someone had taken them. Who? A ball of fire blinded me. I'd heard of kids being taken for ransom. Had the car and fancy hotel given Florina ideas? Was her nicey-nicey routine all an act? A desperate Starter could do anything these days. Or maybe it was an undercover marshal? Some Ender in the hotel, a client or even an employee looking for side money, could have seen the poor unclaimed minors and ratted on them.