Title Page

Copyright

Electronic Edition

ISBN 

978-1-59606-729-5

Subterranean Press

PO Box 190106

Burton, MI 48513

Prologue

Prologue - Rae

Rae had failed Chloe once. She wouldn’t do it again.

She sat in the hotel room, listening to her mom talk to John Schultz. He was their main contact with “the group.” They were talking about Chloe. Schultz had “a man on the inside,” as he called him. Someone at Badger Lake feeding him information about the kids being held captive there: Chloe, Simon, Derek and Tori. There were also a bunch of others Rae didn’t know—subjects in another Edison Group experiment called Project Phoenix.

Rae had been on the run for almost eighteen months now. Ever since her mother rescued her from the Edison Group, after Rae had…

She swallowed. After she’d betrayed Chloe. She’d thought she was doing the right thing—Dr. Davidoff had convinced her that the Edison Group only wanted to help the kids. She should have seen right through the lie, but after years in foster care, competing for attention with her younger foster siblings—and almost always losing… Well, her mom said that was why Rae had done it. Dr. Davidoff had made her feel special and promised her an amazing life, and she’d fallen for it. She wouldn’t make excuses for that. She’d messed up bad. Betrayed the best friend she’d had in years. But she was going to fix that now.

Chloe and the others had been captured by the Nast Cabal. Six months ago, when Sean Nast had tracked down Rae and her mom, he’d seemed like the answer to their prayers. He’d cut a deal with the St. Cloud Cabal to let all the Edison Group kids finally stop running. He would protect them from others, and he’d give them a place to live—Badger Lake, a community custom-made for the kids and their families. They’d get a house. Her mom would have a job. Rae would go to school and, later, to college, all of it paid for by the Nasts. The only catch was that they’d also get special training in hopes that they’d decide to become Cabal employees when they were old enough.

Did it sound too good to be true? Not exactly, and that’s why they’d fallen for it. Because, as her mom said, the Nasts knew exactly how to make their offer both enticing and plausible. It was like an athletic company wooing future Olympians by giving them all the training and equipment they need in hopes it will pay off in sponsorship. A business gamble. Perfectly logical. Except it was a lie.