“You begin tomorrow,” Callaway went on. “You will both move into a separate barracks just for cadets in the L and C program. You are one of only three sets chosen to work in the program, and I’m sure you will make us all proud.” He looked like he was about to sit down, but then he stopped and turned back to smile at us. “Oh, and cadets. While we found your simulation test to be most amusing and the use of chamber pots to be inventive and resourceful, please remember that from now on you are a team. If one of you fails, you both fail. There is no going back to the regular Academy track after this.” He sat back down as goose bumps prickled up my neck like spiders. No going back. The very same words that had been in the Cocoon.

Chapter Fifteen

Elliot

I stomped back toward my room to start packing. My future, a future where I rose to glory on the back of my own hard work and devotion to Glitching, had just gone up in smoke. All the extra hours studying, the extra time in the simulation rooms, the extra books and essays I’d read on every obscure historical event known to man didn’t matter. Because now I was saddled with a parasite of a partner. My mind jumped to the Cocoon, and I felt a fresh surge of anger. Obviously, those future versions of ourselves had known that we were going to end up in the stupid partner program, so why hadn’t they just told us what was coming?

I stopped dead in my tracks as a realization hit me like an oncoming train. This whole thing wouldn’t have happened without that Cocoon. That letter had caused a domino effect of events that pitted Regan against me in a simulation test that just so happened to also be testing for compatibility for the partner program. What had Callaway called it? The Lewis and Clark partner program?

Suddenly I felt light-headed, and I made my way off the main path I’d been walking to take a seat at one of the stone benches that peppered the campus. People called out to me, but I ignored everyone, lost in my own angry bubble as I sat there stewing. Because try as I might, I couldn’t find a way to be mad at just Regan and ignore the fact that I was the one who picked up that letter in the hall. I was the one who just had to show it to her to demand answers she didn’t have. Why hadn’t I just chucked it directly into the trash?

Now I was going to have to pack up and move into a dorm with Fitz of all people. With a resigned sigh I shoved myself to my feet and headed toward the dorm I’d called home for most of my life.