“I heard what happened at the … um … Mini …—” He vigorously wiped his hands on his baggy combat pants, then shoved them into his pockets after realizing how psychotic he looked.

“So, this room’s amazing, huh? All yours?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Yeah, yeah. I designed it myself.” He smiled, surveying the room with fresh eyes. “I’ve got the, um … 360 over there, PS3, DS. But if you like, um … old school games, I’ve got original boxes too. Um, the PCs are all Aliens. The surround sou—”

I gasped, cutting him off as I noticed the unusual larger-than-life painting on the wall behind me. A silver-haired warrior with striking eyes as blue as mine stared back at me. They looked oddly real. Now that was art.

“Sephiroth,” Josh and I said in unison.

“Only the most amazing boss of all time,” Josh said over my “A complete son of a bitch bastard who deserved everything he got.” We both laughed and then I returned to my mission.

Unfortunately, it was more a matter of waiting than anything. To kill time, I busied myself with reprogramming some of Josh’s games, and then against my better judgment started hacking into the Peak County Medical network. With a few simple keystrokes, I crossed a line, and instead of looking at my own records, I pulled up Parker Walsh’s.

He was the last person to see Kori alive. He knew things no one else did. And, since we weren’t exactly friends, I didn’t feel comfortable just charging into his hospital room and making accusations and demanding answers.

Besides, I had trouble understanding how the boy I saw stumbling around the crash site could really be paralyzed. Apparently, so did the doctors. His file was filled with medical jargon I didn’t understand. I could tell there were a lot of tests being run and rerun—X-rays, CT scans, MRIs, something called electroencephalograms. And even though I had no idea what any of those things meant, I understood that just like I was, the doctors were looking for the answer to something they didn’t have an easy explanation for.

At the sound of someone knocking on the door, I quickly backed out of the hospital’s system. A woman entered with a tray of snacks. Not the original maid, but one who looked remarkably similar.

Ten paces behind her, a finely appointed woman whisked in as if on a breeze, not at all surprised at having company. Josh’s mother. Imagine that.

Her beaming smile zeroed in on me. She clapped her hands before gliding across the room and embracing me.

“Serena, it is so good to finally meet you.”

Did she say finally?

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Josh’s grimace. His glowing hot cheeks were melting the camo paint off his face.

“Mom,” Josh wailed, clearly in as much pain as I was. “Don’t glomp on her like that.”