“This isn’t your business right now, Tom,” Heather told him, never taking her sharp gaze from Wyatt’s. “Wyatt and I are chatting.”

Wyatt raised her chin a bit. “No, I didn’t do that.”

Heather cocked her head, propping her hands on her hips. “What’s that? Are you saying you didn’t spread slander about me?”

Louder, Wyatt said, “No. I didn’t. After all, slander’s not true.”

Heather drew a step closer to her. Seeing two girls in a passion of anger, ready to tangle, made Tom strangely exultant and filled him with excited anticipation, but he knew he had to step in. He shoved an arm in front of both of them.

“Hey, cut this out, both of you—”

“This isn’t about you, Tom!” Wyatt snapped this time.

“Yes, mind your own business,” Heather hissed.

Intimidated, Tom backed off.

Heather’s amber eyes were glittering. “I’ve never really liked you, Enslow, but I haven’t had a problem with you. No reason to make your life miserable . . . until now. I really don’t appreciate being stabbed in the back, so I’m not going to do that to you.”

“Why am I the lone exception?” Wyatt said blandly.

“I’m here to warn you that you made the wrong enemy. You’re on my radar now, Enslow, and whatever you might think, I have a lot of influence in CamCo, more every single day. I can make sure you never become a Combatant. Not only that, but I will make your life seriously suck around here.”

Wyatt’s face had gone very blank, her gaze stony. “Glad we had this talk,” Heather said, and whirled around, dark hair swishing as she pranced back toward the elevator.

Tom needed to fix this. He started after Heather, not sure what he’d say but hopeful he could come up with something.

Wyatt caught his arm before he reached Heather. “Where are you going?”

“I’ll talk to her for you.”

“Why?”

“She’s threatening you, I’ll threaten her. Somehow.” Tom shrugged. “I’ll figure it out.”

“No,” Wyatt said, irritated. “I want to threaten my own enemies.”

Tom looked her over and detected the same resolve in her face he’d only seen a few times—but he’d learned to fear it. “Okay. But threaten fast, she’s gonna be out of here, soon.”

Wyatt turned to her forearm keyboard, quickly typing something in, launching a program. The elevator door slid open, but Heather jerked to a halt before she stepped through. For a moment, she stood there in the doorway, her back rigid, then she whirled around and blazed back over to them.

“What did you do?” she demanded, getting back in Wyatt’s face.

“Oops,” Wyatt said, glancing at her keyboard. “Was that your firewall I knocked down? I think it was.”