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.There was an alertness to the set of his shoulders.I wondered if, when we got off the train, I could get a better look at his face.Then, as if he could feel my eyes on him, he turned around.My breath caught in my throat.Adrien.It was as if my body itself reacted to him.My face flushed and I felt hot all over.I swallowed.I didn’t understand why I felt this way, or what it was even that I was feeling.His blue-green eyes met mine in the mirrored glass.The instant our eyes met, he stiffened and I could see his grip tighten on the pole he was holding for balance.His eyes suddenly became vacant, staring beyond me.I glanced behind me in confusion, trying to figure out what he was looking at, but there was nothing there.I turned to look back at him.After another few tense seconds, he blinked and looked around him like he was trying to reorient himself, his head swaying slightly.I breathed out and forced my eyes down to the floor, wondering if that was what I looked like when I glitched in and out of the Link.I dared to look back again but his carefully composed posture was different now.His eyes flicked back and forth between me and the group of Regulators-in-training.He took a step toward me, weaving through the crowd of unmoving bodies on the train car.People barely glanced at him as he brushed past, grabbing a pole close to my left for balance just as the train curved around an especially sharp corner.What was he doing? He was acting anomalously right in front of the Regulators! And worse, he was coming toward me, bringing attention to me, too.My heart monitor started vibrating.I swallowed, put my head down, and squeezed my eyes shut to get myself under control.I couldn’t afford to have it start beeping here, not while I was trapped in an enclosed space with all of these witnesses, not to mention the Regulators.Just then I heard a disruption at the other end of the train, a loud clunk noise that echoed throughout the otherwise silent train car.I looked up, momentarily distracted by the sound.It was one of the Regulators-in-training.He was grabbing his head and stumbling around.He’d banged his armor-plated forehead into the wall again—that was the sound I’d first heard.“Regulator Anderson,” said one of the other young Regulators, reaching out an arm to steady the unstable Regulator.The one called Anderson knocked the arm away.The loud clang of metal on metal from their steel-alloy bionic arms was so loud and piercing that I winced.Several of the people on the train began tapping their arm panels, no doubt reporting the anomalous incident.I felt a wave of relief, followed by another of shame.I was glad it wasn’t me they were reporting, but what about this poor Regulator? What would happen to him?Anderson let out a sharp yell as the other three Regulators-in-training attempted to subdue him.They surrounded him but that only made him more wild.He thrashed outward with both bionic arms at the Regulators and sent one flying halfway across the train car into the standing crowd.The heavy Regulator knocked over a group of people, his momentum only stopping when he slammed into a metal pole.The pole snapped from the ceiling and hit a woman hard in the torso, knocking her down.It was all happening so fast, I could barely register what was going on.Out of the corner of my eye I saw the other two Regulators still tussling and trying to get Anderson under control.Then I was forced back against the far wall from them by the crowd, and I didn’t have a good view of what was going on anymore.It was only after another quick look that I realized it was Adrien’s body in front of mine, blocking me against the safety of the back subway-car wall.He swiveled his head to the side, whispering urgently, “Stay against the wall.A glitching Regulator is shuntin’ deadly.”Anderson let out a feral shriek at the other end of the subway car.The knock of metal on metal and the beeping of at least ten people’s heart monitors triggered by pain filled the space.I craned my neck to see over Adrien’s shoulder just as two of the Regulators pinned Anderson against the side wall.He thrashed violently under their grip, his face mottled and red.Spit dripped down over the metal that framed his jaw.His blue jumpsuit had ripped, revealing more of the metal alloy that had been grafted into his skin.“Deactivate, Regulator Anderson,” said one of the Regulators who held him.“I repeat, deactivate.”My heart jumped into my throat at the word.They were going to kill him? Did he have some kind of internal hardware that would kill him at the simple command of their words? Over all of the chaos in the train, a high-pitched buzzing blared in my ears.“Don’t!” Adrien whispered just as the arm of one of the Regulators holding Anderson was yanked away by an invisible force.My force.“I didn’t mean to,” I gasped, my eyes wide.Adrien stared at me in panic.Anderson had taken the momentary freedom from the Regulator’s grip to pull away.The others lunged for him but he twisted away and ran headfirst into the opposite wall.The hydraulics on his legs contracted and then released as he sprang forward with incredible force, taking a subject who’d been standing in his way with him [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]