“What the heck is that?” I jabbed a finger at the screen, accidentally pausing the video.
“Tranquilizer dart. Probably a sniper shot it through the window,” Kyle didn't hesitate to answer as he pushed Play on the video again. “I asked Dad about it last night.”
His father being ex-career Army, he should know.
“Keep watching.” Kyle held the phone right under my nose. Out of self defense, I grabbed it from him before he could hit my face with it. He grinned and rocked back and forth on his feet.
In the video, Aimee slumped at her desk. As her head hit the keyboard, Kyle said “wham!” and snickered. My stomach knotted.
In the background, Aimee's bedroom door flew open. A man dressed in khaki slacks and a maroon and white Texas A&M University sweatshirt ran in, maybe her dad. He rushed over to Aimee and shook her.
Behind him, two soldiers dressed in camo without any patches tried to enter the room. Aimee's dad raised a hand toward them, and a blue light I recognized all too well burst out at the soldiers. Both intruders collapsed, either unconscious or dead.
Bile rose up to the back of my throat, and I had to swallow hard to force it down.
“See that? I told you those freaks are dangerous!” Kyle growled. “That dude probably used a killing spell or something on those soldiers.”
Aimee's dad shook his daughter hard, but she wouldn't wake up. In an apparent attempt to save her, he slung the skinny girl up and over his shoulder like a fireman. He managed to stagger halfway to the door before a second dart appeared, this time in his neck.
Two more soldiers appeared in the doorway just as Aimee and her dad hit the floor. One of the soldiers pushed a black band at his neck and said something. Then the video ended.
No wonder Tarah was so upset. She must have seen this video too.
“Isn't it awesome?” Kyle hooted. “Down with the freaks! Rumor is the government's doing this all over the U.S. in a major secret cleanup mission. Though why it's gotta be a secret is beyond me. They should be proud they're actually taking action! Dad says they're probably having to create special prisons out in the middle of nowhere for the Clann. He says it’d be safer than putting them in regular prisons with normal humans they might hurt.”
Because now “normal” prisoners were more valuable than people with a few extra abilities? Weren't they all still just humans?
I stared at him in disbelief, my jaw clenched, a sour taste filling my mouth. How had I ever wound up being friends with him? Just because Dad was friends with Mr. Kingsley…
“So listen, I'm putting together a group,” Kyle said as he took back his phone and started fiddling with it. “TAC. Teens Against the Clann. You want in?”
At the word “Clann”, Tarah’s head popped up. This time when our eyes met, hers were narrowed with unmistakable fury as she watched me.
I pushed past Kyle to our table a couple of yards behind Tarah’s and dropped into my usual seat. “Why would I want to get involved with anything like that?”
“Why wouldn’t you?”
I could feel more than one person’s stare as I cracked open the tab on my soda can. “Don’t we already have enough to deal with? It’s basketball season. We should stay focused on that, not be messing around with starting some club that’s going to waste our time.”
“TAC will be a serious group, not some kiddie club. We’ll be doing something important.”
“Oh yeah? Like what?” Probably just sit around in his basement listening to him talk a lot of crap about people he didn’t even know.
“The government's going to need all the insider tips they can get to help track down all these freaks. And who's more in the know around here than us?” He tapped his phone’s screen then put on his best evil grin.
My phone beeped in my jacket’s pocket. I pulled it out to find the screen lit up with an invite to an online group called Teens Against the Clann that Kyle had just created.
“This way we can send group texts and and videos and set up private chats and stuff,” Kyle explained as phones all around our table began to beep.
“Cool,” Becky said with a grin as she accepted the invite on her phone.
Heads nodded all around as thumbs hurried to accept the invite. All except mine.
“Well?” Kyle asked, staring at me now. “You in?”
Feeling the back of my neck burning, I glanced behind me. Tarah was still staring at me, her seat well within hearing range. She arched an eyebrow in silent question. Or challenge.
A loud bang in the cafeteria made me jump and several people whoop out in surprise. I looked in the direction of the sound. Apparently someone hadn't shut the cafeteria doors well enough on their way through, and the wind had caught and thrown the heavy metal doors open against the brick wall outside. That same winter wind whipped through the cafeteria now, rocking my food tray. Taking a deep, slow breath, I steadied the rattling tray by casually draping a hand over one of its rounded mint green corners.
As the wind died back down and I stared at the tray, I could feel two pairs of eyes boring into me.
Tarah at my back, still eavesdropping, waiting for me to turn down the invitation to join TAC.
Kyle at my left, waiting for me to accept the group invite.
Worst of all, though, was my dad’s voice inside my head, telling me over and over to fit in no matter what. Don’t make your brother’s mistakes, he always said. Remember, image is everything. Never forget what the Shepherd name stands for.
Dad would be seriously ticked off if I refused to join TAC. Helping the law root out dangerous rebels for the safety of the rest of society was exactly the kind of thing he’d build a political campaign platform on. In fact, if he were here, Dad would already be angry that I had hesitated this long to answer. Maybe if Tarah hadn’t been listening to the whole conversation, I could have accepted the group invite without hesitation or worry. After all, how much could a bunch of high school seniors really do, especially with Kyle leading the charge? Kyle would have his harmless fun with his big ideas for a few weeks, then everyone would get bored and too busy to make the meetings, and that would be the end of it.
But Tarah was here. She was listening. And she would remember, and always hold it against me probably, if I joined.
It shouldn’t matter what Tarah thought of me anymore. But it did. And even though I knew I really didn’t have a choice here, I wished for her sake that I did. Because I knew exactly how she would feel about it. She probably saw this as a black or white issue with an easy answer. But then everything was easy for Tarah, especially when it came to judging others. She had no idea what it was like to be weighed down by a family legacy, to grow up under the expectations of others, to have her entire life mapped out for her even before her birth. Tarah could be and do anything she wanted. She wasn’t a Shepherd.