Dan had been ringing his bell for almost five whole minutes when Katherine finally appeared in the doorway with an unopened bottle of water. She glared.

“You couldn’t wait five whole minutes,” she said through her teeth.

“I’m thirsty. And it’s time to take my pills.” Dan smiled cherubically and placed his gold bell back on the low table next to his bed. The bell had a black handle; he’d picked it out himself after his surgery and used it frequently.

Katherine set down the bottle of water a little harder than was necessary; it shook the small table and caused the bell to jangle.

“Watch it,” Dan said. “And you know I am not supposed to over-exert myself. I need the bottle opened. And poured into this small cup.”

“Dan, Geoff said you should have been able to do everything again three weeks ago. You’re fine. Take your stupid medicine and stop ringing the bell.”

“But you get me stuff each time I ring it,” Dan said. Katherine glared again and poured the water into a small plastic cup like Dan asked.

“I wish we had more IV sacks,” she said. “Then I wouldn’t have to get your stupid water all the time.”

“I wish we did too,” said Dan. He took the little cup from her and opened the container labeled ‘Fri’ and which contained six assorted pills. “It was a lot easier keeping track of all this stuff then. Didn’t even have to raise my arm to ring the bell.” He popped a few in his mouth and downed everything with the water. Katherine refilled the little cup several more times so that he could take each pill with the appropriate amount of liquid.

“Throw this away?” he said, gesturing at the empty water bottle and plastic cup. There was a trash can across the room from his bed, but Katherine did it for him. If she left and he tried to throw the trash into the can and missed, then Katherine knew he would be ringing the bell again anyway (although she frequently considered that Dan should never miss anything considering his enhanced eyesight…).



In truth, Katherine felt more than partly responsible for Dan’s accident. It had been her, after all, who had told Dan where to go on their first raid of the Miller corporation in Milwaukee. What a horrible failure that was, Katherine reflected as she threw away the bottle and left the room. They’d all been so green when they’d unanimously decided to attack Miller first, thinking they had enough strength between all of them to pull it off. Of course there were going to be traps.

Katherine went to the living room of the apartment and sat down, despondent, on the couch. It always disheartened her to think about that first attack. It was embarrassing, even.

It had been shortly after their close escape from the black Escalades; one of them had a tag in its corner, and Geoff had memorized it as they were speeding away. Much later, after they’d gotten back to Baltimore, everyone having agreed to stay in one place and together, Geoff ran the plate through a computer program to trace it. No one knew that Geoff had been working on the program for a week; using every article he could lay his hands on concerning information gathering, he’d knocked it together.

“Look,” Geoff had said when a notification had popped up.

Dan, Joe, Jay, and Dunbar looked over his shoulder; Katherine stayed on the couch, her eyelids heavy.

“Belongs to Miller. See? I told you all. So now we know it’s them for sure. That means nearly all the pieces of my theory fit together, you know? Except for who’s behind the whole thing, who tipped Miller off about where we all were.” Geoff smiled, satisfied.

The others looked grim.

“What should we do?” asked Jay.

“I’ll tell you what we should do,” said Geoff. “We should go after them. Hit them hard. I mean, look at us. We have these powers. We should be able to break into the Miller headquarters, find their plans, and take them down so that their strategies can never be realized.”

“Do you think that’s a good idea?” asked Joe.

“Of course it’s a good idea,” said Geoff. “Otherwise, think of the damage they’ll do. They’ve already chased us down in Cadillacs. We've been hiding ever since but we know that someone's after us. What’s next if we don't show up? They know who we are. Are they going to go after our families or something? Kill us in our sleep? Or do they want to experiment on us? I think that’s worse, experimentation.”

“I don’t want them coming after my family,” said Jay. “No way.”

And so in another few hours they’d had a plan. Katherine had listened half-heartedly, she and Dunbar being the only ones to remotely object to the whole situation. Both of them frowned as they listened. Geoff did most of the talking and the planning, drawing out a large diagram on a whiteboard that he propped in the middle of the room. It blocked the television so that Joe could not play Katamari and not pay attention.

“But all I can do is regrow my liver!” Joe had protested when Geoff had switched off the console and placed the board in front of it.

“Exactly,” said Geoff. “You’re the most important.” He turned his nose up at Joe and began writing in large block letters, OUR PLAN across the top of the board.

“How is that important?” Joe said, but he smiled despite himself.

“Shut up,” said Travis, and that topic was closed.

In the end, all of them would go. It was thought that Bryant would have been the best person for the job with the fire-setting and what not, but since he wasn’t there, his name was wiped through with a swath of cloth. That left Katherine directing—(“Because you’re good at telling people what to do. Not so good with doing stuff,” Geoff had said, sensibly)—Dunbar as the muscle, Dan as lookout, Jay as the decoys, Joe as a human shield…in reserve…and Travis as the driver. They’d picked out a date and a time, and since Geoff had already obtained layouts of the Miller corporation headquarters on his phone and sent them to his computer in Baltimore, started brainstorming a plan.

When it had come time to do it, Jay had quadrupled himself and sent his clones to disarm all of the guards. Things were fine. They hadn’t even brought firepower, although Dan had offered. But Katherine and Dunbar had overruled him, citing that they could accomplish enough without shooting anybody. Dan wasn’t so sure. Geoff hadn’t had an opinion on this matter; he had thought his plan was foolproof, especially with the Jays as decoys everywhere.

But then Katherine and Dunbar had split up; Dan had followed Katherine to an unmarked room. They were no longer in touch with Geoff since Katherine had forgotten her cell phone and refused to use internet service or off-hour minutes anyway. Geoff had planned for that scenario but had not planned for Katherine to get so fed up with Dan making strange wheezing noises to scare her that she shoved him out of the room and told him to look down the next hallway.

Dan had crept down by himself, found another unmarked room, and went inside. He’d made sure to check down the hall, watching for any slight movement and saw none, and so ventured in. The room was a large, long storage room. They were on the first floor, but this room seemed to take up so vast a space it didn't seem possible that it was still part of the Miller building they saw. As he walked farther in, the lights came on automatically and he found that the floor sloped downward. The room had three staircases and a lift leading downwards to a large storage facility with row upon row of shelves, each at least ten feet night. He wasn’t sure how long they were because they extended back beyond his vision—he could see depth, but not around corners—and were filled with labeled crates and cases of Miller.

One in particular had caught Dan’s eye, a six pack of bottles with a label he had never seen before. The label was red with a black skull in the center. There was only one case of it and for some reason it drew him. With his extrasensory vision he felt pulled towards it; the label was the brightest color he perceived down the entire row, and the beer itself seemed to glow around the label. Dan found himself reaching for the bottle, unable to stop…

When Katherine had found Dan, he was on the floor, face down. Several bottles had shattered, leaving Dan in a spreading puddle of vomit and pungent beer. She hadn’t known what to do at first and gaped. Only after a few moments of blind panic seizing her body, did she see that Dan’s right arm—splayed out next to him—was twitching. He was alive. Not wanting to get near the puddle of beer and vomit, she reached out with her mind and rolled him over. His body slapped wetly against the concrete floor as Katherine released him (not so gently) and ran back for help.

It had been almost too late when they’d managed to take Dan back to the motel room they’d been renting. And then it took Geoff the next four hours to figure out what was wrong; Dan’s liver was failing. “How can you be sure?” Dunbar asked. Everyone looked at Dan lying on his back, resting uncomfortably. No one had volunteered to clean him up and he still reeked of beer and vomit.

“The blood. Tested it a while ago. And look. He has all the symptoms of liver failure. It makes sense. There was an unrecognized compound in the blood. What if Miller made this beer specially? I don’t know what for, but somehow Dan found it. And if I know anything about unrecognizable compounds, it’s that they’re usually for bad guys doing bad stuff.” Geoff said this last part with such emphasis, nobody in the group said a word. “It was my fault,” Katherine said. She frowned. “He was pissing me off. Making The Grudge noise. Remember? So I told him to go check the other rooms. And one was the storage room. I guess he found it there.”

“Well, if you’d just stuck to the plan…” Travis said, rolling his eyes. “You know Dan can’t control himself around beer.”

“Especially new beer,” said Dunbar. “Look.” He pulled out a bottle from his pocket and set it in front of Geoff.

“This is perfect!” said Geoff. “Beautiful!” He took the bottle over to a table stacked high with equipment and a bright fluorescent light. Then with a pair of tweezers he tore out of a plastic bag, he began peeling up the label.

“What are you doing?” Katherine said.

“Testing it. You all need to leave me for a while. Leave Dan. Go. I’ll let you know when I have the results.” Geoff didn't turn around, but waved them off.

“How did he get all this stuff in here, anyway?” Joe whispered to Travis as they piled out the door.

They sat outside. It was cold, and they didn't speak, just watched their breath, intermittent clouds in the night. It seemed a long time passed before the door opened again and yellow light bathed their backs. It was Geoff; he leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed. Pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with an index finger.

“What is it?” Dunbar asked, standing up.

“Well,” said Geoff, “Dan’s going to need a new liver.”

“What? That’s awesome,” Travis said. He laughed, and it rippled through the rest of them until even Geoff was chuckling. “We thought Joe’s liver was going to be the first to go out.” They laughed harder.

They finally quieted down. “Right,” said Geoff. “I wasn’t kidding. I can do the procedure, but we’re going to need to go buy a lot of tarps. Or plastic sheets or something. And I’ll need an X-acto knife set. Joe, you’re the donor… since you can regrow your own liver.”

After that, Katherine refused to remember what had happened. She knew perfectly well what had happened, however, but as she felt responsible for the whole mess, remembering wasn’t something she wanted to do for no reason. The operation had been terrible, although Katherine missed much of the actual removal of Joe’s liver; she stood outside in the cold instead, shivering and crying once in a while. The rest of them had been required to help keep Joe and Dan alive. Katherine had suggested that there must be some other way of keeping Dan alive without having to transplant his liver, like simply taking Dan’s blood and filtering it through Joe’s healthy liver or something instead, but Joe had adamantly refused to have any of Dan’s fluid inside of or anywhere near him.

And so, forty-two hours after they’d come out of the Miller corporation with Dan slung over Dunbar’s shoulder, Dan made it through his first liver transplant and first major surgery of his life. They had gone back to Baltimore after that, Dan laying strapped down in the back of Dunbar’s van, Katherine sitting stone still in the front, refusing to look at him. Jay sat in the back with Dan, wiping away the blood that ran out around his stitches that threatened to burst whenever Dunbar took a curve too sharply or braked suddenly. Joe was fine; except for his own stitches which he complained about and scratched when nobody was looking. Privately, Joe thought that they would make kind of a bad ass scar when they were done healing, but for the moment were annoying.



The ringing of a bell brought Katherine out of her reverie. She blinked and the bell sounded more urgently.

“Dammit Dan,” she snapped, but stomped back to the room where he lay. “What?”

“Get me some food,” he said. He had turned on the small television, just at the foot of his bed. “And some painkillers. These aren’t working.” “I’ll get you food. What do you want?” Katherine said absently. She picked up the bottle of pills and examined the label. “You can’t have anymore painkillers. Not for another four hours.”

“Who cares? Give them to me,” Dan said. He leaned forward and winced, bringing his hand back to his side.

“Geoff told you not to go over the drug limits. You know it’s for the best.” She slipped the bottle in her pocket and then rattled off the names of several places close by that she could order food from. They rarely kept food in the house as a general rule, especially not now that they were trying to keep a low profile. And because nobody ever wanted to go to a grocery store and shop for everybody.

When she got off the phone from ordering Dominos, she was met with Jay and Geoff tramping in through the door. Geoff looked perplex, his forehead wrinkled in concentration, and Jay looked frustrated. As she looked, another Jay walked in but promptly began to shimmer as the first Jay put his arm on the second Jay’s shoulder. The duplicate shimmered until he looked merely as though he was reflected through badly blown glass, and then disappeared from sight.

“I don’t really understand why you don’t just keep some alive,” said Katherine. She replaced the phone and watched them.

Jay shrugged. ‘Alive’ wasn’t technically the term he would use, but he let it pass. He wasn’t in the mood for a debate right now. They had just come back from a long stint out watching, gathering information, and generally laying as low as they could but still doing their job without getting caught. It was exhausting, even with Geoff’s brilliant ideas driving each of their movements.

“They’re kind of annoying,” he said. “It’s kind of like being aware of this itch, all day every day, when one’s still out there. So I just absorb them and we all benefit.”

“You know what they know,” said Katherine. She sat down on the couch opposite Geoff, who sat down in his upright chair, still thinking. His computer monitor glowed next to him, and occasionally he would sit back, look as though he wanted to speak, but then inevitably go back to his musing.

“Well, did you guys discover anything? Who’s tracking us?”

Both Jay and Geoff looked at her. They were tired and dirty.

Jay thought back on this evening’s watch. It had been a nightmare.



Geoff had told Jay to stay back. And so Jay sat in the car behind the wheel while Geoff got out. Lately, they'd been driving to small liquor stores all around Baltimore, trying to gather information. And Geoff had been buying cases of Miller High Life in part to satisfy Joe, and to test its molecular structures. So far he hadn't been successful in finding a brew with any abnormal properties...but he was still trying. Tonight, Geoff had said to him before leaving the car,

"I'm going to walk around a bit. Maybe we can lure this ...these... whoever's following us around if I stay out in the open."

"Okay," said Jay, indifferent.

Geoff continued. "I mean... I think we've been unsuccessful because Katherine has suggested we just stick to going to the liquor stores and coming home. But how are we ever going to figure this out if we don't put ourselves out there, you know? Not in an obvious manner, of course. But just for a little longer."

"Right," Jay had answered. He didn't really care at the moment; while he was worried about Geoff's safety, Jay also knew that Geoff was more than capable of handling himself in a tight situation. And so Geoff had disappeared into the store, where he had been for several minutes already.

Jay fiddled with the buttons on his radio, but there was nothing on. He sighed. These watches were becoming ridiculous, a waste of time. He crossed his arms over his chest and let his head sag. There was nothing out there, so he might as well rest for a few minutes. In fact, he felt as though he were getting a head cold. It was probably all the late hours they'd been staying up recently, on watch. That's all they seemed to do these days, was watch.

Geoff and Katherine spoke together every day about what their plan was, what they should do, who was following them, but nothing ever seemed to get cleared up. There probably WAS someone following them, but if they were they were doing a good enough job doing it not to get caught. Every now and then, all Jay got was this strange feeling that he was being watched, but again... nothing. Not tonight, not last night, and not anything for the past two weeks. All was quiet. So what was the harm in getting a few minutes sleep?

His body felt immediately relieved once he closed his eyes. For a while he let his mind wander, floating off into darkness while he felt his breathing slow.

Jay wasn't sure how much time had passed. Suddenly his skin began to crawl and he felt cold. Then he was falling—

His eyes flying open, Jay started in the seat and yelled, frightened. He was fine. His heart was racing, thumping unevenly in his chest. It was times like these that he wished he'd just sent a double with Geoff instead of being here. At least then his double could experience the annoyance and stress of being out on a watch, and the real Jay could get some rest.

Still, it was strange that his body had reacted so. He really felt like there was someone or something else there... There was no sign of Geoff, and Jay's heart was still racing. He looked at the clock and saw that it had only been ten minutes, but still.

The night was dark and quiet for a street in Baltimore. And ten minutes inside the liquor store was pushing it, right? Jay began to feel uneasy. Then he became aware of the smell, something rancid. What was that? Rotting food? Was it coming from him?

Jay checked himself quickly, under his arms last, pulling open his shirt from his chest and breathing as deep as he could but all he smelled was his deodorant. This made sense. Normally he smelled very nice anyway. However, the moment he removed his face from down his shirt, the rancid smell was back. Foul. Eggs? Tuna? Dog shit? It seemed to be all three, and suddenly it was so strong it could be coming from the outside.

Jay blinked and peered out the windshield, trying to catch a glimpse of Geoff still in the liquor store. There didn't seem to be any sign of him. He peered out the passenger's window. Nothing. The street seemed empty. In fact the street was quiet.

The car was quiet.

Jay listened to his shallow breathing. In and out. As quick as he could. The stench was there and now it seemed to grow stronger; his eyes watered. He felt light headed. It was quiet. He finished scanning the street where no one was walking and where the only life seemed to come from the flickering neon sign for the liquor store, his eyes went back to the windshield. To the steering wheel.

To Estefano pressed up against Jay's window, next to him.

Jay screamed.

Estefano screamed. And stepped back. As he stepped back his face seemed to stay on the glass. Even as Jay began to scramble to unbuckle his seatbelt, he saw the greasy face print Stefano had left, a perfect shadow of his nose, his fat lips, cheeks, and forehead.

"Shit!" Jay continued to scream, because Estefano tried the door handle.

He sucked in a breath, which was difficult because of the heavy odor still in the air and that now seemed to be everywhere, burning his eyes and nostrils, coating his tongue and throat. He could hardly see his eyes were watering so much, but he needed to breathe and concentrate to double himself. And so he inhaled and held it and focused his energy on the backseat.

Estefano must have noticed that Jay was doing something, because now he threw his full weight at the car, still pulling on the handle. Jay's car began to rock. For a moment this drew Jay out of his concentration and the bubble that had begun to form in the back seat wavered, looking as though it was going to pop.

“No!” Jay shouted, and concentrated again. This time the bubble began to take a shape that appeared more and more to be the size of Jay; it began to fill in, the colors coming out, and then it was there, a replica of Jay, and one that began to register with alarm on its face the situation.

“I need you to stay here!” Jay said. He dove into the back seat just as Estefano realized the door was just not going to open. And just for a second, Estefano had stepped away to grab a rock on the street. Jay fumbled with the lock on the back door behind the passenger’s seat just as the window smashed in. There was a strange cackle that must have come from Estefano, but Jay was suddenly choking on the thickness of the foul odor that invaded the car. He wrenched the door open. Tumbled out. The ground was hard and cold, the stench lighter. He sucked in a breath and then picked himself up. He looked back once as he broke across the street; his unfortunate double’s face was somber even as it pulled the door shut.

He knew there was no time to lose and he ran, just ran, his arms pumping and his chest about to explode.