Radiant - By Christina Daley Page 0,81

the lunchroom with Sienna and a few others. She even found the freshman whom she had paid to throw the holy water that one time. "You wanna eat with us?" Mary asked.

The freshman looked at her suspiciously. "Why?"

"Because you're always by yourself," Mary said. "And we have an extra seat."

The girl still looked a little skeptical and didn't accept the invitation for a couple days. On the third day, however, she asked if she could sit with them.

"Sure thing," Sienna said as she removed her bag from the empty chair. "I'm Sienna. What's your name?"

The girl sat down. "Kristina," she answered. "My name is Kristina."

"Pleased to make your acquaintance," Phos said.

One day, when Mary was in the computer lab typing up an essay, she checked her email and noticed she had about fifteen messages from Drew. The last one he sent was from a couple weeks ago.

Omg, where are you? If you don't answer me in 24 hrs, I'm calling the FBI.

- Drew

Mary wrinkled her brow. Agents never came knocking on her door, so he might not have gone through with it. She opened a blank email.

Sorry, I've been dealing with a lot of stuff lately. I'm still alive. Please don't worry about me.

- Mary

Less than thirty seconds after she hit "send," another message from him popped up.

Nice to know. But how do I know this is really you? Maybe you're just someone using Mary's account.

- Drew

Mary rolled her eyes and opened another blank message.

For real? Geez, you're paranoid.

- Mary

His next message appeared faster than the last one.

Well, if you're really you, then you'll meet me where we first met. I'm working late tonight. The code to get in is 8709. See you then.

- Drew

Mary sighed. "I'm starting to regret I ever met this guy." But she emailed him back and said she'd be there after she visited her grandmother.

Phos went with her to physical therapy after school and later to Agape to have dinner with Ba. When they were leaving, she asked, "Can you take me to the university? I just need to talk to someone there for a few minutes, and I don't want to wait around for late buses."

"Sure," he said. They sneaked around to the alley behind the retirement home and translated.

Phos deposited them behind the law school. They didn't see any other students, so they walked across the dimly lit campus to the ugly Sci-Tech building.

"Wait here," Mary said. "This won't take long."

He nodded.

Mary found a keypad with numbers next to the door. She typed in the code Drew had given her, and the door unlocked. Half of the lights were off in the building, but Mary managed to remember how to find the Astronomy department. Inside, she saw Drew typing furiously at a computer terminal.

"Happy now?" she snapped.

"Eeeyyyyiiiiii!" Drew yelped, jumping from his seat. His shirt said, "I Heart Pi." "Geez, don't sneak up on me like that!"

"Sorry," she said. "But the FBI? Did you really call them?"

"Yeah," he said.

"And?"

"They didn't believe me," he said. "At least, that's what they said."

She sighed. "Anyway, you see it's really me. So can you please stop emailing me?"

"Hey, you came to me first with your alien parasite problem," he said. "Oh! I've been wanting to show you something." He turned back to his computer.

"Look, Drew—" she began.

"You remember how I told you about that extra pair of ghost chromosomes in your friend's DNA results?" he asked. "Well, I've been going over some things and I think I've figured out their frequency. If we can take that frequency, reverse it, and calibrate it into some kind of device that can focus it intensely, it may disrupt the alien energy and make it leave. I was thinking for doing this large scale, an MRI machine should work. I have a lab tech buddy who might be able to sneak us into the clinic where he works and let us use theirs—"

"No," Mary said. "It's not worth it. He's leaving on his own anyway."

Drew turned around. "He? You mean you know for sure?"

Mary nodded. "He told me what he is. It won't be long before he has to give Carter back his body. But he will."

Drew said nothing for a moment. He opened his mouth, but then his eyes wondered to something behind her.

Mary turned and saw a man standing by the closed window. At least, she thought he was a man at first, until she realized he wasn't wearing any clothes. He looked like he was covered in mud.