I don’t know what had provoked me into the fight with Max. Maybe I just wanted to see how much he could do, maybe I wanted to prove something to myself. I had spent two long years outside of Rade, starving and alone, to feel him beat me to a pulp while his stupid nerd friend watched?

Max had limits, right?

But here, it didn’t matter. Here was home…sort of. The little concrete alcove inside the subway entrance could hardly be called a home. It was more a reminder to me of what the Elders had done to me. By now, all the magazine pages along the walls, along with my sleeping bag, had disintegrated. The only one that was left was my old favorite…the family picture with the foreign word underneath it.

But back to…a plan. I could feel my old hatred for the Elders bubbling back to the surface again, and it helped fuel my brain.

The House of Elders lay right in the center of Rade. Difficult to get to. Impossibly difficult, nearly. Plasmen, hordes of CPs, security…

I needed one helluva plan.