Before Anna and Sam, there was Dani and Sam. There's one rule that all Branch operatives must live by: No attachments. When Dani O'Brien entered the Branch, she planned to trade her freedom so that her family could have a better life. But joining up with the mysterious organization is more than she bargained for. Branch head Connor watches over her closely--too closely. The training is brutal, the experiments are secret, and the missions promise to be anything but ordinary. The only thing getting Dani through each day is the hope that she'll run into Sam--a young man, about her age, who wears the world on his shoulders. Find out how it all began in this short-story prequel to Jennifer Rush's thrilling and suspenseful Altered series.
Release date:
December 3, 2013
Publisher:
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Print pages:
48
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The bed beneath me was thin as paper, though not as thin as the cotton gown still tied around my naked body. I felt oddly vulnerable in a way I never had before. One year at the beach, my best friend, Tiffany, dared me to run naked from one end of the park to the other.
I did it without a second thought.
I got banned from the beach park for the rest of the summer, but it had been worth it. Everyone said I was fearless after that, until it became part of my name. “Dani, that fearless girl,” they called me. I never bothered correcting them. Never bothered to point out that running naked through a park was more bravado than fearlessness and that, at home after dark, I cowered in my room like a mouse. Afraid of the monster that was my father.
The truth was, when I was with my friends, I pretended I was fearless. And I liked it. And as each day went by, it seemed a little truer than the day before.
I was fearless now. It was no longer a title handed down by a bunch of friends at the beach. It was a part of me. So why did I feel like I wanted to break free of this room and run? I was safe here. Wherever here was.
Wasn’t I?
Goose bumps popped on my arms, racing clear up to my shoulders.
You are fearless. You are fea—
The door opened and I nearly lurched out of my skin.
“Sorry,” the female lab tech said. I hadn’t met this one yet, but she looked almost exactly like the last three people I’d encountered.
Her dark hair was tied back in a tight bun. Whatever she wore beneath her white lab coat was hidden to the point that it seemed like she wore only the coat. Her ears were bare, despite obvious piercings. Her ring finger was just as unadorned.
Everything about this place was toneless.
“I didn’t mean to scare you,” she went on.
“You didn’t,” I answered, and she gave me a look that said she wasn’t buying it.
“Come.” She waved me forward. “He’s ready for you.”
“Who is ‘he’?”
She held the door for me and said nothing.
After a standoff of eleven silent seconds, I gestured to my gown. “Am I supposed to meet him half-naked?”
A blush of color touched her cheeks. “Oh, right. Sorry.” She hurried past me to an inset closet door that I hadn’t realized was there. Inside were the clothes I’d arrived in—a black dress with a short, pleated skirt, a white belt, and a pair of patent leather flats.
“I’ll wait outside for you,” the woman said, and left me.
I slipped into my clothes quickly. Once in the hall, the woman led me to the left. We took several more turns after that, and she had to use her key card at no less than four checkpoints.
Finally, we reached a section labeled NORTH. This wing of the building didn’t feel much like a lab, not like the section I’d spent the greater part of the morning in. North section had a flagrantly expensive air to it, with dark-stained hardwood and soft inset lighting.
My guide came to a stop at a six-panel door, and pressed a buzzer on the outside. A second later, the door opened and a man peered out at us.
“Thanks, Ms. Hemlin,” a voice said from inside the office. “You are excused.”
My guide nodded and scurried off.
The man at the door opened it wider, allowing me through. He hadn’t said a word to me, which gave me the impression he was only a door-opener and nothing more. I wondered how one got a job opening doors, and what special skills were on his resume. Opens doors deftly and efficiently?
I took a step inside and noticed it was easily five degrees cooler in here than it was in the hallway.
“Sit,” someone said.
The voice came from a young man seated behin. . .
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