Page 13 of Ordinary Secrets

“You know the drill,” Carlos says. “Arms up.”

After being frisked, I take the elevator down from the sixth floor to the fourth. When the elevator opens again, I find two more guards waiting for me with stony expressions. The bulkier one gestures for me to follow him.

Based on their fancy suits in place of security uniforms, I’m gonna assume these men are Victor’s personal guards. Each of them has a wired device in his ear. If they were standing next to the president, they wouldn’t look out of place. The only difference is that they aren’t carrying any weapons. As trained ZIRDA agents,theyarethe weapons.

The bulkier guard stomps ahead of me while the skinny one trails behind. Our footsteps echo loudly against the walls of the wide hallways. As we turn the corners, I catch glimpses of more uniformed guards. When I lived here, it was never this packed with security.What changed?

We arrive at a locked door, where the bulkier guard holds his ID card up to a black device on the wall. A tiny light flashes green with a softbeep, and then the door unlocks. On the other side is another long hallway with more doors. At the end stand two guards posted outside a set of double doors. One of them scans their ID card and gestures for me to step into Victor’s office—alone.

Chilly air nips at my skin as the door shuts. My body’s equilibrium immediately works to warm me. Victor’s office feels cold because it’s huge for no goddamn reason. There’s barelyanything in it. A giant desk sits smack-dab in the middle, and behind that are a bunch of filing cabinets. Otherwise, there’s so much open floor space that he could fit at least four king-size beds in here.

Victor, in a brown tailored suit, scowls at me from his colossal office chair behind the U-shaped desk. His emotions slap me in the face, somewhere between frustrated and angry. It’s nothing new. I wish I could say his hostility is because of the stress from being the head of a ZIRDA base. I’m sure he’s got lots on his plate, but Victor’s hostility is only ever directed at me. Whenever he talks to other people, he’s always firm but never demeaning.

“What took you so long?” Victor turns his finger in a circle above his mug. His wind power spins the metal spoon around.

I want to say that if he had sent a Porter like I asked, I would have been here hours ago. Since that’ll only piss him off, I say, “Traffic.”

My uncle flashes me a foul look. We both know there’s no traffic at three in the morning.

“What’s with all the extra guards?” I ask, desperate to change the subject. I take a seat in the small wooden chair on the other side of Victor’s desk.

Every little movement sounds like nails on a chalkboard. The chair creaking beneath me. Each clink of Victor’s spoon against the side of his mug. The cold air blowing in from the vents.

Silence always irks me. It makes me feel lonelier than I already am, so I usually play music around my house to cover it up. Ever since Aunt Jodi left him, Victor’s opinion of music is that it’s “for the weak.” To him, my career choice is simply a “pathetic grab for attention.”

“We’ve discovered moles,” Victor says, scratching his forehead.

“Moles?”

“Yes, as in double agents. Royals.”

My heart shrivels up at the mention of Royals. “How many have you found?”

“Two, and we took care of them appropriately.”

I know exactly what that means and feel no remorse. The Royals deserve that fate for all the innocent lives they’ve stolen—especially my parents’. Instead of fighting for the development and growth of Zordis like ZIRDA does, the Royals would rather cause chaos and destroy any sense of peace in the world.

ZIRDA has been around since before the Grand Separation in 1326. Before that, Zordinary humans lived in harmony with Ordinary humans. Besides being born with powers and different bodies, we’re all the same. Everyone just wants to be happy.

Unfortunately, some Ordinaries didn’t see it that way. They felt threatened by anyone with gifts, so they manufactured a poison that affected only Zordis and distributed it through alcohol. Two million of us dropped dead within a year.

After that, it was clear that Zordis weren’t safe anymore. Our choices were to either eliminate all the Ordis who wanted us dead, or go into hiding. So the zovernment recruited eighty-nine of the world’s most powerful Scrubbers to alter the memories of all Ordis at once, erasing our existence from their minds. Sadly, not all Zordis agreed with this decision, and they came together to establish the Royals.

They’re the Zordis who believe that we were robbed of our freedom. They believe that because we are born with powers, we are entitled to power over Ordinaries, a mindset I can never understand. Some Royals go as far as believing that Ordinaries don’t have a place in this world at all. Those are the people who scare me the most.

The Royals want to control all governments and be treated like kings, hence why they named themselvesRoyals. They will stop at nothing to get what they think they deserve. They havegotten and will get rid of anyone who stands in their way. Unfortunately, while in the middle of working their Immunes project, my parents learned what happens when you stand in the way of the Royals.

Now, ZIRDA doesn’t work only on the development of Zordis but has also established an anti-Royals department. The department that I’m now a part of. The department that I’ve wanted to be a part of since I was seven and was told the truth about who caused the explosion that killed my parents.

Victor stops spinning his finger over his mug, and the spoon goes still. “Where’s the sample?”

From the inner pocket of my leather jacket, I pull out the folded napkin holding the three strands of Arella’s long hair. The woman has so much of it, I’m surprised I didn’t find more lying around on my back seat.

Victor accepts the napkin from me, setting it on his desk. “I’ll have our lab techs run their tests on this right away.”

“What are you looking for in her DNA?” I ask.

“Defects. Anything abnormal for an Ordi. We’ll also see if there are any matches to the other two Immunes we have DNA from.”

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