Page 52 of Victorious

“EON found me,” she said evenly. “And they gave me a choice.” She swallowed. “Stell gave me a choice.”

“What did he say? Serve me or spend your life in a cell? Forgive me, but that doesn’t sound like much of a choice.”

Helena shifted in her chair, clearly uncomfortable with this line of questioning.

But Rios wasn’t. She straightened.

“People are good and bad and everything between. And EOs are people. We come in all kinds. But the majority of EOs either can’t control their power, or don’t want to. The first one I caught could make bombs out of thin air. They were about to blow up a school. The next one drowned six people by accident. The first meant to be dangerous, the second didn’t, but both of them were.” She lifted her chin. “I was in the marines, for seven years. I chose to serve my country then. I choose to serve it now. My power helps me do my job. And my job is to protect innocent people from danger.”

Gabriel noted the way she spoke. No wasted words. No flowery sentiment. Rios knew herself, through and through. He found her conviction admirable, even if he found her sense of exceptionalism flawed. They would work on that.

She was an outlier, but outliers were an important part of any modeling.

A crucial component for constructing a comprehensive profile.

“Thank you for your insight, Agent Rios,” he said. “I hope we get to talk more soon.”

Rios nodded briskly, and looked past Gabriel, to Helena.

“If that’s all,” she said. Helena nodded, and Rios turned and left again, this time by the door.

“Fascinating,” he murmured in her wake. He turned toward the director. “Show me more.”

IVNOW. THEN.

“THE facility is designed as a series of nesting squares,” explained Helena as she led him down a white hall. “All staff resources—food, medical, admin, armory—make up the perimeter. The EOs’ cells form the centermost block, and each is self-contained, and surrounded on all sides by a second buffering chamber, so there’s no risk of interaction whatsoever between prisoners.”

“Afraid they won’t get along?” ventured Gabriel.

“On the contrary,” she said. “Afraid they will. The only thing more dangerous than one supernatural power is two.”

They rounded the corner, coming on a pair of soldiers who parted to make way, bobbing their heads in deference.

“How many EOs are currently on-site?”

“Nineteen.”

Gabriel thrummed a little at the number.

Until now, he’d had a single subject.

Two, if he counted himself.

But the opportunity to observe and access, to analyze, that many unique cases—that was an enticing prospect.

“How many ExtraOrdinaries are out there?” he asked as they continued on.

“That’s the billion-dollar question,” said Helena. “And the answer is … we don’t know. Hundreds, at least. Maybe even more.”

Gabriel stiffened, the potential breadth—and impact—of his research multiplying.

“Our data suggests that there’s been a marked increase over the last decade, but it could just be that we’re getting better at finding them.”

“And how exactly do you do that?”

Her mouth twitched as she stopped before a set of black glass doors and laid her hand flat against them. A green circle flashed on the black glass, and they split like a seal, revealing a room as dark as the hall was light. Gabriel blinked, eyes adjusting as he followed her inside.

Screens covered three of the four walls in a tight grid, soldiers stationed at consoles in the center, their focus on their work.