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classroom again, “I put my neck out for her, Ed. The least you can do is tell me what happened.”
    â€œI don’t know what happened.”
    â€œWhat do you mean, you don’t know? Where is she now?”
    â€œI don’t know!” Ed snapped, finally looking her in the eye and giving her a glimpse of just how much pain he’d been working so hard to mask. “I don’t know where she is. I haven’t heard from her since yesterday. I don’t know….”
    Heather stared at him. She loved him more than ever for those few short seconds. And then she was unimaginably jealous of Gaia for the next few. Gaia didn’t deserve to be loved this much. What had she done to deserve this kind of love? But then again … what had Heather done to deserve that kind of love? Nothing. Nothing at all.
    â€œI’m sure she’s all right” Heather heard herself say as she placed her hand tentatively on Ed’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, okay?”
    â€œI’m fine,” Ed replied automatically. He shifted his shoulder almost imperceptibly, moving it just far enough to avoid Heather’s touch without being obvious. Heather felt a gaping hole open up in her stomach.
    â€œI—I just …,” Ed stammered. “I can’t … I gotta go,” he finished, shoving his stuff back into his bag and picking up his crutches. “Tell MacGregor I got sick, okay?” He hobbled by Heather and headed for the door.
    â€œEd,” she called to him as he opened the door. “Really. You know you don’t have to worry about her.”
    â€œYeah, thanks,” he muttered, letting the door swing closed behind him.
    â€œI’m sure Gaia will be fine,” she said. But she was speaking to an empty classroom. “I, on the other hand …”
    There was no need to finish her sentence. No one was listening.

Government Guinea Pig
    â€œTHEY CALLED IT PROJECT INTREPID” Oliver said, sifting through the thick binder’s pages. “They knew a lot more about genetics and molecular biology than they were letting on in 1983—”
    â€œI don’t want a history lesson,” Gaia stated. “Just tell me what this all means.”
    â€œThis isn’t just history,” Oliver said. “This is
your
history” He glanced at her to be sure she wanted to hear more. She confirmed with her silence.
    â€œThey were certain a war with Russia was just around the corner,” he went on. “And they wanted to arm the American soldiers with every possible advantage. It didn’t take a genius to pinpoint the greatest disadvantage for any soldier: fear. A good soldier was a brave soldier—a man who’d cross enemy lines and sacrifice his life without an ounce of hesitation. Without a second thought. Excuse me, I should have said a man or a woman.”
    Gaia was both sickened and mesmerized. Every word out of her uncle’s mouth made her more ill and somehow colder, as if she were being slowly dipped in ice water. But she was dying to hear more.
    â€œI’ll get to the point,” Oliver said quietly. He’d obviously noticed the pain he was causing her. “The point is, the government had been studying fear froma biological standpoint for years, and by ’83 they’d finally mastered the biochemical process. So much so that they were confident they could
reverse
it. So they engineered a serum—a serum that would, in effect, block the chemical reactions that cause fear. And it worked, Gaia. It worked on rats, and it worked on chimpanzees. It was time to test a human subject.”
    Oliver flipped back to the first photo he’d shown Gaia. The picture of her father and those men in white coats . And that small baby.
    â€œTom Moore had been selected to assist the scientists on Project Intrepid,” he said, “and Tom Moore had just had a daughter. The perfect human subject