The next day at lunch, Ivy saw her sister approaching across the cafeteria and dried her eyes with her napkin. She'd just been unloading on Sophia and Brendan about her fight with her father.
"How are you?" Olivia asked gently.
Ivy shrugged. "I'd be better if my dad wasn't so narrow-minded." She moved her bag so Olivia could sit down.
"I don't understand," Sophia said. "Charles Vega has always been the vamp dad everyone wanted." Brendan nodded in agreement.
"Come on," Ivy said with an eye roll. "He never liked humans."
"Remember when he decorated that human lady's house in LA?" Sophia said. "That didn't seem to put his wings in a flap."
"That was just a client," Ivy said, shaking her head. "Anyway," she said, deciding to change the subject, "I looked on the VVV last night to see if I could access ASHH files."
Olivia perked up. "And?"
"I couldn't," Ivy revealed. "If we want to find out anything, we're going to have to go to the ASHH office ourselves."
"Do you think we can ask for our files just like that?" Olivia wondered.
"I wasn't thinking of asking," Ivy replied with a mischievous smile. "I was thinking of sneaking in and digging around."
Brendan spit a gulp of cranberry juice back into his cup.
"Bad Ivy," Sophia said, shaking her finger teasingly. "Bad, bad Ivy!"
Olivia leaned forward. "Could we actually do that?" she asked in a low voice.
"Brendan's dad invited us to the V-Gen offices," Ivy said, "and they're in the same building.
So we already have an excuse to get in and out of the compound. All we need is a distraction," she said, putting her arm around Brendan and squeezing his shoulder, "so we can get in and out of the ASHH offices without anyone noticing."
Brendan frowned. "Is 'distraction' a code word for 'boyfriend'?"
Ivy grinned. "Maybe."
"This'll be interesting," Brendan assented with a playful roll of his eyes.
"How about this afternoon after school?" Ivy proposed with a conspiratorial glance toward Olivia.
"There's no better time than the present," Olivia agreed, and Brendan nodded.
"What about me?" Sophia interjected. "What can I do?"
"Somebody has to stay behind to tell our story," Ivy told her, "in case we end up being abducted."
"You're joking, right?" said Sophia.
A chill flashed over Ivy. "I hope so," she said.
After school, Olivia, Ivy, and Brendan caught a bus to Brendan's father's office complex across town. Brendan had called his dad to let him know they were coming, while Olivia had called her mom and explained that she was doing a research project with Ivy - which was totally true. As for Ivy, she wasn't talking to her father, so she didn't tell him anything.
Eventually, the three of them were the only passengers left on the bus, and all Olivia could see from the window was one gray office building after another, against the wintry gray sky. Arriving at the end of a cul-de-sac, the driver called, "Last stop, Pentagram Court."
Jumping down off the bus, Olivia found herself staring up at a hulking black glass building, glistening in the afternoon sun like a dark jewel. It was surrounded by a security gate, and the bus had let them off right in front of a guardhouse. "Can I help you?" a pale security officer inquired.
"We're here to see Marc Daniels at V-Gen," Brendan announced.
Olivia glanced up and spotted a security camera sitting atop the gate, aimed right at her.
She shifted uncomfortably as the camera looked her up and down with a whir, from her pink corduroy jacket down to her cheerleading sneakers.
"No civilians allowed," the guard said stonily.
"He's expecting all of us," Brendan replied firmly.
The security guard looked unconvinced.
"Names?"
"Brendan, Ivy, and Olivia," Brendan answered.
The guard disappeared into his booth. Olivia could see him through the window talking on the phone. After he hung up, he slid the glass open and handed down three guest passes. As they put them around their necks, the gate clanked and slid open.
Inside the enormous black marble lobby, Mr. Daniels was waiting in his white lab coat. "Ivy, Olivia!" he said warmly, shaking their hands and giving Brendan a quick hug. "I'm so glad you came so soon!"
As they all waited for the elevator, Ivy nudged Olivia's arm and silently nodded toward the building directory that was hanging on the wall.
Olivia's eyes immediately zeroed in on what her sister was looking at:
ASHH 2A
V-GEN 2C
Brendan's dad's lab and ASHH are on the same floor! thought Olivia. Perfect!
When the elevator doors opened onto the second floor, Ivy, Olivia, and Brendan followed Mr. Daniels to the left, but Olivia used the opportunity to steal a backward glance. There, at the opposite end of the hall past a tall potted plant was a dark wall with ASHH on it in enormous, luminous letters. Beside the letters was a door, and beside the door stood the tallest security guard Olivia had ever seen, fiddling distractedly with a walkie-talkie.
Mr. Daniels continued to the end of the hall, where a glistening sign read V-GEN PHARMACEUTICALS. He turned left and stopped outside a stainless steel door.
He opened the door and led the way into a huge laboratory, filled with blinking consoles and mysterious equipment. A group of people in white lab coats were hunched around a table, arguing in low voices over some papers.
"But how could she have survived the hemoglobic transition?" Olivia heard one say.
Mr. Daniels cleared his throat loudly, and the conversation stopped abruptly. One of the group, a woman with her hair in a bun, tried to subtly turn over the sheets of paper on the table.
"Lab technicians, this is Ivy Vega," Mr. Daniels announced as they all got to their feet. "And this is her identical twin sister, Olivia Abbott."
For a moment, the scientists just stared at them. Then one started clapping, and they all erupted into applause.
Olivia grinned while Ivy shifted in her boots, uncomfortable with the attention as usual.
"What am I, garlic hummus?" Brendan whispered sarcastically as the applause died down.
"The occurrence of identical twins is a unique genetic phenomenon, and there is much we stand to learn from it," Mr. Daniels said. "These young ladies have generously agreed to allow themselves to be subject to our experimentation."
Experimentation? Olivia thought uneasily.
The lab technicians all whispered to one another excitedly.
"Ms. Voxen, will you please prepare the VMG?" Mr. Daniels asked, and the woman with the bun gave a businesslike nod before disappearing. "Everyone else to your workstations." The technicians scurried off in all directions.
Mr. Daniels led the girls past a bank of flickering screens, where two of the technicians sat in swivel chairs, frantically turning dials. As Olivia walked past, the technicians abruptly stood up to face her. "Welcome, welcome," they said nervously, weaving back and forth.
They're trying to hide the screens! thought Olivia.
Mr. Daniels stopped in the corner, where a thick, blocky wooden chair stood on a small pedestal. Across from it, Ms.Voxen stood behind a console. Wires extended from the chair in all directions, and a metal circle hung above it, waiting to be lowered onto someone's head.
"Olivia, you can sit there," Mr. Daniels said nonchalantly, gesturing with his pen.
"You mean the electric chair?" Olivia croaked.
"The what?" Mr. Daniels said. Then he laughed. "Oh, no, that's just the VMG."
Olivia looked at Ivy and Brendan desperately, but they just shrugged.
She tried to put on a brave face as she sat down. Ms.Voxen came and fastened electrodes to Olivia's temples, her neck, and each of her fingers, then secured the metal band around Olivia's head.
"This isn't going to hurt, right?" Olivia quavered.
"Just relax," responded Ms.Voxen.
You didn't answer the question, Olivia thought nervously as she watched Ms.Voxen return to her console and put on chunky sunglasses. Suddenly, Mr. Daniels and Brendan and Ivy were wearing sunglasses, too. They looked like some sort of deranged rap group.
"Commence VMG?" Ms.Voxen asked.
"Commence," Mr. Daniels answered, and Olivia thought she was going to hyperventilate as Ms.Voxen reached behind her and pulled a huge red lever.
As far as Olivia could tell, nothing happened.
But Mr. Daniels and Ms. Voxen started to lean over the console, whispering excitedly and pointing at the screen.
"Is this thing even on?" Olivia asked.
Mr. Daniels looked up briefly. "That's a very interesting question, Olivia."
Olivia thought that was a strange response until it was Ivy's turn. The moment they turned the machine on with Ivy in the hot seat, Ivy's eyelids closed and started fluttering.
"Is she okay?" Olivia asked anxiously from the side.
"Of course. She's simply dreaming," Mr. Daniels explained.
Ivy and I really are different, thought Olivia, impressed that a machine which had no effect on her could immediately put her sister to sleep.
When they were done with the VMG, Mr. Daniels led them through the laboratory on their way to another test. Near the center of the lab, Olivia passed a tall glass box displayed proudly on a pedestal. Squinting, Olivia could just make out two vertical hairs, stretched taut across a metal frame. The strands were labeled OLIVIA and IVY.
It's the hair Mr. Daniels collected at his house! she thought. How cool is that?
Over the next hour, she and her sister underwent one test after another. Neither of them had ever had an MRI before - they had to change into drafty gray gowns and lie totally still inside a huge aluminium tube that made ominous clanking noises. Olivia could just hear Camilla's voice in her head, saying, "It's the year 2030 and you are suspended in a cryogenic pod for your journey."
They were given X-rays, too. Then there were exercise tests, which were so not fair. Olivia must have sprinted like two miles on her treadmill before she collapsed. Ivy hadn't even broken a sweat.
Finally, Mr. Daniels led the girls back to where Brendan was sitting, waiting with their bags underneath a faded public health sign.
"I can't thank the two of you enough," Mr. Daniels said to Olivia and Ivy. "The results of today's experiments could change the way we think about identical twins." He winked at the girls. Around the lab, technicians were buzzing excitedly, comparing notes.
"Can you tell us the results?" Olivia asked eagerly.
Mr. Daniels shrugged. "It could take months, or even years, before we complete our analyses. In genetics, there are often more questions than answers.We'd like to have you back for more tests in one year."
A year? Olivia thought incredulously. Ivy's leaving in like three weeks!
She could tell Ivy was disappointed, too.
Brendan just gave a little cough.
"Allow me to show you out," Mr. Daniels said.
As Brendan stood up with their bags, he started to hack.
"Are you all right, Brendan?" his father asked.
Brendan nodded. "Just a little nauseous and dizzy," he croaked. Then he staggered, and Olivia saw that his cheeks were pink.
Vampires only redden when they're about to faint! she remembered.