Armed only with cellphones, lock picks, and a couple bobby pins, three teenagers inched into the largest corporate building in town. The place didn't only house the Counterparts Program but also several law firms and much of the government that wasn't at city hall. Sam knew that the program was only a tiny puzzle piece of the whole system, but trying this risky plan felt like challenging something menacingly large.

"I'll text you as soon as I find out if it's a go. I'll ask before any of the stalling to give you the most time possible," Sam whispered. Shane gave her a thumbs up and Diana nodded solemnly.

Even though there was also a twinge of uncertainty, Sam was an excited kind of nervous as she waited for the elevator. Every kid wants to be a super spy, and they were trying to do that. Maybe it would turn out not to be for the best, but no one else was going to make sure that the program wasn't hiding something, and someone needed to. No one would listen if any of the teens told them about how curious things had been so far.

Sam had seen Diana taking several calming breaths before they entered the building, but she knew that her girlfriend wasn't just nervous. Di had smiled while she was securing the lock picks to the inside of the waistband of her skirt, though she tried to hide it behind a scowl.

Shane didn't even try to contain how psyched he was. Sam just hoped that this wouldn't come crashing down around them.

Sam, Diana, and Shane entered the elevator together, pressing the button for the seventh floor. That floor wasn't just for the Counterparts Program. It was the home of whatever little project was being tested at the moment. Most failed, but most didn't get as far as the program had and most weren't such a large scale organization. Most also were afraid of a little blackmail.

There was no one else in the entire lobby of level seven, just rows of chairs and a desk with a bell on it.

Leaving Diana and Shane after giving Di's hand a squick squeeze good luck, Sam walked over to the desk. A woman in black, wearing a blue and white pin on her shirt collar, appeared from around the edge of one of the doorways before Sam could ring the bell.

"Samantha Gregor, for an appointment at 4:30?" the lady asked, glancing to Diana and Shane for a moment before looking back to Sam.

"Yeah. That would be me. Sorry, they're my ride," Sam told the woman, shrugging off her friends. "They'll just wait for me. Right, guys?"

"Whatever," Diana said, rolling her eyes and slouching back in her seat. "Just hurry."

Sam had asked Di to make sure that whoever was in the room with them not want to stay and chat, and she was doing a fine job of it. The woman from the desk scowled at Diana and left the room after directing Sam to an office down the hallway.

Shaneeee: just tell us when

Sam snuck a glance down at her phone before she entered Miss Green's office. She knew that Green would probably say some bull lie when she asked about Lilla's secrets, but she hoped that maybe she was wrong. Then they would be able to leave peacefully without a chance of getting into trouble.

"Sam, how are you today?" Miss Green asked, peering over the desk at Sam, face partially hidden behind some papers she seemed to have been reading.

"I'm fine. I wanted to ask you about a couple things, though, about the program and stuff," Sam told her, smiling obligatorily.

Miss Green nodded. "Ask away."

No day but today. Sam took a deep breath.

"Lilla, my CP, she hasn't let me visit her school yet. And I volunteer there sometimes and the office lady says that she doesn't actually work there. Where does she work?" Sam watched Miss Green's face as she spoke, noticing then slight furrow of her eyebrows before a forced smile overtook her face.

"Oh, no," Miss Green said. "Miss Wren is most definitely a schoolteacher. Are you certain you were at the correct school?"

"Um, I guess I just went to the closest school. Should have asked her, probably." It was a total lie, because Sam had seen the tag on Lilla's bag, but if Miss Green started to question her then she wouldn't be able to be a very good distraction for Di and Shane.

Sam snuck her phone out of her pocket and sent a quick message to her friends, hoping that this would work out.

Noyouresamantha: sorry but youre a go

"Wait, Miss Green, did you say Miss Wren? I thought that Lilla was married. She was talking about her son and her wife. Henry and Britney?" Sam asked, leaning back in her chair. If she was here to pass time, the least she could do was try to make Green slip up.

Miss Green furrowed her brow. "Did I? I'm sorry, I don't know your counterpart very well. I must have forgotten."

"Must've," Sam agreed, smiling. She was getting better at fake smiles, for Miss Green and Lilla and even her parents.

"Is there anything else, Samantha?" Miss Green asked.

Well, that was one way to find a fake smile. Even though the woman seemed to be as good at faking a grin as Sam was, it was obvious how much she did not want to be in the room by her eyes. That and the spiteful way she said 'Samantha'. People tended to switch to her full name when they wanted her gone, and Sam knew that. Not that she would be leaving.

"Oh, yes."

Call it schadenfreude, but Sam almost smiled at the irritated look that shot across Green's face when she said that. Now just to distract the woman for a little while.

"And what would that be?" Miss Green didn't even try to smile as she stared Sam down, apparently with the hopes of driving her away before she could try to get anything else.

"Well, you see, I was curious how the program is going to work in schools." That should keep her busy for a few minutes. Sam winced involuntarily as her phone beeped in her pocket.

Green seemed to ignore this entirely. "Each child will be paired with an adult from somewhere in the country who is similar to them in the same ways you and Mrs. Wren are. They will be introduced with the hopes that the older counterpart will be able to help the younger with any troubles they have."

Sam nodded like she was paying attention, which was half true. While she was listening, it was not because she wanted to know all that stuff but that she wanted to catch Green in a lie if she slipped. As Miss Green shuffled around for something in her desk, Sam grabbed her phone out, reading the messages before flipping it to silent.

DieDie: sam we're going to need like five more minutes

Shaneeee: we kinda broke into the wrong room

Shaneeee: we found the files now tho. di is looking through them and looking for lilla and yours

DieDie: found yours

Shaneeee: five minutes, sam

"And what are you going to do if those kids don't want to participate?" Sam asked. Maybe this wasn't the big distraction that she had been planning, as that one had involved a lot more shouting and even more stink bombs, but it could work. "Are you going to blackmail every twelve-year-old in the country? Doesn't seem very good publicity to me."

"What is this about, Samantha? You played your part in the program, and you never have to talk to me again. Why are you back here?" Green asked.

She leaned back in her chair so she could study Sam even more predatorily. Sam matched her pose by stretching forward and resting her elbows on Miss Green's desk, maintaining eye contact with the woman.

"I want to know what your plan is."

Green sighed and closed her eyes for a moment, mouth brought into a tight line. "Why are you so contrary to this? Do you hate your counterpart so much that you want to keep millions of other children from theirs?"

"Lilla is fine. You aren't." Sam looked up at Green from behind furrowed eyebrows, frown firmly plastered on her face. "I don't take kindly to being blackmailed. Plus, you don't have anything on me anymore."

"Oh?" Green asked, raising her eyebrows. She looked a cold kind of impressed. "Willing to spill your secrets so they can't be used against you. It's bold, I'll give you that, but changes nothing. You're here for information that you aren't going to receive."

"So you'll admit that you're hiding something?"

Miss Green smiled condescendingly and straightened back up in her seat. "Samantha, have you talked to your therapist about your trust issues? You seem to be finding secrets where there are none. This program was approved because it will help our youth, not for any other reason."

There was silence for a moment before Green pointed to the closed door that Sam had come in from.

"Perhaps you should go now."

Sam went, sighing in relief as she felt her phone vibrate just as she stood. It meant that Diana and Shane were safe and out, almost certainly. The hallway outside was empty, so Sam stayed next to the door for a moment after closing it. Well, she didn't technically close it all the way. Though it looked pretty much closed, the latch hadn't clicked and Sam could hear faintly the sound of Miss Green talking on the other side.

If she had needed to cover for herself, Sam could have said that she heard Green talking and thought that she was still speaking to Sam. That wasn't true, though, and she knew that she was eavesdropping. What was that in comparison to Di and Shane's job?

"Yes, I'm sure... I know. Just change it. Yes, married. I know... She didn't stick to file. Yes. Thanks."

Her voice was a bit faint, but Sam was positive that this was what Green said after she started listening. Add that to the list of weird things of the day. She would figure that all out later, though.

Sam turned and hurried away from the door at the off-chance that Green would come out of her room soon. She flipped out her cell phone instead, checking the messaging app for what her friends had said.

DieDie: got the pictures getting out. just need to figure out how to relock the door and were good

Hopefully they had figured that part out. Sam closed her eyes before glaring at the floor for a moment, cursing herself for not remembering to show them how to re-lock. It was pretty simple—there was no need to even use picks—but it was still necessary.

Diana was sitting, one leg splayed over the arm of her chair and the other resting on top of the first. Shane was on the ground leaning against a wall instead of on one of the chairs. They both looked up when Sam approached, Shane pushing himself back up to standing.

"Ready to go?" Diana asked, uncrossing her legs so she could get up.

Sam nodded, glancing to her girlfriend's waistband where she knew the lock picks were hidden. "Are you?"

"Yeah, come on, I have to get back before my parents think I ran away from home or something," Diana told her, leading her friends to the elevator.

They couldn't talk yet, at the risk that someone heard and asked what they were talking about. They definitely couldn't say anything after a man boarded the elevator on the way down. Shane just nodded in assurance when Sam gave him a nervous look. Diana gave her a smirk. By the time they got out of the building, Sam was ready to snatch the phone from Diana's hands.

"So?"

Shane started talking before Diana could get a word in edgewise. "I figured out how to re-lock the door. Diana didn't, I did."

"That's not at all what I was asking about," Sam said. "And you sound like a seven year old that wants a sticker because he did good."

"What? Rude." Shane mock-glared at Sam for a moment before rolling his eyes and motioning for Diana to talk.

"We found the files in some giant filing cabinets. There was a computer, too, but we didn't want to test that. It probably had a password, and I don't know jack about computer hacking. I have pictures of the files for you and Lilla, and one other. I'll show you the other one. It's the weirdest."

Sam frowned. "What was the other one?"

"Another one of Lilla's. Same girl, same face, different name. Lilla Welsh." Diana tossed her phone over to Sam, who caught it and looked down at the screen.

The screen was too small for Sam to read much more than the title and a few subheadings, but she could see 'Lilla Welsh' written at the top. So Lilla really did have a secret life. It was just a bit bigger than Sam had thought. Her theory had been that maybe the Counterparts Program had been blackmailing Lilla somehow too, but this was... different.

"I have some information, too. Old news is that Green hates me, new news is something else. I'm not even sure what it means. But Green said something just before I left about why the program was approved. I hadn't even said anything about that, but she was acting all defensive. I think she was lying about something," Sam said, tossing Di's phone a couple inches in the air and catching it again as she spoke.

"Well, once we get back to your house we can send the pictures to your computer, so then I can show you what we found," Diana promised, reaching over to grab the phone back. "Don't break my phone, Sam."

"We know where Lilla really works," Shane said, nudging Sam with his elbow. "At some lab. It's weird, though, it said that her occupation was not available. We looked at some other files randomly and they all had everyone's jobs on them."

"Great, so we're trying to track information on someone whose existence is classified," Sam groaned, kicking at the ground. If Lilla was some super spy, then how would they be able to do anything before she found them out. And a spy at a lab? That was almost twice as suspicious.

"I don't know about that, 'cause I didn't get a chance to take a good look at any of the files. I just skimmed them and noticed that at the bottom of the file with Lilla Wren, it said something about related files and then had the Lilla Welsh one there. So I went and found that one and took pictures of it too," Diana explained.

Sam hummed. "So we know that Lilla's working at some lab, and that the program is hiding her away because of it."

"We also know that it was all started for a reason that isn't so people can find their double and live happily ever after with perfect life advice," Shane added. "If Green was acting like there isn't an ulterior motive, then there definitely is one."

Wait. Sam froze for a moment, almost falling behind her friends before they stopped as well. So this lab was being hidden away by the program, which was about to go public with their plan for the future. Green said that Sam's part was done, so that meant they had been approved for wider-scale use. Was it possible...?

"Do you think that the Counterparts Program could be working with that lab?" Sam asked, looking over to Diana, who furrowed her brow and frowned.

"I mean, I guess so. I saw a symbol on the computer, on a label stuck to the side, that I recognized. I can't remember what it was from, though. Maybe it was from the lab?" Diana guessed.

Shane let out a deep breath and shook his head. "We need to get back and look at those files. I don't know about you guys, but I feel like whatever the lab or the project or whoever is planning, it's big."

"And soon. The counterparts thing is being proposed to everyone later this month," Diana said.

Shane looked over at her and cocked his head. "How'd you know that?"

"It was in the news. All of the test projects that have passed are being presented pretty soon. The person who wrote the article seemed pretty psyched."

"Then we should check and make sure that they aren't hiding something," Shane said, walking towards Sam's house again.

Diana shook her head and frowned. "But we already know that they're hiding something. We just need to see how dangerous it is."