Zeroes (novel)

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Zeroes is a young adult sci-fi fantasy novel by Scott Westerfeld (The Uglies), Margo Lanagan, and Deborah Biancotti. It was published on September 29, 2015 by Simon Pulse, an offshoot of Simon Schuster. It is the first in a new series.

 Plot 

The first book in the series, Zeroes tells the story of how the team comes together to save one of their own.

The story opens with Ethan Cooper aka Scam, using his voice to hitch a ride with a drug dealer who calls himself "The Craig". When he realizes what's going on, he steals the car, and the bag of money that came with it.

Meanwhile, we are introduced to Kelsie, who has the ability to manipulate crowds. She and her friends go clubbing all night long after she's coereced everyone, even those that were supposedly busy, into joining her. She loves the crowds. They are later seen sitting at the same diner that Scam goes to.

The next day, he walks into a bank just before it is robbed, and once again his "voice" gets him into trouble with one of the robbers. This causes someone to get shot, and makes him a material witness to the whole thing. He is picked up by the police. During his interrogation, he gives out the number for a lawyer named "Scamiglia".

After a therapy appointment a young sixteen-year-old girl named Riley aka Flicker is called by Nate aka Bellwether to try and help get Scam out of the police station. It is shown that she uses other people's eyes to see as she is blind. She agrees, though reluctantly, to help Bellwether get Scam out of the jam he's put himself in with his "voice".

Chizara aka Crash is the last member we see get asked to help, and she is even more reluctant due to how her power can really get out of control. She agrees to go in, with the help of Flicker, and bring on a distraction that will allow Scam to escape from police custody.

With the team reluctantly thrown back together, Bellwether convinces them to work together one time to help Scam clear up everything that his "voice" did. It is decided that Bellwether will keep the money that Scam accidentally took from The Craig, and that Anonymous, a previously unseen character, will keep him out of sight from the drug dealers and cops that want him.

While the Zeroes are busy trying to save Scam, Kelsie is busy trying to protect her father, who was one of the bank robbers that Scam talked to. She gathers the money needed to pay off his drug dealer.

While they are holed up in his penthouse hotel room, Anonymous and Scam get to learn a little bit about each other. Still having no memory of what he'd said to the others the previous summer, Anonymous reminds him by telling the story of how he had to learn to take care of himself at the age of thirteen when his parents left and forgot him at the children's hospital, and then the nurses forgot him, too. That was the time that Anonymous learned that he could only depend on himself because of his type of power.

Scam shares the story of how his "voice" developed before he learned to talk himself. Stating that his parents thought he was going to be a genius because he spoke in concise sentences at the age of 2. Then he'd babble to himself other times. They contemplate whether or not Scam actually has schizophrenia and come to the conclusion  that that isn't the case.

Meanwhile, Flicker gets her sister to help her try and find a way to remember Anonymous by telling her stories about him based on the file that Bellwether was keeping on the boy(which she stole). She later figures out where Anonymous and Scam are staying just in time to see that The Craig has also figured it out.

Kelsie, too, has figured out where the boy from the bank robbery video that has gone viral is staying, and she goes to him, thinking that he might be able to help her. Instead, she ends up helping him, and Anonymous, escape from The Craig and his goons. This all culminates in Kelsie being introduced to Bellwether, and unofficially joining the Zeroes.

Now that the sixth Zero has been found, the team turns to getting Kelsie's now kidnapped father back. After the ransom drop off goes south, Kelsie and Ethan are taken against their will to a building that is set to be demolished. Crash, who had originally denounced the Zeroes, comes back just in time to crash the computer system in charge of the demolition. This buys Bellwether time to get Kelsie, her father, and Scam out of the building. Once everyone is safe, Crash commences the demolition, finally understanding that her power can go both ways. She agrees to work with the Zeroes again.

It takes place in Cambria, 2017.