“I can sleep on the couch up here,” Zeus said.
“That’s okay,” Jack said. “That’s Wade’s and my spot.” He glanced over at Abigail, and she smiled at him.
Zeus looked back and forth between the two. “Whatever, dude.”
“Anyone hungry?” Taylor asked. “That hot dog was gross.”
“Can we order pizza again?” Grace said. “Maybe we’ll get to eat it this time.”
“I don’t think we need to,” Ian said with a curious expression.
“Why is that?” I asked.
He raised his hand. “Wait for it . . .”
A doorbell rang.
Mitchell looked at him quizzically. “That was the main house doorbell. How did you know it was going to ring?”
“Psychic,” he said.
“Who is it?” I asked Ian.
“Pizza delivery. The guy has like six boxes.”
“Did you order pizza?” Jack asked Mitchell.
“No,” Mitchell said. “I didn’t even know you were coming.”
“Everyone better hide,” I said. “Ian, Zeus, Ostin, and I will check this out. Mitchell, it’s your house. You better get the door.”
“I better come too,” Jack said.
“No, you and Taylor should stay back with the rest in case it’s another trap. They’ll need you.”
The doorbell rang again as we walked past the pool and in through the main house’s back door.
“He’s alone,” Ian said. “It looks clean.”
“How are you doing this?” Mitchell asked.
“I told you,” Ian said with a grin. “I’m psychic.”
Ian, Zeus, Ostin, and I ducked into Mitchell’s father’s office next to the front door, where we could see Mitchell but not the deliveryman. Zeus raised his hands, electricity snapping between his fingers.
“Take it easy,” I said.
“Just being prepared,” he replied.
Mitchell glanced over at us nervously, then opened the door. “Hey.”
“Got your pizza,” the voice said. “Also your garlic-cheese bread, a cinnamon dessert pizza, and two liters of soda.”
“We didn’t order any pizza,” Mitchell said.
There was a pause. “Isn’t this 2724 Preston Street? The Manchester residence?”
“Yeah. That’s us.”
“Then it’s your pizza. And it’s already been paid for. Except my tip. And this stuff was heavy.”
“All right,” Mitchell said, pulling out his wallet. “Just set them there.”
We all moved back from the door as the guy stepped in and laid the stack of boxes on the foyer table. The deliveryman wasn’t what I expected—he looked older than my mom and had hair longer than Taylor’s. There were six boxes in all. Mitchell handed him a bill.
“Thanks,” the man said as he walked out.
Mitchell shut the door. I watched out the window as the guy got in his car and drove off.
“Anything look suspicious in the car?” I asked Ian as we walked out to the foyer.
“No. It’s a mess.”
“Who do you think sent the pizza?” Zeus asked.
Just then something started to buzz in one of the boxes. “What’s that?” Mitchell asked.
“It’s a bomb!” Ostin shouted.
“Hit the deck!” Mitchell yelled, dropping to the ground.
Zeus, Ian, and I just stood there.
“It’s not a bomb,” Ian said. “It’s a phone. Second box from the bottom.”
Mitchell looked up from the floor. “How do you do that?”
Zeus lifted the top pizzas off, and I opened the box and took out the buzzing phone. It was identical to the one I’d received from the woman at the tanning salon.
“Are you going to answer it?” Ostin asked.
“Do you think I should?”
He shrugged. “Your call. Literally.”
I pushed the answer button, then held the phone to my ear. “Hello?”
“Michael. It’s me.” It was the voice again.
“You tricked us.”
“We didn’t trick you. That was a safe house.”
“You call that ‘safe’?”
“We don’t know how they found you. Someone in your group might be tipping them off.”
“You’re saying one of us is a traitor?”
“Maybe. An Elgen plant.”
“I trust them more than I do you,” I said. “I’m hanging up.”
“Please don’t hang up. We need to talk.”
“What are you doing, tracing this call?”
“We already know where you are. We sent the pizza.”
I felt stupid. “Oh yeah.”
“If you look out the window you’ll see two white, windowless service vans parked across the street. They’re ours. They’re guarding the house.”
“Why should I trust you?”
“Do you know what happened to the third Elgen car?”
“What?”
“The third Elgen car. The one that was about to blow up the van you were in. You don’t believe that car just blew up on its own?”
I didn’t know what had happened to the car. None of us did. I wondered how he knew about it.
“We did it,” he said. “You did an amazing job of escaping, Michael. All of you did. You just needed a little help at the end.”
“If you’re with us, why didn’t you just stop them from capturing us to begin with?”
“Anonymity is our most valuable weapon. If the Elgen had gotten you to the airport, we would have been forced to attack. But it was our last resort. Thankfully we didn’t have to. After you destroyed the first two cars, we knew they’d assume you destroyed the third.”
My mind was reeling. I didn’t know what to believe. “How do they keep finding us?”
“Like I said, we don’t know. We knew that the Elgen were tracking your cars. We thought once you traded cars they’d lose you. Unfortunately, we were wrong.”
“We noticed,” I said sarcastically. “How are you following us?”
“The old-fashioned way. We’ve been following you since Pasadena.” The voice paused. “Are there any GPs with you?”
“No,” I said. “We let them all go in California.”
“All of them?”
“Of course, we don’t have room for . . .” I stopped. “Jack and Wade were GPs.”
“That’s how they’re doing it,” the voice said. “The GPs are all implanted with subdermal RFIDs. You’ll have to get rid of them.”
I didn’t understand. “Get rid of Jack and Wade? Or get rid of the subthermal R-F-I . . .”
“Subdermal RFIDs,” the voice said quickly. “Your friend Ostin will know what they are. And the answer is either. I’m afraid my time’s up.”
“Wait. Do you know what happened to Ostin’s parents?”
Ostin looked at me.
“They’re safe, and we have a man watching over Taylor’s house as well. You saw our van as you drove by her house yesterday afternoon.”
“What about Jack’s house?”
“We didn’t know about him, so we weren’t prepared.” The receiver went dead. I put the phone in my pocket.
“What did he say?” Ostin asked.
“Your parents are okay.”
“Where are they?”
“He didn’t say.”
Ostin looked confused. “That’s good, right?”
“I hope so. What’s a subdermal RFID?”
“‘Subdermal’ means beneath the skin. RFIDs are radio frequency identification devices.” His eyes widened. “Holy cow, is that how they’ve been following us? Did they implant everyone with them?”
“He only said the GPs.”
“What about the electric kids?”
“They tried,” Ian said. “But our electricity interferes with the frequency.”
“RFIDs,” Ostin repeated. “So that’s how they’re following us.”
“What do they look like?” I asked.
&nb
sp; “You’ve seen them before,” Ostin said. “Stores put them in books and video games to catch shoplifters. It’s a little square foil thing, usually about the size of a postage stamp. But I’ve read that some new, high-tech RFIDs are the width of a human hair. They can almost make them like powder. There’s even talk of making them digestible.”
“Why would they do that?” Ian asked.
“Think about it,” Ostin said, suddenly looking excited. “You could put them in restaurant food, then when you go to check out, they’ll scan your stomach and charge you for what you ate.”
“That’s . . . weird,” Mitchell said.
“That’s the future,” Ostin replied.
“How do they implant these things?” I asked.
“They inject them,” Ian said. “In a shot. I’ve seen them do it.”
“We need to get rid of them,” I said.
“Jack and Wade?” Zeus asked hopefully.
“No,” I said. “The tracking devices.” I lifted half the pizzas. “We better get back to the others.”
Jack, Taylor, and Wade met us by the pool.
“What happened?” Taylor asked. “Who sent the pizzas?”
“I’ll tell you inside,” I said. We carried the food into the pool house and set it on the kitchen table. “The voice sent the pizzas. And he sent us another phone.”
“What did the voice have to say?” Jack said angrily. “Sorry we almost killed you?”
“He said they didn’t do it. He said that they were the ones who blew up the third Elgen car so we could escape.”
“Do you believe him?” Taylor asked.
“I don’t know. I mean, the Elgen wouldn’t blow up their own car, and we sure didn’t do it. And if they know we’re here, why didn’t they just attack us?”
“Because we kicked their butts last time,” Jack said.
“No,” Taylor said. “If they’re still trying to capture us, it would be better for them if we didn’t know that they knew where we are.”
“What?” Wade said.
“Precisely,” Ostin said. “First rule of war, never give up the element of surprise.”
I said, “The voice said he thinks they know how the Elgen have been following us.” I looked at Jack. “They think that you and Wade were implanted with tracking devices.”
Jack’s brow furrowed. “Implanted where?”
“When the guards took you prisoner, did they give you a shot?” Ostin asked.
“Oh yeah,” Wade said. “And that needle was wicked big. It stung worse than a hornet.”
“Did they tell you what the shot was for?” Ostin asked.
Jack shook his head. “No, they weren’t real talkative. Why?”
“GPs are implanted with a subdermal RFID so they can be tracked if they escape,” I said. “That includes you and Wade.”
“A what?” Jack asked.
“It’s a radio frequency identification device,” Ostin said. “They use them to track people. And they’re small enough that they can be injected into the body.”
“The voice told you this?” Jack asked skeptically.
I nodded. “He thinks the Elgen have been using the RFIDs to track us.”
“Wait,” Taylor said. “If that’s true, then they can still find us.”
Mitchell looked at her. “What will they do if they find us?”
“They burned down my house,” Jack said.
Mitchell’s eyes widened. “If something happens to the house, my parents will kill me.”
“If the Elgen find us,” Jack said, “they’ll kill you for real.”
Mitchell turned pale. “You’ve got to get out of here. All of you.”
“No, just Jack and Wade have to get out of here,” Zeus said.
“But they’ll capture us,” Wade said.
“It’s you or all of us, moron,” Zeus said.
“Watch your mouth,” Jack said.
“We’re in this together,” I said. “There’s got to be another solution.”
“Wait,” Ostin said. “There is. Mitchell, do you have any aluminum foil?”
“In the pantry.”
“Get it. Quick. The thicker the better.”
He started walking toward the kitchen.
“Run!” Jack said.
“Okay.” He ran out of the room.
“Aluminum foil?” I said.
“We can wrap them in foil. It will block the frequency.”
Taylor stifled a laugh. “They’ll look like baked potatoes.”
“I’m not going to wear foil,” Wade said.
“Maybe you prefer the Elgen jumpsuits,” Jack said.
Wade nodded. “Actually, I have always looked good in silver.”
Mitchell returned with two boxes of foil. “Here.”
“Someone help me wrap them,” Ostin said.
“I’ll help,” Taylor said.
“Where did you get the shot?” Ostin asked.
“At the Elgen Academy,” Wade said.
Jack shook his head. “In our arms. Our left arms.”
Ostin and Taylor wrapped Jack’s and Wade’s left arms and shoulders with foil.
“I take it back,” Taylor said. “You don’t look like baked potatoes. You look like the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz.”
“Yeah,” Zeus said. “I’ll get you a funnel for your head.”
“And I’ll shove your greasy head through it,” Jack said.
The two of them glared at each other.
Abigail stepped between them, then said to Jack. “I think you look like a knight in shining armor.”
Zeus shook his head and turned away.
“At least there are no more radio frequencies,” Ostin said.
Jack smoothed the foil down on his shoulder. “We can’t walk around like this for the rest of our lives.”
“He’s right,” I said. “Can’t we just run a magnet over it like you do with a credit card?”
“That won’t do anything,” Ostin said. “You’ve got to really crush it. Like hit it with a hammer.”
“We can’t hit anyone with a hammer,” I said.
“Yeah,” Wade said, looking pale. “That wouldn’t be good.”
“You’re right,” Ostin said. “It wouldn’t be efficient. You’d crush bones long before it damaged the chip.”
“Can we cut it out?” Jack asked.
Wade’s eyes widened. “What?”
“You could do that,” Ostin said. “If you could find it.”
“What?” Wade said again. “You want to cut it out of my arm, like with a knife?”
Jack walked to the kitchen and returned with a steak knife. He handed it to me. “Cut it out.”
Wade stared, his eyes wide with fear. “Please don’t.”
“Is there any other way to break them?” I asked.
“You can microwave them,” Ostin said. “But even if Wade fit in a microwave, he’d probably explode.”
Wade was speechless.
“What about an EMP?” Zeus said. “Quentin used to blow out RFID readers at toll booths just to cause traffic jams.”
“What’s an EMP? Taylor asked.
“Electromagnetic pulse,” Ostin said. “A high-frequency electromagnetic burst could overload the RFID’s antenna and blow out the chip.” He thought for a moment. “A quick electric surge could knock it out. But you’d have to be right above the RFID. And we don’t know where it is.”
“Ian can find it,” I said, looking at him. “Can’t you?”
“If I knew what I was looking for. What does it look like?”
“I’ve never seen one that small, but it would look like a tiny piece of metal,” Ostin said. “Like a sliver. Embedded in flesh it shouldn’t be that hard to find.”
“What about the EMP?” Taylor asked. “Where do you get one of those?”
“A big blast from Michael,” Ostin said.
“Why do all these solutions have to involve some form of torture?” Wade said. “Michael’s done that to me b
efore.”
“He’s shocked you before,” Ostin said. “This would have to be much more powerful.”
“I really don’t mind the foil that much.”
“Quit being such a wimp,” Jack said.
“It’s that or the knife,” Ostin said.
“Enough of this,” Jack said. “Let’s get it over with. I’ll go first.”
“Ian?” I said.
Ian walked up to Jack. “Point to where they gave you that shot.”
Jack peeled back the foil and rolled up his sleeve. He pointed to a spot a few inches down from his shoulder.
We were all quiet as Ian looked at Jack’s arm. “I think I see it. It’s about the size of a sesame seed.”
“What does it look like?” Ostin asked.
He focused his eyes. “It has markings. Almost like . . . fingerprints.”
“That’s it,” Ostin said. “We should mark where it is. Anyone got a pen?”
Mitchell retrieved a fine-tipped marker from a drawer next to the phone. “Here.”
Ostin handed the marker to Ian, who drew a small dot on Jack’s skin. “It’s right there, about a sixteenth to an eighth of an inch in.”
“The subcutaneous level,” Ostin said.
I looked at Jack. “You sure about this?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“Not really,” I said.
“Then I’m sure.”
“You should sit down,” Ostin said. “The shock might knock you out.”
“Right.” Jack walked over to the couch and sat back, his arm on the armrest.
I put my hand on his arm. “Ready?”
“I feel like I’m in the electric chair waiting for them to flip the switch. Don’t count or anything. Just do it.”
“Wait!” Abigail said. “I can help.” She walked over to Jack’s side and put one hand on his shoulder, the other on his neck. “Okay,” she said.
Jack smiled. “Thanks.”
I put my index finger on Ian’s ink dot and closed my eyes. Then I pulsed.
Jack’s body heaved and Abigail jumped back with a scream. The spot on Jack’s arm was bright red and there was a blister where my finger had touched him.
“Sorry,” I said.
It took him a moment to speak. “It was nothing,” he said, still looking a little dazed. “I think Abi took most of it.” He looked at her. “Are you all right?”
Her eyes were moist with tears, but she nodded.
“Thank you,” he said. “I owe you one.”
She forced a smile. “You’re welcome.”
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