The Silver Six

by C. A. Gray

  “You’re going to be back tonight, aren’t you?” I whispered, breathless.

  He pulled back a bit and gave me a soft smile, trying to seem casual. “Sure hope so.”

  Suddenly I got it. He was telling me goodbye. Just in case.

  “Liam—”

  “I’ll see you tonight,” he said, more confident this time. As he slid away from me, he caught my hand, and gave it a squeeze. Then he was gone.

  “You’re holding your breath,” Francis observed.

  He was right: I let it out in a whoosh, and then glared at him. He smirked back.

  “Our golf cart’s ready to go to the car silo!” Larissa announced, and then explained to me, “Matt from the Commune sent detailed instructions from the labyrinth on how to hot wire it, since we can’t find the keys. We’ll just give Liam and them a few minutes’ head start…”

  With that, Francis whipped out another pair of the glasses he’d given Liam earlier, all rimmed with LED lights. But remarkably, he was odd looking enough that they didn’t seem all that out of place on his face. He just looked like an eccentric programmer testing out a new invention.

  “And for you,” he handed a pair to Larissa, who squealed, “Ooh, thank you!” I had to smile: they looked like a nerdy couple at a sci fi convention. I’d never thought they looked good together before, but suddenly I could see it.

  “And you,” he handed another pair to me. My smile faded a bit, as Francis’s grew wider. “Oh yes. Put them on, Fashionista. We’re all in this together. At least until the Quantum Track station. After that you’re on your own. Come to think of it, I have no idea how you’re going to get back from the Quantum Track station tonight, because I have no intention of picking you up this evening. We won’t be back that soon…”

  That was a very good point. Somehow I hadn’t thought that far ahead; if I didn’t have a car at the Quantum Track, how did I plan to get back?

  “Who else is going to the Quantum Track station?” Dr. Yin entered the dining area where we stood, her eyes landing on me suspiciously, and especially on the LED glasses in my hand. “You’re staying here, aren’t you?”

  Francis snapped his fingers. “I know! Ana, tell Liam to go get her from the station when he gets back tonight. That’ll be a fun car ride, I’m sure,” he added to me with a twinkle in his eye. “Better start practicing your excuses!”

  “Where are you going?” Dr. Yin narrowed her eyes at me. “Does your mom know?”

  I sighed. “It’s a long story. I’m going to my house in Casa Linda—very briefly—and then I’ll be right back. There’s something I have to do, to protect us all—”

  “To make up for her own screw-up earlier,” Francis added for me helpfully. Larissa had, of course, filled him in.

  I gestured at Francis, with a reluctant, “Yes. That.”

  Dr. Yin shook her head in disbelief. “And there’s no other way to correct it?”

  “None that I can think of,” I winced. “If Liam or my mom come back before I do and want to know where I am, can you please tell them that I’m being careful, I didn’t buy my own Quantum Track ticket and I have a disguise”—I gestured at the glasses—“that should trick the cameras, and I don’t plan on being in public any more than strictly necessary? I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  Dr. Yin stared at me, shaking her head in disbelief. “I’m glad you’re not my daughter…”

  I tried to ignore the stab of guilt this produced. I wasn’t being reckless… well, no more so than Liam and Nilesh and Rick and Francis and Larissa were. Why should I feel guilty?

  I mean, aside from the fact that I’d inadvertently put us all in danger in the first place.

  It was about a fifteen minute golf cart ride to the new silo. Francis chose a car—a nondescript four-door sedan—and then we had an hour ride to the Quantum Track. I sat in the backseat while Francis drove and Larissa sat up front, still grilling him for more memories from his childhood. I kept the stupid glasses in my lap until we reached the Quantum Track station.

  “Be careful,” I told Larissa, hugging her as we parted at the station. “Do you guys even have any weapons?”

  Her smile froze in place. “Weapons?” She looked at Francis. “Will we need them?”

  “Not to worry,” he said without expression. “I am a weapon.”

  “A hobbling weapon,” I added, glancing at his leg. It was healing nicely, but he certainly wouldn’t be sprinting anytime soon.

  I hugged Larissa again, and stuck out my hand to Francis awkwardly. He eyed it with distaste but finally relented and shook.

  “I’ll see you tonight, I hope.”

  Francis shrugged. “Or within a week, at least.”

  “A week?” squeaked Larissa. As they walked away from me down the platform, I heard her voice trailing away, “You think this will take us a whole week?”

  I was alone now: no vehicle (that I could drive anyway), and nowhere to go but onward. With a deep breath, I made my way to the nearest netscreen, plugging in Julie’s information to secure my seat. I ignored the looks I got for the strange glasses, making my way to the back of one of the compartments, and settling in for what might be my last trip back home ever. I wished I had my journal with me so that I could use the time productively: I had an awful lot to catch up on.

  Was I a bad daughter?

  I didn’t want to think about that, and forced the question out of my mind. I closed my eyes as the Quantum Track picked up speed, resting my head against the glass. As soon as my mind began to drift to other topics, the memory of Liam pressed against me involuntarily made my whole body tingle.

  Stop it, I commanded myself. You are about to see Andy! And maybe for the last time. Why did I so often have these intrusive thoughts about Liam, anyway?

  I already knew the answer, of course. I’d known it for a long time, but I didn’t want to know it. I didn’t even want to say it to myself.

  It didn’t even make any sense. How could I like two guys at once? Was that even possible?

  “Rebecca!” a familiar voice shouted, and I located the speaker at once. Julie then clamped both hands over her mouth in her usual exaggerated fashion the second she realized what she’d said. “I mean… Ver…onica?”

  I laughed, running toward her and throwing my arms around her neck. Jake hugged me at the same time before I’d even let go of Julie, and I felt a third pair of arms add themselves to the pile-up. I looked up into the pale face, and my heart did a somersault.

  Andy. He came.

  “Hey,” he said awkwardly, and Julie met my eyes with a knowing smile.

  “C’mon, we’ll call a hovercar,” she said, guiding me by the elbow to the curb where hovercars swooped in and out, picking up and depositing passengers.

  “What’s with the glasses?” Jake asked. “I can’t even look directly at your face.”

  “I’ll explain later,” I said, as Julie hailed the hovercar.

  Andy, I noticed, stood very close to me on the curb—closer than was strictly necessary. That was a good sign; he usually only did that when there weren’t any other girls on his radar at the moment. But he wasn’t touching me, and he wasn’t saying anything either. I could almost hear the wheels in his head spinning as he searched for topics. We’d been through this routine before.

  “Is… Ivan visiting for Spring Break at all?” I finally asked him.

  “Nah. He’s from Milwaukee, he’s visiting his family there.” Andy and Ivan hadn’t met until college.

  “Huh,” I said, having already exhausted this topic. I climbed in the backseat of the car between Andy and Julie, and Jake sat up front.

  “I called everybody else—Elizabeth, Emily, Rob, and Patrick,” said Jake, turning around to crane his neck back at me. “We’re all gonna meet up at the Moon tonight, like old times!” The Moon was an old abandoned space-themed restaurant, and its parking lot had become our regular hangout spot when we were in high school.
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br />   “I can’t stay that long,” I shook my head apologetically. “Can they all just come to my house when we get there?”

  “What?” Jake whined. “Why not? Nobody knows you’re here, do they?”

  “Not yet, but they’ll find out I’m gone soon enough. Besides, it’s not even technically safe for me to be here now, let alone hang out all day…”

  “Becca!” Julie rolled her eyes, “I bought your tickets, you’ve got your freaky glasses… don’t you think you’re being a little overdramatic? Like Halpert is even looking for you!”

  “Shh! Julie!” I gestured at the hovercar. True, the driver didn’t have a humanoid body—the car drove itself, but there was still an intelligent chip imbedded in it somewhere. How was I to know how much it might record and report?

  Julie balked a little. “Wow.” She didn’t even have to finish the sentence—I knew exactly what she meant.

  Jake shrugged, relaxed as ever. “Hey, if Becca says it’s not safe, it’s not safe! Everyone will just be really disappointed you’re not there tonight, that’s all.”

  I sighed. “I know, I wish I could be there…”

  “You can, Becca,” Julie insisted, exasperated now. “Look, I totally love you, but, no offense: you’re not that important! Halpert himself is not trying to kill you—”

  Her voice died away in her throat as the hovercar descended at the address Jake had given the car. My address.

  The front door was wide open and hanging off the hinge.

  Chapter 9

  I’m not exactly sure what happened after that: I leapt out and Julie must have paid for the hovercar, because Jake reached my side first, sliding an arm around me as I stood staring at the door, trying to decide what to do: heed the ominous warning, or go in and investigate? Andy ran up on my other side and then Julie joined us too.

  “That’s not good,” Andy said at last. He was always a master at stating the obvious.

  His voice broke my trance, though: I plucked up the courage, squared my shoulders, and moved toward the open door. Julie grabbed my arm before I could get very far.

  “You don’t—think that was because they heard us talking?” she hissed nervously. “In the hovercar?”

  “There wasn’t enough time,” Jake pointed out reasonably. “This must’ve happened earlier…”

  I shrugged Julie off and jogged inside, spurred on by the thought of finding a box inside containing Madeline. At this point, my expectations for this little trip had lowered considerably: all I wanted to do was find her, and get out of here as fast as possible.

  “Becca! What if they’re still in there?” called Julie, but to her credit, she ran in after me.

  The inside of the house looked very much like the front door had led me to expect. Furniture upturned and slashed open. Every drawer yanked out of its place, contents emptied all over the floor or the counter. Photo albums and books lying in a haphazard heap. I stepped over the debris left in the spree, shaking with an emotion I couldn’t identify. Fear? Rage? Violation? Sadness?

  The box. Where could the box be?

  “What if they are still here?” Andy repeated Julie’s question, sidling up to me.

  I gritted my teeth. “Then they need to know there’s four of us. Madeline?” I shouted, stomping as loudly as I could. Jake and Julie took my cue and started shouting her name too, as we tore off in different directions to look for her. “She’ll be in a box about the size of a backpack!” I shouted to the others.

  After awhile, it was hard to know where I’d already looked and where I hadn’t, but eventually I satisfied myself that I had scoured the entire house, twice—to say nothing of the search efforts of my friends. No Madeline, and no box where Madeline might have been. I sank to the carpet of my childhood bedroom in despair.

  “Would Roy know if there was even a package delivered?” asked Jake. Roy Benson was my next door neighbor, and he spent most of his time on his front porch.

  I shook my head miserably. “I don’t know why he’d pay attention to that—”

  “Because he gave Liam’s presentation again in Casa Linda a few weeks back!” Julie interjected, “and he knows you’re involved with him—well, not involved, involved—” she cast a hasty glance at Andy, “but I mean, he’d be paying more attention to your family than usual. He might have seen a package, if there was one, and wondered what it was all about, especially if neither you nor your mom were home?” Her voice went up at the end of this statement hopefully.

  “We should go find out,” volunteered Jake, “see if he knows anything.”

  “I’ll go with you!” Julie said at once, gesturing to me and Andy. “You guys should stay and keep looking, see if there’s anywhere else she could be hiding!” I heard them both retreat down the stairs, leaving Andy and me alone in my room. It was like a parody of a fantasy I’d indulged many times over the years. I probably should have used the moment to try to convince him to come back to the compound with me like I’d planned—but I was so distracted and upset by the fact that I hadn’t found Madeline that I couldn’t seem to make the transition. Andy looked at me helplessly, shuffling his feet.

  “Er,” he said. “Any idea where else we could look?”

  “Nowhere I haven’t looked already,” I sighed. “She’s not here! I don’t want to have to leave without her, but if Roy doesn’t know anything about it, I don’t see that I’ll have any choice!” I shook my head. “And if she’s not here, where else could she be?”

  “I don’t really get it,” Andy admitted, still standing several paces away from me with his arms hanging stiffly at his sides. “Why are you so attached to a robot? Aren’t you against robots?”

  I stood up at last, looking under my bed and in my closet for the seventeenth time, just to have something to do. “You’d have to meet her to understand, I guess. She’s like family.”

  “Bec?” came a muffled, frantic cry from downstairs as a pair of footsteps moved from the front door to the kitchen.

  My heart leapt to my throat at the first noise, thinking maybe they were back—but I knew that voice. “It can’t be,” I murmured to myself, abandoning my closet and descending the stairs. I caught sight of the dark blue sweater he’d been wearing that morning as he rushed from the kitchen into the dining room.

  “Liam?”

  He wheeled around again, and, seeing me, relief flooded his unusually pale face as he closed the distance between us in a few strides. He looked as if he were going to sweep me into his arms in relief, but before he could, he stopped cold, looking past me to the stairs. Then down at me. I glanced back, and saw Andy standing there. Then back at Liam, whose face had suddenly turned to stone.

  “What,” he said, his voice very low and controlled, “were you thinking?”

  “What are you doing here?” I retorted. “Aren’t you supposed to be off getting supplies?”

  “I was going to,” Liam seethed at me, “but when your mom and Mack came back to the compound and discovered you missing, Dr. Yin told them where you’d gone. Your mom took the hovercraft to meet me at the Quantum Track station, to send me after you. She guessed you were trying to rescue Madeline, but I see that wasn’t the case!”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?’” I bristled.

  Liam cast a glance over at my shoulder to Andy, still standing frozen on the stairs behind us. “Well, clearly you had ulterior motives!”

  I flushed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

  Liam glared at me, and shook his head in disgust.

  “We’ve been looking for Madeline everywhere and can’t find her, anyway!” I protested. “I told her to ship herself here before I had my A.E. chip removed—”

  “Yeah, you wouldn’t find her here,” Liam retorted, “because your mom had Roy Benson ship her to us. They have her now—that’s where she and Mack went this morning!”

  My mouth fell open. “What?”

  “Yeah. Had you talked t
o someone about this fabulous plan of yours, you’d have known that! M got an alert yesterday that there was a package on the way here, and found out the sender’s address was from Geneva. She thought it might be a contact from one of Youssef’s colleagues and had Roy retrieve it and send it on to New York. But he opened it before he sent it, and found Madeline. He’d just messaged her and told her what was inside when she discovered you were missing. She figured if she got the tip-off about a package being sent to her old home, someone else might have gotten the same message. Apparently she was right!” He gestured at the chaos that was my house. “I’m guessing this wasn’t your handiwork?”

  “No,” I murmured, deflating.

  Mom had Madeline already.

  Liam was right. I really was stupid.

  Now that I wasn’t shouting back anymore, Liam’s voice also went down a register. “It could have been worse, you know. Mack barely convinced your mom not to come herself.”

  I could only groan in response to this.

  “We’ve lingered too long here already,” Liam said, moving toward me. Then, casting a glance behind me, he glowered at Andy, “You too. Come on.”

  “What?” Andy gaped.

  “I don’t like it either, pal, but you’re involved now. Let’s go.”

  I glanced at Andy, whose eyes widened, but he shuffled behind us obediently. “Where are we going?”

  Liam ignored him, ushering me inexorably outside and toward the hovercraft, parked very conspicuously on the green just behind our house.

  “But—Jake and Julie!” I protested, “they’ll be back any minute! They just went next door to talk to Roy. If Andy’s in danger, aren’t they, also?”

  “Maybe, but I don’t want to risk waiting for them, or worse, going looking for them. The more people we encounter, the more will become potential targets, and we can’t afford to bring everyone in your whole town with us. The hovercraft isn’t exactly innocuous, either—we’ll have to do some fancy maneuvering to keep from leading them right to our compound as it is. Get in, the both of you.” He said this as the hovercraft door slid open, shoving Andy wordlessly through the gaping hole. I hesitated, glancing over my shoulder and hoping to catch a glimpse of Jake and Julie as they left Roy Benson’s house.