by C. A. Gray
Suddenly I gasped, and everyone turned to look at me.
“Sorry,” I murmured, coloring a little. “I just had an idea.”
Dr. Yin watched me. “Go on.”
I felt a little foolish—perhaps the idea was stupid. After all, with Dr. Yin and Giovanni both here, I was hopelessly outranked in the field of neuroscience. But I had the floor now whether I liked it or not, so I ventured to Giovanni, pointing at the manufacturing printer, “Do you know enough about VMI machines that you think we might be able to… recreate one? With that?” Virtual Magnetic Imaging machines were the primary technology I’d used in my senior thesis. “I mean, we’d have to first get someone on the Commune to pull down instructions from the labyrinth and send them to us, of course.”
Giovanni eyed me with interest for the first time. “Perhaps… why?”
“Well,” I blushed again, “there’s this guy who is normally here. He’s not here right now, but he should be back in a day or a few days at most, and in my non-expert opinion, he’s the closest thing to a psychopath that I’ve ever met. A sociopath, maybe.” I shrugged at Mom, and added unnecessarily, “Francis.”
“We knew you didn’t mean Liam,” she said dryly.
“So I thought…” Here I looked at the others to explain what Dr. Yin and Giovanni knew already, “Well, VMI machines don’t just image, they also essentially give a histology profile of the cells without a biopsy, by reading their protein signature. That tells us what types of cells we’re looking at, not just what they look like macroscopically. There’s still not a lot of hard facts known about what makes a psychopath a psychopath, but if everybody else here agrees to provide a baseline sample, I—we,” I glanced at Dr. Yin—“can compare the rest of us to Francis and see what’s different about how his brain works compared to ours. I don’t know how that will help yet, but if the Silver Six basically act like him, it’s a lead, at least. Right?”
Mack and Mom exchanged a look, and I could tell by the raised eyebrows that they were… maybe a little impressed?
“That’s a terrific idea, Rebecca,” Dr. Yin said for them, putting a hand on my shoulder and glancing at Giovanni. “I’m Dr. Ana Yin. My Ph.D. is in Neuroscience. Rebecca and Nilesh both worked in my lab as very talented undergraduates before… well.” She gestured at our current location, and gave him a small smile. “I’m happy to help you print the parts and assemble the VMI, once you are feeling up to it.”
“I’m not human neuroscience, though, I’m computational neuroscience,” Nilesh told Giovanni when he glanced his way. He pointed back to me. “Becca’s our girl on the human psych end.”
Mom’s expression went from one of apparent pride, to sudden exasperation, though I couldn’t tell why. She caught my eye, and I quirked my head to the side in a silent question. She sighed.
“I’d fully planned on leaving Francis to his own devices, since I never authorized his little expedition. But it turns out we need his brain.”
A flicker of dread crossed Nilesh’s face, and he glanced at Rick.“You want us to go after them?”
Mom set her jaw and didn’t answer right away. “I don’t know,” she muttered at last, “let me think about it. We should eat first before we make any major decisions, and appreciate one successful mission at least, before embarking on another.”
I glanced at Madeline, whose wide eyes took in the whole conversation wordlessly—and then at Andy. He still stood behind me, but he was staring blankly off to the side, clearly bored and thinking about something else. When Mom mentioned food, his gaze refocused, and he turned to me.
“Ready?” he asked.
Giovanni pointed at Andy. “Everyone else has been introduced now. Who’s this? Is he a neuroscience grad student too?”
“Er… no,” Andy stammered. “I’m Andy. Rebecca’s—friend.” He glanced at me with a questioning look, as if for confirmation that that was the appropriate term for us. I didn’t respond to this at all. Truthfully, I was a little annoyed. I wanted him to be decisive, opinionated, helpful—manly. Not standing in the background shuffling his feet and staring off into space. Even though if I were honest with myself, that was totally in character for him.
Liam was the decisive, opinionated, and helpful one.
“We’ll go make dinner,” I announced, cutting off my own thoughts and gesturing to Andy to follow me.
Chapter 13
Andy and I (mostly I) made spaghetti and meatballs from a recipe I found on paper in the kitchen. It was something easy to cook in quantity, which is what I needed: all we had to do was multiply the recipe by four. It also stretched the limits of my culinary skills, but that meant I didn’t have a lot of brainpower left over to think about other things. I hadn’t realized how on edge I was until I heard voices at the compound entrance, and promptly dropped my plastic measuring cup of tomato paste on the floor. I picked it up hastily and set it on the counter as I rushed into the hallway.
Despite the crowd around him, I saw Liam right away: he was nearly a head taller than Mack and Nilesh. I saw one arm clasping a large box, which Nilesh took from him. He spotted me immediately and met my eyes, giving me a tiny smile of acknowledgement. I wiped my hands on my jeans as I started to approach—but then froze.
Liam’s other arm curled behind him protectively, where a shy looking girl peered out from behind him. She was petite and pretty in a girl-next-door kind of way, with round rosy cheeks, light wavy brown hair and large hazel eyes. She also had a swath of gauze on her temple—somehow, they’d removed her A.E. chip before they’d arrived.
“Who’s this?” Nilesh bellowed, and once Liam’s hands were free, he held them up to silence the questions.
“This is Valerie Hamilton,” Liam announced. “Val, this is Nilesh, and Mack, Dr. Ana Yin—”
Val. I turned the name over in my mind with dawning horror, flashing back to that conversation in San Jose, when Liam and I stayed up talking after the cantina the night of his presentation. He’d told me about his ex-girlfriends that night. Val had been the name of one he’d dated off and on for years. He said he’d broken up with her the last time and had to stop talking to her completely because it was obvious they “couldn’t be just friends.”
Is this her?
“Wait, wait, wait,” my mom cut across him, and everyone fell silent. “What is she doing here?”
Behind him, Val looked a bit like a frightened animal. Liam sighed, and said, “We ran into each other on the street in St. Louis. I didn’t know she lived there now.” He glanced at Val behind him and added, a bit reluctantly, “She didn’t know any better, but when she saw me, she started to make a scene…”
“I only called your name and waved!” she protested, quietly indignant.
Liam nodded, and turned back to Mom. “In a crowd.”
Mom groaned, and covered her face with her hands.
“The cameras might not recognize me with the glasses, but if they caught a recording of her shouting my name, and saw her face, and I left her behind…”
Mom nodded, but she still looked displeased. “I got it, I got it. You made the right call. Pretty soon we’ll have a whole army here,” she muttered to herself, but loudly enough that we could probably all hear. But she closed the distance to them and extended her hand, with a smile I was sure was intended to be welcoming. “Valerie, I’m Karen Cordeaux. Welcome.”
Val gave Mom a shy smile in return, and shook her proffered hand. “Please, call me Val,” she said in a small, breathy voice, like a cartoon princess.
I decided I hated her.
Liam made the rounds, introducing her to everyone else, before beckoning me to approach. I did, rather unwillingly.
“Val, this is Rebecca Cordeaux; Bec, this is Valerie Hamilton,” Liam said when I got close enough. I noticed with a pang that he’d shortened both our names to one syllable, but brushed away the silly thought, thrusting my hand at her.
“Pleased to meet you,” I said with a wa
rm smile, channeling an heiress socialite character I’d played on stage a few seasons ago. “Welcome.”
“Thanks,” Val said in that breathy voice of hers, giving me a matching limp fish handshake.
Andy was right behind me, so Liam added, “And this is Andy—sorry, don’t know your last name.”
“Andy Franklin,” he and I said at the same time, and he extended his hand to Val also, who shook it with the same shy smile.
The rest of the group began to move past the vestibule and toward the dining room where Andy and I had already set the table for dinner, Liam falling into step beside Giovanni and Nilesh to catch up on what he’d missed. Everyone else followed behind them, and Val reluctantly released Liam’s sleeve once he’d gotten too far beyond her.
I began to approach her, wanting to satisfy myself as to whether or not this was the Val, but then I heard my timer beeping. “Sorry,” I smiled at her, shrugging. “Just finishing dinner.”
“Do you want some help?” she asked, almost like a whisper. That was gonna get on my nerves.
“No thanks, I got it,” I said, my smile practically screwed in place.
“So are they old friends or something?” asked Andy when we were back in the kitchen.
“I think she’s Liam’s ex-girlfriend,” I told him, stirring vigorously as I added water to the boiling sauce.
“Huh,” he said. “She seems like she might still like him.”
“Yeah.” I stabbed the softened peppers in the sauce with my spatula against the bottom of the pan until they were in little tiny pieces.
Dinner was a surprisingly animated affair. Liam was still mostly engaged with Giovanni, who sat beside him. Val sat on Liam’s other side, her chair scooted unnecessarily close to his, though she didn’t try to join their conversation. Dr. Yin, who sat across from them, briefed Liam on my VMI idea. Liam shot me an admiring look across the table and said to them, “Yeah, Bec’s one of the most creative people I know.” I softened and started to smile at him, but he turned his attention back to Dr. Yin before I had the chance.
I sat between Andy and Nilesh. The latter largely ignored me, talking instead to Liam and Giovanni. Andy kept trying to engage me with non-sequitur comments, like, “Jake got me into the Heavy French. Their latest album’s pretty good,” or “Remember that one time when Patrick and Jake and you and me went sledding? Remember Pat wiping out and running into that clothesline thing on the bunny slope? That was funny.” I knew it was his attempt to make conversation, but it was annoying, because it distracted me from the other conversations I really wanted to pay attention to. I gave him only the very briefest of replies, instead straining to listen to Mom and Dr. Yin as they politely tried to engage Val. Apparently she was a social worker, placing foster children in good homes.
Of course, I thought irritably. She would be a saint.
“And how do you know Liam?” Dr. Yin asked Val.
“Oh,” Val breathed, looking at Liam with her heart shining out of her eyes, though he didn’t seem to notice. “We used to be… very close, he and I. But I hadn’t seen him in a long time. And then he just showed up outside my work today out of the blue. He said I’d be in danger if he left me there, and I’m sure he’s right. But I think he was meant to run into me today all the same.” She gazed at his back adoringly, and asked with wide eyes, “Do you believe in fate, Dr. Yin?”
Dr. Yin and Mom exchanged a look—was that concern that passed between them? Finally Dr. Yin, floundering for an appropriate response, said, “I… can’t… say that I do.”
“Oh, well,” Val fluttered, undaunted, “I do.”
Definitely the same Val, I thought, concentrating on my spaghetti as if it were trying to escape.
Mom and Mack offered to clean up after dinner, while Liam, Nilesh, Rick, Dr. Yin, and Giovanni went upstairs to continue their conversation in the study. Andy wandered off by himself; I didn’t know what he was doing, and didn’t much care.
After standing around uncertainly for a moment, Val began to follow the others upstairs. I forced myself to fall into step beside her. I was curious, and maybe a little masochistic. Besides, if I didn’t approach her quickly to dispel all suspicion, I was afraid everyone would see how much I disliked her.
“So Val. You and Liam used to date, right?” I asked her, keeping my tone light and casual.
Val smiled at me gratefully, and nodded. “We did. For three years.’’ She shrugged and gave a rueful laugh. “Of course, that was also three years ago…”
“So it was probably a bit of a shock to see him again today, huh?”
She turned wide, trusting eyes to me, as if no one else in the world had ever understood her before. “Yes! I can’t even tell you… I always knew he would come back someday, but I never imagined…” she stopped herself, as if remembering that she was talking to a complete stranger, and gave me a sheepish smile. “So how are you connected with all of this?”
“My parents. I guess,” I shrugged at her as the two of us entered the domed room, now a vast expanse of stars and a crescent moon. I saw Liam glance toward us as Val and I settled on a bench near the fire, even as he continued to chat with Giovanni and Dr. Yin. A few seconds later, he glanced at us again, with the distracted air of someone carrying on one conversation while wishing he were in a different one.
“Your parents?” Val prodded me politely.
“My mom is Karen,” I told her, pointing downstairs to indicate who I meant. “She’s… kind of the boss around here. My dad was a conspiracy theorist before any of us were, and he found out years ago that Halpert and his board were all bots. They killed him for it.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” One delicate hand fluttered to Val’s throat, her features all dismay. I didn’t know why that was so annoying.
“It’s been six years. But thank you.” As I said this, I saw Liam excuse himself from his conversation across the room, making his way over to us.
“So… how long have you and that guy been together?” Val asked me. I looked back at her, surprised and distracted.
“What? Who?”
“The guy who was sitting next to you at dinner. I thought he said his name was Andy? He is your boyfriend, right?”
“Oh, did that finally happen while I was gone this afternoon?” Liam said to me flatly, now within earshot. “Congrats. Sorry, didn’t mean to crash your ‘girl talk.’” He held up his hands, turning to walk away again.
“No, wait! You can stay!” Val piped eagerly, making room on her side of the bench for him before I could respond.
“That’s okay. I know when I’m in the way.” He forced a smile as he retreated.
“No, I’m not dating Andy,” I cut in a little loudly, addressing Val, but watching Liam. He hesitated, which meant he’d heard me.
“You’re not?” Val asked, a little confused.
“No, what made you think I was?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know—you guys just seemed ‘together’ at dinner.” She gave me an apologetic smile. “Well, maybe he just likes you, then. I can see why he would.”
I opened my mouth and closed it again, disliking her all the more for her failure to be hatable.
“So… do you think Andy likes you, then?” Madeline asked me that night as I recounted this conversation to her.
I sighed. “I think Andy’s always liked me… but on a cycle,” I told her, miming highs and lows with my hand, like a sine wave. “I have no competition at the moment, so yeah. He’s all touchy-feely and sits really close and watches me with that intense gaze of his. I don’t know what else it could mean.”
“You don’t sound like you’re enjoying it, though,” Madeline observed.
I shrugged. “Well, I am, it’s gratifying, but…” I trailed off, searching for the words.
“But all you can think about is Val and Liam?” Madeline finished for me.
I met her understanding eyes, and hung my head. “I’m broken, aren’t I?”
“What do you mean, you’re broken?” she demanded.
I gave a hollow, humorless laugh, looking away. “He even told me this would happen.”
“Who?”
“Liam.” I turned back to Madeline. “The night I told him how I felt about Andy. He told me that if I could have him, I wouldn’t want him anymore—I’d suddenly wish he were someone else. Because it was never about Andy in the first place. It was about my dad. That’s what he said.” I closed my eyes. “Not that I necessarily can have Andy… he hasn’t asked me or anything…”
“But it sounds like he probably would if you encouraged him,” she pointed out. After a long moment, Madeline ventured, “So… you do like Liam now, then? Not Andy?”
I stared at her for a long moment, not sure how to answer. At last I flattened out on my stomach on the bed, sinking my head onto the folds of my elbows.
“Ugh. I hate myself,” I groaned, my voice muffled by the bed sheets.
Chapter 14
Mom’s plan was to send Rick and Nilesh after Francis and Larissa the following morning, but she didn’t have to. I awoke sometime in the dead of night, probably between two and three am, my brain spinning over the events of the last twenty-four hours. Presently I emerged from my thoughts to hear grunts, pants, whispered swearing, and the thud of human contact with varied obstacles in the dark. I crept out of bed and peered through the door: one of the shapes turned toward me and broke into an exhausted grin, teeth practically glowing in the dark. I opened the door the rest of the way, crossed to Larissa, and threw my arms around her.
“Francis?” I asked her, and she turned to point to two dark shadows down the corridor. His must have been the swearing. I pointed at the second shape. “And is that…?”
