by Eros, Marata
Dad looked up, puzzled. “Nothing?”
She shook her head.
“What about your pulse-top, Kyle?”
“The mainframe shut it down the instant someone tried to hack it.”
“Did they?” Our eyes met. “ Try , I mean.”
“They most certainly did. When I return to work on Monday, we'll do an analysis of what files they breached, if any. In the meantime, I won't be able to recover anything. It's locked down. It's for the best, if they return. We have to consider the possibility.”
“I thought the police were watching,” I said.
“True, but they don't have the manpower to be here twenty-four hours a day, son.”
That blows . I shook my head. “That doesn't seem safe enough. I mean, they didn't rob us, but somehow, they got in even with pulse-security. So they can get in again.”
“I'll change the pulse-code,” Dad said.
“But how did they get in to begin with? The cops said there were no signs of forced entry.”
Dad rested his chin on his hand. “That's the best I can do. Also, it provides a fail-safe.”
“A what?” I asked.
“A way to find out who or what may know sensitive information, like our pulse code,” Mom said.
“So that means if someone got in here again, it's an inside job?” I clarified.
“Exactly,” Dad agreed.
“Can't we just assume that now as a fact?” Mom asked.
“I'd like to, but the scientist in me insists it may have been a malfunction or someone using one of the many pulse tools out there to neutralize settings. We need to exclude that possibility first.”
“Thereby allowing them to assign a new pulse-code,” Mom added slowly.
Dad inclined his head.
We got after the cleaning and when it was finally done, I asked, “What's for supper, Mom?”
“How about a McDonald's run?” Dad asked.
“All right!” I yelled, doing a Jonesy-style fist pump.
Mom's shoulders slumped a little. Don't ruin it Mom, I silently begged. Dad closed the distance, taking her by the shoulders and they stared into each others eyes. About this time was my cue to take off... but I stayed. We were in this whole mess together, this was not a gross-out parents moment.
He ran his hands up and down her arms. “It's been a tough day on all of us. Let me take care of you and Caleb tonight. I know you like to make the suppers, but let's get some food in us and a good night's rest. Things will look better tomorrow.”
She smiled, a wan thing, not her usual, full-toothed grin. “Hey, that's my line, buster.” She playfully punched him.
He released her, his hands sliding down her bare arms like a caress.
Definitely a caress.
***
McDonald's was always an act of self-restraint. I had a fantasy where I walked up to the counter and said, “I'll have one of everything.”
Unfortunately, the reality was Dad finding us a place to sit and Mom selecting the food. As Dad put it, “She's the health nut of the house, son.”
That meant that I usually couldn't get a milkshake. It didn't matter if they were made with seaweed or not. I had tried that argument with Mom, and she didn't buy it.
Imagine my surprise when she came back to the table with not two but three shakes!
That meant it had been a Really Bad Day.
Mom slid into the booth and put the tray on the glaring orange Formica table top. “It's been a really bad day,” she said as she sat down next to me.
Yay for ransackers! I guess it was too much for a family to go through for milkshakes, but it was a near thing.
I tore off the lid, sighing with pleasure at the thought of that chocolaty goodness. She had strawberry, and Dad had vanilla. Neapolitan family.
Mom opened hers and stuck in a straw that stood up in the center of the cup in a satisfying way. I liked to slurp, so Mom hadn't bothered to get a straw for me. We chowed down on the burgers and fries.
“Caleb,” Mom said, “what about those papers that John gave you?”
Ah! I had forgotten all about those.
“Maybe they're in my locker at school.”
She knew organizing wasn't a strong point of mine. I smiled over the rim of my shake thinking about it.
She pushed the rest of her food in front of me. After taking a last sip of her shake, she offered that, too.
I stood by the “family cootie” mantra, which stated that we're all exposed to each other's germs anyway, so a little shared shake wasn't going to take away my fun. I slurped and gulped quietly while listening to my parents figure out our next move. After our trays were emptied in the separator, we piled back into the car, the seat harnesses locking after Dad pulsed the car ignition.
The drive uneventful, Dad parked in the garage while the car idled, “You guys stay here and let me look inside.”
Our days of just roaring in and out of the house were behind us. No longer did we feel safe.
Mom and I waited, and a few minutes later, Dad came back out and gave the thumbs-up.
I rushed up to my room, flipping my hair out of my eyes and jerking my pulse out of my pocket. I leapt into the air and back-landed on my bed. I pressed my thumb onto the pad and thought, Jade.
JLeC: Hey.
Caleb: What's up with you?
JLeC: Nothing much. Sophie's here.
Caleb: Oh. Well, our house was broken into, and the cops came.
JLeC: What? < gasp > Are you guys okay? Why was it broken into? Did Garcia come?
Caleb: Ya know why. No, he didn't. Some other cops came.
JLeC: You think?
Caleb: I do. I think it's all about that.
JLeC: Well, Sophie's here. I can't really talk much, so I better go. Are we still hanging at your house tomorrow?
Caleb: Yeah. Three o'clock?.
JLeC: ' kay, I'll be there.
Caleb: Can't wait to see ya.
JLeC: Caleb—be careful.
Caleb: ' kay.
Next stop, the Js. I pressed my thumb back on the pad. Disconnect. Three-way: Jonesy and John Terran.
Jonesy: Hey dill weed.
John Terran: Hi.
Jonesy: Thinkin' about tomorrow Caleb?
Caleb: Yeah, ya know I am. But, something happened today that’s freaking me out, big time. Some losers came through the house and tore it up. They broke mom's plants and tried to hack my dad's pulse-top. It was bad. Then the cops showed.
Jonesy: Garcia?
Caleb: No.
John Terran: You think they're looking for the goods?
Caleb: Good one, John. Maybe. That's what Dad thinks.
John Terran: I t's not funny, but you have the dumbest luck.
Caleb: No shit Sherlock.
Jonesy: They wouldn't find anything anyway.
Caleb: Probably not, but…
John Terran: < profanity block >The papers I gave you!
Caleb:
John Terran: Are those at school... maybe?
Caleb: Maybe, but I'm not much for organizing my locker. The only thing I hope is that they looked at my room and figured it would take too much time to search.
Jonesy:
John Terran: So are you guys staying at the house? I mean, is it safe?
Caleb: Yeah, the cops said they'd do random surveillance.
John Terran: Okay, we'll talk about this more tomorrow. Maybe we can figure out who did it and w hy? What about Jade? Can she do anything with her mojo?
Caleb: Mojo, John?
Jonesy: Get over yourself, Caleb, we won't frisk the girlfriend.
Caleb: Yeah, you chumps just follow my lead.
Jonesy: Pushy bastard!
Caleb: Just for you.
Jonesy: Okay, what are you telling your parents?
Caleb: That we're gonna hang out.
John Terran: That's so not going to work if you have another corpse day.
Caleb: Well, actually... today, Dad thought it would be a good idea to visit the cemetery and experiment.
John Terran: Well,
Caleb: Not real well. But I got Granny back in the ground.
Jonesy: WTF?
John Terran: You raised your dead grandmother?
Caleb: Yeah, but she sorta got out of control, and then Tiff Weller had to help. Hang on to your shorts, guys, I will tell you the whole thing tomorrow. I don't want this on our pulses. You feel me?
CHAPTER 16
I didn't sleep well. Every noise, every scrape of a branch against the house was cause for wakefulness. I gave up and went to the window.
The street appeared still. The moon cast shadows everywhere, and under the streetlamps, the pools of light were bordered by inky blackness.
A police cruiser slowly pulled up in front of my house. Two officers got out—Garcia and McGraw. I sure didn't feel safer with those two guarding the house. Leaning forward, I pressed my nose to the glass, careful not to fog up the window with my breath.
Garcia turned abruptly as if McGraw had said something, bending to hear him. Surreptitious whispering ensued, voices I couldn't hear but wanted to. Their heads stayed pressed together for a few moments, one blond and the other so dark it blended with the night.
They looked up at my room. It took a whole lot for me not to duck, but they didn’t appear to see me.
A sigh of relief escaped me into the hushed silence of my room.
Just as they were finishing their covert conversation, another cruiser pulled up. Officers Gale and Ward got out.
Huh. Now this was interesting.
I was certain we didn't need four cops. I rested my butt cheeks against my heels, perching for the duration.
Even in the gloom it was easy to tell which cop was Gale. She was the smallest, more than a head shorter than Garcia. As obsessed with growing as I was, I noticed people's heights. Bobbi Gale was around Jade's height, but built bigger.
Gale gestured at our house and then threw her hands up in the air. Ward had his arms folded over his chest in a defensive stance. McGraw mirrored Ward, as Garcia moved to stand nose to nose with Gale. Their height difference didn't really allow for that, but she was right in his face, her's craning up to make eye contact.
Then, McGraw touched Garcia's shoulder and stepped back. His shoulders hiked up in an exaggerated shrug, and with a wave of his hand, he dismissed our house and walked over to his cruiser. Garcia followed. Even from my vantage point, I could see Gale glowering at him.
She was pissed. It was in the set of her shoulders, the way tension sang along them. I would've loved to have heard what they said.
Gale and Ward watched the other two pull away, then got in their cruiser and backed into the space that McGraw and Garcia had vacated.
That was weird as hell. I knew it wasn't a shift change thing because Gale and Ward said the checks would be random. I wondered if McGraw and Garcia had shown up when they weren’t supposed to be at my house. But I had no idea why they would have.
I stared for a couple more minutes, barely making them out in the gloom. Gale was in the driver's seat and Ward beside her, gesturing and talking, a badge twinkling in the dim light cast by the streetlight.
I flopped back against my bed. I tossed and turned and finally fell into a fitful sleep, unconsciousness pulling me under like a pebble in a river.
CHAPTER 17
I was swimming, the sun shining through the water, me at the bottom looking through layers of grayish-green. A great, pale orb shone dimly above me. It was important I reach it, though I didn’t know why.
Moving a hand in front of my face, it floated there like a disembodied appendage. I shifted my body, feeling the resistance and rose determinedly toward the surface, my hands knifing through the water. As I gained speed, I felt hotter, and the light intensified. Breaking through the surface, I opened my eyes.
I was in my room.
I became aware of things in stages, as if still dreaming and unable to wake up. I pinched my arm. That hurt. Definitely awake. A red crescent appeared on my skin.
I checked the clock. The Js and Jade would be at my house in three hours. Sitting up, I moved my stiff neck in a loose circle.
I got up on my knees and pulled the curtain aside. The cops were gone. I looked at the sky, noticing storm clouds brewing. Perfect cemetery weather. I raised the window a little. The May heat could make it eighty degrees in my room and it'd be ball sweat central. No thanks.
I got up and threw on some clothes. I kicked a pile of junk out of the way of the door and headed downstairs.
Dad was in his favorite chair, working on his pulse-top. Mom was in the kitchen, cooking pancakes. Music swam around the room on low volume while she put the fixings on the table: butter, milk, and syrup. Dad was gonna succumb. He tried to limit pancakes because he was O.L.D and didn't want to get F.A.T.
I plopped down in my seat.
Mom gave me the eye.
“Kinda late getting up this morning, pal.”
“Did you hear the cops?” I asked.
Mom rolled her eyes, and Dad closed his pulse-top.
“I thought you said that was shut down, Dad.”
“It is. I was just putting it through some security paces. Security protocol. Rudimentary procedure before I have one of our tech people go through it.”
“Oh. I thought maybe you got it fixed and were reading the boring news or something,” I said.
Dad smiled. “That 'boring news' keeps me up to date on world events, Caleb.”
Ah-huh.
“I didn't hear a thing,” Mom said.
“I was awake when they came around midnight,” Dad said.
“Oh. I didn't hear that time,” I said. “Just the four a.m. run when Garcia and McGraw came.”
“That makes me all warm and fuzzy,” Mom said.
Dad had chipmunk cheeks, but after a few chews, he said, “I flat out don't like Garcia and McGraw showing up.”
I nodded.
“They looked like they were arguing out there.”
“Who?” Dad asked.
“Ward and Gale were there too.”
“What? That's bizarre. They don't need that much show of force to deter a criminal revisit.”
“I guess it's too much to ask what they were arguing over,” Mom said.
“Yeah, but the girl...”
“Officer Gale?” Mom asked.
“Yeah, she looked pretty mad. She was using a lot of hand gestures, right up in Garcia's face.”
“So what do you suppose they were discussing?” Dad asked.
Judging on how different Garcia had been at the cemetery, I had a feeling that I had his full attention—and not the good kind. Gale knew I was AFTD. She suspected I was something unique but wasn't ready to out me to anyone. I got a sense of protectiveness from her. I told the parents that and—she'd seemed angry about the other two showing up.
Dad said, “I think that Garcia has been assigned to our house, you... all of us,” he gestured with his finger, encompassing us, “flagged in some way. If anything happens here of any importance, he's alerted.”
“I don't like it,” Mom said.
Dad shrugged. “I am concerned about Garcia's watchfulness. It's not a matter of if , but when he finds out Caleb is a C-M.”
I wolfed down my pancakes. Talk of my discovery as a corpse-raiser did not interfere with The Appetite.
“What can we do legally, Kyle, to stop this interference? He's just a kid, a minor for goodness sake.” As she lowered her chin, her hair fell forward.
Dad tucked a strand behind her ear, where it curled around the lobe. “I've been looking into that. We'll go to the press if it comes to that. If he gets noticed, and they try to pull a Parker, we'll see how uncomfortable we can make them. They managed to stifle a lot of the press about the Parker boy,
but there is heightened awareness now of paranormals and AFTDs.”
I didn't like the sound of that. I'd be famous, like Dad, but not because I was a brainiac—because I was a freak, infamous. Nobody wanted to be famous for weirdness.
“Why does everyone think AFTDs are weirdos?”
“You're not a weirdo Caleb,” Mom said.
“I know you're not keen on more people knowing about your unique ability, but the alternative is not acceptable,” Dad said. “Do you think anyone thought this would be the outcome? That mapping the genome and its subsequent use to unveil these abilities in the human race was going to be without uncertainty, challenges—danger?”
He was right. The other scientists, the ones who took up where Dad and his team left off, hadn’t considered the consequence of their actions. Now we had people my age through mid-twenties who could do some pretty tight shit. And there wasn't always a counter to that, except for psychic nulls, and those weren't common. Some paranormals were committing crimes, and our police were chasing their asses trying to keep up with that.
He shrugged. “The police force pairing mundanes and paranormals is a good thing. They need it.”
“Why do some paranormals break the law?” I asked.
Mom muttered, “Because they can.”
Dad nodded. “There will always be people making the wrong choices. It's human nature.”
“The world spins,” Mom said.
I admired her sense of justice but I just couldn't, as she would say, embrace it.
My eyes flicked to my watch. “The Js are coming over with Jade in two hours.”
“You know, Jade is a J too,” Mom said.
“Yeah, I guess, but she's not. Ya know, she's her own thing.”
“Autonomous,” Dad said. “Independent from the Js.”
“Oh! Well that's true.” My face got hot, Jade was so not like the Js.
They pretended not to notice how awkward the whole Jade conversation was.
My parents were mainly cool.
CHAPTER 18
Everyone showed up on time. For Jonesy, that was nothing short of a miracle. Time management was not a priority with him. Scheming was—we all had our talents.
