by Eliza Tilton
“I didn’t say anything.” I shrug, holding back a grin.
When Jims goes back to watching the security feeds, I lean down by Ivy’s ear, noticing her eyes are closed.
“And he doesn’t think anyone knows this,” I continue, “but he feeds the stray cats and pigeons near his apartment. He even has names for them.”
A soft smile crosses her face.
“How do you even know that?” Jims gives me an exasperated glance and I grin.
Ivy’s eyes are still shut, but now her breaths are slow and deep.
“She’s out.” Buzz taps the saline bag and pushes a few buttons on the panel of the x-ray machine. “Let’s go in.” He shifts over to the left and presses the x-ray head against the back of Ivy’s neck, right by the base of her skull. “I saw the chip right here.”
“Okay.” Buzz breathes, talking to himself. “Where are you?” Buzz reaches a finger out to the hologram displaying Ivy’s brain and the image shifts. Blue lines blink and morph, and the image is replaced by an illustration of her brain. “What is that?” Buzz twists the image around and flicks his fingers, moving pieces of the image until we’re staring at pulsating lines.
“What is it?” I ask, curious.
“That’s not Eric’s chip.” His voice trails off and he leans in closer. “I’ll be damned. She’s got nanotech in her brain.”
“What?” Leaning closer, I try to see what Buzz is talking about. Blue lines spiderweb around her brain. “Can you get it out?”
“Maybe, if I had the right equipment. Which I don’t. This is embedded into her. If I try and pull the chip out, it could fry her brain.”
I shake my head, unable to comprehend the implications of what this means. “I don’t understand. Why would your brother put that in her?”
Buzz furrows his brow. “This isn’t my brother. This is BORAS. The chip my brother implanted is somewhere else. When I saw the implant, I assumed this was it.”
Just then, an alarm goes off and the lights inside the room start to blink red.
“Guys.” Jims stares at the screens, his eyes widening by the second.
I check the screens to see what made his voice shake and see men in black fatigues wading through the first floor of the club.
“We have to hurry. I need to get my brother’s chip out, and you guys need to get out of here before those guys make it in.” Buzz grabs the head of the robotic arm and moves the machine across her left side. “Flip her, carefully, though,” he instructs needlessly.
Making sure not to tangle her IV, I place my hands under her right side and gently roll her onto her left.
“Come on Eric,” he breathes, “where did you put it?”
“They’re on the second floor!” Jims jumps up from his seat, too anxious to sit still. “We need to hurry.”
“There!” Buzz shouts triumphantly. “Get me a knife and a laser.”
I examine the hologram and see a tiny, square, blinking image. The chip is embedded in her hip.
“Sorry, Ivy, but there’s no time for decency,” Buzz murmurs, cutting the top of her waistband, exposing her pale skin.
“Hey!” I protest, feeling oddly protective.
He sighs. “I know, but I don’t have time. Jims, keep watching the feed. Damion, help me. We’ll need to stitch her fast.”
Buzz sprays her skin with antiseptic and I hand him a scalpel from the tray table. He slices her skin and blood pools as he grabs a pair of long needle nose tweezers and digs in, taking a glimpse at the hologram for guidance. “Got it!” he crows.
“VIP! They’re in VIP!” Jims is frantic, pacing back and forth in front of the closed-circuit security monitor.
“Laser here.” Buzz points to the cut and pushes the medical laser in my hands. “I need to stop the drip, but you’ll have to take the IV with you and let her finish this saline bag.”
Feeling eerily calm, I drag the laser against the cut, sealing the skin back together.
The IV closed off, Buzz grabs a bundle of gauze wrappings and slaps on a bandage. “We gotta move!” he charges. “Grab her.”
I lift Ivy into my arms, her limp body feeling impossibly small and fragile. Buzz grabs the saline bag and wraps the IV lines around my neck. Pointing to a hidden door on the far side of the room, he instructs, “This door will take you down to my garage. Take the black tesla.” He tosses a set of car keys to Jims. “Plug SH3 into the coordinates, and it’ll take you to a safe house. I’ll contact you there. Here’s a burner phone.”
“What about the guards?” I ask, holding Ivy close to me.
“I’ll handle them,” Buzz shouts as he runs to the back door and inputs a code into the panel. He says something in a different language, then holds his eyes up to a scanner. The door clicks and he pushes it open.
“Here.” He runs over to a metal cabinet and grabs a blanket, several bottles of water, and a package of cookies. He places the blanket over Ivy, still unconscious and cradled in my arms. “Stay low and don’t go anywhere,” he demands. “The safe house is stocked with everything you could possibly need, and safety mechanisms to ensure no one will be able to track you.”
“How does BORAS know we’re here?” Jims cries.
“I don’t know,” Buzz answers distractedly. “My guess is that the chip in Eric’s vid disabled the radio frequency tracker BORAS has on all their visors. The minute we separated the two, the signal reconnected.”
My stomach drops as I glance at my visor sitting on the table. I brought it in here with us, forgetting Buzz took the vid out.
Intuiting my worry, Buzz shoots me a reassuring smile and adds, “Don’t worry about BORAS. I’ll take care of them. Go.”
Gratitude clogs my voice when I say, “Thank you,” and follow Jims into the elevator, holding Ivy tight.
Red lights flash in the interior of the elevator shaft. The alarm is still buzzing at a loud decibel level. Ivy is light in my arms, a semi-weightless beauty, her body still lost to sleep, her mouth slightly parted and her head against my chest. I check the floor number and grip her closer against my body. The elevator seems to take forever to reach the ground level, humming as it glides to the bottom. My mind races as I try to think through a million different scenarios at once. What happens if they find us? Not much Jims and I can do against armed guards.
From what I remember seeing during the vid, they’re military trained, too.
The elevator finally stops and we rush out, not even taking time to look both ways. Fists clenched and arms pumping, Jims clicks a button on the keys and a black car beeps. The Tesla is parked in the front, near a massive door. Out of all the times I’ve visited Disturbia, I never noticed a garage anywhere on the premises.
Jims opens the back door and I carefully slide onto the backseat, trying not to jostle Ivy. Once we’re in, Jims slams the door and runs to the driver side, then presses the ignition button to start the car.
I take the saline bag off my neck and hang it on the laundry hook by the window. Only half the contents of the saline bag are left.
“Got it!” Jims turns the wheel and guides the car forward. Obviously motion activated, the wall in front of us slides to the right and Jims presses the gas pedal to the floor. The car fishtails out of the garage and onto the street, tires screeching in the night. I glance back to see the hidden garage door quickly close behind us, for all the world looking like a solid brick wall. The descent of the elevator was disorienting, and I realize we’re about two blocks away from the front doors of Disturbia. I watch our retreat through the back glass, waiting for BORAS to show up en masse, but it appears that whatever Buzz is doing to distract them is working.
The car whizzes out of the city, propelled by the system’s safety mechanism, and heads toward the upper sector bridge.
“Where are we going?” I brush the hair off Ivy’s face.
“Hmmm.�
�� Jims ponders. “My guess is somewhere upstate. Buzz has property all over the coast and further inland, multiple escape plans for every contingency you can imagine.”
“And you’re sure they won’t be able to track us?”
Jims laughs. “Damion, my boy, Buzz can hack any system, bounce any signal. Trust me when I say this is the safest you’ll ever be.”
With that, I lean my head back against the seat. Now that she’s in my arms and the looming threat of BORAS is fading in the distance, I can relax.
Nineteen
~Ivy~
My eyes flutter open and the rocking sensation informs my deluded senses that I’m riding in a car. My dry throat burns. Looking up, I realize Damion is holding me, dark hair falling over his left eye. He’s leaning back, asleep, yet his arms are holding me tight.
I start to sit up, but when I move my right arm, something jabs into the muscle.
“Ouch.” I wince.
Damion flinches, instantly awake. “What happened?” He shakes his head and sits up straighter.
I grimace, “My arm,” and twist around until I see the needle poking deep into the tissue.
“Here, let me take that out.”
Damion helps me sit up, placing me on his left side. He takes my arm, rips off the bandage, and then pulls out the IV. I’m still in the dirty tracksuit, and the past few days’ grime makes me wish Damion wasn’t being so accommodating. I desperately need a bath.
“What happened?” I mumble, my head feeling thick and fuzzy. “Why are we in a car?”
The look on Damion’s face is frightening, equal parts fear and kindness. “BORAS came to the club. We had to leave fast.”
I nod, not sure what else to say. Finally, the thought bubbles up, “How did they find us? What happens now? Is it over?”
“Right now, we’re on our way to one of Buzz’s safe houses. Buzz will contact us once he decodes the chip.” He opens his mouth to say something else, but then shakes his head and hands me a snack package instead. “You need to eat,” he admonishes softly. “Once we get to the house, I’ll find you something else.”
“You’re up!” Jims swivels his head around to peek over the driver’s seat. A strange metal cylinder with a blue light dangles from his mouth. “The GPS says we should arrive in another twenty minutes.” He turns back toward the dashboard.
“You can go back to sleep, if you’re still tired.”
Not for the first time, I realize Damion speaks to me with a gentleness that reminds me of Eric.
“I’m okay, thanks.” I lean against the door and gaze out the window.
Eric has always been my ptotector. Damion doesn’t know me. I still don’t understand how the chip connected to the vid worked, but from what Damion said, it sounds like he saw everything through my eyes. Heat floods my cheeks as I wonder how much he really saw.
“How are you feeling?” Damion unscrews the lid off a water bottle and hands it to me.
Taking the bottle, I answer, “A little lightheaded.” The water quenches the fire in my throat. I lick my mouth, wetting my dry, cracked lips.
I lay my head against the back seat and admire the clear, bright skies. I wonder how long we were inside that building and how long we’ve been driving?
Trees plump with stunning autumn leaves fly past us. I search the back window for the tall skyscrapers and dark smog of the city, only to see miles of endless greenery in its stead.
“Where are we? How long have we been driving?” I ask curiously.
Damion stretches his legs out as far as they can go in the cramped back seat and angles his body slightly toward mine. “Far from the city, where we hope to be safe while we figure out our next move. You can rest.”
Rest? He speaks with an air of calm certainty that makes it hard not to believe him. I have so many questions I want to ask, but I don’t know where to start.
All that can wait, though. I need to thank him first.
Feeling incredibly awkward, I begin, “Thank you. For helping me, I mean.” I keep my eyes downcast, avoiding his piercing blue eyes. It’s as if he can see through me, and my soul feels far too exposed.
Picking up on my tension, he blurts, “I’m sorry I didn’t realize what was happening sooner. I’m sorry about that couple.”
Fractured images of faces painted with blood and fear threaten to pull me under, but I take a sip of water and push the fear away. I’ve come too far to fall apart now.
“Hey,” Damion soothes, sliding his warm hand across my arm. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you. We’re going to destroy BORAS. Every part of it.” Steel flashes in his eyes. “I know what you know. What they did.”
Startled, my gaze jumps to his, embarrassment and anxiety making my pulse race. “Are you saying you could see my thoughts?”
He has the decency to look mildly ashamed when he answers, “I’m not sure. It seemed like I was inside your head, seeing what you saw, feeling what you felt.” He shakes his head, a fierce glint coming to his eyes. “They’ll pay for what they did.”
Confidence drips from his words and I soak them in, taking what little strength I can to sustain my own. While I wandered the city streets, I had the sinking sensation I’d failed. With no word from Eric and no way to contact him, I assumed everything was over, yet here I am. Safe. And with friends.
“I know they will,” I confide, allowing a smile to creep over my features. “Besides, if Buzz is anything like Eric we can’t lose.”
When Damion smiles, it warms a spot in my chest. A spot that flutters and spreads to my arms, fingers, and toes.
“I think we’re here,” Jims announces, breaking his silence from the front seat.
Damion slides forward and leans over the center console, gaze narrowed. “You sure?”
Jims taps the navigation screen on the car’s main control panel. “Blinky-blink,” he sing-songs, pointing to a red navigation pin.
Tilting my head to look through the angled windshield, I can see we’re perched at the end of a dirt road with a black gate. A camera attached to the gate points at the car and scans a blue light. There’s a beep and the gate opens. We drive up a long, winding dirt road that meanders through the woods, down and around, until we reach a log cabin sitting on a hill. I remember a postcard I once saw that resembled a similar home. It promised it was the perfect place to vacation with family.
I don’t have a family.
Besides Eric, there’s no one.
The car comes to a gentle stop and Jims is the first to get out. He whistles and chats to Damion, who gets out next.
Taking a deep breath, I click open my door and step onto the dirt driveway. Sunlight beams onto the pine siding of the two-story home. Birds sing cheerily from a cluster of trees nearby, and when the wind wafts past the giant sunflowers stretching toward the sky, I wonder if I’m dreaming.
At the facility, we had a garden filled with plants and flowers to care for. However, seeing flowers outside under real sunlight, makes my chest ache with the beauty of it all. Is this how people live in the real world? Surrounded by such serenity?
Breaking my nostalgic trance, Damion steps beside me and asks, “Want to go in?”
I nod eagerly.
Jims reaches the door first and enters a code into the keypad. “Buzz really thinks of everything,” he marvels. “The access code popped up on the car’s navigation screen as soon we entered the driveway!”
My stomach grumbles, and I wrap my arms across my stomach in an effort to smother the growling. When was the last time I ate a full meal? If Damion hears it, he politely ignores the noise and lets me walk ahead of him.
Inside, the house is no less beautiful than the outside, showcasing an open floor plan with shiny wood floors and tall, spacious windows that display the beauty of the surrounding woods. Jims and Damion head to the kitchen to search for f
ood while I walk, gaping, into the living room. A large screen is mounted on the far north wall, accented by a stone fireplace on the other wall, with overstuffed, brown leather couches and chaises circling it all in a cozy display.
I sink down onto the couch and let the supple leather swallow me whole.
My head aches. Suddenly remembering the hasty procedure Buzz performed back at Disturbia, I rub the back of my neck tenderly.
Smooth skin.
But how?
I propel myself from the couch and claw at my skin in ever-widening circles with both hands. No mark. Nothing. Not even a scratch!
“Damion!” Panic strangles my voice and he’s beside me in seconds.
“What is it? Are you okay?”
“My neck,” I stutter. “What . . . where’s the incision? I thought Buzz was going to take it out?”
Fear. Panic. Worry.
My breath comes faster than I can think.
“Ivy, calm down,” Damion asserts calmly, as if trying to soothe a wild animal. “Everything’s okay. We just had to change a few things.”
My mind reels. “Change? But what about the chip in my neck?”
He touches my arm, gentling my next protest. “Why don’t you sit down, and I’ll explain?”
Even though the last thing I want to do is sit, I do. Once we’re both sitting, he grabs my shaking hands and gives a small smile, which I’m sure he means to be comforting.
“The chip wasn’t in your neck. It was in your hip.” His gaze slides to my hip meaningfully and I pull down the elastic waistband of my pants, just now noticing the rip in them. There’s a bandage covering my hip. I touch the gauze and wince.
“I don’t understand,” I stammer. “He said he saw it in my neck.”
Damion’s brow furrows and the desolation in his eyes almost shatters me. “When Buzz examined your neck with the x-ray, he saw that what he originally thought was the chip is actually nanotech wired throughout your entire brain. We didn’t have time, and Buzz didn’t have anything to remove it with there. Then BORAS showed up at the club and Buzz had to find and remove the chip Eric left before BORAS found us.”
