by Strauss, Lee
“Just okay?” I prompted. “You used to love school.”
“Well, it’s different now. Stricter.”
“I see.” I took another bite then addressed Jonathon. “What about you?”
“What about me?”
“How’s school.”
“It’s fine. When I go.”
“There’s an option to go?” I looked at Skye.
She shifted nervously. “There’s not an official option. Jonathon just likes to skip class. We’re working on a solution.”
“Jon,” I began, “you can’t cut class.”
He stood suddenly. “I don’t know who you think you are, but you’re not my father. I don’t have to listen to you.” Next thing I heard was the bedroom door slam.
I scanned the shocked faces of everyone at the table, all attempts at eating temporarily halted.
“I’m sorry, Noah,” Skye began. “He’s just…”
I filled in the blank. “Angry?”
“That’s putting it mildly.”
“Hey,” Anthony said. His plate was cleared except for a few crumbs. “We should take off.”
He’d had enough of our family drama, and so had I. “Right.”
“Thanks so much for the lunch,” Zoe said.
“You’re welcome,” Skye answered. She stacked the plates. “It was nice to see you again. And you, too, Anthony.”
“Thanks, Skye.” Anthony turned to me. “We’ll wait for you outside.” He walked with Zoe to the car.
I knocked on my old bedroom door and stepped in. Jonathon sat at my desk with a laptop open. “Get out!”
My eyes fixed on the computer screen, seconds before he cleared it. I recognized the website. A pro-government, pro-GAP, anti establishment site that recruited soldiers to become cyborg. “Jonathon?”
He challenged me with a hard gaze. “What?”
“You’re not…”
“You have no right to judge me, Noah. You left. You forfeited your right to give me advice.”
“But, you can’t seriously be thinking of…” I waved to the screen.
“Becoming a soldier? A cyborg? Why not? I’m almost seventeen. I can do what I want.”
I let out a frustrated sigh. I didn’t want to fight with him. “I’ll be back later.”
“Don’t bother.”
“Jonathon…”
He turned away, and I knew the conversation was over. I sighed and let him have his way, leaving him alone. I called for Davis and kneeled as he slumped into my arms.
“Am I going to see you again?” he whimpered.
Truth was, I didn’t know. I was surprised that I was still alive as it was, and not rotting in jail somewhere.
“Of, course, buddy,” I lied. “Keep your chin up and listen to Skye.” I hated leaving on an unfinished note, but Zoe needed me. I hugged Skye before leaving. “I’ll try to keep in better contact.”
She hugged me back. “That would be nice.”
Outside, Zoe was leaning up against the car. “I’m sorry,” she said as I approached.
“For what?”
“You left your family for me. It’s fractured because you rescued me, and it was all for nothing.”
“Not nothing, Zoe. Don’t say that.” I pressed against her and made her face me. Her eyes flashed with sadness. I rested my forehead against hers and whispered, “You got your memories back. You fell in love with me again. It was all worth it. Every second.”
She grabbed my neck, and I kissed her, slow and deep. I drank her in, knowing that I’d be handing her over to her parents soon and everything would change again.
“Uh-hum,” Anthony said.
I pulled back and gave Zoe another quick kiss on the cheek before helping her into the car. I grinned at Anthony. “Sorry, man. Couldn’t help it.”
Zoe blushed, and I congratulated myself.
The closer we got to the city center, the more apparent it became that things had changed a lot while we were gone. There were more billboards along the main roadways and most of them had large images of the president’s face on them.
Zoe’s voice drifted forward from the back seat. “I didn’t think it was possible for Grandpa V to get more egotistical than he already was.”
It was disturbing, like he was afraid people would forget what he looked like. Next there would be a statue of him in the square, and calls for people to bow down and revere him.
The thought startled me. “There’s not a statue of him in the square, is there?” I asked Anthony.
“Not yet, but I’ve heard talk.”
“Seriously?”
“’Fraid so.”
There were also more state authority vehicles driving down residential streets and police walking around with large weapons cradled in their arms.
I shrunk down in my seat.
Anthony turned off the main road into his neighborhood where most of the homes had manicured lawns and two-car garages. We came to a stop in his drive.
“What’s the plan?” Zoe asked as I helped her out.
“Make contact with your parents.”
“They’re not going to let you in, you know.”
Anthony spoke up. “They will if the deal is right.”
She leaned against me, and I walked her to the front door. “Let’s let the master take care of it.” I tried to make light of our situation, but Zoe didn’t smile. We followed Anthony down a hall of worn, blue carpet, to his bedroom, where a full wall was filled with monitors and digi screens. He sat at a glass table and tapped away on a digital keyboard.
Zoe sat on the edge of the bed and fiddled with a loose thread.
I sat beside her. “What are you thinking about?”
“This is where I found out I was a clone. The seams of my world split apart in this very room.”
“Why don’t you lie down?” I said, patting the pillows. “We’ll let you know once things are settled.”
She complied without a word. I took one of Anthony’s blankets and covered her. “I’m right here.”
“I’m okay, Noah. I’m not going to die in the next twenty minutes.”
She was trying to comfort me, throw my joking attempts back in my face, but it didn’t work. The thought of her dying scared the crap out of me. She closed her eyes, and I watched her breathe, matching my breaths to hers. Within minutes, she was asleep.
“Dude,” Anthony said. “Are you ready for this?”
Chapter 35
I stared out Anthony’s bedroom window at the pool that was half-empty with algae-filled water. The wind had picked up, causing the green surface to ripple. Leaves fell off the trees, tumbled across the deck, and landed in the pool. Some floated along the top while others got pulled down, became waterlogged and sank to the bottom.
I was like one of those leaves. Small, insignificant. Hopelessly blown about by a force beyond my control, struggling to keep my head above water, all the while fully aware of how easy it would be to be ripped under and never resurface.
“We’re on,” Anthony said. I looked over his shoulder as his fingers flew.
“I got Paul Vanderveen. Don’t worry. It’s a secure line.”
Paul Vanderveen wrote: Who is this?
Anthony responded: A friend of Noah and Zoe’s.
Is this a prank?
No, sir.
What do you want?
Zoe is ill. She needs medical attention asap.
What do you mean, she’s ill?
She’s a clone. Apparently they can get sick, even GAP clones.
Silence.
I kept my voice low. “He doesn’t believe you?”
“He’s just freaked out that someone outside of his tight circle knows that Zoe’s a clone.” Anthony tapped his fingernails on the desk. “Cloning humans is still illegal.”
I clasped my hands over my head and stretched out the tension. Paul Vanderveen finally responded. What do you want from me?
Anthony’s fingers flew across the desktop: Secure passage into
Sol City, and out again, for both Noah and Zoe.
Why should I let Noah Brody in???
Anthony laughed out loud. “Jerkwad.”
Because that’s what Zoe wants. If you don’t comply, Zoe won’t come. If something happens to Noah after the fact, I spread the news about her illegal cloning and the president’s involvement.
More silence.
Then: You don’t have any proof.
Are you willing to risk it? How do you think she found out?
What do you want me to do?
I patted Anthony on the back. “You are scarily good at this.”
“Thanks.”
Drive your car to the back of the old church in the square. Come alone. Once I’ve verified that you aren’t being followed, or monitored in any way, i.e.: no authorities! I’ll release your daughter to you. If I even suspect that you’re cheating, you can say goodbye to Zoe. She won’t live much longer.
Just tell me when. I promise to come alone.
Anthony set a time for later that night, after dark. Then he propped his pointy elbows on his pointy knees and stared at me. “You’re on.”
I covered my face with my hands. It’d been a long day and it wasn’t anywhere near over.
“You hungry?” Anthony stood. “How’s pizza sound.”
I eyed him and grinned. “Like heaven.”
Anthony left, and I lay on the bed beside Zoe, snaked my arm under her neck and pulled her close. She wiggled in, spooning tight to me.
“So?” she asked softly.
“We’re meeting your dad at the church tonight.”
She stiffened and then turned. “Already?”
“No time like the present.”
“But—”
I put my finger on her lips. “The sooner you see a doctor, the better.”
I kissed her forehead and ran a finger along her jaw, lifting it. I kissed a trail over her brow, along her cheekbones, and onto the arch of her neck. She quivered, and I moaned. I suddenly wanted her in a private room, where we could fall into each other one last time before…
I pushed those thoughts away. I brushed my lips against hers, exploring her mouth, breathing her in. I hovered my body over hers, careful not to let my full weight press too heavily on her, and studied her face. Her blue eyes, still beautiful despite the dark rings underneath, her full lips and brilliant smile.
“Ahem.” Anthony’s voice broke the spell, and I fell over to Zoe’s side. “I hate to interrupt the love fest,” he continued, bringing in the pizza that arrived at what seemed like lightning speed. “But time’s a tickin’.”
Anthony opened the top box releasing a delicious aroma that almost knocked me over, and set it down on the bed between us. “Pepperoni, the other is vegetarian. Hope that’s okay.”
He also produced three cans of cold soda. We dug in and I wolfed down three slices in minutes.
“I see you’ve kept up your appetite,” Anthony quipped.
“If you knew what we’d been eating,” Zoe answered, wiping her mouth with a napkin.
“Or rather,” I added, “not eating.” I chugged the cold cola, not remembering the last time I drank something that had actually been refrigerated first.
Anthony sat on his desk chair, patted his concave belly and stretched out his long legs. “So, here the thing, something you probably don’t know.”
“What’s that?”
“President Vanderveen recently implemented a new security law in all major cities. Imagine the rings of a dart board and the government buildings are situated in the bull’s-eye. Each ring is called a zone. The center is zone one, the next ring zone two and so on. The lower the number of the zone, the higher the security detail. We’re currently in zone seven, so fairly low police presence. Sol City and the church are in zone two.
“What are you getting at?”
“We have to get through the military checks to get to your chosen destination. Neither of you have the mandatory identification chips implanted, am I right?”
I nodded. A thick sense of hopelessness settled in my chest. “Why didn’t you tell us this before?”
“Would it have mattered?”
“Yes,” I said. “They’ll take Zoe, no matter her state. I’m the complicating factor. I shouldn’t go.”
“Noah.” Zoe gripped me with thin fingers. “I need you. I don’t trust them. I can’t face them alone.”
I sighed hard. “Okay. Why don’t we just get Paul Vanderveen to come here?”
“Well, for one thing,” he said, “I don’t want him to know who I am or where I live. For another, you’d still have to get through all the zones to get to Sol City, and there’s a vehicle checking station at every district starting at zone three.”
“Then how are we possibly going to get to the church?”
“They can’t guard every square foot. There are ways to get by if you go by foot. If you’re in the know. Luckily, I’m in the know.”
I shot a worried glance toward Zoe. “She can’t walk that far.”
“We can drive to Zone 3. Then, I don’t know man. You’ll have to carry her.”
Right now, soaking wet, I’d guess Zoe to be no more than a hundred pounds. “I can do that.”
“Also, as an extra security I can give you these.” Anthony pulled open the bottom drawer of his desk and dug around in the back. He removed a small box and opened it, producing two Communication Rings.
“ComRings?” Zoe said. “How will they help?”
“These aren’t ordinary ComRings, my dear.” He held them in his palm and pointed to the underside. “These are especially adapted to hold chip simulators. I program in a new ID and ‘voila’, they scan your hand, thinking they’re receiving info from a chip under your flesh, but they’re getting re-routed to false information in your ring.”
My jaw went slack. “What…”
“You can’t think you’re the only ones trying to escape the government’s attention.”
I chuckled. “You’ve got quite the racket going on here.”
“Yeah, well, it won’t last long. Soon they’ll figure out they’re getting swindled by ComRings, and they’ll be the next personal item to be outlawed. But, until then…”
Zoe leaned heavily against me. “Everything is changing so fast.”
I held her close. “It’s going to be okay.”
Anthony’s fingers flew across the keyboard. “Noah you are now Ben Montgomery. And Zoe, you’re Alice Miller.”
“Sounds good,” I said. Anthony handed the rings to me. I put mine on and then slipped the other on Zoe’s hand.”
She giggled, and I could read her mind. I whispered into her ear. “Another time, there will be another ring. I promise.”
She grabbed me and kissed me hard. I was conscious of Anthony’s wide-eyed stare. I laughed and pushed her back. Her gaze darted to Anthony and she blushed. “Uh, sorry.”
He rolled his eyes. “No problem. Glad you guys got that out of the way. Now, just so you know, you’re not home free with these. Cyborg soldiers can scan your retinas. There’s nothing I can do to help you with that.”
“So, what do we do?”
“Stay clear of the cyborgs. Fortunately, there are far more human soldiers than cyborgs, though the cyborg contingent is growing fast. Vanderveen is busy recruiting and making lofty promises.”
I frowned, my mind going back to the website I’d seen Jonathon reading.
“In fact,” Anthony continued, “rumor has it that certain unsavory groups have started using illegal recruiting techniques don’t always come with a free will agreement.”
“What do you mean?”
“They find you. If you’re a fit male, past puberty and unencumbered, they’ll pay you a visit. Twist your arm to join. Quite literally, I’ve heard.”
I tensed. “You mean they force guys to recruit? And they’re not working for the government?”
“Well, not officially. And I’ve heard they have a side racket. If you really don’t wan
t to join, you can buy back your ‘freedom.’ Apparently it’s not cheap.”
“Are you worried?”
Anthony scoffed and flexed a skinny arm. “I don’t think I’m their type.”
Zoe rubbed my back. “Are you okay?”
I relaxed my shoulders, wanting to reassure her. I had to focus on getting her well again. Getting her to the best doctors Sol City Hospital had to offer.
Anthony tapped his ComRing and the time appeared in holograph form above his palm. “Time to go.”
Chapter 36
The sky was a moody black thanks to a cloudy, moonless night. Zoe and I ducked low in the backseat of Anthony’s electric sedan as he drove us to the border of Zone 3. According to Anthony, highway cameras took random pictures of drivers and their vehicle license plates, all in an effort to monitor the comings and goings of the nation’s citizens. Big Brother at its finest.
I peeked up when the vehicle noticeably slowed. A trail of red tail lights streamed ahead.
“Get under the blanket,” Anthony said. “They’re doing a spot check.”
A sour taste crept up the back of my throat. “Why?”
“Who knows? Maybe they’re looking for you.”
“Not comforting.”
Zoe and I squished down onto the floorboards and I stretched the dark blanket Anthony had provided over our shoulders. I hoped it was enough to conceal us. I held Zoe’s hand and could feel her pulse rushing. I squeezed it in a lame attempt to reassure her. It was stuffy and hot. Beads of perspiration formed on my neck and forehead. I resisted the impulse to wipe them away. At least the windows were open. We came to a full stop and I heard Anthony say, “Good evening? Is there a problem?”
A gruffer voice said, “Just a routine check. Where you off to?”
“I work in the food court by the transit station in zone two.”
“Please hold out your hand.”
We waited while Anthony had his chip scanned. I was sure being caught with fugitives in your back seat wasn’t considered a mere misdemeanor. Anthony had taken a huge risk for us.
My heart pounded loudly in my ears, sweat dripped into my eyes, and my legs screamed out from lack of blood flow, but I forced myself to stay as still as stone. Zoe didn’t move a muscle either, and I felt a wave of pride. She was so courageous and loyal. My heart pulsed hard against my ribs as I held my breath.
