“You know where we’re going once we get to MIT?” Amnah asked.
Theo said, “The Gehry building, we think. Over near Massachusetts Avenue.” At least I knew he could still talk.
“Call it Mass Ave unless you really want to draw attention to yourselves,” Tommy said. “Mass Ave in C-Town.”
“Cambridge is not C-Town,” Amnah told him.
“Says you,” Tommy replied.
“Maybe we could just be quiet for the ride,” Theo told them. “I’m sure you all are tired, and we’ve got some thinking to do. At least, I do.”
He still wouldn’t look at me. I pressed my forehead to the window. Each time we bounced, it jostled me and my head hit against the glass, but I didn’t say anything. I didn’t even groan.
They said it wouldn’t be much farther now. That was good. Soon we’d be with Dr. Varden and she’d be able to take care of things. I wouldn’t have to worry anymore.
I must have fallen asleep, because then Theo was nudging me, and Tommy announced, “Welcome to the People’s Republic of Cambridge, home to Harvard, MIT, and almost a million people.”
“Really?” Theo asked.
I sat up and looked out the window.
Cambridge was busy. And dirty. And confusing. People crowded the sidewalks in front of brick and cement buildings of various sizes. Bright shop signs flashed and streetlights flashed and even people’s clothes flashed with tiny lights. I rubbed my eyes.
“This isn’t what I expected,” Theo whispered beside me.
When I looked up at just the tops of the buildings, I could see that many of them were quite old, with interesting details like bricks stacked in curved arches or windows as tall as a room. But when my gaze drifted down, all I saw was chaos.
Our car was barely moving through the traffic of old cars and newer electro-solar ones, of motorcycles and scooters and bicycles. The sidewalks, too, were jammed. I had never seen so many people in my life. Theo was wide-eyed, but Ilana sat still looking straight ahead.
“We need to get off this main road,” Amnah said. “We’re starting to get some looks.”
Tommy nodded and then, without warning, dragged the steering wheel to the right. I don’t know how we didn’t hit anyone. Maybe they were used to these sudden turns from drivers. The pedestrian traffic shifted to allow us through.
I put my hand over my mouth.
“Can you take it a little easier?” Theo asked. “Please.”
“Sorry, folks. Turbulent conditions, you see. But it’ll be smoother from here on out.”
Smooth sailing. My stomach lurched again. “Maybe we should pull over here and walk.”
“According to the map, we’re only a couple of blocks away,” Amnah said. “It’s not a terrible idea.” Which, I supposed, was about as close to a compliment as I was ever likely to get from her.
“It’s all parallel parking,” Tommy said. “I don’t know how to parallel park. Not yet. Actually, I’m not much good at regular parking, either. Unless there are no cars around. And then I’m okay. Excellent, actually. Do you think we could find a big lot somewhere? Is there anything showing on that map?”
“Anywhere we go, there will be lots of cars,” Amnah said with a sigh.
So Tommy kept driving. Occasionally he would hit the brakes and then say, “No, no, no.”
“I can’t!” I finally called out. “I’m going to throw up!”
“Vomit!” Tommy yelled. “We have a vomiter. Repeat! We have a vomiter!” And he jerked the car to the side.
I grasped at the door handle and pushed it open just in time to lean my head out and empty my stomach of its apple, sandwich, and beef jerky soup.
I felt two hands on my back and a soft voice said, “It’s okay, Mori. It’s okay.” That’s what my mom had said to me when I’d first gotten sick as a little kid. I’d thrown up and she’d rubbed my back and said, “It’s okay. It’s okay.” But then I’d kept throwing up and it hadn’t been okay. This felt so much like that, I retched again. Nothing came out this time but a thin stream of watery bile. I used the back of my wrist to rub my lips and sank back into the car.
It was both Theo and Ilana with a hand on my back. They didn’t even look disgusted. I stared at my lap.
“We good?” Tommy asked. “You okay back there, Mori?”
“Are you?” Theo asked me.
I nodded.
“She’s okay.”
“There’s a spot up ahead that’s pretty big. I’m just gonna try to nose in as best as I can. I mean, what’s the worst that can happen to this beater? It gets hit? I mean, car, you’ve been a real lifesaver, but you aren’t exactly beautiful. Don’t hold that against me or anything. We still need to get home.”
The car inched forward and he eased into the spot, pulling forward, then sliding back. He turned off the engine, then put both hands on the steering wheel. “So,” he said. “What next?”
19
We parked on a corner near a small playground. Kids were running around on the snatch of green grass that was smaller than any backyard on Firefly Lane. Their laughter flew out toward us. My stomach was still unsettled and the ground felt unsteady beneath my feet. Maybe I was glitching now.
Theo said, “It’s number thirty-two Vassar Street. I had the city map pretty well in my head, but I’m turned around now. Give me a minute.”
Tommy, though, stopped the next person walking by. “Excuse me, sir, which direction is Vassar Street?” he asked.
“Right up there, then go two blocks, then you’ll intersect it,” the man answered without even stopping.
Ilana took my hand and helped me up onto the sidewalk. “Drink some water,” she said.
“I don’t know if I’m still feeling sick because of the car or because, well, because of her. Of finally meeting her.”
“Me too,” Ilana said. Then, again, “Drink some water.”
I took a long sip while Tommy set off with Mouse right behind him. Amnah said, “It’s not far now.” She hesitated a moment, like she might say something else, but then she shrugged and followed her sister and Tommy.
There were throngs of people on the sidewalk. I held tight to Ilana’s hand, not wanting to lose her, or, really, not wanting her to lose me. Some of the people wore masks over their faces, and they all had clothes that covered the skin on their arms and legs. The fabric appeared very lightweight and came in bright colors that swirled together so it was like we were walking through a maze of gauzy clouds. Tommy would disappear and then reappear. I had only his baseball cap with the green shamrock on the back to guide me. Amnah stayed close to Mouse, but kept looking back at us, and Theo stayed behind. I wondered if anyone even realized we were all together, this strange procession.
When we turned onto Vassar Street, the crowd thinned out. Most of the people here were younger. Their clothes were a little more subdued. They wore headphones and when they spoke, it was into the little mouthpieces that curved around their heads. I didn’t know if they were speaking to one another or to people miles and miles away. But it was quieter here, and I took a deep breath. My feet moved more slowly, too, and Ilana tugged me a little to keep up.
“I don’t know why you’re so nervous,” she said with a smile. “It’s my life that’s in her hands.”
“That’s why I’m so nervous,” I told her.
I stopped and she looked right at my face. Her eyes were that remarkable color, and I knew I would never know anyone with eyes like that. Sure, maybe someone else would be designed with that color, but there would never be anyone else who I could look at their eyes and they would look at mine and we’d just know.
A man cut between us. He didn’t even look at us, just walked right on through while he tapped at a screen that was part of his sleeve and laughed under his breath.
“You’re my best friend.”
“Forever sisters.”
“No matter what happens in there.”
“No matter what happens,” she said, and squeezed my hand.
My cheeks were hot and my eyes burned with tears that I fought to keep inside. Of all the times I needed to stay brave, this was it. This was the last step. We had gotten Ilana this far, and now she was going to be safe. We had done it. I just needed to walk through that door.
Theo came up beside us. “You ready?” he asked.
We nodded and the three of us walked side by side down the sidewalk.
I knew which building it was without even seeing the number. In between the regular brick facades were silver sides that bent at odd angles. I put my hand over my stomach, afraid I might be sick again.
“Come on,” Tommy called. “The door’s wide open!”
The floor was marble, or some sort of swirly rock: gray and silver and even flecks of gold. There were tall columns of rock, too, like the whole building had been carved out of an ancient cave. But my eyes kept being drawn to the splash of red against the wall. Paint? Fabric? It was too hard to tell.
Students and researchers and professors sat at small tables, but none of them noticed us. The noise of their conversation echoed around the room and burst into my ears. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
“There should be a directory somewhere,” Tommy said.
“See sale,” Ilana said. Or maybe it was “Sea sail.”
“Like a boat?” I asked. My eyes went back to the red. I supposed it did look a bit like the sail of a boat.
“What?” Theo asked.
Ilana spelled it out: “C-S-A-I-L. Computer Science Artificial Intelligence Lab. My parents used to work there. That’s where …” Her voice trailed off and she shook her head. “It’s all so fuzzy.”
“CSAIL is like every floor here. Do you have any more details?” Tommy asked.
“Artificial intelligence?” Amnah asked. And I watched the realization come over her face. She didn’t get all the details, of course, but it came to her what Ilana was, or at least part of what she was.
“It’s not what you think,” I told her. “Not wholly.”
She stepped away from us.
Across the room, someone laughed: loud and throaty.
“Varden,” Theo said. “Is that name anywhere?”
Tommy used his finger to scan through the names on a directory screen. “Nothing is showing up.”
“Really?” Theo asked. He stepped closer to the screen.
Mouse cleared her throat. “You’ll be okay,” she said to Ilana.
Amnah said, “A whole person? They made a whole person?”
“You’ll be okay,” Mouse said again.
“Wait,” Theo said. “Here. Lab number nine. That has to be it, right, Mori?”
Be brave! I told myself. You can do this. You can do this for Ilana. I didn’t even know what I was afraid of, and perhaps that was the most frightening thing of all.
“That’s it,” Ilana said. She rubbed her temples.
“It must be, right, Mori?” Theo asked.
All I could do was nod. I squeezed my fists and forced myself to talk: “Yes, that’s it.”
“All right, then. Second floor. Stairs right there,” Tommy said. “What are we waiting for?”
But none of us moved.
The people around us stilled. Or maybe it was my eyes and my ears that stopped working. What I saw and what I heard was no longer crisp. I pulled off my glasses and cleaned them. The camera whirred when I put them back on my face. It didn’t help.
“Come on,” Ilana said. “All we can do is face this.”
She led the way to a set of stairs at the back of the room. The stairs were normal size, but they seemed enormous, and like they stretched out for miles and miles. Really only about a minute passed until we were on the second floor and following Tommy and Theo down the hall. Mouse walked next to Ilana and me, while Amnah held back. I wondered if she would run off. She didn’t owe us anything, so I wouldn’t blame her.
The doors were painted bright colors and had windows like portholes on a ship. I peered inside but all I could see were people working at desks and the occasional robot.
Number 9 was at the end of the hall.
Without even hesitating, Tommy grabbed the handle, turned it, and pulled the door open.
20
The woman standing in the center of the lab seemed impossibly small. She wore wide-legged pants and a button-down shirt with a painter’s apron over it. The lab had a metal table at the center, slate countertops all around. Above the counters were high glass cabinets filled with beakers, scales, tablets, and more. All these things dwarfed the woman, who was both one-hundred percent familiar and one-hundred percent strange. Maybe I swayed a little bit. Ilana held on to my elbow.
“Little Mori,” the woman said. “How long I’ve waited to meet you.”
My body pressed against Ilana’s.
“Dr. Varden?” Theo asked.
“Yes, I am Agatha Varden. And you must be the Staarsgard boy,” she said. She shrugged off her lab coat and hung it on a red hook beside a door on the far side of the lab. “Here is not the place for a reunion. Come with me.”
None of us moved. Ilana held me up.
“We really must be going,” Dr. Varden said.
“Where?” Theo asked.
“Someplace safer.” She glanced toward the window. The sun beat off the metal sides of the building.
She had the same features as in all the pictures I had seen of her, of course, but wrinkled. It was as if someone had drawn a sketch of her in pencil, then smudged it over.
“But where?” Theo pressed.
Dr. Varden turned to me. “Lucy and I had a deal. The kind that doesn’t need to be spoken. We looked out for each other. And that means I’m looking out for you.”
Ilana squeezed my arm gently. I blinked hard. I was still having trouble making the world come into focus. But there was Theo, his hands clenching and unclenching. And Tommy, his gaze taking in every last detail of the lab, a slight smile on his lips. Amnah, her jaw tight, standing right behind Mouse, who looked as confused as I felt. I realized they were all waiting for me to make a choice. But how could I make a decision when Ilana was the one at risk? My breath came in shallow gasps. “Ilana?” I whispered.
“We should go,” Ilana said.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
Ilana nodded. “I think she means it about your baba. It’s how I feel about you.”
“Okay,” I said, quietly at first. “Okay. Let’s go.”
“Good.”
Dr. Varden strode out of the lab and we all scurried after her.
Theo fell into stride with me. “We’re going to be okay. She’s going to help us,” he said. “But if something goes wrong, I want to have a way out.”
“Okay,” I said. But I didn’t know what he meant, where we would go, or what he was planning.
Agatha pushed the button on the elevator and the doors opened immediately. We stepped inside. She didn’t push the button for the first floor, but instead one marked “G.”
“What’s that floor?” Theo demanded.
“Garage. We’ll go out the back door. It’s closer to my street.”
“You’re taking us to your house?” I asked.
“Yes. We can talk more freely there.” She tucked a stray lock of gray hair behind her ear. “Not everyone at the university is on board with the work that Krita does. And some are very much involved. Either way, it’s better that we stay out of their line of sight, if you will.”
“What do you mean?” Tommy asked. “I thought this place was like a pipeline to Krita.”
“It has been in the past. And it still can be. There’s always been a tension between the academic and the corporate worlds. It’s grown stronger as Krita keeps pushing the outer limits with little regard to … repercussions. But really, we should wait until we get to my house. You all look hungry and tired. We’ll get you freshened up and then we can talk more.”
“What street?” Theo asked. “What street is your house on?”
I knew Theo h
ad memorized the map of the city. Now he was planning all possible escape routes, thinking of all possible emergencies. If-thens, the ultimate logic puzzle.
“Athenaeum Street,” she said as the elevator doors slid open to reveal a flat gray expanse dotted with cars both new and old. Cool, metallic-smelling air rushed to meet our faces.
“All these people drive here?” I asked.
“We encourage public transportation, of course, but many of our researchers are coming from quite a distance, and occasional public health issues make the subway system a less than ideal mode of transportation.”
“Is there a public health situation right now?” Theo asked.
“Code level yellow—just the normal pathogens. Nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Normal pathogens?” I repeated, and swallowed.
“It’s fine,” Tommy told me. “You’ve got all your vaccines and your antibodies. No worries, okay?”
But as Agatha led us out onto the busy streets of Cambridge, I could feel my chest grow tight. The streets were teeming with people. They brushed up against us as we made our way northeast. Someone coughed beside me, loud and phlegmy. I put my hand over my mouth and nose.
This was what we’d been warned about all our lives—the people, the lack of control. There could be a public health outbreak and they didn’t even keep people at home, just told them to avoid public transportation. Tears stung in my eyes.
Agatha turned and suddenly there was quiet all around us. “Not much farther,” she said. She turned over her shoulder to look at Theo. “You’ve got it all locked away in there?”
He looked surprised, but he said, “Yes. I do.”
“I’m glad she has friends like you.”
We passed a park with red bushes and hedges cut into a circle. No one played inside.
The Daybreak Bond Page 13
