by LS Hawker
“Here’s her room,” Jade said, opening the door.
Please, Berko. Find the AIP. Plug it into the computer. Hit Upload. You can do this.
“Where is she?”
“Come out, come out, Clementine,” Jade sang.
She heard Berko downstairs. “I’m going to go into the den and lie down,” he said. “I’ve been ill.”
“He has,” Elias said.
Jade heard the den door close.
Dan admired Clem’s room, touching things, then clasping his hands behind him as he leaned in to inspect photographs and artwork on the walls.
Jade was desperate to go downstairs and make sure the AIP was loading. But she didn’t dare. She had to stall Dan for long enough, and then she had to get him out of her house.
She heard Clementine giggle, but she wasn’t in her room.
Dan raised his head, scenting the air like a wolf. “Where is that darling girl?”
Jade stood motionless. Dan smiled and walked out of the room and across the hall to her parents’ bedroom.
She dashed out after him, and he was tapping on the door. “Clementine? Are you in there, honey? Unlock the door, sweetheart. I have some chocolate for you.” Why had she ever told Dan what Clem liked?
Because she’d never guessed he was a megalomaniacal monster.
Jade heard Clementine slip off the bed, heard her mother groan, “No, Clemmy!”
Because of course her atrophied muscles no longer had the strength to restrain Clementine.
“Chocolate,” Dan crooned through the door.
Clementine turned the lock and opened the door.
Dan handed her a Hershey bar and walked past her to the foot of her parents’ bed. “Hello, Mrs. Veverka,” he said. “I’m Colonel Dan Stevenson. I’ve heard so much about you! I wanted to let you know we will be taking care of you. I’ve talked to my contacts, and we’re getting you into a stem cell study starting next week. I’ll let you rest, but you’re going to be feeling better soon.” He turned and walked toward the door. “Come on, Jade. Let’s finish the tour.”
Jade looked back at her mom. The terrified and vulnerable expression on Pauline’s face made Jade’s chest feel like it was caving in.
“Protect your sister.”
Brodeck your sizzer.
Jade nodded at her and followed Dan out and down the stairs, Clementine leading the way eating the chocolate bar.
Elias stood in the same position they’d left him in, his hands behind his head, standing at attention with Connor’s gun on him.
“What’s in here?” Dan said, pointing at the den.
“Storage,” Jade said.
Clementine rolled her eyes. “That’s Dad’s office. Sheesh.” She threw open the door.
Berko lay on the futon, breathing hard. Either he’d just jumped on there, or he was terrified. Probably both.
The room was dark, as was the monitor.
But sticking out of the USB port of the CPU was the AIP, the stick with a brightly colored Mario on it.
Jade was afraid by looking at it, she would draw Dan’s attention to it, so she turned around and focused on the clock on the wall. It was seven forty-five.
She stood motionless, willing Dan to leave the room.
“How you doing, Berko buddy?” Dan asked. “Not feeling too well?”
Berko just stared at him.
Dan perused the photos on the wall, pointing at the one of Jade winning the science fair. “Nice,” he said. After picking things up and setting them down again, he turned and walked out the door.
“All right, Jade, we’ve had the tour, we’ve had our tearful reunion, and now I need that AIP.”
“I don’t have it,” Jade said. “My parents sold a box of my stuff last month in a garage sale. A guy named Mike Dougherty bought it, and then sold it on eBay. You can go to his house and ask him.”
“You can do better than that,” Dan said.
“It’s true,” Clementine said.
Dan whirled toward her, his face uncertain. Clementine had no ability to tell a lie, and Jade had told Dan that, so Clementine had to believe that it was true. She must have seen the transaction take place at the garage sale.
“Mario!” Clementine said, her back to everyone.
Jade’s heart grew leaden inside her. Clem had spotted the colorful stick.
“It’s not here?” Dan asked Jade.
“I told you.” She wanted to push Dan out of the room but stood frozen. She couldn’t say any more. Her mouth didn’t want to work.
“What’s on there?” Clem asked taking a step toward the desk.
“Clementine,” Jade said sharply.
Clem’s hands flew to her ears as she whirled around and grimaced.
Jade made a face at Clem.
Dan watched this exchange, suspicious, but he said nothing.
Clementine stood staring at her, but the pull of the colorful flash drive was strong. Jade set her face, and she knew Clem was trying to work out what Jade wanted. To Jade’s elation, she pulled out her smartphone to use the app Jade had designed for her, the one that helped her decipher facial expressions and body language.
“What are you doing?” Dan said.
Clem went rigid at this second sharp bit of conversation.
“I—I have a—”
Dan openly relaxed his posture and forced a smile. “Can I see that?”
Clem’s eyes darted from Jade to Dan and back again.
“It’s okay,” Jade said, trying to be relaxed too. “You can let him see it.”
Clementine handed her phone to Dan.
Jade had to herd Dan and Clementine out of this room before Clementine remembered the Super Mario sticking out of her dad’s computer.
“We’re getting behind schedule,” Dan said. “I need you to hand over the AIP.”
“I told you, Dan,” Jade said, holding her hands up. “The AIP isn’t here. You’ve won. So just leave.”
Dan regarded her. “Yeah,” he said, “the problem is I don’t believe you. But if you won’t give me the AIP, then I’m going to take you with me, back to the Compound. And if you refuse to go, then . . .”
He moved his hand to his hip. Under his jacket, of course, was a gun. He fastened his eyes on Clementine.
Behind her, Berko gasped.
Jade stared at Dan in horror. He was going to kidnap her. Hold her hostage, make sure she didn’t come up with a patch or some other fix. And once he and his group were satisfied Clementine was up and running, they’d have no more use for Jade. They’d execute her.
Her mind went into overdrive, selecting and discarding plans at lightning speed. But it wasn’t fast enough, because Dan reached under his jacket.
“All right,” she said. “You got me. The AIP is up in Clementine’s studio.” She turned to Clem and said, “Let’s take Dan upstairs to your studio, show him your setup, okay?”
Forgetting all else, Clem lit up and charged for the stairs.
“Come on,” Jade said.
Dan searched her face, probably wondering what, if anything, she was up to.
Jade took the stairs two at a time, dashed into the studio, and stepped on two of the surge protector switches before ripping the NOT ALL AT ONCE sign from the wall and dropping it facedown on the floor as Dan entered the room.
“Jade!” Clementine said, scandalized. “What are you—”
“Have a seat,” Jade said to Dan, pointing at a chair against the opposite wall.
“The AIP,” Dan said.
Jade hissed, “We’re doing this my way. So you will damn well sit and listen to my sister play her music.”
Dan hesitated before sitting down.
“But first,” Jade said, “Clem, okay if I play something for Dan? Would that be okay?” She opened her eyes wide, willing Clementine to go along.
Clem stared at the piece of paper on the floor then back at Jade. “But—”
“Please, Clem?” Jade said, imploring.
Clementin
e stood blinking, then acquiesced. “Okay.”
Jade sat on Clem’s stool, her heart fluttering, and powered up the Lowrey, hoping against hope she could remember. Then she started picking out notes. But Clem didn’t respond.
Had she forgotten? Jade tried to remember the last time they’d exchanged tonal messages. But then Clem stood straight.
“Jade!” she said, scandalized.
Jade played the notes again, more urgently.
“But I can’t,” Clementine said, looking at the empty place on the wall.
Yes, you can, Jade played on the keyboard.
“What are you doing?” Dan said.
Clem grew frantic. “But—”
DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT
“No!”
Mom said. She wants to hear in her room. She can’t hear unless you turn everything up. Do it.
“Jade,” Dan said.
“I was just warming up for her, Dan,” Jade said, standing from the keyboard.
“Mom wants to hear,” Clementine said, and walked around switching on every piece of equipment, going against everything she’d ever been told, and her inflexible movements and hunched shoulders told Jade how frightened she was.
“Play your newest, Clem,” Jade said. “Put on your headphones first.”
Clementine put on her headphones then placed her fingers on the keyboard.
Then she brought them down in the opening notes, and a blast of sound poured from the speakers. Dan clapped his hands over his ears as showers of sparks emitted from the three faceplates and Clementine began screaming.
Then two things happened at once: the lights went out and the carpet burst into flame.
Chapter Thirty-One
“Shut her up,” Dan yelled, jumping from his chair. He was trying hard to stopper his ears, so he wasn’t reaching for his gun yet.
Clementine continued screaming and flailing, knocking her tiered keyboards over. Then she began hitting herself in the face.
“Shut her up, or I’ll shoot her.”
“You fucking idiot,” Jade shouted over her sister’s screams. “I can’t control Clementine. No one can. Don’t you get that?”
Smoke began filling the room as the old carpet lit the drapes on fire. Jade finally succeeded in restraining Clementine. Dan lunged at them and fell into the synthesizer.
“Run, Clem!” Jade screamed. “Run!” She pushed Clem as hard as she could in the direction of the door.
Clem tottered in place for a moment then dashed out the door.
Dan coughed and sputtered, attempting to wade through the carnage in the room, and Jade ran toward the door too. Just as she hit the top of the stairs, Dan threw himself against her and they careened down the stairwell. They rolled in slow motion, Jade’s head striking the wall, the stair, the wall, Dan’s hands scrabbling to catch hold of her hair. He grabbed her arm and it wrenched in an awkward angle and she bit her tongue.
At the bottom of the stairs, dazed, she watched Dan rise and pin a screaming Clem to the wall next to the front door.
Elias still stood at attention in the foyer, Connor’s gun pointed at his back.
Smoke wafted down the stairs.
“Connor,” Dan said in his commander’s voice. “If Jade doesn’t walk out that door in the next fifteen seconds, shoot the girl. Shoot her.”
Connor’s gun drooped. “Shoot her? I’m not shooting a little girl. What’s wrong with you?”
“Sacrifices must be made,” Dan said, released Clem, and in the same movement unholstered his own gun and aimed it at Clementine. Jade jumped to her feet and dived in front of her sister just as she felt a searing hot wasp sting in her right arm.
But she was able to shove the front screen door open and push Clementine through it.
With the attention off him, Elias elbowed Connor in the nose and wrenched his gun away from him. Then the two of them were wrestling for control of it.
Dan’s gun went off a second time and Elias crumpled to the floor, still with a firm hold on Connor’s pistol. Blood stained the left chest of his shirt.
Jade turned, took two steps, aimed her punting foot at Dan’s elbow, and kicked as hard as she could. It gave a satisfying pop before he could shoot Elias again. He sank to the floor, bellowing.
But she’d kicked the wrong elbow.
Connor was twisting the gun in Elias’s hand when the front door slammed open and a volunteer firefighter came charging inside.
He stopped dead, confronted by Dan’s gun pointed at his face.
Jade couldn’t seem to move—the pain in her arm held her in place.
Then a blur passed before her and Berko was standing over Dan, stomping on his gun hand.
Dan finally let go.
Jade turned her head toward the stairs, suddenly remembering Pauline was trapped in the master bedroom upstairs.
Every thought of pain and fear gone, Jade leaped to her feet and ran for the stairs, taking them two at a time. Upstairs, smoke permeated the hall. Jade’s eyes watered, her arm screaming in pain. She threw her mother’s door open.
Pauline was on the floor, coughing, and Jade scooped up her mother’s deteriorated frame and carried her like an infant out into the hall. She couldn’t see where the stairs were, disoriented in the smoke and the building heat. Her arm was in agony as she slid her foot along the floor, feeling for the lip of the top step.
“I’ve got you, Mom,” Jade said. Then she stepped out into thin air and pitched forward into the dark.
They fell into one of the firefighters who was nearly to the top of the staircase, and he grabbed on to the railing, which made a cracking sound under the weight of three people.
Jade was going to fall down the stairs a second time, and she didn’t know if her frail mother would survive it.
But another set of arms blockaded their way and steadied everyone. It was Berko.
“Take it easy,” he said, his voice calm and reassuring as he backed down slowly. The firefighter seemed to have found his feet again and the four of them moved in a group down to the main floor, where Jade collapsed as Berko took Pauline from her.
There seemed to be uniformed people everywhere, flashlight beams, stretchers, haze, and smoke. Jade watched in a fog of pain as Berko handed her mother to one of the firemen, who carried her out the front door. Jade heard Clementine screaming outside.
“Mr. Veverka’s in the kitchen,” Berko told another firefighter. “He’s tied up. Can you help him out of here?”
Just then, Eric and another officer came dashing in. Jade tried to spot Connor and Elias, but they weren’t there.
“We’ve got to get you all out of here,” Eric said.
“Where’s Elias?” Jade shouted. “Where is he?”
“I’ll find him,” Berko said.
Another firefighter said to Jade, “We need to clear the house.”
He tried to pick her up but she dwarfed him in size.
“Just help me stand up,” she said.
When she was vertical, she saw stars, both with pain and the feeling of impending unconsciousness. But she stumbled out with her good arm over the firefighter’s shoulders.
When she turned to face the house, the top of it was aflame, and firemen were unspooling the hose. They hooked it to the fire hydrant across the street and began spraying.
EMTs drove up in an ambulance. Jade wanted to ask everyone for ID, to make sure they weren’t more of Dan’s cohorts, but her voice was drowned out in the confusion and chaos.
Robert emerged from the house and Clementine ran at him like a freight train and nearly knocked him over.
The EMTs tended to her mother, an oxygen mask over her face, and Dan, who now had his hands cuffed behind him. With his dislocated elbow, that had to hurt.
She hoped so.
Another EMT made his way to Jade.
Behind him came Elias, bloody and bruised, but alive.
It was then Jade happened to wonder whether the AIP had had a chance to do its job before the powe
r went out. Had they succeeded?
Or would the power across the country go out?
And then she passed out.
Chapter Thirty-Two
September 12
Berko, Jade, and Elias sat in the courtyard of Ephesus Hospital, Jade and Elias in hospital-issue robes, Berko in street clothes.
“I kind of feel left out,” Berko said. “I’m the only one who wasn’t shot.”
“You weren’t trying hard enough,” Elias said.
Jade laughed a little. Both she and Elias had their arms in slings, even though Elias’s wound was in the upper chest. Another few inches down, and he wouldn’t be here. Jade shuddered at the thought.
“You never did tell us what AIP stands for, Jade,” Elias said.
“Autism Injection Protocol,” she said, feeling silly about it.
“So . . . you gave the program . . . autism?” Berko said.
“Essentially, yes,” Jade said. “The program removes the connections between pieces of data—jumbles it up. Then the program can no longer understand the data it is receiving, cannot interpret it, code it. So it shuts itself down, the way the real Clementine does when she doesn’t understand what she’s seeing, hearing, or feeling. Simple, right?”
Berko snorted. “Simple.”
“Did you talk to your dad? Is Clementine okay?” Elias asked.
“She doesn’t forget anything, so it’s going to be a long time before she’s okay,” Jade said.
“That poor kid,” Berko said.
“How are you doing?” Elias asked Berko.
“I’m great,” he said. “In comparison to being shot, a migraine is preferable.”
“Well, the power hasn’t gone out,” Jade said, “and it’s been—what, thirty-six hours? So I’m guessing and hoping it worked. And I’m hoping the program won’t find a way to overcome its autism.”
“We’ll see,” Berko said. “The NSA and the FBI came to see me.”
“Us too,” Elias said, looking at Jade.
“I couldn’t help but wonder if they were really the FBI and NSA,” Berko said.
“They interrogated me for three and a half hours,” Elias said. “I had to pull the ‘I’ve been shot and I need to rest’ card.”
