“We have been observing you,” the avatar says, “whenever we can get close to your braneworld without being caught. Late and early hours are best. Rrhoessha does not work at those times.”
“Who?” asks Marius.
“Miss Rose,” Ty guesses.
“Correct. Now, the question of who we are is complicated. I could make up a name as pretentious as the Seers—the Resisters, perhaps—but it would be easier for you to call me Dave and my companion Steve.”
“Tell us your real names, not some patronizing nickname.” Miss Rose is a silly name. It irks Ty that even the adults call her that. Like she’s their kindergarten teacher.
“Very well. My name is Dhaffyidhre, and the one who accompanies me is Shteffrynha.”
The first name sounds like a sneeze and the second like hocking a loogie. “Dave and Steve it is,” Marius declares.
Ty lets it pass. At least they don’t want to be called Mr. Dave and Mr. Steve. “What do you mean by Resisters, and why do you have to sneak around Rose?”
“We want to help you,” Dave replies. “It is forbidden for our species to interfere with the lives of lower-dimensional beings. But the beings you call Seers are powerful, and your braneworld is well hidden. Not many of our people know it exists, and it is not protected the way the others are. They can get away with it.”
“The others?” Marius repeats, dumbfounded.
“Did you think yours was the only one? There are many.”
Ty tries to wrap his head around the idea of multiple three-dimensional universes tucked away in corners of 4-space. Hidden inside 4-D garages and basements with tarps thrown over them to keep them out of sight. He can almost picture it.
“Why do the Seers mess with our world if it’s against the law in your universe?” Marius asks. “What do they want?”
“I never believed it was for our benefit,” Ty grumbles.
“Ego, money, prestige,” says Dave. “In your world, there are endangered species, yes? Protected because they are close to extinction? This makes them more desirable to a certain type of person.”
“Right,” Ty agrees.
“Consider yourselves a unique and endangered species. These beings who pretend to be ‘Seers’ have the magnitude of wealth that leads to boredom unless they engage their peers in high-stakes games. Their interference in your world is a complex gambling enterprise. Can a presidential election be swayed by the outcome of the World Series? Does the position of a gate in Thailand determine whether or not a neighboring country declares war? You are a live video game.”
Marius opens his mouth, shuts it, opens it again, but doesn’t produce any words. Ty nods. This is what he’s been thinking for a long time. Well, not this exact thing, which is more insulting and outrageous than he imagined. “You Resisters,” he says, “you can’t stop them?”
“In your world, have the rich ever been swayed by the concerns of the poor on behalf of those even poorer?” Neither Ty nor Marius bothers to answer. “We have risked our lives getting close to you,” Dave continues, “thwarting your tormentors in every way we can. Right now, our goal is to help you complete something they have been trying to sabotage.”
Marius points at the computer. “That program? Why?”
“He does not understand, does he?” Steve remarks in a singsong voice, like he’s talking about a toddler.
Irked by Steve’s amusement, Ty looks at the computer screen—where the dirty laundry pile in his closet is visible from the kata direction—and the potential of this perspective dawns on him. “If we get this program to work with pictures taken in 4-space, humans will be able to see whole four-dimensional objects, not just cross-sections of them.”
Marius furrows his brow. “You mean take photos in 4-space and download them onto a computer?”
“No,” Ty says, reasoning it out. “We load this program onto a portable screen—say, a tablet we carry with us—and when it puts the images together, we’ll be able to see in 4-space while we’re out there.”
“Yes,” Dave agrees. “You will see the Transporter for what it is, our world, the Seers, Miss Rose… everything.”
Ty practically drools at the idea. “You enhanced my simulation by taking ana and kata pictures of my room. Can you do the same in 4-space to make this whole thing work?”
“How useful is the program if it requires the assistance of a 4-space being?”
Duh. Of course.
“Then what’s the big deal?” Marius asks. “Why are the Seers trying to sabotage a program that almost lets us see in 4-space?”
“The program needs adaptation,” Dave explains. “The mathematics of multiple dimensions must be expanded and written into the code so you can view my universe in the three dimensions you understand and have the program predict and display what you cannot perceive. When I took pictures from the ana and kata directions, I did the work for the computer. You need a program that does not need my help.”
“Okay.” Ty grabs a pad of paper and a pencil. “Tell me what needs to be added.”
“I am a Resister, not a mathematician,” Dave says regretfully. “And I have limited knowledge of human computers. You need the help of the person who changed this program in the first place—and the person who calculated the equations.”
“Sam Lowell,” Marius growls from between his teeth. “Boy genius.”
“And his father, Dr. Eli Lowell. The math is his theory.” Dave’s avatar turns to face Marius. “I believe you have the means to convince Sam and Eli Lowell to help us.”
Marius looks down at himself, like they’re referring to something he’s got on his person.
“He means Jadie,” Ty explains.
Enlightenment crosses Marius’s face, then worry. “Now, wait a—”
Ty interrupts him. “Yes, we’ve got Jadie. Tell us what you want us to do.”
20. JADIE
My bracelet is sitting on my nightstand when I wake up. Miss Rose must’ve reached into my room from 4-space to return it while I was asleep, which is both creepy and threatening.
Just a reminder of how powerful I am compared to you, Jadie my dear.
I snap it around my wrist, and immediately it beeps, displaying a mission. My first since throwing that lady’s bag in the street almost two weeks ago.
After my terrifying experience in 4-space yesterday, I’m nervous pressing the button for pickup, but everything works the way it usually does. My bracelet clicks into a port-lock, my platform rotates through the Transporter’s mysterious parts, and I’m deposited back on Earth.
I land in a cramped bathroom. The bathtub is half full of water from a trickle dribbling out of the faucet. It must’ve been running for hours to get this high. I look at the display on my bracelet screen.
Turn the water on full force.
Before I do that, I decide to figure out where I am.
The bathroom door opens to a one-room apartment: living room, bedroom, and kitchen combined in a space the size of my family room. It doesn’t take long to find a stack of mail on a table near the front door.
I’m in Naples, Italy—my first international course correction. That I know of. I hate to admit it, but Ty was right. It was dumb not to be tracking my movements all along. Choosing what looks like an advertisement postcard that won’t be missed, I copy the Transporter coordinates for this apartment next to the address and stuff it into my back pocket. Maybe I’ll give the numbers to Ty; maybe I won’t. I haven’t decided.
Returning to the bathroom, I turn the knob next to the faucet. The trickle becomes a waterfall.
Beneath the rim of the tub is a hole to prevent accidental overflow, but it’s too small to let the water out as fast as it’s coming in. Soon, the torrent will spill over the edge and onto the floor. Since this apartment is—I check out the window—on the third floor, the forecast for the people below is heavy rain.
Do the Seers want to ruin this person’s floor or wreck the ceiling of the neighbors below? Maybe it’s a test for m
e, Agent Jadie Martin, to see if I’ll go back to following the Seers’ directions without question.
Well, I followed the directions, but I have plenty of questions.
Why did Miss Rose terrorize me when Ty is the one who learned how to summon the Transporter? Why did she go through the charade of knocking me into 4-space and threatening me while pretending to provide rescue? If the Seers were watching, why didn’t they prevent me from meeting my brother Sam?
My eyes sting. Despite everything I’ve discovered, the Lowells are strangers. My brother is Marius. My parents are Darrien and Becca Martin. They are my family.
So why am I trying to handle this alone?
Water pours over the rim of the tub and onto the floor, but I don’t care what happens here anymore. I hit the button for transport.
The machine drops me off in my bedroom, and I hurry downstairs to find Mom alone in the kitchen, cooking eggs. “Where is everybody?”
“Your dad left for work early, and Marius slept over at Ty’s.”
It bothers me that Marius spent the night at Ty’s house. I texted him, warning him not to go to 4-space, but he didn’t make any promises.
While I help myself to a bowl of Cheerios, Mom asks, “Did you have a course correction this morning? I checked on you, and you weren’t there.”
“Just got back.”
My mother lifts the pot off the stove and carries it to the sink, where she pours off the water while carefully retaining the eggs in the pot.
“That’s a whole lot of eggs,” I mention, my mouth full of cereal.
“I’m making deviled eggs for a baby shower at the history department this afternoon.”
That’s my mom.
Mrs. Lowell may be my biological mother, but she’s not my mom. Mom works fifteen hours a week as a bookkeeper and spends the rest of her time driving me and Marius wherever we need to go, running fundraisers for the PTA, and providing tasty treats for office parties at Dad’s college. In between, she pops off to locations around the world, performing course corrections designed to save humankind.
At least that’s what she thinks she’s doing.
I’m going to have to tell her the truth. It’ll break her heart—and it might put her in danger. Those pink talons slipped into my bedroom to lay a bracelet on my nightstand while I slept. What else would they do?
“Jadie, I’d like to talk to you about something.”
She steals the words right out of my mouth! I stare at her while she deposits the boiled eggs on a towel and tests how hot they are with her fingertips. “Your dad said you were having trouble with your course corrections. Seeing the point of them.”
No. I see the point too clearly: Sabotage the Lowell family in every way possible.
“I want to ask Miss Rose to do for you—and for all the kids—what she did for us. Take you on a course correction and show you the steps that lead to the desired outcome.” Mom taps an egg on the counter before rolling it between her hands and sweeping back the shell with her thumb. “That’s how we were convinced. Miss Rose should understand that younger Agents need the same reassurance.”
What I’m thinking is: Miss Rose can make up anything she wants, and we’ll have no way to dispute her. But what I say is: “Maybe she can use us to stop a mass shooting. From what I saw on the news, the last one could’ve been prevented if someone had removed the jam he put in the security door.” Pushing my empty bowl aside, I reach for an egg to peel. “Of course, I’m only human. The Seers could have found a more complicated way to stop him.”
Mom raises an eyebrow at my sarcasm. “Some things need to happen, Jadie. It guts me when I see those stories on the news and think: We could have stopped that. But the fact is, the Seers work toward the good for the maximum number of people, and some tragic events turn the course of history. Take the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. It changed public opinion on labor laws.”
Well, that’s great. Except for everyone who died in the fire. “But some of our course corrections could have bad results. Like what I did today might cause someone to flip out and commit the next horrible news story.” Mom presses her lips together and doesn’t answer. “Right?” I press her.
“Yes, baby. That’s true.”
The cereal turns to rocks in my stomach.
Mom goes on. “But you need to have faith that in the end…”
“Why should I have faith? Why should I believe Miss Rose?”
This time both eyebrows rise. “Miss Rose has been good to us. She tries to make sure her Agents want for nothing. But… I… did want for something I was lacking.”
My spine curls. I know what Mom’s going to say next.
“I couldn’t have children.” She makes it sound casual while she rolls another egg between her palms, but I hear the pain behind her words. “I saw lots of doctors, went through tests, but there was no fixing it. Then the Seers brought you into my life.” She looks up at me, her eyes glistening. “I owe them my daughter and my son, beautiful, intelligent children who would have died without their intervention. Children who are destined to do great things in the service of mankind’s future.”
There it is. Why she trusts them.
I stare at the gouged and misshapen egg in my hand and try to consider the big picture. What if the Seers do bad things to the Lowells not because the Lowells are bad people, but because their suffering is good for mankind? Like, the hardships in Sam’s life cause him to join the Peace Corps and…
I stop right there. If this were true, Miss Rose would’ve pulled me aside when she caught me interfering. She would’ve explained. Instead, she broke my bracelet, pushed me off the Transporter, and watched me fight a furry cockroach for my life.
When I raise my eyes to Mom, I’m sure they’re as teary as hers.
“Have I helped?” she asks.
“Yes,” I say truthfully. “There’s something I need to show you.”
“What, honey?”
“I’ll be right back.” I slip off the stool, out of the kitchen, and upstairs.
Jocelyn Dakota’s baby book is hidden under my bed. I pull it out and hesitate. This will devastate Mom. Once she sees it, everything will change.
I don’t want my family to change.
But Mom needs to know what Miss Rose is capable of. Tightening my hands around the album, I run out of my bedroom…
… and straight into Marius, who’s coming up the stairs.
We collide. Marius grabs the album to catch his balance.
“What are you doing?” he asks.
“Nothing. Going to see Mom.” I try to move around him, but he blocks my path.
“With this?” He looks at the album. “Geez, Jadie. Are you really going to tell her about your other family?”
21. JADIE
While Marius explains what he knows and how he knows it, I shake my head, blindsided. “You followed me? Both of you?”
Standing there, on the upstairs landing, I feel almost as unbalanced as I did in the Lowells’ living room, staring at their family portrait. It’s not as earth-shattering, but still a shock to learn that Marius and Ty were spying on me when I stole the signal injector. That they tracked my use of it and followed me. Every. Single. Time. Anger and embarrassment wrestle in my gut.
“We traveled about five minutes behind you,” Marius says. “As soon as we landed, we’d go the opposite direction from the way we knew you’d go, then around the block to watch you from a distance.”
Embarrassment wins.
He points at J.D.’s album. “You can’t show that to Mom. She’ll freak out. And we’re nothing but a game to the Seers. Who knows what they might do to ‘correct’ the situation!”
“What d’you mean ‘we’re nothing but a game’?”
“Me and Ty met some 4-space—uh, people? Not Seers. Listen, you can’t say anything to Mom about finding your real family. She’ll run right to Miss Rose, and that’ll be a disaster.”
“Jadie?” Mom calls from the hallway downstairs
.
Marius and I stare at each other, and he shifts his body to block her view of the album. “Oh, Marius, you’re home,” she says, looking up and spotting him. “Good. Your chores await. And, Jadie, I just received a course correction. Is it okay if we finish our talk later?”
I glance at my brother. “Sure, Mom.”
Mom hurries off toward the laundry room, her designated launching point. As soon as she’s gone, Marius yanks the photo album out of my hands. He marches into my room, sets it on my desk, and opens it. He doesn’t ask permission, but it’s a relief to share the burden.
Turning pages, he scans the photos. “Huh. They don’t look like people who abandon babies in the snow.”
“They didn’t. The guy who hijacked their car did that.”
Marius nods grimly. “Like the Lindbergh baby.”
“I don’t think that was a carjacking, but yeah.”
He glances sideways at me. “What did Sam say when you told him who you were?”
“What? I didn’t tell him. Are you crazy?”
Marius shuts the album. “Jadie, I saw you through the glass door of the library. You showed him your birthmark.”
I cross my arms, upset I didn’t know he was there. “I was proving I wasn’t his sister. I was reversed, dummy. He’d seen the mark on my last visit, and I had to convince him it was on the wrong arm. Why would I tell him the truth? He’d tell his parents, and they’d call the police!”
“You’re not”—Marius’s brow crumples—“trying to reunite with them?”
“No! They might be my birth family, but they’re not my real family.” I punch him in the arm. “You dingbat.”
“Then why were you looking for them?”
“I found them by accident, and I wanted to know what happened—how I ended up by the side of the road.” I sigh because now it’s a lot more complicated. “That would’ve been all if I hadn’t figured out that their family keeps getting targeted for course corrections. Sam was injured by a car that Dad sent into his path. Our dad.”
“What? How do you know that?”
Jadie in Five Dimensions Page 9
