Waking with a start, I sat up in bed and reached for my holoconn, which I’d obviously failed to set last night since it hadn’t woken me for school. I was going to be late.
Oh.
I looked around. There was no holoconn. No school for me today, either. I was in a hotel room, and I’d be leaving the state today in search of some kind of sanctuary, if such a place even existed.
“Good morning.”
I turned toward the high-pitched voice. “Oh. Good morning, Daniel. How are you feeling?”
“Good.” He smiled at me, bouncing a little on the bed beneath his knees. “I didn’t know we were going to have a sleepover. I’ve stayed at Heath’s apartment before, but he’s never had anyone else stay over.”
“Really?”
Why did that information please me so much? But then I thought about it. Of course, Heath wouldn’t have overnight guests while his innocent young brother was staying over.
“I didn’t know we were going to, either,” I said. “But it worked out that way since we’re all going to take a trip together. Did Heath tell you about that?”
And where was his big brother? There were no watery sounds emanating from the bathroom. Heath was clearly not here.
Where could he have gone?
“He said we’re taking a train,” Daniel exclaimed, getting to his feet. The full-on jumping began.
“What would your brother say about you jumping on the bed?” I asked him, worried he’d fall and hurt himself while under my supervision.
“He. Doesn’t. Care. He. Lets. Me. Do. It.” Daniel’s every word was punctuated by a bounce as he got higher and higher, his hair nearly brushing the ceiling on the last jump.
The hotel room door opened, and Heath stepped inside. “Daniel! How many times have I told you not to jump on the bed? You’re gonna get hurt, buddy.”
Daniel stopped immediately, dropping to his bottom on the mattress and shooting me a guilty look.
“Hi. Where were you?” I asked.
“Got us some breakfast.” Heath held up a to-go bag. “And a few more supplies. Can you be ready to go in a half hour? I don’t want to take any chances of missing that train.”
I slid from the bed. “Absolutely. I can be ready in ten minutes.”
“Even better. I’ll get Daniel ready and gather our things.”
Fifteen minutes later we left the room and walked the short distance to the train station. Unlike the commuter train I’d taken into the city, the interstate train was a hyperloop. Heath said it utilized enclosed pods that were propelled through low-pressure vacuum tubes.
“They can go up to 760 miles per hour,” Daniel informed me with glee.
And I’d thought the commuter rail was fast. “Sounds great,” I replied with as much enthusiasm as I could fake.
As we boarded, we each stepped through a scanner which read our tickets—and presumably us. Now I understood why Heath had insisted we remove our chips. There was a rapid pounding in the side of my neck as we moved through the station toward the train.
But no beeps, bells, or sirens sounded. We must have passed inspection.
As we moved down the aisle, Daniel and I endured another type of inspection. Passengers stared openly, some frowning, some turning to speak quietly to their seatmates. One woman smiled at Daniel warmly.
“Hello cutie,” she said as he passed.
He lifted a hand and waved. “Hello.”
Apparently noticing their reactions, Heath guided us toward the rear of the car where we’d be out of sight of the other passengers. “Let’s sit back here. Just in case…”
“In case of what?” I asked, envisioning a swarm of truant officers boarding the train and dragging me back home.
His lips quirked. “In case high-speed train travel doesn’t quite agree with you on your first trip. The bathroom’s right there.”
“Oh.” I let out a breath. “Good idea.”
We took seats facing each other. Heath let Daniel have the one closest to the augmented reality window, which displayed the time, date, temperature, and route information as well as constantly changing visuals meant to simulate passing scenery.
Daniel watched it throughout the trip and used it to play some games as well. As we got close to our destination, a map of Virginia featuring highlighted attractions filled the window screen.
“Watch this,” Daniel said. He touched one of the blinking dots on the map, and a vid swished onto the screen.
“Charlottesville, Virginia,” a pleasant female voice began. “Home to the University of Virginia, whose core campus was designed by Thomas Jefferson, Charlottesville also boasts fine restaurants, numerous festivals and concerts, thirty-plus local orchards and vineyards, and a beautiful brick-lined downtown mall for strolling and shopping. And no trip to Charlottesville is complete without a visit to Jefferson’s mountain-top plantation, Monticello.”
Images of the attractions appeared and dissolved into one another as the narrator played tour guide for our destination.
“Charlottesville is considered the gateway to the 200-thousand-acre Shenandoah National Park along a section of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Outdoor adventures include hiking, biking, kayaking, fly fishing, and camping. Whether it’s a family vacation or a romantic getaway for two, the Blue Ridge Mountains are your perfect destination. The mountains are calling.”
“She forgot to mention the Haven,” I muttered to Heath as I took in the sweeping aerial views of the massive park.
He nodded with a tight smile. “Yeah, I doubt it’s on any tourist maps. From what I was able to gather from the dark net, we’re looking for a group of old cabins or an abandoned resort somewhere in the park.”
“Well, that narrows it down,” I quipped. “She said it was two hundred thousand acres.”
“I like to hike,” Daniel announced, making both Heath and I laugh.
He reached over and tousled the boy’s hair. “That’s good buddy. We’re going to do a lot of hiking.”
“I hope I won’t slow you guys down,” I said when Daniel’s attention had gone back to the interactive window.
Heath looked confused. “Why would you say that?”
I shrugged. “I’ve never hiked before, and I’m not exactly an athlete.”
“Aw, come on now. You whipped my butt in that footrace. You’re capable of more than you know,” Heath said.
I shook my head. “Not really. I mean, I appreciate the vote of confidence, but compared to the other kids at my school, I was barely middle of the pack when it came to sports. I’m really not that good at anything.”
The admission came with an unexpected tingling in my nose, and my eyes watered.
Great. I was going to cry. I focused my gaze on the window as well, pretending to watch the virtual landscape whizzing by.
Heath’s large hand covered my knee as he leaned forward. “Don’t say that about yourself. You’re very spec—”
“Special. I know. That’s what they’ve told me my whole life. But what have I done that’s so special—other than not dying in the Calamity? That’s kind of a passive achievement, if you can even call it one.”
“Well, I think you should be proud of who you are. You’re interesting. You’re funny. You can turn a mean cartwheel.” He grinned. “You probably have some hidden talents you haven’t even discovered yet. I think you’re pretty great.”
As I shook my head in denial, Heath continued. “Listen, I’ve had more fun with you in the past day and a half than I’ve had in years. And that’s while we’ve been running for our lives. Imagine how much fun we’d have if we were just regular people out on a date.”
I was struck dumb. Did he just mention me and the word “date” in the same sentence? My ears burned, and my jaw may have fallen open before I managed to collect myself. How should I respond?
He probably didn’t mean anything by it. A guy like him could date anyone he wanted to—well, unless the girl was a snob who only dated white-collar professionals. I myself could not have cared less what Heath did for a living, as long as it made him happy.
The thing was, his current job didn’t seem to. He clearly didn’t enjoy working for Gideon.
“You know… I think you’re really smart,” I said. “You know so much about so many things. I’m sure you could find other work if you wanted to leave Gideon Corp.”
He shook his head, staring at his lap. “I can’t leave.”
I went on. “You could. It’s not like you’re a slave. I know you need to make a living and everything, but it’s not the only job out there. I think you could do anything you wanted to.”
He gave me a sad-looking smile. “Thanks. That’s a nice thing to say.”
“I mean it. This is the perfect opportunity to get a fresh start. I mean, you’re already going to be in trouble at your job anyway for not bringing Daniel in yesterday, right? So… it’s the perfect time to make a change, do something you want to do, something that would make you happy.”
“You know what makes me happy? You.” He took my hands in his. “I’ve never met anyone like you, Mireya.”
Instantly my face and neck were immersed in a bath of warmth, and my heart did a somersault in my chest.
“Pancakes,” Daniel yelled. He turned from the window, his bottom bouncing on the seat. “There’s a pancake place here. I saw it on the directory. Can we get some? Please?”
Heath let out a long breath and pressed his lips together tightly, then relaxed them into a smile and laughed, breaking eye contact with me to face his brother.
“Sure buddy. Pancakes would really hit the spot.”
The train slowed, and Heath stood to pull our bags from the overhead bins. “Looks like this is our stop.”
After deboarding, we took a five-minute trolley ride to East Main Street and the busy Downtown pedestrian mall. Daniel tugged at Heath’s hand, eagerly leading him toward the pancake restaurant he’d spotted as soon as we’d set foot on the sidewalk.
“You sure it’s okay for us to be out in public like this?” I asked Heath, looking around at the crowd. “We don’t have our hoodies on.”
“It’s fine. No one’s looking for us here. They’ll search Atlanta first. When we don’t turn up, they’ll expand the radius of the search, but that’ll take a few days, and I’ll be back in the city by then. Without our chips, there’s no record of where we went when we left Atlanta.”
“You’re going back?”
“I have to. I’ve got responsibilities. And when I go back, I can put out a cover story about what happened to you, lead them away from your location.”
“What about Daniel?”
“I’m not sure yet. We’ll see what we find when we get to the Haven.”
The pancakes were amazing. Dining at a sidewalk table along the charming outdoor mall might have had something to do with my enjoyment.
Music came from speakers imbedded in the trees that lined the brick-paved lane. Couples and groups of friends sat chatting at nearby tables, and pigeons strutted around boldly, searching for dropped tidbits.
It was the first time I’d eaten at a restaurant where my father wasn’t the chef. His pancakes couldn’t hold a candle to these fluffy, buttery creations, not that I would tell him that.
Of course, I might never have the chance to tell him anything ever again. It all depended on what kind of answers I found.
The thought left a hollow sensation in my middle. I missed Dad. Mom, too, though our relationship had never been as close.
Would I ever see them again? Heath hadn’t been able to answer my questions unfortunately, but surely the kids at the Haven would have some answers about what was going on with the nanotech project and why our parents would have lied to us all these years.
Maybe when I learned the truth, I’d be able to return home and discuss it with my parents. Maybe things weren’t as bad as I thought.
I wished they’d trusted me enough to be honest with me in the first place. I could have handled it.
I was already much less weirded out by the idea of nanotechnology in my body, and I’d only known about it for a day.
If Mom and Dad had been up front about it from the time I was young, I’m sure I would have regarded it as no big deal.
“You get enough to eat?” Heath asked from across the small wrought-iron table.
“More than enough. I’m stuffed.” My hand went to my belly, which had never felt so full in my life.
“Not me,” Daniel said. “I want more. Can I order chocolate chip ones now?” he pleaded.
“If you eat any more, you’re going to turn into a pancake.” Heath laughed. “Not now, buddy, okay? I don’t want you to get sick.”
“I never get sick.” Daniel’s mouth turned down in a pout.
“Well, you will if you eat any more right now. We’ll come back another time, okay? Here. Wipe off your hands and face. Get all that syrup off.”
Heath handed Daniel a moistened napkin then raised a hand in the air, catching the attention of our waitress and asking her for the check.
Once Daniel had cleaned up, he squirmed and slid out of his chair. “Can I go chase the birds?
“Okay. Stay where I can see you.”
I watched Daniel darting around on the aged brick thoroughfare, laughing loudly every time he lunged for a pigeon and missed.
The cowlick on the back of his head flopped with each footfall.
“I still can’t believe he’s not human,” I said.
Heath’s satisfied smile dissolved. “Who’s to say he’s not? What is human anyway? Daniel has everything we’ve got—a functioning heart and brain, blood, bone, organs, and muscle. More importantly, he has hopes and desires and dreams, just like anyone else. The only difference between him and a human is how he was conceived.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything bad by it. It’s… well, when we learned about Gebbies in school, I had such a different picture.”
Heath blinked. “They taught you about Genesapiens?”
“Yeah. Why are you surprised?”
“Well, it seems like they left so many things out of your education. I’m not really sure what you do and don’t know.”
As the waitress returned, and he pulled out his wallet to pay for the tab, I stood from my chair and laid down the cash I’d already retrieved from my bag.
“They taught us about equality of the sexes. I’ll get this one.”
I gave him a flirty glance over my shoulder before heading to the restroom.
