“WE HAVE TO GO GET DAD!” I CRIED.
“We have to go to the police,” Mom said at the same time.
“Explain to me what you’d say in that phone call.” Dani folded her arms. “Hello, officer. I think the president and CEO of Guidant Technologies has kidnapped my ex-husband and his neighbor’s kid and are sending them to a secret space station. Something like that?”
Mom frowned. “No, actually. More like how I was attacked by Guidant security, unjustly imprisoned, and how I haven’t seen the young man I was taking care of since that time—oh, and also, my ex-husband is missing on the campus, too. They’d have to account for them.”
“Would they?” Dani looked annoyed. “I assure you, all the campus security logs say you and your family checked out yesterday and no one has seen you since.”
I could believe that. If Guidant was hacking telescopes, they could fake whatever they wanted.
“But you could back us up,” Mom argued.
Dani shook her head. “The only card we have left is that no one at Guidant knows I’m working with you. I’d like to keep it that way as long as possible.”
“Oh, really?” Mom crossed her arms. “Can’t you just tranquilize anyone who gets in your way?”
“No,” Dani replied through gritted teeth. “You made me promise not to do that again, remember?”
We all looked at Mom. Well, that was a relief. I wondered what else they’d talked about while they were shut away in Dani’s office.
“Yes,” Mom said, “because apparently in Shepherd world, you are never taught that attacking children and drugging them against their will is generally frowned upon.”
“Yes, and we’re also taught excellent methods of evading police and government interference to achieve our goals. Trust me, the cops are not going to help you.”
“That’s just it,” Mom replied, her tone toxic, “I don’t trust you.”
I blew out a sigh of frustration. This was getting us nowhere. We needed to go find Dad. Now. Before it was too late.
“Please,” I begged. “We have to try to get my father back.”
“How?” Savannah asked.
“The same way Dani got us out,” I said. “She can drive to the launch facility and bring back their pods. But she has to do it before they get put on a spaceship and launched into orbit.”
“That’s an excellent idea,” Mom said suddenly. “Dani should do that right now. I’ll stay with the children.”
Dani glared at my mother. “Not on your life. You aren’t sneaking out of here without my help. You’d be caught in a second, and then I’d be done for, too.”
“I have no idea what you mean,” Mom replied lightly.
Dani and my mother continued their staring contest for another few seconds, then Dani turned to me. “Gillian, I’ll need your help to get your father.”
I knew what Mom wanted, but I couldn’t pass on a chance to save Dad. “Okay.”
“No!” my mother snapped. I wasn’t sure if it was at me or at Dani.
“This is the only option.”
“I will not allow you to manipulate my children or put them in danger.”
“Come on, Dr. Seagret. You and I both know they’re already in danger.”
Mom’s shoulders slumped, defeated, and as I turned toward Eric, Howard, and Savannah, I saw that Dani’s words had landed. Hard. They all looked scared to death.
And I was pretty sure I was right there with them.
“NOW, WHAT’S THE rule?” Dani said for what had to be the hundredth time. She sounded like my mother.
“Stay hidden,” I replied. I lay on the floor in the backseat of Dani’s car, covered by a beige blanket.
“And?”
“And don’t get involved.” I sighed. The whole ride out to the launch facility, she’d made me repeat the promises I’d made to her and Mom before we’d left. Dani said she needed someone to serve as lookout, and help drive the getaway car.
Except it was a self-driving car, so it was really more like instruct the getaway car when it was time to get away.
“And pay attention to my texts,” she added.
I nodded, clutching Dani’s phone in my hand. She’d installed her own voice model on the device, since her car would be keyed to her identity and voice, and would only work on her command. I could type in commands and the phone would speak in Dani’s own voice. “Yes. To the cargo door or the truck depot, depending on where you find Dad and Nate.”
“And if I tell you to run?”
“Back home to your place to get the others, don’t wait for you,” I recited dutifully. That was the part of the plan I didn’t like. Mom and Dani expected me to just abandon all hope of rescuing Dad and Nate at the first sign of trouble. “But if they catch you, aren’t they going to think it’s odd that your car is driving around? Won’t they wonder who it is in your house?”
“If they catch me,” Dani said, “we’ve got bigger problems.”
I was quiet for a moment, considering that. Dani was our only hope right now, the only person on the entire Guidant campus who we could trust.
Or at least sort of trust.
“Thank you for doing this,” I blurted. “You know . . . giving up your life and your home and stuff. For us.”
“It’s not for you.” There was something odd in her voice, some little catch I’d never heard before, and I wished I could lift up the blanket and look her in the face. She cleared her throat and went on. “I told you. I think they’re making a mistake. This whole thing with your father, with Underberg . . . it’s just wrong.”
“It’s not too late to make it right,” I suggested. “My dad will know how to do it, how to get the truth about the Shepherds out there.”
She snorted. “Right. The truth. Sometimes I forget I’m talking to a child.”
I picked up the corner of the blanket and peered up at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
She turned in her seat and met my eyes. “It means there’s no such thing as ‘the truth,’ Gillian. Just what people decide they want to believe is right and wrong. What they are willing to fight for and what they aren’t.”
“That’s not . . .” I trailed off before I said something she’d laugh at, like that’s not true.
“Think about it. We’re using up the Earth’s resources at an alarming rate. We kill off entire species, burn fossil fuels, make the planet warmer. Look at all the problems we’re seeing due to climate change—droughts and floods and crazy weather and ice caps melting. It’ll be a disaster and the human race will suffer. That’s the ‘truth,’ isn’t it?”
“Um . . . I mean, yes?”
“But other people say that story causes enormous trouble for people by taking away their fossil fuel jobs or forcing them to use different farming or manufacturing methods that are more expensive or more difficult or won’t feed or employ or support as many people. It would be a disaster. The human race would suffer. And that’s the truth, too, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know.” Maybe I should hide back under my blanket.
She leaned in toward me and dropped her voice. “They are both the truth. The climate is changing, and it’s our fault, and we’re hurting the planet and ourselves. But if we stop the practices that are hurting the planet, then we’ll hurt people who rely on those practices. All these stories can be true at once. And if they are all equally true, then they are all equally false as well.”
A lump rose in my throat, and it took a minute before I could trust myself enough to speak. “There’s still right and wrong.”
“Sure there is,” Dani said. “We all learn right from wrong, don’t we? Except we don’t all learn the same right and the same wrong. Your father taught you secrets were wrong. The Shepherds taught me they were right, because they served a higher purpose. That’s our story, our truth. The Earth will not be able to support humanity forever, whether it’s something we do to it, or something that happens all by itself, like an astronomical event. And you can’t have it both ways. People are either going to hurt now, or hurt later, and you have to make that decision. The Shepherds make the decision to hurt the people now and protect the people later. That’s what being a Shepherd means.” She sat back in her seat and stared out the windshield. “Except now I’m throwing that all away.”
“Because you decided to fight for something else?”
Dani said nothing for a long moment, and then spoke. “You promised to stay hidden, remember?”
We sat in silence for a few more minutes, then the car pulled to a stop.
“You know the drill,” she warned me one last time, then departed.
I lay there, hidden, and thought about what Dani had said. I didn’t like it. The truth was real, a real thing, that could be touched and held and seen like Omega City or the Underberg battery. It could be researched and revealed, like one of Howard’s codes or my father’s histories. It was more—had to be more—than just whatever story you decided to believe.
In my hands, the phone buzzed. I checked the screen, expecting to see a text from Dani telling me where to go. But instead I found the display showed a call coming in.
From Elana Mero.
The phone buzzed and buzzed. I didn’t know what Elana was used to. Did Dani always answer her calls? Was Dani even now answering her other phone, wherever she happened to be?
The phone stopped vibrating for a moment. Then it gave one long, slightly different buzz.
A text from Elana.
Why are you at the launch facility?
I swallowed thickly. That’s right; the Shepherds could track everyone, all the time. I thought I knew the drill, but we hadn’t planned for me to actually speak to Elana Mero.
Dani?
Hands shaking, I typed back.
Just checking that everything is ready with the cargo.
Was that something Dani would say? Was it something she would do? Maybe I should just ignore these messages.
Too late for that, isn’t it? You’re supposed to be getting the voice models ready. Anton has the launch covered. It’s out of your hands now.
I had no idea what that meant. Maybe I should text Dani and tell her to get back here and talk to her boss before I ruined everything. I didn’t dare respond.
The phone began to vibrate with a call again. Elana! I wasn’t sure what to do this time. I could hardly pretend Dani didn’t have her phone on her. We’d just been texting! The vibrations went on and on.
One missed call. Two. Elana was not taking no for answer. What if she sent someone over to Dani’s house? I was putting everyone in danger.
The phone buzzed again. My hand started to shake as I thought about Eric and Mom and my friends. They were sitting ducks at Dani’s house.
Wait! I could use the voice model program. Except that was probably way against Mom and Dani’s rules. I whimpered. Any second the phone would go to voice mail. Again.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I held my breath, switched to the right program, and pressed the answer button.
“Hello,” I typed, and Dani’s voice spilled from the speaker.
“I know you’re upset,” Elana said without preamble. “But you have to understand this is for the best.”
My lips closed over a squeak of protest and my fingers moved furiously over the keys. “No, I don’t understand.” Dani’s voice spoke all my words. “The Seagrets are innocent. You should let them go.”
“Right,” said Elana. “With all the information they have and nothing to hold over them? Do you know how much damage they can do to this organization? Alone was bad enough, but with Underberg threatening all our work? We have to protect Guidant, even if that means sacrificing Infinity Base.”
My eyes narrowed. She was doing this to protect Guidant? Her stupid tech company? I thought Shepherds sacrificed everything for the good of humanity.
“What about the Shepherds?” I typed and Dani asked.
Elana gave a world-weary sigh. “You and Anton, I swear. I feel like I spend half my life cleaning up his messes. Stop being such purists. Those old ideals are nonsense. No one in the last generation had the slightest ability to imagine what we could become. They thought we had to work with governments to achieve our goals. Aloysius Underberg, your mother, playing nice all those years with NASA . . . it was a waste of time. We have more power, more resources. Protect Guidant and we can make a hundred Infinity Bases. Destroy Guidant, and the entire Shepherd mission will go down in flames.”
I remained quiet.
“Come on, Dani, I know you agree. The Shepherds are what matters. We protect our own, but you know that means making compromises. You’re used to that.”
Except Dani had turned on the Shepherds . . . hadn’t she?
I felt a low rumbling all around me. “What is that?” I typed furiously, though Dani’s voice sounded oddly calm.
“The launch, of course. I’m not wasting any more time. It should rendezvous with Infinity Base in about twenty-four hours.”
I opened my mouth to scream and the door of the car flung open. Dani plucked the phone out of my hands and hung up.
I lay on the floor of the car, gasping for breath.
They’d shot my father into space.
They’d shot my father into space.
“Breathe,” Dani said, hopping into the front seat and closing the door behind her. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”