After a pit stop at the local computer center to buy a bunch of technical equipment to get us through the rest of the plan, I exchange Zoey for Sebastian since she wanted to try to talk to my mother again in a last-ditch effort to get some kind of co-credit before tomorrow’s review. The whole makeover and shopping trip took way longer than planned, so I’m over two hours late to pick him up. When Sebastian slips into the car, his eyes widen. “Whoa. It’s creepy to look at you like this.”
I give him a stern look and drop my voice an octave to sound more like my mother. “You, sir, are in serious trouble for cutting class.”
He scoots toward the door an inch. “Okay, I don’t like this at all.”
I gun the engine. “Convincing, right?”
“A little too much.” He folds his long legs up, pressing his knees to his chest. “I know I don’t remember much about who I used to be, but I don’t think I was the type of guy that ditched class this often.”
I pull out of the parking lot. “Correct. Based on the evidence of the retrieved memories, you were the type of guy that snuck into school after hours.”
He laughs, leaning his head against the headrest. “Well, at least I’m consistent in that regard.”
“Tell me about the appointment with Leo.”
“He tested my reflexes, took some blood, made me run on a treadmill for a few minutes, and didn’t answer any of my questions.”
I merge onto the highway. “I wouldn’t have expected anything else.”
He leans against the side of the car. Sunlight glitters in through the window, tinting his hair to the color of pure gold. “He did test my knowledge, but not of memories. Want to take a guess how I know all that crazy information?”
I don’t hesitate. “Upgrades?”
“Bingo.” He points a finger gun at me. “Apparently, after the cell-transfer procedure, he took the liberty of also uploading any knowledge I might require in the future. One of the perks of being the first prototype. I’m also an experiment.”
“What exactly did he test you on?” I ask.
“Name of the street the US Embassy resides on in the capital of Kazakhstan. Square root of pi to the thirty-fourth digit. The verb ‘to be’ conjugated in forty-three languages. Third sentence on the one-hundred-sixty-eighth page of War and Peace.” He twists his hands around his bony wrist as if he’s fashioning a finger noose. “I’m not a genius; I’m a file archive.”
I change lanes, speeding toward the next exit. “You are a genius.”
“Actually, it should be, ‘I was a genius.’ That’s the correct conjugation of the verb ‘to be.’”
“It doesn’t matter who you were, just who you are now.” I nudge his shoulder and offer a grin.
About fifteen minutes later, we arrive at the new data center in all its glory. On the outside, it looks like a generic brick office building with large windows on the exterior and a security guard stationed at the front of the entrance. I park along the street and stretch my neck high and mighty as I approach, affecting an air of confidence like my mother always exudes. Sebastian follows beside me. When we reach the entrance, I thrust my new fake ID at the guard and check the time on the dashboard as if I don’t have time for this kind of delay.
The security guard studies the ID and then me. “Purpose of your visit, ma’am?”
“Checking on the equipment installed yesterday.”
“And him?” He juts his chin toward Sebastian.
“Student volunteer,” I say, and leave it at that.
“I’m afraid I’m under strict orders not to allow anyone inside except those on the official list. You may proceed, but he will have to stay here.”
I give the guard a tight smile. “With all due respect, sir, I made the list. I assure you he has received the proper security clearance.”
The guard stares at me, stone-faced.
But that’s okay. This is all part of the plan. I let out a ginormous sigh. “Fine, but please note that I’ll be reaching out to management about this.” I turn to Sebastian. “Do you mind waiting here for a few minutes?”
Sebastian shrugs. “I’ll take a walk. It’s so nice out.”
While I’m inside, Sebastian will be scanning the perimeter on the outside, planting little video surveillance devices wherever he can. I want to be able to monitor whoever goes in and out of this place, on my own terms. And if he gets caught by anyone, he just needs to reference the security guard as his alibi.
The security guard buzzes me inside. According to the work order I found on my mother’s computer, Varga Industries has rented half a wing of this data center to host their servers. Glossy hardwood floors and a bright lobby welcome me inside the building. I go through the same dog and pony show with another security guard behind a mahogany desk inside. This security guard calls over Ellie, a woman in a sleek business suit, who greets me with a nude lipstick smile and a firm handshake. “I’m surprised to see you again so soon.”
I flinch. I was banking on being incognito here by lack of recognition. If she’s met my mother, any wrong mannerism might raise her suspicions. I straighten my posture. I try to think what my mother might say. This whole thing would be so much easier if I was impersonating my dad. I know him better than I know myself right now. But my mother has always been a bit of an enigma to me. “Yes, well, I prefer to be thorough.”
She squints at me. “But I wasn’t expecting you for another hour per your appointment.”
Shit. I grit my teeth and wave her off with a dismissive flip of my hand. “We’ve had a lot of breaches in security lately and I want to ensure that the same level of corruption won’t happen here as well. A surprise visit is a necessary step.”
Her smile wavers as she studies me, squinting harder. Her eyes land on my binary necklace. “Next time, we do need advance notice.”
“Noted.” I force myself to hold her gaze as apprehension knots in the base of my throat.
“As I’ve already explained to you and your team, we take the utmost pride in our security protocols. The two guards you’ve requested have been posted at each entrance to the storage facility. No one has been inside that room since the machines were installed. You have my word.”
“I’d still like to check for myself.”
Ellie spins toward a wide doorway and twists a key in the lock. “Very well, then. Please follow me.”
As soon as she turns away, I shove my necklace beneath the collar of my shirt. The two of us march in silence, our heels striking the hardwood floor in a dissonant battle of sound. Rows of metal shelves house black boxes stacked several feet high. Wires snake around the black boxes and coil in neat circles between the rows. Company names glisten in the overhead lights, affixed to the top of each shelf. At the very end of the large room, we face another locked door with a security guard standing beside it. He studies me up and down but makes no effort to budge.
Ellie twists her key into the top lock, but there’s an empty lock below it. “Please, if I may have your key.” She holds out her palm.
My heart starts to hammer fast in my rib cage. This lock must work like most safety-deposit boxes in a bank. One key from an employee, one from the owner of the box. Both needed to provide access. Shit. Shit. Shit. The work order made no mention of a key. I only have one play here, and it’s the exact play that anyone who attends a school for geniuses would cringe at: ignorance. “Key?”
Ellie purses her lips. “I gave it to you personally yesterday.”
“Oh.” I let out a little laugh. “I thought the key was for any time I needed to access this place after hours.”
Ellie and the security guard exchange glances. “We’re open twenty-four seven. And you signed a document acknowledging the purpose of the key. I’m afraid I can’t let you inside without it.”
Panic climbs my spine. I have to think fast. “Okay, listen.” I lean close and drop my voice. “The key you gave me? It was stolen from my purse. I need to get in there and make sure nothing else inside was stolen or tampered with.”
Ellie flourishes her hand toward the security guard. “I assure you, we’ve had personnel stationed directly outside here ever since we completed setup.”
“And I assure you”—I raise my voice, projecting a sense of sternness—“that this method of security is not adequate because there’s a significant flaw in the protocol that doesn’t account for petty theft.” I twist to the guard. “I’m sure you yourself have not been standing here for the last twenty-four hours straight. There must have been a moment when you switched places with someone else. That’s a moment of weakness. An opportunity for someone else to slip inside with two stolen keys. Can you assure me that hasn’t happened? That every employee key is currently accounted for? Can you confirm no employees from this very data center have been inside since yesterday?”
Ellie opens her mouth but then clamps it shut. “I’d have to review the security tapes, but—”
I don’t let her finish with the obvious rest of her sentence, that it’s a highly unlikely scenario. All I need is for her to doubt herself. Just a little. Just enough to let me slide past the rules. “This is why I need to check.” My voice comes out desperate and earnest. “Please. You can stay by my side. Watch my every move. I just need the peace of mind that everything’s okay.”
She sighs and grabs a second key out of her pocket. A skeleton key. “Just this once.” She slips it inside and twists the lock. “But we’re going to have to change the locks later.”
“I’d be pulling my servers out of here if you didn’t.”
She pushes open the door to an identical view of stacked servers, and while her back’s turned, I reach into my purse. My fingers graze against the canister of pepper spray Sebastian made yesterday as I grab another SSD drive to conceal in my palm. I squeeze my fist to stop it from shaking. There are rows and rows of servers, far more than we ever housed in the basement of Varga Industries, probably in preparation for the worldwide release of HiveMind at the press conference tomorrow.
Ellie keeps close, watching my every move as I peruse the servers, all neatly labeled in Brandon’s handwriting. He must have been helping set this up for a while now. I cup the SSD drive in my hand, palm sweaty. All I need is three seconds of distraction to be able to slip it into the back of one of the servers and gain full access to it. I cough, but Ellie doesn’t flinch. I jut my chin toward the window, but she doesn’t even glance in any direction but at my face. It’s not until she receives a phone call and presses it to her ear, her face turning grave, that she spins away from me. My heart pounds. I brush against one of the consoles and discreetly plug in the SSD drive just as my purse vibrates with a text. I dig my phone out.
Sebastian: I just spotted your mom arriving! She’s at security now.
My eyes widen as Ellie turns back toward me, her face scared. “Ma’am, I’ve just been informed that there has in fact been a breach in security. As part of our standard protocol, I’m going to need you to come with me. We’re placing this room on lockdown.”
And her intent is likely to lock down me as well.
“I’m actually done here, thanks!” I stomp toward the exit, not bothering to wait for her. Not bothering to let her catch up with me.
But at the exit, a security guard faces me. A pair of handcuffs dangles from his burly fist. He blocks the exit from me.
“I’ve got her cornered,” Ellie says behind me into what must be her phone.
My pulse beats so fast in my skull I can hardly think. I have no place to run. No chess moves left to play. Nothing stored up in my bag of tricks. Except …
I do have something stored in my bag of tricks. The aerosol can of pepper spray Sebastian mixed up yesterday. We didn’t need to use it then, but it’s exactly what I need now.
I fumble into my purse and grip the canister. The security guard’s fingers shift to his belt, his eyes on my hand. My heart lodges in my throat. A gun? Before he has a chance to use it, I lift the aerosol can and spray a blast in his face. He screams, hands rising to his eyes. I barrel past him and run straight into the lobby, where my mother stands with an unamused expression on her face, her key dangling in her fingers to prove she’s the real deal. Two guards stand beside her, both looking angry. There’s a man in a suit with a phone pressed to his ear, probably connected to Ellie.
Mom doesn’t flinch at my appearance. “Arden, you’re supposed to be in fifth period.”
I stop short in front of her and slide the pepper spray back into my purse. “Mom, it’s getting worse. I have to stop it. I have to—”
“You have to leave here.” She spits her words through gritted teeth. “Right now. Go home and stay there. Do you hear me?”
I nod meekly, feeling suddenly like a cosplayer at a comic convention, extremely uncomfortable in clothes that don’t belong to me.
“What did you do in there? Did you touch anything?”
I shake my head frantically, but judging by her heavy sigh, she clearly doesn’t believe me.
A new text pops up on my phone and I covertly glance at it.
Sebastian: Side entrance, on your left if you’re facing the main doors. Fair warning, it’s alarmed.
“I’m going to have to let the Ethics Committee know about this.” Her voice wavers. “I’m going to tell them I think you’re behind this.…”
“No!” If she informs the Ethics Committee, that’s it. I’m done for. They’ll overrule the DNA that links me to her and kick me straight on my ass out of the school. “I’m not. I’m trying to help. I’m—”
Mom turns toward the guards. “You can call off the police. I’m not going to press charges.” When she spins back to face me, her face is grave. “Arden, we’ll deal with this at home.”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Varga.” Ellie’s heels click toward us. “But that’s not your call. We take our security very seriously and we’ve already called in the authorities. They should be here moment—”
I lift the can of pepper spray and spray it in the face of the guard right in front of me. While he screams, I use the distraction to dodge around him. There are guards blocking the main entrance, but I switch courses and barrel down the hallway to my left that none of them expected me to take. Sebastian wasn’t only planting surveillance equipment outside, he was also casing the place to find escape routes in case I got trapped exactly like this.
I may not be an ace in gym class, especially not in these heels, but the pepper spray slows down the guards enough for me to slam into the exit doors. A loud alarm blares, the sound pounding against my skull as I squint into the harsh sunlight.
My feet pound down the sidewalk and burst through rows of trees. A stampede of footsteps resounds behind me. I’m shaking by the time I reach the car, engine already idling. I’m about to open the driver’s side, but I spot Sebastian already occupying it. My getaway driver squeezes white knuckles on the steering wheel as I get into the passenger seat.
Security guards rush toward the car.
“Go!” I shout, gripping the door handle.
“Let’s hope the driver’s manual I have downloaded in my head surpasses the need for lessons.” He slams his foot on the gas pedal, jerking the car backward. “Guess not.” Sebastian switches gears, and the car lurches forward again. He guns the engine and zooms forward, finding a smooth pace of twenty miles above the legal speed.
While he drives, my fingers tap so fast on the keys the computer takes a moment to respond to all my commands. I let out a relieved breath when I’m able to use the SSD drive to gain control of the server console. They haven’t found it yet. The list of encrypted memories appears for my stealing pleasure. This is it. My last chance. I won’t be able to sneak into this data center again. I won’t have any other way to get back deleted memories. At least until we find this hacker and prove my innocence.
Sebastian parks in the middle of a strip mall parking lot in the hopes of concealing the car among the crowd.
I select a random memory from the favorite list to transfer into both our minds and hope to hell it’s a good one. If I don’t transfer it before the SSD drive is disconnected, I’ll never be able to. I have to watch it immediately to have any hope of finding the information I need.
Blackness overtakes my vision, blotting out the afternoon sun. When the new scene pops in, the darkness only recedes a little. I’m already running backward through the empty Varga Industries parking lot, weaving around a handful of cars, as lampposts illuminate my progress like spotlights. My bare arms pump along my sides, and flashes of the blue shirt I wore Monday pop into my line of vision. I purchased the shirt last weekend. Cool air blasts and the skeletal trees dance against an inky black sky. Fat tears shimmy up my cheeks and stuff themselves back into my eyes.
Running backward, I race up the marble steps and stop short, spinning to face Mr. Kimmel, who stands in front of the double doors. His casual black T-shirt reveals his bulging muscles.
[Correction. My past. And that’s where it’ll stay.] A smile stretches my face, weird compared with the tears rolling down my cheeks.
[Because it’s your project. Your future.]
I scoff. [This was his choice. Why would I ever help you?]
[And now he can’t.] Mr. Kimmel’s face changes from all business to crumpled in pain. [We need you to show us how to make Theseus work. Bash wouldn’t tell us.]
I shake my head.
Mr. Kimmel ventures a step away from me. [Arden, we need your help.]
[This wasn’t what he wanted at all.] I bury my face in my hands and pace in front of my teacher. My heels click out the beat of my heart. [He said no! He told you guys no!]
[He would have died,] Kimmel says in a calm voice. [Not forever. Teddy had no choice.]
My body dips toward the ground and a strangled cry rips from my throat. [I didn’t even get to say good-bye! He’s gone forever. Oh my God.] My head shakes back and forth so fast, it’s like I’m trying to hypnotize him.
[He’s gone.] His voice cracks. [It’s too late, Arden.] Something inside me cracks as well.
I let out a sob so loud and wounded, it sounds as if I’ve been stabbed in the gut. [Is it true?] I croak out. [Teddy called me.]
But before Mr. Kimmel can answer, reality jerks back into me like a punch to the throat. Something in my chest squeezes shut and I suck in desperate gulps of air as if I’m about to drown. The raw emotion radiating from me in the memory makes a fresh lump lodge in my throat. I don’t know what happened or why I was crying back then, but whatever it was, it was enough to punch a hole in my gut, both then and now. Something terrible happened.
Something terrible that Teddy had a part in.