Chapter Nine

August 20X6, Keystone

My feet crunch over dry leaves as I wind through the majestic sequoias. The cool, dry air reminds me of a year ago when I made this same trek. I was ruled by fear then, terrified that one misstep would destroy everything, that if I stood up for what I believed my life would be over. But, when it all went up in flames, I found out who I really was.

Thank goodness.

I’m still afraid, but for different reasons. The entire Hyperloop ride home from Cleveland my emotions flip-flopped between the fear that Kyran was going to sneak up behind me, and the mounting dread that Operation Disconnect might end the world before I see Garrett again. Before I steal back what rightfully is my prize.

I don’t know what scares me most, but I won’t let any of it happen. I’m going to do something about this ending-all-technology thing and about Kyran. About Garrett. About all the things. That’s the difference between the me that walked this path a year ago and me now— I know it’s my purpose to make a difference.

My footsteps are heavy as I trace the trail along the river that leads to Allard’s cottage. I’m racking my brain for a way to tell her I failed but the perfect words won’t come. It was totally my fault. I let down my guard and Garrett tricked me. I have no choice but to tell her the truth. I just wish I was delivering good news. My ribs tighten, restricting my breath, and even the peaceful pitter-patter of the leaves overhead fails to soothe my ratcheted nerves.

The decision to come here with my tail between my legs wasn’t easy. Every inch of me wanted to find Garrett, to make him pay for lying to me, but I couldn’t logically justify showing up at Stanford without a proper disguise. No. It’s better to wait. To go in prepared. To let him relax. To pounce when he least expects it…

A burst of heat flares through me and my cheeks burn that I was so easily duped. Arriving at Allard’s Hobbit-sized door, I fill my lungs with evergreen forest air, doing my best to forget Garrett and focus on my confession to Allard. I push aside the ivy that overtakes the worn wood and knock, alerting her to my presence, so I don’t lose my nerve. Before she answers, I let myself inside.

The living room is neat and tidy as usual, the vintage furniture positioned more methodically than I ever realized. It’s staged like a showroom. I’d believe nobody lives here but then Allard appears through the swinging door from the kitchen. Her red hair is pulled back in its familiar, disheveled bun, and her white lab coat flaps open over a black jumpsuit. She’s a breath of fresh chaos in the otherwise orderly space.

“Elisha. You made it.” She opens her arms, inviting me to an uncharacteristic hug. “I knew you’d be okay, but I’ve been worrying anyway.”

I allow her to wrap her arms around me, for a moment basking in the warm rush of having made it home. But my contentment is short lived. The overwhelming enormity of what I must tell her creeps over my skin. What happens to failures at Keystone? She wouldn’t send me to Keystone Farms, would she? The Farm is where they send kids who fail the test to participate in the Initiation Heist. If they’re able to get past farm security and survive the wilderness to find their way back to Keystone, they can begin training again, but my classmate Marcel was sent to the Farm last year and he never came back.

“I want to hear everything.” She releases me and holds out her hand. “Let me see your contribution to history.”

The room sways around me. “I’m s-so tired.” Avoiding her expectant gaze, I make my way to the tweed couch. How am I ever going to tell her? My stomach knots.

“Of course, you are. Let me get you some tea. I’ll be right back. Sit. Relax.” She rushes out of the room.

Relax. Right. I press my palms to my forehead like that could force a solution into my brain. I have to say it. Blurt it.

“The tape has been stolen,” I announce the moment the kitchen door swings open and she returns, carrying an orange ceramic teapot on a bamboo tray.

“By you, I hope.” She sets the tray on the coffee table before pouring tea into an orange cup.

“By me, yes.” My lower lip wobbles. “But also, from me.” The last part is a whisper.

The color fades from her cheeks and she looks up, the teapot rattling in her hand. “Who has it?”

“Garrett.” I clasp my hands, willing her to forgive me. “But I’m going to get it back. I promise. This isn’t over. Please don’t send me to the Farm.”

She sets down the teapot and sits in a wooden armchair across from me. Closing her eyes, she presses her lips together, her lungs visibly expanding.

Tears prick my eyes and I hate them. Hate that Garrett put me in this position. That I’m so weak. But it’s not his fault. It’s mine. I failed. Expect the unexpected.

When she opens her eyes, she’s regained her composure. “I would never send you to the Farm, Elisha. Thank you for your honesty.”

A warm rush floods my limbs and it’s all I can do not to curl up and pass out.

“Do you have any idea why he’d want the tape?” I venture to ask. “I mean, at least he’s on our side…”

“It’s probably his way of flirting or he thinks it was a funny prank.” She puckers her lips. “I will speak to Whitney and Jeff about this. The important thing is the tape is no longer at the Warhol.” Whitney and Jeff pretty much rule Keystone—they’re the ones in charge—and they’re also Garrett’s parents.

“I really will get it back.” Accepting the tea she hands me, I fight to steady my shaking fingers and keep it from sloshing over the sides of the cup.

“Let’s not worry about that now.” She forces a smile, but the whiteness of her knuckles as she warms her hands around her mug tells me she’s still bothered. “I want to hear how you got the tape in the first place, before Garrett showed up.”

Between sips of tea, I divulge how I became Willa and tricked Tyson, how Garrett was there in the Cloud Room, and how I broke into the Archives, gaining confidence as I go because if it weren’t for Garrett, I’d be able to call this heist a success.

“You’ve come a long way, Elisha,” she says, when I finish telling her how I took the tape from the Time Capsule and got into the elevator, leaving out that Garrett was waiting for me. “I think you’ll be more than ready for your Initiation Heist.”

My heart skips a beat in anticipation of my next challenge. No way I’m screwing that one up. I will prove I belong here. But I downplay my resolve. “I don’t know about that. It’s a good thing I have a few months at Keystone to practice. I have so much to learn.”

“Sometimes the best way to learn is by doing.” Biting her lips, she pauses before reaching out and squeezing my hand. “But you’ll have some time to rest.”

I sense she has more to tell me but thinks better of it. “Do you know anything about the tape? Like what’s on it?” I keep my voice casual, pretending I didn’t listen to it, my instincts screaming to leave that part out.

She wrinkles her nose. “I have an idea what’s on it, but I think it’s better if it remains a mystery to you. You know how we don’t want anyone knowing the full scope of any job— It’s safer that way.”

I nod, feigning acceptance instead of pressing the issue. “Can you tell me what you were going to do with it? Was it going straight to the Vault?”

“Again, that’s something best kept secret.” She frowns, but then her eyes light up with a mischievous glint, and I know she’s changing the subject to distract me. “Now, do you want to tell me how Garrett ended up with the tape?”

What does she want me to say? That he tricked me into falling for him? That I’m just like every other lame girl who grovels at his feet? I swallow, hard. “Not really.”

She laughs. “But maybe I deserve that much?”

Knowing I owe her more than that much, I sigh and pick up where I left off. “Actually, I haven’t told you the scariest thing that happened. Garrett was waiting for me in the elevator, but before he could steal the tape, the fire alarm went off and Kyran showed up with a gun.”

“Kyran?” She raises her eyebrows. “Who could have sent him?” She says it more to herself than to me.

“It was really weird.” My hands get clammy at the memory. “He wasn’t after the tape… He was after me.”

Her eyes widen. “How did you get away?”

“I was able to rappel out a window with Garrett and we got away on my moped before Kyran caught up with us. Garrett said he was sent to protect me— That’s why I trusted him. He walked me to the cable cars so I could catch my Hyperloop, but he was really after the tape all along.” I conveniently leave out our tape-listening date. “Kyran found me on the cable cars and I was able to lose him on the Hyperloop, but he must know this is where I’d come.”

“I don’t know where Kyran ended up after Initiation.” She looks to the ceiling, seemingly thinking out loud. “I thought he was headed back to San Francisco, that he was given an assignment, but if what you say is true, then someone has gotten into his brain.”

“Like who? Simon?”

She shakes her head. “I’m not sure… There are people bigger than Simon that we need to worry about.” She sighs. “I wasn’t going to tell you this tonight, but I spoke with Crystal while you were away and I’m afraid I have some bad news.”

My heart quakes and I wonder if something has happened to Nash. The knowledge that he is safe instantly inserts itself in my brain, and the sense of doom that rushes through me, lifting the hair on the back of my neck, catches me off guard. I squish my eyebrows together. He may have deceived me in the past but he’s definitely supposed to be on our side—his side of the story has always matched with Allard’s—so I can’t place what I’m so freaked out about.

“What is it?” I ask with a slight headshake.

“It’s your Book of Secrets.” She leans forward, resting her elbows on her thighs. “Remember I told you how the Simulation isn’t functional yet because it requires quantum processing and that your quantum cognition could be the element they’re missing?”

I silently nod, tension building in my shoulders.

“Well, we aren’t certain, but it’s possible that someone figured out your book contains information that could be beneficial to building the Super Brain.” She mashes her lips together. “Your book has been stolen.”

My stomach dips. “Who stole it? Where is it?”

She sips in a breath and her cheeks balloon out as she exhales. “We’re not entirely sure who stole it. Crystal guarded it with her life. She always had it with her— She even slept with it strapped to her body. Someone very skilled took it from her while she was sleeping.”

“Kyran.” The answer pops into my brain. “Nobody is a better pickpocket than him.”

“Maybe.” Her head waffles from side to side. “I agree it seems he must have something to do with it, though I don’t know if he has ties to Stanford. We believe your book is being used for research there, but we’re awaiting confirmation. I’ll let you know as soon as I have more information.”

My ears perk up at the mention of Stanford.

Allard reaches out and places her hand on my knee. “I want you to know you’re safe here, Elisha. Kyran won’t come after you. Nobody would dare. His presence proves to me that whoever has your book is coming after you next, but I promise, you are protected.”

“How can you be sure? Kyran—or someone—got by Crystal. She has years more experience than me.”

“I’ll have someone standing guard outside your door twenty-four hours a day. I’ll assign a bodyguard if you want.”

I frown. “No, thank you. I don’t want someone hanging around me all the time. It’s too much like my old life. I like my freedom. Besides, how would I ever explain to my friends who this person is who’s always hanging around?”

“I understand.” The determined set to her jaw softens. “We’ll at least have someone on guard while you sleep, though. I won’t take no for an answer.”

“Fine.” The fight leaves my shoulders. “But only while I sleep.”

“Thank you.” Allard stands and crosses the room to a small buffet table and opens a drawer. “I was going to give you this as a reward for delivering the tape, but in light of the Kyran situation, I think it’s something you should have anyway.” She takes a folded square paper out of the drawer and hands it to me. “Your prize. A level-two safehouse map.”

Unfolding the page, I open the colorful, hand-drawn map of the world. On it, dozens of tiny houses are each notated with a sketched symbol that must reflect the hideout’s location—a cloud, a tree, a brick wall—along with coordinates and coded instructions for how to enter them. I squint at one of the riddles but my brain refuses to comprehend it. The colors on the map blur and I’m suddenly exhausted. All I want to do is curl up and go to sleep. I rub my drooping eyelids.

“You look like you’re about to drop.” Allard takes the map back from me and helps me to my feet. “I’ll put this with your things. Do you want to take a nap in your old room? You missed the welcome assembly this morning, but you’re still roommates with Rayelle. She’s dying to see you and she’s definitely not going to let you get any sleep once she does.”

I smile, excited to see her, too. And how will I ever explain to Rayelle why there’s a dude guarding our door? “We have a view of tomatoes and chilies, this year.” I’m momentarily invigorated by a sense of homecoming, of certainty I’m where I belong. There is comfort in the routine here, in knowing what to expect. “But you’re right. I can wait a few hours to see her. A nap sounds good.”

Allard shows me to my old room, and I drag my tired bones to bed. I fall asleep almost the moment my head hits the pillow, but not before I hear Allard say:

“I took a vow when I brought you here, Elisha. I promise. I won’t let anything happen to you.”