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“Marci, are you okay?” James is right in my face. One of his arms wraps around my shoulder. I’m on the floor. Here we go again.
“Get her something to drink,” James orders. Rheema runs out at his command, as he deposits me into a beanbag.
James, Aydan and Kristen kneel around me, concern on their faces. I take deep breaths.
“Good, good,” James says, squeezing my shoulder. “Breathe.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, when I find my voice.
“It’s okay.” He rubs my arms reassuringly and pulls me closer until my head rests on his chest. “Too much pressure?” he asks gently.
“Um, no.”
“Were you shadowed?”
“No.”
“What happened then?”
A sigh leaves my lips, taking every bit of humanity I thought I possessed. I chuckle because I don’t want to whimper. Smile when you don’t want to cry.
“Turns out I was never human,” I say.
“Here.” Rheema has a handful of my favorite chocolate and a bottle of water. She offers them to me with a smile. “These worked charms on you the last time,” she says, giving me a quick wink.
“I’m fine. Really.”
I pull away from James. They all get to their feet and look at me with question marks etched on their brows. I stand and straighten my shirt.
“I was an in-vitro baby,” I blurt out. “It seems I’ve been a freak since I was just two microscopic cells. I guess I never stood a chance.”
Wide eyes replace the furrowed brows. Rheema’s jaw hangs loose. Kristen’s head moves from side to side in an almost imperceptible sign of incredulity. James’s astonishment hangs thick in the air. Only Aydan seems to think I’ve said nothing shock-worthy and allows his features to return to his I’m-too-smart-to-lose-my-cool expression.
“Are you sure?” he asks, looking bored.
I laugh. What a stupid question. Am I sure I was conceived in a Petri dish?
“Well, let me see, I was there, so I guess I should remember. Um, funny how I don’t, though. I suppose I’ll have to trust my mom’s word on the matter.”
Aydan gives me an icy stare. I tell myself it doesn’t bother me and try not to start keeping count of how many times and in how many different ways I’d like to smack him.
“Look, I’m sorry I freaked. I thought Mrs. Contreras had infected me. It just came as a surprise. That’s all.” I try to shrug it off, try to pretend I’m over it already.
“Who’s Mrs. Contreras?” Rheema asks, unwrapping one of the chocolates and popping it whole in her mouth.
“It’s not important,” I say.
“I thought it’d be impossible,” James says, still in shock. He steps away, turns his back on me and runs a hand over his shaved head.
Kristen walks up to him, looking as excited as a kid in Disneyland. She talks a million miles an hour. “I can’t believe it. How do you suppose she’s been able to keep the agent at bay? I always thought in-vitros stood zero chance. I’ll have to run more tests, different tests that take this into consideration.”
“Hey, I’m right here,” I protest. “Try to remember that as you discuss turning me into a lab rat.”
Just as I finish saying this, Luke’s face pops in my mind. Like fireworks, questions explode against the dark backdrop of this new revelation. Was mine the only embryo infected as he and I were deposited in Mom’s womb? Or was he also infected and somehow managed to escape my fate? Or better yet, is he immune by some freak genetic reason? I realize that if there’s anyone they should be testing it’s him. Not me.
Not me?! Could that have anything to do with why that man took Luke and left me behind? My head spins.
I bite the inside of my cheek. I know I should tell James about Luke right away, but the truth is, I can’t. There is no way I can drag him into this. He’s already been through a lot and probably already hates being part of my family. I can only imagine how he would feel if he found out it’s actually worse than he thinks. I doubt he’d be so filial if he realized half of his new family could inspire a B-rated horror movie.
At some point, I know I’ll have to tell them about Luke, but not before I, myself, understand all the implications. Bringing my brother into this, when there’s so much I need to learn, would be a terrible judgment call. I have no right to alter his life without knowing where this leads. I just hope Xave or Clark don’t bring up the fact that I have a brother. For once, I’m glad James keeps so many secrets.
“We don’t have time for tests right now,” James says. “We need to get to work, if we’re to have a chance at breaking into Riverbend by tomorrow night. I’m sure Marci will cooperate later with more tests. Won’t you, Marci?”
I nod. Kristen already owns every bit of bio-data I can possibly give her. A few more tests won’t make a difference. For now, I’d rather get my hands and brain busy on tricking the device they’re talking about. If I don’t get my thoughts away from Xave, Luke, embryo spawns and the such, I’m going to lose it.
James turns to Aydan. “Give Marci a crash course, so she can get started.”
“Yes, sir.” Aydan heads for the door, looking as if he’d rather jump off the Space Needle.
“Why does he have to be such an ass?” I throw the question out there, expecting no particular answer.
Rheema laughs and exits the room, shaking her head. Kristen follows suit but stops at the door, a curious expression on her face. “You really don’t know, do you?”
I shake my head and shrug once. Maybe Aydan is a lunatic. Maybe his agent makes him grumpy. Perhaps there’s medication for his problem. I don’t know and I don’t care. I’ve got enough problems of my own to worry about his.
“Youth is wasted on the young.” Kristen sighs and leaves the room.
What is that supposed to mean? I looked at James for understanding.
He puts his hands up in a don’t-ask-me gesture. “C’mon, we have work to do.”
When we get to the computer pod, Aydan’s busy clearing a workspace in one corner.
“She can use this area. I’ll set up another workstation here,” Aydan says without looking back at us.
“Just tell me where the stuff is, I can do it,” I say.
Aydan heaves an exasperated sigh. “Fine. You can scavenge any monitors and cables you can find around here. The CPU is over there.” He points at a large, dusty box in one corner, plops his behind on his ergonomic chair and starts typing furiously on the keyboard.
I feel like I’m back in elementary school. Next Aydan will stick his tongue out at me, right after calling me ugly names. I shouldn’t, but I give James a rescue me look. He stares at the ceiling and grabs his chin in annoyance.
Yep, I’m back in first grade. Mrs. Kline always conjured that same expression when she didn’t want to intervene in one of our kiddie brawls. James goes over and murmurs to Aydan as I make a huge racket moving and setting up equipment. When I’m done, Aydan looks mollified. Somewhat.
“You kids will do okay?” James asks. “I have a few things of my own to prepare. I’ll come back in an hour or so.”
“Yeah, we’ll be fine,” Aydan says, sounding as if we’ll be anything but.
“No problem,” I tell James, giving him a confident smile. After my hissy fit followed by a nervous meltdown, I want to show him I’m not a kid. Haven’t been one for a long while. I can take care of myself and can definitely be trusted to carry my own weight around here.
As I squat to plug in the monitor in the back of the CPU, James leans in. “If there’s time, I’d like to do a training session. Okay?”
I nod. When he leaves, I’m left there, wondering what is in store for me next. I run my hand over the dusty CPU and wipe it on the side of my pants, lost in thought. Aydan startles me by jumping into a quick explanation of the device I’m supposed to hack. A replica sits on the desk. It is a fancy piece of equipment that includes a thumb scanner and a keypad.
Aydan explains that Rheema will take care of the bio-data and all I have to worry about is finding the six-digit keypad combination, which happens to be encrypted and stored in one of AR-Tech’s databases.
He points me to the encryption algorithm—developed by Zero Breach—and to a way to hack into AR-Tech’s database. Then he explains that to cover our tracks we need to make the whole thing look like a hack, that there should be no trace left behind to indicate that insider information was used.
After Aydan’s snappy explanation, he sets me loose to see what kind of damage I can do. I’m itching to show him he’s not the only one with some IQ around here.
I spend thirty minutes just getting my bearings, making sure to leave no trace of my perusing in AR-Tech’s servers. Once I feel comfortable with their system, I take a look at the algorithm and try to think of a way to backward engineer the encrypted password using the code. After another half hour, I have a massive headache. Trying to figure out someone else’s code is a nightmare.
A brilliant idea hits me. Of course, it involves ignoring Aydan’s advice, but what the heck. I have to do this my way. It’ll never work if I don’t.
After a while James returns. “How’s it going?” he asks. “Any luck yet?”
“Some,” Aydan says.
“Almost there,” I say, as I type furiously.
I sense Aydan swiveling his chair my way, probably to give me the evil eye. As I tweak the last line of code, I rub my hands together.
“All right, I’m ready to try this,” I say.
“There’s no way you backward engineered that password in just a matter of hours,” Aydan says. He couldn’t have sounded more skeptical if I’d told him I was birthed by a motherboard.
“That’s right. I didn’t.” I don’t even try to keep the smugness out of my voice.
James and Aydan exchange glances, looking puzzled and incredulous, which I find a bit insulting. But no matter, I’ll make believers out of them.
“You said it should look like a hack. Well, instead of faking a hack, I hacked it for real.”
“You what?!” Aydan and James exclaim at the same time.
“That should have taken even longer,” Aydan argues.
“Um, not really. I don’t know who wrote that code, but it was easier for me to write my own than try to weed through that mess.”
They don’t buy it. I can tell.
Talk is cheap, so I run my program instead. Soon it flashes a six-digit code on the screen, which I enter on the keypad. When the LED light on top signals the device is unlocked, they can’t argue. The expressions on their faces make me feel good. Everything is topsy-turvy at home with Mom, and at school with both Xave and Luke giving me black looks. The realization that somebody is pleased with me is a good one, a feeling that I’ve experienced very rarely since Dad died.
James grasps my shoulder. “That is outstanding, Marci!” A huge, satisfied smile shines on his face. “She’s something else, isn’t she?” he asks, looking at Aydan and nodding repeatedly.
“Yeah, quite a gem.” Aydan’s tone is derisive, but his deep dark eyes can’t hide the admiration and surprise he feels. He turns back to his work. “I’ll be done with my part on time. Sooner, if I can have my sanctum back to myself.”
Sanctum? I guess Aydan and I have more than a few things in common. Clearly we could both worship at the altar of Holy Microchip.
“No problem, Aydan. Get back to work.” James says. “Marci and I will use this time to ... have a little talk.”
Suddenly, I don’t feel so smug anymore. I wish I’d kept my big mouth and my temper under control.