Cracked Open

by Susan Kaye Quinn

She shrugs again, but there’s a smirk on her face as she walks her gloves and helmet over to a cabinet against the wall.

  “Is someone going to track us here?” I ask, voice lifting a little. I’m genuinely concerned now.

  “Relax, big brother,” Sammi says. “It’s just a little harmless fun.”

  I bite my tongue because Sammi’s doing me a favor keeping Olivia occupied… but not if she brings the Feds to our doorstep on a hacker hunt.

  “Yeah!” Olivia pipes up, which is Olivia-speak for Shove off, big brother! “And Sammi says I should have my own room, too.”

  “Does she?” The tongue-biting is getting painful, but I need Sammi’s help with Tiller’s tech and Olivia’s babysitting. I’m in a serious box with this.

  “Hey, the kid’s got to breathe. She needs her own space.” Sammi beckons Olivia to bring her gloves and helmet over for storage in the cabinet, and Olivia nearly trips in her haste to hustle over. I can’t help but be impressed by how thoroughly Sammi’s got my sister wrapped around her finger. When Olivia reaches her, Sammi drops her voice and says, “We’ll do a lightspeed run after Zeph’s gone. I’ll show you how to hack it into build mode.”

  Olivia beams and does a small dance that leaves me amazed.

  After Sammi stores Olivia’s gear, she turns back and lifts her chin toward the bag with Tiller’s orb. “What’s in the magic bag?” she asks me.

  I sigh. “Something I need your help with.” Olivia and Sammi both gather around while I dig it out. I hand it over to Sammi—I do not want my sister touching this thing. “Don’t unwrap it,” I say.

  Sammi frowns, all humor gone. “What is it?”

  “Some kind of anti-jacker tech,” I say. “Juliette pinched it from her dad’s loading dock.”

  Sammi scowls at me. “You sending her on spy missions now?” She does not approve.

  I hold up my hands. “She did that all on her own.” I drop my hands and gesture to the orb. “Juliette says it comes apart into drones and has some kind of mindware tech. I took it to Kira. She wants you to crack it, maybe get a clue about the function without activating it.” I glance at Olivia. “Could be dangerous, so, you know, not when Livvy’s nearby. Or me, for that matter.”

  Olivia’s face is squished up. “I’m a strong jacker.”

  “Doesn’t matter, squirt,” I say. “I don’t want you near it, in case it goes off.”

  “But that just means it’s dangerous for Sammi!” she objects. “And don’t call me squirt.”

  I grit my teeth. “You want to try this or no?” I ask Sammi. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.

  “I definitely want to try this.” Sammi focuses on the thing, and with the grimace she’s making, I’m guessing she’s trying to jack through whatever weird shielding the thing has. She groans a little then yanks her head back.

  “Kira tried that,” I say. “I don’t think a straight jack will do it. Maybe you can surge it?” I don’t understand how this mental surging thing works exactly—when Olivia was taking down people in Jackertown, it felt like an electrical overpowering. Just feeling the edges of it made me nauseous, like the after-effects of a thought grenade only ten times more powerful.

  “Right.” Sammi turns it over in her hands, examining it. “This isn’t a barrier, though. Not a normal one. It’s more like…” She squints at it, shaking her head. “Like it’s trying to synchronize somehow.” Suddenly, the thing sparks inside the anti-static wrap, arcing miniature blue lightning bolts along the inside of the wrapping.

  Sammi curses and whips her hands away, dropping the orb. It thunks to the ground with its leaden weight and rolls a bit, then settles a foot away. Sammi shakes her hands, flicking them out, and scowling at the orb.

  “You okay?” I ask.

  Olivia’s eyes are wide and concerned.

  “Yeah.” Sammi gives her hands another shake. “The feedback is intense. Let’s leave it on the ground, okay?”

  “But you didn’t break through?” I’m about to call a halt to this. I don’t want to set Aaliyah’s house on fire.

  “Almost.” Sammi tilts her head to Olivia. “You want to help?”

  “Sure!” Olivia’s eyes light up.

  “No,” I say immediately. Has Sammi ever babysat someone in her life?

  “Three, two, one…” Sammi’s focusing on the orb.

  “What? Stop!” I protest.

  They ignore me. Sparks fly inside the plastic wrappings, and the orb moves, twitching like it’s alive, rolling back and forth on the floor. I can’t do anything other than shout at them—any attempt to interfere mentally will just get my brain fried—and I don’t want to make it worse by distracting them. But my teeth are clenching so hard they squeak. Not that you can hear it over the crackling blue fire that’s smoking through the plastic wrap. Holy crap, they’re going to torch the carpet. Just as I’m about to look for a fire extinguisher, the electrical sparks cease.

  “Whoa.” Olivia is wide-eyed staring at the thing, but she looks fine. Sammi is shaking her head like she’s trying to get something out of it.

  I lurch over, but she throws up her hands to ward me off.

  “I’m fine,” she grinds out through her teeth. She squeezes her eyes shut, rubs her temples, then opens her eyes again. “Just some residual feedback.” She winces again, but then she seems better.

  I want to strangle her for bringing Olivia into this, but Sammi seems to have gotten the worst. “You okay?” I ask Olivia, just to be sure.

  I barely get a scowl in response—she’s busy hovering over Sammi to see if she’s all right. Sammi gives her a nod then rubs her hands like they’re still smarting from the first shock.

  “The bad news is I think we broke it,” Sammi says.

  “What’s the good news?” I ask.

  “I should be able to access whatever code it’s got now.” She pats Olivia on the shoulder. “Couldn’t have cracked it without you, kid. Nice work. Now let me take it from here.”

  Olivia nods, not a whisper of protest.

  So... this is how it will go.

  I resign myself to my lost status and just shake my head. Sammi cracks her knuckles then crouches down next to the orb. She’s not touching it, but her focus is intense. I gesture Olivia over to the entrance to the room so we can talk without disturbing Sammi.

  “So, you want your own room, huh?” I say, trying to make peace.

  Olivia narrows her eyes. “You snore.”

  I huff a laugh. “Just promise you’re not going to run off in the middle of the night, okay? Promise, and I’ll check with Aaliyah to see if the Done Room is open. I think Jiaying’s moved to a permanent room upstairs.”

  “Will Sammi still come watch me during the day?” And like that, I forgive Sammi for that crazy stunt she pulled with the orb.

  “Just until I find Mom and Dad. I’m working on that, Livvy. I promise.”

  “Okay.” She scowls at me for good measure. “Don’t call me squirt.”

  I put up my hands. “Wouldn’t think of it.”

  Sammi’s gasp draws both our attentions.

  “What is it?” I ask. Olivia and I both ease back into the room.

  Sammi shakes her head, but this time it’s just disbelief. “This thing…” She stands up and gestures down to it. “To start off, it’s autonomous. There’s AI in it to seek out its target. Then it discharges something—a simple charge, although it’s hard to say what. That part’s separately contained and armed. It’s a one shot deal. The software’s all in the detection, and it’s not like anything I’ve seen before. It’s fairly sophisticated code. Like mindware only… different.”

  “Juliette said it was some kind of mindware mod,” I say.

  Sammi gives me a dirty look. “That would have been helpful to know.” She shakes her head and plants her fists on her hips. “Okay, this is anti-jacker tech. But mindware is for readers. Reception only. It detects mindwaves and modulates with them. Straightforward. Jackers can jack into mindware, just like we ja
ck into a reader’s head, but readers operate on a fundamentally different frequency.”

  “So why does anti-jacker tech have mindware?” Olivia asks.

  “Exactly.” Sammi grimaces. “There’s something different about it, but I’m having a hard time digging it out. I don’t mind damaging it, but I don’t want to accidentally set it off.”

  The unease in her voice hikes mine up even further. “Maybe we should just leave it alone.”

  Sammi shakes her head. “We need to know what it does. Just give me some time.”

  I’m about to protest—or at least insist that Olivia stay clear of it—when my phone buzzes in my pocket. I fish it out and swipe it open. It’s a scrit from Wolf, Major John Scott’s profile.

  Wright wants you. I’ll be at Aaliyah’s in two minutes.

  Great. I stuff my phone away. “Look, I have to go,” I say to Sammi, who’s crouched by the orb again with Olivia at her side. “Don’t burn down the house or get Olivia hurt while I’m gone, okay?”

  “We’re good.” Sammi waves me off.

  I’m not sure I entirely believe that, but at least she seems a little more cautious now. I hustle out the door because the last thing I want is Major John Scott or any of Wright’s goons to come knocking on Aaliyah’s door.

  I’m going to see my mom.

  My leg won’t stop bouncing, so I jam my fist into my knee to keep it still. The first time I was in an unmarked van with Major John Scott, he had a handful of thugs holding me hostage in the back. These days, I ride up front. Normally, we don’t talk much, but today, Scott can’t shut up.

  “Wright wants to meet with you afterward.” He runs a hand through his non-existent hair—he’s basically scrubbing the fuzz on top of his head. We’re headed up to the Great Lakes Naval Station where Wright’s secret DARPA facility is stashed.

  “But we’re seeing my mom. First.” I’ve asked this three times already—I just want to make sure.

  “Yeah, kid. We are.” He gives me a pinched look like he feels sorry for me. “I can only give you fifteen minutes.”

  “Is she okay?” I can’t help asking. My heart’s thudding around in my chest. The adrenaline is making it hard to breathe.

  He winces. “She’s been there for months. Since before I arrived.”

  It’s not a straight answer. My chest gets tighter. I’ve been wondering all along if somehow, someway, my parents have been working with Wright. Is that why she refused to let me see them? Is that why they never told me they were jackers in the first place? Or was all that just more of Wright’s lies? In which case, my mom’s been a reader held prisoner by the Office of Jacker Technologies all this time. What have they been doing to her? My brain zooms five directions at once, mapping out all the possibilities. I don’t even know how long Wright’s had them. I haven’t spoken to them for over 18 months. Olivia was never clear on the timeline.

  “Look, kid,” Scott says. “Something’s going down with this.”

  I look sharply at him across the bench seat. “What are you talking about?”

  “Wright’s got something planned for you. After. I don’t know what, but it’s big. You need to play it well.”

  “I’m not going to tell her about you helping with Livvy if that’s what you’re worried about.” I’m biting his head off, but it’s just because I’m a seething ball of raw emotion. My other leg starts to bounce, so I jam a fist into that one, too. Then I look straight ahead at the winding Chicago New Metro suburbs and try to breathe. I’m probably not busting my mom out today. Maybe. Just knowing she’s alive and okay is the first step. Then I can figure out how to get her free.

  “Listen to me, Zeph.” Scott’s voice has an edge to it. “I’m trying to tell you something here, and we don’t have much time.”

  I frown and look back to him. “I’m listening.”

  “Wright’s orchestrating something—something big, something dangerous, and something that’s important to her. I don’t know what it is, but you’re part of it.”

  “Okay.” If something’s important to Wright, that’s almost inherently dangerous.

  “Whatever it is, you need to keep your cool and do what she says.”

  I narrow my eyes.

  “Yeah, I don’t expect it to be fun, either.” He grimaces and looks out the front windshield but keeps talking. “Wright’s under some kind of pressure. Time pressure. Delivery pressure. I’m not sure what or to who, but I’m certain it’s up the chain of command. Way up.” He looks back. “I wasn’t kidding when I said SecDef was interested in you.”

  “Sounds like something I don’t want.” Having the Secretary of Defense even tangentially aware of me—much less my abilities—isn’t doing anything good for my pounding heart.

  “It’s not.” He grimaces. “He knows everything Wright does about Jackertown, all right? Nothing more. You want to keep it that way.”

  I nod. Obviously, I’m not offering Olivia up to them.

  “There are things I know, Zeph,” he goes on. “Things I don’t want to know, but that’s not really up to me.” He taps his head at the temple. “Hard as a rock, right? Except maybe to you. This hard head of mine—plus the fact that I’m not a jacker—you know what that makes me?”

  I shake my head, frowning. “A zero?”

  Scott snorts at the derogatory term for someone who never goes through the change into a mindreader. “I wish that were all. No. It makes me an asset. The kind of asset people like Wright want to use to keep their dirty business in the dark. I was in intelligence before I came to work for her. Having a hard head allowed me to keep a lot of secrets for a lot of powerful people. Then I screwed up and got caught.”

  “Overseas,” I say when he pauses. Those memories I accidentally dredged up before, where Scott was being tortured…

  “Yeah. I owe Wright my life. She retrieved me out of there, and I became hers. Finders keepers, I suppose.” He snorts again, shaking his head. “My agency figured I was compromised, so they just left me. I would have died if it hadn’t been for Wright. So I came to work for her.” He turns and stares me down. “But I have a sense for when things don’t add up, and something’s not right about all this. Plus getting little girls killed isn’t what I signed up for. Wright’s dirty on this. Everyone in this jacked-up business is dirty.”

  “Even you?” I shouldn’t poke at him like that—Olivia’s only alive because of him—but I need to know what I’m dealing with.

  “Even me.” He sucks in a long breath and faces front again. “Wright’s putting inhibitors in the water with the DOD’s blessing.”

  “What?” I nearly choke on my surprise. “How do you know that?” My brain is spinning. This is what Wright accused the JFA of doing—meanwhile, she’s the one who’s spiking the water? And to what possible end?

  Scott slides a sideways look to me. “I know because I’m the one who’s doing it.”

  I let my mouth hang open because I just can’t think of what to say.

  “It’s jacked up. I know.” He faces front, and the muscles in his jaw are working. “She knows I can’t tell anyone without indicting myself. That’s how she works.” We’re about to pass through the gate at the Great Lakes Naval Station. “Be careful, Zeph. She’s dangerous.”

  “Got it.” I nod my head for emphasis, but he’s not telling me anything I don’t know. Okay, I didn’t know about the inhibitors—and I can’t fathom why she would do such a thing—but it’s not like I even question Scott’s account. Would Wright do something like that? In a heartbeat. But only if it served her purposes. Which are a complete mystery to me most of the time.

  Scott’s silent on the way in to the base. Somehow, I expect him to bring me to Wright first, despite what he said on the way over, but we park at a different building from where I normally meet Wright. Scott escorts me deep into the complex, stops at a non-descript door with no handle, then waves a small card at the edge.

  The door swings silently inward, revealing an entranceway to what looks
like a small apartment. There’s a tiny kitchen off to the left, and the entrance opens up to a living room with two white couches, white shutters, and white walls. Everything is white, but not sterile hospital-white, more like cheap-hotel white. Only there’s no décor, not even a screen on the wall, and the carpet is a dingy white that’s seen a lot of mileage.

  “Fifteen minutes.” He tips his head for me to go inside.

  My mom is in here.

  I stumble inside, and the door swings shut behind me. “Mom?” My voice cracks, and it’s barely above a whisper anyway. I clear it, but before I can call out for real, I hear a fast-thudding of footsteps on the carpeted floor.

  My mom rips around the corner, comes to a sudden stop when she sees me, and grabs hold of the corner like she’s going to keel over. Her other hand is covering her mouth.

  It’s shaking.

  “Mom?” It’s no louder than before because I can barely speak, much less move. It’s like the carpet has adhered to my tennis shoes and won’t let me go.

  She launches from the wall and crosses the dozen feet between us in a half second. I’m swallowed in her hug, and it’s so hard, it hurts—which is totally not why tears spring up in my eyes. I hug her back… and she’s thin. Frail. What? I struggle to remember the last time I hugged my mom. Was she always this breakable?

  “Oh my God, Zeph.” She’s hugging me and hugging me, then suddenly, she pulls back and grips my cheeks. “Are you all right?” Without waiting for an answer, she scours my body with her scrutiny like she expects to see bullet wounds.

  “I’m fine.” My voice is so hoarse the words barely come out.

  She jerks back and puts both hands over her mouth again. Her eyes are glassy. Then she pulls her hands away from her face and gestures with open palms. “Look at you. My God, Zeph. You’ve grown so much.” She chokes up.

  Watching her cry will make me cry, and we don’t have time for that. “We only have fifteen minutes.” My voice is hollow. There should be time, and words, and more hugs, and explanations, but Wright is a heinous human being, so we’ve got none of that. “We have to…” I look around this non-descript apartment. Is it a prison? Is my mom working for Wright? I don’t even care anymore. I just want to get her out. “Can we talk here?”