I need absolutely no more convincing.
When I kiss Tessa McIntyre again, I know exactly what she’s thinking. And I don’t stop until she tells me. Which, it turns out, isn’t for a very long time.
It’s dark when I finally take an autocab back home.
Home.
I don’t really have one. Aaliyah’s Home for the Temporarily Dizzy is my home base—my borrowed home—but it’s not home. I’m not sure that place exists anymore… except that I just spent a couple hours in a broken, abandoned truck depot that felt like a tiny spot of home for a while.
That buzz in Tessa’s head—the excitement and the connection—was thoroughly infectious. We messed around—a lot—and not just with kissing and fumbling our way through knowing each other more personally. We played with linking thoughts. We talked. We laughed and teased and just existed in each other’s presence. Connection. It’s something I haven’t had since I left home, not even with Olivia, and she’s family. And now that I have it again, even for a couple hours while time felt magically suspended, I can’t imagine giving it up. I’m hoping like crazy that, when this nightmare with Wright and my parents is done, I can stay.
I’ve known Tessa longer than anyone I don’t share DNA with—and we’re just getting started. She’s convinced it can happen. That readers and jackers can build a life together. I want it to be true, but more than that, I know it’s possible—not least because my mom and dad made it work.
As the autocab rumbles along the darkened streets, I pull out the memory stamp I’m always carrying with me—one of the few things I took with me when I left home. I brush it to activate, and the vid of my birthday is still left in the queue. I pause it just as I’m blowing out the candles. My mom was a jacker—abused, experimented on, tough as all heck. My dad was a reader. A researcher for DARPA, my mom said. Which makes way more sense than the business accountant that I’d always known him to be—my dad is crazy smart. It never seemed right that he would settle for a low-level job at an accounting firm. Now I know why. He risked everything to save my mom—and me. After that, he had to keep a low profile, just like my mom in her marketing job downtown. Ordinary people with ordinary lives. Only they were nothing of the sort. But they chose that life to keep Olivia and me safe. To give us a normal place to grow up.
A home. One that now sits darkened and abandoned like any of the complexes sliding past my window.
It makes me angry and desperately hopeful at the same time. I want that again. For my mom and dad and Olivia—she deserves a chance to grow up with a family. But I also want my own life—one that might include a brilliant girl who’s an activist for jackers and might want to be with me, too.
That’s something worth having. Something worth risking for.
When I told Kira we’d have to fight people like Wright, it wasn’t just because what they’re doing is wrong. Or even for some justice for all they’ve done wrong in the past. But because they’re tearing families and lives apart now. Disruption and chaos are their intent. I don’t know Wright’s exact reason, but it’s always the same—someone in power wants more. Wright is stone-cold power-mad. The Secretary of Defense has some flexed-military-muscle plan for “containing” jackers, and he couldn’t care less about the lives he destroys. People like me and Tessa and Olivia—we’re just cannon fodder in the war people like Wright are trying to wage. And the only way any of us will have a chance at peace—a chance to build homes again—is to fight them and stop them.
Kira’s doing her part; I will do mine.
The autocab finally reaches Aaliyah’s Home. Strangely, the autolimo from Tiller’s estate is gone. Even more strange, the front door is open. Light spills onto the wide front porch, lighting up the rocking chairs that have been relieved of their winter coats. The blinds are closed, but the lights are on. I reach mentally to check—the shield is still in place.
Did Juliette go home without me? That doesn’t square with the door left open.
I climb quickly out of the autocab and trot up to the front. My heart doesn’t start hammering until I see the mess inside—the entrance table is overturned, the couch is torn up, and there’s a mess of plastic wrapping crumpled in the center of the reception room. A strange odor hangs over everything, like the ozone that comes off an electrical short.
“Olivia!” I yell out, my heart lurching faster than I can seem to make my feet move. I dash down the hall to the Done Room and fling open the door, but it’s empty. It’s a mess too, but the normal kind—the kind a fourteen-year-old kid leaves behind when she tosses her clothes on the floor and doesn’t make her bed.
Where is everyone? “Juliette!” I call out, jogging to the kitchen, but that’s empty, too.
My brain is lighting up to full-blown panic. I run to the stairs but pause. Think, Zeph. Who could have taken them? And all of them at once? Olivia, Juliette, Sammi, Aaliyah. Even Jiaying? There isn’t anyone else staying in the Home at the moment—I worked it out with Aaliyah to keep newcomers away while Olivia was hiding here. But why would someone do this? Aaliyah doesn’t have enemies—people universally love her. Maybe one of her ex-demens residents went demens again and came back? But could one jacker take them all? Not Sammi and Olivia both. No way. Plus the shield is still up—they wouldn’t have been able to jack their way in.
So… the jack police?
I turn away from the stairs and jog back to the front. A closer look at the door tells me why it’s still open—someone busted in. Aaliyah’s extensive locks are all ripped from the wood. Crap. So maybe the police. But why? They wouldn’t care about any of us, or at least, they shouldn’t. Maybe Rutkowski’s Clan finally found out where we were? They would be after Jiaying, but why take everyone else? More slaves for the Clan?
My heart’s lurching so badly, I think I’m legit having a heart attack.
Then I hear a creak in the back, and it definitely came from the stairs. I lunge out with my mind… it’s just Jiaying.
She creeps up to the edge of the hallway and peeks around. “Zeph?” Her voice is so small. I run a quick, belated mental sweep of the rest of the house, but she’s the only one here.
“What happened?” I lurch down the hall to her.
She’s staying put, clinging to the corner like a scared cat. “I… I hid… I just couldn’t…” She’s entirely freaked.
“It’s okay. Of course, you did.” I take her by the shoulders and back her up, away from the straight shot to the front door, since that seems to make her shake. “Just tell me what happened.” I really don’t want to jack into her head and dig out those memories. Really don’t. But I need to know.
She’s nodding and pulling in breaths to steady herself. “Some men came and broke down the door. They took Juliette and Sammi.”
Holy crap. “What about Olivia?”
Jiaying shakes her head in small rapid movements. “She wasn’t here. Aaliyah took her out. For… for ice cream.” Her shakes are coming back. I’m tempted to jack in some emotional calm, but I let her get hold of it herself. She does, pretty quickly. “Aaliyah and Olivia were already gone when the men came. I heard them break the door. I was upstairs, in my room. Juliette and Sammi were… they were down here.”
Making out in the reception room. I give a small prayer of thanks that Aaliyah cleared out to give the lovebirds time alone and took Olivia with her. At least, they’re safe.
“So you didn’t see who it was?” My chest is tight. This is very bad news. Did Tiller come get Juliette? He could easily track the autolimo here, and part of my cover with Juliette is that she and I come to Aaliyah’s for our own “alone time.” Tiller still thinks I’m dating his daughter, one reason he’s keeping me around. But why check up on us now? And why break down the door? That makes little sense—he couldn’t know Sammi was here.
Jiaying’s shaking her head. “I didn’t see the men, I just heard them. But they weren’t talking. They were readers.” She gestures to the ceiling above us. “On the second floor, one of the rooms
extends over the entranceway. It’s empty now, but open. I got close enough that I could hear some of their thoughts. They kept moving, and I could only hear parts. I had to stay just at the edge of their reach.” She gives me an apologetic look. “I couldn’t let them find me.”
“No, that’s brilliant,” I say. “What did you hear?”
“There were a lot of them. Maybe five or six?” She scowls. “They definitely work for Juliette’s dad. And they were after something. They kept thinking of it as the package. I couldn’t get a good sense of it. Just that it was small. And black.”
“I know exactly what that is.” My heart is sinking. “The anti-jacker device Sammi was hacking. Dammit.” I lean back and press a fist to my forehead. “Tiller must have had a tracker on it.” A tracker would have beamed right through the shielding around the Home. And it’s obvious now—the orb is missing, too. How did Juliette and Sammi both miss the tracker when they took the thing apart? But they were both focused on the mindware mod. Trackers are low tech.
Jiaying’s nodding. “I think they were after the device, but they were super surprised to find Sammi here.”
Oh, no. “Did they hurt Sammi?” Tiller must be losing his mind over this. My chest is getting tighter all the time.
Jiaying winces. “There was… I heard a scream. I… I don’t think they killed her. I think it was a taser. It sounded electric, like a shock device. Juliette was crying.”
No, no, no. “Okay. How long ago? How long has Tiller had them?”
“About an hour.” Jiaying wrings her hands. “I scrit a message to Aaliyah, but she didn’t answer. And I didn’t have your number. I didn’t want to call the police… should I have called the police? I… I didn’t know what to do, Zeph.”
I take hold of her shoulders again and give them a squeeze. “No, you did the right thing. It’s okay. I just…” My mind is whirling. I step back and press my fingers to my temples. Think. Where would Tiller take Sammi? He wouldn’t hurt his own daughter. I know that for sure. I think. Although, Juliette must be grounded for life now.
“What are you going to do?” Jiaying asks.
I snap my fingers. “Juliette. If she still has her phone…” I’m really just thinking out loud. I scramble to pull out my phone and hastily scrit a message to her. WHERE ARE YOU? I stare at my phone, willing her to answer right away.
Nothing.
“Oh, man.” I bite my lip. What am I going to do? They could be anywhere.
“Her father hates jackers, right?” Jiaying says.
“With an unholy passion.” I rub my hand across my forehead. “This is so bad. He’s got this secret jacker-conversion program at the Detention Center. If he’s taken Sammi there… I have no idea how we can get her out.”
“But he doesn’t know about you,” she points out. “That you’re a jacker, I mean.”
My eyes go wide. “You’re right. He would have expected to find me here with Juliette. The fact that Sammi was here instead… must have pissed him off, but he wouldn’t necessarily blame me for it. And that wouldn’t expose me as a jacker.” I frown. “Maybe.”
“So, you pretend to be a reader with him, right? That means you can still influence him.”
I’m nodding, but I’m still thinking it through. “If I came here expecting to see Juliette, and she was gone…”
“You should be totally panicked.” She gives me a nod. It’s funny in a way—readers’ minds are open to everyone. There are no lies, not generally, except online where they can get away with that dirty little trick. Yet, here she is, advising me on strategies for deceiving one of the richest and most powerful men in the country. Just like a pro.
All the intrigue in Aaliyah’s home must be rubbing off on her.
I glance at my phone. Still no response. “The first thing I should have done was send a panicked scrit to Juliette. Which I did.”
Jiaying nods, fully in on this little deception now. “What would you do next?”
“Probably panic more.” Which is pretty much what I’m doing. “I need a good reason why I left her alone in the house long enough to hook up with Sammi when I wasn’t looking.”
Jiaying shrugs. “Maybe you had a lead on your missing parents.”
Also not far from the truth. “Perfect. So, I was meeting with someone who had a lead, and Juliette needed to stay and work on homework. I figured she’d be safe at Aaliyah’s.” I cringe because that’s obviously far from the truth. “When I came back and found her gone, I wouldn’t want to go to Tiller and tell him I’d lost his daughter. But there are signs that she’s been kidnapped, so I can’t just do nothing.” I think for a moment, then it’s obvious. “I’ll call his head of security. Tell him my charge has bolted, maybe run away or maybe kidnapped, I don’t know. But I’m freaking out. Both because I’m her boyfriend, supposedly, and because it’s my job to keep her safe.”
Jiaying nods, enthusiastic. “He’s probably the one who picked her up.”
“You’re right.” I shake my head. “Richards just follows orders. He’ll do whatever Tiller says. But he’s not going to let me run around thinking Juliette’s lost. Not when he’s the one who nabbed her for Daddy.” I jack into the mindware on my phone and send a quick, panicked scrit to Richards. JULIETTE’S GONE. DOOR BUSTED IN. ALL MY FAULT. I LEFT HER ALONE. NEED YOUR HELP. NOW. I show the scrit to Jiaying, and she nods her approval.
The reply comes back right away. COOL YOUR JETS. I’VE GOT HER.
“Now, you need to demand to see her,” Jiaying says. She’s getting way too into this deception thing.
I scrit back to Richards. WHAT THE HELL? WHY?
TILLER’S ORDERS, comes the response.
“He’s not going to tell me anything he doesn’t have to.” I grimace at the phone. I can see where this is going.
“You have to go to Tiller,” Jiaying says, speaking my fears aloud. “Ask what happened to her. Play like you don’t know.” She gives me a skeptical look. “Can you do that? Pull it off, I mean?”
I’m an expert liar. “Yeah. Only Juliette may have already blown my cover.” I don’t bother responding to Richards. “But the only logical thing for me to do is go to Tiller and demand to know what’s happened to Juliette. She’s supposed to be the love of my life.” I try to picture how I would feel if Tessa’s parents, whom I’ve never met, suddenly snatched her away. And broke down the door to do it.
I’d be convinced something bad was going down—or at least they were trying to keep us apart. I’d do anything to find her. With Tiller and Juliette, it’s doubly messed up because technically, I also work for him. I should be afraid for my job as well.
Jiaying’s giving me a pinched look. “If he knows you’re a jacker, you shouldn’t go.”
“Yeah, I know. But God only knows what he’s doing to Sammi. I have to do something.”
She nods then pulls out her phone. “Give me your number.” We tap our phones to exchange numbers. Then she pecks away at hers. “When you get to Tiller’s place, scrit me to let me know you’re okay. And give me someone else to call—someone who can help if Tiller knows you’re a jacker.”
Someone else to call… I give her Tessa’s number. “She’s a reader, but she knows a lot of powerful jackers. And I’m kind of in love with her.”
Jiaying looks up and flashes a smile.
I scowl at her. “Don’t tell anyone.”
She frowns again but nods. Challenge accepted. I think Jiaying likes keeping secrets.
A sudden flurry of curses comes from the front door. My heart lurches, hopeful that maybe Sammi’s found her way back, but when I duck back around the corner… it’s just Aaliyah. She’s standing in the doorway. Her silver afro is mashed down with an anti-jacker helmet—Tiller’s special prototype kind that’s more like a cage—and she’s scowling at the splinters of wood where her locks used to be.
“What in blazes is happening?” Her eyes are wide. I don’t want her to panic, but it’s well justified.
I stride up to
her with Jiaying close behind. “Tiller came and took Sammi and Juliette. I know he’s your friend, Aaliyah, but this isn’t good.”
“He’s an acquaintance,” she says, slightly indignant. “I know the man isn’t as open-minded as he should be.” Then her eyes go wide again. “Oh. And that poor child is a jacker.” She means Sammi.
“Yeah,” I say. “I need to go do what I can. Try to get her out of Tiller’s clutches.” I peer behind her—the porch is empty. “Where’s Olivia?”
The corners of her mouth turn down, and the fine lines in the deep brown skin around her eyes crinkle up. “Oh, baby, I’m sorry. I thought getting her out of the house for a while would be a good thing. And it seemed to settle her some.”
I wave it off. “It’s fine. But where is she now?”
Her face pinches more. “She’s run off, dear.”
“What?”
“I turned my back just for a moment—some old friends stopping by with their ice cream—and she just vanished.” Her mouth draws down more. “I thought sure she would have come straight back here.”
I step back and run both hands through my hair. Olivia’s run off. “This is all my fault.” My brain is ramping up to panic again. It’s night. She’s on the streets alone. She’s a walking weapon, so she could probably defend herself… except she’s fourteen years old! And she’s pissed. At me, specifically. I’m sure of it. But that just means her judgment is whack right now.
I don’t even know where to start with this.
Aaliyah’s cool hand lands on my arm, patting me. “She’s a gifted young thing. She can look out for herself, Zeph. And she probably just needs to blow off some steam. Eventually, she’ll find her way back here.”
But Aaliyah doesn’t know Olivia the way I do. I shake my head. “No, she’s got this all planned out. I know she does. I just don’t know what she’s planning.” I make a fist in my hair, ready to pull it out. How can everything go wrong at once? I let my hands drop. “Okay, you guys stay here, in case Olivia comes home.” To Jiaying, I say, “Scrit me as soon as she does.” I turn back to Aaliyah. “If you don’t hear from her soon, let me know. I’ve got to find out what Tiller’s done with Sammi. After that, I’ll figure the rest of this out.” What a mess.
Cracked Open Page 13