“Just a few days?” I asked while cracking my knuckles.
“Three tops,” said Magnum.
“Okay.” I sighed.
Michael patted my shoulder. “It’s for the best.”
I said, “I know,” but inside I still felt torn.
“Now, there’s a heartbeat reader embedded in the wall of your bedroom,” continued Magnum, “but I have a solution for that, too.” He pulled a small red pillow out of his pocket. It was the size of a man’s wallet but twice as thick. “When you leave this apartment for the last time, set it on your bed and press its center. It’ll mimic your heartbeat.”
“That’s it, huh.” Michael was sarcastic, but he said it with an optimistic smile.
“Since Liaison One’s original purpose was to connect all of us together for safety and convenience, it was never meant to be used as a means of manipulating or controlling behavior. Within the last twenty-four hours, protocol has had to install and upgrade additional equipment just to keep tabs on all of you. Cassie’s right—the sooner you two leave, the better.”
“What time do you normally leave GenH1?” I asked Michael.
“It depends—normally about six, but it’s not unusual for me to stay until seven.”
“Then that’s when we should leave. What about these?” I asked, lifting my wrist. I pinched my L-Band. If it had been made of living flesh, it would have cried uncle. “The inhibitor only blocks communication—not our locations, right?”
Magnum scratched the top of his head. “Right. I’ll come up with a solution for that, too.”
“We need to be out of the GenH1 compound by seven, so we’ll need to meet up again in about three hours. Will that give you enough time to get the rest of the things we need ready?” I asked.
“It should, and if it isn’t, it’ll have to be.” He smiled. “We’ll meet at the north end of this hall at four thirty, and if everything goes as planned, you two will be out of the zone before they even realize you’re gone.”
“Magnum,” I said, taking his hand. “Thank you. Thank you for putting yourself at risk for us. I can’t tell you how much we appreciate it.”
“What they did to you was wrong from the very beginning, and trying to switch babies—that’s unforgiveable. I’ll do anything to help you out of this situation. Besides, I like the challenge.” He saluted, turned, and strolled out the door with both hands in his pockets.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Dr. Love whimpered softly into the back of her hand. Her fixed smile collapsed into a ball of moist redness that contorted as her sobbing gained momentum. “Life is so precious,” she cried. “What a horrible, tragic accident.”
“We are so, so, sorry, Cassie,” said Ella, pressing a tissue under her eyes.
“I know, I know,” I lied for the obscuras in the room. “I just can’t stop thinking that maybe there was something I could have done differently so Travel wouldn’t have left the program. I never ever should have protested about the baby. I should have accepted the one they gave me and kept my mouth shut. Then maybe he wouldn’t have left, and he’d still be here with us today.”
We cried for the next hour, not only for Travel’s death, his real cause of death, but also for my secret departure with Michael. Their words were forced and rehearsed, but convincing enough for the obscuras, while each blink, nod, and squeeze of the hand reflected the true sarcasm and disgust we all felt for the corrupt Van Winkle team.
When they left, Ella was still lightly crying, but Dr. Love’s eyes were dry, her smile hard, and posture stiff. “You just need to stay strong, and above all, never lose hope,” she said with intense eyes and goodbyes disguised as condolences, since there was no guarantee that we’d ever see or talk to each other again.
Four fifteen came almost faster than I wanted it to. Waiting until the last minute to stuff three days’ worth of clothes and a few toiletries in a large handbag was necessary but almost more stressful than creeping to the end of the hall and hoping my location wouldn’t be detected.
When I came to the end of the corridor, a set of fingers enclosed around the top of my arm and with a quick tug, I was pulled around the corner to meet Michael.
Magnum popped his head out of the door across the hall. “In here, both of you.” The room we entered was a bot closet, barely big enough for three, or I should say, the four of us. Though the JAN occupying the closet was inactive, it remained a wicked reminder that no matter where we went, electronic eyes could be following us.
“I did it. I found a way to make you both invisible, not literally, of course, but you know what I mean.” Magnum’s smile was wider than the loose bands he pulled from his pocket and almost twice as thick. “No one will ever suspect this.”
“Are we going to travel through the vents or the walls?” I asked, imagining Michael’s fingers stretching through the grate in my isolation cell.
“No, the vents won’t lead you two to where you need to go, and traveling through the walls won’t work, either. They’re wide enough, but one wrong turn, and whack,” he said, smacking his hands together. “Meet Mr. A.G.-lift.”
He exhaled. “So here’s the plan. Michael, go to your office. Put this band on your wrist directly above your L-Band. Wait thirty seconds. The new band will unlock the old. Let the L-Band fall onto your office chair, but then don’t touch it. It will reset if it feels a pulse.” He dangled the bands from his index finger. “These dummy bands randomly change their identities to citizens in this region, so your real identities won’t trigger any body count detectors. And when you board a hoverbus, credits will be deducted from your current identity’s bank account instead.” He chuckled.
“Awesome,” I said, raising my hand for a high five and lowering it quickly when I realized they had no idea what I was doing.
“There’s only one problem.” Magnum frowned. “Your current identity and the wearer of the real L-Band can’t be in two different places at once. If one of Liaison’s security programs picks up on this, the nearest SECs will be sent to both locations to investigate, so…tap here if you suspect you’re being tracked. It will make your band completely inactive and bots won’t be able to recognize you. That’s when you’ll truly be invisible to Liaison One.”
“But in that mode, we won’t be able to board hoverbuses or open doors, right?” I asked.
“Right, so only use it if you have to.”
“Okay, we will,” said Michael as he stuffed a modified L-Band in his jacket pocket.
The stale, warm air of the closet began to make me feel sick.
“Cassie, I’ll come with you back to your apartment while it’s free and the three of us will meet up here again before the two of you get Victoria. I have another memory pin for you, too, showing Victoria’s new location. I was ordered to L-Band her an hour ago,” he said, handing me the pin.
“You saw her? How is she?” I asked, trying to contain my excitement.
“She was asleep and remained asleep during the L-Banding. I’m not sure, but she might have been sedated. She hardly moved.”
“I hope she’s okay.” My throat tightened like I was about to cry.
“I’m sure she’s fine—more than fine. She’s constantly being monitored. They won’t let anything happen to her. And lucky for us, the Liaison One system was never meant to be used as a security system. Therefore, the room Victoria’s in wasn’t designed with obscuras in its walls.”
“Geez, I can’t believe she’s already L-Banded. They usually wait a week with newborns,” said Michael.
“Yeah, but they weren’t going to take any chances with her. No L-Banding ceremony either, just like with you, Cassie—just an L-Band in a fancy box. I met Dr. Pickford in the primary nursery, and he led me to a secondary nursery in the back. Victoria was the only baby in there, but there was a woman taking care of her, a private nurse.”
The E-Paper exploded with light as I unrolled it and inserted the memory pin. A flash of yellow came next as our route from the hall to
the nursery, and from the nursery to Michael’s car developed onto the screen.
“The route I created for you to follow will wind you into areas of GenH1 that you didn’t even know existed, and it will all seem very convoluted. At times you might think you’ve gone the wrong way, but don’t worry, you haven’t. You just have to trust me. I know the location of every obscura and sensor in this building, which means that I know how to avoid them. Remember that I’ve had to guide you away from their eyes, which will take you off the beaten path.”
“From the looks of this”—I ran my finger along the yellow trail—“it will take at least an hour to get Victoria and then meet you at the mover.”
“That’s what I’ve predicted,” said Magnum.
“I don’t know, Magnum, do you really think we can pull this off? Without my L-Band, I won’t be able to unlock any doors in this building, even low security entrances,” said Michael. “A randomly selected identity may not have my level of security clearance.”
“That’s why you’re going to use this.” Magnum dug into an inner pocket of his jacket and jerked out a flat, circular object made from the same spongy material used for L-Bands. “This is your key. It will open any door in GenH1.” His white teeth glistened in the low light radiating from his modified L-Band.
“You’re a genius, Magnum.”
“I know. I know.” He laughed. “I’ve only left one thing for you two to figure out—what to do about the private nurse.”
“That’s easy. We’ll hold her down and sedate her before she has a chance to call for help. Michael, you must have access to tranquilizers,” I said.
Michael exhaled and crossed his arms. “I do. I have access to sedatives.” He shifted his weight between his feet, looking nervous for the first time since we began our escape planning. His recent crack at violence must have been about all he could bear for now.
“Don’t worry. I can do it by myself. I’ll take her down,” I said as Michael cringed.
Not that I was accustomed to violence, either, but I’d witnessed my fair share on digs. The heat, the boredom, the crack of dry skin against a dusty fossil after hours of excavation led to irritability and hot tempers.
And I wanted my baby back. Desperation would make me do anything I had to for her.
“Michael and I can get Victoria,” Magnum suggested. “From there, I can take her straight to my house.”
My heart sank. “I want to go with Michael to get her no matter what. I need as many minutes with her as I can get before I let her go.”
“Okay, you and Michael will go.”
“Then we’re ready,” I said, putting my hand up for another high five out of habit and dropping it again. “We can’t thank you enough for all your help, Magnum.”
Michael gripped both of his arms. “This wouldn’t be possible without you.”
“Hey. I’m doing this because I know it’s the right thing to do. Now go,” he said, embarrassed.
Michael gave me a tender squeeze, a look of reassurance, and headed to his office while Magnum and I made our way back to my apartment.
He drew the comforter and sheets away from my bed and pulled a modified L-Band from his waist pocket. He stretched it like a slingshot and let it snap back into shape before draping it just above the active L-Band on my wrist. The new band clamped shut and within seconds, my old L-Band disengaged, shriveling apart and falling onto the bed with an inaudible thud. Then he set the little red pillow in the place where my heart would be if I was lying down, and pressed its center.
“Okay, that’s done. Here’s Victoria’s new L-Band,” he said, handing me the tiny, dummy one. “Now help me. This has to look like you just in case they send someone to perform a visual inspection.” Magnum crammed two pillows under the sheet.
I found another pillow in the closet. “You won’t believe this, but I’ve always wanted to do this so I could sneak out of a bedroom and go to a party that wasn’t chaperoned.”
“Why didn’t you? Too afraid of getting caught?”
“No, not that,” I groaned as I molded the stuffed figure beneath the covers with my hands, bending it where the knees would be to add to its legitimacy. “I never had the opportunity. We were hardly ever home, and when we were, there weren’t any parties to go to, or at least any I knew about or was invited to, because I didn’t know any kids my age in our neighborhood.”
“I understand now.”
“Understand what?”
“Your need and Michael’s need to keep Victoria from having to grow up here at GenH1. To an outsider it doesn’t sound so bad, but after Michael told me about what his childhood was like, I felt for the guy. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone either. The dude didn’t have anyone to play with unless you count the laws of physics and a periodic table of the elements as friends.”
Yes, Michael and I definitely had more in common than any other two people in the world.
We took a step back to survey our handiwork. “This would fool anyone.”
“Magnum, I’m really going to miss you.”
“I’m going to miss you, too.”
“So you don’t blame me for running away from the program and leaving the world in a…in a bind?” I asked. A bind? That was certainly an understatement.
“No, I don’t. Especially after reading the Van Winkle files and seeing what kind of life it really promised for you and your daughters.”
“Honest?”
“Honest. We better go. This ruse might only buy us an hour. That’s enough time for the two of you to get out of the zone and on a hoverflight to Region Three, but that’s all. Once we’re back in the hall, I’ll reset the obscuras in your apartment. Ready?”
“Yeah, as ready as I can be.” My heart pulsed hard enough to pound in my ears.
“Okay, follow me.”
Outside my apartment, I quickened my pace to match his while carrying my overstuffed handbag. He was light on his feet, almost graceful, as he took the turn down the hall, hugging the wall with his back as we slipped into the bot closet undiscovered. A small light shone in the corner. Michael was already there. His breath hit the back of my neck as he moved in behind me.
“Michael, you made it.” I turned and cupped his face in my hands.
“Of course I did. I wouldn’t let anything stop me,” he said.
Magnum bounced with excitement. “Okay, you two get Victoria. I’ll debug your mover and meet you in the garage.” He slid out the door as he gave a fist pump in the air, and I matched it with one of my own.
I pulled the E-Paper from my sleeve and unrolled it. Once fully extended, it stiffened into an eight-inch by eleven-inch rectangle that was as thin as a sheet of paper but as hard as a piece of steel.
Michael looked over my shoulder. “I’ve never read schematics before. I’ve just heard about them.” He exhaled loudly and a strand of hair fell against his forehead.
“It’s a complex map. That’s all. I can easily figure this out.”
“You can?”
“Of course. I’m surprised you can’t.”
“I don’t know how because I’ve never had to. Most of us spend our whole lives using public transportation, and when private movers are used, there’s an assisted driving system that directs the mover to its destination.”
“Well then it’s a good thing I know a little something about maps.”
The glove box of my mother’s jeep and the space between the driver’s seat and the console were stuffed with folded paper maps, courtesy of the American Automobile Association, even though her vehicle was equipped with a GPS tracking system and on-screen navigational display.
Sometimes the maps we read were no more than a scribble on a napkin or the inside of a candy bar wrapper, but we never got lost. My mother used to tell me I had a special gift when it came to following my nose.
“I can read this. We’re right here, and we need to end up there. Here’s the path we’re supposed to follow. Come on,” I said, my smile a tremble from nerves.<
br />
“Wait.” Just as I was about to step forward, the JAN behind us vibrated and hummed. Michael grabbed my hand. “Quickly, make your band inactive so it won’t recognize us.” We tapped the screens of our L-Bands and stood still. The bot’s eyes flickered, the door slid open, and it walked into the hall, zombie-like, without giving us the time of day.
“Okay, our turn. Let’s go,” he said, pulling me by the hand.
The map took us down several extended hallways and passages that Michael had never seen before. Most of the corridors were maintenance routes, so periodically we’d pass an inactive JAN that was attached to the recharger with a twisted rope. The inactive bots made me cringe, but Michael passed by them without a flinch.
Magnum was careful to choose the least-used, windowless passageways, but it took twenty minutes of walking before we reached the first A.G.-lift we were instructed to ride.
“Michael, according to these schematics, we’re in the north wing. Does anything here look familiar to you?”
“Nope. If this is the north wing, it’s a section I’ve never seen.”
The A.G.-lift’s doors opened in response to the flat, spongy key in his pocket. He surveyed the inside of the A.G.-lift before we entered. “Since we’re no longer connected to Liaison One, how are we going to tell the A.G.-lift which floor to take us to?”
I examined the E-Paper. “Well, according to the schematics, this particular A.G.-lift can only go up one floor.”
“Then I guess we’re going up.”
The lift doors closed as we entered, and although I had several thirty-first-century A.G.-lift rides under my belt, I was still amazed when the chamber rose and its doors reopened before I could count to one in my head.
The room we entered was dimly lit and shadowed by rows and rows of rectangular boxes poised neatly on three-foot risers. The capsules appeared seamless, gleaming as if their metal exteriors were hand-polished by a bot.
Michael moved away from the lift, sidestepping while keeping his back against the wall. “Why in the world did Magnum bring us here?” The room was so quiet and the air so stale that his voice echoed despite his controlled whisper. “Why here?” he mumbled, followed by what I thought were the words, “damn it.”
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