by Tina Chan
“Okay, okay. Keep your hair on.”
The droid-leopard didn’t stop the threatening sounds until Kristi lowered herself back behind the shrub.
“Did Ghost see something?” Chelsa returned from her brief scout.
“No. He just started hissing all of a sudden.” Kristi failed to mention chances were that Ghost was trying to stop her from standing up and potentially end up being seen by the guards. “So, find any useful information?”
“Breaking in shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Breaking out once we’re in is the bigger issue. I checked out the perimeter and found a couple of options on getting into the building. We can either go through the window on the north side of the building, through the delivery chute or through the fire escape that leads to the exit on the roof.
“Patrols of five guards pass every ten minutes or so. There are some cameras and lasers though, so we’ll have to watch out for those. I don’t know what the security is like inside, which may pose a problem later on. On the bright side, I found out your brother is being held in cell three, which saves us a lot of time from having to check every cell.”
“How did you get all of that information so fast?”
Chelsa smirked. “Practice. Lots of it.”
Ghost padded over and rumbled his chest.
“We’re getting off track,” Chelsa said. “We better start moving. So here’s the plan: we’re going to sneak in by means of the window I mentioned. The north side window is the only one that isn’t locked; I guess one of the workers here wanted to have a smoke without setting off the fire alarm, but forgot to close the window properly.
“There are four cameras and one laser that we have to watch out for. Ghost will take care of the cameras, which leaves only the guards and laser for you and me to deal with. The laser shouldn’t be too difficult to avoid; it seems like the standard model all local jails use. As for the guards, if we time our moves right after a patrol passes, then we have about ten minutes to get in, which is more than enough.”
“Ghost will take care of the cameras?” Kristi asked to make sure she heard Chelsa right. She tried to imagine how a droid-cat could disable four security cameras.
“You’ll see.”
Kristi took a deep breath in. She had spent less than forty-eight hours with Chelsa and was already breaking laws. Chelsa was not a good influence; but she was a good friend. “Let’s do this.”
Kristi closely followed Chelsa as they skirted the edges of the jailhouse by keeping in the shadows, ducking behind foliage and running low to the ground. Just when she was getting the hang of it, Chelsa stopped; Kristi stopped herself from crashing into Chelsa. The window that was to be their entrance was about half a football field’s length away.
“Ghost, go take care of that camera.” Chelsa pointed to a surveillance camera mounted on a tree.
Ghost climbed up the tree and using his paws, turned the camera so that it was facing the trunk. Then Ghost leapt down, purring with satisfaction of a job well done.
“Come on, we’re going to make a dash for the trash bins,” Chelsa said.
They dashed for their temporary cover and waited for a patrol to pass. Shiny, polished boots marched by in unison. The guards swung their flashlight around, searching for anything out of the norm. They didn’t spot Chelsa and Kristi hidden behind the bins.
Chelsa whispered to Ghost, “Get the two cameras hanging off the rain gutters.”
Ghost flicked an ear to show he heard and scaled the building and onto the roof. He crept, belly close to the roof, then along the gutter until he was directly above the camera. As before, he knocked the camera askew so that it was pointing downwards. Then he repeated the procedure with the second camera.
“Good. Everything’s going according to plan,” Chelsa whispered. “We just have to hurry up before the people monitoring the cameras notice all they’re monitoring is a patch of dirt and the building wall.”
Ghost bunched up his hind legs and prepared to leap down. Suddenly, a beam of light from the watchtower landed on him, blinding the droid with its bright light. Ghost froze, as still as an ice sculpture.
Kristi held her breath anxiously, heart pounding like a sledgehammer beneath her ribs. Then to everyone’s relief, the searchlight swung away. Ghost leapt down, looking shaken for once.
“That was a close call,” Chelsa murmured. “They must’ve mistaken Ghost for a runaway droid-cat. Okay, the next obstacle is the laser. Think of the laser as an invisible trip wire. If you pass through it, it will trigger an alarm.”
“Where exactly is the laser?” Kristi skimmed the ground around them but nothing hinted the presence of an invisible trip wire.
“About a foot off the ground, a yard in front of the window we’re entering through.” Chelsa directed her gaze to a small, black box positioned along the wall of the building. “That’s where the laser trip wire is coming from. There’s one last camera right above the black box. The camera can’t see us though, since we’re in its blind spot. I don’t think I want to risk Ghost being spotted disabling a camera again, therefore we’ll have to be sure to stay close to the walls of the jail.”
“So all we have to do is step over the laser, open the window wide enough to get through and stay in the camera’s blind spot?”
“Yep. I’ll lead.”
Chelsa took a huge step over the laser and hugged the wall of the building. Kristi imitated her, shimmying along the wall. Once they reached the window, Chelsa tried to pry it wider. “Give me a hand, will you? It’s heavier than it looks.”
Kristi slid along the wall and grasped the metal-framed window with cold fingers. Through their combined strength, the window lifted easily and smoothly.
“After you.” She gestured to Chelsa.
Chelsa swung herself through the gap and offered Kristi a hand up. Using Chelsa’s hand as a grip, Kristi landed much less gracefully inside.
“That wasn’t too hard,” Chelsa said. “Now we need to find cell three.”
Kristi looked around the corridor they were in. It was lined with cells, all of them empty. The door closest to them had the number “ten” engraved on it. There were five cells total in this hall.
“Cell number three is in a different hall. Are there any alarms or cameras we have to watch out for?”
“I don’t see any cameras, wires, lasers or heat sensors either, but you can never be too careful,” said Chelsa.
They entered the main hall and turned right. All the overhead lights were off, which made keeping a sense of direction difficult.
“It’s this hall,” Kristi said, spotting the plaque that read: cells one through five.
She took lead and turned the corner, almost running into a guard. If she had taken one more step, she would’ve walked straight into him. Luckily, the guard was dozing in his chair, so he didn’t notice the close encounter. A large, empty bottle of booze was loosely held in his right hand. Thank you, maker of that bottle of alcohol, for putting the guard to sleep, Kristi thought. She supposed that even with the advancements made in science, science could only do so much. While Perfects were genetically perfect, they still succumbed to certain pleasures.
Chelsa feigned wiping sweat off her brow. Then she moved forward to lead the way, not trusting Kristi not to lead them into any other guards.
They skirted a wide turn and moved on past a couple more cells until they reached a door with the number three. Kristi took a peek inside through the tiny glass window on the metal door.
“He’s there,” she whispered to Chelsa. “And asleep.”
Chelsa came over and examined the lock. “Quietly wake Jaiden up so once I have this lock figured out, we can leave as quickly as possible.”
Kristi gently tapped on the window. Jaiden bolted upright, blinking in confusion. Then he saw her and furrowed his eyebrows as he processed why she was in the jailhouse at 2:17 in the morning. As soon as he came to the conclusion Kristi was trying to break him out of here, his expression turned mur
derous.
He came up to the window and mouthed, “What in the world do you think you are doing?”
That wasn’t quite the reaction she was hoping to get.
Click! The door swung open when Chelsa broke the lock. She hastily stashed away her lock pick into her boots, taking care to move out of the way when the steel door swung open.
Jaiden stepped into the corridor. “Kristi, what are you doing here? You’re going to be in so much trouble if you’re discovered. Do you know what you just did?”
“Run now, talk later,” Chelsa cut in.
Jaiden turned on his heels and looked at Chelsa. “Who are you?”
“Chelsa, Kristi’s friend. And like I said, we can talk more once we’re out of here.”
CLANG!
“What the heck?” yelled a man’s voice.
They jolted in surprise.
The guard was talking to himself now, loud enough for everyone to hear. “Must’ve dropped my bottle. Scared the crap out of me. Ugh, I knew I shouldn’t have accepted the dare to finish the beer.”
They waited for the guard to fall back asleep, but that didn’t happen. After a few minutes, Kristi gave Chelsa a look: “Now, what?”
She mouthed back, “We wait.”
A few more minutes passed and the guard stood up from his folding chair. He let out a belch and flipped on his flashlight. The artificial light penetrated the darkness and the guard ambled away to the general direction of the bathroom.
All sighed in relief before dashing down the hallway. The window was still open at the end of the hall. Chelsa gestured for Kristi to climb out first, reminding her to stick close to the walls. Jaiden came out next and plastered himself against the wall beside Kristi. Finally, Chelsa escaped from the building and lowered the window so that it was back in its original position.
The three teens waited in a suspenseful silence for the next patrol to come. Less than thirty seconds later, a squad of three patrollers thumped by in their heavy boots. The guards scanned their surroundings, eyes passing over the crouching teens. They marched on without breaking a stride.
Chelsa scuttled to the same trio of trash bins they had hid behind earlier and beckoned for either Jaiden or Kristi to follow.
“You go first,” Jaiden whispered.
Kristi carefully stepped over the laser and joined Chelsa behind the bins. Jaiden started to follow, but he had barely taken a step away from the wall when an alarm went off.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Jaiden froze, not sure what to do.
“Oh crap,” Chelsa muttered and swore under her breath. “I completely forgot to tell Jaiden about the laser trip wire. Jaiden!” she said his name as loud as she dared.
“Yeah?”
“We’re going to make a run for it.”
The droid-dogs barked at the top of their lungs. Guards shouted commands to each other and the spotlights from the watchtowers swung to and fro, searching for intruders. The whole place was launched into a frenzy.
“Head for the trees,” Chelsa instructed.
She popped up from the ground and ran for the surrounding woods. Jaiden and Kristi raced after her. Branches whipped at Kristi’s face and tore at her hair. The ground was covered in dead leaves, making it hard for her to know where there were roots; she nearly tripped over one jutting out from the ground.
The cloudy night sky meant the moon wasn’t able to provide a lot of light, which Kristi supposed was a double-edged sword; it made it harder for the guards on their tail to find them in the dark, but at the same time meant sticking close to Jaiden and Chelsa was even more important. Ghost reappeared sometime and ran beside his owner.
“Can you lead us to your place?” Kristi asked Chelsa. She drew in an extra deep breath to recover from asking her question.
“What else do you think I’m doing?”
“You can’t hide from us, you runaways!” a guard hollered. “You’ll never escape us.”
“Let’s see about that,” Chelsa said.
Kristi ran with renewed effort, splashing through as many streams and puddles as possible to throw off their scents. The freezing water soaked into her jeans, plastering them against her legs. The wet garment hindered Kristi’s speed, making her fall behind Jaiden and Chelsa.
Ghost slowed down to match Kristi’s pace, nipping at her heels whenever he felt her start to slow down.
“You okay?” Jaiden asked. He spared a second to look over his shoulder, making sure she was still in sight.
“Yeah.”
Ghost snipped at her ankles in encouragement.
“I lost the trail,” a guard called.
“Hold on a second,” another guard replied. “Let my droid-dog find the trail.”
Their voices faded away.
At long last, they broke through the tree lines and the guards appeared to be nowhere in sight. Kristi recognized where they were; somehow, using her uncanny sense of location, Chelsa had managed to lead them to a street that branched off to the alley where Chelsa’s home was.
They hustled to the brick wall and Kristi ran her hands over the sensor. The bricks rotated away, exposing the room inside and Jaiden let out a whistle of admiration of the craftiness. The gap closed up once more the moment everyone was inside.
Chelsa swiftly unlocked the door to the main room and turned on the lights.
“Sweet hideout,” Jaiden said.
Chelsa nodded to show she heard and put the kettle on. “I need some tea. It calms my nerves. Want some?”
“Yes, please,” Jaiden and Kristi said in unison.
Jaiden spun to face Kristi; she did not like the expression he had on his face. He looked positively furious.
“What were you trying to do, Kristi? You could’ve been killed. I was fine; they weren’t going to do anything with me. The judges were going to deem me innocent and I would be let out within a day. Do you know what they would do to you? The government will be more than happy to use this break-in as an excuse to lock you up for the rest of your life. You’re my only remaining family member and I couldn’t stand it if you were captured.”
“What about Maria and Don? They’re part of our family too,” Kristi said. “And anyways, I’m fine and you’re fine. Nobody got hurt.”
“They’re traitors,” Jaiden growled. “They’re not my parents any more. They betrayed me and never told me who they were. Ha! They brought me up to follow the laws while they were breaking the laws themselves. They’re back-stabbing liars.”
Jaiden grabbed Kristi by the shoulders and shook her with each word to emphasize the point. “Our. Parents. Were. Spies.” Then he seemed to realize what he was doing and hastily dropped his hands. “Sorry.” He apologetically met her gaze.
Kristi rubbed her sore shoulders—Jaiden’s grip was strong—and said, “Apology accepted. I don’t think you’ve been properly introduced to Chelsa yet.”
Chelsa took the kettle off the stove and poured everyone a mug of green tea.
Kristi rapidly downed her cup of tea and withdrew to take a shower, leaving Chelsa and Jaiden to get to know each other better.
“What do you think the note means?” Kristi asked Jaiden and Chelsa the next day. She took out the crumpled piece of paper and flattened it on the wooden desk. They stooped around the table, trying to decipher the message.
Find Jaiden and locate the others.
—M & D
Jaiden read the note and assumed a thoughtful look. When he spoke, he chose his words carefully, “Who are the others?”
“No clue,” Chelsa replied, snacking on a cracker. “Kristi and I have been trying to interpret it for a while now. We were hoping you would know.”
Jaiden frowned then said, “Maybe others could be implying that there are other people with no genetic alterations.”
“Do you mean Accidents?” Chelsa asked.
“I hate that term.”
Kristi supposed it was possible that other Accidents like her and Chelsa existed.
�
��Or Maria and Don may be referring to other spies,” Jaiden said. He accepted the saltines Chelsa offered him. “But honestly, is there any valid reason for you to follow the orders on the note?” He directed the question towards Kristi.
Jaiden had a point. Her seemingly mundane parents were actually spies. As a result, Jaiden had gotten thrown into jail and she was a wanted fugitive. Did she really want to follow instructions left by them?
“I personally just want to forget about the note and move on in life,” said Jaiden. “But I’ll support whatever choice you make.”
“If you decide not to go searching for the others,” said Chelsa, “you’re welcome to stay with me.”
“That’s very nice of you,” Kristi said. She tried not to shudder imagining living the rest of her life in the three rooms that made up Chelsa’s residence. Being trapped indoors, relying on Chelsa to bring her news of the world outside; just thinking about it made her cringe.
chapter ten
[ Kristi ]
“I want to carry out Maria and Don’s wishes.”
Jaiden and Chelsa looked up from the electro-slate, both listening to Kristi.
“I don’t know what else to do.” She dropped onto the rickety bed beside Chelsa.
“You could always stay here, as Chelsa has offered,” Jaiden said.
“I think following the directives may clear some of the confusion that happened over the past two days.”
“Very well, I will do whatever I can to assist you.” Jaiden looked neither pleased nor upset by her choice.
“So will I,” Chelsa added, catching Kristi off guard. “Oh, don’t look so surprised at my offer. You’re my first friend in a long time. You didn’t think that I was going to allow you to slip away so easily, did you?”
Kristi gave them both a hug. “Thanks guys. I really appreciate it.”
Chelsa made a face. “Don’t get all mushy on me.” All the same, she returned Kristi’s hug, then said, “I’ll go see if I can find some sleeping bags for you two.” She brushed cracker crumbs off her sweatshirt. “And don’t you even think about leaving—it’s too risky for you to show your face in public.”