by Kira Peikoff
“What about our friend?” Natalie asked, sticking a thumb at the driver.
Galileo sighed. “That part of the plan’s ruined. He was supposed to return to the station in his cop car, seemingly unable to find us. But now I’m sure it’s been towed away as evidence. They’ll think we stole it.”
“So what’s he going to do?” She checked her watch. It was after midnight. “Isn’t he due back now?”
“Yep. So we’re going to play into their version of events.”
“How so?”
“We’ll drop him off near a gas station somewhere back along our route between Wheeling and Columbus, where he’ll go and call the station. He’ll say he blacked out after a struggle with me before I took off with his car, and then he later woke up in a ditch near the highway with all his personal effects missing. He’ll say he walked until he found this gas station and called. It would be consistent then that his car was discovered where we left it, miles west of where we allegedly dumped him.”
Natalie balked, horrified. “But you’re taking the hit for something you didn’t do!”
“So what? To them I’m already a monster. But he’s a real person who’s going to have to face a lot of questions. This way, he’ll seem heroic and victimized and nobody will hold him accountable.” Galileo paused as a single car sped past them on the otherwise empty road. Natalie thought they probably looked like a regular American family, a husband and wife and two kids pulling over to stretch their legs. He lowered his voice. “It’s absolutely critical that he and Julian and everybody else who put their lives on the line for the Network are protected at all costs.”
“But why do they go to so much trouble?” she blurted, before she could stop herself. “Their lives would be over if anyone found out.”
“The reason is always the same. To help a loved one.” He lifted his chin toward the officer in the car. “His mom is at the compound, in our hospital. Acute myeloid leukemia. We’re trying a radical gene therapy that’s years away from federal approval—and so far it’s working.”
Natalie’s lips parted in awe, and she caught a glimpse of the way Theo was watching him. There was no mistaking the admiration in his eyes—and the longing. Zoe seemed to have already claimed Galileo as a surrogate father figure and he appeared to be enjoying the role, or at least was humoring her. Just as Natalie was wondering whether his affection was sincere, Zoe tugged on his sleeve.
“Can we go to sleep in the backseat now? I’m tired.”
“Of course you can, darling,” he said. “Of course.”
Zoe didn’t see the shadow that crossed his face then, but Natalie did. It was a split-second shift from his guise of composure, a flicker of the heart chafing against some pain it wishes to forget.
When Natalie woke up in the backseat the next morning, the kids—or rather Zoe and Theo—were still snoozing on either side of her. She had started to think of them together as the kids, even though Theo was officially an adult, and so was Zoe, at least nominally. The girl plainly craved respect, even if she did at times slip into childlike patterns of speech and behavior. But her bravery and rebellion were the hallmarks of late adolescence, and her intelligence was precocious for her physiological age. No, Natalie was sure she did not deserve the label kid—this whole journey was predicated on that notion, after all—and resolved never to let it slip anymore in her presence.
Galileo was driving up front alone, humming along to a Beatles song on the radio—“When I’m Sixty-Four.” She couldn’t help smiling at the irony as she wiped the crust of sleep from her eyes. Ahead in the distance, the sun shone on a great white arch that rose gracefully into the sky, dwarfing the buildings below it.
“The Saint Louis arch!” she exclaimed.
“Yeah, we’re going to pass right by it.”
How fitting, she thought. The arch was the famous Gateway to the West, erected as a monument to westward expansion and discovery. A celebration of the new world that lay at the feet of the pioneers, waiting to be explored.
“You must be exhausted,” she said. “How long have we been driving?”
“About nine hours since you fell asleep back in Ohio. I had to backtrack to Pennsylvania to drop off our friend. But he’s out of danger now. His story went over well. And we’re just about a day and a half away.”
“You have to sleep. I don’t understand how you can still be driving.”
He explained that they were going to stop at another safe house in Springfield, Missouri, for a few hours so he could nap.
“Why don’t we just spend a whole day there?” she suggested. “It’s fine, really. No one’s following us now.”
“I wish we could. But in this job there are no days off. I have to leave on another mission as soon as we get to the compound.”
Their time at the safe house in Springfield came and went. Galileo slept in the bedroom of the family’s absent son, who was a computer tech at the compound, while Theo and Zoe kicked around a soccer ball in the backyard and Natalie sipped iced tea. After taking turns showering and filling up on hearty home-cooked barbeque, they loaded into the car again for the final thirteen-hour stretch.
Green grasslands passed by, and stretches of wide-open desert in which nothing surrounded them for miles but red sand and rock outcroppings. Night fell. The heat outside barely eased—the barometer said 95. It was different than the sweltering summers of New York that she was used to; this heat was dry and breezy, devoid of suffocating humidity. Desert heat. She had never experienced it before.
Despite her exhaustion, sleep was the furthest thing from her mind as they crossed the border into New Mexico. No one had spoken for some time, so Galileo’s voice nearly startled her.
“We’re just about there.”
Her heart hammered as she leaned forward to peer out the windshield. In front of them were the outlines of tall, jagged mountains set against a twinkling black sky. In the backseat, Zoe sat up and shook Theo, who had been dozing.
She pointed out the left-side window. “Look!”
Natalie saw, too. Glittering neon lights in the distance. A tan castlelike building nestled against the foot of the mountains. It seemed like a majestic Native American palace of some kind.
The lights grew brighter as they approached the sprawling, glittering castle and pulled into its parking lot. Rising directly behind it, the mountains soared like arrowheads, blotting out the low-hanging moon. In the front splashed a fountain, lit from beneath with pink and purple lights. A billboard above it read in neon yellow—DANCING EAGLE CASINO. Next to it was a rendering of a fierce-looking warrior with feathers protruding from his head and a braid hanging by his ear. On the sign in the lower right-hand corner were the words PUEBLO OF LAGUNA INDIAN RESERVATION.
“This is the secret lab?” Zoe asked in disbelief.
“Come,” Galileo said, turning off the ignition. “Just follow me.”
They jumped out, grabbed their backpacks from the trunk, and walked past the fountain through two heavy doors. A blast of cigarette smoke and air conditioning greeted them. Natalie felt a rush of unease as the sights and sounds of the casino hit them—clattering coins, shrill beeping noises, rows of colorfully blinking machines. A few older men sat huddled around a roulette table in the center of the floor. No one paid them any attention, and before they could absorb the atmosphere, Galileo was leading them into an empty carpeted hallway. They wound around four corners, three lefts and a right, until coming to a stop in front of a black door that read AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.
Natalie traded looks with Zoe and Theo. They stared at her, bewildered. Had Galileo lured them here after all? Had she been a fool to trust him? Who the hell was he, anyway? She would never forgive herself if anything happened to them.
But it was too late to second-guess anything now. Only jail awaited back home.
Galileo pressed his index finger against the door’s metal lock. After three seconds it clicked and opened. He ushered them into a compact elevator and the door s
lid shut behind them with a metallic whir. Immediately the floor dropped. It seemed like minutes passed. Natalie was sure they were going to hit bottom, but their descent continued, slow and measured. Her heart knocked against her chest at an alarming rate.
They stopped with a thud. A door that she had thought was a wall opened onto a dank, pitch-black tunnel. There was no saying how long or deep it ran. She tightened her arms around Theo and Zoe. Neither resisted.
“Welcome,” Galileo’s voice reverberated down the narrow passage. “On the other side, your new life awaits.”
PART 3
All truths are easy to understand once they are
discovered; the point is to discover them.
—GALILEO GALILEI, 1564–1642
CHAPTER 23
The walk through the tunnel was brisk. With a flashlight, Galileo led single file, trailed by Natalie, Zoe, and Theo. The comfortable mood of the car ride was gone, replaced by tension as thick as fog. Though they had been traveling together for almost three straight days, Zoe knew that the balance of power had shifted completely to him. It was too late to turn back. Not that she wanted to.
As they trekked deeper, their footsteps scuffing the concrete floor, she found herself thinking of the first man in space. He of all people would understand her electrifying mix of terror and anticipation, the two strange traveling companions that accompanied a journey into the unknown. She was grateful not to be alone.
The air smelled like cool packed dirt. Galileo’s flashlight shone brightly, illuminating the sheer jagged rock walls that bordered their path. Her thighs burned as they trudged along, and soon she realized that they were climbing up a long, subterranean slope. After about twenty minutes, the path dead-ended at a door. He turned to face them, and she could just make out the outline of his sharp jaw moving in the dim light.
“It’s after three a.m. but people don’t keep normal hours here.”
He pressed his index finger against the lock and twisted the knob.
Zoe planted her feet, bracing herself. She didn’t know she was squeezing her eyes shut until Theo gave her a little tap on the back. Stumbling across the threshold, she inhaled the freshest air she had ever breathed.
And opened her eyes.
She found herself in a circular concrete courtyard measuring about an acre, surrounded by a series of connected, short brown buildings. Beyond those, the mountains stretched to the sky, blocking out any sign of the casino and its flashy lights. The only light here was the silvery gleam of the moon and a few irregular yellow glows emanating from different rooms. In a window to her right, Zoe could see people bustling about, walking back and forth carrying some kind of equipment. In windows to her left, people were lying in white beds, reading or watching television. She recognized the blinking monitors and cluster of wires at their sides. They must be patients, she thought. In hospital beds.
Next to her, Natalie and Theo were looking around in awe. Galileo checked his cell phone, giving them a minute to get their bearings.
Natalie shook her head. “I don’t understand. How is this possible? How could you get away with having this whole place carved out?”
Galileo gave her a mischievous smile. “Reservations are considered domestic dependent nations. The tribes have territorial sovereignty to rule their own land, so the government can’t touch it.”
“How did you get it?”
“Through a special arrangement with the Laguna Pueblos. We share some of our funding with them and they don’t ask questions. It’s win-win.”
Zoe traded a glance with Theo, impressed. This was a man who knew how to pull things off.
He gestured to the courtyard, which was empty except for a few scattered benches and a rectangular spread of grass that resembled a small park. “We call this the quad. It’s where we hold meetings of the entire compound. To our right are the labs. Natalie, yours is waiting and ready. I’ll show you down there in the morning.”
She frowned. “Down where?”
He seemed pleased. “There’s always more than meets the eye, isn’t there? That building goes five stories underground.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “Oh. With how many labs?”
“Seventeen in use. Another ten waiting for new recruits.” He shifted his attention to the row in the next section of the circle, straight in front of them. The squat buildings were constructed of tan adobe bricks, an oval window carved in each facade. “Those are the living quarters. You’ll each have your own private apartment with a bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom. They’re tiny, I’m afraid. But you’re all used to Manhattan.”
“I get my own place? Sweet.” Theo jogged a few yards ahead to scope out the apartments, and Zoe couldn’t help admiring the cut muscles of his calves.
She tugged Galileo’s shirt. “Will we be next to each other?” It was weird to think of living in her own apartment, but then, what about any of this wasn’t weird?
“You and Theo will be,” Galileo said. “Natalie, we have a place for you closer to your lab and next to Helen. But don’t worry, it’s just a short hallway away.”
Natalie frowned. “When can I see her?”
“I’ll tell her we’re here, but she’s probably asleep. Which reminds me. There are intercoms wired in every room, which you can use to reach each other. We don’t have phones.”
Zoe hugged her elbows tight, thinking of Gramps. “So no call to the outside?”
He shook his head as the three of them watched Theo jog back toward them, grinning. “We have some pretty strict rules, as you can imagine. If any information slipped about our location, it could endanger all of us.”
She crossed her arms as Theo reached them. His smile vanished when he saw her frustrated expression. “But how can we contact people, then?” she demanded.
“We have the Internet on two computers up there.” He pointed to the tallest point on the compound—a slim, windowed tower set on the roof of the lab building. “That’s the Brain, our center of command. You can write e-mails there as necessary, which our 24/7 IT security team will review and anonymize to send through proxy servers and obscure our IP address.”
Zoe watched Theo to see if he understood this. To her surprise, he was nodding.
“How many servers do they bounce it off?” he asked.
“About ten. By the time it reaches the recipient, the outbound server is completely masked.”
“Badass. Do you think I could talk to the IT guys sometime? I want to study computer science in college.”
“I’ll arrange it. Maybe we can get you a head start here.”
Theo widened his eyes at Zoe as if to say, Doesn’t this place rock?
She scowled. Gramps didn’t use e-mail, never had. How was she supposed to contact him? Later she would ask Galileo what to do. He seemed to have a solution for everything.
“Let’s continue our orientation,” he said, gesturing to a barnlike structure next to the apartment section that reminded Zoe of her high school gym—a wide, low-ceilinged box. “That’s the cafeteria. Three meals are served a day, between seven and nine, noon and two, and six and eight. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s better than your typical mess hall. There’s also a small fitness center with some treadmills and weights, open all the time. But most people get their exercise here with a hike.” He waved toward the mountains. “Back there’s a trail with some good hills. It’s isolated and inaccessible except from here, so don’t worry about being seen. Be alert for wildlife, though. We have had a few rattlesnake sightings.”
“Awesome!” Theo exclaimed, looking at Zoe. “We should check it out.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Sure.”
Ever since she had insisted on sneaking out in the trunk back in Ohio, the dynamic between them had changed. Theo seemed friendlier, less freaked out. She hoped it had something to do with gaining his respect, and nothing to do with pity.
“Just be careful, you guys,” Natalie said. “Don’t go looking for trouble.”
“Mom,” he
groaned.
“Sorry, but as your mother, I have a biological obligation to tell you that.” She exchanged a smile with Galileo, and Zoe thought she saw a strange look pass between them. She was sure Natalie held his gaze a second too long.
“Can we see the Brain center?” Theo asked. He was like the typical kid in a candy store, she thought. A total techie nerd, not at all the shallow jock she had assumed on first impression. A hot nerd, no less.
Galileo chuckled. “Another time. I think your mother and Zoe would probably rather get some sleep before tomorrow.”
Zoe knew she was too hyper to sleep, but Natalie agreed.
“Almost done here,” he said. “I want you to know your way around.” He motioned to the final section of buildings on their left side, where the patients were housed. “That’s the hospital and rehab center. Right now we have six patients receiving experimental treatments. We try to keep up their quality of life as much as possible, so please, go introduce yourselves sometime. They love getting visitors. It boosts their morale.”
“Will do,” Zoe promised. And she meant it. Even if she wasn’t sick in the traditional sense, she wasn’t so different from them—struggling to break free of her physical limitations, with the future hazy and unpredictable. But then, she wondered, who wasn’t in that boat? Everyone “normal” was stuck in the booby trap of their own bodies too—but rather than be frozen like her, they were fighting to stave off deterioration. Her mom had a whole cabinet of antiaging products that did nothing, while her wrinkles and her worries deepened.
But if—and it was a big if—Natalie could find her mutation, it would mean a whole new paradigm for life—and death. Her aging process could be switched on until she reached the perfect age, like twenty-five, and then switched off in Gramps and her parents. Then her whole family might all be at peace with their bodies at last.
A thrill rocketed through her as she surveyed the circle once more. After that harrowing journey, they were here, this place was real, and the work that might change their lives forever could finally begin.