Enhanced
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Everyone is getting ready to go back to New Hampshire when China pulls me aside in the lobby of the hospital. “Someone wants to talk to you.”
He hands me the cell phone. It’s Julia Bloomsbury, looking smug and pale. Great. We have a video chat.
“Mana.” She clears her throat. “I’d like to officially ask you to become an agent with our organization.”
I almost drop the phone, but I don’t.
I give a half of a shrug as if it’s not that big a deal. “I’ll think about it.”
She half smiles. “I thought you’d try to insist that I apologize for not trusting you earlier.”
“You don’t seem like the type of lady who apologizes.”
“I’m not.”
Behind me, China snorts.
Julia adds, “But I do apologize about Jon. He is sorry as well.”
“It’s okay.”
And those are the words that I say again once we’re all outside standing in front of the yellow school bus full of future agents. “It will be okay.”
I’m not so angry anymore. Nobody can tell me that I’m not worthy. I mean, look what has happened in just the last few months. I went from overprotected flyer on our cheerleading team, Mana who always fails her written tests, to someone who has changed the world, someone who is important enough to be trusted with a crystal, someone who can rescue her friends. I feel kind of proud of that. I wish my mom could wake up and see what’s happened. I think she’d be proud, too. “Of course it will,” China says, pulling me into a rough hug. I wince. He apologizes and then shakes Seppie’s and Janeice’s and Lyle’s hands goodbye. He gives Enoch a pet on the head. Then, he sniffs in like he’s trying not to cry, but that can’t be right. He puts sunglasses on, obscuring his eyes. They must be new. “I’m proud of you.”
We haven’t boarded yet to go back to the New Hampshire training camp. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because China is driving separately. Someone’s probably in the bathroom. Someone is always in the bathroom.
“You want to take her?” I ask, even as I pet Enoch’s side.
“She’s better staying with you, I think.” He gives her another rub behind her ears. She wags her tail. Mason comes running up from out of the hospital and bounds onto the bus.
“She’s alien, isn’t she?”
“Yep.”
“Did you know that all along?”
“I had my suspicions. I did say she wasn’t an ordinary dog.” The sky above us is blue and bright. The slow-moving storm front has finally completely passed. I know this. But another will come.
Janeice tugs me by the arm. “Come on. We have to get going. The bus is idling and wasting gas and emitting god knows what.” She coughs. It is fake. She is obviously not one for long goodbyes.
“You will keep in touch, right?” I ask China. “Because I need you to keep in touch this time. And since I’m an agent now, you kind of have to, right?”
“I will.” He adjusts his glasses, pushing them higher up on the bridge of his nose. “I’m glad that I changed the top brass’s mind about you being an agent.”
“I think I’ve changed my mind about being an agent.”
He jerks back, surprised. “Really?”
“Maybe.” I sigh, thinking about Pierce and her cautions. “I mean, I don’t know. I’m going to camp with the others. It’s just … I just … I want to keep the world safe. I’m just not sure the best way to do it.”
“None of us are, Mana. We just sort of flounder ahead and hope we make the right choices and decisions.”
“Are there any right choices and decisions, though? Do they exist?”
“I like to think they do.”
We all would like to think they do, that there are right choices and decisions, a sure straight line to doing the perfect and good thing.
I like to imagine an Earth that is happy. She is wearing blue and green and brown, a dress speckled with flowers. That’s how I picture it. The tiny people and aliens on it just sort of living happily, coexisting in a way that humans haven’t even managed yet—peacefully.
In my head, the world is singing, sort of humming a perfect song of happiness. From the mountains and through the deserts and across the hills and oceans, the tundra and plains, she is singing a song for us all to take care of one another, to value her and to value life—in whatever form it comes in. In my head, I am totally an optimist, I know, but I’d like to think it could happen.
I give China another hug and follow Lyle and Janeice, Enoch and Seppie, into the bus. Agent or not, it is way more fun hanging with them for a four-hour bus ride than with China. Maybe I can figure out how the agency is being compromised if I’m embedded in the organization. I’m not sure. But if it would help Pierce, I’m all for it. As we head down the aisle of the bus, the rest of the kids start cheering, loud and strong and beautiful. It makes me blush.
In the sky above us are life forms we can’t imagine. On the Earth with us are life forms that barely seem real. But the sky, the earth, they are more than that. They are places where we can find love and trust and adventure; they are expanses that we can hide in or find comfort in. It’s our choice.
We will keep our Earth and each other safe. We have no other choice. We have to.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to Shaun Farrar who keeps teaching me how to be brave, how to have hope, and how to adventure.
Thanks totally go out to my daughter, Emily, because every book I write, I write for her. She is a hero too big to be contained by any one story.
These books would not have existed without the guidance of Melissa Frain. She is a rock star of an editor and I am so lucky that she was there to make Mana as tough, as funny, and awesome as possible. She, Amy Stapp of Awesome (new official name), and the rest of the amazing Tor crew make it wonderful to be an author. Thank you. The people who work for the publisher don’t tend to get the fan mail the way authors do, but they deserve it way more. Why? Because they put up with me and do it with such kindness and grace. And they do it just to make the best books possible. That’s pretty cool.
And all my thanks to Ammi-Joan Paquette for her agenting prowess. Thanks to all my friends at Wednesday night poker, at Rotary International, the Criterion Theatre, at the Bar Harbor Kids Book Festival, and at the Bar Harbor Fire Department who have put up with so much goofiness as I infiltrate their lives.
Finally, thank you to all the awesome people who send me emails and comment on Facebook and Twitter and all the random social-network places I appear. You have no idea how much you help me believe in the goodness of people. Thank you so much for being goofy and supportive and … well … yeah … awesome. Let’s go save the world. Together.
TOR BOOKS BY CARRIE JONES
Flying
Enhanced
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CARRIE JONES is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of the Need series, as well as After Obsession with Steven E. Wedel. She is a distinguished alumna of Vermont College’s MFA program and a volunteer firefighter in Maine. She blogs about her dogs, cops, and a bit about writing, too. You can visit her at www.carriejonesbooks.com, or sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
>
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Acknowledgments
Tor Books by Carrie Jones
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
ENHANCED
Copyright © 2017 by Carrie Jones
All rights reserved.
Cover photography by Brandon Hill
Cover design by Faceout Studio
A Tor Teen Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC.
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-0-7653-3658-3 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-2850-6 (ebook)
eISBN 9781466828506
Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan.com.
First Edition: October 2017