by Dunn, Pintip
Her eyes snapped into focus, and everything about her features sharpened. “You’re real?”
Oh. She must’ve thought he was a hallucination. She didn’t actually mean to touch him. Disappointment—more severe than he could’ve imagined—lanced through his heart. “As real as you can get.”
She snatched her hand away. “What are you doing here?” she mumbled to the floor.
“Rescuing you,” he said lamely. His hand lifted automatically. He wanted to touch her again, but he couldn’t forget where they were. Swallowing hard, he tucked his hand behind his back. “It’s not what you thought. You aren’t safe from your future here. The Underground told me FuMA doesn’t care about crime. All they care about is making the memories come true.”
“I found out the same thing a few days ago,” she whispered.
He stopped. “Am I in time? Did your memory come true?”
“They don’t even know my real memory yet.”
Relief rushed through him. At least his mission hadn’t failed before it had even begun. He waved a magnetic wand in front of the gate, and it slid open.
“Where did you get that?” she asked, eyeing the wand like it was an alien artifact.
“I’ll explain later. We need to get out of here before the sleeping draught I gave the guard wears off.”
Well, technically, the bot put the draught in the coffee, and he just increased the saltiness of the popcorn. But she didn’t need to be bothered with such details.
Especially when she was weaving back and forth like a toddler learning how to walk.
“What’s wrong?” The rage curled in his stomach again. “Did they hurt you?”
She put a hand to her forehead. “It’s the fumes. They’re trying to draw my memory to the surface. The side effect is dizziness. And seeing things that aren’t really there. That’s why I groped you earlier. I thought you were a hallucination. I wasn’t trying to come on to you. Or cop a feel. Or molest your lips. Sorry.”
“I wouldn’t mind if you came on to me.” The words slipped out, and his lips quirked. He couldn’t help it. She sounded as mortified as he felt, and clearly, she had no idea the affect she had on him. But… “We’d better get out of here.”
They walked a few steps, and the detainee in the cell adjacent to Callie’s called her over. They spoke in muffled whispers, and then he heard, plain and clear: “Take me with you.”
Callie looked at him pleadingly, as though he were her hero. He swore that look was going to be his undoing. He wished there was any other answer he could give. “We can’t. This wand is only programmed with the code for your cell. I have no idea where to find her code.” And even if he did, the Underground would never allow it. It was hard enough to convince them to authorize Callie’s breakout.
He heard Callie vow she would come back for her friend, and his heart twisted. He wouldn’t tell her. She didn’t need to know she would probably never see anyone in Eden City ever again.
They continued down the corridor until they reached the glass-walled office where the burly guard slept, his snores loud enough to rattle the bars on the cells. As he watched, the guard shifted. His shoulders jerked as though he might wake up, and Logan tensed. Had he miscalculated the sleeping draught? Would they get caught just as they were about to escape?
Callie turned to Logan. “Let me guess. You’ve got the numbered code and have found a way to bypass the fingerprints, retina, and blood scans.”
Deliberately, he relaxed his shoulders. The guard was still sleeping, but they had to get out of here. Fast. “Afraid not. They change those codes on a daily basis, and to get those scans, we’d have to move three hundred pounds of unconscious guard.” He grimaced. “Not happening.”
“What then?”
He ushered her into the room. The snores continued, but there it was again—a pause, a stirring. Fike, fike, fike. How was he supposed to know how much the guard weighed? He could very well be a hundred pounds over his estimate.
Quickly, he crossed to the back wall and tapped it. The panel slid away, revealing a glass cabinet chock-full of equipment. Tasers. Firearms. Cutters.
It was locked. Fike.
“Um, Logan? You should know my combat skills are a bit…marginal.”
He couldn’t tell her he was hoping to find a weapon to fight the guard. She’d freak out and he needed her calm. “How’d you do in the Self-Defense track?”
“I took the basic core and then opted out. Too busy learning how to cook manually,” she said, her cheeks red, her tone flustered. “But if your Meal Assembler ever breaks down, I’m your girl.”
He forced his lips into a grin. It wasn’t hard, because she was cute, but damn it, they had to move. “We’re not battling our way out. This place is like a fortress. We wouldn’t get two feet.”
“Then why are we here?”
“It’s not what’s in the cabinet, but what’s under it.” Enough talk. He got on his hands and knees and backed into the space underneath, into the open shaft beyond. Because of the hologram, he knew it would look like he was disappearing into the concrete.
“Logan?” Now she sounded worried. “I think I’m hallucinating again. I just saw you disappear.”
He popped his head out past the hologram. “You’re not hallucinating. The wall’s not really there. It’s a holographic projection.”
She crouched down and studied the wall, considering his words.
He pulled his head back into the shaft. “Come on, Callie. There’s an air shaft back here that will lead us to freedom. What are you waiting for?”
He backed down the ladder to give her room to maneuver. Did she trust him enough—or even at all? Was she having second thoughts? Come on, come on. The guard was going to wake up any second. She had to get out of sight. They had to leave.
Now.
Just when he thought he might have to go back out and drag her in, a pair of very shapely legs materialized right above him, and she backed up right into his arms.
Chapter Seventeen
Okay, not really into his arms. He wished. Just right above him.
He breathed a sigh of relief. They’d bought themselves a little more time. If the guard woke up now, it would take him some time to discover Callie was missing.
They were just about through the hardest part—except for one thing. Callie’s legs were shaking.
“Slowly,” he said. “There’s a ladder. Swing your legs toward the wall and get your feet on a rung. I’ll catch you if you fall, I promise.”
She scrabbled her feet for the ladder and then just stood there. What was she doing? What was she thinking?
“Callie,” he called. “You good?”
It took her a few seconds to answer, and when she did, the words came out strangled. “I…can’t…see…anything.”
Aw, fike. He just remembered she was afraid of heights. Not just a little bit scared, either. She was hands-trembling, knees-knocking terrified.
In gym class during their T-minus five year, he would create a diversion when it was her turn to climb the rope, so she could slip to the back of the line. And when they’d gone on a class field trip to the virtual theaters, she’d squeezed his hand so tightly she left little imprints in his palm. Even at twelve, he was ridiculously disappointed when the marks disappeared.
Apparently, five years had done nothing to ease her phobia. He had to help her. But how?
He flicked a button on his wrist com, and a thin beam of light cut through the darkness. Better. But she still wasn’t moving. He lifted his hand and let it hover in the air, trying to figure out where best to place it. Her thigh? Ha. He wished. Her knee? Still disturbingly intimate. Her ankle, then. A nice, perfectly innocuous location.
“You can do this.” He wrapped his hand around her ankle, and the feel of her smooth, silky skin almost jolted him off the ladder. Oh boy. When it came to Callie, no body part was safe. “You went to prison to keep your future from coming true. You’re not going to let a little phobia stop y
ou from breaking out.”
He held his breath. One second passed, and then two. Finally, she started to move, taking one foot off the rung and moving it to the next. The air rattled out of him.
“That’s it,” he said, channeling Coach Blake. “One foot after the other. As easy as popping a pie into the Meal Assembler. That is, if you even use a Meal Assembler.”
A choked laugh escaped from her throat, but her knees vibrated so violently he was afraid she might fall. He climbed, his eyes glued to her form. The slightest slip, and he would be ready to catch her.
“Talk to me,” she said, her voice shaking. “Who put the hole and hologram here?”
Good choice. Nice, safe topic. One that would distract her from what they were doing. They continued climbing, and he answered her questions about the Underground. In truth, he barely realized what he was saying. He was too busy staring at her hands and feet.
Had he ever been so singularly focused on anyone before? Yes. Her. He had always been aware of her, her every movement, her every breath. He could tell, just by listening to her breathing, what she felt. The quick, shallow sips of air meant she was scared now.
And then, she stopped abruptly. “I’m at the top.”
“You see the screen above you? Give it a good punch.”
She didn’t move.
“I’m right beneath you, Callie. I’m not going to let you fall.”
Her entire body moved with her inhalation. And then she swung upward, and the screen came right off.
She scrambled onto the top of the building, and he climbed after her. It was dark now, and a blanket of stars seemed to fall down around them, covering them and tucking them in for the night. The moon hung, full and round, illuminating the roof.
“I’ve never seen anything so beautiful,” she whispered, tilting her face to the sky.
He agreed. But he couldn’t spare a glance for the stars. There would be other night skies for the rest of his life. This might be the last time he ever saw Callie. He wanted to imprint her image onto his memory forever. The way her eyes glowed, back to their usual verve and sparkle, the way the moonlight caught the curve of her cheek. He couldn’t breathe, looking at her. His chest hurt, as if a million knives were inside, trying to slice their way out.
“This is where we part ways,” he said slowly. His voice felt as heavy as an anvil, as heavy as his heart. These weren’t the last words he wanted to give her, but he had to say them.
She looked around the bare rooftop, and panic whipped into her body again. “What do you mean? How am I going to get down? And where are you going?”
He couldn’t speak. Too many emotions clogged his throat, holding his words hostage. Instead, he took her by the arm and guided her to the edge of the roof, where she could see the river raging below.
“No.” She backed away, horrified. “I can’t do it. I can’t jump off this roof.”
He’d never felt so helpless in his life. “You climbed up the ladder like it was nothing. You can do this, too.”
She gasped at the air, seconds away from hyperventilating, and his mind raced. Okay. Plan B. Did he have a Plan B? For all his strategizing, he’d never gotten that far…
But it didn’t matter. Her countenance changed, and she gritted her teeth. “Okay,” she said. “Where do I jump?”
Callie was back. He never should’ve doubted her. She was braver than anyone he knew, and when it mattered, she always found a hidden reserve of strength. Always.
He pointed to an area where the river widened. “Right there, where the current is weakest. There are no boulders for at least a hundred yards, so you can’t miss.” He rattled off a few more instructions—where she would find the boat, how she should follow the laminated map to Harmony. “I’ll go back down the shaft and hide until morning. I’m sorry I can’t go with you. Underground orders.” Guilt flooded him, almost submerging his words. What the hell had he been thinking? He couldn’t let her jump into the river, trek into the wilderness by herself. Could he?
She was resourceful. She didn’t have any experience with wilderness living, but she could do it. He was sure of it.
“The cliff doesn’t end for miles, and by the time we find flat land for me to cross back into the suburbs, the FuMA guards will be patrolling the city limits.”
Every word he said was true. But there was more. He also couldn’t go with her because he wouldn’t be back in time for the qualifier. And that was important. Right? It was his life’s dream, for Fate’s sake. Everyone was counting on him—his parents, Coach Blake, even Roxy. He had to bring home this win, for himself and for all of them.
“That’s okay,” she said kindly. So kindly he wanted to stab himself. “You’ve already done enough.”
She walked to the roof’s edge and took a deep breath. And then, her entire body stiffened and she snapped her head around. “Logan,” she said, her eyes wide, her breathing short. “I can’t swim.”
His heart stopped. “How is that possible?” he croaked.
“I don’t know. My mom never liked the water, so I never learned how.”
His stomach dropped out from beneath him. Now what? But there was no question, really. There was only one real answer. Only one thing he could do. And once he decided, calmness flowed through his veins, and he realized this was what he wanted all along.
Damn the future. Damn his goals. There would be other dreams—or maybe other ways of achieving this particular dream. Later.
Five years ago, a younger Callie had turned to him when they were dragging his brother away. “Do something,” she had said.
He hadn’t listened. He had stood there, like a coward, while his life changed forever. But this was a new opportunity. An opportunity to do the right thing. To redeem himself for his mistake with his brother. To save the literal girl of his dreams.
All he had to do was give up the future Fate had predicted for him.
He grabbed her hand. “All right. Let’s do it.”
“Do what?”
“I’m going with you.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Don’t be ridiculous,” she sputtered. “You just said—”
“Look, Callie.” He could be halfway honest. She deserved at least that much. “Five years ago, I stood by and did nothing when they took my brother away. I’m not about to let it happen again.”
Tears welled in her eyes. “I’m not your sister. I’m just a girl you haven’t spoken to in five years.”
He went perfectly still. And he allowed himself the luxury of touching her soft, smooth cheek. He looked into her eyes and spoke the utter, absolute truth. “You’ve never been just a girl to me, Calla Lily.” She was everything to him. Everything.
He opened his mouth to confess that—and maybe more—but an alarm sounded, dimly at first and then louder and louder.
The adrenaline kicked in. Qualifier be damned. He was about to take the most important swim of his life.
“That’s for you. The guard must’ve woken up and discovered you were missing. They’ll start combing through the building. They’ll be on the roof before we know it. There’s no time.” He took her hand in his and wasn’t surprised it fit perfectly. “We jump on three.”
They faced the open sky.
“One,” he said. Everything was changing. His life, his future. The hands of Fate hovered above him, ready to guide him. Well, he was defying Fate now. Leaving her hands hanging. Making his own future.
“Two.” What was right? What was wrong? His future memory told him to trust the feeling he had when he was with Callie. To go after it. Even at the expense of his swimming? He wasn’t sure. But so long as they were together, it would turn out all right. It had to.
“Three.” You know what? Maybe, just maybe, this was what Fate had intended for him all along. The dragonfly couldn’t quite land on that blade of glass. But perhaps that was because it had bigger and better things to explore.
He gripped her hand. A valley of nothingness loomed before them.
/> They jumped.
Did you love Before Tomorrow? Don’t miss the first two books in Pintip Dunn’s New York Times bestselling Forget Tomorrow series!
Forget Tomorrow
Remember Yesterday
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Acknowledgments
Thank you to my wonderful publisher, Liz Pelletier, for continuing to believe in this series. To my editor, Stacy Abrams, it was such a joy to work with you! Thank you for your guidance and insight. I am very grateful to the entire team at Entangled—and in particular, Melissa Montovani, Crystal Havens, and Heather Riccio. Thanks to my cover designer, L.J. Anderson. You continue to blow me away with your designs.
Much thanks to my amazing agent, Beth Miller, for always being the best. I am indebted to my critique partners, Meg Kassel and Vanessa Barneveld, for their comments on this story. Much gratitude to Brenda Drake and Denny Bryce for their friendship, and thank you to Katie Robinson for her beautiful photos.
Thank you to the Hompluems, the Dunns, and the Techavacharas for making me feel so loved—and especially my dad, who encouraged me to write this novella.
To Antoine and my children, the heart of my life. You make unconditional love feel like a given, but you still surprise and touch me with your unconditional support.
And finally, thank you to my amazing readers. I hope you enjoy Logan’s story!
About the Author
Pintip Dunn is a New York Times bestselling author of YA fiction. She graduated from Harvard University, magna cum laude, with an A.B. in English Literature and Language. She received her J.D. at Yale Law School, where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal.
Pintip is represented by literary agent Beth Miller of Writers House. Her debut novel, Forget Tomorrow, won the RWA RITA® for Best First Book. Her other novels include The Darkest Lie and Remember Yesterday.