Imperfect

by Tina Chan

  “Zala’s definitely going to actively pursue us now,” Chelsa said.

  She hit the brakes of the Cleandows van as a stop sign loomed into view. Her driving skills were questionable when she was under pressure.

  “Since Zala knows I’ve switched alliances, there’s no questioning that she’s not going to allow us off scot-free. She’ll be promoted to vice commander of the United Regions Homeland Security if she’s able to turn in the four Naturals to the current president of the Homeland Security.”

  “Since when did you find out about this?” Troop asked.

  “Rosa’s electro-slate,” Chelsa said. “I picked it up after she dropped it and read over some of the instafications they exchanged.”

  The van lurched back into motion.

  “Do you still have the slate?”

  “No. I ditched it after reading through her messages. I didn’t want to risk bringing her slate with us in case it had a tracker in it.

  “Do you think the release of the devil-dogs was Finn’s doing?” Kristi asked.

  “If it was, he has a lot of questions to answer,” Chelsa said. “He could’ve killed us all.”

  “But he didn’t,” Troop pointed out. “As Machiavelli would say, ‘The end justifies the means’.”

  “Whatever.”

  Kristi didn’t say anything.

  “You feeling alright?” he asked.

  Kristi nodded, but Troop could tell she was lying. He placed himself in Kristi’s shoes and tried to work out what was upsetting her.

  “You couldn’t have helped them,” he said. “You barely got out alive by yourself. If you had tried to save an Accident, neither of you would’ve made it.”

  “What type of person am I?” Kristi said, her words low and shaky. “How can I be so self-centered that I didn’t even think about saving the Accidents until after I escaped the lab?”

  “You’re a brave, smart and honest girl. Kristi, whether you like it or not, you can’t save everyone,” Troop said. “If this helps, think of it this way: you’re ultimately preventing more deaths by escaping New Genes Lab today.”

  “How?”

  “The video footage you captured with the contact-cams is solid proof of where the Accidents are ending up.”

  “So? How does that help?” Kristi asked.

  “If we can broadcast the footage to the Perfects, then they’ll know the truth about what the government has been doing to the Accidents. Then the government will have to stop abducting Accidents or else they’ll have to face a rebellion from the citizens.”

  “But what if the Perfects don’t care?” Kristi countered. “What if the Perfects felt that the price of better genetics is worth it? You know how most of the population is obsessed with receiving the latest surgeries in search of perfection.”

  Troop creased his forehead.

  “Sorry for raining on your parade,” Kristi mumbled. “I know I’m being such a downer.”

  He shrugged it off. “Reality sucks.”

  “We’re here,” Chelsa announced from the driver’s seat.

  She parked the van and they jumped out. Troop shed his Cleandows uniform and went to the storage shed where they had hid the three Cleandows employees earlier. There was no one inside, so he assumed they had woken up and left.

  “Ready to go?” he asked when he returned back to the others.

  “Yep. Let’s head back to the Filches,” Chelsa said.

  The walk to the Filches’ apartment felt like an eternity to Troop, even though it wasn’t supposed to be very long. He checked out the name of the street they were walking on. We’re not even halfway there yet.

  Everywhere he looked, public news-screens bombarded the community with the news of the New Genes Lab break-in. Citizens watched wide-eyed with horror of the footage being shown of the devil-dogs attacking the people in the lab; some people huddled together and gossiped while others trawled the government news site on their electro-slate, searching for any updates regarding the break-in.

  “Nobody cares about the Accidents,” Kristi hissed into his ear. “None of the footages being broadcasted show the Accidents being kept at the lab.”

  Troop cast a fugitive glance over his shoulders, afraid someone might’ve overheard her comment. “I know, but now isn’t the best time to be talking about this.”

  He made sure Chelsa, who was walking on the opposite side of the street, was still visible ahead of him and Kristi; Officer Zala had already made a public announcement notifying all citizens should be on the lookout for three teenagers: two girls and one guy, that seemed different—that seemed imperfect.

  Keeping his head down while he walked, Troop overheard snatches of conversations.

  “I don’t understand why the government allowed them to live.”

  “I agree with you. Accidents are a danger to the public—”

  “—I don’t know…There must be a reason why they would break into New Genes Lab—”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about, Havanah. I’m telling you, Accidents are nothing but trouble.”

  “How do you know? You’ve never met one yourself.”

  “Just trust me on that.”

  Troop felt a tug on his jacket. He immediately pushed the offending hand away, thinking some stranger had recognized his face from the public new-screen. His panic was diminished when he realized it was just Kristi, though.

  She jerked her arm back and said, “Hold on a second. Give her some time to get into the apartment before we do.”

  “Oh.” Troop watched Chelsa push through the glass doors. “Okay.” He thought he heard Kristi mumble something else, so he said, “What did you say?”

  “It was pointless, wasn’t it? Trying to find out where the Accidents were and breaking into the lab.”

  Troop yanked Kristi off the streets and through the doors of the closest building, which happened to be a hardware store. “I told you not to talk about that in public,” he whispered tersely. “It’s not safe.”

  Kristi looked troubled, but didn’t say anything. They left the hardware store and arrived at the Filches’ apartment. Troop called up the elevator and jabbed the correct button. They stood in a strained silence, waiting for the elevator to reach the thirty-seventh floor.

  He gave the door a sharp knock with his knuckles and waited for someone to open it.

  “Coming!” someone yelled from inside.

  The doorknob jangled, and then the door was flung open by Jane.

  Finn, Nick and Chelsa were seated on the couch in the living room. Finn seemed to be terribly excited about something. His knees were bouncing up and down so fast Troop wouldn’t be surprised if all of a sudden he jumped up and ran a marathon without crutches.

  Jane locked the door behind them and motioned for everyone to take a seat. Troop popped out his contact-cam and handed it to Jane for her to sync onto her electro-slate; then he dropped onto the synthetic leather couch.

  He turned to Finn and asked, “Was it you who caused the malfunctioning of the fingerprint, retina and DNA scanners in the South Wing?”

  “Yeah. Nick helped me with temporarily blocking the internet in the South Wing so that the machines couldn’t access their database,” Finn said, looking pleased with himself. “But I swear it wasn’t me who let out the devil-dogs,” he added before Troop could ask his second question, which was whether or not Finn freed the devil-dogs from their cages.

  “If it wasn’t you, then who was it? The timing of the devil-dog’s release was very convenient. Maybe a little bit too convenient, wouldn’t you say?” Chelsa said.

  chapter forty-six

  [ Kristi ]