Enders(15)

“Or very high up. Or deep enough underground, like here. That way my father’s scanning technology can’t access your signal.”

“He accessed me when I was in my renter’s mountain cabin.”

“I know. I’ve been able to follow him in the chiptalk airspace.”

“What?”

“It’s like this: sometimes I look for his signal trying to access Metals—I call it chipspace. And I work to block him.”

“How do you know how to do that?”

“Before I was born, my father—his name is Brockman—was working on developing a chip for mind-body transfers. Lots of other scientists were trying. My mother told me that when I was young, I’d wander into his lab and stare at the whiteboard. She said I was listening, absorbing. I don’t remember it. My father didn’t believe her. Then, as she told it, one summer day, before I could speak, I picked up a pen and figured out an equation that had been eluding him for days.”

“Really?”

“Maybe she was exaggerating.” He smiled. It was the first time I’d seen that.

“From then on, he observed me, treating me like another research project. Eventually, I figured out how to make it all work. We developed it together but argued about how it should be used. I saw medical uses, but he of course chose to go for the money.”

“Why didn’t he just sell it off, then, instead of building Prime?”

“He needed Prime to raise capital to perfect it. Prime also publicized the tech to the top-level buyers.”

“Like who?”

“Foreign governments, terrorists.”

“He’d be selling out his country.”

“That’s the kind of man he is. He only cares about himself. That’s why you have to be in a safe location.”

Something about the way Hyden said those words made me wonder. “You mean I can’t go back to my home?”

“There’s no choice.”

“But my brother, what about him? And Michael?”

“First of all, they’ll be safer if they’re not with you. You’re the prize, the one he must have.”

I squared my jaw. “I’m not going to leave them.”

“Your mountain cabin would be safe for them,” he said.

He reached in his pocket and pulled out a package of mint strips. He popped one in his mouth and then looked embarrassed. “Sorry, would you like one?”

I took the mint strip and it melted quickly on my tongue.

“But he accessed me there, at the cabin.”

Hyden squinted. “He knew your chip identification number, which makes it easier to access you. It’s a unique number. But he lost the other chip numbers when Prime was shut down.”

“So how did he hijack Reece?”

“He found her on a scan.”

“Just a random scan?” I said.

“He’s looking for Metal. I can do that, but it takes time.”

“A Metal detector?” I pictured something I’d seen in an old movie.

“A very sophisticated one,” he said. “So now that you believe what I’m saying, that the Old Man is really my father, and you understand more about how this all works, you’re ready to hear the next part.”

I waited to see what could possibly be next. “Tell me.”

“I’ve already arranged for Michael and Tyler to be delivered to the mountain chalet.”

“You what?”

“And Eugenia.” He looked at his watch. “They should be there now.”

I was about to ask him more, when I started to feel sleepy. I leaned against his SUV.

“You okay?”

I nodded. “I’m fine. Just really tired.”

He opened the passenger door and I climbed in. I settled back in the seat and felt like I could sleep for a … hundred … years. …





CHAPTER FIVE





I was having a dream: I was in our house. It was before Tyler was born. My dad and I were huddling on the couch with a blanket over our legs. I could smell the buttery popcorn my mom was making in the kitchen. We’d ordered up a vintage movie on the airscreen, an old Western.

My dad laughed his warm laugh at how the gunslingers were mishandling their guns.

“That’s all wrong,” he said.

All of a sudden, a gun appeared in his hand. He wrapped my hands around the gun and pointed it at the airscreen.

“Hold it like that, see?” he said.

I wrapped my tiny fingers around the big, heavy gun. When I pulled on the trigger, the airscreen actor fell back, shot.

“I killed him, Daddy!” I cried. “I killed him.”

My father laughed.



I woke up with a dry mouth, in the SUV, rocking to the movement as Hyden drove the freeway. Below us, in the distance, the city lights sparkled.