“Ernie, my bodyguard, made sure they got there safely,” Hyden said.
“They’re safer there, at that altitude,” Redmond said. “He can’t access a chip there that he can’t identify.”
Redmond’s level of comfort with this plan reassured me … somewhat.
“Like the way they say phone reception used to be?” I asked.
“Very much so,” Redmond said.
“There was no time to discuss it with you,” Hyden said. “Once I saw that my father could blow up the chips, I had to move to protect your family.”
My brother. So far away in the mountains. “I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”
“I know. I’m really sorry about that. But I’ve rigged up something for you.” Hyden brought me over to an airscreen. “We can’t risk this again—the fewer signal links, the better. But I knew you’d want to see for yourself. So we’re doing this once.”
He pulled up a chair in front of the screen and I sat. He touched an icon and Tyler’s face appeared.
“Tyler!” I leaned in closer to the screen.
“Monkey-Face!” Tyler grinned.
I recognized the weavings behind him from the family room of the chalet. “You look so good. Everything okay?”
“We had ice cream sundaes for dessert tonight.”
“It’s really late. You should be in bed.”
Michael joined him on the screen. “I let him stay up to see you.”
“So everyone’s all right there? Eugenia too?”
“We’re all fine,” Michael said. “Now.”
“What do you mean, ‘now’?”
“Well, it was weird,” Michael said. “One minute we were at home, and the next moment we woke up at the cabin. None of us can remember coming here. This guy, Ernie, shows up—”
“You tackled him,” Tyler said.
“What would you do when a strange guy shows up—”
“A Middle!” Tyler bounced up and down.
“Don’t interrupt,” I said softly
Michael continued, “He explained to us why we’re safer, but never how we got here.”
“We were kidnapped,” Tyler said in that half-joking, half-truthful way that only kids can pull off.
I glared at Hyden standing beside me. He shrugged as if to say it had been the only way. Then he motioned to his watch to remind me to wrap it up.
“I have to go. But you do what Michael tells you, okay?”
“Okay, Callie. You come join us soon,” Tyler said.
Michael looked serious. “Be good.”
“Be careful,” I said.
The screen went blank as their images faded into pixels.
“Sorry it couldn’t be longer,” Hyden said, nodding to the airscreen. “But we can’t risk any interceptions.”
I stood and faced him. He stepped back.
“So you drugged my family?” I said.
“Ernie probably gave them a light sedative so they wouldn’t panic. He had to get them out of the house fast, don’t forget.”
I felt my face get hot. “That’s what you did to me. That mint strip. I never fall asleep in cars.”
“Today was a rough day,” he said. “We had to get you all to places of safety. And we did that. Tyler is safe there. You’re safe here.”
“Don’t ever do that to me again.” I clenched my fists at my sides. “Or to my family. Just try talking to me next time.”
“Okay,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
His shoulders lowered. If he wasn’t truly sorry, then he was a pretty good actor. I focused on the blank screen. I wanted to go back to that good feeling of seeing Tyler’s face again, smiling. I had hated the chips for a million reasons before, but now it was worse. Now they were responsible for keeping us apart.
“Why can’t you take me there?” I asked.
“They’re safer without you,” Hyden said. “You’re the one he wants.”
“How many times do I have to say goodbye?” I stared at the airscreen, willing it to come on again.
Hyden was silent for a moment. “It’s late. You must be tired.”
I rubbed my face. “Where do I sleep?”
He showed me the section with the living quarters, which were surprisingly modest. My room, like the others, looked like a dorm room. Really small, with just the basics. A tiny desk and bathroom.
“It’s not fancy,” Hyden said. “I put all the money into the technology. And I try to keep moving for security reasons.”
“That’s got to be hard.”
“You know what it’s like,” he said. “Running from place to place.”
Images from the past year flashed through my mind—sleeping bags on floors, overturned desks, running from marshals.