Perception (14 page)

“Medical files. Early
years.”

“Why are they locked?
Isn’t that unusual?”

“I don’t know and yes,”
I sighed. “Suddenly my life is all about secrets.”

Noah isolated the
file. “I’m sending it to Anthony now. He’s good at this kind of stuff. He’ll
probably have it unlocked by tomorrow.”

Chapter 16

Alison insisted that we
sit down and eat dinner together, and whatever Alison wanted, Alison got. I
found myself sitting on the long side of the dining room table with my parents
at either end, Liam’s place opposite mine was conspicuously empty. I’d asked
Jackson to join us, but he was suddenly very busy these days. It was weird
being the only kid at the table with my parents.

“It was a great
surfing day, today,” Alison said like she was reciting a poem. “Liam would’ve
loved it.”

Paul played with his
food. He answered with a tortured, “The winds were perfect.”

I wished the house
wasn’t so silent. I felt like I could hear my own eyelashes bat, and certainly my
heart giving out. Maybe I should turn on some music. The humming of the AC, the
motor of the refrigerator, the scraping of my fork along the porcelain plate,
every little noise felt like an explosion. Even my own breathing rhythm felt
like ocean waves pounding in my ears.

“So when’s, you know,
the memorial?” I asked. Anything to break the silence.

Paul answered, “The day
after tomorrow.”

Alison patted her
mouth with her cotton napkin. “Grandpa Vanderveen is flying in in the morning.”

I hadn’t thought
about it, but of course the Senator of California would come to the funeral of
his own grandson. Even though Grandpa V had a big house on the beach here in
Sol City, it remained empty for most of the year now that he was running for
president. He spent most of his time in Washington D.C. and who knew where else.

In fact, Liam’s death
was big news because of who he was related to and where his body had been
found. It was why our TV was always turned off now. The story had been looping
non-stop.

I wondered about my
other grandparents. Grandpa Morgan had passed away when Alison was a teenager
and Grandma Morgan remarried a couple years later. Alison and her mother’s new husband
never got along. They were naturals, which automatically put them out of
Alison’s class system. She used her own inheritance when Grandpa Morgan died to
pay for the GAP procedure, then she met and married dad and the rest was
history as they say. But apparently the new husband was a vocal anti-GAP
proponent.

Like Noah.

As far as Alison was
concerned, they didn’t exist. And maybe they didn’t anymore. They could’ve died
at some point over the years for all I knew.

Alison carefully
placed her fork and knife beside her plate. “I’m going to bed now.”

I watched her go, her
movements stilted and robotic.

“Is she going to be
all right?” I said.

Paul looked like he’d
aged ten natural years, even as a GAP. “Yeah, of course.”

“Well, I’m going to
go to bed now, too. I’m exhausted.” I didn’t look at Paul when I out and out
lied to him. I had plans that didn’t involve sleeping. I had an appointment to
keep with Noah.

Now that I understood
that Saundra or perhaps Noah would be coming in the morning to wait on us, I
took my dishes with me to the kitchen and loaded them into the dishwasher myself.
I let a yawn escape that wasn’t fake–I was actually very tired–and said good
night to Paul.

Upstairs I brushed my
teeth and pulled my hair back. Dark colors would be appropriate for a break and
enter. I removed my lighter clothing and replaced them with dark jeans and a
black t-shirt.

I waited for Paul to
fall asleep on the sofa, then softly padded down the wooden steps in sock feet,
my sneakers in hand.

Paul snorted, and I
stopped short, thinking fast about how I could explain my change of wardrobe. But
it was unnecessary. Paul turned, and his breathing fell back into a steady
rhythm.

I slipped on my sneakers
before entering my pod. I buckled up and instructed it to take me to the north
gate. It was times like this when I was glad my MagLev barely made a sound.

My stomach twisted
and turned when I thought about what I was going to do.

And who I was going
to do it with.

Noah was waiting
outside the gates when I got there.

“Hi,” I said, feeling
strangely shy.

“Hi.”

He was dressed
similarly to me, and I had to hold back a giggle. “We match.”

Noah grinned, his
crooked tooth peeking out in a way that made my heart speed up. “Yeah, we’re
quite the pair, aren’t we?”

We walked quickly and
quietly to the transit station, climbing onto the pod that would take us back
to the eastern sector.

I sat next to the
window and gazed out at what was becoming familiar landscape to me. LA didn’t
frighten me like it had just last week. I felt like I’d grown up overnight. My
world and mind had expanded because I’d dared to venture outside.

And I’d had to admit,
because I’d spent so much time with Noah.

He was watching me,
and I wondered what he saw. Did he notice the change as well? Noah had
transformed in my eyes, too, but it wasn’t because he had changed. It was my
perception of him that had changed. He’d always been the cool person I’d come
to know and respect, I’d just been blinded by my prejudices.

The pod arrived at
the eastern sector and I felt Noah’s hand at the small of my back as he guided me
out. I swallowed nervously. The space between us felt charged with electricity.
I couldn’t deny I felt attracted to Noah Brody. Things were definitely different
between us and the alteration had happened quickly. I just didn’t know how far
either of us would dare to let it go.

I followed Noah as he
kept to the shadows. It appeared he’d done this kind of thing before. The small
black tool bag he carried was one indication.

Fortunately, the
alley was dark when we arrived at the warehouse. Electricity consumption was
monitored and less-populated areas had restricted use. Noah scoped it out,
making sure it was clear before taking out a short-handled pair of wire snips.

“You came prepared,” I
whispered.

“Did you plan on
walking through walls? I don’t think GAP technology has managed that yet.”

“Very funny.”

It took a moment of
urging the snips before Noah broke through the padlock. We stood stock still
waiting for an alarm, but it was quiet.

“Do you think there
could be a silent alarm?” I said. My nerves were firing off like crazy. It was
only for the love of my brother that I could do stuff like this.

“I don’t think Liam
and his friends would’ve wanted to tip off the authorities by installing a
security system. The government’s a nosy bugger.”

The door opened
smoothly. Someone had greased the hinges. I fiddled for a light switch. Noah
grabbed my hand, “No.”

Of course, turning on
the lights would be a dumb thing to do. Noah turned on the flashlight feature
on his ComRing. I did the same.

I scanned the room
with my ring’s narrow ray of light. The warehouse had been cleaned out
thoroughly and sterilized; I could smell the disinfectant in the air. A
complicated computer system sat on a counter, and beside it something that
looked like an old-fashioned dentist’s chair was extended flat.

The computer had been
left on, so whatever happened the night Liam died created enough chaos, that
Jackson and Mitchell forgot to turn it off. I tapped the screen and a
holographic image came to life. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Three-dimensional
diagrams of electronic arms and legs.

“What is it?” Noah
said.

“It looks like they
were building cyber organisms.”

The thought of Jackson
being involved and all the lies he’d told me to cover this up made me tense
with anger.

Forget about him. I
whipped opened the cupboard doors and found scraps of wires and electronic
parts.

Noah opened a drawer,
peering in. “What are we looking for?”

“I’m not sure.”

“This cupboard’s full
of space food.” Noah pulled out a basket of silver tetra-pack packages. America
didn’t have a federal space program anymore, but the private sector program was
alive and well. The food preserving technique was common to non space-dwelling
consumers, too. No need to use energy for preservation, and it lasted forever.
Just add water.

“Beef Stroganoff.
Mashed Cheddar Cheese Potatoes. Cherry Crumble Cake,” Noah read. “These boys
were serious. But I still don’t get what they were so serious about.”

I tapped the screen again,
and a holograph image popped out. A computerized rendering of Liam, fitted with
what looked like artificial arms and legs. I shook my head in awe. “They were
experimenting on themselves.”

“They were what?”

“It looks like they
were trying to turn Liam into a cyborg.” I peered more closely at the images. “Not
replacing healthy limbs, but graphing them with artificial intelligence
material.”

“But why?”

We both knew it was
illegal to play with cyborg technology.

“That’s what I want
to know,” I said.

Why
was
Liam
trying to cyborg himself? What could he have hoped to gain that he didn’t
already have?

Noah pulled opened a
side door. “Bathroom over here if you need it.”

Then he opened a
closet off to the side and glanced in. I assumed it didn’t hold anything of
significance since he just reclosed the door.

“And also how?” he
said. “I mean, I know your family has a lot of money, but I don’t think your
parents would’ve approved of this.”

“No, of course not,” I
said. “Someone else was funding it; otherwise they wouldn’t have tried to hide
it by setting up a lab out here.”

“The guys involved
with Liam...”

I dug through another
cupboard. “Jackson and Mitchell.”

“Who’s Mitchell?”

“Some lab geek. I
just met him myself.”

 “So, we need to talk
to Jackson and Mitchell.”

“And Dexter. Don’t
forget Dexter.” I closed the last cupboard, unsatisfied. Nothing noteworthy was
to be found.

Noah ran his right
hand along the face of the computer monitor.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m copying the
files.”

He gathered them with
his ring.“What for?”

He shrugged. “You
just never know.”

“I don’t think...”

We heard steps
approaching the back door. I quickly turned the monitor off, and Noah pulled me
down, crouching close to the floor. We turned off our ring lights. Noah led me
carefully through the dark, to the closet then he eased the door open, pushing
a hoodie on a hanger aside and stepping in. He pulled me in after him. My back
was pressed into his chest, and he wrapped his arms around me tightly, allowing
the door to swing closed.

“Hello?” A voice
shouted as the lights switched on. “Is someone here?”

My heart thumped
loudly at the thought of us being caught. I was also very aware of Noah’s body against
mine, and how his arms encased me. I almost fainted when he rested his chin on my
head.

“Damn,” the voice
said. We could hear someone fussing around the computer. Something dropped onto
the counter. Whoever he was, was there to retrieve files and turn off the
equipment. The person cursed again as he left the room, shutting off the
lights. The bolt had been severed, so he had no way to lock up.

I couldn’t move. Noah
nudged me gently as he pushed the closet door open.

“I gather that was
one of your friends,” he said once we were out. I was glad the room was dark,
and Noah couldn’t see my face. I couldn’t tell if our close proximity had had
the same effect on him as it did on me.

I breathed deeply,
settling my nerves. “It sounded like Mitchell Redding.”

Noah turned his ComRing
light back on. “Are we done here? That Mitchell guy is probably going to come
back with a new padlock.”

“Yeah, I guess so. I
can’t wait until I can question him and Jackson again.”

I thought I saw Noah
bristle at the mention of Jackson’s name.

“I want to be there
when you do it,” he said.

“I’ll have to
authorize you,” I said.

“Do you have a
problem with that?”

I wanted to know the
real reason why Noah insisted on coming. Was he just curious or was he
concerned about me?

“No,” I said.
“Jackson might have a problem with it though.”

“I don’t really care
what he thinks,” he said.