Perception (15 page)

“What about Dexter?”
I asked

“I’m going to track
him down. Tonight. I know where he lives. I’ll let you know what I find out.”
Noah reached for my elbow. “C’mon, I’ll take you home.”

“Stop right there,” a
shaky voice commanded us in the semi-darkness. “I have a gun.”

A flash of light
zig-zagged across the room. Our captor’s ComRing momentarily blinded us in our
tracks. Fear sprung from the soles of my feet, twisting through my stomach and
tying a firm knot in my throat.

Enough light reflected
off the weapon, and I saw the face of its owner, Mitchell Redding. He pressed himself
into the corner by the door.

“Mitchell?” My voice
was dry and breathy. My eyes had adjusted to the dark room enough to make out
the hysteria on Mitchell’s face. The handgun he held shook with his taut
nerves.

Noah took a small
step forward. “Put the gun down, Mitchell.”

“Stop!” Mitchell’s
voice took on a frenzied shriek. “I might not shoot her, but I wouldn’t think
twice about dropping you.”

“Noah,” I whispered.
The image of Noah taking a bullet in front of me made me feel light-headed. I
had to keep strong, think straight.

“Why do you have a
gun?” I said.

“Have you seen this
neighbourhood? It’s filled with crazies. If I had to keep coming out here, I
needed to protect myself.”

“Why did you come
tonight?” I said. “What were you doing?”

Mitchell stepped
forward. The gun was heavy, and he had to use his left hand to prop it up.

“I don’t have to
answer your questions. I have the gun here. You need to answer mine. What are
you doing here?”

“I’m trying to find
out what happened to my brother.”

“And?”

“I think he was
experimenting on himself.”

“Bingo. I told him
not to. I said we could find out what we needed by using simulation or humanoid
robots as guinea pigs, but the idiot wouldn’t listen to me. He wouldn’t listen
to anyone. No one was as smart as Liam Vanderveen.”

It was hard not to
miss the spite in his voice.

“What happened?” I
asked again.

“I’m the one asking the
questions, I said!” Mitchell’s eyes scoured the room, and I could tell his mind
was racing.

What he planned on
doing with us was anyone’s guess, but there were two of us and only one of him.
And it was dark. If there were a way to distract him.

“Mitchell, I don’t
feel very good,” I said. “Can I sit down?”

He seemed thrown by
the question. “Sure.”

“Not on the floor. It’s
dirty. Over there.” I indicated the reclining chair. Mitchell looked over his
shoulder. Noah moved quickly knocking the gun out of Mitchell’s hand. It
scooted across the floor.

There was a scramble
of bodies in the dark. I searched the floor with the beam from my ring, hoping
to spot the gun.

There, under the
counter. I dashed for it, having to reach blindly underneath with my fingers.

Cool metal. I gripped
it, turned and aimed at the sound behind me. “Stop it! I have the gun and I’ll
shoot you, Mitchell. Don’t tempt me.”

The noise of the
scuffle stopped. Two shadows separated. One stood, hands in the air. “It’s me,
Zoe.” Noah’s voice.

I flashed my ComRing
light to make sure. Noah nodded when he caught my eye, then turned to Mitchell,
right hooking him in the jaw. Mitchell crumpled to the ground.

I let my arm drop
slowly to my side. I felt Noah approach, the heat of his body meeting mine.

“Are you okay?” he
said.

“Yeah.” I was, but
Mitchell definitely wasn’t. “Is he..?”

“He’s fine. He’ll
have a headache when he wakes up, but let’s go before that happens.

“What about this?” I
held out the gun.

Noah took it and
wiped it clean with his t-shirt before opening a random drawer and placing it
inside. “It’ll take Mitchell a while to find it.”

He practically
dragged me through the darkness, down the back alley to the pod station. I
repeatedly glanced back, fully expecting Mitchell Redding to have revived and
started chasing us. I wished Noah had hid the gun a little better.

Mitchell didn’t
follow us onto the pod. When the doors closed and it took off, I let my head
fall back, and closed my eyes. The hum of the transport was hypnotic. I
breathed in deeply. We were all right. We were fine. For now.

Neither of us spoke a
word the entire way to the downtown destination. Noah walked me back to the
gates, keeping his distance. No more elbow or lower back touching.

“That was pretty
crazy,” I finally said. I wondered what he’d been thinking, if he regretted
helping me.

“Yup.”

“It was brave of you,”
I added, trying to encourage him. “To, you know, do what you did.”

“Brave or stupid.” He
finally looked at me. “You were pretty brave yourself.”

“Brave or stupid.” I
smiled at him, coaxing him with my eyes to do the same. He consented faintly.

“Are you okay?” I paused
near the gate. “I mean, I’m sorry...”

“Hey, it’s not your
fault. I’m just glad you didn’t get hurt.”

He worried about me.
I felt something sizzling just beneath the surface, connecting us. Or maybe I
was losing my mind. Was I the only one who felt the charge between us? I didn’t
think so. Noah stared at me as we stopped under the street lamp, I could see
the torment in his eyes.

We were on a
dangerous precipice, I could feel it. If only things were different, if only...

“Good night, Zoe,” he
said, but he didn’t move. And I couldn’t just walk away after all he’d done for
me.

Before I could think
it through, I stepped forward and gave him a hug. “Thank you.”

He embraced me back,
holding me a moment longer. “I’ll see you later,” he said. The words sound
choked, like it pained him to say them.

Like he didn’t mean
it.

I watched him leave
before heading through the gate, confused by the feelings that rushed at me.
Whatever happened next I knew I had to see him again.

A familiar form stood
waiting for me on the other side. His arms were crossed against his broad
chest, and he had a tight frown on his face.

Jackson. I felt like
a child caught stealing candy.

“What are you doing
here?” I said.

“Who was that guy?”
Jackson’s pale blue eyes were like lasers. I felt a shiver of fear but shook it
off. Nonsense. It was just Jackson. I wasn’t afraid of him.

“So, you’re following
me now?”

“Who was he?”

“I don’t have to
answer to you.”

Jackson grabbed my arm.
“Are you seeing someone else? An
outsider
?”

I stared at his hand,
my own anger brewing. I yanked my arm away. “I’ve seen the lab, Jackson. I know
what you and Liam were up to.”

I watched with some
satisfaction as the color drained from his face. “W-what?” he stammered. “How?”

“That was who I was
with. A friend who helped me to find out the truth. Something you were afraid
to do.”

I stormed past him in
the direction of the parking lot.

He chased after me. “Who
was that guy? How did you meet him?”

“I said I don’t have
to answer to you.”

“Maybe not, but you
do have to answer to your dad.”

I spun on my heels. “About
what?”

A smug grin formed on
Jackson’s face as he gestured toward the gate with his chin.

“You’d tell?” I
asked.

“If that’s what it
takes to get you to stop seeing that
outsider
.”

I stomped toward my
pod then stopped, turning back to Jackson. “Let me ask you something. Why did
you do it?”

Something flashed in
Jackson’s eyes. Regret? Fear? He refolded his arms. “I’m sorry, Zoe. I’m not at
liberty to tell.”

“You risked my
brother’s life and he
died
. And you’re not at liberty to tell? Maybe my
dad will be interested in hearing about that.”

Chapter 17

I answered the buzz
of my ComRing the second I saw Noah’s name.

“I heard back from
Anthony. He wants you to come over.”

“What did he find?”

“He wouldn’t tell
me.”

That sounded ominous.
My pulse sped up.

“I don’t know where
Anthony lives.”

“I’ll take you. I’ll
meet you at the gate.”

I didn’t have time to
eat breakfast, but that was fine. My stomach was churning, and I couldn’t eat
anything if I tried. I washed up, brushed my teeth and entered the tomb also
known as my closet.

What should I wear?

I chose a yellow
sundress with white slip-on shoes. I brushed my hair until it shone and left it
hanging down.

I knew I was going
the extra mile for Noah Brody.

And it worked. He
couldn’t hold back his grin when he saw me.

“Morning,” he said.

I grinned back. “You
were right about Anthony being fast.”

He fell into step
beside me, leading the way to the podium for the train that would take us to
Anthony’s neighborhood. “I told you he was good.”

“But he wouldn’t tell
you what he found? Not a hint?”

Noah averted his gaze.
“I’m sure it’s nothing serious.”

The train arrived and
we got on with the afternoon crowd which quickly snapped up all the seats. Noah
grabbed the bar overhead, and held onto me with his free arm. I had to press
into him to stay balanced. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy it.

“Did you talk to
Dexter?” I said. We were close enough to kiss. I closed my eyes in order to
stop looking at his lips. I had to quit thinking things like that. It was
stupid. And wrong.

“Uh, yeah. He
confessed. He said some guys from Sol City had tracked him down, looking for a
place to set up a lab. Said it had to be something hidden, off the grid. They
paid him. He did it for the money to support his habit.”

“Oh.”

“He felt terrible
about what happened to your brother, but he swears he had no idea what they
were doing there.”

The train’s movement
jostled us about, and a turn around a bend pushed me in even tighter against
him. I felt his breath on my neck.

“The memorial’s
tomorrow,” I said softly.

Noah reached for a
stray strand of hair and tucked it behind my ear. “I’m sorry I can’t be there
with you.”

My knees buckled. “I
know. My grandfather’s coming, so it’s probably a good thing you’re not. In
case he’s still holding a grudge against your grandfather.”

Noah grunted but he
kept his thoughts about that to himself.

The train arrived at our
stop, and he guided me out by my elbow. I held back a smile. He couldn’t stop
touching me.

“Can you tell me more
about Liam’s experiment?” he said. “We didn’t really have a chance to get into
it last night.”

“I don’t know a lot.”

We walked the two
blocks to Anthony’s house as we talked. Most of the homes in this neighborhood
had manicured lawns and two-car garages.

 “Scientists have
been able to emulate neural networks to create artificial intelligence for some
time,” I said. “The next step is to hook up our brains to artificial technology.”

“You mean download
our minds and memories onto a hard drive?”

“Something like that.
The technology has been around for a while. They’ve been doing it on rats for
decades. It’s all in an effort to create a post human existence, which includes
fusing mechanical material to the nervous system.”

Noah jerked. “But is
that possible?”

“Yes. Bioethics and
state laws prevent scientists from taking the process too far. It’s why the
world hasn’t been populated with super soldiers.”

“That’s why they had
to experiment off the grid.”

I nodded. “But, I
don’t get why Liam was involved in something like this. He must’ve known what
kind of damage could be done in the world if this technology gets in the wrong
hands. I never would’ve guessed it of him.”

Noah buzzed the gate
when we arrived. Anthony lived in an upper middle class neighborhood, in a
house with a valley view and a swimming pool.

Anthony opened the
door, and Noah followed me into a mid-sized living room with dark blue wall to
wall carpet that was faded in the high-traffic areas. Anthony led the way to a
bedroom at the end of the hall.

“After you,” Noah
said, following me in.

I held back a gasp of
surprise. Anthony had a wall full of glass monitors, and his desk was covered
with tech gadgets. My guess was that I wasn’t his only customer. He directed us
to his main wall monitor, and then sat in the chair in front of it.