Hero Complex (15 page)
Authors: Margaux Froley
Then the kissing and pawing began.
As they pulled away, Devon’s phone buzzed. A text from Raven, asking if she wanted to get an early dinner together in Monte Vista.
Anything to escape the town car from hell
, Devon thought.
T
WO HOURS LATER
, C
LEO
seemed even more eager to part ways than Devon. For a moment, Devon felt a pang of guilt as the driver fished her bag out from the overstuffed trunk. The wind in Monte Vista was strong and frigid, but Devon hesitated. Once the driver was back inside, she knocked against the rear window. It rolled down.
“I’m sorry, Cleo, about everything this weekend,” she apologized.
Cleo gave her a half-smile. “Nothing to be sorry for.”
“We’re cool, right?” Devon asked.
“Dev, I love you. We’re cool. I’m sorry this weekend was so dramatic—” Cleo sighed. “See you on the hill.”
Devon nodded as Cleo rolled her window back up. At least she’d
understood enough to cut Devon some slack. But it wasn’t her role to be Devon’s protector. She wasn’t responsible for what had happened on the yacht—or after.
R
AVEN WAVED FROM HER
booth in the back, and Devon stiffened slightly.
Bodhi was sitting in the booth as well, his back to the front door.
Devon wished she could slowly back out of the deli and catch up with Cleo’s car. Of course she knew that Bodhi’s showing up was a possibility. Maybe that’s what she’d secretly been hoping for when Raven texted, but right now, she didn’t feel sturdy enough to be the cool, calm
friend
the Elliots knew.
“We ordered for you, sorry,” Raven said. “We were starving.”
She wrapped Devon into a big hug. Bodhi scooted out from the booth, and before Devon could decide whether or not it was appropriate to hug Bodhi, he was hugging her, too.
“How was your weekend?” He sat back down and left a seat open for Devon to sit next to him. Devon nudged Raven and slid in next to her.
“I didn’t surf, if that’s what you mean.” She could hear the biting sarcasm in her voice, but she didn’t care. While Bodhi was off being one with the ocean, Devon had been stalked. And he couldn’t even return a text.
Bodhi and Raven glanced at each other. He took a bite of his pastrami sandwich before answering. “I just saw that you texted. I didn’t turn my phone on for the last two days. I think it was just what I needed, but looking at you now, I think that might have been a mistake …”
Devon hated her own selfishness, but she couldn’t control it. “I saw Isaac, for starters,” she mumbled.
“What?” Bodhi and Raven gasped.
And with that, the story tumbled out in a messy jumble: seeing Dr. Hsu at lunch with C.C., spotting Eli working at the Huntington
House, her visit with Isaac, the eerie chase into Berkeley, her mom’s promise to talk to her cop friend. Bodhi and Raven were both silent, their food growing cold on their plates.
“Holy shit,” Raven finally muttered. “How are you not a total wreck right now?”
“Who says I’m not?” Devon laughed, but it sounded forced, and she knew it.
“Unfortunately, it sounds like the common thread here is that the police can’t get involved.” Bodhi poured more ketchup into a puddle next to his fries. “Nothing really happened, and we don’t even know what we’re after.”
“Nothing really happened, huh?” Devon snapped back.
Bodhi didn’t respond, but his blue eyes turned frigid.
“Okay,” Raven began, “we’re all a little spent, for all kinds of reasons. We have a few options. One, if Eli works at Huntington House legally, we can find more info on him. Two, Isaac said he got an email. We can probably try to get into that account, trace it back to where it was sent from …” Her voice trailed off. “But.”
“But,” Bodhi echoed. He and Raven traded a look.
“But what? Yes to both of those ideas. What’s the ‘but’ about?” Devon asked.
“Now that we have property and assets and stuff,” Raven said, “it’s …”
“Tricky,” Bodhi finished. “We’ve been advised to be upstanding citizens and all that entails.”
Once again, Devon felt like a jerk for missing the obvious. In the last few weeks, Bodhi’s and Raven’s lives had been irrevocably changed. Having money and property now meant that they had something to lose. Something that lawyers and advisors would be watching closely.
“You two, upstanding citizens? Hold on, let me get my head around that one. It might take a minute,” Devon joked.
Bodhi threw a fry across the table, hitting Devon’s cheek. His eyes
seemed to melt, and for a second she forgot she was mad at him. She turned her attention back to her own untouched grilled cheese.
“I’m sure we can hide our IP,” Raven said, almost to herself.
“Let’s do the mouse trap,” Bodhi agreed. “We send a spam email, see if they ping us back, and find the source IP from there. It might take a bit longer, but we break fewer laws.”
Devon blinked a few times. “Really? You’re sure?”
Bodhi reached across the table and patted her shoulder. The gesture was casual, easygoing, brotherly. “Hey, we’re glad you’re back in one piece. Next time, we’re going with you. Friends don’t let friends investigate alone.”
Devon tried to smile back. But inside, every organ, every muscle, every electric current of brain activity cringed.
Friends
.
B
ACK IN HER ROOM
, Devon dumped all her books out of her backpack and onto her bed. Four hours of studying stared her in the face. She fought the urge to shove all the books onto the floor and crawl under her comforter for the rest of the night. Her body seemed to creak as she flipped open her laptop. A perfect end to a perfect weekend …
There was a new email waiting. Had Raven gotten a response from Isaac’s emailer already?
Devon frowned at the Keaton school address. She didn’t recognize the name of the sender, though. And Keaton was misspelled.
Keeton.edu
.
What the—?
She opened the email, and a picture popped up on her screen. It was of Raven and her leaving the Monte Vista Deli, Devon’s napkin-wrapped sandwich in one hand while she slid her arm into her jacket with the other. Raven was fishing her car keys from her straw purse. That was just a half hour ago.
Whoever had followed Devon in San Francisco wasn’t content to let it stop there.
Session #3: Devon Mackintosh
Monday, January 28
Dr. Hsu’s lipstick was distracting. It was a deep purple shade Devon had never seen her wear in session before—or even around campus. Devon pictured her sitting in front of the bathroom mirror at the Huntington House before answering her phone.
This is Jocelyn
.
The words froze in Devon’s mind, at once humanizing her therapist and exposing her deceit. Devon glared at the purple semi-circle Dr. Hsu’s lipstick left along the rim of her teacup.
“How are you feeling today?” Dr. Hsu asked.
Devon shrugged. She was more curious where Dr. Hsu would try to take the session. Let her
really
fill in the blanks this time.
“I spoke with Nurse Reilly,” Dr. Hsu continued. “It seems you haven’t filled the Vericyl prescription. Have you had a chance to speak with your mom about it?”
“A little.” Devon fought the urge to speak further, but
couldn’t. “Funny thing about Vericyl. Did you know that it’s a Dover drug?”
“I’m not sure I follow.” Dr. Hsu’s smile started to flatten at the edges.
“Dover Industries. Maya Dover, the pregnant Keaton student. Her mother’s been around campus picking up her assignments, packing up her dorm room. The Dovers are kind of a big deal around here. I’m sure you’ve at least heard of them.”
“Oh, I wasn’t aware it was the same Dover family.” Dr. Hsu dropped her eyes and sipped her tea.
“Weren’t you?” Now Devon focused the same pleasant smile on Dr. Hsu. She would not be convinced this was all a silly mistake, another coincidence to laugh off.
“So because of this Dover connection, you’re not interested in trying the prescription? This is one of the things we were working on, Devon—”
“No, it’s one of the things
you’re
working on. I might as well be a slab of paranoid, post-traumatic meat.”
In spite of the interruption, Dr. Hsu’s professional smile returned. Devon had to hand it to her; she was unflappable. “Vericyl can help with these feelings,” she said. The condescension in her voice made Devon’s fingers curl into fists.
“What’s it matter to you if I take this thing or not? You’re just here for the semester, aren’t you? You won’t even be here long enough to see if it works.”
Dr. Hsu shook her head. “I may be here longer.”
“I see what you did there: careful avoidance of specifics, nothing that you have to actually commit to. Except you haven’t answered my question. What’s your personal stake in all this, Dr. Hsu? Are the Dovers paying you to get all of us on Vericyl? Or is it just me?”
Finally she’d struck a nerve. Dr. Hsu’s smile evaporated. “I don’t appreciate your tone, Devon. Maybe we should reschedule for
when you’re feeling a little less combative.” She sat up straighter and smoothed the blanket over her lap.
“There’s no need to reschedule. We’re probably good here.” Devon stood up to leave.
“Hold on a second. We’re not finished yet. You’re required to complete five sessions with me.”
Devon returned her steely glare. “And you’re required to provide a safe, confidential, therapeutic environment. It says so in the Keaton Student handbook. I’m sorry, Dr. Hsu. I don’t feel safe if I’m being lied to. I can talk the talk, too. And I can’t continue if these parameters aren’t being adhered to.”
Dr. Hsu almost looked amused. “Devon, please have a seat. Let’s discuss this rather than jumping to conclusions. I don’t know where you’re getting these ideas.”
“Ask your friend C.C. Tran,” Devon replied. “She might know. You can discuss it over lunch at Huntington House.”
The last image Devon had of Dr. Hsu was of her teacup slipping from her fingers and spilling onto the floor. The door slammed on the session room as if in a dream; Devon didn’t even hear it. The next thing she knew, she was practically skipping down the cement hallway toward the dining hall. Her heart was beating fast. She hadn’t exactly planned on calling Dr. Hsu out like that, but at this point she had nothing to lose. Not even as the old doubt and questions slithered into her mind …
What if Cleo was right? What if Dr. Hsu and C.C. had never even spoken about Devon? What if Dr. Hsu had other reasons for denying knowing the Dovers? Maya was
pregnant
. That was serious, and that was real. So now what? What if Dr. Hsu reported Devon to Headmaster Wyler as being out of control?
In the end, it didn’t matter. It just meant they’d watch her even more closely. As closely as whoever had taken those pictures last night of her and Raven. Whether Dr. Hsu was involved or not, being passive was no longer an option.
September 4, 1942
I’m going to have to be careful to not let anyone know about this diary. Just last month, the Manhattan Project was announced. All of us were issued new sets of IDs and uniforms. We’re supposed to be working with the Army now, more than we were before
.
They say it’s for our safety
.
We’ve made progress with our metals with various degrees of magnetic abilities. A few days ago, we sent a crate of prototypes of shell and bomb casings to New Mexico. It was a milestone in our work to finally have something that Dr. Keaton was satisfied with. He has very high standards. He says it’s because Dr. Oppenheimer’s standards are even higher. We celebrated the accomplishment with a bottle of champagne, a rare extravagance for Dr. Keaton
.
Athena and Hana have been so supportive. Hana planted three pine trees in our names to celebrate. She said it was a tradition in her family to plant a new tree for a milestone. Her parents’ backyard is lined with the pine trees from each of her birthdays
.
That night, after the champagne and the wine had been flowing for a few hours, I had an idea. The Army engineers were on the hillside earlier in the day, pouring another wall of concrete for the new bunker overlooking the water. There was so much moisture in the air, I figured we still had time. I didn’t tell them what we were going to do
.
Eddie was still gloating about our work and how
we were going to be rich, the three of us—“the three trees,” he called us—on our future projects. He talked about us having a lab in Berkeley where we could continue our work. He was so excited to sell our patents to his friends at Merck and wanted to start his own pharmaceutical company, and it would make all of us rich
.
I noticed Keaton was smiling politely as Eddie spoke. But I don’t think he ever wants to leave this mountain
.
I steered everyone to the new bunker. The concrete was still wet
.
As Athena held up the lantern, I found a branch and carved an outline of three trees into the wall, just like Hana’s trees. Keaton and Hana were standing behind me, and Keaton put his hand on my shoulder. “We’re going to do great work here,” he said. “This hillside will know we were here.” He read my mind, because he stepped forward and pressed his hands into the back wall of the bunker. We all left our handprints in the wall that night
.
The bell rang for the end of second period. Devon had five minutes to get to English. She flicked her thumb across the page corners in Reed’s diary. What was so important in here that Reed wanted her to find out? There had to be more than a basic history lesson in these pages. On the other hand, Reed wasn’t exactly in the best mental state when he gave it to her. What was it he had said?
Footsteps? ‘You’ll need it to follow our footsteps.’
Devon flipped the brittle pages again. Stories and scientific jargon were written throughout. What about these stories would help her follow in Reed’s footsteps? Did he mean that literally or figuratively? Raven and Bodhi were in more of a position to carry on
Reed’s legacy than Devon, since he’d given them everything of his. Were these pages somehow a guide to the Keaton hill itself?
