Loop (22 page)

Mimi finally perked up when she saw Finn.

“Wow, Bree.” She sounded like she might pop at any moment. “What are the odds of meeting your distant cousin on an outing like this?”

Mimi’s face exploded in a melodramatic wink when the boys were busy finishing their impromptu handshake/wrestling match. The upside of Mimi’s pathetic acting skills was that I never had to worry about being lied to. The downside? Mimi, along with Charlie, would be providing the necessary diversion for Finn’s and my getaway. Of course, Mimi was under the impression we were headed to a cozy kissing spot rather than a secured database. But how much acting skill would it take to pretend to faint anyway?

Oh, sweet plaid knickerbockers of Zeus.
We were doomed.

The chaperones started walking around, applying our admission tattoos. I shooed Finn off so he wouldn’t arouse any of their suspicions. Wyck threw his arm around my shoulder as we waited. My heart sped up. My first inclination was to flirt back, say something coy, lean into him. But something held me back. It felt weird all of a sudden.

An agitated look crossed Mimi’s face, and she kept fidgeting like she wanted to lunge forward and rip Wyck’s arm off me. Charlie clasped Mimi’s hand and tried to act as casual as possible, but I could see his arm muscles strain to hold Mimi in place.

“Sooo…” The word dribbled off Wyck’s tongue like honey. “What was that favor you were asking about earlier, Bree? Because I could probably snag us some alone time today.”

Charlie gave up all pretense of casualness. He circled his arms around Mimi’s waist and forcibly held her back. I lifted Wyck’s hand from my shoulder to calm my roommate down, but she was still agitated.

“We’ll talk later,” I said to Wyck.

I walked over and wrapped my arm around Mimi. Maybe she was nervous about the diversion later. Charlie moved over by Wyck, and they started talking about sports.

“Are you okay?” I asked Mimi. “You seem on edge.”

“I’m fine.” She was lying.

“You know I have to keep up appearances with the whole Finn thing. It has to be a secret … because of his parents.”

“It’s not that. I saw something back at the Institute that seemed—” She looked up and snapped her lips together. When I followed her gaze, I could see why.

Dr. Quigley was standing in between Wyck and Charlie, affixing their admission tattoos. But she was staring straight at us. I squeezed Mimi’s shoulder. It trembled. What had Mimi seen the Quig doing?

Quigley walked over and secured the tattoos on our arms, her voice chilly. “This is your assigned meeting place. Four o’clock.” She started to walk away but paused. “I’ll be keeping my eyes open today.”

That sounded like a warning. I shot Mimi a worried look, which she returned. Wyck and Charlie, however, broke out laughing as soon as Quigley was out of earshot.

Charlie took Mimi’s hand and tugged her toward the entrance. He always turned into such a kid when we came here.

Wyck sauntered over and leaned down so his heady scent filled my nostrils. “What was it you needed help with?”

“It’s actually a transporting issue.”

He raised his eyebrows. He must not have expected that one.

“You see, I have this friend who was trying to Shift the other day—”

“Private Pad or public?”

“Umm … public. Anyway, he—”

“It was a guy?”

“Yeah.” Did that matter?

“I thought you were maybe talking about yourself, those crazy tendril surges you had on your last mission.”

“Oh, I didn’t—”

“Because I have a theory.”

“You do?”
Uh-oh.

“Another Shifter.”

I froze. Panic erupted within me like a volcano, and I had to tamp it down before I said or did something I’d regret.

“What would make you say that?”

“I knew I’d seen spikes like that before, but I couldn’t remember where until the other day when the First Years took their class trip to the Early Years. All their Coms registered those surges. When they got back, this little guy said one of the pre-chipped Shifters they were visiting disappeared mid-sentence.”

“Wow.”

“What’s even wilder is you must have been in really close proximity to a Shifter on your mission. And not known it, of course.”

I’d been right in my suspicions earlier. John. My QuantCom picked up his tendrils somehow. I kept my face as neutral as I could. No one knew I’d spoken to another Shifter. People would assume what Wyck assumed, that I was oblivious to his presence.

“That’s, umm…”

“Y’know what,” he said, backing away. “We’ll have to finish this later. Your chaperone is here.”

“My what?”

But Wyck was already cutting in front of some Third Years to get to the entrance. Finn walked up behind me and slipped his hand around my waist.
Arg.

“Thanks a lot.” I pushed it away. “I was this close to getting Wyck to help us.”

“I don’t want his help,” said Finn.

“Excuse me?”

“I don’t trust that guy.”

“You don’t
know
that guy.”

“I know enough.”

“Oh, what do you know?”

But he didn’t have the chance to answer. We’d reached the front of the line at the admissions booth. I still needed to buy Finn’s ticket. I’d actually had to borrow some money from Mimi to afford it, but I didn’t want him to know that.

Without saying a word, he began to scratch my back, starting up between my shoulder blades and working his way down to my lower back. Just the way I liked …

I edged away from him. He had no business knowing the way I liked it.

chapter 19

THE SMELL OF SPUN SUGAR
and all-things-fried assaulted my nose the moment we stepped inside the Pentagon. All that junk food. It was a free-for-all with the younger students who rarely got to go on outings from the Institute.

Like twinkling fireflies high above, acrobats in glowing bodysuits of every color dangled and twisted from the cavernous ceiling. A man on ten-foot-high pogo stilts bounced into my path, sending me stumbling into Finn for support. Three bobble-racers zoomed overhead, and I ducked as one of the racers sliced the air where my left ear had been. When I looked up, Finn’s eyes were glazed over.

“I know,” I said. “Hokey, isn’t it?” The place was so dated.

But he didn’t answer. He was still all
nyeh
about Wyck, I guess.

“I need to be seen by as many Institute staff as possible before we dart. For an alibi.” I took Finn’s arm and stepped onto a nearby disk-dasher, hovering a few inches off the ground. He was still giving me the silent treatment as I tapped off with my foot. “Keep your eyes open for anyone who looks like an authority figure. And keep your distance,” I added, scooching away from him on the disk.

After we had made our way around one full wing of the Pentagon, Finn opened his mouth for the first time. “It’s an amusement park.”

“You’re just now figuring that out?” I asked. “Real quick there, MacGyver.”

“Okay, how do you keep doing that?” He turned to face me and the floating disk wobbled to the side. “
I’ve
never even seen an episode of
MacGyver
.”

“I told you. My mom went bonks for anything twentieth century.”

“Did her job take her there a lot? To study twentieth-century art?”

I looked down and picked at my fingernail. “Only one trip that I know of. A Picasso.”

“Hmm,” said Finn. “So I wonder why she was so obsessed with—?”

“She went all over.” I interrupted him before he could go too far down that particular path. That was the last thing I wanted to talk about with Finn. “A lot of her job was fact-checking, making sure the right artists got credit for their work.”

“Did she catch any fakes?”

“A couple early twenty-second-century sculptors.” I shrugged. “Oh, and she once caught an accidental switch-up on a painting in the Renaissance period.”

“That sounds exciting,” he said with sincerity.

“Not really. It was a family switch-up. The dad got credit for the son’s work. Or maybe it was the other way around. And, of course, her findings have an asterisk by them.
As reported by a Shifter.
”

“Why?”

“Nons still don’t entirely trust us. It’s not like they can go back themselves and double-check.”

We skimmed through two more sides of the building. Finn couldn’t keep the stunned expression off his face every time we passed another area. I tried to see the aging amusement park with fresh eyes. New eyes. But all I saw was the garish colors, the same old rides that had been there since I was a little girl. Probably the same ones that had been there since my mom was a little girl. The waterless swim tank, bubble tram, even the old “Guess Your Molecular Density” guy was still there. Mimi and Charlie both thought it was cheesy fun. I refused to ride anything that took me more than four feet off the ground, kitschy or not.

When we were almost back where we started, the disk-dasher wobbled. Finn caught me around the waist and pulled me close to his chest. Closer than necessary. I inched to the side. We reached the entrance to the Pentagon, and he almost fell off the disk-dasher when it jolted to a stop. I hopped down. The ground always felt shaky after so long on an uneven surface. I kicked the floating disk into the corral with the other waiting ones and headed for the center courtyard.

“We should do a quick pass through the middle. There’ll be a couple teachers out there for sure. Then we’ll wait for Mimi to pretend to faint and we’re out of here.”

Only a handful of people strolled around in the expansive open space at the center of the Pentagon. Storm clouds had loomed on the horizon since early this morning. They pressed closer and closer. But I was right. Nurse Granderson and Mrs. Perez, my Biology teacher, meandered around the lawn on their dashers, poking students who were sitting too close to each other on the benches. I gave a little wave to make sure they both saw me. Finn and I headed back inside right as Charlie rushed past with a look of terror on his face.

I elbowed Finn in the rib cage. “Now
that’s
acting.”

“Nurse Granderson, you have to help! It’s Mimi.” The two staff members raced after Charlie across the courtyard without giving Finn or me a second glance. That was our cue. I smiled and grabbed Finn’s hand. There wasn’t a soul in sight.

We slipped out the exit, and the first raindrop fell.

The sprinkle turned into a deluge as we raced toward the street. There was a long line for the Publi-pods. As we waited, Finn lifted the edge of his jacket up and sheltered me from the worst of it.

“So they don’t control the weather yet? Disappointing.”

“Just because you
can
do something doesn’t mean you should.”

“You’re right. And I like the rain. I guess the more things change, they more they stay the same.”

“Except that’s not true,” I said as we moved one step forward in the line. “The saying should be, ‘The more things change, the more people try to keep them the same.’”

“You’ve got a point. But people
can
change. Here, I’ll show you; let’s take the Metro.” A big, fake grin spread across his face, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“You’ve convinced me. Change is possible.”

The nearest Metro station was a short walk. Finn entertained me with songs in the frog voice, but he broke off mid-verse when we stepped onto the platform.

“Hey, don’t freak out and don’t act weird, but I think someone might be following us.”

“What? Where?” I whirled my head around.

“Oh, that’s … good. That’s very good.” Finn grabbed me by the waist and pulled me forward. The express lights flashed to signal the passing train approaching in a couple minutes. But I wasn’t going anywhere until I knew who was following me. It could be my mom’s attacker. Or someone from ICE checking up on me.

Then I saw him. Standing in the shadows about twenty feet behind us.

Leto. He was with a burly woman whose hair was slicked back. She looked like she could bench-press more than a few Finns.

“Fancy meeting you here,” he called.

“It’s okay,” I said to Finn, squeezing his hand. “I know him.”

I turned to Leto. “I can explain what happened.”

But when Leto pulled out a stun-popper and the woman opened her coat and ran her hand along a barbed club I realized they weren’t there to talk. Or at least to hear what I had to say.

“Oh, please do.” He started to walk toward me, the thugette a few steps behind him. “The way I see it, there’re only two options. Either A., you sold my doohickey to a higher bidder, or Two, you thought you’d get in the game yourself. So which is it, ya little brat? You a fink or a thief?”

“Neither. I mean, option three, umm, C. I have it. Just not with me.” I tried to give him my truthiest look, which wasn’t hard since I wasn’t actually lying. I had it. Not in this particular time, but I did have it.

Oh, I was going to slap my future self senseless.

At least my revelation had its intended effect. Leto stopped moving. “Well, why don’tcha give it back, kiddo?”

“I will. I’m going to. But I have to go get it.”

“Where is it?” The express lights flashed faster now, reflecting off Leto’s beady pupils like pinpricks of evil were squeezing their way out.

“A safe place.”

From the look on Leto’s face, the only location he considered safe was his own front pocket. “So go get it.”

“I need more time.”

Leto guffawed. “A Shifter who needs more time.”

“No … I … I … Give me one day.” Because, y’know, a day would solve everything.

“Twenty-four hours.”

Which some lovingly refer to as
one day
. I kept my commentary to myelf.

“How ’bout you make a down payment and I’ll give you an extra hour or two?” From the lascivious look in his eye, I knew he didn’t mean money.
Eww.

Finn picked up on Leto’s meaning at the same time. A protective growl rumbled from his chest. He took a step toward Leto, but the thugette moved between them and unholstered her weapon of torture as she stalked forward. The express lights reflected off the spikes, turning them crimson, like a boding of my blood to come. Finn and I were trapped, the five-foot platform drop-off behind us.