Open Minds (34 page)

At least my family seemed safe. I asked Maria to check on them, and she said the agents were no longer parked at my house. My family was also asking about me, wanting me to come home.

I wasn’t so sure that was a good idea. Even if the Feds weren’t harassing my family openly, my dad was probably upset about me revealing the family’s big secret on a national tru-cast.

There certainly were a lot of people angry about it.

By the evening, the protests had started. Outraged readers, some of them demens by the looks of them on the screen, gathered at the entrance to the Trib Tower, protesting the dangerous mind control freaks the Trib was keeping on the 10th floor.

I was having serious doubts about going public until the changelings’ parents started coming forward. Most had been jacked to believe that their children had run away or been snatched and were thrilled to have them back. The changelings couldn’t pretend to be zeroes or even readers, but they could go home. The Feds seemed more concerned with denying their involvement in secret camps and scandalous experiments than harassing kids.

Maria coordinated with the parents, making arrangements for them to come get their children, which went well until Xander’s mom grabbed her fifteen minutes of fame by publicly stating she didn’t want him back. When Xander’s change came, he had accidentally jacked his abusive step-father and knocked him out. Soon after, Xander had been caught on camera jacking a mini-mart clerk to give him ice cream, and the Feds had picked him up. He was only twelve, and his mom was a worthless, raging alcoholic, if her performance on the tru-cast was any indication. Her rant fed the hate-groups protesting outside, and Xander became the poster-child for dangerous jacker kids. The protesters wanted him locked up. Because stealing ice cream definitely made him a danger to society.

I told Xander he could stay with me.

As the night wore on, the changelings got antsy from being hyped on the news all day and being cooped up in the castroom. I kept them busy practicing their jacking skills. They didn’t have much control, and I had to keep a constant eye on them.

“Xander’s turn,” I called out, interrupting an argument that had broken out among the girls. Laney shushed them for me so I didn’t have to reach into their minds to get their attention. I didn’t do that unless it was necessary, trying to set a good example. The grumbles went round our jacker group in the corner, but they dutifully gave their verbal permissions for him to link in.

I brushed their soft, still-forming minds. “Remember,” I said to Xander. “Only link your thoughts.”

Xander linked into all seven minds and tried to gently send a thought to them.
Who wants pizza for dessert?
His words rang loudly, reverberating through all their heads at once. It was too much command, and they all echoed back,
Pizza! Pizza for dessert!

We already had pizza for lunch and dinner, so that wasn’t their free will speaking. I linked a thought to Xander
. Easy there, changeling. If they were readers, they’d be hijacking the nearest pizza delivery van.

Xander threw me a smile.

Focus
.
And gently this time.

Random thoughts about pizza still skittered through their minds.
Who wants cheese curls for dessert?
Xander linked in. It was almost too soft, only a whisper, but they heard it. Choruses of
No! Gah, those are disgusting!
overlapped each other. They were getting tired of the vending machine food as well. Xander’s back went rigid as he tried to process the seven different responses.

I didn’t link my thoughts to him, not wanting to add to the cacophony in his mind. Instead, I strode over and put my hand on his shoulder. His eyes were unfocussed as he tried to navigate the raging mental conversation with the other changelings.

At least he didn’t knock anyone out. He would slowly get it.

Xander reminded me of Simon and what he might have been like, if someone had been around to help him when he changed. The memory of Simon lying dead in the desert was seared into my mind, but my other memories of him were starting to return—the kisses and sweet promises, as well as the lies. I still wasn’t sure which ones were which. I wondered if he would approve of me outing jackers to the world.

The next day the changelings’ parents started braving the crowd of protesters to come pick up their kids. Maria made arrangements for them to leave by hydrocopter from the roof, so they didn’t have to run the gauntlet with the changelings in tow.

I explained to the parents what had happened to their children in the hospital. At least, what I could guess. The worst part was the two changelings whose minds weren’t quite the same anymore. They could jack, but they were often confused, as if the true memory part of their brain had been wasted away by whatever Kestrel injected into them. I had to explain to the parents that their children’s brain tissue was damaged, and there was nothing I could do to fix it.

Afterward, I had to be alone for a while. I curled up in a corner cubicle and dreamed of a dozen ways that I could repay Kestrel for what he had done. A dart to the chest was far too good for him.

One by one, the changelings left until only Laney and Xander remained.

When it was time for Laney to leave, I shared her excited smile but I didn’t really want her to go. The sunshine of her smile when she jumped into her dad’s arms made me grin in spite of the small pain in my chest. Her dad shook my hand and her mom gave me a hug, then I beat a hasty retreat. I didn’t need a truth magistrate to see the love they had for her.

She was back where she belonged.

chapter THIRTY-SIX

Now it was just Xander and me.

I wasn’t about to turn him over to Child Protective Services, but the kid couldn’t spend the rest of his life camped out in a castroom. He needed a real home, and I only had one to give. I sent a message home through Maria, to see if it was okay to come to Gurnee. My family sent back two words.

Come home.

Except I wasn’t sure what waited for us there. I had spilled my family’s big secret, the one they had hidden for generations. The Feds were avoiding any obvious harassment of my family, but who knew what other fallout had rained down on my dad. I didn’t know if my family understood the choice that I had made. I only hoped they wouldn’t hold it against Xander.

If they let him stay, Xander should be fine with my family, like the other changelings with theirs. If the Feds openly arrested any of them, it would be proof that they had been sending jackers to camps and experimenting on them all along. The Feds could pretend they hadn’t been hunting down jackers, but they could no longer say that they didn’t exist. Especially now that more and more jackers were coming out every day.

The Feds couldn’t arrest me out in the open either, but that wasn’t the only danger in going home. Tru-casts or no, if Molloy ever escaped the Feds, he would hunt me down, and my home was the first place he’d look. Kestrel might be forced to give up the changelings I’d rescued, but if I was the genetic link he wanted, he would never stop searching for me. He’d have no problem with making me disappear one night without the formality of actually arresting me.

I wasn’t at all sure going home was a good idea. But I could at least drop off Xander and make sure he had a place to stay.

Maria arranged for a hydrocopter to take us to Union Station so we could avoid the protesters. I borrowed a tally card from her to pay for the train and transit fares from there to Gurnee.

The train out of the city was empty, with most commuters already at work. The bus arrived at the train transfer station shortly after we did. As soon as the bus door whooshed open, I linked into the driver’s mind.
Does this route go to Gurnee? I need to get to Manor Road.

The driver crinkled a smile on her heavily lined face.
Sure does, sweetie. There’s a stop real close to Manor Road.
Her smile faltered, thinking she recognized me from somewhere. I hoped we could get through the trip before she realized my face had been all over the news for the last two days.

I gave her a smile and climbed the steps of the bus with Xander behind me. She swiped Maria’s tally card across the scanner and handed it back to me.
There are a lot of stops before Manor. Make yourself comfortable, dear.
She leaned away from Xander as he passed. He must be hesitating to link into her mind, not quite sure of his skills yet. Which wasn’t a bad idea, but it left the driver thinking he was a zero. She mentally commanded the door shut behind us, and we worked our way to the back of the bus.

Xander fidgeted in the bus seat next to me. He kept spinning a leather bracelet he’d managed to keep through the camp and the hospital. I wasn’t sure what the significance of it was, but I didn’t link in to ask. Privacy was different than secrets.

Fall had come to Illinois, and the leaves were starting to drop. There were splashes of color everywhere. As we wound through the side streets of my hometown, I spied a tree made entirely of gold, except for a single red leaf. A thousand tiny orange leaflets flew past on a gust of air.

It felt like a million years since I had been home.

The bus pulled to a stop a block from my house. I had already swept the neighborhood to make sure there were no jacker agents waiting to capture us, but there were only my normal neighbors doing their normal things. At least I guessed it was normal—I’d never kept tabs on the neighbors before.

As we approached my house, my mom flew out the door and met us halfway across the lawn. She nearly knocked me over when she hugged me.

“Hi, Mom.” I tried to say more, but my throat tightened up at having her close again.

She took my cheeks in her hands. “Kira, you can link with me, sweetheart. It’s okay.”

I linked into her mind and was overwhelmed with the happiness I found there.
I’m so glad you’re home, Kira. And I’m so proud of you
. She replayed images of me on the tru-cast, and I cringed.

I had to get them out, Mom,
I explained, even though she wasn’t asking.
I couldn’t let the Feds take them back to the basement.

I know, honey. I understand.

I pulled her hands from my face and peered around to the open front door.
Does Dad understand?
I had reached into the house when I made my sweep before, but I hadn’t lingered in the minds there, nervous about what thoughts I would find.

I’ll let him explain,
she thought.

I motioned to Xander, who was watching us with undisguised longing. “Mom, this is Xander. I was hoping that, maybe, he could stay with you for a while.” She, along with everyone else, had to know what had happened to Xander. His mom had made sure of that on the tru-casts.

My mom beamed a smile at him and switched to speaking aloud without missing a beat. “Of course he’s welcome to stay with us.” She offered her hand, and Xander awkwardly shook it.

I wanted to be up front, so there were no misunderstandings. No more secrets. “There’s just one thing, Mom.” I cleared my throat to get rid of the quaver. “I’m really here to drop Xander off. I’m not sure it’s such a good idea for me to stay.” Her face twisted up like I had gone demens right in front of her. “It’s just that it’s not really safe. For me, I mean. Xander will be fine. If he stays with you. If that’s okay.” I stopped my stuttering because my mom seemed like she was about to cry, and that nearly killed me on the spot. “I… I want to stay, it’s just that…” I didn’t even know where to start. She shushed me by patting my arm and blinking back the tears.

“You should talk to your father. He’s waiting to see you.” She looped her arms through Xander’s and mine. I let her tow us toward the house. The second floor window had been broken, and two large boards crossed over it with plastic wrapping hanging from the edges.

I cleared my throat. “What happened to the window?”

“Oh, that. Um, nothing.” It was a wonder my mom had kept our family secret for so long, because she was so fantastically bad at lying.

I linked gently into her head.
The truth?

The truth is that some hateful people threw a rock through it. Your father didn’t reach them before they sped off.
Her lips made a tight line.
No one was hurt.

The hole in my parent’s house gaped at me. My dad was not going to be happy about this. At all.

We stepped through the darkened front doorway and climbed the stairs to the living room. Seamus hovered at the top, all gussied up in his cadet uniform. A grin broke across his face, and he swept me up in a hug.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in school?” I asked while trying to pull in a breath.

“Aren’t you supposed to be staying out of trouble?” he replied. My laugh came out strangled because of his hold on me. He set me down with a thump and cocked a look to Xander. “I see you have a follower.”

Xander froze, scanning up Seamus’s towering height.

“Just ignore him,” I said to Xander. “He’s oversized, but mostly harmless.” Xander kept his distance.

My father was waiting at the far end of the room. I bit my lip. “Hi, Dad.”