The Unseen (3 page)

“Whoa! Love is in the air, Jack!” one of the security guards at the top of the steps yelled out to his friend. Kari and David both jumped and stared up at the audible intruder on what they had thought to be a private moment. Two guards at the top of the stairs were laughing as one of them nudged the other.

“I can feel it, Steve! I can feeeel it!” The two guards had another laugh with each other as they watched Kari and David dance a dozen steps below them.

“Don’t,” David said.

“What do you mean ‘don’t’?”

“Don’t say anything back,” David said.

“Oh, I’m the one with that problem? You were the one who started the third civil war inside a few minutes ago.”

“This is different,” David said, returning his attention to Kari and the dance. “You see, it’s not for their sake that I’m saying that. I have purely selfish motivations.”

Kari cocked her head and looked at him strangely.
Sometimes you don’t make any sense, David.

“It’s because you are absolutely terrifying when you get mad, and you’re intimidating enough to dance with as it is,” David said.

Kari couldn’t help but laugh at the unexpected explanation.

“I’m not that bad, am I?”

“Are you kidding? I’m pretty sure Terrence will never get within a hundred miles of me again after tonight. What was it that you said to him after we got kicked out? ‘I want to remember you’? That gave me chills!”

Kari wasn’t able to keep dancing as she laughed, pulling herself even closer to David.

“Well, it’s true,” Kari said after she’d recovered enough. “I like to remember the worst people I meet, just in case we meet again.”

“I get it, but, man, when you said that, I thought Terrence was going to wet himself.”

“Kiss her already!” shouted one of the guards from the security checkpoint at the entrance to City Hall. Kari shot them a warning glance, but the guards just chuckled and egged them on anyway.

“Fine!” Kari yelled back to them.

“Fine?” David asked, equally both curious and surprised.

“Yeah . . .” Kari said, turning around. David kissed her. Chills raced through her body as she felt David’s soft, warm lips on her own. She hadn’t grown up dreaming about her first kiss like most girls, but this moment was perfect. Kari kissed him back, and the security guards cheered triumphantly in the background.

The kiss ended a second later, and it became immediately apparent that neither of them knew what to do next. The song ended on cue and was replaced with another heavy electronic dance tune. Kari looked at David and laughed at how bad he was blushing, as she couldn’t think of anything else to do.

“Let’s get out of here,” David said.

“After only one dance?” Kari said.

“Yeah, I didn’t plan on us staying here too long.”

“What did you plan?”

“You’ll see.”

“Thank you, Marie,” Kari said, as she accepted a bowl full of popcorn from David’s younger sister. She had grown a surprising amount since the night they had narrowly made it across the border.

“Have fun!” Marie said, followed by a round of presumptuous giggles.

“OK, thanks, Marie. Go back inside now,” David said, his voice revealing a bit of embarrassment. David’s younger sister laughed even harder as she skipped away into the darkness and joined David’s youngest sister on their way back to the Pratt’s new home. The lights from David’s house were hardly discernible through the woods from where they were parked. It was pretty rural out here, even farther from town than their last home in North Carolina had been. Kari didn’t blame them for wanting to live as far away from civilization as possible after what they had been through.

“Sorry about that . . .”

“It’s fine!” Kari said. “Really, I wish I had a little sister to bug me.”

“I’m not so sure you do . . .”

“Sometimes I do,” Kari said. Living alone was lonely at times. With her parents waiting out the war safely in London, Kari was short on company. She had chosen to settle down farther north than the Pratts had in Kansas. West Dakota was less populated and less focused on the war. It was also far enough west to feel safe from Henderson’s reach, yet close enough that she could visit David with ease if she wanted to. She had considered moving close to David’s family, but had ultimately decided that having some distance between them would be safer.

“Well, they should leave us alone for the rest of the night. They really wanted to see your dress. And they wanted to see you. You’re sort of a superhero to them, you know.”

“I’m no superhero,” Kari said. She didn’t want David’s sisters looking up to her for the danger she had put them in. But, she did feel relieved that David’s family didn’t seem to hate her anymore.

“I don’t know about that,” David said. “You’re as close to one as I’ve ever met.”

“I don’t have any powers.”

“Which one would you want?” David said, snuggling in closer to her.

“I’m not sure, actually. Super strength, maybe?” Her answer didn’t feel right, but it had been the first power she had thought of that didn’t sound too nerdy.

“I’d want to be able to speak to dogs,” David said proudly.

“What?” A number of popcorn kernels fell out of Kari’s mouth as she laughed at David’s peculiar response. “Seriously?”

“Absolutely.”

“You’d want to be able to talk to dogs? Out of everything out there, you’d choose that?”

“In my defense, it is more original than what you chose.”

“That might not be true. There might be hundreds, even thousands of superheroes who can speak to dogs, but no one knows who any of them are because their powers aren’t interesting.”

“Don’t be mad because I’d beat you in a fight.”

“Oh, come on,” Kari said. “It wouldn’t even be a competition.”

“You’d fight back against a swarm of puppies? What kind of monster are you?”

Kari ate another handful of sugary popcorn. It wasn’t the traditional buttery popcorn that most people printed before they watched an interactive movie at home; it was sweeter and had a different texture.

“Why would you choose that?” Kari asked. David looked away from the old movie they were watching and looked Kari in the eyes.

“So I could talk to your dog. I have a feeling he’s got some great stories.”

“That’s why? You could have just chosen telepathy to read my mind.”

“I think things would be more interesting from a dog’s perspective, though. And you’d just smash me with your super strength if I was invading your privacy so directly.”

Kari grunted her agreement as she ate another handful of popcorn.

“This popcorn is amazing,” Kari said. “I’ll have to get the recipe.”

“It won’t do you any good.”

“Why?”

“Because you can’t print it. It just doesn’t turn out the right way; you have to make this the old fashioned way,” David said, turning his attention back to the movie being played on a white sheet strewn up between two trees in David’s backyard.

Kari looked at him curiously. In some ways he was so modern—he was competent programmer and a talented designer, and he had a good handle on the world. Yet, so much of him was traditional. It was a blend of ideas that Kari had never seen before, and one that she was more intrigued by every day.
I mean, here we are, sitting in the back of an old manual truck, watching a movie on a bed sheet. Who does that?

Kari leaned across the car, turned David’s head with her hand, and kissed him. The rest of the movie was a blur, of which Kari couldn’t remember anything except for when David dropped his popcorn bowl on the floor and when Aubrey landed from her long flight and interrupted them.

“Don’t you even worry about it, honey! You just get yourself warmed up,” David’s mom said to Aubrey, who was bundled up in enough blankets to survive a night in Antarctica. Mrs. Pratt handed Aubrey a mug full of hot chocolate, and Kari’s best friend clung to it.

“Really, thank you, though,” Kari said. “I lost track of time.” David nudged her leg a little under the table with his knee. She looked over to David’s dad, who had his eyebrows raised at that statement.
Great, as if he needed another reason to hate me.

“So, why exactly is Aubrey here?” David’s father said. He made an attempt to sound neutral, but his voice had enough acid in it to earn him a glare from his wife. The situation felt all too familiar.

“Kari helped her out,” David said.

“And why is she wearing a prison uniform?”

“She helped her out, just like she helped us out,” David said. “Look, Dad, it’s not a big deal. It was never in the plan for her to come here—it just sort of happened.”

“A known fugitive of the state illegally breaks another person out of custody and brings her to a house of escaped prisoners. That is a sentence that sounds like a big deal to me.” Mr. Pratt made no effort to hide his emotions from his voice now.
“It sounds like something that is going to bring too much attention to this family, David, and we have been through enough already.”

“Not this again, Dad,” David protested.

“No,” Kari interrupted, “he’s right. Your family has been through too much already because of me. It was a mistake to have Aubrey come here. The drones were instructed to drop Aubrey off at my location, and I just happened to be here. It was careless. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t you apologize, Kari,” David’s mother cut into the conversation. “We are happy you are here, and we are happy that Aubrey is here as well.”

“Honey, you know what’s been happening lately. Things are getting worse out there—we need to keep a low profile.”

“We owe everything to Kari.” David inserted himself back into the conversation. Kari nudged his leg this time with her knee, but it was no use. “The same people who had us imprisoned took Aubrey to try to use her as bait to get Kari to come back and work for them. She’s no more an escaped convict than we are.”

“We’re grateful for what Kari did for us, David,” his mother said, as she handed her husband a beer, served with a long, daring look and a side of “you better not say another word.” “And Aubrey is welcome to stay here as long as she wants.”

“Thank you,” Aubrey said. Kari had almost forgotten that Aubrey was here. Her hair was longer now, and she wasn’t as prepared as she liked to be, but Aubrey was still beautiful Aubrey. She took a sip of her hot chocolate before asking, “What’s been happening?”

“Both presidents have been murdered in the past month,” David’s mom said a few seconds later, after no one else stepped up to the plate. “And that’s made the fighting much worse than before.”

“Yikes,” Aubrey said. “I guess you miss out on the big news in prison.”

“We’ve all been there,” Kari said. She had made the comment in an attempt to lighten the mood, but it fell flat.
Tough crowd.

“So what’s your plan now, Aubrey?” Mr. Pratt said. Kari knew instantly that it wasn’t as innocent of a question as it sounded.

“I don’t know—you’d have to ask Kari.”

Kari felt all the eyes in the room settle on her.
I need to start thinking about what happens after I do something of questionable legality.

“Well, I was thinking that Aubrey would just come out and live with me. And we’d just go from there,” Kari said.

“In West Dakota?” David’s mom said.

“Yeah . . .”

“How old are you, Aubrey?” Mrs. Pratt pulled a chair up to the table and finally stopped trying to make others comfortable. Kari liked David’s mom; his dad had always been the difficult one for her to get along with.

“I’m going to be sixteen soon.”

“How soon?”

“In six months.”

“I see . . . And how are the schools out in West Dakota, Kari?”

“Umm . . . I don’t really know.” Kari hated to admit it, but she hadn’t looked into it at all.

“How close is the nearest high school?”

“I really don’t know,” Kari said.

Mrs. Pratt looked to her husband, and he just shrugged. She took a sip of her drink and then, in a voice that was so reassuring that Kari believed all of her problems were over, offered a solution.

“I want you to come and stay with us, Aubrey. The schools here are great, and you can catch the last two weeks of class before the summer break. It’s not perfect, but I think you’d be comfortable here, until you can figure things out moving forward.”
Yeah, great schools. Lots of friendly students willing to jump you during school dances. Just wait until they find out you’re a Coastal.

“Thank you so much for the offer. Do you mind if I think on it tonight?” Aubrey said.

Smart, that gives us time to think of a good excuse why you’re better off living with me.

“Of course,” David’s mom replied. “Just know that you’re welcome here. Both of you are.”

Kari smiled at David’s mom. It was a kind offer, even if Kari couldn’t accept it. She couldn’t risk Henderson or anyone else who came looking for her dragging David’s family into her problems.

“You’re sure that no one is following her? They aren’t going to show up on our doorstep in the morning, are they?” David’s dad said. The angst in his voice was gone, but his reservations still hadn’t been addressed.

“No, I don’t think they’d be able to reach you here even if they knew where to look. Marshal Henderson doesn’t have the authority to order missions on the other side of the border to extract citizens of foreign countries. It would be a war crime even if he was capable of pulling it off, which he’s not,” Kari said, hoping she was right. “There’s no risk.”

That placated David’s dad for now. He leaned back in his chair and took a long swig of his beer.

“Well, I’ll escort you ladies back to your hotel,” David said as he pushed his chair away from the table and stood up. Kari followed his lead immediately, eager to have the conversation end.

“Thank you so much for everything,” Kari said. “You guys have been so kind, and I had a lot of fun tonight.”

“Of course,” David’s mom said.

“I look forward to hearing all about it,” David’s dad said, looking at David’s battered face.

Kari checked the places on the Net where the hacker community generally convened and found all of them inexplicably empty.
Slow couple of days.
The water running in the bathroom stopped, so Kari rolled off of the bed and stopped overriding her vision with windows from the Internet. She was happy to return her attention to the real world; her online search had brought no good news. Reports from the eastern border between the Middle States and the United States were scary; the fighting had caused large numbers of human casualties.
This civil war is the biggest waste of lives and money that I could ever imagine.