“Science,” Lexa said. “But yeah, it’s pretty cool. There’s an image pickup sensor and a built-in transmitter that sends the signal out so we can see what the wearer is seeing. A feed comes directly here, and you can also get it on a handheld monitor. The only thing is, they don’t work well in low light, so if the wearer is in the dark, so are we.”
“Does it feel weird?” Six asked Rena.
The girl shook her head. “Like a normal contact lens,” she said.
“I want one!” said Nemo, who was standing next to Rena.
“Don’t worry,” Lexa said. “I’ve got one for you, too.”
Rena swiveled her head around, causing the image on the monitor to change. She looked at Nine, who waved, and then at Sam, who gave a thumbs-up sign. Then she turned back to Lexa. “What else have you got?”
“These,” Lexa said. She held up a small medallion and what looked like a single stud-style earring. She walked over to where Rena and Nemo stood. She handed the medallion to Rena. “I noticed your St. Therese medal,” she said. “This one is just like it, only it has a listening device built into it. It will pick up voices from up to twenty feet away.”
Rena pulled a necklace out from beneath her shirt and took it off, replacing it with the one Lexa had given her. “It’s exactly like it,” she said, looking at the nickel-size medal.
“I figure if Dennings noticed you wearing it before, he might not think anything of it,” Lexa said. She turned to Nemo and held up the small silver stud. “And this is to replace the one in your nose.”
Nemo took the jewelry and started working on switching it out with her current piercing.
“We have to assume that Dennings will search you for devices,” Lexa said to the girls. “Hopefully, he won’t look too carefully at these.”
“What if he does?” Nemo asked, securing the back to her piercing and turning it in her nostril.
“Then you tell him we made you wear them,” said Nine.
“But our story is going to be that we ran away from here,” Rena said. “So why would we be wearing anything you gave us?”
“An excellent point,” said Nine. “If it comes to that, you tell Dennings that you do want to run away but that we kept such a tight leash on you that there was no way you could. So you agreed to pretend to run away and spy on him in order to actually run away.”
“In that case, why wouldn’t we just take out the contact lenses and throw the jewelry away once we were away from here?” said Nemo. “That’s what I would do.”
“Yes, you would,” Nine agreed. “Unless you were afraid that not going along with us would result in some terrible consequences.”
“Like what?” Nemo pressed.
“Look,” said Nine. “No matter what you tell Dennings, he’s going to be suspicious. He’s already been found once. But from what you’ve told me, he’s someone who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else. That’s what we’re counting on. He doesn’t really care whether you’ve run away or not. He only cares that he’s got you.”
“That’s a terrible plan,” Nemo said.
“Thank you,” said Six. “Like I’ve been saying all along.”
“Unless—” Nemo said thoughtfully.
“Unless what?” said Sam.
“Unless we tell him right up front that we have these,” said Nemo. “Or one of us does, anyway. Or maybe not tell him outright but somehow let him know, like we’re afraid to say it out loud. That way, we look like we were forced into it and are asking for his help.”
Nine looked thoughtful. “That’s not a terrible idea,” he said.
“Can I see you outside?” Six said to him. “You and Sam.”
She walked out of the room and into the hallway. When Sam and Nine joined her, she turned on Nine.
“Are you insane?” she said. “That’s a terrible idea. All of this is a terrible idea.”
“I know you’re not exactly thrilled about it,” Nine said. “But—”
“But nothing,” Six said. “These are kids, Nine. And we’re throwing them into the fire.”
“Rena is the one who suggested it,” Nine reminded her.
“That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea!” said Six. “Rena wants to save her friend. She isn’t thinking about what could happen.”
“I don’t know,” Sam said cautiously. “She saw what he could do in Texas, remember? She’s already been in the fire once, and she came out of it in one piece.”
“Because we went in and pulled her out!” said Six.
“Which we’ll do again if we have to,” Nine said. “They’re both going to be implanted with microchips that will allow us to track them. If they get into any trouble—”
“When they get into trouble,” said Six. “Let’s not even pretend that they’ll be able to get in there, find Yo-Yo and Edwige and Ghost, and get out again without anything happening. Something is going to happen.”
“And when something happens, we’ll be there to help them,” Nine said.
Six looked at Sam. “Are you going to back me up here?”
Sam took a breath. “I know what you’re saying,” he replied. “And I agree with you that there’s a very likely chance that something will happen that will require us to go in.” He hesitated.
“But?” said Six.
“But I think it’s our best chance of getting inside the operation before even more kids are hurt.”
Six started to reply, but Sam continued.
“We don’t know what condition Kirk is in,” he said. “So even if Dennings has him, we don’t know if he can do anything. And we don’t know exactly how many kids he has with him already. But we know there are a lot of them.”
“And you think it’s worth risking two more kids to maybe find them and maybe get inside?”
“I know what I would do if it was you in there,” Sam said.
“That’s not the same, and you know it,” said Six. “You know how to use your Legacy. You’ve got experience.”
“I didn’t when all this started,” said Sam. “Not when I saved John from the Mogs. Not when I promised to help you all fight. Then I was just ordinary.”
“You were never ordinary,” Six said. “And you had me and John and Nine and everyone else to help you when you needed it.”
“And Rena and Nemo have you and me and Nine to help them when they need it,” Sam said.
“And Lexa,” Nine added.
Six let out a groan of frustration. “All right,” she said. “I’m going to be outvoted anyway. But when this all goes to hell—”
“Then we’ll let you say you told us so,” said Nine.
“Like she wouldn’t anyway,” Sam said.
Nine looked at Six. “Those girls need to think you believe in them,” he said. “Okay?”
Six nodded. She did believe in Nemo and Rena. She believed that they wanted to help their friends. She also remembered that wanting to help hadn’t stopped Sam from ending up in a Mog prison and that she and the other Garde hadn’t been able to keep him out of there. True, Dennings wasn’t a Mog, but he was potentially just as dangerous. She kept these thoughts to herself, though. All she could do was prepare and protect Nemo and Rena to the best of her abilities.
“Let’s go back in, then,” Nine said, heading for the door to Lexa’s office. “Smiles, everyone. Remember, we’re one big, happy family.”
“I’d forgotten how annoying he is,” Six said to Sam as they followed him.
Sam put his arm around her. “Funny. I think I heard him saying something like that to Lexa about you earlier.”
Back in the office, Rena and Nemo were practicing picking up conversations with their jewelry microphones. When Six and the others came in, Nemo said, “Are you done arguing?”
“We weren’t arguing,” Nine and Six said in unison.
Nemo looked at Rena. “They were arguing,” they said in unison.
“Is everything working the way it’s supposed to?” Six asked Lexa, changing the subject.
“Yep,
” said Lexa. “And until it doesn’t, we’ll be able to see what they see and hear what they hear.”
“All right then,” Six said. “Now what?”
“Now Rena texts the number she used before to reach Dennings’s people,” Sam said. “And then we wait.”
Six turned to Rena. “Might as well do it now.”
Rena took out her phone and pressed some buttons, calling up the number. “What do I say?”
“Here,” Nemo said, taking it from her and starting to type. Her thumb and fingers flew over the keys. Before Six could tell her to wait a minute, she hit send. “There,” she said. “Done.”
“What did you say?” Six asked her.
“I asked if he wanted to Netflix and chill,” Nemo said, handing the phone back to Rena. “What do you think I said? I said I wanted to talk to him about something important. Well, I guess it’s Rena who wants to talk to him.”
Nine looked at Six. “She’s like a mini you,” he said. “It’s like you have a kid, only she’s almost the same age as you are.”
“So more of a twin, then,” Nemo suggested. “Anyway, that’s what I said. Was that wrong?”
“No,” Six answered after a moment. “It’s fine. But next time, maybe run it by us first.”
There was a dinging sound. Rena checked her phone. “Looks like next time is now,” she said. “He responded. Well, somebody responded.”
“What did they say?” Sam asked her.
“It says, ‘I’m listening.’ What do I write back?”
Nemo reached for the phone, but Rena held it out of her reach. Nemo rolled her eyes.
“Tell him you need to talk,” said Nine. “In person.”
Rena typed. She wasn’t nearly as quick as Nemo had been, but a minute later she hit send.
Again, the response came quickly. “He wants to meet,” Rena said.
“Where?” Six asked.
“Reno, Nevada.”
“How far is that?” Six asked Nine.
“If you drive, probably around four hours,” Nine said.
Six looked at her watch. It was 1:27. “Tell him you’ll meet him at seven,” she said.
“Wait a minute,” said Nine. “You can’t just drop them off like you’re dropping them off at the movies or something. They’re supposed to be runaways, remember? How would two kids who were running away travel?”
“I’d steal a car,” Nemo said immediately.
“Bus,” Rena countered. “It’s the cheapest, and you’re not going to get pulled over by some cop who runs your license plate.”
Lexa, typing away on her keyboard, said, “Bus from San Francisco takes about the same amount of time. If we drive them, they can be on the three thirty-five and be there around eight o’clock.”
“Perfect,” said Nine. “Text him back,” he told Rena.
As Rena typed, Nine said to Sam and Six, “You two can follow in one of our cars. Once they make contact and find out what’s next, we’ll go from there.”
“And what will you be doing?” Six asked him.
“I have things to attend to here,” Nine reminded her. “Lexa and I will be backup support.”
Sam looked at Six and nodded. “Sounds like a plan,” he said.
“What about clothes?” Nemo said. “We don’t have anything but what we’ve got on.”
“Probably best to keep it that way,” said Nine. “If you’re running away, you’re only going to have what you’re wearing. Unless you want to take an HGA sweatshirt.”
“I’ll pass,” said Nemo.
“Let’s get going then,” said Six. She looked at Nine. “Can I borrow the car, Dad?”
Fifteen minutes later, the four of them were in a Ford Explorer, headed for San Francisco. As Sam drove, Six lectured Nemo and Rena on what to say and what to do. Finally, Rena said, “I think we’ve got it.”
Six sighed and settled into her seat for the rest of the ride.
When they got to the bus station, she and Sam bought tickets for the girls, then walked them to the waiting bus.
“We’ll be following you to Reno,” Six said. “Nothing bad is going to happen. And if you need to end this at any point, you just say so and we’ll move in.”
Rena hugged her. “We’ll be fine,” she whispered into Six’s ear.
“I’m not really a hugger,” Nemo said.
“Shocking,” Sam said. “How about a fist bump?”
“That I can do,” said Nemo, raising her fist and tapping it to his outstretched one. Then she looked at Six. “Seriously,” she said. “We’ll be okay. But thanks for worrying.”
“Get on the bus before I change my mind,” said Six.
With the girls on board, she and Sam returned to the Explorer and waited for the bus to leave.
“This is a whole new side of you,” Sam said.
“What are you talking about?” said Six. “I don’t have sides.”
Sam snorted. “You’re practically a dodecahedron,” he said. “And I mean this mother-hen side. You’re worried about them. It’s sweet.”
“Take that back!” Six said.
Sam reached out and took her hand. “It’s sweet,” he repeated. “I like it.”
“I don’t,” Six said. “This is exactly why I didn’t want to get involved with the Human Garde. Too much can go wrong.”
Ahead of them, the bus’s lights went on. The door shut, and the bus pulled away.
Sam squeezed Six’s hand. “We’ll just have to make sure it doesn’t,” he said as he started to follow.
CHAPTER FIVE
SAM
LIBBY, MONTANA
SAM PUSHED OPEN THE DOOR OF ROOM 11 OF THE Mountain Do Motor Inn and darted inside. He shut the door behind him and set a bag of food from the Golden Dragon Chinese restaurant on the small table that stood beneath the room’s single window, which, if the curtains were open, would offer a spectacular view of the parking lot.
“Dinner’s here, Mrs. Hubble,” he said, using the name under which he and Six were registered.
“Great,” Six said, coming over to inspect the bag. “I’m starving.”
“I can’t believe how cold it is out there,” Sam said. “My hands are freezing.”
Six pulled out a plastic container and handed it to him. “Here,” she said. “Hold the egg drop soup for a few minutes. That will warm you up.”
“Ahh,” Sam sighed. “Better. The girl at the restaurant said we’re in for more snow. I guess this is unusual for this time of year.”
“Thank you, climate change,” Six said, tearing open a packet of soy sauce with her teeth.
“What did I miss?” Sam asked as he sank onto the room’s only bed. The mattress groaned in protest.
“Not much,” Six said, pouring the soy sauce over a carton of pork with black bean sauce and poking into it with a fork. “The guy they sent to meet Rena and Nemo is grilling them, trying to trip them up. But they’re sticking to the script.”
She indicated the television. On the screen was an image, fed from the laptop on the bed, of a coffee shop. Rena and Nemo were seated at a table, across from a bearded man wearing a red-and-black-checked lumberjack coat and a red knit hat. Because the image was being fed through the contact lens cameras each girl wore, they only saw what Nemo and Rena were looking at.
“Whose camera is that?” Sam asked.
“Nemo’s,” Six answered. “You can switch between them, but they’re showing the same thing right now, so there’s not much point.”
“Those things are amazing,” said Sam. “Lexa really hooked us up.” He turned up the volume and listened as the trio talked. The microphones implanted in the jewelry each girl wore was also working perfectly.
“You expect me to believe they just let you walk out of that place?” the man said. “After what went down in Texas?”
“They didn’t let us do anything,” Nemo said, her voice dripping with hostility. “That’s the point.”
“They wanted everything their way,” Rena added
, perfectly playing her role as the more levelheaded one. “I don’t like that. Besides, I want to see my friend Yo-Yo. Make sure he’s okay. That’s all I’ve ever wanted, even back in Texas. And Nemo wants to see her friend Ghost.”
The man nodded at Nemo. “What is it you do again?”
“Breathe underwater,” Nemo said.
The man snorted. “That’ll come in real handy around here,” he said. “And you make toys come alive?” he said to Rena.
“Something like that,” Rena confirmed.
The man shook his head. “I don’t know why the hell Dennings is taking a chance on you two,” he said. “Personally, I think you’re more trouble than you’re worth.”
“I guess it’s a good thing you’re not in charge, then, isn’t it?” Nemo said.
The man pointed a finger at her. “Watch your mouth. You ain’t there yet. I’d be more than happy to leave your asses right here.”
“Whatever,” Nemo said.
“She’s pushing it,” Sam remarked.
“You sound surprised,” said Six.
“You still think we shouldn’t have let her go, don’t you?” said Sam.
“It doesn’t matter now,” Six answered. “She’s there. Now we just have to hope this guy buys their story.”
A day had passed since Rena had boarded the bus in San Francisco. In Reno, they had met with a woman who grilled them just as the man in the coffee shop was, asking the same kinds of questions he was asking. Then they had been driven to a rest area and put into a van.
And then they had disappeared.
Sam and Six, watching the camera feeds and following the van at a discreet distance, had seen the feeds turn to static. Not knowing if the tech had failed or if Rena and Nemo had been physically injured or even killed, they’d panicked. But a minute or so later, the feeds were restored, and Nemo and Rena were staring at a stocky, pug-nosed teenage boy with buzzed blond hair who was holding on to them. They had been teleported to a new location, presumably to prevent anyone following them from knowing where they were going.
Fortunately, their microchips pinpointed their position in Montana. Six and Sam, who had trailed them the whole way, quickly detoured to an airport, where McKenna arranged for a private jet to take them to Montana. There, they had holed up at the motel nearby to monitor the situation. Given that James Kirk’s tracking device was putting him in the same general vicinity, they hoped this would be the final stop.