How to Lead a Life of Crime

• • •

  Forty-eight hours have passed since I spoke to Mandel. I still haven’t opened the folder. The Immunity Phase ends tomorrow. The new rankings will be revealed in the morning, and the Wolves have already stopped treating me as Dux. Joi is their leader now. When Caleb arrives in the Wolves’ Den with a memo from Mandel, he doesn’t even acknowledge my presence. He heads straight for Joi, who appears to be focusing on her own homework for once.

  “What?” she asks without glancing up at him.

  “I have a list of the bottom six,” he says, making sure that only the top Wolves can hear. The culling should begin as quickly as possible. We traditionally start with the last student on the list, but since this semester has been rather unusual, Mr. Mandel would like you to make the selection.”

  “No,” Joi says, returning to her homework.

  Caleb swivels around, hoping that one of us can explain the response. “I’m sorry, Joi,” he says at last. “I don’t understand. No what?”

  “The culling is postponed. I haven’t finished my analysis yet. I need to reinterview some of the students.”

  “But . . .” Caleb protests.

  Joi glances back up as if she’d already forgotten he was there. “Yes?”

  “But what about Gwendolyn? And number fifty-five is that girl Violet, from your Incubation Group. Surely you don’t need to interview her.”

  “My needs are none of your business. I said the culling was postponed. That’s all you need to hear.”

  Caleb won’t leave. “I understand. But what should I tell Mr. Mandel? This list came directly from him.”

  “Let me see that.” Joi snatches the memo and runs her eyes down the list. “Who decides where students lie in the rankings?”

  “The instructors, of course,” Caleb answers.

  “And you really think they’re the best people to be making these kinds of decisions?”

  Caleb frowns. “They determine our grades. They’re the instructors.”

  “That’s right. But they’re not just instructors. They’re all graduates, too. Do you think the most gifted Mandel alumni would choose to be stuck teaching a bunch of delinquents all day? No. These instructors are here because they didn’t make the cut on the outside. So if you ask me, decisions like rankings are a bit beyond their abilities. The people in this room are more qualified than they are. We ought to be the ones calling the shots, don’t you think?”

  Caleb doesn’t say a word, but everyone else knows exactly what the answer should be. Leila slams her computer shut and Julian shoots her a knowing glance. Austin sits back and studies the ceiling. Joi keeps rattling their cage. Why haven’t they started searching for a way to break free?

  “How long do you think it will take to complete your analysis?” Caleb asks.

  “Dunno,” Joi says with a shrug. “Could be a while. I’ve never done this before.”

  She’s pretending to read now, but she’s scanned the same page three times. Joi must be feeling the weight of my stare. Her head remains bowed down toward her book, but then those amber eyes dart up and meet mine. And I see the girl I knew on the Lower East Side. She’s still there, and she’s not going to change. That’s why Joi keeps postponing the culling. She’s trying to save all the students—just like Jude said. But she needs more time to come up with a plan, and she knows it won’t be long before Mandel calls her bluff. Someday soon, he’ll force her to either kill or be killed. I know which of the two options she’d choose. So whether Joi hates me or not, I’m going to have to help her search for a third.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  * * *

  INFESTATION

  The dorm floors are deserted. It’s rankings day. Everyone is downstairs in the cafeteria, and I’m taking my time getting dressed. I could move faster now that my limbs have almost healed. But I’m in no rush. I don’t need to see the big screen to know that I’m no longer a Dux.

  There’s a soft rap at my door. I slide it open to find Joi’s handsome Android waiting outside.

  “Sorry to bother you, Flick. I would have slipped this under your door, but I wasn’t sure you were still in there.” Levi hands me a note.

  Come up to the roof—and try to convince me not to push your ass off.

  “Thank you,” I tell the Android. Then I flush the note down the toilet and take the elevator to the ninth floor.

  I step out of the tower to find a girl coming toward me in a long, black sundress. Her wild hair is swept back by the cool morning wind, and the fabric of her dress clings to every curve of her body. If it weren’t for the fury in this girl’s eyes, I might have mistaken her for the one from my dreams. When she stops, there are less than six inches between us. I’m not sure if Joi intends to kill me or kiss me. I know which of the two I deserve.

  “I thought you wanted me to find you.” She sounds hoarse. Like the words have been stuck in her throat for a month. Like she’s been forced to suffer in silence in a place where you’re not allowed to cry. “You left that Mandel course catalog in my room, and I thought you wanted me to know where you’d gone.”

  “A trail of bread crumbs,” I mutter to myself. That’s what Peter Pan called it. When I was drunk, I must have dropped it—accidentally on purpose. I really have lost my mind.

  “So I risked my ass to get into this place. And when I get here, I find out you’ve been screwing some evil bitch the whole time.”

  “Joi, I’m sorry. I had to.”

  “Stop right there.” I really think Joi might try to strangle me if I say any more. “You had to? What, was Mandel holding a gun to your head?”

  “No.”

  “Then tell me why you had to do it, Flick.”

  I could play for pity. But I won’t. The truth is ugly, and I need to own up to it. “There was something I wanted. I thought Gwendolyn could help me get it.”

  “What was it?”

  “Mandel didn’t tell you?”

  Joi crosses her arms and shakes her head.

  “Revenge.”

  My confession appears to have dampened her rage. She’s not quite homicidal. Just furious. “This all has something to do with Peter Pan, doesn’t it?”

  It’s been so long since I thought about my original mission. “My father is a Mandel graduate. When I was growing up, his favorite form of exercise was beating me to a pulp. Peter Pan is my brother, Jude. He died trying to save me. I came here because Mandel told me he would help me punish my father. He has proof that my father killed Jude. But I had to sacrifice everything to get it. Starting with you.”

  Joi turns away from me, walks up to the railing at the edge of the roof, and gazes out at the city.

  “We shouldn’t be up here,” I tell her, though I don’t want to go. “It’s rankings day. You’ve been named Dux again. They’ll get suspicious if you’re not in the cafeteria to celebrate.”

  Joi shakes her head and doesn’t look back at me. “No. That’s what other Duxes would have done. They don’t know what to expect from me.”

  She’s right. She’s played her hand brilliantly. I join Joi at the edge, and when the wind shifts, I catch the scent of jasmine and cocoa butter.

  “It’s beautiful up here,” she says. I nod, but my eyes are closed as I inhale. “You can see all the way to the harbor. We could watch the fireworks on the Fourth of July.”

  That’s a month from now. We’ll be lucky if we both make it that long. “I’ve been trying to bring you here for the past three weeks. It’s the only place that’s not bugged. Mandel comes up to the roof when he doesn’t want his conversations recorded.”

  “I know. You told me five or six times. But I didn’t want to talk to you. And even if I had, it was too risky. Mandel’s been tracking our movements since I got to the academy. Watching to see how much time we spend together. Plus, there always seemed to be someone else hanging out in the lounge. We would have been caught.”

  “You think Mandel isn’t tracking us now?”

  “If he’s monitoring my chip, he’
ll see I’m downstairs in my room.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Joi pivots and holds her left arm out straight. With her right hand, she guides my index finger to the site of her chip. I can feel the raised line of the incision that was made. I sense a square object tucked under the skin. But it’s not a chip.

  “What is it?”

  “A folded-up piece of foil that I found in the infirmary.”

  “Where’s the chip?”

  “Back in my room. I took it out the same day they inserted it. The nurse left the instrument tray in the sink. I stole the needle and thread and dumped the rest in the trash. Then I removed the chip while I was in the shower. Most of the time, I keep it in my pocket so Mandel doesn’t get suspicious.”

  “But how did you know—”

  “That I had to get it out of my arm? Did you even look at that course catalog? When I found it, I thought it was some kind of sick joke. But then you didn’t come back, and I realized how much trouble you were in. So when Mandel told me about the chip, it made perfect sense. He can’t let anyone leave this place. I knew what I was getting into when I came here, and I knew that I’d need to get out of it, too.”

  Relief rushes through my system. “You can escape! The Dux is the only student allowed outside the academy, and if you don’t have a chip, you can disappear. They won’t be able to find you!”

  Joi doesn’t seem to share my enthusiasm. “If it’s so easy, why haven’t you hit the road? I don’t see any chip in your arm either.”

  When I take her hand, she tries to jerk it away. But I hold it firmly and guide one finger to the incision beneath my hairline. Then I let her go. “I have to stay.”

  Joi shrugs. “Great, ’cause I’m staying too.”

  “You can’t, Joi. There’s no way to save everyone here, but if you get out, you might be able to destroy the academy.”

  “And what would happen to you?”

  “Mandel told you. Only one of us can survive.”

  “Is that why you let me take the Dux title?” Joi asks. “Are you planning to sacrifice yourself to spare me?”

  The answer is yes. But that’s not what I’ll tell her, because it’s not nearly as noble as it sounds. I don’t want to be the one left behind. Not again. If Joi were dead, I wouldn’t make it out of here alive. I’ve suffered more than most, but that pain would be too much to bear. It’s hard enough standing this close to Joi without being able to touch her. If I’m ever sent to hell for the things I’ve done, this would be a suitable punishment.

  “You’re what matters most to me. I guess I had to lose you before I could figure that out.”

  “You haven’t lost me,” Joi admits grudgingly. “You’re a f—ing moron for hooking up with Gwendolyn, but you do have a few redeeming qualities. And you can thank Caleb for pointing them out. He’s been telling me stories—trying to make you look like a loser. I think that’s his strategy—divide and conquer. He said you and some guy named Lucas made a run for it. The kid was about to die. You were trying to help him escape, weren’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “And there was a girl named Aubrey. Caleb said you had a soft spot for her.”

  “I tried to help her too. I didn’t do either of them much good.”

  The fact that I failed doesn’t seem to faze her. “But you tried. So even though I’d love to kick your ass, I’m not going anywhere without you.”

  I’m not exactly sure what it all means, but I suddenly want to kiss Joi so much I can barely breathe. She must have figured that out too, because she widens the space between us.

  “I do have a couple of questions I need to ask if I’m even going to consider forgiving you,” she says. “How much did you know about the academy before you enrolled?”

  I need to force my lungs to inhale. “I knew a bit, but my father always talked about this place like it was Mount Olympus. I grew up thinking that the people who went here were gods. Even when Mandel told me he was teaching kids to be crooks, I don’t know if I really understood what it all meant. It’s still hard to believe that the graduates are actually criminals.”

  A minute passes before Joi speaks. I feel like I’m standing before a judge, waiting for the verdict that will decide my fate. “You’re a good guy, Flick. You want to believe that the world is fair and that everyone deserves the life that he gets. And some people do earn a place at the top. But others get lucky—and there are a whole lot of jerks out there who are willing to cheat.”

  “You think I’m good?” I heard everything she said, but it was that very first sentence that stuck in my head. I start moving toward her once more. I know I shouldn’t. But I’m high on euphoria.

  “Don’t push it, Flick,” Joi snaps. “You’re still a moron. And being good doesn’t make you special. Most people are good. Why do you think the Mandel alumni keep getting away with it? The rest of us just assume they play by the rules. We think they got where they are because they’re smarter or willing to work harder than everyone else.”

  There’s no point in continuing my quest for a kiss. I lean my head against the iron bars and peer down at the sidewalk below. A group of tiny tourists have gathered outside our building. I can’t see their faces, but I’m sure they’re all awestruck. They’ve been told that this is a place where dreams come true.

  “All those good people down there never bother to ask any questions. Like my father always said—there are no victims, only volunteers.”

  “That’s just another way of saying we all deserve what we get. Did it ever occur to you that your father might be an asshole?”

  I can’t help but laugh. “Yes. But that doesn’t mean he was wrong.”

  My smile fades. Joi is not finding me very amusing right now. “What would your father say about the kids in the colony? Are they volunteers too? If that’s the way your dad taught you to look at the world, it may have been the worst thing he ever did. Remember the morning Mandel made me Dux? We were standing outside the cafeteria and I asked what you saw. You started talking about the three groups at the academy. You gave them cute little labels, but what you described were winners, pawns, and losers.”

  “So what did you see?”

  “I saw a handful of bad seeds and a bunch of kids who’ve been told that they have to cheat to survive. And the more I think about all the brainwashed students that the Mandels have sent out into the world, the more it scares the shit out of me.”

  I never told Joi about Mandel’s grand theory. I didn’t want to frighten her any more than I needed to, but it’s starting to look like she’s figured out a lot of it on her own.

  “Why does it scare you?” I ask.

  “Because I love this country, and they’re doing their best to destroy it.”

  “You really believe a few hundred Mandel alumni could destroy a whole country?”

  “How many cheaters does it take to change a game, Flick? Think about all the athletes who pump themselves up with steroids. It probably started with one jerk who decided he could break the rules. He got away with it, and some other asshole figured he might not get caught either. Now everyone’s cheating—even the ones who don’t want to. Because they know they’ll never have a chance of winning anything unless they’re doping too.”

  “You’re saying regular people will turn into criminals just so they can compete with the Mandel crowd?”

  “Sure—if it’s impossible to get ahead by playing fair. Let’s say you’re a politician, and you want to run an honest campaign. But your opponent is getting millions of dollars from all the crooked businessmen who want to buy her vote. At some point you’re going to realize you can’t win—unless you promise favors to a bunch of scumbags too. Or what if you run some manufacturing company, and you really want to obey all the laws. But your competition is selling the same product at half the price. They can do it because they save millions by illegally dumping their toxic waste right into the ocean. Are you going to go out of business—or start breaking the law too?
See how it works?”

  “Mandel told me about your research. He said you linked the alumni to all kinds of crimes.”

  “Yeah, and all I had to work with was your course catalog and a list of graduates I’d gotten off Google. When I started out, I didn’t really expect to uncover much. But every time I opened the New York Times, I’d find so much stuff that I finally had to focus on a single big scheme. Have you ever heard of a drug called Exceletrex?”

  The name rings a bell, but I can’t figure out why.

  “Most people haven’t. It’s not on the market yet. It was invented by a pharmaceutical company in Illinois.

  Now I remember. Exceletrex is the product from Mr. Martin’s class. The one the congressman thought was dangerous. “Wait—Exceletrex is a drug?”

  “A medication. It’s supposed to treat behavioral problems like ADD. They say it helps kids focus, which really means it makes them easier to manipulate. If Exceletrex ends up replacing old drugs like Adderall and Ritalin, it will be worth billions and billions of dollars. Anyway, about four years ago, the pharmaceutical company that invented it was bought by a group of investors. Every single one of them is a Mandel alum.

  “It usually takes about ten years of testing to prove that a new drug is safe enough to be sold. But after the Mandel people took over, Exceletrex got the green light from the government in record time. It was scheduled to be launched this fall, just in time for ‘back to school’ season. But then all sorts of information started leaking out of the company. There were rumors online that a lot of really bad test results had been swept under the carpet. But every time a website posted one of the rumors, the whole website would mysteriously disappear. I kept finding stuff on the Internet, and the next day it was gone. Want to guess who was responsible?”

  “Mandel alumni?”

  “That’s what I thought at first. But it wasn’t alumni. It was Mandel students. I asked Leila if she recognized the word Exceletrex. She said they have all the low-ranking technology majors working on the ‘project.’ They hack any sites that post rumors about the drug.”