imperfect (20 page)

Dr. Hanson walked in. It
took Kristi two looks for her to realize he was the same man she
saw yesterday at the laundry room. She blinked to make sure she
hadn’t made a mistake.
Yep, he’s the same
guy for sure.

“
Well, we meet again,” Dr.
Hanson said to Kristi, shaking her hand.

“
You’ve met each other?”
Chelsa swung her eyes back and forth between Kristi and the
doctor.

“
I saw Dr. Hanson
yesterday in the laundry room.”

“
Which one of you is the
person with the injured ribs?” Dr. Hanson asked.

Chelsa pointed to Kristi, “That’s
Kris—Kelly.” She cursed herself for almost forgetting to use their
cover names.

Dr. Hanson gave no sign that indicated he
heard Chelsa almost say Kristi’s real name. He examined her ribs
quickly, but professionally, and was soft spoken when he
talked.

“
Your ribs don’t seem to
be broken or fractured. Did you take any bone-growth supplement
tablets?”

“
Yes.”

“
Good. Then if your ribs
were fractured or broken, the tablets would’ve fixed that problem.
However, you say your ribs still hurt?”

She nodded.

“
Then your ribs are either
sprained or simply bruised.”

“
Well, are they bruised or
sprained?” Jaiden asked.

“
I believe Kelly has
sprained her ribs,” Dr. Hanson said.

“
You can sprain ribs?”
Chelsa asked incredulously.

“
You’ll be surprised with
the amount of injuries the human body can get,” Dr. Hanson said.
“You have a mild case of a grade II rib sprain,” he said to
Kristi.

“
Is there anything I can
take or do to speed up the healing process?” Kristi
asked.

Dr. Hanson reached into his leather bag and
pulled out three containers filled with small gel capsules. He held
up one container labeled “internal swelling reducer” and said,
“Take one of these every day for the next two days. The pills will
reduce the swelling caused by the sprain.” He held up the other
container and said, “Take two of these every day for the next three
days. They will aid in the healing process and allow your ligaments
to heal five times faster than normal.” Last but not least, he held
up the last container and said, “These are painkillers. Take them
as needed.”

He gave all three containers to Kristi. She
wrapped her fingers around the small glass bottles like they were
precious gems.

“
Thanks,” Kristi said.
“How many points do we owe you?” She hoped this doctor’s visit
wouldn’t cost a huge amount of points.

Dr. Hanson gathered up his stuff and said,
“Don’t worry about paying me. Consider this a gift.”

He opened the door and put a foot out into
the hallway. Then he turned back and said, “Kristi, it would be
best if you stayed in bed for the next couple of days. And Jaiden,
make sure Kristi actually stays put. The supplements and
inflammatory pills I gave her won’t be as effective if she’s
spending six hours a day riding droid-horses. Good day to you
all.”

Dr. Hanson closed the door firmly.

There was a brief pause, and then Chelsa
finally asked out loud the question they were all wondering, “How
did he know your real names when we never told him?”

chapter
twenty-two

[ Troop ]

Mason wasn’t at school the
next day. Nor was he at the school
the day
after. When Troop questioned the whereabouts of Mason, he was met
with a dead end. It was as if Mason had ceased to exist, and that
made Troop wonder,
Is he like me then?
Does he have connections to the Company as well? I’m sure the
Company has the power to efface all traces of his
existence.

“
Did you even hear a word
of what I just said?” Jennifer’s grumble yanked Troop out of his
thoughts.

He looked around the lunch
table. Darrel sat on his left, Jennifer to his right. Bruno, Lee,
Tompkins, Lily and Silvia occupied the rest of the
seats.

“
Yeah,” Troop
said.

“
Then tell me what I just
said,” said Jennifer.

“
Help
me,”
Troop mouthed to
Darrel.

Darrel snickered, but came to his rescue.
“I’m sure Troop is interested in the after school study group,
right?”

Troop nodded, not really sure what study
group they were talking about. “Sounds great.”

“
Awesome. Now we have a
total of twelve people attending.” Jennifer took a sip of her iced
tea. “Do you think I should invite Trevor or is twelve a good
number?”

“
Twelve’s good,” Troop
said.

He resisted rolling his eyes when he spotted
Bruno shoot a spray of spitballs at the back of a teacher.

“
Then tomorrow after
school at Frosty Shakes it is,” confirmed Jennifer.

Mason claimed Bruno hadn’t
sent him after me. But how do I know he wasn’t lying to me?
Troop thought, his attention drifting away from
Jennifer’s voice and the general discussion being taken
place.

Troop’s mom was back
from
work early, something that happened
about once every few centuries or so. When he walked into the
living room, she was already lounging on the memory foam couch,
typing some documents. She looked up for a second to acknowledge
his presence, then jabbed the holographic keyboard a few more times
and powered it off.

“
Done for the day,” she
said. “Can’t believe I have the rest of the day free.”

Sensing that his mom was in a good mood,
Troop decided to try his luck and ask her a question involving a
rather sensitive topic. “Mom?”

“
Yes?”

“
Are there other
people…the Company may potentially hide?”

Her head snapped up in an instant, like a
spring-loaded trigger. “Did something happen?”

“
No, no—nothing happened,”
he said, perhaps a little bit too hurriedly. His mom didn’t know
about his Mason encounter after lessons with Vikens. “I was just
wondering if there were others like me that live in the city as
well.”

His mom relaxed her posture by a few
degrees. “None that I am aware of. I can inquire more information
if you would like me to.”

“
Nah, I’m good. Thanks for
the offer though.”

“
Alright. Promise you’ll
let me know if anything bad happens.”

“
Like what?”

“
I don’t know. Just
promise you’ll tell me if anyone at school shows the tiniest bit of
suspicion about what you are. A replay of four years ago is the
last thing we need, not to mention the amount of trouble the
Company would be in if word leaked out about you.”

“
Yeah,” Troop lied.
“Promise.”

“
Why
weren’t you at Frosty
Shakes
yesterday?” Jennifer demanded.

“
Why would I be at…oh,
yeah. The study group,” Troop said. “Did I forget to tell you I had
private tutoring afterschool yesterday?”

Jennifer glared at him.

“
No need to get all pissed
off. It was just one study group I missed. I swear I’ll go to the
next one. When’s the next one?”

“
This
Thursday,” said Jennifer. “And for your information, I
am
not
pissed off—I am very, very pissed off.”

“
Jenn giving you a hard
time?”

Darrel ambled over, his arms swinging like
pendulums by his side.

“
Troop
forgot about our study group yesterday,” Jennifer complained.
“Everyone attended
but
Mr.
I-have-private-lessons-after-school.”

“
Oh, give the man a
break,” said Darrel. “It was only one missed study
group.”

“
Exactly what I said,”
muttered Troop.

“
Fine. I see how this is.”
Jennifer let out a huff and stalked over to her girlfriends waiting
for her across the hall.

Troop sighed. Then he
said, “Who wants to bet fifty points Jenn will be over this by
lunch time?”

chapter
twenty-three

[ Kristi ]

Jaiden flung open the door
of their room, looking for Dr. Han
son
.
His
light
footsteps could be heard tapping
down the hallway. Chelsa and Kristi looked at each other, mirroring
each other’s stunned expression. After a few minutes, Jaiden
returned.

“
He’s gone,” Jaiden
announced after searching the entire inn. “The innkeeper said he
checked out as soon as he left us.”

“
Did you find out where he
is heading?” Chelsa asked.

“
No.”

“
Well, we better get going
as well,” Kristi said. She popped a painkiller into her mouth and
swallowed it dry.

“
Didn’t you hear Dr.
Hanson’s instructions?” Chelsa said. “You’re not supposed to move
around for the next few days.”

“
We can’t delay our
progress anymore. And anyways, Dr. Hanson gave me at least a week’s
worth of pills. I should be fine.”

With the painkillers doing their job, Kristi
felt back to normal. She was slipping the three pill bottles into
her pocket when she noticed there was a slip of paper within one of
them. Curious, she pulled the bottle back out from the pocket, and
with some difficulty, managed to extract the slip of paper. On the
paper it read:

Address for Revealers’ Headquarters:

213 Nova Street

Charleston, West Region

Burn this when you’re done reading this

“
Jaiden, Chelsa! I think
you should come and see this.” She clenched the paper so tight she
was afraid she might accidentally rip it.

“
What is it?” Chelsa
asked, coming over to read the message over Kristi’s shoulders with
Jaiden right behind.

“
Do you think the address
is legit?” Jaiden wondered.

“
Well, Dr. Hanson
did
know our names,”
Kristi pointed out. “And visiting 213 Nova Street is worth a try,
since we’re already going to Charleston.”

Chelsa entered the address onto the
electro-slate and said, “Who has the lighter?”

Jaiden found a lighter from his backpack and
handed it to Chelsa. She lit the paper aflame and brushed the ashes
out the window.

Everyone grabbed their respective backpacks
and headed out.

A speck appeared on
the
horizon and Kristi pointed it out, “Is
that Charleston?”

“
Yeah,” said Chelsa. “Come
on, we only have forty minutes before curfew.”

Their backpacks were considerably lighter
than they used to be, the result of camping overnight for the past
five days in a row. At most, they could last another two days with
the food left.

“
Why do you think Don and
Maria want us to locate the Revealers?” Kristi asked to no one in
particular after making sure there were no potential eavesdroppers
around.

“
Maybe they left something
for you and Jaiden in the possession of the Revealers,” Chelsa
said. “Jaiden, what do you think?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know.”

The smudge that was Charleston continued to
grow. Soon, individual skyscrapers, bridges and other architectural
landmarks could be distinguished against the horizon. Charleston
was one of the biggest cities in the United Regions with a
population of almost 2 million. It was also one of the most
technologically advanced cities.

Over 700 miles of air-train tracks ran
throughout the city. Many famous companies, such as Megatronics,
Instafood, Green Furniture and Urban Clothes, all have headquarters
in Charleston. It was both a gift and curse that Charleston was so
massive; on the bright side, Jaiden and Kristi would be able to
blend into the city easier with so many people around. However, on
the flip side, there was a greater chance that someone would
recognize them.

“
Welcome to Charleston!”
Chelsa declared, the welcome gate to Charleston looming ahead. She
checked the time and said, “Hurry—only ten minutes until
curfew.”

The gate would be lowered once curfew time
arrived and they would be locked out of the city. With this threat
hanging over their heads, Jaiden, Kristi and Chelsa urged the
horses into a gallop and hoped they wouldn’t run out of power
before reaching Charleston. The horses needed to be recharged as
soon as possible.

“
Gate closing in five
minutes,” a gate guard announced over the speakers. “All citizens
must be inside a building in five minutes.”

“
I only have 1% charge
left,” Chelsa said.

Kristi checked Mist’s charge: 1.5%
remaining.

“
Three minutes until the
gate is closed,” the speakers blared.

Kristi was so close to the gate she could
make out the facial features of the gate guard. He was young, like
he had just graduated from college. His uniform, which was tailored
to fit him perfectly, boasted him of a rank one law enforcer.