Inheritance (20 page)

After school, Julian was waiting for Reese at her locker. “Did you hear what happened?” he asked excitedly.

“No, what?”

“Sophia Curtis issued a statement saying that her show was reined in by network censors.”

“Really?” Reese opened her locker and began to load her backpack. “That’s—wow, when did that happen?”

“Like five minutes ago.” He leaned toward her, arms crossed, and said in a low voice, “So you should totally come on Bin 42 now and tell your story. You need to, you know?”

She hesitated. “I’m not sure.”

“Why not?” As the student next to her moved out of the way, Julian slid in so that he was only a foot away. “You don’t have to talk about Amber, if that’s what you’re worried about,” he said.

“I’m not worried about that. Besides, I’m with David now.”

His expression went blank. “Yeah. You are.”

“Look, that’s got nothing to do with this. There are other things in play.”

“Like what?” Julian asked in an intense whisper. “The public deserves to know the truth.”

She zipped up her backpack and looked around. The hallway was scattered with students, some of them casting curious glances
in their direction. She didn’t want to talk about this in earshot of her classmates, but more important, she could see Mr. Chapman’s classroom door at the end of the hall. Alex Hernandez had indeed taken over Principles of Democracy. He had acted as if he didn’t know Reese and David during class, but she was sure it was only a matter of time before he asked them for information. “I don’t think we should talk about this here,” she said to Julian.

“Fine. Come out back with me.”

“Right now?”

“What else are you doing, waiting for your boyfriend?” Julian made a face at her.

She rolled her eyes. David had soccer practice; she was
not
waiting for him. “Okay.” She pulled on her backpack and closed her locker. “But my dad’s picking me up soon. I can’t talk for long.”

“Your dad’s still around, huh?” Julian said as they walked down the hall toward the central courtyard.

“Yeah.”

“How long’s he going to be here?”

“I don’t know. They won’t say.”

He gave her a concerned glance. “Are you all right with that?”

“No, but it’s not like they’re asking me.” She noticed several girls watching her as she and Julian passed. “What are they looking at?” she whispered once they turned the corner.

“They’re checking out their competition.”

“Competition for what?”

“Madison’s right. You can be so clueless. You just took David off the market.”

“That sounds extremely crass. He’s not a piece of meat.”

“I never said I was polite,” Julian quipped, and pushed open the doors to the courtyard.

It was a cool afternoon, with gray clouds covering the sky. They headed across the brick courtyard toward the athletic fields and the rickety bleachers near the concrete wall that marked the edge of school property.

“You and David should come over and I can interview you for Bin 42,” Julian said. “We won’t have to deal with network censors or commercial breaks, and you can tell the whole story, with all the details. Speaking of which, when are you going to give me that recording you made of your meeting with that Lovick guy?”

“I’m holding on to it for now.” She hadn’t told Julian the details about the meeting because Lovick had warned them not to speak about it, and the Blue Base guard blocking the door had turned Lovick’s warning into a threat. “And you don’t understand. It’s not as simple as you think. There was a Defense Department guy there when Sophia Curtis interviewed us. He wouldn’t let us talk about Area 51 or Blue Base or anything like that. In fact, you remember that document about the birds I took from Blue Base? This guy found it—we had left it in the living room like a bunch of idiots—and he took it. So I don’t even have that anymore. If you start posting the quote unquote truth, they will come after you and Bin 42.”

“What are they going to do? You have freedom of speech—it’s your First Amendment right.”

“Yeah, and they have freedom of the government to do whatever they want to restrict it.” She shoved her hands into her
pockets as they crossed the empty soccer field. The team hadn’t arrived for practice yet.

“That’s not true,” Julian objected. “They can’t shut you up, and if they try, you have every right to—”

“They
did
shut me up!”

Julian gave her a suspicious look. “What are you not telling me? What happened at that meeting? You’ve never rolled over like this before.”

She scowled at the grass and didn’t answer at first. She wanted to tell Julian everything. She didn’t want to be cowed by Charles Lovick and his secret organization, but if she and David were really going to lie to them, it was better if nobody else knew about it.

“Reese? Come on, you can tell me.” Julian ducked beneath the bleachers, where the ground was littered with cigarettes, and dropped his backpack on a relatively clean patch of dirt. “You can trust me,” he assured her. A few cinder blocks had been dragged beneath the bleachers to create stools, and he sat down and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, offering one to her.

Reese sat nearby and shrugged out of her backpack. “You should really quit,” she told him, but when he cocked his head at her she took the cigarette, leaning over to light it off Julian’s match. It tasted bitter and harsh, and she realized too late that her dad would smell it on her.

“So what’s the big secret?” Julian pushed.

She exhaled a plume of smoke, deciding to smoke it anyway. She didn’t care what her dad thought. “David and I need to find out what the deal is with our adaptation,” she said, avoiding
Julian’s question. “So we’re going to take the Imria up on their offer to train us. Our first lesson is on Saturday.”

“That’s great. But that doesn’t stop you from telling your story.”

She stared at the glowing end of the cigarette, picking her words carefully. “No, it doesn’t. Our abilities are only part of the story, though. We need to figure everything out before we go public, and we need to get proof.”

“You have that recording from the Lovick meeting.”

“That’s one part of it. And the government is totally covering something up, but the Imria aren’t telling us everything either. They’re hiding stuff too.”

“They have to be hiding it for a good reason.”

She looked at Julian, her forehead furrowed. “Why do you trust them? They’re the ones who messed with me and David. They said they’ve been doing research on humans for decades. Aren’t you worried they might not have our best interests at heart?”

Julian shook his head. “You’re not seeing the big picture.” He inhaled, and the cigarette paper crinkled into black ash.

“What’s the big picture?”

He blew the smoke away from her. “This adaptation thing that the Imria are working on could change
everything
. I read the stuff they released at their press conference. It’s
amazing
. Think about what this world would be like if human beings could really do this shared consciousness thing.” He spoke with rising intensity, his body bending toward her as he gestured with his cigarette. “Do you know why people hate each other? Because they don’t understand each other. But if we could really
know how other people feel—really
know
it—all that would change. It would bring humans to the next level of evolution.”

Julian’s fierce belief in the adaptation procedure made Reese uncomfortable. “Evolution’s not about levels. It’s not about advancing. You took bio with me; you should know that.”

“Don’t get all debatey on me. Besides, I don’t believe that. If the point of life isn’t to become more intelligent and better adapted to your environment, what
is
the point? Just to stay in one place, reproducing yourself? That’s stupid. This ability is humanity’s ticket to the future.”

“You talk about it like it’s some kind of superpower. But this isn’t
X-Men
.”

“No duh. It’s real.” He stubbed out his cigarette. “You should know. You have this ability. You can’t tell me it hasn’t changed the way you see everything.”

“Honestly, it mostly freaks me out. That’s why I’m agreeing to the lessons with the Imria, because until I know how this thing works in me, I don’t think I can really know whether it’s good or bad.” Her cigarette had burned down to the filter, and she dropped it on the ground, grinding it out with her sneaker. She felt a little nauseated from the nicotine.

“You might not know, but I do. It’s good. So I want to be adapted too.”

Her head snapped up. “What? You can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

She couldn’t tell if he was serious at first. “Because it’s crazy dangerous! Because you have to apply, and they’re only taking teens who are on the verge of death.”

“That’s what they said, but they haven’t posted an application
yet. Besides, they’re going to need as many test subjects as possible. Why wouldn’t they take a healthy volunteer? Wouldn’t that be better than someone who might die?”

She gaped at him. “You’re serious.”

Anger flashed across his face. “Of course I’m serious. I’ve been waiting for something like this my entire life. This is my chance to be part of something bigger than me. I’m willing to take whatever risks are involved.”

“The risk is
dying
. Don’t you get that?”

“You’re not dead.”

“I
was
dead!”

“You seem pretty much alive to me right now.” His expression softened. “Look, I know it’s dangerous, but I want to do this. I want to help humanity.”

“Julian—”

“It’s so important, Reese. It’s
so
freaking important. This adaptation procedure will change everything. Don’t you see that?” He was practically crouching on his heels in his effort to persuade her.

She stared at him in dismay.

“Will you help me?” he asked. “You know them. You can talk to Dr. Brand and persuade her to take me as a volunteer.”

She was stunned. “You want—how could you ask me to put you in that kind of danger?”

His face darkened. “You don’t get it.” Suddenly he stuck out his hand. “Here. You have the ability. Touch me. Then you’ll know why I want to do it.”

“Jules—”

“Do it.”

The desperation on his face frightened her. She didn’t want to touch him. She didn’t need to touch him to sense how frustrated and determined he was, or how blind he was to the potential consequences. Her phone rang, the sound pealing through the weighted space between them. She pulled it from her pocket and answered it. “Hey, Dad.”

Julian shook his head, withdrawing his hand to take out another cigarette.

“Okay, I’ll be there in a minute,” she said into the phone, and then hung up. Julian wouldn’t look at her. She didn’t like fighting with him. The last time they’d fought was when he was dating Sean, who had been behaving like a jerk and never doing what he said he’d do. Julian had defended him repeatedly, making excuses for him because he was in love. It had soured their friendship for weeks. “Do you want a ride home?” Reese asked, hoping that this wouldn’t turn into another of those situations.

“No.” He blew out the smoke in a long stream. “I have to meet Bri. We’re planning the first GSA meeting of the year.”

“Oh.” It was like the ground had split open between her and Julian, and she didn’t know how to cross the gap.

“I’d invite you to the meeting but I don’t get the impression you want to be associated with the GSA this year.”

His words stung. “Why would you think that?”

He did look at her then, and his dark brown eyes were full of anger. “Why? Why don’t you come out? What are you afraid of?”

Her face burned. “I’m not
afraid
of anything. It’s not relevant!”

He took another drag on his cigarette and looked past her at the soccer field. “Your boyfriend’s back.”

She felt as if he had slapped her across the face. She hoisted
her backpack over her shoulders and made herself walk away before she said something she would really regret. As she crossed the edge of the soccer field she saw the boys’ team running sprints. One of them slowed down, looking in her direction, and she heard the coach shouting at him to get back in line. She knew it was David, but she didn’t stop.

Every day, reporters, photographers, and demonstra
tors lingered outside Kennedy High School, shouting questions at Reese each time she went in or out. On Tuesday, the police set up barricades and forced most of the demonstrators across the street, where they lined the edge of Dolores Park with their signs. On Wednesday after school, Reese could see them through the library window, several dozen protesters and press crowded together behind waist-high metal railings. She was supposed to be doing her Principles of Democracy homework while she waited for David to finish soccer practice, but she kept glancing up to take stock of the signage. There were a lot of
STOP COLONIZATION
signs today.

She turned back to her laptop. Alex Hernandez had assigned the class what he termed a “fun” project; he wanted them to
write five-hundred-word essays on the First Amendment, discussing how it was being used in the demonstrations across the street. In the past hour, Reese hadn’t gotten very far. She felt as though Hernandez was mocking her and David with the assignment. The protesters outside might be able to vocalize their beliefs, but she wasn’t allowed to tell the truth about what had happened to her. She scowled at her keyboard and typed, “The First Amendment should apply to all United States citizens, but in reality, it can be easily revoked by the government when it wants to hide the truth from the public.”

She started when someone dropped a backpack onto the table across from her. She looked up to see David wearing an old
KENNEDY SOCCER
T-shirt, the letters faded from too many washings. “Hey,” he said, bending over to kiss her lightly. A warm pulse went through her, and she pulled back self-consciously.

“Hi,” she said. A couple of sophomores at the table nearby were watching them.

His hair was still damp from his post-practice shower. “What are you working on?” he asked.