No Time to Die (15 page)

Z
oe clutched Theo's hand when she saw the words in amber lights flashing ten feet above the highway:

Theo, eighteen years old with a runner's long-legged physique, was the kind of guy who exuded charisma—exactly the kind who never looked twice at her. But now his hand felt clammy in hers and his face was pale. Despite her own fear, the tingly sensation of their palms together surprised her. She had never held hands with a guy before.

“How could you let this happen?” Natalie demanded, nearly screaming at Galileo. “Now we're both going to jail!”

He didn't answer right away. Zoe watched his precision multitasking as he typed a rapid text message on his phone while navigating the four-lane highway. So far, he had the unflappable disposition of an army commander, without the sternness.

“Not to worry,” he said. “Just a slight blip, that's all.”

“Someone is probably calling the cops right now!”

He glanced over his shoulder as he switched to an emptier lane. They were doing eighty, the clear afternoon sky evoked calm, and the road was pretty deserted. How many people even paid attention to those signs?

Zoe sought eye contact with Theo to gauge his level of concern, but as soon as she looked at him, he turned toward the window and released her hand. A little stab of hurt pricked her.

“Are we going to get caught?” she asked, hating how childish her voice sounded. She wondered if that was why she didn't feel as afraid as Theo and Natalie were—she was naive. Her father's hurtful words flooded back to her.
You're just like a child. You don't know any better.
But Gramps had never said that. Oh, Gramps! One teeny tiny part of her felt that it would be fine if they did get caught. She could run home into his arms and tell him she tried. But no—that wouldn't do either of them any good. He was looking older by the day.

“Leave it to me,” Galileo said. “I've—”

They all heard the distant wolflike howl that cut him off.

Natalie pressed her face to the window. “What was that?”

Zoe felt her stomach lurch. There was no mistaking the sound of a siren. The howl grew sharper, louder, soon becoming an all-out wail. She reached again for Theo, but he yanked off his seat belt and hurled himself onto the floor.

“Get down!” he shrieked at her. “Hurry!”

She obliged, nearly toppling onto him before falling behind Galileo's seat into the fetal position.

“Let me do the talking,” she heard him say to Natalie.

Their car slowed and pulled over to the shoulder. Red and blue lights danced through the rear window, their glare reflecting off the vinyl floor mat near her face.

“What can you possibly say?” Natalie hissed. “It's over!”

Zoe curled her limbs in tight like a fist. Her whole body was quivering as the car rolled to a stop. Her mind raced—
handcuffs, jail, Gramps, death.

She heard Galileo's window slide open.

“Hello, Officer.” He sounded as relaxed as if he were greeting a friend. “Did you find us all right?”

Did he what?!

“Sure did,” came a stranger's Midwestern drawl. “I left as soon as I got your text. The calls are already coming in.”

“What will you do with our car?”

“Leave it down by the junkyard. I'll destroy the plates.”

“And you remembered the radio?”

“Got it right here. The dispatcher won't know the difference.”

“Fine. When does your shift end?”

“Midnight.”

“So can you make it to Columbus and back before then to make the trade?”

“No prob.”

“Then I'll text you the address. Please get us a rental sedan for one week. Nothing flashy, no red. Here's the ID, and the card to bill.”

“You got it.”

“Sorry for the last-minute emergency.”

“I'm happy to help. I didn't know if I'd ever get the chance.”

As Zoe's spinning brain tried to make sense of their exchange, her door swung open. A warm breeze drifted into the car. She peeled her hands away from her eyes and gaped at the man standing two feet away. He was a muscular young officer with a shaved head and intelligent brown eyes.

“So you're the wonder kid,” he said.

“I'm not a kid,” she retorted. “And no one's abducted me. There's been a big misunderstanding.”

“I don't think so,” he replied, reaching in to grab her hand. She kicked him away and scooted back, leaning up against Theo.

“Whoa there, little miss. I'm not gonna hurt you.”

Galileo edged him aside and poked his reassuring face into the backseat, hovering inches above her. “It's fine, Zoe. Let's go.”

She took his hand and hauled herself out of the car just as the officer got into their car's driver's seat. Standing on the side of the highway, with her long hair slapping her face, she felt as exposed as if she were naked.

Galileo ducked his head back into the car. “Guys, get out. Hurry.”

Natalie and Theo complied without argument, springing out of the car and joining them on the road's narrow shoulder. They lined up along the metal fence that separated the highway from a field of swaying grass.

“Where are we going?” Zoe asked, trying to keep her balance. Every time a car zoomed by, the hot wind gusted hard enough to blow her sideways.

“This way,” he yelled over the roar of the traffic. He led them toward the police car parked behind theirs. It was empty.

“Get in.” He motioned to the scary-looking backseat, which was cut off from the front by a solid plank of glass. Zoe obeyed, and Theo climbed in after her. Natalie went around to the front and jumped in as Galileo took the wheel and shut the door. Up ahead, Zoe could see their old Civic pulling into traffic.

Their new car jumped forward with the ferocity of a lion on the prowl. In seconds, they had gotten up to full speed and passed the Civic. Zoe watched it disappear in their wake and then turned to Theo, openmouthed. This time, he acknowledged her sentiment with a dazed shrug. Static noises of the police radio were sputtering in through the dashboard up front, but Galileo hit a switch and silence filled the car.

“What the hell?” Natalie said. “Do you have some kind of superpower that was invented on the compound?”

He chuckled, leaning back with one hand on the wheel. “Just quick thinking. The Underground is strategically spread out along a few special routes we've carved out, like this one.”

“We're on a route right now?”

“Yep. Besides recruiting scientists, we've concentrated most on establishing allies in law enforcement. We've made sure to have at least one in every precinct along our routes, just in case of an emergency like this. This plan was made and rehearsed long ago.”

Zoe tapped on the glass that divided the backseat from the front. She could still feel the adrenaline pounding through her body and was pretty sure Theo could, too. His palms lay flat against the seat and his upper lip was glistening with sweat. Natalie must have noticed as she slid the glass open.

“Are you all right, honey?”

He exhaled. “Better than ever.”

“What's wrong?”

“Oh, nothing, just that you almost got arrested again and I've got no money and nowhere to go. Everything's great!”

“But she didn't,” Galileo said. “Don't worry, Theo, nothing bad will happen to you or your mom as long as I can help it.”

Or to me,
Zoe thought.
Right?

Natalie looked at him. “Thanks. But how can you trust a cop? What if he's playing you?”

“I was just going to ask the same thing,” Zoe chimed in, even though she wasn't. Now that she was away from home, she silently vowed to put more effort into thinking like the grown-up she wanted to be, no matter her age. To start, she'd learn from Natalie's example and try to think of smart questions. Out the window, a suburban strip mall passed by with the typical big-box stores. It was hard to believe that this mundane landscape was actually an elite organization's top secret route.

“The short answer,” replied Galileo, “is, I can't. So I've developed a system that tests loyalty and sincerity. There are no requirements of race or class to be in the Network, which I feel very strongly about. Freedom should never discriminate. But members are initiated only after they pass certain tests, and even then, no one outside the compound knows enough to endanger it. Which is why, I hope you'll understand, I haven't been totally forthright about where we're going. Not until we get there, just in case we get separated and you're questioned.”

“So you're like the spider in the web,” Natalie said. “You weaved it and now you're holding it together.”

“I'm sure that's how Les Mahler thinks of me. To him, I'm a tarantula.”

“So what if something happens to you?” Theo asked. “What would we do?”

“Yeah,” Zoe said. “Then what?”

“Well”—Galileo's blue eyes met Zoe's in the rearview mirror—“you've found the Network's Achilles' heel.”

She swallowed hard. “You?”

“The truth is, it all depends on my expertise and connections. I do have safeguards in place that I can't disclose. But if anything did happen to me, things would be very difficult.”

“Then what are you doing driving us out in the open like this?” Natalie snapped. “Can't you hire someone to do this kind of thing?”

“I often do. But this time is different. You and Zoe are the two people the Network was born to recruit. Our whole central mission is to figure out and defeat the cause of aging. So how could I let anyone else be in charge of transporting you? I know all the ins and outs of the Underground, every ally in every city, every backup plan by heart.”

“He's kind of a control freak,” Theo whispered to Zoe. “Don't you think?”

“Yeah, and I'm glad,” she whispered back with a smile—too big of a smile, but she couldn't help it. He'd acknowledged her again, and this time, let her in on his own private observation. She wondered if it was possible—in spite of her freakishness—that he could find her the slightest bit attractive.

“But there's one other thing,” Galileo was saying to Natalie, “that you need to know.”

“What?”

“I assume you're familiar with the Archon Prize?”

She snorted. “That's like asking a physicist if he's ever heard of the Nobel.”

“I don't know what it is,” Zoe said, embarrassed but too curious to resist.

“It's a competition that was developed a few years ago by a bunch of old, really rich guys to incentivize progress in finding the cause of aging,” Natalie explained. “The goal is to submit breakthroughs by the deadline, and then a bunch of experts are going to get together and assess which is the most promising. The prize is twenty million bucks for further research.”

“And,” Galileo added, “you can submit anonymously. We've identified this competition as a way to pull in significantly more funding for the Network, which has expanded so fast that we need the capital desperately. But combined with the bad economy, we're headed for trouble. Our investors are shrinking just when we need them the most.”

Natalie cocked her head at him. “So you spent a quarter million bucks to get me out of jail?”

He switched hands on the wheel and looked at her. “I've read every paper you've published. It's the smartest investment we've made.”

In the backseat, Zoe saw Theo smiling proudly on his mother's behalf, though Natalie threw her outstretched palms into the air.

“But you're betting the house on me! What if it's all for nothing?”

“You know what they say in Vegas,” he said. “Go big or go home.”

“When's the deadline?”

“December thirty-first.”

Her mouth hung open. “That's six months away!”

“That's right.”

“Impossible!”

“Nothing's impossible when you have the kind of talent and resources I've gathered.”

She buried her fingers in her glossy brown hair. “And if we don't make it in time?”

“Then we don't make it. But right now,” he said, “you and Zoe are our best hope.”

I'm needed,
Zoe thought with a sense of awe.
I'm needed by something so much bigger than myself.
She turned her wrists over and studied the blue-green veins intertwining under her delicate skin. It was amazing to think that the blood coursing through her thin veins might contain the secret to human longevity.

Theo was watching her. When she looked up, he smiled too quickly at her—an attempt to mask his morbid fascination. She could see in his eyes the visceral urge to recoil.

“I'm still human,” she said.

He opened his mouth, looking guilty, but said nothing. She turned away with a pang in her chest. Even if she did contribute to some paradigm-shifting breakthrough, would she always remain an unloved freak? And how many years of loneliness was she looking at? For all the awe and specialness she felt, nothing could overpower the tragedy she knew was hers and hers alone.

Exhaustion set in. This had been one of the most eventful days of her life, and the hum of the engine was lulling her to sleep. She laid her head against the window and closed her eyes. No one bothered her, even when they pulled off at a deserted rest stop to stock up on food and stretch their legs.

When she woke, twisting her neck back and forth uncomfortably, the sky was deepening to a violet dusk. Their surroundings had changed. Rather than a highway through a dense forest, they were passing through a small town with an upscale main street filled with small boutiques and restaurants. Beyond it, roofs of suburban houses sprawled out in rows. She wondered where the brown-eyed police officer was, and how soon he would come to meet up with them. Uneasiness plagued her. What if he really was untrustworthy?