Chapter 9
"We need to work faster." Dimitri had gone back to his car, driven it home, and ran to the park in the dark, meeting me under a crisp, starlit sky. Funny how we only felt safe in wide open places.
"Why don't we just go to Bio-Loom? I'm pretty sure I could hack past their security system."
Dimitri gave me a suspicious glance.
"What? My Dad might have taught me a few things. Before he went to jail."
Dimitri shook his head, a rueful smile on his face. "Somehow, I think the Corporation might be a bit above the level of tech your dad was breaking through."
I smiled a half smile. "Yeah, you might have me there."
"I think our best bet is to follow the garbage truck. I've scooped out the Bio-Loom office, the one listed in the directory, and it's pretty small. Nothing large enough to have the kind of warehouses they need for tech they deliver. And the garbage truck itself. Not to mention that disappearing black car. They must have another warehouse somewhere. And the only way we're going to find it is to follow them too it. Maybe then we'll try out your security system hacking skills."
I popped an eyebrow up. "So you're will to risk it if we have a lot to gain? Fair enough, I suppose. Well, then, when's the next meeting?"
As if on cue, Dimitri's phone buzzed. He slipped it from his pocket, looking at the message on his screen. "Tomorrow."
I started. "Tomorrow? That's strange. There have, like, never been back-to-back meetings before. Once a week, sometimes. But two days apart?"
"Whatever the Coproration is after, I'm pretty sure they just bumped up their schedule."
I shivered with uneasiness. What were they up to? Why find kids to voluntarily play with technology they could barely imagine? Why let anyone play with technology that was so cutting edge it killed people? We're guinea pigs." The words came out in a whisper. "We're not just testers, we're guinea pigs. Real lab-rats. Human trials that would be forbidden."
Dimitri looked at me, his eyes somewhat sad: he'd figured this part out already.
"What if we told? Went to the media or something?"
Dimitri shook his head. "There isn't enough information. Enough proof. Maybe if we find the lab. If we find records, or more tech or something. Until then, we're stuck. Look at the doctor, he didn't have much on the Corporation but he was killed anyway. It's dangerous, Raya. We have to be careful. We know that they kill. They've done it before."
"I know." I took a deep breath, watched someone walk under a distant streetlight. My palms were clammy; they always were these days. My toes were cold. It was like my body couldn't keep up to my mind, to everything that was going on. "So, we stick with the plan."
Dimitri reached out, grabbing my hand in the dark. His skin was dry, warm. "We do. We'll get through this. We'll get through this and take them down. I promise."
The plan was for me to get there early. I'd been missing a fair amount of school so it wasn't unusual for me to miss a full day. I took a thermos of coffee and made a bologna sandwich from stale, week-old bread and the dregs of the mustard jar. I'd need to remember to go grocery shopping when all this was over.
Dimitri showed up about the time fifth period would have started. He brought cokes and mars bars. I was thankful for the sugar rush. Sitting still on roof in autumn wasn't the warmest place to be. He slipped an arm around my waist, kissed me. I hadn't been expecting it.
"I've been wanting to do that for days," he whispered into my ear before he pulled away, leaving me much warmer than before he arrived.
"I've been thinking about it too." And the confusion it caused. It was hard growing close to someone, when my closest confidant had just died. I steeled the part of me that was falling apart like a cut flower. There was too much on the line to break down now.
"I know we've been through a lot, but before anything happens, and I lose the opportunity, I wanted to make sure that you know that I like you. Like, really like you."
I smiled, walked up to Dimitri, kissed him deeply. "I like you too. I've never met anyone quite so...reckless as myself. It means a lot that you're doing this with me."
"Getting revenge?" Dimitri raised his eyebrow, a smile on his face.
"Isn't revenge the best medicine?" I said. "Maybe it's a love tonic too."
We took a few more moments to ourselves, then settled in to watch. Soon enough, midway through our game of eye-spy, the familiar garbage truck came circling around the warehouse. Dimitri and I were better prepared than I'd been on my own. For one, I was wearing the lifeform sensor.
"There's two of them," I said. "But..."
"But what?" Dimitri looked through the pair of bird-watching binoculars he'd snagged from his mom. "I can see two people."
I double-checked that the sensor was still on, pulling it up from the string around my neck. It was working just fine. "But usually I can sense the age and gender of the people. I can't, now. Not with these two."
"Maybe we're out of range?'
I shook my head. "No, I can usually pick up a clear scent at twice this distance." The frown on Dimitri's face mirrored my own puzzlement.
The garbage truck finished it's route and left. We didn't chase it, not this time. We observed it from the roof. Following it through the low-lying surrounding buildings for a couple of blocks, until we had an idea of what direction it headed in. Once it was well out of site, we made our way down the rooftop; me first, followed by Dimitri fifteen minutes later. I met him at his car three blocks away. He made a quick call to Sheila, telling her he had an extreme case of food poisoning, and then we drove to the last corner we'd seen the garbage truck drive past before we lost site of it.
"This could be a long wait," Dimitri said, tilting the driver's seat into a more reclined position.
"Well, we better find something to talk about then." I reached out, wrapping my shaking fingers around his.
Dimitri squeezed my hand, and then pulled it over onto his leg, resting our hands there. "Have you ever travelled?"
"No. You?"
He shook his head. "I always wanted to. My parents both work so hard. They don't take much time for themselves. When they do, we're usually hauled off to visit family, not to go anywhere exotic. I've always wanted to go to Costa Rice. Learn to surf."
"You sound like Jordan." A few tears found my eyes. "He wanted to go to Hawaii so bad. Catch some waves. He'd been planning for years to leave here. Wanted somewhere with sun. Adventure. A less complicated family."
I'd told Dimitri a little of my history previously, and I told him more now: about Mom's drinking, Dad's thieving, the jail sentence. I told him how when Jordan and I were little we used to build forts and live in the Kid's Kingdom - no parents allowed.
"Kristi went to Costa Rica." Dimitri's voice broke, and without him even saying, I knew Kristi was his old girlfriend. The one that had died. The one the Corporation had killed. "Her pictures were beautiful. She went there on a family vacation. Wanted to go back super bad."
"Maybe once this is done we can go," I said. "Jordan left me some money. And, well, without him, there isn't much to tie me here, you know?"
Dimitri squeezed my hand again. We waited.
Finally, three hours later, Dimitri spotted the truck in his rearview mirror.
"Ready?" He turned the car on. I powered on my lifeform sensor. If this truck disappeared, hopefully we'd still be able to track it.
The truck whizzed by.
"It's a great day for revenge, my friend." Dimitri pulled out onto the street. Just as we did, the truck vanished from sight.
"Don't worry, I can still sense them. Straight ahead." My heart pounded. Thanks to the sensor, I could tell that there were two people in front of us - or rather - there should have been. But sensing them was all we needed. I guided Dimitri, telling him when to turn and when to slow down. The people in the garbage truck were like beacons in the night, glowing orbs in the back of my mind that led us onward. I didn't have to guide Dimitri very long until the truck turned off the road. In the back of my mind, I felt their presence turn left, moving through a gate and into a graveled yard. A large, bricked building sat in the middle. A chain-link fence surrounded the entire facility.
Dimitri didn't drive through the gate, but continued up the street as I watched behind us. On the bottom of three-story building, a garage door opened. After a few moments, just as the building was disappeared from my sight, the door slid closed. We'd found them.