Having millions of dollars in my bank account makes my head spin. I resist the urge to look over my shoulder, as if someone's waiting to tackle me to the ground and force me to transfer the funds.
For tonight, I avoid the Bunker. I'm going to fall apart a little, and it's better if no one witnesses my breakdown, even my friends. Instead, I go to my neglected dorm room.
Tupac and Alison are waiting for the elevator, and Alison's eyes widen when she sees me.
"Where have you been?" she asks, grabbing my arm.
I pull my arm out of the death grip she has on it. "You've seen me in class."
"Once in a while. But you're like a ghost, slipping away before anyone can talk to you. What are you up to?"
"Tell me what you want. I need rest," I say, covering up my fragility with bitchiness, a skill I perfected long ago.
We step into the elevator, and I pray for the creaky old box to move faster.
"You said we could help you make a difference!" Alison says, shaking me by the shoulders. "We thought you saw us as more than pretty faces here to entertain the Evolved. Did you change your mind?"
Tupac pulls her back. "You okay, Joan?"
Oh God. Alison's irritation, I can face. But sympathy will undo me.
Alison's face morphs from anger to concern, now too. "Did someone get hurt?"
Sal, covered in blood, dead by my hands.
Tupac's hand covers mine. "Someone we know? A student?"
I will not cry.
I will not cry.
I will not cry.
The elevator doors ping open. Alison and Tupac have ridden with me up to my floor.
"I'm sorry I haven't been in touch. I promise, you are a part of my team, and we need you. I'm still figuring out our next moves, but I'll bring you into the team soon."
"Joan, wait—"
I leave Alison's pleading voice and Tupac's gentle eyes and speed down the hallway to my room.
Inside, I curl up on my bed, waiting for the sobs to come. But they don't. My body grows colder, from the outside in.
An odd noise, a gurgle, tickles the edges of my consciousness. There's another sound, louder this time, coming from the bathroom.
The door is ajar, and I kick it open.
Reality comes back in a flood of color and light at the sight of Harriet's bruised, bloody body curled on the tile. Blood streaks the wall and the ground beneath her.
Past and present collide as I remember Sparkle's body hanging in the bathroom, and Sal's body jerking on the ground. Am I awake?
"Help," she whispers through a bubble of blood forming at her mouth.
"Harriet," I whisper, kneeling beside her, but she's already unconscious.
I heave her up, staggering as I try to stand under her weight. This won't work.
I send an emergency text that will ping every member of my core team. With Harriet's arm slung over my shoulder, I half drag her to my bed. She's still out.
Her face is covered with bruises that are already turning purple. Even if she were conscious, the swelling around her left eye would seal it shut. Her right hand has been damaged so badly it's barely recognizable. A broken bone pops through her skin. I will kill the person who did this to her.
I lift up her shirt and find dirt and blood mixed. Someone kicked her with his boots, and at least three ribs are broken. She might be bleeding internally. My breathing comes in shallow gasps. Where the fuck is my team?
Mason bursts through the door with Justus behind him.
"Hospital," I command, trying to keep the wobble out of my voice.
"The Throwback hospital doesn't have an incubus. Gauze and morphine won't do much," Justus says.
"Then we take her to the Bunker's clinic."
Mason lifts her, cradling Harriet in his arms and tucking her head into his chest. "I'm here, Harry."
Mason's face is firm, resolved. It hits me that he's probably seen Harriet beaten and bruised many times before. He loves her too much to panic, which is probably why she survived when they were kids. Maybe he's worthy of her, after all, even if he used to abuse Amp.
"We need to slip out without being noticed, or the Evolved police will insist on taking her to the hospital if they don't bust us for being out past curfew," I say, trying to be as brave as Mason.
"Marie is taking care of the security cameras in the area. Our best option is speed," Justus says.
We take the stairs instead of the elevator, and Mason never falters, even after five flights of stairs. He must be powered by even more adrenaline than I am.
Halfway across Seattle Secondary's campus, a group of second-year students hurrying to the dorm spot us. They eye us with suspicion, deliberately setting themselves in our path.
Justus adopts a lazy smile. "Any good parties tonight?"
A tall blond man cloned from some famous vid star whose name I can't remember steps in front of Mason, eyeing Harriet's still form. "Is that Harriet? Where are you taking her?"
Any other time, the ethics of my classmates would be a welcome reminder of the better side of humanity, but right now, we need to get away.
"Hey, guys. I'm Joan, Harriet's friend. Nothing to see here," I say briskly.
The man's eyes narrow, and the girl he's with steps forward too. I've made them even more suspicious.
"She's drunk, okay?" Justus whispers. "Please don't tell anyone. She'll be kicked out of school."
Suspicion drains from their faces.
"As long as you stay with her," the man says to me. "Don't leave Harriet alone with two guys."
I nod, and we make our escape. The rest of the trip to the Bunker is uneventful. Nic has the door open for us when we arrive.
Flo is waiting in the clinic, and the incubus is booted up and prepped for a patient. Mason eases her inside the chamber like she's made of glass. He swallows as the door to the incubus closes, and the healing gel fills the tank.
Only then does he slump to the ground in front of the machine, his breathing coming in panicked gasps.
"I should have made sure she was back in the Lab. It was past curfew. I knew she was upset and shouldn't be alone!"
He's hyperventilating. I kneel in front of him, keeping my breathing slow and even.
"You saved her life. She took a real beating, but when I checked her in my room, her pulse was strong and her airways were clear. If there is any internal bleeding, it's probably minor enough that the incubus will do a good job healing her. Harriet will be okay."
"I swore! I swore I'd never let them hit her again." Mason's breathing slows, and his tears come at last.
I hold him and let my own tears fall. For Harriet, for Sal. For this whole fucked up world where there are no right choices, only lots of wrong ones.
~ ~ ~
"Does anyone know what happened to Harriet?" I ask, an hour and a hot shower later.
Mason is asleep next to the incubus that still encases Harriet. The last of the gel will drain away soon. Flo asked the rest of us to leave so that Harriet isn't overwhelmed when she returns to consciousness.
"Evolved police found her out past curfew," Marie says. "I don't know why they didn't arrest her."
"Marie found footage from an ATM surveillance camera of what happened," Justus says, his head in his hands. "There were two officers. They kept hitting her and kicking her, even after she was down."
"Then they left her on the streets to bleed," Marie finishes.
"I admit to not understanding their motives," Sun says. "They should have arrested her. Perhaps recommended her for retirement to reduce the Throwback population. But this beating accomplishes nothing."
"Maybe they think it's...fun," Kat says, her face white and drawn. "I knew that Evolved supremacists exist, but I never imagined that our police were torturing innocent people. I'm so stupid."
"They were sending a message," Nic says, and my eyes snap to his.
The pieces fall into place, making me sick. "Show me the feed."
"You don't want to see it, Joan," Justus protests.
"Show me."
Marie brings up the 3D video of a street two blocks from my dorm. Harriet stops to tie her shoe when two Evolved police officers turn the corner. She freezes. I yearn to shout back in time, to tell her to run.
For the next seven minutes, I watch a vid of what my best friend endured. Blood fills my mouth as I watch. I've bitten through my lip.
Finally, the camera gets a clear shot of the faces of the officers. I recognize one of them.
"Officer Boer. He was sending a message. To me," I whisper. "This wasn't Mason's fault. It's mine."
Mason staggers to the doorway. "She's okay. Banged up, but fine. She wants to see you, Joan."
I leap across the room to the clinic. Harriet is pale in the sterile blue gown Flo put her in, but she's sitting up on her own. The bruises on her face have faded to shadows, and the blood is gone, but her face is drawn. Her right hand is in a plasticine cast, which means the damage was too deep for the incubus to fully heal her. I want to hug her but am afraid of hurting her, so I end up hovering, not sure what to say or do.
Harriet gives me a half-smile. "I hear you, Justus, and Mason were heroes today. Thank you."
"You're thanking me, when it's my fault? You know why Officer Boer targeted you."
Harriet shook her head. "You're still thinking like an Evolved, like Kat. A man like Boer would have beaten me anyway. He's done it a thousand times and will a thousand more. It might have been sweeter for him knowing it would hurt you, but he enjoyed my pain because he's an evil bastard."
I lace my fingers through Harriet's, and she gives my hand a squeeze. "I've never been so scared in my life."
"Me, either," Harriet says, a hint of humor in her voice. But her gaze hardens. "I'm glad this happened today. It confirms a truth I've tried to avoid. The Evolved cannot be trusted. Not Strand, not the police, not even Evolved citizens."
"We can't lump all Evolved together, like they do to us."
"Do you know how many people passed me by while those officers beat the holy hell out of me? I counted nine, until I couldn't count anymore. All Evolved. They could have called someone, taken a vid, interrupted the beating. But I was trash on the street to them."
"Harriet, I can't fathom what you went through. But we can't turn this conflict into us against them. We'll end up on the losing side of a civil war. There are good Evolved, like my parents."
"Who left their child to fend for herself while they got high," Harriet says, her eyes harder than I've ever seen them.
"That's not fair."
Her gaze softens. "I know not all Evolved are evil. But their way of life leaves them weak, or prejudiced, or evil. I'm not saying we arrest them and retire them. Only that we don't trust them."
My usually sensible best friend's words clash with what I believe. Without Harriet as my other, better half, I've lost my anchor.
"Can we take some time to think about this?" I ask, not wanting to push her while she's so fragile.
Harriet nods. "You'll understand soon, Joan. We can still fight for Throwback rights. But we'll have to do it in spite of the Evolved, not with them."
Harriet leans back on the cot, exhausted by the healing process and the day's ordeal. I squeeze her hand one last time and leave.
Back in the main room of the Bunker, I corner Sun. With Harriet's words swirling in my head and Professor Wilde's money like lead in my pocket, I need help.
"It's time for a new strategy. I have an idea, but I need your help."
Sun's shrewd eyes meet mine, alight. "I welcome the challenge."