Boy 2.0, page 19
Coal watched, waiting for Door and Aaron to arrive. Eventually, Door’s bus pulled in, and Coal held his breath until Door got out. At least his friend was okay. He kept his eyes on the high school drop-off area, too. Aaron never showed up. That could mean any number of things, but one was the most likely.
The McKays were in trouble.
Now Coal had a choice. He could run. If he did, he’d be running forever. Even if he found someone from the photos, the military would keep coming after him. Or he could help the McKays, which would mean giving up his own safety.
“You’re on your own or you’re part of a team, Coal,” he said to himself. “Which is it?”
26.
Midday light beamed through buildings and a cool breeze pushed against Coal’s back like encouragement. He’d been walking for hours. He was tired, but he kept steadily onward. A few people eyed him in a shouldn’t you be at school kind of way, but Coal kept going.
Up ahead, he saw the crowd gathered for the Allana Hastings march. Hundreds of people, grim-faced, walking together, chanting “No justice, no peace!” The crowd’s tension filled the air. Coal pulled his hoodie over his head and mixed in with them, but he didn’t chant. With his head bent, his hood up, and his sleeves pulled past his fingertips, he was just another body among hundreds. He took a few deep, square breaths, and went invisible. Even if someone tried to look inside the hoodie, there was nothing to see. Fortunately, no one was really looking at him directly, but there were cameras everywhere. People live streamed the march, capturing it from every angle. Others were watching even as they protested. Coal glanced at the phone of the person streaming next to him and saw views in the thousands with constant encouraging comments and emojis floating over the video. Nothing and no one would catch a glimpse of his face.
As they passed the shiny exterior of Mirror Tech, Coal slipped between a trio of government SUVs and went down an alleyway to a side door. He stripped off his clothes, leaned his backpack near the door, and waited. Naked and in the shade, it was cold. He wrapped his arms around himself and paced until someone came out. When they did, he slipped in with his bag.
It was an emergency exit. A small area with a concrete floor and stairs leading to every floor. Coal waited until the few people in the area moved away, then started up. Someone exited on the fourth floor, so Coal had to squeeze himself against the cold wall as they passed. By the time he dragged his way to the tenth floor, he was breathing heavily and his heart pounded in his chest. He waited a couple of minutes for the sweat that outlined his body to evaporate before he carefully opened the door. Immediately, he heard several people arguing. A bushy plant partially obscured the entrance into Dr. Achebe’s office, allowing Coal to peek through. Doc and Jackson yelled at Dr. Achebe while Dr. Carroll watched them sullenly. A small woman with short straight hair, wearing a military uniform, stood by. A pair of soldiers waited stiffly at her back. They were both armed. Aaron, Mari, and Hannah sat on the couch. Hannah was slumped into Aaron’s side like she had been crying.
“He’s gone,” Doc said. “He has no reason to stay here or come back.”
“He’s a child,” Dr. Achebe said. “Where is he going to go?”
“Wherever he wants,” Jackson said. “He can make sure no one ever sees him.”
“They’re going to track his phone,” Dr. Achebe said.
Doc scoffed. “Do you actually think he still has it? Who is he going to contact?”
“You believe he’s just going to disappear into the ether like his mother,” Dr. Achebe said. “How convenient.”
“He’ll turn up,” the military woman said. “He has to.”
“He’s not your experiment!” Doc said.
“General Knox, you’re making things worse,” Dr. Achebe said. “I told you I’ll handle this.”
“You’ve handled us out of all the data we’ve financed,” General Knox said. “Now that child is the only thing left. He’s going to come looking for his family and we’ll be here when he does.”
“He won’t come,” Doc said. “He knows how to be on his own.”
“Now that he’s aware you’re the closest link he has to his mother, he’ll come looking for you.” General Knox folded her hands behind her back, totally confident she was right. “He’s going to want answers. He didn’t find any at Dr. Goreau’s house. We did a thorough search.”
Coal thought about the messages he’d found that morning, starting with the photograph of his mother and Doc. “For help” it had said. A message he now understood was meant for him to know who he could trust. Other than Tom, Doc was the only other person in the photos he recognized. Right at that moment he knew two things: One, General Knox was wrong about Tom’s house. There had been answers there. Two, both she and Dr. Achebe were right. Coal wasn’t going to just walk away.
He slipped back through the door and got dressed. He put Door’s flannel shirt back on and held his phone. As soon as he turned it on, they would track him. He didn’t know how much time he’d have, but he only needed a moment. When he turned on the phone, he pulled up E-Fam again. This time a Korean man smiled out at him.
“I’m pulling for you!” the man said. “We’re all pulling for you!” He made a heart with his forefinger and thumb and the video ended.
As soon it did, sounds erupted on the other side of the door.
“He turned the phone on, General,” one of the soldiers said.
“Where is he?” General Knox asked.
Coal’s heart pounded. There was no hiding now.
He stuck the phone in his shirt pocket, and then walked through the door with his hands up.
Everyone turned toward him at the same time.
“Coal!” Hannah yelled.
Doc and Jackson looked pained. Aaron’s shoulders slumped.
“I surrender,” Coal said.
A smug grin spread across General Knox’s face.
“I told you there was no reason to go hunting him down and probably scaring the life out of him.” Dr. Achebe’s voice was a low growl aimed at the soldiers.
“Coal!” Doc said. “Why are you here?” She walked quickly toward him, but he lowered his hands to deflect her hug, only allowing her to get a side squeeze in. The girls didn’t give him the option of pushing them away. Mari hugged him around the chest, while Hannah got him around the waist, and they wouldn’t peel off.
“You came for us!” Hannah said.
“You shouldn’t be here, Coal,” Doc said. “You should have protected yourself.”
“You came for me yesterday,” Coal said. “So I came for you.”
“That isn’t the same thing,” she said. “This is dangerous.”
“It was for you, too,” he said.
The girls remained squished, barnacle-like at his side. “We’ll protect you,” Hannah said. Aaron joined them and reached his hand over Coal’s shoulder.
“Very sweet,” General Knox said. “But do we need them anymore? We have the boy.”
“You don’t have anything,” Doc said. “He’s a child, and we’re his guardians.”
General Knox looked at Doc like she was sorry for her.
“I bet she thinks she can do anything she wants,” Jackson said.
“She can’t,” Doc said.
The general chuckled.
“We’re not going to make that easy for you,” Jackson said. He stepped in front of Coal.
The soldiers watched Jackson menacingly.
“Relax, everyone,” Dr. Achebe said. “We can work this out.”
“There is nothing to work out!” Doc snapped.
Coal reached over and grabbed Doc’s hand. He squeezed it. She looked at him, a bit worried. “You lied to me,” he said.
“I know. I’m sorry. I thought—”
“I know what you thought,” he said. “You were wrong. All of you were wrong. You lied to me. You cut into me. You kept secrets. Not one of you thought to talk to me. Nobody told me who I really was or gave me the choice to say what I wanted. I was never a factor.”
Doc’s hand went to her heart, and then her throat as she let out a small sob. Jackson rubbed her back.
“Now that you’re choosing to come to us,” General Knox said, “everything becomes a lot easier.”
“Don’t do it, Coal,” Hannah said. “I’ll even let you hold Missus Quickness.” She pushed her sloth against his chest.
“That's okay, you keep her,” Coal said.
“We could have figured something else out,” Jackson said.
“That’s the problem, though, isn’t it?” Coal sighed. “Everybody figuring things out without me? This time, I’ve figured it out.”
“There has to be a better way,” Aaron whispered.
“Trust me, this is the best way,” Coal said, even though he wasn’t sure it was true. He shrugged his backpack off his shoulders then pulled out the baggie full of thumb drives. “I think you’ve also been looking for this.”
General Knox took it from him. “What is it?”
“All of my mom’s—Dr. Wright’s research.”
“Coal, no,” Doc said. “This is exactly what Michelle didn’t want to happen.”
“It’s okay,” Coal said.
There was no phrase to describe Dr. Achebe’s face. Coal might have called it calm gloating. The kind of gloating you do when you win and you’re glad, but you’re trying not to be too much of a jerk about it. Coal was looking forward to wiping that look right off the doctor’s face.
“I promise this will work out for the best, Coal,” Dr. Achebe said. He went to the desk and flipped it up so that everyone in the room could see the screen. Then he put in the first thumb drive and started opening files.
“This is not good, Coal,” Doc said.
“Just wait,” Coal said.
Dr. Achebe kept clicking through files. With each one, his frown deepened, and General Knox looked more and more irritated.
“You did something to them,” General Knox said.
“Like what?” Coal asked. “I only found them yesterday.”
“Look at the file data,” Mari said. “That would show if they’d been altered.”
Dr. Achebe shook his head slightly. “They’re real.”
“What does this mean?” General Knox asked.
Dr. Achebe pulled out one thumb drive and put in another.
“Explain what we’re looking at, Dr. Achebe,” the general demanded.
“I don’t know.” He looked at Dr. Carroll.
“It’s the same thing we found from the cells we took,” Dr. Carroll said. “Coal isn’t . . .”
“Isn’t what?” the general asked.
“Engineered,” Dr. Carroll continued. “He’s not something Dr. Wright made.”
“Technically . . .” Coal held one finger up and was smirking.
“Technically his mom did make him,” Mari said, joining with a smirk of her own.
Doc swiped at her nose with the back of her hand. “How did you know?”
“I had a little help figuring things out,” Coal whispered.
“What help?” Dr. Achebe asked.
Coal considered praising Dr. Achebe for his excellent intern program, but he’d gotten Isadora in enough trouble. “Does it matter?” he asked, instead. “I’m not what you thought.” He looked at Doc. “I’m not what any of you thought.”
General Knox slammed her hand on the side of the screen. “All the money we spent. All that time we gave her. All the years of searching for these files . . . it was all a waste.”
“Yeah, like the government isn’t known for being wasteful,” Jackson said. “You’re aces when it comes to conservation.”
“Really?” Hannah asked.
“Dad’s joking, sweetheart,” Doc said. “He means the opposite.”
Hannah sighed. “Why do grown-ups do that? Always saying one thing and meaning another thing. Why can’t everybody just say what they mean?”
“Doesn’t matter,” General Knox said. “We don’t need the files. Even if Dr. Wright’s research isn’t what made you what you are, we can still get what we need from you directly.” She jerked her head at the soldiers. “Get the rest of them out of here.” The men immediately turned toward the McKays.
Doc held up her hand. “We are not going anywhere without Coal.”
The general leaned toward Doc. “He’s not your child,” she said. “He’s nothing to you. He’s a ward of the state, and he is of interest to us.”
“He is something to me,” Doc said. “He’s my best friend’s son. My family. And you are not going to take him away from me.” She grabbed Coal’s hand. “If we go, Coal is coming with us.”
The general sneered.
“You can’t hold him against his will,” Doc said.
“Who’s going to stop me?” The general stepped toward them.
“Everyone,” Coal said.
The general narrowed her eyes at him. “What?”
“The whole world is going to stop you,” he said.
“What are you talking about?”
Coal tapped his phone. It was sticking out of the top of the pocket on Door’s shirt. The camera was facing General Knox and Dr. Achebe. “It’s called live streaming. Almost two thousand people have seen everything and heard everything that’s happened since I turned the phone on,” Coal said.
General Knox’s face turned steely. “Turn that off!”
“Sure,” Coal said. “I think they have enough.”
Dr. Achebe went to the window and looked down. “Crap.”
“What?” Coal asked. “Is there a crowd forming outside? It’s almost as if people from the march know exactly what’s going on inside this building.” He turned the phone camera toward himself and waved. “Thanks, everyone,” he said. “Thanks for having my back.”
The soldiers paused and looked at General Knox.
Aaron looked over Coal’s shoulder at the phone’s screen. “You’re up to nearly three thousand! Impressive.”
Dr. Achebe pressed his head against the glass, his eyes glued on the crowd below. He chuckled. “Smart,” he said. “Doesn’t surprise me from Michelle’s son.”
“Thanks,” Coal said. “I knew I couldn’t do this alone.”
27.
Several students waved at Coal in the hallway after eighth period. The “Mirror Tech Exposed” video had been viewed a couple hundred thousand times. Besides making Coal instantly popular at both the middle and high schools, it had made the news and sparked a congressional investigation into military experiments. Achebe, Carroll, and Knox were all being held for questioning. That was a fancy way of saying they were in jail, at least for now.
Isadora kept texting him videos of people’s takes on the military’s involvement in science, which ranged from totally bonkers conspiracy theories to surprisingly informative facts from laypeople, complete with reliable sources.
Coal clicked away from the latest one showing “proof” that child armies were already deployed all over the world. Isadora had bookended that video with footage of her snort-laughing.
“The whole clone army thing could have been cool,” Door said.
“Just a couple of weeks ago you said it would be a nightmare.” Coal slammed his locker, realized he forgot to take his math homework, and opened it up again. He’d been distracted for days, forgetting homework, which class he had next, whether he’d already fed Cornelius or not. Everyone had been understanding, especially Cornelius, who definitely did not mind double meals.
“Yes, for anyone who needed to look at your hideous mug. But I forgot that clone armies always have full-face helmets.”
“That’s only in the movies, I think,” Coal said.
“No, they have to do that for real,” Door said. “Or else it’s too freaky. Looking at a whole troop of the same faces like that? Though maybe that’s helpful. I bet it’s disorienting. Like watching a herd of zebras running toward you. You just have nowhere to put your eyeballs.” He pulled his backpack on his shoulder. “It’s called disruptive camouflage, by the way.”
Clearly, Door’d been talking to Mari and Han. He even said it the way Mari would have.
“Uh, okay,” Coal said. “Sure. That makes complete sense. So you’ve been studying up?”
Door tapped his temple. “You’re going to need someone to be the brains of this operation,” he said.
“What operation?” Coal asked.
“Well, I figure we’ll start out using your gifts for good. And then maybe we’ll dabble in evil for a bit, before coming round again.” He put both hands on Coal’s shoulders. “I can’t expect you to do everything so I’ll be the one coming up with the plans, and you’ll be the one who, you know, does all the superheroing.”
“Ah.”
“Don’t worry. I have the whole thing planned out.”
Bisa jogged toward them.
“Hey,” Coal said.
She smiled. “You know, everyone’s curious why Mirror Tech wanted to experiment on you in the first place.”
“That’s top secret,” Door said. “Access to that information is on a need-to-know basis and you do not need to know.”
Bisa rolled her eyes. “Come on,” she pleaded.
“Nuh, and I repeat, uh,” Door said, with a head waggle.
“What do you want? A bribe?” Bisa asked.
“How much of a bribe are we talking about?” Door cocked his head.
“There will be no bribing,” Coal said. “But I did finally finish your drawing.” He pulled out a full-color illustration of Bisa as a panther with highlights of purple, pink, and blue.
