Simulated, p.17
Simulated, page 17
“You already said I have to go too,” I say, finally recognizing the logic. “How many possibilities did you calculate? Of all the solutions, the one that worked had me in it, am I right? That means you knew there was a possibility Montego wouldn’t work.” He’s silent. He knows I’m right. I’ve calculated the odds on many events, like in China. I knew my plan that included Chan had the highest odds of success, even if it took him a while to come around. “Noble, if the gift you have is like mine, we can trust it, even without seeing proof. It’s crazy but I believe it. I’m supposed to come, aren’t I?”
He groans. “The plan with Montego was supposed to work. The odds were good.” A door closes in the background. I hear traffic and horns and the shuffling of people. He’s walking around outside. It makes me wonder what we would have found on him if I’d given them the earring. “The loyalist deal has significantly worse odds now…” He trails off.
“But you predicted whatever chance we have at succeeding includes me. Besides, Kai would do the same for me,” I say.
“Regardless of your boyfriend being an idiot, if he were in my place, would he let you go?” he asks.
Kai is all for adventure. But when it comes to putting me in danger, he is not ok. But I don’t say that. It’s none of Noble’s business. Besides, all I can see is that the next three days are crucial. I can feel it. Helping Kai. Stopping the Loyalists and taking down the Successor. And if I go with Noble, it will give me a chance to understand how to get my gift back. It’s now or never. After this trip, I’ll be back in Seattle and Noble and I will never see each other again.
“Nothing you say will make me change my mind,” I say firmly. “My gift is returning each time I try to use it for something real. Yesterday it almost came back. So you can either help me or I’ll go alone.”
“You won’t get your gift back that way.”
“Oh yeah?” I ask. “How do you know?”
He is silent. “Common sense, Jo. Trauma, danger, stress, all those shut a mind down. Only healing and peace open it back up. Danger can make a spark, but it won’t light a fire. Go for Kai, for PSS, but don’t do this because you want to get your gift back.”
I close my eyes. He sounds like Red. Twice now. I think of all the other prodigies down the hall and sink down on my bed, defeated. “Losing my gift is like walking blind…”
He sighs, sympathetically. “Our gift is powerful. I don’t envy your loss of it. I promised to help you and I will.” The frequency spikes so magnetically between us that the room feels like it’s on fire. We don’t speak. Surely, he knows how long we’re silent, but all I know is the hair on my arms is standing on end and I’m hot and cold and flustered. Until remembering Kai’s face in a room full of Loyalists and thugs makes me snap.
“Look, we’re running out of time. I need to prepare my team if I’m going to do this.”
“Fine. The exchange is happening in Douz, a city called the Gateway to the Sahara. It’s a six-hour drive from here. Albert Müller, one of the possible Successors, is already on his way there. If you’re coming, we have to leave soon. Kai needs the holothumb before Albert confronts him. You’d better bring your bodyguard. We may need him.”
“What am I going to tell him this time?” I ask.
“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of him,” he says confidently. “You convince Ms. Taylor. I’ll call you later. Knock, knock, Jo.”
“Huh?” I’m confused by his words until two raps on the door send my heart skipping.
Jealous as an old cat, I hang up the phone. “Come in.”
Chapter 34
DAR ALZAYTUN, THE MEDINA, TUNIS
AS FAR AS the PSS team knows this is what went down: Montego refused to cooperate so Qadar tased him, and we grabbed the holothumb. End of story.
Noble jammed the video feed after he learned about the Fingertips. Only Goliath, Noble, and I know the truth about what happened at The Sparkling Star. Thankfully, PSS was able to Veil news sources afterward too, so anyone watching Montego will think he’s still “game on” for the deal.
When Ms. T asked Goliath about the situation, he gave very few details—“Montego refused to cooperate. We needed the holothumb. We took it.”
When I thanked him later, all he said was, “My goals are your goals. I was hired to protect you.” I can’t figure him out.
Ms. T walks in, the team trailing behind her. My long sleeves hide the bruises on my arm.
“How are you feeling?” Ms. T asks.
“I won’t lie—it didn’t go as planned, but we got what we needed to trace the Blacklist he sold to the radicals.” I rub my arms in silence. No one mentions the elephant in the room, so I do. “But now that Montego is in jail, someone has to bring this holothumb to the Loyalist deal in Douz or there could be worse consequences.”
“And you think you’re the person to do it? Why am I not surprised?” Ms. T asks with a weary look.
In the past, I would have been judging her movements, the direction her eyes flick, the subtleties of her mannerisms. But now I just take her words at face value. She wants the truth no matter what and we’ll go from there.
“We have a plan. This time, it should work. He’s calculated all the possibilities.”
“He? Coral Hacker?” she asks, her hands on her hips. “We’re supposed to be exposing his identity, and now you’re partnering with him?”
I look out the window at the light brown buildings on the horizon. Several trees dot the landscape. I focus on the leaves and how Noble saved my life yesterday. “I believe he’s safe.”
“How can you say that?” she asks. “If what you’ve told us about his surveillance capabilities is true, that means he’s illegally hacked into government and other organizations to access those cameras. With what he can do, we can’t trust him.”
“Eddie, can you open this?” I airdrop the encrypted file for the Dissolve formula to his smart watch. He opens the file and passes it around for everyone to see. Mouths drop. Ms. T, however, doesn’t show any expression at all.
“Coral Hacker finished the formula for us. He’s a genius,” I say, “You specialize in them, remember? Why not give him a shot?”
“For starters, Dissolve is a Blacklist program condemned by the government. Dissolve isn’t supposed to exist, and he just completed it.” She tightens her lips, but her eyes aren’t angry.
“I thought it was blacklisted because no one could get Dissolve to work,” I exhale forcibly. There is no point in arguing or trying to convince her of anything. “Look, we only have until Friday when the Loyalist deal is supposed to happen. It’s up to us to destroy the master-file. All we have to do is arrange a drop off with the SMOKE holothumb to our guy inside. Trust me.”
“Guy inside? So now you have a contact in the Loyalist group too?” She purses her lips. “Jo, I believe in you. I do. But leaving the city again? Your father won’t like it. And frankly, even if PSS is in trouble, we are not trained to deal with dangerous criminals. We’re polymaths, a thinktank creating solutions. We’ve got our hands full dealing with the radicals staging a coup here in Tunis. We need to get the authorities involved.”
My gift flickers on her movements. It’s clear as a polygraph that Ms. T thinks she has to say no to our involvement, not because she believes we can’t handle the situation. In fact, I think she believes we can. But something is stopping her.
“I’ll contact Private Global Forces today.” I exhale. To convince her to let me go to Douz is going to require more trust. Red always told me there was a way to do things right. I don’t have to go rogue, no matter how much I instinctually feel I should. “We didn’t ask for this, but we’re not here by accident.” I chew on my lip. “Coral Hacker’s calculations say there’s no other way. I believe him. If there is a way for me to help, I have to do it.”
“I won’t endanger this team.”
“That’s why you’re staying here. There’s a job to finish in Tunis and PSS has to trace the tech. You said they might have stolen four years of files. Douz is our only chance to get SMOKE into the master-file. And I have to do it…” I pause. They have to know why I’m pressing this… “There’s more at risk than just shutting down the Loyalists.”
“What could possibly be more important?” she asks. Time to come clean. Ms. T’s speech about telling the truth and being on my side waves in her eyes like a flag, inviting me in, like my mother’s arms. It’s enough to make me talk.
“Saving Kai.”
Chapter 35
MY MIND FLOODS with a memory of Kai the day before he flew back to Shanghai. He’d spent the whole day in coveralls, covered in oil, fixing my dad’s car. I loved watching every minute of it. It’s a side of Kai very few people get to see. The boy his father is just now getting acquainted with again.
A smudge of grease was on his face, a satisfied grin on his lips. “Jason, your carburetor is fixed. Feels good to get my hands dirty. What next?”
Dad walked over to him, slapping him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Kai. I’ll have a list of things for you next time. We’re remodeling the kitchen. I’ll make good use of you.” My dad chuckled.
“That’s what I like to hear,” Kai said. We laughed and talked the rest of the evening.
That night, I’d already fallen asleep, but woke up to the door of my room opening. I almost leaped up, frightened by the unknown intruder, until Kai’s familiar scent hit me: A city boy who smells as fresh and woodsy as a mountaintop.
He crept over to me and I reveled in his smile, the one reserved only for me. This is the Kai only I saw.
My stomach flipped as I squinted and sat up. “Kai? What are you doing? You know my dad’s rules.” My father would flip if he knew Kai was in my bedroom.
“Eh, his rules are in place for something else. I don’t plan on breaking those. I just love watching you sleep.” Kai sat down on my bed, his hand moving over my cheek.
I lay back down, my eyes closed, my head resting on his thigh. “You mean because I finally sleep through the night?”
His fingers moved over my lips, then through my hair. “Yeah. That’s my job now. Making a world where you can sleep every night like this…Safe….and preferably close to me.”
“Do you have to leave in the morning?” I asked, slightly delirious. I snag his hand and pull it close to me.
“If you tell me to stay, I will. I love you, Jo…” The shields of his eyes went down, revealing a pure vulnerability and the deepest part of his heart, where he loves with abandon and holds nothing back.
But I didn’t tell him to stay.
Now images from Noble’s phone contrast with my memory—Kai sitting with an Arabian Sheikh bluffing his way into danger, to keep his promise to make the world a safer place. I ache thinking about it. Which is why I’m taking this risk to tell PSS.
Ms. T and team silently study me. My gut says I can trust them, but it doesn’t stop my heart from hammering.
“Before we left Seattle, I received a phone call regarding Kai, who was also here in Tunisia. I’m restricted from going into too much detail, but Kai doesn’t work for his father’s company,” I explain. Then for the next few minutes I tell my team the bare bones of what Kai does, believing their silence on all things high security will spill over to protect Kai too.
When I finish, Ms. T exhales, her brows softening with concern. Her strength coupled with her empathy only makes me respect her more. “So, he’s undercover with the Loyalists right now?”
“Yes, because of me and my past. They believed his cover because he knows everything about Madame, all the details of her take down, things only I would know. Kai claimed he was working with Montego, and he’ll be exposed if we don’t get the holothumb to him.”
Harrison shakes his head. “Kai is a Kung Fu master. He’ll be ok.”
I glance sideways at him. “Kai’s smart and good at what he does but Kung Fu does not protect you from people like this. And Kai’s only communication is with me, which is why I’m the only one who can set up a safe drop off.”
I expect Ms. T to be upset, instead to her credit, she considers everything seriously. Her posture even relaxes. “Is Kai ok?”
“For now. Coral Hacker saved his life by turning off his biotag’s signal. But if I don’t bring the holothumb he won’t be.”
Everything I’m telling her is true and yet more reasons spin through my head. The sim of Kai and the dead man on the ground wars inside me. It bothers me that my numbers couldn’t connect the scene when I tried to piece everything together. Kai has always ever been entirely himself with me. But what happens if he goes too far? Noble’s words about him being attracted to danger may have some truth and I have to find out what it is.
Kai is the reason we succeeded in China. I couldn’t have done it on my own. He shouldn’t have to do this by himself either. Kai’s strong, but he needs me. My face warms as I remember his last touch, a rough hand brushing the hair away from my cheek, the smile in his eye as we sat in stillness. That was over a month ago—too long, and it may never happen again if I don’t help him.
Ms. T narrows her eyes, breathing in and out slowly as she determines her next words. Her self-control is inspiring. “You knew this information before we came to Tunisia…Jo. If you’re going to be part of this team, I require full disclosure. We can’t accomplish anything if we hide what we know.”
“Which is why I’m telling you now about Kai. You said if I tell you the truth, you’d always help me.”
“You didn’t tell me Coral Hacker would be at the Bardo.”
“I had to know what I was dealing with first. I wasn’t willing to compromise PSS. The odds of success of Sidi Bou Saïd were high. I thought we could do it.” I know I haven’t been completely honest, but I’m telling her now. If she isn’t satisfied then I’m out of options, no more cards to pull, and my time at PSS is done. She knows I’ll go without her permission, but neither of us want that.
Ms. T stands next to me, her hand resting on my arm. “Whether I believe you can do this or not, I made your father a promise to keep you safe. I’m due for a call with him today.”
“Don’t tell him.” I shake my head, a resolve hardening within me. “I can do this. But I also need to work with people who know me and where I’ve come from. We both know what makes a person is inside, not on paper.” Flashbacks of me sprinting into an alley, breaking a bottle over a gangster’s head fly by in my mind. Phoenix. That girl wants to come out and play.
Ms. T looks away, like reliving an old memory.
“I see you,” I say. “Even without my gift. You’ve overcome more than just rescuing prodigies and creating PSS. That’s why I’m here. That’s also why we’re in Tunisia. It’s why I believe you’ll help me…”
“Nice speech.” She folds her arms across her chest and sits on the arm of her chair next to me. “There’s still one issue. You heading into the desert with the hacker. I don’t know enough about him.”
Three days in the desert with Noble and the frequency bouncing between us… Even the thought of it has my mind thrumming. There’s got to be a logical mathematical explanation for it. He won’t look at me when we both feel it, and he obviously prefers to use his robotic voice, which doesn’t trigger the sound waves between us. I sense there’s more to it—more to him. I need to know. But Ms. T needs to know more too if she’s going to let me go with him.
My earring.
My gift simmers like a volcano preparing to erupt. “If Coral Hacker helps me, I could learn who the Successor is before the deal. If we can stop the Loyalists, we have to try.”
To my surprise, Eddie pipes in. “Our Blacklist tech has already caused damage, Ma’am. PSS started this. We have to finish it. If it’s just to drop the holothumb, I think Jo should go. I also think we should help her. And I’ve got connections in Indonesia. I’ll ask around about the Indonesian Ambassador.”
Pens jumps in too. “At Harvard I knew some of the top bankers in the world. I’ll dig into Albert Müller.”
“If Jo keeps K2’s com-line open we can track her movements and we can assist her from Tunis.” Harrison waves his phone, already pulling up a map. “Should be easy enough. It’s a small oasis town with little activity in the Sahara Desert. We can get full surveillance of the location.”
Felicia’s nodding. “Her bodyguard can go too. He knows his way around the country, and he can partner with the local authorities if necessary.” Felicia bites her lip. “Ms. T, you know we’re prepared for this, and honestly, we’re the only ones who can stop our tech from spreading.”
Ms. T nods solemnly. “There’s no denying we have to do our part to stop this. But true success comes from teamwork. Calling Kai’s agency is a must. I’ll also contact a few people. But I will only agree to this plan on two conditions.” She looks me in the eye.
“Which are?”
“You get more information on Coral Hacker. His fingerprints, his identity, his real name. Once I know enough to be satisfied that he is not a threat, I’ll let you go.”
“He’ll never agree to that.”
“Then I’m sorry,” she says.
A pain hits me hard in the gut as I pull out my earring. The smartdust is my last card but it feels so wrong. Even worse than telling Ms. T about Kai. As I roll it between my fingers, the sense of duplicity in my soul thickens.
I place the tiny earring filled with nano-tech in her outstretched hand. “I have a way to do that. The smart dust is on his phone. With its Bluetooth-tech, you should be able to hack into his device and find out all you need.” Turning in Noble feels like I’m betraying Phoenix. It makes me feel sick. I know what it’s like to want to be hidden until the right time, and I’m taking that away from Noble. But I need to do this for Kai.
Ms. T nods solemnly. She’s not enjoying this either. She’s keeping her team safe. “All right,” she says. “If you promise that all you will do is drop off the holothumb to Kai and go nowhere near the Successor, you may go.”
“That’s the plan,” I say. Low odds of success float around me like specks of dust in the air with nowhere to land. Noble said the plan was riskier than the one with Montego, which I failed. I also have no idea who the Successor is. But I ignore all my doubts, and stand.
