It’s not right. None of this is how things are supposed to go.
I spend a lot of time eavesdropping. It’s the only way I learn anything of the outside world.
I overhear stories of power grids being brought down, of water redirected, and of companies infiltrated.
Three months before I turn eighteen, everything changes.
Mom and I argue. I snap at her when she asks me to do something, and then her face goes brittle and we end up in a verbal snarl.
“I’m busy studying,” I say, arms crossed. I’m taller than her now, and I know she hates to look up at me. “Take out your own garbage.”
Something dark and thunderous crosses her face. “William.” She drags out every syllable of my name like a threat. “There’s no need for that.”
“Studying?” I tap the book. “Kind of hard to get into college without it.”
Something flickers across her face. It’s there and gone so quickly I almost don’t see it. But I do.
“What?” I say sharply.
“Nothing.” She begins to turn away, but I stand up.
“Mom.” The word is half begging, half accusing. “I am going to college, right?”
The silence is answer enough.
We’re never getting out. She’s never going to let us out. Percy is going to wither away and I—
I can’t do it anymore.
So the next time Mom is out on a job, I break into her safe. It isn’t hard—the passcode is Dad’s birthday. I hope to find something, anything that will convince her to let me and Percy have real lives.
And that’s when I find out the truth.
It’s there in the plane tickets, the false passports, and the fake IDs. For Mom, Percy, and myself. There’s nothing to help the others escape.
Every hack, every mission, every bit of information—it’s not a solution. It’s a product. And it’s one she is going to sell to the highest bidder. There are already bidders. Terrorist groups—real ones, not the idealists following Aunt Carla—are already clamoring for the information. Mom won’t sell, not yet. Not until we’re all safely out of the country.
Mom isn’t with Aunt Carla to help stopclimate change. She isn’t there to help at all.
Mom is going to let Carla take the fall. Everyone here, everyone in Ratiocination, will be arrested while we fly away. We’ll be going somewhere that the US can’t extradite us. And then we’ll live like royalty atop a burning planet.
I don’t want that.
I don’t want any of that. Not for myself and especially not for my sister. I don’t want hundreds of people to end up dead. I don’t want Aunt Carla blamed for everything when she was just trying to make the world a better place.
Dad wouldn’t want that.
So I take my sister and we run.
My mom is brilliant. If I go through normal channels and get witness protection, that won’t work. Even if I cover my electron-ink tattoo and wear long sleeves for the rest of my life, somehow she’ll find me. She knows her way into government systems, can slip into any security camera, and you’ll never know she was there.
William Vale needs to die.
It’s the only way I can keep my sister safe.
And if you do that… I’ll help you bring my mom down. I know you need heralive. That’s why you haven’t sniped her or blown up a building where she’s doing a job. She knows all of those infrastructure holes that you have to patch up. If one hacker can do what she did, another will figure it out eventually. You need her alive and talking.
I can give her to you. But here’s my price. The moment she’s behind bars, I go my own way. With a new name, a new life, and the means to support my sister.
