Jacked (21 page)

Winchester House was on fire.

Greedy orange fingers wiggled toward the stars, grasping the air and sending up black smoke that clouded the night sky. From almost a block away he felt traces of heat roiling off the building in waves, the smell of burning wood on the breeze. Tar thought he heard screams within the roar of the flames. He did not want to think about Ludler’s fury when the man realized they had slipped free of him again.

“Come on!”

Toby’s yell snapped him out of his trance. He turned and yanked his door open as three Black Shirts spurred their horses toward him. An angry orange glow reflected off the bald head of the middle rider and Tar’s stomach lurched.

Toby whipped the car into reverse as Tar slammed his door shut. The back end of the car wobbled back and forth, tires screaming into the night until they caught hold and threw the vehicle forward.

Tar leaned in his seat so he could look back at the riders. The leader was almost within reach of the car. “GO!” he yelled at Toby.

Whatever small space remained between the pedal and the floor vanished as his friend pressed his foot to the floorboard. The car shot away and Tar watched Ludler make a futile grasp for the vehicle, snatching only air, then lurch sideways in his saddle. The hungry flames made a fearsome shadow of the man as he reined in and watched them go.

Tar let out a slow breath but he knew he was destined to see Ludler again. The hunt was far from over.

Chapter 27

A yellow light flashed on the car’s dashboard readout.

“We’re fragged.” Toby said.

“What is it?”

Toby was quiet as he weaved in between cars parked along the side of the street. “We’re low on juice.”

They rode in silence for another five minutes before the yellow light turned red.

“We need to find some place to park,” Toby said. “We don’t want them to know we’re on foot and where we started walking.”

He slowed the vehicle, coasting when he could.

After a few minutes Tar spotted what they were looking for. “Look on the right. There’s a place with a whole bunch of cars. Let’s hide it in there.”

Toby turned where Tar indicated and found an empty spot near the middle of the parking lot. Out of sight of the street he pushed the metal bar all the way forward and turned off the key, casting them in darkness.

“We’re not all that far away,” Tar said.

“If they don’t see the car they’ll think we kept going. That’s what I’d think.”

“Even so, I want to get some place safe.” Tar pulled Jahn’s app out of his backpack and pressed the on button. The screen lit up but in the upper corner of the screen, a cylinder with one red bar blinked at him the same way the car had flashed earlier. “Oh, no. Mother left it on. The batteries are almost dead!”

“Wonderful. What now?”

Tar touched the file marker on the screen. It was a race as the app tried to show him the name before it ran out of juice. “Nataly Pierinski, 304 Stardust…” The screen winked off, and the car went dark again. “That’s it,” Tar said. “At least until we can find a battery that fits.”

The boys got out. Toby locked the doors, put the keys in his pocket, and slung his backpack over his shoulders. “Which way?”

Tar turned in a slow circle but it was all for show. He had no idea which direction to go to find Stardust. “I don’t know. I don’t like being this close to Winchester Street. Let’s get off on the side. Maybe we can ask someone for directions later.”

“Chilly,” Toby said with a wave of his hand. “Lead on.”

They cut across the lot and headed east a few blocks before turning north, walking along the low-lit, quiet streets. The first glow of morning rose over the buildings to the east, announcing the start of a new day, so they settled underneath the overhang of a deserted storefront and ate the last of Jahn’s food. Toby hunkered against the wall and dozed while they waited for the streets to get busy. Tar was tired, too, but his mind was racing so he looked out on the lightening city and listened for the sounds of horses.

Cars began to motor by, more than he had ever seen on one day in his life, and he wondered how so many people in Santa Clara could afford the gasoline to run them. He wondered how they would find Nataly Pierinski if they could not find Stardust. He wondered if she was even still at that address. He wondered, too, if she was free or held captive, forced to fix bricks.

As he sat on the crumbling concrete Tar wondered about a lot, most of all, why Toby was letting him lead, something he had never done since they had become books.

“Toby, you awake?”

“Yeah. I couldn’t really sleep.”

Tar looked over at his friend. “Did you hear the screams from the fire?”

Toby did not answer right away. “Yeah. I know I should be mad about them keeping us prisoner, but…” His voice trailed off.

“Me, too. I keep thinking about Marybelle.” Tar looked up. The sun was above the surrounding buildings. “Come on. Time to get moving.”

They tried a half-dozen people before someone had heard of Stardust. A couple others might have known but they refused to say, shaking their heads hard and muttering, “No,” and, “Never heard of nothing,” before hurrying away.

But a shop owner, an old baker who smelled of fresh bread, pointed them northwest. After that they ranged block-to-block in that direction until they stumbled upon an area crowded with houses and finally found a dented, rust-colored street sign that read: Stardust Ct. They soon came to a white house with blue trim, the numbers 304 affixed to the faded siding by the front door. Two women worked in the yard.; One had streaks of gray in her brown hair but the other caught Tar’s eye right away, with blonde hair and around their age. Tar knew they had found Nataly Pierinski.

He reached for the latch on the white gate, his hand still hanging in the air, when she turned to face him, almost as if he had called out her name.

“Tar wait…” Toby’s warning went unheard as Tar walked down the sidewalk toward the girl. She took a step toward him.

And the silence was shattered by a woman’s scream.

“Roger! Roger!” The older woman moved to stand between the Tar and the girl, the hand-sized tool in her hand shaking as she held it out like a weapon.

Tar raised his hands away from his body and stopped walking. “Nataly? Are you Nataly Pierinski?”

The girl’s mouth dropped open and the woman stopped yelling. Tar noticed movement out of the corner of his eye but he never looked away from the girl’s face. “Nataly, my name is Taro Hutchins.”

A cry went up as a man raced around the corner of the house, a shovel raised high overhead and ready to strike. He stopped short, however, and Tar realized Toby was beside him with Oso’s knife in his hand. The mask of fury dropped from the man’s face though, and his expression turned to one of disbelief, his eyes going wide.

The man dropped the shovel down and staggered forward. “Taro? It…can’t be. Tar, is that you?”

Tar didn’t know what to say, so he just nodded.

The man came around Toby, ignoring the knife, and put his arms around Tar, hugging him tight. Then he did the strangest thing of all.

He began to cry.

Chapter 28

“Roger? Roger, we need to get off the street.”

The woman pulled at the man’s arm, half-dragging him and Tar a step at a time. He finally let go and they all moved toward the house. Tar wasn’t sure what to think. He looked to make sure Toby was following and he saw his friend motion for Nataly to walk ahead of him. She gave Toby a skeptical glance but obliged.

Once they were inside Tar got another quick hug from the man but the emotion was making him uncomfortable.

“I never dreamed I would see you again,” the man said. “Not after all these years.” He waved the boys toward the living room couch and collapsed more than sat in an old recliner. “How did you find me? Tell me. I want to know everything.”

Tar sat hesitantly and glanced at Toby, then looked at the man. “I’m…sorry, sir. But I don’t know who you are.” He gestured toward the girl. “I came looking for her, for Nataly.”

“How do you know my name?” the girl asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

“Yeah, umm…” Tar reached into his backpack and pulled out Jahn’s app. “From this. My uncle…it was stolen from the same place where they kept the Mind before The Crash. My name was on here. So was Scott Larner and…” Tar looked at the girl. “So was Nataly Pierinski.”

The man blinked in surprise.

“Does it work?” asked the woman.

Tar looked at her. “It did. Until the battery died this morning.” He turned back to the man. “I fixed it.”

“What?” exclaimed Nataly, coming to her feet.

Tar did not know what he expected but he was not prepared for what happened next. “Dad!” Nataly stomped her foot. “You said I was the only one!” Then she ran from the room and slammed a door down the hall. The remaining four stared at one another in confused silence.

#

A few awkward seconds passed before the woman excused herself and went down the hallway after Nataly.

“It looks like I’ll have an apology to make when Sally brings her back,” the man said. He turned to Toby. “I’m sorry, son. I didn’t catch your name.”

“Toby Stern.”

“Oh, I thought you might be Ben and…never mind. So you know…?” He gestured toward Tar.

“Yeah. I know he’s a fixer. Same as her.”

The man winced but recovered quickly with a smile. “Sorry. It’s just that we’ve hidden it so long. But…anyway. My name is Roger Pierinski, Dr. Roger Pierinski. Tar, I was your mother’s project partner…and she was my friend. Hisa was unbelievably smart. She could skim through code faster than anyone I’d ever seen and take a piece of cruft and turn it into something beautiful that actually worked.” He laughed. “She also loved holding you kids when you were brought into the lab. She babysat Nataly several times before you were born. Your father just smiled and went along with it. That man would’ve done anything in the world to make her happy.”

“You knew my dad, too?”

Roger laughed. “Of course! He was the lab director. He ran the whole program.”

Tar’s head was spinning and he sank into the couch. He had learned more about his parents these last few days than he had in his entire life. It made him want to learn more, to know everything.

The woman named Sally had returned to the room, herding a red-faced Nataly along in front of her. “Can I get you boys something to drink?” She looked at Tar. “Honey, do you feel okay?”

“A drink would be great,” he said.

She nodded and went to the kitchen.

“So you found Scott?” The doctor cleared his throat and glanced at Nataly, who was making a point of not looking his direction. “How is he?”

“Not good,” Toby answered. “He’s dead.”

“He died a few years ago from sickness,” Tar said in a rush. “They said it was probably the flu.”

“That’s awful…but not surprising.” Roger looked embarrassed that the words had come from his mouth. “I’m sorry. It’s just that…Scott was in poor health from the day he was born. Whenever Earl brought him into the lab the little fellow always seemed to be sick with a runny nose or cold. Did you speak with Earl or Alice?”

“Do you mean his parents?” asked Tar.

The doctor nodded.

“No. The people at the Winchester House said Scooter’s mother died during The Crash. And they said his dad never came for him.”

“Scooter?”

“That’s what they called him.”

Roger nodded. “Tom and Alice were divorced and I recall she was less than excited about his volunteering Scott for the project. They were already headed toward trouble. Perhaps that argument sent them over the edge.” He looked up as Sally entered with a tray full of glasses and a pitcher of water.

Nataly piped up, her voice quiet but steady. “Was this Scott—Scooter—whatever, a fixer, too?”

“That’s what they told us,” Toby answered her.

Her gaze turned on her father and he flinched beneath her glare a moment, then looked her in the eye. “I’ll not apologize, young lady. I did what I had to in order to keep you safe. Maybe someday you’ll understand.” He leaned back in the recliner and Sally sat down on the arm, putting her arm around his shoulders. He smiled up at her, then looked at Tar and Toby. “But I do owe you,” he glanced at Nataly, “all of you, an explanation.”

Chapter 29

Roger took a drink of water and sighed. “We were all so young and we had all these amazing ideas,” he said. “We were going to make people’s lives better, help them connect to each other. Technology was going to advance at an unbelievable rate as scientists could work with each other, remotely, and instantly. Some even thought we could put an end to war. I mean, could you kill someone you were connected to with your mind?” He paused, reflecting. “We were going to change the world.”

The doctor looked at the floor and paused again. “I guess we changed it all right.” He stared into his glass. No one spoke. Tar held his breath in anticipation and he slowly let it out, watching as Sally gently rubbed Dr. Pierinski’s back. The man just stared into that middle distance, then he took a deep breath. “By the Oughts, interconnectivity was everywhere. It was still a separate function of machines at that time. People used computers and handhelds and various mobile devices to access the Internet and the Cloud. But we quickly became dependent upon these connections. Technology was exciting and, well, I mean a person’s refrigerator monitored its contents and placed online orders when groceries ran low. Your car would automatically schedule an oil change or tire rotation. It was very easy to become reliant on tech…”

The doctor’s gaze went to Uncle Jahn’s app. Tar had been absently turning it over in his hands. The man nodded to himself and continued, “There had been research into Brain-Computer Interface technology all the way back to the 60s but they started making real inroads at the University of California in the early teens and I remember hearing about it when I was still in school. BCI fascinated me and your mother, Tar. We both started working with it when we were still grad students. When the team finally managed to stabilize MentConn technology few years later things moved fast. Wednesday, May 16, 2018. UCLA Medical. Mr. Ken Behnfeldt was the first person to have an external model surgically implanted.” The doctor pointed to the side of his head. “They put it behind his ear in order to access the cortical network; they called it jacking in.” Another pause. A small sip of water. “I’ll never forget when Behnfeldt opened his eyes…or
came online
, I suppose is more appropriate. He told us he could feel the implant’s presence, that the data was right there. Instantaneous Direct Access. And that was the day.”