imperfect (33 page)

“
Promise Stevey will feel
better?” he asked.

“
Promise,” Troop said.
Then under his breath he mumbled, “Though you probably won’t feel
so great when all that liquor is leaving your body at
once.”

“
Give me the pill,” Stevey
ordered. He held out his hand for the pill. Troop gave it to him
and Stevey swallowed the pill dry.

Within five minutes,
Stevey was chucking up like heck. Stevey must’ve drunk a huge
amount of alcohol at the rate he was retching. Finn managed to get
the ancient fan working reluctantly; unfortunately, the fan did
little to disperse the smell of puke. The smell turned Kristi’s
stomach into a queasy mess and she feared
she
would start barfing herself if
she didn’t get out of here soon.

“
Excuse me,” Kristi said,
pushing past Chelsa and Troop. “I think I’ll go outside for some
fresh air, if you don’t mind.”

“
Go on,” Troop said. “If
anyone else wants to go outside, feel free to. I think I have this
situation under control.”

Ghost padded after Kristi outside. She could
only imagine how awful the stench must have been for Ghost, whose
nose was hundreds of times more sensitive than hers.

The sky grew dark within minutes and Kristi
had a feeling they wouldn’t be getting any answers from Stevey that
day. The questions would have to wait until the next day. She set
up the tent something she was proud she could now accomplish) and
waited for everyone else to come out.

Ten, fifteen, then twenty minutes passed and
Kristi decided she was too tired to stay up any longer; before she
knew it, she was fast asleep.

chapter
thirty-three

[ Troop ]

Some sort of creature
snuffling outside the tent woke Troop up.
He peeked outside and spotted a deer bounding out of sight.
Kristi, Finn and Chelsa were still fast asleep; Ghost raised his
head and met Troop’s eyes.

“
I won’t wake them up,” he
whispered. Then he felt foolish for talking to a cat.

Ghost twitched his whiskers and lay back
down, deeming him unworthy of his attention. Troop crawled outside
and started preparing some breakfast foods, waiting for the others
to wake up. The smell of hot chocolate must’ve been pretty
delicious since Finn and Chelsa emerged from the tent in a few
minutes.

“
Kristi still sleeping?”
Troop asked.

“
Yeah,” said Chelsa.
“She’s so tired I wouldn’t be surprised if she slept through a
devil-dog attack.”

“
I would not!” came
Kristi’s voice from inside the tent.

Troop grinned to himself, imagining her
forehead creased with indignation.

“
How was Stevey doing
after I left?” Kristi joined them outside, her hair slightly
tousled and looking sleepy.

“
Better,” he said. “He
purged heavily for a good fifteen minutes. We got him cleaned up a
bit and left him sleeping on the couch.”

The sound of a body falling onto a hard
surface interrupted their conversation. Troop looked up in time to
see Stevey picking himself up from the front steps of his
cabin.

“
Good morning, Stevey,”
Troop said.

“
Good morning,” Stevey
replied, massaging his temples. “Stevey made a bad mistake
yesterday.”

“
What did you think you
were doing, polishing off seven bottles of beer?” Finn
asked.

“
How did you know about
Stevey’s secret?” Stevey’s eyes widened in surprise.

“
We found empty bottles
near your cabin.”

“
Are you feeling better?”
Chelsa asked.

“
Yes. Do you have
food?”

Chelsa handed Stevey a slice of bread and
some hot chocolate. Stevey wolfed down the food and let out a
belch. After draining the last dregs of hot chocolate, he asked,
“Why are you here?” Stevey handed the empty cup back to Chelsa and
scanned their faces. “I remember you and you,” he said, pointing to
Chelsa and Kristi. “You guys are bad. You make Stevey say things
Stevey cannot say.”

Troop noticed Kristi cringe.

She leaned over and whispered to him,
“Stevey’s memory is better than I anticipated. Hopefully he won’t
hold a grudge against Chelsa and me; however, if necessary Chelsa
and I will leave if Stevey refuses to answer any questions in our
presence.”

“
Stevey doesn’t know you
and you.” Stevey pointed to Troop and Finn.

They briefly introduced themselves to Stevey
then got down to business.

“
So Stevey, I heard you’re
very smart,” Finn said, trying to ease Stevey into a talkative
mood.

Stevey nodded enthusiastically. “Oh yes,
Stevey knows tons! Did you know that a tarantula can survive
without food for over a year? Did you know manatees have vocal
chords that give them the ability to speak the human language? Did
you know that elephants can’t jump? Did you know the last wild
elephant died fourteen years ago?”

They allowed Stevey to ramble on a bit more
before attempting to steer him back on track to the list of
questions they had in store for him.

“
You sure know a lot,”
Kristi said.

Stevey smugly nodded in agreement.

“
I heard you were a
scientist,” Troop said. “Is that true?”

Once again, Stevey nodded. “Stevey was a
scientist. Stevey was a brilliant scientist who discovered many
things. Stevey was the first person to successfully create a touch
recorder.”

“
What company did you work
for?”

“
Stevey worked for
Universal Science until the United Regions government recruited
Stevey…” Stevey trailed off, lost in thought.

“
And?” Chelsa prompted
him.

“
Stevey liked working for
the government sponsored organization; there were always a lot of
points to be spent on new machines. But later on, Stevey didn’t
like working there anymore.”

“
Is there any reason why?”
Finn asked. “What made you dislike your job?”

“
It was wrong,” Stevey
said forcefully. “The government used science in a bad way. They
wanted to improve things that shouldn’t be improved.”

Troop furrowed his brows. “How is improving
something bad?”

Stevey pierced him with an intense stare.
“The price outweighed the reward in Stevey’s job.”

Troop felt like the answer they were looking
for was so close he could snatch it out of thin air.

“
Did your job have any
involvement with Accidents?” he gently asked, not wanting to bring
up bad memories to Stevey.

“
My work was involved with
many things.” Stevey abruptly stopped referring to himself in third
person.

“
Look,” Kristi said.
“We’re trying to solve a mystery my parents left behind. They
suspect that the government has a darker motive for confiscating
Accidents.”

“
Kyle and Shelly were on
the right track.” Stevey picked at his fingernails.

“
So are you confirming
what they suspected?”

“
Yes. However, if I were
you, I would drop the case and try to live as normally as possible.
If the government catches even the slightest whiff that you are
looking into the disappearance of Accidents, your life will become
miserable,” Stevey warned.

“
Thanks for the advice,
but I feel like I can never rest at ease without completing the
cases my parents left behind for me.”

Stevey shrugged. “Do what you want, but
don’t blame me for the consequences.”

“
Do you know why the
government is abolishing the Accidents?” Finn asked.

“
Isn’t it obvious?” Chelsa
said. “The government doesn’t want a bunch of genetically inferior
kids corrupting the Perfect kids.”

“
Fair enough,” Finn
replied. “But what does the government do to the Accidents then?
Surely they don’t kill them…do they?”

“
No, the government
doesn’t kill the Accidents,” Stevey said.

“
Then what do they do with
them?”

Stevey didn’t reply right away. When he
spoke again, his tone was of a child’s. “Stevey is tired. Stevey is
going to take a nap.”

Bi-polar personality
much?
Troop thought, watching Stevey drop
the empty thermos onto the ground and stagger towards his
shack.

“
Perhaps we should go.”
Chelsa dusted some dirt off her pants.

“
Alright,” Troop said.
“But I want to ask Stevey one more question. I have a feeling
something important happened at the last lab Stevey worked
at.”

He left the others collapsing the tent and
extinguishing the fire.

“
Stevey!” Troop called out
to the man’s back.

Stevey paused at the doorway. “Yeah?”

“
What was the last place
you worked at?”

“
New Genes Lab. Now can
Stevey take a nap?”

“
Yeah, sure.
Thanks.”

Troop helped clean up their mess and looked
up New Genes Lab on his electro-slate; it was located in Klisbury,
East Region, which wasn’t too far away from here. If they could
catch an air-train to Klisbury, they would be able to find the lab
today. He voiced this idea out loud.

“
How much are the train
tickets though?” Chelsa said.

“
A bit over forty points
per person. We have enough points to purchase tickets for everyone,
but there is considerable risk for using the public
transportation.”

“
I’ll run the risk,”
Kristi said. “Is everyone okay with that?” No one answered. “I’ll
take that as a
yes.
” She proceeded to buy tickets via her
electro-slate.

Troop wondered if he would regret suggesting
that they take the air-train.

chapter
thirty-four

[ Kristi ]

Chelsa’s electro-slate
announced she had an instafication. They
were on the air-train bound for Klisbury. Their segment of
the train was unoccupied, save Chelsa, Troop, Finn, Ghost and
Kristi.

Chelsa let out a groan as she read her
instafication. “It’s Zala. She wants another update. She also says
that if I don’t turn over you guys to her people within three days,
the government will start an aggressive search.”

“
If everything goes
according to plan, all of this will be over in three days,” Troop
said.

“
What are you referring to
when you say ‘all of this’?” Finn asked, tickling Ghost with the
end of one of his crutches.

“
Completing the case and
hopefully falling off the government’s radar.”

Kristi barely concealed her sound of
amusement with a cough. “Do you seriously believe we will finish
both the Disappearance Case and Individualism Case in three
days?”

“
Miracles do happen,”
Troop said.

“
And pigs fly.”

There was a soft knock on the compartment
window. Someone slid open the door and poked her head inside.

“
Do you mind if my fiancé
and I sit here?” the woman asked. “The other compartments are
either full or too noisy for me.”

“
Sure.” Troop gestured to
the seven empty seats left.

“
Thanks.”

The woman, who looked to be in her late
twenties scooted into the seat across from Kristi; a man followed
her. Both of them took out an electro-slate and started typing
away.

The woman’s toes tapped in time to the music
that was being softly played over the speakers. Kristi guessed they
were college graduates from the looks of their age and dress.

“
The guy looks vaguely
familiar,” Troop whispered into her ear. His breath tickled the
nape of her neck, provoking goose bumps.

“
Where do you think you’ve
seen him before?”

“
I don’t know. Give me a
second and I’ll think of it.”

Finn overheard heard them whispering and
offered his thoughts. “Maybe he’s a member of the Revealers and you
saw him at Verus Real Estate.”

“
Maybe,” Troop
said.

Kristi pulled away from Troop and studied
the man. The guy did seem old enough to hold a job as an assistant
at Verus Real Estate. He had dirty blonde hair, hazel eyes and a
quirk to his mouth as if he was skeptical of everything. The guy
lifted his head up and Kristi hastily looked away, not wanting to
appear like a creeper.

She leaned her head against the window and
watched the outside world fly by. The countryside gave way to small
towns, which gave way to cities. At long last, the air-train slowed
down and eventually pulled into a station with a smooth halt.

“
All passengers bound for
Klisbury should depart now,” an automated voice announced through
the speakers located in the train compartment.

They got off the train, keeping their heads
down and struggling not to get separated from each other while
being swept along with the crowd getting off the air train.
Klisbury reminded Kristi of her hometown; it was smaller than
Oppidum, but still a respectable sized city.

“
What do you say we do
next?” Finn asked.