imperfect (9 page)

Chelsa scuttled to the same trio of trash
bins they had hid behind earlier and beckoned for either Jaiden or
Kristi to follow.

“
You go first,” Jaiden
whispered.

Kristi carefully stepped over the laser and
joined Chelsa behind the bins. Jaiden started to follow, but he had
barely taken a step away from the wall when an alarm went off.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Jaiden froze, not sure what to do.

“
Oh crap,” Chelsa muttered
and swore under her breath. “I completely forgot to tell Jaiden
about the laser trip wire. Jaiden!” she said his name as loud as
she dared.

“
Yeah?”

“
We’re going to make a run
for it.”

The droid-dogs barked at the top of their
lungs. Guards shouted commands to each other and the spotlights
from the watchtowers swung to and fro, searching for intruders. The
whole place was launched into a frenzy.

“
Head for the trees,”
Chelsa instructed.

She popped up from the ground and ran for
the surrounding woods. Jaiden and Kristi raced after her. Branches
whipped at Kristi’s face and tore at her hair. The ground was
covered in dead leaves, making it hard for her to know where there
were roots; she nearly tripped over one jutting out from the
ground.

The cloudy night sky meant the moon wasn’t
able to provide a lot of light, which Kristi supposed was a
double-edged sword; it made it harder for the guards on their tail
to find them in the dark, but at the same time meant sticking close
to Jaiden and Chelsa was even more important. Ghost reappeared
sometime and ran beside his owner.

“
Can you lead us to your
place?” Kristi asked Chelsa. She drew in an extra deep breath to
recover from asking her question.

“
What else do you think
I’m doing?”

“
You can’t hide from us,
you runaways!” a guard hollered. “You’ll never escape
us.”

“
Let’s see about that,”
Chelsa said.

Kristi ran with renewed effort, splashing
through as many streams and puddles as possible to throw off their
scents. The freezing water soaked into her jeans, plastering them
against her legs. The wet garment hindered Kristi’s speed, making
her fall behind Jaiden and Chelsa.

Ghost slowed down to match Kristi’s pace,
nipping at her heels whenever he felt her start to slow down.

“
You okay?” Jaiden asked.
He spared a second to look over his shoulder, making sure she was
still in sight.

“
Yeah.”

Ghost snipped at her ankles in
encouragement.

“
I lost the trail,” a
guard called.

“
Hold on a second,”
another guard replied. “Let my droid-dog find the
trail.”

Their voices faded away.

At long last, they broke through the tree
lines and the guards appeared to be nowhere in sight. Kristi
recognized where they were; somehow, using her uncanny sense of
location, Chelsa had managed to lead them to a street that branched
off to the alley where Chelsa’s home was.

They hustled to the brick wall and Kristi
ran her hands over the sensor. The bricks rotated away, exposing
the room inside and Jaiden let out a whistle of admiration of the
craftiness. The gap closed up once more the moment everyone was
inside.

Chelsa swiftly unlocked the door to the main
room and turned on the lights.

“
Sweet hideout,” Jaiden
said.

Chelsa nodded to show she heard and put the
kettle on. “I need some tea. It calms my nerves. Want some?”

“
Yes, please,” Jaiden and
Kristi said in unison.

Jaiden spun to face Kristi; she did not like
the expression he had on his face. He looked positively
furious.

“
What were you trying to
do, Kristi? You could’ve been killed. I was fine; they weren’t
going to do anything with me. The judges were going to deem me
innocent and I would be let out within a day. Do you know what they
would do to you? The government will be more than happy to use this
break-in as an excuse to lock you up for the rest of your life.
You’re my only remaining family member and I couldn’t stand it if
you were captured.”

“
What about Maria and Don?
They’re part of our family too,” Kristi said. “And anyways, I’m
fine and you’re fine. Nobody got hurt.”

“
They’re traitors,” Jaiden
growled. “They’re not my parents any more. They betrayed me and
never told me who they were. Ha! They brought me up to follow the
laws while they were breaking the laws themselves. They’re
back-stabbing liars.”

Jaiden grabbed Kristi by
the shoulders and shook her with each word to emphasize the point.
“
Our. Parents. Were.
Spies
.” Then he seemed to realize what he
was doing and hastily dropped his hands. “Sorry.” He apologetically
met her gaze.

Kristi rubbed her sore shoulders—Jaiden’s
grip was strong—and said, “Apology accepted. I don’t think you’ve
been properly introduced to Chelsa yet.”

Chelsa took the kettle off the stove and
poured everyone a mug of green tea.

Kristi rapidly downed her cup of tea and
withdrew to take a shower, leaving Chelsa and Jaiden to get to know
each other better.

“
What do you think
the
note means?” Kristi asked Jaiden and
Chelsa the next day. She took out the crumpled piece of paper and
flattened it on the wooden desk. They stooped around the table,
trying to decipher the message.

Find Jaiden and locate the others.

--M & D

Jaiden read the note and
assumed a thoughtful look. When he spoke, he chose his words
carefully, “Who are the
others
?”

“
No clue,” Chelsa replied,
snacking on a cracker. “Kristi and I have been trying to interpret
it for a while now. We were hoping you would know.”

Jaiden frowned then said,
“Maybe
others
could be implying that there are other people with no genetic
alterations.”

“
Do you mean Accidents?”
Chelsa asked.

“
I hate that
term.”

Kristi supposed it was possible that other
Accidents like her and Chelsa existed.

“
Or Maria and Don may be
referring to other spies,” Jaiden said. He accepted the saltines
Chelsa offered him. “But honestly, is there any valid reason for
you to follow the orders on the note?” He directed the question
towards Kristi.

Jaiden had a point. Her seemingly mundane
parents were actually spies. As a result, Jaiden had gotten thrown
into jail and she was a wanted fugitive. Did she really want to
follow instructions left by them?

“
I personally just want to
forget about the note and move on in life,” said Jaiden. “But I’ll
support whatever choice you make.”

“
If you decide not to go
searching for the
others
,” said Chelsa, “you’re
welcome to stay with me.”

“
That’s very nice of you,”
Kristi said. She tried not to shudder imagining living the rest of
her life in the three rooms that made up Chelsa’s residence. Being
trapped indoors, relying on Chelsa to bring her news of the world
outside; just thinking about it made her cringe.

chapter ten

[ Kristi ]

“
I want to carry out Maria
and Don’s wishes.”

Jaiden and Chelsa looked up from the
electro-slate, both listening to Kristi.

“
I don’t know what else to
do.” She dropped onto the rickety bed beside Chelsa.

“
You could always stay
here, as Chelsa has offered,” Jaiden said.

“
I think following the
directives may clear some of the confusion that happened over the
past two days.”

“
Very well, I will do
whatever I can to assist you.” Jaiden looked neither pleased nor
upset by her choice.

“
So will I,” Chelsa added,
catching Kristi off guard. “Oh, don’t look so surprised at my
offer. You’re my first friend in a long time. You didn’t think that
I was going to allow you to slip away so easily, did
you?”

Kristi gave them both a hug. “Thanks guys. I
really appreciate it.”

Chelsa made a face. “Don’t get all mushy on
me.” All the same, she returned Kristi’s hug, then said, “I’ll go
see if I can find some sleeping bags for you two.” She brushed
cracker crumbs off her sweatshirt. “And don’t you even think about
leaving—it’s too risky for you to show your face in public.”

“
There’s no way Maria
and
Don could’ve known about Chelsa,”
Jaiden said. He twirled the pen masterfully through his fingers.
In. Out. In. Out.

“
Who knows what they
knew?” Kristi glanced at the clock; Chelsa had been gone for over
an hour.

“
So you think the
others
are other
Accidents?” He grimaced at the word.

“
I don’t know
anything.
Others
could
be other Accidents, it could
be other spies, and it could be a secret family of dwarves, for all
I know.” Not for the first time, Kristi wished her parents’ message
could’ve been a little less vague.

“
We’re getting nowhere,”
Jaiden stated the obvious.

“
Go shower. You smell.”
Kristi pushed her brother in the direction of the
bathroom.

Then she wandered around the room, picking
up different objects and examining them. There was a map tacked up
on the wall. On the desk was a cup holding a bunch of pens and
pencils. She picked up an album off the desk. Ghost looked up from
cleaning his whiskers and growled softly.

She ignored him and flipped open the book.
The first page showed a younger Chelsa standing in front of a man
and a woman. Her parents. Chelsa had her mother’s hair and nose;
from her father, she inherited his high cheekbones and green
eyes.

She flipped on to the next page. Chelsa was
much older now, perhaps twelve or thirteen years old. Beside her
was a boy a few years older. The boy had light, curly hair and
impish eyes. They were playing with Ghost beside a lake.

Kristi turned the page. The picture showed
an even older Chelsa (fifteen, or sixteen years old?) being hugged
by the same boy in the previous picture. Over the picture, someone
had scribbled “Chelsa + Alex” in permanent marker. Kristi wondered
how things stood between them now.

Ghost growled softly once
more and Kristi realized with a start she was snooping through
Chelsa’s private stuff without her permission.
What a great friend I am
, she
thought, replacing the album as she had found it.

Ghost stared at her, as if
to say,
“You should’ve known better than
to do that.”

The doorknob jingled and the door was flung
open. Chelsa returned with her purchased goods. At the same time,
Jaiden stepped out of the bathroom, toweling off his wet, dark
hair.

“
I got you new clothes,”
Chelsa said, tossing Jaiden a stuffed bag.

He caught it one-handed. “Thanks. I’ll go
change into them now.”

“
I got you some, too,”
Chelsa said and passed another bag to Kristi.

“
Is there any way I can
repay you?” Kristi didn’t want to become a burden to
Chelsa.

“
How about making
breakfast tomorrow?”

“
Deal.”

She helped Chelsa take out the rest of the
purchases from the bags. All the food was stored in a plastic bin
and the sleeping bags were kept underneath the bed until
needed.

“
Did you find any news
about Maria and Don?” Kristi dumped a container of water-purifying
tablets into a bin.

“
They’re being held in a
high security prison until their trial takes place. As for the spy
group Maria and Don work for, all I know is that they work for the
South Union, but I can probably find more information given some
time. Here, you can check the news on my electro-slate for more
information.” Chelsa removed the slate from her shoulder bag and
pitched it onto the cot.

Kristi pulled up the NRN website on the
electro-slate and browsed the headlines until she found one that
read: Officials Uncover More Information About Shea Spies. The
article read:

After breaking into the electro-slates of
the two convicted spies, Shelly Smiths and Kyle Rogers (cover
names: Maria and Don Shea), government officials have concluded
they were working for a South Union spy network known as the
Revealers. Further evidence suggests that their primary purpose of
being stationed in the United Regions was to smuggle top-secret
information to the coordinator of the Revealers. When questioned,
both spies refuse to cooperate and all they would say is “follow
the truth hunter”, which the officials theorize to be the
Revealers’ motto.

“
Follow the truth hunter.”
That phrase stirred something deep inside Kristi, but she just
couldn’t put her finger on
why
.

“
How do I look?” Jaiden
asked. He stashed his old clothes in a biodegradable plastic bag
and indicated to his new clothes.

“
Very nice,” said Chelsa.
She sounded like she meant it. Even by a Perfect’s standards,
Jaiden was very good looking.