David arrived at Reese’s house at five thirty on Friday night. When the doorbell rang, Reese was staring at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, debating whether her new outfit made her look cool or like she was trying too hard. She ran downstairs to open the front door before her parents got there. She had half expected David to be waiting on the front step with a corsage in a plastic box, and when she saw he was only holding his car keys, she was relieved. His gaze swept down her legs and back up to her face.
“Nice boots,” he said with a grin that made her feel tingly all over.
“Thanks.” She was about to leave the house when her parents came down the hall.
“Hang on, Reese. You’re not even going to let us say hi to David?” her mom admonished her.
Reese sighed and stepped back, crossing her arms. “We have to go,” she said.
Her mom’s eyebrows rose. “Oh, really?” She looked at David. “You know you’re only allowed to go to dinner and the party. Nothing else. She needs to be back by midnight.”
David smiled a parent-friendly smile, and Reese swallowed an urgent need to giggle. “Of course, Ms. Sheridan. No problem.”
Reese’s dad was right behind her mom and he added, “Reese, you have your phone?”
“Yes, Dad.”
It had taken her quite a while to argue her way into having this night without their supervision. She had to give them the addresses of the restaurant they were going to as well as Eric Chung’s house. Her winning argument, though, came from an unexpected source. After their visit to Angel Island yesterday, Agent Forrestal was waiting at Fisherman’s Wharf. He told them that due to the gunman’s attack, the government had decided that Reese and David would be better off with a security detail.
“You’re already following us,” Reese pointed out.
“And now you’ll know it’s for your own safety,” Agent Forrestal said.
She wasn’t happy about the development, but it did ultimately convince her parents—and David’s—that they should be allowed one night without parental supervision.
She grabbed her jacket and left the house, following David down the steps to his blue Honda. As she buckled her seat belt, he started the engine and pulled away from the curb. “They’re both following us now,” he said.
She twisted around in her seat and saw two champagne-colored sedans merge into the street behind them: David’s security detail, which had followed him to her house, and her own. She and David had agreed it was useless to try to prevent the men in black from tailing them to the meeting with Charles Lovick. They didn’t know how, for one thing, and both of them thought it might be better if they were followed there, anyway. They had no idea what Lovick was going to do. Reese had looked him up on the Internet and learned that he was a board member at Allied Research Associates, the multinational conglomerate that owned EC&R. That was the government contractor that had managed Project Blue Base—and manufactured the listening devices Reese had found in the walls of her house. There had been little else about him online, but it had been enough to make Reese wonder if she and David were walking straight into the lion’s den by going to this meeting. Nevertheless, their need to know what Lovick wanted to tell them trumped her hesitation.
The sedans followed them all the way downtown. The 88 Variety Store was on the edge of Chinatown, so David parked in the Sutter-Stockton Garage, a multistory parking structure a few blocks away. One of the sedans turned into the garage after them, but the other did not. Reese thought the men in black might wind up in the same elevator as her and David, but the doors closed before they made it.
Outside, the fog had already crept in, and the air was chilly and damp. Reese zipped up her jacket and stuffed her hands in the pockets as she and David hurried north on Stockton. The street tunneled through a hill at the end of the block, and at the mouth of the echoing tunnel, Reese and David entered the stairwell to climb up to the overpass. A gust of wind blew exhaust fumes at her, and she tried to breathe through her mouth. The stairwell was lit by fluorescent bulbs that cast the dirty corners in harsh relief. On the landing halfway up a sign read THIS AREA UNDER SURVEILLANCE. As they went up the second flight, she saw the video camera mounted on the wall above. She wondered if the men in black had access to that footage.
When they emerged from the stairwell, she gulped in a deep breath of fresh, misty air. They had to trudge uphill past the Ritz-Carlton and then go down a second flight of stairs to get to Chinatown. It was steep, but it beat walking through the tunnel itself, with its noxious air and speeding cars. She glanced over her shoulder as she and David walked, but she didn’t see the men in black anywhere. She wondered if they had managed to lose them, and the idea made her uneasy. She wanted witnesses when she and David walked into the 88 Variety Store. She was relieved when they exited the second stairway and she saw one of the sedans waiting for them in a no-parking zone north of the tunnel.
“There they are,” she said.
“And there’s the store,” David said.
The 88 Variety Store was wedged between an herbal shop and a store selling Chinatown knickknacks. Its sign was faded and one of the number eights was missing, leaving only a grimy outline of where it used to be. Through the single front window, Reese saw cluttered shelves lit dimly by overhead lights. She looked at David.
You ready? she asked him.
He glanced back at the sedan parked half a block away. “Let’s go,” he said, and opened the door.
It knocked against a bell as they entered, but the tinkling sound didn’t quite mask the creaking hinge. The interior of the tiny shop was crammed full of towering shelves stocked haphazardly with plastic colanders and rice bowls and pastel sponges. Reese initially thought the store was empty, but as soon as the door swung shut she heard steps behind her. She spun around to see a tall, broad-shouldered man in a suit positioning himself in front of the door. He had very short hair and his arms seemed too large for the suit, which strained against his muscles.
“Who are you?” she asked, startled.
“Mr. Lovick is waiting for you in the back,” the man said. There was something about him—beyond his muscular bulk—that unnerved Reese.
“Come on,” David said, reaching for her arm. His touch startled her, sharpening the sliver of fear that had gone through her at the sight of the large man. David was freaked out too.
She didn’t like turning her back on the man at the door, but she had to in order to walk down the narrow aisle toward the back of the store. There was a curtained doorway behind the counter where the cash register was located, and someone pulled the curtain aside as she and David approached. A dark-haired man in black-framed glasses, dressed in a blue oxford shirt with the collar open, stepped into the doorway. “Come in,” he said, motioning to the room behind the curtain.
Reese and David walked into the store’s back office. There were a couple of metal desks pushed against the walls, with stacks of ledgers on them. On the wall across from the curtained entryway was another door, guarded by a second burly man in a suit. In the center of the square room was a round table and four chairs. Three were empty, but a middle-aged man with steel-gray hair sat in the fourth. He was dressed in a black suit and had a hawklike nose and blue eyes that regarded the two of them coolly as they entered the room.
“Please have a seat,” he said. “I’m Charles Lovick, and this is my colleague Alex Hernandez.” He gestured to the man in glasses, who took the chair next to Lovick.
David and Reese sat down, and Reese noticed their chairs had been placed far enough apart that she couldn’t touch David without being obvious. “What exactly do you want with us?” Reese asked, eyeing Lovick and Hernandez nervously.
A thin smile pulled up the corners of Lovick’s mouth, but it wasn’t friendly. “I work for an organization called the Corporation for American Security and Sovereignty. You won’t have heard of us.”
“I thought you were on the board of Allied Research Associates,” Reese said.
Lovick seemed impressed by her research. “I am. But my work at ARA is not what brings me here tonight.”
“What do you do at this corporation?” David asked.
“What I’m about to tell you is highly classified,” Lovick said. “It is in your best interests to repeat this information to no one.” He adjusted the cuffs of his shirt, and Reese saw the glint of gold cuff links. “In 1947, when the Imria arrived in the United States, an organization was formed to manage our relationship with them. To make sure that our nation’s engagement with the Imria remained consistent regardless of changing presidential administrations. That organization is the Corporation for American Security and Sovereignty. CASS. It is run by a board of seven individuals selected from business, defense, and the like. I joined the board of CASS twelve years ago. We oversee a variety of initiatives, including Project Blue Base, which you became familiar with last month.”
“I thought that was run by EC and R,” Reese said.
Lovick nodded. “EC and R managed the day-to-day details of Project Blue Base, but ultimately, Blue Base reports to us. Many so-called black operations report to us, not the commander in chief. Unfortunately EC and R—and Blue Base—botched their assignment with regard to the two of you. The task force that was assigned to oversee Blue Base has been replaced. Now that the existence of the Imria has been revealed to the public, our strategy has changed, and I’d like to invite you to work with us.”
“With CASS?” David asked.
“Yes. The two of you have been treated with Imrian science without your consent. They took advantage of you, and I imagine you must have many questions about what the Imrian treatment did to you.”
“They told us it was the only way to save our lives,” Reese said.
“Do you believe them?” Lovick asked, looking directly at her.
Reese tried not to flinch. “I don’t know.”
“And what about you?” Lovick asked David.
David’s shoulders stiffened. “I don’t know either.”
Lovick folded his hands on the round table. He wore a fat gold wedding band on his left hand and a black signet ring on his right. “The Imria can be very, very convincing. When I first decided that it was imperative that we meet, I knew that I might have a difficult time convincing you to join us. You’ve had a regrettable experience with Blue Base, and that must color your impression of your government and, by extension, what CASS does for your government. However, yesterday at the press conference on Angel Island, the Imria revealed something that they have kept secret from us for sixty-seven years.
“For nearly seven decades, the Imria have told us that they wanted to research ways to lengthen human lives, to help us become healthier individuals. They said they came to the United States in 1947 because we were the sole remaining stable nation on Earth after World War Two. They flattered us, and we believed them at first. But over the years, it has become increasingly clear that they have been lying about their true purpose in coming here. They have been conducting unauthorized experimentation on human subjects—including the two of you. We have never been able to determine why. Some of us believed that perhaps they were studying us in preparation for an attack.”
“Colonization?” Reese said, remembering the protesters’ chants.
Lovick looked irritated. “That is a popular theory, although I dislike the melodramatic nature of the word. Project Blue Base was one initiative aimed at defending us against a potential Imrian attack. We planned to use their biotechnology against them. And then yesterday at their press conference, they revealed their secret: their ability to share consciousness. They made it sound so wholesome, as if it were the secret to happiness.” There was a deeply sardonic tone to his words. “Do you know what it really means?” He leaned forward. “For one thing, adaptation, as they call it, is simply a pretty spin on what amounts to erasure. They say they want to give us this ability, but by changing us—by adapting us—they erase our humanity. If we become them, we lose ourselves.”
Reese hadn’t thought of it like that before. She wasn’t sure if she agreed with him, but his words still sent a chill through her.
“It also means that they have kept this ability of theirs secret from us for sixty-seven years,” Lovick said. “They have lied directly to us, face-to-face, over and over again. They have told us that they are honest; that they do not keep secrets from us. And yet they clearly do.” He paused and gave each of them a penetrating glance. “Why would they keep this ability—which they described as foundational to who they are as a people—why would they keep it a secret?”
Reese didn’t have an answer for him. Dread made her stomach sink. Do you believe him? she thought, hoping David could hear her. What if he’s lying too? She didn’t know if David understood. All she felt was a burst of frustration, and she couldn’t tell if it came from him or from within herself.
“I know that the Imria have already offered to help you learn how to use these abilities they’ve given you. Your adaptation,” Lovick continued. “I know, also, that you have accepted their offer.”
As far as Reese knew, the Imria hadn’t said anything about that publicly, so Lovick must have spies.
“But now that you know that the Imria have lied for so long—and about such a huge thing—how can you trust them to help you?”
“We don’t trust them,” Reese burst out. “But what choice do we have? We don’t know how to use this adaptation, and we need to learn how to use it. Otherwise, it’s going to drive us crazy.”
Lovick nodded. “We can also help you.”
“How?” David asked. “You just said you didn’t know about this adaptation until yesterday. How can you do anything?”
“We are not powerless,” Lovick answered smoothly. “We have decades of our own research into the Imria that we can draw from. But what I am offering you is more than mere training. You should continue with that, because it gives you the chance to use your access to the Imria to help your fellow humans. We only ask that you share the knowledge you gain from them with us.”
“You want us to become spies for you?” Reese asked. The room was warm, and as she gave the guard a surreptitious glance, she felt a bit claustrophobic.
“Spy is not the right word,” Lovick objected. “The two of you have become very important to us.”
“To CASS,” Reese clarified.
“To humanity,” Lovick said. “You are our bridge to the Imria. You are the only ones who can show us what their sharing of consciousness really means. Is it truly a positive thing? Because it could have serious, dire consequences when it comes to security and intelligence. They may have a special word for it—”
“Susum’urda,” Reese said.
“Yes. Do you know what it sounds like to me? Mind reading. Consider what it could mean for an entire race to have the ability to read our minds. Consider your own lives, your families, your nation. You are the only humans who can also do this. Where do your loyalties lie? With your fellow humans, or with these extraterrestrial visitors who have lied to us for nearly seven decades about who they are?”
“What do you want us to do?” Reese asked.
“We want you to proceed with your training. Once you’ve begun your lessons with the Imria, you can then transmit that information to us.” He gestured to Hernandez. “Alex Hernandez will be your contact. Beginning on Monday, he’ll be teaching at your high school.”
“You’ll be able to come to me with your updates at any time,” Hernandez said.
“What is your decision?” Lovick asked.
Reese met Lovick’s sharp gaze, and she swallowed. She didn’t like him, and she didn’t trust him. If only she could touch him, then she would know what he was thinking. It was the first time she had ever thought to use her new ability that way—to purposefully violate another person’s mind—and the nerves in her fingertips tingled. She knew it was wrong, but she was so tempted to do it. It would answer so many questions.
“You can’t just ask us to decide like that,” David said, startling Reese. “Can you at least give us a minute to talk about it? Alone?”
“Of course.” Lovick gestured toward the door to the shop. “You’re welcome to step outside to confer. We’ll be waiting here.”
Reese got up and followed David through the curtained doorway. He looked at her and held out his hand. She took it while they moved into the narrow space behind the cash register. We don’t even have the option to say no, Reese thought. If Hernandez is going to be teaching at our school, he’ll be watching us.
Then we have to agree, David told her. At least for now, until we know exactly what our adaptation is about. We don’t have to tell them everything that we learn.
You want to lie to them?
His forehead glistened with a light sheen of sweat. Everybody’s lying, he thought, and now she knew that the frustration she had felt came from him. We might as well lie too.
Then we go with it, she thought. For now.
For now.
They returned to the back room, where Lovick and Hernandez were still seated. The gravity of what she and David were about to do began to hit home, and she rubbed her damp palms against her jean skirt. They didn’t trust the Imria, but they certainly didn’t trust Charles Lovick and his Corporation for American Security and Sovereignty either. They were on their own. “Okay,” she said. She glanced at David.
He nodded. “We’ll do it.”