The Rising(63)

“Oh, boy,” Alex said, shaking his head again.

“It belongs to us,” Raiff told him. “That’s why you were smuggled here.”

“Smuggled?”

“How many androids, drones, were there in your house?” Raiff asked, hands squeezing the wheel tighter, eager to change the subject.

“Four. Dressed as cops.”

“And you killed them all?”

“You can’t kill a machine but, yeah, I messed them up pretty good. What are they, exactly?”

“Long story, Dancer.”

“Dancer?”

“Your code name. What I’ve always referred to you as.”

“You can call me Alex. Now, tell me about these drone things, androids, or whatever they are.”

“They’re soldiers.”

“From?” Alex demanded.

“From the world you and I come from,” Raiff said, then added, “Well, not exactly.”

“Not exactly? What, then?” Alex asked.

“The technology comes from our world, but they’re manufactured here. Truly made in America.”

“Like in a factory?” Sam asked before Alex could.

“Sort of.”

“Could you be any more vague?”

Raiff shot her a look. “I don’t even know who you are.”

“His tutor,” Sam said, gesturing toward Alex.

“You’d think I’d be smarter, coming from a world that can manage all this shit. What’s your name, anyway?” Alex asked him. “I mean, you do have a name, right?”

“Clay. Clay Raiff. Call me Raiff.”

“And why do I need a Guardian, Raiff? Why have I needed one all of my life? What the hell is going on here—just who, what, am I?”

“Tell me what you know, and I’ll fill in the rest.”

“That’s easy: nothing, I know nothing!”

“Wrong. You know plenty, lots more than you realize. Think!”

*

Alex summarized what he’d learned from the flash drive hidden inside Meng Po as best he could, his mother’s final message to him, those test results still tucked into the pocket of Dr. Payne’s jeans. He hit on all the most salient points, including Dr. Chu’s findings, as well as the circumstances of his rescue and “adoption” by the Chins as a baby.

“Guess I’m the ultimate illegal alien,” he finished.

“Join the club,” Raiff told him.

They’d swung onto the Pacific Coast Highway, heading north, just as Alex began telling his tale to Raiff. The sharp, maddening curves of the PCH were treacherous enough without having to negotiate them in a garbage truck. But Raiff nonetheless gave the truck more gas and its poorly weighted frame instantly began whipsawing from one curve into another. Undeterred, Raiff held his speed steady, settling into the drive despite the truck seeming to protest the effort by bouncing and shaking. Every twist of the wheel became an adventure, the truck seemingly ready to shimmy itself off its frame. The road widened and then straightened appreciably as they wound into the Santa Cruz Mountains, all of them able to breathe easier without the air clogging in their chests.

For Alex, it felt like a roller coaster finally docking at the end of the ride. “I leave you enough to fill in?”

“Plenty,” Raiff said, checking the side-view mirror again.

“So start.”

“Sorry. Can’t right now.”

“Why?”

And that’s when Alex glimpsed headlights brightening in the side-view mirror.

“Because we have company,” Raiff told him.





65

CHASE

“TWO VEHICLES,” RAIFF CONTINUED. “SUVS, or vans, maybe.”

Sam instinctively turned to look behind her, forgetting the enclosed cab of the garbage truck had no rear window. “How could they find us so fast?”

“Because they were close all along. Backup for the androids we destroyed. Or the cleanup crew, like the one that erased all trace of what was left of them at your house, just in case.”

Alex rolled his eyes. “Well, ‘just in case’ happened again.”

“You need to get out of the truck,” Raiff said to both of them.

“We’re not finished talking yet,” Alex said stubbornly.

“We are for now.”

“How are we supposed to get out, exactly?” Raiff heard the girl named Sam ask him.

“I slow down as much as I can around the next bend, and you jump, Tutor,” he said, coining a name for her.

“Don’t call me that. It sounds—Wait, did you say jump?”

“Like in the movies,” Alex told her, readying his hand on the door latch.

Sam gazed out the window toward the dark swatch of the coast redwoods forest, over which the mountains towered like giant sentinels.

“People in the movies don’t understand the physics involved,” she noted. “If they did…”

Alex watched the shoulder flashing by through the passenger-side window. “Well, I don’t, either, and please don’t tell me.”

Raiff scanned the road ahead, then looked back at the side-view mirror to gauge how fast the pursuing vehicles were gaining on them.