Undiscovered (Unremembered #1.5)(2)

Only I would know it was a lie.

Well, me and the scientists of lab 2, of course. Who would return tomorrow morning to find their precious bunnies gone.

Even the pilot and the agents-in-training would most likely not remember this tomorrow. A quick trip to the Memory Coders and this mission would be recollected as a grand success.

The apartment was empty when I arrived. Not that I was surprised by this. I hadn’t seen my mother in weeks. She stopped caring she had a son about the time she was tasked with her latest research project—whatever that was. I had yet to be able to hack into any details.

Which meant it was a C9.

The highest clearance level there is.

The mini rabbits I saved tonight were a measly C3.

They miniaturized them so they could infect more at a lower cost.

That’s Diotech for you. Heartless, but economical.

As I lumbered down the hall, I stopped at the doorway to my mother’s bedroom and stared inside, taking in her unmade bed and the plate of half-eaten moldy cheese on her nightstand that had started to turn into a science experiment of its own. I had to clench my teeth and dig my nails into the sides of my legs to keep from punching through the wall.

I retreated to my room and closed the door behind me, even though there was no point. I basically lived alone and had all the privacy in the world.

I could have had sex in every room in this apartment and no one would know.

That is, if I actually had someone to have sex with.

And Xaria didn’t count. Just because she was one of only two girls living on this compound who was my age didn’t mean I automatically had feelings for her. No matter how metallic Klo and Rustin insisted she was.

If she was so attractive, why didn’t they just glitch her?

As I lay down in bed, I thought about the rabbits running free through the desert landscape. No longer caged. No longer the property of Diotech.

I had hoped the act of releasing them would make me feel something. I don’t know what. Something different from the way I felt every day—resentful, neglected, trapped.

But once again, I was disappointed.

Once again, I fell asleep angry.





2: Games


The knock on the apartment door the next morning came earlier than I expected. And it wasn’t Director Raze’s face on the other side as I would have assumed, but rather Dr. Havin Rio’s. I rolled my eyes and let him in. Dr. Rio and my mother had gotten close since my father left. Too close for my liking. If he thought that sharing a breakfast table a handful of times entitled him to play father figure, he was sorely mistaken. The one benefit of my mother sleeping in her lab every night was that I rarely had to see this cretin.

“Lyzender,” he said stiffly, giving me a nod.

“Havin,” I said, matching his rigidity.

He didn’t seem to like that.

He was dressed in his usual white lab coat, his flaming red hair slicked into place with too much SynthoGel. He didn’t sit down. He just stood awkwardly in the entryway, looking like a desert lizard caught in a hovercopter beam.

“Your mother has gotten some disturbing reports from Director Raze.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Has she?”

He ignored my blatant sarcasm. “She has. And—”

“And she sent you to deal with me.”

He blinked in seeming surprise. It was the most expression I’d ever gotten out of this guy.

“Where are the rabbits?” he asked point-blank, apparently opting not to have a heart-to-heart. That much I could at least be grateful for.

I didn’t really expect to get away with it. I knew Klo, Rustin, and Xaria would rat me out. If not by squealing, then through their memories alone.

But anonymity wasn’t my goal. It never has been.

I walked into the kitchen and dispensed a cup of juice from the distributor. “I set them free.” I told him.

I saw his shoulders sag.

“This has got to stop, Lyzender.”

I sipped my juice. “I disagree.”

I could see the frustration fighting its way to his features. He did an impressive job at holding it back. “Last week it was a hundred gallons of enhanced biofuel from the Energy Sector, the week before that it was two million nanocams from the Communications Sector.”

“No one deserves to be locked in a cage,” I explained, flashing him a smile. “Even nanocams.”

“Do you realize how much time and how many resources you have destroyed?”

I sat down at the kitchen table and sighed dramatically. “Oh, probably countless.”

“This isn’t a game, Lyzender.” His voice was stern now, almost enough to shock me. “These projects have the ability to cure diseases, save ecosystems, improve air quality.”

“And make Diotech billions of dollars,” I pointed out. “Guess I should sell my stock.”

He stormed at me, his nostrils flaring, but stopped himself just short of my chair. I watched him battle to keep his usual stoic fa?ade. When he finally collected himself, he said, “I understand you’re angry. I understand you’re frustrated about being here. But until you’re eighteen, there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it. So I suggest you find another way to expend your reckless energy.”

“Or what?” I challenged. “You’ll tell Dr. Alixter about me and send me to the Memory Coders?” His mouth flopped open, and I let out a scornful laugh. “That’s right. I know how things work around here. I know what happens when people see what they’re not supposed to see. In fact, I’m surprised you guys haven’t shipped me off to a boarding school in Europe with a whole new life implanted in my brain. The memory of a mother who actually gives a flux about me would be nice. If you’re taking requests.”