Unremembered (Unremembered #1)(60)

‘Sorry. A female thing.’ He pronounces female with a funny accent that makes me laugh.

It feels good.

And for just a moment I almost forget why we’re here. But then Cody removes his laptop from his backpack and places it on the table between us and I’m dragged back into the reality of our visit.

Zen.

He’s gone. And it’s up to me to find him.

I take a reluctant sip of the drink. It’s delicious. But I can’t enjoy it. The delectable flavour feels empty in my mouth.

Everything feels empty without Zen.

Cody takes a sip of his own drink and immediately gets to work on his computer. ‘OK, tell me about this secret compound of yours.’

‘It’s a research facility owned by a company called Diotech.’

‘Diotech?’ Cody asks curiously.

‘Have you heard of them?’

He shakes his head. ‘Not even a little bit.’

My shoulders fall. ‘Oh.’

‘But that doesn’t mean anything,’ he interjects quickly, seeming to sense my disappointment and attempting to reassure me. ‘I mean, this is America. There are like a billion corporations out there. No one’s heard of every single one. What do you know about them?’

I open my mouth to speak but quickly close it again, opting to take another sip of my drink instead. I’m undecided about how much to tell Cody. If I tell him everything I know about Diotech – everything Zen has told me – then I might have a better chance of finding it. Of finding Zen. But if I tell him too much, I might endanger him.

The last thing I want to do is unintentionally harm Cody. If these Diotech people are as evil as Zen says they are, then there’s no way I can bring him into this. I’m torn between my desperation to find Zen and my impulse to protect Cody. He may have only been a temporary little brother to me but he still feels like family.

Plus, I don’t even know if I fully understand what Diotech is. Or what they do. I just have these strange bits and pieces of information.

All I know is that they did something to me.

Something that made me who I am. Or what I am.

Something horrible enough to make me want to escape.

But until I figure out what that is, I think it’s probably best if I stick to the simpler details. The ones I’m more certain about.

‘They’re some kind of technology conglomerate,’ I tell him cautiously, repeating the words Zen used to describe the company to me for the first time. ‘Apparently located in a remote location. Away from civilization.’

I think back to the memory I saw. The hot arid breeze that dried out my throat. ‘Maybe in the desert. That’s all I know.’

Cody nods and starts typing. My stomach is churning as I watch his fingers fly over the keyboard. I take a large gulp of my chai tea latte and wait.

A few minutes later, Cody sits back and scowls at the screen. ‘Well, that’s weird.’

I sit up straighter. ‘What?’

‘I found something, but it doesn’t seem to make any sense.’

I crane my neck to look at the screen. ‘What did you find?’

Cody shrugs. ‘Some post on a random conspiracy-theory website by a guy named Maxxer. But it’s just a bunch of gibberish rambling.’

I sigh. That’s exactly what I found when I tried to search last night. I’m about to take another sip of my drink when something about the web page that Cody is looking at catches my eye.

‘What?’ he asks, reading my expression. ‘What’s the matter?’

But I don’t answer. I set my drink down and lean in closer, scrutinizing the screen. At first glance, it looks just like the post I found yesterday. But there’s one very distinct difference.

Under the post, in the line that reads Tags, a new string of words appears:

Diotech, technology conglomerate, remote, desert

My jaw drops.

These are the exact search terms I just gave Cody a minute ago. Once again, word for word.

But when I searched last night, the tags that were listed under the post were completely different. They were my own search terms.

How is that even possible?

Are there two different postings that say the same thing? Or did the author change the tags sometime between now and then?

Yesterday I was convinced it was Zen who wrote that post. But a lot has changed since yesterday. And now I’m really not sure.

I’m not sure about anything.

‘What’s so important about this company anyway?’ Cody interrupts my thoughts. ‘What makes you think that’s where Zen is?’

I know what he’s asking. He’s asking for the truth. He can sense that I’m hiding it from him. But I can’t give it to him. ‘Cody,’ I say ruefully.

He raises his hand to stop me. ‘Hey, it’s OK.’

‘I’m sorry—’ I try again.

But again he interrupts. ‘Look, I know there’s something going on with you. I knew it the moment you walked into my bedroom and solved that conjecture practically with your eyes closed. I knew then that you weren’t a normal girl. But that’s OK. I don’t like normal girls anyway. Which is probably a good thing since they don’t seem to like me much either. You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to. I’m fine just continuing to believe the fantasy I’ve created in my head.’