Elusion(74)

“Guess I don’t want to scare the hell out of her, or give her false hope.” He zips his coat up and shoves his hands in the pockets. “Besides, she’s tense enough as it is already. She knows how close you are to Patrick and . . .” He shrugs.

“And what?”

“She doesn’t trust you,” he says, looking embarrassed.

I watch Avery as we approach, her head bobbing to the left and the right, like she’s scanning the area, searching for someone or something suspicious. Like someone, namely me, has set her up. But she’s wrong. I’m pretty certain there’s nothing and no one around for miles, which is why Josh arranged this rendezvous at the carousel. The RiverFront Conservancy protected the landmark as long as they could, until all the small shops closed down and big businesses moved across the water to the Inner Sector.

Now this area is all but deserted and the carousel is in shambles. The rain has stopped temporarily, and though we still need our O2s, the air is clear enough to see that the paint on the wood is peeling everywhere; the mirrors at the top are all broken and shattered; some of the horses are headless or legless—probably the work of teenage vandals rather than decay. It seems very fitting, meeting Avery here. The closer we get to her, the more I feel like we’re about to step onto a land mine. When she takes off her shades and her eyes settle on me, her lips break into a scowl.

Clearly, she’s feeling the exact same thing.

“What about you?” I ask quietly. “Do you trust me?”

He pauses, taking his hand out of his pocket and pulling me to a stop. “Yes.”

His hand slides into mine; the sensation of his palm pressed against my skin is enough to calm my worries about whatever Avery has found.

“Well, well. Aren’t you two sickening,” she says through her O2 speaker the moment we’re in earshot.

“Don’t start, Avery,” Josh says, edging ahead of me a bit, a protective gesture that doesn’t go unnoticed by either me or Avery.

“I’d watch out if I were you,” she says snidely to Josh. “Patrick Simmons owns that ass.”

“I warned you, Avery. Leave Regan alone. She’s on our side.” In spite of the fierce look in his eyes, he gives my hand a gentle squeeze.

She blows out a sarcastic laugh. “Yeah, right.”

I let go of Josh’s hand and step toward her. “I cracked Patrick’s computer, didn’t I? And I threatened him with the QuTap, too. If that doesn’t prove that I want to help find out the truth about Elusion, I don’t know what does.”

“You did what?” Avery huffs, her forehead creased with sheer fury as she turns toward Josh. “If I get arrested for breaking that stupid cease and desist order, or anything else—”

“I didn’t tell him that the QuTap was yours,” I interrupt. “I just said that he had twenty-four hours to recall Elusion or I was going to the press with top secret information.”

“So you bluffed?” Her green eyes cloud over with skepticism. “Without even knowing what kind of data we had?”

“Yeah, I did. And don’t act like you don’t do that all the time on your vlog. I bet you never even had a source at Orexis telling you anything.”

“Don’t you get it?” Avery says through gritted teeth. “Now that you’ve tipped our hand, Patrick is probably tracking your every damn move so he can get his slimy hands on the QuTap. Do you have any clue how valuable it is?” she says, holding up the dime-size magnet.

I swallow hard and cast my gaze down on Avery’s black lace-up boots, realizing that I haven’t really thought about what lengths Patrick might go to in order to make sure the QuTap ends up in his possession. Sure, he said that the files could never be decoded, but maybe he was bluffing too?

I guess part of me still sees him as my friend, and that’s confused a lot of the boundaries in this twisted little game we’re playing. Josh must have considered that, because he didn’t intentionally shame me when I told him about my showdown with Patrick.

My head bounces back up when I hear Avery chuckling like a sadistic circus clown. Her eyes flick over to Josh and she says, “What do you see in her? She’s as dumb as a pile of rocks.”

“Quit wasting time!” he shouts, so loudly I’m afraid his O2 might crack. “Think of those kids in a coma, Avery. They could—”

“Shut up, Josh! Just shut up!” Avery shouts.

I notice the sadness on Avery’s face, and it grinds our argument to a startling halt. Suddenly dancing in the dark corners of my mind is an image of Avery at school, playfully hip-checking a girl with a purple pixie cut as they walk through the quad together, laughing and carrying on. Then another recollection follows, and I see Avery with the same girl, holding hands and smiling at each other as they talk in front of the Traxx station near campus.

Not like they’re friends, but more like two girls in love.

As Avery’s eyes begin to well up with tears, it all makes perfect sense. The source of Avery’s anger is not much different from my own. We’ve both lost the people who matter most to us, people who are completely irreplaceable, and we’re doing everything in our power to figure out why.

When the tears break free and streak down her cheeks, the animosity I have for her starts to soften. Josh reaches out and gently rubs her arm, like he’s sorry for upsetting her. All this time, he’s known Avery is his sister’s girlfriend, but kept that detail from me out of respect for Avery’s privacy.