“Still elephants?”
“Still elephants. The tweaks we made to the clones seem to be holding. No sign of inbreeding yet.”
Allison was a veterinarian specializing in the restoration of animals to their natural environment, or the closest available. For community service, she was employed by ERA, the Environment Reclamation Agency. For fun and popularity, she played with ancient DNA in the hope of bringing back woolly mammoths.
Clair didn’t understand every aspect of her work, but she knew one thing for certain. Allison changed the molecular coding of her animal clones using d-mat.
“How does it work?” Clair had never before had cause to ask her mother that question. “Does VIA give you permission to break the law?”
“No one can do that. VIA won’t allow any pattern changes in the global system at all—not to living things and especially not to people. We use our own private network instead. We can do whatever we want in there.”
“What would happen if someone hacked VIA . . . you know, if they wanted to make those kinds of changes in the global system . . . for whatever reason?”
“It happens every now and again,” said Allison. “Young idiots wanting to show off their skills and bad taste in body sculpting.” She flashed a quick grin. “The peacekeepers pounce on them within minutes. There’s no error too small to spot; that’s how the system works. Really, if you wanted to do something illegal like that, you wouldn’t do it in public. Like most crime, home is where the harm is.”
“So someone could do it with a private network,” Clair said.
“They would need resources that are tightly controlled, and access to the powersats as well. It’s not the sort of thing you can just fab up in your basement.” The smile lines around her eyes creased. “What’s brought this on?”
Clair shook her head, wondering how Dylan Linwood would respond to this. Would it reassure him or make him more paranoid than ever? Would he find a way to make his theory work despite everything Allison said? “Nothing. Just something going around. A meme.”
“Is it the one about how the government installs tracking devices in all of us so they can monitor our movements? I remember that from when I was your age. Somehow my generation managed to avoid being crushed under a totalitarian boot heel, and we’ll avoid whatever it is you’re worried about too, I’m sure.”
She reached out and entwined her fingers in Clair’s heavy curls. Apart from several streaks of gray at her temples, Allison had exactly the same hair as her daughter. Their brown eyes were the same too, but there the similarity ended. Allison was fortunate to have her mother’s nose, unlike her daughter.
“Oz will be back in the morning,” Allison said. “Would you like to do something together?”
Oscar Kempe—Clair’s stepfather—had been the third in their family unit since her second birthday, and he fulfilled the role of father in all but genes.
“Sure,” she said warily. “Depending on homework.”
“And the crashlanders.” Allison smiled again. “I understand. Let’s talk tomorrow.”
Her warm fingers released Clair’s hair, allowing Clair to retreat to her room.
“Good night, Mom.”
“Sleep tight.”
Clair posted a good-night caption (a house slowly overtaken by sand dunes) but was in no mood for sleeping.
She had bumped Libby on the way home, but Libby hadn’t replied. Ronnie and Tash hadn’t heard from her either. In desperation, she called Zep.
“Has she called you?” she asked, cutting through his usual chitchat.
“No, but she’s home,” he said. “I spoke to Freda. She said that Libby hasn’t left her room all day.”
Freda, originally Freedom, was Liberty’s only sibling. Often annoying and frequently in the way, she was occasionally good for dishing the dirt on her older sister.
“Has she seen a doctor?” Clair said.
“Freda didn’t know. Maybe not. She’s only been out of school for a day.”
And that, Clair told herself, was where she could leave it. Libby had a headache caused by transit lag and nothing more. Improvement had nothing to do with it. It was just a passing thing, an empty meme, a symptom of Libby’s insecurity, not the cause of anything sinister or dangerous.
Maybe, Clair thought, she just wanted Libby to be sicker than she was so Libby would be out of the picture for a while. Was Clair’s self-absorption really so profound? She hated that thought. But here she was talking to Zep and feeling the same hateful ache as ever. She could see him in a window superimposed on her ceiling as though he were floating or lying over her. It was all too easy to imagine reaching out and touching him.
“There’ll be another ball tonight,” said Zep, as though he could read her mind. “If you go, you could take me along.”
“Your real date isn’t feeling well,” she said, forcing herself to say the words. “Do I have to remind you of that?”
“Well, exactly. She’s out of action. The night is young. What do you think?”
“I think I’ve had enough of the crashlanders for one week,” she said. “And gossip, too. We should probably take a break from hanging out until Libby is feeling better.”
He frowned. “You mean I can’t see you at all?”
“That’s for the best. Don’t you think?”
“Hell no. It’s not our fault Libby can’t or won’t talk to us. She’s the one who’s making us do this.”
“What difference would it make if she did talk? What would you tell her?”
“That we’re going to the ball without her. That’s all.”
“What about what happened? What about you and her . . . ?”
Breaking up, she wanted to say, but she wasn’t going to put the words in his mouth.
“Not yet. I mean, how could I? She’s sick. It wouldn’t be fair.”
“But it’s fair to kiss her best friend and then try to cover it up?”
He had the humanity to blush. “I feel bad about that . . . not the actual kissing part, though. I guess I could bump her, but that would be as bad as waiting, wouldn’t it? It’s not something you’d want to hear in a message. Right, Clair?”
“I guess so.”
“What about you—have you told her?”
He had a point there. She had had the chance to tell Libby, but she had shied away from doing so. It wasn’t something she was proud of.
“I don’t know what to tell her,” Clair said. “That’s why I’m not coming out tonight. I don’t want to get into something I’m not sure about. Not when it could cost me so much.”
“Sometimes you don’t know until you give it a try, Clair.”
“Sometimes . . . but not this time.”
He nodded without meeting her eyes. “Okay, Clair-bear. If that’s how you want it to be, that’s how it’ll be. I promise not to be a dick about it.”
“Do you really think you can manage that?”
“Oh, it’ll be tough, I know, but for you . . . anything.”
She managed a smile, although it hurt her to pretend to be anything other than torn up and miserable.
“Call me if she calls you,” Clair said.
“I will.”
He signed off, and she was alone.
Tomorrow, she told herself, everything would be different. Zep would talk to Libby, and Improvement would be revealed as nothing at all. The emotional storm would be rough, but she would weather it as she always did. And when life returned to normal, maybe she would let Ronnie take her out partying. She was sure there were guys out there who weren’t slimeballs or taken.
12
ZEP WAS HUGE, a giant monster smashing the dikes of Tokyo. Libby and Clair were the pilots of a massive robot sent to stop him, except they couldn’t agree on which way to go. The robot began to tear itself to pieces while the sea rushed in to engulf the city. instead of foam, the waves were topped with thousands of handwritten notes, all saying the same thing: Charlie X-ray Romeo Foxtrot . . .