Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 138217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Standing bears. Sitting bears. Sleeping bears.
Bear balancing on one leg.
Bear thinking deep thoughts.
Thanks to literal months of practice in the lead-up to the prank, their topiary artworks had looked exactly like the aforementioned bears, but the best thing was that they’d never been caught. And the hotel hadn’t noticed it fast enough, either—a human with a bearish sense of humor had snapped photos and the next thing they knew, their masterpieces were on the front page of the Moskva Gazeta.
Moscow residents had been despondent when the hotel ordered immediate “remediation of the damage.”
“Wasn’t damage,” Valya had said at the time. “It was art.”
But there was nothing of Psy perfection up ahead . . . or when it came to the intercom. Placed on a plinth on its own beside the drive, it was smothered in moss and cracked on one side. That was not standard operating procedure for powerful Psy families; they were slick and shiny as a rule.
Wondering if it was all part of the facility’s camouflage, he reached over and pushed the old-fashioned button that should connect him with someone on the inside.
Theo took a ragged, gasping breath at the same instant.
On immediate alert, he jerked his attention to her.
She was stark white, her eyes fixed on a point he couldn’t see.
Chapter 11
I suggest we attempt the procedure on another young subject in their teens. While our first such attempt wasn’t a success, neither was it a total failure. Pre-adulthood neural plasticity may be the critical element.
—Message from Dr. Upashna Leslie to Councilor Marshall Hyde (6 January 2063)
Nineteen Years Ago
THEO HAD BEEN excited when her grandfather picked her up for a trip. She’d been doing so well in her coding and hacking lessons. The computronic instructor had given her top marks and progressed her to a level beyond her age group!
She’d believed the trip a reward for working so hard.
But she realized she’d been very, very wrong the instant she got into the back of the vehicle with Grandfather. Every tiny hair on her body had stood up, her mind telling her to run! But the driver had shut the door behind her, and she’d known that even if she did get out, it would only anger her grandfather. He’d have no trouble finding her.
People liked to tell Councilors things they wanted to know. Sometimes, she made up stories inside her head of running away to live in a changeling pack—but she knew the changelings wouldn’t want her. They didn’t like Psy. Her teachers tried to teach her that it was because the changelings were “savage beings with no intellectual curiosity,” but Theo wasn’t stupid.
Sometimes, people in her family had tried to make her believe she was stupid, but she wasn’t. Her test scores in mathematical and science subjects had always been better than Pax’s. Her brother had never minded; he’d been proud of her. As she’d been proud of him for always being the best at languages and pattern-based studies.
Because she wasn’t stupid, and because she had access to that datapad that was the one thing about her life that her grandfather didn’t know, she’d done her own research. She’d found her way onto forums with changelings and humans, and she’d learned two things:
First, that changelings were as smart as the Psy.
And second, that changelings hated the Psy because Psy had done bad things to changelings. She hadn’t been able to get into the forums that discussed the details of those bad things, but she knew enough to understand that Psy were bullies. And her grandfather was one of the most powerful bullies of them all. No changeling pack would want to hide Theo. They’d hate her for being his granddaughter.
No one would believe that he wished she was dead.
Grandfather turned to stare at her. “You failed another semester of Silence, Theodora.”
She twisted her hands together in her lap. “I’m sorry, Grandfather.” It wasn’t that she didn’t try. She did! But it was as if she had a hole inside her that kept on allowing emotions to drip through.
That hole, she’d come to realize this semester, was shaped like Pax. Her brother had shielded her from her inability to be Silent without her ever realizing it. He couldn’t have known, either. They’d always done things like that—just . . . balanced each other out so that they were better together than they were apart.
Only now did she understand that he must’ve done the bulk of the balancing. Grandfather was right. What could a Gradient 2.7 possibly do to help a Gradient 9? Nothing, that’s what. It hurt Theo to think that, but she had to be honest with herself. Because she was all she had now. Even if she imagined she could feel Pax inside her mind at times.
“Sorry isn’t enough,” her grandfather said, his voice flat with nothingness—as if Theo wasn’t worth any part of his attention. “I think it’s time you understood the consequences of failure.”