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)
Then the gates opened slow and smooth to show a long drive that disappeared around the corner. Once inside, their driver stopped and waited for the gate to close behind them before she started to drive again.
High security.
Theo knew those words and what they meant because their parents had made sure to tell her and Pax about security from when they were small. It was because Grandfather was so important and their family had so much money that they had to know about security. People might try to kidnap her or Pax.
Theo knew now that no one in the family would pay to get her back. She wasn’t the important twin. Pax wouldn’t say that. Pax always said she was his best friend. Or he used to. Back when they were together. It had been a long time since then, and maybe Grandfather was telling the truth and he’d even forgotten her.
Her chest hurt deep inside as they turned the corner and at last she saw the big white building with shiny windows out front. There were people outside. A lot of them wore pale green pants and shirts, while others wore pale blue ones with white coats. The ones in green looked sleepy, a little confused.
One almost stumbled and fell even though there was nothing to trip him up.
A white-coat person helped him up, and then they watched him try to walk again.
“Is this a hospital, Grandfather?”
“Of a kind.” Her grandfather got out. “Outside, Theodora.”
She scrambled out behind him because the door on her side was locked. It was only once she was outside that she saw the faces of the people in green. They were somehow . . . loose. And their eyes were all wrong. It was like they couldn’t see.
Stopping on the tiny stones that lined the area, she stared at the person closest to her. As she stood there, a single tear beaded on the corner of the man’s eye and rolled down his cheek. But his face didn’t move, and he didn’t make a sound.
“Why are all these failures still alive?” Her grandfather’s voice had her staring at him, her heart thudding.
She didn’t hear what the person in the white coat said, but whatever it was, her grandfather grunted and carried on. Feeling bad for the man who’d cried the tear, she looked at him once more. But he was no longer looking at her, was staring down at the ground with his empty eyes.
Theo ran after her grandfather over the tiny stones that crunched under her shoes, knowing he wouldn’t be pleased if he turned around and saw that she wasn’t following. She didn’t look at any of the other people who wore green.
Her heart was thumping too hard and she had a sick feeling in her stomach.
Inside, the building was shiny and clean like the care center her parents had visited that time she and Pax got in trouble, and there were lots of people with white coats who all looked at Grandfather the way people mostly did: with slightly lowered heads even when talking to him. Because her grandfather was important.
There was only one woman who looked her grandfather straight in the eye. She had hair as gray as the cat that Theo often saw on the balcony of the neighboring apartment building. The lady who lived there waved at her sometimes and since no one could see Theo doing it, she waved back. She hoped the cat would visit her one day.
This woman was much older than the neighbor lady and so thin that her bones stuck out hard against her wrinkled brown skin. But she was strong. Theo could tell that from the way she stood, and how she moved as she walked down the hall toward Grandfather. “Councilor Hyde,” she said when she reached them. “I’d like to reiterate my objection to the procedure. The risk is significant.”
“So noted,” her grandfather said, and the fact that he’d actually listened to everything the woman said without interrupting told Theo that this woman was important, too. Her grandfather didn’t listen to many people at all.
The woman looked down at Theo. “How old are you?”
“Eight years and nine months,” Theo answered after a glance at her grandfather to check if she should talk.
The woman looked back at her grandfather. “The brain is too plastic at that age. The procedure, even if successful, is unlikely to hold.”
“Regardless, we’ll do this. We need a child on whom to test the regimen and who better than my granddaughter? She’s been displaying some rebellious tendencies. There’s no need to look for an external subject.”
Theo got a very bad feeling in her stomach. She knew they were talking about her, but she didn’t understand why.
The woman went silent as they walked, but something told Theo that she was still talking to Grandfather, just telepathically. Since Theo couldn’t hope to listen in on that, she tried to figure out what was happening by forcing herself to look around. But all she saw were more people with the dead eyes and the faces that looked like they had melted.