Chapter 17: Truth
The water flowed down the rim of the concrete groove. Drops of water formed on the edge of the fountain before falling onto the concrete tiles. I sat on the bench as people walked by me, busy with their day’s tasks. I felt a drone, watching, observing but never interacting.
I was calm yet empty and I really didn’t know what to do. Since my re-enactment of Dad’s past, he had grown more willing to talk about anything now, except about Mom. He was working hard to decipher who faked the footage and why. I had broached the topic about the drone storage area but he knew nothing. I excluded my conversation with Austin and being saved from the container. A girl’s got to keep some secrets. But when I asked about what happened to mom after that day in the Marks, he refused to answer any questions. A lot of what I knew about my mother had changed.
I looked around at my surroundings from my park bench. The parade square was the centerpiece of the city. City hall towered over the wide-open space. A statue of a former mayor was at the south end, and flowerbeds of red begonias colored the north. I sat in the center, watching a sparrow bathing in the water. Around the fountain, children played as jets of water sprayed out from the ground. Their laughter radiated through the gardens but had no effect on me. I looked at the flowers and saw something flittering around the petals. The butterfly was gold and red and it flew towards the fountain. Its wings glistened in the afternoon sun and it flew from the fountain and landed on the bench. I smiled and looked at its antenna. Red lights flickered as they scanned me. My smile went cold. The drones were becoming more real every day. At what point would they replace human life?
“Room for two?” a female voice said from behind me. I turned and watched Lacey sit beside me. I had been so caught up in my problems lately that I had been ignoring her.
“Trying to solve all of the world’s problems?” she teased, seeing how focused I was on the fountain.
“Can’t even solve my math homework,” I replied, “The world’s problems are beyond me.”
Lacey pulled out her tablet. “Math questions I can help you with. Especially with your absence in class earlier in the week. Everyone wants to know what’s going on with Mr. Stewart and your dad?”
“Everyone?” I stared unblinking into her eyes. She avoided my gaze.
“Okay, mostly me. Just to put the rumors down. Some people are saying that your dad tried to knock Mr. Stewart out. I was rooting for your dad.” Lacey pumped her fist, which made me smile.
“Well, Mr. Stewart kind of egged him on. Guess they used to hang out together.” Lacey made a face. “I didn’t believe it either, but I saw it first-hand through the history simulation.” I was silent, and I could feel Lacey trying to find the right words to say.
“The last few weeks we haven’t talked much. I can feel you pulling away from me. Like you need to go see the world and your friend is holding you back.”
“It’s not like that!” I exclaimed.
“Hold on, let me finish.” I wanted to apologize, to explain. I stopped myself and let her speak.
“We’ve been friends since grade four. Remember how we met?” I rolled my eyes; of course I remembered, but she replayed that event anyway.
“I was six and it was summer break. We were swimming at the Sportsplex pool. You were with your dad and I was with my mom. It was near closing time and there were only about a dozen kids left in the pool.”
“Of course, they were all surrounding you, little miss popular,” I interjected.
“Keep down, this is my story.” Lacey tried to look cross and failed. “Anyway, a few us had started playing a game of Marco Polo and I had closed my eyes. As I yelled ‘Marco’, I could hear ‘Polo’ whispered several times around the pool. Except I could hear one girl’s voice above everyone else’s and I homed in on that voice, determined to catch her.”
“Oh, you tried!”
“And I caught you but you led me on the greatest chase. From one side of the pool to the other, you moved so fast. You’d yell and I’d turn and reach for you, but you were gone like a ghost.”
“I felt bad for you at the end. I let you catch me.”
“And we’ve been best friends ever since. But even as kids you were always the one exploring, taking me to places I never knew I wanted to go.”
“And you always talked us out of trouble when the time came,” I added.
“We’re a team, but Pene,” and suddenly she got serious, “I always knew that there would be a time that you would move on. I’ll be here my whole life but you need to see the world. Go wild while you’re young.”
I punched her on the arm. “I want more than just traveling,” I said. “I don’t want to be here anymore. The city’s not what it seems.” I was ready to share the last few weeks with her, but she wanted nothing to do with it.
“I don’t want to know.” She waved her arms with dramatic flair and arched her head to the right. A drone bird was parked nearby, intent on our conversation. I took the hint. “But if you ever need anything, you just have to ask.” We hugged and for a moment I felt like crying. And then he came.
“Sorry to interrupt,” a familiar voice asked. We turned and Austin was looking down at us.
“I didn’t know you were meeting your boyfriend here!” Lacey teased. Someone else was standing next to Austin. “I see you brought a friend.”
“This is Alex.” He motioned to a boy with short black hair who was a few inches taller than him. Austin’s eyes gave me a strange glance, as if there was no warmth.
Alex waved to us. “Nice to meet you,” he said and gave us a smile that seemed painted on. “Austin and I are working on a class project together.”
“What you working on?” I asked. Alex seemed to be quick on the answer, stepping in front of Austin.
“In social sciences, we have a week to show how traffic routes cross the city. We’re supposed to pretend we’re engineers, and our job is document the ten busiest bottlenecks across the city. Once we have identified them, we suggest alternate routes or additional infrastructure that could be built to alleviate traffic.” Okay, the project seemed innocent enough. So why couldn’t Austin look me in the eyes?
“That’s a lot of ground to cover. Sounds like you two will be best buddies for the next week,” added Lacey. Austin turned to her and his eyes lit up like she had made an important point.
“I’m sure we’ll be in separable,” Austin offered, and as if on cue, the small drone butterfly landed on Alex’s shoulder. An idea started to form in my mind but I needed confirmation.
“Hey Austin, you’re looking a little pale, you feeling all right?”
“Feeling ‘desserts’, Pene, couldn’t be better,” he answered. I cocked my head at him and his cryptic answer. Before I could delve further, Alex jumped in.
“We have to go to the corner of Duke and Grand to work on our project. You girls want to walk with us?” Austin looked ready to retract Alex’s offer but Lacey was too fast.
“Sounds like fun, honey. Walk with me so the two lovebirds have some time together.” Lacey hooked Alex’s arm and they started walking ahead. The butterfly flew off Alex’s shoulder and stayed with us.
“You okay?” I asked as we started walking.
“I already told you. Think you got all it backwards.” He stressed the word backwards. Maybe he was alluding to the code he had explained to me before.
“How much is the project worth?”
“Hundred percent,” he spat out with a smile, but I could tell that he wasn’t pleased.
“Can we talk?”
“I thought that’s what you were doing?” he answered, but concern crept into his voice. Okay. What’s going on? Think about his choice of words. Feeling desserts. Backwards. All right — what is the word ‘desserts’ spelled backwards? I thought for a second. Stressed. That’s what desserts is backwards. Austin is feeling stressed. Why? And why speak in code? Is it Alex or the drones? I needed to find a place where we could speak openly. I saw something ahead that might give us that opportunity.
“Hey, Lacey,” I yelled, “I have to use the washroom.” I pointed to a public restroom. She turned with Alex.
“Want us to wait?”
“No, go on ahead. Austin will wait for me and we’ll catch up.” The two of them continued walking and disappeared into a crowd. I looked at Austin, flashed the number three and then walked into the women’s bathroom. I looked under the five stall doors. No one else was there. For once, luck was on my side. I stepped into the third stall and waited. Austin stepped in and closed the door behind him about ten seconds later.
“Good plan. Neither the cameras nor drones can follow us in here. We got about two minutes before the others wonder where we are.”
“Never mind. I’ll tell them I had stomach problems. What. Is. Going. On?”
Austin took a breath and answered my question. “I think someone may have backtracked to my computer. I’m usually pretty careful but the last time I was watching other people…”
“Were you stalking me?”
“Watching other people,” he continued without missing a beat, “when I thought I was being traced. The computer started to act up as if it was corrupted, and I thought someone was trying to log into my system. I shut down immediately, but it could have been too late. Ever since then the drones have been watching me nonstop.”
“What about Alex? Is he watching you?”
“I don’t know.” He looked unsure. “I’ve never seen him before and all of sudden he’s assigned to this project and we have to spend a lot of time together. The whole thing doesn’t feel right.”
“You think the Justice Department has assigned someone to watch you? Do you know crazy that sounds?”
Austin looked away. “Totally crazy. I know, but the guy shows way too much interest in me.”
“Maybe he has no friends.”
“Could be. He’s kind of goofy. But the drones have also been on me from sun up to sundown. They’re don’t even try to hide from me. Too much of a coincidence if you ask me.”
“So you what do you want me to do?”
“You can’t say anything to me, phone me, text me, anything that leaves an electronic message.”
“So you want me to avoid you?”
“Yes. Leave me paper messages or scrawl our code in the dirt. I can’t be caught. I don’t want to endanger my family.”
“Might be a bit late for that.”
“We don’t have time for this. The longer we spend together, the more likely you will also become a target. Get to your friend and make some sort of excuse to leave.” He looked towards the bathroom entrance. “We should go.” He got up and opened the stall door. Before he left, he turned to me. “As soon as you have any information on where these drones are stored, get a hold of me. If we can stop them, I have to know where they coming from. Leave me a message as soon as you know.” He started toward the exit.
“How will I contact you?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “But you’re a smart girl, I’m sure you’ll find a way.” He disappeared out the exit. I had only a few moments before I would have to join him. I looked at myself in the mirror. I was tired. All I ever wanted to do was grow up and see the world. Now other people were depending on me, and even if I left the physical borders of the city, there were other things to hold me back.
What to do? What if I failed Austin — could he be charged? Aged into an adult that I would no longer recognize. I shivered. Did I care about a boy I had only just met? He had saved me once — there had to be a way I could return the favor.
A shadow moved outside, hovering high above the exit. Waiting. Watching. Maybe Austin was right, maybe the drones were watching him. Trying to find out how much he knew about the police’s ability to watch everyone’s movements. The red eyes transmitting information back to base — a huge database with the latest location of the city’s residents. I bet with history stored, they could probably predict where I would be on any given day. My safety stored for the benefit of all.
Then it came to me. An idea of how to find out where the drones were stored. Where they lived. I walked out of the bathroom and stepped into the sun.