Finding Fiona (11 page)

“
I know. Look, if you want to go
home…” she trailed off. She didn’t want to be without Hannah, but
she wasn’t going to ask Hannah to stay with her lying boyfriend,
either.

“
And what, leave you here?” Hannah
sighed. “I don’t want to do that. I’ll stay for the weekend, and
we’ll figure out what to do, okay?”

“
Okay.” A sudden thought occurred
to Fiona, one that gave her a chill. “And Hannah, that article
mentioned you. If the Alarias see it and they start looking for
me…”

“
What do you think they’d do?”
Hannah asked in a small voice.

“
I don’t know. You’ll be here. It’s
okay.” Fiona had to find out what they were capable of. She
couldn’t leave Hannah to them.

* * *

When Fiona woke up, Hannah and James were in
the kitchen, making pancakes.

“
Wow, first-class service,” she
said, sitting down at the table. “Where’s Keith?”

“
Sleeping,” James said. “He got
home around two.”

“
Oh, right, he worked last
night.”

Soon, James gave her a plate of pancakes.
“They’re your favorite,” he said with a wink. She saw the small
blue spots of blueberries.

“
Banana?”

James’s smile faded, just the
slightest.

“
I’m kidding,” Fiona said.
“Blueberry is still my favorite.”

He pointed his spatula at her. “Not
funny.”

Fiona grinned. “I couldn’t help myself.” She
did feel bad after seeing his reaction, so she made sure to
compliment him plenty of times about the pancakes. The compliments
weren’t a lie; they were definitely delicious. “Who taught you your
pancake making skills?”

“
Your mom,” James said.

Fiona fell silent, taking another bite. She
hadn’t allowed herself to think of Richard and Fiona Normans as her
parents yet. She felt like it was too good to be true.

“
Well, they’re great,” Hannah said.
“She must have been a really good cook.”

“
Yeah,” James said, “except for
lasagna. No matter what, something always went wrong. Except for
the frozen stuff, anyone can make that.”

Fiona smiled. Burnt lasagna.

As they were talking, Fiona heard the front
door open. “Who’s that?” she asked, interrupting James’s
story.

“
James?” a voice called
out.

Fiona tensed at his voice. She stood up and
went to the balcony. Sure enough, Troy stood by the lab, a backpack
on one of his shoulders. She hated the mere sight of him: his
thinning hair, that stupid walk.

James and Hannah joined her. Hannah’s hands
shook as she grabbed the banister. “Troy,” she said
curtly.

He looked up, his face serious. “I thought you
two would be here.”

“
Or maybe I should call you
Walter?” Hannah asked, raising her voice.

Troy ran a hand through his hair. “Look, I did
what I had to to keep Fiona safe.”

“
What else did you lie about?” she
snapped. “Was it just your name?”

“
I didn’t lie about anything else…
well, some things…”

“
Like what? Ugh, why am I even
asking you? There’s no way I can believe you!” She spun around and
walked to the table.

Troy moved toward the staircase, calling her
name.

Fiona walked to the top of the stairs and put
her hands on her hips. “Why are you here?”

“
I wanted to see you guys,” Troy
said.

“
Did you tell him we were here?”
Fiona asked James.

“
No!” James said. “I didn’t talk to
him at all yesterday.”

“
Even though I called a dozen
times?” Troy said, pushing past Fiona. “Yeah, that was the main
thing that told me you were here.”

She followed him into the dining room. “Well,
I think you should leave.”

“
Really? This is my
house.”

“
Is it? Shouldn’t it be mine? If
there’s some kind of a will, they probably left everything to
me–”

“
But you’re dead,” Troy said.
“Technically.” He glanced toward Hannah, who was attacking her
pancakes with force. “Hannah, everything I did was to protect you
two.”

Fiona felt a surge of anger that he was
talking to Hannah and not her. She was the one he’d kept the truth
from about her identity. Troy was there nearly all summer; he could
have changed her life. “Leave her alone!” she said, clenching her
fists.

Hannah made a disgusted noise. “How
could you have lied to me? I let you in my house, in my life, in
my
bed.
” She
shuddered.

“
I didn’t mean to… it was a snap
decision, okay? I do like you, Hannah, I just–”

“
Save it,” Hannah snapped. She
stood up and took her plate into the kitchen.

“
I don’t want to–”

“
Well, I don’t want to talk about
it!” Hannah dropped her plate in the sink with a clatter and walked
to the bedroom. She slammed the door shut, and Troy glared after
her.

“
Are you working with the Alarias?”
Fiona asked.

Troy turned to stare at her incredulously.
“Are you crazy?”

“
Why did you lie?” she
demanded.

“
I lied to keep
you
away
from the
Alarias! They’ve been searching for you all summer, and I knew they
wouldn’t find you all the way in Boston. They were at Hannah’s
house today.”

Fiona gasped, putting her hand over her mouth.
Hannah opened the door, staring at them from the doorway. “What do
you mean?” she asked.

“
They were there this morning when
I drove by. It wasn’t even four yet, but they were sitting outside
the house in that SUV of Greg’s.”

Hannah shook her head. “I don’t believe
you.”

“
Call your neighbor, she saw them
too!” Troy exclaimed. “She was walking that stupid poodle, and she
said they’d been sitting out there all night.”

With one last suspicious look at him, Hannah
ducked into the bedroom again. Troy sighed, collapsing at the
dining room table.

“
Did you identify the other girl’s
body?” Fiona asked.

“
Yeah, I did,” Troy
grumbled.

“
And you’re sure it was me? I mean,
replication is impossible–”

“
It’s not, you and your parents did
it.”

“
How do you know?” Fiona sat across
from him, putting her hands on the table. “How sure are
you?”

“
They found enough blood in the
body to test it. They compared dental records, too.”

Fiona’s shoulders sagged. Both fairly
definitive tests. “Did you know about the replication when you
identified her?”

“
No, I didn’t know much about the
Remus project, just its name,” Troy said. “When I identified the
body, I was sure it was you. When we started taking care of the
house, though, we found your journal. I skimmed through it, trying
to figure out what the Remus project was, because James and I both
thought the Alarias were responsible for the fire.”

Thinking of Troy reading her journal made her
angry, though she hardly cared when she’d heard James read through
it.

“
I showed James the journal, and we
looked at some of the research. It was a long shot, but we thought
maybe it was a cloning machine or something.”

“
A replicator,” Fiona said.
“Cloning involves the embryo and gestation.”

Troy narrowed his eyes. “Well, you get the
point. It was more hope than anything, but Sarah told us what Remus
was, and nobody could stop us after that. One week, I was visiting
Boston, and I found an article about you… I thought it was too good
to be true, but when I met Hannah, and I met you…” he trailed off.
“I wasn’t with Hannah just because of you, you know.”

Fiona gritted her teeth.

“
Why didn’t you tell me you found
her?” James asked. “How long have you known?”

“
I wanted to keep them safe,” Troy
said. “You saw what the Alarias did, and I didn’t want–”

“
How long have you known?” James
repeated.

Troy paused. “Three months.”

James leaned back in his chair, crossing his
arms and glaring at Troy. “I can’t believe you.”

“
You shouldn’t have lied to us,”
Fiona said.

“
I did it to–” Troy
began.

“
Yeah, I know, to keep us safe.
That doesn’t mean it wasn’t wrong!”

“
You lied to James about the Remus
project!”

“
Are you really going to hold
something against me that I can’t even remember?”

“
You’re still the same person,”
Troy said. “Stubborn and–”

“
Leave her alone,” Hannah cut in.
She stood in the dining room, her phone in her hand, her face pale.
“Yvonne saw the SUV there. She said it was a black Mercedes… that
was the car in the security tapes.”

“
Oh, my god,” Fiona said
breathlessly.

“
Why would they be at my house?”
Hannah whispered.

“
They’re looking for her,” Troy
said, motioning to Fiona. “This is why I said not to do that
article.”

“
Shut up!” Hannah said, her voice
cracking. “We wouldn’t have done it if you told us there were
people trying to kill her!”

Troy ran a hand through his hair. That was
probably why it was so thin; he couldn’t stop messing with it.
“They don’t want to kill her,” he said quietly. “They want to use
her to build the machine again.”

“
You really think the replication
device worked?” Fiona asked.

Troy groaned with exasperation. “Haven’t we
been over this?”

“
Yes, we’re talking in circles,”
James said, rubbing his forehead.

“
I want to see the medical
examiner’s files,” Fiona said. “I called, but you have to be
next-of-kin to see them.”

Troy put his hands up. “Why do you want to see
them?”

“
I want to make sure you’re not
lying, for one. Don’t you think you owe me that?”

He narrowed his eyes. “What about the
Alarias?”

“
I’m not staying in this house all
weekend,” Fiona said.

“
They were at Hannah’s; they’re
probably going to be here, too,” James said. “I wouldn’t be
surprised if they’re out there right now.”

Hannah pulled the empty chair next to Troy
over to Fiona and sat down. She looked over Fiona’s hair. “Can you
think up some kind of disguise?”

Fiona touched her wavy brown hair and ran her
fingers through it. “Maybe we should cut it off.”

Frowning, James said, “I like your hair
long.”

Fiona smiled. “Me, too… we could still take a
few inches off. And dye it.”

“
What color?”

“
Have I ever dyed it
before?”

James tilted his head, his eyes on her hair.
“You had it dark blonde when I met you in sophomore
year.”

“
Let’s dye it red, then. Can you go
to the store?”

“
Do you have to do this?” Troy
asked. “Couldn’t I bring the file back?”

Fiona understood their reluctance. Just the
thought of being seen by the Alarias made her shudder. What did
they expect from her, though? To stay indoors until the Alarias
were convicted? That wasn’t going to happen unless they did
something, and this was her first step toward action. She had to be
sure.

“
I’ll go with a disguise,” Fiona
said. “You can scope out the area before I leave the house. But I
have to see it for myself.”

* * *

An hour later, Fiona studied herself in the
mirror, her damp hair dark red. She liked brown more, but it would
work. She had a feeling James got a color a little too bright, that
when her hair dried, she’d look part-fire engine. It was certainly
far from her usual brown, but would it attract too much
attention?

Keith was finally out of bed, eating a bowl of
cereal. He raised his eyebrows at Fiona. “That’s pretty
red.”

“
My choice,” James said,
grinning

“
It’ll be even more red when it’s
dry,” Fiona said. “You think it’ll attract attention?”

“
I hope not.” James turned to
Hannah. “You’re staying here, right?”

Hannah looked up from her book. “I’m not going
anywhere with Troy. If that’s okay with you, Fiona.”

Fiona nodded. “It’s fine. We’ll be back
soon.”

“
Let’s go out the back,” Troy said,
standing up from the couch.

Fiona waited by the backdoor while James and
Troy walked around the block. She ran her fingers through her hair
idly. Other than her red hair, did she look any different from four
months ago? Had she lost or gained any weight? Glancing down at her
jeans and top, she wondered what sorts of clothes she usually wore.
Her other tastes hadn’t changed dramatically; her choice in fashion
couldn’t have been that much different.