imperfect (11 page)

Kelly? Who’s Kelly?
Then Kristi remembered it was her cover
name.

Chelsa tapped her on the shoulders. “We’ve
been here for over an hour.”

“
Until next time,” said
the merchant, winking at Kristi. He disappeared into the pulsing
horde of people.

They climbed up the stairs and onto the
street. Kristi took one last look at Troll’s Tavern and saw a
richly dressed person lead two fairly drunken fellows away.

“
What did you learn?
Did
you see any spies? Who are involved?
Were you guys recognized?” Chelsa and Kristi had barely walked
through the doors when Jaiden started to fire them with
questions.

“
Let us eat first, then
we’ll answer.” Kristi’s stomach grumbled, agreeing with her
words.

“
Cruel,” said Jaiden. “You
are a cruel person. Withholding such information from a poor guy
left behind while others get—”

“
Oh, stop griping,” Kristi
said.

“
Does instant rice sound
good?” Chelsa asked.

“
Anything edible sounds
good to me.”

“
Spill. Tell me what you
learned,” said Jaiden.

Chelsa ripped open three packages of instant
fried rice while Kristi boiled some water on the bio-fuel stove.
Jaiden vigorously bounced his knees up and down with impatience.
Chelsa shot him a sideways look and said, “I’ll tell you what I
found out, if that makes you happy.”

The water came to a full boil and Chelsa
dumped the rice into the pot.

“
So?” Jaiden
prompted.

“
The government suspects
there are actually two headquarters of the Revealers. One is
located, as we already know, in South Union. However, their second
headquarters are located in the West Region of the United
Regions.”

“
The West Region,” Kristi
mumbled. “It seems like a good place to start looking for other
spies. There’s bound to be spies there if that’s where the
headquarters are located. Ow!”

Jaiden jerked up. “Are you hurt?”

“
No, I just scalded my
tongue.” She bashfully held up her bowl of steaming
rice.

“
Geez, Kristi. You really
scared me for a second.”

“
I’m sorry.” She
exaggerated blowing on her spoonful of rice before swallowing
it.

“
You can apologize by
telling me what you learned at Troll’s Tavern,” said
Jaiden.

“
Okay, okay. No need to be
pushy. I found out that the Revealers are searching for new
recruits. They have roughly fifty members stationed in the North
Region. A bandit attacked one of their members named Kelvin. Last
but not least, we need to find and contact a woman named
Tiffany.”

“
Who is she?” said
Chelsa.

“
She’s part of the
Revealers and worked closely with Don and Maria—I mean Kyle and
Shelly. Apparently she is now finishing whatever work they left
behind.”

“
Here’s what I think we
should do,” Chelsa said. “We should travel to the West Region,
searching for Tiffany at the same time. If we haven’t found Tiffany
by the time we have reached the West Region, perhaps someone there
who is part of the Revealers can help us find her.”

“
Works for me,” said
Jaiden. “When do you want to leave for the West Region? A week from
today?”

Chelsa swallowed a spoonful of rice. “I was
thinking of tomorrow.”

By the time everyone had finished packing
for tomorrow’s trip, it was well past midnight. The sleeping bags
would be rolled up nicely on top of the weatherproof backpacks in
the morning. Food, medical supplies and other knick-knacks required
for living in the wilderness were distributed among the three
bags.

After a few minutes of debate, they settled
on traveling by day rather than night; the risk of running into
bandits outweighed the risk of Jaiden and Kristi being recognized
on the roads. They would just have to do their best to stay beneath
the radar. Chelsa was the ideal travel partner, as she was
excellent at staying unnoticed.

“
I can’t sleep,” Kristi
said.

“
Try to,” said Chelsa.
“You’ll need all the energy you can get once we hit the
roads.”

“
Chelsa?” Kristi asked her
new friend.

Chelsa answered with a yawn and slurred,
“What?”

“
Never mind.” She lay on
her back and stared at the ceiling for what seemed like forever.
Eventually, she drifted off to sleep.

chapter eleven

[ Troop ]

“
Who’s
coming over for a
visit?” Troop asked, even though he had
clearly heard what his mom said the first time.

“
Your father.”

“
Why
now?” He stretched his mind to the last time he had seen his
father.
Does he really think he can
abandon us for ten years and then come swinging back into our
lives?

“
Troop, be reasonable.”
His mom stabbed at her chicken salad, conveying the opposite
message of her words. “He’s only staying for three
days.”

“
You still haven’t
answered my question.”

The fork pierced a piece of chicken and
struck the plate so hard its tines bent backwards. Troop fetched a
new fork from the kitchen and threw the old one into the
incinerator.

“
Your father is going
through some tough times,” said Troop’s mom. “He just needs a place
to stay for a few days until he secures a new living arrangement.
His house was destroyed by a mudslide two days ago.”

“
He could go die in a
mudslide for all I care.”

“
Troop
.” His mom gave him a
reproachful look.

“
It’s the truth. What kind
of person divorces his spouse behind her back, runs off and doesn’t
visit his son for ten years and then expect them to take him
in?”

“
That
is
enough,
Troop Mendax.” She never used his last name unless she was
seriously pissed off.

Troop decided keeping his mouth shut was
probably the smartest thing to do. His mother pushed her chair away
from the table and said, “I don’t want to hear another negative
word regarding your father from you.”

“
Fine,” he grumbled under
his breath. Then his voice rose so that his mom could hear him.
“Fine. When is he coming?”

“
Tomorrow.” She checked
her to-do list on her electro-slate. “I don’t have enough time to
prepare the guest room for your father. Can you do me a favor and
do it for me? There should be fresh sheets in the
dryer.”

“
Alright.”

He threw open the door of
the guest room and surveyed the interior. It was a basic room;
there was only a twin bed, a wardrobe and a single window
overlooking the streets. Troop retrieved the gray, microfiber
sheets and fixed up the bedroom in no time.
I wonder if we have any itching powder,
Troop thought.
Wouldn’t it be a
tragedy if somehow some itching powder made its way into this
comforter?

He shook his head to rid
his malicious idea.
I better watch my
thoughts. I don’t want to become the person I pretend to be in
school.
The Troop Mandex who attended
Ludus High wouldn’t have had a second thought about dumping itching
powder onto the bed. But the real Troop Mandex would’ve actually
given a damn.

“
Why
didn’t you answer any
of my
instafications?” Jennifer placed her hands on her hips and put on a
little pout.

“
I was going to, but never
got around to it. Too much homework. Someone should tell Brunes to
lay off the chemistry assignments a bit,” said Troop. In truth, he
hadn’t even read the messages Jennifer had sent him.

A student exiting the
library blundered into his path; Troop automatically shoved the
offender out of his way. Then he inwardly recoiled at his actions
the moment he realized what he had done.
I’m growing into this Troop at Ludus High character more than
I like
.

Not even a year ago, the old Troop would’ve
hesitated at the thought of pushing someone out of his way; now it
had become second nature.

Jennifer babbled on,
oblivious to the fact her words were going in one of his ears and
out the other. “Anyways, Tompkins tipped me off Maya was the next
VicDay person.” By this time, she had lost her pout. “You know you
didn’t have to do that for me.”

Troop realized she was waiting for him to
respond. “Do what?”

“
You know, set Maya up for
VicDay because I told you I didn’t like her. You spoil me too
much.” Jennifer clung onto his arm like a burr.

He gently shook her off,
ignoring the pout reappearing on her face. “The group voted for
Maya,” he said. “I didn’t vote for her.”

“
Oh.” The pout deepened
and grew less cute. Then Jennifer spotted her friends gossiping in
front of the vending machine. She twirled away from him and said,
“See you later.”

Troop relaxed the moment Jennifer left his
side; half the time he spent with her he felt like he was dealing
with a three year-old who always got what she wanted. Lengthening
his strides, he hurried to his math class. A Perfect was never
late.

The bell rang a second
after Troop crossed the threshold of the classroom. He slid into a
seat beside Mason in the back corner of the room. Mason looked up
in greeting and wordlessly passed Troop the answer key to
tomorrow’s math quiz.

“
Jack?” asked
Troop.

Mason nodded.

“
Thank him for me if you
see him.”

Mason nodded again; his taciturn demeanor
was a relief to Jennifer’s non-stop chatter. Mason brought out his
electro-slate to take down some notes.

Troop didn’t bother to do so; he could
always snitch the math notes off someone else.

chapter twelve

[ Kristi ]

She was the last to wake
up. As usual. Jaiden was busy making
breakfast and Chelsa was sitting on her bed, talking to
him.
Wait, Jaiden’s making breakfast?
That’s my job!

Kristi bolted upright and said, “I didn’t
mean to over sleep again. You should’ve woke me up; I promised to
make breakfast today.”

“
Don’t sound so
surprised,” Jaiden said. “What else is new? It’s okay—I got
breakfast covered for you.”

“
Did I ever mention how
awesome of a brother you are?”

“
No, but you can do so
now.”

“
Fine. Jaiden, you are an
awesome brother. And now I’m going to brush my teeth because it
feels like a rat had died in my mouth overnight.” By the time she
had changed, brushed her teeth and braided her hair, Jaiden had
finished making pancakes for everyone.

“
Best pancakes ever,”
Chelsa mumbled around a mouthful of pancakes. “Beats the instant
oatmeal I normally have for breakfast.”

Kristi finished breakfast before Chelsa and
Jaiden. She took a look around the room; nothing about the room
hinted that its inhabitants were about to abandon it. The pictures
and maps were still pinned up on the wall and all of Chelsa’s
accessories were spread throughout.

“
Is this one mine?” Kristi
pointed to the dark green backpack.

“
I think so. The lightest
one is yours because, no offense…” Chelsa trailed off.

“
I know. I’m just a soft
city kid.”

“
That wasn’t what I was
going to say.”

“
It’s true though. I’ve
never left my town before.” She shouldered her backpack and her
knees almost buckled.
This is the lightest
one? How much do the others weigh? This must be at least fifty
pounds.
Kristi resolved to at least be
able to carry her own weight. She bit her bottom lip and allowed no
sounds of complaint to escape her.

“
You done?” Chelsa nodded
to Jaiden’s plate. He handed the empty plate to her and she
deposited it in a bin beneath the cot after washing it. “Let’s get
going.”

The sky was still dark and the roads were
almost empty. The slimmest rays of sunlight peeked out from behind
the mountaintops, hinting at a spectacular sunrise to come.

The plan was to follow Route 56, which
connects the North Region to the West Region. Route 56 was a
decently maintained road; most of it was paved, though parts of it
were little more than a dirt path. Much of the road wound through
the countryside, where only animals dwelled. The vast majority of
the travelers using the road traveled by solar or hydro-cars.
Others traveled by foot, droid-horses or hydro-bikes.

Thanks to Chelsa’s shortcuts, it didn’t take
long before they left the city where Kristi had grown up far
behind. Soon, she was surrounded by open space on all four sides;
her hometown became only a silhouette in the distance.

She looked up; the sky began to brighten
like a flower blooming. The thin stream of traffic thickened on
Route 56—the result of people commuting to work.