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.Do you like me better now? Down, J.D.Do.Not.Flirt. I like your mother better, shesaid. I don t like you any less. Shelooked at my clothes on the floor. Sowhere s your cell phone? I ll put mynumber in it, and you can call mesometime. What the what? Uh, I don thave a cell phone. She raised an eyebrow like I dannounced I was from another planet.Then her face turned red. Oh. I didn t know why not having aphone should be embarrassing until Irealized she thought I couldn t afford one.Good.Let her think so.It waseasier than explaining I hate being on thegrid.If Mom or Scarlett ever needed toget hold of me, they called Brad.If I mever kidnapped, the assholes will send aransom note.Nora frowned at something onthe floor and bent over to pick it up.Oneof my sandals. Are you and Brad in theMephisto club? she said. Brad likes good shoes, hesaid. He bought them. Seriously. She said. He buysyour clothes. They were a birthday present. I laughed. We ve been buds since gradeschool. I was telling her too much.Letting her in, deeper and deeper.It had to stop. Like me and Lisa. Noradropped the sandal.She got up from thebed and went to the door. Frank s stillhere.He and Lisa are making breakfast.There s a fresh towel in my bathroom.You can take a shower if you want.Andthere s coffee in the kitchen. Then she was gone.I felt emptyinside.I didn t like it.I got dressed without the shower.I was going to have to ride home inyesterday s clothes, so I d take one later.I had no intention of staying forbreakfast.The sooner I got away fromNora Deven, the better.I headed out of the bedroom,thinking about where my bike and helmet might be, when I heard arguing down thehall.At the bathroom door, I heardLisa s voice.She sounded upset. I don t trust him, she said. You don t know him, Noraanswered. It sounds too good to be true,sure.But what do we know about thesecret lives of corporations? Look atthose McMansions in Wexford and realmansions in Los Lagos.Money isdifferent for people who have it.I thinkSteve s company must have paid for theinternships. They were talking about SteveHeron.I d put aside the reason I washere in the first place, and now it justfell into my lap.Jeez, poor Brad.Badenough he couldn t get credit for his secret good deed setting up theinternships, and now credit was going toMolyMo. You deserve a vacation, Lisasaid. You need a vacation.But there sno way you can relax at& at that place. We need the money. We don t need it that bad, Lisasaid.I walked on down the hall, myhead ringing with what I d just heard.Brad s suspicions were right on.MolyMo was trying to move in onBarton.I could guess what happened.Barton must have honored his agreementwith BlueMagick and refused to letanother company on the dig, and nowMolyMo wanted to make Nora their unwitting spy.That shit pissed me off.Bradspent over a year getting to know Dr.Barton, gaining his trust, arranging forfunding, and now MolyMo thoughtthey d swoop in and skim offBlueMagick s work. Morning, J.D. Frank was in thekitchen, taking a batch of cinnamon rollsout of the oven. There s coffee in thepot, but fair warning.It s bad. I ll pass. I m bringing my espressomachine over on Wednesday forStacey s birthday party.One makessacrifices, but a man needs a latte in themorning.I ll be staying here whileNora s gone for her internship. So I hear, I said.With a redesign, this kitchen andgreat room area could be fantastic.Itbordered the back of the house withwindows running along the entire walllooking out on the deck and thebackyard. Ah, my bike. The Pashley wasleaning against a built-in bookcase onthe far wall. My helmet too.Thanks. Inthe bookcase there was a complete set ofDragonriders of Pern.First editions.Very cool. Sure thing, Frank said. That sa nice piece of equipment you ve gotthere.I didn t know they sold them in thestates. Really? I hate lying.Even about small stuff to people I ll never seeagain.Bad karma. I bought it from a guyon Craig s list.He didn t say where hegot it. Time to change the subject. So Iguess this is a real party house. Last night was an aberration, Frank said. As you saw, Nora can ttake crowds.Wednesday s just a fewpeople over for the kid s eighteenth. Brad says Stacey is great. Brad, huh. Frank finished acinnamon roll. He s one of Stacey sfavorites, ever since he showed herwhere the Easter eggs were on a coupleof her videogames. Sounds like Brad. I detected asliver of resentment in Frank s tone, buthe had no cause for jealousy.Lisa had made her choice.Frank won.He shouldbe gracious about it.Like Brad.My best friend was wrong.Thebest man didn t win.Nora agreed withme, I realized.But Lisa s opinion wasthe only one that counted.I hoisted thebike over my shoulder and opened theback door. Taking off then? Frank said. Yeah, gotta go, I said. Thingsto do.Tell Nora and Lisa I said bye. It was shitty of me, as Noramight say, to run off without sayinggoodbye.Yeah, there was some self-loathing at the pit of my stomach.It wasbetter this way, I told myself.All the way down the driveway,I fantasized Nora running out of the house onto the front lawn to ask me tostay just a little longer.Long past the lastof the lilacs, and even half a mile on, Iheard her voice saying my name on themorning breeze. Chapter 10 You re wrong, I said. We doneed the money that bad. I d followed Lisa into herbathroom in the hall.With Frank andJ.D.both in the house, it was my bestchance to get her alone for a few minutesto explain why I was taking Dr.Barton sinternship.After last night, I had to tellher about Steve s offer.It was the onlyway to make her understand. It s too dangerous, Nora, shesaid. Yesterday you were all for it, Isaid. You practically shoved the digpacket on me when we found out theinternship was paid. That was before either of usknew where it was, Lisa said.Shesqueezed toothpaste on her toothbrush. You can t stir all that up again.Andthree weeks? After last night, do youhonestly think you d last up there threehours? Last night was an anomaly, Isaid. I wasn t prepared. Nor, I'm scared for you.I can tstand to see you open these old scars. She stuck the toothbrush in her mouth. Snau wuh it.Nau eve foe sih thou dau. I caught her eye in the mirror anddropped my voice behind her, Howabout $150,000? Wuh? She swung around, hereyes huge. I grabbed her arm and put myfinger to my lips, warning her to bequiet.When Steve said to keep it secret,he said it was a corporate thing.Irationalized that I could tell myroommate, but he surely meant not to tellanyone who worked for a big company.Someone like Brad or even a low-level new-hire at BlueMagick like J.D.who was in the house right that minute. The guy s company will pay offmy student loans. I left out the part about the bonus.I didn t really believe that myself.Lisa rinsed her mouth out andspit like she didn t believe any of it. Hemust want you to do something illegal. That s what I thought, but he swears no.He s going to explain thewhole thing to me this Wednesdaybefore I give my final answer. I still didn t know where wewere meeting [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.Do you like me better now? Down, J.D.Do.Not.Flirt. I like your mother better, shesaid. I don t like you any less. Shelooked at my clothes on the floor. Sowhere s your cell phone? I ll put mynumber in it, and you can call mesometime. What the what? Uh, I don thave a cell phone. She raised an eyebrow like I dannounced I was from another planet.Then her face turned red. Oh. I didn t know why not having aphone should be embarrassing until Irealized she thought I couldn t afford one.Good.Let her think so.It waseasier than explaining I hate being on thegrid.If Mom or Scarlett ever needed toget hold of me, they called Brad.If I mever kidnapped, the assholes will send aransom note.Nora frowned at something onthe floor and bent over to pick it up.Oneof my sandals. Are you and Brad in theMephisto club? she said. Brad likes good shoes, hesaid. He bought them. Seriously. She said. He buysyour clothes. They were a birthday present. I laughed. We ve been buds since gradeschool. I was telling her too much.Letting her in, deeper and deeper.It had to stop. Like me and Lisa. Noradropped the sandal.She got up from thebed and went to the door. Frank s stillhere.He and Lisa are making breakfast.There s a fresh towel in my bathroom.You can take a shower if you want.Andthere s coffee in the kitchen. Then she was gone.I felt emptyinside.I didn t like it.I got dressed without the shower.I was going to have to ride home inyesterday s clothes, so I d take one later.I had no intention of staying forbreakfast.The sooner I got away fromNora Deven, the better.I headed out of the bedroom,thinking about where my bike and helmet might be, when I heard arguing down thehall.At the bathroom door, I heardLisa s voice.She sounded upset. I don t trust him, she said. You don t know him, Noraanswered. It sounds too good to be true,sure.But what do we know about thesecret lives of corporations? Look atthose McMansions in Wexford and realmansions in Los Lagos.Money isdifferent for people who have it.I thinkSteve s company must have paid for theinternships. They were talking about SteveHeron.I d put aside the reason I washere in the first place, and now it justfell into my lap.Jeez, poor Brad.Badenough he couldn t get credit for his secret good deed setting up theinternships, and now credit was going toMolyMo. You deserve a vacation, Lisasaid. You need a vacation.But there sno way you can relax at& at that place. We need the money. We don t need it that bad, Lisasaid.I walked on down the hall, myhead ringing with what I d just heard.Brad s suspicions were right on.MolyMo was trying to move in onBarton.I could guess what happened.Barton must have honored his agreementwith BlueMagick and refused to letanother company on the dig, and nowMolyMo wanted to make Nora their unwitting spy.That shit pissed me off.Bradspent over a year getting to know Dr.Barton, gaining his trust, arranging forfunding, and now MolyMo thoughtthey d swoop in and skim offBlueMagick s work. Morning, J.D. Frank was in thekitchen, taking a batch of cinnamon rollsout of the oven. There s coffee in thepot, but fair warning.It s bad. I ll pass. I m bringing my espressomachine over on Wednesday forStacey s birthday party.One makessacrifices, but a man needs a latte in themorning.I ll be staying here whileNora s gone for her internship. So I hear, I said.With a redesign, this kitchen andgreat room area could be fantastic.Itbordered the back of the house withwindows running along the entire walllooking out on the deck and thebackyard. Ah, my bike. The Pashley wasleaning against a built-in bookcase onthe far wall. My helmet too.Thanks. Inthe bookcase there was a complete set ofDragonriders of Pern.First editions.Very cool. Sure thing, Frank said. That sa nice piece of equipment you ve gotthere.I didn t know they sold them in thestates. Really? I hate lying.Even about small stuff to people I ll never seeagain.Bad karma. I bought it from a guyon Craig s list.He didn t say where hegot it. Time to change the subject. So Iguess this is a real party house. Last night was an aberration, Frank said. As you saw, Nora can ttake crowds.Wednesday s just a fewpeople over for the kid s eighteenth. Brad says Stacey is great. Brad, huh. Frank finished acinnamon roll. He s one of Stacey sfavorites, ever since he showed herwhere the Easter eggs were on a coupleof her videogames. Sounds like Brad. I detected asliver of resentment in Frank s tone, buthe had no cause for jealousy.Lisa had made her choice.Frank won.He shouldbe gracious about it.Like Brad.My best friend was wrong.Thebest man didn t win.Nora agreed withme, I realized.But Lisa s opinion wasthe only one that counted.I hoisted thebike over my shoulder and opened theback door. Taking off then? Frank said. Yeah, gotta go, I said. Thingsto do.Tell Nora and Lisa I said bye. It was shitty of me, as Noramight say, to run off without sayinggoodbye.Yeah, there was some self-loathing at the pit of my stomach.It wasbetter this way, I told myself.All the way down the driveway,I fantasized Nora running out of the house onto the front lawn to ask me tostay just a little longer.Long past the lastof the lilacs, and even half a mile on, Iheard her voice saying my name on themorning breeze. Chapter 10 You re wrong, I said. We doneed the money that bad. I d followed Lisa into herbathroom in the hall.With Frank andJ.D.both in the house, it was my bestchance to get her alone for a few minutesto explain why I was taking Dr.Barton sinternship.After last night, I had to tellher about Steve s offer.It was the onlyway to make her understand. It s too dangerous, Nora, shesaid. Yesterday you were all for it, Isaid. You practically shoved the digpacket on me when we found out theinternship was paid. That was before either of usknew where it was, Lisa said.Shesqueezed toothpaste on her toothbrush. You can t stir all that up again.Andthree weeks? After last night, do youhonestly think you d last up there threehours? Last night was an anomaly, Isaid. I wasn t prepared. Nor, I'm scared for you.I can tstand to see you open these old scars. She stuck the toothbrush in her mouth. Snau wuh it.Nau eve foe sih thou dau. I caught her eye in the mirror anddropped my voice behind her, Howabout $150,000? Wuh? She swung around, hereyes huge. I grabbed her arm and put myfinger to my lips, warning her to bequiet.When Steve said to keep it secret,he said it was a corporate thing.Irationalized that I could tell myroommate, but he surely meant not to tellanyone who worked for a big company.Someone like Brad or even a low-level new-hire at BlueMagick like J.D.who was in the house right that minute. The guy s company will pay offmy student loans. I left out the part about the bonus.I didn t really believe that myself.Lisa rinsed her mouth out andspit like she didn t believe any of it. Hemust want you to do something illegal. That s what I thought, but he swears no.He s going to explain thewhole thing to me this Wednesdaybefore I give my final answer. I still didn t know where wewere meeting [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]