Threader (6 page)

Allen has arranged a slate for me and loads up articles about my parents. I flip through them, devouring information about a past I know nothing about. There's no personal information on either of them, and nearly all reference controversial studies into the shadow biosphere.

I'm apprehensive about the conversation we're going to have when Bobby wakes up. My plan is to grill him about whether he knew Alice and James worked at Helios. Then I'm going to yell a bit. Flap my arms about. Make a scene. Then I'm just going to tell him I'm staying. Which I know Bobby will be totally against. He always tells me he promised James he'd keep me safe. To Bobby, this means keeping me away from the prying eyes of governments and corps. But now I've got to convince him he's wrong. That James was wrong. And more than anything, I want to know why Bobby never told me James was a talent who worked for a corp.

A nurse shows up at one point, offering me a tray of food. Starving, I gratefully accept and when I lift the lid, I see a plate of creamy, golden macaroni and cheese. There's even a lime jelly for dessert, which I chow down quick smart. After I'm done, I return to my reading, searching for more clues about my parents' past.

At some point, my eyes flutter closed and I doze lightly, dreaming of rushing wind tunnels and falling from great heights. When I jerk awake, it's dark, the room illuminated by a light above the door. I stretch out my stiff legs and rise to my feet to get my circulation going again.

There's a nurse station outside Bobby's room and a sleepy woman taps listlessly at a screen. The quiet is unsettling and I only wander a few minutes before returning to Bobby's side, taking one of his rough hands in my own. At my touch, his snoring catches in his throat, and then he's spluttering himself awake. He sits up in bed, looking bewildered.

‘Where are we?' His eyes roll around the dim-lit room, confused.

‘You don't remember?'

He scrunches his eyes shut, then groans. ‘They found you.'

‘It's not like that.'

‘My ticker nearly gave out when a couple of jokers showed up at my door, wanting to talk about you,' he says. ‘I thought either you'd been picked up and clipped, or run over by a cycle gang.'

‘I'm just fine.'

‘The hell you are. The Helios Academy, eh? I've seen their adverts. Nothing but glorified recruitment centres for slimy, no good corps.' He smacked a fist into an open palm with a growl. ‘You don't want nothing to do with these guys, Josie. Trust me. One corp is as bad as another. The only thing they think of is how to profit. And every employee is expendable.'

‘It's going to be fine, Bobby,' I try.

He struggles to get out of the bed and begins searching for his shoes. ‘You think they'll give you that Citizenship you've always wanted? Sure, they might. Or maybe they'll just shove you in a cage and do tests.'

I swallow, then blurt out, ‘They didn't find me. I reached out to Helios, asking about recruitment.'

Bobby freezes, his eyes sliding to me. ‘Why would you do something like that?'

‘Did you know James was a talent?' I change the subject, watching Bobby's face for any indication he's surprised. But he doesn't even flinch.

My throat constricts and tears threaten. ‘Did you know both he and Alice graduated from Helios and used to work for Galloway Industries?'

Bobby sits back on the bed, shoulders slumping. ‘No. I knew they worked for a corp, but I didn't know much else.'

I blink back tears. ‘Why wouldn't he tell me about it? Why keep it a secret?'

One of Bobby's shoulders lifts, then drops again. ‘I'm sorry, Josie. I don't have the answers you want. All I know is that James wanted you safe. I raised you and did what I thought was right.'

A silence falls as we both search for some common ground. The only thing I'm sure of, is that I can't waste this opportunity. This is my chance and I'm going to take it.

‘I'm going to stay.' A hint of desperation leaks into my voice. Despite reeling from the revelation about my parents, I want Bobby to understand and approve of my decision. And I
really
don't want to tell him about getting busted back home by the cops.

‘All the money in the world isn't worth giving up your freedom,' Bobby says darkly.

‘If I graduate, I can get a Citizenship.' I bend and pull his shoes out from under the bed and hand them to him. ‘You could close the shop and retire.'

Bobby stares at the battered boots in his hands. ‘James felt the same way I do. That corps can't be trusted. I learnt my lesson with the war, and losing my leg. I think James lost something more. Something went wrong for them, somewhere along the line, and they had to disappear.'

I knew my parents were hermits, but Bobby never talked about why. For the longest time, I'd never realised there was anything odd about living in the middle of the woods, isolated from everyone else.

Bobby's craggy face is distressed as he pulls on his shoes. I've never seen him so upset with me, not even when I got my second strike.

‘I'm not a child, Bobby,' I say softly.

He glares at me, offended. ‘I
know
you're not.' He struggles to stand, short of breath. ‘But we're leaving. Right now.'

The door behind me opens and a nurse storms in, looking angry. ‘Your stats are going off the chart. Get back in that bed this instant.'

Bobby blinks at her, then sees the medical bracelet around his wrist. ‘Get your leash off me.' He tries to wrench it off while the monitor beeps louder, faster.

‘Get back in that bed. Right. Now.' The nurse's jaw is set and she looks ready to tackle him if he doesn't comply.

‘Don't tell me what to do.' Bobby shakes a fist at her. ‘You take this thing offa me, before I show you I mean business!'

The nurse almost shoves him back in the bed. ‘I
will
sedate you again.'

With a brisk wave of her hand, she motions for me to leave. Sick with worry, I hurry out of the room, hoping she can calm my uncle down.

‘Still thinking of running off?'

A short yip of surprise escapes me and I whirl to see Blake Galloway, looking like he's just been standing there, waiting for me to appear.

‘What do you want?' I snap.

He ignores my question. ‘The lawyer told me you're a threader. But I'd kind of guessed that.'

I feel like he's accusing me of something and the apology just trips off my tongue like an old habit. ‘Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—' I wave a hand about, ‘—do whatever I did.'

‘You didn't
mean
to get inside my head?' His eyebrows rise. ‘You didn't
mean
to thread your talents with mine?'

‘I don't know how to control it properly. I've never used it like that before.'

He makes a disgusted sound. ‘That's the most irresponsible thing I've ever heard.'

My eyebrows knit. ‘I said I was sorry.'

‘What did you see?' A muscle in his jaw jumps. ‘When you went in my head. What did you see?'

I meet his intense gaze with my own cool one. ‘Nothing.'

‘I know how threaders work. You'd see a whole lot more than nothing.'

‘You don't have to believe me, but I was more interested in keeping us both alive at the time.' I don't bother elaborating that anything I might have seen I quickly pushed aside or shoved deep into the puzzle-chest, along with other memories I don't have any use for.

Blake grunts, clearly not believing me. ‘Not many unregistered talents out there. Why hadn't you signed up?'

‘I just didn't. What's it to you?' I might be grateful to Blake for bringing me to Helios, but it didn't mean I owed him any explanations.

His top lip curls. ‘Helios has a strict policy about talents being used as weapons. Think you'd be able to control yourself?'

I don't like the way he's looking at me, like I'm pathetic and stupid. ‘You mean around you? No problem.'

‘And you do realise you were breaking the law, helping that con artist scam people out of their money. You would have deserved it, being arrested.'

‘Fine.' I roll my eyes. ‘I'm a terrible person. Why did you bother helping me?'

He hesitates, then scowls, as if he wasn't sure himself, then walks off without another word. For some unfathomable reason, I'm infuriated at being dismissed by him and indicate so via my middle finger, aimed squarely at his retreating back.

Take
that
, rat-sucker.

The nurse emerges from Bobby's room ten minutes later, her face set in hard lines. She explains Bobby had to be sedated again and will now be out until morning. Horrified that I was responsible for upsetting him, I refuse to leave his room and a spare bed is eventually rolled in for me.

After pulling Bobby's boots off and tucking blankets around him, I crash out, exhausted. My dreams are full of corrosive nightmares and an infecting darkness that seeps into my pores as I freefall. Somewhere in these confused dreams, I sense a presence close by and instinct tells me that if I could reach it, it would anchor me and I'd be safe.

Soft morning light wakes me and Bobby is the first thing I see after I rub the gritty sleep from my eyes. He's staring out the window, sipping what smells like real coffee. I notice his grey hair has been brushed and his boots securely laced.

‘How are you feeling?' I sit up.

‘Fine.' Bobby turns from the window and I'm relieved to see he looks calm. ‘My head feels much clearer.'

A nurse enters with a tray, which she places on a portable table. ‘Hello. Josie, isn't it? I've come to check your hands.'

I swing my legs out to sit on the edge of the bed and hold out my hands, watching as she unravels the bandage. After the last layer is peeled off to reveal healthy pink skin, Bobby steps over to inspect the results.

‘Is she going to be alright?' he asks the nurse.

‘Of course.' She places the used bandages in the metal tray. ‘We have only the best treatments here. Your daughter is going to be just fine.'

Neither Bobby nor myself correct her. Bobby bends forward to examine my hands. The skin is puckered, like they've soaked in water too long, and when I flex my fingers, they're stiff but pain free.

‘There you are.' The nurse collects her tray. ‘Good as new. We had to re-gen some of the tissue, but any residual pain you might have should disappear by tonight.'

I nod and she leaves the room. Bobby stares down at my hands like he's thinking really hard about what to say next.

‘Before I got picked up by a bunch of fancy-pants Helios lawyers and brought here, a couple of law enforcement officers contacted me,' he says finally. ‘Asked me to tell them where you were. Said you were in trouble.'

I stare at my wrinkled hands, not able to look at him while I tried to figure out how the cops had tracked my identity from the alley out back of Karla's shop.

‘You gonna tell me what happened?' he asks.

I pick at one of my soft cuticles, not wanting to look up and see the disappointment in his eyes. We both knew what it meant if I went back now. It would only be a matter of time before I was picked up.

Bobby heaves a sigh when I don't answer. ‘I'm worried for you. You understand that, don't you? Your parents sheltered you from the worst of this world, and while you've seen and heard some of it living with me back home, I worry you don't yet understand the evil people are capable of. Personally, I'd rather spare you it, like James wanted. But I know that's not possible. I know that if you're gonna survive, you need to remember what I've always told you: no one's on your side. You can only trust yourself. People are being nice to you? Great. But they're not your friends. They'll always want something.' He sucks in a breath, then says, ‘You remember that.'

Looking up, I meet his eyes as I repeat his age-worn motto. ‘I'm a lone wolf and I rely on no one but myself.'

‘Right.' Bobby rubs a hand over his mouth, like he feels ill. ‘You understand I don't agree with you staying here, right?'

‘I know.'

‘But I can't stop you, if that's what you want. This is your life to lead. You're a young woman now and you've got to do what you think is best.'

Lurching off the bed, I grab Bobby in a hug. ‘Thank you.'

He gives me an awkward pat on the back. ‘I'm going home this morning. The moment you want to come home, you tell me, okay?'

I pull back. ‘Can't you stay for a bit?'

‘I got my own living to do. And the shop isn't going to open itself.' He pauses, then adds, ‘But the moment something happens here you don't like, you say the word. Me and the boys will have you back home so fast you won't even remember you were here.'

Before I can say anything, the door opens and a young woman around my age steps into the room. She's curvy and wears a pink cardigan over a dark polo shirt with the Helios logo, a sun in tones of silver and scarlet, stitched on the left breast pocket. She holds a backpack in one hand and a slate with glittery pink handles in the other.

‘Hello, sorry to interrupt.' Her eyes dart to the slate, then back up to me. ‘Are you Josephine Ryder?'

‘Josie,' I tell her.

She tucks the slate away. ‘Right-o, Josie-o. My name's Cora Kelso. I'm a cadet information system specialist. This is my first year at Helios as well, and I'll be your academy study buddy until you're all caught up.' She lifts the backpack. ‘This is your rookie pack, if you want to take a peek through. Then I'll give you a small tour before you go off for your baseline evaluations in Assessment.' She glances at Bobby. ‘Do you want me to come back later so you can say goodbye?'

‘No. I'm just going to go.' Bobby plants a light kiss on my forehead.

‘Right now?' My words are choked. ‘Are you sure?'