“Right, that.”

“I don’t know how Harry was with his dogs,” Nicky said to Luke at lunch later that day, “but those little girls pretty much run him. It’s like someone gave them a new doll. One with red hair and a big gut. Look at that.”

The twins were sitting on either side of Harry and feeding him bites of meatloaf from their plates.

“I think it’s sort of cute,” Kalisha said.

Nicky smiled at her—the one that lit up his whole face (which today included a black eye some staff member had gifted him with). “You would, Sha.”

She smiled back, and Luke felt a twinge of jealousy. Pretty stupid, under the circumstances . . . yet there it was.

25

The following day, Priscilla and Hadad escorted Luke down to the previously unvisited E-Level. There he was hooked up to an IV that Priscilla said would relax him a little. What it did was knock him cold. When he awoke, shivering and naked, his abdomen, right leg, and right side had been bandaged. Another doctor—RICHARDSON, according to the nametag on her white coat—was leaning over him. “How do you feel, Luke?”

“What did you do to me?” He tried to scream this but could only manage a choked growl. They had put something down his throat, as well. Probably some kind of breathing tube. Belatedly, he cupped his hands over his crotch.

“Just took a few samples.” Dr. Richardson whipped off her paisley surgical cap, releasing a flood of dark hair. “We didn’t take out one of your kidneys to sell on the black market, if that’s what you’re worried about. You’ll have a little pain, especially between your ribs, but it will pass. In the meantime, take these.” She handed him an unmarked brown bottle with a few pills inside.

She left. Zeke came in with his clothes. “Dress when you feel like you can do it without falling down.” Zeke, always considerate, dropped the clothes on the floor.

Eventually Luke was able to pick them up and dress. Priscilla—this time with Gladys—escorted him back to the residence level. It had been daylight when they took him down, but it was dark now. Maybe late at night, he couldn’t tell, his time sense was totally fucked.

“Can you walk down to your room by yourself?” Gladys asked. No big smile; maybe it didn’t work the night shift.

“Yeah.”

“Then go on. Take one of those pills. They’re Oxycontin. They work for the pain, and they also make you feel good. A bonus. You’ll be fine in the morning.”

He walked down the hall, reached for the doorknob of his room, then stopped. Someone was crying. The sound came from the vicinity of that stupid JUST ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE poster, which meant it was probably coming from Kalisha’s room. He debated for a moment, not wanting to know what the crying was about, definitely not feeling up to comforting anyone. Still, it was her, so he went down and knocked softly on the door. There was no answer, so he turned the knob and poked his head in. “Kalisha?”

She was lying on her back with one hand over her eyes. “Go away, Luke. I don’t want you to see me like this.”

He almost did as she asked, but it wasn’t what she wanted. Instead of leaving, he went in and sat down beside her. “What’s wrong?”

But he knew that, too. Just not the details.

26

The kids had been outside in the playground—all of them except Luke, who was down on E-Level, lying unconscious while Dr. Richardson cored out her samples. Two men emerged from the lounge. They were in red scrubs rather than the pink and blue ones the Front Half caretakers and techs wore, and there were no nametags on their shirts. The three old-timers—Kalisha, Nicky, and George—knew what that meant.

“I was sure they were coming for me,” Kalisha told Luke. “I’ve been here the longest, and I haven’t had any tests for at least ten days, even though I’m over the chicken pox. I haven’t even had bloodwork, and you know how those fucking vampires like to take blood. But it was Nicky they came for. Nicky!”

The break in her voice as she said this made Luke sad, because he was pretty crazy about Kalisha, but it didn’t surprise him. Helen turned to him like a compass needle pointing to magnetic north whenever he came in sight; Iris had done the same; even the little Gs looked at him with open mouths and shining eyes when he passed. But Kalisha had been with him the longest, they were Institute vets, and roughly the same age. As a couple they were at least possible.

“He fought them,” Kalisha said. “He fought them hard.” She sat up so suddenly she almost knocked Luke off the bed. Her lips were drawn back from her teeth and her fists were clenched on her chest above her slight bosom.

“I should have fought them! We all should have!”

“But it happened too fast, didn’t it?”

“He punched one of them high up—in the throat—and the other one zapped him in the hip. It must have numbed his leg, but he held onto one of the ropes on the ropes course to keep from falling down, and he kicked at that one with his good leg before the bastard could use his zap-stick again.”

“Knocked it out of his hand,” Luke said. He could see it, but saying so was a mistake, it suggested something he didn’t want her to know, but Kalisha didn’t seem to notice.

“That’s right. But then the other one, the one he punched in the throat, he zapped Nicky in the side, and the goddam thing must have been turned all the way up, because I could hear the crackle, even though I was all the way over by the shuffleboard court. Nicky fell down, and they bent over him and zapped him some more, and he jumped, even though he was lying there unconscious he jumped, and Helen ran over, she was shouting ‘You’re killing him, you’re killing him,’ and one of them kicked her high up in the leg, and went hai, like some half-assed karate guy, and he laughed, and she fell down crying, and they picked Nicky up, and they carried him away. But before they got him through the lounge doors . . .”

She stopped. Luke waited. He knew what came next, it was one of his new hunches that was more than a hunch, but he had to let her say it. Because she couldn’t know what he was now, none of them could know.

“He came around a little,” she said. Tears were rolling down her cheeks. “Enough to see us. He smiled, and he waved. He waved. That’s how brave he was.”

“Yeah,” Luke said, hearing was and not is. Thinking: And we’ll see him no more.

She grabbed his neck and brought his face down to hers so unexpectedly and so hard that their foreheads bonked together. “Don’t you say that!”

“I’m sorry,” Luke said, wondering what else she might have seen in his mind. He hoped it wasn’t much. He hoped she was too upset over the red-shirt guys taking Nicky away to Back Half. What she said next eased his mind on that score considerably.

“Did they take samples? They did, didn’t they? You’ve got bandages.”

“Yes.”

“That black-haired bitch, right? Richardson. How many?”

“Three. One from my leg, one from my stomach, one between my ribs. That’s the one that hurts the most.”

She nodded. “They took one from my boob, like a biopsy. That really hurt. Only what if they’re not taking out? What if they’re putting in? They say they’re taking samples, but they lie about everything!”

“You mean more trackers? Why would they, when they’ve got these?” He fingered the chip in his earlobe. It no longer hurt; now it was just a part of him.

“I don’t know,” she said miserably.

Luke reached into his pocket and brought out the bottle of pills. “They gave me these. Maybe you should take one. I think it would mellow you out. Help you to sleep.”

“Oxys?”

He nodded.

She reached for the bottle, then drew her hand back. “Problem is, I don’t want one, I don’t even want two. I want all of them. But I think I should feel what I’m feeling. I think that’s the right thing, don’t you?”

“I don’t know,” Luke said, which was the truth. These were deep waters, and no matter how smart he was, he was only twelve.

“Go away, Luke. I need to be sad on my own now.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll be better tomorrow. And if they take me next . . .”

“They won’t.” Knowing that was a stupid thing to say, maximo retardo. She was due. Overdue, really.

“If they do, be a friend to Avery. He needs a friend.” She looked at him fixedly. “And so do you.”

“Okay.”

She tried on a smile. “You’re a peach. C’mere.” He leaned over, and she kissed him first on the cheek, then on the corner of his mouth. Her lips were salty. Luke didn’t mind.