Paolo Bacigalupi - The Doubt Factory

There was a long pause as they both studied each other.

“I think our truce is over,” Alix said finally.

All the play had gone out of his expression as well. “Maybe we never had one,” he said.

He was out the door and enveloped in darkness before she could decide if she should scream or not.

“YOU’VE GOT A BODYGUARD?”Cynthia asked Alix, disbelieving.

Alix nodded her head tiredly. “Yeah.”

Seitz had reopened, and life had returned to a strange semblance of normal, except that Animal Control was still roaming the campus in pursuit of white lab rats; the science building still showed evidence that 2.0 had been there, despite the best efforts of the custodial staff; and Alix’s dreams were haunted by the merry prankster, whom she was pretty sure she was at war with. Even though she couldn’t quite bring herself to hate him. Even though he seemed hell-bent on doing something horrible to her.

Maybe I have Stockholm syndrome , she thought.

She’d spent the last couple of days wrestling with the question of whether she could tell anyone at all that she’d let 2.0 into her house (her house!) and concluded that her own Teflon reputation as the responsible child of the family wouldn’t survive it.

She did mention that she thought she’d seen someone lurking in the backyard. That was enough to send Williams & Crowe into a new tizzy of paranoia that had also resulted in a new home lockdown policy, as well as the every-waking-minute bodyguard situation that now plagued her life.

Cynthia listened to Alix’s woes as she ate french fries, complained that she was going to break out if she ate any more oily things, and then ate another fry.

“You’re making up that thing about the bodyguard,” Cynthia accused as she eyed another greasy stick of potato.

“I wish,” Alix said. “Check out the teachers’ table.”

Cynthia craned her neck. “I don’t—wait, that blond lady? She doesn’t look like much of a bodyguard.”

And she didn’t. That was what Dad had said made Lisa perfect. She was a stealth pit bull, he’d claimed. No one would see her coming. All the guys in school might check out Lisa’s tight butt, but nobody would guess she was dangerous. In Alix’s mind, Lisa wasn’t so much a stealth pit bull as a Death Barbie, and, unfortunately, Death Barbie seemed mostly bent on screwing with Alix’s daily life.

The woman was perky and clean-cut, with straight, bobbed blond hair and a freckled pixie face. She could have been a cute substitute teacher. If Alix had run into Lisa at a Starbucks, she would never have guessed that the lady also happened to be carrying a 9mm handgun. Alix idly wondered if the school had guessed, either. She suspected not. Seitz had rules, after all. The administrators might let Lisa stalk her on campus, but they’d probably shit bricks if they knew Death Barbie was packing heat.

“She’s really guarding you?” Cynthia asked. “How come she’s sitting so far away?”

“She doesn’t have to be very close to shoot someone, I guess.”

“She’s got a gun ?”

Alix smirked, feeling weirdly proud of the knowledge, even as she felt annoyed at being stalked everywhere. “Yeah. I saw it. She’s got it in that cute little Indian-print purse.” Alix tried to remember what Jonah had said about the gun when Lisa showed it to him, along with the telescoping baton she carried, and her zip cuffs and her Mace and her Taser….

“A Glock,” Alix said. “She’s carrying a Glock. And a lot of bullets. Like, seventeen shots or something insane like that.”

Death Barbie was sitting at the teachers’ table, looking like no one in particular. Eating a salad and talking pleasantly to Ms. Liss, not giving a single clue that she had enough firepower on her to turn the dining hall into national news.

“She’s definitely subtle,” Cynthia said as she gave up on her fries and shoved the tray away. “Ugh. I can’t eat any more of these. They make me feel gross.”

“You want my bread?”

Cynthia made a face. “God, no. I can’t stand the smell of that stuff.”

“Seriously? I thought everybody liked fresh-baked bread.”

“Fresh-baked is the worst. I hate that smell.” Cynthia wrinkled her nose. “There’s a bakery near my house. I smell it at four AM whenever the wind’s blowing our way. It’s like being smothered in yeast.”

“Ew. Seriously?”

“Yeah.” Cynthia gave a self-conscious laugh. “I think it’s some housewife who got a hobby and then it took off. Now it’s killing property values. I swear I’m going to buy nose plugs.” She changed the subject. “Oh, look, your bodyguard is watching you.”

“Yeah?” Alix glanced over her shoulder, but Lisa had already looked away. Death Barbie was subtle, that was for sure. If Alix hadn’t known about Lisa, she would have blown off the woman easily. Just another teacher, maybe a sub, anything except a “security specialist” from Williams & Crowe.

All through the first half of the day, Lisa never really came close to Alix. She was just… around. Watching. Eyeing everybody and everything. Even now it was happening. She could see it happening if Alix watched long enough. Lisa was talking to Liss, but the bodyguard wasn’t looking at Liss. Lisa’s eyes kept moving across the dining hall, scanning. She wasn’t looking at Alix; she barely ever looked at Alix. She was always looking at everyone else—all the people around Alix. All the people who came close.

“Well,” Cynthia said, trying to make the best of it. “At least you know your dad loves you.”

“Yeah, well, it was really Jonah who started all of this. Dad freaked out because Jonah disappeared. His one and only son.” Alix made a face.

Cynthia gave her a hard look. “That’s a load, and you know it. If you’d been the missing one, you know he would have been a thousand times crazier about trying to protect you. His only daughter?” Cynthia laughed. “My dad would have gone nuts.”

“My dad never goes nuts,” Alix said.

But it actually had been kind of amazing to see how ferocious he’d been about protecting her. Alix had always loved her dad, but it took something like this to see how much he loved her, and Jonah, too. It sounded cheesy, but she could tell. She just wished that the sudden infusion of parental love wasn’t manifesting as a Death Barbie always looking over her shoulder.

Cynthia said, “Well, this will at least keep your stalker away.”

At Cynthia’s comment, Alix was reminded once again of her night encounter with 2.0. The guy staring in through the glass, smiling. “I guess….” Alix trailed off. She didn’t want to lie to Cynthia, but she also didn’t want to tell her about her second encounter. Cynthia had hassled her enough the first time around. Alix didn’t need another dose of Tiger Mom, but something in her voice must have tipped Cynthia off, because her friend looked up sharply.

“What?” Cynthia asked. “What is it this time?”

Alix smiled sheepishly.

“Give it up, girl,” Cynthia pressed.

“Oh.” Alix made herself laugh. “It’s… nothing. Just”—she leaned forward and lowered her voice—“I talked to him again.”

“What?”

Cynthia’s voice was almost a squawk. Everyone around them startled and turned to stare. Alix made shushing motions as Death Barbie’s gaze whipped around.

“Will you quiet down?” Alix whispered.

Cynthia leaned close. “You’ve got a stalker, and you want me to quiet down?” Cynthia whispered fiercely. “Are you insane?” Comprehension dawned. She gave Alix an exasperated look. “You didn’t tell anyone, did you?”

“Well…”

“What is it about this guy?” Cynthia asked.