D. MacHale - SYLO

“When?” Granger barked angrily, sounding even more annoyed than he had been a second before. He listened for a few more seconds, then added, “Understood.”

He cut off the phone and announced, “Less than an hour ago, Dr. Francis Carr logged on to the Pemberwick Medical Database at the hospital and opened the files concerning the Pemberwick virus. However, Dr. Carr and his wife weren’t at the hospital. They are assigned to the SYLO base. But their son was seen at the hospital, along with another young man.”

“My God,” Mom said. “Quinn.”

Quinn let out a gasp that I feared was loud enough to be heard from downstairs.

“Quinn’s a smart kid,” Dad said. “If he smells a rat, he’ll find it, and this bogus virus is a very big, smelly rat.”

I had to keep from screaming. It was true. There was no Pemberwick virus—and my parents knew it all along.

“I want all three of those young people in custody,” Granger said, the tension in his voice rising.

“I’m going with you,” Dad declared. It sounded as though he was moving across the room.

“I’ll wait here,” Mom called. “And captain?”

“Yes?”

“Do not harm those children. Any of them.”

I’d never heard my mom talk with such intensity. It wasn’t a request; it was a threat.

Granger didn’t respond to her. A second later I heard a door slam, and soon after that, one of the Humvees roared to life. Only one. Whoever was driving the other vehicle was still downstairs with my mother.

I was ready to puke. How was this possible? My own mother and father knew exactly what was happening on Pemberwick Island…and they were working with Granger to capture me.

I didn’t know what to do, but Quinn and I couldn’t stay there, not with a SYLO soldier downstairs waiting to grab us. I motioned to the window and Quinn nodded. We were on the same page.

It took every bit of willpower I had to climb out of my room—the room that always felt so safe but was now just a room in a house of people I wasn’t sure I could trust. Quinn followed as I climbed out, and we made our way back to the ground. Without a word I sprinted to the far end of the property and dove through some tall hedges until we were out of sight and earshot of the house.

“What the hell?” Quinn exclaimed, with tears growing in his eyes. “What was that?”

“I…I don’t know,” I stammered. “They’ve been acting strange lately. Mom has been crying a lot and they’ve been talking about having moved to Pemberwick because it was ‘safe.’ What was so unsafe about Connecticut?”

“You didn’t ask?”

“No! Jeez, they’re my parents. They’re supposed to be looking out for me, but—”

“They’re looking out for you, all right,” Quinn said, interrupting. “And when they find you they’re going to turn you over to Granger. They’re working with him, Tuck, and so are my parents. There is no Pemberwick virus. The quarantine is just a cover for—what? Genocide? Or some freak experiment? Are we all going to be fed this Ruby stuff?”

“I don’t know,” I said, numb. I felt like I was falling and that there would be no soft landing.

“What was that about an event?” Quinn asked, clicking back into analytical mode. “Granger said it was imminent. And your parents knew what he was talking about. It sounded like they’ve known for a while. You heard the threat. Granger would sooner kill us than risk us telling anybody about it.”

We stood there, both trying to understand what it was we had heard. I didn’t know what bothered me more: the fact that the people of Pemberwick had been fed a steady stream of bull since the moment SYLO invaded our home or that my parents had known about it from the start. No, worse—my parents were actually part of it. Quinn’s parents too. They had lied to us. All that time my parents and I had spent wondering what was going on, it was all an act. The people I relied on the most, whom I loved, couldn’t be trusted.

“What are we going to do, Tuck?” Quinn asked softly. “They’re coming after us. We can’t hide forever.”

“I’ve got to talk to my parents,” I said.

“What? No! They’ll turn you in!”

“They’re my parents, Quinn. I don’t care what we’ve heard, there’s got to be some reason behind this that makes sense. I don’t believe for a second that they’d just turn on me like that. Your parents either. It just doesn’t fly.”

Quinn calmed down, which ended up being worse. In many ways anger and confusion were easier to understand and deal with than betrayal. He had to fight back tears.

“How could they lie to me like that?” he asked, as much to himself as to me. “Does that mean our whole lives have been based on lies?”

“I don’t want to believe that,” I replied. “I can’t. It sounded bad, but they were still trying to protect us. You heard. I’m going to hold on to that and I think you should too.”

Quinn nodded and wiped his eyes. “Well, we can’t talk to any of them now because we’re on the Pemberwick Most Wanted list and if we—”

“Oh no!” I shouted as a thought hit me like a bat to the head.

“What now?”

“Tori’s on that list too.”

I pulled out my cell phone and started dialing before realizing what a waste of time that was.

“Damn.” I exclaimed, snapping the phone shut.

“Yeah, you’re not on SYLO’s calling plan,” Quinn pointed out.

“C’mon,” I said and took off for our garage.

“To where?” Quinn asked nervously.

“We’ve got to warn her,” I shouted back.

“How?”

I didn’t answer because I wasn’t sure myself. It was like I was on autopilot. My legs were ahead of my brain as they carried me to our garage, where Dad’s pickup was parked.

“We’ll drive to her house,” I announced, jumping behind the wheel.

“You can drive? When did you get your license?”

“Yes, and about two years from now.”

Quinn crawled into the passenger side.

“Seriously? You’re going to drive us out to the far end of the island and you don’t have a license?”

I turned and looked Quinn square in the eye.

“Maybe you’re right,” I said sarcastically. “The island’s about to explode, people are being abducted and murdered, we’ve got the United States Navy hunting us down, and our parents are helping them. Wouldn’t want to add a driving violation to that.”

Quinn gave me a weak smile. “Point taken,” he said sheepishly. “Just keep us on the road.”

I had driven with Dad many times on the more desolate roads of Pemberwick, so handling the truck wasn’t the problem. Making it to Tori’s house without getting caught was the real challenge. I turned the engine over, eased into gear, and slowly drove out of the garage. Our driveway ran right by our house, which meant the SYLO soldiers inside would definitely see us. I had to take an alternate route. Rather than head straight along the driveway, I made a U-turn around the garage, drove across the grass, and straight through to our neighbor’s property. The folks behind us had a perfectly manicured lawn. Not anymore. It killed me to drive a truck over it and dig in deep tracks…but not really. There were way bigger things to worry about than lawn care.

“You realize this isn’t a road, right?” Quinn cautioned nervously.

I ignored him and drove slowly, hoping it would draw less attention. Gratefully, our neighbors didn’t come out screaming. I managed to get to the far end of their property and navigate across their bed of marigolds before hitting the gravel driveway. I made a mental note to replace their flowers as soon as I got the chance. The thought actually made me laugh. Why the hell was I worried about replacing flowers when we were fugitives?