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“Sal, I wasn’t alone, I was with Wei. It was my fault.” I ran my hands up and around his neck, pulling him closer to me. “You can’t exactly move in. And I’ll be fine. I won’t be that careless again.”

“I’ll pick you up in the morning. It’s not that far out of my way.” That wasn’t true—but I knew he would be there. And that he would be there every day until he was sure I was safe. I kissed him—I didn’t care that it hurt. He took the elport up with me, not leaving until I was inside the apartment.

Gran didn’t believe my slipped-on-the-snow story. She removed the Band-Aids, washed the cuts with hydrogen peroxide, which really stung, and put a spray-on protectant over them.

“That should help.” She leaned on the bathroom doorjamb. “You want to tell me what really happened?”

“I was careless,” I said. “But I’m okay.”

She pointed to my wounds. “I wouldn’t call that okay.”

“Gran, I’m almost sixteen. I have to be able to take care of myself. And I’m learning.” One more lie wouldn’t hurt. “Wei’s teaching me some of her martial arts moves. This won’t happen again.”

Cold packs helped with the swelling, but it was impossible to sleep on the side of my face where Ed had hit me. Banged-up face or not, I tossed around, replaying the day’s events. Ed knew my FeLS contract was missing, so I was right, he had been behind the break-in. Even if he wasn’t the Chooser at my school, he still had the authority to have me chosen. And the minute I left, he’d take Dee. The book was at the center of all of this. I couldn’t keep it safe any longer. And that meant finding my father, as soon as possible.

Despite the pain, I felt sleep overtaking me. Before I drifted off, I thought that even if Ed had my contract, the FeLS agency had to have a record that Ginnie’d bought out my contract. Gran would call them in the morning. That would be one less thing for me to worry about.

Sandy called first thing next morning. “So what time are you coming this weekend? I can’t wait to celebrate my birthday with you! I have my appointment for my tattoo already, and I know exactly what I’m going to wear—”

“Sandy—I ... I can’t come see you this weekend. I fell last night, landed right on my face.”

“But, Nina, it’s my birthday!”

“I’m sorry, it’s really bad.” I winced, and gently touched my cheek. “Here, I’ll send you a digi so you can see. It hurts like you wouldn’t believe”

I heard her fumbling with her PAV. “Nina! What’d you
do?
Skivs, you can’t go out looking like this! Anyway, I’m coming to town next time Derek plays.” She gushed on about how great he was. “Oh, yeah, and Mike called. I said I’d go help him at the zoo when I’m in town. It sounds like fun. Besides, I won’t have to worry about losing my virginity to him, and I’ve gotta stay virginal for FeLS. Do you have any idea how hard it’s going to be? Guys are already betting on who’ll be my first.”

She rambled on this way for about five minutes, until I couldn’t take it anymore. “I gotta get ready for school,” I mumbled, clicking off.

Things were becoming way more complicated than I wanted them to be. I didn’t see how I could keep Sandy and Wei from clashing over Derek. And I sure didn’t want Sandy to lead Mike on; that would be so unfair. I wasn’t sure I could handle relationship drama on top of everything else, but I figured I’d come up with some kind of plan. After all, these were my friends.

Before we were out the lobby door, Dee spotted Sal. “What are you doing here?”

“Waiting for you.” He winked at her.

“I like that. Kind of like a big brother. I always wanted a one.” She quickly looked at me. “But I love having a big sister, too. See Nina’s face? She fell down yesterday.”

“Yeah, I know,” Sal said.

I wished I could hide the purple-black bruise that spread upward from my jaw to my eye, but there was no way. It covered my whole cheek.

“I was there—sort of,” he said.

“You should’ve caught her,” Dee said. “Then she wouldn’t look so awful and hurt so bad. She’s really grumpy when she’s in pain. She couldn’t even eat breakfast this morning. Gran had to make her a protein shake. I hate those. Ugh!” She wrinkled her nose.

“Was it awful?” he asked me.

“Better than nothing ... maybe,” I muttered. It hurt whenever I opened my mouth. Gran had suggested going to the medical clinic in the building. But I didn’t want stitches in my lip. I said I’d keep my mouth shut; not an easy thing for me.

Derek met up with us at the usual place, but Mike was nowhere to be seen.

“He’s running late,” Derek said. “His dad got real sick from the last batch of meds. Mike had to help his mom get him to County General.”

“Hey guys!”

We all turned around at the same time. Mike was running down the sidewalk.

He was out of breath by the time he reached us. “What the hell happened to you? Kiss a trans?” he asked me.

“Long story,” Derek said.

He started to explain, but I managed to catch his eye and shook my head vigorously. Not the smartest thing to do when every muscle in half your face is bruised and swollen. I nodded toward Dee, who was busy telling Sal about her class’s upcoming field trip to the Museum of Science and Industry.

I’d worked out a way to speak by keeping my lips still and talking very slowly. “She thinks I fell,” I whispered as best I could.

“Huh?” Derek just stared at me.

I repeated myself, just a little louder.

He still didn’t get it.

“Fell?” Mike said. “You fell?”

I nodded.

“Klutz.” He grinned at me. “I hope it doesn’t hurt too much.” I knew he felt bad for me, but that was the best Mike could manage for sympathy.

After we dropped Dee off at school, Wei said, “I scanned the news last night. There was a six-transport pileup with a bus on the south side of the Loop. No one was seriously injured.”

“Too bad,” Sal said. “If I get ahold of Ed, he will be seriously injured.”

“Will you stop with the threats, already? It’s not helping.” Wei said, “Dad’s not back from Amsterdam yet. I think we need to figure out what to do if something happens before he returns.”

Sal inclined his head toward a group of approaching students. “We can talk about this later. At your house, Wei?”

She nodded.

“I don’t know what you guys are talking about, but I can’t come,” Mike said. “Zoo duty.”

“Me either,” Derek said. “Practice with Riley. I’m really sorry, Nina. You know ...”

“’S okay,” I murmured. “Your music’s important.”

“We’ll be fine,” Wei said.

After homeroom, Wei was waiting for me. “Come on,” she whispered. I followed her down the hall.

We went through a door, down some stairs, and ended up in a corridor in the basement. I followed her to a small room at the end. “This is the old detention room. It’s DZ, ’cause they never wanted anyone to know what really went on in here.”

Sal was inside.

“We’ve gotta be quick—here are some hall passes to get you back to class.” He handed them to us. I noticed Miss Gray’s signature at the bottom. “I can’t make it this afternoon. John’s got something going down; I have to be there to back him up.” He squeezed my hand. “You understand, don’t you?”

I nodded. There were obviously things going on all around me that I knew nothing about. I was more than a little nervous about finding out what they were.

“Wei, talk to your dad, okay?” Sal said. “I think there’s only one way to take care of this.”

“You don’t mean ...” I left the awful conclusion he was leading to unsaid.

“Nina, if Ed gets you he’ll go straight to the Governing Council—or worse. You wouldn’t stand a chance with GC interrogators.”

Icy shards of fear shot up my spine. “Are you saying it’s him or me?”

“Of course not.” Wei gave Sal a withering look. “We just can’t let anything happen to you. Your father needs you; the Resistance needs you.”

“But I don’t know anything about the Resistance. How can they need me?”

“We don’t have time for this now,” Sal said. “First things first. We have to take care of Ed, or you’ll never be safe.”

“Can’t we just scare him? Or capture him and take him to, you know ... uh, someplace ...” My voice trailed off. I meant the Lodge, but wasn’t sure if it was all right for me to mention it.

“Look, hopefully my father will be home after school,” Wei said. “Nina and I will talk to him. We’d better get going or we’ll have a hard time explaining these passes and we don’t want to get Miss G in trouble.”

I left first; Wei and Sal followed. I peeked through the door on the main level. It was all clear. I didn’t look back as I hurried down the hallway to my next class.

Wei and I hardly said a word on the way to her house. She seemed preoccupied and my jaw hurt too much to make small talk. When we got inside there was a message from her mom. While Wei was listening to it, I tried to call Gran, but my PAV wouldn’t work. Of course, Wei’s house was DZ. I caught Wei’s eye and motioned that I’d be outside.

I was able to get reception at the sidewalk. “I’m at Wei’s, Gran. I’ll be home by dinner.”

“Nina ...” Her voice sounded strained. “The FeLS agency doesn’t have any record of Ginnie’s payment. You’re still available to be chosen.”

I hung up and heard Ed’s voice in my head: ...
while you’re out there for training
... Joan’s face flashed in front of me. I’d bet my life that Ed knew what really went on at FeLS training. And I was more certain than ever that it wasn’t good. Especially since he’d seemed to get such a kick out of the thought of sending me there.

“Dad’s leviton set down in Greenland,” Wei said. “Supposedly because of engine trouble. He never reboarded.”

“Maybe he just missed it. Where’s your mom?”

“She’s out shopping for something to wear in Tokyo. She’s going there for a couple of weeks to visit her brother. Whenever anything is going on, we keep our routines normal so it doesn’t look like we’re worried. She thinks Dad’s probably being questioned about you being here the other night.”

“They wouldn’t do anything—” I stopped midsentence. “We can talk freely, right?”

“Yes. The whole building is
always
a dead zone. Actually, Dad’s such a techno-geek, it’s even better than DZ. It sends out phony normal conversations whenever there are people inside talking. We can say whatever we want and all they’ll hear is whatever kind of talk would most likely be going on between whoever came in. Since it’s you and me, they are hearing talk about school or boys.”

“Who’s holding your dad?” I couldn’t have been anywhere close to as calm as Wei seemed. “Is it B.O.S.S.? They wouldn’t hurt him, would they?”

“Probably B.O.S.S. And, yeah, they’d hurt him if they discovered he was a NonCon. After they’d gotten whatever information they could out of him, they’d either reassimilate him or kill him. You want something to eat?”

“You’re not worried?” I followed her down the hallway, hardly believing the matter-of-fact way she’d talked about her dad possibly being killed. “I would be insane if it was my dad.”