Cheating Time (6 page)

That time the curses that made their way up
to me had come straight from Mac. "We knew he couldn't be
trusted."

Dad kept going. "Basically, Barone was
considering the use of the MicroPharm to medically sterilize woman
and men in order to prevent all of the
accidents
that happen today. According to the
report, families desperate for children will continue to pay the
stiff penalties levied for having more than one child, and
unplanned pregnancies will still happen—coming with them a lifetime
cost to the government of around two million dollars—unless they
begin using the MicroPharm to control the population.

"Barone gave the report to Selma and asked
her to read it, asked her opinion. When she told him the MicroPharm
wasn't created to end lives or control the population, he couldn't
believe she'd not seen the benefits of the plan the same way he
had. He also couldn't believe she'd stood up to him. She'd never
done that before.

"Even when he suggested she insert the first
MicroPharm in our unborn baby's heart, she agreed. Without
thinking, she agreed because she believed in her device and his
intentions. After reading the report, she fully understood what
she'd done, what Barone was capable of. She now believes we've
signed our only child's death certificate, giving Barone the
perfect means to blackmail us into doing anything he wants. That's
what has been the hardest on her." Dad revealed.

Everything about what I'd learned disgusted
me in ways I'd never expected. I'd complained for years about the
MicroPharm, but it had never occurred to me that it could be used
as a way to manipulate my body in such a malicious way or to
blackmail my parents into doing things that were morally or
ethically reprehensible for them. Mom had always focused on the
good it could do for me. After hearing the MicroPharm separatists
concerns and Dad's revelations, I'd become as convinced as the
separatists that Barone would use the MicroPharm's ability to
administer drugs to control people.
To control
me.

"Oh my God, Selma! Surely not even Barone
would do that," Elle had insisted.

Mom had been cold and hard when she replied,
"He can, and he will."

These revelations had been so life-altering
that I'd tuned out the rest of their conversation. I'd been
entirely too busy thinking about how much I hated Barone and the
control he had over me, my body, and my family.

All because of the damn
MicroPharm I had inserted in my heart right after I was born. At
his suggestion.

After that night, I'd begun watching
everything closer and noticed there were weekly meetings between my
parents and the Coxes. With each meeting, I'd learned a little more
about the world my parents had hidden from me. When they weren't
having their late-night meetings, my family had worked side by side
with the Coxes doing every farm chore known to man.

During our time together, I'd learned a few
things about the Coxes. Some obvious. Others not. First, they were
a childless couple who'd inherited the strawberry farm and produce
market from their family. It was theirs to use however they wanted.
In their eyes, turning traitor, a crime punishable by death, and
providing shelter and safe passage to those who were being hunted
by the DOA was the best use of their resources.

Everything about Jayden's unexpected
appearance told me that my parents were determined to get Tawney
and me away from the farm, the Coxes, and the risks associated with
what they were doing. Just like they'd said that night, none of
them wanted Surrogate Soldiers (ones other than Jayden) coming here
to take us away to the preparatory academy. If Barone's loyal
Surrogates found even the first DOA refugee hiding out at the farm,
everything they'd worked for would be ruined and every adult in and
around the farm would be executed without trial.

Snapping out of my reverie and following
Jayden as he and I sneaked our way out onto the back porch, I
asked, "Did Dad call you to bring me to the academy?"

The law ordered that I be delivered to the
preparatory academy on or before my seventeenth birthday. If I
conformed, they'd never come looking. If not, they'd be here within
days of my birthday because illness and imminent death were the
only reasons one could give in order to get a pass on academy
attendance.

By design, MicroPharm provided the academy's
leaders with readings that told them everything they needed when it
came to determining if the no-show was sick or on the run. Nothing
was left to chance when it came to the Aspect Nation's need to
control our every action.

"Not to the academy, but to a location where
the Surrogates will pick you up. One as far away from this farm as
possible," Jayden answered over his shoulder.

As I stepped off the last step of the back
porch, my life—
my options
—became
surreal in a way I'd never expected.
I have to
leave.
If I wanted to keep my parents as safe as they
could possibly be now that they'd teamed up with the Coxes, I had
to travel away from the farm and to the academy. With or without
Jayden.

I stopped and pulled my hand away from
Jayden's. It took him a few seconds to realize he'd lost me. When
he saw the defiance on my face, he rounded on me.

"You're coming with me to the barn even if I
have to throw you over my shoulder and carry you. I don't have time
to convince you this is the best thing for you and your parents,"
he said, no longer whispering or trying to be quiet.

"I-I know. It's just that I forgot the bag I
packed," I mumbled.

"Your mom has a bag for you. She packed
everything you need," Jayden assured me.

"Yeah…" I rolled my eyes. "I can only
imagine the things she packed. I knew this was coming. I have a
backpack under my bed. It has the things most important to me."

"You're kiddin' me, right?"

I shook my head. "No. I'm not. I'm going
back to get it. Wait here. I'll be right back."

Jayden grabbed my arm and pulled me back
toward him. "No, princess. I'll go back and get it. Wait right here
for me and don't you move."

"If the Coxes catch you in there, they'll
kill you on the spot. It'll be better if I go back," I pleaded.

Jayden treated what I'd said as a challenge.
I may have barely been able to see him within the shadows of the
porch, but I was sure his cocky, lopsided grin was back when he
glanced between me and the house.

"You need to have more faith in me. It's
been a while, but you should remember if I don't want someone to
know I'm there, they won't know I'm there."

I knew immediately he was referring to all
the notes he'd left in my safe room in the middle of the night in
order to prove to me that he could get in and out of places without
being seen or heard and in order to prove to me that I slept too
hard to ever be a good lookout.

"All right. Go get it. I'll be right here
when you get back," I dared, crossing my arms.

Jayden took off like I'd clicked a stopwatch
and was timing him. Again, the dark shadows of the house made it
impossible for me to see him, and as always, he was entirely too
graceful for me to hear the first sound. I had complete confidence
in Jayden, but I still worried. The Coxes were not Surrogate fans.
They saw Surrogates as the satanic creation of Barone himself. If
they found Jayden in their farmhouse (or anywhere near it), they'd
kill him in the same way the DOA would kill a separatist.

Right before I worked myself up and into
enough of a frenzy to go into the house after him, Jayden
materialized in front of me. He was wearing a shit-eating grin and
holding the backpack up for me to take. I snatched it from him.

"Took you long enough," I barked.

"It took a few more minutes than I'd
expected because I had to see what you cared enough about to let me
risk my life for," Jayden said with a smugness that made my stomach
drop.

If he looked into the pack, he would have
found some pretty benign things: my e-reader, which was filled with
my favorite books and music; my school computer, which was filled
with research papers and math algorithms; a photo album, which was
filled with pictures of my family—
Jaden
; and my journal, which was filled with
months and months of documented proof that I'd been thinking
entirely too much about him and what he'd been doing without
us.

"You didn't really go through it, did you?"
I snapped, color draining from my face.

"That wouldn't have been the gentlemanly
thing to do. Now would it?" Jayden teased.

I refused to look up at him, but the smirk
in his voice was unmistakable. His mischievousness had always been
relentless. All I could do at that moment was hope and pray his
taunts were nothing more than his attempts at rekindling our
bickering… that he'd not gone through the backpack and found proof
that I'd missed him terribly.

I decided the only way to stop this line of
bluffing was hard and fast. "Then you'll know the backpack is
filled with pads and tampons. I'm going to need them since I'm
about to start," I replied with a haughtiness that didn't come
naturally to me.

The bands holding Jayden's smug grin in
place snapped. His face fell and his cheeks turned pink. He'd
definitely not expected that.

That'll teach
you.

Deciding not to dwell anymore on what was or
was not in my backpack, I took off running, dashing past Jayden and
toward the barn that was about a mile away from where we stood. By
the time I'd gone a few dozen feet, he caught up to me, slowing his
pace so we could run together.

"You don't have to wait on me," I spat,
nodding my forehead in the direction he could run while I followed
behind him.

I knew he'd recovered from the zinger I'd
gotten in on him when he said, "Do you exercise at all? It never
occurred to me that I could walk faster than you could run. It
looks like I'll be getting those back rubs after all."

The fact that he wasn't even winded reminded
me that Surrogates could run for miles before their bodies showed
even the first sign of stress.

Again, I rolled my eyes. " I can't help it
if your legs are freakishly long and mine aren't. I run five miles
every day. I'm faster and stronger than I was the day you let us
leave without you. You'll be reading Tawney's book to me. I won't
be giving you back rubs. That much I can promise you," I swore.

Jayden chuckled. "Now that I can see them, I
have to agree. Your legs are pretty short. Do you want me to carry
you like I offered earlier? We'd get to the barn quicker."

"Only if you're up for a throat punch," I
murmured, biting back the rest of the hateful words I wanted to
fling out at him.

He's a bigger ass than I
remember.

He laughed again. This time, it was louder
and more sincere. "So you do remember some of the things I taught
you… just not the importance of running every day and keeping up
your stamina."

"Yes, asshat. I remember perfectly the day
you told me the only way a five-and-a-half-foot girl would ever get
in the first hit on a six-foot trained soldier would be to land a
throat punch and run," I snapped. "And I'm completely prepared to
test your theory."

Squabbling with Jayden brought to light for
me the reality that he really was back with me, that he was fine.
The relief hit me with an abruptness so unexpected that I couldn't
put one more foot in front of another. I came to an immediate stop,
and like before, it took Jayden a second or two to realize I was no
longer running beside him. When he cursed and turned back, I wished
I'd never stopped.

Because we were no longer hidden within the
shadows of darkness, this was the first time in months we'd come
face to face with each other, that we'd really, truly seen the
other without the filter of shades and shadows. At the sight of him
and his magnificence, I took a long, loud gulp.

Jesus! I forgot how
beautiful he is.

He may still be an ass, but I'm not sure
there'd ever been a more perfect Surrogate Soldier created within
Aspect's labs. Like me, he used the light from the moon and his
unnatural green eyes—the most distinguishing feature of a Surrogate
Soldier—to size me up. His Adam's apple moved up and down with his
own gulp.

Finally, he broke the silence. "What the
hell are you doing? Do you think this is a joke?" he growled
hoarsely with little sprays of his spit sprinkling my forehead.

In any other situation, I'd have made a big
deal of his flying spittle, but it was the least of my
concerns.

"Do
I
think
this is a joke? Really? Do
I
think
this is a joke?" I laughed, and everything about it was hysterical.
Maniacal
. "I'm not sure what's
going on. No one's told me. We've been gone for six months. There's
not been one of those days… No, scratch that. There's not been one
of those minutes that I haven't worried about Mom, who is just one
step away from the psych ward, and you…
you
." I poked my finger into his chest. "I've been
so worried about you. We've never been apart that long. Didn't it
bother you at all?"

Jayden's entire body softened. The tough
Surrogate Soldier took a step toward me and looked like he wanted
to pull me into his arms for another hug. The problem for me was
the fact that he didn't say anything. He didn't admit that he'd
missed me at all, and that hurt me in ways I'd not expected. I
stepped backward and away from him and kept rambling.

"Tonight, my mother woke me in the middle of
the night and told me to get dressed and meet her in the barn.
Since you know so much more than me, you can fill in the blanks.
Why are we going to the barn and why are you, one of President
Barone's most trusted Surrogates
,
here, the last place on the planet you should be?" I asked loud
enough to scare the night crickets into complete and utter
silence.