Sleeping Jenny (18 page)

On Friday night, as I sat in bed and contemplated my complicated life, my miniscreen beeped with a message from Maxim.
Saturday, school library, twelve PM study group, b there or b square
. I smiled, thinking about how Maxim always came through for me, even when he didn't agree with my choices. My alibi was set. All I had to do was walk to the hoverbus platform at noon.

I had no chance of sleeping a wink. Instead, I popped in the next video in my collection. A younger-looking Valex came on the screen, scruff peppering the hard lines of his jaw. Had Valex mixed this video up with one of his from his youth?

“Hi, Jenny.” A deep voice with a subtle confidence rang alarm bells in my ear. I hiccupped with surprise. It was Timmy. All grown up. His curly hair had grown in front of his eyes, and he shoved it back in a practiced gesture.

“I know I haven't talked to you in a while, but I wanted to let you know I think about you all the time. Every day, I walk by that tree at Ridgewood with your name engraved in gold and wonder when you'll wake up. When I was little, I hoped you'd wake up when I was your age and we could, you know, like, hang out. I'm your age now, and you're still sleeping…” Timmy's eyes clouded over.

I shivered with sadness. I couldn't be there for him when he needed me the most. I missed his prom, his graduation, his college years. Everything.

Someone in the background yelled his name and Timmy waved. “I'll be right there.”

When he looked back, his eyes were clear. “Anyhow, graduation is in a week. I'll be going to NYU and then on to law school.”

Law school? He'd blindsided me with a truck. What happened to the Transformers? I thought he wanted to be an astronaut. I blinked and Timmy had aged fifteen years. My hands shook as I dug through the discs in case I had missed one, but this was the next one in the pile, number twenty-seven out of thirty-one. Thirty-one. My heart sank to a place where I couldn't find it. I only had a few more left. It was like holding on to a safety line and then finding out the threads were cut at the end.

Why didn't my parents have themselves frozen when they got sick? Or Timmy? Why make me the only one of us to have a second chance? My dad had enough money to freeze the whole family.

A coldness gripped my chest, and I broke out in goose bumps. Something must have happened suddenly, something with no physical way for any of them to be brought back.

I slammed my hand on the wallscreen and the video flicked out. I decided I'd rather stay in blissful ignorance. My reasoning was flawed. Keeping the last few videos unwatched was somehow keeping them alive. If I didn't know how they ended up, I wouldn't have to come to terms with the fact they all had died at some point. It was like happily ever after movies that ended when the couple got married. Ended on a good note.

Scooping up the rest of the discs, I looked for a place to hide them from myself. Someplace where I wouldn't be tempted. I didn't have the heart to destroy them. Someday I might find the courage to know the answers to my past. Steeling my nerves, I climbed on my bed and stuck the pile on top of the recycling chute, shoving them all the way back, out of reach. With nothing else to do, I collapsed on my bed, tossing and turning for the rest of the night. Timmy's fuzzy cheeks and hard-edged face kept coming back to me, but I refused to accept the new Timmy. I wanted to remember him the way I'd last seen him, as a toddler with Elmo in his hands.

Morning came with a renewed hope. If I was looking to the future, then I wasn't mired in the past. The seconds ticked away to noon, and I pulled a black tunic sweater with a high-collared turtle-neck over my head. I zipped up my thigh-hugging boots. I didn't have a ninja suit like Jax, but this ensemble was close enough. With three-inch heels, I could take on the world.

Valex, Len, and Pell sat on the couch distracted by some sort of documentary on recycling, so it wasn't hard to say good-bye. I jogged to the hoverbus platform and checked my miniscreen. Eleven forty-five.

I felt like an overeager dork arriving so early, but I knew in this case it was better to be early than fashionably late. Three hoverbuses came and left as I waited, each driver staring at me like I was crazy not to get on. I wondered if they were paid by the hour or by the passenger. Geez. I could have been waiting for someone to arrive.

I kicked the edge of the platform. How would I know which one was the transport? Would Jax be on it? I wanted to see him again. There were so many questions lingering in my mind, one involving a certain someone named Sophie.

A black hovercraft that looked more like a giant wasp than a means of transportation slowed and pulled up to the platform. The hatch opened and no one came out.

My heart thumped in my chest. Was this it?

A woman with short black hair and a pointy nose, wearing a white lab coat, stepped onto the platform. I recognized her from the meeting. Yara. The woman Jax had said to talk to about donations.

Yara strutted toward me, turning her face so her nose pricked the air. “Jennifer Streetwater.” I nodded and she extended her hand. “Yara Heifmesiter.”

Her fingers were long and cold, and I felt the opposite of welcome as I scrounged up some polite words. “Nice to meet you.”

She sniffed the air and dropped my hand as if it smelled foul. “Follow me.”

Yara whirled around on her heel, leaving me to follow. This was it, the moment of no return. If I wanted to go back, I had to act now. Every molecule in my body wanted to be on that ship more than anything. I was tired of the universe telling me where to go. It was about time I made my own decisions, shaped my own destiny.

I jogged to catch up to her, my boots clomping on the ramp. Without looking back, I ducked through the hatch. The interior was much nicer than the hoverbuses, or even Valex and Len's hovercraft. A heated rush of air caressed my face. Seats with plastic cushions lined the walls and the center aisle, much like on an airplane. Two people sat in the back. Light techno music drifted around me. I took a seat next to the window and belted myself in.

Yara sat across from me in the aisle. She popped open her miniscreen and her spidery fingers flew over the keys. I looked to the back. A young girl with orange pigtails and freckles kicked the seat, her shiny silver tunic scrunched up around her calves. A woman with gray hair tied in a bun and a plain tunic that reminded me of a brown paper bag sat beside her. I smiled, but they ignored me. Feeling stupid, I gazed out the window as the hatch closed and the hovercraft sped away. The buildings passed in an endless tide.

Yara flicked her eyes up from the screen. “Jax tells me you're a cryosleeper.”

I nodded, surprised. So many people danced around the subject, and she brought it up like asking if I enjoyed ice cream.

“He said you were…especially brave.” Her eyes were like darts. I shrugged and cowered back against my seat, looking away.

As Yara read further down her screen, she furrowed her thin eyebrows skeptically. “You were asleep for over three hundred years?”

“I was.” I looked her straight in the eye, for once proud of the fact I could be her great-great-grandmother.

She raised an eyebrow. “Any side effects?” “Side effects?”

“You know—loss of memory, dizziness, shortened life expectancy.”

My eyes widened. “I certainly hope not.”

“Well, the doctors would have told you by now.” She scanned me from the tips of my boots to the wisps of hair around my ears. “You look fine. I'll put that down as a no.”

I remembered the drop of blood. “You're the ones who took my blood. What are the results?”

She flicked her fingers over the screen. Her eyes darted back and forth as she read. “Looks like you're one of the lucky ones.”

I thought of Martha. Was she a lucky one? She certainly wouldn't think so.

Yara tapped a few keys, narrowing her eyes. “So, you excel at science and biology.”

I thought back to my junior-year grades, minus gym. Mom had pressed me to take AP biology, and I had had a crush on the teacher, so I paid more attention than usual. Besides, I got to do a project on equestrianism. “I guess so.”

“And you've had experience working with real animals?”

“I volunteered at a veterinary clinic. I spayed and neutered animals, and even set a broken leg on a Doberman.” I was especially proud to see that dog walk again. That was one of the moments in my life that I realized I was meant to help animals.

Yara raised one eyebrow and continued to type. As she read more about me, the corners of her mouth tightened into a bitter frown. She pushed her screen down and it clicked into the keypad. “You're a great candidate.”

“For what?”

“For the team, of course.” She shifted as if her seat had grown cold. Was that competition shining in her eyes? Could someone already established in the organization possibly be jealous?

Before I could tell her I was still thinking about whether or not I wanted to go, the hovercraft dropped and my stomach flipped. I gripped the seat rails with sweaty fingers. Outside, the levels flew by as we plunged to the alley floor.

“What's going on? We're going to crash!”

“Nonsense.” Yara leaned back in her seat. “The trap doors slide open at the very last moment.”

Trap doors?

The ground came up quickly, and I squeezed my eyes shut, expecting every bone in my body to shatter on impact. Instead, we glided down, past the trash in the alley. Dark walls came up on either side as the hovercraft tunneled down into the earth. I wrapped my arms around my shoulders as a claustrophobic heaviness weighed on my chest. What if the driver moved sideways one inch and the wingtip hit the side of the shaft?

I looked over my shoulder at the girl and woman in the back, but they didn't seem fazed by the super-secret entrance. The girl slept on the older woman's shoulder. Yara's eyes were closed, her lips set in a small smile, like she looked forward to returning home. I tried to settle down, pushing the rising current of dread back down my throat.

Bright light flashed up from below, and the ship lowered us into an underground loading bay the size of a small village. Hovercrafts like the one we were on were parked in neat rows beside us. People in white lab coats scurried beyond them in a glass corridor that ran along the perimeter. On the side, a row of guards in dark ninja uniforms, much like Jax's, held lasers at their sides at attention.

Excitement tickled the hairs on the back of my neck.

Yara spread her hands. “Welcome to the official headquarters of the Timesurfers.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Sophie

T
he hatch opened slowly, like the gateway to another world. I followed Yara down the ramp with the girl and the woman behind me. The air felt cool and stale with no trace of wind. How secure was this facility? Would we be scrambling around in another raid?

The panels in the ceiling above us whirred as they came together, sealing the entrance. The chrome plates hit with a boom, reverberating in the pit of my stomach. We could have traveled to the center of the Earth for all I knew.
Yeah, no raid today
.

A man stood at the bottom of the ramp. Although his back was turned, I'd know that thick swirl of blue hair anywhere. A wave of calm came over me. After what we'd been through, I was safe in Jax's presence.

Yara rushed down and threw her arms around his neck. For someone so uptight, she sure knew how to chuck herself at a man.

Jax gave her a quick squeeze and turned to me. “Jennifer, I'm so glad you decided to join us today.”

I stopped before stepping off the ramp. “I can't wait to take this tour.”

His lips widened into a grin that rivaled the Cheshire Cat. “Fantastic.”

Yara turned toward me with a cold stare. “Wait here with the others while I get the tour host.”

“That won't be necessary.” Jax stepped toward me. “I have a break in my schedule, and I'd like to take these wonderful people around.”

Yara's mouth clamped shut. As the leader of the Timesurfers, Jax must have outranked her. Rebellion stirred in her dagger-sharp eyes.

Taking Yara to the side, Jax whispered in her ear. I strained to hear what they talked about, but the girl started humming the annoying tune that Pixie Swap played when you lost. I knew it well because I lost all the time.

Yara bowed her head and slipped away without another glance toward me.

I was relieved. She made me feel like another Timesurfer was one too many.

“Welcome.” Jax turned around and raised his voice to address all three of us. He helped me off the ramp and offered his arm to the girl, who yawned, rubbing her eyes.

“Jennifer, this is Opal.” Jax gestured toward the girl. “Her mother, who shall remain nameless by request, is a high-ranking government official who provides our operations with the funds we need for research.” He gestured toward the older woman. “This is Opal's nanny.”

I offered my hand, but neither of them took it, so I wiped it on my tunic like it was diseased.

“Why is your hair so pale?” Opal stared at me.

The nanny gave me an apologetic smile and whispered in Opal's ear. “That's her true color.”

I shifted from foot to foot, feeling like a freak on display. I'd never fit in to this futuristic world, even with the right-looking tunic.

Jax smiled and his sapphire eyes focused on me. “A beautiful color.”

Heat rose to my cheeks.

He turned away. “Come, we have much to see.”

We followed Jax down a long, gleaming white corridor. Glass windows revealed rooms on either side, equipped with wallscreens and tables, illuminating star charts and other celestial dust clouds and nebulas. People in white coats leaned over the charts, measuring distances with long pointy instruments.

Jax waved his hand like a magician. “Potential star systems yet to be explored. Our scientists work around the clock, compiling data