The Ones (10 page)

Now Cody understood the weird way her mom had been looking at her recently. It wasn't fear of losing her, not separation anxiety based on Cody's preparing to leave Shasta behind. It was regret about what she had orchestrated, hindsight that the seemingly brilliant gift to her daughter was turning into a curse. And there was no solution, because she could never tell Cody the truth. So she had to watch her daughter suffer, get harassed, fear for her life. Somehow, to admit the lie would have been worse. They had come too far for that.

But the List was out now. A stranger named Edith Vale had decided for them. Cody knew she had to descend from this hilltop and find her mom. They needed to have the first honest talk of her life.

When Cody walked back into her house, it was dead quiet, and the front door was still open. She had half expected to find her mom and James waiting breathlessly by the door, but apparently people didn't do that for hours on end. She walked through the house and found Joanne sitting on the floor in Cody's room, a photo album open on her lap.

Joanne looked up in relief as Cody entered. “Hi, sweetie. Are you okay?”

“So it's really true? I'm not…”

Joanne shook her head, tears falling from her eyes. For Cody, though, the anger built back up again.

“Why did you lie to me?”

“Cody, I'm sorry.”

“What else isn't true? Am I adopted? Is this even my real name?”

“Everything else is real, sweetheart, I promise you.”

“Then why? You didn't believe I could turn out like this on my own?”

“Of course that's not—”

“You give birth to this sweet baby girl and then thought so little of her that you had to invent a lie for her to turn out all right?

“No—”

“You thought that without lying, I'd somehow grow up to be—”

“Like me! A nobody! That's what I thought, Cody! I thought you deserved a better chance than I had. So that you wouldn't grow up to be a single mother working at the same diner since she was fifteen. I wanted something better for you. Is that so bad?”

“Mom…”

“How else was I going to give you that chance? I was a stupid eighteen-year-old who was lonely after a shift one night. There was a guy at the counter with a nice smile and a shiny new truck. It was the first week of spring. I barely blinked, and then I was holding you in my arms. Look at me, Cody. Look at our house, our block, our neighborhood. What else did I possibly have to give you? Nothing.
Nothing.
So I told you a story when you were little. And then I kept that story alive, and wouldn't you know it, it was like it went straight from my lips to God's ears. I mean, look at you! It worked, Cody. I swear, it was working like a dream. The way you acted in school, the way you played with the other kids, it was like you had a ray of sunlight shining off your eyes at all times. Everyone else believed it—of course they did—it was obvious you were special! And then, when you were old enough to really understand, I stuck to that story. The way you accepted it and embraced it and took responsibility for it … it was remarkable, sweetie. You are an incredible young woman, and I couldn't be prouder.”

Cody tried to put herself in her mother's shoes. She saw how all this had happened and understood that once it had started, it was never supposed to unravel like this. And she saw her mother's intentions. Like everything else Joanne had ever done, she had been looking out for her daughter.

“I get it, Mom. I don't hate you, okay? But I don't know if I can forgive you.”

“Why not?”

“Because I'll never know for sure now—whether this is who I really am, or if I just turned out this way because of some trick. You took that away from me.”

“Cody, I watched it happen—this is who you really are.”

Cody could only shrug. Maybe her mom was right, but it was pointless to argue. She'd never know; there was no way to start her life from scratch and see how it would have unfolded. On a day that she had discovered so much about who she was, it somehow felt like she'd lost out on something much greater.

*   *   *

Cody spent the rest of the night alone in her room. She wanted to see James and figure out what this meant for them, but the conversation with her mother had left her spent. She couldn't have an equally heavy talk with James right now. Her attention drifted down to the floor, where the photo albums that her mom had taken out were still lying open. Cody paged through them, feeling like she was looking at her life for the first time.

The pictures told a heartwarming story: a little girl and her mother, alone but for each other,
Us-against-the-world
practically written on their faces. Cody thought about what her mother had said earlier, how Joanne had nothing to give to her daughter. That was not what came across in the photographs. Sure, the birthday parties weren't fancy and the Halloween costumes were thrown together from the closet, but the girl in the photos didn't seem to notice any of that. She was healthy and happy. Cody considered what her mom had done to make that happen.
A lot
. Worked her ass off. Sacrificed her personal life. Put every extra dollar into something that Cody wanted, even if it was some junky magnifying glass from the thrift store.
She gave me everything
, Cody thought. Why couldn't her mom have had faith that that would have been enough? Why did she also have to lie?

Cody went to bed still torn about what she had discovered that day. She realized it was all about perspective. If she looked backward, she grew angry and frustrated, pissed off that she had never really been in control of her life. If she considered the future, that new feeling of pride and possibility swelled up in her again. But she didn't live in the past and she didn't live in the future, she was stuck agonizingly in the present. And at the moment, that wasn't a very comfortable place to be.

So she tossed and turned for a long time, feeling like she'd never get to sleep. But she must have drifted off at some point. That was the only way to explain how she woke up suddenly with a firm hand pressed against her mouth.

Cody tried to sit up and wriggle out of her bed, but a strong arm held her down. It was dark in her room, and she couldn't tell who was on top of her. As her panic grew into sheer terror, she heard someone softly make a sound.

“Shhhhhhhh…”

Yeah, she was already quiet, but as soon as the hand moved from her mouth, she was going to wake up the entire West Coast.

“Promise me you'll be quiet, Cody. It's Kai.”

Kai? What the hell was Kai doing in her room pinning her down to the bed? And was that terrifying or a relief? She was flooded with embarrassment as she thought about her messy room, her tangled hair, and her thin shirt.

Cody nodded her head, and Kai removed his hand. Her eyes began to adjust, and she made out the razor-sharp cheekbones under his dark hood. Kai knelt down next to her bed and started to whisper.

“I'm sorry to scare you, but this can't wait.” He stared into her eyes, and for a second, Cody forgot to be scared.

“What are you doing here? And how did you even get in?” she asked.

“Cody, please keep your voice down. Your mom is right down the hall.”

“Kai, what is going on?” Cody whispered loudly.

“We need to talk. I can't imagine you're surprised to hear that. You came to our meeting, we trusted you, and now you've made us look very foolish.”

“What do you mean?”

Even in the dark, Cody could feel Kai looking at her like she was crazy. “Cody, you're not on the List. You're not a One. You lied to us.”

Cody had never felt stupider. In all her soul-searching about what it meant to not be a One, she had never considered that it also made her a liar. Not intentionally, of course, but that was beside the point. And if anyone might get pissed about a person lying about being a One, it would probably be the New Weathermen. This nighttime visit suddenly made a lot of sense.

“I'm sorry, I didn't know, either. I swear, I can explain—”

Kai put a finger against her lips to stop her from getting too loud. His touch was warmer than she'd expected.

“Let's talk about this outside—we need to figure out what to do. We're out back—come meet us,” Kai whispered, and then stood up.

“Us?” Cody asked.

“Just come outside.”

Kai slipped out of her room as silently as he must have entered, and Cody was left in bed, suddenly shivering. The New Weathermen were demanding to see her in the dead of night. They thought she was a liar. This could be a pleasant nighttime stroll, or it could end with her in the trunk of a car.

Cody knew she didn't have much of a choice, so she threw on a sweatshirt and shoes and slipped quietly out the back door. At the back edge of her yard, she glimpsed two figures waiting in the shadows.

Kai, with his deep eyes reflecting the moonlight.

And Taryn. The girl who casually carried around a gun.

“Thanks, Cody. We just need to talk,” Kai said.

“I promise I didn't mean to lie the other day,” Cody started.

Taryn cut her off. “The New Weathermen have a strict policy about spies infiltrating our group.”

“I'm not a spy! I honestly thought I was a One!” Cody quickly explained everything she had just learned from her mother. Even if it all made sense, she knew it sounded a little convenient.

Kai and Taryn looked at each other, weighing how much they believed. Taryn shook her head. “The rules exist for a reason. Even if there's a chance she's telling the truth, we can't risk it,” she said.

Kai was silent for a moment. He stared long and hard at Cody, and her skin started to prickle from his intensity. “I believe her.”

“That's great, but it doesn't matter,” Taryn responded. “If she walked down to the police station tomorrow and told them what she heard, we'd all be screwed. They'd have us locked up in two minutes. All of us.”

“I am not going to do that,” Cody said.

“But how do we know that, Cody?” Kai asked. “I need to be able to convince everyone else that there's no chance of that happening.”

“Because I still agree with you guys!” Cody shouted.

Taryn looked at her quizzically. “You do?”

Cody nodded. She hadn't given it much thought yet, but she instinctively knew it was what she really believed. Her biography had changed, but her principles were the same as ever. “Yes. I'm still on your side. I still believe Ones are being persecuted unfairly. And I still believe that the only way to fix it is to fight back.” She thought back to what Kai had said at the meeting and looked him in the eye. “We follow one rule: Protect our rights at all costs.” And then Cody caught herself. “
Your
rights,” she added sheepishly.

Cody noticed that Kai was trying to suppress a proud smile. Taryn saw it, too, and rolled her eyes, clearly irritated.

“I'm glad you feel that way. We need all the help we can get,” Kai said.

“So you're not going to kill me?”

“No, I guess not. And
I
was never going to kill you,” Kai said, and then nodded at Taryn. “She was.”

Cody glanced over at Taryn and didn't feel much relief. If looks could kill, Cody was already a chalk outline.

“How?” Cody asked, unable to help herself.

Taryn seemed to relish giving an answer. “Put it this way: You wouldn't even know that it happened.”

Cody tried not to gulp. “Okay, then. Well, thanks for coming by and clearing this up, I guess,” she said, then turned to Kai. “So does this mean I'm officially a Weatherman?”

Kai shook his head and laughed. “No, not even close.” And then he looked at Cody with those piercing eyes and turned dead serious.

“You're going to need to prove yourself first.”

 

CHAPTER 8

WHEN JAMES WOKE
up on List Day plus 1, the atmosphere of hysteria still hung in the air like a stubborn layer of smog. As of yet there was no nationwide purge of the Ones who were exposed by the List, but stories of targeted violence drifted in from around the country. Most of them started in a similar manner to James's experience in the school parking lot but didn't end with a big brother riding in to the rescue. Members of the Equality Movement felt as if they had tacit approval from the government to go after Ones now. Why else would someone from a federal agency have released the List? Sure, various political leaders made broad statements that condemned violence, but on the Internet, Edith Vale was being hailed as a hero, a whistle-blower of the best kind, someone who shone a light on a problem that the majority of the country wanted to expose. The attitude of most of the country could be seen in the fresh graffiti that was popping up everywhere: the ubiquitous equal signs, of course, but there was also a new word finding its way onto brick walls and abandoned trucks—
gennycide
.

Scanning through all the stories online, James saw reports of resistance, too. The headlines were pretty intense:
EMPTY SCHOOL BUS EXPLODES IN THE BRONX … CONGRESSWOMAN'S HOME BURNS DOWN, ARSON SUSPECTED … ATLANTA POLICE DEPARTMENT CRIPPLED BY CYBERATTACK
. It was clear to James that pockets of New Weathermen were starting to lash out, and he shook his head with disappointment as he read the stories. The extremists on both sides were digging in.

Despite all this, James had negotiated an uneasy compromise with his parents that allowed him to leave the house just to go to school. The last thing he wanted was to be cooped up with Michael hovering over him, so he argued that going about his normal life was the best statement he could make right now. If he didn't, then the terrorists would win—the terrorists in this case being his own government and most of his fellow citizens. Maybe that was a little melodramatic, but the point still stood: James didn't want to get bullied into disappearing from society. His parents understood that and finally allowed him to leave the house without his brother as an escort.