Page 85 of V-Day
It was getting close to sunset and Cristián was in deep shadow, making it hard to analyze what he was thinking.
He rolled his eyes. “Tracker on my cellphone?” he asked.
“I can take it off, if you really want to get away,” she offered.
“It’s part of the Cloak?”
“It is.”
“I like being completely invisible online, so I guess I can put up with you knowing exactly what I’m doing.” His tone was light.
“It’s weird,” she said, moving closer to the table. “I didn’t know it when I built the app, only the Cloak makes me feel as though I’m connected with, well, everyone who has it. A super-sized, extended family I can reach out and touch whenever I want, even though I can’t see a single one of them.”
“I suspect everyone with the Cloak feels the same way.” Cristián laughed. “Which is a bizarre effect for a piece of software designed to keep everyone hidden from each other. The psychologists will have a theory for it.”
“I think it’s the countdown which did that,” Chloe said. “Do you know I have strangers coming up to me and kissing and hugging me, now? They thank me for the timer, for warning them.”
Cristián smiled. “That’s nice.”
“It is,” Chloe admitted.
“And Babylon didn’t break out in hives, now everyone knows who she is?”
“Babylon doesn’t exist anymore,” Chloe said softly. “She died, about three weeks ago, when Chloe first spoke to Cristián.”
Cristián didn’t answer. She saw his chest rise and fall, as he drew in a deep breath.
“What are you doing up here?” she asked. “Alone time?” That was something she understood only too well.
“Thinking,” he said. He lifted his chin, to indicate the busy valley. “I was thinking that I want to write a book.”
“About the war?” she guessed. “I saw your brain kick up a gear when Parris talked about the right people explaining things to the next generation.”
“A book about the war, yes. Maybe a second one, about how power works. How it intimidates and corrupts.”
“And here I thought Duardo was the new politician,” Chloe said lightly.
“I think I was wrong about that,” Cristián said. “When I heard he was President—”
“Pro tem,” Chloe added.
“He’s running Vistaria,” Cristián said. “Regardless of the title. Duardo was always the shining one, the poster child of a perfect Vistarian son. He could never do anything wrong, so when I heard he was President, it felt…inevitable. Only, I sat in his tent this afternoon and watched him dealing with people and he’s just Duardo. He hasn’t changed, Chloe. He didn’t flip a switch when he talked to me in between other people.” He hesitated. “I think even he is intimidated by the job.” He sounded a little awed.
Her heart thudding, Chloe moved an inch closer to the table. “I wrote a list.”
“Groceries? Servers to hack?”
She smiled. “I’ll give you the items. You can tell me what the list is for.”
Cristián nodded.
Chloe checked off the items on her fingers. “You have an IQ of 170. You grew up alone inside a big family and you’re still sane.”
“Sometimes,” Cristián added.
“You found others like you out in the world and drew them into a group in a way they could deal with. The Group saved lives, Cristián. It saved mine.Yousaved me. You made me whole again. Then the war came along and you took on a high-risk job coordinating communications for the Loyalists, right under the noses of the Insurrectos. You saved the town, Cristián.Everyone. Then you found the drone control room for the Americans. And then you saved me. Again.”
Cristián didn’t move. A squirrel in a nearby tree chattered angrily at the disturbances, making her jump.
