He said he would look at the port admin site. What if theydon’t import any often? If once a year, or even month, this house and car-swapping arrangement will fall apart. None of this will be practical for long. Clay could end up winning.
“And the phone I gave you?”
He sniffs, and a pained expression fleetingly crosses his face. “That thing is diabolically different. I managed to charge it, had to jury rig a connector, but the encryption and the operating system are a whole other level. Where is it from? China?”
Kail simply shakes his head.
“I’ve seen some weird programming but nothing like this. You’re from the institute but not our institute. You have inexplicable devices that can’t be explained by our current systems. I’ve seen that movie,Looper. Maybe you’re from an alternative future?” Rasmus raises his eyebrows.
“You’ve got to be joking.” I chuckle but all I get from Rasmus is a shrug.
Kail grins and remains silent.
“Not telling? Okay. I’ll get it in the end.” Rasmus makes a finger gun and pretends to shoot. “I got this. See you both when I see you.” He exits and closes the door.
I don’t blame him for speculating on how Kail ended up here in Revenant. One day he will tell me, if he even knows the full story, and I can wait.
We head out to the lake in Molly and Ron’s spare vehicle—a rundown Jeep—to where a hunter’s cabin gets used for science, sometimes, when she asks nicely, or so Melody phrased it. I’m not sure what that means, but I decide not to get on her bad side so as to avoid wading out after floating dead things. Kail grunts at me when I suggest this.
Note to self: let Kail do all the dead thing sampling.
The road here is rough, and the Jeep seems willing to rattleitself to pieces on the potholes and ridges. After we turn off onto a side road, a cabin looms ahead of us at the end of a track. I run to a halt where the track ends and switch off the engine. An owl hoots overhead then swoops across the pale night sky, where a small moon lurks above the horizon of pine trees. Mountains rise to either side of the lake, and a wind gusts and rattles the branches, ripples the section of lake that I can just see to the left of the cabin, before dying away again.
Melody aims to be here early tomorrow morning. I peel my fingers off the steering wheel and we exit. Kail leans on the hood, looks as if he intends to stay there a while, so I join him.
“So, that’s what began all of this. Your dad saw a mummy move.” He shakes his head, and I slip my hand over his, then under it, tangling our fingers.
“Yes. It’s bizarre but then nothing has been normal since I came here. Not even you…” I nudge my head into his biceps. “For which I am grateful. Without you, I’d be lost in this.”
“Even though I used to be dead?” He’s staring off into space, or at the surrounding forest, or maybe at the shine of the moon on the lake.
“I can’t imagine how this must be to you, but yes, what you are is just who you are. I think therefore I am. You exist. You are as important or, or…meaningful? As any human on this planet.” I’m unsure what he needs to hear or even how to say it. “Do you need a hug?” I finally ask, a little wistfully.
Kail looks down at me then wraps an arm around me and brings me to him. “Don’t worry about me. Am I pissed off that someone re-used my body to remake me? Yes. But if they hadn’t, I would not be here, with you. Pros and cons. Swings and roundabouts. I just wish they asked me first. Consent matters.”
“It does. It’s something no one has ever navigated before.It confuses me, not being sure what to feel about Dad’s revelation when it brought you to me.”
I vowed not to get too attached to Kail, didn’t I? That’s gone out the window, fast. We do feel right together. I stand with him, quiet, gazing out over that piece of lake, and I shiver as I imagine something bobbing to the surface. “Is that where…you know?”
“The deer with the weird holes?” He bumps my hip with his, folds me in closer with his arm. “I’ll take care of all the dead things, whether in the lake or out of it.”
“Thank you.” I smile up at him. How did he know?
32
DEAD THINGS
Kail and I tumbled out of the sleeping bags an hour ago and have migrated to the squeaky timber porch to eat. The sounds of the lake water moving and of birds calling are a distant, mesmerizing background that seeps quietly into your bones. I dunk my spoon in the last inch of the cereal and milk, rest it on the side of the bowl, and find myself thinking about what was said last night. There are dark ramifications to what I’m doing that have never occurred to me until now.
“Kail, I need to say something. Something serious and complicated.”
“Sure.” His eyes rest easy on me, as if nothing I can say will trouble him.
“I know this was originally about me getting revenge for Dad’s killing, and yet…” I frown, trying to see my path through this.
“And yet?” He pushes away his bowl. When he moves and leans on it, the little metal chair looks as if it’s bending.
“And yet, there is more. You and your creation issomething I’m wrestling with, and you must have opinions on this. A few days ago, I just wanted revenge on Clay and then I chose what I thought was a more moral course—finding out how the institute is doing this research, and whether they are doing something dirty and illegal in their acquisition of bodies. And this was so we could shut it down.” Softly, I bump the table with my fist. “But now…”
