“In terms of gene therapy, this is definitely a breakthrough,” Chloe said. “The really amazing thing is that these bots, as small as they are, can actually carry programs.”
I knew enough about technology to know that should have provoked skepticism on my part.
“This is real, Toby,” Chloe said. “I don’t know how, but it’s real. And it’s bad news.”
Nothing Chloe had said so far sounded particularly like bad news to me.
“At the point in time that Ross wrote his thesis, there were still some glitches in the programming. He managed to rewrite the DNA, but in a way that makes the information genes contain utterly useless.” Chloe’s eyes glazed over as she searched for the appropriate metaphor. “Think of a computer. What happens if you swipe your hard drive with a very large, very powerful magnet?”
“It wipes all of the data, the programs, everything. And then …”
“And then your computer is pretty much dead,” Chloe finished. “At the end of his thesis, Ross presented two alternatives for future research. One involved working out the kinks in programming so that the bots could be used for gene therapy, but that could take decades, maybe longer.”
“And the other alternative?”
“The other alternative involved two steps: adapt the prototype for use on humans, and make it airborne.”
“Airborne as in—”
“As in you release these nanobots, they spread out, permeate the skin, and start destroying every inch of code it can find.”
Now the phrasetechnobiological weaponwas starting to make sense.
“This is what you and Brooke are retrieving,” Chloe said. “They must be containing them somehow, but if those bots get out … It’s bad, Toby. It’s very, very bad, and the two of you deserved to know.”
Translation: The Big Guys should have told us.
“We’ve got to tell Brooke,” I said.
Chloe grabbed my arm and held it. “We can’t tell Brooke. If we could, trust me when I say that I would have been talking to her and not you.”
I jerked my arm out of Chloe’s grasp.
“When it comes to this school, Brooke does what she wants, when she wants to do it. She’s in charge. She makes the rules. But when it comes to the Squad, she’s a different person. She doesn’t break the rules, Toby. She doesn’t ask questions, and she doesn’t apologize.” Chloe paused and looked away. “This is highly classified information, and Brooke can’t know that we know. She’s their good little soldier, theircaptain …” Chloe’s voice got very quiet. “But she’s my best friend, and there’s no way I’d let her go in there unprepared.”
So. There it was. Chloe couldn’t tell Brooke, so she told me. Standing there, looking at Chloe very carefully not looking at me, I wondered if this was the first time Chloe had kept a secret from Brooke, and just like that, I knew that it wasn’t.
“Brooke doesn’t know, does she?” I asked the question in a voice every bit as quiet as the one Chloe had used a moment before.
“I just told you that she can’t know about this,” Chloe snapped.
“Not about this,” I said. “About Jack’s uncle. She doesn’t know.”
I’d assumed that when it came to the Squad what Chloe knew Brooke knew, but the way Chloe’s lips tightened at my question was enough of an answer to tell me that I’d assumed wrong.
Brooke didn’t have a clue that one of the Big Guys was aPeyton. Apparently, Uncle Alan’s identity was an even bigger secret than I’d thought.
“There you guys are!” Bubbles popped out of the woodwork. I hadn’t even heard her come into the lab. “Brooke’s looking for you guys. You missed the debriefy thingy! We’re ready to go on Operation Cheer Scout, and you guys still need to hit the salon.”
If Bubbles had heard Chloe’s monologue, she didn’t give any indication of it. She tilted her head to the side and wrinkled her nose, looking almost comically quizzical. “What are you guys doing up here anyway?”
The intensity that had been clear on Chloe’s face seconds before melted away, and she smirked at me and then provided Bubbles with a cover story that wasn’t amusing in the least.
“Toby begged me to give her some tips on SDA.”
CHAPTER 22
Code Word: Crazy!
