Bubba Boom had been quick to hide his frown, but she noticed and said, “Don’t worry, I won’t sit with you two.”
No one spoke as we turned south toward Quad G3. My thoughts still sorted through all that I had learned in the last few hours. Lamont filled her tray and joined a group of friends while Bubba Boom and I found an empty table as far away from everyone as possible. My plate contained a greenish-colored casserole, but I had no memory of scooping it.
I watched my mother. She appeared relaxed and when she smiled it changed her whole face, reaching all the way to her eyes. I realized she hadn’t been happy in a very long time. Which should seem obvious, but I held no memory of her ever showing any joy or peace even before she betrayed us.
What was different? Her daughter was alive and despite her tendency to downplay the risk, she was in considerable danger by carrying the tracer for me. I thought about what I’d done without hesitation for my friends.
I’d been willing to sacrifice myself for Cogon. Would I have done it for some stranger? While I’d like to think I would, if I was truly honest, the answer would be probably not. And why were we strangers at all? We lived in a giant metal cube. Granted the Pop Cops had separated us, but if we went back far enough, we were all related to one of the original nine families.
A little zip of understanding jolted me. Could the solution to our problems be that simple?
“…look. Should I be worried? Trella?” Bubba Boom waved a hand in front of my face.
“Sorry. I was just…”
“What?”
“Thinking.”
“I already figured that out.” He titled his head toward Lamont. “Are your deep thoughts about your birth mother?”
“Yes, but they don’t help the situation with Jacy. Do you know what they’re planning?”
“No. We’ve just connected him to Sloan and the captain recently.”
“We?”
“Me, Hank, Phelan, Kren, and Ange. The maintenance soups…supervisors.”
“Aren’t you a little young to be a soup?”
He shrugged. “After the rebellion, not many people were willing to step up and take charge.”
Guilty of the same thing, I played with my food. At least I realized my mistake.
“We think Jacy and his cohorts are trying to hack into the computer network,” he said. “It hasn’t been working right the past two weeks. And if they gain control…”
“They already have.”
Bubba Boom’s expression flickered in surprise. “How do you know?”
Time to decide. If I wanted to fix the mess, I needed Bubba Boom and Hank’s help. They had already figured out a few things on their own. I explained to him about Jacy’s group using the mythical Controllers to give orders to the Committee and Anne-Jade. But for some unknown reason, I didn’t tell him about Logan.
“You’ve been confined to level three. How did you find out about all that?”
An interesting question. He didn’t seem too upset about the Controllers, but he did suspect something wasn’t right. “I’m allowed visitors.”
He studied me a moment. “If they truly have the network, there’s nothing we can do.”
But Logan could. I hoped. “At least Jacy and the captain plan to fix the Transmission. That gives us one less problem to worry about.”
I surprised him again. “When?” he asked.
“I don’t know. But I think you should give them a predictable time when Hank won’t be nearby so they don’t have to create a distraction. And it will also give you an opportunity to see who else is involved.” Spoken like a true Pop Cop. They had enjoyed baiting and trapping as many scrubs as possible in their schemes.
“But without control of the computers, it won’t matter if we know who’s involved or not,” he said.
“We might be able to reclaim the computer systems.”
