“I’m coming with you,” Taye said that next afternoon, catching Noam at the bedroom doorway right as Noam was about to head out on his daily run, water bottle already clutched in hand.
“What? Why?”
Taye’s brows went up. “I mean, I don’t have to, if it’s like ... a personal-time thing. I just figured you might want the company. And I could use the workout; I’ve been dying in basic with all those sprints Li’s been making us do. I swear that woman hates me.”
Noam only realized he’d been staring at Taye in silence for several seconds when Taye added:
“So ... can I come?”
“Oh. Yeah. Sure. Let’s go.”
Noam waited for Taye to get changed and guzzle a truly inhuman amount of water at the kitchen sink before they headed out. Noam set them along his usual six-mile route—the route that had gotten longer and longer lately, Noam circling certain loops twice, three times to delay having to go back to the government complex.
Taye, at least, was fast. He kept up with Noam easily enough even though he was at least two inches shorter. Noam sensed Taye’s orange-red magic doing something to the soles of his shoes every time his stride landed, keeping himself from slipping on the ice even without crampons.
“Man,” Taye said once they’d covered the first couple miles, only slightly out of breath. “It’s so weird to think the year’s almost over. I mean ... it’s almostMarch. I’ve been in Level IV half my life. Hard to believe that’s gonna end.”
“You’re graduating this year?”
“Yep. Turn eighteen in three weeks. Then I’m out of here, soon as the semester’s over.”
Noam had known on some level that Taye was about to age out of the program, but he hadn’t reallythoughtabout it before. Not really.
“It’ll just be you and Bethany,” Taye said. “I mean, unless Ames comes back and they make her redo spring semester, since she’s missed so much class.”
Lehrer had, ultimately, invented a story for Colonel Howard and the rest of the Level IV administration about Ames going to rehab for her addiction issues. Noam wished that were actually true.
But there was something about the way Taye said it, his voice too light, too careful, that made Noam think Taye hadn’t bought that story either. The addict part might be right, but Taye probably knew Ames well enough to know she’d never put herself in rehab voluntarily.
“I’m sure they’ll let her graduate,” Noam said, trying to sound confident.
“Do you know what program she’s in?” Taye asked. “I was thinking I might send, like, a postcard or something, but nobody seems to have a forwarding address.”
Noam shook his head. “No idea.”
“You could ask Lehrer.”
Noam looked at him too quickly. Taye noticed, judging by the way his gaze lingered on Noam’s before he turned his attention back to the horizon.
“Yeah,” Noam said. “Yeah, I’ll ask. Good idea.”
They ran another quarter mile, the soles of their shoes hitting pavement punctuating the rapid pound of Noam’s heartbeat.
“Do you have plans for after graduation?” he made himself ask to fill that silence.
“Yep. Got a job waiting for me and everything.”
“You don’t sound very excited about it.”
Taye shrugged, the gesture comical when performed in motion. “I mean ... it’s fine. I’m gonna be working in military engineering. Turns out math magic’s pretty good for building really big weapons.”
Noam grimaced. “Oh.”
Taye laughed, a little more breathless than before. “I don’t know, man. I’ve always been pretty lucky, you know? My parents are both still alive. They’re well off. I basically grew up surrounded by all these smart university professors who were only too happy to teach me everything they knew about anything. My parents still actuallytalkto me, unlike Bethany’s mom. And I guess I just ...”
For several long moments, Noam thought Taye was gonna trail off and leave it at that. But then he shook his head and said:
“I wanted to do something useful with myself. Find a way to take all that good luck and use it to like ... change the world, you know? Like maybe I could run for Congress or start a nonprofit or something. But looks like that’s not in the cards.”
