“You’ve got to be kidding me!”
“Not a valid destination.”
“Copley Square!”
The hatch closes and the pod takes off. I try to focus on the speed, the lights, the thrill, but none of that feeling is with me now. I redirect three times and exit as I’m required, still feeling just as ready to blow as when I started. I’ve walked two blocks before I realize I’m not even sure where I’ve ended up.
The skin of my palm ripples. The iScroll is alerting me to a message. I don’t answer. Whoever it is, Xavier, Carver, or Livvy, they’ll have to wait. It ripples again a minute later. I swipe the iScroll, and yell, “Off!” The iScroll goes silent and disappears, the tattoo invisible in my palm. I imagine Percel cowering somewhere in my hand, wondering what set me off.
I look around for a street sign, trying to figure out where I am, but there are none. I sit down on the steps of a nearby stoop and lean forward, running my hands through my hair, staring at my scuffed boots. How could I let her rattle me so much? Something about her gets under my skin.
My park. Maybe that was it. Those two words exploded in my head when she said them. With all the change I’ve had to deal with, the Commons is the only thing that still seems the same in Boston. It’s belonged to everyone here for hundreds of years, and in one dismissive sentence she bans me from it? In a—
I smile. Pig’s eye. One of my dad’s favorite phrases. I haven’t thought of it in years. I almost forgot it. But it fits perfectly.
That’s right. In a freaking pig’s eye I’ll stay out of her park.
The long walk to the Commons and the darkness of the park calm me. For 260 years, I hated the darkness. It terrified me. But now, for the second night in a row, I find this darkness freeing. It disguises the world I’m barely hanging on to. It blurs its edges. At least for a few hours, it makes it the world where I once belonged. No way will she ever ban me from the Commons. I plant myself on the same gnarled tree root as last night, looking up, just daring her to appear on the rooftop. I hear the rustling of the bushes. The nightlife better get used to me. I plan on coming here a lot.
“You don’t follow orders well, do you?”
I leap to my feet and whirl around, my heart pounding so hard I think it’s going to burst through my chest.
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you.”
I catch my breath. “I think that’s exactly what you meant to do.”
Raine grins. “Maybe.” She’s shed her drab gray clothes and wears a simple sleeveless blue shirt and some dark blue pants that reach only to her knees. Her feet are bare.
“Going to sic your rabid Bot on me?”
“I’ve dismissed Hap for the evening. He knows the routine. My nights are my own.”
“So it’s you who’s going to kick me out of your park?”
She shrugs. “I suppose you can stay. Tonight, anyway.”
“Wow. Thanks.”
We stand there, awkwardly. Or maybe it’s just me who is awkward. She seems comfortable with the silence. She comes closer and touches the trunk of the tree where I had been sitting. There are only a few feet and the massive tree root between us. “This is one of my favorites too. It’s a great tree, isn’t it? I’ve always loved how the root’s twisted and out of control.” She runs her fingers over a large knot like she’s familiar with it and then looks up at me. “What brought you here?” Her voice is soft and genuine, and I can’t deny I’m taking in the transformation of her appearance as well. The hardness is gone there too.
I see the beautiful Raine I saw last night on the rooftop, her hair loose on her shoulders and her movements relaxed. But I remember her sweeping disdain earlier this evening and remember too that chess is one of her hobbies. Is this a calculated move? I can’t forget that there was something about her picture in the file that disturbed me. LeGru’s words come back to me. Trust your first instincts. But I’m not sure what those instincts were telling me. I rely on my own new motto instead: Watch your back, Locke.
I glance around me, wary of an ambush. The park is quiet, and even the bushes have stopped rustling. I look back at her. Is this sudden turnaround in her to make me let my guard down? I walk closer to her and she takes a step back. “You,” I say. “You’re what brought me here. I don’t like being told where I can or can’t go, especially by people who are a little too full of themselves.”
I’m waiting for her to come back at me with a snide remark, but she’s silent, her chest rising in deep slow breaths. She never takes her eyes from me and she finally nods.
“I think it’s time for me to go. Good night,” she whispers. Without another word she walks away.
The air is squeezed out of me. She’s already at the top of the steps that lead to the street but the memory of her eyes still pierces me. In her own clumsy way, I think she was trying to apologize. Have I become too much of a cynic? I want to call after her but she’s already crossing the street to her apartment, and then I see the oddest thing I never expected to see. She climbs a narrow rope ladder hanging from the roof, almost hidden in the shadows. Nine stories.
What makes a girl risk her neck like that, just to go for a three A.M. walk? That’s why she was barefoot. And why not just use the apartment elevator? She reaches the top and pulls the ladder up behind her and then briefly looks back toward the park before she disappears into the shadows.
I’m batting a thousand. Twice in one night. A double bonehead. I need to stop thinking so much and just listen. Maybe Xavier was right. Maybe for this Favor, they did choose the wrong person.
An Impression
“Good work. You’re in.” I finally turn my iScroll back on and Carver’s image looms in front of me. “Livvy will be over this morning in case anyone decides to stop by.”
“Wait a minute.” I’m still trying to wake up, rummaging through the pantry while my coffee brews. I pull the half-filled coffee cup from the brewer and pour in cream. “I’m in what?” I stuff half a protein cake into my mouth. “Who’s stopping by?”
Xavier’s image pops up too. He glares at me. “Were you out all night again?”
“No.” I swallow the cake and try to pay more attention to them.
“The Collective called,” Carver continues. “You have been invited into Raine’s group. Good work. You made quite an impression.”