Glitch

the platform. I paused.
    Of course. He might have my body trapped, but what about
    my mind?
    My panic bubbled up and I embraced it, reaching out
    with my screaming thoughts to surround every contour of
    the side- table lamp with my mind’s humming energy. But I
    couldn’t control it. I could never control it. The lamp ex-
    ploded, and my heart pounded in panic and dread. The man
    looked up, surprised at the noise and sudden darkness. Ter-
    ror made the buzzing in my brain explode.
    As the offi
    cial let out a surprised gasp, the door crashed
    open and a lanky boy burst in. With a burst of fear, I im-
    mediately recognized the green- eyed boy. He scanned the
    room before fi nding a blanket, yanking it off the bed, and
    throwing it over the offi
    cial, his arm wrapping around the
    man’s neck in a tight V and squeezing. The man’s arms fl ut-
    tered uselessly and then he crumpled forward and stopped
    moving.
    In my mind I was screaming, but I still couldn’t move,
    couldn’t even make a sound. The boy glanced my way and
    saw the terror shining in my eyes.
    “I’m so sorry I didn’t get here sooner,” he said in a rush.
    “I didn’t see until too late.”
    See what? I wanted to ask, but my vocal cords were still
    paralyzed.
    41

    Heather Anastasiu
    The boy glanced back to see if I’d heard him and his face
    went red. He ran over to me. “Oh crackin’ hell, I’m sorry.
    Deactivate program 181. Authorization code 5789345.”
    I was released. My hands fl ew to my face as I scrambled
    onto the fl oor. I quickly reached behind me to yank the for-
    eign hardware out of my neck.
    “No, don’t !” He half- turned around to me, holding out
    one hand. He stopped just short of touching me. “Don’t pull
    out the drive, or we’re both cracked.”
    My hand paused on my neck. How had he known about
    the drive? My sense of relief was immediately replaced by
    fear. “Why shouldn’t I? How did you know that code? Are
    you working with him?”
    “No, of course not!” he said. “Hurry, we don’t have much
    time.”
    I didn’t need to be told twice. What ever the boy’s moti-
    vations, at least he’d freed me from the paralyzing control of
    the program.
    “Who are you?” I asked. “What are you doing here?”
    “I’m Adrien. And I can’t tell you more than that right
    now.”
    I adjusted my hair, careful not to dislodge the hardware in
    my neck. “Are you from Central Systems?”
    “No shuntin’ way,” he said vehemently. “I only want to
    help you.”
    I pulled my arms tight against my chest, hugging my-
    self and looking over at the misshapen lump on the bed.
    “D-d- did you . . . deactivate him?” I whispered, the terror of
    all that had just happened truly starting to sink in.
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    G L I TC H
    “No,” Adrien said, “I’m tempted to, but an offi
    cial’s death
    would get more investigation. This way it just looks like he
    passed out. Speaking of.” Adrien reached down and pulled
    something out of his bag. It was a small metal cylinder, a
    little bigger than a tablet stylus. He pulled off the cap and I
    could see two tiny needles sticking out at the tip. He rolled
    the big man over and jammed the tip of the cylinder into his
    backside.
    I looked away and rubbed my neck, a shiver running
    down my back when I touched the foreign hardware again.
    “So why can’t I pull the drive out?”
    Adrien looked back at me, carefully capping the needle and
    putting it back into his small black bag. “With it in, you’re
    disconnected from the Link and everything is being recorded
    separately on the drive. None of your vitals are registering
    but the moment you pull it out, your skyrocketing adrenaline
    and heart rate will get reported right to the doctors in Cen-
    tral Systems and we’ll get caught instantly. At the very least,
    they’ll turn the godlam’d cameras in this wing back on.” He
    pointed to black circular disks on the ceiling.
    “Those are cameras?” My stomach dropped. All the ceil-
    ings and hallways had those black dots. The underground
    tunnels. The subway cars. My parents’ dining room.
    He nodded and held out his hand. “Come on, let’s get out
    of here.”
    “And go where?” I asked, still shocked by the idea that
    I could be watched all the time, even when I was alone. Of
    course, it was obvious now that I thought about it. Finger-
    print systems
    weren’t enough to track subject movement.
    43

    Heather Anastasiu
    They would want more comprehensive control.