Glitch

present right now. I reached
    up a fi nger to trace his full lips. Tears gathered in my eyes.
    “You’ll just be another subject in the crowd. I won’t know
    you. I won’t remember how to do this—” I lifted my lips
    to his.
    He fi nally pulled away, sounding out of breath. His eyes
    blazed into mine with an intensity I’d never seen before.
    “Listen to me, Zoe,” he said, his hands resting fi rmly on
    my shoulders. “We will fi nd each other. I will get your
    medicine to you. And we’ll escape that shuntin’ place for
    good this time. I’ll teach you how to kiss all over again.
    I know it.”
    “Because you’ve seen it in a vision?” I asked.
    He looked down. “No, not exactly,” he said. “But there
    are other kinds of faith than the kind I have in my visions.
    This is too strong, too real. We’ll fi nd it again.”
    I hugged him hard, nestling underneath his arms, my ear
    to his chest, wishing we could stay there forever, that I never
    had to leave. “You promise?”
    117

    Heather Anastasiu
    “I promise,” he whispered in my ear, holding me tight
    against his chest and stroking my hair.
    We stood there like that for a long time, until he fi nally
    pulled away. “I gotta go make some arrangements for us to
    get back into the city and get my pretend parents— they’re
    spies for the Rez,” he said in answer to my questioning face,
    “to call the Academy and say I’m sick right when school
    opens tomorrow. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get back to the
    apartment before they come to check me out. The sooner
    we get back, the less suspicion there will be.”
    “But Flu 216 is so dangerous,” I said. “People die some-
    times. If you died because of me . . .” Guilt choked me. I
    thought of those beautiful eyes turned lifeless. The thought
    made me nauseated. “I couldn’t live with myself.”
    “Stop that.” He took my chin and lifted my eyes to his.
    “No one’s going to die. Sanjan will make sure to give me
    the mildest strain. I’ll be fi ne.” He said it with such confi -
    dence I could almost believe it.
    He led me to the couch. “Try to get some sleep. It’s three
    in the morning and I’m sure it will take me a few hours to
    arrange everything. I’ll just be in the next room if you need
    anything, ’kay?”
    “Okay.” I tried to sound strong, confi dent. Tried not to
    be weak and pull him onto the couch with me and make
    him swear to never let me go. But he said we’d be together
    again. He’d promised. The idea of trust was brand new to
    me, but I didn’t have a choice. I had to trust him.
    He smiled and kissed me gently, then went into the other
    118

    G L I TC H
    room, turning the light off as he went. I tucked the blankets
    up around me tight and tried to sleep.
    I woke up to Adrien, caressing my brow. I sat up, dreamy
    and smiling, then remembered with a crushing blow that I
    was going to leave him. But just for a while, I reminded my-
    self. And we wouldn’t really be apart. He’d be at school with
    me. We’d be together, even if I wouldn’t know it or remem-
    ber him.
    “It’s time,” he said. I nodded and rubbed my face as I got
    to my feet. My eyes still felt swollen and tired. My whole
    body ached but the sleep had helped.
    Adrien led me into the adjoining room that looked like a
    combination offi
    ce and lab. A med table was lodged in one
    corner and a short middle- aged man stood in front of it.
    “Zoe, this is Dr. Chol.”
    “Greet—I mean, hi, Dr. Chol,” I said. I was surprised at
    his last name— only offi
    cials had real last names instead of
    just work designations.
    He smiled and shook my hand. “It’s nice to fi nally meet
    you. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
    I felt my face fl ush, remembering what Adrien had said
    about his visions of me as a leader. Did this man Chol think
    that was true? Did he expect that of me?
    “Come on, have a seat,” Adrien said. “Chol’s our resident
    head doctor. He’ll fi x up your hardware so after you pull out
    the drive, you’ll be connected to the Link and the glitching
    will be masked.”
    119

    Heather Anastasiu
    Chol sat down on a chair in front of me. His hair was
    graying around the edges but his skin was smoother and less
    worn- looking than Adrien’s mother’s. “We’ll be going in
    manually, since your access port is already occupied. You’ve
    seen these before, right?”
    He gestured to a pair of half- tube forceps and a six- inch-
    long snaking metal probe on the