Glitch

me to
    really follow all that he was doing. And it wouldn’t matter
    anyway, I thought, pulling back. It’s not like I would remem-
    ber anything I learned here.
    If they were able to create an architecture in Adrien’s
    brain that mimicked V-chip hardware, while keeping him
    protected from Link control, then there had to be a way to
    do the same thing for everybody else. I wondered what other
    advances the Rez had made and if that’s what they had in
    mind. Hadn’t Adrien mentioned it was what his father had
    wanted to do? To free everyone? I wondered how close they
    were.
    And where did I fi t in? Telekinesis was amazing but
    what good was being able to grab a hairbrush from across
    the room in the larger scheme of things? I mean, I couldn’t
    even control it.
    “We’re done.” Chol released the cable from Adrien’s neck.
    “I guess it’s time to go back,” I whispered.
    He nodded. “Mom has a biosuit ready for you.”
    I stared for a moment into his aquamarine eyes, then
    hugged him tight. He pulled back. “Shh, it’ll be okay. It’ll
    be—”
    He didn’t fi nish the sentence. His arms were still pressed
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    Heather Anastasiu
    around me but his face had gone slack and he was staring
    beyond me blankly. I looked behind me, terrifi ed at what I
    might fi nd. But nothing was there.
    “Adrien? Adrien!” I tried not to shriek. “What’s wrong?”
    I shook him but he barely budged. I tried to squirm out
    of his grip so I could try to get help, but his hands seemed
    frozen in place around me.
    “Adrien!” I said again, feeling near hysterical tears. Was
    he broken?
    He suddenly blinked rapidly and dropped his arms.
    “Adrien! Are you okay? Did something go wrong with
    Chol’s programming?” I pushed up the hair at the base of his
    neck to look at his input port, but his hand stopped mine.
    “I just had a vision.” His voice came out low and strangled-
    sounding.
    I looked back at his face. His caramel skin was mottled
    and fl ushed. There was an intense, unreadable expression on
    his face.
    “What is it?”
    His eyes fi nally focused in again on my face, his features
    still tense, somewhere between angry and scared. He closed
    his eyes tightly, tilting his forehead against mine and rub-
    bing his hands up and down my arms gently, as if he was
    memorizing the feel of my skin. As if he’d never be able to
    touch me again.
    “Oh, Zoe.” He cupped my chin gently, tears welling in his
    bright eyes. “Try not to forget. I know it’s impossible, but try
    not to forget me.”
    He kissed me again softly, then urgently, twining his fi n-
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    G L I TC H
    gers in my hair. What ever he’d just seen had obviously ter-
    rifi ed him. I sank against him, overwhelmed at the urgency
    of his kiss. I kissed him back just as eagerly.
    We stood, holding each other’s faces, memorizing every
    last detail. I was desperate with my own need to capture this
    last, lingering moment, desperate to forget the horrible sink
    at the pit of my stomach telling me all this would be lost
    forever once they pulled the chip out. Please don’t let me for-
    get. I opened my mouth to his and tried to take him in so
    deep that my soul, if I had one, would remember what my
    brain forgot.
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Chapter 10
    “do you remembe r anything else from your disappear-
    ance?”
    “No.” I sat in a chair facing a sharp- featured woman with
    a smooth, oiled bun. It was a seat I had fi lled every week
    for the past three weeks. The ret i na display played out at the
    edges of my sphere of vision. I didn’t need the readouts to
    provide me with more information on the woman sitting in
    front of me in a charcoal- gray suit with tightly wound brown
    hair. Chancellor Bright, the head of the Academy. She’d been
    appointed the new Chancellor a week after my disappear-
    ance. I’d never encountered the previous Chancellor, or many
    offi
    cials at all for that matter, but ever since my disappearance,
    I was seeing a lot of Chancellor Bright. I didn’t know why she
    kept calling me in— my story was the same every time.
    “Do you remember anything that happened while you
    were on the Surface?”
    “No,” I repeated. “I still retain only the knowledge of
    what I reported upon discovery. I was reporting to Room
    A117 and then I was walking down a road. I followed pro-
    tocol for anomalous events and attempted to locate an offi
    -
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    G L I TC H
    cial to whom I could report myself. At Entrance Gate C10,
    I made myself known to