Storm (Swipe Series)

babysitting a bunch of Markless, huh?” Charles joked.
    “No,” Dr. Arbitor said. “And I can’t imagine you ever pictured yourself harboring fugitive traitors in your off-hours from DOME.”
    “Disgraced,” Charles agreed. “While the Markless overrun this whole miserly country.”
    Olivia laughed. “Well, at least you finally caught the Dust,” she said.
    Behind her, the kids were all taking turns leaping around with Tyler’s prototype DOME hover boots.
    “Hey, Meg can hit the ceiling!” Shawn yelled encouragingly, as with each bounding step Meg launched up and cracked her head, sending little flakes of white plaster floating down to the floor.
    Charles buried his face in his hands. “And somehow our daughter’s behind all of it.”
    Olivia laughed.
    “I mean, did we do right by Erin?” Charles asked, bemused and unsure. “Or wrong? Are we proud of her? Ashamed? I’m honestly asking you.”
    “Right now I’m not anything but worried,” Olivia said.
    “Look. I know . . . I know you and I have had our differences these last few years. It’s not exactly been an easy, uh . . .”
    “Yeah,” Olivia said.
    “And I’m sorry for . . . you know, I really am sorry . . .”
    “I know,” Olivia said.
    Charles closed his eyes. “All this time, you and I have worked to make the world a safer place for our daughter. Because the world she was born into was . . .”
    “Unfair,” Olivia said. “It was unfair, growing up in a place like that.”
    “I mean, the sounds , you know? Just the sounds alone were horrible. The explosions. The gunfire. Pop, pop, pop , all through the night. Remember . . . you remember how we’d have our groceries delivered to us?”
    “Because we were too afraid to go outside. I remember,” Olivia said.
    “Until our delivery boy was shot right on our doorstep. I was holding Erin when it happened. She must have been ten months old. I was reaching for my wallet.”
    Outside the apartment, it was sunny. The sky was blue.
    “We swore that night that we’d do anything if it meant Erin could grow up without all that.”
    “We were happily Marked.”
    “Happy to Pledge to Lamson.”
    “The guy was a hero,” Charles said. “I’d have Pledged again and again to the man who ended that war.”
    Olivia was silent for a moment. “And now it’s all happening again. No matter what we did. Another war is already upon us. And somehow, our daughter snuck her way onto the front lines.”
    Charles and Olivia both shook their heads, disbelieving. But just moments later, the tablet between them rang. Dr. Arbitor practically jumped on it. “How are you feeling, honey? Are you feeling any better?”
    “Much,” Erin said.
    “Really?” Dr. Arbitor asked. “Erin, that’s great! Has your fever gone down?”
    For a moment, Erin was confused. “Oh,” she said quickly. “No. No, I’m still sick as ever. Worse, even, I think.” And yet Erin looked more energetic than she had in weeks.
    “So then what’s the news?” Mr. Arbitor asked.
    Erin smiled. “The news,” she said, “is that those Detection Swabs you sent us?”
    “Yeah?” Dr. Arbitor asked, sitting on the edge of her seat.
    “One of them came up positive. Dr. Rhyne thinks we might have a match. Now it’s just a matter of running that protein through a series of tests and—”
    “Erin, that’s amazing!” Mr. Arbitor said. “So you’re going to find a cure?”
    Immediately, Erin’s shoulders slumped. She sank down a bit in her bed. “I, uh, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves, right, Dad?”
    Mr. Arbitor nodded.
    “The question right now is just—where did this new proteincome from, what was its purpose . . . you know, that sort of thing.”
    “Sure,” Dr. Arbitor said. “Sure.”
    Over the video feed, the Arbitors could see Dr. Rhyne step into the frame. She felt Erin’s forehead and shook her head somberly. “No more talking today,” she said to Erin. “Rest. Doctor’s orders.”
    The Arbitors could just barely hear her over the connection.
    When they hung up, moments later, Charles and Olivia hugged for the first time in years. Behind them, the Dust bounded around the apartment, breaking things.
    And the two of them just sat, holding each other.
    4
    Nearly a week had passed. It was late on a Thursday. The stars were out once again and bright enough to read under. Logan and Hailey had spent the day on horseback, as they had each day since Saturday, and they lay now sprawled in the dusty