The End of Ordinary by Edward Ashton

Author:Edward Ashton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-06-20T04:00:00+00:00

Believe it or not, it was another fifteen minutes before anyone bothered to ask where we were going. By that time, we had a kind of a Pied Piper thing going on I-90. I was clinging to the speed limit like it was a life raft, and Mr. CorpSec was matching pace with us in the left lane, staring at us through his side window, trying to use psychic powers to melt our faces. There must have been forty or fifty cars lined up behind us, flashing their lights and honking.

“Hey,” Devon said as we passed the Waterloo exit. “Check this.”

I turned around. Devon squeezed aside to let me see a ratty-looking Honda that was riding our bumper. There was a man standing up through the sunroof. He wasn’t wearing pants.

“Nice,” I said. “How long has that been going on?”

“A few minutes,” Devon said.

“At first he was just waving his ass at us,” Marta said. “I guess when we didn’t pull over, he felt like he needed to up his game.”

“Hey,” Devon said. “Speaking of pulling over—when, exactly, are we going to do that?”

“Why? Micah asked. “Gotta pee?”

She slapped the back of his head again. It didn’t seem to be bothering him much.

“No,” she said. “I do not have to pee.”

“I do,” Marta said.

Micah turned to look at me.

“What about you, Jordan? Tiny bladder overflowing?”

I shook my head.

“I pretty much peed myself a while ago.”

“Good.” He turned around again. “Seriously, Marta?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Seriously. I mean, it’s not an emergency thing yet, but if you’re really headed to Canada . . .”

“We’re not headed to Canada,” I said. “We’ve barely got enough gas in this thing to get to Syracuse, and I don’t think our friend in the next lane is gonna give us ten minutes at a filling station, even if we can find one out here that still sells hydrocarbons. The one on Five Mile Line is the only one that still has gas pumps in all of Monroe County, as far as I know.”

“Okay,” Devon said. “So what’s the plan? Head to Briarwood? Maybe if we find Hannah, she can tell this guy that we weren’t home invaders, and he’ll leave us alone.”

“Oh, for shit’s sake,” Marta said. “You honestly think he showed up to investigate a break-in?”

“Yeah,” Devon said. “What else?”

Micah sighed.

“Your avatar got honey-potted, Devon.”

“No,” Devon said. “Inchy does not get honey-potted.”

“Well,” Marta said. “Today, he did. Jordan called it. Your little friend is smart enough to crack your public-school IT system, but my dad’s got like a thousand guys who spend all day thinking about how to keep people like you out of his business. The security net caught your cracker, put up a front to make it look like you were in, and then called in the cavalry.”

“Okay,” Devon said. “So if Bioteka security really knew somebody was trying to breach their walls, why did they just send in one half-assed rent-a-cop? I mean, wouldn’t something like that be worth calling in the real storm troopers?”

Marta shrugged.

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