Dark Mind Rising by Julia Keller

Author:Julia Keller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

18

Secrets and Lies

It was time.

Violet knew it was time—okay, it was way past time—but she still didn’t want to do it. She didn’t want to tell Kendall about Rez’s suspicion that someone might be trying to resurrect the Intercept.

She texted him:

U free?

He texted back:

Y

She replied:

Perey Park in ten

The park was her go-to place. It was the spot where she and Shura had spent so much of their free time when they were growing up. Located smack in the middle of Hawking, anchored by a round granite fountain in the middle, Perey Park was lovely in a simple, unfussy way. The grass was a soft green carpet. The trees that bordered the walking path were tall and chocolate-brown and friendly looking. And the whole place had a faintly magical quality, a kind of glow, like the memory of a birthday party from childhood.

“So,” Kendall said. He sat down next to her on the bench. He’d driven them here in his official police vehicle. She hadn’t said much during the ride. “Here we are in Violet and Shura’s secret hangout.”

“Huh?”

“That’s how I used to think of this place. You guys came here all the time, right?”

“We had a lot to talk about back then.”

“Like what?”

Like you. She had been desperately in love with Danny Mayhew—that is, the guy she thought was Danny Mayhew, but who was really Kendall, the same guy who was sitting next to her right now—and Shura had helped her deal.

“Like all kinds of stuff,” she said.

“You don’t talk about Shura so much anymore.”

Violet stood up. She didn’t feel like sitting. She also didn’t feel like talking about Shura and the changes to their friendship. “Can we walk around?”

“Absolutely.”

Their feet crunched along the gravel path. Their paces matched up well, without either one having to adjust speed.

“So there’s something I need to tell you,” Violet said.

“Shoot.”

“When I talked to Rez the other day, he mentioned something.”

“Okay.”

“That something was the Intercept.”

“It’s not a dirty word, Violet. People still talk about it. They probably always will.”

“I know that.”

Kendall stopped. She stopped, too.

“There’s something you don’t want to tell me,” he said.

“How did you figure that out?”

“Come on. We’ve been through too much. I can tell when you’re holding back.”

She took a deep breath.

“Rez thinks that somebody may be trying to get it up and running again.” There. She’d said it. She was apprehensive; she didn’t know what Kendall’s reaction would be. His feelings about the Intercept had always been so intense. He’d created it. Overseen its installation on New Earth. And then he’d watched as the dark side of his great creation had emerged, like a scaly, red-eyed, triple-headed monster from the depths of a cave.

“Can’t be,” he declared flatly.

“But Rez says—”

“Rez is wrong. There’s no way. The Intercept is way too complicated for anybody to build from scratch.”

“What if they didn’t have to build it from scratch?”

“Meaning?”

“You know what I mean. Maybe they found the notebook pages. The ones we grabbed from the floor of Protocol Hall before it exploded.”

She watched Kendall’s face.

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