Glitch by Heather Anastasiu Read Free Book Online

move,
    couldn’t even make a sound. The boy glanced my way and
    saw the terror shining in my eyes.
    “I’m so sorry I didn’t get here sooner,” he said in a rush.
    “I didn’t see until too late.”
    See what? I wanted to ask, but my vocal cords were still
    paralyzed.
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    Heather Anastasiu
    The boy glanced back to see if I’d heard him and his face
    went red. He ran over to me. “Oh crackin’ hell, I’m sorry.
    Deactivate program 181. Authorization code 5789345.”
    I was released. My hands fl ew to my face as I scrambled
    onto the fl oor. I quickly reached behind me to yank the for-
    eign hardware out of my neck.
    “No, don’t !” He half- turned around to me, holding out
    one hand. He stopped just short of touching me. “Don’t pull
    out the drive, or we’re both cracked.”
    My hand paused on my neck. How had he known about
    the drive? My sense of relief was immediately replaced by
    fear. “Why shouldn’t I? How did you know that code? Are
    you working with him?”
    “No, of course not!” he said. “Hurry, we don’t have much
    time.”
    I didn’t need to be told twice. What ever the boy’s moti-
    vations, at least he’d freed me from the paralyzing control of
    the program.
    “Who are you?” I asked. “What are you doing here?”
    “I’m Adrien. And I can’t tell you more than that right
    now.”
    I adjusted my hair, careful not to dislodge the hardware in
    my neck. “Are you from Central Systems?”
    “No shuntin’ way,” he said vehemently. “I only want to
    help you.”
    I pulled my arms tight against my chest, hugging my-
    self and looking over at the misshapen lump on the bed.
    “D-d- did you . . . deactivate him?” I whispered, the terror of
    all that had just happened truly starting to sink in.
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    G L I TC H
    “No,” Adrien said, “I’m tempted to, but an offi
    cial’s death
    would get more investigation. This way it just looks like he
    passed out. Speaking of.” Adrien reached down and pulled
    something out of his bag. It was a small metal cylinder, a
    little bigger than a tablet stylus. He pulled off the cap and I
    could see two tiny needles sticking out at the tip. He rolled
    the big man over and jammed the tip of the cylinder into his
    backside.
    I looked away and rubbed my neck, a shiver running
    down my back when I touched the foreign hardware again.
    “So why can’t I pull the drive out?”
    Adrien looked back at me, carefully capping the needle and
    putting it back into his small black bag. “With it in, you’re
    disconnected from the Link and everything is being recorded
    separately on the drive. None of your vitals are registering
    but the moment you pull it out, your skyrocketing adrenaline
    and heart rate will get reported right to the doctors in Cen-
    tral Systems and we’ll get caught instantly. At the very least,
    they’ll turn the godlam’d cameras in this wing back on.” He
    pointed to black circular disks on the ceiling.
    “Those are cameras?” My stomach dropped. All the ceil-
    ings and hallways had those black dots. The underground
    tunnels. The subway cars. My parents’ dining room.
    He nodded and held out his hand. “Come on, let’s get out
    of here.”
    “And go where?” I asked, still shocked by the idea that
    I could be watched all the time, even when I was alone. Of
    course, it was obvious now that I thought about it. Finger-
    print systems
    weren’t enough to track subject movement.
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    Heather Anastasiu
    They would want more comprehensive control. Whoever
    they were.
    I made the mistake of looking over at the man on the bed
    one last time. My hands were trembling. “Was he about to
    deactivate me?”
    I felt something moist on my face. I looked up instinc-
    tively to see if the ceiling was leaking somehow. Then I
    touched my face and realized the water was coming from my
    eyes. I pulled my hand back and stared at it in bewilderment.
    I couldn’t handle another malfunction. Not today.
    “Come on, Zoe,” Adrien said, his