Open Minds by Susan Kaye Quinn Read Free Book Online

against the cold, metal lockers. My mind was a complete blank, like I was a computer coming back from a hard reboot.
    “I need some time,” I finally said, “to think about this.”
    He didn’t say anything, but there was a glint in his eyes.
    “How did you know?” I asked. “That I could jack into people’s heads?”
    A smile flitted across his face. “I didn’t,” he said. “But you’re the only person that I
couldn’t
jack, so I figured there was something special about you. Your mind barrier is like nothing I’ve felt before.”
    I shrunk away from him.
Of course
he had tried to jack into my mind. Like he did to that boy on the bleachers. Like he had done to everyone else.
For years
.
    A surge of adrenaline made my hand twitch. I scrambled up from the dingy industrial carpeting, and a shadow crossed Simon’s face as he climbed to his feet.
    “Aren’t you afraid,” I said slowly, contemplating how I could escape if I had to, “that I’ll tell someone?”
    Simon loomed over me, his dark look solidifying into an icy mask. “No one would believe you, Kira.”
    I swallowed. He was right; no one would believe a sim like that, especially from a zero. I hardly believed it myself, and I had just jacked into another girl’s head.
    “I won’t, you know,” I said. “Tell anyone.”
    My words seemed to erase Simon’s cold look as quickly as it had appeared. “I know.” He touched my hair, smoothing it back from my face. “We’re the same, Kira. Now that we’ve found each other, we’re in this together. Just you and me.” He gently swept his thumb across my forehead. We weren’t readers, so there was no surge of emotions between us when he touched my bare skin. But it still sent a shiver through my body.
    When he stepped back, I teetered, not sure if I should run or stay. “Take some time to think,” he said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
    Without another word, he turned and strode down the hall.
    chapter NINE

I stumbled through the walk home, my skin slick with sweat.
    I told myself it was only the heat, not the traumatic after-school events with Simon, but I was so distracted thinking about my newfound mindjacking ability that I nearly ran into the garage door. I slid in the passkey, and it opened to reveal our red hydro car. Mom was already home, and I searched my brain for a plausible reason to be late.
    As I hiked up the stairs from the ground level, the cool air of the house prickled my skin. Mom shuttled back and forth between the kitchen and the living room in a flurry of activity, and the acrid smell of glass-cleaning solution followed her. She had hauled out Grandma O’Donnell’s crystal plates, the ones Gram claimed were hand-cut by our distant relatives in County Kerry during the potato famine. She also said Big Foot crashed her eighteenth birthday party.
    Gram could make up stories like that, and no one could tell if they were true memories or sims because she was a zero, and zeros were liars. Even a truth magistrate couldn’t read her thoughts, in spite of their skin-to-skin questioning.
    I wished Gram were still rambling around the house. Given what she had been through—being a zero, having her dad in the camps—she might have understood what I was going through. But my mom… she was always trying to be like everyone else, even with her semi-heremita lifestyle.
    And I was about as far from fitting in as possible.
    Mom shuffled back from the living room and carefully set another sparkling crystal plate with the others on the kitchen table. “How was school?”
    “Um, okay,” I said, stalling. “The, uh, hearing aid worked great.” Her face broke into a picture of relief. She must have expected a heinous story related to the tiny ear bud that still sat in my ear. I popped it out. “See, I forgot to take it out. Hardly noticed it.” That earned me a smile. I edged toward the stairs. “I’ve got a ton of homework to catch up on. I should get started.”
    “Why don’t