Chapter 12: America

Strawberry pancakes and maple syrup! What a thing to have for breakfast! Epic. It was incredibly serious why they were here, but Grace couldn’t help being excited. San Francisco. America. This huge hotel with all glass and so much space, including a huge swimming pool that she’d had a swim in already with Mia. It was true: everything WAS bigger over here.

She was looking forward to driving down to Mountain View in their dark red ‘rental’. She played with pronouncing it ‘rennle’ in her head. She’d already teased Paul about why it was called a minivan, when it wasn’t either small or a van but a good-sized people-carrier. Paul had grinned in his good-natured way. Paul just such a great person to be around, with not a mean thought in his head.

It was a pity her mum had had to stay and look after the Striteracians, but somebody had had to, and Claude knew more about hacking. It was a shame Cyan couldn’t come too, but she didn’t have a passport of course, on top of being an alien. Still, she was online, and so was her mum.

Meanwhile their first objective was to find out who the SETI IT admins were.

“Your destination is on the right,” said Mia’s phone. Here there were. It was just a low brick building behind a row of trees.

Not as big as Grace had been expecting and no gate or anything. Well she knew the actual dishes were miles away, controlled remotely. Claude turned into the car park and drove slowly to the far end. It was all quiet, with trees dividing the lot into rows. He pulled into a bay and switched off.

“Okay, here we are,” said Mia. “So now we have to find out who the IT admins are.” She twisted round to look at the three in the back.

Grace was in the bench seat right at the back, which she’d taken being the smallest. “Do people walz into Reception and ask for an IT admin?” she wondered. Perhaps she wasn’t the only one who’d been excited, since none of them seemed to have thought too clearly about what to do once they got here.

“I suspect no,” said Claude and there was a general shaking of heads.

“Well ... we could wait for lunch?” Grace suggested, “and see if some people go out to a restaurant? Then we could, I don’t know, see if we can get talking to someone? Make up a story?”

“Good idea,” said Mia. “Looking like California Girls, but European. Well, just me I mean.”

“I’ll do it too,” said Grace.

“Shorts and a tee?” said Mia. “We could wear the same even, and say we’re sisters. People will say ‘Oh you don’t look like sisters’ and that’ll be a start.”

“Okay,” smiled Grace. That was a sweet idea anyway.

By lunchtime they were back in the parking lot, having been to ‘the mall’ for the outfits - Grace was using and thinking all the American words she could. It was like being in a movie!

This time Mo was in the front so the girls could be hidden behind the dark privacy glass in the back windows, but they could still see out. Aha! A bunch of people came out of the SETI building and got into two cars. “Bingo!” said Mia.

Claude trailed them at a distance, until they pulled into a parking lot and went into a restaurant called Del Monte.

“Okay there are several other restaurants in this block,” Mia saw on her phone, “so pick one to be in and we’ll phone?”

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” Claude fretted.

Grace could see he was feeling responsible. “Of course we’ll be okay,” she smiled at him even though he was nearly making her cross, “this isn’t anywhere dangerous is it? And what kind of people work for an institute that’s interested in aliens? They’ll be jolly nice I bet.”

“It’s just ... what would your mother say?”

“She’d say do what we have to do,” Grace replied definitely, in her sleeveless vest tee. She was sure her mum would, too. You didn’t get to be a rocket scientist without knowing how to focus on a goal. They had to get Cyan’s virus into the SETI system; that was the only thing that mattered.

“I’ll be with her anyway,” said Mia, closing off the discussion with her tone. “No need to worry, even though she does look like that. And that’s the whole point isn’t it? Okay let’s go.”

Grace walked next to Mia across the lot, in their short shorts and vests and runners. She wasn’t even wearing a bra, though Mia was or it’d have been too obvious. They reached the restaurant and Mia slowed so that Grace pushed the door open and went in first. In general, people didn’t look up, until Mia followed her in and then somehow Mia’s presence entered with her and most people glanced over.

There was only one table free, by the restroom door at the back, so Grace took it. She sat on the outer seat so that her legs would show to people as they passed. She shuffled her chair back and crossed one leg over the other. God! She’d never even thought about getting guys’ attention like this. Mia sat opposite, smiling at her. Grace smiled back. Mia’s shoulders looked amazing in the vest top. In fact the whole of Mia looked amazing.

Meanwhile, outside the neighbouring restaurant, Claude had left Paul and Mo to order for him and was on the phone in the bright California sunshine. To Zara: “So I feel I am in some way in loco parentis, but she doesn’t even know of course. I don’t think I can tell her either, and you can’t by phone I suppose...”

“She’ll be okay Claude,” Zara reassured him. “Grace is stronger than she looks. She won’t do anything she doesn’t want to, and if she did she’d survive. Mia will be there too and she’s strong as well. So don’t worry. Grace lives her emotions, that’s how I wanted her to be. Rich in her experiences, and fully alive. I never said ‘don’t cry’, I said ‘cry and then you’ll feel better’. Being emotional is strong, not weak.” She finished with a little laugh that showed her conviction.

“Well should we approach Mia’s parents?” Claude transferred his anxiety from one girl to the other. “I mean, they think she’s here on a holiday, like the boys’ parents do, she’s fifteen and setting up basically a honey trap, and we’re here where the age of consent is eighteen and they can be very weird about such things, these Americans. Californians. Just because this is the porn capital of the world doesn’t mean they can’t go berserk with moralising.”

“They’re not going to actually do anything are they?” Claude could hear Zara’s smile.

“I’m rather sure Mia is doing things with the boys, in fact.”

“Well I expect she knows what she’s doing and is taking precautions. Anyway you can only trust them. And Grace can be quite determined underneath, and let’s face it, she’s quite right to be, in this situation. I take responsibility. I won’t blame you whatever happens.”

“Okay,” he sighed. “Miss you,” he finished, and heard “Miss you too,” in return.

In the Del Monte nothing had been happening. The people from SETI were at the other end, by the front window, and so far none of them had come back to use the restroom. Grace and Mia had finished with their first course, which had been so big neither of them had finished it.

They ordered a coffee, and waited again. Eventually two of the SETI guys came back, and noticed them but didn’t really look or say anything even when Mia rather obviously smiled at them. Girls being in shape and not wearing very much was no big deal round here, evidently. The two SETI people came back out and rejoined their group and they all left. Crap.