Chapter 21

The water pooled on the flagstones below her and poured down her face like tears. The rain had soaked her through hours ago, but despite the tremors that periodically shook her body, Renee refused to go back inside.

She needed to think. If she had escaped from Claude, surely- surely she could outwit these adolescents.

Surely, she could find Simon.

Find him.

Rescue him.

They would be together.

... and start a farm.

She choked back a sob and tightened her grip around her knees. She didn't want to remember him. She'd managed it after he had left, bottling up the stray emotions as if they were a disease. Claude had forbidden her from daydreaming, and the repercussions for failing had been effective.

Her fleeting glimpse of the possibility of freedom had shattered that defense as easily as a wall of fog. Every recollection- from the way his hair moved, to the way he moved- seemed to push her over the edge.

Renee wanted to forget him. She wanted him to be here and tell her, 'everything will be all right.' And she'd believe him, even as he lied, because she loved him.

Sawyer- if his 'contact' had the right program- would force her to reveal it all. And if they knew everything, she would never get away.

"Hey." Sawyer strolled onto the patio. "It's almost two. Are you planning on saying out here all night?"

She bit her lip, said nothing.

" ... Zack left a little bit ago." He flopped to the floor in front of her, his back to the metal railing. "I waited for you to come back." He flicked the water from his bangs. "You're going to get sick."

"I'm a synthetic," she muttered. "I'll only sicken you damage me a lot."

Silence, broken only by the patter of the rain, fell upon the roof.

"Y'know," said Sawyer, "I talked to my doctor about you. Well- not you, but synthetics. In general, right? We aren't really that different. She said synthetics are pretty much humans but with a special transceiver- well, special transceivers." He tapped his right wrist. "You've got two. Probably one of the reasons synthetics cost a fortune."

"Two what?"

"Transceivers." He frowned. "You know- the gadgets that let you connect to the net, and eachother, and interfaces with the nanos in your body. It links you to outside communication." He raised a brow. "You really don't know this?"

"No."

"Well, Doc was trying to spin it like that was the only thing different, but I think she was trying to get me to join CISH.

"She's religious," he added.

" ... how am I different, then?" asked Renee. "I'm- I'm a synthetic human. You made it so I feel all the emotions and pain normal people feel, but I don't get any control. How can that be fair?"

Sawyer frowned. He wanted to say, 'That's the reason. You're different - you aren't human -because you don't have free will.' Everyone knew. But telling the girl that sad truth, with the pain clear on her face, would have taken more nerve than he possessed.

"Don't worry about it," he said instead. "I'll message my friend in the morning. Once we get your software, I'll change your settings so you'll be happier, okay?"

He doesn't even realize, she thought. He doesn't even realize how horrible that reassurance is.

He stood up. "Let's get out of this rain. I set up a bed on the couch for you."

Renee followed her young master inside.

She didn't sleep the first night.

The couch was comfortable, as were the pajamas Sawyer had found. He hadn't acted as if he was planning on ... on removing them in the night, but Claude had surprised her the first time. She wasn't going to let it happen again.

He had gone to his bed and she had gone to her couch. She had listened to his breathing relax, but that didn't mean anything. If she fell asleep, he could always wake up.

Renee had waited. She'd waited for hours.

And she had tried to kill him.

It hadn't worked, of course. The razor she had carefully detached from its device wouldn't move closer than an inch away from the boy's neck. Without a command, it seemed, she could do no more.

She logged onto the terminal.

The ads flashed on the edges of her sight, easily ignored distractions.

Her search was going nowhere.

There were thousands of Simons. Hundreds of sites were 'synthetic' and 'Simon' appeared together. Even when she added his face- what she could definitively remember of it- the results seemed infinite.

She wasn't going to find him.

Renee pushed the thought from her head. Of course she would. She had to. She had promised him she'd find him, once she was free.

She sighed.

She wasn't going to find him- not tonight. The sun was going to rise soon. Sawyer might not be so inclined to let her use the terminal, later. Not if he knew what she was doing on it.

The girl logged onto his account and found the homework.

... and paused.

If she wanted to know more about her current captors, their school would have records. The more she knew about them, the better she would be equipped to defeat them.

She only needed to access those documents.

Renee stretched her back, and turned off the screen just long enough to glance at the bed behind her.

Sawyer was still asleep.

Getting his information was proving to be more difficult than she thought. It had only taken a few searches to find a way in- but infiltrating the school's data so was taking time. The place had better safeguards than she had expected.

The security system's architecture was a labyrinth of traps and loopholes. She was almost positive it was changing as she drudged through. But- at least, according to the sites that had instructed her- it shouldn't be capable of altering itself after she had gone through the third gate. Most schools were supposed to have one of the six main programs to protect them, and all of them had holes.

She cracked through yet another password, and the screen filled with names.

'Now, why, ' said an amused male voice, 'would a synthetic human be poking around Lakeview's student records?'

Renee whirled, automatically dimming the screen. The room, beyond her young owner, was empty.