“A Red?” I echo. “It’s not a Fireseed seedling. It’s not a plant. Is it some kind of parasite that crawled into the plant and used it as a chrysalis?” I ask, as much to myself as Thorn. He may be uncannily smart, but he’s still a kid.
“Made him. My project.” Thorn gazes up at me with his steady brown eyes, and I know, he’s telling me the truth—an impossible truth, yes, but an undeniable truth.
“But how, Thorn?”
He reaches in his pocket and pulls out a few of his chewed fingernails. Holds them up. It takes me a beat to make the unspoken connections. When I do, I eagerly ask him more. For the exact place that he put his fingernails, for how he knew this would work, for any more information at all. But he’s done talking. It’s an absolute miracle he’s managed to string so many words together at all.
I look back at the creature. “Red,” I repeat, and touch it lightly with the fingers on my bad hand. It lets me stroke it only for a moment, before it flaps up to a branch behind Thorn. Its expression, if you can call it that, is one of ‘Thorn’s my master. Only he can pet me. But you’re sort of okay, you ungainly beast.’
I turn to my brother. “You’ll need to keep this thing secret so no one finds out until the judging. You’re going to win this Axiom competition, hands down! You know that, right?”
Thorn’s answer is a wide grin that spreads over his serious face, reflecting the crimson brilliance of the miraculous creature called Red.
Chapter 15
The next few days are filled with deliveries from George Axiom: new high-tech fencing, and weapons for guarding the perimeter of the field. George’s men, gliding along the perimeter in their white vehicles, help lay down the fence, while Blane and the rest of the guys help secure it in the sand with George’s amazing self-drilling agar posts.
There are maps—a specialty of Axiom Coastal—also silvery handguns that click open and closed, which you load bullets into. Nevada stores them in the shed behind the kitchen under lock and key. We have target practice every other day.
Jan and the other guys are super excited by this. They take the guns out and polish them, and sneak target practice in the field, shooting holes in the Fireseed leaves, which makes me furious. When they do this, the humming in my head swells into a kind of shriek, and I yell for them to stop, at which they shoot more and faster. They don’t know what’s playing in my head.
So, I make them clay pigeons out of shale and fixer. The upside is that I’m popular for it. The downside is that I can hardly make them fast enough, and it distracts me from working on my contest project. The Stream announcements seem designed to make us anxious about getting our projects done, and making them the most inventive things ever. They blast into our heads at totally random times:
Huzzah, Fireseeders! George Axiom here. Who’s the smartest high-schooler with the most ingenious Fireseed project? We, in Vegas-by-the-Sea can’t wait for the Axiom Extravaganza to find out! Only twenty more days for the finalist picks.
Brought to you by the Shark Bar and Grill, in the landmark historic Aquarium Casino from before the Border Wars. Where holo-sharks take a virtual bite out of you only in sim time.
So far, I can’t really tell what Blane is doing, other than poring over data on his holo tablet. The Network goes in and out, more out than in. It’s all so new to me. I’m impressed he knows how to use it without lessons. They never taught us at the compound.
Radius has drawn wing diagrams that would use Fireseed leaves for some type of fancy vehicle. He’s the least secretive, and I take peeks at his sketchbook when he leaves the room. It’s a cool and fanciful glider that almost looks like Thorn’s Red but on a grand scale and without a face! Radius spends time flirting with Bea too. They’re cute together, his curly red hair and adoring manner, her bubbly, affectionate remarks and pats to his back, his cheek. She’s always sketching him, and helping him sharpen the perspective on his own diagrams. He’s always coming up behind her and sneaking in hugs while she’s working.