I sighed. “I think it’s why Brayden was killed.”
“That much is obvious, Mo. I want the full picture.”
“Are you recording me?”
He made a short choking sound. “Okay,nowI’m not.”
I didn’t believe him. Not this guy. He was hooked on my purple power, but he wasn’t my friend. “No, go ahead. Record me,” I told him. “If something happens, someone should know everything. You have the videos. You’ll have my story to go with it.”
I explained everything. Brayden coming to see me. The cut on my hand. The video I’d seen from the Freeze, which I forwarded to him, as well. Meeting Dane, and his interest in my glove. And the weird vibe I’d gotten when I’d met Alling. Finding Brayden dead. Practicing to see what I could do with my new power. I vomited the story out like purple goo.
“Fuck, Moji,” he groaned at the end. “I can’t believe you told me all that. I could be working for the government or some other nefarious corporation.”
“Nobody’d want you,” I assured him with full confidence.
He laughed. “You’d be surprised. I’ve had offers. You’re lucky I encrypted your phone last time I talked to you. Anyone could’ve been tracking you.”
I blinked. “Do you think you could hack into BantaMatrix, find out what Brayden took?”
Jacob laughed again, more incredulous this time. “Sure, I’ll just commit some casual industrial espionage against one of the biggest names in the technology sector on behalf of some chick I know online.”
“You’re already cyber stalking, clickjacking, keylogging—”
“Please. That’s a drop in the bucket compared to what I’d have to do to get into the Banta network. You think a cute little XSS attack is going to get me in there?”
“Listen, you want to help or not, jack…Jacob? I need to figure out what to do so I don’t end up like Brayden.” I didn’t mean to, but my voice broke. “C’mon, SirLancelot. You picked that name for a game, but this is your chance to be a hero in real life.”
After another long minute where I heard him typing, he said, “I can’t promise anything.”
“Jacob, you have to… Jacob?” I looked at the screen but he’d disconnected. Just when I thought I finally had someone on my side. Fuck him anyway. “Jackhole.”
My whole body still twitched with some queasy mix of sugar crash and cold hard truth. Jacob might be able to find out more from BantaMatrix about the nanotech I’d been accidentally exposed to, and between him and me, we might be able to tear apart Brayden’s phone and learn who had killed him.
Jacob had been my scourge for too long for me to completely trust him—and I didn’t—but at least I wasn’t alone anymore. Just him and me and some unknown number of molecular robots apparently running around my veins.
Anxiety spiraling, I called home.
Mom answered on the first ring. “Heya, hun. What’s up?” Her tone was light, almost lilting. Which meant she was faking it for someone else within earshot of the call.
I swallowed hard to keep my voice from trembling. “Hey, Mom. Just taking a break and thought I’d check in.”
“Checking to see if Joe stopped over?”
Yup. She was pissed.
“He said he needed to find a loving forever home for some lonely lemons. I didn’t have the heart to turn him down.”
She made a noncommittal noise. “Now I have to give him something in return.”
“Only if you want—”
“So we’re going to lunch later.”
“That’s…” Well, wasn’t that what I wanted? Someone else to watch over her. And she was clearly having a good day with her back pain, or she would’ve had the perfect reason to refuse. “Great,” I choked out. “That’s great. I’m, uh, going to be late tonight. Do you need the car?”
“Joe’s driving. His cousin just opened a new taqueria in Sun City and he wants my opinion. So I might be late too.”
“Works out perfectly then.” Thank you, God. “I love you, Mom. Don’t kiss him on the first date. He’ll think you’re fast.”
