Free Enders by Lissa Price

But she spotted him. Her face registered alarm but she wasn’t intimidated. She leapt straight up into the air to get away from him, then did a somersault midair and landed on a thick wall. She ran along it until she came tothe end; then she leapt off and reached for a tree branch. She swung out and landed on a table at an outdoor café, sending cups flying and patrons scattering.
    Ernie tried to chase her, but she was outsmarting him. He couldn’t seem to anticipate her next move. She went right, he went left.
    I watched it all from the car window. “This is not how I thought it would go.”
    “At least we know her body’s not being hijacked. She’s too good, too smooth,” Hyden said. “That’s all her.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “You saw—Reece had the jerky movements.”
    “The Old Man used to be able to hijack people perfectly.”
    “Under perfect circumstances. Here, he has no cooperation of the donor body. It’s not like he’s in the Prime lab, setting up both donor and renter. His first-access signal from a distance has far less control.”
    I nodded, even though I wasn’t positive I understood. I turned my attention back to Ernie. Finally, he anticipated the girl’s move correctly. As she leapt out, hoping to catch a store’s awning to get away, he caught her in his arms on the upswing instead.
    “He’s got her,” I said.
    Hyden unlocked the back panel door and raised it with a button so all Ernie had to do was throw the kicking, biting, screaming Metal in the back. He kept one hand over her eyes, then climbed in after her. She stopped screaming, but I was afraid she would tear his eyes out, because she reached for him as he slammed the back door. But in one quick move, he put his hand to her neck and she froze. Her eyes became glassy; then she slumped down as if she’d suddenly fallen asleep.
    “She okay?” Hyden yelled back to Ernie.
    “Out like a baby,” he said.
    I saw Ernie held a tiny disc in his palm. He slipped it into a pocket as Hyden drove us away.
    “Why cover her eyes?” I asked.
    “In case she was being hijacked,” Hyden said. “But she wasn’t.”
    “If I’d had time, I would’ve blindfolded her,” Ernie said. “But she was hopping around like a bunny rabbit with its tail on fire.”
    Ernie sat beside her body in the back cargo area.
    “Is she going to be all right?” I asked, staring at her shiny black hair.
    “Sleeping Beauty will wake up,” Ernie said. “Eventually.”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CHAPTER EIGHT
    By the time we got to Hyden’s place, the Metal Ernie had captured lay in the back, gently rocking to the car’s movement. It was hard to believe this was the same girl who just an hour ago had been leaping through the air and clawing at Ernie like a wildcat. I wondered what she’d be like when she woke up.
    “Wouldn’t it have been better if she came of her own free will?” I asked. “Now she’s going to be angry.”
    “You wanted her, we got her,” Ernie said.
    Hyden gave me an apologetic look as he pulled into the garage. Ernie got out, holding his gun close to his chest. He checked the place over just as Hyden had before. Then he pressed the button on the wall.
    “He’s talking to Redmond?” I asked.
    “To make sure everything is okay,” Hyden said.
    When Ernie returned to the car to get the Metal, he slung her over his shoulder as if she were a duffel bag, her weight barely affecting his confident stride. He put her on a bed inone of the empty rooms not far from mine while we watched from just outside the door.
    “It’ll be best if you’re here when she comes to,” he told me, handing me the wallet he’d fished from her purse. “Her name is Lily.”
    I sat on the bed. I wondered how I’d feel, waking up in a strange place, having some girl I didn’t know staring at me. But better she see me than Ernie.
    After a few minutes, Ernie brought in a tray holding a turkey and cheese sandwich and a glass of