Free Quicksilver by R.J. Anderson Page A

was kind of the point. “Why not?” I asked. “It’s clean, and it fits.”
    She gave a little sigh. “Yes, I suppose. Never mind.”
    As I headed outside, I was still puzzling over her reaction, and then it clicked. Back in my old life, I’d always left the shopping to my mom—not only because I didn’t particularly care what I wore but because she had such definite ideas about what clothes would suit me and help me fit in. But now I was Niki, the rules were different, and this outfit was all my doing.
    It wasn’t that I looked bad. It was just that I didn’t look like her daughter.
    A brisk walk and an eighteen-minute bus ride later, I walked into the Sunrise Café to find Milo and Faraday sitting in the booth at the back corner, building a tower out of coffee cups, cutlery, and packets of peanut butter and jam. They were so absorbed in the task that neither one looked up until I sat down next to Milo, who jumped, swore, and dropped his fork under the table.
    “Good morning to you too,” I said, and he looked sheepish.
    “Sorry. I just wasn’t expecting you yet.” He shuffled over to give me more room and began disassembling the pyramid into its component place settings. “So, Sebastian invited me along. Hope that’s okay.”
    I shot a this-had-better-be-good look at Sebastian, who met my gaze mildly and slid a menu across the table. “Milo and I had quite a talk last night,” he said. “About the top secret research facility I work for—excuse me, used to work for. A place called Meridian.”
    My breath stalled in my throat. I stared at him, mouth frozen in an O of disbelief.
    “Would you rather I lied?” said Sebastian.
    There was no answer to that, at least not that I could think of. I pulled a serviette out of the dispenser and unfolded it with deliberate care. “Go on,” I said. “What else did you tell him?”
    As it turned out, Sebastian had told Milo pretty much everything. How he’d grown restless with his employers’ restrictive policies and decided to take a sabbatical and do some research on his own. How he’d discovered that one of his fellow scientists was doing experiments with far-ranging effects on civilians—particularly a young woman named Alison Jeffries, who had ended up in a psychiatric hospital after exposure to one of their devices. How he’d talked to Alison and learned that another girl had been with her at the time—a girl named Tori Beaugrand, who had since vanished without a trace…
    “Do you want me to stop?” Sebastian asked, and I realized I’d shredded the paper napkin into confetti.
    “No,” I said, brushing the pieces away. “I want to know everything he knows.”
    “Look,” said Milo uneasily. “We don’t have to get into this. He told me they kidnapped you with that relay thing and that they were doing experiments on you. I didn’t ask for details.”
    I gave a little, dry laugh. “Did he tell you they’d been experimenting on me my whole life? ” That had been one of the worst moments of the whole ordeal, when I found out who’d put the chip in my arm and what it meant. That, and realizing I was never going to see my parents or my friends again.
    “Actually, no,” said Sebastian. “That’s your story, not mine. All I told Milo was that when I realized what they’d done to you, I went back to Meridian. I found where you were being held, released you, and sent you back home against my colleague’s protests. Then I stayed to make a full report of his unethical behavior to the senior staff. But … things didn’t turn out quite as planned.”
    Even I hadn’t heard this part. “Why not?”
    “I’d rather not go into that now. Let’s say I decided it would be prudent to get out while I still had the chance. And that I have no desire to work for Meridian or anyone associated with it ever again.” He ran a long finger down one edge of the menu and flipped it open. “Ready to order?”
    Milo and I traded glances, and I could see he was