“I wasn’t supposed to leave campus,” I admitted. “So I need to be on the nine-fifteen train back.”
“I’ll get you a car,” Griffin said. “If you leave by ten, you’ll be fine. And the speech won’t take long. I’d cancel it to talk to you, but they’re live-streaming it and there are a few things I need to say before this thing goes any further than it already has.” There was a tenor of resolve in his voice that hadn’t been there before. Before what goes any further? I wanted to ask, but the man in black was at Griffin’s elbow. “So you’ll stay?”
“Sure,” I said.
My father smiled, and for a second his eyes weren’t sad at all. “I’m so glad to meet you, Rory,” he said, taking my hand in his.
“What do the symbols mean?” I asked, nodding at the ring.
“Timshel,” Griffin replied. “It’s Hebrew. Steinbeck used it in East of Eden. It means ‘thou mayest.’ The idea being that we all have a choice. To do good, to live well.”
“Timshel,” I repeated. “I like that idea.”
“Me too,” Griffin replied. He examined his ring as if seeing it for the first time. “Your mom had it made for me for my eighteenth birthday. When she left, I kept it on as a reminder of the mistake I’d made, trusting something other than myself.” He looked up at the ceiling, as if searching for something there. “I think I missed the point.”
“Mr. Payne, the stream goes live in five minutes.” Jason was back, and his voice was urgent now. There was static buzzing from his earpiece. “They have to mic you, sir.”
Through the window I could see that the crowd had formed a semicircle around the fountain, facing the stage at the south end of the courtyard where Griffin would be giving his speech. There was a paper-thin screen mounted on the wall behind it, playing the latest TV ad for the Gold.
“I’ll find you as soon as I’m done,” I heard Griffin say.
And then he was gone, through the door and swallowed up by the boisterous crowd outside. North was at my side seconds later.
“How’d it go?”
“He never knew the baby was his,” I said, following North outside. “He got some email with the results of a pregnancy test dated two months before he and my mom ever slept together, so he thought my mom had cheated on him. When he went to ask my mom about it, she was gone.” I chewed on my lip. “Why would someone want him to think the baby wasn’t his?”
“I don’t know. You think the person who sent that email is the same person who messed with your mom’s medical file?”
“I guess so, but it seems weird, right? I mean, I understand the fake test results, but it’s not like Griffin would ever see her medical file. Why go to all that trouble?”
“Rory?” I spun on my toes, startled by the familiar voice. Beck was standing just a few feet away, in a navy suit that fit him perfectly but looked completely ridiculous. It reminded me of something Liam might wear, which made it the polar opposite of anything I’d ever seen my best friend put on.
“What are you doing here?” I demanded, rushing over to give him a hug and nearly tripping in my heels in the process. “Another perk of being a beta tester?” I grabbed him by the elbows and gave him a once-over. He looked good. The zits he’d always battled had cleared up and his arms were bulkier, like he’d been working out.
“Oh, it’s way cooler than that,” Beck said, glancing at North then back at me, a reminder that I hadn’t introduced him. “My photographs are on the wall in one of the exhibit rooms. It’s part of an exhibit of new artists that Gnosis is sponsoring. It goes from here to the MFA in Boston.”
“No way! That’s amazing!”
“Yeah, it’s pretty sweet. Gnosis flew all the artists out for it. There’s another event at the museum tomorrow night.”
“Holy crap.” I punched him in the arm. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It just happened. So what are you doing here? Class field trip?”
“Something like that,” I said. The knowledge I’d accumulated over the past few weeks, about the voice, and my mom, and now, my real dad, was pressing out from the inside. How had I not told Beck any of it? I felt a twinge behind my rib cage. I’d tried. Several times.
Beck looked over at North. “So we should probably just introduce ourselves since Rory’s clearly not going to.”
North laughed. “Probably a good plan. I’m North.” I stepped back so they could shake hands and noticed that Beck had his Gold snapped to a brown leather wrist strap. It was like the suit. Much too preppy for Beck’s taste. Then again, it was a party and he was here on someone else’s dime, and this was probably just his attempt at dressing up.
“Beck’s my best friend,” I told North. “From back home.” I turned back to Beck. “So where are they? I want to see them!”
“They’re inside,” Beck replied. “Let me just make sure we have enough time.” He raised his wrist toward his mouth. “Lux, do we have time to visit the exhibit before the keynote speech?”
I felt as if I were watching a stranger. Beck had told me he was using Lux now, but to ask it something as ridiculous as that? Beck didn’t need an app to tell him that we had plenty of time. Yet he was earnestly waiting for Lux’s reply, a bizarre half smile on his lips as he stared at his tiny screen.
“The presentation is delayed,” Lux said, in a voice that sounded so much like Beck’s that I thought for a second that he’d been the one to say it. The Lux voice on the older model Gemini was tinny, audibly distinct from its owner’s. This version was indistinguishable. “You have adequate time to view the exhibit,” Lux continued. “I will notify you when it is time to return to the courtyard.”
“Thanks,” Beck said to his handheld. He readjusted his sleeve and smiled at us. “Let’s do it.”
I started to follow him then stopped to scan the courtyard first. Tarsus was easy to spot this time, a flash of iridescent white silk in a blur of dark colors. Thankfully, she was on the other side of the fountain and her back was to me. I could tell from the way her head was bobbing that she was in a heated conversation with whoever was in front of her.
“You coming?” Beck asked.
“Yep,” I said, glancing over at Tarsus one last time. She’d moved slightly, so the person she was talking to was now in view. I watched as she put her hand on his forearm and he shook it off, his face twisted in anger.
It was Griffin.
“No,” I breathed. “North, he’s talking to Dr. Tarsus.” An avalanche of dread cascaded from my chest to my stomach. “If he tells her I’m here . . .”
“Don’t panic,” North whispered, steering me toward the room where Beck was headed. “They could be talking about anything.”
As we stepped inside the building, I looked over my shoulder to where Tarsus and Griffin had been standing. He was striding away from her, toward the podium. She was on her handheld, a Gold, strapped to her wrist like Beck’s. It glinted in the dim light. It felt like a good sign that she wasn’t searching the room for me. Maybe they had been talking about something else. Maybe Griffin hadn’t mentioned me after all.
Or maybe she was calling the dean right now to report me.
“Mine are on the left wall,” I heard Beck say. We were in a room adjacent to the courtyard, which Gnosis had converted into a chic-looking art space, with temporary white fiberglass walls. There were paintings in nearly every media, from watercolor to digital ink prints, but I saw only three photographs. All of sailboats.
“Wait, where are yours?” I asked, revolving to take in the rest of the room.