Except there is someone, Sadie thought with exasperation. Me. Proving that Bucky has no idea what the chips actually are.
Ford’s attention refocused on his mother. “When did you tell James?”
She looked at him, puzzled. “Tell him what?”
“About the chip in his brain.”
Mrs. Winter’s head went back and forth. “James didn’t have it. When James was born we were living in the other house, your father still had a job. There was no need…”
Sadie heard Ford thinking that if James didn’t have the chip, the Pharmacist couldn’t have had any hold over him. So why would James have gone up against him?
Maybe he didn’t, Sadie countered. You only have Bucky’s word for any of this. And if he did, doesn’t that just prove the Pharmacist has nothing to do with chips or Interperception?
He needed to find the Pharmacist and make him pay for what he’d done to James, Sadie heard Ford decide.
Sadie wished she could shake him. Great idea. Find a criminal mastermind no one has ever lived to tell about. What could go wrong?
Ford kissed his mother on the forehead, pleasantly surprising both of them. “Thank you. Thank you, Mom.”
As he got up and headed to the kitchen to make dinner (Note to Ford: If I could mind-control you, we would not be eating Chicken N Biscuits from a can) he cursed himself for having been so distracted he’d missed the license number of the black Range Rover that picked Linc up.
I got it, Sadie said. It was 145T90. Of course, I can’t tell you because I can’t mind-control you.
Luckily, he had another plan for finding the Pharmacist.
But if I could, you would not use the word luckily that way.
And you would not text Plum anymore. Twice today is more than enough.
CHAPTER 21
Ford got fired from his job Friday afternoon. The foreman called him into his office and accused him of stealing. “Found those gewgaws you set aside. Birds and such.”
“I wasn’t stealing those,” Ford said. “I was preserving them.”
“Not the gewgaws. You’re stealing from my time, boy,” he said, leaning in. “I put up with your Frosty Jones and the Temple of Scrapping for a long time, you working slower than everyone else because you find a door handle or a dumb blonde or a piece of a piece of a painting you think is pretty to look at, but I’ve had enough.”
Ford was still having trouble believing it. “Dumbwaiter,” he murmured to himself before saying, “Please don’t fire me. My family needs the money, sir.”
“Kept you on as long as I did in memory of your brother, rest his soul. Great kid. Swing first and ask questions later, that was his way. Fine demolition man.” He looked away. “You’re a good worker, but you just don’t have the spirit to destroy.”
As though to prove the man wrong Ford went outside and bashed his hand into the wall so hard his mind flashed red, yellow, and blue.
If I were mind-controlling you, Sadie told him as he painfully flexed and straightened his knuckles, there would be a lot less punching of walls.
Saturday evening Ford sat on the couch with TREASURE HUNT 4: CURTAINS CALL in front of him. Finding Bucky was part one of his plan to find the Pharmacist, Sadie had learned, so he was ransacking his memory for details of Bucky’s theater to match to one of the six probable locations he’d marked on the map. Copernicus, his head in Ford’s lap, had the other half of the couch.
It was slightly past the time when he should have turned on a light but he hadn’t, so the room was filled with shadows, which, Sadie saw, helped him bring out the details of his memories. She was amazed by how much he recalled about the theaters, tiny things like the design on a molding, or the exact width of a door—nothing she’d paid attention to. It made her a little melancholy to realize that you could get all of someone’s brain input and still only know him partially.
“Maryelise’s boyfriend is back. He must really like her, he was here this morning,” Lulu announced from her perch at the window. Ford had insisted on keeping the television off, so in revenge she was narrating everything she saw. “Hamilton got a new bike, piece of paper flipping over, three leaves, another leaf, Vitacrisp package doing somersault, Vitacrisp package doing another somersault, fancy gray car going down the street, fancy gray car stopping at the curb, fancy gray car door opening, fa—”
Ford covered her mouth with his hand. Thank you, Sadie breathed.
He stood next to her, looking down at the street. Ford didn’t recognize the fancy car, but both he and Sadie recognized the tall, red-headed guy who got out, walked up the path to the front door of their building, and buzzed their apartment.
Mason Bligh was so tall he’d had to duck slightly to step into their apartment. Then he’d been forced to stand just inside while Lulu and Copernicus gaped at him with instant infatuation. Sadie suspected that didn’t happen to Mason Bligh often, but the girl and the dog were unquestionably smitten.
When Ford asked Lulu to step aside she’d turned and run toward their mother’s room, yelling, “Mom! Come see the beautiful man!” Copernicus had stayed to stare at his new idol.
Surprise, concern, and wariness all flashed through Ford’s mind. Before Ford could say anything antagonizing, Mason said, “I’m sorry to bother you at home.”
“It’s no bother, it’s not like I have a job,” Ford answered, but not in a menacing tone. Sadie had the impression that he was keeping his aggression in check so he could hear himself think. As if he’s too curious to be angry.
He gestured Mason toward the couch and sat opposite him, tense and expectant. “I’m sorry I didn’t return your calls,” Mason said. “I was out of range until last night, but first thing this morning I went to the job site, and you’re right, there were—are—some treasures.”
Ford stared at him while he spoke, and Sadie knew he was genuinely baffled. What’s this guy doing at my house, being nice to me? was the first question pinging around his brain. Almost instantly it became What does he want from me? and finally ended as He’s going to try to rip me off. It was like a tragic opera, Sadie thought, the way Ford could interpret the most benign gesture as something harmful.
Not knowing he’d just been cast as a villain in the Life of Ford Winter, Year 19, Mason said, “I came because of these,” setting on the trunk one of the medallions with the carved birds that Ford had salvaged. “And this.” He pulled out a large city plan and laid it over the map Ford had been using to search for Bucky.
Without waiting for Ford to say anything, he went on. “I have a vision of what this area could be. Farmers’ market, skate park, fish hatchery, plus housing, an arts center. Three new schools.” His hands moved over the dark blue plan, which covered a light blue rendering of the existing area. “I need someone like you to help me bring it to life. What do you think?”
Sadie realized she was holding her breath. Mason was offering Ford a chance to work on the kind of thing he dreamed of, what he fantasized about when he should have been concentrating on the laws of the road. Would he run with the opportunity, or would he find a way to destroy it?