As she settled back in the car, her phone buzzed. She dug it out of her purse.
Cynthia, texting: SAW YOU GET PICKED UP.
Alix felt secretly pleased that even when Cynthia seemed busy, she still was looking out for Alix.
I’M IN HELL, Alix texted back.
TOO BAD. I’M DRINKING COFFEE WITH SOPHIE AND DEREK. SHE’S TELLING ME ABOUT ALEC. TOTAL TRAINWRECK!!!!
UPDATE ME.
HE’S A WEEEEET KISSER.
EW!
“Who are you texting with?” Jonah asked.
“Cynthia.”
“She’s cute,” Jonah said. “I saw her in that bikini at the pool.”
Alix rolled her eyes at him. “Dream on. She’s so out of your league.”
CAN YOU COME OUT?
CAN’T. STUCK WITH DEATH BARBIE AND MY BRO.
:( WE’LL FIGURE SOMETHING OUT.
That was Cynthia. Always looking out for her friends. She never seemed to forget Alix. It was the opposite of the mean-girl garbage that some girls played at. Cynthia paid attention to people. It sometimes made Alix feel like she wasn’t the best friend in the world, but Cynthia didn’t seem to care. Cynthia did nice things for people and then went on and didn’t worry about whether there was payback. Alix had once called her Zen nice, and Cynthia’s only comment had been that Zen wasn’t Chinese, it was Japanese.
Cynthia texted again, ANY MORE FROM YOUR BOYFRIEND?
???, Alix texted back.
STALKER MAN!
HA!
“What?” Jonah leaned over, trying to see, but Alix jerked her cell out of sight as she texted.
WISH I WAS THERE.
THERE’S A RAVE NEXT SATURDAY.
RUB IT IN, WHY DON’T YOU?
LOL. NOT WHAT I MEANT. WE’LL BUST YOU OUT. GIRL GOTS TO HAVE FUN.
Alix smiled secretly. The car pulled up to the curb. Hulk and Death Barbie climbed out and opened the doors for her and Jonah.
The house looked pretty much the same as it always had. The Williams & Crowe surveillance van was still parked across the street, but other than that, the security people had faded into the background. For all she knew, they had snipers in the trees. Inside the house, there were a couple of workmen from an electronic-security firm rewiring the house for another layer of protection.
“What’s all this?” Alix asked as she threw her satchel onto the counter. The activity was like an ants’ nest. Her father was in the middle of it with George Saamsi. George grinned at her.
“Security through the wonders of science and technology,” he said.
“Yeah?” Jonah asked, immediately interested in the way he always got interested with something militaristic.
“Motion sensors. New electronic eyes. Also, we’re putting in cameras for the street and yard approaches. Just in case.”
“In case of what?”
George shrugged. “Whatever 2.0 decides he’s up to.”
Alix watched the proceedings, feeling as if her home was being taken over by an army. George seemed to read her mind. “Don’t worry, Alix. After today, they’ll all be gone, and you’ll be able to go back to your regular life.”
“You mean my bodyguard’s going, too?” Jonah asked.
George laughed. “You should look at this as an opportunity to study self-defense.”
“You don’t have him following you around everywhere,” Jonah grumped.
“Gunter knows eight different ways to kill a person with his bare hands in less than five seconds.”
“Yeah?” Jonah perked up and went off in pursuit of Hulk.
George’s eyes were twinkling when he caught Alix watching the exchange. “Please don’t tell your mother I said that.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve got enough problems as it is.”
“I hear you’ve been having some adventures lately.”
“I’ve got my own personal stalker. It’s awesome.”
George chuckled, and Alix was glad he was there. Somehow, it made all the disruption feel just a little more… if not normal, then at least acceptable. Alix had always thought of him as family. His official title was chief science liaison for Banks Strategy Partners, but really that just meant that he was her father’s best friend and they’d always been partners. She’d grown up with George around, in and out of their lives, dropping in for dinners. A familiar face at events. Every so often he showed up for the holidays with his ninety-year-old mother in tow, a woman who went from vague and disoriented to whip-funny, depending on her medications.
Now George was urging the workmen to wrap everything up. Jonah wandered into the living room and fired up his Xbox. Pretty soon he had his sword out and was busy swinging away at some kid in Indonesia, his heavily armored avatar moving through a burning lava landscape, mirroring his movements on the Kinect.
Alix got a Diet Coke out of the fridge and went to the backyard and the pool. She thought about swimming but didn’t really like the idea of getting into her bathing suit while all the security people were there. She went back inside and watched Jonah hack through enemies, envious of his ability to just do whatever he wanted without letting anyone else’s watching eyes bother him.
All she wanted was privacy, but when she went up to her bedroom, she just found more people, wiring up windows, attaching strips of security tape to everything. She wandered back downstairs, feeling like a stranger in her own house, feeling observed and self-conscious everywhere she went.
Dad came out of his office and looked surprised to see her.
“What are you doing home?” he asked.
“Hello? I’m done with school.”
“Oh?” he checked his watch. “Of course.” He shook his head. “I lost track of time completely.” Alix thought he looked exhausted, worn by work and stress.
“Dad?”
“Yes, Alix?”
“Can we talk?”
He started to check his watch again but seemed to catch himself. He smiled tiredly at Alix. “Of course. Do you want to go into the study?”
Alix eyed the ongoing work. “Could we go out somewhere, instead?”
“You want to take your old man on a date?” he joked.
Alix couldn’t help but feel a little better. “I’ll buy you as many espressos as you can drink, if you’ll bust me out of here.”
Dad laughed at that, and for a second it felt like everything was normal again. “You’re on.”
Of course, Lisa and one of the security team tagged along, but they followed in a chase car, and they took a table far enough away to give the illusion that they weren’t with Alix and her dad. They still had a good view of the parking lot and the doors, but at least it gave the effect of leaving Alix and her dad in a bubble of privacy. It wasn’t perfect, but somehow having her father with her made her feel better, and, in a way, it was nice to spend time with him without any other intrusions. He’d even turned off his cell phone.
“They can call Lisa if they need us,” Dad said simply as he shut it down.
Alix was surprised once again at how different it was to have her father’s whole attention. Before she’d finished kindergarten, Alix had already become skilled at discerning when her father’s mind had shifted away from the moment at hand—even if his eyes were still fixed on her, and even if he was still making the appropriate yeses and nos and affirming noises of someone who was listening to what she was saying.
Mom had a story about how one day, when Alix had been about six years old, she’d been talking to Dad, and, of course, Dad hadn’t been paying attention, so Alix had climbed up on his lap, grabbed his chin, and yanked his face. She’d stared into his eyes, an inch away, and said, “Your head isn’t listening to me!” Which Dad found hilarious. It had become a catchphrase for the family.