Upgrade (Augmented Duology Book 2) by Heather Hayden (best reads .TXT) 📗

she got back, everything seemed fine. Then she got asked to welcome the new transfer student in our grade, so she had us tag along to meet him—”

“—and I was with him.” I bit my lip. “Do you think she’s so focused on him because he’s hanging out with me?”

“That might be part of it. She’s not used to guys ignoring her charms, either.” Mel shrugged again. “Maybe it’s for the best. Annabeth and I’ve been talking a lot about our plans for next year and after graduation, but Neela doesn’t care about that. She’s too focused on parties and boys. That was fun last year, but we’re juniors now and…I don’t know. It kind of feels like we’re drifting apart.” Her voice choked.

I patted her shoulder awkwardly, unsure if she’d want a hug, although she looked as though she might need one. “I’m sorry, Mel.”

She took a deep breath and then exhaled. “It’s just hard, you know? We’ve always been together, Neela, Annabeth, and me. We’ve always forgiven each other. Yeah, things are rough right now, but what if they’ll get better and we’d be throwing away all those good times because we can’t handle a little rough patch?”

“I’ve never walked away from a friendship,” I admitted. “But I think that sometimes it’s necessary. You have to do what’s best for you.”

“Girls.” Ms. Waldron’s voice made us both jump. She was peering out of the classroom, one eyebrow raised. “Whatever’s got you so serious will have to wait. Class is starting.”

“Sorry!” we chorused, sharing a nervous chuckle as we hurried to take our seats next to Dan.

It was difficult to focus on the lesson at hand. I couldn’t stop turning our conversation over in my mind, revisiting Mel’s words again and again. Had I really been so blind these past few years? It was difficult putting the Neela I knew before and the Neela I was seeing now together. Until I pictured her the day I’d tried to visit her, not long after the truth about my augmentation came out. There had been no concern, no pity in her expression then. Only disgust and hatred. I blinked back tears and tried to focus on the intelliboard. The hope I’d long been nursing, that Neela and I might finally be friends again someday, shriveled and crumbled into nothing. Sometimes you have to walk away.

I found myself staring at the clock, willing it to move faster, and then I remembered that this afternoon I would be meeting Agent Smith to visit the lab. The greater worry of that impending visit, and the rogue AI still at large, buried my concerns regarding Neela. My lunch compacted into a stone that threatened to tear a hole in my stomach. I don’t want to go. I couldn’t back out now, though. Halle was counting on me.

I flipped back a few pages in my notebook and stared at the cats I’d doodled in my last class. Standing, sitting, curled up. Tabby, calico, tortoiseshell. Halle had been my friend for so long. I knew its moods, could read them in the colors and movements of its avatar. My pencil began darkening the fur on one cat. Even peripherally visiting the lab would be terrifying for my friend. I was sure of that.

The muscles in my thighs twitched. Even my implants were tense. I could almost imagine feeling the new code crawling through them. Biting my lip, I dug my pencil a little harder into the paper.

***

A nondescript black car was parked on the curb across from the corner store. The glimpse of a fedora through the back window was all I needed to confirm this was my ride. I got in the passenger’s side behind the driver, dropping my backpack on the floor by my feet. Agent Smith leaned forward and told the driver to head for the lab.

“How far away is it?” I buckled my seatbelt as the floater lifted from the pavement. The uniform I now wore made my skin crawl, even though the material was comfortable. I tried not to wriggle in my seat.

Agent Smith was busy scribbling things on his ever-present clipboard. “No more than half an hour. I should get you home by five, unless the visit takes longer than expected.”

“Oh, good.” I might make it to Dan’s after all. I hoped his parents were nice—it had been a while since I’d met a friend’s parents. We weren’t going to the laboratory Halle was from, but I suddenly wondered who its “parents” might be, the scientists behind its creation. Halle probably knew the answer, but I couldn’t ask it. Not when speaking of its past was so difficult for it.

Speaking of Halle… I glanced at Agent Smith. Is he really planning to trap Halle, too? Or was Talbot lying? There was no way I could ask him straight out—no way to know for sure if a denial was the truth. I gritted my teeth. I’ll have to keep an eye on him.

Drumming my right fingers on my leg, just above my knee, I stared out the tinted window. Houses, street signs, and the gray pillars of car chargers flashed by. The occasional pedestrian would glance at the black floater, but for the most part, no one noticed our passage.

Eventually we left Snowvale’s residential area behind, heading deeper into a part of town I wasn’t familiar with. I wasn’t even sure we were still in Snowvale.

The floater came to a stop outside a large concrete building with a fading sign that read W REH USE. The driver fiddled with something on the dashboard, and the warehouse’s door creaked open.

I glanced at Agent Smith and raised my eyebrows.

The corners of his mouth twitched. “Hold on.”

I didn’t understand until the floater moved into the warehouse and the door creaked shut behind us, plunging us into darkness. A darkness that opened up beneath us