Inheritance

own room, with her head on her own pillow, but she didn’t feel at home.

CHAPTER 15

In the car on the way to David’s house, Reese heard her mom’s phone ring. “Can you get that, Rick?” her mom said. “It’s in my purse next to your feet.”

Reese slouched in the backseat, watching the pastel buildings of Noe Valley roll past as they headed toward Woodside. Reese’s dad answered the phone, and a moment later he said, “Reese, it’s for you. It’s Sophia Curtis.”

Surprised, she took the phone from her dad. “Hello?”

“Hi, Reese. It’s Sophia. I’m glad I caught you before the show airs.”

Reese sat up. The woman’s voice sounded oddly tense. “What’s wrong?”

“We’ve been cooperating with the Defense Department on our show, as you know, and I just came from a meeting with my producer. Unfortunately the DOD has forced us to change the focus of our story. You and David and your families are still in it, but we’ve been unable to spend as much time on your experiences in Nevada as we originally planned.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’re using footage from the Imrian press conference to round out your story, and we’ve also done interviews with a few others—Senator Michaelson, for one. With you and David, we’re focusing on how your experiences affected you personally.”

Reese did not like the sound of that. “Does that mean you cut all the stuff we said about Blue Base?”

“I’m sorry I can’t elaborate. I hope you understand that this was not my original intention, and I’ve been doing everything I can to tell the whole story, but this situation was beyond my control. I have to call David Li and his family now.”

“But—”

The call ended. Reese pulled the phone away from her ear and stared down at the screen. There was a photo of her on the background. She was standing in the kitchen making a face at the camera.

“What did she say?” her mom asked from the driver’s seat.

“I think… I think she’s been censored.” Reese had a dreadful suspicion about what Sophia Curtis meant by “how your experiences affected you personally.” The show was due to air in an hour. It was too late to back out now.

“I’m calling Diana Warner,” her dad said. “She should know what’s going on.”

Reese gazed down at the photo on her mom’s phone. She couldn’t remember when her mom had taken it, but judging by the length of her hair it must have been at least a year ago. The thought of how different her life had been then—right before junior year, before she and David had been partnered together for debate—made her head spin. The screen darkened, obscuring the image. Feeling ill, Reese unrolled the window to gulp breaths of cool, misty air.

As the wind whipped into the backseat, her mom called, “Honey, are you okay? Are you going to be sick?”

She swallowed, tasting something sour in the back of her throat. “I’m fine, Mom,” she lied.

* * *

The Sophia Curtis Show began with Sophia spotlighted in a dark television studio, looking directly into the camera as she said, “It’s been nine days since one of the most extraordinary revelations in history: We humans are not alone in the universe. In the past week, we have struggled to make sense of the news that extraterrestrials known as the Imria have been visiting Earth since 1947 and, apparently, cooperating with a secret branch of the United States government. But while you and I—the public—have only been aware of this for a little over a week, two teenagers were swept into this incredible story two months ago during the June Disaster. Tonight, we talk to seventeen-year-old high school students Reese Holloway and David Li and find out how their experiences have changed their lives.”

As the opening credits for the program rolled, Reese glanced at David, who was seated next to her on one of the two matching couches in his living room. Here we go, she thought, and he gave her a tight smile. His twelve-year-old sister, Chloe, was curled in the corner of the couch beside David, biting her lip. Across the living room Reese’s parents sat stiffly on the other sofa, while David’s dad paced at the rear of the room. David’s mom was perched on the edge of a chair they had brought in from the dining room.

The show returned to Sophia Curtis in the studio as the theme music faded. “It all began on June nineteenth, when Reese and David were in Phoenix, Arizona, waiting to fly home to San Francisco from a debate tournament.”

The scene cut to Reese and David in Mr. Murray’s classroom at Kennedy High School, explaining what had happened when they left Phoenix. Reese found it disconcerting to watch herself on television. She looked much better than she had during the press conference outside her house; Sophia Curtis’s hair and makeup team had turned her into a pretty girl, though her lips rarely curved into a pretty girl’s smile. She seemed tense, and there was a tightness to her jaw that Reese had never seen before; it made her appear sort of angry. David looked more relaxed than she did, and from time to time he flashed a smile at Sophia, but he also seemed a bit uncomfortable. That was when Reese realized that the camera never showed Jeff Highsmith, who had been seated out of sight beside Sophia Curtis. Reese remembered him interrupting her and David repeatedly, telling them they couldn’t speak about this or that. None of that made it into the interview.

After Reese and David reached the point in which they mentioned the adaptation procedure, the program switched scenes to the Imrian press conference on Angel Island. Dr. Brand was shown explaining what she had done after Reese and David had their car accident. Then the show cut to the press conference on Reese’s front steps, when she and David theorized that the government hadn’t known what the Imria were doing.

“When we return,” said Sophia Curtis before the show went to commercial, “we’ll speak with Senator Joyce Michaelson, who helped bring Reese and David home to their families. What exactly did the government know about this adaptation procedure? Senator Michaelson explains, right after this.”

Reese’s mom let out her breath across the room. “Well, it’s not so bad so far.”

“They cut out Jeff Highsmith,” Reese said. “They’re not acknowledging that he was there manipulating the interview at all.” Reese’s phone vibrated and she pulled it out of her pocket. There was a text message from Julian.

Were you not allowed to say the

words Area 51? Did they cut that?

She texted back: Yes.

Senator Michaelson was interviewed in her Washington, DC, office. She wore a navy blue suit and gold earrings and looked genuinely concerned as she said, “What happened with Reese and David was an unfortunate misunderstanding. We truly regret that. They were two teens caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, and they should never have been detained in Nevada. I’ve apologized to them directly and I want to take this moment to apologize again, on behalf of the United States government.”

Sophia asked, “Why were they taken from their homes in the first place?”

Senator Michaelson said, “I’m told we had reason to believe that they had received unauthorized medical treatment after their car accident. As you know, the teens were treated on a military base, and we were concerned that they might have adverse reactions to this treatment. They were brought back to the base for a follow-up for their own safety.”

“That is bullshit,” Reese muttered, watching the senator smoothly delivering the lies.

“Reese and David said they were taken against their will,” Sophia said. “Why didn’t the government simply ask them to come in for an exam?”

Senator Michaelson frowned. “The men who made the decision to act in that manner have been reprimanded and placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation. All I can say at this time is that