“I see you!” Rachel says.
My grandmother makes two more sandwiches and then demands a proper set of introductions as she hands them around. I am somewhat annoyed by the fact that once there’s a plate with a sandwich, orange wedges, and potato chips in front of me, I discover that I am ravenous. Rachel introduces herself as my girlfriend, a little bit confrontationally, like she’s testing Mimi to see if she gets freaked out, and my grandmother does whatever the opposite is of taking the bait: she doesn’t seem bothered, she doesn’t start quickly telling us about her very good friends who just happen to be lesbians, she just smiles pleasantly and introduces herself as Rose.
“Where’s Nell?” Bryony asks.
“Her family’s gone to see a lawyer,” I say. “They’ll be back in another hour or so.”
Rachel checks her phone for the time. “CheshireCat gave us an update while we were driving. Have you heard from your mom?”
“No,” I say.
“Any more texts from Rajiv? If it’s Rajiv?”
I take out the flip phone and check.
Stephanie, I want to keep you safe. Please reply and I’ll tell you where to go.
“So, are you going to reply?” Bryony asks, peering over my shoulder. “See where he tells you to go?”
“Are you thinking I should let him kidnap me so you can then rescue me?”
“There was literally a Fast Girls Detective Agency plot where they did that,” Bryony points out.
“Are you saying that because you think it’s a good idea, or a bad idea?” Rachel asks. “You made me promise no car chases before we even left.”
“I’m saying that if it worked for them, it probably won’t work for us, but you could still text him and see what he wants you to do.”
Okay, this is legit, or at least legit-ish.
Steph here. Is this Rajiv? I send.
The phone promptly rings. I stare at it dubiously. It quits ringing, and then I get another text.
Please pick up.
I send, Nope. Text or nothing.
He sends back, I need to be certain I’m talking to you and not someone else.
I heave a sigh and say, Last fall, did you come stare at my apartment in New Coburg or was it some other creep I saw out the window?
There’s a pause, and then, OK, you’re Steph.
“Should I ask him where my mom is?” I ask.
“No,” Glenys says. “If he has your mom, he’ll lie. If he doesn’t have your mom, you’ll be telling him she’s missing. Just find out where he wants you to go.”
Where are you now? he sends.
Lolol, I send back.
I need to know your location so I can let you know the closest refuge. I don’t want to send you across town on a bus.
Why? I shoot back. What’s going to happen to the buses? Same thing that happened to the Hill House?
Here’s a list of safe houses, he sends, followed by a half dozen addresses, which Rachel starts pulling up in Google Maps. One does appear to be an office suite in the same building as Can Can Wonderland.
Is this Rajiv? I ask again.
Yes, of course, he replies. Your father was going to kill me, so I faked my death and ran.
How did you wind up in a religious cult? I ask.
They were willing to hide me, and the leader and I have compatible goals.
I consider asking him about the AI, the social media sites, and the civil insurrection, but I don’t want to tip my hand too much about what else I know.
Will you come? he sends.
Hang on, I text. I hear someone at the door. I close the phone and look at my friends.
“He’s going to think you’ve been kidnapped,” Bryony says. “Was that your goal?”
“Yeah,” I say. “I mean, he’s been trying to keep us distracted. Or someone has, anyway. So turnabout and all that.”
Rachel has been looking up the addresses of the other safe houses in Google Maps. “Can you tell me if my mother’s in any of these places?” I ask CheshireCat.
“Reviewing security camera footage excludes every location other than Can Can Wonderland. Which does not guarantee that she’s there. It just means that there’s a lot more traffic overall.”
“You aren’t seriously suggesting we go there?” Bryony says to me.
“At least wait until your friend and her parents get back,” my grandmother says.
I look at Rachel, and she gives me a look back. A look that says, “Let’s ditch them and just do this.” I nod.
Unfortunately, Bryony is as capable of interpreting Rachel’s looks as I am. “Oh, no,” Bryony says. “Oh, no. You’re not running off without me again.”
Somehow, all five of us wind up crammed into Rachel’s car, which is smaller than Jenny’s. My grandmother doesn’t get shotgun this time, since no one invited her. “It’s fine,” she says with a sort of grim cheerfulness.
“Why are you coming? I don’t understand why you’re coming,” I mutter under my breath.
She pretends not to hear me.
“CheshireCat,” I say. “Does Can Can Wonderland have robots?”
“So many robots,” CheshireCat says.
39• Nell •
The lawyer’s office doesn’t have enough chairs for all of us. When we get there, someone’s assistant has to go get extra chairs. Then there are introductions. And someone offers us coffee. Given that lawyers cost about a million dollars per minute, I expected less rigamarole.
The only question anyone asks me is, “Do you want coffee with everyone else?” and “So, I understand you’d like to live with your father permanently. Is that correct?”
The lawyer doesn’t seem to think this is an actual emergency, even after I show her my mother’s texts. Apparently, what happened to me—being left behind by one parent (she doesn’t call what my father did “abandonment,” since he’s sitting right there) and then being abandoned by the other—is so commonplace as to be practically normal, and it’s vanishingly rare that someone who’s just walked out on a teenager ever shows back up. We’ll file, everything will have to happen up in Crow Wing County because that’s where they got the divorce, and although the word emergency
