“I’m not—”
“You always have to play the detective, don’t you?”
My mouth falls open. Why is he angry with me?
“Are you sure we can trust this Resister person?” LJ asks tentatively.
“No,” I tell him. “But he’s clearly trying to tell me something. And it adds up, especially since I met him in the future. I think he wants me to help him with his rebellion.”
LJ looks confused. “Even if you’re in the past?”
I shrug.
“It’s possible that someone is trying to mess with you,” Wes snaps.
“We got the disk from my grandfather. We weren’t even supposed to have it. All this Resister did was help us make the connection between the serum and the mark.”
“He could be working for the Project. This all could have been orchestrated to make you fear them. To put you on edge.”
“They aren’t even supposed to know about me, remember? It doesn’t make sense that I’d be a target.”
Wes doesn’t answer.
I feel like I can’t breathe, but I force the words out anyway. “Well, I guess we’ll know after I get kidnapped.”
Wes scowls. “Don’t say that.”
“It’s true, isn’t it?”
“Even if it is, the date is in the future. Twenty years from now.”
“So I go home, then get taken. Why should I even bother trying to get back to my own time period? I should just turn myself in to them now. Or hide out in the eighties for the rest of my life, praying they don’t find out I’m here.”
His eyes darken until they’re almost black. “Stop talking like that. You don’t know what this means. This is just some random theory you have. It could be nothing.”
We square off, a few feet separating us. LJ backs away, moving closer to his computer and farther from us.
“It’s a plausible theory, you know it is,” I say. “You just don’t want me to be right.”
“Why are you so ready to believe this?”
“What choice do I have? We have to believe that this list is real. If we don’t, something might happen to me or to LJ.”
He takes a step toward me. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“How will you stop it?”
“I don’t know!” He shouts the words and I freeze.
“Guys . . .”
I tear away from Wes’s gaze and turn to LJ.
“What?” The word comes out shorter than I mean it to.
Wes spins around until his back is to me. I see his shoulders rise and fall quickly.
“This name. I know this girl.” LJ points at someone on the list. “Maria Hernandez. She lives in a squat down the street.”
“LJ, I think you’ll know a lot of the names on that list,” I reply softly.
He makes a frustrated sound. “No, look at the date she’s taken. August tenth, nineteen eighty-nine. That’s today.”
My heart sinks. “That means she’s probably already gone.”
He turns wet eyes up at me. “She’s fourteen, Lydia. She’s . . . I can’t let them take her too.”
I stare at him for a minute, then sigh. “Okay. Okay. What do you want to do?”
He looks down at the battered plastic watch on his wrist. “It’s almost nine. She deejays at a club a few blocks from here. If they haven’t gotten her already, that’s where she’ll be.”
“So let’s go.”
He gives me a grateful look and stands up from his desk.
I hear the front door open. The three of us all turn toward the sound. “Hey!” Tag’s voice calls out. “Anyone around?”
I reach out and grab LJ’s arm. We’re about the same height, and I lean in close to his ear. “You cannot tell anyone about this,” I hiss. “Not Tag. Not Nikki. No one. Ever. You’d be putting them and yourself in danger. Promise me.”
He nods curtly.
Tag pulls back the curtain and pauses in the doorway. “Whoa.” He takes in the tension coming off of us. “What’s going on in here?”
I force myself to relax and smile at him. “Nothing. We were just talking about tonight.”
LJ clears his throat. “We’re going to Sinners.”
“Cool, I’ll tell Nikki. She’ll want to come.”
“We should go now,” LJ says quickly. “I’m supposed to meet someone.”
Tag holds back the curtain and makes an elaborate gesture with his hand. LJ smiles tightly and walks into the main room. Wes and I follow.
Nikki is standing near the dining-room table. “So, Sinners? Who are you trying to kid?” She gives LJ a look. “We all know why you want to go. Maria’s the deejay tonight, huh?”
LJ visibly swallows. “Yeah. I hope so.”
“Okay. Well, just let me get changed. I’ll be two seconds.” Her gaze travels over me. “Lydia, you better come with me. You can’t wear that yuppie dress. I’ll give you some jeans.”
“We need to be quick,” I say when I see LJ’s pleading eyes. “Really quick.”
Tag laughs. “Yeah right. I’d like to see that.” He turns to Wes. “You need a clean shirt or something?”
Wes is silent.
He had been staring down at the floor, but he suddenly lifts his head. His eyes find mine immediately. His face is still cold and hard, though there’s something fierce in his expression. It’s like he’s a storm about to hit, and the clouds are circling faster and faster.
“I can’t do it.”
“Wes . . .” I whisper.
“I just can’t.”
I’m the only one who doesn’t jump when the front door slams behind him.
CHAPTER 16
The beat inside the club is so strong that I feel it throbbing in my throat. I lean back against the wall and stare out at the dance floor. In the darkened room I cannot tell where one person ends and another begins; they move together like an angry mob.
The deejay booth is set up in a corner, and I see LJ leaning over a pretty, dark-haired girl. Maria. The Project hasn’t found her yet.
Nikki approaches, wobbling slightly on her heels. The Christmas lights hanging from the ceiling turn her face first red, then purple. “You don’t drink much, do you?” She yells over the music.
“Why do
