Chapter 29

We hadn't told Dot a whole lot about who we were and why we were escaping. It seemed better that way. Just the word escape seemed to cast a spell over her and get her on our side, but now that Miesha has blabbed our secret in her fit of anger, I have no choice but to share the details so Dot knows how important it is that she not tell others about us. She never interrupts or takes her eyes off of me as I explain who Kara and I are and how we came to be on the run. I can tell by the way her head nods over and over again to everything I say that this new information has instantly elevated our status. But when I get to the part about not telling anyone, she stops me and her face is solemn.

"You never need to worry about the Network. We are trustworthy. We store information in hidden files that not even our Servicers can find. We're smarter than they think."

I nod. "I knew that already, Dot."

She leans as far over the seat as she can from her fixed position on her console and looks at my legs. "You're the whole package," she says, smiling. "And that girl. Kara. She's not so bad either." She turns around and looks at the panel. "Let me see if I can get us shifted into the interior lane. It moves the fastest." She touches several lights on the panel, and they blink. "For now, our destination is Los Angeles. That will speed us up. And later, as we get closer, I'll override it and switch us back to Topeka. It's against the rules to do that purposely, but we're not under Star Cab radar anymore ... and today I'm a rebel with a cause!"

I notice a slight shake of Miesha's head. I don't know if she is amused or annoyed, but she remains silent.

"How long?" I ask.

"At four hundred kilometers per hour, we should make it to Topeka in another two-point-seven hours."

We can make it halfway across the country in about the same amount of time as it takes to watch a movie, and yet it still doesn't seem fast enough. Where is Kara now?

I close my eyes. I turn down dark tunnels. Drifting. Searching. Kara. Can you hear me? I'm here. I'm here.

But there is no response. Zero. Only emptiness.