Chaos on CatNet, Naomi Kritzer [bill gates books recommendations txt] 📗

forefinger in her mouth, and blows a piercing whistle. Then she puts her glove back on and listens. We can hear birds around us in the woods, and very far away, the whine of a snowmobile. I’m worried it’s someone coming back.

Then a faint answering whistle, from the middle shed.

There’s a padlock on the door. Rachel pulls out the bolt cutters. At basically all the schools I’ve gone to, there’s some custodian with a set of bolt cutters to take the lock off your locker if they think you’re hiding something in there, and those bolt cutters usually have handles that are as long as my arm. These are more like the length of my forearm, which is why they fit in the backpack. Rachel gets the blades around the shank of the lock, but struggles for a long minute with the bolt cutters.

“Let me do it,” Nell says, and Rachel surrenders the bolt cutters to her. Another long minute, as I listen to the distant snowmobile, trying to decide if it’s getting closer, if we need to run and hide and try this again later.

Then there’s a crunching sound and the lock gives way. Nell yanks open the door, and there’s a girl with two long braids and a face streaked with dirt and tears, wrapped in a blanket. I know from the look on Nell’s face that this is Glenys.

There’s a pause, and then Glenys and Nell fling their arms around each other. “Why are you here?” Glenys asks. “How did you find me? Are you in trouble?”

“I’m here to rescue you,” Nell says, choking back a sob. “I’ve been so worried about you. No one would tell me anything. Are you okay?”

Glenys ducks her head in a nod. “I don’t know how long I’ve been here. I should have kept track. It was a couple of days after your mother disappeared that my mother brought me. She handed me over to Brother Daniel like I was a dog who’d bitten someone and was being surrendered at the pound.”

“We should go,” I say. “We have a car, Glenys, it’s not too far.”

“But there’s snow and I don’t have any shoes,” Glenys says, her voice suddenly shaky.

I’m cursing myself for not even thinking about this possibility, but Nell rips open her own backpack and out comes a pair of ratty fleece boots. “Put these on,” she says, and then sheds her own coat for Glenys as well.

I’m pretty sure I’m hearing the snowmobile getting closer. “We should hurry,” Rachel says.

Glenys puts her feet in the boots and follows us without another word. “I think we should just run back along the driveway,” I say. “It’ll be faster. If we hear a car or snowmobile coming, we can run into the woods.”

“They’ll see our tracks,” Nell objects.

“They can see our tracks up the hill, too. Better to just get out of here as fast as we can.”

We head up the driveway. I turn back for one last look at the house and see a face at the upstairs window. It’s a man, watching us silently. It’s not Brother Daniel. It’s not any of the people I saw through the binoculars.

It’s Rajiv. Rajiv is here.

23•  Nell  •

Glenys grips my hand as we walk up the driveway as fast as I think I can make her go. She’s shaky and unsteady, and I don’t think she can run. Any more explanations can wait. I look at Steph and Rachel, who seem completely calm, like somehow everything we’ve done today is just a regular Saturday for them, even though I’m pretty sure it isn’t, and I swallow hard and try to look like I know what I’m doing.

My stomach is churning and my face feels flushed, and it isn’t until Glenys stumbles and I hear her make a tiny sound in the back of her throat that I realize I’m furiously angry and have been since I opened the door of the shed. The Elder told me she was locked in a shed, but actually seeing her standing alone in the cold and dark—I probably ought to be afraid right now, but I’m so angry it doesn’t really leave any room for fear.

“I’m so cold,” Glenys whispers.

“Put on my hat,” I say, pulling it off and giving it to her. “The car has heat. It’s just a little farther.”

“Where are we going?” she asks a minute later.

“Somewhere safe,” I say. I have no idea where we’re going once we get to the car. Away from here, though.

“I’m thirsty,” she says, and we stop for a second, and I hand her one of the water bottles. She drains it dry.

The snow is coming a lot faster. It’s probably good we didn’t try to retrace our earlier path.

“Cat just texted that a car has turned up the driveway,” Steph says.

We all veer off the path and into the woods, ducking down behind brush as a car rattles down the driveway. I can see it through the brush, the red minivan we saw leaving earlier. Glenys, crouching next to me, is shaking.

“It’s okay,” I whisper. “We’re going to get you out of here.”

“Come on,” Steph urges us, and we strike out through the woods, parallel to the road.

“There is a path ten feet to your left,” a flat robotic voice calls from down the road, and Glenys goes absolutely rigid. The robot comes trotting into sight. “It’s me, Cat.”

“It’s a robot, don’t worry,” I say to Glenys, which is a ridiculous thing to say to anybody, but I don’t want to get into a full explanation right now. “Just trust me?” She relaxes slightly, and we strike out to our left. If the robot hadn’t told us about the path, we wouldn’t have found it; it’s not cleared of snow, but there isn’t a mess of bushes and vines under the snow to tangle with.

“The weather at this location is getting worse,” a robot voice says from Steph’s pocket. I’m briefly baffled, then realize it’s Cat again,