“Are you online?”
“What? No.”
“Turn your screen.”
“Seriously?”
“Your screen. I want to see you’re in airplane mode.”
“How could I get online? You won’t let me have a jetpack. Like everybody else.”
She defiantly turned the computer and for a moment Parkerthought she was going to pitch the Dell into her face. Oh, the girl had definitely inherited some of her father’s disposition.
She squinted. It was just GIMP, a photo-editing program like Photoshop.
“I’m sorry. But we need to take charge of this.”
“You’re, like, totally overthinking.You’rethe one who said he’s two different people.”
True, she had. Though she’d told Hannah this to leave a portion of the good memories of past years intact. She had not added that multiple personalities were also a defining quality of sociopaths.
She’d meant when he was drinking, but she had also wondered if, even when he was sober, the dark side could eventually come to predominate, and the generous and reasonable persona vanish.
Could a brain’s nature be fundamentally and permanently changed?
Why not? It could be done with real wiring and capacitors; why not with neurons and synapses?
Finally Hannah broke the silence. “Where are we going?”
“I’m thinking about that.”
Parker had yet to work out a destination. Immediate escape had been her priority. Now she drove along the Cross County, old warehouses and developments giving way to grazing land and razored cornfields and dense forests. At Route 55, miles west of Ferrington, she made a sharp turn south, left, and drove five miles to the small town of Carter Grove, where strip malls and a multiplex and a dusty golf course defined civilization.
She parked in one of these malls now, in front of a nail salon. She said sternly, “Wait here. Do not get out of the car.”
The girl gave her a look.
“Hannah.”
“All right.”
Parker snagged a logo-free blue baseball cap from the backseat,tugged it on. She climbed out and, carrying her large brown leather Coach purse, walked around the corner to First Federal Bank. She returned less than ten minutes later, dropping the purse on the floor of the backseat.
Leaving this mall, she pulled into another, anchored by a Target. This time she insisted Hannah come with her. They went inside and Parker bought a burner phone. The clerk, a skinny boy, shot a flirt at Hannah, who vaporized him with a look.
Turning to mom, he said, “The phone, it’s tricky, kinda. I’ll set it up, you like.”
It wouldn’t be tricky at all but he could usehiscomputer to activate the device. She wanted to keep all their existing devices offline.
Fifteen minutes later, they were in the car once more. She started the engine and her eyes went to the Toyota’s navigation screen.
“Is there a way to shut it off?”
The girl’s perplexed look was wildly exaggerated. She only shrugged.
Parker tapped the touch screen a few times but didn’t see a way to disconnect it from the satellite. That probably involved going into the dash.
She asked Hannah, “There’s a bus station in Herndon, right?”