Page 35 of Five

But then she glances around, gets a better look at things, and notices the twelve robots lined up along the perimeter of the twenty-by-twenty space. Some of them are downright creepy. I made those ones. For fighting. I had a little robot club for a while when I was a kid. But no one else around here was interested, so my dad, ever the supportive father that he is, helped me turn them into useful little bots for the family business.

The others are special order from the military.

“What the hell is going on down here, Five?”

Now she’s catching on.

“Well, Princess,” I say, scratching the side of my face, absently thinking I probably need a shave. “Our family history isn’t exactly… history. You see, our parents are all still in the business of fucking shit up. And this room right here… is command central.”

She just stares at me. Mouth open. After a few seconds, she closes her mouth, collects herself and says. “And that comment outside? That little slip-up about going to Florida?”

I shrug. “They go to Florida every year for work, Rory. They have a private island out there somewhere. I don’t know where. I don’t know what they do. But it’s…” I throw up my hands, exhausted. Frustrated. Done. “It’s gotta be illegal. You don’t need to be a genius to understand that. They never stopped those people they were running from, Rory. The shit they were involved with all those years ago never went away. They simply learned how to manage it better.”

She looks around again. Sees more this time.

Sees what’s actually on the monitors. Live image of a dock somewhere tropical. Live image of the front stoop outside my house. Her rambling front porch outside her house. Sparrow’s house. Shrike Bikes. FoCo Theatre. A luxury hotel room, empty until…

Like this is all just some kind of predetermined plan to make her see what’s really happening… A green-eyed man walks up to the monitor and smiles. Like he can see us just as clear as we can see him.

He waves.

We both wave back instinctively. Dumbly.

And then he walks away, out of the camera’s spying lens.

I see the disappointment wash over her face. Her perfect life out on that ranch. Her golden brother and sisters. Her superstar biker dad and her bombshell of a mom. And us. My family. My quiet mother who worries about saving the planet. And my no-nonsense dad filming his stupid TV shows all these years. And Sparrow’s family. Her supermodel parents with their perfect good looks and quaint retro house. That theatre they run with annual film festivals.

All of it… is a lie.

Chapter Eleven - Rory

“What. Is. Happening?” I just stare at the screen where my Uncle James just disappeared. And then I turn to Five. “How long have you known about this?”

“Rory, look—”

“Just tell me how long, Five.” I’m not interested in what story he’s about to tell. I just need some facts.

“Let’s go. I think James must have his camera set to alert him when people enter this room and that’s why he showed up when he did. Other people might have that same trigger.”

“Other people?” I ask. “As in…”

“Well, my dad, for one. I don’t need him knowing we’re in here. And your dad. You know how paranoid they are.”

He takes my hand and leads me back to the steep steps. We climb out, he closes the trapdoor, puts the mat back in place, and then rolls the toolbox back over it.

Ta-da. Secret room underneath the Aston garage is gone.

“Do they… Do they still…” I stare at Five, unable to finish.

Five shrugs. “I dunno, Rory. I have no clue what they do. Maybe it’s just putting out fires and nothing more?”

That could be one explanation. After all, the live shots on those monitors were mostly just our family homes and businesses here in Fort Collins. Who knows where Uncle James was in that hotel room? He and his family live out in the middle of the ocean somewhere on a private island. I’ve never even been there. But I can only assume that live shot of the dock was his place.

“Why did you show me this?” I ask the question, but I already know the answer.

“Because something is wrong, Rory. Our parents might not be involved in anything bad at the moment, but they did a lot of shit when they were our age. And shit like that never really goes away.”

“But there’s more than that, isn’t there?” I ask. “You say you came here for a meeting down in Denver. But that’s not what it was, was it?”