Shattered Read Free Page A

the risk,’ he says.
    And I fall silent. I know he’s right. If I could take her aside and tell her the whole story and ask her what I should do, she’d say, stay safe. My head throbs and I twist my hair in my hands, flinch as it pulls, then hold it up. Who knew thick hair hurt so much? I ache to lie down, but all this needs dealing with now. Why did MIA put me as deceased because the Lorders said I’m dead?
    ‘Are you okay?’ Mac asks.
    I shrug and flinch with that movement, also. ‘There’s some painkillers in my bag,’ I say, and Mac gets it for me, and a glass of water. I take one.
    ‘You should rest,’ Aiden says.
    ‘Not yet. You have to explain something to me first. Why did you put me as deceased on MIA? Do Lorders monitor it – did you do it for them?’
    Aiden and Mac exchange a glance. Mac answers. ‘We don’t know they do; the links are hidden and changed frequently. But we can’t have it too hard to get to, or it wouldn’t be useful for those who need it. We assume Lorders monitor the website, and probably do so regularly.’
    ‘But what about when I reported myself found? Won’t they know?’
    Aiden shakes his head. ‘That doesn’t appear anywhere on screen; it notifies MIA. And as I’ve told you before, at length, only the individuals involved in a particular missing person case know about it, and only when they need to know. Listings get taken down when we judge it is safe to do so for all involved.’
    I’d quizzed Aiden on this relentlessly already, on who knows where I am now and where I’m going. And I believe him when he says it is all on a need-to-know basis only: he still hasn’t even told me who reported me missing. Though I guess it is my real mother, he won’t say until he judges I need to know . He must’ve thought I was extra paranoid; he didn’t know there was a reason for all my questions. He didn’t know about Nico’s plant in MIA – that I’d spotted one of MIA’s drivers at the terrorist camp. I had to be sure he wouldn’t know I’d reported myself found, and tell Nico. I should warn Aiden about him, but how can I without telling all the rest?
    ‘But what happens generally when someone is found?’ I ask. ‘If they’re kids like me, who were Slated, it’ll never be safe for them to go back to their original lives. It’s illegal.’
    ‘It doesn’t usually happen like that,’ Aiden admits. ‘Though sometimes people do get in touch secretly, but keep their separate lives.’
    ‘Sometimes. What happens most of the time when someone is found?’
    Aiden and Mac exchange a glance. Aiden answers. ‘Usually when we find out what happened to somebody…it’s too late.’
    ‘They’re dead for real, you mean.’ He nods. ‘But I’m different.’ Always back to Kyla is different .
    ‘But you’re officially dead,’ Aiden says. ‘You can’t return to your life here. There are few choices: one is what you have chosen. To go back under a different identity; to find your past.’
    ‘I have to.’ I sigh. We’ve been over this before, but I never told Aiden the real reason. I never told him about my father’s death, about his last words to me. Never forget who you are! And I did forget. I have to find out who I was, for him.
    ‘What is your new name again?’ Mac asks. I fish my ID out of my pocket. Hand it to him. ‘Riley Kain,’ he says. ‘A little different, but I like it.’
    Aiden frowns. ‘That sounds kind of close to Kyla, doesn’t it?’
    ‘Not that close,’ I say. I knew he’d think that. If he knew my name with the AGT was Rain, he’d be really annoyed, but not many living know me by that name any more. Just Nico , a voice whispers inside. I push it away; that’d only matter if he came across my new name, and how could that ever happen? I’m not going anywhere near the AGT. This name lets me hang on to all the parts of myself: if I let go of them, what is left?
    My head is fuzzy. I let Mac help me up and lead me to the sofa in the