This Broken Wondrous World Read Free Page B

roads in his dad’s Porsche convertible.
    I’d never been a huge fan of speeding cars, especially after I had a bad accident while trying to escape Sophie and Claire’s psychotic brother, Robert. My night vision wasn’t all that great and the scattered streetlamps lurched out from behind trees inyellowish smears of light. I heard a faint crack under the sound of the wind and looked down. I had accidentally broken the handle off the inside of the door.
    â€œSorry.” I showed the handle to Henri.
    He looked at it for a second, his eyes widening. Then he leaned his head back and laughed.
    â€œYou did that by accident?” he asked.
    â€œYeah,” I said. “I’m really sorry, I—”
    â€œForget it.” Henri waved his hand. “Easily replaced.”
    I wasn’t sure about that, but there didn’t seem any point in arguing so I just put the handle on the floor. Then I leaned back and took a deep breath, trying to relax.
    â€œThis must be so fucked up for you,” said Henri.
    â€œHuh?”
    â€œWell, here you are, hanging out with the family who created your parents and then tried to kill them.”
    â€œTwice.”
    â€œYes, that is right. Victor’s son. What was his name . . . ?”
    â€œWolf,” I said.
    â€œReally?” Henri shook his head. “More proof that Victor was insane. Not that we are much better now. Honestly, I’m surprised you came. Glad, of course. But I would not blame you if you wanted nothing to do with any of us.”
    â€œMy family wasn’t exactly blameless,” I said. “My dad did some bad stuff, too.”
    â€œTrue.” Henri nodded. “So why did you come?”
    â€œWell, my dad wanted me to come, and I owed him pretty big.” When Vi 1.0 went psycho and I was trying to shut her down, my dad was the one who pulled me out of the fire. Literally. Fire is one of the few weaknesses that my family has. He and I nearlydied. It took my mom a month to put us back together again.
    â€œSo that’s it? You’re here to make your dad happy?”
    â€œNo. I also wanted to go to college and this seemed to be the best way to do it. Maybe the only way. I don’t have a Social Security number or any proof of citizenship anywhere, so your parents had to pull a lot of strings to get me into the university here. I still have no idea how they got me a Swiss passport.”
    â€œSo you’re completely off the grid?”
    â€œYes and no. I do have a pretty big presence online.”
    â€œOh, yeah? Do you have a blog or something?”
    â€œI’m a hacker.”
    â€œLike stealing other people’s identities?”
    â€œNo, no, that’s sleazy bullshit cracker stuff. I don’t do it for profit. If I did, I could probably pay for college on my own.”
    â€œWhy don’t you?”
    I looked at him. He kept his eyes mostly on the road. But when he did look at me, there was no judgment in his eyes. He was just curious. Fascinated, maybe. I wasn’t sure if that was flattering or creepy.
    â€œYou can lose just about anything,” I said. “Money, love, health—at one point or another, I’ve lost all of them. But integrity is the one thing that nobody can take from you. The only way you can lose it is if you give it up. I’ve been in some pretty rough spots, and sometimes it felt like my integrity was all I had. I’ll never give it up.”
    â€œIntegrity, eh?” said Henri. “I like the sound of that. It is pretty much the same word in French.” He raised his fist and shouted into the night sky, “
Intégrité
!” He turned back to me and grinned. “That felt good. You should try it.”
    â€œUh . . .”
    â€œCome on! Don’t be shy!”
    â€œOkay . . .” I wasn’t sure why I felt embarrassed. After all, it was what I believed in. So I took a deep breath,