UnBound - Neal Shusterman Page 0,105

I think, but no memory of it.” He sighs.

“How are you feeling about tomorrow?” Cam asks him.

Keaton smiles. “Got butterflies. But they’re good.” Then he thinks for a moment. “Hardest part . . . is that I don’t know what I don’t know.”

Cam gets that. Every one codes and stores memories differently. When it comes to education, a rewind’s mind can be like swiss cheese. Keaton might know the history of the world but have no concept of the order of it all.

“You’ll figure it out,” Cam tells him. “Be patient.”

Keaton accepts the advice. “Left a present for you,” he says, and nods toward the living room. Then he turns and boards a golf cart with two of the rewind girls, who laugh and talk with giddy anticipation about tomorrow’s reentry into the human race.

Cam can’t help but smile as they ride off.

“Look at you,” Una says, taking his hand. “The proud papa.”

“Nah,” he says. “Just an older brother.”

Una goes upstairs. It’ll be an early, and eventful, day for all of them tomorrow. A momentous day. Best to get a good night’s sleep. But before heading upstairs for the night, Cam detours through the living room. At first he doesn’t see Keaton’s gift, because it’s just sitting on a coffee table, masquerading as a paperweight. When he finally notices it, he laughs with pleasant surprise.

Sometimes the most meaningful gifts are the ones that come back to you. And for Camus Comprix, no gift could be more meaningful than an old Rubik’s Cube, perfectly solved.

Unknown Quantity

1 • Argent

Argent Skinner could not keep the right half of his face.

He had desperately wanted to. He had watched through the UNIS machine’s little window as Nelson was unwound. He found himself unmoved by the man’s screams and found he had no pity whatsoever for Nelson. Argent wondered if that made him a bad person. Well, who cares. He saved Connor Lassiter, who has since been rewound and is kicking ass in Washington. That made Argent a hero even if no one ever knew—and every hero should be allowed to enjoy at least one moment of revenge.

The plane was already in the air by the time UNIS was done with Nelson—but Argent had then realized his dilemma. If Argent brought the biostasis container holding the right half of his face to Divan, Divan would know what he had done. Divan Umarov, king of the Western world’s organ black market, believed Argent to be too dimwitted to even conceive of doing something so brash. It was a perception that worked in Argent’s favor, allowing him to get away with many things . . . such as relabeling all of Connor’s crates.

Little did Divan know that the parts his buyers paid millions for weren’t Connor’s parts at all. They belonged to some random AWOL whose name Argent couldn’t remember.

If Divan knew what Argent had done to Nelson, Argent would become an unknown quantity in Divan’s eyes. That would be a problem. Divan had allies and enemies; anyone who fell somewhere in between could end up dead. Ever since the day that Risa escaped with most of Divan’s Unwinds, the man had been ordering the death of anyone he had questions about.

So Argent denied himself his ultimate victory and sat back as all of Jasper T. Nelson was sold off piece by piece to greedy buyers. Divan never even knew that lot 4833 wasn’t one of his AWOLs.

That was months ago. Now Argent bides his time, serving as Divan’s valet to the best of his ability, waiting for the day the man keeps his promise to Argent and allows him to choose a new face—a whole one—to replace the scarred half of his own and the biobandage that covers his right half like a mask. Argent has no doubt that his employer will keep his promise. Divan Umarov is many things, some of them unthinkable, but Argent knows that above all else, Divan is a man of his word.

2 • Divan

Business could not be better. With the United States government caving to the conscience of its people, leading to the temporary halting of all unwinding, the call for parts worldwide has been great. Prices have tripled, and Divan finds he cannot keep up with the demand. If the ban on unwinding becomes permanent, and spreads to other nations, he and the Burmese Dah Zey will be the sole sources of quality parts. And since the Dah Zey does not deal in brain tissue, he will have a distinct