UnBound - Neal Shusterman Page 0,76

he has, but there seems to be a spring in his step that wasn’t there before.

And that makes Sonthi laugh and laugh and laugh.

15 • Colton

Six weeks later he sits at the same restaurant where he met Karissa, eating panang curry and reading a newspaper in Thai. He’s picking up the language faster than he thought possible. He can easily read the headline. It says PARTS-PIRATE RING DISCOVERED IN POLICE FORCE.

The face of the police chief who first turned him over to the Dah Zey is right beneath the headline, looking far less smug and condescending than when he spoke to Colton.

A tuk-tuk speeds by. It was weeks before Colton could bring himself to ride in one again, but even the driver who brought him to the gray building was arrested. They’d likely never even get a trial. With the way the Thai abhor unwinding, he won’t be surprised if they just disappeared.

Kemo disappeared in his own way as well, after their escape. He’s in Laos now, at a monastery in Luang Prabang. Colton has no idea what happened to Karissa and her sister. After they stumbled out of the forest and rediscovered civilization, they quickly went their own way. He assumes they’re together, dealing with Marisol’s very particular issues. Colton finds he’s not even curious. All that matters to him is that they’re alive and no longer his problem.

The harvest camp is still there, just across the border. So are half a dozen other Dah Zey camps. He can’t fight them directly, but he can battle their agents here in Bangkok. The Thai police force is more than happy to use him, the same way the Dah Zey used Karissa. But rather than catching AWOLs, he’s begun working undercover to expose parts pirates. It’s dangerous work, but he’s paid well, and it’s rewarding in other ways. He knows that each parts pirate he cleans off the street means dozens of AWOLs saved. Those AWOLs will never know him and never know what he’s done for them, but that’s all right. At least he’s beginning to atone for the ones he couldn’t save from the Haunted Mansion.

He stirs the rice into his curry and takes a taste. The sun is setting. Pretty soon the tourists will be out in full force to experience the Bangkok nightlife, and Colton will get to work.

For a moment—but only a moment—he pauses to think of the life he left behind. The comfort of his family. The grief and sense of betrayal when they unwound his brother. But it’s as if that were another lifetime. Colton smiles. He’s no longer the person he used to be. He’s become something entirely different.

UnConfirmed

Hayden approaches the West Palm Beach mansion driving a rental car. He still finds that amazing. A year ago he was public enemy number four—just behind Connor, Risa, and Starkey. But now people in airports call him Mr. Upchurch and hand him the keys to Toyotas and Hyundais, with a smile, like none of that ever happened.

“I listen to your radio show all the time, Mr. Upchurch,” said the gushing clerk when she rented him the car. “You’re so clever!”

He grinned and gave her the answer he gives everyone who gushes at him. “Not clever enough to get this for free!”

The funny thing is, about one third of the times he says that, they do give it to him for free, whatever it is. A meal, a movie ticket, a pack of gum at the convenience store. All he has to do is drop his name, then they’ll recognize his voice, and the magic ensues. Sometimes the cost is the ten seconds it takes to pose with someone for a picture—which is ridiculous, because it’s his voice that’s become famous, not his face—but who is he to argue with free lunch?

The rental car was not free, but he’s not paying for it. The big bad media conglomerate that sponsors his radio show gave him a corporate credit card. He finds that even more absurd. How is this not theft? He doesn’t want to think about it too deeply. If this is his fifteen minutes of fame, he intends to milk it dry. No guilt, no regrets. Maybe therapy when it’s all over, but damn it, no regrets.

The woman he’s come to visit is just a few years older than him. Twenty-one, maybe twenty-two. Nouveau riche, as they say. Rags to riches in a most spectacular way. Hayden is here by her personal invitation. He’s never