"We can talk later, Locke," Kara says. "I'd like to see the greenhouse."
I widen my eyes, hoping she will get the message. Kara. She looks away.
Jenna kisses the top of Kayla's head and pats her bottom. "I'll be right in, angel. Go on and put your shirt away." Kayla runs to the house, and Dot, Allys, and Miesha follow her.
We walk down the slope, across the bridge, and over to the greenhouse. Kara's mask is back in place, but as we walk, her eyes sweep the landscape, always in motion, always soaking up details like she's wary of traps--or maybe she's constructing them. When we reach the greenhouse, Jenna tells her there's a hiding place below. She pulls on the latch beneath the hemp mat and starts down the stairs. Kara stiffens but then follows. Walking into closed, dark spaces is hard for both of us. When we reach the bottom, Jenna turns the lights on.
Kara looks out at the grim cavern of a room but says nothing. For a moment I think I see a hairline crack in her mask, but just as quickly it's gone. She forces a smile and takes two steps. Jenna follows and fills the strained silence with explanations of what the room was originally for.
Kara nods. "So ... you've been busy all these years ... saving people. Complete strangers."
"I guess you could call them that. But I understood what they..." Jenna's thoughts dwindle away as she looks at Kara. Does she see a crack too? "It was only a temporary stop until we could find a more permanent placement for them."
Kara walks around the room and swipes her finger across a dusty table, then flicks the dust from her fingertip. "That was very good of you, Jenna. So good. It's good to help strangers."
"I think we need--"
Kara turns around and laughs. "You don't really expect us to stay down in this hellhole, do you?" She freezes at her slip. Has she already discovered Jenna's weakness so now her perfect control is shaky? She shrugs to cover for herself. "You know me and dust!" But the edge still hasn't left her voice. This is not going to end well. Her control is dissolving.
I step toward her, ready to grab and hold her if I need to. "Kara, it's only a backup in case we--"
"Ah! Another backup. Just what we need."
Jenna steps toward her, unfazed. "Kara," she says firmly, "I think we need to talk. Now."
Kara throws her arms out. "About what? Who gets which cot?"
"What we should have talked about this morning. The accident. What happened afterward. What you are now."
The smile on Kara's face fades. Her eyebrows rise. She takes a step forward. "And just what am I, Jenna?"
Jenna holds her ground. "We've all changed."
Kara takes another step so she and Jenna are just an arm's length apart. "But you think you're something ... more than me?"
"No, I didn't say--"
Piece by piece, the mask falls away. Kara's voice grows soft and condescending, almost like she is talking to a small child. "But of course you're something more, Jenna." She turns and walks over to a cot that's ag
ainst the wall, and sits like she is testing it for comfort. "You're Jenna Fox. There's a whole standard named after you. The Jenna Standard. I can't imagine a whole law named after me, but then I'm not the entitled Jenna Fox. If there was one for me, I suppose they would call it the Kara Manning Freak Law."
I step forward to go to her, but Jenna puts her hand out to stop me. "No. Let her talk," she says.
Kara looks at me. Her eyes narrow. "We don't have to talk about what came after the accident, do we, Locke? We have every dark moment memorized. We were there for each other. Always there. That's what real friends do. I was there for you." Betrayal fills her eyes, my betrayal, and I see all the ways I fell short for her, all the ways I didn't love her the way she wanted.
Now I'm the one who's cracking. I feel like a house has landed on my chest. I know she expects me to hate Jenna the way she does, but I can't. I never have. Jenna was my survival too. "Yes, Kara, you were always there."
Her eyes flash back to Jenna. They're as cold and icy as I've ever seen them. Her smile returns. "Did he tell you what it was like? Being forgotten in a black silent box for all those years?"
Jenna is rigid. I watch her temple pulse and the breath rise in her chest.
I shake my head and walk over to Kara. "We don't have to--"
She jumps up from the cot before I reach her. "Tell her!" When I take hold of her arm, she shakes me away.
"I know what it's like," Jenna says.
Kara walks around Jenna, nodding her head. She circles back to face her. "You're almost amusing, Jenna. But I guess with your outdated Bio Gel, it's to be expected. Locke and I are BioPerfect. Perfect. That means everything about us is more perfect than you, more human than you."