My friends had let me do all the talking but figured now was the time to speak up. “Okay, I understood exactly none of that,” Yunie said. “Other than I want to punch this Jade Emperor person in the balls.”
“We all do, Yunie,” Quentin muttered. “We all do.”
She ventured the question cautiously. “Is Guanyin . . . really gone? I know you told me what happened, but I still can’t believe it. If she’s physically still there, in that place . . .”
We couldn’t give her an answer either way. We had none. The Goddess of Mercy was who we usually turned to when we didn’t have a clue.
The beginning of a thought flickered through my head, but it was extinguished by the calendar alert of my phone going off. The device lay exactly where I’d left it, plugged into Ji-Hyun’s wall socket. I’d set the meeting alarm to remind me of an important deadline.
“I have to go see about a guy,” I said, getting up suddenly.
? ? ?
Quentin paced uneasily around the perimeter of the fountain. It was a small, modern art-y sculpture made up of black and white squares set at angles, as if a chessboard had been shattered and rearranged. The sun was deceptively high. Really, there were only a few hours left in my long weekend.
“Genie,” Quentin said. “I don’t think this is the time.”
On the contrary. There would never be a more appropriate time to talk to Ax than now.
He arrived late. I guessed that was the power move du jour, instead of being early. I sat down on the concrete lip of the fountain. Ax took a seat next to me so we could talk without facing each other, like spies doing a drop-off. He rudely ignored Quentin again.
“You look like you’ve been deep in thought,” he said.
“I have,” I said. “And I’d like to hear your pitch again, before I give you my decision.”
Ax leaned back, precariously close to falling into the water. “What pitch is there to give? The future belongs to the risk-takers. Those who are willing to gamble. It’s as simple as that.”
A stiff breeze would knock him over and completely soak him. “Like you?” I said. “You took a great risk by quitting school and joining the Nexus Partnership?”
“I did indeed,” he said, his mouth leaking liquid metal into the air. “I risked it all. I was a Dean’s List student at this school, so you could say that me dropping out was like throwing my advantages away and being reborn as a completely new person.”
Ax couldn’t have known, but my eyes were blazing away with true sight, inches from his face. My lie detection was on in full force, the first time I’d ever used it on an unsuspecting human. Every untruth he spoke would make it appear as if quicksilver spewed out of his mouth. Word bubbles drawn by a cartoonist with metallic paint.
“There’s no guarantee things will work out for me,” he said a
s mercury trickled from his lips. “I’m performing a high-wire act without a safety net.”
“Ax, what does your mother do for a living?” I asked.
He was surprised, both by the question and the fact that I hadn’t asked about his father instead. “She’s the CEO of a hospital in Anderton,” he said. That was true.
“Anderton, where the venture capital families live,” I said. “Do you know what my mother does for a living, Ax? She does the books for a billiards supply company in Redpine.”
“Oh,” he said politely. “The one the train passes?”
“Yup,” I said. “The one by the train tracks, with that big vertical sign that needs painting. She gets paid under the table. In fact, I think her main job is helping the owners cheat on their taxes.”
I could tell he suddenly found my musk less palatable. “Okay. You’re telling me this because?”
“Because I think you and I might have a very different definition of risk,” I said. “Ax, does the work you’re doing with the Nexus Partnership mean everything to you?”
“Of course it does. It’s my reason for living. You can’t be a part of this group unless you’re passionate about the mission. Why do you think we ask you to quit school?”
Yes, yes, quitting school, blah blah. “But what would you do, though, if your ideas didn’t work?” I asked. “Say your baby company never made it to fruition.”
“I’d try another, and another,” Ax said. “I’d never quit.”
Bubble. Another lie.