Joan Undone

Chapter 27

Harriet drives past our usual entrance to the Lab, then past the parking lot at Seattle Secondary. Her foot is like lead on the accelerator, and she jerks the van between the tame autonomous vehicles on the road.

Soon, we're on the highway, headed south, and I know where to take her. I quietly text Mason while Harriet fumes. After thirty minutes of silence, I clear my throat.

"Turn the car around, Harriet. There's something I want to show you."

She pulls off the highway and turns around so we're headed back toward Seattle. "I should have run Boer over, like you said."

"You were right not to draw attention to us. If the National Guard had gotten involved, it would have gone badly for us."

"That's how it always is. Behind every evil Evolved sonofabitch like Boer, there is a bigger, more powerful Evolved bastard with plans to exploit Throwbacks. There's no end to it."

"There is an end! We are crafting it, every day."

Harriet's voice is emotionless, unrecognizable, when she responds. "You sound like me, five years ago. I grew up, and so should you."

"Pull over right here," I tell her.

Harriet shoots me a glance, but she pulls off the highway at a rest stop with a weathered old restaurant. I'm relieved to see Justus's dad's rusty car parked out front. Mason beat us here.

Harriet parks, and we get out of the van. I pull her around back.

"This is where Throwbacks used to have to sit if they wanted to eat here. The food dispenser was ancient," I tell her. "This nasty old guy ran this place, and one time, I saw him beating up a Throwback who tried to sneak inside. It was the first violence I ever saw."

"That's exactly what will never change."

"Wrong."

I lead Harriet to the door to the restaurant. A sign hangs on the entrance that says "Everyone Welcome."

"The old asshole had a change of heart? Or did Crew beat some sense into him?" Harriet asks, unimpressed.

"Neither. The old guy died, and now his daughter, Danica, owns this place. She changed the rules to allow Throwbacks the same privileges as the Evolved inside her restaurant."

"But that old guy died a miserable bastard. You didn't change his heart," Harriet says, but her tone holds interest.

"We don't have to change everyone's mind to change the world. We have to bring in a new guard that is more progressive than those that came before them. Evolved like Danica and Officer Ben have more tolerant ideas, because of change that started before we ever met. Maybe Aft and his movement aren't useless. Just slow."

I push open the door. Inside, the restaurant is much busier than it had been the last time I was here. Danica added some decent music, and a much-needed update to the tables and chairs. But best of all is seeing a group of Throwbacks eating a few tables down from some Evolved men having beers. The groups peacefully ignore each other.

Sitting alone in a booth by the window is Mason. He stands up when he sees Harriet and takes both her hands in his big ones.

"Found you, like I always do," he says. "Joan helped."

Mason pulls Harriet into the booth, and she rests her head briefly on his shoulder. "You two are going to team up on me now?"

"If we were here to fight with you, we would have brought way more than the two of us," I tease, sliding into the booth across from Mason and Harriet.