Tether

Read Tether for Free Online Page B

Book: Read Tether for Free Online
Authors: Anna Jarzab
Tags: Science-Fiction, Romance, Fantasy, Young Adult
“You must.”
    “Must I?”
    “You’ve got to at least remember my dad. How many people could you possibly have worked with who were from another universe?”
    “Keep your voice down,” Dr. March hissed. “Do you want people to think you’re crazy?”
    “They already do,” I told him. “But I’m not. I was there. You know I was. You helped Dr. Moss figure out why I could see through my analog’s eyes. You left that note in my mailbox.”
    “I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”
    “Yes, you do. You folded it into a star,” I said, placing the note on the table. “Dr. Moss is one of two people who knew that would mean something to me, and the other one’s not your analog. You can talk to him through the tether. Why?”
    “I thought you came here to find out more about your parents.” Dr. March’s mouth was a thin, grim line.
    “I came here to find out about a lot of things. How can you talk to Dr. Moss? Are you a crosser, too?”
    Dr. March laughed. “No.
Crosser
is a term Moss invented when we figured out why
you
could see through the tandem via the tether. He always did like to name things.
Tandem
was his, too, and
tether.
But you’re the only crosser I know of.”
    “Then why—?”
    “We have no idea,” Dr. March said. “Moss says it’s because we’re so intelligent, our brains operate in a fifth dimension. I’m sixty percent sure he’s kidding. But we can do it, just like you. Better, of course. We’ve had years of practice—at talking to each other and at shutting each other out.”
    I started to ask another question, but he interrupted me. “As for your mother, she was … brilliant.” His expression morphed as he spoke of Mom, storm clouds dispersing to let the sun break through. “One of the most gifted students I’veever had the pleasure of teaching. Her mind was an open sky. To her, anything was possible, and she worked tirelessly to make our dreams a reality. It was no wonder your father fell so hard for her. He must have loved her very much to abandon his mission. Until Moss and I put the pieces together about you, I didn’t know who he was. I should’ve, though. When I hired him, he seemed almost too qualified for the job.” He shook his head. “There’s no fool like an old fool, as they say.”
    “I wish I’d known them,” I said. Granddad had been a wonderful parent, but he shouldn’t have had to raise me all by himself. He shouldn’t have had to lose his only daughter, either. Sometimes when he was talking to me—especially when he was telling me about his work—it seemed as if he were really talking to her.
    “I wish you had, too. They were great people, great scientists, and their deaths were a colossal waste.” Dr. March narrowed his eyes. “How are the visions? Getting worse, I presume.”
    “How did you know that?” Was it obvious how little I’d been sleeping, how jumpy and scared I was, worried that at any second a vision could overtake me?
    “It’s the natural progression. Once you open the door to your analog’s mind, the connection intensifies exponentially. Soon it’ll become difficult to sort out whose thoughts are whose—whose memories, whose life. It’s why Moss and I had to stop communicating, except on rare occasions. Unless you can learn to shut the transmissions out, you’ll never really be you again. Believe me, I know.”
    “I’m not going to live my whole life with someone else in my head,” I said. The visions were already so bad, I couldn’t imagine them getting worse, but I knew from Dr. March’s grave expression that I had much to fear from the future ifI didn’t do something about them soon. “How do I shut my analogs out?”
    Dr. March raised his eyebrows. “Analogs? You mean you’ve got more than one up there?” He tapped his head.
    “I think there are two,” I said. His scrutiny was making me nervous. I would’ve bet money he was already thinking of experiments to run on me, but I was

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