Rebel Nation by Shaunta Grimes

in here.”
    As soon as she mentioned it, the cold hit Clover like an open-handed slap.
    â€”
    When they were all sitting around the fire again, with blankets wrapped around them to ward off the chill until the room began to heat up, Leanne said, “Bennett will send someone to collect you on Monday. He won’t trust you to come on your own. Even if he fully believes your story about West, you’ve escaped him before and he’s not stupid.”
    â€œBut he said I could come to the Academy. He said—”
    â€œHe’s changed his mind. I’m not sure why, or why you’re so important to him.” Leanne looked at Clover, and then shifted her gaze to Jude. “But you clearly are.”
    â€œIt’s the autism.” The words blurted out, past Clover’s uncertainty at sharing information with Leanne that she didn’t already know.
    â€œClover.” Jude had developed the same habit West had of infusing her name with reprimand. She didn’t like that much.
    â€œWe have to trust someone, sometime. We can’t do this by ourselves.” Clover waited for Leanne to turn her attention back to her. “Only autistic people can travel through the portal. Waverly said it had something to do with brain chemistry.”
    â€œWaverly was autistic?” Leanne leaned back in her chair and looked into the fire. “I had no idea. I never met him, of course.”
    â€œShe’s just a Messenger,” Jude said. He shot Clover an apologetic look and she raised a shoulder, dismissing it. He was right. She picked up a package from a glorified mailbox and brought it back through the portal strapped into a comfortable seat in a room in the
Veronica
. “Being autistic isn’t so unique that he can’t find someone else to get the disc and bring it back.”
    â€œIt’s true,” Clover said. “I only traveled a few times. It isn’t like the whole program hinges on me. Why is he so determined?”
    â€œYou left the city,” Leanne said. “You know things you shouldn’t. He probably assumes you know things you don’t. You’re a liability.”
    â€œWhy did you say that telling me might get you killed?” Clover asked.
    â€œRemember when Bennett told you I couldn’t work because I’d broken my leg in my future time line?”
    Clover’s stomach knotted and she pushed herself deeper into the corner of the couch. She did remember. That was why she was able to travel alone. Why Jude was able to meet her in the future and give her the little handprinted zine that changed everything. “Yes.”
    â€œI was executed. Or, I mean, I will be executed,” she said. “Sometime between now and then. I think this might be why. Warning you. Helping you get away. Obviously, Bennett is going to find out that I’m part of the resistance.”
    â€œThere really is a resistance?” Clover asked. “Waverly said so, but it seems so impossible.”
    â€œThere are people who know that the Company is too big and too powerful. People who know that the suppressant isn’t what the Company says it is.” Leanne took a breath, then turned all her attention on Jude. “And now things are getting restless here. People are talking about Foster City, especially. It’s not a big deal yet, but it’s being talked about.”
    Clover looked at Jude, too. There was something she was missing. She felt it, but couldn’t put her finger on it. The look that passed between them was like some kind of secret language that she didn’t understand. “What?”
    â€œI can’t stop helping them,” Jude said.
    â€œThe only thing you have going for you is that Bennett has no idea who you are. You know that, don’t you?” Leanne sat back in her seat. “You can’t help anyone if you’re dead. You’re nothing to him. He’ll just—”
    â€œStop it.”