The Search for Sam by Pittacus Lore Page A

I know it’s in there, in your brain. And
     I know that I could get it,” he says.
    The way he speaks, it’s like he’s talking to himself. “Our understanding of Mogadorian
     physiology is well beyond what we understand about Loric or mortals. With my neurological
     mapping techniques, I could do what Anu couldn’t. Run those currents three times as
     hard, and rip that intel straight from your brain and onto my hard drive.”
    He stares at me. I feel weirdly exposed, objectified, like a slab of meat at a butcher
     shop.
    “But for that,” he says, chuckling bitterly, “I’d need your father’s permission to
     kill you.”

CHAPTER 10
    I’m dismissed to finish out my day at the surveillance facility. I have no fight left
     in me, and my rankings take a nosedive. Sixteen, eighteen, eighteen, twenty. Last
     place.
    I know Dr. Zakos immediately reported the experiment’s failure to my father, but I
     doubt he took the risk of pitching his idea of mentally vivisecting me to the General.
     I have two more days left in the lab before my father decides if my results qualify
     me for survival. Either he will have me executed, or he will deem me an asset to the
     cause and allow me to continue working as a surveyor. Oh joy .
    After the lab it’s another miserable dinner. The General is busy down in his briefing
     room, so it’s just my mother and Kelly. Kelly refuses to even look at me. When my
     mother goes to the kitchen, I turn to her, try to start a conversation. We haven’t
     been close since before the mind transfer, almost five years ago. I wonder if she
     can even remember back then, when she hated Ivan for teasing her and roughhousing
     with her, and seemed to adore me, her gentle older brother.
    “Haven’t seen you in the tunnels,” I say. “How are things going in the Nursery?”
    She is silent, slowly chewing her food and staring straight ahead. It’s hard to believe
     a fourteen-year-old girl could be so full of such a steely hatred.
    “Kelly, I’m sorry if it’s embarrassing that I survived, that you have to explain that
     your loser brother has come back—”
    “Ivanick told me,” she says, hissing at me suddenly. “He told me the truth about you.
     I know what Mom doesn’t. You’re a traitor.”
    My stomach does a somersault. I feel like I could throw up my entire dinner.
    “So you can pretty much stop trying to make up with me. It’s not going to happen.”
     She gets up from the table.
    “I wish you were dead,” she says, before running up the stairs to her room and slamming
     the door shut.
    “Good night to you too,” I say, laughing miserably to myself.
    After dinner I go up to my room. One isn’t there. I haven’t seen her since last night.
    Somehow, this doesn’t surprise me. The mind transfer was so fast, and so quickly aborted
     that I doubt it did much to reestablish her foothold in my consciousness. Perhaps
     that’s the thing I felt like I was on the verge of understanding—how to keep her alive
     inside of me.
    It’s funny to think Zakos thought he was covering his ass with the General by protecting
     my life. If Zakos had killed me, my father probably would’ve given him a medal.
    I have nothing to stay up for. I go to bed early.
    Sleepless in bed, I consider the pitiful irony of my current situation. I came back
     here to rescue my one and only friend in the world, yet I fail to save her, just as
     I failed to save Hannu. If she isn’t gone for good, she will be soon enough. And now
     I’m stuck here, trapped.
    Alone.
    A desultory day at work. I’m pulling in rankings in the thirten-to-fifteen range.
     Pathetic.
    I’ve scaled back on my “Discard” trick. Why bother trying to impress anyone with my
     rankings, anyway? So I actually investigate each link that’s fed to my monitor, even
     though it damages my productivity. At least it’s more interesting than mindlessly
     shuttling the leads into one folder or another.
    I click on a link.
    This one leads to