JINX
Tomorrow.
I will save my brother.
Of course, I’ve been telling myself that every night for the past month. I’m no closer to my goal than when Mom shot my father and then kidnapped my little brother, Charles, off the beach in Puerto Peñasco.
Lately, it’s been getting cramped down here.
It feels like we’ve been in my father’s underground doomsday bunker for an eternity. The bunk beds, the dried emergency food kits, the command center, the indoor garden, the paranoid alarm systems—these things have become our whole world. Like a prison we’ve sentenced ourselves to remain in.
We’re starting to snap at each other, the way people do when they spend too much time in one cramped place sharing a tiny bathroom. Jay Novak, my stepfather, is running out of reading material. Gus Navarro, my kind-of-boyfriend and my father’s protégé, and MacKenna, my stepsister, are running out of political arguments. Toby, my stepbrother, barely says anything at all.
Things have gotten worse since last week, when I cracked Dad’s code storage system. Dad was nothing if not meticulous, and he chose to store his complicated algorithms on dozens and dozens of old floppy disks. Each one had its own puzzle that had to be solved, and each disk could be used only once. I used to love antique computers, but I find myself missing modern laptops. Missing e-tablets and lightning-fast networks.
I could barely work on the encryption key for a couple hours each day. It was exhausting, and the thought of making a mistake kept me awake most nights. It’s the type of thing I would have asked my dad about.
Except Dad is gone.
Forever.
We buried him in Rocky Point.
Now that we have the key, now that we know we can leave, things are more tense. Somehow, everyone was happier when we believed we were trapped here forever.
The weather has been getting warmer. The ocean is still cold. Too cold for swimming, but the March temperatures are perfect for sitting on the beach. The breezy days are a reminder of when I thought I’d have another future. One where I might be in Mexico on vacation and not hiding to save my life.
Tonight, it’s my turn to watch the command center. I switch on the camera feed and stare at the stacks of video monitors. It’s the same as always. We’re alone. The Xcalak beach in Quintana Roo is deserted. The waves come in and out, brushing the sand smooth, creating a hypnotic black-and-white motion across the screen.
Navarro is asleep, snoring in the bunk nearest the desk, his dark head of hair turned away from me. I close my eyes for a moment, try to avoid looking at him. He saved my life. And here I am, lying to him. Keeping things from him.
But I have to.
Trying not to make too much noise, I lightly press a few keys on the ancient beige box of a computer that Dad had left behind for me to use. I wait until I can see the sun poking above the horizon line on the video monitors before I type the last line of code.
AT
<OK
!Allow up to 10 seconds to get a response from radio
Timeout 5000
AT&F
<OK
AT+XMM
<OK
AT+CXATT=0
Wait 25000
!Wait 25 seconds to allow for recalibration lag
AT+CXDCONT=1,”IP”,”“
<OK
AT+CXYQRYQ=1,0,64,384,0,0,0,0,”0Y0”,”0Y0”,3,0,0
<OK
AT+CXYQMIN=1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,”0Y0”,”0Y0”,0,0,1
<OK
AT*YIAAUW=1,1,”“,”“,00001,0
<OK
My arms are heavy with resignation as I press the last key to bring the satellite online.
After a while, everyone wakes up and we go through our morning routine.
At breakfast, we take up our usual places. Almost in the center of the bunker, there’s an old kitchenette set that, at one time, was probably in some hamburger diner. The chipped, yellowing Formica tabletop has seen better days, and its aluminum legs are dented and dinged.
Jay gives me an encouraging smile before he sits in the faded turquoise chair at the head of the table, and I exhale. I’m grateful for my stepfather’s kindness, especially considering my mother framed him for a crime he didn’t commit and left him for dead. My stepsiblings, Toby and MacKenna, crowd on either side of their father. Navarro slides into his chair at the opposite side of the table, and I sit between him and MacKenna. That leaves an open chair across from me.
Where Charles should be.
It’s green pepper omelet day, which is one of my least favorite meals. There’s something about canned, reconstituted scrambled eggs that never turns out quite right. The peppers have an odd metallic aftertaste. But Navarro insists we keep the meals in rotation.
I look out into the space behind the table, at the bunk beds that line the walls, the racks of dried enchiladas and bottled water, the planter boxes flanked by pulsing, hydroponic lights.
Toby lets his spoon fall into his empty bowl, and a shadow falls across his face as he leans back in his chair. “We’ve been here long enough. It’s time. We have the key.”
“We don’t know if it works,” Navarro says.
I frown at him. My dad made the key. “It works.”
On the mess of old floppy disks and ancient computers, my father left two things. The code that formed the encryption key we need to hack into the computers of First Federal Bank—
MacKenna glances up from the paperback book she’s using as writing paper. “And we have the name.”
—and a message.
Take the key to Esmerelda Ojos.
The name.
Jay rubs his eyes. “We don’t even know who that is. If she’s dead or alive. Or how difficult it will be to find her.”
Navarro is silent for a few seconds before adding, “One of us should drive south. Into a town. Get a computer with network access. Do some research. Report back.”
In some ways, Navarro was the best prepared for our new way of life. He’d done tons of disaster drilling with his own family and trained with my father. In other ways, though, he’s had it rough. He hasn’t been able to contact his family. And he’s having a hard time adjusting to life without the drills. That’s what he’s doing how. Trying to write the next chapter in Dad’s book, Dr. Doomsday’s Guide to Ultimate Survival.
My pulse quickens as I spend a second too long staring at Navarro’s handsome, chiseled face. He thinks we have no way to communicate with the outside world.
I know I should have told him. Told him that I found the satellite dish hidden in the shed above the bunker, behind a retractable panel. That I knew how to bring it online. That we could get the information we need without leaving the bunker.