The Bar Code Prophecy Part 3

"What is it?" Grace pressed. "You said I could handle the truth, but you haven't told me anything." Had he changed his mind about her? It hurt to think that might be so.

"Some truths are better not to know," he said.

"Stop that!" Grace insisted, feeling annoyed. Why had he given her so much talk, flattering her that she was strong and could be trusted only to give up on her now? "Tell me what's going on. If there's something I'm unaware of, then I want to know what is. You, yourself, said I could handle it."

"We can talk more tomorrow, if you like," Eric said, and some light came back into his black eyes, as if the shut door had been cracked open a bit. "Are you doing anything special for your birthday?"

"My mom usually cooks my favorite dinner and makes a cake. I'm hoping for a gift card for some sessions on the wall."

"I know it gets expensive," Eric said. "Listen, I'll go with you to your house to make sure you get in safe."

"Just stand and watch. I only have to cut through that yard."

They got out of the car and entered the moonlit yard, keeping to the darker areas. They stood close, and for a moment Grace thought Eric might kiss her there in the shadows. She hoped he would, but he made no move toward her and she suddenly felt foolish standing there waiting. "Thanks for tonight," she whispered, moving away.

When Grace arrived at the oak by her bedroom window, she waved broadly and Eric gave an answering wave before slipping off into the darkness.

As she began to climb the oak, she reviewed the night. She liked Eric so much and he seemed to like her, too. But there was obviously something he wasn't telling her. It made her uneasy.

What was he hiding?

Pasadena Sun Washington, D.C. - July 9, 2026 NASA ORDERS EVACUATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL s.p.a.cE STATION UNTIL METEOR 1 SAFELY Pa.s.sES EARTH.

In a press conference today in the White House Rose Garden, President Loudon Waters expressed the opinion that "NASA's panicky evacuation of the International s.p.a.ce Station (ISS) const.i.tutes an extreme overreaction and a waste of NASA's monetary resources."

NASA insists that although astronomers feel confident that the giant meteor will bypa.s.s Earth, systems are in place in the unlikely event that there has been an error in calculating the velocity and/or trajectory of the approaching celestial boulder. The controversial approach of meeting a menacing meteor with nuclear rockets is once more being debated in Congress and the Senate. Although nuclear missiles could be used to explode the meteor before it reaches Earth or knock it off its deadly path, the effects of the resulting radiation raining down on the Earth could be, in itself, catastrophic.

"In the meantime, we feel it prudent to evacuate the s.p.a.ce station and go to drone backup technology until the meteor is safely on its way," says a NASA representative.

NEDRA, a private commercial s.p.a.ce station owned by Global-1, has no plans to evacuate. NEDRA competes with ISS, offering its scientific findings for sale to individuals or other companies willing to purchase its research.

In an anonymous opinion piece appearing in today's New York Times, a contributor widely believed to be former Senator David Young, leader of the bar code resistance group Decode, calls this situation just the latest in Global-1's bids to gain control of outer s.p.a.ce and corner the market on s.p.a.ce travel. "Their careless disregard for human life is once more their trademark and calling card," Mr. Young wrote. "After all that has happened, why is this amoral corporation still being permitted to operate? If we let them get their foothold in outer s.p.a.ce, with their privately held satellites and s.p.a.ce stations, there will be no fighting them here on Earth."

China and Russia have followed NASA's lead in bringing their people down from s.p.a.ce. They have urged Global-1 to do the same.

On Monday, Grace took the GlobalHelix elevator to the fourth-floor personnel office. The moment had arrived. The bar code tattoo was the rite of pa.s.sage that would mark her as an adult. And what choice did she really have? The life of an outlaw, running and working against the bar code tattoo wasn't for her. It would all be fine.

When Grace got off the elevator, she saw a girl she knew from a lower grade in school who had a job as a data-input a.s.sistant for the summer. "Hey," said the girl, whose name Grace couldn't recall. "What brings you up here?"

Grace flashed her wrist. "Getting the 'too."

"Awesome. Happy Birthday!"

"It was yesterday, but thanks."

A rush of anxiety ran through Grace as she sat waiting in the tattoo office. When the nurse appeared, she smiled at Grace as she took a blood sample, working the needle with a skillful, practiced touch. Grace waited while the nurse disappeared into the next room and returned with a black machine about the size of a toaster oven: the laser tattooing machine.

With the nurse's guidance, Grace slid her upturned wrist into the machine. It caused only a slight burning sensation as the blue laser lights etched the first two sections of the bar code tattoo onto the inside of her wrist. Numbers, words, and symbols whirred by on a read-out as the lasers worked.

With an unexpected abruptness, the machine whirred to a halt. Grace looked at the nurse quizzically. "Why are we stopping?" she asked.

The nurse poured the vial of Grace's blood that she'd drawn into a gla.s.s compartment built into the machine. "We entered your vital information from a disc that's been compiled on you. Now the machine will a.n.a.lyze your blood to add your genetic information."

"I thought that's illegal now," Grace objected, alarmed.

The nurse smiled confidently. "The system has been refined so that only authorized medical pract.i.tioners can access your genetics. Employers and insurance companies can't see it. Having ready access to this information could save your life someday."

"How do I know that's true?" Grace questioned.

The nurse scowled lightly and shook her head, silently scolding Grace for her mistrust. "President Waters signed that bill into law just last week. It's against the law for anyone else to access that information. You don't have to worry."

Grace nodded uncertainly. Was it paranoid not to trust what this woman was telling her? What reason would she have to lie?

Eric's voice came back to her. Don't do it.

But then she saw her father's face. He'd worked here all his life. Didn't she owe Global-1 that much trust?

"Which kind of bar code tattoo do you want?" the nurse asked. "You can have the traditional rectangle of bars or the new square ones with the bars inside."

"I don't know," Grace replied. "The new ones are kind of cool looking."

"Not as many places take them yet. They need a special upgraded scanner," the nurse pointed out. "On the other hand, some people like them because they don't look like the old ones. It makes people feel safer."

"But is it really any safer?" Grace asked.

The nurse shook her head and smiled. "They're both perfectly safe now."

Once the blood was in the tattoo machine, the blue laser lights appeared once more. In an instant, the bar code tattoo was emblazoned on Grace's inner wrist. She withdrew her hand, rubbing away the burning sensation. The nurse handed her a cool cloth. "In five minutes you won't even feel it," she promised.

A strange elation mixed with sadness swept over Grace. It was done. There was no turning back from it, no more deciding.

"It's like closing a door on your childhood, isn't it?" the nurse said kindly, reading the anxiety in Grace's expression.

"In a way," Grace admitted.

The nurse got up. She'd had this conversation many times before, no doubt. "You'll get used to it very quickly." She displayed her own bar code tattoo. "Soon you won't remember how you ever lived without it."

As Grace headed toward the elevator, she was so engrossed in her bar code tattoo that she walked right into the tall figure standing in her path. "Dr. Harriman!" she cried when she looked up and saw who it was. "I'm so sorry."

"You've been bar coded," Dr. Harriman observed. Grace was immediately struck by how concerned he looked.

"Yes," she told him. "I'm seventeen now."

His expression twisted into one of self-reproach. "Of course you are. How could I have forgotten?"

What was he talking about? Why should he even know her birth date?

"Dr. Harriman?" Grace asked.

Clutching Grace's wrist, Dr. Harriman examined her bar code tattoo. "Go home, Grace," he ordered. "Right away. Wait for my phone call."

"What's wrong?" He was scaring her. "Isn't the Bar Code all right now?"

"No, it's not all right. Not all right at all!"

This didn't make any sense. Dr. Harriman had invented the bar code tattoo. Grace wanted to turn back to the nurse, to ask if she was imagining things. But Dr. Harriman's grip was too tight, too real. His words were too urgent.

"Tell me why it's not all right," Grace said, pointing to his tattooed wrist. "You have one."

"Mine is deactivated. And I wish to G.o.d I'd never begun this cursed thing."

Maybe Eric was getting to her, because the moment Dr. Harriman said this, she expected Global-1 police to come storming in, to pin them both to the ground. She expected the walls to cave in and the ground to shake, because that's what listening to this man felt like.

But none of that happened. It was just two people in the hallway of a corporation, one of them holding on to the other for dear life.

"What do you mean by that? Please tell me," Grace pleaded.

There's a good man, her father had said when she was a child every time Dr. Harriman had walked by. Great men aren't always good, but this one is.

"And now you! This has happened to you," Dr. Harriman muttered. Then he came back into focus - not with any answers, but to repeat his instructions. "Go home," he told her. "Go home as if nothing else in the world matters."

He looked around, to make sure there was n.o.body else nearby. Then he hurried off, leaving Grace standing alone, bewildered, and frightened.

Grace's natural first instinct was to call her father. Heading to the nearest inter-office image phone, she punched in the numbers for the maintenance department, desperate for him to be there. He would dispel her worries. He always had a good way of calming her.

But all she got was the department secretary, who told her, "Sorry, dear, he wasn't scheduled to work today."

Grace punched her home number into her droid cell. "Face. Screen. I don't care!" she cried when Tilly's voice came on asking for instructions.

"Screen only," Tilly chose.

Grace cried out with exasperation when the home voice mail came on.

Where is everyone?

Grace hurried down to the front desk, where Terri had been covering for her.

"Is it done?" Terri asked, looking up from her magazine.

"I'm so embarra.s.sed," Grace told her, "but getting the tattoo made me a little light-headed. Would you mind staying here? I think I need to go home and lie down."

"No problem," Terri said kindly. "Feel better."

Grace quickly gathered her things, making sure to only take what she'd ordinarily take home for the night. The rest would be left behind.

Why do I feel like I'm never coming back here?

It was such a strange sensation, this instinct. But it felt like certainty.

When I get home, everything will be better, she told herself.

But those words also felt hollow, as if she already knew better.

The Bullit-Bus left Grace off only a few blocks from her house. At first she hurried toward it, eager to find her parents, but Grace slowed her approach as she neared her home, and a heavy wariness came upon her. Pushing back her hair, she surveyed the scene. The front door was open. So was the garage - and both cars were gone. No one, not even James or Kim, would have left the house wide open like this. It was one thing for them to be gone, but quite another for it to be so recognizable. They wanted her to know: We're not here.

But where had they gone? And why had they run off so fast?

Grace was a few houses away, hanging back behind the trees, when she noticed the SUV parked at the curb with G1SP written on it. GLOBAL-1 SECURITY POLICE.

The low flame of fear burning in Grace's gut flared into full-blown panic.

What were G-1 police doing in her house?

They have my family, she thought, and at that moment she was ready to go to them, to turn herself in, in order to get them free.

But then she thought, No. Because if the police had taken her family, they would have left the cars.

Her family had gotten away. She had to believe it.

A Global-1 officer stepped onto the front walk wearing the usual uniform: black helmet with a mirrored gla.s.s visor, black pants, and black shirt. The slightly padded bulletproof vest he wore bore the taser, laser guns, and ammunition of his profession. Turning his head slowly, he surveyed the neighborhood, his handheld laser rifle at the ready.

"Hey! Grace!" Eric was walking down the driveway nearest her, moving at a fast clip. His voice was low, insistent.

"Eric!" Grace gasped, surprised to see him.

He came close, wrapping his fingers around her arm, drawing her nearer to him.

"There she is!" the officer across the street called to someone. Three more police officers ran out of the house and began running toward Eric and Grace.

Still grasping Grace's arm, Eric took off, propelling her forward.

A stream of electric red crackled past her cheek, scorching a shrub just in front of her. The three G-1 police cut a diagonal path across the street. A blaring truck horn hurt Grace's ears as a large tractor trailer careened onto the road, blocking her view of the approaching police. The truck's brakes screeched as it stopped and the back trailer doors opened.

The young man standing in the tractor trailer looked just like Mfumbe Taylor from the holographic Decode video.

"Go! Go!" Eric urged her to run to the truck. There was no time to think about it - she just had to do it. The young man in the truck reached down to help her up, pulling her in as she jumped up. Eric leaped in beside her.

As they slammed the back doors shut again, another jagged red line buzzed the door handle.

The truck lurched forward, throwing Grace back into its interior. In a moment they were speeding forward. Eric knelt beside her.

"You okay?" he checked.

"I think so. What's happening?" Grace shut her eyes and tried to order the events of the past day and a half as best she could. But they resisted order, or logic. It was a haywire mess, full of jagged holes.

Normal life already seemed like a lifetime ago, like she was now acting out a life that belonged to someone else. At what moment had this new life begun? As the truck raced on, she tried to pinpoint it.

Somehow everything that happened had led to this strange and unlikely moment that she now found herself in - speeding toward somewhere unknown in the back of a tractor trailer.