Read Online The Bar Code Prophecy by Suzanne Weyn - Free Book Online Page B

there?” Katie asked.
    “Lots of people work there,” Grace replied.
    “Who did you talk to?” Kayla asked.
    “The tattoo nurse, and Terri,” Grace recalled.
    “And Dr. Harriman,” Mfumbe said.
    “Yes — I already told you about him.” Grace turned to Kayla, who hadn’t been there for her first debriefing. “He’s a very strange man. For some reason he was upset that I’d gotten the bar code tattoo.”
    Grace could tell from the stunned expressions of everyone around her that she’d said something significant. But what was it?
    “You spoke to Jonathan Harriman, the inventor of the bar code tattoo?” Allyson reiterated. “Actually spoke to him? Does he know you?”
    “He always remembers my name,” Grace said. “But it’s not like we’ve ever had a real conversation. Not until today.”
    “Can you get in to talk to him tonight?” Kayla asked.
    “I have clearance,” Grace confirmed, unsure of where this was going. “Although they might have cancelled it.”
    “I wonder if he’s still there,” Allyson said. “It’s already six.”
    “I could call Terri,” Grace suggested. “The front desk is manned until eight and then it goes to voice mail. I trust her to tell me what’s going on.”
    “Here,” Jack said, pulling a phone out of his pocket. “This one’s secure.”
    She punched in the number for the GlobalHelix front desk and waited as the phone rang one, two, three, four, five times. “That’s odd,” Grace told the others. “We never let the phone ring more than three times.”
    Grace tried the call again, and this time let it sound seven times, still with no success. “Strange,” she remarked, giving up.
    “Someone should get out there and see what’s going on,” Katie suggested.
    But Grace wasn’t through. There were still things she wanted to know.
    “What about the prophecy?” Grace asked. “Can you tell me about that now?”
    “After we talk to Jonathan Harriman,” Katie replied. “He might have information for us about the prophecy, information about your family. If anyone knows, it’s him.”
    “Hey, Eric,” Jack said, turning toward the covered vehicle behind him and gripping the edge of the tarp covering it. “This might be a great chance to take the new swing-lo for a test run.”

 
    “This is it … my baby … the swing-lo,” Jack said as Eric and Grace climbed into the craft. “Of course, Allyson has made a lot of improvements since I showed her the first prototype a while ago. What a piece of junk that was, compared to this one.”
    “And this one is still not the end product, we hope,” Allyson added, joining them. “All these dials and switches have to go. I mean, it’s so old-fashioned.”
    “Hey, I was working with scrap metal out in the desert,” Jack defended his design. “I was using car parts. Give me a break.”
    Allyson smiled and pushed him playfully. “Just saying, we can get something a little slicker going here.”
    “We’re going to have to hit our mysterious business backer for more money before that can happen,” Jack replied.
    Grace kept her gaze on them and wouldn’t look at Eric, who sat beside her in the swing-lo’s driver’s seat. Her emotions about him were wavering between disappointment, anger, and feelings of betrayal; she’d been so sure he was paying attention to her solely because he returned her feelings. The idea that she was only his assignment — that otherwise he wouldn’t even have noticed her — was humiliating.
    When she looked at him, she felt embarrassed and furious. She couldn’t bear to meet his eyes. But she’d been told to ride in the swing-lo with him and meet the others at GlobalHelix. She didn’t feel she was in a position to say no. If this is what it would take to get her family and her life back, she couldn’t say no.
    Grace also held mixed emotions about traveling in the shiny metallic disc in front of her. It had no more than a twelve-foot diameter. At its center was a seat