Splintered Read online

  Copyright © 2019 by Jon McGoran

  All Rights Reserved.

  HOLIDAY HOUSE is registered in

  the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

  Printed and Bound in March 2019 at Maple Press, York, PA, USA.

  www.holidayhouse.com

  First Edition

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: McGoran, Jon, author.

  Title: Splintered / Jon McGoran.

  Description: New York : Holiday House, 2019. | Sequel to: Spliced.

  Summary: “Seventeen-year-old Jimi Corcoran continues her fight for survival and equality in a near-future world where teenagers have animal DNA spliced into their own”—Provided by publisher.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2018039836 | ISBN 9780823440900 (hardback)

  Ebook ISBN 9780823442201

  Subjects: | CYAC: Genetic engineering—Fiction. | Survival—Fiction. Toleration—Fiction. | Science fiction.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.1.M43523 Spp 2019 | DDC [Fic]—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018039836

  v5.4

  a

  For Will

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Acknowledgments

  CHAPTER 1

  The Lev train hummed as it surged away from the platform at Silver Garden, stirring up a thick cloud of ice and snow that sparkled and swirled in the darkness. Hundreds of tiny crystals peppered my face and melted on contact. I couldn’t wait to get where I was going, but I paused to watch as the snow settled back to the ground and the train disappeared into the night.

  Then I took a deep breath of frigid air and looked around at the old, brick warehouses that surrounded the station. To the south, the towers of Philadelphia glittered in the distance. A couple of blocks to the east, a freight train chugged along, comically slow compared to the Lev train. Then that was gone, too.

  I grinned and descended the long, metal stairway that led to the street. The cold bit my cheeks and ears, but it was refreshing, a welcome change from the past week and a half. Christmas had been nice, but after days of eating too much and being stuck in an overheated house with my mom, Kevin, and Aunt Trudy, I was ready for the holidays to be over.

  Now it was New Year’s Day, which meant they almost were.

  I’d spent New Year’s Eve at my old friend Nina’s party. I appreciated the invitation, but I kind of wished I’d stayed home, or had anywhere else to go. All her rich friends who never used to pay attention to me suddenly wanted to know me now—or, at least, say they knew me—because I’d been on the news. It was a fifteen-minutes-of-fame kind of thing, and as far as I could tell, my fifteen minutes were just about up. Which was fine with me.

  All my real friends had been away, some for the week, some for a lot longer. Tonight, though, most of them were finally back in town, and I’d spent the entire ride to Silver Garden smiling at the thought of seeing them. Even the fact that school was starting up again next week couldn’t bring me down—much.

  I wasn’t dreading school like I would have not too long ago, but I was glad there were a few days left of vacation, and especially glad that my mom would be spending part of that time on a long ski weekend with Aunt Trudy. It had been my suggestion, since their relationship needed a little mending. I was kind of shocked Mom had embraced the idea—especially since our relationship was still mending, too, after what happened last time she left me on my own.

  We’d had some deep heart-to-hearts about it, though; ones that included long hugs and more than a few tears. And eventually, she told me she understood why I did what I did that fall. After I’d offhandedly suggested she and Trudy could use a girls’ weekend, she said going away for a few days would give her the chance to prove she still trusted me, and let me prove I could be on my own without any drama.

  I guess we were making progress.

  My feet crunched on the snow that crusted the pavement as I made my way up the hill and out from under the Levline station. Sheer brick walls on either side created a canyon that funneled the wind. When it finally died away, my footsteps echoed in a way that made it sound like there were two of me.

  Or even three.

  I whipped around, suddenly feeling like I was being watched. I didn’t see anyone, but the sensation didn’t entirely go away.

  It wasn’t the first time I’d felt like this lately. Ever since my face had been splashed all over the headlines, I wondered sometimes if strangers on the street were staring at me, if they had seen me on the Holovid and knew who I was. Or more disturbingly, if they knew because they were with Humans for Humanity.

  H4H was the big anti-chimera group led by Howard Wells, the tech bazillionaire owner of the Wellplant Corporation.

  They were behind the Genetic Heritage Act, which the state legislature passed and the governor signed a few months ago. GHA defined anyone whose DNA wasn’t one-hundred-percent human—meaning chimeras—as legally nonpersons. It was totally absurd. I personally saw people try to use the law to justify killing chimeras, and I called them out on it in a pretty public way.

  It was weird to think that just a few months ago, I didn’t even know anyone who’d been spliced, and now H4H hated me almost as much as they hated chimeras. Maybe even more.

  I looked over my shoulder again, then glanced up the hill toward Dyson Street. The coffee shop where I was meeting everybody was just around the corner. I felt silly getting so worked up, but I took off running anyway, my feet trying to find safe patches of dry pavement. I was almost at the top of the hill when I slipped on black ice. I planted one hand on the crusty concrete as I fell, and felt the bite of gravel and rock salt digging into my palm. I stretched out my other arm, preparing for impact, but I never landed.

  Instead, another set of hands closed around me and scooped me up. They were so massive, I knew right away who they belonged to. But I fought out of sheer reflex, twisting in his grip and swinging my left hand hard. I couldn’t see his face in the shadows, but I heard his voice, a low rumble that could onl
y be Rex.

  That should have been the end of it. I should have slammed on the brakes.

  But he was laughing at me and I guess that pissed me off just enough to keep me from pulling my punch. It landed, then so did I.

  “Ow!” Rex bellowed, releasing me as he clasped his nose.

  The same word passed through my brain as I hit the ground. I was determined to keep it to myself, but it wasn’t easy. He’d been holding me higher that I had realized. Sometimes I forgot how big he was.

  “Damn, Jimi,” he said as I got to my feet. “You punched me!”

  “You snuck up and grabbed me,” I said, brushing myself off.

  “I didn’t grab you, I caught you,” he said, gently massaging his nose. “You were falling.”

  “Well…,” I said, “you were laughing.” He was right, of course. But so was I.

  He sneezed.

  I laughed.

  He glowered.

  “Sorry,” I said, stepping up close to him. He looked away, still angry, but I reached up and put my hand against his cinder-block jaw and turned his head back so he was looking at me.

  I flashed him a big, exaggerated, sheepish grin to let him know how sorry I was. And to make him laugh.

  He tried to resist, but it was useless. We both smiled.

  I reached up and ran my fingers through the hair on the back of his head, then lingered, massaging behind his ear. He closed his eyes, reveling in it, then looked down at me, his eyes bright and his face slightly flushed. “Heya,” he said.

  “Heya,” I replied. “Welcome back. How were your holidays?” I hadn’t seen him since right before Thanksgiving.

  “Better now. How about yours?”

  “Same.”

  “Lacking something, though, you know what I mean?”

  I smiled as he put his hands on my ribs and gently raised me to his lips. We kissed, parted, kissed once more for good measure, and then he put me down. I held onto him for another moment, wrapping my arms around the taut muscles of his midsection. Then I wedged my shoulder under his arm and he rested his chin on the top of my head, and we started walking. It was awkward, but neither of us cared. We stumbled a few times and laughed, holding each other that much closer.

  As we turned the corner, I glanced back at the Levline station.

  It was still deserted.

  Up ahead, soft yellow light played across the sign for New Ground Coffee Shop, a carved picture of a small seedling breaking through bare soil. I smiled at the sight of it. New Ground was unofficially Philadelphia’s official chimera hangout. I wasn’t a chimera, but it had become like a second home to me over the past few months.

  “How’s everyone been?” Rex asked as he reached out to grab the door.

  “Everybody’s good, as far as I know,” I said. “I mean…you know.”

  He paused and looked down at me with a sad smile. My eyes welled up, just for a moment, thinking of the friends we’d lost that fall. “Yeah, I know,” Rex said quietly. He reached out to touch my face. “You okay?”

  I forced a bright smile. “Yeah.”

  Then, arm in arm, we went inside.

  CHAPTER 2

  The coffee shop was bright inside, and warm in a run-down kind of way. Jerry, the guy who owned the place, was clearing a table when we walked in. “Hey, kid,” he said when he saw me. Then Rex came in behind me and Jerry’s face brightened even more. “Hey, Big Dog! Back from your travels, huh?”

  I grinned at the nickname. Rex was a chimera, spliced with canine DNA. His size wasn’t directly from the splice, but the splice had somehow activated the unsuccessful growth treatments he’d received as a kid—a very little kid whom I’d known as Leo Byron.

  The splice had probably given Rex his especially strong jaw, slightly pointed ears, and incredibly thick brown hair. But his amazing, dark-brown eyes were pretty much the same as he’d always had.

  Pell was behind the counter and Ruth was perched on a stool directly across from her, folding flyers. They were chimeras, too. They had the same curved nose, the same wide, dark eyes, and the same soft, elegant fawn-colored feathers covering their scalps. They’d gotten their splices together, with identical bird DNA, making them sisters, in a way. Pell had a new piercing since last time I saw her, a green stone in her bottom lip to match the one in her nose. I smiled thinking back to when I first met them, when that green stone in Pell’s nose was the only way I could tell them apart.

  Pell smiled and waved. Ruth jumped off her stool and ran over to us with a squeal.

  “Jimi!” she said. “And Rex! Oh my God!” She gave me a hug, surprisingly firm considering her slight frame. Then she squeezed Rex and hugged even tighter and longer. Rex winked at me over her head.

  “It’s so great to see you both,” she said, when she finally let go.

  “Is Sly here?” I asked, looking around the room. He was another chimera I’d grown close to over the last few months, but hadn’t seen in a while.

  “No,” Ruth said. “Haven’t seen him since Thanksgiving.”

  “Me neither. Where is he?”

  Ruth shrugged. “I don’t know. He said he was going away, but he wouldn’t say where. He was pretty cagey about it, actually.”

  I glanced at Rex, but he seemed to be making a point of looking anywhere but at us.

  “Weird,” I said.

  “Yeah,” she laughed. “All very mysterious.”

  I laughed, too. Rex was still looking away.

  “How was Connecticut?” I asked Ruth.

  Rex snapped around, shocked. “You visited your family?”

  Ruth nodded and smiled. “Yeah, we did. My mom wrote me a letter after Thanksgiving.”

  “That’s huge,” he said.

  “Yeah, it was good. There were a few rough spots, but it was a good start.” Turning to Rex, she said, “When did you get back?”

  “Just now,” I said.

  “Right,” he said, glancing at me.

  Ruth looked back and forth between us and grinned. “Oh! Well, I guess you have some catching up to do. We’re actually getting ready for a meeting, anyway.” Ruth had become heavily involved in Earth for Everyone, the chimera-rights group that had formed to counter H4H. Pell was involved with E4E too, although not as enthusiastically as Ruth.

  Rex and I nodded and found a table in the corner.

  Pell brought us some cocoa. “On me,” she said. “We’re heading out in a minute. Some big E4E meeting.” I got the feeling she was resisting the urge to roll her eyes. “Do you want anything else before I go?” She lowered her voice to a stage whisper, “Or do you want to wait and take your chances with Jerry behind the counter?”

  Rex and I laughed, but I’d tasted Jerry’s chai lattes, so I thought seriously before saying I was all set.

  We said goodbye as Ruth and Pell packed up and left, then I turned back to Rex.

  “So,” I said as he sipped his cocoa. “What’s new?”

  He laughed. “It’s good to see you, Jimi.”

  “It’s good to see you, too.” I grinned and let a few seconds pass before asking, “So…what’s it like?”

  His eyes narrowed, confused and suspicious. “What’s what like?”

  I leaned forward and bobbed my eyebrows playfully. “Chimerica,” I whispered.

  His shoulders slumped and he rolled his eyes. “Jimi, come on. I told you I can’t talk about any of that.”

  I was mostly messing with him—not that I didn’t want to know all about where he’d been and what he’d been up to since the last time I’d seen him—but I could see he didn’t think my question was funny. Before I could halfheartedly apologize, though, the door opened, and Doc Guzman came in.

  Rex called out to him. “Doc!” Then he turned back to me. “Sorry. I forgot to tell you when I called. I was supposed to be meeting Doc here tonight, too. Earlier.”

  I held in a sigh and tried not to look annoyed. I hadn’t seen or spoken to Rex in weeks, had only seen him twice since our crazy adventure mont
hs earlier. I considered him my best friend. And, I was pretty sure, my boyfriend. It sure felt to me like our relationship ran that deep. But I wondered if maybe I was misreading the situation.

  Doc unwound the scarf from his neck, the static lifting random strands of his tousled gray hair. His glasses fogged up as he made his way over to our table.

  Rex stood and they quickly embraced.

  Physically, they couldn’t have been more different. Rex was practically a giant. He was young and in amazing shape. Doc was about five foot four and in his late sixties, wiry and bespectacled, with a small belly.

  But as different as they looked, they had a lot in common.

  Doc was the local fixer, someone who could reverse a splice in the first forty-eight hours if someone changed their mind about it, or, more commonly, if the splice went bad. Technically, splices were legal to perform, but only by a licensed medical doctor—and only to treat some naturally-occurring genetic condition. Any doctor caught giving an “unnecessary” splice would lose their license. Since fixing a splice was considered the same procedure in reverse, the same rules applied. Give a splice or fix a splice, either way, you lose your license.

  That’s what had happened to Doc. He’d given up his legit medical career to treat chimeras, because no one else would. Insurance companies wouldn’t cover them, so most doctors and hospitals wouldn’t treat them if they were sick, beyond sticking them in beds and watching them die. Fixers like Doc were incredibly important to the chimera community. Although I don’t know if there were any who were quite like Doc.