The Change (Unbounded) Read Online Free PDF Page B

and give the world technology and advances so they can better protect themselves.”
    I took my time to digest this information. The idea of two secret groups battling under the uncomprehending noses of ordinary mortals seemed a bit farfetched—unless I considered it in the light of my miraculous recovery. “What’s your group called?”
    “Renegades,” Cort said. “A name the Emporium gave us. Meant to be derogatory, of course, but it sort of stuck. We like it.”
    “I see.” For me, the title Renegades said a great deal about their ideology. I’d never been considered a renegade until I was forced to quit law school, and even that had been only a matter of self-preservation. Regrouping. Escaping the stares and embarrassment.
    For a while no one spoke. Stella stared at her computer where the figure of a gymnast now flipped gracefully from side to side. Cort studied me instead of Stella, which I found unnerving. He was probably immune to her beauty by long association.
    “Stella, how old are you?” I asked, more to distract Cort than from curiosity.
    Her eyes left the computer and found mine, a tiny smile on her lips. “I discovered I was Unbounded earlier than most. I was twenty-eight. That was about two hundred years ago.”
    I gaped but felt none of the indignation I’d experienced when Ava shared her story. Perhaps because I’d actually begun accepting this whole idea of immortality. In my mind, Stella looked barely twenty-eight, though at the two for one hundred rate, her body would now be approaching thirty-two.
    My gaze shifted to Cort, who cleared his throat and said, “I’m almost five hundred, but who’s counting? Time isn’t something that binds us.” He rubbed his hands together again. “Though, you know, the term Unbounded didn’t come from the word bound or bind. It came from—”
    “Unboundaried,” I interrupted. “I know. So you’re older than Ava.” I couldn’t think of her as my fourth great-grandmother yet. Maybe I never would. “But she seems to be in charge.”
    He cleared his throat. “After the first hundred years, seniority hardly matters. But yes, she’s the mother of our little family, as you might call it.”
    “And Dimitri’s the father?”
    Stella laughed. “That’s as good a description as any. Dimitri and Ava coordinate our efforts here. And before you ask, Dimitri’s over a thousand years old. As the saying goes, he’s forgotten more than most of us have ever learned.” She glanced at Cort and grinned. “If Ava and Dimitri are the mom and dad, and Laurence the ugly stepbrother, who’s Ritter?”
    Ritter? There was another one?
    Cort took up the game. “Ritter’s the prodigal son who returns after extended absences only for the pure joy of beating the hell out of the Emporium.”
    Stella laughed again, but I didn’t get the joke. “We’re fortunate Ritter’s on our side. You shouldn’t tease him so much, Cort. One of these days, he’ll squash you like a fly.”
    “I’d just get up again.”
    “Ava, Dimitri, Laurence, Ritter, and you two,” I said, “How many more are there?”
    “There’s you,” Stella said.
    “Besides me.”
    Her face lost all amusement. “Here in Kansas City, that’s all, though we do employ some non-Unbounded security personnel—most of whom formerly worked for our government in secret operations. Not stuff you’d ever hear about. There’s a larger group of Renegade Unbounded based in New York and several other groups spread throughout the world. Less than a hundred total now, with fewer and fewer being born every century. We don’t practice inbreeding like the Emporium.”
    “Maybe you should.”
    Cort cleared his throat. “I’ve told everyone I’m perfectly willing.” Stella shot him a disgusted stare, but he only shrugged and continued speaking. “Anyway, our low Unbounded birth rate is why you’re so important, Erin. You’re the first Unbounded to Change in America since Kennedy in