Vivian Apple Needs a Miracle Read Online Free PDF Page B

playful to threatening; I don’t like the way he used his strength to overpower me. I didn’t like the tone in his voice when he called us
female children
.
    â€œWhat we know,” I tell him, “is all we have at this point. If I tell you, you have to understand that it’s part of an exchange. Not a gift.”
    Diego lets go of my arm. “Hard to understand the terms of the exchange without knowing the information. What if I promise you something big and you give me nothing?”
    Harp laughs. “It’s not nothing. You better believe it’s not nothing.”
    â€œThey asked for us alive,” I say loudly, trying to make myself heard over the crash of the nearby ocean and the blood pounding in my ears. “But if they get their hands on us, we won’t stay that way. If you want to know what we know, I need you to swear to me you can keep Harp and me safe. That you’ll do everything in your power to keep us hidden from the Church of America. If you can’t guarantee that, we’re leaving and taking our information with us.” I squirm uncomfortably—Diego has fixed me with a wide, unreadable grin. “What? Why the fuck are you smiling?”
    â€œBecause you’re so like Winnie, it’s actually spooky. You both clearly possess the take-no-shit gene.” He sizes me up for a long moment. Then he puts out his hand. I force myself to pause before I put out my left hand to take it.
    â€œVivian Apple,” Diego says. “I swear to—not God. What should I swear to?”
    â€œThe universe,” I supply without hesitation.
    â€œThe universe,” he echoes seriously. “Vivian Apple, I swear to the universe that I’ll keep you safe. I’m going to keep you safe because you’re young and innocent”—I scoff at this, but he ignores me—“and you deserve to be safe. I’m going to keep you safe because I think we want the same thing, which is to finish the Church of America once and for all. But do you know the main reason why I’m going to keep you safe?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œBecause I love your sister.” Diego lets his eyes wander away from mine, over to Winnie’s face. He continues to hold tight to my hand. “And I have a feeling she wants me to.”
    Beside me, Harp snorts. “Oh God, we
get
it,” I hear her say. But Diego’s words have a potent effect. I’ve never been someone’s sister before, and it seems as though being Winnie Conroy’s is a particularly valuable identity if it buys me the protection I need, if I can use it to find Peter, if I can use it to hurt the people who have hurt me. I glance at Winnie and see she’s watching me closely. I turn back to Diego.
    â€œFrick wasn’t raptured. He’s alive,” I say. “So is Adam Taggart.”
    He flinches. Winnie gasps, then looks to Harp as if for confirmation. Harp tosses her messy hair and grins.
    â€œThose dudes are alive as
fuck,
” she exclaims. “Breathing, blinking—the whole deal.”
    â€œBut that’s . . .” Winnie shakes her head, letting it sink in. “You actually
saw
them? They were just there, hanging out in the forest?”
    â€œThey’re being held there,” I say. “The corporation is keeping them under surveillance. They’re both insane. Frick didn’t know what he was saying, but he told us the Rapture was faked. The Church of America summoned a couple hundred Believers to the compound and killed them. They told Frick it was sacrifice. While we were there, he got a message from three people we didn’t recognize. He said they were angels, that they had orchestrated the whole thing. We think, basically, that Frick predicted the Rapture, and once people started to believe, the corporation made money. They had to make the Rapture happen to keep people believing. So they did.”
    Winnie seems speechless. She