Precedent

Chapter Six

After another minute of staring, someone tells me where Taylor is. I thank them and get the hell out of there.

I head to the library. I should've guessed. Although, really, I don't know much about Taylor. Not nearly as much as I know about Drew.

I push Drew out of my mind. I need to stop thinking about him. I need to stop thinking about how sorry I feel for him. I need to stop thinking about how cute he is. I need to stop thinking about anything to do with him.

I find Taylor at one of the tables. I'm not totally lost in here; I've actually been to a library before. Of course, a lot of the shelves had been knocked down during the battle some Generation 4's had with a few R.A.C.O.'s.

Taylor has diagrams and blueprints spread out around him. He has algorithms all over the sheets. There is also a crudely drawn picture and larger versions of crudely drawn limbs on the first picture.

I cough loudly and his head jerks up.

"Oh, what's up Olivia?"

"I wanted to see you," I tell him truthfully. I sit down beside him. "What are you working on?" He blushes slightly.

"Well, as you can see, they're diagrams," he says. I shake my head.

"I mean, what are you trying to make?" I ask.

"Oh...it's kind of embarrassing," he admits. I raise an eyebrow.

"I won't laugh," I promise.

"You can't tell my dad," he presses. I frown.

"I don't even know your dad." Okay, that's a complete lie. No loopholes. I know Franklin. Not well, but well enough, I guess.

He takes a deep breath. "You know how my family's rich."

"Who doesn't?" Even I know the Greycen's, in this time period, had a lot of money.

"My family, all of them, wants me to take over all the stock and businesses we own. They're like those antagonists that want to use my genius for their own nefarious purposes," he explains.

"What do you want to do?" I ask. He glances down at his diagrams.

"I've invented stuff before. When I showed it to my dad, he smashed it. While I've been here though, I have perfected some things. I've already got a buyer interested in my stuff. This guy, Cray Anderson, wants to buy my stuff to jumpstart his company, Anderson Incorporated. He's willing to pay me a lot. He's been buying and selling tech on line for a year now."

"That's cool," I tell him earnestly. "I'm glad you're doing what you want to do."

"Check this out," he says excitedly. He shows the blueprints in front of him towards me.

I look down, trying to decipher what's mathematics and what's design.

I finally figure it out. Some of the sheets are close-ups of limbs. When I can actually make out the lines of the drawing, I see he's building some sort of robot.

"A robot?" I ask. He nods.

"Yeah. I'm thinking, they could be solider. We wouldn't have to risk human life with these on the front line," he says. I stare at the sketches. Then I realize something I don't want to realize.

With different coloring, he's drawn R.A.C.O.'s.

No, no, no! It can't be Taylor. The Originator simply can't be Taylor. He's sweet. He's so wonderful. How could he, in just a few months, become someone so horrible?

I fall out of my chair, trying to get away from the table. Taylor gets up and tries to help me up. I jerk away from him.

"Olivia, what's..." he begins, but I back away.