It was Quinlan's idea to stop.
"We need a plan," he said. "We can't just keep running randomly."
"Why not?" asked London. The country was big. She thought it was a good idea to just drive until they hit ocean.
"Look," Quinlan said. "We're not spies. If these people are really after that USB drive, then we need an actual plan to avoid them. Just us crisscrossing Pennsylvania isn't going to work."
"Eventually Pennsylvania's got to end, right?" London said, an attempt at a joke.
"London, I'm serious. You don't want to go to the police, right?"
"I don't trust the police. I don't trust anyone." It was true. The police were just the people who showed up after everything went to hell. The police had done nothing to protect her father. And the police weren't going to believe her story about people chasing professors down for USB drives, the police were going to shake her head at her and say there, there, little girl the way they had when she had first shouted hysterically at them in Tampa and London didn't have time to deal with that, not when her life was at stake.
"If we're not going to ask anyone for help," Quinlan said, reasonably, "then we need to be our own help. We need to figure out what we're going to do. We can't just wander around until they catch up and kill us."
It wasn't just her life, she reminded herself. She'd gone and gotten Quinlan involved, too. She hadn't meant to, but still, here they were.
And maybe it was ridiculously self-centered of her to be making these decisions for both of them.
"Do you think we should go to the police?" she asked.
Quinlan was silent for a second. "I think we should stop running and just get our bearings and think."
"Okay," London agreed, and nodded. "Okay."
YOU ARE READING
Change of Climate
Teen FictionLondon Lassiter's father was a meteorology professor. Not exactly the sort of person you'd expect to be brutally murdered in his research lab. But that's exactly what happens. And London finds herself on the run with her father's valuable research...
