As they drove, Levi updated Rangan on world events. It was November already. When had he thought it was? Fuck, he didn’t even know. A lot had happened. Kade’s release of Nexus 5. The embrace of it by scientists, mental health workers, and the autism community. The PLF bombings. The Nexus crackdowns. The birth of the underground railroad.

Rangan’s head spun with it. The world was a different place. Nexus 5 had changed things in ways he’d never expected. Maybe Wats had expected this conflict. Maybe Ilya had. They’d been political. Not him or Kade. The political ones had died. He and Kade were just hunted.

He needed to get in touch with his parents, let them know that he was alive.

“Later,” Levi said. “DHS will have your parents under surveillance. We’ll find a stealthy way to let them know.”

Rangan nodded his head mutely. He had no choice but to trust this man.

Levi pulled the van up to a covered garage attached to the small church. The door opened and they drove in. The boys were holding their breaths in Rangan’s mind. This all seemed so unreal.

Rangan hopped out, opened the van’s side door, started helping boys out. He felt other minds appear, turned, saw three women approaching, all modestly dressed. Their minds felt warm and welcoming, and there were smiles on their faces.

Bobby jumped out of the van, hugged Rangan tight. Rangan returned the embrace. So weird that he’d never seen any of these boys in the flesh until a few hours ago.

Levi came around the van, introduced the women as Laura and Janet and Steph. “These are friends,” he told Rangan and the boys. Janet crouched in front of Tyrone and held out her hand and mind. The boy tentatively reached out, embraced both, and suddenly the bottleneck was broken, and the women were accepted.

“Welcome to the underground railroad,” Levi told Rangan quietly.

The three women took the boys away. Bobby didn’t want to go. He hugged Rangan tight, but Rangan assured him it was OK, that these were good people. He felt it. He felt it from Laura and Janet and Steph’s minds, felt it even from Levi, though there was no Nexus there. Bobby felt it too, felt the kindness, felt Rangan’s own judgment. He loosened his grip, and Laura led him kindly away.

Outside, the storm raged on, battering the church with a ratatatat of heavy rain.

Levi showed him to a bathroom, put a bundle of clothes in his hands. Rangan went in, pulled off the thin soggy clothes he’d been wearing, changed into a plain cotton T-shirt and jeans Levi had given him. The jeans were too loose, but there was a belt. He pulled it tight, wondering who had gifted him with these clothes.