The School for the Insanely Gifted by Dan Elish Page B

that they were as skeptical as she was and turned back to the man to apologize. The man tossed the coconut into the woods and reached for the photo. When he looked back up, his eyes had taken on a misty glow. Daphna could have sworn that he was choked up.
    â€œHeather Whispers is your mother?” he said.
    â€œYes. She is.”
    He took a step closer. “How is she?”
    Over the past two months, Daphna had been struck by how quickly her mood could shift. In a matter of seconds, the thrill of the man knowing her mother was replaced by the sadness of her disappearance.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?” the man asked. “She’s not well?”
    Daphna spilled the entire story, starting with her mother’s crash and going through the appearance of the antelope man to the discovery of the map. By the time she finished, she was trying her best to choke back sobs but losing the battle. The man stepped closer, as if unsure whether to comfort her or not. Daphna looked at the ground, realizing that she had bared her soul to a complete stranger. It was humiliating. She swallowed back her tears.
    â€œShe’s not here, is she?” Her voice trailed off.
    The man shook his head. “I’m afraid not.”
    Daphna’s chest tightened. Just because she had been expecting the news didn’t make it any easier to hear. She felt Cynthia’s arm on her shoulder. Daphna took a moment to control her emotions.
    â€œAnd the picture? Neither of these guys is you, are they?”
    Daphna fully expected the answer to be another letdown in a string of disappointments. Instead, the man smiled, revealing a full set of surprisingly small but white teeth. “In younger, thinner, less hairy days, yes. That’s me, sitting next to your mom.”
    â€œYou’re Billy B. Brilliant?” Harkin asked.
    At the mention of the name, the man’s eyes registered the slightest trace of surprise. Then he pulled at his right sideburn and smiled again, this time as if he was bemused by an old memory. “Billy B. Brilliant!” he whispered. He shook his head in astonishment. “Nobody’s called me that for years!” When he met Daphna’s eyes again, he was smiling. “Forgive me, but I’ve been rude. You’ve had quite a trip. Come in! Come in!”

Chapter 14
Laptops in the Lab
    M y real name is Marcus Bean,” the man said, moving toward the cabin. “But you can call me Billy, if you’d like. Billy B. Brilliant was a silly name your mother came up with for me one night in college. I called her Cassandra P. McFuzz, just like it says on the picture.” Billy laughed—a warm, mellow chuckle—and pushed open the front door. “Sorry I haven’t had time to straighten up. As I said, I don’t get many visitors. And don’t worry about my monkeys. I have a strict ‘no chimp’ policy inside.”
    Billy disappeared inside his house, leaving the door wide-open. Daphna expected the inside to resemble the outside, a charmingly old-fashioned cabin, where a fireplace was used for heat and to cook. In short, the perfect home for a messy guy with a beard and a whip. When Daphna stepped into the foyer, she couldn’t believe her eyes. Before her was an enormous room. There was a quaint fireplace off in the corner, but the rest of the space resembled a modern laboratory. The room was filled with rows of computers—hundreds of them, laptops and desktops of all shapes and sizes and colors—blinking, whizzing, and whirring. Four giant monitors hung down from the ceiling in the center of the room. Wires, bolts, duct tape, discarded keyboards, and computer chips littered the floor. While the outside belonged to a quaint past, the inside belonged squarely to the future.
    â€œDoor!” Billy growled. “Shut, if you please!”
    The door moved by itself and closed with a gentle click.
    â€œLights!” he barked.
    Though Daphna didn’t