“So there is no Hans?” Darius asked. “I have to say that the name of the Gray who led the monks to Elk Island was a powerful element of your story.”
“No, there is no Hans. Or rather, there was somebody pretending to be Hans,” Blue said. “James Halloway.”
“Your former teammate,” Darius said thoughtfully. “And Vladimir’s too.”
“It was his idea to use the coin to add to the mystery of it all. He was the one who put the social security numbers on the back: Voss, Asha, and Freddy. They were all close to their breakthroughs; the Dome had been monitoring them for months. I knew they would at least have a chance of discovering their spades. It was pure luck that they actually did.”
Darius cocked her head at Blue, as if replaying the events in her mind. At last she said, “I understand why you kept me in the dark, though I wish you had trusted me with it. We will bring all this information to the Council together.”
“Of course. I imagine they will sanction me for lying to them. I’ll take the consequences,” Blue said. “More importantly, we have a new way of tracking Wyeth: the dead zone.”
“Yes, of course!” Darius said. “We will begin work on coding an early detection system for dead zones in the shadow map. It will take some time, but if we’re lucky, the next time a dead zone appears, we’ll know that Wyeth himself is present. It is only a matter of time before we trap him!”
“We can still win the Reaper War, Darius.”
Jack was listening to all of this, incredulous. “Wait. This was all a setup?”
“You may not agree with the methods, Jack, but this is bigger than you,” Superior Blue said. “Our civilization faces a grave new danger now that we know Wyeth is alive. He has darkened at least two civilians with whatever virus he has gotten his hands on.”
Blue turned back to Darius. “With this behind us, I will issue two orders, effective immediately. First: Miles Watt is to be mind-scraped right away and sent to the Hadley Asylum. He may be young now, but he is one of the most dangerous shadow spades we’ve seen. He presents a threat, not just to his fellow recruits, but to the entire world. He must be contained.”
“He’ll resist,” Darius said.
“Do whatever is necessary,” Blue answered in a low voice.
Darius glanced at Jack and back to Blue, then cleared her throat. “The existence of the Hadley Asylum is classified, Superior Blue.”
“It’s okay, Trail. Jack will be mind-scraped in the morning. That’s the second order. But he will be given an honorable discharge, with every courtesy extended to him,” Blue said. “As for the other three, they are strong improbables. I propose we find a way to keep them here.”
Darius nodded. “I wish we could harness Miles’s abilities. He is only the second shadow spade we ever let remain in Hadley beyond the Naming Ceremony. But I have come to share your opinion of him. He is a Psionic, which is rare, and a powerful one at that. He will be sent to the Asylum at once. As for Jack, I agree wholeheartedly.” She looked at Jack. “You’ve done Hadley and the dormant world a great service, Jack. I wish you the best of luck.”
With that, Director Darius turned and strode back off into the night. Superior Blue and Jack now stood alone on the border of the Long Woods. Maggie came running up.
“Yes, I know we’re late for your walk, Ms. Thatcher.” Blue patted her head and eyed Jack. “Can we walk you to the Watchtower, Jack? Your teammates are being escorted back there. And Maggie has taken a liking to you.”
They crossed over the bridge and walked in silence for a long time, Jack processing everything from the night. “Did we ever have a chance in the Dome?” he asked the Superior.
“The Dome never even registered you, Jack. It wasn’t your fault. You simply were not a full team of improbables.”
Jack shook his head in disbelief. “You saw all the possibilities that nobody else saw. And you pulled it all off. You got Claire to talk. It seems impossible.”
“Improbable,” Blue corrected. “Don’t forget, Jack, this kind of thing is my gift.”
They were approaching the Watchtower, and Superior Blue stopped. Maggie wiggled her way between Jack’s legs, allowing him to scratch her back.
Blue smiled at him with Maggie. “If you have any final questions, this is the time to ask. You’re about to be mind-scraped, so I can tell you just about anything. You’ve earned it.”
Jack thought for a moment. “What killed off the Grays?”
“The Grays died protecting this academy in the Battle Beyond the Wall.”
Jack peered through the dark at the imposing main gate. “But what killed them? What’s outside the wall?”
Blue raised an eyebrow. “You won’t sleep well.”
“I won’t sleep anyway.”
Blue stared at the main gate in the distance for a long time before answering. “Dragons.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Jack asked.
“I am not kidding, no.”
“Freddy said there were probably dragons out there.”
“I’m surprised you haven’t given him a little more credit by now,” Superior Blue said.
“But dragons? There’s no such thing.”
“They were the creation of one of our operatives, a long time ago,” Blue explained. “She could transform local fauna—squirrels, chipmunks, that sort of thing—into ferocious beasts. Bright, angry red, large as a bull, and exceptionally dangerous. Very difficult to kill. Harder than reapers in some ways.”
“Why did she make them?” Jack asked.
“She created the dragons to kill the Reaper King. They are exceptional hunters.”
“But it didn’t work.”
“No. When that operative was killed by a reaper, the dragons went wild and turned on the improbables, killing almost a dozen. The Grays emerged from the Long Woods and fought the dragons.”
Superior Blue motioned to the wall. “That was when the wall was created. An operative named Isabella Kwei had a masonry spade, and she erected the entire wall in a matter of minutes, under tremendous stress. The wall ripped right through the Long Woods and encircled the entire academy. She saved hundreds of lives. The Kwei Library is named for her. The Grays drove the dragons out the gate. Hadley operatives searched for weeks for survivors. There were none.”
“And the dragons are still out there?”
“The wall keeps them out,” Blue assured him.
“So the Grays gave their lives to save this place.”
“They did, yes. And you’re doing your part too, Jack, in your own way.” Blue gave him a thoughtful look, then he glanced at his watch. “We have a few hours left. Can I show you something?”
CHAPTER 17
THE SILO
Superior Blue and Jack climbed up and over rock formations, pushing their way south and east through a mass of undergrowth. They were deeper in the Long Woods than Jack had ever been, crossing back over the river by leaping from boulder to boulder. Just when he was about to ask where they were going, he realized that Maggie had disappeared. One moment she was in front of them, the next moment she had vanished.
After a few more steps weaving through the dense trees and overgrown grass, the lattice of trunks and branches in front of him dissipated like a mirage. Jack stepped through a curtain of leaves and air and found himself in a clearing. Maggie ran to him and barked with delight.
In the center of the clearing, a stone silo rose into the sky. It was about fifty feet tall and fifteen feet in diameter. The stonework was rough and imperfect, unlike many of the other carefully masoned buildings on the central grounds.
“This is the Silo,” Jack said in wonder.
“Yes. To keep it safe from the scrabble and commotion of recruits, we cloak it with the same technology that makes Elk Island invisible,” Superior Blue said. “It’s a matter of turning certain surfaces reflective.”
Superior Blue walked up to the monolith, staring straight up. “Before the creation of the Dome, the Grays were Hadley’s int
elligence. They sensed and tracked reaper activity and sent improbable warriors out into the dormant world to destroy them. Many Grays were warriors themselves.”
Superior Blue patted the Silo. “This was their first structure on Elk Island. For the Grays, this was the most important thing they ever built.”
“What’s inside?” Jack asked, noticing a low archway that came up to his chest.
“See for yourself.”
Jack peered inside. The air whistled gently across the open top like a breeze across an empty bottle. He took a step into the darkness. Inside, the Silo was a small round room. A soft, thin layer of straw covered the dirt floor. Otherwise it was completely empty.
Jack looked up. The early night sky was visible through the top. The Silo gave the effect of peering up a tunnel to a perfect circle filled with stars. But there was something odd about the sky from inside the Silo. It was blurry, as if Jack was looking through prescription glasses he didn’t need.
“There’s something up there,” Jack said, ducking back out.
“The effect is from several hundred strands of transparent netting, all the way to the top of the Silo,” Blue said. “The strands refract light.”
“Of course. This is where the Order of the Grays believed the Guardian would fall,” Jack said. “They built the Silo to catch him. I saw it carved on the floor of Prophecy Hall.”
Superior Blue reached in through the low entry and pulled out a few pieces of straw, compressing them between his fingers. “The superiors of Hadley no longer tend to the Silo. We honor the Grays by improving our technology to better protect the dormant world from reapers. The story is a myth, but the Silo meant everything to the Order of the Grays. I believe there is some truth to it.”
“Do you believe the Guardian is coming?” Jack asked.
“I believe ending the Reaper War and killing Wyeth requires something unlike anything we’ve ever seen,” Blue said. “The Bulgarian was not the Guardian, but I believe that someone will come. The question is whether we can defeat Wyeth in time.”
“In time?” Jack asked.
“Thanks to Claire, we now have a better idea of how Wyeth darkens,” Blue said. “I just can’t imagine where he got such a virus. But now he knows it works.”
Blue turned to face Jack. “A virus this powerful, once released, cannot be contained. We must find a way to stop Wyeth before he releases this into the masses. The last dead zone may have been the final test. We may have only days. It is why getting Claire to talk was so critical.”
Jack felt his palms sweat. In a few hours he would be mind-scraped, and he wouldn’t know about this war going on between Hadley and the Shadow. He wouldn’t know how close humanity was to the brink of destruction.
Blue stared up at the Silo for a moment, then turned back to Jack. “You mentioned the thirteenth prophecy carved on the floor of Prophecy Hall. How did you find that?”
“I noticed the first twelve prophecies going around the walls, and I wondered where the thirteenth was. I climbed a support beam, and there it was under me.”
Blue cocked his head at Jack. “I believe you are the second recruit in forty years to be able to read the carvings. They seem like unintelligible symbols to most. Did you understand them all?”
“I think so—all except the twelfth prophecy,” Jack said. “The two figures with dark hearts facing each other. Has that already come to pass?”
Blue nodded. “It has, yes,” he said quietly.
“What did it represent?”
Blue looked at him, his eyes betraying an unexpected sadness. “I told you I could answer almost any question,” he said. “This is one I choose not to answer, Jack.”
Blue turned toward the trees and waved for Jack to follow him. “This isn’t your fight anymore, Jack. You’ll be home tomorrow. And don’t worry. Your mother was told you were away on a class field trip that she had forgotten to mark on her calendar. She is your adoptive mother, I believe?” Jack nodded.
“Well, she loves you very much. And don’t worry, she’s fine. We can be very persuasive in convincing parents of their child’s safety.”
“Thanks. I wouldn’t want her to worry.” Jack took one last look at the Silo before he entered the woods. “You’ll take care of Claire. You promise?”
“You have my word,” he said.
On the walk back, Jack realized he was ready to have his memory wiped. Claire had forgiven him. And the fate of the world was in the hands of those who had protected it for a thousand years.
Back at the Watchtower, he sat with his friends, who had waited up for him. As Asha’s robotic ladybug buzzed around the ceiling of the Watchtower, Jack told them everything, so they would remember it all even as his own memories were removed. Team Thirteen would be disbanded, but Darius and Blue would find a place for Asha, Voss, and Freddy at Hadley. Jack went to bed content for the first time since stepping foot in the portal courtyard. The instant his head hit the pillow he fell into a deep sleep.
In Jack’s dream, he was falling. He fell endlessly through darkness, out of control, spinning. He felt nothing but dread. The world was made of it.
But in this dream, he wasn’t Jack. He was the Guardian. This is how it ends, Jack thought.
His eyes snapped opened. He was in his bunk, on Elk Island, in the Watchtower. Freddy’s soft snoring rose from the bunk below him.
But there was another sound too. Jack sat up. His wrist glowed pale yellow in the dark. The band was vibrating. The Dome was calling Team Thirteen.
The door exploded open, splintering as it hit the wall. Voss, shirtless, held up his wrist and pointed to his glowing band. “What’s this supposed to mean?”
An air horn blasted behind him. He spun around to see Asha’s ladybug hovering with a tiny trumpet retracting back inside its shell. It turned and zipped through the air toward the spiraling staircase. Jack jumped from the bunk bed.
“Thirteen! Dressed and downstairs.” Asha shouted up the steps. “Now!”
Freddy popped out of his bunk, colliding with Jack. They pulled on their uniforms like firemen. A minute later they stood on the cold stone ground floor of the Watchtower.
“Let’s go.” Asha unzipped her pack and let her ladybug fly in.
“It’s a mistake.” Freddy’s voice was hoarse from sleep. “We’re not even a team anymore. And the Dome doesn’t run simulations at night.”
“Freddy! Don’t choose now to start thinking logically,” Asha said. “Right now we have to get there before the Dome closes the door. Maybe it changed its mind. Move!”
They ran—through the dark, toward the Dome.
When they arrived, a dim light illuminated the exterior of the Dome. The thirteenth door was open. They stood staring into the darkness.
“Can we even go in if nobody is here?” Jack asked. “Don’t we need to wait for somebody?”
Asha checked her band. “If we wait, the door might close. This is our chance to prove ourselves. We go now.”
They lined up behind Asha. Jack felt a cool rush of air. Then they ran single file into the dark.
CHAPTER 18
Something crackled. The sound of water pouring over an ice cube. The lights blinked and went out.
UNTIL DEATH
Something was wrong.
Jack faced a wall of exposed brick. It was not the inside of the weathered red barn he had become familiar with from other teams’ simulations. Where had the Dome sent them?
“This isn’t the farm,” Freddy said.
Team Thirteen stood in a tall passageway, empty except for a single wooden door and a ladder that led to a hatch high in the ceiling. Asha held up her arms, examining the black tactical uniform she was suddenly wearing. Voss, on the other hand, looked like a model for Versace, in a black tux. Jack caught Asha doing a double take at him while Voss examined his mirror-shined shoes.
The adaptive fabric of the three boys’ Hadley uniforms had morphed into expensive dark suits, perfectly tailored to each boy’s build
. Freddy’s black curls were tamed in a way Jack hadn’t seen since picture day in sixth grade, and Jack felt his own brown locks slicked back.
Jack’s suit felt tight. Alexander, at Superior Blue’s request, had given Jack a prototype blast suit that worked exactly like the other adaptive-fabric suits. Jack wasn’t an improbable, and Superior Blue wanted him to have extra protection. Right now it was just uncomfortable.
Asha touched the monitor in her ear. “Can anyone hear us? There’s a glitch in the simulation. We’re not on the farm.”
No response. All communication was cut off in the Dome.
Jack stared at the lone door. “I think I hear people out there. A lot of them.”
“This must be an advanced simulation,” Asha said. “It’s probably an error. The Dome brought us in at the wrong time, after all. Recruit simulations don’t run at night.”
“What’s the Dome doing bringing us in at all?” Voss asked, stretching his arms in the stiff suit. “Jack said it didn’t even know we existed.”
“I said it was never going to call us in because we weren’t a team,” Jack corrected.
“So what changed?”
Nobody knew.
Asha faced them. “Okay. Blades ready to deploy the instant you see a threat.” She glanced down at herself again. “I’m clearly the odd one out. I think I’m supposed to go up that ladder, to get a view of whatever is out there.”
“You sure?” Voss’s gaze followed the rickety ladder to the top.
“I’m not sure, Voss! But that’s the plan, okay?”
“Yeah. All right. Just be careful.”
“Hoods up, everyone,” Asha directed. Team Thirteen took a collective breath.
They pulled up the thin, transparent hoods from the back of their uniforms. Jack watched as their faces disappeared into shadow, then became visible again. “It’s not working.”
The Hadley Academy for the Improbably Gifted Page 15
