Echo

by Valerie J Mikles

  “Can you tell me how Michael got hurt today?”

  Tommy stopped chewing and his hand dropped to the table. His face twitched and the half-eaten cracker fell from his hand. “I wasn’t there. I left him alone.”

  “So someone else punched you in the face?”

  Tommy shook his head. “Libby came, and we were sitting on the swings. She started going on and on about how pretty Michael is now that he’s grown up. She wouldn’t shut up about him,” Tommy said. His hands clenched, the memory getting more difficult to relive. “So, I went to get him. I thought he’d like to know someone thought he was so nice to look at.”

  Amanda winced. It must have made Tommy crazy to hear his best friend crushing on his brother.

  “So, you went to get Michael,” Amanda prompted. “Then what?”

  Tommy’s breath hitched and his body twitched. He tore at the roots of his hair. Amanda put a hand over his and that was enough to release the tension in his body.

  “He had the knife. I saw blood. I… I knocked him down. I didn’t want him to hurt himself,” Tommy said, his voice shaking. “He punched me. Mouth first. Then my eye. And he ran away.”

  “It’s not your fault, Tommy,” Amanda said. “I’ve been the crazy one for a long time now. I’ve hurt myself. I’ve hurt others. Things happen. It’s not your fault.”

  “He’s not sick like you,” Tommy said, hooking a finger in the choker on his neck. “I should clean up the house before Mom sees.”

  “Too late,” Amanda said, putting a hand over his. “She’s been looking for you all day.”

  “No, she hasn’t,” Tommy muttered.

  There was a commotion in the bedroom, then Fisher burst out with Saskia barely holding her back.

  “I don’t believe you. That’s not Tommy. That’s not his voice!” Fisher cried. Then she saw Tommy and her jaw dropped. Tommy’s eyes clouded with betrayal, and he jumped out of his chair.

  “Where’s Michael?” Tommy asked, switching to his falsetto. He reached a hand behind to open the main door.

  “He’s not here,” Fisher said, reaching out both hands for Tommy. “Look at your face. It looks awful.”

  Tommy stayed frozen in place. “Is he dead? Did they put him down?”

  “No,” Fisher said.

  Tommy’s nostrils flared. “Why not?”

  Fisher frowned. “Because he’s not dangerous. Everyone’s telling me it was you who hurt him. I have been looking for you all day, because I want to know what happened. It’s the only way I can save you both.”

  “I don’t want to save him!” Tommy growled.

  “Tommy—”

  “Why do you love him so much? Why don’t you love me?” Tommy yelled.

  He turned for the door, but Fisher grabbed his arm, her rage rising to match his.

  “How dare you!” she snarled, yanking him back into the room, putting herself between him and the door. “Don’t you know where you would be without me? Not in university. You’d be a cadaver, carved up by grade schoolers for a science project. It’s not just Michael they’ve been trying to put down for years, it’s you, too! When you were an infant, they smothered you and threw you in the trash! I pulled you from that because I love you, and don’t you dare think I haven’t been fighting for your life every day since!”

  “Then stop trying to fix him!” Tommy shouted back, storming into the empty bedroom and slamming the door.

  Amanda looked nervously at the others. “At least we know where he is.”

  “And that you summoned him,” Fisher said, scowling at Amanda. “Using Michael’s power? No wonder Tommy’s so miserable.”

  21

  The next morning, Amanda was a bundle of nerves on her way to the NR lab. The holdover meds they gave her between NR sessions worked well, and she hated the feeling when those were nullified. Jack Fisher’s accusatory scowl was burned into her mind, and she felt bad for using Michael’s power to bring Tommy out of hiding. She worried he was only sticking around because he still felt the pull, but she didn’t want him to go. When they neared the lab, she thought about inviting him in and insisting to Ian that he be allowed to watch. But he had enough to deal with, and she didn’t trust Ian to be civil.

  During the walk, Hawk chattered a little too loudly about male puberty, nocturnal emissions, and an ill-fated farting contest he’d lost to one of his exes. His ideas about maleness seemed to shine in his impropriety, but Tommy hung onto every word.

  “Where do you work?” Hawk asked, slowing his pace as they approached the building. He didn’t want to part ways with Tommy either.

  “In the library, sometimes,” Tommy said, glancing the opposite way down the street. “They won’t give me a desk at the lab.”

  “So, you work for one of the science labs?” Hawk asked.

  “Maybe. Provisionally,” he said, the light leaving his eyes. “If I can stop myself from humanizing the test subjects.”

  “Do you like your job?” Hawk asked, fumbling to save the conversation.

  “Not really, but it’s nice to have something,” he said, switching for a moment from his deep voice to his falsetto. “Dr. Schon says if I do my job well enough, she’ll transition me to female so I can assimilate better. Do more with my life.”

  “I didn’t realize that was something you wanted,” Amanda said, feeling a twinge of disappointment.

  Tommy shrugged one shoulder, and for a moment, his eyes met hers. “No one here sees me the way your people do.”

  “Not even Libby?” Hawk asked, bumping Tommy’s shoulder and giving him a teasing brow waggle. “Have you ever kissed Libby?”

  “Used to,” Tommy said, emotion rippling through his torso. “We talked about having sex, but as soon as we got our clothes off, she got scared and left. She said I looked weird.”

  Tommy could barely force out the last sentence, but he was confused about his manhood, and he’d confided a lot in Hawk just seeking confirmation that what he felt was normal.

  “That’s what most women think the first time they see a man undressed,” Hawk said ruefully.

  “Do I look weird?” Tommy asked, rubbing his hand over his neck. His shirt was high-necked, but he hadn’t put on a choker today, so his Adam’s apple peeked over the top.

  “I like looking at you,” Amanda said, brushing her fingers over his shoulder.

  “I could lick you all over,” Hawk agreed, licking his lips.

  “Hawk! You have a prince. Back off!” Amanda laughed, swatting his shoulder. He wouldn’t have been flirting as aggressively if he’d thought Tommy were remotely interested in him.

  “If you’re going to flirt with him, you’re going to have to be a little more obvious,” Hawk said, swatting Amanda back.

  Tommy looked between them, his lips parted in confusion. “You’re flirting with me?”

  “No. I mean, yes,” Amanda stammered, her cheeks burning. “I mean… do you want me to?”

  Tommy thought for a moment, his lips quirking, and finally, he nodded, but he still looked scared.

  “I’m glad we settled that,” Hawk said, taking Amanda’s hand and putting it into Tommy’s. Their walk slowed again. They were almost to the building, and now, Amanda didn’t want to go in. She’d have to remember to baseline this memory with Ian so she wouldn’t lose it.

  “So, this… transition,” Hawk said, taking his awkward third wheel position. “I don’t guess your people have ever done something like that before? None of the women transition to male, and you’re the first man in the city, so no one has ever… You’re not going to be a test subject again, are you?”

  “I don’t know,” Tommy said. “Nothing’s decided.”

  “I’m sure we have some literature in Oriana’s computer that would help,” Amanda offered. “If not, we can message Quin and get some comprehensive medical procedurals. For their doctors, it’s a routine procedure; not an experiment. You wouldn’t have to face so many unknowns.”

  Tommy cocked his head. “Why would an
yone where you’re from need to transition?”

  “Some people know early on they were born in the wrong body. Some people figure it out later and have a more trying journey,” Amanda shrugged. “There are all sorts of books about it, and some of the memoirs are pretty intense.”

  Letting go of his hand, she slipped out her Virp and started hunting for a book, but her Virp wouldn’t connect to Oriana’s computer. Frowning, she checked the comm channel. “Did I miss the morning gate? I thought I’d have a chance to talk to Danny before I went to the lab.”

  “Maybe they closed it early,” Hawk said, tapping his Feather. “Sky, did you talk to Oriana this morning?”

  When he didn’t get an answer, he tried the Cordovan bracelet. That method still worked. Hawk stepped away to talk to Sky, and Amanda glanced hopefully at Tommy. She called up a book that she had stored on her Virp. She’d read it often enough that she could quote chunks of it.

  “This one’s a mystery, but the detective is an adult in the early stages of physical transition,” Amanda said, leaning next to him and showing him the screen. “It’s a weird place to start, but maybe you’ll relate. Do you like mysteries?”

  “I don’t get to read much fiction,” Tommy said. He played with the scroll, moving quickly through the chapter. Amanda often thumbed the pages, too, when her mind wandered.

  “You can read it if you want?”

  “I am. I read fast. It was kind of a survival skill in the lab,” Tommy said, scrolling some more. Amanda was impressed and jealous. Her to-be-read stack was pretty high.

  “I’m going to find Sky and see what’s going on with the window,” Hawk said, coming back to the two of them. “Do you want to put off your treatment until we get through?”

  “No. As long as someone’s there at the end of the session, I’ll be fine,” Amanda said. Tommy offered her the Virp, but she held up her hand. “Hold onto it for today. Maybe you’ll find time to read the rest. Then we can talk about it later. It’s a whole series of books. One of my favorites.”

  Tommy smiled and kept reading as he walked away.

  Hawk couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. Everything in Cordova operated like clockwork. The gate opened in line with the air cycle, and Tray was usually waiting on the line the moment the signal connected. He had his brother back, but even if Tray hadn’t been sitting in the ward room, poised to make a call, someone should have been there to receive Hawk’s message. His Virp couldn’t even see the ship.

  He jogged toward the Eastwind tower and picked up speed when he saw Saskia and Sky coming from the other direction.

  “Look out!” Saskia hollered, waving him out of the street.

  Hawk veered toward the side, ducking instinctively when he saw a small shadow in the corner of his vision. Lula’s model airplane came barreling down the street, heading straight for him. Hawk reached out, stealing its energy so that the plane landed in his hand.

  “Not bad,” Sky said, panting for breath.

  “Are you hurt?” Saskia added.

  Hawk shook his head.

  “What do you think?” Lula hollered, coming around the bend and running toward him. “Amazing, right?”

  “You nearly hit me,” Hawk said, biting his lip. They did not have time for a play date.

  “I was going to show you in the courtyard, but you ran off,” she said with a broad smile as she wedged in between Sky and Hawk. “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing,” Hawk said, handing her the plane. The wingspan was almost three feet, and it forced their circle wider.

  “Oh, come on. You may be originals, but you have the same expressions as normal people,” Lula huffed, her eyes lighting with delight. “You’re up to something. You’re scheming.”

  “Yes, we are, and your mom would kill me if I got you in trouble,” Sky said, taking Lula by the shoulders and turning her back the way she came.

  Lula just kept spinning. “Are you thinking of breaking Jack Fisher out of jail?” she asked, dropping her voice.

  “Jack’s in jail?” Sky asked.

  “Every dome,” Saskia groused. “Jail break in every dome!”

  “Silver lining. It’s not one of the crew,” Hawk said, though his stomach was twisting in knots. He should have known a day that started so sweetly would turn sour soon enough. “Why is she in jail?”

  “Data tampering, transferring custody of a test subject without authorization, failure to control a test subject in her custody, unauthorized inclusion of a person in an experiment,” Lula listed. “They came to the lab this morning and they took all her notebooks. They were looking for her notes on Michael.”

  “Why the sudden interest in Michael?” Sky asked.

  “Couldn’t possibly be because we abducted him,” Saskia said tartly.

  “In full view of the gate operators. They opened the door,” Sky said.

  “What would her notes about Michael say?” Hawk asked, though he had a sinking fear that she’d written about his summoning power. If the people in this dome knew one of their test subjects had hybrid power, who knew what kind of brutal, inhumane experiments would follow.

  “I don’t know,” Lula said, keeping her voice low and conspiratorial. “Mom always said that he’s trapped in his head. They sit him at a table in the lab and let him write, but he only writes one story. The harbinger of heaven.”

  “I need to find Jack. See if this is connected to the comms freeze,” Sky said. “Where is she being held?”

  “Probably Building Thirty-seven. That’s where they take all the defective templates awaiting inquiry hearings,” Lula said.

  “Lula, we need to talk to our people, but our comms aren’t connecting. Is there a place we can go to get a message out?” Saskia asked.

  “Comm tower. I’ll show you,” Lula said, taking off. She tossed her model plane in the air, then activated a controller embedded in her palm, letting the plane lead.

  They didn’t have to go far. The Oseshen tower, being the tallest, was also the home of their communication technology. Two stories up from the healing sauna, they entered a room that glowed purple with energy. Hawk didn’t feel a Confluence presence in here; as far as he could tell, everything was natural.

  Lula waved to the person on duty and chatted casually, showing the burly woman named Garcia her plane and where she’d integrated the receiver—which apparently had been borrowed from that room’s scrap pile. She kept it short, then introduced Hawk and Saskia, explaining that they needed to send a message to their spaceship.

  “We’ve told their people they need to return the test subject,” Garcia said, glaring at Saskia and ignoring Hawk. “There will be no further communication until they return him.”

  “They can’t find you when you’re cloaked,” Hawk said.

  “They did before,” Garcia replied.

  Hawk got the sense he wasn’t going to win this with words. He gave Lula a shrug and she asked Garcia if they could raid the scrap room for more receiver parts. Garcia let them go with a wave, and Lula excitedly tugged Hawk’s hand, taking him and Saskia to a side closet and closing the door. Then she smiled again.

  “She’ll go upstairs to oversee the news broadcast in a few minutes. If she sent a message to your ship, we can, too. We just have to break in and figure out what protocol she used,” Lula whispered.

  “How long will that take?” Saskia asked.

  “Don’t know. Never tried,” Lula grinned.

  Saskia shook her head.

  “Give me a minute,” Hawk said, sinking to the floor, testing his control of the energy in the room. He hoped these people didn’t have enemies who would swoop in if the city became visible more than a moment. He held out a hand and touched Saskia’s Virp, then he tried to find whatever antenna Garcia had used to get a message through the shield.

  “Oriana, do you read?” Saskia called.

  A piercing, hot sensation stabbed through Hawk’s chest from the effort.

  “Saskia, it’s Danny. We’
re in the ‘sled near the gate, we think. We got a call saying they want Michael back, but we can’t find the city,” Danny said. “Is everyone with you?”

  “Just me and Hawk,” Saskia replied. “I don’t know how long we have. Sky’s going to find Fisher. They raided her office and arrested her.”

  “Because we took Michael? Is Amanda safe?” he asked.

  “Was an hour ago,” Saskia said. “She’s in treatment. Do we need to run?”

  “Don’t interrupt the NR if you don’t have to. We’ve brought Michael back. We just need someone to come out and get us,” Danny said. “I think we need Hawk on the outside, since he’s the only one who can find this place without sensors.”

  Saskia hesitated. With Fisher in jail, that probably meant Hawk wasn’t getting the help he needed. His grip on her tightened as he fought to keep the connection.

  “Head to the gate. We’ll trade Morrigan and Michael for Hawk,” Danny said.

  “Yes, sir,” Saskia said. Then she pulled her hand out of Hawk’s and Hawk slumped on the floor.

  “That was awesome,” Lula squealed, taking Hawk’s hands. “You all have hybrid powers, don’t you?”

  “Just him,” Saskia said, pulling Hawk off the floor. “Help me get him to the gate.”

  “You’re leaving?” Lula whined. “But there’s so much we can trade. Live hybrid cells…”

  “His body and his power are not available for trade,” Saskia said sternly, kicking open the closet door and heading for the elevator. “Keep his secret or I will hurt you.”

  “You don’t have to be like that,” Lula complained, coming under Hawk’s shoulder and helping Saskia support his weight. “I want to come with you. I want to stay with him.”

  “No. We took Michael out of the city last night, and things have gotten very tense for us,” Saskia said simply.

  “Did you take him because he has a power, too?” Lula whispered. “When they came for Jack Fisher, someone said it was because she hid Michael’s spirit power. It would change everything if we could generate new veins from test subjects!”

  “Don’t spread that rumor,” Hawk croaked, reaching around to try and clamp a hand over her mouth.