“I hear him,” she whispered. “He wants Tommy, but I hear him, and I want to go to him.”
She didn’t get the dead-eyed expression she’d had before, but every now and then she’d circle to the door, put her shoes on, and wail.
“You can help us get out of here,” Sky said, calling up some details about the virus that Meyers had put on the tablet. “Do you recognize this?”
“No,” Morrigan said. Then her face crumpled, and she wailed again. “No, leave me alone!”
Danny tried to comfort her, but he couldn’t shield her from her link to Michael.
When the tablet finally activated, Oriana’s signal popped up instantly. “Oriana, this is Sky. Anyone listening?”
“Good to hear your voice, Sky,” Chase replied a few seconds later. “There’s currently a rain delay on your rescue, but we’re getting music broadcasts from Nola again, so we’re feeling good.”
“There’s a new illness in town,” Sky said. “I’m going to send you some specs on a virus. I need you to see if it’s something we brought and can cure.”
“So, this is more than a social call?” Chase asked. “Saskia! It’s Sky!”
A moment later, Saskia came on. “Sky, we may have an alternate exit.”
“Do not blast a hole in this dome,” Sky warned. She told Saskia that the lockdown seemed legitimate, and was about to get into Amanda’s condition, because they couldn’t run with Amanda in a coma, but Saskia interrupted her again.
“We don’t need to blast a hole. We have a young man here who ran away from home and I can guarantee he did not carry that ape through the front gate,” Saskia hinted.
Sky laughed in disbelief. Tommy was on Oriana. Sky had covered that terrain on foot the first time she entered Cordova, and she knew it was treacherous. She was proud of him for taking the reins on his destiny.
“Michael’s on a rampage looking for him,” Sky said. “Has Tommy gone zombie-like saying he needs to get back to Michael?”
“Zombie-like, yes, but not about Michael,” Saskia said. “We’re keeping an eye.”
“So, Tommy might be safe out there,” Sky said.
“And we’re trapped with a monster,” Morrigan said. “Oriana, get me out of here.”
Saskia paced the length of the passenger lounge, keeping one eye on George and the other on Tommy. Their newfound communication link with the crew only went one way, and Hawk had yet to be able to punch in from their side. There was no telling what Michael would do if he couldn’t reach Tommy. He could turn back to Morrigan or latch on to someone else.
Tommy sat on one of the beds, feet crossed, shoulders hunched, picking at the breadcrumbs from his sandwich. He’d devoured the food, asked for seconds, and finished off that plate as well. George reached over Tommy and tried to take the plate. The ape was inquisitive, but sickly, hungry, and unable to keep anything down. Tommy pulled George into his lap and took hold of his curious hands, the same as he would have for a child. But unlike a child, George just looked at Tommy expectantly and was immediately subdued. It wasn’t obedience that compelled him; it was defeat. The same look of defeat came to Tommy’s eyes when she forced him to share his story.
Tommy stroked George’s belly absently as he relayed the tale of their escape from the city—shimmying through water pipes, nearly drowning when a flush of water came through a few minutes ahead of schedule. Saskia frowned. Their entry would have to be timed by the system flush rather than tactical advantage.
“Sky still sees a peaceful solution. They’re going to walk out the gate,” Chase insisted, hating the idea of another battle. “It’ll be safe. It’ll be peaceful. The only question is how many will there be? If Fisher wants any of her team to go to Rocan, we’ll probably have a few passengers. She might want to bring Michael if there’s no one in the city to look out for him.”
“You’re bringing Michael here?” Tommy stammered, snapping out of his submissive fugue. George chattered at him, sensing the mood change. “After what he did to me? After what he did to Morrigan?”
“We can’t exactly leave him in the care of his abusers,” Tray said. “We’ll go to this inquiry, and we’ll offer to take the ‘troublemakers’ with us. We want your family to live.”
Tommy scooped up George, grabbed his shoes, and hobbled out.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Hawk asked, grabbing his arm.
Tommy looked sharply at Hawk’s hand, gauging the meaning of the grab. He wasn’t submitting like he had before. “I’m leaving. I don’t want to be anywhere near Michael ever again.”
“You have no supplies,” Hawk said, not letting go. “If you’re going to run, you need a lot more than George.”
Saskia crossed her arms. “Let him run if he wants. If it comes down to one or the other, Michael is more deserving.”
“Why? Because he’s not legally a person?” Hawk cried.
“Because Tommy cut his ear off and he’s been lying about it this whole time,” she said. The look of panic that flashed in Tommy’s eyes was all the confirmation she needed. “You attacked him.”
“No,” Tommy said, his breath getting short. He tugged against Hawk and Hawk let go of him.
“We’ve seen you go after him,” Saskia said, blocking the door. “You smack him. You kick him. Say it.”
“I kick him,” Tommy repeated, backing away from her.
“He’ll say anything if you scare him like that,” Hawk said. He tried to get close, but Tommy backed away from him, too.
“Everybody kicks Michael,” Tommy said, dropping his shoes. His feet were too blistered for him to slide them on.
“Does your mother kick him?” Saskia challenged.
“In the lab. Researchers,” Tommy said. He edged toward the cargo bay, but Chase and Tray blocked the hatch. He was trapped.
“Which ones? I want names,” Saskia demanded.
“I don’t know their names,” Tommy whispered, turning in a circle, testing the hand rungs. He let George climb away, but he didn’t have the strength to follow, so he pounded the wall.
“You were in that lab for your entire childhood but you don’t know any names?” Saskia pressed.
Tommy shook his head and bumped his head against the wall. Then he sank to the floor, his shoulders slumped, his eyes going dead. He’d disconnected, but that meant he’d answer her questions.
“You know their names,” Saskia said.
“If you ask, they call you stupid for not remembering and if you remember, they call you a precocious little lab rat and start using you for…” Tommy paused, cringing as he swallowed. “Other games. They staple your mouth shut. You’re not supposed to talk. Lab rats aren’t supposed to talk.”
Hawk covered his mouth, his face turning green.
“Did they kick you?” Saskia asked. She knew he shared a tragic past with his brother, and she suspected he’d become the abuser now.
Tommy twitched and pulled his arms tightly to his sides. “Sometimes I’d try to make them kick me instead of Michael, but they like doing it to him because it’s the only time he makes sounds. Every little peep, I’d see money change hands. They made me watch.”
Saskia and Tray exchanged a look.
“I was supposed to be a cadaver when they terminated my project. I wasn’t meant to see him go through this,” Tommy said, pressing the heels of his hands to his eyes. George dropped from the ceiling and clasped Tommy’s hand as Tommy relayed the horrors of his life in the lab. Dr. Schon had used physical punishment to train Tommy to maintain his falsetto. They’d mutilated his chest without anesthetic, taking a piece of his breast to study how it differed from a woman’s. His recounting of the torture sickened her, but she let him finish sharing his pain.
“Why did you attack Michael?” Saskia asked.
“I remember being on the swings with Libby, but now I know that wasn’t real. It was just a fantasy he put in my head. I don’t know where I was before he called me to his room,” Tommy said. “He already had the
knife, and he was bleeding, but not enough. He put the knife in my hand, and I fought as hard as I could to put it down, but he wouldn’t let me.”
“Had he ever tried to hurt himself like that before?” Saskia asked.
“No. But he had to try soon. Dr. Schon gave me the project plan for next fall and told me to read. She said not to humanize him, but I don’t like when they hurt him,” Tommy said. His hand ghosted over his shirt and he winced at the memory of his chest being mutilated. “They want to cut him like they cut me. I told Michael and he thought… if he just became a cadaver, then he could save us both.”
Tommy’s cheeks reddened with anger. “But Mom had to save him. She won’t give him up! And now he’s met Morrigan, and she loves him back. She’ll be a test subject, too.”
Hawk swore again and embraced Tommy. George whimpered, but Tommy was still trying to disconnect from his emotions.
“It’s not fair,” Tommy whispered. “They’re going to cut him apart. And I have to watch. It’s not fair.”
Saskia didn’t understand. “You had to know that cutting his ear wouldn’t kill him.”
“He wouldn’t make me kill him,” Tommy said. “Everyone would know and then they’d kill me. It had to look like he did it himself. Michael put the knife in my hand. He made me. But he fainted and I dropped the knife. He picked it up and tried to keep going, and I tried to stop him. He hit me. It never should have gotten that far. I don’t know how it got that far.”
“He was in your head,” Hawk said. “You don’t have a choice when someone’s in your head.”
“Tommy, did he ever make you do other things you didn’t want?” Tray asked.
“All the time,” Tommy said through clenched teeth. “I hate it so much, but he’s my brother. I’ll do anything for him. But I don’t want to do anything else. That’s why I ran away. And if he’s coming here, then I have to go.”
“We know Michael is looking for you,” Saskia said. “He’s upset because he can’t find you. Do you feel him in your head now?”
Tommy shook his head.
“Do you know where he would look if he wanted to find you?” Saskia asked. “Does he know where you live?”
“I don’t live anywhere,” Tommy said. “I don’t have a home.”
“Where do you sleep?” Hawk asked.
“On the roof,” Tommy said. “Maybe. I don’t know anymore. I could have been in his room the whole time. I could be there now. I don’t know.”
29
The stairs from Jack’s office went all the way to the roof, and Sky led with her grav-gun. The rush of wind whipping her hair surprised her. She hadn’t appreciated before how different the weather was at the top of the high rise. Heat hovered at the surface of the roof, but everything above her ankles felt cold.
Keeping one hand on the wall encasing the stairwell, Sky did a quick sweep, checking the corners. On the far side, there was a pile of black and gray blankets, and a blond head of hair peeking out the top.
“Danny, he’s here,” Sky whispered. Jack had said Tommy moved out years ago. It was sad to find out he’d been living on a roof with nothing but a stack of blankets.
Sky tip-toed closer. Michael wasn’t sensitive to sound, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t sense her in other ways. He shook under the blankets, his labored breaths audible over the crunch of Sky’s boots on the gravel. His lips and hands moved, making the sign for Morrigan.
“Looks like he’s calling for Morrigan now,” Sky reported.
“I can tell,” Danny said. “She’s getting harder to contain.”
Sky knelt next to Michael and put a hand on his shoulder.
“Mor,” he whimpered as he turned. His face fell when he saw Sky.
“Hey, kiddo,” Sky whispered. “Stop calling for Morrigan. She can’t come.”
“Ah-Sky,” he croaked, signing her name. She instantly felt the tug the others had mentioned. Then she felt Spirit lash out and cut the leash. Michael’s eyes widened, but he didn’t seem scared. He touched her lower ribs, like he could feel the pressure Spirit put on her lungs. His eyes glazed and he fell back into the blankets, signing Morrigan’s name again.
“Stop,” Sky said, tapping his hand, hoping he’d open his eyes. “I’m here. Tell me what you need.”
He spelled out a word, his fingers twitching.
“You’re getting good at that. Can you write for me, though?” she asked, setting pen and paper in front of him. Michael gripped the pen, then wrote the word ‘heal.’
“Tell me where it hurts,” Sky said, pulling the med kit from her satchel. Michael drew a stick figure and circled the lower back, so Sky started there.
Michael’s eyes were dull and his body still. He kept his breathing steady, and though he was trying to zone out, he wasn’t catatonic.
“Michael, is this helping?” she asked, making sure he could see her lips.
Michael shook his head and made a different sign that Sky didn’t recognize.
“Eh-ih Tommy?” he asked, his voice strained. He fumbled the pen and wrote, “Where is Tommy? He won’t come.”
Sky opened her mouth to respond but realized his gaze wasn’t on her lips, so she took the pen and wrote back: “He ran away. He needed a break.”
“Like Morrigan,” Michael wrote. Then he closed his eyes and his shoulders rocked in a sob. Reaching back for Sky’s hand, he positioned the black rod over his rib. Sky activated it again, and in a few moments, his breathing settled. He pushed up onto his elbows, then scooted with the whole blanket pile to gaze at her. He squinted, and Sky could feel Spirit’s talons pushing against her skin. She wondered if Michael was talking to Spirit. He wouldn’t be the first hybrid who could.
“Michael, we need to talk,” Sky said, tapping his hand and touching her lips. “Morrigan does not want to have a baby with you. She doesn’t want to be pregnant.”
Michael stared at her a few moments. He trembled, but then he resigned himself to the truth of her words, and sank against the pillow, disconnecting again.
“Michael, it’s not your fault,” Sky said, wanting to gush reassurances and tell him he was loved. “You have a power to make people believe things. To make people do things. Did you know?”
Michael nodded, then he picked up the pen. “Didn’t make her. I don’t want M to be a test subject. I tried to stop it. Not my choice.”
He’d made a few squiggles after the M, but Sky suspected he didn’t know how to spell Morrigan’s name. His sign for her only included the M.
“Who made the choice? Do you know?”
Michael wouldn’t look at her, so Sky moved on.
“You know it’s your power that controls Tommy,” Sky said, writing it down so he wouldn’t have to lift his head.
Michael nodded.
“You’re going to stop. You have to let him make his own choices.”
A sound rose in Michael’s throat, and he forced the words. “I miss him.”
Shifting his pile of blankets, he laid his head on Sky’s lap and cried. Turning to a new page in the journal, he wrote Amanda’s name full out. Then he filled in Tommy’s name around it.
Sky lifted Michael into a seated position and looked him in the eye. “Were you going to give him Amanda, like you gave him Libby?”
Michael shook his head, signing first, then getting frustrated and writing. “No. He wants her. But she is missing.”
“Missing?”
Michael drew a circle with two eyes, then he scratched out the eyes and drew another empty circle and pointed.
Sky tapped her comm bracelet. “Danny, have you checked in on Amanda today?
“No word from Dr. Granger,” Danny said. “I can’t leave Morrigan. She’s feeling Michael’s cries so strongly, I had to sedate her.”
Sky contacted Avery next. “Avery, I have another favor to ask.”
“Sky, I’m at the hospital. I brought Jack in. I had to,” Avery said.
“I figured. Can you check on Amanda?” Sky asked. “She�
�s been in a coma and Ian took her for rapid remapping. We haven’t heard from Dr. Chelsea.”
“You can access the medical records yourself,” Avery said with a dramatic sigh. But she promised to check.
“Want to visit your mom? She’s not running away from you,” Sky asked, putting an arm around Michael.
He trembled, and Sky thought it was pain until the light left his eyes and he became submissive.
“Michael, why don’t you want to see your mom?” Sky asked, though she was starting to get an inkling. Jack was the one who had seen the correlation between Michael’s fertility and his personhood. How had Jack convinced Morrigan to do this? Could she control minds, too?
Her comm beeped with Avery calling back. “Sky, I hope you’re sitting down. Amanda is dead.”
30
Danny’s heart thundered as he carried Morrigan slung over one shoulder and raced for the hospital. He wished he hadn’t knocked her out, but he couldn’t change the past. All he could do was pray, but he couldn’t pray Amanda back to life.
They came into Amanda’s hospital room and Danny froze. Amanda sat in the bed, looking contemplatively at her own fingernails. Danny glanced into the hall where Avery and Chelsea were in deep conversation with their fellow Granger cousins. He wanted to shout, but his chest felt tight.
“Hi,” Danny said, stepping tentatively into the room, adjusting his grip on Morrigan. “They told me you were dead.”
Amanda stared at him, wide-eyed and frightened, then she slipped out of the bed and backed away. “They told me that, too.”
Laughing softly, Danny laid Morrigan onto the empty bed and came around to give her a hug. She countered the move, staying just out of reach.
“Did something happen to your memory?” Danny asked, hearing Tommy’s warning in his mind. “Did Ian do something?”
“She did. All my memories are here.” She looked down at her hands, getting more upset. “I mean, I don’t remember dying. And I don’t remember you. I’m sorry.”
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