“You guys seen Rabbit Santiago around lately?”
Emilia spins around with a crooked smile pulling at her lips. “The cute one?”
“Is there another Rabbit?”
“Sure. He sat at our table for a while after he came back,” Emilia says.
“Came back? Came back from what?”
Emilia shrugs. "I don’t know. The same place Scarlett disappeared to after you blew up the base, I guess. That's what we all assumed. He was gone a lot longer. A LOT longer. A month, give or take a few days. He wouldn’t talk about it around us, even when Scar asked him. He sat at our table, ate in silence, stared at his tray. He asked about you a couple different times. Then Clinton Fuller came back and Rabbit switched tables. I do miss Rabbit’s eyes. He has nice eyes,” Emilia ends with a dreamy sigh. “A nice face.”
“Clinton Fuller came back? He’s here on the Fort Columbia base?”
“He showed up about two months ago.”
I nod and the pain in my head eases. That image I saw of the monstrous Clinton Fuller at the Prothero lab, it was a hallucination. I didn’t really see him. There’s no way he could be in two places at once. The Rosas wouldn’t lie to me.
“If it makes you feel any better. I think Rabbit still does.” The bubbly smirk is back on Emilia’s face.
Both twins turn towards the door.
“Still does what?”
“Cares about you,” Emanuelle says with the sweet bedside manner the Academy hasn't stolen from her yet. “Take care of yourself Len. You’ve become a very important person.”
“I’m not gonna let you guys down,” I insist. “Things are going to be different this time. It’s not just about me. It’s about helping other people. I promise.”
“Good. Did you know you're not wearing any shoes?” Emilia points towards my feet. The door closes.
I release the nearby audio recorders and curl myself up in a meditative yoga pose to monitor more internal communications. I lost the thread when the Rosas mentioned Clinton. I tune back in to receive the bad news. Soldiers have been deployed to secure critical areas across the base. So far the residency buildings are low on their priority list. Security has been tightened around the newly reconstructed armory, the airfield, and the SIM building.
A tickling sensation burns deep in my nose and I rub at it, fingers coming away slick. Thick black blood dribbles out over my top lip. I wipe off my fingers and brush the fluid away with one of the rags from a nearby bucket. I can recharge the nano batteries at any old outlet, but I need to bring injectors along on this trip or I won't last twenty-four hours. I cloak and exit the closet, heading left away from the mess hall.
The tickling sensation grows stronger and dizziness spins my vision down to the linoleum, where I notice dark blood dotting the floor. The drips trail my path, revealing my current location. Worse yet, the drops hitting the cloak aren't absorbed by the nanos. I’m revealing my exact position, drip by drip.
The infirmary is about a thousand feet from my position and I'll be lucky if I make it another ten. I slump over to the wall and lean the upper half of my torso onto it for support. The rest of the thousand feet passes in a blur. I'm grateful classes are in session around the Academy or I'm not sure I would have survived the ordeal without being spotted.
I reach the infirmary and throw my weight against the door. It groans open and Nurse Esperanza slides into view, a quizzical expression on her face. It makes sense, given no one is on the other side of the door.
“Hello?” she calls out into the empty hallway, squinting at the small drops of blood left in my wake. She moves to shut the door.
I limp out of her way, but not in time. Her shoulder catches me off balance and I lose my footing, crashing into a pair of waiting room chairs off to my right. Exhausted, I don't even bother getting up.
“What in the holy hell?”
I reach out with the remaining energy from the telepad and overload the fuses on the security cameras and audio devices. Thin lines of smoke trickle from the ceiling, the scent of burning electronics. The cloak sparks and dies, revealing my haphazard perch on the furniture.
“Gar—” Nurse Esperanza clamps a hand over her mouth and rushes over to my side, dropping to a knee.
“Hey, you look nice. Kinda blurry,” I murmur.
“You look terrible. Into my office.” She turns her head and motions at the front desk clerk and pharmacist.
“Take a break kids,” she orders.
They exchange a loaded glance, shrugging out of their respective duties with the apathy of youth and forced servitude. I wonder if they’ve seen my picture flicker onto their bands yet. I wonder if Nurse Esperanza knows what she’s risking.
She fireman lifts me from the chairs. I roll onto her back and will my feet across the floor. Between the two of us we make it into the first exam room. She flops me down on a bed, studying me with her customary friendly suspicion.
“Are you running a fever?” She takes my forehead temperature. “You’re burning up. When did you take your last injection?”
I allow her to touch me. It’s calming, whisking the fear and nerves from my system.
“This morning. In DC.”
“I assume you're not here with Prothero’s blessings?”
“Didn’t you get the wave? The base is on lockdown.”
“I hoped it was a false alarm. I didn’t think you’d be stupid enough to come back here after what you did. I thought wrong.”
“I’m not a great terrorist,” I concede, wincing as she administers a cocktail of nano injection and pain relievers.
“You can’t stay here,” she says, hands on her hips. “The orders are to shoot on sight, not kill you. But you have few friends here who would abide by those orders. This is a dangerous gamble, Garza. You better have a good reason.”
“I’m here for the cure. That’s it. And then I’m out of here,” I say, leaning back against the bed and closing my eyes.
“Do you have an escape plan this time?”
It’s a reasonable question. One that keeps coming up.
My eyelids creak open. Nurse Esperanza surveys me from across the room, leaning against the counter, arms now folded over her chest.
“It's not gonna be like last time,” I assure her, hoisting myself off the bed.
“Good. We’re counting on that.” She uncrosses her arms.
“We? There’s a we? Just how much do you know?”
“Enough to be dangerous.”
“Do you work for the Contras? Does Rabbit?”
“No, I don’t work for the Contras. Rabbit Santiago?” she asks. “What does he have to do with anything?”
“Have you met—”
She holds up a hand and retrieves a clear plastic vial filled with red liquid from her pocket. She holds it out to me and I accept it, tucking it into the pocket with the nano injector.
“It would be better for both of us if you stopped asking questions,” she says, her expression tight and unyielding.
I swallow past a knot of emotions in my throat. Instead of asking anymore questions, I pull out the medicine and zap the RFID tracker embedded in its hardware. No more trackers. Esperanza watches, her expression shifted to something a little more ambivalently curious.
“Are you gonna be alright?” I ask. “Are the Rosas?”
“We’re good. Our girls will be just fine. They’re the best chance of getting a cure to the masses, aside from you. No offense, but I wouldn't put my money on you. Not in the shape you’re in. You never know though, history has shown us you’re full of surprises.”
“I don’t like surprises.”
“Nobody really does.”
I stop at the door, laden with the vial, a medical kit, and a box of nano injectors.
“Is this cure going to work? I’m not going to travel all the way to Mexico City for nothing?” I ask, steeling myself for the cold burning sensation of the cloak and the dizziness it produces.
Nurse Esperanza watches
me disappear into thin air with a quizzical expression.
“Fifteen minutes ago, I wasn’t sure invisible people existed. I’m willing to believe anything at this point.” She ushers me into the hallway with a wave of her arms.
“Thanks for not turning me into Prothero,” I say, voice subdued.
“Thanks for not giving me a reason to. You should really find a pair of shoes,” she whispers back, closing the door.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Failsafe Activation
A wailing assaults my ears the moment I’m in the hallway. It’s the siren alerting all the residents on base to a General Assembly. The band’s digital read-out tells me it’s 2pm. Far too early in the day for this to be a normal GA. I turn and follow on the heels of a national service member like a specter drifting through a hallway. No one sees me in the haze of the cloak. Residents crowd the hall and push in all around me, making a sedentary stance impossible.
I lurch forward, a fish carried downstream, and let myself float. The drug, the beautiful wonderful drug Nurse Esperanza provided courses in my veins and I drift with it. Eyelids hanging at half mast, I observe the residents around me animated with excitement, talking loudly, teeth flashing, gesturing quickly. The fluorescents overhead wane, throwing haze on the edges of the world, pulling the tempo down to something relaxing and manageable.
The virtuals on the band buzz to life, flaring on in response to internal stimuli. An old folk song sputters from the band and I hum along to the music, carried in the surge of the crowd. The virtual displays images of Scar and The Rosas sitting around a firepit, singing lyrics. Scarlett strums a guitar to provide the background music.
A female resident in the crowd asks, “What are you watching?”
Oh, she can see me. I came uncloaked somehow. I try to cloak again but I can't concentrate or remember how it's done.
The resident waits for my response.
I shrug and chuckle, “I dunno. Isn’t it nice?” I break out into a grin.
The female resident nods in confusion, offering up a placating smile. She nudges another resident next to her and whispers in his ear.
I draw the hood up over my head, scanning for nearby security monitors. My thoughts are too cloudy to reach them, my hold on the abilities as tangible as sand. Fine, hot sand. The images on the virtual swirl and dissipate without my control. The expanse of the Columbia spills out before me, with the sun shining on the churning water. In the scene, a group of us splash on the banks of the river on a hot summer day, tossing a frisbee.
I gaze around to see if anyone else watches our adventure, and aside from a small cluster of residents who are growing less curious and more suspicious, I catch a glimpse of Mateo weaving amongst the residents, bobbing along in the crowd. He moves in my direction, fighting the human current and making no gain. His mouth is a slashed line. He doesn’t see me. I throw an arm up and wave frantically. He doesn’t look over this way. A body moves between us, blocking my view for a fraction of a second and now I’ve lost him. He’s melted back into the tangle of people and I can’t pick him out. Where did he go?
The female resident moves closer, “Hey, aren’t you—”
Rabbit Santiago grabs my shoulder from off to my left, pulling me towards him, away from where Mateo vanished, and away from the inquiring female resident. I smile drunkenly, gasping for air. I can’t catch my breath. He possesses Mateo’s brooding demeanor and curved, soft lips. I remember killing Rabbit over and over again in the lab SIMs. The way the light looked leaving his eyes. I press against his chest. This Rabbit isn’t a simulation. This Rabbit is real.
“Eleni? How are you here?” he demands, gripping my shoulders with long pincher-like fingers.
“Like this.” I snap and the left band sparks, the virtual and music cut off. I laugh at the sudden absence of noise and light. “Easy.”
“What are you on?” he asks, disapproval weighing down the corners of his mouth.
“Pain medication. Totally legal.” I wriggle away from him and attempt to join the crowd.
“If you get caught they’ll kill you. Where did you come from? How did you escape?”
“I was waving at Mateo. You’re not Mateo. Are you? No, you’re not Mateo. You’re a conejo.”
His gaze darts to the rosary bracelet he wears. He got it back. How did he get it back? “I'm not Mateo.”
“Then who are you?” I ask.
“Eleni—”
“Nope, that's me. I’m me. Who are you, Rabbit?”
He licks his lips. “You know me.”
“Do I? You're not Mateo because Matty lives far, far away. In a land of hot limes and sun and stone. He needs me,” I murmur, my lids flagging. The warmth from the bands and his fingers weighs down my bones, deep into the marrow.
“What does he need you for?” Rabbit asks, stepping closer, towering over me. His eyes narrow. It makes me sad. I want to see more of his eyes. Not less.
“For the nano virus. I've got it. I've got the cure.”
“The nano virus? A cure for the nano virus?”
Rabbit swallows. A wild craving to kiss his adam's apple thrums against my lips and fades when I recall the image of him dying in the lab SIM. He is my enemy. He can’t be trusted.
His fingers distract me. They are so much larger up close, long and thin like living branches from a tree. I can’t stop staring at the perfect pink and white ovals of his nails juxtaposed against the tan of his flesh. I’ve never noticed them before. Little moons on his fingers.
“Please. Focus. This is important.” He gives me a firm shake. My head lolls up and I blink at him, trying to do as instructed. “You gotta get out of here Eleni. If anyone sees you, they’ll—”
“Where’s everyone going?” My vision catches on the crowd parting around us. “They’re moving so fast.”
“To a General Assembly. The base is on lockdown. Your image went out over the waves an hour ago. Contras bombed a Prothero lab in Mexico City. They’re deploying Academy residents. I think we’re headed into a debrief.”
“Are you going with them?” I ask, voice raising a frantic pitch. No. He doesn’t share the same fate as most potential soldiers. “No. You’re not going with them. You’re going to Mars. You were going to take me to Mars.”
“Things changed when you left.” He punctuates his words with a rueful Rabbit scowl. The bad nose wrinkle.
“I need to meet with Scar," I murmur, turning from the heat of his gaze.
The left band clicks on and I squirm out of his grip to cover it, the projection filtering out anyway. An image of Rabbit as Mateo shivers to life. We embrace under a lime tree, the stars winking in the night sky above us. Rabbit takes a step back.
“What is this?”
“Nothing. Nothing!” I swipe at the entwined couple.
The images slide into my flesh, down through my pores and deep into my bloodstream. Illuminated scenes play across my fingers and hands as if I’ve morphed into a virtual. The nanos surface and bend the light until my arm cloaks from view. I struggle to reverse the process but I can’t control it. Not like this, not with my emotions tangled like a knot of hard wires.
Rabbit reaches out, touching my arm to confirm it still exists in the space he last saw it. He draws his hand away and the nanos come with him, sparking harmlessly. For a brief moment the skin on his hand turns translucent. He lets out a soft, surprised noise, twisting and flexing his fingers. The glow dissipates, his hand returning to normal. I look down, watching my own arm become visible again.
“How did you do that?” I ask, reaching for him.
That never happened at the Prothero lab. I never passed the nanos to anyone before. I didn't think it was possible. Shocking and hurting them, yes, that was possible. But this benign gifting of the nanos. This is new.
“How did I do that? How did you do that?” Rabbit asks, brows raised like two fuzzy question marks. I have the sudden urge to brush over his brows with my lips and place a kiss on his forehead, to melt awa
y the confused wrinkles.
“I need water.” I duck away from him.
I dash over to the nearest drinking fountain, taking five large swigs. Dunk my head in the water. The liquid doesn’t clear my mind. Rabbit stands behind me, waiting. I sense him breathing.
Before either of us speak, an officer interrupts, shouting an indecipherable order and shoving us along. I glance over at Rabbit, panicked. The officer caught me without a protective cloak. But he doesn't notice my appearance, he isn't even really looking at us. His attention is focused instead on the rapidly filling assembly hall. Rabbit reaches for me. I grasp his outstretched hand, popping the hood of the jacket up over my head to provide a flimsy disguise. The officer moves away as a scuffle breaks out between two female residents. The stream of the crowd catches up with us, dragging us forward in the undertow.
We jostle across the threshold of the assembly hall, our shoulders bumping together. The doors clang shut behind us.
“Stay close to me,” Rabbit says.
I lean into him. “You stay close to me.”
Lieutenant Gutierrez’s booming baritone fills the assembly hall, reverberating off the walls. He announces all inoculations will be suspended until further notice. He wants to show us special footage from today's Contra terrorist action in Mexico City. My heart implant thuds faster and louder.
“Terrorists bombed a critical Prothero lab in Mexico City. We quarantined the city due to concern over nano virus samples leaking into the water supply. Despite the greatest efforts of our urban peace officers, an increasingly hostile gathering of citizens continue to riot in the streets, endangering the other citizens and exposing themselves to the virus. A notoriously dangerous Contra group exists within the city walls and whenever we get close to eliminating this cell, they elude us. We believe an informant exists in our ranks, but are unable to locate her at present.”
“This is our target.”
My image appears on the virtual projection over our heads. It’s unsettling to see this large, pixelated version of myself, my stern face, tawny skin broken with scars, gleaming blue robotic eye, short black hair streaked with silvery grey framing my face and partially obscuring the nano tech spidering down my neck and diving below the collar of my shirt. I’m in the Prothero lab uniform. This is a recent image.
Metal Heart: Book 1: The Metal Heart Trilogy Page 25
