“Even lazy, they can control every move my body makes!” Enu exploded. “If the spaceship’s so old, how’s it going to work?” He clutched his head in his hands. “There you go again, making me think . . . making me think . . .”
Abruptly he sat back down. He spun around, facing away from all of us. His shoulders shook.
Was Enu crying? Enu?
I looked down at my own hands. They were bonier than ever. I looked back up. Edwy, Rosi, and Cana were all staring at me, their eyes huge in their shrunken faces. And their faces were shrunken. I needed to pay attention to that now.
For all his bragging about muscles, even Enu was scrawnier than I’d ever seen him.
His shoulders kept heaving up and down.
“I don’t think we have much time,” I said quietly. “We can’t waste it arguing. We need to . . . conserve our energy.”
“For what?” Edwy asked. “How would the plan work?”
“Yes, tell us,” Rosi echoed. “I want you to give us hope. I—I don’t think I can live without it.”
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope,” Cana chirped. “Martin Luther King Jr. said that. It was a principle of—”
She glanced nervously at Enu’s back and clapped her hand over her mouth. I guessed the next word was supposed to be “Fredtown.”
“And Everything that is done in the world is done by hope,” Edwy said. “I think Martin Luther King said that one too.”
“No, it was Martin Luther,” Rosi corrected. “Different people. But still, Edwy—you’re quoting one of the principles of Fredtown?”
Then she glanced nervously in Enu’s direction as well.
This time he did whirl around. But he threw up his arms, rather than punch anyone.
“Okay, okay!” he cried. “You’ve beat me down. I’ll do whatever Kiandra wants. I’ll even work with slugs. Just stop talking about hope and Fredtown!”
CHAPTER THIRTY
In the morning, I woke when my body stood up on its own. Every other morning it had been horrifying to lose control, but today I wanted to jump up and down and pump my fist in the air and shout: Yes! Yes! Yes! Evidently the Enforcers thought I was healthy enough to dig again. That meant I would get to try the technique Alcibiades had recommended for smuggling more Zacadi pearls away from the Enforcers—the first step in the plan we’d come up with for escape. I wouldn’t have to rely on Enu, Edwy, and Rosi to do that part.
Of course, I couldn’t jump up and down or shout. Instead my body moved automatically toward the feeding trough. Every other morning when I’d lost control, I’d fought it, my brain crying out to my limbs, No, no—stop that! Don’t do what the Enforcers want you to do! Stop walking. Stop eating that horrible slop. Resist! I’d worn myself out fighting the Enforcers’ control, and the only thing I had to show for it was a single Zacadi pearl and several weeks’ worth of starvation and exhaustion.
What Alcibiades had told me to do was to stop resisting. To cooperate.
“The Enforcers expect you to fight back, so they compensate for that,” he’d said. “If they want you to move your hand to the right and you try to move your hand to the right at the same time, your hand goes too far. So then they have to set lower levels of control, and you have a chance to steal a Zacadi pearl. You just have to become unpredictable, cooperating sometimes, resisting sometimes.”
I was enough like Enu that I’d asked suspiciously, “If this works so well, why didn’t your people grab dozens of Zacadi pearls a long time ago and escape on your own?”
Alcibiades wouldn’t meet my eye.
“Because whenever we managed to get a Zacadi pearl, we didn’t try to use it for escape,” he said. “We used it to try to kill Enforcers. Our aim was nothing but revenge. Why do you think the Enforcers stay so separate from us prisoners most of the time? Why do you think my people are no longer sent out to dig for Zacadi pearls?”
I was still trying to figure out the Enforcers.
“But they didn’t try to kill you to get revenge for your revenge,” I said. “That’s, um . . .”
I couldn’t make myself say what I was thinking, That’s what humans would do if they had the powers Enforcers have.
Then Alcibiades raised his head and peered sadly at me.
“Don’t you think the way my people are dying now is worse than instant death?” he asked. “Don’t you see how they’re torturing us, making us watch one another die? Making us watch our own deaths coming toward us?”
If Enu, Edwy, Rosi, and I tried the method Alcibiades suggested for getting Zacadi pearls, how long would that take? How long before the Enforcers caught on to what we were doing?
How long did we have left to survive, anyhow?
I pushed all those questions out of my mind and focused on how my feet were walking me toward the feeding trough along the wall. Left, right, left, right . . .
I’m really hungry, I told myself. I am dying to get to that delicious food.
The “delicious” part was crazy, but I fooled myself into putting extra oomph into picking up my left foot, kicking it straight out, planting it on the floor, and shoving off again.
I stumbled, tripped forward, and felt my body only barely manage to catch itself—er, myself—before I fell against the wall.
How many Zacadians ended up with broken bones or concussions when they tried this? I wondered. My head had barely missed smashing into one of the bricks. Why didn’t Alcibiades tell me that?
Maybe the Zacadians didn’t even have bones in their bodies. Maybe they couldn’t get concussions.
I plunged my face forward, driving my chin down as the Enforcers’ control of my body bent my neck. My chin slammed into the hard edge of the trough.
Enu will laugh at me when I have a bruise later on, I thought. He’s probably managing to do this without injuring himself.
My mouth landed in the gruel, and my head automatically turned to the left to gobble up a glob off to the side. This meant I could gaze toward the spot where Enu had stood to eat every other morning.
He wasn’t there.
My head turned again, left to right to left again, and I shoved it as far as I could in either direction as my tongue methodically licked up the gruel.
Rosi and Edwy were missing too.
Even if they’re sick like I was yesterday, they still would have come over to the trough, I thought. But, but . . .
The Enforcers chose that moment to make me focus on eating the food directly below my mouth. I couldn’t turn my head in any direction. My mind spun.
Maybe everyone else is just still sleeping?
No—there was light to see by, and that meant Cana was awake and had taken the Zacadi pearl out of her pocket. And once she was awake, even if the others were sick like I was yesterday, she would have poked and prodded and tugged them over to the feeding trough just as she’d done for me.
Even Cana hadn’t come over to the feeding trough.
It was agony to stand still and keep eating and eating and eating when all I wanted to do was whirl around and look for my brothers and the two other girls. What had happened to them?
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the trough was empty. My back straightened up and my body turned. I threw my energy into turning completely—cooperating completely—in hopes that the action would give me a moment of extra control. I just needed to be able to look down for a second, to see . . .
My eyes could only look forward, toward the gap in the bars that led out into the hallway.
Just then I felt someone tugging on my shirt.
“Kiandra! Kiandra!” It was Cana. “The others won’t get up!”
The Enforcers didn’t let me break stride; they kept my body moving quickly and efficiently past Cana. But they finally let me look down, because I had to step over three lumpy shapes on the floor: Enu, Edwy, and Rosi.
Why won’t they move? I wondered. Are they . . . are they even breathing?
Just as my head began
to snap back up, to gaze entirely forward again, I thought I caught the barest glimpse of Edwy’s chest rising and falling, of Rosi’s head turning slightly as a look of agony spread across her face.
But Enu? Is he—
I couldn’t get my head to bend down again. I could see nothing but the bars and prison walls ahead of me. My feet carried me mercilessly forward, farther and farther away from the others.
Farther and farther away from finding out if my brother was alive or dead.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
For a long time, I could think only, Enu! Enu! I have to find out about Enu! Meanwhile, my body moved automatically out of the prison cell, down the hallway, up the stairs, out the door. I must have passed the Enforcer guard; I must have wrapped my fingers around the handle of a shovel. I could guess these things, because when I started paying attention again, I was digging the tip of a shovel into the ground and pulling up a pile of dirt. Then I crouched down and began methodically picking through the dirt, pulling out the round lumps of Zacadi pearls.
I was working alone. Off in the distance I could see other work teams, just as we had on other days. But the Enforcers had evidently decided it wasn’t worth the bother to pair me up with any other workers.
This made me feel even worse, even lonelier, even more worried about Enu and the others.
I know Rosi and Edwy were breathing. So they’re alive. Enu was always stronger than any of us, so if they’re alive, so is he. They probably all have the Zacadi flu, like I did yesterday, and Cana will take them to Alcibiades to be cured. They’ll be able to get up for that. They’ll be fine. Just like I’m fine now.
I wasn’t fine. Even with my body under the Enforcers’ control, my hands shook. I could barely get my fingers to press together well enough to grasp the Zacadi pearls I was supposed to pluck out of the dirt and drop into a nearby bucket.
How much longer do any of us have to live? What if none of us are healthy enough after today to come out and search for the pearls?
This could be the last chance any of us had for stealing the pearls we needed for our escape.
Was it my imagination, or were my hands shaking more than ever?
You’re wasting time, I told myself, as harsh as any of the cruel nannies Enu and I had when we were little kids.
Enu . . .
I stopped letting myself think my brother’s name. I focused on following the directions Alcibiades had given me, willing my hand to plunge into the dirt before me.
Even though Enu’s the one who’s good at physical things, not me . . .
Had I lasted even two seconds managing not to think about Enu?
In my mind’s eye, I saw myself as a little kid. I’d been five years old then—maybe six. Enu had gone out to play basketball, and he’d left with the taunt, “It’s boys only, Kiandra! You can’t follow me this time!” I’d cried and cried and cried, and then I’d grabbed a laptop because I got sick of hearing myself cry. And that was the day I took my first tutorial in coding. I fell into it so completely that when Enu came home and half apologized—“Maybe next time I’ll see if they’ll let girls play too”—I was able to retort, “Oh, were you away? I didn’t even notice.”
Well, yeah, it’s easy to focus on digital things and shut out the whole rest of the world. Physical things . . . not so much.
But I concentrated my whole being on doing what the Enforcers wanted me to do: picking up a Zacadi pearl, dropping it in the bucket. Sliding a layer of dirt to the side, picking up another Zacadi pearl . . .
I plucked up twenty Zacadi pearls and all but threw them into the bucket.
On the twenty-first pearl, I faked out the Enforcers. As I passed my hand over my knee, I suddenly jerked back, letting the thumb and forefinger that held the pearl separate ever so slightly.
The Zacadi pearl bounced off my knee and dropped to the ground. It rolled away.
Go after it! My mind screamed. Crawl over and . . .
My hand kept moving toward the bucket. My fingers opened completely, as if the force controlling my body didn’t realize I’d lost the pearl.
Interesting, I thought. Maybe the Enforcers weren’t paying as much attention to me as it seemed.
I just had to try again.
The next time I moved twenty-three pearls in a row while my brain cooperated entirely with what the Enforcers wanted me to do. On the twenty-fourth pearl, I managed to use my left hand to pull out the top of my shorts pocket as my right hand lifted a pearl toward the bucket. And then I darted my right hand back toward my shorts and let go of the pearl.
The pearl fell straight down into my pocket.
My face flushed with victory—or exertion. My brain felt like I’d just finished a six-hour calculus exam; my body felt like I’d just run a marathon. If I’d had total control of myself at that point, I would have fallen over in exhaustion.
But the Enforcers drove me to keep picking up pearls and dropping them in the bucket.
Okay, okay, go back to cooperating, I reminded myself. And then steal another pearl.
If the calculations Alcibiades had done were correct, I only had to succeed seven more times.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
By the end of the day, it was a race between me and the setting sun. I had six Zacadi pearls in my pocket (and I had probably let three times that many roll off to the side after failed efforts to snag them). Whenever the Enforcers let me lift my head at all, I cast an anxious eye toward the glow in the overcast sky—did I still have another hour? Or was I down to a half hour? Or just fifteen minutes?
Every other day I’d longed for the Enforcers to stop my digging and propel me back toward my prison cell. But today I kept thinking, Please let me stay out here longer. Please give me time to get two more pearls. . . .
I took more risks now, only cooperating with the Enforcers for the time it took to pick up one or two Zacadi pearls before I tried to drop one in my pocket. But that only led to more failures.
Wait fifteen, I told myself. Then try.
It was agonizing to wait, especially since every muscle in my body ached. But I made myself be patient: That’s eleven pearls’ worth of cooperation. . . . Twelve . . . Thirteen . . .
Just as I started to reach for the fourteenth pearl, my back straightened up, my knees unbent, my foot kicked up to push me up into a standing position.
If I’d had power over my vocal cords, I would have forgotten myself and screamed, No fair! I only have six pearls! And I need eight!
Stiffly, my body stumbled back toward the door to the prison. I guess even the Enforcers couldn’t make me walk in a straight line without swaying. The force of the water spraying me off almost knocked me over. Or maybe it just felt that way because I was so disappointed.
You can get the rest tomorrow. And probably the others will be healed and able to help you. You got six pearls in one day alone; surely four of us working a full day together can succeed in getting the last two. . . .
I stumbled down the stairs and into our prison cell. As soon as my body hit the floor I sprang back up, calling out, “Enu? Edwy? Rosi? Cana?”
All I heard in response was a groan. I looked down—Enu, Edwy, and Rosi were still lying on the floor. For all I could tell, they might not have moved at all since I’d left that morning.
Then I heard a sob: Cana. She was crouched against the wall, her face tear-streaked.
“I couldn’t get them to get up,” she wailed. “And I couldn’t move them. . . . All I could do was run to Alcibiades, and he put slime on my hands and I brought it back to them and put it on their faces—I did it again and again and again. But it wasn’t enough! Alcibiades said that would keep them alive until you got back, but . . . but . . .”
I dropped to my knees and pressed my fingers against Enu’s neck.
“He still has a pulse.” I breathed a sigh of relief and checked Edwy and Rosi as well. “They’re all still alive. Cana, you saved all of them!”
“But the door will be locked now, and so
we can’t get to Alcibiades until morning, and tomorrow morning you’ll be sent out again,” Cana whined. I think I’d spent pretty much every moment of my fifth year whining, but this was the first time I’d heard such a sulky tone in her voice. “Any time you’ll be here to help, the door will be locked!”
“Oh, but now I know how to unlock it,” I told Cana. “We can take Enu, Edwy, and Rosi down to Alcibiades to be cured right now.”
“How?” Cana moaned. “How can you unlock the door now when nobody could before?”
I reached into my shorts pocket and pulled out one of the precious Zacadi pearls I’d managed to steal. I held up the pearl, right before Cana’s eyes. It seemed to glitter with power.
“We use this,” I told Cana. “And we don’t unlock anything. We blow it up.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Even working together, I knew Cana and I would have trouble pushing and pulling and tugging Enu, Edwy, and Rosi down the hall. We started with Rosi, and she should have been the lightest, but I still had trouble lifting her shoulders; Cana still had trouble lifting her feet. We bumped her spine on the hard stone floor with every step we took, and her head wobbled side to side, but she stayed silent.
“See how brave Rosi is!” Cana gasped. “She doesn’t even complain!”
I couldn’t take that as a good sign. It probably meant that she was too deeply ill to even feel the pain.
We left Rosi propped near the locked door in the hallway, and went back to retrieve Enu and Edwy.
“It might make a lot of noise when we blow the door open, and we’ll have to move as fast as possible then, getting down to Alcibiades’s cell,” I told Cana. “So it’s best if we have everyone as close as possible, first.”
Cana nodded knowingly, but I wasn’t sure she understood. I kind of wanted to scream at her, Don’t you see this is going to be impossible? Don’t you see we can’t possibly move Enu, Edwy, and Rosi all down to Alcibiades—and give them time to be cured enough to be able to run—and then blow out another wall and escape—all before the Enforcers hear us and come to capture us?
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