Ash

by Shani Petroff

  Theron waved goodbye and left me standing there wondering what on earth had just happened.

  The Records Room seemed to shrink around me. Everything felt like it was closing in. I looked away from the hologram documents in front of me, unsure of what to think. I stalled, studying my nails while I tried to remain calm. I’d left them unpolished, and the skin underneath was turning a dark purple from the cold of the room. It was somehow appropriate. I stared back at the documents again. On one document I had a time stamp. The rest—none.

  “Madden?” Sol asked. “You look like John Crilas just showed up at your door and asked you out on a date. What’s wrong?”

  I just stared at the hologram documents in front of me. There was something wrong with my destiny. Mistakes like this didn’t happen. Not on purpose. I didn’t answer Sol. I couldn’t. I needed answers before I could do anything, but I had no idea where to get them. I couldn’t very well talk to the ministers. It could put my destiny at risk, cause some sort of scandal, and the ministry did not look highly upon scandals. My reign as a leader of the country would be a joke. The other ministers would push me out days after I was appointed.

  There was always my father, but I knew him too well. If I told him, he’d just say it was a mistake in my mother’s file. Then he’d tell me not to mention it again. Right after a lecture about snooping and subsequent grounding.

  I looked up. Sol was still watching me. He understood the complexities of the records. He’d even modified the technology. But could I trust him with something this huge?

  I studied his eyes. Brown, almost as dark as his pupils. They looked kind.

  “Madden, what is it?”

  Maybe it was because he didn’t call me princess this time, or because he actually sounded concerned, or just because he was there, but I decided to tell him the truth.

  “I need you to swear you won’t tell a soul,” I said.

  He nodded.

  “On your family’s lives—on their destinies?” I questioned.

  “Yes,” he said. For some reason, I trusted him.

  “There’s a discrepancy with my time stamp,” I blurted out, shoving the documents toward him. “I have no idea what it means.” His eyes widened as he looked them over. “Can you figure out why? I’ll give you another three hundred ostows.”

  “No,” he said, shaking his head.

  “Fine, six hundred. Please, I have to know.” I was desperate enough to beg if that’s what he wanted. It didn’t matter that he was an Ash. He had answers I needed.

  “I mean, no, you don’t have to pay me.” He held my gaze. “I’ll help you.”

  For a flicker of a second I had the impulse to hug him, but I quickly composed myself. “Thank you.”

  Sol held my gaze for long enough that I began to feel uncomfortable, and I finally looked away not knowing what to say. He’d surprised me today. If he had been a Purple, we might have even been friends. But he wasn’t, I reminded myself. Being a Purple was something you were born with. He was just a lower rung doing me a favor. And for that, I’d repay him one way or another. I couldn’t get myself into a position where I was indebted to anyone—especially an Ash. It would be a disaster when I took my place as a minister. No doubt he knew that too, and was smart enough to know that by helping me, he would help himself.

  Sol went to work typing away at the keyboard. I fidgeted, adjusting my weight from one foot, back to the other, wrapping and rewrapping myself in my cashmere shawl. Each second felt like hours.

  “Did you find anything?” I asked.

  “Not yet.”

  We played out different versions of the conversation about a dozen times over the next five minutes.

  “Madden, you’ve got to give me a little time. This isn’t easy.”

  I realized I was being overbearing. Stressing out Sol would just make it harder for him to get anything done. I knew that. Leadership training taught me that remaining calm and approaching problems with a sense of humor helped motivate people. Staring over Sol’s shoulders was only going to slow his productivity, so I changed tactics. “I’m sure it’s nothing for the tech king of New City,” I said with a smile. “You don’t get that title for nothing.”

  He pushed his black hair out of his eyes and cocked his head. “Are you flirting with me?”

  “You wish.”

  Sol’s cheeks reddened a little, and I stifled a laugh. “Now come on, figure this out.”

  “Anything you say, princess,” he said, his voice playful.

  I wasn’t sure how I felt about him calling me a princess after I’d dubbed him a king, but I let it go. I didn’t need verbal sparring, I needed him to work. I lowered myself to the ground and put my back up against the wall. Sitting on the floor was not very Purple-like behavior, but neither was trying to decrypt old files. Fortunately, no one was around to see either.

  For the next fifty-three minutes, I sat in silence watching Sol. Once I stopped bothering him, he entered some sort of trance. As if nothing existed but his work. He typed away at the keyboard, his eyes glued to the data popping up on the wall in front of him. None of it made sense to me. A lot of gibberish, random numbers, symbols, and commands. I’d received good marks in my comp sci classes, but this was way above my studies.

  He finally stopped typing and turned to face me, rubbing his hands over his face. “I’ve never seen anything like this. The encryption was incredible. You’d never find it if you weren’t looking for it, and even then most wouldn’t spot it. It was thirteen layers deep. The first few algorithms were based on a symmetric key encryption model, but I had to get creative when I hit the fifth. They tried to trick me with a dummy multiplier, which also used an invertible affine transformation. Then—”

  “Sol!” I yelled. “English. What does it all mean?”

  “It means that someone worked very hard to hide the fact that they tampered with your information.”

  I wanted to stand, but I couldn’t. “On which file? The data stamp on my mother’s? Or removing it from my father’s and mine?”

  He got very quiet.

  “Sol.”

  He wouldn’t look at me, instead he studied a spot on the ceiling.

  “Sol, answer me.”

  He brought his eyes down to meet mine. “All of them, Madden. Someone changed your destiny.”

  I sat in the grass in the same spot I’d found Theron. I felt energized and happy and sad and confused all at once. My brother was dead, and there I’d been playing and laughing. It seemed wrong… only, part of it didn’t. Aldan loved life. He wanted me to live it. He wanted me to live it in a colorblind society.

  Those words sent a slight shiver down my spine. I never imagined that could be a possibility. But apparently Aldan did. In a way, he died for it. Wasn’t that what the Revenants were about? Defying the system. Letting people live the way they wanted? Having options?

  Options that weren’t available to people like me, no matter what we did. I got better grades than most of the Purples at Spectrum, and that was without the tutors and privileges that came with status. But it wouldn’t change my future, because I was an Ash. A Blank Ash. But it didn’t have to be that way. Just because the system hadn’t provided me with a destiny at birth didn’t mean I couldn’t define one for myself.

  I closed my eyes and breathed in the dirt and grass and faint smell of salt from the sweat in my damp t-shirt. I felt the blades of grass sticking into my body, pressing into my palms. And then I opened my eyes and sat up, knowing exactly what I had to do. The entrance to the Tombs was thirty yards from me. And there wasn’t a soul around.

  Aldan wasn’t the only one who could help the Revenants.

  I double-checked the area to make sure no one was around and turned off my locator. I felt a pang of guilt knowing this would cost my family another fifty ostows in fines, but it was worth it.

  After one last careful look around, I snuck over to the bushes near the fence. I pushed them aside and ran my palms over the metal where I k
new the holographic covering was projected. My fingers found the edge where metal met air. Without a second thought, I ducked through the hole and found myself back on the same platform where I’d stood the night before. I darted down the stairs. When I hit the bottom, I paused. There was enough daylight seeping in from the entrance to the Tombs that I could tell I was in a large tunnel. I couldn’t see more than a few feet in either direction, and I had no idea how I would find my way back to the subway train car where I’d met Oena.

  I flicked my tracker light on, and off just as quickly. Even on its dimmest setting, it was still a bright light in the darkness. I covered it with my sleeve as an added dimmer, and turned it back on. Its subdued light did little to disturb the darkness. That was fine by me. I’d learned my lesson last night. No need to get caught and captured by another crew of Revenants. Assuming that there was another crew down here somewhere. Just one more question I’d ask Oena when I found her. I did a quick survey of the ground until I found what I was looking for—loose scrap metal. I picked up a piece about a foot long. It wasn’t much, but after my scare last night, I figured some kind of weapon was better than nothing. On a whim, I turned to the right and began to walk.

  It was hard going. Last night’s walk through the Tombs had been rocky, but not like this. There was enough rubble underfoot that I had to tread carefully, and my light did little to help. The tunnel was slanted steeply downhill, and the angle combined with the rocks and beams covering the path made it treacherous. I tripped repeatedly over the next several minutes, barely catching myself each time. This couldn’t be right. There was no way Thom, even with all of his muscles, could have carried me over this kind of ground while I was squirming and fighting. I turned around, retracing my steps until I found the stairs, then followed the tunnel in the other direction. The ground slanted downhill in this direction as well, but was easier to walk over. I made my way along the path until it split in two directions. I chose the larger one and continued.

  I followed this path for a much shorter period before it split once again. Which is when I started to worry. My sense of direction had always been dependable, but this was an underground labyrinth. The darkness made any visual markers impossible to spot. I knelt down and roughly arranged some of the debris into an arrow formation showing the way of my next turn. It wasn’t perfect, but at least it was something in case I needed to retrace my steps.

  I wandered on for some time, marking my twists and turns with whatever I could find underfoot. The air was stale and dusty, and with every step I kicked up clouds of filth. No matter how hard I listened, the only thing I could hear was the sound of my feet crunching over the uneven ground—no reassuring swish of the light rail or hum of voices—even the rats had deserted this section of the Tombs. Thom had said we were safe from contamination, but goose bumps crawled over my skin anyway. Did that mean everywhere in the Tombs was okay?

  I was almost ready to turn back when my path dead-ended at a battered, decaying rail track. A phosphorous yellow line followed the wall next to the track and stretched in both directions until it curved out of sight. This was a good sign. I’d met Oena in a train car, and it stood to reason that a train car would be found on a train track. I fashioned some rubble underfoot into an arrow leading to the right, and followed my new projected course.

  I’d only walked a few minutes until I reached an impasse. It looked as if the tunnel had collapsed in on itself. A wall of boulders cut across my path. I turned, preparing to retrace my steps when I noticed a bobbing light coming down the track toward me. I clicked off my light, cursing under my breath. I was trapped. What if the person headed toward me was dangerous?

  I clutched the metal in my hand tight. Whoever it was didn’t know any more about me than I did about them. I needed to convince them that I was the dangerous one. “Don’t come any closer,” I warned, trying to make my voice sound as gruff as possible. “I don’t want to have to kill you.”

  The bobbing light grew closer, and a second stream of light shot out toward me, hitting me full in the face.

  “I’m warning you,” I said, shielding my eyes with one hand and holding out my weapon with the other.

  “Idiot,” a raspy voice said.

  I recognized it immediately. I had listened to it trying to convince Thom to get rid of me. “You’re Oena’s friend.” What was her name?

  The brighter stream of light clicked off and the smaller light resumed its bobbing approach. The girl planted herself in front of me, her hands firmly anchored to each hip. Her face spoke volumes. I was the annoying intruder who was warned not to return. And she wanted me gone.

  “The name’s Raze,” she said. “I thought Thom took you home last night. What are you doing back down here?”

  “I want to join your crew.” Out of the three Revenants I knew, Raze was the one I was the least excited to see. She obviously wasn’t one of my bigger fans. I hoped that wouldn’t stop her from helping me find Oena.

  Raze gave me a sour milk expression. “You’re joking, I hope.”

  I shook my head no. “I want to help.”

  She rubbed her palm against her cropped hair making it stick up in spikes. “No,” she finally said.

  “Give me a chance,” I made sure to sound authoritative. Raze wasn’t the type who would respond to pleading.

  “No,” she repeated.

  “I’ll do whatever it takes,” I pressed.

  “Are you deaf?” she asked.

  “This is my fight too,” I said. “They killed my brother, Raze. The government has done nothing but hurt me and the people I care about.” I motioned upward. “Everything that goes on above ground was created for the upper rings. I want to do my part to help change that.”

  She snorted.

  “I’m serious.”

  “And what about your family?” she asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Your other Purple brother is being held in the cells for dissent. What do you think the ministry would do to him if you disappeared and they figured out it was because you defected to us? Not to mention the rest your family. The government would probably take it out on all of them.”

  But I’d already thought about this. “I wouldn’t disappear,” I reasoned. “I would help you from above, like Aldan did.”

  “Too risky,” Raze replied. “Oena told you last night—you and your family will be under more surveillance now.”

  “Then at least take me to Oena. Let me ask her.”

  “Oena doesn’t make the decisions for our crew. Her brother does.”

  I cocked my head to one side in confusion. “But isn’t he in the holding cells?”

  Raze gave me a ghost of a smile. “For now, yes. Cages rarely keep Zane long.”

  I wondered what other type of cage he’d been in, but I knew better than to ask. “Then I’ll come back when Zane gets free and ask him.”

  Raze crossed her arms in front of her.

  “I’m not going to give up,” I said.

  “Fine,” she said. “I’ll take you to Oena and let her tell you no. But be quiet as we head that direction. There was word we might get some company today. I was out scouting when I found you.” She dimmed her light and gave me one last stony glare. “Keep up,” she advised. And then we were off.

  I moved as silently as possible. Company? What did that mean? Was it a group of Revenants she didn’t get along with? Was it the PAE? Neither felt particularly reassuring, but I swallowed my fear and kept moving. This was what it meant to be a Revenant. We walked for about twenty minutes, turning here and there. I wondered if I’d ever be able to learn my way through this maze. We’d just climbed a ladder and entered into another, smaller tunnel, when we heard something. It sounded like the rustling of fabric. Raze immediately clicked off her light and grabbed my arm. She took a step back, and another, pulling me toward the ladder in retreat. Her fingers dug into my flesh, warning me to keep quiet and follow. We crept down the ladder, and I did my best to keep my breathi
ng regular and silent, even though my nerves were rerouting my body into overdrive.

  Raze continued to pull me along behind her. When we had moved a little ways away from the ladder, I heard another sound from above. There was a click, and then a crackle as a laser came to life.

  Raze yanked me toward her and breathed into my ear. “Stay with me no matter what.” She tightened her grip on my arm and then we began to run.

  From behind I heard a second laser, and a light flooded the upper tunnel the ladder had taken us to.

  “Stop,” I heard a man’s voice yell after us. “This is the PAE—we’ve got you surrounded.”

  We ran faster, flying through the Tombs. I didn’t have time to worry about losing my footing, I just kept going. Shouts followed from behind, and when I glanced over my shoulder, multiple lights followed.

  Raze pulled me down another ladder, which lead to a smaller tunnel. Soon we were forced to crawl. From the distance, I could hear the sound of water. “Can you swim?” she whispered frantically.

  “Yes.”

  “Let’s hope they can’t,” she said. “Come on.”

  The sound of the water grew louder until it surrounded us—rushing somehow in front of us and below us at the same time. “The tunnel dead ends over the water,” Raze said over the sound. “Follow the flow and it will dump you into the East River. If we get separated, be at the East 8 stop in the Ash zone at nine tonight.” Raze pushed me ahead of her. “Hurry. I’ll be right behind you.”

  I didn’t need any encouragement. The tunnel had opened up enough that I could manage a crouched run. From behind I could see the lights again, and I propelled myself forward with every ounce of energy I had. Shouts filled the air as my eyes adjusted enough to see an opening in front of me.

  “Jump!” Raze bellowed.

  My foot hit the edge of the tunnel, and I flung myself off. From behind, the darkness lit up and I heard Raze scream as my body dunked down into the cold. I struggled to swim up through the rushing water. When I surfaced, I looked back, choking on the water I’d swallowed. The tunnel I’d jumped from was bursting with light, and I could see the shadows of a struggle going on, then the unquestionable snap of a laser being fired. I heard Raze scream again. I struggled against the rush of water, trying to swim back to her, but I was no match for the current. Soon I was dragged around the bend, Raze’s screams ringing in my ears.