Interesting. Kali looked up at the royalty cards. “And the royalty?”
“They are a bloodline,” he said. “You’re born into it, or you’re not. You and I will never be Royals.”
“Lorde had it right all along,” Kali muttered under her breath, earning a confused look from the doctor.
“Huh?”
“Nevermind,” she said. “Just being random. Keep going. I’m keeping up.”
“The Royals are keepers of ancient knowledge. I used to hate them.” The venom in the doctor’s voice was real, making Kali wonder if maybe he still did hate them a little bit. “They are as rich as God would be if he lived on the earth. But the main thing you need to know about them is that they are the keepers of the history of mankind. They hold space for seekers and point them to new opportunities, but only when asked.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “Ancient rule is all I know. The Royals have a lot of rules. They’re basically not allowed to interfere in the lives of sixes unless they’re still a knave,” he said, pointing to the Jack. “Princes and princesses live in the regular world, but kings and queens do not.”
Okay. Now it was getting weird again, but Kali shrugged off the urge to challenge the doctor on his own mythology. If this was what he believed, this was what he believed. No point in arguing. Especially if these were the ground rules for this reality.
Her eyes moved to the four of diamonds. “So you’re saying that The Fours are—”
“Ideological opposites of the Royals,” he finished for her.
She studied the cards another moment, her eyes drawn to the lone aces. “What about these? What do they do?”
He dragged the ace of diamonds next to the two. “Aces represent new beginnings, so they can be low or high, depending on how they’re played.”
That sounded ominous. “New beginnings … how?”
He slid the ace next to the king. “For the Royals, a new beginning is when ancient knowledge is restored and mankind moves into a higher evolution of function, without the use of slaving or harm.” His jaw clenched in annoyance before a hint of contempt edged his voice. “Their system requires people to evolve one at a time. It’s very ineffective.”
Kali looked back at the four. “And the Fours?”
“The Fours are counting down to a different world,” he said. “A world where humans evolve to exist without the earth.” He gestured around the lab. “Everything you see here is all about creating a new world controlled by men. Each time a Creation Day is conquered, they rename themselves. 5-Tek was created back when they were still The Fives, and when they conquer the elements of the fourth day of creation, they’ll rename themselves The Threes.”
Whoa. That got dark really fast.
“Essentially,” he said, pointing back at the face cards. “Royals believe humans are tied to the earth, and our evolution can be judged by our harmony and our harm. The Fours believe true evolution is overcoming dependence on the earth’s canvas to the point that we can survive anywhere, including space. To that end, they see it as a victory when an ecosystem can be eliminated without impacting the human race.”
No way.
Knowing everything she knew, what Dr. Yalin was saying couldn’t be true. Kali knew Fours. She’d unknowingly worked for them for years. And, yes, her old boss was a terrible human being, but not blow-up-the-world bad.
Dr. Yalin saw her shaking her head and pointed to the three. “This is me, and this is how far I needed to go before I woke up and saw what I was bringing into the world.”
Kali looked at him cautiously. “And what was that?”
He hesitated, his eyes filling with shame. “I called it Sahara. It can take any soil and render it infertile. Forever. It works, and I developed it for The Fours. They have it.”
There it was. The buried lead and the path the good doctor had ridden into crazy town.
Kali reassessed the man, noting that her impression of him being a mad scientist was correct, but now seeing his hollowed-out cheeks, wild eyes, and unkempt hair in a different light. Guilt and worry were literally etched into his features, and she knew then that redemption was his brand of crazy. All-or-nothing. He had nothing else to live for.
That was a pretty intense premise for a simulation.
Things were getting real. Real enough that Kali got the sense she really wasn’t in VR anymore. What programmer thought hard enough to make up something like this?
Then again, maybe all of this was just part of a video game somewhere, and it had just been written in the code as a template. In either case, Dr. Yalin was a man with skin in the game. His crazy hair and manic behavior might have given her the wrong impression out of the gate, but there was definitely a reason loud saws had been traded out for blow torches outside his office door.
Kali had been tracking the progress of the people trying to break in and noticed that the metal of the room seemed to be self-healing. A bubble would build up like a blister as something tried to pierce through on the other side, but within a few seconds, the material would reform.
No wonder he wasn’t stressed. The door obviously couldn’t hold forever, but it would hold for now. And that was all they needed.
“Three of diamonds, huh?” she said after she was pretty sure all the information had sunk in. “And you want to defect to the Royals?”
“Yes,” he said fervently, and she believed him. “Only they know how to fix Sahara, but they can’t do it unless someone asks. So I have to ask because otherwise no one will, and we’re going to see a lot of land dying and taking everything around it with it.”
Well, if this was all a VR plot, Kali had to applaud the designer because she officially cared what happened next. It was one thing to run around trying to save her own skin, but quite another to save the earth.
Literally.
Kali looked at the doctor, then back at the cards, resisting the urge to jump into his story with both feet. There had to be a way to poke at it somehow.
“Okay,” she said at last. “Let’s say I believe you.”
He nodded, eyes serious.
She pointed to the cards. “In this world, are there pimpernels?”
“Sure,” he said, without hesitation.
“Where do they land on the scale?”
The doctor’s hand went to the eight. “Pimpernels serve the King of Diamonds.”
Then that was a plot hole because Jack knew exactly where to find her in the real world. And if Jack knew, then these alleged Royals knew, which meant there was no reason to break her off the island and ride a missile to who-knows-where to be used as a token coin for a defecting doctor.
Although, based on the renewed surge of bubbles on the door, she was probably going to ride the missile anyway, just to see where it led. Even if it blew up, that would be better than being shot or experimented on in a facility where all the scientists were trying to remove themselves from the chain of evolution.
“And angels?” she said impulsively, taking one last at the cards. “You mentioned an angel. Did you mean a real one, or do they fit on this scale?”
He moved his finger to the ten.
Okay. So at least there weren’t any actual angels involved, in the traditional sense. That was reassuring somehow—that people wouldn’t be descending from the sky in bright shafts of light. She wasn’t sure she could handle someone like that … even though she was starting to feel remarkably better about the general landscape Dr. Yalin wanted her to ride a rocket into.
Kali flexed her hand, then her arm, noting that they both felt rather normal. She tried her shoulders next before kicking her heels up a bit to test her legs.
She felt good. Not perfect—like maybe she’d done a solid workout the day before, but much better than when she’d woken up.
Looking up at the near-empty bag. “If I help you—and I mean if—can I take the recipe for this serum with me?”
Chapter 21
Claire
Zero-for-eight. That
was Claire’s current track record in solving Malachi’s challenges. Except for the tic with the ring. But she was starting to think he just did that to give her some confidence out of the gate.
Margot was eight-for-eight, and Ren three-for-eight.
Not only was it humiliating to miscalculate so many times in a row, but with each new failure, all Claire could imagine was what King Arthur would say if he were watching.
Dangerously unsuitable, indeed.
Claire was supposed to be the smartest person in the room, yet Ren was outperforming her on the smart scale. Nothing against Ren, but when the bodyguard knew more than the nerd, maybe it was time for the nerd to hang up her metaphorical glasses and pick a new lane in life.
Yet, against all odds, Malachi still seemed to have faith in her, even as he explained—yet again—how she’d miscalculated.
“Remember,” he was saying. “The most common trap is to follow a narrative that has been planted in your mind. This can lead you to dismiss the relevant and create elements that satisfy implied bias. This is a trap to misdirect your attention.”
Claire knew that. She watched people do it all the time.
How was Malachi getting her to do it?
And how did Margot always see it coming?
As if sensing her frustration, Margot’s hand reached out and covered hers, giving it a little squeeze.
“You have a lot of strengths, Claire,” she said in a moment of rare comfort. “Malachi just seems to have honed in on a specific blind spot you have. We’ve talked about it more than once. Do you remember?”
Yes. Claire knew. And she’d thought she’d factored it into every scenario. But apparently not. “I’m focusing in too quickly … trying to control the outcome, rather than predicting the flow and using it to my advantage.”
Margot nodded, as did Malachi.
“Strategies are most effective when the illusion of free will is maintained,” he said. “You show your hand when you coerce. ‘Better to use a carrot than a stick.’ You’ve heard that phrase, right?”
“Of course,” Claire said, trying not to feel frustrated with herself.
“People are most likely to give you what you want while you’re giving them what they want.”
Claire nodded. “I get that.”
Malachi’s green eyes watched her for a moment. “Do you?”
“Yes,” Claire said, even though current evidence showed to the contrary.
“Okay, then,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “Who’s idea was it to break into the building tonight to try to track Margot and Jack?”
Claire blinked in surprise and noted that Margot looked a little surprised, too.
“Do you remember where you got the idea?” he continued. “When the idea popped into your head?”
“I…” She thought back, trying to remember, but Malachi kept pushing.
“Do you remember what made you interested in looking up the dress you are wearing right now?” he asked. “You were on a completely different page, looking at totally different styles, but then you saw something that made you seek out this dress. Do you remember what it was?”
Claire liked to think she had a pretty detailed memory. Photographic, even. But as he asked for specific details, she found them to be a little blurry.
“And while you were performing these two separate tasks,” he continued, “did it ever occur to you that the combination of this dress and your night of breaking and entering would become essential details in tonight’s success?”
No. Not until he’d just said that. And the fact that he knew those answers was more than a little unsettling.
“How long have you been planning tonight?” Claire asked, remembering that had also been his mother’s question to him.
He tipped his head. “Did I plan it? Did we ever meet and map things out?”
Claire shook her head. “Never.”
“So why are we all sitting here?” he said, leaning forward as if the answer was on the tip of her tongue.
It wasn’t.
Claire had no idea. She turned to Margot to see if maybe she had something to weigh in with, but her boss held her hands up as if keeping her distance.
“I come at things from another angle,” she said. “I can’t tell you what he did … only that I didn’t see any of this coming either. So don’t feel like the weak link on that front.” She sent a narrow look Malachi’s way. “This one is sneaky. Very few ever see him coming.”
“Because I let others show me the way,” he said. “People are who they are, and want what they want. There is no point in fighting that.”
Margot flinched slightly at his words as if they caught her by surprise. Malachi kept talking as if he didn’t notice, although Claire was sure that he had.
“That being said, remember blind spots are almost always something very close and familiar. These are the things most effectively manipulated by those wishing to influence you. People sneaking past your blind spot will rarely do so with something new that will catch your eye.” He looked over to where Ren stood behind Margot. “Isn’t that so, Ren?”
Ren nodded, his expression making it clear he didn’t find pleasure in agreeing with the man. “As a rule, yes. There are always exceptions.”
Malachi nodded, looking like he’d be saving the exceptions for another day … if there was one.
“So how do I fix it?” Claire asked, glancing at the clock. “I mean, we’re running out of time here and I haven’t gotten one thing right. How do I change that?”
Malachi considered her question, seeming to mentally riffle through several options before settling in on one. “Describe farsightedness to me.”
“As in physical vision?”
He nodded.
“It means you can see things clearly far away, but not necessarily close up.”
“Correct,” Malachi said, his green eyes focusing on her in a way that made it seem like he might be looking under the surface, rather than at her face. “This is your strength. The further something is from your heart or mind, the more accurately you can assess it. But the closer something is, the more assumptions you make. The more blind you are. This is what I’m testing you on right now. Like Margot said, I’m looking at your weakness, not your strength.”
“How do I fix it?” Claire asked, unable to keep the frustration out of her voice.
Malachi’s eyes somehow looked especially green as he stared into her eyes and seemed to look into her soul. “Experience.”
Well, that didn’t help her now. “Anything else?”
He took a moment, visibly weighing his answer. “You know all those voices you have in your head telling you how stupid you’re being all the time?”
Well, she didn’t like to talk about them with other people, but… “Yeah.”
He didn’t so much as blink. “Listen to them.”
Chapter 22
Kali
Kali ran her hand along the tight-knit fabric, unsure what it was made of but pretty sure that a sharp knife would only bruise her through it.
It felt good to be wearing clothes again. And not just any clothes. Combat clothes.
She jumped up and down, testing the shock absorption of a pair of motorcycle boots with great grip. They fit perfectly. It was almost unnerving. Her eyes went to the jacket, coveting it.
“How did you get away with making all this stuff?” she asked, looking over at the doctor, who was back typing on his computer again.
“They plan on selling it,” he said, not looking away from his screen. “I told them from the beginning that I was going to find you. Once I did, and you had all these gadgets you were making in the VR world to try to keep yourself alive, I saw an opportunity and they jumped on it.”
Oh. Just when she’d started getting excited. “So you’re saying my jacket over there is going into mass production?”
“No.”
“No?”
He kept his eyes on the screen. “I have a SIM card I snuck in i
nside my cell phone. It has an AI encoded on it that will destroy all the data created under my login—wherever it’s stored—before self-terminating. And I’m setting up the room to burn down behind us right now. Everything we don’t take will be ashes.”
Well, that sounded thorough.
Uninterested in the computers, Kali walked over to the rust-and-black jacket. Man, she’d done a good job on it, and the doctor had done a good job reproducing it. She was used to wearing it, not seeing it, but it looked seriously good on the mannequin. Eye-catching. That wasn’t good, tactically speaking. But fashion-wise, it was on point, if she did say so herself.
She wanted it.
A lot.
“If you take that jacket, I’m going to assume you’re accepting my offer,” Dr. Yalin said from his computer.
“Can I try it on?” she asked, still hesitant to verbally commit for some reason.
“It’ll fit,” he said.
“I just want to see if you got it right,” she pressed, drawing closer to it, despite herself.
“It’s identical in every way,” he said, still typing something. “Except for your access to the mainframe. I tried to install the AI script from my SIM card on it to test it out, but no dice. It’s wired to work. It just needs an operating system, and I couldn’t build one here without getting caught.”
Fair enough. She still wanted to try it on, though.
At first touch, it felt like leather. It wasn’t though. It was softer somehow, yet stronger. “What is this made of?”
He pointed to the door, which now had a steady stream of sparks shooting inward. The people on the other side had upgraded to four blow torches and the cuts were healing more slowly. They were running out of time.
Pimpernel_Royal Ball Page 16
