by Melissa West
Which brings us to our goal for today: recruiting anti-Zeus soldiers.
“You remember the plan?” Jackson says out of the corner of his mouth. No one is around, but that doesn’t mean no one is listening.
I nod. The plan is for Jackson to go to Cybil and have her spread the word to the Operatives about the rebellion, set to occur two nights from tonight. I will then discreetly mention it to the RES assignees, in hopes that they are less ingrained with Zeus and will be more willing to help.
Jackson and I separate as soon as we enter the Vortex, him down the spiral steps to see Cybil, me through the double doors to RES training. Most of the RESs are standing around talking when I enter. Madison rushes up to me. “Are you okay? That was so horrible.”
One of the male assignees behind her overhears and calls, “We can’t allow this to continue.” A conversation starts before I even have to utter a word. I smile to myself, proud for the first time to call myself an RES.
“I can get us all back to Earth, if you’re willing to help,” I finally say, breaking up the conversations. They turn to me, intrigue in their eyes, and I launch into the plan. I keep my voice low to prevent any wandering ears from hearing. We talk about Earth’s leaders allowing coexistence, about the Ancients who want to leave, about the humans who are slated to die here, and by the time I’m done, I have them all in agreement.
Jackson comes through the door just as I’m finishing up, his arms loaded down with metal boxes. He sets the boxes on the ground and steps up to the group. “Today you will each receive your RX-53.”
“But I thought we didn’t receive our guns until next year,” a male Ancient calls. “You’re giving them early?”
“I’m giving them early.”
Jackson passes each of the Ancients a gun, and then when he gets to me he hands mine over and whispers, “Cybil is on board.
“All right,” he says, addressing the group. “Everyone know how to use it?” He walks over to the stack of wooden wheels from our first training, and holds the gun out so everyone can see. He cocks it, then clicks a red button on the side that begins to flash. Then he tosses the wheel into the air and fires, sending a burst of light at the wheel, shattering it into a million pieces. “That’s it. Now practice. I want this room covered in splinters when I return.” He leaves the room, and we stare at one another for a moment, then the Operative in me takes over and I head for a wheel, glancing at one of the male Ancients as I go.
“You toss them for the group. We’ll go one after the other. Sound good?” Everyone nods and gets into line. I start, remembering my first Operative training back home. We were put into lines, similar to this, and fired at various targets until we hit all of them. I remember Jackson being asked to illustrate for the group, and then the awe in everyone’s eyes as we were handed a new prototype laser gun. It was so powerful, so advanced. And it was nothing compared to the gun I hold in my hand now.
Its smooth silver lines help it to fit perfectly in my hand. It’s so light that I assume the blast will be weak, so when I fire, I’m not expecting the kick that sends me backward onto the ground. I feel a tingling sensation in my hand and shake my head to refocus my thoughts. At least I hit the wheel, which is now scattered across the other side of the room, like Jackson’s from before. I expect the group to laugh at my fall, but instead Madison helps me stand and they all continue shooting, each of them focused, and I realize the events of the morning have hit deep. They’re angry. They’re motivated.
They’re ready to fight.
Chapter 20
I leave the Vortex filled with excitement and new determination. Eager to find Jackson, I circle around to the back of the Vortex where he said he would be working with RES soldiers. I almost pop out from the side of the building, when instead I decide to watch them. Jackson has them stacked in rows and they’re all wearing uniforms and holding weapons that are unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Jackson calls out a few commands and they march. He calls out another set of commands and they stop. They do this over and over and then he calls out once more and they turn in unison and fire into the air, but where I expect shots to ring out or a laser or something at all familiar, I see a burst that looks exactly like a lightning bolt on a hot summer day just before a massive thunderstorm rolls in to cool off the land. The bolts have an intelligence about them, dying out as soon as they hit the air, as though they know there isn’t a true target in sight and they can reserve their energy for a more useful time.
“Spy!” someone calls from behind me, startling me so much that when I’m pushed from behind the building, all I can do is stumble. I spin around, preparing to punch, when Mackenzie’s devilish laugh hits my ears, followed by her usual mocking expression. “What are you doing hiding over here, human?” She pushes me again, and this time there is no way I’m holding back. I lunge forward, sweeping her feet out from under her so she lands hard on her back. I am about to give her a chance to apologize when Jackson grabs me.
“What are you doing?” Then he whispers low in my ear. “Calm down, Ari. You know this is what he wants.” And he’s right. Mackenzie is nothing more than Zeus’s minion, sent around to do his bidding. Letting her get to me is just allowing him to have control.
“Nothing,” I say, brushing off my pants as though they are covered in dirt. “I was just looking for you, but I saw that you were busy so I was preparing to head back home when this twit spotted me.”
Jackson glances over his shoulder. All the RESs are watching us now. He gives me a pointed look, so full of concern it is almost a caress, and then directs his anger at Mackenzie. “Either get in line or get out of here. You’re distracting my troop.”
Mackenzie smiles the devilish grin she’s perfected around me. “I was sent for her.”
Jackson crosses his arms. “Fine. I’m coming, too.”
“You know better,” I say. “I’ll see you later.” And with that I follow her to Zeus.
Mackenzie walks me the entire way to Zeus’s office, as though I need an escort, and I instantly get the feeling something has changed. Zeus is standing by the window when I enter his office, his right arm over his head, resting against the smooth glass. From this angle he looks like a normal person, nowhere near the predator that I know he is. At this thought, he smiles and turns around. “Ah, so nice to see you too, Ari dear. Please sit.” He motions to a chair in front of his desk and then turns back to the window. “I hear you and my grandson have grown close. Did you know Jackson once loved another? I’m betting not. In fact, I bet he’s never mentioned her at all.”
I swallow back the rush of emotions threatening to burst to the surface. This is what he wants, to rattle me. Why else would he bring up Jackson’s past as though it has anything to do with the present?
“Oh doesn’t it?” Zeus says as he walks toward me. He snatches a glass full of a ruby liquid from his desk that I know must be a Healer concoction. Maybe some herb or flower that keeps him alive well past the typical lifespan of an Ancient. Or maybe something that makes it where he is stronger than others, more intelligent than others, who knows. He grins wide at my rambling thoughts and runs a finger over the rim of the glass. “It’s Hyptotica. And it isn’t for me. It’s for you.” As soon as the words leave his mouth, two Ancient guards come in through a side door and stand on my right and left. “But you’re right; it is a healer’s brew created especially for me in times like these. See, I’m growing tired, Ari. Something is happening back on Earth. I feel it in my blood, just as I’m sure most Ancients do on some level.”
I glance at the guards and slowly widen my stance. “I don’t understand.”
Zeus laughs. “Of course not. Your mind operates under exact truths, but where we are concerned, there has never been a truth given to humans. Surely you never believed that we only Took antibodies from you and that is why we continued the Taking for all those years? We possess xylem. Why would we need antibodies to keep us alive on Earth?”
He smiles. “Sure,
there would be an acclimation period. With so many parasites and bacteria on Earth, our bodies could not heal them all quickly enough to keep us strong. We would be too vulnerable. So yes, we Took antibodies to speed up our acclimation. But that was never why the Taking existed.”
He pauses in front of me, the glass sparkling in the light from the chandelier above us. “The Taking was created to give us knowledge of how you work—your mind, your body, your thoughts, your emotions. Every element of the human structure delivered to us like computerized code. We Took from you so we could understand our enemy. And now we know what we are up against. The problem is there is a break in the code. I’m getting bits of information that make no sense. So, you will be providing the information I need. Of course I know of your most recent rally with my troops.” He cocks his head to the left and studies my face with curiosity. “Though you already knew that, didn’t you? I have no idea what you are up to, but trust that your most driven endeavors,” he says, his voice shaking, then, “endeavors: an attempt to achieve a goal, are no match for mine. Now drink.”
I take a step away from the drink and feel the guards’ hands lock on my arms to stop me. “I’m not drinking that or anything else.”
Zeus smirks, leaning down to smell the brew. “Oh I think you will. As I was saying earlier, you are not Jackson’s first venture into love. Like Katalina you possess far too much feist. And like Katalina you are destined to end up in the ground.” He steps forward, thrusting the drink to my lips. “Now drink, else I should put you there today. The only reason I allow you to live is because you provide a usefulness to me that no other human here can possess. Once that usefulness is worn out, you will be handled.”
I lock my lips together, but the pressure of the glass against my mouth and the guards’ hold on me forces my lips to split enough for Zeus to tip the drink back. It stings the moment it hits my tongue, burning like flamed lava down my throat. I expect something to happen, some force to render me helpless or void of emotion, something that gives Zeus control. But nothing happens.
“Sit,” Zeus says, pointing at the chair again, and something in the command tells me he expects me to follow it now. Confusion cloaks my mind. One of the healers made this brew especially for Zeus to use on me. Would she intentionally make it so it doesn’t work? Emmy would for sure. And then there is Lydian, though I have never counted her as a friend. Still, something was there at the last torture session. She was worried about me, afraid.
Tension builds in my chest as I try to figure out how I should behave and what I should say. I shut down my mind, clearing it except for what is around me. I picture the guards, Zeus, his office, anything to keep my mind from drifting.
“What have you given me?”
Zeus leans back in his chair. “Consider it your daily dose of truth. You will come to me every day. You will drink that drink. And you will willingly offer me any information that I may ask. Our sessions in the blue room are not providing the results I need. But this will.”
I scowl, wishing I had spit the drink out or fought harder to avoid drinking it. What if I unveil the plan or something about Jackson? What if I reveal that Mami has been to see me? Many could get hurt. I try to feel a change in my mind, my body, my blood pressure, something that hints that the drink has taken effect, but again come up empty. Though maybe there is no change, only a trigger in my mind that forces me to tell Zeus the truth no matter what he asks. I look at the ground as I try to calm my mind. Zeus can’t know that I’m worried.
“Well, go ahead,” I say, glancing up. “Give it a go.”
He links his fingers in front of him, tapping the wrinkled index fingers together as though to some unheard rhythm. “You are not fond of me, are you?”
“Am I that obvious?” I say.
Zeus’s face twists. “Tell me about your Chemists. Are they capable of developing a weapon against us?”
Again I search for some hint that the drink is working, that I’m about to blurt out all of our secrets, but nothing comes. If it was indeed Lydian, she put herself at a great risk to do this for me. She expects me to keep Zeus from reading my mind and knowing the brew didn’t work. I close my eyes briefly, pushing all thought from my mind, then answer. “They are capable of virtually anything. So yes, I would say a weapon is more than possible.” I hate that I’m admitting this to him, but surely he realizes this himself. Of course the Chemists are capable of advanced weaponry. Whether those weapons could succeed is another question altogether.
“And are you in communication with them currently?” Zeus asks, and I hear the hint of something in his voice that tells me he suspects Jackson and I have a means, he just isn’t sure how we did it.
I steady my gaze on his. “Don’t you think you would know if I were communicating with them? Further, don’t you think if it were possible for me to communicate with them, I would already be there, not here?”
My heart threatens to expose me the moment the words leave my mouth. Zeus considers the answer for so long that I’m sure he knows, sure he’s about to order the guard to kill me, or worse, that he’s going to kill someone else for my actions. But then his face relaxes, if only marginally. “So be it.” He walks to his desk, opens the top drawer, and pulls out two metal balls. “Take them,” he says. I shake my head and the guards force my hands open and then closed around both balls. He nods to one of the guards, who cocks his gun and points it at my head. “Drop them and I order him to shoot. Do you understand?”
I nod, suddenly afraid.
Zeus sits at his desk across from me and leans forward, his eyes trainined on mine. “Where is the entrance?”
“I don’t know,” I answer, then feel a jolt rush into my palms, stinging its way up my arms. I start to drop the metal balls,when Zeus eyes the guard on my left, and he presses his gun to my temple.
“If you release them, he shoots.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know of an entrance.”
Zeus lifts his hand from the desk to show a tiny metal piece in his hand with a clickable button at the top. “Very well.” He presses the button and the jolt intensifies, climbing my forearms and shaking my shoulders. Tears prick my eyes from the pain, and I grit my teeth together, praying the shock will end. I let out a loud breath as it stops, wondering for the first time in my life if it’s possible to die of pain alone.
“I am half Ancient. Do you really think they would have told me?”
Zeus considers this for some time, then stands and motions for the door. “We shall see. I have business to attend. You will report to Lydian for the remainder of your questioning. I will see you back here tomorrow. If you truly don’t know the location, then I will use you as leverage. One way or another, I will learn the location of the entrance.”
…
I’m out the main doors of the Castello building, in a full sprint to our house, my mind a whirlwind of worry that I can’t contain. I have so much to do and so little time. I burst through the front door, covering each room in search of Jackson before finally finding him in our room, luggage packed on the end of the bed.
“What’s that?” I ask as I near, everything about it making me feel all the more uncomfortable.
He sits beside it and pulls me into his lap. “Zeus wants to make a round of visits at the other regions. We head out tonight.”
“But why do you have to go with him? How long will you be gone?”
“I always go. It would look suspicious if I tried to stay. We’ll be gone two days. He wants to make sure they’re ready. It’s getting close. Dangerous.” He places his hands on either side of my face, hesitating, then says, “I want you to leave here with the others. I’ll get to Earth somehow. Don’t worry about killing Zeus, just leave. Before it gets bad. Law will be ready. You don’t have to stay here and—”
“No,” I say, stopping him. “This changes nothing. I’m not leaving you behind. I can’t. And with Zeus still in place, we’re all in danger. He has to be killed.”
Jackson looks away uneasily.
“I can do this.” I hold his gaze, fighting against the hurt in my voice. “Don’t lose faith in me.”
“Never.” He pulls me in to him, his arms tight around me, cradling me with his strength and in them I feel what he refuses to say. This may be the last peaceful moment we have, the last sense of comfort or normalcy. I want to melt into him, lay with him until he’s forced to leave, but I’m too much my father’s daughter to waste precious strategizing time on my own selfish wants, so I pull myself away, kissing him easily on the lips before standing.
“I’ll have everything in place before you get back. Just get to the port as soon as you can. If luck is on our side, everyone will cross over before the rest of the RESs realize anything has happened.”
Jackson leans back on the heels of his hands. “You underestimate them. The only hope you have is that your troop can hold long enough for most to cross, though even that is hoping for a lot. You need to prepare yourself, Ari. Most of the humans are going to die in this fight.”
I walk over to the window and peer out over Triad, tranquil, no hint of the fight that is about to erupt. “No, you underestimate the human heart. These people have loved ones back home. Husbands and wives and children. Brothers and sisters and parents. They have friends and family who miss them. They aren’t going to just lie down.”
“They aren’t fighters, Ari.”
“You’d be surprised what people become when they have no other choice.”
Jackson comes up behind me and kisses the top of my head. “I hope you’re right.”
Chapter 21
I go to Lydian, eager to see for myself which side she is on. Jackson left me with one request: Avoid anything overly dangerous until he returns. I have to wonder if he felt the words were a waste before he said them. After all, he knows I will do nothing less than what is necessary—dangerous or not.
