by Tanya Lisle
Indi. Indi. Indi!
She was coming. Her body needed to be less demanding. The fatigue of trying to free herself was catching up with her, replacing the panic of needing to get away. The last thing she needed was her body demanding that she show up faster. She would be there just as soon as she could. Faster if everything could just stop moving around so damn much.
When she opened her eyes, Shiraz stood over her. Both of his hands gripped her shoulders and continued to shake her roughly awake. She didn’t have time to register anything else as she felt the entirety of her stomach contents coming up. She clapped her hand over her mouth and stumbled to her feet, never quite getting upright as she scrambled for the washroom.
She hugged the toilet until there was nothing left inside her stomach; food, bile, or otherwise. The world was still spinning around her as she finally lifted her head, reaching weakly to the side for some toilet paper to wipe her mouth with. When she went dully over to the sink to rinse out her mouth, everything was still wavering around her. She took a deep breath and rose her head back up, feeling like Shiraz wasn’t the only person watching her.
When she turned, she saw Esther standing next to him, deep concern cut into her expression and mouth opening like it was about to say something, though nothing came out. Shiraz frowned next to her, shaking his head and looking more irritated than anything else. Indira looked drunkenly between the pair of them before she settled on Esther. “What are you doing here?” she asked blearily.
“You’re brain drunk, Indi,” Shiraz told her.
“I’ll be fine,” she said. She leaned against the wall of the washroom and looked between the two of them. Shiraz kept looking at her with more concern that he should have, but also an anxiousness to get back to whatever it was he was doing, or perhaps to just get away from Esther. “Really. I’m fine.”
She held his gaze until he finally relented. He shook his head and kept whatever else he had to say to himself. Instead, he looked pointedly over at Esther and made a quick motion gesturing his thumb to his throat in a quick motion. When Indira nodded, he nodded back and went back to his room. “Don’t die on the carpet,” he said. “Mom is going to make me clean it up if you do.”
Esther watched him disappear into his room before she looked back to Indira, brow furrowed in concern. “Are you two planning to kill me?”
Indira shook her head and pushed off the wall. She made it only one step before she felt dizzy again and stumbled. Esther stepped forward and got herself under Indira’s arm, helping her up and walking her back to her room.
“Sorry,” she said, letting Esther lower her down on her bed. Indira sat on the edge, keeping her head down and resting in her hands as she waited for the world to stop spinning around her. Esther handed her the bottle of coke sitting next to her computer and Indira took it, grateful for it even though her mouth still felt disgusting. She was already hungry, but she couldn’t handle food right now.
“The hell was that?” Esther asked. “I figured I was going to get someone pissed about breaking and entering again, not find whatever the hell that was you were doing. You really need to be a lot more careful.”
“What can I say? I meditate hard.” Indira looked up as everything started to still. She should sleep, but the adrenaline pumping through her veins wasn’t about to let her rest. “What are you doing here?”
“We need to talk,” she said. “Can you do the thing?” Esther gestured at her head and pointed at Indira in a way that was far too sharp and precise to be the first time she’d done it. She’d seen the same motion with some of Uncle Ness’ hero friends and she knew full well what the gesture meant.
Where did you learn that one? Indira asked in her head. Her voice in there wasn’t much stronger than her actual one was. And why are you here?
I should be asking you that, Esther said, getting up to start poking around Indira’s room. I never knew anyone who started seizing while they were meditating before.
I got stuck, Indira told her. Not my fault.
Where did you go?
Indira leveled a gaze on Esther as she took a picture of Indira as a kid with her family off the dresser to look at it. “You were a cute kid,” she muttered.
Exactly where you think I went. Indira frowned at her and got unsteadily up, taking the picture from Esther and putting it back down on the dresser. She met her eyes and then looked back at the chair at her desk. Esther got both meanings and took a seat, turning it away from the computer. That’s not why you’re here.
No, I’m here as an ex-girlfriend of Kyle’s to give you a heads up, she said. She looked around the room and pulled out her hand, revealing that she’d already grabbed five of the specks from around the place. You’re going to be watched for a while. As long as Kyle’s interested in you, anyway. You’re going to need to not do anything too suspicious.
Indira blinked slowly at the specks and Esther let them drop in the trash can by Indira’s desk. She thought that she’d gotten rid of those, but apparently not. Or they had somehow come back. Strange like saying you need to talk and then saying nothing? Indira asked, opting to ignore them for now.
You have a point, Esther said. She crossed her legs on the chair and put her elbows on her knees. “So that brother of yours…”
“Whatever you’re thinking, no,” Indira told her.
He is working on something that’s going to get him killed in his room if he’s not careful, though, Esther said. I don’t know what that is, but it looks a little too advanced for a ninth grader to be dealing with.
He can take care of himself.
“Shame. It could have been fun, but if you say so.”
“I definitely say stay away from him,” Indira said. “But since you’re here to warn me about getting together with Kyle…”
Indira grabbed her phone and let her fingers dance across the screen. Esther’s eyes flew open wide and she started to get up, but Indira made a sharp gesture for her to stay where she was. Indira wasn’t sure she was doing it right, but Esther stood down, glaring back at her, her hand moving in a pattern that Indira didn’t understand. Not that she needed the gesture, feeling the warning and alarm coming off of her.
The phone rang twice before he picked up. “Hello?”
“Hey Kyle,” Indira said, looking at Esther and smiling sweetly.
Esther stared at her wide eyed in disbelief. What the hell are you doing? Esther demanded. She very clearly did not want to stay sitting.
“I wasn’t expecting to hear from you tonight.”
“Yeah, listen,” Indira said. She still felt weak, but hoped it would sound more like she was nervous than nauseous. The truth was she was getting a little tired of waiting for this to happen, and now she had a reason to speed the process along. “I was just thinking. Halloween was really nice. I wouldn’t mind getting a chance to spend a little more time together, just the two of us, if you were up for it.”
What are you doing. It wasn’t a question but a demand.
“Yeah… yeah!” He was flustered on his end, which was always good to hear. She could imagine the flush spreading across his face as he spoke and those fingers running nervously through his hair. “I’d love to take you out if you’re up for it. There’s a new movie out if you wanted to catch it?”
“Friday night?” Indira couldn’t help smiling for real.
“I’ll pick you up at seven?”
“Ah… we’ll talk about that part,” she said. “My parents are a little strict.”
“Oh.”
“Don’t worry, I got this,” she said. “I’ll see you tomorrow and we’ll talk, okay?”
“Yeah, okay. See you tomorrow?”
“See you then. Bye.”
Indira waited for him to mumble out something and hang up on his end before she dropped her phone on the bed and smiled back at Esther. And now I have my alibi, she said smugly. “And I have a date,” she added out loud. She let herself drop back down onto the bed, the lightness in her head s
tarting to return. She wasn’t sure if it was from standing or from actually asking Kyle out.
“I can’t believe you just did that,” Esther said, a flush of anger blooming in her cheeks. There was a small part of her impressed that she had actually done it, but most of her was worried that this was the beginning of the end. That Indira was in completely over her head and that she was going to get herself killed just by getting too close to Kyle and his father. Mostly his father. You’re going to get yourself killed.
Indira laughed. I will be out on a date with the police chief’s son while you guys are checking out the place and trying to get a peek at the mystery room, Indira told her. I will not be doing anything even remotely strange at the time.
So you found the place?
Indira nodded. And I think I have the guard pattern down and a door that isn’t being watched. The problem is that there’s a room where I think they’re keeping people that I can’t quite get to. And there’s something watching the place that’s tripping me up. I got stuck in it when you guys came in to wake me up. But that’s not important right now.
Oh, I think that’s very important right now, Esther countered. You were practically having a seizure when I walked in here. If you’re doing that on a date, that’s not going to work.
Not if I stay away from there, Indira said. It should be fine if you’re going in person.
Maybe. Between us, we should be able to keep out of trouble.
Which raised a question Indira hadn’t been considering. She should really find out just what Esther could do. Particularly if she was going to try and keep her from dying, like Shiraz had just warned. “So Kyle told me that your mom used to be a villain?”
“Which is why I was homeschooled,” she said, not embarrassed about it like some people Indira had known. They kept an eye around the room for the red lights flickering on as they talked, but Esther knew just how to phrase herself at this point to keep them from flickering for long. “You learn all sorts of things that way, though. Field trips and real life experiences, you know. When you aren’t visiting mom in jail.”
She still taught me everything I know, though, she added as Indira looked on sympathetically. She was in maximum security, but she wasn’t powered, so they gave her enough freedom to have private time with me so she could pass on a few things.
“Who was she?” Indira asked.
Esther turned back to the computer and opened a browser. “Hang on, you can look her up,” she said. “They gave her some stupid name in the index. Lady Godiva, because of one of the first heists she got caught up in. That they know of, anyway.”
Whatever she knows, she passed on to me, Esther told her. I am just going to leave this for you for later. No super powers like flying or anything, but if you need someone to watch your back or keep an eye out for things, I got you covered.
I think I’m just going to need you to keep them in check, Indira said. There’s that room that I can’t get to that you guys really just need to look in and see what’s there. There’s something weird about it and I’m not sure… Plus Penny seems set on making this a one shot rescue mission, but this one needs to be recon only to make sure we know what’s going on.
I thought you wanted this to be a rescue too. And how much does Miss Failed Powers Test know? Esther asked her with an eyebrow raised as she looked back at her. There were a few other things on Esther’s mind right now, though Indira took one glance at those thoughts and ignored them. She did not need to know what Esther thought about her.
I know enough, she said instead, ignoring the retort that flickered across Esther’s mind at that. Let them know about Friday if you see them before I do.
Penny is going to be pissed about the Kyle thing.
Tough shit. It’s the best alibi I could have. And the timing is perfect. That side door doesn’t see any activity between six and midnight. That should give you guys plenty of time to get in and get out before anyone knows you’re there.
I think I like you in charge of this more than Penny, Esther said. She never took it this well when I broke in.
“If that’s all, I’m going to get going,” Esther said, looking her carefully over one last time before she made her way for the window that Indira didn’t even realize was open. “You take care of yourself. Be careful. And remember to check on that brother of yours. See you tomorrow,” she said before she jumped out.
Indira got up and tried to spot her in the night, trying to figure out how Esther managed to get the screen off like that. She snapped it back into place easily and closed the window before she glanced at the entry on Lady Godiva. There was a woman there who looked a little like Esther, listed as having worked largely as a hand for hire that only actually pulled off a handful of heists on record.
She’d come back to her. For now, she closed her laptop and went over to Shiraz’s room to knock on the door. Whatever it was he was doing in there, it seemed that Esther thought that he was overstepping something. If someone who was so brazen about breaking in was concerned about overstepping, then she could at least check on what he was doing. Just to see and make sure that he wasn’t in line to get himself killed.
His door was left slightly ajar so that he could hear the conversation drifting in from Indira’s room, though she imagined that he wasn’t privy to any of the interesting parts of it. She pushed the door open to find him lying on his bed with a controller in hand, playing his Xbox with the sound turned down low enough that he couldn’t be surprised that she was coming in uninvited.
“So,” Indira said as she pushed the door the rest of the way open. “What are you working on that I’m supposed to be checking up on?” She looked around his room and let her eyes settle on the desk. Shiraz’s desk was a gift from their father and uncle, one that let him hide whatever special projects he might be working on underneath a layer of unassuming wood, just in case his friends came over. In Iverson, it was usually open and littered with small projects, but since moving to Whitten, she had only ever seen it closed.
The innocent look on his face didn’t last long. He let out a sigh and paused the game. Nodding for her to get out of the way, he got up and flipped the switch on the side of the desk. The cover slid up, revealing a full workspace that was impossibly held underneath it, and the project that Shiraz was currently working on.
Specks. It was covered in specks in various states of having been disassembled. The space was covered in small wires and gears that had come out of them, in transistors and batteries and all manner of other things she didn’t really know that presumably made them work. Hopefully this was not making them angry. No red lights shone from them, but Indira was nervous nonetheless.
“Oh,” Indira said quietly, looking down at them all, then around at the room for anything that might be watching. There were holes in the ceiling and posters up in places that they normally wouldn’t have been. He was making no secret of the fact that he’d removed just about every one that he could find from his room and was in the process of covering up his tracks. Badly. “So this is what she was talking about.”
Shiraz buzzed in irritation and she realized she should have known that he was doing this. Shiraz wouldn’t leave strange technology alone until he figured out what it did. She took a moment to try and push aside her own worry over this, her worry that he’d already done something to draw attention to himself, before she said anything.
So what were you thinking? Indira asked. You know these things are dangerous. And now you have them disassembled across your desk in your room in a house full of psychics.
Shiraz shook his head and looked down at them. They’re inert. He flicked the switch and closed the desk again. They also only respond via radio signals, so when the desk is closed, nothing gets out. I made sure of that. I just needed to know how they worked to see how dangerous they actually were.
He went back to the bed and unpaused the game, letting out a groan as a text crawl started to scroll past. He turned the volume up on the television a
nd started trying to figure out how to skip this and get back to the actual game.
They might not have found anything about them when they were looking at them originally, but there’s some weird stuff in there, Indi, he told her. It listens, but that’s not the only thing it was supposed to do. The tech is old, but it’s still fully functional in there, and it was never just supposed to listen. I think the technology is adaptable. They can update it with new stuff via remote. There’s old school nanobots in there.
What do you mean by old school?
Shiraz shook his head and swore as another text crawl appeared on the screen. I mean they’re slow and the programming on them is in, like, basic. But now they have capabilities to transmit video back to whatever it’s taking signals in from too. And there’s something else in there that I can’t quite figure out. Some of them are more advanced than others. It’s like they’re teaching each other because the tech evolves even when it’s cut off from the outside signals. It’s weird, Indi. And I don’t like them being everywhere without knowing exactly what they do.
Indira couldn’t argue with him. Be careful, she warned him before turning back and leaving his room.
You too, he said. It’s not like I’m the only one here that’s taking stupid risks, you know. Mom and Dad are not going to be happy if they find out you’re going on a date.
Chapter 19
Debriefing
Indira wasn’t sure what she was expecting to find at school that morning, but it certainly wasn’t what she stumbled onto. Penny, Laura, and Brittany were standing together, passing one another signs and talking as if they didn’t have an issue with one another.
“You know, if Alan comes back, he’s got a bit of a thing for you,” Laura offered. “You could always go with him.”
“The choice in this school is pretty bad,” Brittany agreed. “Have you tried Whitten High? Maybe you could find someone better there.”
“It’s not a big deal,” Penny insisted. “I can just go on my own.”
