Visions

by Teyla Branton

  Dani knew better, but she’d play along to prove the lie. “Then send me to a colony. I’m willing to work.”

  Anger flared in his eyes. “You will first have to undergo psychological reconditioning,” he said. “That may take some time.”

  The rest of her life, she bet, or until the madness caused by her ability took over. The only signs of that so far was that she could no longer sleep the entire four hours that had once been her normal, and her thoughts often raced too fast for her to concentrate. Usually a vigorous, three-hour run would put her to rights, but for how long that would work, she had no idea.

  They sat watching each other, and Dani suspected he was trying hard to remain calm. At last he took a deep breath and began talking, his voice soothing and reasonable. “In the first two decades after Breakdown, there was chaos, as you well know. Bodies heaped all over the earth, even in the sections that hadn’t been hit by the nuclear bombs. People fought and killed each other for every scrap of food. After the first decade, my father and people like him stood up and took charge. They began setting the building blocks of the CORE and started construction of the colonies to save lives, to teach the less fortunate to provide for themselves.”

  “And to use them to support everyone else.”

  He sighed and uncrossed his legs, leaning forward, elbows on his knees, pinning her with his intense eyes. “It didn’t start out that way. That wasn’t the intention.”

  “You’re not denying it, though.”

  “No.” He looked down at his hands. “That came much later. But the colonies were successful, and they saved lives. My father and the other Elite brought everyone safety.”

  Safety? Did he really believe that delusion?

  “They imprisoned three hundred thousand people and controlled everyone else,” she said. “They experimented on us—you experimented on everyone in Colony 6. I found the canisters at the water transfer station, dripping your drugs every day into our water. You tested them on children. On pregnant women!”

  He stood abruptly and started pacing. “The viribus was to make you stronger.”

  Viribus. Finally a name to put to the horror. “Why?”

  “They wanted to create a human that was stronger, and who would be able to withstand another Breakdown. We were but a tiny fraction of what we’d been, and as a society we couldn’t afford to lose any more. My father had been testing people with a history of unusual abilities before Breakdown, and when they built the colonies, he convinced them to send anyone who tested strongly to Colony 6. That way the people would intermarry, and with the drugs enhancing the abilities . . . it was the best way.”

  “Until they went crazy.”

  “That was a serious setback.” He returned to the couch and sat down. “But we’ve found a cure to the madness. Well, not really a cure because it is an ongoing treatment, but you can live a normal life here. We can help you.”

  “If I work for you, you mean. Why not give it to everyone who needs it? Why not put the treatment in the water at Colony 6 so no one else goes mad? There may still be people there with abilities that you haven’t yet murdered.”

  He frowned, a genuinely sad expression on his face that was somehow familiar. “We can’t. Not unless they’re working for us. We have a fragile existence here, and without control, more lives will be lost.” He gestured to the shackles on the floor. “With strength like that, I’m betting enforcers aren’t much of a challenge for you. Imagine ten thousand more just like you. No. We’ve learned the hard way that genetic change like this can’t be done on a population level. The good of the whole must always be considered more important than the individual.”

  A thousand responses pressed at Dani, begging for her attention. She held her breath for a moment, willing them to ease as she scanned the room with deliberation. “I guess that’s where we’ll have to disagree. As long as people are still living in a colony in a tiny box working sixty hours a week so you can live and work in a place like this, I’d say the needs of the individual are much more important than the wants of a few Elite.”

  His eyes hardened. “Tell me where your people are. Where did they take the doctor? We won’t hurt any of them.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You’re lying.”

  She couldn’t help answering, “So are you.”

  He came to his feet again. “You want honesty? Okay, here it is. You now work for me. If I don’t find you useful, I will kill you. Think about that.”

  Dani didn’t feel any triumph at getting to the truth she’d known all along.

  He strode toward the door where his guards waited and placed his hand over the reader. The door slid open. “You should also think about who else your decision will affect.”

  Dani stared beyond him. Standing outside the door with the woman enforcer was Tauri, looking as if he’d been pulled from bed and had been standing too long waiting. Should she pretend not to know him or had Tauri already told him he had a sister?

  “This is your brother,” Ramsey said, cutting short her deliberation. “Tauri Balak.”

  She lifted her chin coolly “I don’t have a brother.”

  “DNA says otherwise. He may or may not have been born in Colony 6, but he is genetically your full sibling. We suspect he knows more than what he’s saying about where he comes from and about the death and disappearance of some of our Special Forces in the empty zone north of Amarillo City where he was picked up. You would do good to encourage him to talk. You have ten minutes before you are shown to your cell. We’ll talk later.” With that, he and his two guards left the room.

  Tauri walked toward her, looking good, though as thin as ever, a fact accentuated by the white bodysuit. His skin was black like hers, and his hair the same white, though they’d shaved his once-long hair close to his head. He wasn’t shackled, so they apparently didn’t consider him a danger.

  He started to talk, but she signaled him to stay quiet with a shake of her head.

  “Have a seat.” She motioned for Tauri to sit, hoping the couches and their positions would partially block the cameras she knew must be in the room.

  She sat next to him and offered her hand, low enough that it skimmed the couch between them. “Nice to meet you Tauri, but I don’t have a brother.” Keeping her hands low, she said in Handspeak, Take you home.

  You shouldn’t be here, he answered. Aloud he said, “Nice to meet you. I don’t know anything about being your brother. Maybe their test isn’t accurate.” His voice held only a trace of inflection that remained from his non-hearing days.

  Of course I’m here, she signed.

  I’m sorry.

  Not your fault.

  “They are probably lying,” she said. “Anyway, where are you from?”

  “The empty zone near Colony 5.” That was near where he’d been caught, so he hadn’t told them details about Newcali—yet. She relaxed slightly.

  They know Handspeak? she asked.

  No. They scanned my hearing implant. Luckily, they have no use for it.

  Dani understood why. Each couple had to undergo rigorous genetic testing to be allowed a birth order. Deafness still occurred, and no one could prevent all accidents, but now any affected children born outside the colonies were automatically fitted with an implant. When she and the others lived in the Coop, Dani had known one non-hearing child who’d simply disappeared and never returned. As a child she hadn’t questioned the absence, but as an adult, she suspected the worst. Children with anything that might be viewed as a disability for future work had often disappeared from the colony. Eagle had been lucky his gift prevented him from becoming one of the missing. Smuggling these children from the colonies to Newcali before the CORE acted against them—as well as any other child she could pay for—had become a priority.

  “I’ve never been near Colony 5,” she lied. Because six weeks ago, that was where they’d killed Bensell Summers, that pus bag the Controller had reminded her of, as well as his Special Forces.

>   Wait—a thought occurred to her. Were those the same Special Forces the Controller thought Tauri had been mixed up with? But Tauri had gone missing before the encounter.

  Plan? Tauri asked. Break out?

  She nodded. Be ready. May need your gift.

  His lips turned pale. No. Please.

  Dani had pity on him. Maybe not.

  She drew away, holding her hands together in her lap, already knowing anyone watching would be suspicious at their hand motions, however subtle they’d tried to make them. Maybe they’d consider it some fringer ritual.

  “How long have you been here?” Dani asked, though she already knew the answer.

  “Two months.”

  “Doing what?”

  “Lots of tests. Not sure why. There is a room they take me to with cement walls. They make me stay there, sometimes giving me food, or starving me. Sometimes they talk to me and ask me to do things.”

  “Like what?”

  “Break things, climb the wall, push something away from me, levitate, predict an image from a set of cards or a holo screen. It goes on. I’ve lost track. But I’m not much good at any of it, which is a nice way to say I’ve failed at everything. Sometimes they put different gasses into the room.” He made a face of disgust. “Haven’t killed me—yet.”

  Ramsey was testing him for known abilities, no doubt. In case Tauri had been born in Colony 6.

  “They said yesterday they were finished,” he added. “Next week I’m to be implanted with a CivID and start reconditioning. Then I’ll go to a colony. But I’m not really sure that’s true. They’ve said it before.”

  Dani tried to hide her anger—and also the relief she felt for getting here in time. “If you’re holding anything back you should tell them everything.” She added a sharp no in Handspeak, though Tauri would already know she was speaking for the cameras.

  “I already did. I’m an orphan, raised by people who found me.” He shrugged. “They were nice.”

  Nearly the truth, and Dani found herself smiling. When she’d first met Tauri, he’d been thirteen and used only Handspeak or a T-link to communicate. A data discovery in the North Desolation Zone and his implant two years later had changed everything, but she was glad now that he and others like him in Newcali still practiced their first language.

  The door opened to reveal the same woman enforcer who’d taken Dani to the sonic cleanser, along with the other man from behind the desk. Neither commented on the lack of Dani’s shackles but ushered them from the room. Dani saw the two enforcer guards that had been with the Controller now standing on either side of another doorway, and it was to this that the woman enforcer motioned them. She placed her hand on a reader next to one of the guards and then leaned over for it to scan her eye. The door opened to the corridor depicted on the holo screen. Brighter lights came on down the corridor as they entered, and the air that rushed out at them was slightly different than the scrubbed air of the outer office, but not by much, which was a comfort to Dani. At least she wouldn’t have to breathe in stench.

  The enforcer pushed the first cell door inward and Tauri shuffled inside, glancing back at Dani, his brown eyes warm and trusting. A rush of love spread through her. I love you, she signed, keeping her hand low.

  The door shut with a metal clang, leaving only his face staring from the small square window in the top part of the cell door. The enforcer put her hand on a pad and locked it.

  The enforcer opened the next door and stepped back to let Dani enter. Without warning, exhaustion descended on Dani, a sensation she rarely experienced. When had she last slept? She didn’t know, but she needed to rest now so she could concentrate on a way to escape—with Tauri. Sleep would reduce her oxygen intake to almost nothing, and she’d finally be able to turn off the racing thoughts.

  She waited until the brighter lights in the hall winked out before she lay on the bed and tried to sleep.

  Chapter 19

  “WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN you and Jaxon anyway?” Lyra asked Reese as they sat in a C-lodge in New York, waiting for Lyssa to finish her appointment at HED.

  “Nothing is going on.” Reese shifted uncomfortably at the question, which told Lyra something certainly was happening between her and Jaxon. Lyra knew it because of the way she herself acted around Kansas. Loving someone didn’t make life easier if you couldn’t fix what was broken.

  Why can’t I be satisfied with Tamsin? Lyra thought. She had raised her niece every bit as much as Lyssa and Kansas had, and she’d sacrifice her life for Tamsin. Yet still the primordial urge to have her own child haunted her sleep and all her waking hours. As if having Tamsin only whet her appetite for her own baby.

  She pushed the thoughts aside and dragged her mind back to the mission. So far, little of interest had occurred at Lyssa’s meeting except amusement at watching her twin pretend innocence at the surprise of the dispatch manager, who couldn’t remember making the appointment. Lyssa had glossed over the confusion easily, flirting with the man and making him laugh. Being confident with men was one of Lyssa’s talents. She’d always been the outgoing twin, the one to speak her mind and stand up for what was right.

  And also the one who screwed up. Lyra had saved her sister and Tamsin, and she didn’t regret doing so. Never would she regret it. Tamsin was the center of her life.

  And yet . . .

  “What are they doing now?” Reese asked.

  “They’re still in the conference room, but she’s finally asked for a tour. She’s just waiting now for him to finish a Teev call.” Lyra was amazed at how easy it was to keep an eye on Lyssa and also chat with Reese at the same time. Her traveling ability was increasing. Three nights ago, she’d found herself hovering incorporeally near Kansas in his bedroom after one of their seemingly constant disagreements. The crew had always theorized that as the twins grew they’d be able to project their conscious thoughts elsewhere besides to where the other one was, but until that night, it hadn’t happened. In fact, Lyra didn’t know if it actually had happened. Possibly it was a dream, or maybe she could go anywhere in their apartment because Lyssa was close. If it occurred again, especially if Lyssa was at Ty’s, she’d have to tell the others.

  The separate bedrooms had been meant to keep Tamsin from realizing that Lyra—whom Tamsin called Aunt Lyssa—was the twin officially married to Kansas and to increase her opportunity to be alone with him. When they’d lived in Estlantic, they’d even had a secret door adjoining their rooms. But they didn’t have that here, and it hadn’t seemed to matter; lately Kansas spent more time in his bed than in hers. On most nights, a little bit more of Lyra died, even though she knew she was in large part to blame.

  If only Kansas could understand how important a baby was to her. And the past six weeks of hiding that she was part of the underground was only adding to the strain between them.

  Reese jumped up and paced the room, going to the window where she rubbed her fingers over the decorative trim. After a few moments, she said quietly, “They always deviate around the enforcers. I never noticed that when I lived here.”

  “That’s because you were the enforcer.” Lyra moved to stand with her. Down below, people moved with purpose, tension in every step.

  This C-lodge was eight stories and took up half a block, and its amenities made the one in Santoni feel like a colony hovel by comparison. Because of the strict laws controlling building height, it was one of the tallest buildings in New York and in all of Estlantic, taller even than HED.

  New York had endured a beating in the Breakdown bombings, fortunately not nuclear, and rubble from much taller pre-Breakdown buildings had taken decades to clear. But the surrounding areas had been far worse off, so half the CORE’s non-colony residents ended up here, somewhere near a million people.

  “I always knew something wasn’t right,” Reese said. “Once a father attacked me on the sky train. They’d sent his son in for medical enhancement. I didn’t have anything to do with his arrest, so I think the father was just taking
it out on the first available enforcer. I tried to explain that enhancement involved only removing a tiny portion of the brain, the part that made him violent.”

  Reese sank abruptly on the plush velvet bench next to the window. “How could I have said that? I knew what happens to people who are enhanced. They are never the same.”

  Lyra put her hand on Reese’s shoulder in sympathy. At the same time, she was also walking next to Lyssa in the halls of HED. “We all wanted to believe, and you have to remember that you weren’t the reason for his son’s problems.”

  “No, but my actions sent others to enhancement.”

  “Well, some deserved it, like that executive at Kordell Corp.” His partners hadn’t taken the enhancement well, and because of Reese’s involvement in the drug bust, they’d nearly killed her. Which was why they’d all agreed Reese should remain here in the room with Lyra instead of going with Jaxon and Eagle to catch up with enforcer buddies at the local sauce bar in the hopes of identifying the desk in Jaxon’s vision. In case the KC still carried a vendetta against her, there was no use flaunting Reese’s presence until the memorial, by which time they hoped to have a plan in place to free Dani.

  “I’m worried Jaxon’s going to do something rash,” Reese said suddenly.

  Lyra sank down next to her. “He say something to make you think that?”

  “No, but he spent all night on the train trying to have another vision of the desk. He wanted to see more of the room.” Reese stared down at her hands. “But something else kept coming instead.”

  “What did he see?”

  Reese’s eyes dragged up to her, almost startled. “Nothing important.”

  Lyra could see that whatever Jaxon had seen, it was important to Reese, though probably not to the operation at hand. Lyra was about to probe when an exclamation from Lyssa pulled her back to her traveling duties.

  Lyra sat back against the wall and closed her eyes, grabbing onto the scene around her twin with greater concentration. “Just a minute,” she said. “I need to concentrate on Lyssa.”