by Rayya Deeb
They all looked back at me, discovering one by one that I wasn’t coming along. Dom looked at me with big ol’ Basset Hound eyes and a shaky bottom lip. He bit it to stop the quiver. He shook his head “no” ever-so-slightly. I nodded “yes” just a little bit more. It was, ‘I’m sorry, I have to’ without actually saying the words. I knew that my staying was exactly what I needed to do. This wasn’t about worrying what might happen if S.O.I.L. were to catch me or if Anika didn’t make it. Nobody ever said the truth was easy, but no matter how hard it was to find, that is what I was going to do.
Dom’s instinct to protect me was overriding our shared goal to save the world. “I can’t leave you here,” he insisted.
I had to let down his big heart without breaking it. I hoped he would understand, but I knew I couldn’t let the worry mess me up.
“This is not you leaving me. This is us making sure our friends make it out and we succeed. My mind is clear now, thanks to you guys, and I know what I need to do. What we need to do. You need to get Anika to safety and make it back to our hub with Reba.”
Everyone had sacrifices to make and everyone knew it. Dom also knew that once my mind was set, there was no changing it. He was drowning in worry, and for now, for us, distance was the only way.
“I love you,” I said, believing in my heart that this wasn’t it for us.
He reached for my hand and kissed it.
“I love you,” he replied. Now I had a stockpile of ammunition.
Giancarlo held his flexer to the control panel. “This is it.”
Dom and I were locked on each other.
“Come back, Doro,” he said.
“She will,” Reba said.
The door closed.
23
I BELIEVED GIANCARLO knew his way in and out and that Dom and Reba would get Anika to safety. Unfortunately, that couldn’t be my concern. The entirety of my focus had to be on reuniting with my dad and bringing down the house.
With every breath I took inside Seneca, I inhaled more and more of an understanding of its capacity to heal the world. I knew it all along, but the kicker was, as my understanding grew, so did my responsibility to make things right. The corruption inside Seneca needed to be exposed. Nobody should have cancer. We have the cure, yet people are still dying from it. That injustice wasn’t gonna fly as long as my heart was beating.
I made my way through this hub by means of piggybacked flex recognition data that I had snatched off the random scientist from S.I.C.E. Regardless, I still needed to watch my back because S.O.I.L. could be one step ahead of me. I was humbled by the realization that my skills were not perfect and that there were others out there that could do what I could do, even bigger, better and faster.
S.I.C.E. was on lockdown. I received a flex alert that was sent to the person I was piggybacking:
“Citizens: There has been a security breach inside S.I.C.E., and access has been shut down until further notice. You will be able to exit and travel to your residences. S.O.I.L. advises and expects you to report suspicious behaviors.”
Since I was in S.I.C.E. and, last I knew, my dad was, too, I couldn’t leave and expect to get back in without a fight. Instead, my intention was to lay low and let them believe that my friends and I were no longer inside this hub.
With my head down and eyes up I stepped off the acoustic carrier back into an area not too far from where we were just being held. There was no way they would think I would come back to the very place from which I had just escaped. I’d say I did a pretty excellent job of staying in the shadows and scanning my surroundings for potential threats.
I turned into a hallway that led to the exact spot where I had seen my dad. It was pretty empty and I was surprised. Where had everyone gone? I doubted that my dad would be here after what had happened, but it was only a matter of time until he returned.
A few people passed by quickly and I could tell there was an edge in the air. So I stopped a woman in a lab coat. “Excuse me, is something wrong?” She was caught off guard and it didn’t seem like she wanted to stay and chat, at all. Not because of me, but because of the current situation.
“Mi English not so good.”
So I asked again in Spanish and she was quick to answer warmly, but with a warning in her voice. She explained that a while back they had experienced a security breach in S.I.C.E. that had harmed a lot of people. I didn’t quite understand how what I was doing could affect anyone on that level, but I started to feel guilty. It was possible that, because I hadn’t calculated all the possible outcomes of my actions, I had put hundreds, if not thousands of people in danger. It killed me that they had accepted the opportunity to experience life 2.0 just like me, and I infringed upon that for them in some way.
The woman pushed a smile through her otherwise stoic face, wished me a good afternoon and briskly continued on. It seemed like the last few people in this hallway wanted to get the heck out, so my instinct told me to follow suit.
It was only a matter of milliseconds before I found out why. I had just a hundred yards to go before reaching the next entryway I needed to take, but I only made it a half of another step before the single most piercing sound in the history of sounds rippled through my ear drums and sizzled my brain! My eyes rolled back in my head as I slumped down into a pile on the floor, squeezing at my head. What in the world was happening?!
My vision was bombarded with flashes of white and I couldn’t see a thing beyond the tip of my nose. My body crumbled to the ground and I contorted into the fetal position. I lost all control of my body!
Within seconds I was swiftly scooped up and moved down the hall, and I actually breathed a sigh of relief. I was incapacitated but something was happening and anything was better than being idle. I didn’t care who had me because I’d rather die than be in this state much longer— one hundred percent immobilized but still cognizant of all that was happening. What a horrifying feeling! I’d seen a bunch of TV shows from the olden days where people had to overcome crazy, physically trying obstacles and eat weird foods and I would think to myself, “I could never do that.” Well, the past nine months of my life had been nothing but that and here I was doing it. My life was shaping out to be a testament to the adage, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” In this moment of being completely incapable of moving I felt myself gaining strength.
I was pushed through an arched doorway into another hallway. My senses were fully restored, the piercing sound was gone and I could feel my arms, legs, fingers… I looked down to see cuffs on my hands and ankles. I was being briskly rolled along by two individuals in all black with gray robotic headpieces. Those helmets most likely provided them with immunity to whatever in the world just crippled me back there. Actually, could it be those helmets that created a sensory attack on me?
I had to get my hands on one of those helmets.
I wanted to flex Dom but I knew I couldn’t because he would most definitely come back for me. I had to ride this out on my own for so many reasons. Mainly to keep them safe and separate from me.
24
THE TWO GUYS in helmets maneuvered me on wheels down an empty, flat-grey hall that took a number of sharp turns. With several quick blinks my eyes adjusted and regained vision in the dim light. I started to feel the sensation in my body come back but I wasn’t about to use any sudden motion on these two.
We reached a dead end and an arched doorway opened. I looked inside a room that was strikingly similar to the one in which I had met Frank Wallingsford. A mahogany table sat smack dab in the center, encircled by plush black chairs big enough for elephants. The entire back wall of the room was made of glass, overlooking the most stunning indoor garden that was exploding with spring color from vibrant yellow and orange poppy flowers. Bumblebees and butterflies emerged from flowers to hover when a light mist was turned on. I didn’t know if they were real or automated.
Two men in all black stood next to a long table.
No words were spoken as my escort
s turned and left, and that felt pretty ominous.
One of the two men in the room motioned for me to take a seat. “Please,” he said.
I was perplexed by the pleasantry. I noticed my body was completely back to normal as though nothing had ever happened.
I sat and the man flex-commanded my cuffs to melt away. They turned to water and self-evaporated.
“Señorita Campbell,” he said, all long and drawn out and dramatic, “we are sorry this meeting isn’t happening under happier circumstances, but we welcome you.”
“Gracias,” I said, feeling awfully uneasy about this completely unpredictable state of flux. Was this some new interrogation tactic they were trying out? I knew how S.O.I.L. felt about me, and playing nice had never been one of their tactics. Not that this was one hundred percent S.O.I.L., but let’s be real.
“What you just experienced is an ultrasonic sensory disrupter that renders you incapable of doing anything physically.”
“I noticed.”
“We apologize for the inconvenience. We have some guests that will join you,” the man said, and then he turned and began to walk out of the room. He stopped before he was out the door to look me dead in the eye. “We just want you to know that it is our priority to ensure your safety.”
Yeah right. I feigned the heck out of believing what he was saying.
Both of the men left the room, with me in it, alone, not cuffed. I looked around as if there was a chance I could figure something out and break free, but who was I kidding? Definitely not myself.
Before I dove into another direction of thought, a FigureFlex appeared in the room. Ellen Malone was here. No introduction, no warning, and not surprising at all. She was in one of her suits— gray and white. Ellen looked at me like we were all good and I should have been relieved to see her. I was majorly in the dark and she was clearly in an insightful enough position to be playing both sides of the fence. So I wasn’t relieved. I felt quite the opposite.
Ellen Malone knew too much. She knew what I needed to know. Otherwise, why would she be here? I’d played my cards close to the vest all along when it came to Ellen and I was still in the dark, so I decided the better move might be to show some of my cards and maybe she’d show me some of hers.
“You don’t seem terribly happy to see me,” she said.
“I’m… relieved.”
“Relieved? Could have fooled me.”
“Are you kidding? Of course I am! I’m in this foreign hub, captured and brought here. It could have been anyone that appeared in this room. It could have been someone who wanted me dead, but it’s you. Shouldn’t I be relieved?”
“If only this was all black and white.”
I tilted my head at the burning question and threw one back at her.
“Did you know my dad was here?”
“I think you know at this point that I can’t talk about everything I know, Doro.”
“This isn’t just plain old everything, this is my dad!”
“I understand why you’re emotional. Just know that if I can’t talk about a person, place or thing, it means it very likely has a considerable significance to Seneca.”
She did know.
The doorway opened and another man walked in. The room seemed to get smaller and my breath became audibly tarnished with worry. This new guy was an unassuming dad type with a butt chin and dimples. Charming off the bat. He smiled from his eyes. “Buenos dias.”
I looked to Ellen to see if she knew him.
“Doro, this is Senator Gilroy.”
Wow… now this was interesting.
“It’s very nice to meet you, Dorothy.”
Very interesting. “Nice to meet you,” I replied.
“I understand you’re friendly with my daughter.”
“Yeah— yes.” Although I didn’t want to implicate Brittany in any of this, I did want to stay on the up and up in the moment.
“She speaks highly of you.”
Okay. I was just going to keep my speaking to an absolute minimum because I had absolutely no idea what Brittany had or hadn’t said to her dad.
He continued, “I know this must seem strange and you’re probably unsure of our intentions, so we’ll just skip the politics and lay it out as straightforward as possible. How does that sound?”
“Is that really an option?”
He laughed. It was genuine. “It really is,” he answered. “First of all, Doro, you need to know that we made the choice for you to come to Seneca in the first place and we wanted you to see your dad. We’re pretty darn impressed with how quickly you made that happen.”
A nervous little laugh escaped me. “What?” I asked. No way. These people were all looking at me like they knew everything and I was just this pitiful heap of teenager. “You really think I would believe that?” I quipped.
“Why not?” Senator Gilroy asked.
“Do you have any idea what I went through to get here?”
“Actually, yes,” Gilroy responded with sheer confidence.
Ellen quickly chimed in as she so often does, “Doro, we know all of it. And even though you don’t know the magnitude of what you’re involved with, you do know that it is something massive. Otherwise why would you risk everything to get the implant, take Brittany’s recognition data to get here, and make the choice to eat that river snail?”
“You know about the snail? Then you knew I was out there and what was happening to me and you didn’t do anything to help me?!”
“Sometimes help doesn’t come in the most warm and fuzzy forms.”
“Forget warm and fuzzy. I almost died, Ellen!”
Senator Gilroy swooped in to her defense, “Why do you think Ellen came for you in the first place?” He was remarkably calm and focused. But I wasn’t. My feet were hot and my stomach was tied in a rope knot. I needed to steady myself, untie the knot and absorb the issue at hand. I stared Ellen down and succumbed to the realization that, in actuality, I didn’t have an answer. Why did she actually bring me to Seneca?
“I can’t imagine that at this point you’d really think I brought you here simply because you’re great at math,” Ellen said.
Why hadn’t I analyzed all of this more thoroughly before? I was pissed at myself, pissed at her and I couldn’t begin to know what I should say or do next. Actually, scratch that, I did know. “From this point forward I say nothing and I do nothing until I get a meeting with my dad.”
Gilroy didn’t miss a beat. “Your father is currently being briefed on your history with Seneca.”
My eyes widened, then shifted to the ground. Gilroy kept talking but it didn’t register because my brain and FlexOculi had just sprung into action, flinging out images that mapped a visual timeline across the floor: Ellen Malone in my room, getting the Necrolla Carne vaccine at Claytor Lake, meeting Dom in S.E.R.C., everything the two of us went through with the nanobots, the mosquitoes, the drones, S.O.I.L. chasing us on the Brooklyn Bridge, the trial in the salt mine, the Peruvian wilderness, the brain invasion— jeez. I wondered what parts my dad would be made privy to and what they would leave out.
No matter how hard Ellen and Senator Gilroy tried to sell me on their allegiance to me and my dad, I could not be convinced. It would have to take words straight out of my dad’s mouth and into my ears for me to believe.
In walked Jadel. All that time I’d spent with a guy who seemed so genuine and sweet and I still didn’t know him at all. I literally had no clue who this guy really was or to whom he owed his allegiance. Our relationship was an illusion as far as I was concerned.
FigureFlex Ellen looked to me. “Doro, you know Jadel.”
Why didn’t she just hit me in the head with a bat? I nodded.
“More than knows!” he exclaimed.
I scoffed. It was a natural reflex.
“Jadel is going to escort you to your dad.”
“Of course he is, and I’m sure I should also believe he was planning on escorting me to my dad this whole time.”
“Actually, yes,” Ellen said, quite confidently.
“Unbelievable.”
I crossed my arms and looked away from them.
Jadel put his hand on my shoulder, “Doro don’t be mad. I protected you, I got you inside Seneca just as you wished and—”
“But you’re with S.O.I.L.,” I snarled, and pushed his hand off my shoulder.
“And?” He totally didn’t get why that was a problem. “So what?”
Ellen interjected, “Doro, you should probably take a moment before we discuss this any further. Pause and play out your options in your head.”
I had already played it out, and my options were pretty clear. Either resist the path they were trying to send me on, and see how that would go, or follow along. The reality was that if they wanted me dead, I would already be six-feet-under… and I was way further down than that. I wasn’t agreeing to a thing until I spoke to my father.
25
SHORTLY AFTER CONTEMPLATING depths, I found myself descending into the earth in a small gray dome. I swept the tip of my tongue against the back of my grimy teeth. I was ravenous and knew I wouldn’t be eating any time soon. As the thought swept my mind, my stomach gurgled long and deep. Any energy I had came from the steady stream of adrenaline that ran through me.
I held my focus on the ground directly in front of my feet as Jadel’s deep green eyes burned a hole in me. Apparently he didn’t need a queue to attempt a dialogue. This guy was subtly bold. “We are on the same team, Doro,” he said.
Here we go. I didn’t acknowledge him.
Jadel continued, “I was just doing my job. Find you and guide you.”
Okay, I had to call B.S. “Straight into the enemy’s arms?!”
“Not at all. We agreed that you would stay where I left you until I returned. You didn’t. Some of that chaos could have been avoided if you had just waited.”
