by Scott Wilson
“I don’t know why, but something came over me at that point and ‘I’m sorry’ accidentally slipped out of my mouth. And then the girl, she looked up at me—the person who was responsible for the destruction of her village and her own imminent death—and told me, ‘It’s okay. This is the will of Gotama.’”
No one said anything. Jadice took a deep breath and continued.
“That’s why I’m not one of the Twelve Apostles anymore. I pretended to still be one of them for a while, but when you were turned on, Blondie, your electric signal suddenly became a lot easier to track. My partner and I were nearby, and he wanted to find you and destroy you, maybe move up a few ranks in the hierarchy. But I’d had enough. I saw Metl’s glowing red X and I knew that destroying you wasn’t going to stop anything. We need to use technology to beat technology. We’ve spent two hundred years fighting against it. It’s time to embrace it.
“When I told my partner Eleven about my change of heart … he wasn’t too happy. He tried to kill me, but I escaped, getting these lovely ways to remember him in the process.” She showed off the branching red scars on her neck, chest, and arms. “These are all electrical burns. Eleven can create and control lightning like I do with water. Let’s hope we don’t run into him.”
Caden’s head was spinning with even more questions, but there was one thing he needed to do first. He should’ve done it as soon as they’d started talking. He reached into his overalls pocket and took out the photo of his dad.
“This is my dad, the person who created me,” Caden said as he handed the photo to Jadice. “I’ve never met him, but Tooby—I mean—a metal spider visited me and told me I had to find him to stop Metl. Do you know anything about him?”
At first Caden thought he saw a flash of recognition across Jadice’s face as she looked at the photo. But then her gaze narrowed, and she scratched her head.
“Sorry, can’t say I know him,” she said. “But you were a Nobody, right? Then he’s probably where all the Nobodies’ parents are taken away to.”
Annika leaped forward. “You know where our parents are?”
“Of course,” Jadice said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “They’re all kept inside the town church.”
Chapter 10
Eleven
This time it was Annika who was demanding Jadice for more.
“Are our parents really inside the church?” She was pressing her hands against the plastic table so hard it looked like it might crack in half. Even Jadice was taken aback.
“Hey calm down there, Split Ends. Yeah, of course that’s where they are. What do you think is inside that huge church anyway? Ant farms? It’s a giant jail for people who used Iltech.”
“That means my mom is in there,” Annika said. “We need to go there right now.” She stood and made her way for the door. Jadice laughed.
“Yeah, you go ahead little girl. I’m sure all the Holy Police in Salem will put up no resistance to you just barging inside.”
“I know some secrets about the church,” Annika snapped. “I know how we can get in.”
Jadice rolled her eyes. “Yeah, sure. You know all these secrets, and yet you didn’t know the biggest and most important one.”
“Caden can get us in,” Annika said, looking to Caden for support. “You saw what he can do. He has an angel weapon or whatever too.”
“Sure, except Blondie over here doesn’t even know how to control it yet. Do you?”
Jadice and Annika both turned toward Caden. Jadice had a knowing, mocking look, and Annika had hopeful eyes. Caden knew who he was going to let down.
“We need more information before we can go, Annika,” Caden said. “I still have so many questions, and we don’t even know what my power is yet.”
Annika deflated in disappointment and looked away. Caden knew how she felt. He wanted nothing more than to bust into the church and find his dad right away too. But doing that right now, with Jadice weak and him not even knowing how to use his angel weapon, was just asking for failure. They had to prepare themselves somehow.
“Although,” Jadice said, “I do have an idea. Blondie, I think I know where we can get your questions answered and get you some training with your angel weapon at the same time.”
Hope fluttered in Caden’s heart. “Where?”
“There’s someone in Salem who knows a lot more than I do. His name’s Watson. I think we should go pay him a visit.”
“But you just said Salem is guarded by Holy Police,” Annika said bitterly. “I thought there was no way to get in?”
Jadice raised her eyebrows and her eyes twinkled. “That’s because we’re not going into Salem. We’re going under it—to the Iltech black market.”
The three of them and Deber trekked back to the edge of Salem, right to the top of the slope where they’d stood what felt like days before. By the time they arrived it was sunset. What should have been a beautiful sky was taken up by Metl, looming so large it felt like it would crush them at any second.
The town down below didn’t look much better. Holy Police were still teeming the streets on horseback, looking even more menacing as their torches lit up their white uniforms. There had to be a hundred Police spread out over Salem. There was no way they could get in without being spotted.
“Well this is worse than I expected,” Jadice grumbled, surveying the scene.
“I thought you said we were going under the town,” Annika said.
“We are. The closest entrance I know of is that building, over there.” She pointed down to an unassuming shack a little way into town at the bottom of the slope. Two Holy Police were patrolling near it, and several others were just a few blocks away. “I didn’t think there’d be this many of them. I thought we could just slip right in.”
“Is it really worth it?” Caden asked. “Couldn’t we just wait until tomorrow and storm the church when you’re rested and ready?”
“We’ve got to get you to Watson,” Jadice said. “I can’t take on the entire church myself, and talking to Watson is the only way you’ll learn to use your angel weapon in time. It has to be now.”
“What do you suggest we do?” Annika asked. Caden looked around for something to use as a distraction. There wasn’t much. Just Jadice’s bag of food, his photo, and—
“The horse,” Jadice said. “If we shove her down the slope, it’ll distract the Police and we can make a run for it.”
“No,” Caden said firmly. He held tight onto Deber’s reins.
“Come on, Blondie. Look at the wound on that thing. You know she’s not going to make it. That infection is well past anything a doctor could heal.”
“We’re not using Deber as bait,” Caden said. Jadice gave him a disappointed look.
“Okay, whatever. We won’t use the horse. What’s your grand plan then?”
“Caden, you can use your angel weapon,” Annika said. “You used it before. Even if you can’t control it perfectly, just do something to get the Police to go away for a minute.”
“I can try,” Caden said. He wasn’t sure what he could do, but using Deber was not an option. His unpredictable power was all they had left.
Caden stretched out his palms like before, extending his fingers as wide as possible. He imagined his insides growing warm again, pulsating on and off, and he concentrated on the church in the distance. If he could make the same explosion happen there that he’d caused earlier, then all the Holy Police in town would run toward it, leaving them plenty of time to make it to the shack. If he could do it.
But nothing happened. Caden clenched every muscle in his body, trying to work up the same heat and intensity as before. He shook his palms, hoping an explosion would pop right out, but all it did was make his wrists ache.
He could feel the judging eyes of Jadice behind him. He trusted her, but she’d eliminated an entire village when she was an Apostle. She might toss down Deber to the streets if he couldn’t do this. C
aden couldn’t let that happen. He had to protect Deber!
Caden suddenly felt heat welling up inside him, but it wasn’t the same as before. It was too fast. There was a flash of warmth and then something invisible spilled out of his hands—not toward the church at all. It plummeted straight down to the dirt slope beneath him, impacting the ground with the force of an explosion. Rocks and mud flew everywhere, and the blast echoed throughout all of Salem. The town bellrock starting clanging and dozens of Holy Police looked up to see Caden, Annika and Jadice at the top of the slope. They armed their crossbows and took aim.
“Whoops,” Caden whimpered.
“Way to screw it up, Blondie!” Jadice yelled. “Follow me! Go, go, go!”
Jadice ran along the edge of the slope, and Caden and Annika chased behind. As soon as Caden yanked Deber’s reins to force her to keep up, an arrow went whistling right by his face.
“Let’s hide in the woods!” Caden shouted.
“No!” Jadice hollered back. “They’ll track us too easily. We need to make a break for it.”
She took a sudden turn and started stumbling down the dirt slope into town. The shack was within sight, but the Holy Police were swarming. The two that had been patrolling were galloping closer, and the sound of thundering hooves signaled more on their way. Running toward them did not seem like a good idea.
But Caden didn’t have a choice. Annika followed Jadice down the slope, and Caden pulled Deber’s reins to drag her down with him. She yelped in painful protest, but he tugged her along as they slid down the rocks and dirt.
That was when Caden got hit. There was another whistle and then a searing pain erupted in his leg. The arrow had gone right through his overalls and into his thigh. He yelled out in agony but kept limping forward, not daring to stop and become an even easier target. With every step downward, every pump of blood through his veins, excruciating pain pulsated through his leg.
“Caden’s been hit!” Annika yelled to Jadice. Jadice turned to see Caden hobbling down the hill, grimacing in pain.
“For crying out loud,” she grumbled. “You two, run for the shack! I’ll try and hold these amateurs back.”
Jadice stopped at the bottom of the slope and Annika ran past her, followed by Caden and Deber both stumbling as fast as they could. Jadice groaned and kicked out her legs, looking like she was trying to work up what little energy she had left after flooding the town.
But before she could summon any water, there was a rumbling in the sky and then an explosion of lightning struck down on top of the charging Holy Police. It wasn’t just a single bolt, but tendrils of bright yellow flashing in the dark sky, briefly turning it to daylight. The Holy Police and their horses were knocked to the ground, the tips of their uniforms singed and smoldering.
Jadice turned back to Caden and Annika, her face set in horror.
“It’s Eleven!” she cried. “He’s here! We need to go, now!”
The whistle of arrows had stopped. Even the gallops were gone. The only sound was the rumbling in the clouds above, signaling another electric blast was on its way. Caden and Annika ran toward the shack with Jadice right behind.
Thunder boomed up above, even louder this time, and another tentacle of lightning shot past the three of them into a house. The electrical impact blasted the wood into dust, leaving behind nothing but smoke and charred wood as the house collapsed in on itself. If Eleven got any closer, they’d be the ones being blown to bits.
“Get inside!” Jadice yelled. Annika threw open the shack door and Caden limped in with Deber, followed immediately by Jadice. It was a lot larger on the inside than it had seemed outside, extending into the neighboring houses. Jadice slammed the door behind them and locked it with a wooden barricade.
“He’s still coming,” Annika panted. Jadice waved her away and examined the floor with her glowing blue palms. She quickly grabbed onto a plank and yanked up a hidden door built into the wooden floor.
“Get down there now,” she whispered.
“What about Deber?” Caden asked.
“I don’t care about the horse! Shove her down there if you want but just go!”
Without saying a word Annika climbed into the dark hole. Caden held on to Deber’s neck and cupped his hand around her snout then jumped in. They hit the dirt ground four feet below inside a hole the size of a cellar. Pain shot through Caden’s leg like he’d jumped into a fire. Deber’s own cries were muffled by his fingers. Jadice leaped in after them, closing the wooden panel back over their crouching heads.
Not a moment after they were hidden underground, there was a bang on the door. Caden tightened his grip over Deber’s mouth, not daring to let her make so much as a whinny.
There was another bang upstairs and the door crashed to the ground. Footsteps stomped over the entrance to their hideout. Dust and dirt fell from above into their faces with each heavy step. Caden clasped his other hand over his own mouth, not daring to breathe for fear of accidentally coughing.
The footsteps went on for what seemed like forever. Caden felt like any second Eleven would pull up the wooden panel above them and blast them all with electricity. But just when he thought for sure they were going to be found, the footsteps stormed back outside. There was another rumble of thunder followed by the sound of galloping horses. Then there was nothing.
The three of them waited in silence. A minute passed. Then another.
“Is he gone?” Annika asked in the darkness.
“I think so,” Jadice said, not sounding sure at all.
“But can’t he track Caden’s electrical signal? How did he miss us?”
“Are you really complaining?” Jadice snarled. “Come on, let’s keep going.”
Caden had no idea where they could possibly “keep going” to. Weren’t they in a hole in the ground? Jadice pushed past him and ran her blue glowing palms against the dirt wall. To Caden’s surprise there was a door built into it—a metal door.
The door was the height of the hole and had splotches of grainy orange. Caden remembered seeing it before on an Iltech chain Mother Mildred had shown the Home—it was called “rust.” Jadice reached under her robes into her backpack and pulled out a metal key.
“I hope this thing still works.” She slid the key into a small hole in the door and turned it with a clank. Dirt crumbled from the ceiling as she slowly pulled it open with a loud, grinding squeak.
“Follow me,” Jadice said.
The three of them and Deber slipped through to the other side. Ahead was a narrow dirt hallway dimly lit with electrical bulbs on the ceiling. Caden gazed at the flickering lights in awe, wondering how they worked. At the end of the tunnel was an even brighter light, though it looked small from where they were. Jadice pulled the door shut behind them and locked it.
“Where are we?” Caden asked.
“We’re underneath Salem,” Jadice said. “Now keep moving. We’re almost there.”
Caden’s shoes sunk into the ground with each step and he could hear insects scuttling on the walls and ceiling. The path sloped downward—they were going even farther underground. The thought made Caden uncomfortable. He’d never been unable to see the sky. But with Metl looming above them now, not being able to see it wasn’t such a bad thing.
And then there was that familiar tug hooked around Caden’s bellybutton, pulling him through the tunnel. Were these the electrical signals he was programmed to sense? And if so, what were they pulling him toward?
When they reached the end of the tunnel, the light was so bright Caden had to shield his eyes. Jadice however walked right out in front of them. She opened her arms and had a smile on her face like she was a kid showing off her favorite toy.
“Welcome to Salem’s Iltech black market,” she said, her eyes glinting. “Or, as we like to call it, the Basement.”
Chapter 11
The Basement
Caden slowly opened his eyes, but he couldn’t believe what he was seein
g. Somehow, underneath Salem, was a massive area as wide as the town square and nearly as tall as the church. The ground and walls were covered with concrete, tunnel holes were carved into the sides like an ant colony, and homes built out of a mishmash of scrap metal and plastic were stacked on top of each other along the sides. Multicolored lights were strung everywhere like spiderwebs, and wheels and pulleys constantly cranked ropes transporting crates full of supplies, people, and Iltech to every level.
Iltech. It was everywhere. Everyone was using Iltech as if it was normal. People walked around with Iltech devices in their hands and slung over their shoulders, women carried food in metal bowls, kids sat huddled around bright screens laughing, even piles of discarded Iltech towering up to the ceiling lay here and there just waiting to be explored. Seeing them reminded Caden of the mountain of Iltech behind his dad in his photo. Was this where the picture was taken? Was his dad here, waiting for him?
“What is this place?” Annika asked.
“The best kept secret in Salem,” Jadice said. “There’s a dozen or so entrances all over town. Or at least there used to be. There might be more now. They’ve really spruced the place up since I was here last.”
Annika looked like she wanted to ask Jadice more about that, but her eyes fell to Caden’s leg. She gasped and covered her mouth.
“Gotama’s Ant!” she cried. “Caden, your leg!”
Caden looked down. In the panic of everything he’d forgotten about the arrow in his thigh. He expected a mess of blood on his overalls from the arrow wound, but there was nothing. The same kind of white arrow that had hit Deber was sticking out of his pants, but now that Caden thought about it, it hadn’t been hurting him for a while.
Caden reached down for the arrow. As soon as he touched it, it fell right out of his pants and landed on the concrete ground. There wasn’t even any blood on the sharpened tip. Caden rolled his pants up to his thigh to check the injury, but there was no sign anything had happened. His leg looked the same as usual—there was no wound where the arrow had hit him.
