by Nick James
“Cassius. Is he alright?”
“He’s on the run, Jesse. In the Fringes.”
“Wait … where are you?”
“I’m okay,” she repeats. “I’m in New York.”
“The city?”
“No.” She pauses. “Syracuse.”
She knows what this word means to me. It was the town where I first met Cassius. It was the place where we triggered our powers. The rooftop. The first time I felt Pearl energy.
“Are you—” I stop myself and try to slow my words. “I thought they had you, Avery. I thought the Unified Party captured you and took you away.”
“They did.” Her voice sounds tired. “But I escaped several weeks ago. I thought I’d make my way back to the Academy, but I didn’t know where you’d gone.”
“You won’t believe this.” I pause. “I hardly believe it myself.”
“Where are you?”
“Siberia,” I say.
“On the other side of the world?”
I swallow. “Afraid so. Look, you could—”
“I was working on getting a shuttle or a cruiser or something,” she interrupts, “but it’s dangerous. I didn’t want to go back into Unified Party territory again, so I’ve been hiding in the Fringes.”
I try to picture her in Syracuse somewhere, eking out a horrible existence in the wretched heat. “I should’ve come—”
“No,” she says. “No, it was too dangerous. You were smart for running away. Remember what I said last spring in Portland? I’d do anything for you, Jesse. Don’t worry about me.”
“I want you here.”
She pauses. For a moment I think I’ve lost her. “There are other things to worry about.”
“What do you mean?”
“Cassius needs your help,” she replies. “He’s in trouble. He doesn’t want to ask you, I can tell. He doesn’t even really want you involved. That’s why he passed the communicator onto me when we ran into each other.”
I shake my head. “You and Cassius … ?”
“He found an old shuttle outside of Providence,” she says. “I think he came to Syracuse to investigate. You know, after what happened between the two of you. He was scared, Jesse. He tried to hide it, but I could tell. He says they’ve been after him for weeks. He doesn’t know where to go. He’s heading south, hoping that he can lose himself down there. I told him that it was a mistake. The Fringes are more dangerous than ever.” She pauses. “He gave me the communicator, told me to get in touch with you—”
“Why would he—”
“He said that we needed to talk. But I was worried. I decided not to call you. It’s just too dangerous. But when I heard the beep, I … ” She pauses. “I’m so stupid, Jesse. I should have never picked up.”
“You’re not stupid.”
“Now I’ve started something.”
“No. I’m glad to hear your voice. You don’t know how much I’ve wanted to—”
“Come,” she cuts me off. “Oh god, forget about it. Ignore me. I should hang up.”
“Avery, I need to see you.”
“I know. But it’s not safe.”
“I don’t care if it’s safe. It’s been almost four months. I’m not just gonna leave you there!”
“It’s dangerous, Jesse, even worse than it was when you left. The Unified Party is everywhere and—”
“Doesn’t matter. You have no idea what I’ve been through.” I pause. “Anyway … I’ve got someone I want you to meet.”
“Oh?”
“And I’ve been working on it, the Pearl thing. I’m stronger now, I think. Ryel says we need to build an army. I can’t do that without you.”
“Who’s—”
My mouth keeps spewing out words. “Once we pick you up we can find Cassius and then it’ll be good again. We won’t all be split up around the world. We can do it if we’re together.”
“Slow down.” Her voice is low, almost a whisper. “You’re not making sense.”
“I’ve got so much to tell you. We’ve got a shuttle.”
Silence.
Avery’s voice is quieter now. “You need to be careful.”
“Of course.”
“No, Jesse. Really.”
“Don’t worry about me,” I say. “You’re safe in Syracuse, right? No Fringers?”
“They’re taken care of.”
“Good.” I look out the window to see Eva and Ryel approaching. “Stay there, okay? It’ll take awhile for us to get to Syracuse. I’ll call you every hour to make sure you’re still alright.”
“That’s probably not necessary.”
“Are you kidding? It’s totally necessary. You know how bad I felt about leaving you in Seattle? I’m not letting that happen again.”
“It wasn’t your fault. I—” Static cuts through her last words. When she comes back, her voice is garbled. “I’ve gotta go.”
“Stay there,” I repeat.
“Of course.”
“And Avery?”
“Yes?”
My fingers drum along the bottom of the seat. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too, Jesse. Remember—”
Static. The connection fractures.
Still, I can’t help but smile. I haven’t felt this way in weeks. Just hearing her voice was better than a hundred Pearls. A few short hours and I’ll actually see her—alive and well! My brain can hardly process the thought.
I’d forced myself to imagine a life without Avery. Now everything’s changed. She’s something to fight for.
19
I barely get the chance to tell Eva and Ryel about Avery before the Academy tries to break through the shuttle’s communication blocks.
We’re in the air when it happens, minutes after taking off from the island.
“They’re tracking us through the radar.” Eva crouches below the front console, gripping a fistful of wire in her hands. An unscrewed panel covering lays in the corner of the cockpit. “I’m really no mechanic, Jesse.”
“Just keep going.”
The sun’s fully risen as we speed over the Pacific Ocean. I try not to look down out the window. I don’t like the sameness of it. If we were to crash, or our solar power was to fail, there’d be no one around to help us. If we didn’t drown, we’d starve.
Eva curses. “They’ll know we’re going back to America. They’re probably watching as we speak.”
I glance at the spotless sky. “As long as we have a head start.”
Eva wipes her forehead and returns to her work. “You didn’t even talk to Cassius?”
“We can pick him up,” I say. “Trust me.”
I hear her sigh under the console. “I know you miss Avery. It’s great that she’s alright, but—”
“It’s a distraction,” Ryel interrupts. It’s the first time I’ve heard him speak for awhile. He sits in the pilot’s chair, eyes locked on the path in front of him. “We need your brother.”
I sink into my chair. “We’ll get him. She knows where he is.”
“I hope you’re right.”
I’m about to respond when I feel my bracelet start to hum. Before I know it, the Ridium tugs on my wrist, pulling my arm forward where it connects with the top of the navigation console. I jerk forward.
Eva bolts from her work at the sound of the bracelet clanking on the metal. “What was that?”
I stare at Ryel while trying to pry my wrist from the console. “See? I told you. Sometimes it does this.”
His eyes slit, then widen as something shoots past our shuttle. A red flash of light hurtles by my window over the ocean. I turn my head to catch a glimpse of it, but before I can make out any details, it’s gone.
Maybe I imagined it.
The bracelet falls still. I pull back, rubbing my arm.
Ryel grips the steering. “Crimson.”
“You saw it too?” I swallow. I’m hesitant to tell him what I’m thinking because I don’t really want to know the answer. But as far as I’m co
ncerned, the flash could only be one thing. “Ryel,” I start. “Have you ever heard of a red Pearl?”
His thin brows furrow. His fingers tighten. “No.”
“I … I found one last night. It broke. But, I didn’t do anything. It broke by itself. And it made my bracelet go crazy, like right now.”
“There was a Drifter inside?”
I nod. “A man. I thought maybe he was … ”
Eva crouches beside me. “Maybe he was what?”
I shrug. “Never mind. I don’t think he recognized me. I’m not sure he even knew what was going on. But the way he stared at me … He didn’t fly away like all of the other Drifters.”
Ryel’s shoulders tense. “Do you know why Pearls are green?”
“No.”
“The energy that bursts from our bodies when the Pearl is broken is the same substance that keeps us alive on our long journey through space. It’s filled with nutrients and stabilizers, some of which are even found on Earth. Like Ridium, the chemicals necessary to create Pearls are pulled from Haven itself. The planet’s core was a deep green, even with a surface of brown and gold.
“It’s this same energy that grants us the ability of flight for several hours after we’ve landed. It heals our wounds and makes adapting to the environment easier. I still have the smallest trace of it inside my body.”
“That’s why I survived.”
“Excuse me?”
“Oh,” I start. “Last spring. I fell off a twelve-story building. And lived. There was Pearl energy around me.”
“It only protects those from Haven,” he continues. “In its purest form, it would have a destructive effect on your friends here. This protection is the green luminescence you see. The burst, when the Pearl is broken and the Drifter freed, requires extra energy. This is absorbed by your brother and transformed into a common element on Earth.”
“Fire,” I mutter.
“Crimson would signal a different form of energy. Something I’m not familiar with. Something we may not have any control over.”
A chill runs down my neck. “The Authority?”
“Perhaps.” He pauses. “We’ll keep an eye on it. The Ridium around your wrist seems to respond. Be aware.”
I let my arm fall to my side. It’s hard not to be aware when the thing pulls my entire body forward.
Ryel glances at the console. “I’m going to speed up. We’ll find your brother today. The Resistance wants the two of you together.”
I shift in my seat. “They’ve said this specifically?”
“You heard the message from your mother. You were granted the power. The Key and the Catalyst. One to open the Pearls, and one to channel the energy. Your world is better protected when you’re together.”
A loud hiss fills the cockpit.
“Crap!” Eva drops the wires she’s holding. “They’ve done it.”
Words interrupt the hiss streaming from the circular speaker in the center of the console. “Academy to shuttle 743. Do you hear me?” A pause. “Academy to shuttle 743.”
Even through the static, I know exactly who’s voice it is.
“Are you there, shuttle 743?”
Agent Morse sounds muffled, but I can picture his face in the room with me now. His phony encouragement. His condescending smile.
“We don’t have to respond.” Eva stands back. “He won’t hear us if we don’t press reply. Not that it does us a lot of good. If I wasn’t able to get the communication blocked, the radar’s probably a lost cause.”
Agent Morse continues. “We’d appreciate it if you’d let us know whether you’re okay or not. I know that’s you in there, Jesse. And your friend. We have Skandar back onboard. He won’t talk, but we can put two and two together ourselves.
“Your radar’s muddy,” he says. “I’m sure you’re aware. But we’ll find you. Alkine’s determined.”
Eva rubs her eyes. “I did the best I could.”
Morse coughs on the other end. “No reply? I hope you’re alright. You better have a damn good reason for all of this, Jesse. You don’t know what you’re inviting here. Things aren’t as black and white as you wish they were. You think you’re the hero in this, don’t you? You ever consider the contrary? That’s what a good strategist does. They weigh all the possibilities before jumping headfirst into battle.”
Ryel stands. “Is this shuttle equipped with weaponry?”
Eva’s face tenses. “You mean blasters?”
“That’ll do.” His eyes settle on an open compartment at the far corner of the cockpit. “Ah, I see. Take the steering, please.”
As Eva sits in the pilot’s seat, I watch Ryel move to grab a small pistol. He barely examines it before turning back to the console.
“Still no answer?” Morse pauses. “Okay. Have it your way. But just know that this was a mistake. You’re going to regret this, swear to god.”
Before he can finish, Ryel opens fire on the speaker. One shot and the thing explodes in a puff of dark smoke. Ryel quickly puts out the meager flames with the sleeve of his shirt, then sets the pistol beside the wreckage.
“There,” he says. “We don’t need to listen to that anymore.”
20
We cross the rest of the Pacific without any Academy interruptions. Eva disables our radar, though it’s probably too late to matter much.
Though Ryel seems constantly alert, Eva and I fall asleep several times throughout the journey. I need it. We’ve been going nonstop for hours now.
We climb into Skyship Territory to avoid Unified Party checkpoints before crossing into America. Border hopping—exactly what got the Academy in trouble in the first place. Of course, it’s easier to sneak by in a shuttle our size. The problem is we’re flying blind. Without the radar, everything’s more of a guess than a certainty.
It’s been four months since I’ve seen home. Even the Surface looks kind of inviting.
Eva analyzes a map she’d pulled from an overhead compartment before glancing out the window. “The Fringes are so bright. It’s like a different world.”
I bite my lip, thinking of Avery. I don’t know how she’s managed to stay well this whole time, out here in the wasteland.
Ryel turns left, beginning our descent.
“It’s close.” Eva consults the map again before glancing out the window. “I’ll let you know when to straighten us out.”
He keeps his gaze forward. “This terrain is not unlike Haven. Warm. Dry.”
I cough. My mouth is dry from the temperature-controlled air. “What do you think Morse meant … ‘you’re going to regret this’?”
Eva ignores me, pointing forward. “Now. Bring us level. Syracuse is straight ahead.” She folds the map and turns. “He’s just being the big, bad agent, Jesse. Trying to intimidate you.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right.” I reply, though part of me doesn’t quite believe it. I’ve had a nasty feeling in my gut ever since the first time I defied the Academy. Even now that we’ve freed Ryel, it’s hard to reconcile the two.
I grip the armrest, trying to steady my nerves. As we lose altitude, New York State’s vast, brown desert fills more and more of our windshield. It’s a different kind of desolate than Siberia. Even at dawn, the temperature will be hotter than I’ve felt in months. One hundred and twenty degrees according to the onboard thermometer, and rising. A scorching, suffocating heat that crawls inside your body and kills you from the inside. Everything slows. Mind. Reflexes. We can’t be outside for long.
As we approach the dusty collection of buildings that used to be the town of Syracuse, I peer behind us out the side window. I see the silhouette of Rochester—Chosen City #17—glinting far in the distance, a beaming mirage against a blanket of dirt, a soaring metropolis positioned awkwardly at the edge of a desert. The dome of connectors forming the Bio-Net over the city gives it the impression of a protected snow globe. People inside are free from the intensity of the Fringes, their comfort and security paid for by the Government’s Env
ironmental Tax. It’s the Unified Party’s domain, and even though Syracuse could be dangerous, I’d much rather land in the lawlessness of the Fringes than spend even a moment inside a Chosen.
Ryel brings us down in the center of what could be the same street we landed on last spring. They’re all the same.
Instantly flashes of that afternoon come back to me. My first meeting with Cassius, the energy when our powers activated, the fall to the ground.
“I’m shutting off the temp control,” Eva warns. “Prepare for the heat.” She turns a black knob above her head until it clicks. Earlier this morning, we’d found a pair of Surface outfits in the back hatch of the shuttle—pale, thin uniforms over undershirts. The material’s light, designed specifically to refract sunlight. Ryel insists that he doesn’t need one. His clothing is white anyway. He should be alright.
As soon as we open the door, the coolness inside our shuttle dilutes, replaced by the brutal heat outside. The air hits my body with physical force, as strong as any missile or explosion. It courses down my throat and into my lungs. There’s no comfort here. And this is just the beginning.
We amble down the lifeless street, shells of dirt-caked buildings on either side. A wind kicks up and showers our faces with clouds of dust. It’s utterly silent. I hope that means the Fringers are off in another part of town, as far from us as possible.
Eva speeds until she’s in step with me. “I don’t see anybody.”
“Shh.” I push her back. My head darts back and forth, analyzing every closed door as we pass. “Avery’s probably waiting inside. Do you remember which way the hotel is?”
Eva points to the left down an alley. I nod and lead the way between the buildings, keeping watch for Fringers. My cheek stings with the memory of being slammed into the hot brick wall last spring. I push the thought away and step into the next street.
Ryel follows, arms crossed, unconcerned with any of the dangers a Fringe Town could surprise us with. Ever since leaving Siberia, he’s seemed increasingly impatient. I guess I can’t blame him, after all the time we’ve wasted. Still, he’s not exactly the warm and happy type. But maybe he’s what I need.
“There.” I point to a building half a block away. It’s several stories high and dilapidated. If possible, I think it’s crumbled even more since the last time I saw it. I stare at the rooftop at the exact point I’d hung onto that morning. I thought I would die there. How wrong I was.
