by Melissa Faye
“It’s useless,” said Sven. “We’re not going to find the Chancellor or anyone else in charge. If they’re not part of the larger groups, they’re well hidden behind several steel doors. We need to help the other group.”
“I have orders,” Hollister replied.
“None of us know what we’re doing,” Alexis said. She held her gun firmly between her two hands, but a slight twitch gave away her nervousness. “Asher was making it up. We’re making it up. Let’s try something else.”
Hollister’s nostrils flared in anger for a second, then his shoulders went slack. He nodded. “Like what?”
“Pick them off one by one,” I said. “We know the Gray Suits are only motivated by status, and some of us here know what that would feel like. If we can get a few of them separated from the rest, maybe we can convince them to tell us more. Use them to help us take down the Chancellor and whoever else is in charge.”
Charlie squeezed my shoulder.
“I can lead the way,” he said. “We scouted this place pretty well before we were caught. We’ve been to the nursery. I can get us over there without being seen.”
Hollister shrugged. I didn’t want to point out the flaw in Charlie’s logic: they scouted the place, and they got caught. I looked Charlie over in the brightly lit stairway. His face was beat up. His nose was probably broken again, and this time it wouldn’t heal so well. He was hunched over, and tried to hide a grimace each time he got jostled against something or someone. But when he looked back at my eyes, he stood up a little straighter.
“Let’s do it, Hollister,” I said. “Besides, they don’t have enough people outside the main area to catch all of us.”
It wasn’t my most encouraging speech, but it would have to do.
Chapter 22 – Charlie
I gripped Yami’s hand tightly as I led the team between buildings like a duck leading its ducklings through a crowded street. I felt Yami squeeze my hand occasionally, and I squeezed back.
We moved slowly. The other group needed us, but at the same time, we weren’t adding enough people to tip the scales. Our best hope was to get closer to the action and follow Yami’s plan. Talk to one of the Gray Suits. They would be on our side if they only understood what we were trying to do. And what we could offer them.
My face felt like ground meat thanks to Sven, but in the gentle breeze and cool air, with Yami’s hand in mine and a new goal to accomplish, I barely felt it. I cursed under my breath unconsciously when I stubbed my toe and felt a jolt of pain shoot through my leg where Sven had gotten in a good kick. But mostly, I just crouched over and focused on being as quiet as I could.
We passed by the cafeteria. The shades were open and we could see inside. It was empty. Same with the rec room. We dodged street lights, though it probably wasn’t necessary. We didn’t see a single person.
I gestured for the group to stop and huddle together when we neared the dormitory. I could hear shouts and cries occasionally, but it looked like the two groups had reached a sort of détente. The Gray Suits didn’t need to attack; they just needed to stay still and protect the dorms and nursery until we gave up. We couldn’t attack because we didn’t have enough people.
We crouched together in a small group, peeking around a corner to watch the scene unfold. It was quiet. If this was a battle, it was going to be a slow one. Yami nudged me and pointed over to the north side of the area. The Gray Suits were more sparse in that space. One Gray Suit stood much further north than the others. If we were quick and timed it well, we could pull her aside without being noticed. Probably.
I nodded at Hollister and he nodded back. We didn’t need the whole group, so most of them stayed while Yami, Hollister, Sven and I approached the woman. She was middle-aged and wore a low bun in her hair. Her silver and black insignia made her look official, but a nervous twitch in her right eye gave her away. She may be armed, but she wasn’t confident.
We knelt twenty feet away from her and Hollister quietly outlined a plan. The nearest Gray Suit was facing the opposite direction, so we moved fast. Hollister and Sven went first, staying low as long as they could before being seen. I was right behind. Yami was last. As fast as we could, Hollister and Sven took hold of the woman’s arms and held them firmly at her side. I came at her from the back, holding a hand over her mouth.
Yami came from the front. “Don’t scream,” she mouthed, then took the woman’s gun and pointed it at her chest.
We stood around the woman in a circle, then slowly marched her away from the other nearby Gray Suits. As if in slow motion, my eyes locked in on Yami as she tripped backwards over a gnarled tree root on the ground. Her arms flew behind her to catch her fall, including the hand with the woman’s gun. The gun went off. The woman must have taken the safety off; Yami couldn’t have known.
The shot fired into the empty darkness, but it drew the attention of every Gray Suits nearby. I turned to get a sense for where everyone stood, letting go of the woman’s mouth. She yelled loudly, and tried to lunge for my gun. I pushed her away and she fell towards Hollister. Hollister caught her around the waste. Another shot was fired.
I spun around to see where the shot came from. It was a Gray Suit, and he stood with his gun still pointed towards us. His arms shook and his jaw dropped. I turned back around to see Sven staggering to stay on his feet. I reached for his arm and held him steady. A dark red shadow started to form on his chest.
The Gray Suit who shot us didn’t move. Hollister held the other woman in place. All eyes were on Sven as I lowered him to the ground.
There was a loud vibrating sound as everyone’s TekCast’s buzzed. A new message. I didn’t have mine, but I saw all the Gray Suits nearby opening theirs. Yami ignored hers and crawled to Sven.
I heard the sound of some sort of video or audio recording playing on everyone’s TekCasts, each a little off sync. I knelt over Sven, still holding his arm. Yami crawled over to us and took off her jacket. She folded it over on itself and pressed it against the bullet wound. She looked up at me with big, brown eyes. The stain on Sven’s chest grew.
“You’re gonna be fine,” Yami said. She pressed on his chest harder. The audio on everyone’s TekCasts grew louder. Sven looked at me in terror, then back down at his chest. I ripped his shirt so we could see the wound. It was right near his heart. I rolled him over. No exit wound.
“You beat me up pretty good back there, Sven!” I said cheerfully. Yami gestured towards her supply bag and I rifled through it, looking for something that might help. I kept that stupid grin on my face the whole time. “I bet you broke my nose. Yami will probably have to dump me if it doesn’t heal right this time. That’s the second time this month, remember?”
I found a handful of pain patches and applied them to Sven’s chest.
“Forceps? Anything? What else am I going to find in here?” I hissed. She shook her head. She held her jacket against Sven’s chest with one hand and grasped his arm with the other.
“I was scared of you when I met you,” she told him. “I would have never admitted it, I think. People tell me I’m scary, but I’ve got nothing on you, Sven. You’d be able to lead any community. People follow you. They’re scared, but they’d follow you. And you’d do the right thing. You always do the right thing, even when it’s not the most popular idea.”
She was babbling. The words flew out and stopped making sense. Sven looked at her sadly and his face became more pale.
“Matana?” he asked.
“I know,” Yami said. “I’ll tell her. She’ll be ok.”
“My wife?” Sven said. He blinked quickly. His eyes were wet.
“We’ll make sure she didn’t die in vain. I promise.”
I squeezed Sven’s hand tightly and watched his face. He didn’t look stern anymore. Just sort of sad and tired. I’d never seen him so tired. And then something changed, and he wasn’t with us anymore.
I stared at Sven’s face for what felt like a very long time. Yami stared too. Her hair fell
over her face, but I could see that her eyes were red. My cheek was wet from a stray tear.
It took us a moment to realize it was silent again. Whatever everyone was looking at on their TekCasts was over with. I turned to look at the man who had shot Sven. He knelt on the ground, and his gun was on the ground next to his legs. His face was covered in tears.
“I didn’t realize,” said the Gray Suit next to him. “I didn’t know that’s what he was doing.”
“I thought we were protecting the kids from you,” the woman Hollister was holding said. “But you’re saying you’re protecting the kids from us. How do I know who to believe?”
Gray Suits gathered around us and people from Gentle Acres appeared from their hiding spots. The two groups engaged, some in violence and some in conversation, but I ignored them. We sat with Sven.
“I kept hearing about deaths, but it was never anyone I knew. Not like this.” Yami bit her lower lip as tears fell from her eyes. She couldn’t look away from Sven.
I shook my head. “Me neither.”
“Did he really do all of this to you?”
I felt the blood and scrapes on my face and laughed. “He did. It was Etta’s idea, but he threw himself into it. Really gave it to me. I was driving him crazy after we were stuck in a cell together for a few days straight.”
Yami smiled sadly. She leaned over Sven and closed his eyes. She left her jacket where it was, covering his wound, but straightened up his shirt so he looked neater. She walked around his body to sit next to me. We sat for a long time, looking at Sven and ignoring whatever else was going on. Just Yami, me, and someone who had taken very good care of all of us.
ETTA AND BRECK APPEARED a while later with Hope in their arms. “We’ve taken over the nursery,” Etta said. “The kids are –“ She paused when she saw Sven.
They sat down with us and we waited. I wasn’t sure what we were supposed to do. I assumed someone was dealing with the Gray Suits, and that someone was watching over the kids in the dorm and the nursery. Yami lent me her TekCast to watch the videos Ann’s team had put together. The footage was horrifying. They didn’t just include videos of the attack on Gentle Acres. They had interviews with citizens about the missing kids. Someone had interviewed Breck about Hope. The video hinted at a larger conspiracy.
Alexis found Teo but wouldn’t let him come near us. We didn’t want him to see the body.
At some point, a dozen trucks and cars pulled up with more people from Gentle Acres. Javi was part of this group, and after paying his respects to Sven, he helped organize the people. Some would need to stay and take care of the kids. Some would need to create a database of the children with pictures and names to try to find their parents. Some would need to make sure New Waves had enough supplies to run effectively until we could move everyone out of there.
Javi came to sit with us for a while until something buzzed on his TekCast. He read the message and looked at us. “They found the Chancellor,” he said. “Or, one of the Chancellors, right?”
Yami pursed her lips. I knew how she felt. Now was the time to mourn our friend, not to get involved in the strange politics of a deranged man.
“He’s asking for you, Yami.”
Chapter 23 – Yami
My thoughts flew in different directions. Half of my mind raced with images of the Chancellor at Young Woods and at Gentle Acres. I thought about the Chancellor who was messaging me as if he was Vonna. And there was this Chancellor now too. I couldn’t hold the thought of all of them in my head at once.
In the other half of my mind, I felt an uneasy focus. Between the video and the Gray Suits’ pasts, we had taken control of the complex and the kids were safe. We’d be able to get them to their parents over time. But we lost Sven, and I couldn’t make sense of that either. I felt like a wave was about to crash over me at any second and carry me away. It was my fault that we were here. I told the Chancellor about Hope and about Gentle Acres and about the attack. I shot the gun that alerted the Gray Suit to our presence. I killed Sven.
Tears trickled down my face again. Javi waited patiently for me to respond. The Chancellor wanted to see me. What if I didn’t want to see him?
The group stared at me, waiting. We were always waiting these days, weren’t we? Waiting for someone to let us take action. Waiting for someone else to take care of things. No, I wasn’t going to let them wait anymore. I stood up.
“Where is he?”
“Do you want me to come with you?” Charlie asked quietly. I shook my head and followed Javi.
THE CHANCELLOR WAS held in one of two cells in a small room in the building Charlie called the detention center. Teo and two other children had been pulled out of there an hour earlier. They were kidnapped recently, and had the best chance of being returned to their parents. Teo was thrilled to see Etta, who pulled herself away from Sven’s wake to see him. And soon he’d see his real mother, Etta 2.
Two Gray Suits stood at the door to the Chancellor’s cell. The Chancellor sat patiently on a small cot with his legs crossed casually. I studied him carefully as I walked in. Was he the Chancellor from Young Woods? Or from somewhere else? He had the advantage here. There was so much more he understood than I would, maybe ever.
“Yami,” he said as I entered. “I’m glad you came.”
I watched him in silence.
“You were always stubborn,” he said. Did that mean he was the Chancellor from Young Woods?
“...Or so I heard,” he continued. He laughed at his joke. “Or maybe I was there. Who knows? It doesn’t matter. We’re all the same. One person who can be everywhere at once. You wouldn’t believe how it feels. Do you remember the Hydra, from Greek mythology?”
I didn’t answer.
“A snake with many heads. I’m just one. You can kill me now, but we still live on. You’ll never know how many of us there are, will you? Who was the one messaging you all this time? Me? Someone else?”
My only weapon was my silence. I wanted to rush at him and shake the bars of the cage. I wanted just one minute where I could pummel him, releasing all the anger I felt from Sven and Vonna and the stolen bio kids. But he would just laugh.
“You don’t understand the extent of our power, Yami,” he said. “It would astound you. Maybe it already does! This isn’t over. We’re everywhere. You can send these children back home, and we’ll collect them again. Maybe there are more children elsewhere. Maybe we’re creating a large army as we speak, full of vengeful Grays. We’ll have to offer them more now, won’t we? But that’s not hard.”
“What’s your end game here?” I asked. I folded my arms tightly; I was ready to explode in anger but wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. “Stealing kids from their parents? Continuing cloning, but finding a cure for fertility? What do you want from all of us?”
Lorenzo smiled. My whole body tightened more. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to unwind myself enough to walk out of the room. “I’m doing good work here, Yami. I’m not sure why you can’t see that. You’re very smart. I’ve worked with one of your clones before, you know. Very capable. Though unfortunately, she shared your blind loyalty to misguided beliefs.” He stared at me, searching my face for a response he wouldn’t get.
“It’s all about the greater good. Keeping our citizens safe. What’s best for the community, remember? What’s best for all of us is a population that is orderly and efficient. Some clones, some biological children. Only the best of us will survive. I’ll make that so.”
I turned to one of the guards. “I’m ready to leave now.”
“Oh, and Yami?” the Chancellor said. I stared back at him, my fists clenched.
“Vonna is doing very well,” he said. “Truly, there is no reason to worry about her.”
I grimaced. My entire body tensed up. I lunged towards the door of his cell, but a guard easily caught hold of me and spun me back around. When I looked back at the guard, he gestured towards the door.
“Best to move on,” the guard said.
> I swept out of the room and slammed the door behind me. It was too heavy, and the thud it made when it hit the door jamb was unsatisfying. Outside, I knelt against the wall of the building. My chest heaved as I tried but failed to catch my breath. My hands grew numb, and I clenched and unclenched my fists in an attempt to get the feeling back.
I hadn’t noticed Charlie standing only a few feet from the door. He came right over to pick me up, and half-walked, half-carried me back to the rest of the group. I couldn’t calm my breathing. I sat next to Etta and someone handed me a canteen. I couldn’t stop picturing Vonna, locked up somewhere all this time while I had been so easily convinced that she was fine. That I could stop worrying about her for even one second.
“What happened?” Etta whispered. “What did he say?”
“He said...he said he’s everywhere. He said only the best will survive.” I struggled to get the words out through choking breaths. “He said he has Vonna.”
I looked for Sven, but someone must have moved him. There was an empty spot on the ground. No one touched it, though I noticed we all stared back and forth at the emptiness.
“It doesn’t mean anything,” Breck said. We spoke in hushed tones – either out of reverence for Sven, or just because of the weight bearing down on all of us. “He’s a liar. He could have Vonna, or he could have no idea where she is.”
Charlie rubbed my back as I tried to take too many gulps of breath too quickly. I felt flush. Of course I shouldn’t have believed what that man said to me. But it felt true. And why shouldn’t it? He was a clone of a man who had successfully tricked us all into believing in our communities, into following his rules. Now we knew just how much he had been hiding that whole time.
“TEO IS HEADING BACK with Etta and Hope,” Alexis said as she came to sit with us a little later. Etta smiled when she left and had promised to message us when they were back at Gentle Acres.
