Daughter of Nothing

by Eric Kent Edstrom

  A trapezoid of light razored through the hallway ahead. It appeared to be coming from Dr. Carlhagen’s office. Humphrey must have left a light on the night before. Jacey was happy the electricity was on, but there was no reason to waste it.

  She continued down the hallway to turn the light off. The door hung a hand’s width ajar, letting the light beam into the hall. She put her hand on the door but stopped when she heard a voice inside.

  It was Mr. Justin.

  “No, they won’t be awake for a few more hours,” Mr. Justin was saying. “Have you ever known teenagers to get up early on purpose?”

  “I suppose you’re right,” came a reply.

  Jacey waited, poised with her hand against the door. The second voice sounded distant, smaller. She thought it was coming from the holodesk in Dr. Carlhagen’s office.

  She shifted to make sure the light didn’t touch her. All she could see was the mahogany paneled wall and part of the window behind Dr. Carlhagen’s desk.

  The voice continued: “There’s a lot to discuss. I particularly want to know why you ignored my suggestion to put some men on the island.”

  Jacey placed her hand over her mouth to muffle a gasp. Captain Wilcox had wanted to leave men on campus after he had taken Sensei and Nurse Smith away.

  Thinking quickly, she moved along the door to the wall, leaned against it, and slowly slid to the floor. She closed her eyes and listened.

  “I don’t have to explain myself to you,” Mr. Justin said. “I have a better read on the situation here. The Scions are twitchy enough as it is. The last thing I need is for them to see armed men skulking around.”

  Jacey wanted to remember this conversation. She’d had suspicions about Mr. Justin ever since he had helped her and Humphrey take over the Scion School. He had never sufficiently explained why he worked for Dr. Carlhagen in the first place. And he certainly hadn’t done anything to prevent the evil that had gone on in the medical ward.

  Her early morning weariness evaporated, replaced by focus as sharp as a thornskipple barb.

  On a long exhalation, she fell into her memory concentration. What was said no longer registered as words.

  Ehv|ree|thEEng|ahn|mie|yend|iz|rehd|ee

  The sounds flowed to her ears like a melody, and she placed each syllable on a continuous line of falling and rising pitches. If she slipped into comprehension, she wouldn’t be able to memorize it. Fortunately, she’d had a lot of practice.

  Ehx|ell|int|wee|ll|nEH|ver|hav|a|bEtt|er|opp|oar|tOOn|ih|tee|dOck|ter|kArl|hag|in|iz|sEck|yure|and|said|ATE|ed

  The content of anything she memorized in this way always produced emotional reactions. At first she was overtaken with a wave of confusion, and then a strange chill crossed her skin. She attached these emotions to the line of her memorization. Her heart rate increased. Her jaw clenched tight. The voices continued, alternating, rising, falling. She detected anger in them, anxiety, and then they ceased.

  Her eyes popped open. She found her fists clenched and her lips twisted in a snarl. One of the speakers was extremely angry at the end. That, or what they had said had evoked anger in her. She wouldn’t know until she had a chance to review it.

  She got to her feet and crept down the hall toward the hacienda’s entry doors. She would still go to the dojo, but instead of working out, she would review the conversation.

  She got to the door, grasped the latch, and pushed. She was met with a waft of very heavy Caribbean air.

  “There you are, Miss Jacey.” Mr. Justin’s voice froze her mid-step. “I wasn’t expecting you to be awake this early.”

  “I was just going down to the dojo for a workout.” She turned and smiled at Dr. Carlhagen’s butler. He returned the smile, crow’s-feet at the corners of his almond-shaped eyes crinkling all the way to his temples. He had such a kindly face, one that conveyed infinite patience and calm confidence.

  “I’m afraid that will have to wait if you want to be in on the conversation between Humphrey and Captain Wilcox.”

  Momentary confusion made Jacey hesitate. Had Humphrey been in the office with Mr. Justin? “Is he awake?”

  “Not yet,” Mr. Justin said. “I was just going to get him. Captain Wilcox called me early this morning. He demanded to speak with Dr. Carlhagen. He’s not satisfied with the state of affairs here. Unless Humphrey calms his nerves, we’ll have armed men posted here by the end of the day.”

  Jacey relaxed. That had to be what Mr. Justin had been arguing with Captain Wilcox about.

  “I’ll be there,” she said. “Humphrey’s not going to like this.”

  “He’s done well so far.” Mr. Justin’s hands hung loose at his side, though he rubbed his thumb against his pinky. “I can coach him through what to say. And he’s going to have to hold more of these conversations if we’re going to continue the fiction that he is Dr. Carlhagen.”

  “What choice do we have?” Jacey asked, stepping into the entryway and letting the door swing closed behind her.

  “I’ll go wake Humphrey now and have him suit up.”

  Jacey snorted. “I think he hates wearing that suit more than he hates pretending to be Dr. Carlhagen.”

  “As you say, Miss Jacey.” Mr. Justin gave a curt bow, then walked down the hall toward Humphrey’s room.

  Jacey blew out a long breath and pulled her hair from her ponytail. It seemed like even her smallest plans came to nothing.

  She went back to her room to change into her uniform, a black top with a mandarin collar, loose black pants. Her hunger faded, replaced by queasiness. They absolutely had to keep Captain Wilcox and his men away from the island of St. Vitus and the Scion School.

  Otherwise she would never be able to keep her vow that no Progenitor would transfer his or her mind into a Scion’s ever again.

  Not ever.

  Child of Lies: 5:06 a.m

  Belle came awake with a great gasp, sat up in her bunk, and slapped away the hand shaking her shoulder. The predawn gray filtered through the windows of Girls’ Hall, sucking all the color from the dormitory.

  Someone—a black silhouette—loomed over her. Belle shrank away from it, skin prickling.

  “Belle,” the figure hissed, “it’s me.”

  Belle relaxed. A continuous chime sounded from beneath her pillow. She dug out her reader and silenced the alarm.

  “Go back to bed,” she told Leslie, whose face hovered much too close in the darkness. The girl was her Second, and once Belle was gone, she would lead the Nine. Belle didn’t have much hope for the girls then. Leslie was none too smart in her opinion.

  Belle’s bunk shifted as Leslie dropped her weight onto the edge. “Why is your alarm going off so early?”

  “A mistake. Go back to sleep.” Belle flopped onto her pillow and rubbed her bleary eyes. She had put the reader under her pillow, hoping that the sound would wake her before anyone else in Girls’ Hall. As usual, she’d slept right through it.

  She listened as Leslie climbed to the top bunk and crawled under the covers. Gauging from the sounds of snoring all around, Belle’s alarm hadn’t awakened anyone else.

  She tapped her reader again and checked the time.

  5:06 a.m.

  The hurricane winds had settled only a few hours earlier, and Belle didn’t think any of the girls had gotten to sleep before that. She waited a few more minutes before getting out of her warm bed and creeping to the bathroom.

  Seeing the girls all snuggled under their covers irritated Belle. They were all ignorant and lazy. They had no idea what had really transpired a few days before. Sensei and Nurse Smith carried off in a helicopter, Sarah throwing herself off the bell tower. And Vaughan . . .

  She refused to finish the thought.

  Though she wanted to rouse the others, kick their bunks, make them go into the quad and begin cleaning up, she left them alone. Besides, she had set this early alarm so she could go out before any of them.

  She had something very important to do. Someone very important to see.

/>   Child of Lies: Hormonal Whirlwinds

  Jacey kept a hand pressed to her belly as she followed Humphrey and Mr. Justin into the dark-paneled office that had once belonged to Dr. Carlhagen. The huge mahogany desk sat empty in the middle, and a wide-bladed ceiling fan spun lazily overhead.

  The room smelled stale and damp. The wide window behind the desk showed the hazy shapes of palm trees outside. And though the slatted louvers were open, no breeze wafted through. The hurricane had used up all the energy in the atmosphere, leaving the world in silence.

  Jacey’s stomach churned and her throat felt so dry she thought she could drink a liter of water in one gulp.

  “Go ahead,” she said to Humphrey. “Let’s get this over with.”

  Humphrey nodded without looking at her. He walked around to sit in Dr. Carlhagen’s chair. He wore one of the old headmaster’s white suits, the too-wide collar gaping, pants belted so tightly the fabric pleated in odd places. Though they shared the exact same DNA, Humphrey was seventy-five years younger than Dr. Carlhagen and perhaps half his circumference.

  She was used to seeing Humphrey in the official Scion School uniform, and the ill-fitting suit looked ridiculous.

  At least the bow tie brings out the blue of his eyes, Jacey thought.

  She pulled her hand away from her stomach, fingers habitually going to her collar to check the Shark pin.

  It wasn’t there.

  Instead, a lock of hair fell across the collar, another symbol of her rebellion against the old ways. No more ponytails, no more pins. If she’d had anything else to wear—besides the gowns Dr. Carlhagen had given her—she would’ve put her uniform in the burning barrel by the front gate.

  Humphrey nervously licked his lips as Mr. Justin patted him on the back.

  “You’ll do fine,” Mr. Justin said, eyes crinkling. He wore linen pants and a top similar in cut to Jacey’s own uniform, although his was white. “Just assure Captain Wilcox that everything is under control.”

  Jacey’s hand returned to her stomach. It roiled as if it couldn’t make up its mind over whether she was hungry or nervous. Maybe she should have eaten something.

  Humphrey’s conversation with Captain Wilcox would be the first contact they’d had with the outside world since the Captain had taken off in his helicopter with Sensei and Nurse Smith. Humphrey had fooled Captain Wilcox once before, convincing him that Humphrey was Dr. Carlhagen. That time he’d done it in person, which meant doing it again over holovid should be easier. That fact didn’t settle Jacey’s stomach in the least.

  Mr. Justin backed up, well out of view of the holodesk’s cameras. Humphrey gave one last sigh and placed his hands on the desk. “Captain Wilcox?”

  A twelve-centimeter-tall holovid of Captain Wilcox appeared above the desk, the glow of his image lighting Humphrey’s face a ghostly blue and casting strange shadows in his sunken cheeks. Jacey thought he might never recover from his days in the pit, no matter how much he ate.

  “Good morning, Captain,” Humphrey said with a chuckle, an eerie imitation of Dr. Carlhagen that brought a chill to Jacey’s skin. She knew Humphrey was a clone of Dr. Carlhagen, but his normal behavior was quite different from the elderly headmaster’s. To see him playacting so well . . .

  “Good morning, Dr. Carlhagen,” Captain Wilcox replied, eyes emotionless, voice clipped. “I hope all is—”

  “Yes, yes. Everything is fine. How was your return trip to the mainland?” Humphrey’s interruption was a tactic Jacey had suggested—a way for Humphrey to take control of the conversation, just as Dr. Carlhagen would have.

  Captain Wilcox stood at attention, hands to his side, chest out. Even as a little holo, he projected a cold air of violence. Not unlike Sensei.

  Jacey remembered confronting the man and his gunmen in the rain, begging him not to take Sensei away. Square-jawed and thickly built, Wilcox had the eyes of a predator.

  “The return trip was interesting,” he said. “Have you ever flown in a helicopter through a hurricane?”

  Humphrey laughed. “Can’t say that I have. Such adventures are for younger men.” He stopped as if realizing what he was saying, and then he laughed louder. “But perhaps I should try it now. And what of Mario Rosa and Nurse Smith?”

  “They are somewhere in the Caribbean Sea, presumably bloated and decomposing. Or, if we’re lucky, already eaten by sharks.”

  The man’s cold words made Jacey’s cheeks go hot with fury. Before his transfer, Dr. Carlhagen had instigated Protocol Seven, which called for the removal and murder of Sensei and Nurse Smith in retaliation for supposed insubordination. Sensei had tried to fight, but Captain Wilcox and his men had taken him at gunpoint. Nurse Smith had gone willingly, having no clue what lay in store for her.

  Jacey wanted to grab the little hologram and squeeze the life out of the man.

  Humphrey frowned at her, clearly wondering what her problem was. She blew out a long breath and motioned for him to keep going.

  “Is something wrong, Doctor?” Captain Wilcox asked.

  “No, no,” Humphrey said, covering his long hesitation. “I was just thinking that I have to replace Sensei Rosa and Nurse Smith soon.”

  “I was going to ask you about that. Perhaps I should send a few men to maintain order on campus until you recruit replacements.”

  “Totally unnecessary. Now that the storm is over, things will return to normal. Classes will resume. The Scions are well trained, I assure you.”

  “I wasn’t referring to the storm. And with all due respect, when I was there, things did not appear orderly. I witnessed a deranged Scion throw another Scion from the bell tower. Not to mention other Scions running about and interfering with my men’s duties.”

  Jacey shivered. Just hearing Captain Wilcox talk about that stormy night brought back visions—of Sarah at the top of the bell tower wearing Jacey’s dinner gown. And of Dr. Carlhagen, freshly transferred into Vaughan’s body, throwing Sarah over the railing. That had been enough for Captain Wilcox to arrest Vaughan and, at Jacey’s urging, sedate him in the medical ward.

  Only quick thinking by Mr. Justin had kept Captain Wilcox from posting men there at that time. Mr. Justin had taken Humphrey into the transfer room and positioned him so that it appeared Dr. Carlhagen had just completed transferring to his body.

  “I know what you saw, Captain,” Humphrey said. “And believe me, I was as concerned as you. But I assure you the problem was specific to a few individuals. With AI assistance, I’ve already developed an error-checking and correction process for all future transfers.”

  “And what about the crazy one?” Captain Wilcox asked. “What will you tell his Progenitor? Whoever he is, he won’t want to transfer into a mind so obviously unstable.”

  “That particular Progenitor is dead.”

  Humphrey chuckled at Captain Wilcox’s startled look.

  The man recovered quickly. “Still, you have an unneeded Scion. Should I send some men to dispose of him?”

  Humphrey’s lips moved as he searched for some reason why a deranged Scion shouldn’t be disposed of. “He’s a valuable subject for study. And I . . . I could prepare him to receive a different transfer, perhaps a client too old to wait for a clone to come of age, someone who wouldn’t mind waking up in a different body—a superior body.”

  Jacey glanced at Mr. Justin, who nodded appreciatively at Humphrey’s quick thinking. The butler had been so helpful. But he’d also said it was inevitable that all the Scions would eventually be overwritten. Said it was futile to fight it.

  Jacey tried to relax her jaw, which she was clenching so hard it made her head hurt.

  Humphrey was on a roll, having caught the flow of his own lies. “Please rest easy, Captain. Everything is under control here. Your Scion is doing superbly well, by the way. And remember, of the last four transfers, three worked flawlessly. I found the source of the problem with the other one, and it will not happen again.”

  Jacey couldn’t read Captain Wilcox’s face, b
ut the tension in his shoulders and the way he clenched his fists conveyed a whole lot of doubt.

  After a long pause, he submitted to Humphrey’s decision. “Very well. Let me know if you need anything else. Captain Wilcox out.”

  The holovid disappeared, and Humphrey sagged into his chair, inflating his cheeks on a big sigh. “I don’t even know what I just said.”

  “All that matters is that he believed you and accepted your decision,” Mr. Justin said. “You did very well. And you ended the call just in time, because I’ve just received notice that a VIP Progenitor wants to speak to you immediately.”

  “VIP?” Jacey mused. “You mean some Progenitors are more important than others?”

  Mr. Justin clasped his hands in front of him. “Even the elite have their pecking order.”

  Humphrey rubbed the corners of his eyes. “I’m not ready to have a conversation with a Progenitor.”

  “You’ll do fine,” Mr. Justin said. “You did wonderfully with Captain Wilcox. This Progenitor probably just wants an update since she knows that St. Vitus was in the path of the hurricane. You must take this call.”

  Humphrey put his hands over his face. “I hate this.”

  Mr. Justin handed a slip of paper to Humphrey. “Just stay positive. Answer in generalities.”

  “Who is this VIP, anyway?” Jacey asked. “Why can’t she wait?”

  “It’s Senator Maxine Bentilius. Very important in North American governance. When she calls, Dr. Carlhagen always answers.”

  “Let’s get it over with,” Humphrey said. He moved his chair forward and cleared his face of dread. At least, he made an attempt. Jacey thought he looked ill.

  “I’m patching her through now.” Mr. Justin tapped his finger on a tablet, and another holovid appeared over Dr. Carlhagen’s desk, this one a starkly redheaded elderly woman. She wore a black skirt and charcoal jacket cut to accentuate her feminine curves. A profusion of salmon-colored ruffles blossomed from the throat of the jacket so that her head appeared to sprout from a bouquet of peonies.