Burn

by Sarah Fine

  I head over to my mom as she stands behind the Shirazi placard. She looks tired and stands stiffly. She’s removed the sling she was wearing to support her wounded shoulder, and is cradling that arm against her middle. Like me, she’s probably been pushing herself past the point of exhaustion, trying to find the answers that could save us. The unhappy set of her mouth and the strain on her face suggest she’s had about as much luck this afternoon as I have.

  “I’m representing the Shirazis,” she tells me as we reach her. “My father is the patriarch, but he’s too ill to travel. You can sit here.” She points to the Archer placard, which is next to hers.

  Leo sits behind the Thomas placard, which has been placed next to mine. We must look kind of pathetic, sitting here with no one behind us while most of the other families have at least one assistant or a whole herd of relatives behind them. The exception is Dr. Ackerman, who sits alone, staring at the H2 from his position next to Rufus Bishop. I wonder if the two of them see eye to eye.

  A hush falls over the room as Angus strides in with Kellan at his side. Angus pauses when he reaches his own empty chair and faces Kellan, who switches on the scanner and waves it over Angus’s chest. The blue light turns back to yellow when Kellan angles it at the floor once more, and Angus addresses all of us. “Before we discuss urgent matters, we need to make sure all of us are who we say we are,” he says in a loud voice. “By now you’ve all been briefed, and I’ve spoken to many of you myself, so I know you’ll cooperate as Mr. Fisher does his job.”

  He nods to Kellan and takes his seat. Kellan, whose hand shakes a little beneath the rapt attention of all members of The Fifty, scans himself, and then holds the device over our heads and slowly walks counterclockwise around the enormous table. His right hand is on his weapon. I watch the leaders as blue light cascades over their faces. Brayton eyes Kellan as he approaches, and my stomach draws tight, waiting for the light to hit him. But then the scanner turns the shadows beneath Brayton’s eyes deep and dark, the wrinkles around his mouth become navy blue, and some of my tension subsides. He’s definitely human. It doesn’t mean I trust him any more than before, though. It just means he’s not under the command of a parasitic alien.

  Nor are the rest of The Fifty. Once Race and Congers scan red, Kellan leaves, and the debate begins.

  God, it’s annoying.

  Everybody has to have their say, and everyone has a complaint. Half of them want the H2 escorted off the premises, and at least a third appear to want them publicly executed. Rufus glares at me while he talks about “H2 collaborators and sympathizers.”

  It’s so fucking petty, and finally the arguing wears through any patience I had left. “Didn’t anyone see the burned wreckage outside the west tunnel?” I shout. “Some of you flew over it just a few hours ago. Are you aware that ten men and women died there this afternoon? Do you know what killed them? A fucking alien spaceship like you can’t even imagine! The Sicarii could come back at any moment, and we’re rehashing the same H2 hate over and over. It’s pointless and useless right now.”

  My mouth snaps shut when my mother’s fingers close around my wrist, and she tugs me down. Sometime during my rant, I jumped up from my chair. The members of The Fifty are either slack-jawed with shock or glaring with the offense. Rufus’s face is brick-red, and Brayton’s is paper-white.

  Angus, though, is unruffled. He leans forward and speaks directly into his mic, the whiskers on his chin brushing over its surface and providing staticky punctuation to his words. “I think what Mr. Archer is trying to say is that the enemy of our enemy is our friend.” He glances over his shoulder at Congers and Race. “For the moment.”

  The conversation gets more reasonable after that. The board finally votes to grant the Core agents basic privileges within the compound, including allowing them to carry their weapons, as long as they’re registered with the Black Box security staff. By the time that agreement is reached, my head feels like it’s going to explode, and I’m wondering if Christina ever got anything to eat for dinner, because I know I didn’t.

  But we’re not done. We move on to discussing how the scanner will be used and who controls it, and that leads to another hour-long argument. Rufus thinks only humans should control the scanner. Brayton suggests that it should be kept in the vault at all times. Angus and I argue that it should be used in any way that enhances our security and prevents Sicarii infiltration, including scanning workers before they start their shifts in the factory, as well as random checks of people on the compound.

  “The Sicarii could spread like a virus, for all we know right now,” says my mother, giving me a look out of the corner of her eye. “Until I’ve completed the autopsies and we’re confident of how they take over a host organism, we should be vigilant. They could take hold with a single touch, a sneeze, an unobserved moment between two people. A Sicarii could be as big as a human or as small as a germ.”

  That’s enough to jolt people into cooperating. Several of them look like they want to hurl. Arms fold over stomachs and chests, hands discreetly cover mouths and noses like they’re wishing for hospital masks, and no one wants to be too close to anyone else.

  It’s midnight when we adjourn, and I can’t remember the last time I slept or ate. Leo’s head is resting on his arms—he fell asleep about half an hour ago. The room spins as I rise from my chair, and my mom catches me when I sway and lowers me down again. While the rest of The Fifty funnel out of the room, Dr. Ackerman makes his way over to us.

  “Young man, I think you’re trying to do too much,” he drawls as he takes my wrist and feels for my pulse.

  “That’s because there’s too much to do,” I mumble, leaning forward to rest my forehead on the table. My lips are tingling, and I shiver.

  Mom touches my back. “Then maybe you should let other people do a little of it,” she says gently. When I turn my head and look at her, she adds, “I walked by the computer lab on my way from the morgue. You were hunched over that computer—”

  “Probably because I’d dozed off,” I admit. “I didn’t get a single thing accomplished. How are the autopsies going?”

  Dr. Ackerman looks keenly interested as he peers at my mother. “I heard they’d brought the bodies that scanned orange here. Do you need some assistance as you examine them?”

  My mother leans back in her chair and rubs her eyes. Her face crumples in pain, and she slowly lowers her hand. “In all honesty, I’ve only completed the external exam,” she says quietly as she gingerly moves her wounded left arm. “I made that germ statement because I don’t want anyone to underestimate the threat, but I don’t have any idea yet. I’ll resume the work tomorrow.”

  My heart clutches. She’s been staring at the bodies of three men, two of whom she loved as friends. I wonder if she’s dreading actually finding out what the Sicarii do to a person, and how much it hurts. I slide my hand across the table and take hers. She accepts it, giving me a grateful smile.

  “We’re dreadfully understaffed in the infirmary,” says Dr. Ackerman, “but if you need it, Mitra, I can help you. I know it’s important.”

  I watch my mom, wondering if she trusts this guy. He was quiet during the debate, but he voted with Angus and me every time. He doesn’t seem to be a hard-liner like Rufus. “I might need some consultation on the actual dissection,” she says to him after a few moments.

  I sit quietly, too tired to move as they make arrangements to meet tomorrow morning. Dr. Ackerman advises me to drink plenty of fluids and to prioritize sleep. As he’s telling me to drop by the infirmary tomorrow to have my blood pressure taken, the lights flicker. Dr. Ackerman looks around. “Well, that’s not good. I’ve got two patients on ventilators.”

  Mom frowns. “You think there’s an issue with the solar panels?”

  Dr. Ackerman stands up. “I don’t know. It happens sometimes, but right now I’d say we need the lights to stay on.” He strides out,
his posture bent with fatigue. Everyone on this compound is both tired and jittery, a recipe for disaster.

  After chatting with my mom for a few minutes about all the people I met this afternoon, who she knows well, who she trusts, who’s aligned with Rufus and who’s with Angus, I gather my strength and push myself up again, reaching over to wake Leo up.

  A piercing alarm splinters the quiet, and the lights flicker again. Leo yelps and jumps to his feet, looking confused and bleary. My mother is wide-eyed as she gets up, too, and we all head for the door. Down the hallway, guards are shouting, and I break into a jog, adrenaline pouring through my veins. I reach the security desk near the main entrance several steps ahead of my mom and Leo. Kellan and the other guards are clustered together, talking urgently as they point to the surveillance screens behind the desk.

  “What’s going on?” I ask.

  Kellan looks over his shoulder at me. “We’ve had a security breach,” he says in a tight voice. “I think someone just tried to steal the scanner.”

  TWELVE

  FOOTSTEPS GIVE US ABOUT THREE SECONDS’ WARNING before two figures come running in from the far side of the atrium. Kellan’s got his weapon up in an instant. “Freeze,” he barks.

  “We heard the alarm, and we saw someone running past the infirmary,” says Graham Congers, his voice desperate and angry, wincing as he raises his arms. His short brown hair is standing on end, and his shirt is buttoned wrong. Sung is next to him, looking winded but fierce, a soot-smeared undershirt clinging to his wiry frame.

  Graham takes a step forward, his gaze riveted on Kellan’s. “We’re unarmed.”

  “Why does that not reassure me?” Kellan says. “You’re Core agents.”

  “And they’ve been in the hospital wing,” I say. “They were injured in the attack.”

  “How do we know that’s where they were just now?” says Kellan.

  “Don’t you have surveillance feeds?” asks Sung in a hoarse voice, his dark brown eyes full of frustration. “You’ll see there was someone in that hallway, and it wasn’t us.”

  Kellan gestures to one of his colleagues behind the guard desk. “Check video of the infirmary hallway for the last ten minutes.”

  My mom looks at the narrow-shouldered guard who’s staring at the monitors at the desk. “You didn’t see anything on the screens before the alarm?”

  Kellan’s jaw ridges like he’s clenching his teeth. “We should have. We were watching the basement vault and the main corridors nonstop. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary—and then the alarm went off. One of our guards called up from the basement that the door leading to the vault had been breached. He’s checking the vault itself right n—” Kellan’s fingers move toward his ear, and he sags a little, the slightest smile of relief flickering on his lips before it disappears again. “Okay. They have the scanner. The door to the vault room was open, but the alarm must have sent the thief running.”

  “There’s nothing on the video, Kellan,” says the guard at the desk. “The infirmary corridor was clear the whole time.”

  Leo frowns and joins the guy. “Could you have been hacked?” He reaches for the keyboard, and the guard lets him. Leo taps away for a few minutes, then rolls his eyes. “Seven minutes of video captures are gone. This thing’s looped.”

  “Let me guess—it cuts off when the lights first flickered?” I ask, my heart sinking.

  “Looks like,” says the guard standing next to Leo.

  Kellan shrugs. “That happens all the time. We’re on solar, but sometimes there’s a surge.”

  Leo doesn’t take his eyes off the screen. The gray glow of it is reflected in the lenses of his glasses. “That only means that whoever tried to take the scanner knows the system and its idiosyncrasies, or figured it out pretty quickly.”

  “Where are all the board members?”

  “I checked them out of the building myself,” says Kellan. “They all went back to the residential quarters to get some rest. None of them were in the building.” His gaze swings to the two Core agents. “So that leaves these guys.”

  Kellan’s finger moves to his trigger, and Graham and Sung step back. “Hey, hey, we didn’t—” Sung begins, then starts to cough. As he doubles over, Kellan follows the movement with his gun, like he’s about to shoot Sung in the head. And I don’t know why I do it, but I skip forward and stand between him and Kellan.

  Our eyes meet, and Kellan’s are brimming with questions and betrayal and fear. “Don’t,” I say, quietly enough so that only he can hear. “Ask them to bring the scanner up from the basement, and let’s check everyone again. These guys nearly died trying to keep the Sicarii from getting the scanner. If they tried to steal it, we’ll figure it out. But for now, be cool, okay?”

  He stares at me, his nostrils flared, the tiniest tremble in his hands, which freaks me out, as do my mother’s wide eyes, which I can see over Kellan’s shoulder. I can tell she wants to say something, but she knows that one nervous twitch might cause Kellan to accidentally put a bullet in my chest. But after a few seconds, Kellan lowers his weapon. He jabs a finger at the Core agents and then to a group of guards by the door. “Go over there, and don’t do anything to make us shoot you.”

  “Like existing?” Graham mutters.

  “Thanks, man,” Sung says quietly as he passes me.

  Two more guards emerge from the elevators, and one’s carrying the scanner. Both look spooked. Kellan accepts the scanner as they reach him. “Any sign of an intruder?”

  One of the guards, who can’t be older than midtwenties but has seriously receding hair, shakes his head. “I was there only a few seconds after the alarm went off, but there was no sign of anyone.”

  “I’m telling you, we saw someone running down the infirmary hallway,” Graham says loudly, his voice pure frustration.

  I turn to Kellan. “Is there an exit down that hallway? Could someone access it from the outside—or escape that way?”

  Kellan uses his sleeve to wipe sweat from his brow. “Yeah. There are exits in every hallway. And they all have surveillance cams, but I guess that won’t help us.”

  “We should make sure everyone’s accounted for at the dorm,” says one of the guards.

  “Don’t forget the H2 in the garage,” says another.

  “Or maybe not. The H2 could be anywhere on the grounds, seeing as our wise leaders granted them status,” snaps Kellan, glaring at Graham and Sung like they’re responsible for all of it. “I’m calling Angus.” He slides his phone from his belt and puts it to his ear as he walks away.

  “We need to make sure Lavin and Congers know about this,” Sung says to Graham.

  Graham’s staring at Kellan’s back. Just as he opens his mouth to reply, Kellan pivots around and comes back to us.

  “Let me guess,” Graham says. “You’re going straight to the garage to scan our agents.”

  “No,” Kellan replies. I swear, he looks a shade paler than he did a moment ago. “We’re going to the residential suites. Angus wants us to scan The Fifty first. The alarm was just for this building, and he said it can’t be heard all the way down at the residential building, so everyone’s still in their suites.”

  “Scanning the board members and the factory workers makes sense,” Leo says, pushing his glasses up on his nose. “Whoever tried to steal the scanner knew exactly how to hack the system, and how to get away without being seen. Considering the Core just got here and they’ve been held in the garage for nearly that whole time, they’re a little less likely as suspects.”

  Kellan orders a small group of guards to go to the garage and make sure the Core are all accounted for, and then to keep them there until they can be scanned again. After letting the guard scan her, my mother announces that she’s going to check the morgue to see if anything’s been tampered with, and accepts a weapon from Kellan with gratitude. She looks haunted, as if the dead
Sicarii could somehow be responsible for the attempted theft. Oddly enough, Leo volunteers to go with her. Part of me wonders if he wants to see George’s body, to say good-bye, to convince himself that George was long gone even before his body was perforated . . . or maybe he just needs a mom right now, and mine is the closest he’ll get. I don’t know. But Mom agrees to take him and tells me she’ll see me later. As for me, I’m eager to make sure Christina’s all right before I get back to work on bringing the satellite system online, so I go with Kellan. He tries to order Graham and Sung to go to the garage under escort, but Graham smiles and shakes his head.

  “You said we were granted official status. That means I’m not your prisoner. And I’m going with you, seeing as one of your people probably tried to steal the scanner.”

  Kellan’s mouth is a tight, flat line as he switches on the scanner and waves it over all of us. When Graham arches an eyebrow, Kellan impatiently passes it over his own arm and scans blue. “Where were you guys before you entered the atrium?” Kellan asks me. “Everyone else went back to their quarters.”

  “At least, you hope so,” says Sung.

  “We were in the meeting room,” I say. “Dr. Ackerman was with us when the lights first flickered. He can vouch for us.”

  “And can you vouch for him?” asks Graham.

  We enter the crisp night air and walk toward the dorms of The Fifty, which is maybe a quarter mile away. The sky is clear, stars above us and lit defense stations glowing bright all along the rim of the crater. The guards inside are watching for the ships that could come at any time, ready to use all available firepower to protect us—but we may have an enemy within the compound, too. “I don’t know Dr. Ackerman, but I can tell you that he was with us during the first flicker of the lights. He left after that.”