by Harrison, S.
I feel his lips against mine once more.
What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I move?
“C’mon, Finn!” The voice is faint and distant, distorted but familiar. Is that you, Carlo? Where are you?
“C’mon, Finn!” the voice calls again, clearer this time, closer. “Don’t give up. Come back to us.”
You sound different, Carlo. Are you in the light? I’ll go to the light, Carlo. I’ll meet you there. I’ll see you soon.
“C’mon, Finn, open your eyes!” the voice demands, loudly now, as if someone is shouting in my face.
A warm mouth on mine, my chest rises again.
“C’mon, Finn, breathe for me. That’s it, open your eyes!”
A slap to my cheek, a sting of pain, a huge intake of air, my eyes flick wide open and I’m back, coughing and retching.
“Give her some room, everyone,” says Professor Francis.
My eyes begin to focus on the blurry face above me. “Ryan?” My voice is feeble and raspy.
He’s kneeling beside me, leaning over me. I lie there for a moment, wheezing heavily, staring up into his golden-amber eyes.
“Hi there,” he says with a little smile.
“Hi,” I whisper back. Ryan gently brushes my tangled hair from my face and softly strokes my cheek. I close my eyes at his touch.
“What happened?” I murmur.
“I don’t know,” he says. “I found you lying up here. You’d stopped breathing. You’re OK now, though.”
“You saved me?”
He nods.
“Thank you.”
“Ah, it was nothing. You didn’t need to stop breathing just to get a kiss from me y’know. You only had to ask.”
My weak laugh turns into a cough. Bettina’s face comes into view, her eyes filled with tears.
“Finn, oh my god, I was so worried.”
“What’s happened here?” Percy’s panicked voice says from somewhere.
“It looks like Finn had another fainting spell, but this time she stopped breathing,” Professor Francis explains.
“Is that what happened?” I ask Ryan. “Did I faint again?”
“It looks that way,” he says with a compassionate smile.
“My neck hurts.”
I gently touch my throat and suddenly gasp like I’ve been electrocuted. With a stabbing flash of colors, everything comes flooding back. The pirate construct, Nanny Theresa, the murdered nurse, Onix, Carlo getting shot, Nanny escaping, Jonah’s inconceivable betrayal, invading my mind and replacing my memories with forgeries. Everything that was taken from me that day is bubbling back into my mind like an overflowing sewer.
It’s not my imagination; it’s not! In my heart I know it all to be true. Does that mean every other dream I’ve had in the past week is true as well? They must be. I know how he did it now. They must all be true. I feel like a sword has cut my life open and I’m bleeding all the lies away. Jonah said I wouldn’t remember anything. But I have remembered. It’s all come back, and it’s come back with a vengeance. Suddenly the worst realization cuts the deepest of all.
Carlo is dead. He died in sublevel nine almost two years ago.
I sit bolt upright and vomit all over the deck.
Feet spring away from the puddle I’ve just brought up. “Ewww, that’s gross,” says a voice that sounds a lot like Margaux’s.
“It’s a perfectly natural response,” Professor Francis says in my defense.
I wipe my mouth on the back of my sleeve, trying my best to ignore the cruel giggles and disgusted glares from the hovering faces. “Get me out of here.”
Ryan takes my arm and helps me to my feet. The students in a semicircle around me, with their mixed looks of pity and amusement, make me feel even sicker.
Percy pushes through. “Come, Miss Brogan. This is serious. I’ll take you to the infirmary so Nurse Talbot can take a good look at you.”
He tries to take my arm, but I jerk it away.
“Don’t touch me. I don’t want to go to the infirmary. I want to get out of this place.”
Percy looks confused. “Please, Miss Brogan. Fainting twice in one morning is definitely something we should be concerned about.”
“I didn’t faint, I was . . .” I quickly scan the deck and spot the pirate captain over Margaux’s shoulder. He’s standing by the ship’s wheel exactly where he was before, still as a statue, like nothing ever happened.
How do I explain this without sounding like an absolute lunatic?
I realize that I can’t. They’d have me in a padded cell by this afternoon.
Carlo flashes through my mind again and sorrow grips me. My head hurts and my throat aches, but the pain of those combined is nothing compared to the knife in my broken heart. Oh, Carlo. I’m so sorry.
I need to get away. I need to gather my thoughts. I need to get out of this horrible place. I don’t care about seeing my father anymore. Not even one little bit. I could demand to go home, but Jonah would be there and I don’t want to be anywhere near him ever again. At that very moment I realize that, sadly, I don’t have anywhere else to go but . . .
“I want to go back to school.”
“I think you should lie down for a bit first, Finn,” says Professor Francis.
“I want to go.”
“Lie down in the nurse’s office and we’ll collect you after the tour.”
“No. Get me out of here.”
“Finn, think of everyone else . . .”
“Get me out of here . . . NOW!”
Even though I’m the only one who knows what really happened, everyone around me is already looking at me like I’m crazy. Even Bit.
“Calm down, Miss Brogan,” Percy orders.
I take a deep breath, gather what remains of my strength, and pull my tie from my neck. “Fine. I’ll find my own way out.”
I try to avoid Ryan’s and Bit’s eyes as I push past Jennifer and Brody and a smirking Brent and tromp down the stairs that lead to the lower deck of the ship.
“Miss Brogan!” Percy barks at my back. I ignore him. I stride across the deck, stepping over the bodies of the fake pirates as I go. I reach the railing and lean over it, trying to judge the distance to the water. It’s only about fifteen feet. I know that’s not the real ocean down there; it doesn’t stretch on forever. It’s just an illusion, and if Percy won’t let me off this thing then I’ll leave on my own. I sling one leg over the railing with absolutely no idea what I’ll do when I reach the edge of the dome. I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.
“Wait! Miss Brogan!” shouts Percy. I can hear him scrambling down the stairs behind me. “Help me, boys. Grab her before she hurts herself!”
I glance back and see Brent and Brody leap down the stairs. They trot ahead of Percy and make straight for me.
I dismount the rail to face them. “Don’t touch me. I’m warning you,” I growl, as I ball up my fists and take a fighting stance.
Brent and Brody stop and look at each other, grinning, obviously highly amused by my threat. Shaking his head, Brent approaches me, with Brody only a step behind him.
“I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if I have to!” I shout. Brent laughs out loud.
“Hey! Leave her alone!” Ryan yells. He leaps down the whole flight of stairs with one jump and runs toward the two boys.
Brody turns back to stop him and they both struggle into a grapple as Brent advances toward me.
When he’s one step away, Brent makes a grab for my arm. I easily swat it aside. He tries again with the other hand, gripping my wrist tightly. In the blink of an eye, I circle my forearm, reverse the hold, and twist down hard. Brent’s body swivels involuntarily as he drops to his knees, his back arched, his mouth open in a silent scream, his eyes filled to the edges with shocked surprise. Someone in the group u
pstairs giggles.
“I warned you,” I hiss in his ear.
“Miss Brogan! Stop that at once!” shouts Percy.
“Finn Brogan, release that boy! Right this minute!” commands Professor Francis.
I respect the Professor. I look over toward his voice and loosen my grip. Big mistake. Free from my hold, Brent spins, quickly rising from the ground, and, with a loud smack, uppercuts his fist squarely into the bottom of my jaw.
A gasp of utter disbelief issues from everyone on the upper deck. Just how much of a bastard Brent is becomes glaringly clear with that one cowardly act. Even though I can’t stand him, I never would have pegged him as the kind of guy who would punch a girl in the face—even if I did just make him look like a fool in front of everyone. That was a hard punch; I’m momentarily stunned. I stumble and lose my footing, tripping over my own feet.
“Security four!” Percy bellows into his wrist.
I’m suddenly woozy. Dizzy, my balance wavers and then abandons me altogether. Clutching desperately at the air, then the railing, my fingertips scramble for a hold but I’m powerless to stop as I topple over the side of the ship, plunging backward into the water below. I shut my eyes tight, preparing for the impact, uncertain whether the motionless, computer-generated ocean below will be liquid or solid. There’s no splash. My back hits hard and flat on the surface, knocking the wind out of me and smacking the back of my skull with a jarring thud. Sparkles of color scatter in the blackness.
“You’re not concentrating, Finn.”
I open my eyes to an outstretched hand. The hand is attached to a familiar arm. An arm tattooed with three lightning bolts across the blade of a sword. The arm leads up to a familiar face. A face I never wanted to see again.
It’s Jonah.
I want to scream and run, but my hand reaches out on its own and Jonah pulls me up off the floor of the combat room in sublevel two.
“You should have seen that foot sweep coming from a mile away.”
“Sorry, I was thinking about something else,” I murmur as I absently dust myself off.
Jonah walks over to the weapon rack and grabs the two towels that are hanging over it. “How do you expect to defend yourself out there in the big, bad world if you can’t keep focused? A mugger isn’t just going to wait for you to gather your thoughts, y’know.” He throws me a towel and wipes the sweat from his brow with the other.
“Were you thinking about Carlo?”
“No.”
“Don’t lie, Finn. You’re no good at it.”
I sigh and drop my shoulders. He’s right. I couldn’t lie on a bed.
“OK, yes. I was thinking about Carlo. He never answers his phone, Jonah, he doesn’t return my emails, and he doesn’t spend summer here anymore. He was my best friend for most of my life and now he’s disappeared off the face of the earth.”
“You know where he is, Finn. He moved to Italy with his mother. He has a new life now. Maybe you should take the hint and leave the boy alone.”
“But I think about him all the time. Sometimes I get a bad feeling—like he’s in danger or something. I just want to know that he’s OK. And living in Italy is no excuse for not texting back.”
I wipe my forehead angrily, throw the towel at Jonah, and cross the mats toward the metal passage that leads to the pod. “Carlo is a douche bag and I’m done with training today.”
“I agree, Finn. Carlo is a total douche bag.”
I smile toward the ceiling. “Thank you, Onix! Nice to know that someone is on my side.” I throw an accusing look at Jonah.
“Finn, would you stop teaching Onix to speak like a sixteen-year-old girl?” Jonah half-heartedly scolds. “And what do you mean, you think about him ‘all the time’? What bad feelings? How often is ‘all the time’?”
I spin on my heels to face him. “Lately, it’s all the time. It feels like he’s alone and hurt in the dark somewhere. I know how crazy it sounds. Oh, and just in case you forgot, I turned seventeen a week ago. There was cake and everything.”
Jonah doesn’t give me an answer. To be honest I didn’t even expect one, but he’s just standing there and looking at me like he’s studying a problem, his face furrowed with concern, quietly talking to himself. I hear him mutter, “Why isn’t it working anymore? For some reason they’re just not holding like they used to.”
Jonah keeps staring at me, actually, kinda through me, absent-mindedly stroking his chin, lost in thought.
“Why is what not working? What are you talking about? Hello? Earth to Jonah,” I say, waving my hand back and forth.
“What? Oh, it’s nothing. I was thinking of something else. Which, my girl, is exactly what you need to do. I think it’s about time I showed you sublevel nine.”
Jonah puts his arm around my shoulders and walks me down the passageway.
“There’s a sublevel nine?”
“Actually, they go all the way down to sublevel ten.”
I’m genuinely shocked.
“What’s down there?”
“Well, a lot of it is storage and empty labs your father used for research and development. They’re boring; that’s why I never mentioned them. But on sublevel nine there’s a device called a neural interface. I can use it to . . . to introduce virtual combat scenarios directly into your mind to help with your training. It’s like being inside the best video game ever.”
“Really?”
“Absolutely. Let’s go try it out. Whatya say?”
“OK. Sounds cool, I guess.”
He presses the button on the wall and the door leading to the pod shaft slides into the ceiling, opening into darkness.
I open my eyes, bewildered. I groan at the ache in my back and clutch the bump on the back of my head. What the hell was that? For a fleeting moment I was home again. I said it was a week after my birthday, so that means it was a little over three weeks ago—on a day that I don’t remember at all. Yet another day ripped away, cut and pasted over with a manufactured memory.
Maybe all the memories Jonah stole from me, and all the days he changed in my head, are fighting to resurface. Maybe the dam is cracked and it’s leaking, crumbling, about to burst.
If that’s the case, the thought terrifies me. If the day of Carlo’s murder is anything to go by, I’m not sure I’m ready to know what else Jonah has taken away from me. I need to get out of here. I need to get up and get out and run as far away from this place as I can.
The side of the pirate ship juts up at my feet from the solid “water.” After a few short pants, I recover my breath and force myself up onto my elbows. Percy’s face appears over the railing above me, closely followed by Ryan’s. “Are you alright, Finn?” Ryan calls down.
Before I can respond, Percy issues an ominous order out across the ocean.
“Take her to the vacant Clean Room. Through air-lock one.”
For a split second, I wonder who he’s talking to. He’s looking just past me. I tilt my head back, following Percy’s sight line, and see a female-shaped Drone Template robot dressed in smooth silver from head to toe bending down toward me. It grips me under the arm and lifts me up onto my feet with no effort at all. It takes a tight hold of my wrist and twists, maneuvering me into a painful arm lock.
“Ow! Hey! Get your hands off me!”
The Drone doesn’t even turn its dark plastic mask in acknowledgment. A single illuminated word in red capital letters scrolls across the surface of the smooth black oval, and it pretty much says it all.
SECURITY
“You need a little time to cool off, Miss Brogan. It’s for your own good,” Percy calls down at me with phony concern. The Drone turns and pushes me along a white-tiled pathway that has sprouted up through the surface of the silent ocean. I struggle to get free, but the android is incredibly strong, gripping my wrist like a vise.
The Drone mar
ches me away like a prisoner, resigned to my unjust capture. Before long I’m out of earshot of the boat, but movement catches the corner of my eye. I strain my neck back over my shoulder to see that a commotion has broken out on the lower deck. Ryan is in Brent’s face, arguing and pointing toward me. Brent pushes Ryan, who swiftly cracks him in the nose with a hard right hook. Brent clutches his face and drops out of sight behind the railing as Brody springs onto Ryan like a panther. Percy, Miss Cole, and Professor Francis are all yelling for them to stop while Percy stands off to the side, eyeballing the boys and mouthing instructions into his wrist. The rest of the group looks on from the top deck, staring in morbid fascination as everything goes to hell. More black-masked silver suits arrive on the lower deck and grab the three boys, dragging them back from the edge of the railing and out of sight.
I quickly scan the group for Bit, but I can’t spot her. Movement in the shadows catches my attention and I finally see her. Bit is inexplicably dangling off the rear of the ship, her feet kicking beneath her as she hangs by her fingers from the loose rungs of a knotted rope ladder. She drops into a crouch on the hard “water” and straightens her glasses. With one last sideways glance to check if the coast is clear, she fixes her eyes on me and breaks into a sprint, running as fast as her legs will carry her across the solid surface. I can’t help but smile and shake my head. I’ve known her for almost four years, and even after all that time, shy, mild-mannered Bettina Otto still manages to surprise me.
No one up on the deck seems to have noticed that she’s missing. I had always thought that Bit had a knack for going unnoticed, but until this moment I had never thought of how handy it could be. Maybe it’s due to blindly following Percy’s orders, or perhaps it really is because of Bit’s ninja-like abilities, but even the Drone seems oblivious to her presence, even after she’s caught right up to us and is walking beside us, wheezing to catch her breath.
“You could’ve waited for me,” she whispers with labored huffs.
I smile at her. “Like I had a choice.”
There’s that familiar hiss again as just up ahead, a wide rectangular opening grows in the surface of the black glass wall. The Drone ushers me through into an elevator-sized room with bright-white glowing walls. Bit and I both squint in the light.
