“Drake!” Melanie said firmly. “Stop mopping around and blaming yourself and listen to me.”
I turned, almost zombie-like, to her. “What?”
“I’m not saying you shouldn’t be sorry for them, but it’s time to go on. We,” she nodded at Matt, “and Cody and Liz wanted to tell you that we’ve started Project Sunrise.”
“Project Sunrise?”
“My idea,” Matt piqued. “A clever mirror to Project Midnight, if I don’t say so myself.”
I turned away from the wreckage and faced them both. “Okay…and what is it?”
“We’re going to find the names on that flash drive,” Melanie said. “As well as the last Project Midnight lab. Think of it as countering Project Midnight.”
“Project Midnight’s presence is now known throughout the underworking’s of defense organizations, even if the general populace remains oblivious,” Matt said. “We can use their information.”
“Or we can ask for their help,” Melanie added, shooting Matt and disapproving glance.
Matt straightened his bow tie. “Yes, or help. We can find them. Both of them. You’re welcome.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it.
“Sounds like a plan. I can’t sit around to much and have people think Phantom’s gone and died or something. I guess that means I’d better get my suitcase packed.”
Melanie smiled. “Sounds like it.”
“Drake!”
Liz was across the street, crossing over to me.
“We’ll see you later, Drake,” Melanie said. I nodded thanks and ran to meet her.
#
“I give you two weeks before you can’t stand each other,” Matt said.
I picked up another one of his boxes and carried it to the door of their room in the Lab. “Come on, Matt, it’s just the summer. I’m grateful Cody’s parents are letting me stay. That’s a lot of money to go home for just a few months.”
Matt picked up his box.
“So you’re not doing this next year?” I asked.
“I’ve been given automatic acceptance to the science and applied research program for all four years. I get a permanent room with the older students upstairs.”
I whistled. “Good first impression.”
The elevator doors closed and we began to rise. Matt pulled a wad of papers from his pocket.
“And Cody’s getting in too. He doesn’t know it yet. I think he thought I was kidding when I put his name on the final project.” Matt uncrumpled the papers. “He drew these in the hospital.”
I took them. It was graph paper with smudged drawings of mechanical arms and legs. Right arms and right legs.
“Prosthetics,” I said.
“His next project,” Matt agreed. I handed him back the drawings, happy that Cody was planning ahead enough for that, even when in the hospital. Melanie was right, he was amazing like that.
The rooms upstairs were much bigger, with more intricate looking inventions beyond the glass. There was a distinct lack of the chaos found downstairs. Though some of the inventions that weren’t covered by tarps still looked weird, there seemed more focus to them.
We found Matt’s room at the very end. When we had finished un packing the boxes I noticed a familiar telescope looking thing was missing.
“Hey, where’s the—”
“Confiscated,” Matt said bitterly. “After we used it on the rooftop and Ryans brought us down I went back up to get it. Some other men were already there. They said I couldn’t have it back but they said they were going to contact me later.”
“I’m sorry. I know how much that meant to you.”
Matt tacked another poster on the wall. They would have a lot more space to fill in this room. “It was just a machine, and it served its purpose. I’d rather have you than have it.”
The next night was the ceremony for the people and students killed. A podium and hundreds of chairs were set up on the lawn just before dusk, and I think the entire school attended. My parents were visibly upset, obviously. The first time they come to visit their son’s school is because a whole bunch of kids died. I wonder what they would think if they knew I was part of the reason why.
While the president of the university stood and talked about the tremendous loss, I caught Cody’s mom shoot furtive glances at Cody’s casts and wheelchair, and break into a fresh wave of tears. Cody didn’t stop staring, impassive, towards the front, his remaining hand clenched in a tight fist.
I was so enveloped in my personal mourning, I didn’t notice Ryans get up to speak until his voice cut across the lawn. I jumped. I couldn’t help it.
“I can’t say much more than what’s already been said.” It was hard to see his face in the fading light. “I can’t say that I did well enough to prevent this, and I can’t say I understand what anybody with a loss is going through. I can’t and won’t. But I am there with you, to grieve with you.”
It was the first time, other than the hospital room, that Ryans sounded human, not a machine hell-bent on his task, like a father lamenting for each and every one of those who had died.
“There are many here who want me to say something about Phantom, what he did, whether he’s alive or dead.” There was a general shift of anticipation in the crowd.
“I’m not going to. Who Phantom was or is doesn’t matter. What he did, we are grateful for. But Phantom is just a symbol of the resilience of this city. Of our ability to survive and keep going forward.”
Through the darkness, his eyes seemed to find and pierce me. “And so we will do just that. We thank him, and move on.” He stepped down from the podium. Someone lit a candle and it began to be passed around. For a moment I swore I saw Sykes face in the crowd, lit up by the candles as it looked during the final moments in the lab. I hated to believe it, but he looked at peace. Then his face dissolved into nothing as the candlelight grew and the lawn swelled with pinpricks of light, like stars covering the surface of the earth.
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I Am Phantom Page 23
