Pearl's Number: The Number Series

by Bethany Atazadeh

  With a nod, Olive typed quickly, pulling up the search parameters, whipping back to face Evalene for more instructions.

  “Okay,” Evalene said, thinking out loud, “these women were all brought here around the same time… right? So maybe they’re all kept in the same place?”

  She looked around the room for confirmation. Sol nodded as he considered it. Noble sat with his arms crossed, barely listening, frustrated. But Jeremiah stood, sudden urgency in his voice, “If we could find a location for one of them, there might be a chance Pearl would be near that group.”

  “Exactly!” Evalene said, spinning back to Olive, “Can we track them down?”

  Olive was already typing. “Way ahead of you,” she said. “Looks like Cell Block 139 is where the first four women in the search are held. The next five are in 140.”

  Evalene’s fingernails bit into her palms so sharply they left crescent-shaped marks. “Can you pull up–”

  “Directions? Got it,” Olive said. “Looks like they’re on the 89th floor. Hey, there’s a whole list that describes what’s on every floor. That might come in handy—I’m gonna send it to my BiComp ring!”

  A few more clicks of the mouse and Olive swung her wrist up and around to view the small screen on her skin, which now flashed a layout of the BioLabs building and all it’s floors.

  Tapping a few commands to delete her computer search, she stood and strode to the door, one hand on the doorknob, looking back over her shoulder at the rest of them. “Let’s go.”

  39

  Jeremiah

  THE MAP LED THEM back to the elevators. Jeremiah pressed the button and waved the others through, entering last. When the doors slid shut, Noble spoke, to no one in particular: “Don’t get your hopes up.” His face was grim, the scar drawn into a taut white line.

  “Just because Pearl’s not in the computer, doesn’t mean they killed her,” Olive argued.

  But Noble didn’t seem to even register her words. Jeremiah could tell from his distant, hopeless expression that he truly believed Pearl was dead. Jeremiah prayed that wasn’t true. He’d never felt more out of control in his whole life. No plan, no back up.

  He’d thought attacking Eden six months ago without enough troops would be the hardest thing he’d ever done, but this was so much worse. Because he didn’t even know if they were doing the right thing anymore.

  As he pressed the button for the 89th floor and the elevator began to rise, Noble perked up. “We could still be useful here,” he said, “No one on our team has ever made it this deep into the BioLabs before.”

  “What do you mean ‘useful’?” Jeremiah asked, concerned.

  “There’s this rumor in Archland,” Noble said, leaning forward intently, a wild glint entering his eyes. “That there’s a way to end BioGrades forever. Different people said different things. But the point is, all rumors have a base of truth to them, and Pearl and I always believed that somewhere underneath all the nonsense, there was a way to cut the devil’s heart out at the source.”

  The elevator slowed to a stop at level 23 and dinged. The doors slid open and two Bio Lab employees stepped on, pressing 35. They stood in the middle of the small space as the doors glided shut. No one said a word. Jeremiah tried not to stare at the way the employee’s skin stretched so thin and tight against their cheekbones, creating unnatural sharpness in their features. Levels 24, 25, and 26 slipped by and the door dinged open again on 27, but no one was there.

  Jeremiah felt like he was holding his breath as the doors shut once more, and the floors glided by one at a time until they finally reached 35. Everyone waited for the two employees to step out, and the doors to close, before speaking.

  “We’re here to find my mother,” Evie told Noble firmly as soon as they were moving again, coming back to the conversation where they’d been cut off.

  “I told you, you don’t want to see that,” Noble argued, “You need to trust me on this. At least you could honor your mother’s sacrifice by accomplishing the one thing she spent the last five years of her life trying to do.”

  Jeremiah saw Evie wince at the word sacrifice. He moved slightly until his shoulder brushed hers, the only comfort he knew to offer in this situation. He wished he could promise Pearl was still alive. But he wasn’t sure what they would find anymore.

  They stayed quiet for the last few floors, tensing in anticipation of what might be in front of them when they arrived. The 89th floor opened to reveal a bleak hallway painted gray and peeling, completely undecorated. It was the exact opposite of the bright, beige hallways below. The fluorescent lighting lit their faces like ghosts, as they stole out of the elevator on silent feet. Following the signs, they turned left.

  The long hallway had doors every few feet on both sides, stretching to the left and to the right. Jeremiah kept his eyes peeled for any guards or even another employee. But as they tread softly down the hall, no one appeared.

  He led the way, reading the numbers above the doors. 133, 135, 137, and on the opposite side, 134, 136, 138… At the far end he spotted 139 and 140, but his eyes drifted past those to the last door, and he slowed when he read the sign: “Staff.”

  Holding a finger to his lips to alert the others, Jeremiah approached the last door cautiously. He waved for them to wait a few feet back. The staff door was cracked open. Pressing his palm against it, Jeremiah eased it wider until he could see inside. At first glance there was no one there. Just a lot of lab equipment, some refrigerators, and quite a few restraints hung on the wall.

  But as he lifted his hand to push the door open wider, a man strode into view, caught sight of him, and scowled. “Are you from Pathology?” He didn’t wait for an answer, moving toward a counter, setting some test tubes down. He began to pull off different stickers and label each tube. “Did you get scheduled for this shift too? I thought I was working alone today.”

  Jeremiah entered, shutting the door behind him to hide the others. He shrugged when the man looked over, and replied, “Sorry.” He swept his eyes across the room. There was a heavy-looking microscope on the counter behind the man. That might work.

  The employee picked up the vials, grumbling as he stepped around Jeremiah. “You’re in my way.”

  “Sorry,” Jeremiah said again, moving to the side. The man opened a cabinet and set the vials inside, one by one. Jeremiah picked up the microscope he’d been eying. It was hefty. At least 10 pounds.

  He waited until the employee carefully placed the last vial in the cabinet, before cracking the man over the head with it. Though he tried to be gentle, the man dropped to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut. Jeremiah leaned down to check his pulse, worried he’d hit too hard. The employee’s heart beat was steady—but he’d wake up to a good-sized lump.

  “Sorry,” Jeremiah said for the third time, wincing. He darted over to the wall with the restraints. Plucking a set of cuffs off a hook, he returned to snap them on the man’s wrists, looping them around the bottom leg of the heavy work table for good measure.

  He stood to leave. At the last second, he noticed the ring on the man’s hand and recognized another BiComp like his own. “Let’s take that off,” Jeremiah muttered to the man as he slipped the ring off his hand and pocketed it. “We don’t need you calling for help.”

  Swinging open the door to the hallway, Jeremiah found Sol and Noble tensed and ready outside the door, prepared to fight. They relaxed when they saw him come out instead of the employee. “What was that noise?” Olive asked from behind them.

  “We thought it was you,” Evie added.

  “Nothing to worry about,” Jeremiah told them, “I took care of it.”

  Evie waved for him to come to the room she stood next to, gesturing to the small square window in the door. “They’re full of people,” she whispered as he strode toward her. She bit her lip, looking back and forth between him and the room, waving to the other doors along the hallway. “Every room.”

  Jeremiah stepped up to the little window,
taking Evie’s place to peer inside. Sure enough, five women with similar height and build to Pearl sat or stood throughout the tiny room. Every wall held a thin bunk, filling the tiny room completely except for a small open space in the middle.

  The women just blinked at him, barely registering his face. They probably thought he was another employee.

  Evie moved from room 140 to the cell block marked 139. Without bothering to peer inside the small room, she said, “There are only four women in this one, I already checked.”

  As Jeremiah stepped back from the doors, she added in a whisper, “We can’t just leave them here.”

  He only nodded, because he had no words. His mouth was dry. All the other rooms were full as well? Noble had moved to the far end, checking the cells near him. “All older men in their late 50s or early 60s in these,” he told them. His voice was razor sharp with anger.

  Sol and Olive moved to check the doors at the opposite end. “136 has young men,” Olive reported, checking the room next to it. “138 does as well.”

  “137 has children,” Sol said. His normally calm voice broke.

  Jeremiah said softly, “They’re categorizing them like animals.”

  The words put their situation into cold perspective. If they were caught, they too would be sorted and catalogued into separate rooms.

  Sol’s focus shifted to the entrance to the floor—the elevators—as if he was thinking the same thing. His fists clenched as he moved toward them. “I’ll stand guard.” Jeremiah nodded in agreement and Sol strode down the hallway toward the floor’s entrance.

  Jeremiah stepped up to the cell with only four women and tested the door handle, but of course it was locked. He peeked inside at the women, who were curious now, sprung from their daze by the noise.

  Evie stepped up next to him, their faces only inches apart, to peer through the little window too. She waved a hand for the women to come closer to the glass. They hesitated, before approaching slowly. “Can you hear me?” Evie raised her voice to yell through the glass.

  One of the women nodded. Her voice was muffled when she replied, “Yes.”

  “I’m looking for my mother, Pearl Vandereth,” Evie said to them. “Was she here?”

  The women glanced at each other. Jeremiah wondered if they saw Evie as another employee. Or maybe Pearl had never told them her name—if she’d been there at all.

  He stepped up next to Evie, raising his voice to be heard as well. “We’re here to rescue you,” he told them. “We’re friends.”

  After one more look passed between them that Jeremiah couldn’t read, the smallest woman stepped forward. “There was a Pearl here,” she told them. “They just took her, not more than 30 minutes ago.”

  Noble’s whole body flinched. “I told you. It’s too late,” he snapped from where he stood at the end of the hall, keeping his distance.

  Evie ignored him, pressing up to the window as close as she could, crying out, “Which way did they go?”

  The woman pointed in the direction of the elevator and her muffled voice said simply, “To surgery.”

  Surgery. Jeremiah’s brows rose at the word.

  Evie whipped around to face Olive, wild-eyed. Olive already had the building guide pulled up on her wrist, typing in the search bar. “Surgery… it’s on the 105th floor.”

  Evie’s head jerked up and she met Jeremiah’s eyes. “I’m going. I have to go.” She turned to Noble, “Are you coming?”

  He shook his head. There was raw pain in his eyes. A layer of tears behind his glare. “We have evidence of what happens to the bodies… I’ve seen it with my own eyes.” He gritted his teeth. “I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, not even these bio-loving freaks.” His eyes bored into Jeremiah’s. “If you let her see it, you’re going to regret it.” He turned away, physically dismissing them.

  “Well, I’m going,” Evie said, tears in her eyes as well, jaw clenched stubbornly.

  “But, I can’t leave them like this,” Olive argued, panic in her eyes, “Can we save them?”

  “We can try,” Noble waved her toward the staff room, where Jeremiah had left the employee tied up. “I saw at least one computer in here. Let’s see what we can do!”

  Jeremiah stopped Olive with a hand on her elbow before she could follow Noble into the staff room, catching Evie with his other hand as she turned toward the elevators. “Wait,” he said to them. “Wait!”

  He felt stretched too thin. How could he protect Olive, Sol, and even Noble, if he left them here to go with Evie? But one look at her face told him she was going, whether he came or not. And there was no way he was letting her go alone.

  “There’s still hope,” he told Noble’s back as the man disappeared into the staff room. To Olive, he said, “We’ll come back for you.”

  He prayed to God that he was telling the truth as Olive hugged him, and then Evie, before turning to follow Noble. As she pushed the door open, he called after her, “If anything happens, we’ll meet at the bus!” Evie tugged on his hand, and he gave in.

  As they passed cell 139, he stopped to yell through the window, “We’re working to free all of you. When you get out, run! Do you understand?” They nodded, but he repeated himself, wanting to make sure they comprehended what he was saying. “Get as far away from here as you can!” That was all he could do for them right now.

  They ran the rest of the way to the elevator, where Sol stood watch. “I heard,” he said as they drew up. He gestured to the button, which was lit up. “I already called the elevator.” It dinged open just then, and Evie only paused long enough to give Sol’s arm a squeeze before she stepped in.

  Jeremiah held out a hand to stop it from closing. He turned to face Sol. “Take care of her,” he said quietly, though he realized Sol didn’t need to be asked. “Her family would kill me if anything happened to her.”

  Sol saluted, tapping his shoulder the way Regulators did for their superiors. But his response was far more personal. “Whatever it takes.”

  Jeremiah nodded, understanding completely. He stepped inside the elevator and let the door slide shut.

  40

  Evalene

  LEAVING THE OTHERS WAS probably a bad move, but Evalene couldn’t think straight. The only thing she could focus on was that her mother might still be alive… but not for much longer.

  Jeremiah stood by her side in the elevator, tense. The ride up to the 105th floor was short, only 16 floors away, but it felt like it took ages.

  As they passed 100, Jeremiah whispered, “Remember, as far as anyone knows, we’re employees. Try to blend in.”

  Evalene didn’t take her eyes off the silver elevator doors, but she nodded. She didn’t know what to expect. They should form a plan, some reason for their arrival at least.

  But her mind drew a blank.

  When the doors slid open to reveal the 105th floor, it was a drastic change from the dull gray prison below. Everything shone white from floor to ceiling. The glare of the lights was so bright, Evalene had to squint while her eyes adjusted. The pristine environment opened onto a hall with multiple rooms once more, but this time every room had a wide window spanning the entire length of the room, making it easy to see the activity inside.

  It was spotless. The clean environment mixed with the view of people in scrubs on the other side of those doors instantly led to the sense they’d entered a hospital. Except Evalene knew those patients under the knife were not there willingly.

  Now that she was here, her feet felt glued to the floor. If her mother was in one of those rooms, Evalene was terrified to think what they might be doing to her. How would she save her?

  Jeremiah took over. He tugged her out of the elevator. “Act like we’re arriving for a shift,” he whispered, striding into the hall. Evalene followed. It smelled like disinfectant. He led the way to a large cart in the corner full of blue scrubs, just like the ones the surgeons were wearing in the operating rooms.

  From here, they were hidden enough that none of the surgeons
would see them unless they stepped into the hallway. Jeremiah picked up a pair of light blue scrub pants and a boxy light blue scrub top. Evalene picked up a matching set. With a quick glance around, they donned the items over their Archland clothing. Wearing a third layer of clothes now, Evalene started sweating, despite the cool temperatures on the surgery floor.

  “What if they’re operating on her right now?” Evalene whispered, turning toward Jeremiah. She stared at his chest, unable to look at him.

  But he responded by pulling her into his arms. His heart beat calmed her and she breathed in deeply. “Let’s get a look in each room first,” he replied as he let go, but held onto her hand, squeezing once. They turned to face the hallway together. “We’ll figure out what to do once we find her.” He said it as if he was certain they would.

  He let go of her hand, and they moved out of the corner into the hall. Evalene noticed a yellow cart outside every surgical room with boxes of gloves and masks on top. She snatched a mask off the nearest cart and immediately put it on, hiding her face, handing a second mask to Jeremiah. The surgeons huddled around the operating table with their backs to the window.

  When one of them turned around, Evalene fiddled with the gloves in the box as if putting them on, while Jeremiah moved to lift the patient’s chart out of the slot, studying the clipboard. The technician never glanced their way, only moved to get another tool, before returning to the table.

  They only had to wait a few more seconds before the surgeons shifted and Evalene finally caught a glimpse of the patient on the table.

  A dark-skinned man rested on top, wearing only a thin blanket over his lower half. His eyes were closed as if sleeping, except for a machine attached to his mouth, likely keeping him in that state.

  Though she wanted to turn away and continue looking for her mother, Evalene stood transfixed to the same spot, staring at the hand they were sewing on. Not only was the skin tone of the hand a pale-white, but the wrist and hand were slender and feminine. She choked.