The Legacy Chronicles_Up in Smoke

by Pittacus Lore

  “Kill him?” said Sam. “You want us to kill him?”

  “We—I—believe that Bray is currently the single most dangerous threat to the Garde,” McKenna said.

  “What about everyone working for him?” said Six. “If he’s doing what you think he is, there are going to be lots of people involved. Drac, Dennings and Cutter are probably just the tip of the iceberg.”

  McKenna nodded. “Agreed,” he said. “But Bray is also a despot, a control freak. I’d be surprised if he’s trusted anyone else with all his secrets. If he’s taken out of the equation, the rest will scatter like rats leaving a sinking ship, and we can pick them off one by one. But as long as he’s alive, they think they’re invincible.”

  “What if there are kids there?” said Six. “According to some of the ones we rescued, there are more at camps and hideouts and whatever all over the place. What happens to them if we take out Bray?”

  “I understand your concern,” McKenna said. “And I share it. But the fact is, we’re running out of options. Bray is obviously unstable. And now he’s desperate. We don’t have time to try to infiltrate his organization again or do any of the large-scale things we would normally want to do in a situation like this.”

  “Yeah, but this is superrisky,” Sam objected. “What if they decide to just kill all the Human Garde they have?”

  “Bray is going to kill them one way or another,” McKenna countered. “Either through his attempts to manufacture the serum, through the battles he forces them to engage in or by letting other people pay for the experience of hunting them. As I said, we’ve run out of time. Bray will expect us to come after him, so he’s likely sped up his activities.”

  Sam sighed. “When do you want us to go?”

  “One hour from now,” said McKenna. “That gives you time to pack whatever weapons and gear you need and for me to finalize backup for you there.”

  Six wanted to protest, but Sam stood up. “Okay,” he said. “We’ll see you in an hour.”

  He left the office. Six followed. “Hey,” she said, catching up to him as he made his way down the hallway. “What’s going on? You didn’t even put up a fight back there, and I could tell that you wanted to.”

  Sam stopped. “Something’s not right,” he said. He looked back in the direction of Nine’s office. “He’s not telling us everything.”

  “Obviously,” Six said.

  Sam started walking again.

  “The armory is the other way,” Six said.

  “We’re not going to the armory,” said Sam, continuing to move. “We’re going to the dorms.”

  Six followed him. “Why?”

  “To talk to Seamus,” Sam said. “When we were on the ship, he told me there was something I should know about his father.”

  “He didn’t say what?”

  “We were kind of in the middle of a situation,” Sam said.

  “How come you didn’t tell me this before?”

  “We had a lot going on,” said Sam. “Remember? And honestly, I sort of forgot about it until things got weird in there just now.”

  “Do you think he’ll talk to us?” Six asked.

  “Maybe,” said Sam. “Maybe not. Don’t you think it’s weird that McKenna hasn’t been spending more time with him since we got back? Now that I think about it, I don’t even remember seeing them reunite when McKenna came to pick us up.”

  Six thought back to the night before. “I don’t either,” she said. “But like you said, there was a lot going on. A lot of kids to keep track of. I wasn’t really paying much attention to Seamus.”

  They reached the elevators, and Sam pressed a button. “Let’s see if he’s in a talking mood.”

  They took the elevator to the third floor. Getting off, they walked into the common area. There, several students were sitting and talking, including Nemo, Rena and Max. Seeing Six and Sam, they jumped up and came over.

  “Nemo just told us about Ghost,” Max said. “Is it true she’s one of the bad guys now?”

  “I didn’t say she was a bad guy,” Nemo objected.

  “I think Ghost is upset and confused,” Sam said. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to help her.”

  “What about Edwige?” said Rena. “Have you found out where she is?”

  “Not yet,” said Six. “But we’re looking.”

  “Do you guys know where we can find Seamus?” Sam asked them.

  “He’s in the room at the end of the hall,” Nemo said. “I tried to talk to him, but he hasn’t said much. Why? What’s going on?”

  “Nothing,” said Six. “We’re just checking on the new recruits and want to make sure he’s settling in.”

  Nemo cocked her head and narrowed her eyes, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, she just pointed. “Room three three nine,” she said. “Good luck.”

  Sam and Six walked down the hall. When they reached the room where Seamus was staying, they knocked. There was no answer, so Six rapped on the door again. “Seamus? It’s Six and Sam.”

  A few seconds later, the door opened. “What do you want?”

  “To talk,” Sam said. “See how you’re doing.”

  Seamus looked past them. “Is my father with you?”

  “No,” Sam said. “It’s just us.”

  Seamus turned and walked back into the room, leaving the door open. Taking it as an invitation to go in, Six and Sam entered. Sam shut the door behind them. Seamus went to the window and leaned against the ledge. He folded his arms over his chest. “Did my dad send you?”

  “Actually, no,” said Six.

  “We don’t have a lot of time,” Sam said, echoing McKenna. “So I’ll get right to the point. On the ship, you said there was something I needed to know about your father. What did you mean?”

  Seamus looked away. “Nothing,” he said. “I didn’t mean anything.”

  “Are you afraid of him?” Six asked.

  Seamus didn’t answer. He turned and looked out the window at the nighttime sky.

  “Seamus, when your dad first told us about you, he said that you ran away because you didn’t want to come to the HGA,” Sam said. “Is that true?”

  “No,” Seamus said softly. “I wanted to come here.”

  “Then why didn’t you?” Six asked.

  “That’s a long story,” said Seamus.

  “You don’t seem very excited to be here now,” Six observed. “Or to be reunited with him.”

  Seamus turned around. “Did he tell you about my sister?”

  “Only that you liked to use your Legacy to scare her,” Six answered.

  Seamus smiled, but sadly. “Yeah,” he said. “I did do that. Cat was terrified of bugs.”

  “Why do you keep talking about her in the past tense?” Sam asked.

  “Because she’s dead,” said Seamus. “He didn’t tell you that either?”

  “I’m getting the feeling there’s a lot we don’t know about your family,” Sam answered.

  “Well, if there’s one thing my father is good at, it’s keeping secrets,” Seamus remarked. He moved from the window to the bed and sat down. “Cat—Catriona—and I were twins. When I developed a Legacy, my father thought Cat might, too. When she didn’t, he decided to see if he could make one happen.”

  “You mean like—” Sam began.

  “Like what Drac was trying to do?” Seamus said. “Basically. Only he had a whole team of government scientists working on it for him. And it was supposed to be safe. As we found out, though, it wasn’t. At least, not for Cat.”

  “What did they do to her?” Sam asked.

  “I don’t even really know,” said Seamus. “Some of it involved using my blood for transfusions. Bone marrow. Spinal fluid. They thought maybe whatever had been activated in me would activate in her.”

  “And she went along with it?” said Six.

  Seamus nodded. “She wanted us to be the same,” he said. “She always did. I mean, we both did. If one of us had something, we wanted the other one to have it,
too.”

  “But you didn’t want her to have a Legacy?” said Sam.

  “No, I did,” Seamus said. “At first. But when I saw what all the experiments were doing to her, I told my dad I wanted to stop. Cat, though, she wanted to make our father happy. Especially after what happened to our mother.”

  “So the part about her dying in the Mog attack was true?” Six said.

  “Yeah,” said Seamus. “After that, my dad became obsessed with Legacies and the Garde.” He looked from Sam to Six. “With you. That’s when he started campaigning to start a special task force. He didn’t tell you any of this?”

  “Not exactly,” Sam said. “And none of that about you and your sister.”

  Seamus shook his head. “I think he went a little crazy,” he said. He took a deep breath. “Anyway, then Cat got really sick. I don’t even know what was wrong with her, exactly. But I know it had something to do with what they were doing to her. What I was helping them do to her. When she died, that’s when I ran.”

  Six didn’t know what to say. She knew what she wanted to say, which is that she knew they should never have trusted McKenna. But she wasn’t about to say it in front of Seamus. If he was telling them the truth, could they believe anything McKenna had told them? And who was he really working for? She suddenly had a lot of questions.

  Sam looked at his watch. “I hate to say this, but we need to go. Seamus, I want you to tell Nine everything, okay? He’ll believe you. And he’ll make sure nothing happens to you. When we get back, we’ll sort this out. Okay?”

  Seamus hesitated, then nodded. “Okay.”

  Back in the hallway, Six found her voice. “Do you believe him?”

  “We have no reason not to,” said Sam as they walked.

  “So, what do we do? If what Seamus says is true, we don’t even know who we’re really working for. For all we know, they’re using us to find this serum for themselves.”

  “I think we need to hear McKenna’s side of the story,” Sam said.

  Six groaned. “Why do you always have to be so . . .”

  “Objective?” Sam suggested.

  “I was going to say irritating,” said Six.

  They passed through the lounge, which was now empty. Six was relieved, as she wasn’t in the mood for pretending everything was all right in front of Nemo, Max and Rena. She waited impatiently for the elevator, and once they were in it, she tapped on the wall with her nails until the doors opened again and she and Sam were heading back to Nine’s office.

  She didn’t knock. She threw open the door and went inside. McKenna was there, holding a cell phone to his ear. When he saw the look on her face, he said, “I think I need to call you back,” then slipped the phone into his pocket.

  “Is something wrong?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” Six said as Sam shut the door. “That’s what we’re about to find out.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  SAM

  POINT REYES, CA

  “WHO WERE YOU TALKING TO JUST NOW?”

  Sam faced McKenna, waiting for an answer.

  The man started to answer, stopped, then said, “Karen Walker.”

  “FBI agent Walker?” Sam said.

  McKenna nodded. “Although she’s no longer with the Bureau. She now oversees a group called Operation Watchtower.”

  “And you’re working with her?” Six asked.

  “Yes,” said McKenna. “So are you.”

  “Whoa, you’d better back up,” Sam said. He knew Karen Walker, of course. Although she had initially worked with the Mogadorians in a misguided attempt to gain access to their technology, she had realized her error and sided with the Garde to fight against them. Her aid was instrumental in preventing the Mogs from conquering Earth, and Sam and the others were grateful for that. But he had never fully trusted her. She was ruthless, driven, and calculating. Hearing that she was somehow connected to what he and Six were doing with McKenna did not make him happy.

  It made Six furious.

  “You lied to us,” she said. Sam recognized the tone in her voice. If McKenna didn’t respond in a way that defused the situation, she was going to explode. Or walk out.

  “No,” McKenna said. “I didn’t lie.”

  Those were not the right words. Six turned to Sam. “I told you—”

  “I didn’t know myself,” McKenna said.

  “What do you mean?” Sam said. “How could you not know?”

  “I knew about Watchtower,” McKenna answered. “But there are several aspects to the program, each with distinct responsibilities. Mine—ours—is to address issues related to Human Garde activity. Karen Walker’s directive is different. Only when our assignments started to overlap was I put in contact with her. Until then, I didn’t know she was involved.”

  “What do you mean ‘overlap’?” Sam asked. Six was still standing there, and he took the fact that she hadn’t stormed out of the room as a positive. But she wasn’t saying anything.

  “When we discovered that Bray is potentially trying to weaponize Legacies, that crossed over into Walker’s territory,” McKenna said.

  Now it was starting to make sense.

  “Walker is trying to develop military uses for kids with Legacies?” Six said, breaking her silence. “Tell me that’s not what you’re saying right now.”

  “No,” McKenna said. “At least, I don’t believe so. As I said, I don’t know everything about Watchtower. What I do know is that she’s been a very useful resource.”

  “Oh, okay,” Six said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “That makes everything all right, then. I guess we should also ignore that you apparently caused your daughter’s death by trying to do to her what we’re trying to stop Bray from doing.”

  Sam cringed. He was obviously wondering the same thing after what Seamus had told them, but this was not how he would have brought up the topic. He looked at McKenna to see his reaction. He expected anger, at them or at Seamus for telling them what they knew. Instead, he saw sadness on the man’s face. Deep sadness. McKenna looked as if he’d been gut-punched.

  “What happened to Catriona was terrible,” he said.

  “Terrible?” said Six. “How about criminal? You’re her father.”

  McKenna didn’t respond immediately. When he did, his voice was soft. “I think about her every day,” he said. “I’m doing what I’m doing because of her. For her and others like her.”

  “What you did killed her,” Six said coldly.

  “Catriona was already dying,” McKenna said. “She had acute myeloid leukemia. She wasn’t responding to treatments. I thought—I hoped—that perhaps we could somehow stop or slow the progression of her disease using blood or gene therapy from someone who had developed a Legacy.”

  “Seamus,” Sam said.

  “Being her twin, he already was the best option,” McKenna continued. “Because he has a Legacy, we thought that maybe the regenerative capabilities could somehow be passed to Catriona. It was all extremely experimental.” He paused. “And it didn’t work.”

  “That’s not quite the version we got from Seamus,” Sam told him.

  McKenna took a deep breath. “Seamus took Cat’s death very hard. Particularly after already losing his mother. In his mind, a lot of the responsibility for both things was due to the Garde, the Entity, the Legacies. It all became jumbled together. It gave him something to be angry at, which helped him deal with what he was going through at the time, but ultimately became a much larger problem. And he was angry with me, too, of course. I understand why. He was afraid, and also I suspect felt a little guilty that he was alive when his sister wasn’t. It was a lot for anyone to deal with. I did what I could to hold what was left of our family together, but I was grieving, too. I made mistakes.”

  Sam looked again at Six. The expression on her face had softened. She glanced at Sam, then at McKenna. “It must have been very hard for both of you,” she said. Sam knew this was as much of an apology as McKenna was going to get.

>   “It was,” McKenna said. “It still is.”

  “But we still have questions,” said Six.

  “I’m sure you do,” McKenna said. “Unfortunately, it will have to wait. If you two are still going to Argentina, you need to leave. And if you’re not going, I need to know so that I can make other arrangements.”

  Sam looked over at Six. He raised an eyebrow.

  “We’re going,” Six said. She turned to McKenna. “I don’t know what will happen when we get back, but I want to see this through.”

  Although McKenna only nodded in response, Sam could feel the relief coming from him. Their relationship had changed, there was no way around that, but for now they could focus on a shared goal.

  “Argentina is an unpredictable place,” McKenna said. “Walker doesn’t want to involve their law enforcement or military, and I agree with her on that. Instead, she’s arranged for some of her people to act as backup should you need it. They’ll meet you at the airfield.”

  “No,” Six said.

  “No?” said Sam.

  “I don’t want her people involved,” Six said. “I don’t trust her.”

  “But—” McKenna said.

  “We go alone,” Six insisted. “Or we don’t go.”

  McKenna looked at Sam, hoping for a counterargument, but Sam only shrugged. He knew arguing with Six was pointless.

  “All right,” McKenna conceded. “No backup. I’ve got the most recent satellite photographs of Wonderland and the surrounding area loaded onto tablets you’ll find on the plane. Have you picked up your weapons from Lexa?”

  “We’ll head there now,” Sam said, preparing to go. Then he remembered something. “Who’s our pilot?”

  McKenna looked pained. “You’re not going to like that,” he said. “His name is Ignacio Soto. He’s one of the guys Walker lined up.” He held up a hand. “Before you say no, let me remind you that you’re going to need someone who knows the area. He’s from there. In fact, he’s intimately familiar with Wonderland.”

  “He’s one of Bray’s?” said Six.

  “No,” McKenna said. “His mother was a maid there. He tagged along. Practically grew up there. He can help you get in and out.”