A moment later, the medic appears in the spotlight again, weapon slung low behind his back. He climbs back into the transport and bends down to Cyrus. “Can you stand, sir? We’d like to get you inside.”
Cyrus nods, very shakily, and the medic and I help him up. As we step out of the transport, the light above begins to dim. I look up to see two halves of an overhead door sliding closed, blocking out the blue of the sky and taking the sun with it. We’re plunged into darkness, and it takes a moment for my eyes to adjust. The medic and I half-carry a limping Cyrus across a dim, concrete-lined garage. It’s small and crammed with a couple more transports, but they don’t look like ours. The second transport must have gone somewhere else. Leopold quickly moves ahead of us, waving a hand at a steel door in the wall, which then slides open.
Once inside, I realize the other militia have stayed behind in the garage, and this place, wherever we are, looks more like an apartment than anything else. We stumble into the center of a huge, immaculate studio, with white flooring and couches, and a giant screen at one end. It’s almost like walking into a hazy, glare-filled dream with the sunlight streaming in the wraparound windows.
We’re somewhere in the middle of the city with the towers of ascender apartments surrounding us, all looming higher than we are. The thin spires are a holdover from the pre-Singularity era when these buildings were offices or businesses where humans used to work. Now the ascenders live here, their work done mostly from their spacious and spotless homes.
Which makes me realize: we’re in an ascender apartment.
I throw a quick look of panic at Leopold, but he’s striding toward a group of militia-type humans in a hallway off to the side. I rein in my concern that Leopold’s just taken us from one ascender captor to another and focus on getting Cyrus to one of the couches. The medic leaves, and Cyrus leans back, sinking into the body-conforming cushions like he’s never going to leave.
I bend down next to him. “Hey, this is no time to get lazy on me.”
“So tired,” Cyrus says, and I can see his face start to go slack again.
“Cyrus!” My voice hikes up with concern. I snap my fingers in front of his slowly closing eyes. “Man, you have to stay awake.”
He frowns like he’s not quite sure why I’m bothering him. “Just going to rest for…” His voice fades.
I grab hold of his cheeks and smack them. Not too hard, but enough to make him flail against me. “What the—”
I let out a breath. “No sleeping, man. I mean it.”
He glares at me. “Okay. Right. No sleeping.”
The medic is back, followed by a med bot. Leopold is a half-step behind them. I stand up to give the med bot room. It’s humanoid, low-level sentience, like the one Marcus left caring for my mother. Which is pretty good treatment for humans, and I’m shocked there’s one here in the city. Then again, I’m shocked that militant dissenters are hiding in an ascender apartment, as well. I need to understand what’s going on here.
“I have questions,” I say to Leopold, who’s standing next to me.
“I can imagine.” He measures me with his ascender eyes, then gestures me away from Cyrus and the couch, as if he doesn’t want too many ears overhearing his answers.
I’m hesitant to leave, but Cyrus is speaking in mostly coherent sentences now, replying to the med bot’s queries. He’s probably in good hands for the moment.
The medic notices my hesitation and gives me a nod. “I’ll stay with him, sir.”
“I’ll be right back,” I call to Cyrus over the med bot. He waves, which actually makes me feel better. I follow Leopold to the far side of the room, next to the windows blaring LA sun and heating the room in spite of the environmental controls’ attempt to keep it ascender-cool. I can’t see Agon from here, so we must have traveled a ways during that brief, hectic trip in the transport.
“Why?” I ask Leopold.
“Why are we staying in this well-appointed ascender apartment?” Leopold asks with a small smirk. “Or why did I rescue you from Agon before Marcus could get ahold of you?”
“Why are you involved in any of this?”
Leopold’s eyebrows lift, like he’s amused by me. “Well, that’s a more complicated question. With an equally complicated answer.”
“Try me.” I glower at him, then glance back at Cyrus. He’s propped up now on the couch, probably so he’s less likely to drift off.
“The real question isn’t why or how we got here, but what to do now.”
“Look…” I turn back to Leopold and cross my arms. “I don’t understand any of this. So how about if you tell me what’s going on? Who are these people? And how are you connected to Lenora? Marcus zapped her with some kind of electric weapon. Does that mean… is she…” I swallow. I’m furious about her lies and getting me disqualified, but I don’t want her dead. And with Lenora gone… I have no idea how to find my mother.
I brace my hand against the hot glass, suddenly feeling woozy myself.
“I highly doubt Marcus killed her.” Leopold’s face loses its humor. “He was her second, not that someone like Marcus would allow that to stop his ambitions. I’ve had my suspicions about him from early on, but Lenora refused to believe he had turned.”
My hand on the glass is heating to a painful level. I pull it away. “The Olympics are over. None of that matters anymore. I just want to find my mom and go home. Lenora said she had hidden her away somewhere. Do you know where?”
“I’m afraid not.” Leopold frowned. “And you’re very wrong that none of this matters, Eli. This is just beginning. Now that they have Lenora, your mother may not be as safe as we had hoped for. They’re probably trying to crack her personal key right now.”
“Her what?” My head is starting to throb.
He peers at the mirrored windows of the ascender apartments surrounding ours. “Ascenders are all connected through Orion. But that connection can be… overwhelming. Our personal keys are what allow us to keep our individuality. You can think of it as a kind of barrier or encryption. It keeps us secure whenever we transport or download or upload. It ensures that our backups remain untampered with, so no one can destroy the thing that allows us to have this perpetual life of ours.” He pauses to turn back to me. “It also allows us to keep secrets. For example, your secret. I assume Lenora has told you?”
“She told me something,” I say, my voice rising. “Not sure I believe any of it. And if there’s any truth to it, why not tell me sooner? Why wait until I’m about to ascend and then snatch that away?” The bitterness is still strong in me. I don’t know what I believe about Lenora’s crazy story, but I know for sure she’s responsible for getting me disqualified.
“She didn’t tell you precisely because you couldn’t know and still remain the person you are,” Leopold says gently. “Lenora was convinced that your path needed to unfold organically. That to tamper with it would seriously compromise your development.” He pauses. “How do you tell someone they’re the answer to a question they aren’t even asking?”
Leopold is talking in riddles, and I’m dead tired of ascender nonsense. “All right, whatever. I really don’t care about what Lenora thinks right at the moment.”
“I can understand your anger.” His voice is still calm, not at all disturbed by the rising heat in mine. “But you are still mostly human, Eli. And as you can imagine, humans have few resources for keeping secrets from ascenders. There have been many who have taken substantial risks to keep your existence a secret, including myself. At the moment, I’m completely disconnected from Orion. I personally destroyed my backup to eliminate the risk of the secrets therein being revealed. So, as of right now, I’m as isolated and vulnerable as an ascender can be. In this state, I’m nearly as mortal as you are. One wrong encounter with a security bot, and the only life I have could be snuffed out.” He lifts one eyebrow. “I sincerely hope the risk is worth it. That Lenora is right about you.”
My stomach is slowly curling into knots. The ide
a that ascenders like Leopold are taking this so seriously… it’s sinking the conviction deeper and deeper into my mind that they actually have done something to me. It feels like the truth. But when I consider what that might mean, my mind flies away from it. The ascenders could all be straight-up crazy. I need to just get out of this mess and back to Seattle and my mom.
“Look, whatever Lenora thinks I am… I’m not,” I say with conviction.
Leopold narrows his eyes, regarding me. “What makes you so sure of that?”
“Um… because it’s insane?”
“The Question has been called worse things.” He smirks. “I have to admit, I’m not sure she’s right about you being our answer. But there are some questions worth asking, even if you’re unsure if there will ever be an answer.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t really care about any of that.” The nauseous feeling is coming back, like the world is spinning, only just for me.
He nods, but not like he agrees with me. Like he’s reached some other conclusion about me. It irritates me, turning the acid in my stomach into a roiling torment.
“Look, I just want to get my mom back. Are you sure Lenora is the only one who knows where she is?”
Leopold is about to reply, but a woman’s voice cuts him off. “That is not our largest concern at the moment, but, as far as we know… yes.” Her lilting French accent draws out the yes, and I turn, half expecting to see one of the girls. Instead, there’s a middle-aged woman standing next to us. Disappoint rushes out of me, and I remember I’m not likely to see any of them—Kamali, Delphina, or Basha—again, unless it’s inside an ascender prison. The woman’s dark, intense eyes are familiar, though. She’s short, barely reaching my shoulder. Her commanding stance, feet planted wide, plus the same black-garbed outfit as the rest of the militia, makes me take a guess.
Leopold beats me to it. “Eli, meet Simone Astoria.”
“You’re Delphina’s mom,” I say quietly, not sure if she knows yet that her daughter is missing. That the ascenders likely have her.
“Oui,” she says. “You have perhaps seen her performance?”
“She helped me once,” I say, not sure I want to tell her the whole story about Thompson, especially given that I now stand accused of his murder. “And she wanted me to join, well, their plans. For the ceremony.” It occurs to me that I still don’t know anything about the militia or why they broke into Agon to get me. Maybe Delphina isn’t the only one who wants to recruit me to their cause. But still… I hate to be the one to break it to her that her daughter is missing. I stall by glancing at the other militia members still gathered in the hall on the far side of the room. “Are Kamali’s parents here too? And Basha’s?” I throw a quick look at Cyrus, but he’s being fussed over by the med bot and doesn’t hear me.
Mrs. Astoria raises her eyebrows. “No. But I see you have had some experience with the girls.”
That was one way to put it. “I went looking for them after my performance. To check on them.” I shift from one foot to another. “I’m afraid I couldn’t find them, Mrs. Astoria. I don’t know what happened to them.”
“I am quite sure they are in ascender custody,” she says calmly.
My eyebrows fly up. “So you know?”
“Of course.” She dismisses my surprise with a small, black-gloved hand.
Leopold tilts his head to the diminutive Mrs. Astoria. “Lenora said she was keeping Eli ignorant until he was ready to know,” he tells her. “And Marcus is unlikely to have furthered his education in any substantial way. I doubt Eli understands much about the resistance.”
Mrs. Astoria looks me over in a harsh way that reminds me of Delphina and her initial belief that Cyrus and I were nothing but trouble. When she speaks, it’s to Leopold, “And you think he can be trusted?”
Leopold smirks. “I think Eli’s interests align with ours for the moment. And I trust Lenora’s judgment.”
“You’ve broken into Agon to snatch me away, and you’re wondering if you can trust me?” I’m still kind of lost as to everything that’s in play here. I glance at Cyrus, wishing he was up to helping me sort it out. But the bot is administering some kind of meds, and Cyrus is lying down now. I’m on my own with this.
“Ah, well, that is where you are wrong,” Mrs. Astoria says. “The objective of our mission had nothing to do with you, Elijah Brighton. You were, as you say, a last-minute change in plans.”
I frown, even more confused. “What was your real mission?”
She gives a small smile. “To send a message to the ascenders that we will no longer allow them to play their games.”
I stare at Delphina’s mom.
“You want to shut down the games. Permanently.” I have to look down to peer into her eyes, to see that she’s serious. I’m in awe that she thinks she can do this. Or maybe she’s crazy, just like the ascenders themselves.
“Oui,” she says. “The games provide a relief to the ascenders.” She nods to Leopold, who is quiet, waiting for her to go on, but it’s clear this information comes from him. “We are more than just entertainment to them. More than just a possible source of fresh minds to ascend into their ranks. The games are a way of confirming their own righteousness. They tell themselves they cherish us, all while they oppress us and keep us like pets.” She sounds a lot like her daughter now, which I guess is no surprise. “They tell themselves we are happy in our legacy city cages. That we wish to be like them. So much so, that we will send our children to Agon, to risk their lives in the fierce competition of the games and in the ascendance procedure, just to secure one of the few slots available each year. It allows the ascenders the illusion that their choice is the preferable one.”
“But the ascenders know dissenters exist,” I say, not really getting her point. “I mean, you were exiled, right? And the original dissenters were all about disagreeing with the choice to ascend. Especially the believers.”
“But then the choice was taken away, no?” she says. “Do you know why?”
“Because there’s only so much room on the planet?” I stall out, realizing that doesn’t make sense. Not completely. Especially with ascenders having outposts throughout the solar system for decades now.
“It’s true, there are only so many resources on Earth,” Leopold says. “Which is why ascendance was originally removed as an option. If humans continued to reproduce, providing an endless supply of new candidates for ascendance, our numbers would quickly outgrow the planet’s ability to support them. Especially given the energy- and material-intensiveness of the ascender way of life. But the settlements on Mars and Jupiter’s moons are well established now. The asteroid belt provides more metals than we’ll use in a thousand years. And the best estimates put interstellar space travel within a few years reach.”
“Do you see, Eli?” Mrs. Astoria draws my attention back. “There is no longer a plausible reason to deny ascendance to any human who wishes it… save one.”
“What’s that?” I frown, not entirely tracking all this. My mind is still spinning with how fast everything is changing.
“The Question.” Leopold watches me to see if I get it, but I still don’t.
“You mean, whether they have a soul?” I ask. “But… what does that have to do with anything?”
“That is everything, Eli,” says Mrs. Astoria.
“Well, sure, for believers it is, but ascenders aren’t believers…” I trail off because Mrs. Astoria and Leopold are sharing a sly smile, like I’m a child who’s finally figuring out something the adults have known all along. I feel like an idiot, because that’s exactly what Lenora was saying. “You’re a believer,” I say to Leopold, a little stunned. “But… you’re… I don’t understand. You chose to ascend. I mean, maybe it was a long time ago, and now you’re… wait… have you changed your mind?” This thought stuns me so badly, I step back from the close huddle I have with the two of them and bump into the red-hot glass behind me. I flinch from it. The sensation of dangling over the city,
about to tumble hundreds of feet to the sparkling clean streets below, makes my stomach lurch.
“Ascenders are not a homogenous lot.” Leopold says this like it should be obvious, and I suppose it should, but it honestly never occurred to me that there could be disagreement on something so fundamental. “There are many thoughts, many perspectives. The people who ascended came from all possible religions and countries and philosophies. Ascendance brought all of those into a giant rushing discourse that lasted many years. The early days of Orion were fraught with discord until a consensus emerged that finally swayed the majority. That was when ascendance was cut off, and while I agree with my compatriots in the resistance that ascendance should be reinstated as an option for all…” He inclines his head to Mrs. Astoria. “…I am profoundly glad that you, and your fellow legacies, have been preserved. Until we could come to our senses about The Question. However, that time is not yet here. The Question is still whispered in secret. It remains a dangerous idea. But, perhaps, the time has come for it to come out into the open.”
“But why now?” My head is still wrapping around the idea that there might be ascenders who think their ascendance was a mistake. “I mean, what does all this have to do with the games?”
“Our original plan,” Mrs. Astoria says, “was to wait until the gold medalists took the stage. We could not be sure that my daughter would be counted among them, which was why we were quite blessed that her friend came to understand the worthiness of our cause. Of course, with Delphina taking the gold as well, we were very excited. Our message would be even stronger when my daughter and her friend made their defiant statements from the stage. It was then that we planned to amplify that statement with an assault on Agon that would be shown worldwide across the nets, human and ascender alike. We would pluck our defiant medalists from the stage, saving them from the ascenders’ judgment while at the same time destroying that symbol of our oppression, our status as puppets for the amusement of the ascenders… along with as much of the stadium and the bodyforms therein as possible.”
The Legacy Human (Singularity #1) (Singularity Series) Page 25
