by Leito, Chad
Asa considered darting off into the jungle in the opposite direction of the Multipliers. He thought that they wouldn’t come looking for him. What would they gain from coming after me? They would probably just go ahead with their mission and forget about me. And, even if they do come looking for me, there is no guarantee that they’ll find me.
Asa decided that running would be his best option. This was his lucky break—this was his opportunity to leave.
But for some reason, he stood still, considering running after them. Even if I am able to convince Allen that I’m a Multiplier for the entire night, they’ll still find out at some point. After we leave Town, we’ll head off for the Hive. Asa felt his stomach drop at the idea of being watched and scrutinized by two hundred fifty thousand Multipliers. Surely someone will figure it out when we get to the Hive. My experience with Multipliers is limited—I would inevitably do something inconsistent with being a Multiplier. And, I’m not a very good liar.
Asa wondered if the Hive was carved out of mountains, like the Academy. Or maybe it occupies a series of enormous sky-rise buildings somewhere. Or maybe it’s not in one place; maybe the entire Hive is spread out and they just communicate electronically. Or, did Robert King say something about it being underground?
Either way, Asa thought that his best chance of survival was to run away. He looked out into the jungle in the opposite direction that the Multipliers had ran. Still, his feet wouldn’t move.
He whimpered.
He knew what was wrong, but had been trying to push it from his mind.
It was Boom Boom’s argument, which said that they should take any measures possible to fight the Multipliers, because if they don’t, the Multipliers will proliferate and take over the world. So, in reality, the best option was to play offense with them—to try to hurt the Multipliers before they built up an army, and destroyed the Academy. Boom Boom’s argument was especially pertinent tonight, when Asa knew that the Multipliers were attempting to gain a serum that would allow them to Multiply over thirty times as often as they were now able to.
Asa felt like crying. Every ounce of him pleaded to go out into the jungle and hide—to save himself. He was emotionally and physically drained. Even though, for some reason, the Salvaserum did not work on him, he still had already gone through the mental strain of thinking that he would become a Multiplier today. And, earlier in the day he had played the Winggame championship, and had been dragged into the waterfall by Rose. He was exhausted. He was terrified of being found out by Allen. He thought of Bruce, lying dead on the floor of the classroom with his throat torn out and his foot blown off.
Asa’s eyes began to sting with tears. He was tired of being scared all the time.
He then thought of how Jen had begun to gasp and cry after the Multipliers left the Lab. She had walked over and cradled Bruce’s head in her hands.
She had cried so hard. She had been miserably upset. But what did she do next?
Asa whispered to himself, “She wanted to follow the Multipliers.”
After everything she had seen, she didn’t let her fear get in the way of what she needed to do.
It was settled. Asa took off into the jungle, but in the direction following the Multipliers, not running away from them. He didn’t know how he would be able to stop them from stealing his father’s serum, of if that was even possible, but he had to try.
The Multipliers were too far ahead of him to be detected. They were much faster than Asa, and were given a considerable head start. Still, he knew that they were headed toward the shore of the Moat, and he dug his feet into the ground, running as fast as he could.
As he ran, Asa tried to mentally prepare himself for how he would act when he next spoke with the Multipliers. He needed to act like there was nothing wrong—like he was supposed to be there—like he was one of them. The person he knew who could do this best was Jen. Asa knew Jen well enough to understand that her cocky exterior was sometimes just an act. She had been living by herself in the post-Wolf Flu world before being taken to the Academy; she was a young woman, who had to develop a tough exterior if she was going to survive in a world with no real authority to step in if someone wronged her.
Think like Jen, he told himself. Do what Jen would do.
Asa ran in between Mount Two and Fishie Mountain and then began the downward slope that led to the edge of the Moat. He knew that he could make the distance much faster if he flew, but he wasn’t entirely sure if Multipliers who had been in the Academy before changing could fly. Not wanting to take chances, he stayed on the ground.
He reached the shoreline a few minutes later and it wasn’t until he was just a few feet from the Multipliers that they came into view in the heavy fog. Asa was exhausted from the run, but he breathed through his nose, trying not to show it.
Act like Jen, Asa thought.
“What took you so long?” Ned barked. Rose and Edna were sharing another cigarette behind him. Michael had his arms crossed, staring Asa down. Joney and Allen looked up to hear Asa’s answer; they were retrieving a hidden canoe from thick bushes by the shoreline.
“I’m sick, ass hole,” Asa said. He felt dizzy; the confident words that he had chosen felt heavy and unnatural in his mouth.
To Asa’s relief, Allen, Edna, Joney, and Rose laughed. Michael and Ned did not; they continued to stare at Asa and their lips didn’t so much as quiver. Ned’s expression was similar to the one he held just before he lost control of his anger and choked Rose out in the Lab.
And if he does that to me, Asa thought, I won’t heal quickly like Rose did. He’d probably just snap my neck.
Joney slapped Ned on the shoulder. “Yeah, Ned! You ever been sick before? Tha boy has got a point! Did yeh not see ‘im move his guts out into tha’ mop bucket? And yeh think he’d be runnin’ in tip top shape after sometin’ like tha’?” Joney squealed out another laugh. Ned still didn’t look convinced.
“Shut up!” Allen ordered. “We’re trying to not draw attention to ourselves, remember? Let’s get into the canoe; we need to set off. Asa, sit in the front by me.”
Asa walked by Ned. Ned scowled and his enormous shoulder muscles seemed to flair. Despite Ned’s demeanor and terrifying appearance, Asa forced himself to stare Ned down as they crossed each other. He hoped that he looked formidable; he felt terrified.
The canoe was rocking back and forth in the edge of the Moat with the gentle waves. Asa hopped into the boat and walked to the front, doing his best not to stumble. Multipliers don’t stumble. The rest of the group quickly followed him. Michael got in last, pushing them off the shore before jumping in. Ned took up the paddle and began to row them across the water. Asa was thankful that he wasn’t the one asked to row; he didn’t want there to be a clear-cut display of his strength.
The fog over the water was so thick that when they were thirty feet away from shore, Asa couldn’t see land in any direction. He had never seen a foggier night in the mountains. Even if Robert King had lookouts posted to watch for Multipliers, the visibility was so poor that the chance of someone spotting the group was very slim.
Ned kept paddling and a humid wind blew over Asa, as cold as ice. The frigid gust made Asa want to gasp, but he refrained. Without the warmth of his suit, Asa’s body was shivering and his teeth were chattering. He looked around at the Multipliers; none of them seemed to be cold. Ninety percent of Rose’s legs were showing and yet she sat smoking another cigarette with Edna as though it was a mild summer day. Asa clenched his jaw and willed himself to stop shivering.
He looked up at Allen, searching for any sign of suspicion, and found none. He really trusts me. He really thinks that I’m a Multiplier. Allen was leaned forward with his big hands interlaced between his knees. He had set his gun on the bench between him and Asa.
Asa’s eyes flickered to the firearm. The weapon was large, powerful. I could probably put a bullet in Allen’s blond head before he even noticed I was going for it. Asa clasped his hands and looked down at the crea
king wooden frame of the boat, trying not to shiver. Going for the gun wouldn’t be wise. It’s true, I might be able to get one shot off, but then what? Michael has a gun too, and so does Ned. I’d live only half a second longer after shooting Allen. And, they’ll probably just go on with their mission as planned after they kill me.
Asa decided that it would be best to wait and see if a better opportunity to sabotage the Multiplier’s plan presented itself. He even allowed himself to indulge in the idea that Robert King could have graduates waiting at the shoreline to take down the Multipliers—to stop them from completing their mission.
But they won’t be there, Asa thought. He remembered talking with Robert King earlier in the day, and being offered protection for the night. Offering Asa protection was a move that only made sense if he thought the Multipliers were going to attack the dance, which they weren’t. Robert King’s only informant had been Stan Nuby, and Allen had been smart enough to insure that Stan didn’t know about their true intentions.
Asa looked up, past Allen, at the spot where Mount Two could be seen on a clear night. Even though he couldn’t see the Mountain, he visualized it in his mind; he could see the configuration of dwellings along the Mountainside. Near the middle, there was Viola’s, and if you walked upwards and to the right a couple hundred paces, you would come to Asa’s dwelling. Asa thought about how he hadn’t entered the place since running into Carmen, the Multiplier Hunter.
He raised his eyebrows at the thought of her. What if she is on the shore? What if she and an army of Multiplier Hunters are going to try to intervene? After considering this for a moment, Asa decided that it was a possibility. There was so much that he did not know about the Multiplier Hunters, however, that he was not able to predict the likelihood of such an intervention.
The paddle dipped into the water, and Ned rowed them towards Town with his thick biceps and back.
“Do you still feel sick?” Allen whispered beside Asa. There was no sympathy in his blue eyes, just curiosity.
“A bit,” Asa said. He wanted to be able to use the excuse of an illness later if there was another display of his weakness or incoordination, in comparison to the Multipliers.
“That’s going to leave a nasty scar,” Allen said, indicating Asa’s bite mark with his eyes. “It will be very important to you when we get to the Hive tonight. Mine is on my arm.” He pulled up his white shirtsleeve to show a hard area of discoloration on his forearm. “They turn lighter with time. After your scar heals, it will immediately be black, and then after a few years, it will be dark gray. After a few decades, it’ll be white. No one knows why. When you get to the Hive, you’ll probably be at the bottom of the pecking order. Your scar lets people know how long you’ve been a Multiplier. The fresher ones have to show respect to those who have been Multipliers before them. That’s the way it usually works, at least. It’s a good system; it’s not just about having a hierarchy for the sake of order. The longer you’ve been a Multiplier, the less humanlike you are. Your body will go through the entire physical change of becoming a Multiplier in the next month, but your mind will continue to change for decades. The longer you’ve been one of us, the more devoid you are of useless, maladaptive emotions. That’s why we like to have our leaders be those who have been Multipliers longest.”
Asa thought of Allen saying, devoid of useless, maladaptive emotions, and thought of how cold and unflinching his eyes had been as he told Rose to kill Bruce. “It sounds like the Hive is pretty organized,” Asa said, trying to sound as though he wasn’t disturbed.
Allen pulled his shirtsleeve down. “It is. There are a lot of rules. Best advice I can give you is to keep your mouth shut for the first few months after you get there. If you piss someone off, they could kill you.”
Asa nodded. “I’ll remember that.” He looked up into the fog. “I have kind of a weird question.”
Allen grunted.
“I know that the plan of the Hive is to change all the humans, but what’s after that? Have the leaders of the Hive talked about what they want to do after they control the world’s population.”
Allen smiled, his black gums gleaming. “Great question. There is a lot of debate. We can reproduce, just like normal humans, so we would obviously start a superior society of our own, with Multiplier generations to come. Some people would like to keep a supply of human prisoners that we could use for enjoyment. For instance, we could buy a human and give him or her to a Multiplier for a special occasion. But that’s not decided. What we do know is that we need a bigger population before we could win a war against the humans. And our mission tonight is going to help us immensely in reaching that goal.”
Allen looked out over the water. High above, crows were cawing in the night sky. Asa wanted to keep Allen talking in hopes that he would reveal a part of the plan that could be exploited. “So how long have you been planning to do this?”
“Volkner came up with the original plan, I’m not sure when, though.” Allen inhaled deeply through his big nose and rubbed his hands together. “I’m nervous. Well, maybe nervous isn’t the right word. I’m excited, I guess.”
Allen picked up his gun and examined it before holstering it in his hip. “Volkner began doing private research about these vaccines on his own. He always told the Hive that your daddy had made some kind of serum that would allow us to Multiply every day instead of for every month. The response was, ‘Great! Where is it?’ Volkner never knew, until late last semester. You haven’t seen Volkner this semester, have you?”
Asa thought back to when he had spied in on Robert King’s office and seen Volkner come in, emaciated and tortured. Instinct told him to keep this story to himself. “No. Haven’t seen him once.”
Allen spat in the Moat. “Well, he’s in Robert King’s custody, so that makes sense. Our Academy informants tell us that King claims he’s punishing Volkner for giving you an unfairly difficult time last semester.” Allen clucked his tongue. “Which he did. We know Volkner did that. He was keeping the Hive very updated on his plans to kill you. But what we believe Robert King is truly punishing Volkner for is his connection with the Hive. We hear that he has tapped some of our phone conversation, and he was monitoring Volkner’s Academy database access. He caught Volkner looking at some extremely off limits files.
“Your father imbedded the vaccines he made deep under the Shop and he put some very odd, very specific security measures in place to stop Multipliers—or anyone, really—from getting to the vaccine. He also made some computer files in which he stored instructions for how to get past these strange obstacles. You are a second semester student, right? Did you have Flying Class this year?”
“I did.”
Allen spat again. Asa could see that his saliva was tinged black. “Well, you know how at the end of the course, there was that obstacle with the spear gun? And then you had to shoot a target, but there was an invisible force field revolving around the room, connected to a clock?”
“I remember.”
“Well, that’s a copy of something we are going to have to get past tonight. Looking at these specific computer files your dad wrote is kind of tricky—there are security traps, and Volkner knew that if he looked through them there was a good chance that Robert King would find out. So, he had a fallback—if he got caught, he was going to lie and say that he was actually looking for ideas for the new Flying Class. I guess I don’t have to tell you that Volkner read the files, and got caught. Robert King didn’t buy the Flying Class excuse, but by this time, the Academy’s education advisors had already approved the Flying Class curriculum, so the spear gun thing stuck. Robert King has been torturing Volkner ever since; he won’t let anyone talk to him. What The Boss doesn’t know is that Volkner gave the Hive all the information he had before he was taken into custody.”
Allen laughed without humor and spat darkly into the Moat again. “Sorry. I produce a lot of Salvaserum when I’m excited.”
Rose leaned back and blew smoke right above her head w
here it mixed with the fog. She slurred, “The craziest damn thing Robert King’s messed up on is that he still trusts his Multiplier’s!” Rose opened her mouth in a ridiculous grin and raised her eyebrows. “He’s an idiot! He let Martin Chandler organize this whole dance thing, and I bet he didn’t even bat an eye when he saw the request for alcohol.” Rose sputtered out a quick laugh. “Alcohol? Is he stupid? This is going to be the easiest thing ever. Most of the Academy is drunk, and we’re just going to slip in and get what we need! What an idiot!” She laughed again, took another drag of her cigarette, and then tossed it overboard.
“Quiet down, Rosey,” Allen said. “We’re almost in Town.”
Asa looked behind him and saw the tall, stone buildings take shape out of the fog. His heart picked up its pace at the sight of land. They were one step closer to getting the vaccine, and Asa still didn’t know what he could do to stop them. Hearing about the extensive planning that went into this mission made him feel sick—hopeless. He had known something was wrong when alcohol was being served at the dance. How can Robert King not notice this? He’s smart, so why could he not see that Martin Chandler was tricking him? Why would Robert King ever trust a Multiplier?
Asa felt a lump gather in his throat, as he reminded himself that the same thing happened to him with Teddy. Teddy had deceived Asa—he had even convinced Asa to walk over to the Multiplier’s lair, like a package for delivery. Asa’s eyes burned with held back tears as he thought of his friend’s betrayal. He had trusted Teddy. He had loved Teddy.
As the canoe landed on the shore and Asa stood up he tried to engrain a thought into his head: Never trust a Multiplier.
With his gasmask attached to his hip, he stepped out of the boat and onto the stone shore.
41
The Shop
