Closed Hearts (12 page)

Words from their captured thought waves scrolled across the bottom of the screen.

Senator Vellus, can you tell us about the features of your newly finished jacker Detention Center?
She held a palm up to the structures behind them.
I’m sure it would be reassuring to people everywhere, especially the neighbors of the Center, to know that it is truly secure.

Well, I would love to tell you all about the innovative technology we’ve implemented at the Detention Center.
Senator Vellus’s smile was a bright light against the gray backdrop.
But that would undermine our security systems. Let me assure you, this facility is secure, and its location was carefully chosen within the city limits, well away from any populated areas.

By “populated” you mean the regular mindreading population, isn’t that right, Senator?

Exactly.
Senator Vellus nodded.
The Detention Center is buffered by a large abandoned section of the city that doesn’t meet range codes and is generally only populated by individuals suffering from Teledementia.

And it’s not far from the no-readers land known as Jackertown,
the reporter added.

That is true.
The Senator’s face became grave.
The legislators and I revere our Constitutional laws and cherish the protections it provides. But the mindreading population needs to be protected from these mindjacking individuals, much like we strive to keep ordinary citizens safe from Teledementia patients by housing them in demens wards when they are deemed violent. Which is why the Illinois Legislature decided just this morning to create a new rights classification for mindjackers. It’s not their fault that they have a tendency toward violence. It’s quite literally in their DNA to control people’s minds and it’s natural for them use that power. The new Vellus Detention Center will provide a safe place to house these individuals when they commit crimes.

Senator, how will the police handle arresting mindjacking criminals in the first place?
asked the reporter.
Isn’t it true that mindjackers can erase your memory, make you forget that a crime even occurred?

Yes, which is what makes it so difficult to prove when someone has been jacked,
thought Vellus,
much less arrest the mindjacker. This is why we have begun arming the police in the city with the latest anti-jacker technology. There are also special judicial chambers inside the Detention Center that will keep mindjackers under control during trial proceedings
.
The Detention Center also provides—

Julian let out a growl and the screen went blank at his mental command.

“DNA.” He was grinding his fist into the palm of his hand, like he wanted to use it on Vellus’s face. “I knew it would come to that sooner or later.” He took a breath and let it out slow, dropping his hands. “I think sooner is here. Vellus has found a place to keep us. Now, it’s only a matter of rounding up jackers and locking us up.”

“He can’t put people in there just for being jackers! It’s only for people who have committed crimes, right?”

Julian slowly turned to face me. “What crimes? The crime of using your jacking abilities? Of being who you are? Didn’t you hear him? It’s in our DNA to be violent, to commit crimes which are very difficult to prove even happened. Once you’re in Vellus’s Detention Center, I’m sure they will invent some unprovable act that you’ve committed, just to make sure you stay ‘housed.’”

I cringed. Of course the government had no problem doing exactly that when they created the desert camp where they kept thousands of jackers prisoner without even the charade of a trial. But that was secret. People didn’t know about it. How could anyone stand for this to happen in broad daylight, down the street?

Julian saw the wavering on my face. “Yes, that’s where it’s headed, keeper. Don’t forget it. We have to fight it now, before it gets worse. Before people think that jackers are a subspecies, because we’re not. It may take a generation or two, like it did with readers, but eventually everyone will be a jacker. It’s the next evolution from mindreading and they can’t fight it. Until we become the dominant force, we can’t let them put us on the gas and keep us rotting away in prisons. If we let that become acceptable, it will be only a matter of time before someone like Kestrel becomes a hero, rather than having to hide under a rock. Eliminating us will be the next logical step.”

That thought pulsed a chill through me, followed by another realization. “Wait, what are they going to do with the jackers they rounded up today?” My breath caught. My dad was almost certainly captured when I left him behind. Would they take him to the Detention Center? Or would he have a one-way ticket to Kestrel’s secret facility?

“What do you think?” Julian’s voice was low and dangerous. “Vellus has no plans to let them go, regardless of whatever crimes they may or may not have committed. He’s proving the necessity of his detention center by filling it with jackers.”

“But my dad—”

“Is just another jacker to them.”

“But… what about Raf? He’s not even a jacker!”

“Who knows what the gas does to readers?” He swept his hand out to the streets outside Myrtle’s brownstone. “This isn’t a sim-cast, keeper. I very much doubt Vellus cares who gets caught in his sweep. Your pet is simply collateral damage to them.”

The room started to tilt.
Raf
…
in a jail
…
filled with jackers.
My knees went soft and I had to brace myself on the smooth wallpapered wall of the sitting room. “We have to get them out.” The words leaked out of me on a wisp of breath.

Julian cocked his head. “Ah, so
now
you’re starting to think like a mage? Well done! Glad to finally have you with us.” His voice lost the sarcasm and got serious. “Yes, we need to get them out. I’d prefer to get everyone out, but we at least need to get out Sasha and Myrtle, and Hinckley too, if our mission with Kestrel is going to succeed.”

Kestrel? He was the last thing on my mind. “What about my dad and Raf? We have to get them out too!”

“So you’re with me, then?” He arched an eyebrow. “You’re not planning on running back to the suburbs to serve pie?”

I ignored his jibe and pushed off the wall to stand up straight. “I guess that depends.” I took two strides to bring me close enough to glare up into his face. “Do you have a better plan for getting them out of the Detention Center than you had for breaking into Kestrel’s facility?”

Instead of answering, he dropped his voice and edged even closer. “You’re part of this, keeper. Help us fight this, and jackers here will understand who you are. That you’re meant to lead them.” His voice was nearly a whisper now. “You belong here. Tell me you see that now.”

I stepped back again. “The last place I belong is here!” There was no way I was meant to lead jackers anywhere. I pictured my dad and Raf, gassed and on their way to the Vellus Detention Center. “All I want is to get my dad and Raf back. That’s it. You’ll have to fight your revolution on your own.”

Julian’s face fell, then he gave me that examining look again. I wished he would stop doing that. It felt like he was trying to creep into my reptilian brain.

Finally, he nodded. “Of course. You must protect your family first.”

“I’m glad we got that straight.”

Joshua, Dimitri, and Olivia clattered down the stairs behind us, breathless with their news. “We checked with all the cells!” Olivia rushed out.

Dimitri jumped in, his face lit up. “Hinckley made it to Jackson’s cell!”

“Any other mages check in?” Julian asked.

“No one’s seen Myrtle,” Joshua said, his voice tight. “Or Sasha or Ava. And there’s no answer from Yee or Mary.”

“Mary? Hers wasn’t even an acknowledged mage cell yet.” Julian frowned. “Maybe they weren’t targeting the mages after all and it was just a general crackdown. How many are missing altogether?”

“We don’t know.” Joshua stared at his shoes, ragged black canvas sneakers that looked like he’d outgrown them months ago. “Everybody’s kind of… upset. They’re not really sure who’s missing, but everyone says the police have left.”

“It’s okay, Josh.” Julian gave him a grim smile. “You did a fine job.” He stepped past me to the front door and peered through the chiseled glass portal. “It looks like the mist has dissipated. People are returning to the streets.”

Olivia crept up next to him and peeked out. “What are you going to tell them, Julian?”

Julian’s smile warmed as he looked down at her. “That everything’s going to be all right.” He turned the knob and stepped through the doorway. The changelings followed close on his heels, as if they weren’t flooding out into the dangerous streets of Jackertown at night.

Outside, it looked like the aftermath of a war. Jacker bodies littered the sidewalks and steps, their arms twisted at crooked angles, probably felled by butterflies as they ran. Other jackers were attending to them. Or possibly picking their pockets.

A few jackers left the sidewalks to wander into the street. They didn’t gather in clusters like before. They weren’t wary-eyed crews, just disjointed stragglers creeping out from wherever they had found cover. The scent of the gas lingered, creating a halo around the plasma lamps that cast everything in an eerie blue light. The skyscrapers of downtown glittered in the distance, a remote island of normalcy against the cold reality of the police raid that had rolled through the street.

Julian stood at the edge of Myrtle’s landing, Joshua at his right and Dimitri and Olivia perched on the steps below him. He surveyed the wreckage in the street, towering over it, then raised both hands as if he were embracing it.

“Friends.” Julian’s voice bounced off the storefronts across the street, carrying over the stunned silence of the street. “Senator Vellus has decided we need a new home. He’s built a complex just for us, complete with gas and barbed wire.” A murmur rippled through the air. More jackers flowed from their hiding places behind doors and up fire escapes, filling the street with shambling bodies and loose groupings as crews found one another.

“He’s already taken some of us there.” The crowd stilled, listening. There were a few curses, but mostly silence as that information sank in. Was Julian using his ability to affect them? His words alone felt like a stone on my chest.

“They have their gas and their tasers and their shields, but they don’t have
us
,” he said. “They can’t own our hearts and minds, unless we let them.
We
are the more powerful ones here, friends.
We
are what humanity will someday become. The Senator Velluses of the world cannot stop us any more than they can stop a bullet once it is fired.”

Every face was focused on him.

“I promise you, this act of violence is only the beginning. But not the kind Senator Vellus imagines. It is
our
beginning. The beginning of a future where we don’t hide who we are, or cower in the dark, or run from gas and butterflies. A future where you will have the lives you deserve.”

Was it only the power of his words that lit their faces with hope? Or was he slipping into their minds to stir their instincts? I couldn’t be sure, but Julian’s words vibrated through me as I hovered in the doorway.

“A few have fallen today, but we cannot let them pick us off one at a time, like sheep. We cannot afford to be divided by crews or clans any longer. If we come together, if we work together, the readers and their police will have no chance against us.”

There were murmurs of agreement. Anger pulsed like a live thing through the air. I took a half step back and gripped the peeling wood of the doorframe. I couldn’t decide if the crowd’s response was alarming or exciting. My body hummed from the energy of the group outside, but Julian’s words also set my nerves on edge.

“Go back to your crews,” Julian said. “Report your missing to one of the mage cells. No matter where you come from, we are all one crew today. I promise you…” He paused. “I promise you, we will get our loved ones back.”

Someone gave a cheer that was echoed by several others. Julian raised a hand to the crowd, then turned back to me. An audible chatter swelled up from the jackers milling in the street behind him.

Julian’s face was lit with the same hope and fire and anger of the crowd.

“That’s a lot of promises,” I said from the doorway. Julian’s idea that someday jackers could have normal lives, not having to hide or be afraid, made me want to cheer, just like the crowd. But the thought of all those jackers working together also terrified me. They weren’t all as altruistic as Julian, or even most of them. Fear already ran rampant through mindreaders’ heads, and that was with most jackers still rooking as readers so we could have normal lives. How much worse would it be if jackers banded together, pumped up by Julian’s revolutionary talk? How much easier would that make it for people like Vellus to lock us up?

I backed up, making room for Julian to step into the entryway. The changelings gathered around him, drawn like magnets, and I let the door slowly close on the scene outside.

“What can we do?” Olivia asked.

“We want to help!” Dimitri said. They were falling all over themselves to sign up for whatever revolution he had planned.

“What should we do, Julian?” Joshua asked. I shook my head slowly and hoped Julian wasn’t planning on including the changelings in whatever scheme he was cooking up. He caught my disapproving look and gave me a wry smile, then turned back to the changelings.

“I need you to be my contractors,” he said, conspiratorially, as if this were all a game. “Can you find your masks and run between the cells? Gather up pictures of the missing jackers and bring them back so we’ll know who needs to be released from the Detention Center.”

All three sprinted up the stairs, no doubt to get their “contractor” costumes.

“Are we only rescuing people on the approved list?” I asked, a little surprised by how sarcastic I sounded.

Julian’s face lost its humor. “I’m not leaving anyone in there, if I can help it.”