Enders (19 page)

“How far can she be before she won’t show on the screen?” I asked.

“About a quarter mile. Depends on whether there are buildings around.”

She drove east for about twenty-five minutes. Then she changed lanes to the right.

“There she goes,” I said.

“I see her.”

She got in the far right lane. We waited a beat and then did the same. After a while, she exited the freeway.

“Stay back,” Michael said.

“You want to drive?” Hyden looked over his shoulder. “I know how to follow someone.”

“You think I can’t drive this thing?” Michael asked. “It’s got a steering wheel and pedals.”

Guys, I said. “Focus.”

Emma turned left. We let two cars slip in front of us, and
then we followed. It was an iffy area of small stores with barred windows and signs in foreign languages and boarded-up auto shops.

“What’s she doing here?” I asked.

Michael nodded. “Strange neighborhood for a rich girl.”

“Did it occur to you she might be jacked?” Hyden asked.

“Could she be?” I touched the back of my head. “What makes you say that?”

“Only that it’s possible. You always have to keep that in mind.”

I thought how that would be. If she was jacked, it would have had to be by Hyden’s father, or one of his people. Wouldn’t they have used her better? Had her talk to me?

“I don’t think she’s jacked,” I said.

She drove down a side street. We kept our distance.

“Dear Emma, where are you going?” Hyden asked.

“There.” I pointed straight ahead.

In the middle of a row of barred stores was one place that was open. A small neon light flickered in the window. A café. A tiny place, kind of a dive.

“That café, see?”

“The princess goes slumming,” he said.

We stayed back, double-parking in the street while Emma pulled into the small lot on the side of the café. It had a chain-link fence, but the gate was open for customers. She got out of her car and went inside.

“Callie, we’ll get out here,” Hyden said to me. “Michael, take the wheel. Park it a couple of blocks away and meet us inside.”

We got out and walked to the café.

“Now, don’t scare her,” I said just before we entered.

“Don’t worry, we’ll play this low-key.”

Inside, dusty maroon half curtains hung above windows thick with dust. Some blues played softly from cheap speakers that muddied the sound. The floors were unfinished concrete. It seemed like the kind of café you’d only go to if you needed to cry into your cappuccino.

One mopey, skinny Ender sat at one of the four tiny round tables, sipping his espresso. He looked like he would have been happier with a stiff drink.

Emma stood with her back to us, at the counter, staring at the airscreen menu. Little holo-mations popped out, illustrating the specials. A bacon sandwich spun around, emitting that bacon scent. A bored Ender barista waited with folded arms while Emma made up her mind.

A scraggly orange cat jumped up on one of the empty tables. I stroked his fur, trying to act casual, while Hyden put his hands in his pockets and glanced around. I’d shut off my illusion dress so it was just white. Hyden was dressed casually, but Emma and I were still in our fancy club wear, grossly overdressed for this place.

The cashier looked at Hyden and me and then looked away. He said something to Emma.

She mumbled something back to him, and then she walked to the back.

“Restroom?” I whispered to Hyden.

“I think she’s slipping out,” he said.

As the cashier turned his back, we followed Emma’s path through a doorway curtain. Our eyes had to adjust in this darkened hallway, but we followed the sound of Emma’s footsteps just ahead. When we passed the kitchen, something
struck me as wrong. It was completely empty. No canisters of food or pickle jars or bread on cutting boards. Emma opened a door at the end of the hallway and exited. We followed, plunging into a pitch-black space.

The lights burst on, harsh white, blinding us. I blinked, and eventually the world came back into focus, but all through the prism of this disorienting light. We faced a huge warehouse-sized space, with various machines, computers, and equipment I couldn’t identify lining the walls.

We’d happened upon the worst surprise party ever. Standing around us, guns drawn, were Emma and a few Enders, one with a splotch on his neck … a silver leopard tattoo. That was the man I’d seen talking to Reece just before she died. Several other Enders stood surrounding us, dressed in dark clothing. It looked like military gear, though like none I’d ever seen. They kept their rifles aimed at our legs.

My heart pounded in my chest.

One of the men ripped my purse out of my hands and pulled my arms behind my back. He cuffed my wrists just as another Ender cuffed Hyden’s.

“What’s going on?” I asked. “Who are you?”

I looked over at Hyden. They were emptying his pockets, pulling out his phone. He was sweating. I knew the touching was killing him, but he struggled not to reveal his weakness as one of the Enders patted him down.

“No weapons,” the military Ender reported.

“Check her as well,” the leopard tattoo said. “Never let it be said I don’t treat women equally.”

The military Ender patted me down and nodded. “Clean, sir.”

“You can’t detain us. We’re claimed minors.” I realized after I said it that Hyden probably wasn’t technically claimed since he didn’t live with his father.

The leopard man stepped up. “If that were true, you wouldn’t be chasing this girl all over town.” He pointed at Emma. “You’d be in your warm home, with your loving grandparents, watching insipid talent shows on the airscreen. But you’re here because you’re Metals.”

Surprised, I looked at Hyden, but he kept his eyes forward. He acted like he’d been imprisoned and interrogated before. Maybe with his father, he had.

“You led us into a trap.” I glared at Emma.

She stood stone-faced. The leopard man was about to respond when someone banged on the door. The leopard man nodded for them to lower the lights. One of the Enders opened the door partway, standing behind it. I gasped when I saw who stood on the other side.

Michael.

He was squinting, trying to see in the dark. Someone put a light on me.

“Callie!” Michael smiled with recognition.

“Michael, no, run!”

But it was too late. He stepped inside like an unsuspecting fawn stumbling into a hunter’s trap. The lights came on and one of the Enders snapped cuffs on his wrists. Poor Michael stared wide-eyed at the scene in front of him.

Hyden and I sat on hard metal chairs, our hands still cuffed behind our backs. The uniformed Enders kept guard over us, but the leopard man and Emma had taken Michael through a door to the left. Large airscreens were projected on the
wall, monitoring the “café” that was empty now. The charade was all for us. The sad customer and the bored barista both entered, sporting their black uniforms and no longer sad or bored.

Why did they take Michael away?

“What’re they doing with him?” I asked Hyden.

A uniformed Ender nudged me with the nose of his rifle. “Quiet.”

The cold metal against my skin made me flinch. Why, why, why? Why were we there? All I wanted was a normal life with my brother, and here I was, a prisoner again. Only this time it wasn’t Institution 37.

It was a lot worse.

Besides the airscreens, there were special projections in the room that transformed the space. It cycled through different scenes accompanied by scents and soft sounds that matched the scene. Right now it was a bamboo forest rustling in the wind and a grassy perfume. I didn’t know if this was their idea of decorating the warehouse space or if it was some special technique to keep us disoriented. If it was the latter, it was working really well.

Hyden glanced over at me. His eyes communicated sadness. He sighed and closed them a moment. I knew it was a “sorry” gesture.

If I had been allowed to speak, I would have told him it wasn’t his fault. I was the one who had insisted we follow Emma. If I hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t be handcuffed here, and Michael wouldn’t be off in some room possibly being tortured.

My eyes blurred. I knew what that meant. Another memory of Helena’s was coming on. My sight soon sharpened to
show me a vision as clear as an Xperience. I was in Helena’s bed with the canopy, in the moonlight. I turned on the table lamp and slipped out of bed to the open closet. The carpet was pulled back, exposing the hidden compartment in the floor. I lifted the lid to the case and saw the gun inside.

I picked it up and held it against my cheek, feeling the power it contained. The metal was icy cold.

The memory ended abruptly—like I’d woken from a dream. I was freezing. I shivered but couldn’t shake the memory. Her memories seem to come on most during times of stress. Sometimes they helped me. But I couldn’t see any meaning in this one. Just one more sign that my brain really didn’t belong to me.

I was very much awake and aware, here in the bamboo forest environment.

Hyden’s head was forward and his eyes were closed. Asleep? I couldn’t tell.

The door to the side room opened, and the leopard man came out. Alone.

“Bring the girl,” he said.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Hyden’s eyes opened as one of the military Enders came over and yanked me to my feet.

“What about him?” the Ender asked the other guard.

“Just the girl,” the first one said.

“No, take me!” Hyden shouted. “I’ll go instead!”

“You’ll get your turn,” his guard said as he kicked him in the shins.

My guard pulled me harder, through the door on the left, and then shoved me into a small room. It had the projection illusion of being inside a rock cave. He pushed me into a metal chair.

“You can go,” a voice said to the guard. It was the leopard man.

The guard hesitated, as if I were some kind of dangerous assassin he didn’t dare leave with his boss.

The leopard man stood with his hands on his hips.

“Yes, sir,” the guard said, and left.

Leopard Man wore a black long-sleeved knit shirt and
black jeans. He kept his white hair as long as a mane. In fact, when he walked around my chair, I was reminded of a lion on the prowl, stalking his prey. He examined my face from every angle. Then he went to the back of my chair and pushed my head forward. He parted my hair, exposing my chip insertion scar. I felt his cautious fingers probing it.

“What are you doing?” I said.

He ignored me. After a moment of examination, he moved away, and I raised my head.

“You have no right to keep us here. I want a lawyer.”

A sharp laugh blew from his lips. “You think we care about rights? Lawyers?” He bent so we were eye to eye. “You’re mine. Like a doll. I’ll do what I want, when I want.”

I detected a slight accent, but it was too subtle to place. His eyes were gray-blue and lined with fine wrinkles. His face might have been called handsome once, but now it was just cruel. His hands were rough, with large knuckles and calluses. I had no doubt he was capable of any level of torture.

My eyes scanned the room. Two doors. Nothing that could be used as a weapon. I looked up at the ceiling. Through the cave illusion, I noticed panels in the ceiling. It might be possible to hide up there.

He came around and sat on the table. He stared into my eyes. I wasn’t sure what he was doing. Was he examining me for something in particular? Or was he just doing it to intimidate me? I refused to look away. Finally, he straightened and walked to the other door.

He opened it, and a female Ender guard with cropped white hair stepped in.

“Take her,” he said.

The wiry guard lifted me roughly by the arm. As she dragged me past the leopard man, I didn’t take my eyes off his. I wanted to show him I would stand up to him, even if it meant dying.