Icons (28 page)

Silence. Then, the grating rattles as Doc’s voice returns.

“The plexi-door is sealed. I have placed a Classified level ten clearance on the entry. Would you like me to alert Timora?”

“No, let me. Thanks, Doc. You’re a real lifesaver.”

“Given Timora’s natural sensitivity to risk, I understand this will be quite upsetting. Please proceed with caution, Lucas.”

“I always do.” He stands up, motioning to me. “You coming?”

I look at the row of Sympa soldiers standing by the door. “Sure. Me and your mother’s army.”

Lucas and I—and at least five soldiers—detour toward Tima’s room on the way to our own. We can hear the screaming from the stairwell, two floors away. When we reach the hallway, I see through a window in the door that Tima and Ro are standing outside Tima’s room, while she stares up at the ceiling in exasperation.

Lucas doesn’t move from the stairwell. Instead, he turns to face the guards. “Leave us.” He speaks slowly and clearly, with a low, steady voice. “Five minutes. That’s exactly how long we’ll be out here. Then you can tell anyone who asks that we’re in our rooms. All four of us.”

I can’t bear to watch Lucas as he focuses his eyes on the Sympas. His pupils begin to dilate, and I have to look away when I feel the familiar warm pull.

Now that I know what it costs him, it’s hard to watch.

“You can swear you’ve locked us up and thrown away the key. Because you will have. You know it’s true.” I catch one last glimpse of his dazzling Lucas-smile. “Have I made myself clear? Any questions?”

Nobody has any. Nobody ever does.

We catch up to Tima and Ro as soon as the Sympas are gone. I’m not sure either one of them saw Lucas dispose of the guards, and I don’t tell them. Having to do it bothers him enough. Having to talk about it, that’s nearly as bad.

“
Amici Nex
? There is
no such thing
, Orwell.” Tima slams against her own door.

“It is not a common toxin, Timora. It is new. You may not have heard of it yet.”

“It’s a joke. A bad joke about a fight between friends. Between Lucas and me, Orwell.” Tima is shrieking. Doc says nothing. She shouts louder. “How can you be so stupid?”

“Strictly speaking, I would have to note that my intelligence is artificial but unlimited.”

I hear barking from the other side of the door.

“Just let me into my room.”

“I am afraid you do not have the security clearance to make such a demand, Timora.”

“Orwell! I’m going to kill you!”

“That is not possible.”

“It is. I will find a way to do it, if it means I have to erase every drive in the Embassy Wik. You know I will. So let me into my room, now!”

Ro is trying not to laugh, leaning against the side of the door. When Tima sees us, she turns and pounds on her door again.

“Doc. I can take care of things from here.” Lucas smiles.

“Would you like a hazmat team to meet you at the room, Lucas?”

“That won’t be necessary.”

There is a long pause before the round grating in the wall rattles again. “Was this in fact a joke, then?”

“Something like that.” Lucas winks at Tima. She punches the door, one last time.

“Was I sufficiently funny?”

I smile up at the grating. “Very. You were the funniest of all, Doc.”

The door slides open, and Tima lunges toward it. I see a glimpse of her room—of action figures and old comic book covers and games. Miniature tanks and tiny toy soldiers.

Brutus, her dog, comes bounding out into the hall and into Tima’s arms, licking her face.

“If you liked that joke, I have an even better one.” And with that, the door slides shut and locks itself again. “Now try your own doors. All of you.” Doc sounds pleased.

“We’re screwed.” Lucas shakes his head.

“Screwed but alone,” Tima points out, though she never takes her eyes off her dog. “Probably for the last time in a while, after the stunt you and—you two—pulled today.” She won’t say my name.

I sigh.

“Did anything really happen today, when we were gone?” Lucas asks her directly now, because in all the chaos, she has forgotten to ignore us.

“No,” says Ro.

“Yes, actually.” Tima looks at Ro. “That’s what I was going to tell you, when you came up to my room.”

“Really, because I thought you said we’d be doing something else. Other than talking.” Ro is teasing her, but she shuts him down with a look. That kind of look, she’s good at.

“Since I got here, I’ve spent a lot of time in the library. I’ve read literally thousands of digi-texts on computers, and how they work. It’s sort of amazing—did you know there is actually a language designed just to communicate with computers, to tell them what to do? Imagine if it were that easy to communicate with people.”

“It is. It’s called words.” Ro rolls his eyes. She pinches him in the arm until he yelps.

“Tima?” Lucas is impatient, shoving his hands through his hair. His nervous habit.

“Sorry. My point is, I’ve figured out how the Embassy computers work, how they’re connected, and where things are stored. Classified things.”

“As in?” I nudge her.

She looks at Lucas, embarrassed. “I should have told you, but I didn’t want the Ambassador to find out. It’s how I get around the guard patrols. I found a way into the security logs.”

Lucas raises an eyebrow. Tima keeps talking.

“It’s this thing, where people used to break into private computers and look at encrypted information. They called it ‘hacking.’ Anyway, I used hacking to access things I’m not supposed to see. We’re not supposed to see.”

Ro snaps back to attention. “So what did you see?”

“Not as much as I’d like. I used Catallus’s terminal to look around in his encrypted files, but I only had a few minutes and didn’t get too far.”

Lucas explodes. “You used Catallus’s private digi? Are you insane? Do you know what he would have done to you if he’d found out?”

“Yes. And I don’t want to think about it. But I found something. Well, to be more accurate, I read something. About us. And the Lords.”

“What thing?” Lucas asks.

I look at her. “Tima?” The energy is rising around us.
My face is growing flushed—but so is hers.

“Not so fast.” She takes a breath. “I also went back to the Hall of Records.”

“How?” I think of the Sympas in the stairwell.

“Orwell and I did. When I asked, he said it was time, and he took me. Opened every door.”

“Where was I during your little recon mission?” Ro looks insulted.

“You went to your room to mope.” Now she finally glares at me. “Ro’s horrible, you know. When you aren’t around. I don’t know how he exists in the world.”

Ro turns red. “That’s not tr—”

She cuts him off. “Anyway, I think I figured it out.”

“What,” Lucas asks.

“It. Everything.” Tima looks smug.

I can’t stand it. “Go on.”

She tries to play it cool but I can tell she’s excited. “I could tell you, but I might as well show you. You’re not going to believe this.” She looks at Lucas. “But everything is in my room. Can you tell Doc to let us back in?”

Lucas sighs, and thinks for a moment. “Doc?”

“Yes, Lucas?”

“I need to get into Tima’s room now. There’s a book of jokes I wanted you to have. I left it inside.”

Nothing happens. Doc is wising up, I think.

“A hundred and one jokes,” Lucas adds.

Still nothing. Lucas sighs.

“A thousand and one.”

The door slides open, almost begrudgingly.

Tima runs back into her room, and all anyone can do now is follow.

Brutus the dog, last of all.

Leta,

I received your messages regarding the purported Icon Children. Understand you have identified four possible candidates.

It is imperative that you maintain close supervision without raising alarm.

Test. Verify. Then reverify.

Most important: tell nobody. This must remain between us. If the opposition finds out, we will have a full-scale uprising.

If the Lords find out who and what they are, and what they can do—God help us all.

—M

The door slides shut, and I look around Tima’s room. I notice the familiar circular gratings, but they are pulled out, wires dangling.

Tima follows my look with a shrug. “I don’t like people, or machines, listening in on me.”

“Agreed.” Ro nods, approving.

“Anyway, we can talk here.”

“So talk,” Lucas says, evenly. He doesn’t want to hear another word, but he can’t admit that. Not to us.

She shoots him a hurt look. “I am. I mean, I will. Listen to this—our birthdays are the same day because we were all cooked up in the same lab, on the same day.” Tima grabs a Wik drive, quivering with a heady mix of fear and excitement.

Brutus licks her hand, and she scratches his ears.

“And based on this new bit of research I’ve so cleverly uncovered—not by moping, I might add, or by showing off for some girl”—she pauses to glare at all of us—“I’ve made a few educated guesses about why we’re all here. Why we’re all different. I think we share a lot more than a birthday.”

We sit on the floor, and a silver digi is laid open between us. Four more sit in a stack, nearby.

“Wait, back up. Did you say cooked? You mean, from the flesh market?” Ro is the one who speaks.

“I can’t believe we didn’t think of it before. It explains everything, at least about our birthday. We’re from the same cycle in the lab.”

“Not me,” says Ro. “I don’t have your birthday.”

“At least, not so you know. But there’s a Costas on the receipt, I’ll show you.”

She jams a drive into a vid-screen. Immediately, text flashes, and she begins to scroll rapidly as she speaks. The words are flying by.

“I don’t know why the full lab report is missing. The Wik doesn’t give a reason.”

“Of course it’s missing,” says Lucas, dully. He looks exhausted, like he already knows he doesn’t want to hear anything Tima is about to say.

“But I did find a form ordering payment to our parents. Wandi and Ruther Costas.” She looks at Ro. “Maria Margarita and Felipe de la Cruz.” She looks at me. “Peter
and Lia Li—those are my parents,” she says, glancing up. “And one Leta Amare. I think we all know who that is.”

Brutus barks.

“We’re a science experiment? Some kind of—research?” Ro’s head is in his hands, as if he were trying to keep it from exploding. “I’m just another piece of Sympatech?”

“No, not Sympatech.” Tima says the words slowly. “Human tech.” She looks around. Waiting.

Lucas gets there first.

“It can’t be Sympa. We were all born a year
before
the Lords came,” he says, quietly.

Slowly, the implications of the truth begin to unfold, for all of us. “Which means somebody knew what was going to happen, before it all happened.” I almost can’t believe the words coming out of my own mouth.

“Someone knew the bastards were coming.” Ro whistles.

Tima continues. “There’s more. When I searched Catallus’s files, I found something. It looked like Catallus’s private stash. There was a big section called ‘Icon Children.’ Since they were all labeled ‘Ambassador Eyes Only,’ I’m guessing he stole them. There were a lot of files, and I only had time to copy a few. About us. And the Lords.” She holds up a portable drive and plugs it into the vid-screen.

I find myself forgetting to breathe.

“Some of the files are tagged as though they were scans of pages from what I think is the book Dol lost. If it is, she’s right, it was some sort of a notebook.”

Tima zooms through a few pages. I see what looks like scribblings written by some kind of mad scientist, with blotches and sketches and things I can’t understand.

“This is really high-level research, way beyond anything I’ve studied. Math formulas, electrical schematics, genetic code, a lot of rambling on about DNA.”

“Okay, now you’re just talking gibberish.” Ro shakes his head.

“Fine, let me keep it simple. For Furo.” She sighs and clears the screen. “Somebody really did figure out the Lords were coming. They also learned about the Icons and what they could do.” She pulls up a file. “Look at this. As far as I can tell, these are transcriptions of communications from the Lords. To somebody on Earth.
Before
they arrived.”

Lucas looks closer. “What? How would that even be possible? The Day was a surprise attack. Nobody knew what was happening before it was too late.”

Tima shakes her head. “I don’t know, I didn’t have time to read all the files. But this looks like somebody actually
communicated
with the Lords and decided to help them.”

Ro leans forward, a grim look on his face. “Who? Catallus?”

“It doesn’t say. Whoever wrote these notes also knew a lot about how the brain works. You know how the Icon can kill people and shut down everything around it? Look here.” She scrolls to a new image. “It says that with a little
help, people could do the same thing. Or, actually, the opposite thing. And I think that’s what we are.”