Silent Symmetry (The Embodied trilogy) (16 page)

I wolfed down the food, hardly looking at her for a few minutes. When was the last time I’d even eaten, I wondered?

Aranara leaned forward, smiling her brilliant, calming smile.

“I know you have a zillion questions, and now you’re going to get some answers.”

I must have been getting some kind of MSG rush or something, because I suddenly felt lightheaded. I gulped down half the can of soda and caught my breath. I looked at her. She looked at me. It struck me that the calmness that overcame me in her presence was exactly how I felt when I was with Noon. It must be a talent than runs in the family.

I leaned back in my chair and tried to get my thoughts straight. It really wasn’t easy.

“Okay, where am I?”

“Good question!” she answered perkily, like a kindergarten teacher to an eager four year-old. “
New Jersey. You’re only half an hour from home.”

I ate some more food, mumbling through a mouthful of snow peas and sauce, “But why did you bring me here? Did Cilic drug me or something?”

“Something like that – it was the only way, but you don’t need to worry, there aren’t any after effects.”

Was she kidding? I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience.

“So?” I continued, “Why am I here?”

But before she could answer, my brain refocused and the horrible-pit-of-my-stomach feeling flooded back. I had broken away from Aranara’s gaze for a couple of seconds. Just long enough to pay attention to something that should have been obvious the moment I entered the room. There was only one door. The door back into the pyramid room. And that room only had one exit too: the one I’d taken into the room I was sitting in now. How could that
possibly be?

I turned around to look back at the open metal door, rechecking my
observation to make sure I wasn’t crazy. Okay, I thought to myself, maybe I am. Yes, in fact that’s the only explanation, isn’t it? I’d completely lost it at some point (though being crazy, how could I even know when?) and, oh, I know – I must be in an institution right now and I’ve been given meds that make my brain all fuzzy but at least I won’t harm myself or those around me. Maybe that explains the whole Mom conversation. If I had gone nuts, of course she would have acted exactly like that, like nothing was wrong, not even wanting to bring up the tragedy of Dad’s death for fear of setting me off again or something.

So I’m a lunatic. This is what it’s like.

Hold on – what if it’s all just a dream? Yes, this is exactly the kind of thing that happens in dreams. Am I still in Cilic’s car, dreaming all this? Or even back in Florida? Or even in New York? Oh em gee – what if I’m, like, still in Wisconsin and none of this ever happened?

This was effing hardcore.
If I wasn’t crazy before, I was doing an awesome job of making myself crazy now...

“Kari,” said Aranara.

I snapped out of my self-diagnosis.

“Just eat,” said Aranara, “and let me explain.”

I ignored her, picked up my phone and dialed 9-1-1. She didn’t flinch. Then I saw why – there was no signal. But I’d spoken to Mom... Oh, right, that was over wi-fi. But now there was no internet either.

“I know you’re scared, but don’t be, Kari.”

I could feel my heart pounding and beads of sweat starting to prickle on my forehead. I’d never felt like a rat in a cage before, but I did now.

“Let me start at the beginning,” she continued. “When we gave you a lift home from school the first time we met, I took something from you. A hair from your hat. I kept it in a locket until your
DNA could be analyzed.”

“My
DNA?”

My thoughts started spiraling even more out of control.

“Eat some more, Kari.”

My appetite had vanished.

“Why, Aranara? Is the food drugged too?”

She threw back her head and laughed. She was so engaging, so un-threatening. So beautiful. No wonder Cruz had fallen in love with her so quickly. Maybe true love never takes long, what did I know? Wait – focus, Kari, focus
...

“How can I trust you?” I asked, pushing a food box away from me and leaning forward on my elbows. That was when I realized that the surface of the table was kinda squishy. Weird. Oh man
, really – focus, focus!

“Please, just let me talk,
” she asked politely.

“Fine.”

“All this is for you.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“You’re special, Kari. You have no idea how special. The Temple of Truth knows it and that’s why they brought you to New York.”

“But they hired
Mom and I just came too!”

“Lots of things aren’t what they seem,” she said. “I’m not what I seem and
Noon isn’t what he seems. We’re not from here. We’re not even human.”

I stared at her. This wasn’t something I was expecting to hear.

“We are Embodied. These aren’t our real forms.”

I w
as too rational to accept this.

“You mean you’re, like, aliens?” I asked skeptically.

“Much more than that. But we’re here to save you.”

“Save me? From who?”

“No, not you, to save everyone. The whole world. In fact, the whole universe.”

Ahhh
... so in fact it was Aranara who was insane. Or both of us.

She sm
iled at my scornful expression.

“I know you think I’m crazy. Why wouldn’t you? But it’s true. And if
Noon was here, he’d tell you the same thing. The trouble is, he’s been manipulating you all this time.”

“
Noon really cares about me,” I argued.

“Yes, you’re right,” she admitted. “But that’s the problem – he’s gotten too involved and the other members of the
Temple of Truth made him leave before he could mess up the whole project.”

“What do you mean? What project?”

“You’ve seen your mom’s office, haven’t you?”

“Uh-huh
...” (though how did she know?)

“You’ve seen what they’re working on – a huge worldwide genetic database.”

I nodded. Feelings of dread were gathering like enormous storm clouds.

“It isn’t just a database, Kari. The
Temple of Truth has been around for a long time. Longer than you can imagine. Longer than any real religion.”

I flashed back to the ancient Greek book in the ToT apartment. And the pictures of
Noon and Aranara.

“Are you in the
Temple of Truth?” I asked her.

She hesitated. “Not
... anymore.”

“Okaaay
... and this is why you and Noon don’t speak to each other?”

“It’s far more complicated than that.” She stood up, hands on her hips. “But I don’t want to waste time talking about us. There’s a threat to this universe and you are the key to saving it.”

“What do you mean, ‘this universe’?”

She smiled condescendingly. “Are dolphins intelligent, Kari?”

“Sure. I guess.”

“You’re right – they are. But what do you think about their perception of the world? Do they know the Earth is round? Do they know what the stars are? Do they know about gravity? Do they – ”

“Okay, okay,” I interrupted. “I get it – they aren’t as intelligent as people.”

Aranara shook her head. “No, that’s not what I’m trying to make you see. No matter how intelligent they are, there’s stuff that they can’t possibly understand. And it’s the same for human beings. You’re poking around in space, flying up in rockets a few miles out of the Earth’s atmosphere, landing on your moon, looking through telescopes, coming up with your theories. And no matter how much information you collect or how many theories you have, you can’t interpret the universe except by comparing it to what you already know. And what you already know is sitting on that chair in front of me. It’s a human body with eyes to detect light and ears to detect sound. It has a pretty amazing brain that takes the information your eyes and ears have collected, then uses it to come up with a bunch of stories that may or may not help your species survive. But all of your stories, all of your ideas, all of your thought is
... embodied. Trapped in the senses you possess and molded by the stories you’ve already told yourselves about how the world works. But Noon and I are truly Embodied. This isn’t my real form. I’m not from this universe, and I understand more than I can ever get you to understand.”

She paused to give me a chance to process. But I couldn’t. How did I even know whether she was telling the truth? Why should I believe a single word she was saying? Whatever. Whether it was true or not, I had to get out of here and I had to find out whether
Mom was safe.

“Where’s
Mom?”

“In
Paris.”

“You’re lying.”

“Kari. There’s a bigger picture. That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”

“And I need to find out what’s happened to
Mom.”

“She’ll be fine. If you help us.”

“Wow. You bitch. You’ve kidnapped her.”

“Kari, she’s a part of it.”

“Part of what? You’re a bunch of religious freaks.” I put my head in my hands. “Shit, Bob is in on this too, and I set them up.”

I felt sick to my stomach. I had to do something, so I stood up, grabbed the table by the edge and heaved with all my might. It didn’t move an inch, like it was made of stone.

Aranara watched me, motionless, exactly like a spider might observe a fly struggling in its web, every movement smothering the doomed insect tighter in the deadly strands.

I grabbed a chopstick and lunged at her across the immovable table. She dodged out of the way before I even got close to her. The expression on her face never changed. She was serene and perfect.

But suddenly something did change. She looked frightened. And I realized that her focus had shifted from me to something behind me. I turned around to see what she was looking at. All I could see was the open metal door leading through to the empty pyramid room.

“We have to go!” she screamed and grabbed my wrist.

Go where? She put her other hand on my wrist and closed her eyes. That’s when I noticed the sound. It was pure, but somehow distorted. Not a musical note, but not just noise either. It was like something I’d never heard before. Something unearthly. And it was coming from the pyramid room.

Aranara still had her eyes closed, both hands clasped around my wrist. I tried to pull away but I couldn’t. I managed to turn my head around and saw a light in the middle of the pyramid room. But just like the sound, it was a light I’d never seen before. Brightness that wasn’t light. A shining darkness.

When I turned back around, the wall behind Aranara had disappeared. At that moment I was too confused to do anything. I watched as she let go of me and vaulted over the table, knocking food cartons and my can of soda to the floor. The negative light in the pyramid room was getting stronger, the sound was getting louder. Aranara ran to the door, slammed it shut and locked it.

All her serenity had vanished. “Come on!” she yelled.

I was rooted to the spot. Aranara shoved me out of the room through the space where the wall used to be.

And then I was in a different place. And Cilic was running toward me. It was dim. A huge room, like a
n arena. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end as Cilic got nearer with the same panicked expression on his face as Aranara. She locked her arms around me. I struggled to get free. The unearthly sound had been dampened when Aranara closed the door, but now it was piercing through, even louder than before. Cilic stopped running and put his arms around both of us. Part of me was totally freaking out but my mind was somehow disconnected. The vague thought occurred to me that they were protecting me from something. And then everything was silence.

I
started kicking and screaming but couldn’t break free. Aranara and Cilic were locked together, eyes closed, veins in their temples bulging under the strain. I twisted around as best I could and was able to take in more of my surroundings. The disappearing wall had returned. I was being held outside a building within a building. The inner building was the one with the disappearing wall. The outer building had a wooden track running around it that was raised at an angle like a... like... how weird was that? It was a roller derby arena. It was dingy, falling to pieces, but definitely a disused indoor stadium, inside which a rectangular pair of rooms had been built, like two huge white boxes that formed another building in the middle of it.

Then the sound began again. Cilic and Aranara’s grip loosened. They opened their eyes and stared at each other, faces frozen in fear. I ducked down and managed to wriggle out of their grasp. I ran as fast as I could away from them. The arena was dimly lit and there were no exit signs. I sprinted along the track, but with no indication of how to get out, I reached one of the banked corners, crossed the top of the track and started climbing over the bleachers. I quickly realized that there was no way out in that direction.