The Taking 02: Hover (13 page)

“No, no, no. Please, no. Please no.”

An arm wraps my waist and pulls me back. “Shhh.”

“No, let me go, let me go.” I fight and kick against Jackson, who is waist deep in the water, angry that he let this happen, angry that I wasn’t here to stop it.

I suck in a breath and wheel around in the water. “How could you?” I sob.

Jackson looks as miserable as I feel. “I didn’t know he was about to do it. I was at the Vortex. I didn’t know, Ari. You have to believe me. I would never have just stood there while this happened. I wouldn’t.”

I bury my head in his chest and cry so hard my body aches from the effort. Jackson helps me from the water, both of us at a loss for words.

Kelvin said they would handle it. He said they would help.

I glance up to Zeus’s building, rage building inside me, and see him standing clearly at his office window, watching, no doubt with pleasure, at his latest evil deed .

…

I arrive at the Vortex fifteen minutes later to find Cybil and the other Operatives out in the field, the RESs running them through various conditioning exercises. I wonder if they know what just happened. Surely they do. Cybil looks concerned when she sees me, nodding toward the Vortex. I pick up speed, suddenly worried something else horrible has happened.

I race down the spiral stairs to where I know the other humans are, careless to the fact that I’m now late for my own RES training, but I will take whatever punishment they throw at me. I burst through the doors and stop at the top of the steps that lead down to their curtained rooms. The area is silent. Eerily silent.

I slow my pace, my eyes peeled. Even the acclimated rooms have the curtains closed today. I open the first curtain and peer inside, only to stumble back, my hands over my mouth. A boy lay in the bed, his mouth covered, his arms and legs restrained to the bed. His eyes widen when he sees me and he begins to shake all over.

“It’s okay,” I say, as I enter the room. “I’m not going to hurt you.” I pull the bandaging from his mouth and he sucks in a breath before starting to cry. He can’t be more than twelve years old. What reason could Zeus have possibly had to do this to him? Unless he did this to all the humans to guarantee they wouldn’t interfere with his killing.

I quickly release the boy’s arms and legs from their restraints and check the next room, to find a woman in the same condition, her mouth covered, her arms and legs tied up. Anger slices through me so quickly I feel like I might lose control. “What happened to you?” I ask, and the lady shrinks back as though I might hurt her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you. What happened to everyone?”

She shakes her head. “I don’t know. When I woke up this morning, I was like this.”

I nod, fury wrecking me inside and out. Zeus must have ordered them to be restrained during their sleep to prevent any issues with his killing.

“Help me untie the others,” I say to her and then the boy. We go from room to room, freeing all the humans. Zeus must see what I’m doing, but he never sends in anyone to stop me. Something tells me he enjoys watching me do this, enjoys knowing I’m cleaning up his mess. The realization of just how cruel Zeus has become sends a wave through me and suddenly I’m back through the doors of the Vortex, racing toward Zeus’s building.

It feels as though my blood is on fire, rippling through my veins in succession, burning me up inside and then repeating the pain over and over. I slip into his building, ignoring everything around me, afraid that if I stop for a moment and allow myself to actually think, that my fear will overcome my determination.

I reach his office, expecting to burst in, only to have Zeus himself open the door for me and stand to the side while I rush in . He has a smirk on his face that tells me he knows exactly why I am there.

“You can’t do this,” I say, my adrenaline causing me to sound almost frantic. I need to calm down. I need to regain control of this situation.

I draw a long, steadying breath and spin around to face Zeus, each second helping me regain my composure. “Are you going to speak or continue to stare?” His jaw tightens, and once again I’m glad that I’m not afraid to die.

Zeus walks over to the wall of windows behind his desk, peering out as though he sees something intriguing. “As usual, your attitude is less than impressive. Impressive: evoking admiration through size, quality, or skill. But we shall fix that soon enough. For your comment, I can and shall. Instead of coming here to question me, you should be asking yourself why your worldwide leaders allowed this. I warned them. They chose not to respond.”

I realize coming there, expecting to convince him of anything, was stupid and pointless. I try a different approach. “The humans could be useful to you. You don’t have to kill them.”

He releases a hollow breath that must be his version of a laugh. “Your mind is so absurd. It is difficult to take seriously.”

“Excuse me?” I take a step forward and he turns, the same grin I’ve grown to hate on his face. The grin that says he is already so far ahead in the conversation that I may never catch up.

Zeus walks over slowly, his hands clasped behind his back. “Your wild nature is becoming a problem, as I am certain you are well aware. So tell me, how would your father handle an Operative who spoke to him with as much disrespect as you issue to me?”

I steel myself to block my thoughts and emotions from Zeus, knowing that if I keep my mind open it will just confirm what he is pressing me to say—that Dad would never tolerate my behavior. My mind flashes to my training with Dad, and I feel a tiny slip in my resolve. I never imagined in my life that I would miss those grueling mornings when I wondered if my dad loved me at all. I remember trying so hard at such a young age, only to have him yell at me again and again to try harder, that I wasn’t good enough, that I was embarrassing him. Even thinking about it now, I feel a sharp pang in my chest.

But still, I would give anything to go back there now. I would do exactly what he asked and stand tall and fight hard. Because now I know, he was never training me for a fight. He was training me to survive if he were not around. Little did I know how quickly I would need those skills or how quickly they would slip when I needed them to surface the most. I think to Dad’s face at the last call, to the three fingers he used to signal something to me that I’ve yet to figure out.

Zeus gives me a knowing look, and I’m afraid I’ve let my mind slip and he now knows about the calls home, but instead he continues. “Death would be an easier punishment for one of your father’s soldiers. Am I correct? He was, after all, a hard man, the sort who enjoys breaking his men before he builds them back up. I imagine he—”

“That’s enough. You don’t know him, so don’t speak as though you do. You know nothing about him and nothing about me,” I spit out, my fists clenched so tightly that my nails are near drawing blood.

“Don’t I?” He walks around me, rocking a bit as though he is completely at leisure. He leans into my ear as he passes behind me. “I know that he is a feeble man who pretended to be strong.”

Even as my body moves, I recognize my mistake, almost as though I am watching from above, calling out to myself to stop, to calm down, to not fall into his trap. But he’s right; I am wild—my mind, my control—and that sort of untamed passion can only be contained for so long.

I reach around, grabbing him behind the neck and shoving him toward his desk with such speed and force that he is unable to fight back. I don’t think as I move, instead allowing my senses to overcome logic, telling my muscles what I need them to do. I shove his head onto the polished wood and pull the knife Jackson had last night from my pocket, glad that I decided on a whim to keep it. Enough planning, I’m ready to do this. Right now. The blade presses into his neck, and then I’m hit hard from the side by a body two or three times my size. The guard clamps my hands down above my head and sits on my legs so I’m unable to move, though I continue to push against him, fighting and kicking until he punches me hard in the face, silencing me with one blow.

When I wake, I’m back in the blue room, alone and unsure if I’m in a dream or if my head is still foggy from the hit. I reach up to my face and feel a large lump on the side of my left eye that seems to be swelling more by the second. I push myself off the ground to standing and find that I’m already surrounded by the blue lights, only this time they are further away from me. Lydian waits behind the glass across from me, and I can tell by her expression that she doesn’t want to do whatever she has been ordered to do to me.

Try to stay calm
. Lydian’s voice rings through my ears as soft as a whisper, though as clear as the glass she waits behind. Her tone is different today, though. A warning. I find her eyes, and seeing the seriousness in them know whatever I’m about to face is going to push me in ways I never imagined. She closes her eyes and Jackson walks into the room, slipping inside the blue lights as though they are not there at all. I realize almost instantly that he is part of the test, but I can’t keep my heart from picking up at the look on his face. He doesn’t see me—or at least he doesn’t see me as who I am. I’ve never seen this side of Jackson from this vantage point. His expression is fierce, his body tense and prepped for an attack.

“Where is the entrance?” he asks.

“Don’t do this,” I start to say to him, but before the words can fully leave my lips he’s preparing to fight me. He widens his stance and focuses on me, hatred etched into his face. I wait for him to make the first move, and after several long seconds, I wonder if perhaps I have it all wrong. But then he pulls out the knife that I took from him from his own pocket.

He smiles wickedly at it, and then he’s in front of me, slicing the blade over my arm and cheek, nearly clearing my chest before I’ve righted myself enough to respond. Instantly, a surge of pain radiates from the two wounds and I have to remind myself that this is only happening in my mind. I jump back just as Jackson swipes his blade again, narrowly missing my other arm, and continue to step backward until I hear a
zzz
and feel a shock against my back. I spin around to see the blue bars flashing, the lights so bright that for a moment I’m blinded.

And that’s when Jackson grabs me from behind and tucks the knife below my chin, pressing into the delicate skin there. I try to pull free but with each tiny move, the blade cuts deeper into my skin until I cry out. “Okay, okay.” I arch my neck back in hopes of relieving the pressure of the blade against my skin, only to have Jackson press it still closer.

My eyes scan frantically for Lydian, but it’s Zeus I find behind the glass. He presses his palms into the table in front of him and stares at me with a grin that says this is only the beginning of what he has in store for me.

I force myself despite my fear to smile, knowing Zeus would never expect it, and then lean into the knife until I feel it slice across my throat, sending a stream of blood down my neck and soaking my shirt. As if in slow motion, Jackson drops my body to the ground, the pool of blood surrounding my face, my hands, my everything. And while I know that I am not dying—after all I have felt what it feels like to almost die—this is close, so close that for a moment I fear that I’ve made too bold a move and now all the humans here will suffer my recklessness.

I blink, my eyes remaining shut far longer than they should, and when I reopen them I see a pair of shiny black shoes advancing slowly. Zeus squats down, his knees cracking as he bends. “Amazingly brave, I will give you that, but are you sure that what you experienced is an illusion? Are you one hundred percent sure? Or can you feel your body losing its strength, your mind beginning to shut down? Can you feel yourself bleeding out? Many believe our minds are powerful enough to prevent our deaths, but can our minds also deliver death? I will be very interested to see.”

“Maybe not today…” I whisper, and Zeus turns.

“What was that?”

My eyes roll open and then close, my voice now so ragged and low I’m unsure if he can hear me, but still I force myself to continue. “Maybe not today…maybe not tomorrow…but soon…someday soon…I am going to kill you.”

And then before I can hear his response, my body surrenders to the pain. The last thing I remember is Lydian’s voice inside my mind—
What have you done?

Chapter 17

When I wake, Emmy is over me, easing something warm onto my forehead. She smiles wide when she sees me and presses her hand to my cheek. “We worry, child. We so worry.”

I sit up in the bed and peer around, looking for Zeus, but all I see are the same empty walls I woke to a month ago. I’m back at the Panacea and by the expression on Emmy’s face, I’ve been out for quite some time. “How long have I been here?” I ask.

“Few hours. Young-one be back any time now.”

“How did I get here?” I search my thoughts for the last thing I remember. Zeus. I remember Zeus torturing me in the blue room, but there was someone else, someone I trusted, someone—

Jackson enters the room, his face fierce, and the memory comes flooding back. Jackson attacking me. Jackson pulling his knife on me. Jackson slicing my throat.

I jerk out of bed before I can rationalize that what I experienced before wasn’t real. Jackson’s eyes widen and he holds his hands out, as if I am a wild animal and he needs to reassure me that he means no harm.

“Ari…” he says, inching closer. I close my eyes, and suddenly he’s lunging for me, strong and lethal. When I reopen them he’s nearly to me, worry etched across his face. “What happened?”

I continue to back up, until a thought occurs to me. This is exactly what Zeus wanted. He intentionally picked Jackson as my attacker. He could have chosen anyone—any of the guards, anyone back on Earth, even himself—but he didn’t. He chose Jackson, and he did it to create doubt in my mind. Regardless of what I’m feeling, I won’t let Zeus mess with my head.

I force myself to take a step toward Jackson, force myself to keep my voice even, my expression blank. “Zeus restrained all the humans last night in their sleep. He killed that woman. He plans to kill again tomorrow. He…” I trail off, realizing how completely reckless I’ve behaved. I have no fear of death, so it was nothing for me to confront Zeus, plus I feel sure he won’t kill me. But what about everyone else? The rest of the humans? They aren’t safe here, especially when they can be used as punishment against me.

Cursing myself, I sit back on the bed and wrap my arms around my legs. “I messed up.” I release a long, tired breath. “I attacked Zeus, so he put me in the blue room with a new attacker.” I glance up at Jackson, watching as his expression changes from worry to anger to cautiousness. “You.”

“He what?”

“My attacker in the…what is it? A simulation? Something more? Well, whatever it is, my attacker today was you and you sliced my throat. I thought I was bleeding to death. Was I?” I eye Emmy who pulls out her beads and runs them through her fingers and over each knuckle, deep in thought.

“He knows,” she says.

Jackson stops on his way to me. “Knows what?”

“He knows Ari is going to be the one.”

“The one what?” Jackson and I ask in unison.

Emmy turns to me, and I can tell that she doesn’t want to tell me more. I feel the hesitation pouring off her. “What is it, Emmy?” I ask, growing worried. Something feels off. First Emmy has tried to train me to heal, then Mami asked to see me, all with the assumption that I was going to get everyone off Loge, but maybe it’s more than that. “What do you know?”

“Some healers have deep skills. Some heal fast. Some mix remedies. And some, like me, see paths.”

I cock my head at her as I sit up straight. “Emmy, I’m not foll—”

“I see you, child. I see where you were and where you go. I see what lies in your bones and what shakes your mind. I see you. And I see what you will do. Old-one see it, too. You not safe until we get you off this planet.”

“Emmy…”

“Remember what you say to him last? He knows now, child. You’re afraid, but tonight that will change. Strength will fuel you. Fear will subside. Now go home, rest. Lots to discover.”

…

Jackson and I are walking the path around the river, a great distance from the Panacea, before either of us speaks. He opens his mouth to say something, but I already know what he is about to ask, so I cut him off, answering the question before it can leave his lips. “I told him that I was going to kill him.” I cut my eyes over to him, hoping his reaction will show something that gives me courage. Instead, he lowers his head with a slight nod. “What are you thinking?” I ask, remembering how reckless Jackson had been after Mami was locked in the attic. It was the first time he let down his guard, and now I realize how far gone he really was to show so much of himself so freely. Now, I have no idea what he’s thinking, even with the RES transmitter.

“You can always ask.” Jackson glances over at me. “Ask me what I’m thinking.”

I turn to him, our eyes meeting. “What are you thinking?”

He tucks a loose strand of hair behind my ear, lowering his hand so slowly it’s as though it’s painful for him to no longer touch me. “I’m thinking that I used to believe there was no such thing as fear. I taught myself a long time ago that while I might always have a reaction to Zeus that is something like fear, I would never let myself truly feel fear. I used to think that if you didn’t fear death, then you were brave. I now know that it wasn’t that I was fearless. It was that I didn’t have anything to lose. Now I do.” His eyes settle on mine, searching my face in a frantic sweep. “Now I know what it’s like to be afraid, and I am. Petrified. I am so sick with fear that it consumes me. Because, as much as I hate the idea of Mami submitting to Zeus, at least I know that she will never intentionally get herself hurt. With you, I don’t have that certainty. You don’t know what he is capable of, Ari. Do I think that you are brave enough to try to kill him? Absolutely. Do I think you’ll survive it?” He sighs. “No one ever has.”

I reach out and take Jackson’s hand in mine, needing either his comfort or to give him mine, I’m not sure. “I’m not planning to get myself killed. I’m smarter than that.” I try to smile, to make light of the situation, but I know it’s empty. Jackson tugs me closer to him, so close our faces are inches apart, and wraps his arms around me in a tight hug.

“Promise?” he whispers into my hair, and all I can do is nod, because we both know this isn’t a promise I can keep. I’ve never been one to value my life over others and if it comes to it, in the end, I will always throw myself in first, regardless of the consequences. If my life saves the people here, then it is a very small price to pay, and one that I will gladly offer.

…

That night I’m startled awake by Vill standing over me. He presses a finger to his lips and motions for me to follow him out of my room. Jackson is sound asleep beside me, something we’ve fallen into that brings me too much comfort for me to push away. He no longer even asks. It’s understood that at least for the night we can forget the complications of our days and just listen to each other’s heartbeats until we fall asleep.

I follow Vill out of our room and down the hall to the door that leads to Jackson’s office. He opens the door for me, and again doesn’t step inside. “You have another call.” And with that he shuts me inside. I edge down the stairs and into the bright room, my heart pounding. What if something happened back on Earth? What if something happened to Mom or Dad or Gretchen or Lawrence? I’ve barely spoken to them, and what if…? My thoughts cut short as my eyes focus on the screen.

On Gretchen.

I almost cry the moment my mind registers who it is. She looks different. Her hair is longer, which for Gretchen says enough. She has had the same chin-length hairstyle for years now, claiming the style defines her. Now her hair sweeps her shoulders. And her face, usually full of various bright shades of makeup, is bare. But that isn’t what lets me know how rough things must be. Gretchen, even during difficult times, always looks put together. She dresses for the occasion—whatever the occasion may be—but right now she looks like either they woke her up in the middle of the night to come talk to me or she couldn’t be bothered to put on anything other than junk clothes. The baggy gray T-shirt hangs awkwardly on her as though she borrowed it from someone two or three times her size and the black leggings have a hole in one of the knees. To anyone else, this wouldn’t be concerning. So what if she decided to throw on whatever she could find and skipped makeup? She’s just talking with me after all.

But I know better.

I press my hand to the screen and stare helplessly at her. Gretchen’s bottom lip trembles as she raises her own to her screen and for a while we just stare at each other, both wishing we could talk like we used to. “I’m so glad to see you,” I say finally. “I worried…” I don’t want to admit that I thought she didn’t care, because that’s not the truth, not really. Still, I expected her to show in one of my chats with Law or for him to mention her or something.

She nods, tears building in her eyes. “I begged them to let me talk to you, Ari. I tried so hard. But they refused. I was at your last talk with Law though and I swear it took all of me to remain behind the screen. I hate this. I hate how they act as though—” Someone clears his or her throat in her room and she glances over the screen briefly before returning her gaze to me. “There are others in the room with me, Ari. I’m sure you already knew that, or at least guessed.”

“I suspected as much,” I say with a smile. “Who is with you?”

She looks over the screen again, and then apparently having received permission, says, “Law, your dad, and Interim President Lancaster.”

“Gretchen, what has happened to President Cartier?”

At this her eyes flash back over the screen and then to me twice before settling down.

“Gretch…? Has something happened to Sandra?”

Before she can answer Law and my dad join her in chairs in front of her screen. Seeing them all together should give me a sense of comfort. It doesn’t. They all show signs of exhaustion and worry.

“Ari,” Dad says, taking the lead, “Sandra has had a stroke. The medics believe she will recover fully in time, but for now we have had to make concessions.”

“Like what? Who is leading Parliament?”

“Kelvin and I have stepped in to assist, with the help of Lawrence as he is not yet of age to fully accept his role.”

My eyes drift over to Lawrence, and suddenly I realize that was the change I noticed in him. He no longer has his trademark easiness, instead trading it for a look that can only be described as presidential. I wonder what really goes on within his mind and if he’s as terrified as I imagine him to be.

“I’m sorry,” I say to him. “I hope she recovers soon.”

Law dips his head in acknowledgment, but doesn’t say anything further about her. “We ran extensive analysis on the connection here and it appears to be safe. Whoever created it did amazing work.”

“That’s Vill. We’ve hacked into an old satellite here to tap into your satellite. Zeus isn’t monitoring the old one…for now. Vill’s insanely intelligent. You would like him, I think,” I say, though with Law acting so serious it feels like an inappropriate comment. For a moment his gaze holds on mine and I think I see the ghost of a smile on his lips, but then it’s gone, replaced by the empty expression I’ve grown used to seeing from him. The thought of it makes me sad, and I have to look away to keep myself from telling him so.

“How is Cybil and the other humans?” Dad asks, and I launch into everything that I’ve seen and speculated on. I tell him about them hanging the woman today off the bridge, and stop when I notice them nodding.

“We saw,” Gretchen says. “It was broadcast on the T-screens. Zeus can somehow break into our frequency whenever he likes. We saw you, too.” Gretchen looks down.

I glare at Kelvin. “Then why did you allow it to happen? Didn’t you at least try to negotiate?”

“Of course we tried,” Kelvin says. “There is no compromising with Zeus. We can’t allow him to come here.”

I jump up, my anger taking over. “Well, while you’re trying to come up with a solution, people are dying here. Another death is scheduled for tomorrow morning. Their blood is on your hands.”

“Ari, calm down.” Dad’s expression shifts from his typical commander look to that of my dad. Worried, afraid for me.

“Zeus has been asking me about an entrance. What is he talking about?”

Dad opens his mouth to respond, but Kelvin silences him with one look. “We are unable to discuss that here. Security measures. I’m sure you understand.”

I glance from person to person. Kelvin, emotionless and cold. Dad, worried and angry. Gretchen, chewing on her nails, her bottom lip quivering. But it’s Law who actually speaks, “It all comes down to Zeus, Ari.”

“Which brings us to the point of this call,” Kelvin says. “How is your progress?”

I sigh. “We’ve had…complications. I have a plan that I feel sure will work. I just need more time.”

Kelvin laces his hands together and leans forward. “There is no time. You know what to do.” And then before I can respond, he nods to someone out of sight, and the screen goes dark.