The Lost Code Part 19

"Robard," Pyra whispered. "Skull Team... Someone answer!" Nothing.

Ahead it was brighter, and we reached an abrupt end to the trees. In front of us was the high fence, the dry moat, and then the dome wall. We turned left and followed the fence. At the bottom of a hill, we reached a gate. It hung open, a blackened hole where its lock had been. Beyond the gate, a narrow metal bridge with wire railings crossed the moat. At the other end, a thick hatch-like door hung ajar, its handle similarly blown out. Beyond that door, brilliant sunlight baked barren rock.

We stopped at the broken gate.

"Robard, anyone, come in," Pyra repeated. When no one replied again, she glanced wildly in all directions.

"Now what?" said Barnes.

"Not sure," said Pyra, her voice tense. "We were supposed to meet back here."

"We should just get out," said Tiernan. "The other teams may have been compromised. If we've got the boy, we don't need the skull anyway."

"Yes, we do!" Pyra snapped. "He'll be useless without its information."

"But there's the other one, down south. And the girl."

"That's not how it works!" said Pyra. "At least, not according to Dr. Keller's studies." She tried the phone again. "Robard, do you copy?"

As she listened to the static, I wondered, What was this? They were talking about a skull, a temple, and a girl. The skull from my vision? And the girl they mentioned, was that Lilly? Were they after her, too? Either way, what it definitely meant was that these Nomads were related to what was happening to me, and to that vision, even the siren. Somehow, all of it was connected.

"Okay, you're right," said Pyra. "We'll make for the rendezvous and hope for the best."

The men angled me through the fence and out onto the narrow bridge. Pyra followed behind us. Tiernan let go of me and started toward the door, gun raised. Barnes guided me from behind. I glanced over the meager wire railing at the ten-meter drop to the concrete floor of the moat.

Then, I looked ahead at the approaching brightness of the outside world. I was being taken from EdenWest. And I couldn't move to do anything about it.

"Robard, this is Pyra, we are exiti-Gluh!"

The bridge shuddered, the wires to my side springing like they'd been plucked.

"Pyra!" Barnes shouted. He let go of me, his shoulder brus.h.i.+ng my back as he spun around.

There was a hissing of air.

"Agh!"

I was turning around, trying to control my balance, when Barnes jerked backward into me. In the blurry sweep of my vision I saw that Pyra had vanished from the bridge. And something was wrong with the back of Barnes's head. The shape wasn't right.

Something hot on my face.

Hands grabbed me by the armpits, dragging me back toward the door. "Come on, kid!" Tiernan shouted.

I watched Barnes slump to the ground, saw the movement back in the trees. Black figures emerging from the shadows, helmets on, amber visors down, rifles raised.

"Put the boy down!" one of the soldiers shouted.

Something cold pressed against my neck. A knife. The dream, on the pyramid... no, this was now. "Don't come any closer or he dies!" said Tiernan. I saw our shadows cast in front of us by the daylight. We were almost to the door.

A pop. Another hissing of air. The feel of more hot liquid, this time spraying onto the back of my neck.

I was tossed forward. The knife clattered off the side of the bridge. I couldn't stop myself from careening over face-first. I got my arms out, but they didn't do much good. My forehead slammed against metal.

Tiernan fell on top of me. Drops of warm fluid falling onto my cheek. Streaming to my nose and falling free. I watched Tiernan's blood as it plinked on the grated metal floor of the bridge. Some drops slipped through and fell all the way to the concrete below, to where Pyra's body lay in a twisted S S shape, a pool of blood spreading from her head. shape, a pool of blood spreading from her head.

Footsteps banged on the bridge. The body was pushed off me. Gloved hands under my armpits. They pulled me up.

"I have him," the officer said. He set me on my feet. "Can you walk?"

I glanced at his amber visor, reflecting the bright real sun and the open door behind me, and tried to answer, but no words actually came out.

"Okay, just hang on to me." He slung my arm over his shoulder and led me back toward the gate. We stepped over Barnes, over his contorted face and misshaped head, some important piece of it missing now. I saw red among the hair, insides now exposed.

It all pa.s.sed over me. Images. Things. None of this was real. Couldn't be.

Back through the gate, and there were many officers now. They sat me against a tree. I watched them use ropes to get into the moat. I looked down and saw blood splattered on my s.h.i.+rt, my arms and legs. Other people's blood.

"Owen!" I looked up to see Dr. Maria running over. She dropped to one knee in front of me. "You're okay," she said. "Don't worry." She yanked the patch from my neck.

"Better than them," I whispered.

Dr. Maria glanced toward the bridge. An officer was climbing up out of the moat, Pyra over his shoulder. He carried her off the bridge and dumped the body to the pine-needle ground with a hollow thump.

When Dr. Maria looked back, there were wet edges beneath her eyes. She sniffed, like the sight of the bodies had gotten to her. Then she saw me noticing. "Sorry," she said, wiping at the tears.

"It's okay," I said.

Dr. Maria opened her black backpack and pulled out a red medical kit. She checked my eyes with a penlight. Took my wrist and checked my pulse. "Anything hurt besides this?" She touched my swollen cheek lightly.

"Nah," I said.

She pulled an ice pack from her backpack, shook it, and put it in my hand. I noticed that her hand was shuddering. "That's for your cheek," she said. "The neuro dampener should wear off in a few minutes. You'll get your feeling back."

"Okay." I could already feel p.r.i.c.kling in my toes and fingers.

She rummaged in the kit. "Just one more thing..." She pulled out that square box with the gla.s.s dot. She held it toward my forehead. The light blinked green again. "Good."

"What's that mean?" I asked.

"It's-"

"Owen." Paul was striding toward us. Beside him was Cartier, the head of security. Paul introduced him, then glanced over his shoulder. "This is very unfortunate," he said, as if what had happened here was just a bad-tasting meal rather than the deaths of three people. "Owen, listen: we're going to need to know everything they may have said to you. I'm sure most of it was lies-the Nomads are experts at misinformation-but still... it might give us a clue as to what they're up to."

I almost laughed at this. Lies... As if he was one to talk.

Dr. Maria sniffed. I saw her scowling as she busied herself with her pack, like she felt the same way.

"How is he holding up?" Paul asked her.

"Seems fine so far," Dr. Maria mumbled.

Paul knelt down. I saw my face in his gla.s.ses. There was a streak of blood across my cheek, like someone had been careless with a paintbrush. "It's important for you to understand me right now. It turns out we were wrong about yesterday's bombing. It was actually designed to draw our attention away while this Nomad team got inside. They had help, too. Someone on the inside hit our detection systems with a virus. Whoever was behind this, they knew our schedule, knew you'd be in the Preserve unsupervised. They probably figured this was the perfect time to make their move."

"Did they get anybody else?" I asked.

"No," said Paul, but my question seemed to interest him. "Why do you ask?"

"They were talking," I started to say, then thought I should hide what I knew. "I couldn't make out much of it."

Paul nodded. "Do you remember anything else?"

"No," I said. "They just grabbed me, told me to keep quiet."

"I think he's in some shock." I looked over at Dr. Maria and found her gazing at me seriously, and when our eyes met, her head seemed to hitch slightly. Had she just nodded to me?

"Maria," said Paul.

"Yeah?" Her head snapped away, up to Paul, and I thought her eyes looked wide, like she'd been caught.

But Paul was looking across the clearing. Two officers were carrying Evan out of the trees. He was still unconscious. "Go see to him, would you?"

"Okay." Dr. Maria grabbed her bag and hurried away.

Paul turned to Cartier. "Go check the bodies for information," he said. "I'll meet you over there."

Cartier left, and now it was just me and Paul.

He leaned closer to me, lowering his voice. "Look, Owen: it's time we talked more frankly about what is going on here in EdenWest." He reached out and rested a hand on my shoulder. "About what's going on with you you." I wanted to slide away from his touch, but my body was still foggy from the dampener. "I thought we could take our time," Paul went on, a slight smile forming and fading, "let things develop in their own way, but I'm afraid this little incident ill.u.s.trates that we're going to have to get right to the point. Do you understand me?"

I didn't answer.

"I think you do, Owen," Paul said like I was a child, "but this is my fault. You deserve to know what's really going on here, and I, I need to know everything that you know." He glanced to the bodies, then back at me. "It's the only way I can keep you safe."

For a moment, I almost had an urge to tell him. After the bullets, the deaths... Paul was the most powerful person here. If I had just gone to him about my gills, told him about the siren and the vision, he might never have let me out here, and none of this would have happened. Maybe it was time to stop playing games, to stop keeping secrets, before there were more bodies.

Except, who was really the one playing games? Paul had lied to the camp multiple times. I'd seen it. And what he'd just said: it sounded more than ever like he knew way more about what was happening to us than he was letting on, and he was just sitting back and letting things develop develop? So, if I told him everything, what would he do then? Was that when the experiments would begin like he did with Anna?

And I reminded myself that these Nomads weren't the only victims of this place, of Paul's Eden. There was little Colleen, and the other kids the CITs had talked about. Paul hadn't kept them safe. And it was more than just me who was in danger now. There was Lilly. The Nomads mentioned a girl. Lilly was the only one who'd seen the siren, like me. I wished I could find her right now. She was the only one I could talk to about all this. The only one I could trust.

Paul's hand lifted off my shoulder. "Listen, I have to clean things up here. In the meantime, I'm going to have you brought to my office. We'll have a talk. It's long overdue. That sounds good, doesn't it?"

I looked into his black lenses and wondered what to say, but there was really only one answer. "Sure."

"Good." He patted my knee. "Just sit tight. I'll have some officers take you back." He stood and left.

As soon as he was gone, I tried moving my legs. They were still a little like jelly, but I got my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. I started to shake. From everything.

I watched Paul return to where the three bodies were now lined up. An officer handed him Pyra's phone. I looked over to where Dr. Maria was tending to Evan. She kept glancing over at the bodies. Paul the liar. And Dr. Maria, the... what? What had that nod been before? And her tears about the Nomad... Maybe it had just been the sight of death, or was it something more?

I pushed up harder with my legs, my back sc.r.a.ping against tree bark as I stood. It took a second to center my balance.

Paul had moved out to the bridge. He and Cartier were inspecting the broken lock on the hatch door.

Sit tight, he'd said. Right. Sit back and wait for the next thing to happen. For the next drowning, strange vision, veiled comment, for the next attempted abduction, the next death. All of these things that kept happening to me, with no explanation for why. And really, wasn't it my fault, too? I'd been ignoring the dark questions about what was going on here, about my gills, all of it, focusing instead on nights with Lilly, on finally belonging to something. But I couldn't avoid it anymore, not after this.

There was a tingling in my fingertips. I could feel my heart rate increasing, and my body shuddering more.

Ten meters away from me lay three bodies, dead because of me. And not far away was another body, Evan. He'd been trying to ignore the questions, too. And while any other day I would have been happy to see him flat on his back, not today. Would he be okay, or was he another casualty of me? And what if that had been Lilly back there in the game? What if they'd gotten her too? There could have been a stray bullet, a fall off the catwalk, she could be a still body on the pine needles now, too....

I wanted to talk to her so bad. She'd know what to do. But, no, talking to her wasn't an option right now. I I needed to know what to do. needed to know what to do.

I leaned on one foot, then the other. Flexed my toes. Swung my arms. All systems back online? All systems back online? I asked the technicians. I asked the technicians.

Yessir, looking good, they reported.

Then hang on, I told them.

Paul and Cartier were still checking the hatch. Dr. Maria was bent over Evan with her penlight.

Everyone had their back to me.

I turned and ran.

Full on. Not looking back. Straight into the trees, tearing down the slope, my feet slipping in the orange needles. Once I'd covered some ground, I dared a glance back. No one was following. How long before they noticed? Probably just a few more seconds.

I cut left. Trying to retrace the path my captors had taken. Heading for that stream, heading for the lake. I wished Lilly was with me, but I had to fight the urge to go and try to find her. There was no time now. This was my only chance.

No more sitting around waiting. I wasn't going to Paul's office. I wasn't letting anyone take me anywhere, anymore, unless they were ghostly blue and deep in my world only.

I was going to the temple.

Chapter 15

I CAREENED DOWN THE HILLSIDE THROUGH THE dark pine gloom, heard a familiar gurgling sound, and reached the tiny bridge where, some blurry stretch of time ago, there had been fists and darts and abductions. Remnants of the b.u.t.terfly sparkled on the mud bank. dark pine gloom, heard a familiar gurgling sound, and reached the tiny bridge where, some blurry stretch of time ago, there had been fists and darts and abductions. Remnants of the b.u.t.terfly sparkled on the mud bank.

I jumped down off the bridge, landing in the shallow water. My ankle twisted. My hip cracked against a tall boulder. Already out of breath. Already feeling the screw-top twist of the cramp in my side. My lungs felt like metal cans that wouldn't expand enough.

Behind me, something crashed in the woods. Were those voices?

Keep moving.

And now I was in water, the cold seeping through my socks and shoes, causing tremors up my calves and tingles in my gills. Water would be my savior, I just had to follow it. This stream babbled downward; it would lead to the lake. There were shallow slopes to either side but no trails, so maybe they wouldn't think I'd gone this way.