Absolute Power (Book 1): Origins (22 page)

“My mom said she's going to bring me a box full of her oatmeal cookies,” Sara said.

“Isn't there food here?”  Eve asked.

“Yeah, but you know, she's a mom,” Sara replied.  “They do things like that.  Maybe you should call your parents and tell them to come.”

Shruti stiffened as Eve nearly burst with emotion.  She tried not to let on that she had felt it.  Eve however remained stone-faced.

“They can't come,” Eve told them.

Shruti's curiosity got the better of her.  “Why?” She asked.

“They don’t know I’m gone,” Eve answered.

That didn't make sense to Shruti, and she wanted to ask her to explain, but Eve didn't look like she would talk about it.  The questions were burning in her head.  She resisted the temptation to read them for herself.  Shruti thought of her instructor, who told her that she needed to control her impulses in order to control her power.  So she let it go.

Classes were going to begin soon, turning the entire Complex into a bustle of commotion.  Jess arrived at Eve's room holding a piece of paper.

“How did your new clothes work out?”  Jess asked.

Some time ago, a box filled with a variety of outfits had arrived.  Eve had a hard time imagining why anyone needed so many different things.  Not wanting to seem ungrateful, she made sure to wear every item.

“Well, thank you,” Eve replied.

“You won't be thanking me in a second,” Jess said holding up the paper.  “Now that you've decided to stay with us at Hotel de One you have a schedule to follow.”  She held the paper so Eve could see the list of times and locations.  “Your entire life is on here, education, recreation and you're going to have to work,” she said pointing at a line on the paper and smiling mischievously.

The line read: Staff Advisory (Lang).

“Don't ask me how I swung it,” she said.  “Well, I've got to run, things to do, children to torture.”  Jess stopped on her way out the door.  “Oh, don't know if you know, but PR starts tomorrow, so the Complex is going to be crowded with kids and Norms.  If you want some breathing room head over to R&D.  It's off limits to civilians, and there's some TV's and stuff.  Right, okay, adios.”

Jess bounced down the hallway.  Eve was beginning to get used to her coming and going like a whirlwind.  She looked at the schedule in her hand.  It accounted for every day hour by hour, though she noted it estimated travel time on foot.

Her classes were listed as so:

Monday and Wednesday – 9am – 11pm FT1 Exercise (Lewis), 11:30am – 12:30pm RC Lunch, 1pm – 2pm FT3 Espionage (Beach), 2:30pm – 3:30pm EA6 History (Thorne)

Tuesday and Thursday – 9am – 10am EA2 Science (Richter), 10am – 11am EA8 Math (Poole), 11am – 12pm EA11 Language (Branch), 12pm – 1pm RC Lunch, Free Time

Friday and Saturday – 9am – 10am PG Procedure (Lewis), 10am – 12pm PG Focus (Saga), 12pm – 1pm RC Lunch, 1pm – 3pm RC Staff Advisory (Lang)

Most of what was on the piece of paper didn't make any sense to Eve.  All she knew was what time to be there, but didn't know where to be or what she would be doing.  All of it made her feel nervous and unprepared.

As advertised PR day was pure chaos.  Hordes of families came driving in to drop off their sons and daughters.  Dozens of cadets that Eve had never seen before filled the halls.  The noise and chattering wore on her composure.  What made things worse was that to the other kids, Eve was the newbie.  They all stopped and watched her as she walked by them.  She could hear the kids whispering about her, and it was driving her crazy.  Eve had lasted through Friday night and all of Saturday, but when Sunday lunch came she couldn't find a seat.  Tired of having to dodge and duck through the people, she took her food outside.  Her friends would be busy visiting all day, so she headed off to eat alone.

There was a spot near the southern wall, behind the Residence that had a place to sit.  She ate quietly; the only interruption was from a patrol that passed on the wall above her.  They asked if she was okay, checked her ID and went on.  When she was finished eating, she walked along the wall heading east.  All the while she could see the Residence in the distance.  The people were so loud they could be heard from where she stood.  As she approached the Administration building, it got quieter, but the cameras and heavy security was uninviting.  She moved on toward the Testing Field hoping to find a shady spot.  Before she arrived at the gate, Eve could already see a number of families picnicking in the forest.  None of this was making her feel very happy about being alone on such a busy day.  She supposed that was probably why it was so bad.  Everyone else had friends and family to be with today, and she had no one.  Even Shruti received leave to go with Alison and Robert to LA; they left without saying goodbye.

Eve had been walking and kicking at rocks on the ground when she came to another building.  She looked up and realized that she had found her way to R&D, like Jess had suggested.  Her ID opened the door, and she went inside.  The lights were off in most of the rooms.  A couple of labs were occupied with researchers busy on time sensitive projects.  As she came to the lounge, she heard two people arguing inside.  There was a man and a woman having a heated debate over a math equation.  It looked like they were about to come to blows.  She decided against going in and continued down the hall to the far exit.  Eve stepped outside and stared across the airstrip.  There were no scheduled flights during PR day.

She hadn’t seen Henry standing against the wall, so he spoke up, “Howdy.”

He was wearing overalls and covered in grease.  At his feet was a small four-wheeled machine.

“Greetings, Sergeant Schreier,” Eve bowed slightly.

“That’s Staff Sergeant Schreier to you,” he joked.

Eve took him seriously and made to apologize.

“I'm kidding, relax,” Henry chuckled.  “What brings you around these parts?”

Telling him that the people were annoying her didn't seem polite, so she told a half-truth, “Wandering.”

Henry didn't believe her.  “Yeah, it gets noisy with all the Norms running around.”

Again Eve tried to apologize, and Henry waved a hand to stop her.

“Why do you think I'm halfway across the Complex?”  He asked rhetorically.  “There won't be a second of silence till Monday, and who can get any work done when it’s that loud.”

“I should leave you to your task then,” Eve said.

“Stay,” Henry said.  “You're quiet enough for the both of us.”  He crouched down over his little car and unfastened some of the screws.  “I've been trying to get this thing running all morning.”

“Is it a toy?” Eve asked.

“Automated sentry,” Henry told her.  “It can patrol the grounds twice as fast as a human, scans for activity and reports to a central computer.  Except right now it’s picking up interference.  Some type of massive stream of tracking data near the same wavelength...”  Externally Henry went silent, internally he was searching for a frequency further away from whatever was being sent into the Complex.

Eve stepped closer and leaned down to look at the machine.  It was about the size of a dog and other than the tires and motor; the rest was circuit boards and servos.

“You built this yourself?”  Eve asked impressed.

“From the ground up,” Henry answered, having also found the solution to his problem.  “Nothing is impossible for the great Henry Schreier.”  He pulled open a metal compartment revealing a small computer processor.

“This is your ability?”  Eve asked.

“I'm part robot,” Henry told her, “Makes things like this a piece of cake when you have a super-computer for a brain.”

Eve watched Henry.  She spent the better part of two hours trying to guess what he was doing.  He was working faster than she could keep up.  After rebuilding the circuit board, he redesigned the control software.  Then he seemed to do nothing for fifteen minutes, only staring at the machine as it whirred and groaned.  Eventually, Eve accepted the fact that she would have to go back to her room.  She left quietly while Henry was absorbed in his project.  Eve decided to walk back to the Residences rather than use a portal, delaying the inevitable.  Some of the disarray had died down.  It was the last night of PR, and most of the families had already gone home.  The dining hall was a little less packed than earlier, but Eve didn't feel hungry.  She went straight to her room and lay on her bed.  If she let the darkness of the room engulf her, it felt a little like home.  A part of her was angry that no one had cared much that she was alone over the weekend.  When they had the time, they would say all sorts of comforting things.  Then the moment they were busy, they forgot about her.  Of course, she knew that she was being irrational, and yet that didn't stop her from feeling sad.  Her friends got to see their parents.  They got to feel happy.  Eve would never see her family again.

Before she could spiral any further into her depression, in barged Danni.  She flipped on the lights and slammed the door behind her.

“You're here,” she said harshly.  Danni ran around the room gathering things off the floor.  She threw everything into the closet and closed it.  “Don't you have parents, or something else to do?”

Eve rubbed what were the beginning of tears from her eyes.  “No,” she said simply.

“Well, keep your mouth shut, and I won't have to hurt you,” Danni threatened.

A knock came at the door, and Danni hurriedly kicked something under the bed.

“Danni?”  An older woman said as she poked in her head.

“Yeah,” Danni answered.  “I'm ready to go.”

Danni rushed to the door as her mom entered.  She tried to force her back outside, but it didn't work.

“Your dad and I want to see your room,” her mom said.  “And Chrissy needs to use the bathroom.”

It was odd to see Danni give in so easily.  Danni’s mom was an inch taller than her daughter, with soft black hair that went to the middle of her back.  When she spotted Eve she gave a look of surprise, though Eve suspected she wasn't actually.

“Oh, I didn't see you there,” she said.  “I'm Danni’s mom and this is her dad.”  She gestured to a man who had come in behind her.

Her dad was thick and at least a foot taller than the others.  He nodded a hello and kept to the corner of the room.

“Oh man,” someone shouted in the hallway.  “Did you see that?”  A young girl, who looked about ten, stomped into the room.  Her voice was twice as big as her mouth.  “That boy with the weird hair just caught on fire.”

“And this is Chrissy,” Danni’s mom said.  She gave her younger daughter a big hug.  “My little jalapeno.”

“Oh, God, jeez,” Chrissy yelled.  She pretended to vomit and then tried to squirm away.  “Come on, let me go or I'll pee my pants.”  Chrissy got free and bolted for the bathroom.

Eve felt a smile come to her face.

Danni’s mom said to Eve, “I would have waited for my daughter to introduce us, but she won't.” She turned and reached out to pinch Danni’s cheek.  Danni saw it coming and ducked out of the way.

Eve couldn't help it.  She forced herself out of bed and stood politely.  “I am Eve Levitas,” she said with a bow.  “It's a pleasure to meet you Mister and Misses Rodriguez.”

“Is that why they paired you two together?” Danni’s mom asked.  “So Danni will learn some manners?”

“She doesn't know what she's doing,” Danni argued.  “She's not even from this planet.”

Misses Rodriguez waved her daughter off and said, “Don't listen to her.  She pretends to be mean because she doesn’t want anyone to know how sweet she really is.”  Out of sight, Danni sneered and shook her fist.  “Danni said your parents can't come to visit, is that right?”

Eve was shocked to learn that Danni had known that.  Danni turned and rummaged through a drawer trying to avoid Eve's eyes.

Misses Rodriguez went on, “I think she's worried about you, but won't say so.  As a mom, it's my duty to adopt you.  Tonight you'll be my third daughter.”

From inside the bathroom Chrissy yelled, “How about we just trade her for Danni?”  The toilet flushed, and she came out fumbling to fix her clothes.

Misses Rodriguez grabbed Chrissy by the collar and said, “I don't know what I'm going to do with you.”

“I have an idea,” Danni said.

“Come on,” Misses Rodriguez clapped her hands, “What are we waiting for?  Eve put on your shoes.  We're having dinner at a little Mexican place with enchiladas that remind me of home.  They’re so good.”

Eve shoved her feet into her shoes as fast as she could.  She wasn't exactly sure why she was rushing, or when she had agreed to go with them.

Danni’s mom said, “Don't forget your coat.”

Without a second thought, Eve turned and grabbed a coat, despite the fact that she never got cold.

Then as they were leaving Danni’s dad whispered to Eve, “With them around I don't have much say in anything either.”