Barcode: Cavern of Youth (23 page)

He must have an infatuation for wood because the room is covered with it. Nothing matches in here either. This place is old, but Hades hardly looks fifty. A middle-aged man is asking an academy student if they’re friends. Strange guy.

After a bit of consideration, I reply, “You can say that.”

“Good, but we’re not.” I sit up in my seat. “We’re not enemies either; you have enough of those and the numbers are only increasing.”

“So what are we?”

“I don’t know. That’s why I asked if you thought we were friends.” Hades puts out his cigar, coughs up something nasty, and spits it in a trashcan. “Anyway, I’ve been wanting to show you something, but I don’t know how to present this to you.” He rubs his chin and appears serious. “Let’s just say, we’re business partners. I need you well taken care of because you make me lots of money.”

“Glad I can help out.”

“But I also like you and hate to see you get hurt. I want you to know that your brother is planning to kill you.”

“Nice.”

“I assume you would have done something spectacularly stupid by now if you’d known. Your hearing must be faulty. Rumor is, your ears get around.”

“That makes them sound slutty. Thanks! And they do. But these bandages are stupid strong and reduce their range.”

Hades leans over to a counter right next to his chair and says, “Well, I’m going to show you a date that Monte and Angie went on and you can see things for yourself.”

“How’d you get a video of something like that?” I inquire with a grin.

Without responding, he pushes play and the paper thin television comes on with a crystal clear display. The image is even Layered 3D—the television provides an inch of texture in width when it’s activated.

Monte and Angie are walking the trails of Griffith Park.

Once upon a time, the area was all grass and it led to the Hollywood sign. Now, buildings surround it, but there’s a small tunnel that takes them into a hidden space between the skyscrapers and the mountain. Monte would take me there when he was having a bad day. He never said a word. He’d just sit and stare at the starless sky.

“What are we doing here?” Angie asks after Monte finds a seat on the ground. He leans his back against a rock that I think he shaped to be more comfortable. Then, throws his hands behind his head. Angie sits in the dirt with her legs folded, yoga-style.

With an accusing tone, Monte inquires, “Where’d you go last night? After you dropped me off at my dorm.”

“What are you talking about?”

Monte makes a ticking sound under his breath before sitting up straight. “How stupid do you think I am? I thought we were supposed to be a team, but you got high and mighty with this
superior
thing. You might even take it too seriously.”

“Kode started it.” Monte looks away and Angie analyzes his face. “What?”

“I think he’s the only thing on your mind, whether he’s around or not. You and I are here, and we’re both dying without him, but he’s all you focus on.” Monte lights various parts of his tattoo. “Do you love me the way you love him?”

Angie gasps, but doesn’t say a word. The moonlight swims through her eyes.

“Monte.”

“I love you though. Like that.” He takes a deep breath as a smile breaks across her face. “But you two would sneak around without me like I didn’t know. Like you did last night. Just because I can’t hear everything doesn’t mean that I don’t know what’s going on.” The ticking sound returns. Monte’s annoyed now.

Angie sits on her knees and folds her arms neatly in her lap. “I felt Kode’s blood in the hallways and I went to see if I could find it. I only saw Kay.”

“Doing what?”

“He was crawling out of an elevator and running down the hallway to Casey’s old classroom.”

“But it’s empty now.”

“That’s what I thought too, but he reached under the floor that leads to the dungeon and there was a bottled water there. I was kind of going crazy at the time and I might have smashed the glass in his hands. But the water turned to fog and he breathed it in.”

“Fog. Like the kind in the dungeon?”

“It didn’t look as thick.”

“I wonder what that was about.” Monte grumbles while looking into the sky. “Wait. Why were you going nuts?”

Angie twists her face and scrunches her eyebrows. Rubbing her bottom lip, she confesses, “I saw his eyes.”

“That’s a big deal because...”

“It means he’s not Kode. His eyes were black, like Blake’s. Pitch black. He’s really blind.”

“You actually thought he was Kode?” Angie looks away and Monte bursts into laughter. “What? Kode just shrunk all of a sudden?”

“His blood was black! I just thought the bandages did it.”

“Bandages should take off a little girth, but not that much.” Angie looks away. She growls at the air playfully while bearing her fangs. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing.”

“You and those weird faces,” Monte teases. As Angie pokes her finger in the dirt, he utters, “So now you can kill him.” Angie doesn’t flinch. She continues drawing circles in the sand. “You think he murdered Kode. I don’t know if you’re right or not, but it’s something only you can feel. If that’s what you think, kill him. I doubt your father would object. If Kay reminds him of Kode, he’ll want the little guy dead too.”

She grabs a heap of dirt in her hand and asks, “Okay. Then what?”

“You’ll really do it?”

“Do you have an actual plan?”

“Yeah.”

“Then what?”

“I think the professors will use him to help us find the Cavern of Youth. If he has special hearing, or what not, it’ll be easier. Once we find the documents we need, we’ll kill him and do the same to the professors.”

Angie stops pouring the sand, but doesn’t seem too shocked. With a calm tone, she asks, “Why would we kill them?”

“This academy and arena are just as crooked as they say Helios is. Do you know how many people they’ve had me kill in the past three months?” The tone in Monte’s voice changes. It sounds threatening. Dangerous. “Guess.”

“Twenty.”

“Higher.”

“Seventy.”

“Higher.”

Angie squints and slowly asks, “Is it in the hundreds?” Monte shakes his head. “Thousands?” He nods swiftly. “Where?”

“Mexico. Dubai. Brazil. Back home, Georgia, Tennessee, Washington, and Colorado.”

“Why were you in Georgia? There’s nothing but desolate land there.”

“Scoping things out. They wanted to confirm that there’s a research lab away from the beasts. I found one, but not the one they needed. They’ll probably use Kay for that. I don’t think they’ll find anything though. Once they’re at another dead end, they’ll send me halfway across the world to kill more people that they can’t.”

“You’re saying we have to kill them to end this?”

“Yes,” he says while standing. “I’m tired of wondering if the people that died are innocent or not. I know Gardezi, Jules, and Gonzales aren’t. We can stop them.”

He walks over to help Angie up. She smiles and dusts off her butt. Nervously, Monte takes a step closer to her. She doesn’t move away, but glances up at him. As he slowly lowers his head, she looks into his eyes with tears. Monte holds her tightly before kissing her on the cheek. They seem stiff.

Mechanically, he inches over to her lips. Initially, she resists, but they share a gentle kiss that relaxes both of them slightly.

Holding hands, they walk back into the tunnel. As they stroll down the long stretch of road, Monte asks, “Are you in?”

“The professors, I don’t know.”

“But Kay?”

“Finals. Maybe Malik too.”

Hades turns off the television and rubs the tips of his fingers together. He scratches his dry face and bites his thumb. He’s actually worried about me.

I, on the other hand, grin from ear-to-ear. Under my breath, I mumble, “That’s my girl!”

Eighteen

I’m late for my first meeting with the professors and team, but I can’t go anywhere until Hayley brings my jacket. Okay. I could, but I refuse.

I assume that I’m in trouble. She didn’t like the fact that I had long trails of blood on it, but she really got upset when she smelled the cigar smoke.

While sitting on a bar stool next to my kitchen counter, I swing my feet. I can actually swing my feet from a chair. Wow. That hasn’t happened in years, and when I would try, Eve would yell at me.

Hayley’s standing at the door and watching me closely, but I can’t stop. This feels so weird.

She wipes the smirk off of her face and marches towards me with the jacket extended in her hand. After I put it on, she commands, “Open your mouth.”

“That’s a strange request.” She doesn’t say another word. Finally, I comply. Hayley jams a blue and circular crystal attached to a white stick into my left cheek. “Close.”

Moving the ball onto my tongue I do as instructed. I don’t want to seem too surprised, but I’m sure she can tell I am.

“What the hell is this?” I muffle while spinning it around in my mouth.

“Candy. A lollipop.”

“What’s that?”

Hayley bends down and gazes into my eyes. “I finally know something that you don’t. It’s a candy that used to be produced in the twentieth century. It’s called a lollipop or a sucker.”

“Why don’t they make them anymore?” I question with a smirk across my face. The sugar causes my tongue to tingle. This is my first time trying candy.

“I’m not sure. They’re just not popular anymore. I had a machine imported from China seven years ago. I make them in a room on the thirty-first floor.”

“Yeah. I heard you up there. I thought that was a strange laboring hobby—like a fantasy of working in a sweatshop or something. I decided not to ask.”

“Do you like it?” Looking away, I nod and twist the candy with my tongue. Hayley damn near rips off my cheek so I jump out of my chair to follow her hand. “Good because that’s all you’ll ever get if I catch you smoking a cigar again. You’ll get an allowance of three lollipops per week. There are two more in your jacket. If I ever see you with another cigar, I’ll stop you from having either. Do you understand?”

“Okay! Yes. Yes. Let go of my face. Please!”

The savage kisses the bruise she just created. “Good. Now go check on Seth before your meeting.”

Dryly, I whine, “Ah, Mom. Do I have to?”

“Don’t try to get funny, jerk!” She covers her mouth quickly. “Sorry sweetie. Natural habit.”

“You used to say that to John, huh?”

She fixes her eyes on me again. “Yes. Stop being so inquisitive.”

“Do I really remind you of him?”

“If I covered my eyes and heard you talk, I’d break into tears.” She bends down and lightly headbutts me. “Excuse my language for a second, but you’re both sarcastic assholes.”

“Sounds like my kind of guy,” I tease. Playfully, I kiss her on the nose and walk to the door. “John saved my life.”

“Why would you say something like that?”

“You and Dennis took me in because of him.”

“That’s a sad way to look at things. I didn’t realize that we
both
did it.”

“I’m fine by that. If it weren’t for John, you would’ve hated me for what happened with Spencer. Dennis too, but maybe he has other reasons.”

“Like what?”

“I’m late.” I point at her with the sucker. “You can interrogate me later.”

Through the closed door, she shouts, “Go check on Seth. I don’t care how late you are; I’ve been hearing complaints about his screams.”

I stick my tongue out and observe the strange color. Blue? What is this? Food coloring?

The elevator jerks a few times when it opens. I think they need to get someone to check on these things. They’re getting a little slower and I’m tired of the rough stops. Fortunately, they’re still blazing fast. I’m normally the type to take stairs unless I’m bleeding to death or with Carmen, but I can’t pass up speed when I’m this late.

Before exiting the elevator on the fourteenth floor, I can already hear the destruction Seth is causing. He’s singing some strange rock song that I can’t make out because his words are too slurred and he’s turning his living room upside down. Yet, he hasn’t spilled a single drop of his X-Eyes.

The couches and chairs are flipped over. One is even in the kitchen. Most of Seth’s equipment has been destroyed and there are holes in the wall. It seems that he’s not drunk enough to destroy the art that he has on the floor.

“Hello Kay,” Antonio says bleakly, but he’s wearing a smile.

“Drop the boy scout act, which you’re not very good at. Why do you pretend to love this guy when you know you’d prefer to have a nanobot shock him to death? I’m no psychologist but I think this is a deep cry for help, Antonio. This slave shift you’re working must be hard. You can always break free of master’s chains and surf the web on your own.”

“Are you done?”

“What’s going on?”

“Every few months, Seth’s brain grows at such a rapid rate that not even the alcohol can control him. He’s increased his X-Eyes intake nearly every month. It seems his brain is adjusting to it at an alarming rate.”

“And when he gets pissy drunk, you have to put up with this?”

“That’s his second bottle in an hour. I can’t imagine anyone that could survive. He managed to make a drink that doesn’t damage the organs because all the destruction is delivered to the brain, but I don’t know. This is on another level,” he complains while looking over his shoulders. “He’s had enough, but he’s too drunk to notice. We need to get him to the facility.”

“We?” Antonio reveals his digital puppy dog eyes. “Where is it?”

“Compton.”

“Damn. I can’t help you.” I return to the elevator.

Antonio yells, “Calibrate!” A few seconds later, he’s chasing me down. “Wait Kay. There has to be something.”

“Shoot!”

The hologram glues his eyes to the floor while muttering, “If he were asleep, I could inject him with the proper doses until you’re ready to take him away.”

“I’m busy all weekend.”

“And he could miss class for a week. He skips out whenever he wants anyway. You could take him next Saturday.”

“You’ll really put him under that long?”

“Better than him doing this,” the nerd returns to the room.