Evolution (23 page)

“I don't know if there's enough time,” I say.

“You must try,” the Tessar says. His voice sounds weaker than ever. The blue glow between our hands is growing fainter.

Fear twists a knot in my stomach. Do I care so much about saving the vul and their prisoners to risk dying for them?

Beechy is one of the prisoners—Beechy, who has risked his life to protect me more than once. And his wife, Sandy, is pregnant with their baby girl. All of them will die if I don't stop the Developers. So will thousands of terrified child workers, and a thousand more vul, and none of them deserve it.

I'm not stupid enough to believe I'm safe in the Core, anyway. The Developers have sought to appease me in these last two days by giving me what I want, but it's just a ploy. They want me to cooperate until they've taken care of the vul, and then they'll assert their control again.

I'm the only one who can put an end to this war without a slaughter on both sides. No one else has seen what the Tessar showed me; no one else could convince the vul's Qassan to listen.

“I'll do it,” I say.

“
Saraashi
,” the Tessar clicks in vulyn, bowing his head in thanks, and then he drops his hand from the glass, severing the
mayraan
.

The blue light evaporates. The laboratory room returns to the way it was. The Tessar floats calmly in the water inside the tank, no longer kicking his webbed feet. I wonder if he feels as exhausted as I feel. My head is throbbing and my hands are shaking a little.

The door opens, and Dr. Troy walks back into the room. I quickly compose my expression.

“Here they are,” he says. He's holding a tray of petri dishes with tiny plants inside them, flowers and the like.

It feels like I haven't seen him in a long time—hours, even—but he makes no mention of the passage of time. In reality, I bet he was only out of the room for a minute or two. He has no idea what went on while he was gone.

“These are some specimens I can show you,” he says. “You see, the most fascinating thing I've seen the Tessar do is impact the growth of plants with the touch of his finger. The vul have very special nerve endings in their hands that allow them to, in a sense, communicate with certain species of plants.…”

I pretend to be interested in the specimens he's showing me, but really I'm hardly listening to him at all. My mind is focused on what I need to do to get to the Mardenite battle station as soon as possible, so I can set things on the track toward a peaceful resolution to the war, once the Developers are overthrown.

I'll leave for the Surface tonight. There isn't a second to waste.

 

23

I'll have the best chance of getting away with stealing a Core transport when there's hardly anyone in the flight ports, so I'll wait until late tonight. In the meantime, I need to gather food and other supplies I might need on the journey, in case something goes wrong.

There are also missing pieces of the plan to work out. Someone in the Core needs to know I'm seeking an audience with the Qassan of the vul—someone who could warn the citizens that the vul army isn't invading the Core to kill them, but to free them.

Logan would be the obvious choice. Only … I don't think I can tell him what I'm doing, not if I want to keep him safe. He insisted on being sent to the Crust work camp alongside me back when I'd agreed to go undercover for the Alliance, because he didn't want me sent into danger alone. He'd insist on coming with me to the Mardenite battle stations. He'd mean well, I know, but he'd be one more person I'd have to worry about losing when Fred's bomb detonated, one more person I'd need to protect. I can't afford to put him in danger for my sake. If my mission goes wrong, he'll have the best chance of survival here in the Core.

I can't tell Logan. But there's another person I can go to—Lieutenant Dean. I know he wants to find an alternative solution to end the war that doesn't involve setting off Fred's bomb, so he should listen to me. Hopefully he won't try to stop me from leaving.

The only problem is, I don't know where he is or how to find him. My comm-band won't let me send messages; it will only let me receive them.

So as Dr. Troy escorts me back to the main hallway of Restricted Division, I tell him I'm supposed to meet Dean at his apartment. I tell him Dean showed me where it was once before, but I'm not yet familiar enough with the division to remember where it is. Dr. Troy knows the general corridor where most of the lieutenants have apartments, so he takes me there. Then I'm on my own.

I walk slowly down the corridor, fidgeting with my hands, trying to guess which door leads to Dean's apartment. Wishing another lieutenant would come outside so I could ask. The longer I wander here, the more likely someone will notice me on a security camera and think I'm up to something.

I'm about to give up and find a staircase to get out of here when a door opens. Skylar walks out into the corridor. A second person follows behind her—Lieutenant Dean. There's tension in his jaw.

Skylar's in the middle of saying something, but she freezes as soon as she sees me. She frowns. “What are you doing here?”

“I was looking for Lieutenant Dean,” I say.

“Why?”

“That's none of your business.”

Skylar's lips purse slightly.

Dean clears his throat. “Clementine, you can come inside. I'll be right with you.”

I push past Skylar and move into his apartment. I'm surprised to find it's smaller than the apartment Charlie gave Logan and me, but it has most of the same amenities. The same air of decadence.

I drop into one of the lounge chairs to wait for Dean. He's still talking to Skylar out in the corridor, though I can't hear what they're saying.

As soon as he comes back inside and shuts the door behind him, I cut right to the chase: “I'm leaving. Tonight.”

Dean blinks at me, startled. “Excuse me?”

“I'm going to one of the battle stations, to talk to the commander of the Mardenite army. I spoke with the Mardenite we have in captivity. He told me … well, he
showed
me why the army came to Kiel. It wasn't to kill us—it was because they needed our help.”

Dean stares at me, searching my expression for something. Trying to tell whether I'm making this up, maybe. But my anxiousness must be enough to convince him.

“Go on,” he says. “What did he tell you?”

I tell him everything that happened. How I went and saw the vul in the tank and realized I'd seen him before. How he transferred what could only be memories to me when our fingers touched through the glass. How he showed me his own capture in the last war, and that Marden is dying. Dean listens with apt attention.

“We've been looking for a way to defeat them,” I say. “But we need to help them. Negotiate peace and freedom for our prisoners, in exchange for some of us going back to Marden with them. I bet there are people who would go if they knew the whole story.” I pause. “I would go.”

“Even knowing the planet is dying?” Dean asks.

“Yes. Maybe it's crazy … but I think the Tessar is right. I think we could make crops grow on the planet again, if the vul and us worked together. Besides, I don't have a whole lot of fond memories here on Kiel. I want to start over somewhere else.”

Dean starts pacing across the room. “You know the Developers don't really want peace with them. They want to slaughter all the Mardenites they can.”

“That's why I'm going to the battle station,” I say.

I take a deep breath. This is the tricky part. Dean isn't happy with the Developers' plans, but I don't know how deep his dissent goes. I don't know for sure that he'll want to see them robbed of their position of power.

But I tell him my plan anyway. I'm running out of people I can trust. At the moment, Dean is the closest thing I have to an ally.

When I finish, he looks thoughtful, not angry. Seems like a good sign.

After several moments, he says slowly, “I think I can help you free the citizens, if we can get the vul to the Core and take care of the Developers.”

“So, you'll help me?”

Dean looks me in the eye. He's hesitating again. “You realize how dangerous this will be?” He glances at his comm-band. “We have less than fourteen hours.”

“I've thought about the risks,” I say. “I'm going to go through with this. There's no use trying to talk me out of it.”

“Maybe I should go with you—”

“No. I don't need to put anyone else in danger. Besides, I need someone here in the Core to try to keep order once the vul invasion begins. You need to warn everyone the vul are coming to free them. The Developers are the only ones they plan on capturing.”

“I'll do it,” Dean says.

This time, I give in to the relief. “Thank you.”

“Let's figure out how to get you aboard one of the battle stations,” he says, taking a seat on the sofa across from me.

We figure everything out, to the best of our abilities. Tonight, he'll try to create some sort of distraction while I'm stealing a ship, so I'll have a head start before the Developers realize I've left the Core.

I realize there's a big thing I'm worried about—that Logan will be incriminated after I'm gone. I don't want him to be punished for my crimes. Dean assures me he'll do everything he can to convince Commander Charlie that Logan had nothing to do with what I am about to do, to keep Logan out of trouble.

There isn't a whole lot we can plan for when the vul invasion begins, except that Dean will do his best to get the citizens out of the way of the fighting, so they won't be harmed. We won't be able to do anything to knock them out of their submission until the Developers are overthrown, so that will be the primary goal.

Before I leave, I ask him one more question: “When did you change your mind about the Developers?”

Dean sighs. “I admit I didn't for a long time. I grew up here in the Core, so this was all I ever knew. I wasn't unaware of the horrible things they were doing, especially in the outer sectors … I just looked past them because it was easier. They'd given me a lot of opportunities, and they'd trusted me enough to let me live free of the control of their serums. I was grateful for that.”

He pauses to take a breath. “But after I learned about their plans to destroy the outer sectors completely, I started to realize how deep their insanity for power and their desire for a stronger race of humans went. I heard about the Alliance, and I almost joined up with them. But I didn't know enough about their numbers or their plans. I was afraid the bomb would still go off and their uprising wouldn't amount to anything. So I stayed in my position for my own safety, pretending I remained loyal to the Developers. After you and the other rebels overturned the Developers' plans, I decided it was best for me to stay where I was and continue pretending, until blowing my cover could be of more help to your plans.” He looks at me with guilt in his eyes. “I apologize for not telling you sooner, and for treating you poorly when we first met. I hope you understand; I needed to keep up a persona.”

I press my lips together. I wish he'd told me the truth sooner instead of lying to me. But at the same time, I can understand why he wouldn't want anyone to know. And he has done a great deal to help me since the first time we met. I guess I can forgive him for the rest of it.

“I understand,” I say. “Thank you for telling me now.”

Dean nods. “Of course. I was going to soon; I was just waiting for the right moment.”

There's an awkward moment where we're both standing there, unsure what to say. Then Dean pulls the gun out of his holster and hands it to me. “Take this,” he says.

The last gun he gave me was taken when I changed clothes for the Mod Tests, and I never got it back. I take the new one from Dean and tuck it into the waistline of my pants. “Thanks.”

“Good luck tonight and tomorrow,” he says. “Promise me you'll be careful. All of us need you to make it back here.”

“I will,” I say. “Good luck to you too.”

I leave his apartment and head down the hallway. Dinnertime is already over, so Logan probably isn't in the cafeteria anymore, but I still need to grab something to eat. I'll need to smuggle a few extra food things out so I can take them with me tonight.

Then the only thing left is to say good-bye to Logan.

*   *   *

Logan is pacing on his crutches when I finally get to our apartment. He stops and hobbles toward me as soon as I walk in. The lines of stress around his eyes make my stomach clench with guilt.

“Where've you been?” he asks. “I thought you were going to meet me for dinner.”

I bite my lip. I wish I could tell him the truth; I'm just so tired of all the lies, even if they are to protect him. “I'm really sorry. I ran into Ariadne and we started talking and I sort of lost track of time. I was hoping you'd still be in the cafeteria when I got there, but I guess I was too late.”

He exhales, calming down. “It's fine.” He plants a kiss on my forehead.

Logan turns away, wincing as he puts weight on his injured leg, and goes over to the couch. I twist my hands nervously, watching him sit down.

How can I leave him, knowing I might not make it back? I'm breaking the promise I made to him.

But there's not any other way.

When he looks up at me again, I force a smile. “How did the meeting with the Mardenite prisoner go?” he asks.

“It was … interesting,” I say, walking over to the couch. “It turns out I'd seen him before.”

“What?” Logan's brows furrow. “When? How?”

Sitting down next to him, I tell him how Beechy showed Ariadne, Oliver, and me the giant tank of captured sea organisms during one of the first days of Extraction training. How he thought the humanoid creature inside one of the cages was the last member of a species that had nearly died out here on Kiel. But he was wrong.