False Hearts (35 page)

I say nothing.

“You and your sister are cute, you know that?” he says. “Thinking you’re so clever, sniffing around my business. That I wouldn’t know exactly what you’re doing at all times. You really think that notebook was left in my pocket by chance? Silly, silly girl.”

I’m an idiot. If he knew about an uprising like he did at Xanadu … there, he even let them make their display, sacrificing a few people, his own people, before he crushed it and summarily executed everyone involved. He played with us, him the leonine cat and us the little mice.

“How long have you known?” I manage, my voice hoarse.

“As soon as Tila came snooping a few months ago.” I close my eyes. “I knew her right away. I even fed her some clues, knowing she wouldn’t be able to resist trying to solve the mystery.”

My mouth is so dry. I lick my lips. “You know who we are.”

“Of course I do. You’re the only two to make it out of the Hearth on your own terms in years. I’ve kept tabs on you. You proved more interesting than I thought.”

“Who the hell are you?” I ask. “What do you have to do with the Hearth?”

He smiles. “I don’t owe you any explanations. In fact, I quite enjoy the idea of you working so very, very hard to find out the answers and then never getting them.” He sighs. “I’ll humor you. I did find Tila amusing, at first. Trying to find out everything she could. For a long time, she went nowhere, and I enjoyed her struggle. I decided to toy with her more, seducing her even as she thought she was seducing me. Then, to my surprise, she actually found something useful that she could use against me. And I couldn’t have that, now, could I?”

“So you sent Vuk after her. Or, should I say, you sent Adam after her.” The words feel acrid on my tongue. I feel my face twist in disgust and horror. Images of the crime scene swim in my vision. So much blood.

“Ah, I see you found that piece of the puzzle. She’d realized who he was, so it seemed fitting he should be her downfall. Of course, the plan did not go perfectly.” His mouth flattens in anger.

My implants are still recording everything we’re saying, even if they’re not broadcasting to Kim right away. It’s been over five minutes, and I have to hope the side effects don’t kill me. I’ve gotten enough to hang him with, and I have a feeling he’s only about to give me more.

I concentrate on my mind, trying to focus inward. I can’t tell if it’s sending or not. And even if it is, then our location’s probably blocked as well. We’re trapped.

Stupid. Stupid, stupid.

“You know why your sister did it, don’t you?” Ensi asks. “Tell me you at least figured that out.”

“Did what?” I ask, my mouth dry.

“Killed him. Your sister did do it. Her hand held the knife that went right into his heart.” He pauses, just for a moment, reveling. “She did it for you.”

I hear a ringing in my ears.

“She realized that if she was found out, then I’d come after you to get her to do what I want. I’m still not entirely sure what happened that night at Zenith. She did something to Vuk before she killed him. His mind went haywire, broke through the Verve programming, which I didn’t think was possible.”

I can’t breathe. I don’t want to believe him, but why lie now, when he’s about to kill me?

“What’s your link to the Hearth?” I ask again. I want—I need—to know.

He only shakes his head.

I want to snarl at him, but I won’t give him the satisfaction. “What are you planning to do?” My voice is even, cool. I’m proud of that.

“To you?” He picks up a syringe of Verve. “I’m going to plug you in, but I’ve programmed this Vervescape a little differently. It’s extra potent, and not a mix you’d find in any lounge.” I swallow. He’s the man who invented both Zeal and Verve. He can do almost anything he wants, for he knows the code and the pharmacology better than anyone alive.

He considers the syringe. “Who else but me could reprogram personalities and brain chemistries? Who else could take timid, shy Adam and turn him into Adam, a killer on command?

“I’ve programmed this particular world here so that instead of you enacting the violence, the violence is enacted against you. Your own personal little hell. It’s how I execute those who really disappoint me. And, Taema, for all your cleverness, you’ve disappointed me.” He gestures to his right and I see a third empty Chair. “I’ll be joining you.”

He’s going to torture me. I think of Mia and her scalpel. False Mana-ma’s soundless, tongueless, painful scream. It’s as if I’m made of stone. I want to scream, cry, piss myself, laugh hysterically, but I can’t do a thing.

I turn my head. Nazarin’s awake, his open eyes locked on me. I can’t contact Nazarin through my implants because of the blocked signal. I try my restraints, but they’re stuck fast.

Ensi reaches down and pushes up the sleeve of my Kalar suit, revealing the bare skin. He runs his finger down the exposed flesh. I shiver.

“It’s such a shame,” he says. “If I’d found you both right when you left the Hearth, your lives could have been so very different. You slipped past too quickly, already within the system as soon as you arrived in the city. When I did find you, I let you be. Why? Curiosity, I suppose—what would two girls who escaped the Hearth choose to do with their new lives? You went through engineering school. I was at your graduation ceremony, though you never saw me.” My skin prickles. “Tila grew into her art, and had that gallery show. I went to that, too. I even bought one of her paintings.”

Were we experiments to him? He watched us, to see what we’d do. The gallery showing was so long ago. Did my sister realize Ensi had bought one of her paintings? Does she feel he has a piece of her? Did she know he’s been keeping tabs on us for years?

“Which painting?” I ask, still avoiding looking at Nazarin. I think he’s worked his way out of a restraint. But how can he get out of the rest? If he reaches around, Ensi will notice.

Just keep him talking. He wants to talk, even if he says he doesn’t. I should be more scared, but I must be in shock, using the Hearth training to drive the fear away, at least a little. I’m grateful for it. It means I can think, I can speak. I can try to survive.

“The quasi-self-portrait.”

I know the one he means. It’s a woman who looks nothing like us, but her shadow falls out behind her, separate, but connected. She’d painted it in all the colors of the rainbow, yet for all the crazy hues, it was so realistic. My sister had called it
The Kaleidoscope Woman
. I’d been sad when it sold, but she’d said she couldn’t turn down the price. I feel sick that he has it.

I swallow. We’re alone, but I have no doubt that dozens of guards are posted outside this room, wherever it is.

Ensi stretches his arms over his head. “Now, fascinating as this conversation has been, it’s time for us to be getting on, isn’t it?” He aligns the needle against the crook of my elbow, poised over the vein. The electrodes begin to buzz, tightening against my skin. The fear I’d banished rushes back. I stare at the ceiling, and that white expanse may be the last thing I see. How boring.

Ensi leans closer to me. This is my only chance. I think the trigger word: “sweetpea.” I bite the seal on the tooth. A liquid spreads into my mouth, and I lock my throat. I’ll kiss him if I can, and if I can’t, I’ll spray it into his face.

“I didn’t see you partnering up with a detective. And I didn’t peg him until he waltzed into that party with you, so I give him credit for that. A good detective—but not smart enough to quit while he was ahead. I’ll tell you one thing before you go, my dear,” he whispers. “You want to know who I am, but I’m a little disappointed you haven’t figured it out.”

He presses his lips to mine. I open my mouth, as if gasping, and he presses his tongue into mine. The tasteless liquid spreads into him. There. It’s done. I can only hope it’s enough.

He presses the plunger on the syringe and the drug begins to work.

“I’m the Brother,” he whispers as my mind starts to go.

Everything that happens next is a blur. Nazarin bounds up from his chair and knocks Ensi back.

My mind burns. I’m still conscious—barely—because Ensi hasn’t started the program. It takes all my strength to raise my head a few inches. Ensi is manipulating the fight with Nazarin so he inches closer to the controls. I try to warn Nazarin, but my mouth won’t open. Ensi’s hand snakes back and the program begins. Soon, I’ll be trapped in a dream.

The King of the Ratel knocks Nazarin against the wall. He slumps over, his battered brain out cold again.

With the last of my consciousness, I see Ensi strap Nazarin in the Chair and begin the program, then strap himself into another, starting his own sequence.

He’s grinning like a hunter going in for the kill.

And then we’re gone.

TWENTY-SEVEN

TILA

We really thought we’d succeeded.

The month had passed without any problems. We went to school, we did the chores we could do, we listened to sermons, we did the Meditation and we did our best not to stand out at all. Mom and Dad did their jobs. We tried to act both positive and remorseful at the thought that we would be reentering the Cycle again soon. Our health continued to worsen, and our main fear was that we’d die before we could escape.

We should have been more afraid of Mana-ma.

The morning the supply ship was due to come, we’d gone into the forest to hide near where it would land. It was slow going—we had trouble walking and had to use canes, stopping to rest every few steps. We left before most of the Hearth was awake and kept under cover of the trees, hoping that nobody would see us. We didn’t bring anything with us except a bit of food—no clothes, no trinkets, no journals. I think that hurt Taema more than me. She wanted to bring at least one book. I decided then and there that if we survived and got jobs in San Francisco, I’d buy her all the books I could with my first pay-check.

We waited there in the shade all morning, eating the snacks Mom and Dad had packed us. We wouldn’t have long once Dad gave the signal.

“Are Mom and Dad going to get into trouble if Mana-ma realizes they helped us?” Taema asked. She hadn’t asked the question before, though it must have been on her mind as much as mine.

“Probably, but it shouldn’t be too bad. Mana-ma loves them, and maybe she won’t find out. Maybe they’ll think we went off to die in the woods and then animals ate us.”

“That’s gross, Tila.”

“What? I’d rather be eaten by a fox or a bear then buried in the ground and then eaten by worms. You’re going to be eaten either way.”

I was trying to distract her, though I wasn’t doing a very good job. I thought Mom and Dad would get in big trouble if Mana-ma found out they helped us escape. I didn’t think their lives would be in danger or anything, though. I didn’t know the full story of Mia and her lost lover back then. If I had, I might have been too scared to risk Mom and Dad by running away.

Even to save our lives.

“Maybe we shouldn’t do this,” Taema says. “I … can’t help feeling it’s wrong. That out there we’ll lose ourselves.”

I pressed my cheek against hers, then reached around and stroked her hair. “If we stay, we die. I don’t want you to die.”

Her breath hitched. “I don’t want you to die, either. Maybe it’s better to be damned by Impure things than be dead.”

I shook my head, pushing down my anger that, despite everything, she could still believe in the tenets of the Hearth.

The ship came down, all silver and chrome and the blue fire of its engines. It was so different from anything in the Hearth. So smooth and sleek and futuristic. I remember thinking how strange it would be to be surrounded by a world where everything looked so flawless like that.

The hatch opened and the worker drones went about their business like ants, crawling out of the belly of the beast, lugging crates to be set onto the grass. Once the ship left, the people from the Hearth would slink down the hill and take their essential supplies back to the buildings, trying to have as little contact with the Impure as possible.

“So fucking hypocritical,” I said out loud.

“What is?”

“All that bullshit about the Impure. Yet they still take regular orders of things they can’t make. Never really thought about it before. The Hearth has plenty of Impure stuff that we all use. Light bulbs. Some of the cleaning stuff. Metalwork. We can’t make a lot of that here. It’s all over, but we pretend we’re all Pure and untouched by the outside world. So stupid.”

A pause, and then: “Yeah. It is.” It was the first time she had really agreed with me out loud. Usually when I ranted about the evils of the Hearth she stayed pretty quiet, tacitly agreeing but not really saying anything out loud that could be considered anti-Hearth. It had always annoyed me. Now, she sounded so sad that I felt guilty for all my ranting. I also felt justified.

“It’s almost time,” I whispered, wrapping my arms about her. She rested her chin on my shoulder.

“Everything will be different now,” she whispered against my neck.

“It’ll be better.”

“Maybe.” She pulled away, and I could see the dark circles under her eyes, the yellow undertone to her skin, how thin she’d grown. I looked exactly the same. We felt especially weak that day. The excitement of freedom was overworking our already weakened heart.

“Taema?” I murmured, shaking her shoulder. She slumped, and I fell to the ground with her. I clutched her to me, taking deep breaths, forcing myself to stay calm, because I couldn’t stress the heart any further. Her arms were slack against mine. I wrapped my own arms around her and rocked us like we were children, resting my face against her slack skin.

“Stay with me, Taema,” I said over and over, careless of who might hear us above. I could feel her inhaling and exhaling against me and tears ran down my face. If she died, I’d be glad that I’d be following her a few minutes later. It wouldn’t be fair if this was the end, just as we were about to escape.

I looked up into Mana-ma’s face.

She squatted over us, her dark robes billowing.

“And just where do you think you’re going?” she asked.

My mind spun, but there was no good excuse I could give—of course there wasn’t. I decided to say nothing, and glared at her.