Invaded (21 page)

Only one kind of device would do that.

A lump of dread rose in Aelyx’s throat, but he maintained a calm facade. “I think
I know what it is.”

“Really?” she asked over the sphere’s increasingly rapid discourse. “What?”

“Before I say, I want to get a second opinion from Syrine. Be right back.”

He found Syrine sitting cross-legged on the living room rug playing a game of backgammon
with David, who lay stretched out on his side, propped on one elbow. They both wore
easy smiles as they
baited each other with what David referred to as “trash talk.” Aelyx had to call Syrine’s
name twice before she noticed him. When she threw a quick glance in his direction,
he
waved her over.

“Just a minute,” Syrine said. “I’ve almost got him beat.”

“In your dreams.” David rolled the dice and gave a victory whoop. “I’m catching up.”

“Not quickly enough,” she taunted.

“Sy-
rine
!” Aelyx shouted.

Now he had her attention.
What is it?
she asked privately.

I need you to see something
, he told her.
It’s important.

She nodded vigorously and turned to David, pointing at their game. “I’ve memorized
the board, so I’ll know if you’ve moved any pieces while I’m gone.”

David flashed a mischievous grin. “I’m going to take you down, firecracker. And when
I do, it’ll be fully legit.”

She pushed to standing and hurried to Aelyx’s side, two spots of pink rising high
on her cheeks. Aelyx led her into his bedroom and closed the door behind her, then
pointed to Cara’s
hologram. The sphere was orbiting Cara’s head now, continuing to spew undecipherable
messages and flashing brighter than the ball he’d seen in Times Square last month.

Syrine knelt at the foot of Aelyx’s bed and squinted at the object. “What is that?”

Aelyx caught her eye and used Silent Speech to explain.
Cara said they’ve been falling from the sky—three that she’s seen so far. It’s sending
her messages in a
variety of unknown languages, over and over like it’s feeding from a central—

“Uh, hello,” Cara interrupted. “Out loud, please.”

Syrine ignored her, holding Aelyx’s gaze as her jaw dropped.
Does The Way know?

Aelyx nodded. “But they’ve been hiding the orbs from the population, claiming they’re
meteorites.”

“Then it’s probably not one of ours,” Syrine said aloud. “If it were, the Voyagers
would claim it.”

Cara growled in frustration and caught the orb inside her blanket, where it wrestled
for freedom. “Okay, what is this thing? It’s starting to piss me off.”

“It’s a probe.” Aelyx pulled in a deep breath and let it out in a whoosh. “I’m almost
certain of it. And like Syrine said, I don’t think it’s one of
ours.”

“A probe?” Cara asked. “As in
I’ma disrobe you, then I’ma probe you
?”

Aelyx didn’t understand the reference, but he imagined she was thinking of a medical
tool. “No. A device used to gather data. Our Voyagers have used them in the past to
explore
unsafe environments, but those were elemental collection devices. Nothing as elaborate
as this.” Nothing that spoke. He’d give anything to understand what it was trying
to say.

“So who sent it?” Cara asked.

That was the million-credit question.

“Are you sure there’s no way it’s yours?” Cara grew flushed with anger. She finally
gave up fighting the blanketed orb and simply sat on it. “Maybe the Voyagers
sent them out, and now they’re coming home. That would explain why they’re falling
all over the place.”

Aelyx shared a knowing look with Syrine. “Maybe,” he said, though he had little doubt
the object was foreign.

Cara must have heard a noise from outside the Aegis, because she slid off the orb
and darted to her window. “The guard’s here,” she said. “That didn’t take
long.”

Blinded by its blanket, the sphere knocked against the top bunk a few times before
drifting about the room like a clumsy ghost.

Cara chased it down and tucked it football-style beneath one arm. “They can have it.”
Narrowing her eyes, she spoke to the orb. “You’re a pain in my ass.”

Syrine suggested, “Take it outside to the guard without letting the clones see it.”

“I agree,” Aelyx said. “If the clones catch you with something like this in your room,
it’ll fuel more rumors.”

“That’s the last thing I need.” Cara secured the blanket tightly around her bundle
and said good-bye, then disconnected, leaving Aelyx and Syrine staring at each other
in
concern.

What worried him most was that The Way had hidden the probes’ existence. That implied
a threat, or at least the fear of one. Aelyx had studied the Voyager logs to learn
of other beings,
but he’d never heard of a society advanced enough to create an interactive probe.
Clearly these aliens existed—the glittering orb was proof.

So were the senders friends or foes?

Cara made sure no part of the probe was visible when she stepped into the hall, but
even though the passing clones couldn’t see the object, its bleeping and blabbering
drew a few curious gazes. To muffle the noise, she loudly hummed the first tune that
popped into her head—“Jingle Bells,” which drew twice the curious gazes and a few
open sneers
from Dahla and her friends.

After jingling all the way through the lobby, Cara rushed outside and scanned the
capital guards, hoping to spot the one in charge. She didn’t identify him, but she
did find Satan locking
eyes with the headmaster.

Satan was a nice guy, in his own sadistic way. If she had to confess to smuggling
an alien-made spyball into the Aegis, he was the person to talk to.

“Psst,” she called from the front stoop. When he glanced in her direction, she skipped
down the steps and waved him over to the only private spot available, the corner formed
between
the steps and the side of the building.

While Satan strode to meet her, Cara summoned her best innocent face: wide eyes, head
tipped downward, pouty lower lip. She’d have to deliver an Oscar-worthy “stupid human”
performance in order to pull this off. Fortunately for her, most L’eihrs already thought
she was dumber than a bag of hammers.

“I’m glad you’re here,” she whispered to him. “I need your help.”

“What is matter, Sw
eeeee
ney?”

“I was walking in the woods a little while ago, and I heard a crash. When I went to
check it out, I found this.” She pulled back enough blanket to reveal a flash of brass
and
twinkling lights. At once, Satan’s chrome eyes widened. “I thought it was pretty,”
she continued, “so I brought it back to my room, but now it’s flying around and
crashing into walls. I’m afraid it’s going to break something.” She made an extra-pitiful
face. “Can you take it for me?”

“Others in Aegis, they see this?” He licked his lips nervously and tucked the blanket
back in place.

“No. I’m the only one.”

He took the probe from her and gripped it with about ten tons of force. “Stay for
moment,” he instructed. “I must find Jaxen.”

Oh, no. She’d managed to dodge Jaxen since their trip to the colony. A gab session
with L’eihr’s resident brainwasher was the last thing she needed today. “I told you
everything I know. Can I go back to the nursery?”

“Stay,” Satan repeated, then jogged away without another word.

Damn.

Jaxen wouldn’t be fooled by her innocent act. He’d know she brought the probe back
to her room to study it. She should’ve just taken the device out the back door and
released
it into the wild.

It didn’t take long for him to find her.

Jaxen pinned Cara with an amused look. “You brought it here because you thought it
was pretty? If you’re so taken with pretty things, I can direct you to the wildflower
conservatory.”

There was no point in trying to deny what she’d done, but her instincts warned her
to plead partial ignorance. If it weren’t for Aelyx, she’d never have guessed the
orb was a
data-gathering machine. “Look,” she whispered, “you and I both know that’s no meteorite.
So why don’t you tell me what it is.”

“Sure.” Jaxen’s patronizing tone didn’t fill her with confidence. “But not here. Let’s
talk in my chambers.”

Alone with Jaxen inside his bedroom? No thanks. Cara matched his lie with one of her
own. “Actually, I’m late for my shift at the preschool. They need me to help run the
water
diffusion experiment.”

“Oh?” he said with an arched brow. “I thought the headmaster relieved you of your
duties today.”

Double damn.

“Well, technically I don’t
have
to be there, but I wanted—”

“Excellent. Right this way, then.”

He turned and strode inside the Aegis, and with an inward groan, Cara followed him
to his room on the second floor. She kept scanning the halls for Elle, hoping to form
an exit strategy, but
with classes in session, the dormitory was empty. Her last hope was to find Aisly
inside the room. But when Jaxen pressed one palm to his keypad, the door hissed open
and revealed a vacant bedroom
much like hers, only with the cots laid side-by-side instead of bunk-style.

He swept a hand toward the left cot, indicating for her to sit. The door closed with
an extra-loud
hiss
, as if sealing her fate as well as the exit. She settled at the end of the bed,
as far from the pillow as possible. It seemed too intimate near the spot where Jaxen
rested his head at night.

To her relief, Jaxen remained standing. He gave her as much space as the small chamber
would allow, folding his arms and leaning against the side wall when he began. “You’re
a smart
girl,
Cah
-ra.”

That was debatable based on her decision-making skills today. But whatever. She’d
take it.

“I’m confident you can piece together the purpose of that sphere for yourself,” Jaxen
said. For the briefest of moments, she thought she saw a flicker of fear behind his
gaze.
“Did you understand anything it said to you?”

She wished she had, especially after seeing his reaction. “No. Not even close.”

“Good.” His shoulders sank an inch as he relaxed. “That’s probably for the best.”

Cara wondered if this was going to turn into one of those
Scooby-Doo
endings, where the bad guy loses his mask and confesses everything. Only in this
version, the “meddling
kids” would wind up with their memories erased. She decided to go for it. She might
as well learn as much as she could and hope to retain it later by blocking her thoughts.

“Why?” she asked. “Because it would’ve transmitted my responses back to whoever sent
it? And who is that, by the way?”

Jaxen ignored both her questions and posed one of his own. “Why are the governments
of Earth concealing the full extent of the water crises from its citizens?”

Cara puckered her brow because he already knew the answer. “If people found out our
water would be unfit for drinking, they’d start hoarding it. Prices would skyrocket.
Looting and
riots would break out, maybe even wars for the rights to clean rivers and natural
springs. Humans don’t have the best track record when it comes to rational behavior.”

“Precisely.” He moved from the wall and took a seat on the opposite cot. “Sometimes
for the greater good, a governing body must keep its citizens ignorant of danger.”

If Jaxen was trying to compare Earth’s impending apocalypse to the probes raining
down on L’eihr, he’d missed two major points. “L’eihrs are nothing like humans and
your world isn’t dying. Big difference.”

She expected him to argue, but he studied her in silence, taking the time to unclasp
and resecure his long hair at the base of his neck. Then, in an abrupt move, he darted
from his cot to occupy
the seat beside her. The mattress shook with his added weight, tipping her nearer
to him until their thighs touched. She wanted to scoot away, but she was already at
the end of his bed.

“I’ve always liked you,
Cah
-ra,” he said. “You’ve intrigued me since the day we met.”

“Um.” She leaned away as much as she could. “I didn’t mean to.”

He took her hand and pressed a thumb over the vein in her wrist, then swirled his
fingertips lightly over her sensitive skin. Cara realized what he was doing. This
was the L’eihr version
of a kiss, in which they measured each other’s pulse in an effort to make it rush
beneath their lover’s touch.

“But your inquisitive nature,” he murmured, “is a danger to you in this case.”

As respectfully as she could, Cara pushed away his hand, making sure he knew her spiked
pulse had nothing to do with attraction. “This makes me uncomfortable.” She scooted
a few
inches to the right until half her bottom hung off the mattress. “I have a
l’ihan
.”

Clear disappointment dragged down the corners of his mouth. “As do I.”

This was news to Cara. “Who is she?”

“In some ways, my perfect match.” He sighed, then added, “And yet…”

Before he could finish, the bedroom door hissed open and his sister strode inside,
stopping short when she noticed them together on the edge of his cot. Aisly didn’t
speak, but her
expectant glance said,
What is
she
doing here?

“
Cah
-ra discovered the emissary probe that crashed nearby,” Jaxen explained. He left Cara’s
side and joined Aisly, where they engaged in a few beats of silent
conversation.

Aisly didn’t seem alarmed, probably because she assumed her brother would pluck the
memories from Cara’s head. The girl pulled a mirror from her bureau drawer, along
with a small
bottle filled with clear liquid.

If Jaxen wouldn’t reveal any details about the probe, maybe his sister would. “What
can you tell me about the aliens who sent it?” Cara asked.

Aisly didn’t respond. She flipped open the lid to her bottle, then tipped back her
head and squeezed two drops into each of her eyes.

Cara had never seen clones do that. “Is something wrong with your eyes?” she asked.