Justice (2 page)

‘The destruction of the Lawless School was a happy but unexpected outcome of your involvement in our centuries-old crusade,’ said Ben. ‘But the battle isn’t over. Fox Lawless, Lady Watts, Lendium Bandit, and dozens of other maniacs are still out there, preparing their next move. And we know that your involvement isn’t over, either, even if you haven’t figured that out yet.’

M fidgeted in her seat. The room was not getting colder or hotter. The air was not stale or moist. There was no obvious temperature tactic meant to make her uncomfortable, which made the fact that she felt so awkward, well, all the more awkward.

‘Prove it,’ she said through her clenched jaw. She felt like she was dismantling an explosive. ‘Prove to me why I’m involved and why I should care.’

‘Oh,’ said Ben with a smile. ‘I thought you’d never ask.’

He turned to face the glass wall to his left and M followed his gaze as the lights around the room dimmed. An oversized projection flashed to life upon the wall, showing a still-frame image of a photo booth. The empty black bench was worn down from years of use and vandalism. Initials + initials were written onto and carved into the wood. The tattered red velvet curtain shrugged carelessly in the wind: the picture was moving. The picture was a movie. A movie whose star stepped into view then, his huge face lighting up
the room with beaming brown eyes, a shock of brown hair, and the same tired smile M would never forget.

‘M, if you’re watching this, congratulations on a job well done … and I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I can’t be there in person to have this talk with you. Because if you’re watching this, I’m most certainly dead.’

M’s father always knew how to make an entrance … even from the afterlife.

Seeing him again, six years after his death, touched M in unexpected ways. Her legs started bouncing like they had when she was a child. It was a nervous habit that she’d rid herself of years ago, but she couldn’t stop herself now. Seeing the younger photos of her father at Lawless had been one thing, but this was her real father, exactly as she remembered him – laugh lines, receding hairline, and all. This was the father she knew best.

‘There’s so much,’ her father said, ‘so much more to tell you, but you’ve probably figured out a lot on your own by now. You’re a smart girl. M, you’ve inherited a very heavy load. I’ll take the blame for that. But listen, my time is running out. You’ll be safe with the Fulbrights for now. Trust me. And if you get in trouble, I’ll come back for you.’

M could see from his sly smile that this was obviously a joke. Just like her dad to send a sarcastic message from beyond the grave. Then turning quietly serious, her father continued,

‘There’s evil in the world, M. The Fulbrights are going to need your help to combat that evil because it’s bigger than even they can imagine. Please, for me, help them before the evil consumes the world and burns it to the core.’

An audible scuff of footsteps came from the video and M’s father peeked through the red curtain before turning back to the camera. He was nervous about whatever was out there. Softly, someone whispered his name. There was someone else with him. Someone standing guard anxiously, pacing around, someone who also whispered, ‘Speed it up. They’re getting closer.’

‘M, I’m proud of you,’ said her father, regaining his composure. ‘I love you. Always remember that you are greater than the sum of the parts your mother and I gave you. I’ll be watching you from above, ever in awe of what you’ve done and of what you’re going to do. Be the best, M. It’s a tall order, but the world needs you.’

Her father’s face froze, eyes forward. She could see herself in him. Then as the lights around the Glass House came back on, her father faded until his picture disappeared completely.

What an unexpected gift that had been, to see her father, alive and well, talking to her just like old times. But these weren’t old times. They were new times, strange times, times in which she was trapped in a glass room surrounded by guards.

‘So?’ asked Ben from across the table. ‘Proof enough?’

She held still and weighed her options. If what her father said was true, the Fulbrights needed M. ‘If I help you,’ she said, ‘what’s in it for me?’

‘The Fulbrights represent the greater good,’ said Ben. ‘We don’t encourage personal interests.’

‘Well, I’m not a Fulbright yet,’ said M. ‘And I have a few demands. First, you let me out of this handcuff restraint.
Second, you bring in my friends. If you want me to help you, they have to be part of the team. I need to be with people I can trust.’

Ben smiled. ‘I’ve never heard of Lawless slime sticking together.’

‘In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not the standard Lawless slime,’ said M. She didn’t show it, but she was a little taken aback at Ben’s coarse words. It was the first time he’d shown any ill will toward her. Well, besides the whole handcuffed-prisoner thing.

‘Let’s hope we can say the same for those friends of yours,’ he said. ‘So we have a deal, if you get out of the cuffs and we reunite the old crew?’

M nodded slowly, thinking that this arrangement was a little too easy.

‘Great, then first things first,’ said Ben as he stood up and pulled out a syringe. Uncapping it dramatically, he leaned over the table and showed it to M. ‘This is the first step toward becoming a Fulbright.’

The hypodermic needle’s gauge was very large, gaping, even, with a blade-sharp edge that gleamed in the light. The syringe was filled with an amber fluid that roiled with a shimmering glow.

Ben slid M’s left sleeve up to reveal her soft white wrist. Her veins pulsed and jumped against her skin as she readied herself for what would surely happen next.

Slowly, almost as if with pleasure, Ben pushed the needle into M’s forearm. The pain jolted her upright, but M held her eyes on Ben, determined not to show him any weakness. But she could feel the fluid pour into her. It ached like a
sunburn, seething under her skin, and she could trace its path as the solution moved up her arm, past her collarbone to her chest, until the odd sensation blossomed through her entire system. She broke out into a heavy sweat, the temperature of the room going from perfect to infernal.

‘What was that?’ asked M woozily when Ben had removed the needle.

‘A little magic potion that will tell us more about you,’ said Ben.

M studied him and noticed that he wasn’t sweating. The heat was coming from inside her. She slumped over in her seat when her muscles went dead all at once. The only thing holding her upright was the glass handcuffs. As she struggled to regain control of her body, she whipped her limp neck around to see Ben walking through the open glass door.

‘Oh yeah,’ said Ben, turning around absentmindedly. ‘You wanted those cuffs off.’ Then, with a press of a button, the cuffs clicked open and M fell to the hard glass ground with a resounding thump. She could see the people below her again, sitting at their computers’ flashing screens. No one looked up at the girl lying facedown on their ceiling.

M heard the door slide shut. She was alone again. As she lay there, a background buzz came back on over the speakers.

‘Did she take the bait?’

It was Ms Watts’s voice again. The recording had restarted. There was something more that the Fulbrights wanted M to know, apparently.

Hook, line, and sinker,
answered Zara.
I’m on my way to collect her now.

Keep
her alive
, said Ms Watts as offhandedly as if she were asking Zara to pick up milk from the grocery store on the way home.
She might not look it, but she’s very important to someone very important to me.

Affirmative
, said Zara.

There was the sound of a door closing, the shuffling of papers, and the clicking of Ms Watts’s high heels. It was like Ms Watts was a ghost in the Glass House with M. The sound bounced and resonated off the floor, ticking and ticking against M’s immobile body.

M puzzled over Watts’s last words as the thrumming pain inside her finally conquered her efforts to stay awake, and a heavy sleep smothered her like a thousand-pound blanket.

CHAPTER 2

A DANGER TO OTHERS

The new room was bright, but at least it wasn’t see-through. From her cot, M saw a ceiling and four walls … but that didn’t mean she wasn’t being watched. When she attempted to roll over and inspect the rest of the room, she was met with a flare of pain blistering all over her body.

‘Not yet,’ commanded an unfamiliar voice. ‘You shouldn’t try to move yet. The serum isn’t out of your system.’

M flipped over again to face the voice and instantly wished she hadn’t, due to the sharp, splitting feeling that almost cracked her in half. She grimaced and clenched her teeth. Next to her sat a girl who held a tablet in her hand. The girl’s eyes moved from the tablet to M’s arm to M’s eyes and back to the tablet in a carousel of motion. She looked vaguely familiar, but M couldn’t place her face.

‘You’re looking for something,’ said M.

‘Just reviewing your vitals,’ said the girl.

‘How are you doing that?’ asked M.

‘The shot was a serum that cleans your system, so to
speak,’ said the girl as her eyes continued their circuitous route. ‘Like being scrubbed clean on the inside. Cleanses the spirit, we like to say.’

That was exactly how the shot had felt.

‘When’s it go away?’ asked M. ‘The pain.’

‘Depends,’ the girl answered. ‘You should get your rest. Life’s not going to get any easier from here on out.’

‘You’re not a doctor,’ noted M as she studied the girl’s features. She was young, only slightly older than M, with blond hair. She was dressed in a standard Fulbright uniform, except for a knee brace that she wore on her left leg.

‘You don’t remember me, then?’ asked the girl.

‘The night by the jet,’ M said, the memory suddenly clicking. ‘You’re the Fulbright who attacked me.’

‘Attacked you,’ the girl said with a laugh. ‘If I had attacked you, you wouldn’t be here now. You wouldn’t even have reached that plane. No, I was apprehending you.’

‘Well, good job there,’ M said sarcastically. ‘I gave you that brace?’

‘What’s a hyperextended knee between roommates?’ asked the girl. ‘It was nothing two surgeries and months of rehab couldn’t fix. I’m almost field ready again. Just in time, from the looks of things.’

‘Great, you’re my roommate,’ repeated M as she lay helpless in her cot. ‘Listen, it looks like we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot. I don’t even know your name.’

‘Oh, I’m Vivian Ware,’ she said, grabbing M’s left hand and giving it a sturdy shake. It felt like she was ripping M’s arm right out of her socket. ‘It’s a pleasure to finally meet you officially.’

The sudden movement colored the room a blinding hue of violent white. M felt like she had been struck by lightning. Her eyes unfocused, and Vivian became pixilated into millions of pieces. It was like a body-length stitch had been tugged and now M was spilling out of her own skin. Drool trickled down her chin as she sat as still as possible, trying to recover.

‘Okay, we’re even,’ M said after a few minutes. ‘Can you show me what’s on the computer now? I’ve always wanted to see my insides.’

Vivian flipped the tablet to share the screen with M. There was an exact outline of M’s body flickering with wild tones, like flames lapping within a fire. Blues, whites, reds, and yellows ebbed and flowed through her digitized self. ‘I’m told you need a steady red before you’re cleared for action,’ Vivian said.

A dark purple node showed on the screen at M’s wrist, where Ben had administered the shot. ‘What’s the purple blotch?’

‘Tracker and dog tag,’ answered Vivian.

‘I always figured the Fulbrights had a way of making people feel wanted,’ said M jokingly. ‘Are they afraid I’m going to run away?’

‘No,’ said Vivian. ‘They are afraid you are going to be captured, killed, or worse. Every Fulbright gets one.’ She held up her left wrist and a glowing knot pulsated through her skin like a beacon. ‘Standard issue.’

‘And this serum, it takes a couple hours to pass?’ asked M.

‘If you’re lucky,’ said Vivian.

M breathed steadily and slowly eased herself onto her back. There was no way around it – she needed to take it easy for once. But she wished she could see Jules and Merlyn. Thanks to her agreement with Ben, they were probably unwillingly going through the same painful entry into the Fulbrights. M felt like a dragnet of trouble, sweeping up everyone who came into contact with her, friends and enemies alike. But Jules and Merlyn had been trapped in the Box with M back at Lawless. They had heard Ms Watts ask about the remaining moon rock, and they had witnessed the dire level of destruction said rock could cause. If they were still speaking to her after all this, M hoped they would be in for another crazy ride. Whether or not it’s what her dad had been hinting at, it was up to her to find that missing rock and make sure it would never fall into the wrong hands again. Not Ms Watts’s or the Fulbrights’ or anyone else.

As M was lost in thought, the white room dimmed into darkness.

‘Um, is this stuff supposed to mess with your vision?’ she asked. ‘’Cause I might be going blind.’

‘It’s lights out,’ said Vivian stoically. ‘Mandatory bedtime, so stay in your bunk.’

‘Oh, I’m not going anywhere,’ said M. She closed her eyes under the oddly soothing false night. Perhaps it was the serum beginning to work its way out of her system, but she felt good. She felt confident about her new situation. It was daunting. It was insane. And it was exactly where she needed to be.

As M drifted off, she felt like she was sleeping during a thunderstorm. The echo of heavy drops of rain surrounded
her and brief flashes of bright lightning erupted in her dreams, casting shadows where only darkness had been beforehand. Glimpses of her dream placed her back in her family home, but before she could make sense of her imagined landscape, the walls of her Fulbright dorm illuminated.

They cast a soft light that bloomed under M’s closed eyes and drew her gently out of a deep sleep. She remained stone still at first, not wanting to move for fear of waking the mind-numbing ache from yesterday, but the new morning brought with it a highly reinvigorated M. She sat up, suddenly hyperaware of her entire body, from the tips of her toes to the slightest shift of her eyelashes. She yawned and stretched harder and longer than she ever had before in her life.

Vivian’s cot was already neatly made, and she was seated in the corner, reading a book.

‘Wow,’ said M, looking at her hands and arms as if they were totally new appendages. ‘I feel amazing!’

‘That’s because your body chemistry has been realigned with essential nutrients, stimulants, and compounds that are not typically found in humans,’ said Vivian without looking up from her book.

‘Did you guys make me into a superhero?’ M asked playfully.

‘It’s a chemical boost, not superjuice,’ answered Vivian, who obviously lacked a sense of humor. ‘Now you’re almost fit for the field. Put this on and follow me.’

Vivian tossed M a white robe. For the first time M realized that her clothes were gone, replaced with a white hospital gown. Catching the robe, she wrapped herself in it and
swung her legs out of bed. The ground felt amazing against her bare feet. Warmth was emanating from beneath the impeccably clean white floor. M stood and looked around the room again and noticed something was missing. Windows. Normally she would feel trapped and constrained in a room without windows to the outside world, but this room felt spacious and open.

‘Why no windows?’ asked M.

‘I said,
follow me
,’ said Vivian from the room’s doorway, ‘not
if you have any questions, just ask
. So let’s go before we’re late for breakfast. Don’t want to get a demerit on your first day.’

‘I can see why they didn’t give you a room with a view, Miss Sunshine,’ said M as she followed Vivian out into a hallway filled with unmasked Fulbrights. They were all young – students, M realized. But the typical chaotic hustle of students that she was accustomed to at the Lawless School had been replaced here with two orderly, single-file lines of kids moving up the hallway on one side and down the hallway on the other. They were all dressed in their pitch-black uniforms, which made M stand out like a sore thumb in her white robe. And the other students noticed, too. She could tell by their swift glances, quick cuts of the eye toward M, like they were watching an accused thief walking into a courtroom. Their eyes held a mix of curiosity, anger, and judgment, but their legs marched along as if the day was no different than any other day. Maybe it wasn’t for them, but it definitely was for her. M stepped into traffic and did her best to stay in line with Vivian, but walking in unison wasn’t really her forte.

Around corners and down unending halls, Vivian led M through the white-walled labyrinth to an unmarked room with a table and chairs and nothing else.

‘Wait here,’ said Vivian as she turned, and disappeared beyond the door.

M listened as Vivian’s uneven, knee-braced footsteps faded into the distance. Seizing the moment, she jumped onto the table and ran her hands along the ceiling, searching for a speaker, an air vent, a camera, anything, but she found only another smooth white surface. There weren’t even any lights. The rooms themselves glowed to create the sense of morning, evening, and night. The message of the architecture was very clear: the outside world does not concern you while you are in these halls.

‘Get off the table, Freeman,’ said Ben when he entered the room. ‘I brought you some breakfast.’ He placed a tray of bizarre-looking food that resembled a Technicolor TV dinner on the table and helped her down. ‘Come on, recruit. Down the hatch.’

M took a small bite of a pink gelatinous substance first. It tasted amazing, like bacon and grits smothered in butter. ‘What is this?’

‘Bacon and grits, of course.’ Ben smiled. ‘And the green stuff is fried green tomatoes in a spicy tomatillo sauce. The brown ice cubes are chunks of banana, which is great for your high sodium level. What have they been feeding you at Lawless? Your numbers were more askew than I’ve ever seen from a recruit.’

‘I honestly can’t remember,’ said M, wolfing her breakfast as if it were her first meal in years. ‘Food
wasn’t a priority there, you know?’

Ben laughed. ‘I suppose you had better things to do with your time. Well, at the Fulbright Academy meals are an extension of the training. Your portions are exact, your meal is planned out to give you the best diet possible, catered to your unique physiological needs. This tray is your standard kitchen experience, but we couldn’t have you eat in the mess hall dressed in a robe.’

M stared down at her empty tray and used the sleeve of her robe to wipe her mouth. ‘Wouldn’t want to cause a scene on my first day here, huh? Well, I think you’re too late. The other students got a good look at me already.’

‘Oh, don’t be silly, M,’ came a voice from behind her. ‘I’m sure you’d cause a scene no matter what day it was.’ M twisted to see the doorway darkened by the tiny, vile person she had been happy to avoid for this long – Devon Zoso. Failed Lawless student, Fulbright double agent, and all-around creep, who had unleashed a black hole on the only life-sustaining planet in scientifically known existence. What wasn’t to like about a girl like that?

‘Ugh, I’m glad I finished eating. A scumbag like you can make a person lose her appetite,’ said M as she gripped her fork and knife tightly.

‘Be nice, Freeman,’ said Ben. ‘You’re on the same side, after all.’

‘That’s the thing,’ admitted M. ‘I’m not sure we
are
on the same side.’

‘Words hurt, M,’ said Devon. ‘Just for that, maybe I won’t give you your welcome-wagon present.’

M tried to jump up, to grab Devon and shake some sense
into her, but Ben forced her back down into her chair.

‘Just bring her in, Zoso,’ said Ben, holding M in place. ‘And I want all bad blood squashed immediately. Fulbrights are nothing without each other. Just because you’ve been undercover doesn’t mean you’ve forgotten everything we’ve taught you, has it?’

‘Of course not, Direct,’ said Devon, flashing a smile that M couldn’t read. It seemed snarky at first, but there was the slightest hint of fear behind her eyes at the same time. There was more than M and Devon’s history clouding this windowless room. No, Devon and Ben had a past, too. ‘You two know each other, right?’ asked Devon as she dragged another person into the room.

It was Jules, M’s best friend and partner in crime. But the old Jules, with the graceful, athletic stature, was gone. The Jules who slumped into the room looked different, wounded, even. Her once-brown skin had turned ashen, her arms dangled listlessly at her sides, and this new Jules, dressed in a white robe, moved slowly, carefully, as if the life had withered from her.

‘Jules!’ cried M as she leapt up to help her friend, who was scorching hot with fever. ‘Devon, you should have let her sleep. She’s clearly not over the serum yet.’

‘Hey, dear, you wanted the crew back together,’ said Devon. ‘Ben ordered a meet-up and I delivered. I can’t help it if you’re a danger to others as well as to yourself. I’m actually surprised you’re so concerned about this sick little Byrdie here. You had the whole Fulbright Academy at your beck and call, and the only thing you asked for is to have your hench-twerps back by your side? You didn’t even ask
for your own mother’s freedom. What kind of daughter lets her last living parent rot away in a cell like that?’