Memory Girl (40 page)

“She'll understand,” I say, hoping it's true.

“Lila's attachment to you is pathetic. Youths can easily be replaced. There will be more in twenty-five years. Lila shouldn't have stopped us from Returning you. And the way she manipulates her brother disgusts me. She bosses the most brilliant scientist in the world around like he's a mere
youth. Lila is a fool!”

“No, she's not. She's kind and sweet and clever.”

“You know nothing!” she growls with the fierceness of one of the caged beasts. “You're only an ignorant youth.”

Her smugness snaps something inside of me. “I'll know more than you when I get the memdenity of Angeleen Du—”

“Dupree!” She waves the gun at me. “What do you know of Angeleen?”

I purse my lips, angry with myself for saying too much.

“Angeleen is long gone and will never come back. She died too violently for her memories to be retrieved—I made sure of that. She never deserved Daniel, and his devotion to her sickened me. He only had eyes for her perfect face, while not even science could repair mine.” She touches the sagging, frozen side of her face.

I stare, horrified not by her face but by her words.
I made sure of that.
A confession of murder? Did she kill Angeleen because she wanted Scientist Daniel for herself?

“Lila is no better than Angeleen,” Frost goes on with a stomp of her foot. “She shows me no respect because I'm not a scientist. When I asked to be trained as a scientist, she told me that scientists are born; no one can learn knowledge of such magnitude. But if what you say is true, Lila saved Angeleen's memories and plans to give them to
you!
I won't allow it!”

“If you talk to her—” I start to say.

“Angeleen will never come back.” She cuts me off. “Daniel is finally noticing me, not as an assistant but as an intelligent woman who appreciates him. Lila only cares about getting what she wants. But this time she'll get nothing.” Her glare burns through me. “You'll become
nothing.
”

“Lila knows I'm here,” I lie. “She'll come looking soon.”

“Not soon enough,” she says, with a calculating look on the smooth side of her face. “Even if she searches here, the beasts will hide all traces of you, including bones and hair. Thorough, useful creatures.”

I wince at her words. Nate circles his finger in a gentle motion on my palm, curving up then down … spelling a word! T-A-L … R? No … K. Talk. He wants me to keep Frost talking.

“Lila will suspect Daniel if I disappear,” I say nervously.

“Let her suspect.” She shrugs, the gun still aimed directly at me. “Or perhaps I'll tell her I found you in here and had to protect the beast experiments.”

“She knows about these … these monsters?” I ask in horror.

“Lila designed them.”

I gasp, staring at the stacks of cages with screeching monsters.

“Lila's area of expertise is genetic hybrids. After her breakthrough with gentle animals like hoxen and monklees, it was the natural step to experiment with hostile creatures,” Frost says. “But it was Daniel who had the clever idea to use the beasts to keep strangers from the island. It's taken over a century to reproduce the perfect combinations of beasts. The first few decades, they became attached to humans and were helpless when released into the wild. The ones that adapted taught us which species to breed. Introducing the beasts to the island created an intriguing balance of nature. The strongest beasts survived—and each breeding group grows stronger and deadlier. If Nocturnes hadn't gone underground, the beasts would have exterminated them long ago.”

I'm stunned by her lack of remorse. How can she speak
of murder as casually as discussing a change in weather?

“Nocturnes are a plague on our island,” she sneers. “The beasts saved us the nuisance of having to eliminate the sub-humans by doing it for us.” She points to the cages. “The claws grow more vicious with each born-group. See how that yellow-striped beast strains at his cage, eager to dig his claws into our flesh? He's only a few weeks old, but his knife-like claws and fangs will bring down prey four times his size.”

Prey. Nocturnes. Like Nate.

Behind me, Nate's body is taut. I can feel the heat of his anger.

“Do you see that cold box?” Frost points as casually as an Instructor giving a lesson. “It stores genetic matter from the beasts. Lila has been experimenting on a more efficient hybrid she calls a slither-claw. The combination of claws and venoms has resulted in the ultimate killing creature. This slither-claw will bore through dirt, creating tunnels to seek out prey underground.” Her half smile shines with malice. “The sub-humans will have nowhere to hide.”

“Not Lila.”

“You think your precious Lila is too kindly?” Frost mocks. “Has she won your adoration with a party and special attention? Do you think if you ask her to stop creating beasts that she will listen to you? You are wrong. Lila cares about her work above all else.”

Frost's words sting to my core, although I'm sure she's lying, trying to turn me against Lila. I don't believe her but need to keep her talking. “Lila trusts me more than anyone. She asked me not to tell anyone about her hybrid experiments,” I say, pleased to see a startled look on Frost's face.

“Not even Lila would tell a youth a scientist's secrets,” Frost argues.

“I'll be a scientist soon. If you don't believe me, go ask her.”

“You will never be Angeleen!” She eyes me suspiciously. “Did Lila send you here to spy on our progress?”

“I can't divulge her plans,” I say, as I slip my hand in my pocket, caressing Petal and sending her thoughts of
stay quiet
and
don't move
.

“What plans?” Frost's hand on the gun shakes with her anger.

I purse my lips, refusing to say any more. I've never hated anyone so much. If I had claws like the caged beats, I would gladly rip out her throat.

“Tell me now or the droll will throw you in a cage with a slither-claw,” she threatens. “The beast is small but deadly. He'll shred your skin, then dissect you bone by bone and swallow every piece.”

Frost steps toward me, so close with her gaze fixed on my face, unaware this droll is more than a breathing pair of handcuffs.

“If what you say is true about Angeleen's memories, then Lila must be stopped. I should have eliminated her long ago.” Frost strokes the smooth side of her face, deep in thought. “Daniel will mourn her for a while as he did with Angeleen, and I will comfort him. With no wife or sister to interfere, he'll turn to me and finally realize we belong together.” The gun still aimed on me, she snaps her fingers at Nate. “Droll, kill her now.”

Nate doesn't move, but I feel the jump of his pulse through his hand.

“Droll, I gave you an order!”

Her gaze shifts to him, and her eyes widen. “You're not a—”

Nate withdraws a small pipe from his pocket. Raising it to his lip, he blows.

Frost realizes what's happened only a second before the swift dart strikes her neck. Her weapon clatters to the floor. Her mouth moves but nothing comes out. Swaying, she thuds on the floor.

“Did you … Is she … ?” I ask, peering down.

“Only stunned,” Nate says. “It's a mild poison, but if you want her dead, I can do that too.”

With Frost dead, no one will know I'd found this room. Her death will be blamed on the beasts. I can leave here and no one will ever know what really happened. I can become a scientist—if I want to. Is it worth being married to Scientist Daniel, a man who turns youths to zombies and is so full of his own importance he doesn't realize his assistant killed his wife? Scientists don't live by ordinary rules of marriage, so I can stay with Lila as a scientist—unless Frost destroys everything. She would have killed me, and she wants to kill Lila. Eliminating her would be self defense.

Kill her,
a voice hisses in my head, and I feel Milly's fear
She's crazed and almost killed us. She deserves to die.

Milly's fear and mine overlap, so I'm not sure whose voice I'm hearing. It would be so easy to let Nate kill Frost. To him, killing is survival, not a crime. He'd feel no guilt at killing an enemy.

But I would. And so would Milly.

“Don't kill her,” I tell him.

I hurry into the room with the cold box containing vials
of DNA, the womb of all genetic monsters, thousands of beasties waiting to be born. I can't kill another human, but I can stop more beasts from being created.

I unplug the cold box.

When I return to Nate, he's staring at the walls of cages, growls and hisses echoing around the room.

“They will grow to kill hundreds of innocent people. I don't have enough poison shards for all of them. But I do have this.” He takes rubber strips and a green bottle from his pocket.

He wads papers into a pile near the cages, douses the papers with green liquid, then trails a snake-like rubber strip through the center of the room. When he ignites the rubber, a slow spark burns toward the papers.

“We only have minutes before smoke poisons the room,” he says in a rush.

I imagine smoke filling the room, silencing the creatures as it steals their last breaths. When the fire engulfs the room, they will already be dead. I never thought I was capable of killing—not even monsters bred to kill humans.

Yet Frost's death won't be on my conscience. As the door shuts behind us, silencing growling and hissing monsters, Nate and I drag Frost's limp body down the hall, a safe distance away.

“Let's go.” Nate holds out his hand to me, and we run.

It's not until we've passed the room where scientists' voices murmur, fled through the tunnel, and taken the elevator back to level one that the ground rocks with an explosion.

We keep running.

No one stops us—a sista we pass is running toward the explosion and doesn't even glance at Nate. It's almost too easy to leave the scientists' compound. Security measures only prevent intruders from getting inside, not from getting out.

I try not to think of the destruction and death we left behind.

When I breathe in fresh, salty air and a breeze smelling of wild grasses blows through my hair, I feel a rush of hope. I may have no home with scientists or a Family, and the Uniforms will grab me and drag me off to jail, but for the first time in my life I'm free to make my own choices.

“We made it!” I shout into the sky as if my words are young birds flying for the first time.

“Yes, we did,” Nate says with a smile that lights up his blue eyes. “Thank you, Jennza. Without your help, I wouldn't have the medicine for my father.”

“He'll be better soon.” I stare up into Nate's sweet, scarred, wonderful face and am overwhelmed by emotions. “You risked your life to save your father, but by stopping the growth of more monsters, you've saved all Nocturnes.”

“We both did it,” he says. “But you risked more. Where will you go now?”

“The cave.” Petal musically tinkles from inside my pocket, and I'm reminded of the urgency to get her to seawater.

“But after Petal is safe, where will you live?” His voices softens. “You can't go back to the scientists or a Family.”

“Petal has taught me how to find food and stay safe in the cave. I can live there.”

“Or you can live with me.” He holds out his hand. “There is much beauty beneath the ground—my people have brightened darkness. You would be welcomed there, and eventually—when there is no threat from monsters—we will make a new community aboveground.”

I stare at his hand, tempted to take it and agree to a future with him. Thoughts tug for attention in my spinning head.
Go back to Rosemarie,
Milly begs.
I'll clear your name so you can be in a Family,
Marcus offers.
Please don't leave. You're my best born-mate ever,
Lorelei sobs. The only thing I know for sure is that I have no future with the scientists. By now, Lila knows I'm responsible for destroying her beasts, and instead of becoming a scientist, she'd Return me to a droll.

Blinking back tears, I shake my head. “Once Petal is safe, I'll figure out what to do. If we head for the Edu-Center, we can cut through the woods to the Fence. It'll be a long walk since we can't use the main road.”

“Why walk when we can ride?” Nate grins.

I don't know what he means until he leads me down a wooden path to a towering oak. A hoxen is tied with a long rope to the oak.

“I'll get on first, then lift you,” Nate says.

I back up, not sure about climbing on such a giantness creature.

Ride with the wind! There's nothing to be afraid of when I'm tall on a horse.
Milly's thoughts push into my own. She's offering courage, not fear. A vision of her galloping on a
horse gives me a burst of excitement. Milly soars confidently on the back of a horse. A hoxen isn't a horse, but it's close. Before Nate can climb on the hoxen, I dig my fingers into the thick mane and swing myself up as if I've been doing this forever.