The Almost Girl – ebook edition (21 page)

“Of course not,” Era says. “Don’t worry, pet; you’re safe. They can’t hurt anyone.”

Ignoring her supercilious tone, my gaze falls back to the Vectors. They’re all still functioning, but somehow they’ve been neutralized. I wonder for a second how they’d been able to deactivate them. It isn’t like they have a kill switch, and all of my father’s programming is strongly encrypted. But then I remember. Shae would have provided some, if not all, of that information.

“How did you get them?” I ask, nodding at the five Vectors standing inside the glass half-tubes against the wall. I can’t help the edge to my voice. “And how did you deactivate them?”

“With great difficulty.”

Shae turns toward me. “They were older, first generation. When we… left, I took any of Father’s research I could get my hands on. I knew he’d send the Vectors after us, and I was hoping I could use it to avoid them. Era discovered that they were programmed with some kind of kill code.”

“The Vectors all have self-destruct codes,” I say slowly. “It’s in their operating parameters. If their objectives are compromised, the nanoplasm shuts down.”

“That’s where I come in.” I dimly recognize the voice but not the face behind the blue mask.

“Philip?” Caden asks, and his voice startles me. I’d forgotten that he was even there. But he’s staring at the person removing the gaskets connecting a wide helmet to a blue safety suit.

“Wait,
Philip
?” I echo.

“Extra credit,” he says in a bland voice. “And training. I’m next in line.” He jerks his head toward Era. My brows snap together, eyes darting between Philip and Era. The resemblance had not been obvious before, but now I see the same long noses and the wide, angular cheekbones, even though Philip’s hair is blond and not dark like Era’s. I feel a flush redden my cheeks as I recall the strange look Era had given me when I’d lied saying that Philip seemed to like me. Cringing embarrassment hardens my voice.

“Wait, what? You’re in training to be a Guardian?”

Philip nods briefly and gets back to business, consulting an tablet he’s holding in his left hand. He types in a sequence. “I embedded a code to override the self-destruct programming. These three on the left,” he says gesturing to the Vectors closest to us, “have been completely deprogrammed.”

“And the other two?”

“They were the last ones we got. Still working on them. Their security has an additional layer that we haven’t been able to get past, some kind of eleven-digit code. They’re slightly more advanced. I’ve run different algorithms, and nothing.”

My mind is racing. I still don’t quite understand what they want to achieve by everting from any point like the Vectors, especially using first-generation Vectors from twelve years ago. My legion had been third-gen, and I’d bet anything that Vector Commander we had fought before was far more advanced than any I’d ever had under my command.

“I’m sorry. I don’t get it. Why
would
you want to evert from anywhere? What’s the point?”

Philip doesn’t answer and Shae avoids my eyes. Of course; I see it now. It’s an exit strategy if anyone pursing them – like me – somehow manages to get too close.

Shae nods, confirming my guess. “It was our way out if they sent anyone after us.”

Her voice is quiet, and I notice she doesn’t imply that I’m one of the people chasing them. It occurs to me right at that moment that she hasn’t told Era the truth about me. It seems odd that Shae would protect me, even after everything. “I just didn’t think it was going to take this long to get a workable serum.”

“So how does the jump work?” Caden’s voice is small. He’s been quietly listening all along and trying to put together the pieces, from what Shae and I had told him earlier to what he was hearing now.

Philip brings up a controller on his tablet and keys in some numbers. A picture forms on the flat-screens in the center of the room. It looks like an hourglass broken up into small squares. “That is a two-dimensional drawing of a traversable wormhole. It’s basically a bridge in space with two different end points. Think of the universe as made up of an infinite number of universes. Some of these universes are coupled by a gravitational field, which means that we can communicate between them. OK so far?” Caden nods, and Philip continues, pointing to one side of the diagram. “In this case, this is our world, and that is Neospes, where Shae – and the Vectors – are from.”

Philip pauses to bring up another image on the computers, this time a series of numbers and symbols on a graph with moving waves. “How it works is a whole other story. We’re talking string theory and sub-quantum mechanics, basically the relationship between space-time, gravity, energy, and matter. OK?”

“Not really. You lost me at string,” Caden says, dazed. I bite back a smile.

“What Philip is trying to say,” Shae explains, “is that our physicists figured out a way to manipulate electrons and gravity to jump between one universe to the other. Like through a kind of passage.”

“You mean like a
stargate
?” Caden offers, remembering my earlier jibe. “You know, the movie?”

Philip sighs and rolls his eyes. “Sort of, only there’s no gate, but the transference is similar.”

“OK, so why doesn’t everyone know about this? I mean, it’s amazing,” Caden says. “Can you imagine if everyone could do that?”

“They can’t.” Era moves to the front screen and taps in some more commands that clear them all. Her voice is hard. “Though the universes exist in parallel, we’re not meant to go between them. We were breaking the laws of evolution and nature. And nature has a tough way of evening things out. Where do you think the bubonic plague came from that wiped out millions of people in Europe? We couldn’t control it, so we closed the wormholes and founded the Guardians on this side.” She nods toward Shae. “They created the Vectors on theirs to police and deal with illegal jumpers.”

“What about them?” My voice is harsh in the vacuum of silence following Era’s words. “Why wasn’t Leila or Shae dealt with for jumping illegally?” I’m more curious than anything – the Guardians have such rigid laws that it doesn’t make sense as to why they would allow Shae to remain here.

“Caden’s mother was seeking asylum to return home with her son from the Lord King at the time,” Era says. “The Faction could not deny it.”

At her words, Caden is already backing away, his face confused and betrayed, staring from Shae to Era to me. His anger finds an easy mark.

“I’m the
target
you were talking about in my house that day?” he hisses in my direction. “I’m what you were looking for? The next in line to your stupid monarchy?”

“It’s not what you think –” I begin, but he cuts me off.

“No. It’s not what
you
think,” he says. “I don’t belong there. I belong here. I’m not going with you. Not now, not ever. I could care less if your idiot boyfriend is dying.”

I’m flinching inside at the words he’s throwing so carelessly at me, but the truth is, I
am
there to take him back. My voice is cold when I respond. My words are for everyone.

“That idiot boyfriend is your brother and the reason you’re even alive. And you’re going whether you like it or not.” I turn to Philip, who’s staring at me like I’ve grown a pair of horns on my forehead. “Try these numbers.” I reel off a series of numbers and he hastily enters them onto his tablet.

“What are they?”

“My name and my birth date. Trust me, that’s the code you’re looking for.”

Philip punches in the numbers and for a second, nothing happens. My father had been anything if predictable with the earlier versions of his pet project. Maybe I’ve got it wrong.

“I’m sorry–”

But the wailing of a loud siren – the sound of security being breached – cuts off my words. Philip’s eyes are wide and horrified, focused on something behind me. Era is already diving for some kind of control pad on the computer desk, slamming her left hand down so that more alarms are shrieking. In her right hand, she’s holding an electro-rod. In that millisecond, I notice that it’s not set to stun.

It’s set to kill.

Shae screams and pushes Caden to the floor as people in blue suits streak past us. Doors start closing, separating the room into smaller quarters. I turn in slow motion, only to meet the cold dead eyes of one of the Vectors that I had clearly just activated.

 

 

TRACK OR TRAP

 

Father had been predictable, all right.

Predictable enough to know that one day I’d be the one to initiate the Vector spies that had gone missing in this world. I curse myself again, reaching for my ninjatas, but there’s nothing there but bare skin. This time, I curse Era for making me leave them outside of the room that is now sealed behind a giant metal door. Scanning the space, I see another white door on the other side of the room that has a small window in the center of it. Caden’s face is peering at me from the other side. His eyes are terrified, jumping from the Vector to me. I nod reassuringly – at least he’s safe for the moment.

“Open that door,” I shout.

“We can’t; standard security protocol,” Era says from behind me. Her voice is controlled and calm. She’s holding two electro-rods in each hand, and one of them is pointed right at me. “They’ll stay closed until the situation is resolved. Who are you? How did you activate them?”

“I didn’t–”

“What the hell did you do?” Philip says angrily. “And why is it just standing there?”

Philip is right. The Vector across from us is not moving, even though its eyes are open and staring at the three of us. Something’s not right. Vectors don’t hesitate – they follow a program, a very specific program. This one is waiting for a reason.

“Era,” I say urgently. “There were two of them, right?” She nods, the electro-rod dropping slowly downward. “Two. Where’s the other one?”

In slow motion, we both turn to the white door in the center of the wall at the same time that a bright swath of blood splashes across the window. My heart leaps into my throat, but neither of us can get to the door, as the one in our room darts to stand between us and the computer panel. I’ve never seen a Vector move that quickly. This one is different. For a second, I wonder if the other one in Caden’s room is as quick. Shae will protect Caden, I tell myself. She has to. That thought is the only thing keeping me together.

The Vector moves again, this time delivering a blow to Philip’s head and spinning behind Era. Her cry is loud even as she lunges toward it, but it’s too fast, darting out of her way with incredible speed. I skid over to Philip. He’s still breathing, and I shove him under the console in the middle of the room. “Stay here,” I tell him, and he nods woozily.

Era has gotten in a couple good hits. I can see the charred skin from where she’s shocked the Vector, but he’s too quick for her to strike where it will disable him.

“Why isn’t it fighting back?” Era shouts, edging back to where I’m standing next to Philip. “Do you see that? It’s toying with us. What’s it waiting for?”

Its movements seem vaguely familiar to me. I’ve seen one of these kinds of Vectors before. They’re wiry and fast, and aren’t programmed to fight. They’re programmed for other things.

I think back to the moment when Murek had planned the coup and killed his brother. He’d been with a Vector like this one. I remember thinking at the time that it didn’t seem like much protection, but Murek had insisted that the creature accompany them. Then they’d been flash-attacked. Murek had miraculously survived, but his brother and most of the group had been killed, including the strange Vector. Whatever had attacked them had known exactly where they would be, because the attack had been strategic and swift. By the time the royal guards had gotten there, the attackers were already gone. Murek had said it had been doomed timing, but I’d known better.

“It’s a shadow,” I breathe.

“A what?” Era’s voice is suspicious. “What the hell is a shadow?”

“They’re spies. They send out some kind of signal to call for more Vectors.” Era doesn’t answer but Philip does. He’s holding his tablet in his hand and staring at it in horror.

“She’s right,” he whispers. “There’s some kind of radio wave that wasn’t here before.”

“You can track signals?” I ask.

“We need to deactivate it right now,” Era says, veering toward the thing before I can stop her. Just then an explosion rocks the wall in the back of the room, and I see chunks of colored plaster fly into the small window. But I can’t even think about Caden and Shae. I have way worse things to worry about, staring from Era to the shadow Vector. She’s going to make it worse.

“Era, no!” I tackle her from behind, and we both roll crashing into the unresponsive Vectors on the far side of the room. She punches me in the face and I feel my head snap backward from the blow. Stars spin in my vision, but I manage to block her second strike. “Stop!” I scream. “It’s a trap; if you hurt it, it will explode. That’s what just happened in the other room. I don’t even know if the others are alive.”

“But if we don’t disarm it, we’re dead either way,” Philip yells.

But there is another way. That is… if the thing will listen to me as the other one in Caden’s bedroom had. “Let me try.” I approach the Vector slowly, my hands in the air. It watches me but doesn’t move out of my way. I glance back at Era and then Philip, both staring at me with wary expressions. “Stand down, soldier,” I say firmly. I can feel the hot lasers of Era’s eyes on my back, but I have no other option. “That is a direct order from your commanding officer.”

Its answer is to lurch forward and grab my neck in its cold hands, so fast that I can barely get my own hands up to block it. Black dots dance in my vision. And then everything goes eerily quiet. I don’t know if I’m dead or dreaming when the big metal doors swing open, and Caden rushes in, sword in hand to cleave the Vector’s head clean off its body.