The Body Electric - Special Edition (31 page)

“If she wakes up and we can’t contain her,” he says wearily, “we’ll have to…”

“Don’t say it,” I snap.

Xavier nods, acquiescing. But he adds, “We will, though.”

We’ll have to kill her. Before she kills us.

“We should do it now,” Julie says. I hadn’t noticed her—she’s leaning against the doorframe. Jack’s behind her, scowling. “It’s dangerous,” she adds when we don’t respond. “She’ll bring the government here.”

“Her geo-locators are dampened,” Xavier says.

Julie rolls her eyes. “The government has the best hackers. They could override our systems at any time, and be here before we have time to piss ourselves.”

My eyes dart fearfully from Julie to Xavier. I don’t know if I could stop them if they tried to kill Akilah.

I don’t know if I should.

“We’re not going to kill her.” Jack’s voice is low and gravelly. He scowls at us. I remember then that she was his friend, too.

fifty-four

An android serves us lunch. I stare at it as it places sandwiches in front of us, wondering what the android does when no one is here. This is a safe house, used only in emergencies, a throw-back to the days when the Zunzana had power. When Jack, Julie, and Xavier are somewhere else, does the android just shut itself up in the charging closet and wait? Or does it piddle around the house, keeping everything tidy, just in case?

I stare at the sandwich—sliced meat and lettuce between two slices of hard bread—as Julie argues that we should keep moving.

“If you won’t kill that thing downstairs”—Akilah, she means Akilah—“Then we should at least leave it and hide somewhere else.”

My eyes shoot to Jack, and I know he’s thinking the same thing I am.

Xavier puts down his sandwich, watching us all silently as the tension builds in the room.

“We’ve been hiding since we came back from the lunar base,” Jack says. “I’m ready to fight.”

“Fight what?!” Julie slams her back against her chair. “The ‘government?’ That’s too nebulous; we can’t fight something without a face.”

I shut my eyes, trying to think as Julie and Jack argue. I don’t know what I am. I’m not an android like the one who served us this morning. But I’m not human—at least, not entirely. Something happened to me, something changed me. My body is different—and my mind. The hallucinations, the fear. It’s all turning me into something I’m not. And, somehow, Jack’s wrapped up in this, and Dad, and Mom. Something made me forget Jack. Someone.

What does the government want?
PA Young has tried everything—manipulation, hacking, violence—to discover some aspect of my parents’ research. Some part of Dad’s nanobot and android technology, some element of Mom’s reverie chairs. Something—something—in all of that is the key for whatever it is PA Young wants to do.

“I need to go back to the Reverie Mental Spa,” I say. My soft words cut through the angry yelling from Julie and Jack, and they both turn to me, eyes wide.

“No. No way. That’s the
last
place you need to go.” Jack glares at me.

“I know,” I say. “But I need to go into a reverie. If I could think about this while I was in a reverie, I could make sense out of it.” I’ve spent far too long exploring other people’s minds in reveries. It’s time I explored my own.

“You can’t go back to Reverie.” Jack says this as if it’s a command. My back stiffens. Sensing my disagreement, Jack quickly adds, “But I know where there’s another reverie chamber you can use.” I quirk up an eyebrow, waiting for him to continue. “At your father’s old lab.”

“The one that blew up?”

Jack shakes his head. “Only one room was damaged. The laboratory facilities are huge, built underneath Triumph Towers.”

I roll my eyes. “Oh, because it’s going to be a lot simpler to break into the
world’s most secure building
than to sneak into my own home.”

“They expect you to go back home,” Julie says.

“But they’ll never expect us to break into the labs at Triumph Towers,” Jack counters.

“Because that’s
insane
.” Julie leans over the table toward me, a glint in her eye that I’m not sure is disbelief or approval.

“We need someone on the inside…” Jack mutters. “We need someone in the UC, or at least in the labs, that can get us in. That would be the simplest way.”

Xavier shakes his head. “Julie reached out to some contacts, but we’re having trouble finding anyone who’ll help us.”

Jack frowns. “But what about—”

“The android attack was effective.”

Xavier explains. While the exploding androids seemed random and many innocent civilians were killed, most of the androids that exploded were not random at all. It wasn’t just Representative Belles who was affected. There were others. Contacts that had remained loyal to the Zunzana were either killed or directly affected by the android attack. Friendlies who are scared aren’t friendly any more. Everywhere Julie and Xavier went, all they got were warnings and closed doors.

When he quits talking, silence envelops us. It’s hard for me to understand the power that PA Young has, and how effective it is. This is all another form of manipulation. Separate us, make us believe we’re alone, and what else can we do but give up?

A sunbeam trails between the curtains of the window, all orange and green from the trees outside.

“I think I might have the connection we need,” I say.

Julie delivers the message for me while Jack and I make our way as inconspicuously as possible back into the heart of New Venice. When we reach Central Gardens, we go straight to the groveyard, to Dad’s grave.

And then we wait.

It’s not long before Representative Belles shows up.

“It worked,” Jack mutters. “I can’t believe that actually worked.”

“Jack?” Representative Belles says, anger in his voice. “I told you never to contact me again; your organization is too risky.” I leap up, noticing that the representative’s hand is already on his cuff, poised to call for aid. Then his eyes fall on me. “Ella Shepherd,” he says, his voice low. “They say you were kidnapped. There’s a reward for you.”

“I think we both know I wasn’t kidnapped,” I say flatly. “Just like we both know the death of your wife and daughter was no accident.”

“I didn’t even do anything,” Representative Belles says in a low, emotionless voice. “All I did was
think
about opposing the PA, and she had them killed.
Make an example of me
, that’s what she said.” His eyes meet mine, and they are empty, like the hole in the world where Valetta once stood. “I still have Marcos, though,” the representative says, referring to his son. “And I can’t risk him, too. Don’t contact me again.”

He turns on his heels, practically running in an effort to distance himself from us.

“She killed half your family!” Jack calls out, and the representative pauses. “Don’t you want revenge?”

Representative Belles turns, his eyes blazing. “
No
,” he says vehemently. “I just want to save the only family I have left.” A wild look passes over his face as his eyes dart left and right. I’m glad I picked the groveyard as the meeting spot; there’s no one here to disturb us and raise his suspicions further. “Have you seen what they do in the labs?” He continues in a lower voice. “How they can control anything… anyone…?” His eyes lose focus, then his head whips around to me. “I still have my son. I’m not taking any risks. Leave me alone. Don’t contact me.”

Jack lunges forward, trying to grab the representative, but he whirls out of his grip. Without thinking, I shout, “Do you know how my dad died?” The words twist out of me, bursting violently from my lips.

Both the men freeze and turn to me.

“Your dad?” Representative Belles says. For the first time, I recognize his Spanish accent, so heavy in his reveries but nearly gone in real life.

I point to the holly tree. “My father, Philip Shepherd.”

The representative and Jack both stare at me, waiting for me to continue.

“They killed him,” I say, and as I speak the words, I realize for the first time that my beliefs have shifted. Faceless terrorists didn’t kill my father. Prime Administrator Hwa Young did, just as she killed Jack’s parents, and the representative’s family. Just as she has killed every single person who has ever stood in her way.

“He objected to what the government was doing with his research—research so top secret that we don’t even know
what
, exactly, was happening. Just that… it hurt people.”

I take a few steps closer to the representative. He no longer looks as if he will run away. He is frozen in his fear.

“I saw him die,” I say, my eyes never leaving the representative’s. “I saw the bomb tear him apart. But I’m still going to fight the PA. Because he can’t, not any more.” I struggle to recall what the representative’s grandfather told him in his last reverie, but the words I speak ring with my own truth. “I fight for him. I fight for my family. Because family is never really gone.”

Something inside the representative breaks. He doesn’t move, but there’s something in his eyes, something that gives me hope.

“I can’t join the Zunzana,” he says, his voice pleading. “It’s too dangerous. The PA knows everyone who joins, and they… they disappear.”

“I know,” Jack growls.

“We don’t need you to join us,” I say. “But can you get us into the labs? The labs where my father worked?” As soon as I say the words, I know they were the right ones. My eyes dip down to Dad’s memorial plaque. Truth doesn’t lie in the heart of fortune… it’s under Triumph Towers, where the labs are.

fifty-five

An android delivers a message to the safe house that night.

“He was scared,” Jack growls, looking down at the envelope in his hands. “He might try to rabbit.”

I shake my head as I open the envelope. Two identification badges spill out—one for me, one for Jack. Two cuffLINKS drop out next, followed by two fingerprint pads. I press my finger against the skin-colored slip of silicone and it sticks to me, giving me a new, fake fingerprint.

I examine the cuffLINKs. These are fancy, more advanced than any of the ones I’d had before. Representative Belles said that all the labs are marked with tap-touch locks, something Jack confirmed from his time in the labs. To get in, we have to tap approved cuffs against the locks, then touch the fingerprint scanner by the lock. At any point, the plan may fail. Someone could notice the fingerprint pads, or the cuffs may malfunction. And we’ll already look suspicious enough, two teenagers entering the labs at dark.

Still—I’m hopeful it’ll work. Representative Belles could have reported us—or even just me. But he didn’t. He thinks this will work.

“We go in tonight,” Jack says. “The sooner we get to the labs, the better.”

Part of me wants to wait, plan everything, slow down. But he’s right. We need to go in now, while we still can.

Jack looks at me. “Do you really
need
a reverie?” he asks. “This seems like… it’s a ridiculous amount of risk, just to plug you into a reverie machine. It’d be quicker to go in, find what we can at the labs, and leave.”

I bite my lip. It’s more than that. For the first time in a long time, I feel like what I’m doing is
right
. I guess it’s a gut feeling; but I’ve never had one so strong. It reminds me of how I felt when I followed Dad in the map program that led me to Jack. And, well… he led me to where I needed to be.

And besides— “In all my past reveries, I’ve seen Dad,” I say. In the hallucinations, too. Jack’s full attention is on me. I think about the last reverie with Representative Belles, the one that threatened to engulf me. “He’s trying to tell me something.”

“Ella… he’s dead.” I hate the blunt way he says the truth.

“I forgot you, didn’t I?” I snap at him. “Isn’t it possible that I’ve also forgotten something Dad told me?”

Jack frowns.

Ella, wake up
. I thought he meant that I had to wake

up from the reveries I was in, but what if Dad needed me to wake up from the idyllic life I’d been living? What if he needed me to break through the lost memories?

“I’m sure—I
know
—if I can just get one more reverie, now that I’ve learned so much, I can figure out what he needs me to know. Dreamscapes are confusing; there’s a lot to sort through in a person’s mind. But I have something to focus on now.” When Jack hesitates, I snatch up one of the burner cuffLINKs Representative Belles sent over and snap it on my wrist. “I’ll go by myself if I have to.”