Violet (9 page)

As suddenly as in my dream, a brilliant light
engulfs the interrogation room, and it is as if I am no longer
there. I am in a room. A lab. The ceiling and floor are stark
white, as is all of the equipment. All four walls of this room are
formed by the shock-absorbing gel used in the science labs at
Nineteen. Throughout the room are large octagonal tables outfitted
with an array of microscopes, sanitation areas, and dishes full of
various samples. At one of the tables sits a lone scientist. My
father. Stretched out on the table in front of him is what looks
like a human corpse. My father must be doing some type of autopsy
because he is elbow deep in this man’s abdomen. When he raises his
arms, I see that he holds metallic pieces in his hands. A BioMech.
My father re-installs the piece that he removed, and the BioMech
opens its eyes. My father smiles.

Soon, he stands and begins to pack up his work
station. He must be preparing to leave for the day. My father seems
jovial. There is a bounce in his step that I have never seen
before. He begins to walk toward the door when a scientist working
at a neighboring station swivels in his seat to address my father.
The scientist jumps up and puts on an exaggerated expression of
shock.

“Whoa, whoa. What in Cerno’s going on here? The
most dedicated scientist in all of the Claro is leaving four
minutes
early?
I never thought I’d see the day! Not in all
my rotations have I seen something as shocking as this and frankly,
I’m appalled.”

My father laughs good-naturedly as he pats his
fellow scientist on the back. “Come on, I told you I’d be heading
out. Violet saw her sixth today! Tara has planned a get-together
with the family and some of Violet’s friends. She’ll kill me if I
miss it.” My mother is still alive. That explains my father’s
happiness. I only knew him after his heart had been broken.

A figure steps from the shadow of the doorway. I
did not notice him standing there before, but it’s possible that
he’s been there all along. “I think you’ll have a good reason to
stay.” The Alter. My father and the scientist both turn toward the
sound of the cold voice, and immediately their smiles drop from
their faces. The scientist swivels his chair back around and
continues working. My father, visibly deflated, walks back to his
work station. The Alter follows him.

When they both reach my father’s station, The
Alter places a clear case in the center of it. Within the case is
the shard. The piece of the artifact that he had called The
Cube.

My father is the first to speak. “What is
it?”

The Alter speaks curtly; he is all business.
There is no familiarity between the two men. “It is a piece of
technology. We believe it to be extraterrestrial in origin, but we
cannot be certain. When stimulated, it has displayed an
extraordinary amount of power.”

“Where did you find it?”

The Alter sneers condescendingly at my father.
“That’s above your pay grade. The next time you decide that you
have the authority to question
me,
I’ll have you discharged
for insubordination.”

My father blushes. “I understand, sir.”

“Your assignment is to determine and document
the properties of this relic.”

“I accept without question any mission given to
me by my Alter, but I am a bio-engineer. I work in robotics. I am
not sure that my skills are quite suited for this project.”

“Your concern is noted, but you were chosen for
this assignment specifically because of your background in
bio-engineering.”

“Sir?”

“We believe that this technology may have
extensive applications in infantry design.”

“You want me to use this with BioMechs?”

“If we’re right about the extent of the power of
this artifact, you won’t need to use BioMech technology to create
artificial bodies. You’ll be designing the soldiers
themselves.”

As quickly as this vision began, it is over. I
struggle to regain my senses, and for a moment I am disoriented. I
see The Alter’s lips moving, but I cannot hear what he is
saying.

“What?”

“The game is over, Miss Price. Where is the
shard?”

He saw the drawing in my sketchbook. He’ll never
believe that I don’t know where it is.

“I told you, I don’t know. I’ve never seen it
before.”

The Alter slams my sketchbook down on the table
in front of me. His face is red. When he speaks, spit flies from
his mouth. “How do you expect me to believe that you’ve never seen
it? You drew it!”

I have a feeling that now is not the best time
to start talking about my dreams. But how else will I get out of
this mess? Maybe he’ll believe me. Maybe he’ll take pity on me. I
look up at him again; the crazed expression on his face is only
becoming more extreme by the moment. Maybe not.

“I was injured in the explosion. I lost my
memory. I don’t remember anything before I woke up in the hospital.
That’s the truth. I hardly knew my father himself, much less his
secret hiding places for stolen relics!”

“Oh, you lost your memory? Well, that’s
original. All right, then. I guess you’re free to go.” His voice
drips with sarcasm. I do not respond.

The Alter does not say another word. He gets up
from the table, enters his code, and leaves. Perhaps he’s decided
that questioning me is a waste of time. Perhaps he’ll be back to
torture the information out of me. Perhaps he’ll be back to kill
me. I’d rather not be here to find out. When he has been gone for
several moments, I get up and walk to the door. There’s no window.
For all I know, there’s an army on the other side of this door,
just waiting for me to try something. I take a deep breath and
decide to proceed. I’d rather die in an escape attempt than sit at
a table waiting to be executed.

All right, it’s now or never. I raise my hand
and begin to enter my arresting officer’s access code into the
keypad. 2-9-1-1-5-0. I hold my breath for a long moment. The keypad
turns green and the door lifts. I enter the code again so the door
will close; ideally, I could escape before they ever know I’m
missing. But what about David? I can’t just leave him here, but I
don’t know where they’ve taken him. I hesitate for a moment but
quickly make the decision to leave him. He is only in this mess
because of me. Hopefully The Vox will realize that he’s just an
unlucky acquaintance and send him home. He’s better off without me.
Not only does The Alter think I’ve got information about the
missing piece, but I’m about to humiliate him by escaping on his
watch. Now I’m getting a little ahead of myself. I have to actually
escape first.

I make a left out of the doorway and another
left when my hall intersects with another. 36 steps. I walk as
quietly as I can, but even if I’m being completely silent, I cannot
stop the motion-sensing lights from activating as I pass. I can
only hope that no one will notice. Step number 29. I’m almost home
free when I hear footsteps. Someone is coming.

I duck into a dark doorway and watch the men as
they approach. My heart pounds unrelentingly as I wait to be
dragged from my hiding place. Surely one of them saw me. The
hallway was fully illuminated. As the men get closer, they do not
quicken their pace, and I relax for a moment. The gait of one of
the men seems familiar. I nearly faint when I realize that it’s
David. Just as I come to this realization, we make eye contact and
David suddenly swings around, elbowing the other man in the jaw.
Stunned, the officer falls back against the wall. David rushes
forward and takes me by the hand. “Come on. They’ll be coming for
us.”

With the next seven strides, we are literally
running for our lives. David never lets go of my hand. In fact, he
all but carries me. When we reach the door on the left, the door
that leads to the roof, we are still unsure whether we are being
pursued. I enter the code again, and we are on the roof. When I
planned my escape, I forgot to consider the fact that my escape
route leads to the roof. We’re cornered. We have nowhere to go. I
am halfway entertaining the idea that perhaps I should just fling
myself from the building. At least that way I’d avoid the torture
my father endured. As soon as this thought enters my mind, I shake
my head, ridding myself of it. Of course I’m not going to fling
myself from the building. I’m going to escape.

I look at David and smile. “You think you can
fly that contraption?” I gesture to the small transport that
brought us here.

David laughs skeptically. “Violet, we can’t even
open the door.”

“There’s only one way to find out.” I grab
David’s hand and pull him toward the ship. As we run, I make the
mental observation that being in a life-threatening situation is
certainly making me more brazen.

2-9-1-1-5-0. The door swings open. David looks
at me, shocked. I smile bashfully. “I memorized the pilot’s access
code.”

We board the transport and learn quickly that
this ship was built for ease of use. A child could fly it. David
gets it into the air and we’re off.

David is the pilot, so he is giving me
instructions. “We need to find an open area to land this thing
immediately. I’m sure it’s equipped with some kind of tracking
device. We need to get as far away from it as possible.”

As soon as he finishes his sentence, I see the
perfect place. “There!” An empty lot, perhaps the construction site
of a future skyscraper, but for now it’s our landing pad. David
smiles and begins to manipulate the controls to land the transport.
The moment the ship comes to a stop on the concrete, we are out the
door. We hurry to a dark area in the blind spot between two street
lamps behind the neighboring building.

We have no time to gather our thoughts.

We have no time to formulate a plan.

They will be here any moment, and when they get
here, they will kill us.

“David! What do we do?”

David looks at me. I’m sure the panic in his
eyes mirrors my own. His expression is not hopeful when he says,
“Run.”

We ran.

We moved silently between buildings and down
dark alleyways. We avoided streetlights. We avoided other people.
We kept moving for hours. With every step, I could see the energy
draining from David’s face, but we could not stop. We had no other
option.

Summus is a sprawling urban landscape. There are
no trees, there is no grass or open area. A few tiny parks dot the
map, but they are seldom used. People who want to enjoy nature can
move to Eligo. Summus is steel. Summus is stone. Summus is
factories and skyscrapers. Summus is home to the elite, the best of
the best, but someone’s got to work in those factories. Someone’s
got to wash the windows on those skyscrapers. So there are poor
areas of Summus. The Sententia would never allow an area to become
an eyesore. Often entire street blocks are closed down when they
are deemed too old or too run-down. The working class is relocated
to brand new low-income housing while their old street block is
renovated and readied for a new wave of inhabitants.

This is how David and I found a place to hide.
In the early morning hours when the sky had begun to grey, David
and I knew that we needed cover. We needed to lay low for a day or
two while The Vox searched for us. We had come to an area of Summus
that had been cordoned off. Signs read “Closed for Renovations.”
Theoretically, these buildings were abandoned. We chose a tall
apartment building at the end of the block; all of the construction
equipment was located at the front of the street. Hopefully, this
would mean that we would have a few days before anyone ventured
into our building. By then, we would be gone.

The exterior of the building was dark, almost
black. The door was located at the top of a small staircase that
led up from the street. An awning over the entrance was falling
apart. Chunks of stone were missing, and the steel supports were
visible through the cracks. As we made our way up the stairs, we
had to tread very carefully because some of the steps could no
longer support the weight of a body; some of them had already
collapsed with age. Yes, this building certainly needed to be
remodeled.

We entered the building and were immediately met
with the musty smell of a room that has been long unopened. We
decided that we should choose a room near the top of the building
so we could survey the street from the window. This would also give
us time to leave using the fire escapes if someone entered. This
building had five levels. As we made our way through the hallways,
we noted the decorative paper peeling from the walls, the light
fixtures that hung sideways. The carpet was dirty and wet in some
places. Several times, I took a step and a squishing sound was
accompanied by water puddling around the imprint that my shoe had
made. There must have been a water leak. This may be advantageous
for us; perhaps this building still has running water. Webs hung in
the corners where walls met ceiling. No doubt there were many
unseen insects teeming within these walls.

When we reached the fifth level, we began to
look into the apartments to find the one that was in the best
condition. As we opened the doors, we saw elements of human life
left behind. Abandoned dolls. Sometimes a forgotten box of papers.
Sometimes a picture frame still hung on the wall. Often, there were
faded areas where long-hung photos or paintings had been removed
from the walls. This reminded me that someone had once lived here;
this had been a home.

The final apartment that we entered was in the
best condition. A dilapidated table and chairs still sat in the
dining area. An old blanket lay forgotten in a corner.
Coincidentally, this apartment also had the best view of the
street, which is a beneficial asset to people eluding the law.
Without a word, we decided that this is where we would stay. The
bolts had been removed from the doors; things that could be sold or
reused were generally not left behind. David wedged a chair under
the door so we would know if anyone tried to enter.