Stray (25 page)

“I didn’t know they would shut it down.” I turn my head but can’t catch Tesla’s gaze. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for that to happen. It’s not fair.”

“Fairness is of no relevance to the Affinity Project,” Tesla says. “Robert was waiting for an excuse. You supplied it.” He closes my gown and helps roll me onto my back. It’s tender but the agony is gone. I’m finally able to see his fierce expression and can’t tell if it’s directed at me or his thoughts of Counsellor Knox.

“I did not want you brought in for Orientation until we had solved the problem of your brother. That is why I initiated Early Detection Studies, to buy us more time.”

Stunned stupid, my ears fill with a hollow roar.

“You have acted hastily where your brother is concerned. You should have listened to your
aunt
and stayed out of it.”

Aunt. There’s warning in the weight of it. What? He’s worried I’ll let slip in front of Benjamin that Miriam’s my mother? Half-strangled, I say, “I didn’t … I didn’t know that. Why didn’t she just tell me?”

“She would be unwilling to put incriminating information in your head that could be Harvested and used against you or Aiden.”

Protecting me. Always protecting me. Carrying the weight of everything for my sake, for Aiden. It breaks me in two thinking of yet more pointless suffering and sacrifice in her life and
I’m
the one who’s made it futile, by jumping the gun and then getting myself caught. I can barely whisper. “I didn’t want Miriam to get in trouble. I wanted them to blame me. I wanted to keep her out of it.”

“Yes.” Deep furrows form in his brow. “You are just like her.”

We stare at each other and I can’t tell if he’s angry at me or angry in general and I think perhaps it’s both. All I can think to say is, “Aiden has deactivated.”

Benjamin makes a hissing sound.

Tesla grinds his teeth. “It is very difficult to prove now that he is a fugitive.”

“I
had
evidence. You saw that in the Harvest. Davis destroyed it!”

Benjamin stands abruptly, clapping the glass on the side table, sloshing water onto the floor. “What did you expect?”

Tesla gives him a sharp look. “Did he?”

“
I
did.” Benjamin grunts. “Jamie is my friend. She put his sister in the path of her
Stray
. She helped him escape. It’s a – a despicable act, an unthinkable violation of everything we stand for and I can’t believe, sir, that you would disagree.”

“Mr Nelson,” Tesla enunciates with ominous care, “I am most seriously disappointed to hear this.”

Benjamin flinches but holds his ground.

“You have interfered with an investigation that is of high personal value to me and to the future of this organisation.”

I stare up at Tesla, my desire to stab Benjamin momentarily interrupted. “He has? It is?”

“When your aunt contacted me with a request for assistance, I will not deny that I struggled to believe her account of Aiden’s transformation. Robert was not exaggerating when he told you there is no cure for the Stray mutation. We have no evidence of it ever happening in the history of the Affinity Project. However, your aunt had enough confidence in my commitment to Deactivation Research to know I would at least have an open mind and investigate the possibility.”

Benjamin looks aghast. “You believe her?”

“I believe it is worth investigating. A blood sample would have been extremely useful.” His eyes fall again on me. “Our only option is to convince the Executive to allow us to bring Aiden in for testing.”

“No,” I cry, remembering the room full of Shields in the mess hall and the feral response when Davis denounced me as a traitor to the Project. “You can’t bring him here - they’ll tear him apart.”

“You must have had a plan,” Tesla says, his jaw clenched. “Miriam told me about this Doctor Sullivan. What did you think would happen after you got the results?”

I press my mouth closed. No. I’m not talking about it in front of Benjamin and how can I even be sure about Tesla? I saw the memory of him in ReProg; he could be brainwashed and working for Knox. He could be pretending to be an ally when really he’s just trying to get information that will lead them to Aiden so they can “eliminate” another Stray for the sake of their Primary Objectives. If only I could speak to Miriam and know for sure.

“I want to see my aunt. I need to know if she’s okay.”

He lowers his head and pinches the bridge of his nose. “You cannot see Miriam and as I told you, she is not okay. She is in very great danger of slipping into stasis.”

“What – what does that mean?”

“Failure to yield during Harvest prolongs exposure to the Symbiosis, causing damage to the cerebral cortex. The Proxy was permitted to override your aunt’s defences. It is a dangerous practice that I have campaigned against, but the Executive allows it in serious investigations. She would not answer any questions about you or your brother. During the override her mind shut down – self-preservation.”

High-pitched ringing in my ears returns. I can’t feel my hands or feet. “Shut down? What – she’s unconscious … like a coma?”

“Close enough.”

I press my palms to my numb face.
I did this. I did this to her
. “Will she come round?”

“I do not know. She is in our intensive care unit.” His eyes bore into mine. “It need not be in vain if you tell me where your brother is. I will go and test him myself.”

Splintered with regret and uncertainty, I say it through my teeth. “I don’t know where he is.”

“Do you at least know where my sister is?” A voice, low and rasping from the back of the room. Jamie.

Jamie leans against the doorframe, his bloodshot eyes riveted on me. Bare chest, bare feet, pale blue scrubs riding low on his hips, his hair shorn to a “disciplinary” quarter-inch, lending a brutal quality to his cheekbones and jaw. He takes shuffling steps forwards, red grooves around his wrists, a red welt across his chest where the chair restraints have dug into his skin.

“Jamie.” Tesla turns to him. “You must lie down.”

Jamie doesn’t hear him, his eyes widening over me, my hair, my gown, my bandaged wrists. Something like dismay crosses his face. Maybe concern. A brief flare of emotion before he remembers his rage and his face hardens to flint.

“You’re too weak,” Tesla says.

“I’m fine.” But the effort of crossing the room leaves him sweating; it beads his torso and his arms tremble when he leans on the back of a chair at the end of the bed.

His scent and signal torture me. I can’t look at him, too angry, too guilty to trust my face not to show it all, too embarrassed about my hair and the state of my body. On the counter behind Tesla, glass test tubes begin to dance in their wire holders.

Everybody looks at the jangling vials and then at me.

I close my eyes but the high-pitched ringing doesn’t pass.
Not now. Calm down
.

“What is that?” Benjamin asks.

“Her ETR can interrupt the frequency of glass when she’s agitated.”

I hate the
her
and
she
of Jamie’s explanation almost as much as I hate my loss of control.

“The glass in the mess hall,” Tesla says.

“What?” Jamie turns his head.

“Davis threatened her with his baton,” Benjamin says. “She was afraid.”

“I was not.”

Benjamin doesn’t argue but matches my glare.

“So?” Jamie, his accent pronounced. “What did you do with Kitty? Use her as bait to lure your brother out of his cage?”

I can’t argue lying down; it makes me feel too vulnerable with Jamie glowering above me. I struggle to sit up but the pain is crippling. Sighing, Tesla leans down and surprises me by inclining the head of the bed. I clutch the sheet for something to hold onto. “She was safe the whole time. You know I’d never let anything happen to her.”

“
You
happened to her.”

“I asked her for help.”

“She thinks she owes you. You took advantage of that!”

“She was
supposed
to go home after the – the allergy test. I dropped her off at the train station.”

Jamie pulls his lips back from his teeth. “
That’s
what you call dangling my sister in front of that animal – an
allergy
test?”

“She was waiting in the motel when I got back with Aiden. I told her to go home but she wouldn’t leave. You know what she’s like.”

“She trusted you and you manipulated her!”

“Yes, she trusts me. Why couldn’t you? I
showed
you the memory!” Hot in the face, I jerk up on my elbow and collapse back, grimacing. “You felt Aiden deactivate in the KMT. Don’t pretend you didn’t.”

“It doesn’t prove he’s safe for good!” The effort of shouting nearly makes him topple.

Tesla steadies his arm. “Lie still, Evangeline. You will reopen your wounds.”

“What?” There’s a drop in Jamie’s voice and he shakes Tesla off like he’s about to move towards the bed, but then stops himself. “What wounds?”

“
None of your business
.”

Jamie makes a sharp appraisal of my body, his gaze searching for evidence of damage.

A three-chime alert rises from a desk behind Tesla. He swears under his breath. “We are out of time. They want you back in ReProg. Please, Evangeline. You must tell me where your brother is hiding. I will go and test him myself.”

Bolts of adrenaline chill me at the thought of going back to the chair. I want to believe Tesla. I’m desperate to believe him but what could I tell him for sure? I don’t want to even hint at Aiden’s first stop. “No.”

“Tell him,” Jamie says. “You can trust Ethan.”

“I don’t trust any of you.”

“You’ll only make things worse for yourself.”

“I’m here because
you
reported me.”

“You put Kitty in danger!”

“But she’s home now, isn’t she? She’s safe.”

Jamie sneers. “Like that makes up for–”

“She isn’t,” Benjamin says.

“What?” Jamie straightens. “You picked her up.”

“She ran.” Benjamin opens his hands. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t find her. We’ve been tracking your parent’s calls. They reported her missing this morning.”

“Where is she?” I can’t tell if Jamie asked the question or me. My thoughts tumble, half-formed things. I remember the flash of honey-blonde hair at the back of the 7-Eleven. She saw them take me. Did she check her car? Davis had the keys. She could have called her folks; they would have picked her up. What was she thinking?

“Where would she go?” Jamie asks me, his face stricken.

“I don’t know.”

“Would she have gone after Aiden?” Tesla asks. “To warn him?”

“Gone after …?” Jamie’s eyes roll up and he hits the floor.

Restraints rise from the edges of the chair, clamping my wrists, ankles, chest and hips. My heart slams, my mind like a house full of poltergeists, cupboards banging, windows rattling, furniture flying. Chaos.

Tesla is back on the metal platform in the observation room, his face a hard mask. Knox and the other members of the Executive all look spent.

“It has been a long day, Evangeline. I expect your compliance.” Knox nods at Felicity.

“Activate Symbiosis,” she says from beside me, her expression bleak and unforgiving after my escape from the ward. The black chemical rises and the room closes in. “Child,” she calls and the glass shifts from shimmering to swirling shadow. She and Benjamin wheel the bed to the door. I catch a glimpse of Benjamin as he hurries out, his face taut, the shudder through his body. I take petty pleasure in his fear, though it’s stupid of me to feel betrayed by him, like he was the Affinity agent I expected to trust. Why? Because he was Jamie’s friend?

There are no more reassuring words from Knox. The head and armrests glow, the calm blocks my crippling anxiety, uncramps my muscles, I’m warm and tipsy and confused once more.

“Get me the location of the brother,” Knox’s voice, chilling, decisive and I’m distantly aware he’s not asking me a question but issuing a command to the Proxy. He wants her to
take
the information from me. I feel a presence in the bandwidth – an intent.

“First,” Tesla says, “show us the Deactivation.”

“Oh, for God’s sake, Ethan. You can’t seriously–”

Instantly, the intent shifts, like a predator offered a more appealing prey. I sense eagerness in the presence and a willingness that opens the bandwidth wide. A vast space. An ocean. Taken by a powerful current, I’m drawn quickly, deeply into darkness. An eruption of colour in the centre, fanning out, painfully bright, a lifetime of memory spread across a black velvet cloth. Then a dizzying zeroing in. I’m on the cold forest floor, fire in my shoulder, the throb of the psychic tether that bound me to Kitty tugging behind my belly button. The sound of Kitty’s weeping, Jamie above me, calling my name, his hands on me, his arms around me, the smell of blood and gun metal in the frosty night air. I turn my head and there, lying in a spreading scarlet pool, Aiden. The memory of his last attempt on Kitty’s life, out in the grounds of the Gallaghers’ estate.

There’s no skipping ahead or smudging of details –nothing like the first Harvest. This time it’s a systematic laying out of events, step by step. When they rush me into the operating room, park my bed next to Aiden’s, the blood transfusion, the Transfer of my Spark memory – it all plays out. Aiden’s seizure as my blood and KMT hit his system simultaneously, the shocking release as the tether breaks, the eerie absence of threat in the bandwidth. My fear for Kitty – gone. I know the sensations won’t Transfer to screen but the Proxy will feel it all and that’s where my fuzzy hope lies.

I become aware then of voices raised in anger. My consciousness bringing me almost to the surface before I’m tugged back down and then a smell, musty and pungent. Pee?

It’s definitely pee. Beyond the ammonia tang of disinfectant, or the gluey breath of recirculated air, there’s pee and sweat. Have I wet myself? In front of the Executive? I go to feel the front of my gown and realise the restraints are gone and someone is holding my hand. Cool slim fingers twine with mine, fine bones but a firm grasp.