The Grower's Gift (Progeny of Time #1) (19 page)

"Don't try and find me," Ty warned him, then turned away and walked back to the elevator.

~

Ty's father called while he was in the elevator heading back to the facility.
 

"Talks with Dakota and New LA are starting in fifteen minutes. I want you there with me."

"They've agreed to your demands?" Ty asked stupidly.

"They're here to talk," his father snapped. "Haven't you been following the news?"

Ty should have known. They wouldn't have lifted the flying ban if the executions hadn't stopped and the two offending cities were ready to talk.
 

"I can't now. I have to go help Mom."

The line went dead.

Ty hoped she'd be able to smooth this over for him later. He never wanted to choose between them. His father held more power than his mother, that much was always clear to Ty. But his father did everything on his own, always in secret and his mother was able to manipulate him in ways Ty hadn't quite figured out yet. Still, his father loved Eve too. Perhaps one day Ty could tell him all about how he tried to protect her. One day when his mother lost some of her power.

Rober called just as Ty entered the facility. Ty rejected the call and turned his phone off. The talks starting meant Rober wanted to execute his treasonous plan. Rober's plans never worked out. Not when they were children, dreaming of their own city in the north, not now when they had so much more to lose. For Ty, getting Maya out of the facility was the priority now. All else would wait.
 

Martin was alone in the control room. The windows of the adjacent exam control room were dark, which meant they hadn't started Maya's exam yet.
 

"Ty, why did you have to bring that girl here?" Martin asked in a shaky voice. "She's so young, she had her whole life in front of her."

Ty leaned on the wall by the door. "I didn't want to. She insisted. I should've sent her back home right away."

"Why didn't you?"

Because I wanted to get to know her.
The thought alone brought too much pain. Pain that could turn to uncontrollable anger and rage.

"Where is she now?" Ty asked. "Has there been an interview yet?"

Martin looked at him sharply. "No, she's been taken to a cell."

 
"Tell me more about those anti-gift pills. Where do they make them?"

"I shouldn't, Ty. Your mother will tell you when she's ready," Martin replied. "Why do you want to know so much about them?"

"Please, Martin. I think she's mad at me for keeping that girl hidden. If I discover something new she won't punish me," Ty lied. He couldn't trust Martin with his plans to get Maya out of the facility. The lengths that man went to protect his life, experimenting on people exactly like him, meant he'd betray Ty too.

The windows in the exam control room turned translucent.

"I'm not angry at you, Ty. Still, you should have told me about the girl right away," Violetta said as she glided into the room. "You can't help with the pills. They're in the final trials stage. We have it covered."

How much did she hear?

"If you say so," Ty managed.
 

"Go to your father's talks now, or neither of us will hear the end of it. He just called me, furious that I'm keeping you from him."

~

Ty was sitting in his mother's chair beside his father in the private conference room in the Remarque building when the talks were interrupted by an urgent message.

Sage Montague had been caught breaking into a top security vault at the Special Forces headquarters.
 

Those idiots went ahead without me?

Ty dreaded the moment when the news that Rober had been caught too came through.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Ty had never even looked at her. And the way he lied to his mother… maybe he was telling the truth. More likely he meant to bring her here all along and was only stalling with all his talk of other schools. Either way it didn't matter. Maya's wish had finally come true. She was at the school, finally able to begin learning to use her gift.
 

The silent woman and the man with the steel hand led Maya down a silver-walled hallway lined with identical blue doors, finally stopping in front of one. It opened into a white walled cubicle. The door hissed shut on the man with the steel hand.
 

Maya turned to the woman. "When will I have the interview?"

The woman looked at her, her lips quivering. She typed something on a small panel in her hands and white words appeared in the air between them. It took a few moments for Maya to figure out they were the woman's. "Soon. Now you must undress and change into this."

The woman held out a dark blue body suit made of shiny nylon.

Maya unzipped her windbreaker and tossed it onto a hospital bed that was the only furniture in the room.
 

"And how soon after I'm done with the interview can I begin my studies?"

"Soon," the woman's words appeared in the air.

"Where are all the others?" Maya asked.

The woman shook her head, and didn't reply.

Maya took off her shoes and unzipped her pants. She kind of wished the woman would turn around, but it didn't matter. She seemed to be staring right through Maya, not seeing her at all, tears welling in her eyes.
 

The whole scene unnerved Maya so much that her hands shook. It was too late to worry now. She was at the school, she'd gotten what she wanted.
 

She struggled to pull her shirt over her head. When she finally freed herself of it, the silent woman inhaled sharply and backed away, pointing at Maya's chest.
 

Maya looked down, thinking she was bleeding at the very least from the woman's reaction, but only the tree pendant her parents had given her hung there.
 

"This?" Maya asked, holding up the pendant.

The woman held one had over her open mouth. With the other she fumbled to type something on her panel.

"Where? Get…that?" the woman's words appeared in the air.

Maya let go of the pendant. "It was a gift."

"Who gave it?"

"My mother and father," Maya replied, letting her confusion show plainly on her face.

"Gabriella?" the woman asked, her eyes wet and glistening.

"Who?"

The woman typed more slowly. "Is that your mother's name?"
 

Maya shook her head. She couldn't read this woman, because no tone, no inflection accompanied the woman's words. Yet those tears, that silent scream made Maya almost rigid with fear. "No, my mother's name is Daisy."

The woman's eyes twinkled through her tears. "You look like her."

Maya edged away from her. "No, my mother is short and blonde. Why are you asking me so many questions about her?"

"I knew a woman who had a necklace exactly like this one," the woman's words appeared in the air.
 

"I don't know, maybe she sold it to my parents," Maya said and continued undressing. The air in the room was thick with death and suffering, grief and hopelessness. Maya concentrated on changing to block it all out.
 

Once she zipped up her body suit, and the woman visibly steeled her features and wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "Give me the necklace, I will keep it safe for you." Her eyes flashed to Maya's wrist. "And the bracelet, please."

"Why?" Maya demanded, clutching her wrist. "This bracelet helps me use my gift. I will do better in my tests with it on."

"Fine. You can keep the bracelet." the woman's words flashed in the air. "But you can't wear any metal jewelry to the interview. It interferes with the readings and will just get taken away. I will keep the necklace safe for you. Please trust me."

"What do you mean, taken away? I'll leave it in here and collect it when I go home this evening."
 

"Please give me the necklace for safekeeping," the woman urged.
 

Maya decided to trust her. She unclasped the necklace and handed it to the woman. Tears spilled from the woman's eyes as she took it. She brought the tree pendant to her lips and kissed it.

"Wait here. Someone will come and collect you soon," the woman's words read.

Then she was gone, and Maya was left alone in the tiny room with only a hospital bed inside it.
 

She sat down on the bed to wait, counting the seconds in her head, still trying to block out all the pain and sadness that hung in the air of this place.
 

It wasn't only coming from the silent woman, Maya now realized. Hopeless suffering hung thick in the air, oozed in through the walls. At one point she was certain she heard a scream.

She eased herself off the bed and walked to the door. After it had closed behind the woman, it became just another panel in the walls. Maya wasn't even sure she was looking for it in the right place.

Her own panic rose in her mind.

Ty, Giles, and Rober had all warned her against coming here. What if Ty wasn't lying to her?

~

Ty followed a few steps behind his father as they rushed to the holding cells of the SF headquarters. Nothing tangible connected him to the revolutionary plans Rober and the others made. He'd only been to two meetings, and the only one who ever called him about it was Rober, who had called him daily since they were kids, so nothing to suspect there. If Sage managed not to implicate him, he'd be fine.

Sage Montague was held in one of the smaller cells, one level down from the SF command room. Shackles on her wrists and ankles bound her to the chair, red lights blinking along them. Her black eyes bored into the two SFs in the room with her. Ty looked on through the one-way window as his father entered the room.
 

"Why did you try to steal the plans?" his father barked at her, the thick vein on his temple throbbing.
 

She should be going for sympathy, make his father feel sorry for her. It was the only way to douse the man's rages.

Instead, Sage fixed her defiant look on him. "I will not speak without fair representation of my house present."

His father asked her the question a few more times; Sage refused to budge.
 

The vein on his father's temple was still pulsing as he exited the room.
 

"What do you want us to do with her, sir?" SF commander Ryker who was in the room with Ty asked.

It took Ty's father a few seconds to get his rage under control. "Call the Montagues. And then I'll call my wife."

"Why don't you let the Montagues handle this? Sage didn't steal anything, after all," Ty interjected.

His father's head whipped around. "You dare question my word? We are on the brink of war as it is. I can't have resistance from within. And I certainly do not need you second guessing my command."

"You know what Mom will do, and Sage doesn't deserve it!" Ty protested.

The SF commander looked at his feet, probably wishing he was anywhere else but in that room. At best he'd lose his job for overhearing Ty speaking to his father like that, at worst he'd be transferred out to the wild north.
 

How am I suddenly responsible for so many people?
 

Ty never wanted that.

His father glared at him. "I will let this slide, Ty, but only because Sage is your friend. Now get out before I change my mind."

Ty opened his mouth to plead some more.

"Get out!"

Ty didn't hesitate this time. Out in the hall, he fought back the urge to break into Sage's cell and at least apologize for not being able to help her.

That was nothing new. Ty couldn't help his own brother, couldn't help Maya, and once Sage revealed all about the revolutionary plans he wouldn't be able to help Rober or anyone else. The fact that he might not be able to save himself either hardly registered beyond worrying about what would happen to Eve then. Someone with a power like his shouldn't be allowed to live anyway.
 

The door at the end of the hallway slid open and Hercules Montague bounded through at a run, his white hair trailing behind him. He pushed past Ty, knocking him into the wall, and burst into Sage's cell. Her defiant look changed to fear in an instant. Hercules lifted her, chair and all, and shook her. Her head flopped side to side until Ty was sure he'd break her neck.

"What have you done? You have trampled out family honor!" Hercules yelled. The SFs in the room couldn't stop him shaking Sage. "I hope they let me punish you for this."
 

"Stand aside, Hercules, I will deal with her," Ty's mother said from behind him. Ty ran from the SF headquarters. The last thing he wanted was to watch while his mother tortured Sage.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Once the sitting became unbearable, Maya began pacing up and down the tiny cell. She was eager to begin her studies, but the suffocating sadness in the air wouldn't let up.
 

Her legs were aching from the pacing and still no one came. She began counting the seconds again. After four hours of that she gave up.

She had told Giles she'd be back by that afternoon, evening at the latest. He must be going mad with worry.

Maya tried to stifle the thought. She'd be frantic for Giles' safety had their roles been reversed, but getting all riled up about it didn't help at all.

She leapt at the door as soon as it hissed open. The silent woman walked in, carrying a covered plate of food and a bottle of water.
 

"When will I have my interview?" Maya demanded, a bit more harshly than she intended since she hadn't used her voice all day.

The woman set the plate on the bed. Her words appeared in the air. "Dr. Remarque has been otherwise detained today. At least now you have the chance to get some rest and be ready for the interview tomorrow. I have brought you some dinner."

Maya's eyes flashed to the bed. "Where should I eat? There is no table or chair. Can't I go now and come back tomorrow?"

The woman set the platter on the bed. "Sit, please." She began typing more quickly. "You will have to stay here tonight. Before you can begin your studies you need to be cleansed of all the outside interference. That is why you are in this room. That will only take a day or so more."