Repossession (The Keepers Trilogy) (23 page)

“And you?” Jet jutted his head to the side to glare at Kale. His finger was already on the trigger, his aim lined up to Kale’s sweaty forehead. “You knew this whole time?”

“None of this is what you think it is, Jet. I never wanted to hurt you, Skylla, or your sister. My chip was removed, just like Skylla’s—there’s a scar on the back of my neck to prove it. I’m only trying to stop Rico from obliterating any chance the human race might have at survival. We need to attempt to make peace, find out what they want from us. Blowing this place up and aggravating them further will get us nowhere.”

“You’re worse than a traitor. You’re a traitor pretending to be a rebel. You wanted allies?” Jet’s thumb skimmed the side of his gun, his hand trembling. “You don’t get them by lying to them and pretending to be something you’re not!”

I attempted to speak, my voice coming out small and feeble. My strength was waning, and the sounds of the screams I recognized so well now emanated from the corridor, alerting me that we had only seconds to act, if we were lucky. The Invaders might not be able to harm me, but my friends were a different story. “Jet, I meant what I said. I need you to trust me. Please come with us to Lucenta. Help us. Don’t run. We’ve come too far, and we have a chance to make this right.”

Kale stepped close to Jet, allowing the barrel of Jet’s gun to stand inches from his skin. “I don’t just want to know my fate as a Shepherd. I want to know
everything
—why they made us, why we’re here. What’s the point of it all? Don’t you want to know? Look where we are, man!” His arms flew up around him. “We’re smack in the center of it all, right this second. We’re minutes away from answering those questions. I need you and Skylla. The Invaders need to see the lengths our kind and yours will go to find the truth. We need to show them we’re willing to fight for our right to exist, that we
need
to fight for our planet.”

“Jet?” Hera tugged on Jet’s hand as she glanced over her shoulder. “They’re coming.”

“My goal’s the same as it was the moment I met you,” I said to Jet. “The only thing that’s changed is I’m not who I thought I was. I wish I could apologize for that, or change the way you found out, but I can’t and I won’t.”

I stepped forward, searching his face for warmth or understanding. Something. The Invaders’ screams grew louder, their shadows filling the doorway. “Because as scared as I am right now and as much as I never asked for this, I’ve never been more positive about where I’m supposed to be than I am right this moment. You found Hera for a reason. We’re here, in this room, for a reason. Please don’t run, because I … because I love you.”

The ice in his eyes seemed to melt, the lines around his mouth softening as his gaze fell to the floor. He swung his arm away from Kale’s forehead and directed his gun to the entrance. “Well then, do what you gotta do to get us out of here. Time’s up.”

Kale shouted, his face lighting up. He popped open a glass supply console and removed two chrome syringes. “You do me, I do you,” he said, handing me one and turning around to give me access to the back of his neck.

“Cover us,” I shouted to Jet, plunging the device into Kale’s skin. I spun and let Kale implant me, wincing at the strange feel of the injection.

“Take Hera!” Jet pushed her in my direction and he began to fire, the Invaders swarming the room while Kale, Hera and I dashed for the sixth Capsule. I helped Hera inside and Kale jumped in after her, lying flat and strapping the belts over their waists. He crossed his arms, instructing Hera to do the same.

“Make sure the lid clicks,” Kale said, “and slam the white button on the table. You and Jet take the seventh Capsule. Go!”

“It’s going to be okay, Hera. You can trust me.” I brushed her forehead and squeezed her hand. “Your brother and I will see you soon, okay?”

She reached up and wrapped a finger around mine, the action rendering me into a puddle of mush. I pushed down the lump in my throat and closed the Capsule lid, making sure it locked tight into place before placing my hand on the glass. Kale held my gaze, and Hera lined her palm up with mine through the window. Promises filled that window, more than I could count, and I wanted nothing more than to keep them.

Spinning fast, I took up my guns and charged forward, right into the line of fire, slapping the white button on the table as I joined Jet’s side. The explosions were different this time. Filled with more gusto, packed with ten times the fight than we’d entered with. The Invaders took notice. They fired back at Jet, careful to avoid me, with just as much vigor, closing in and surrounding him with perfect precision.

“I’m not gonna make it!” Jet yelled.

“Behind you!”

The table’s stone cracking and breaking all around us, the seventh Capsule rose. Its lid opened and the controls flickered on. I fired another round into the sea of Invaders to give Jet a chance to bolt, then lurched forward to wrap my fingers around one of their bony, slick arms. Its frame shook beneath me as I released it, and an invisible force rolled backward and slammed into the rest of the creatures, causing them to halt and cease firing. Their wails pierced the air and they began to back away, weapons lowering to their sides.

“Get in! This is what they want,” I said, taking Jet’s hand. “They have the Seven. We’re safe for now, come on.” Climbing over the mounds of stone, I lifted myself into the Capsule. Jet pulled himself in behind me. I reached up and yanked on the glass cover, encouraging it to slide shut. I strapped in as the clicking sound commenced, lying flat and turning to face Jet. “You ready?”

“Yeah.”

“Thank you for trusting me.”

“Never said I trusted you.” His head rolled on the seat as he looked up and out the window. “But I do love you, so I guess I’ll have to figure that part out, huh?”

The Capsule buzzed around us and weightlessness kicked in as it lifted from the ground and then tilted, parking us next to the other six Capsules on standby for launch. The track beneath us started to move and then one by one, the Capsules were positioned until they formed a single line. We were launched together into a tunnel of blinding light, our speed as fast as the pounding of my heart in my chest. Beautiful blue text appeared and slid across the glass into my line of vision, and that’s when it hit me—though it was in the Invaders’ language, I could read each and every letter.

Final Destination: Lucenta.

FOURTEEN

Cool water caressed every part of my skin, the feeling so divine I didn’t want to wake up.

But I did.

My eyes felt a mild sting and immediately registered that I was underwater, breathing easily, in and out through my nose. Lying flat on my back, I glanced down to find the same ratty, snug jeans clinging to my legs and hips, and a comfy, worn t-shirt floating over my breasts and around my torso. It was tied in a knot at my hip. My familiar, heavy black boots covered my feet, hitting mid-calf.

Feeling relaxed and sated from my journey, I stretched a bit, moving to place my hands on the Capsule’s glass shield above me. As soon as my fingers made contact, the Capsule jolted and began to buzz softly. Little by little, the body of water I’d been enclosed in began to drain, the level gradually lowering, exposing my cooled skin to chilly, crisp air. The glass lid clicked and slid open, and I gasped from the loss of water.

“Easy,” a voice crooned.

My gaze darted up and around, looking for its source, finding no one.

“Gently lift yourself up, and step out. Welcome home, Skylla Warden. Activation complete.”

My breathing escalated at the realization that the voice wasn’t here in this room with me, but in my head. Carefully and with great focus, I obeyed its order and began to lift myself from the vehicle.

What I found was not just a room, but a circular tower, and I was right in the center of it. My breath caught when my brain registered the tower’s transparent walls. Transparent, and completely free of windows, art—any and all obstruction. Their spacious underwater view of the ocean was fresh from a dream. A dolphin pod swam by on the left, and some kind of shark—a tiger shark, I think—gracefully lurked over the glass-dome ceiling. There was no way this place was real.

No. Not possible.

Judging by the magical, cerulean blue of the ocean, we couldn’t be that deep. My eyes adjusted to the tower’s light, and as they did, six other Capsules came into view, all situated behind mine, all of their lids opened and on display. One by one, the other Shepherds rose from their vehicles, soaking wet like me, all coughing and gasping as their lungs adjusted to the absence of water.

A vague confusion rolled in like a fog. How long had I been asleep? Why couldn’t I recall all of the details of my journey?

Kale’s gaze met mine and he sent me a smirk, his expression relieved and somehow foreign, although it wasn’t rational. I knew him, recognized his face. We’d traveled here, to Lucenta, together. I remembered that much. My brain clawed through the fuzzy memories, sifting through the images and picked them apart, one by one.

My fingers shot to the back of my neck, recalling how we’d implanted one another before making the trip in the Capsules. Flashes of Central Control’s stone table and ancient fountain statue popped all around me, how we’d been at the San Francisco base station, with the sole purpose to come here, to claim our destiny as Shepherds, and to find answers.

I let my eyes scan the other five Shepherds, taking in their diverse appearances. Three were women, one who looked close to my age, the other two in their thirties or forties. Their heights varied, as did their hair color. The two men were definitely older than Kale, with peppered gray hair and soft traces of aging along their eyes and mouths. One man was built like an athlete, while the other was thin and lanky. Memories of two other faces faded in and out, faces I recognized, but couldn’t identify. I pressed my fingers to the bridge of my nose, closing my eyes, trying to grasp recollections of their features. The harder I tried to remember, the more distant the images grew.

“Await instructions,” the voice said, causing me to glance around. I knew I wouldn’t find anyone else, but I couldn’t help myself. A digital hourglass symbol appeared in the upper right-hand side of my vision, with the same bluish tone as the text I’d seen move over the Capsule’s glass window when it told me my destination. The hourglass blinked, and the voice repeated itself, instructing me to await further direction.

Stretching my fingers and rolling my neck to work out the stiffness, I felt my breathing resume to normal. I still craved the water, but seeing that I was surrounded by it from every angle put my mind at ease. Other than an intense draw to the ocean and my muddled memories of my time with Kale, I didn’t feel all that different since he’d implanted the chip into my neck.

None of the Shepherds spoke. The disorientation and fascination with our surroundings killed speech on the spot. That fascination grew when a glimmer sparked from the rear tower door. The chrome door rolled open and revealed a single Invader. Its posture was nonthreatening. Leisurely, even. I blinked and rubbed my eyes, then refocused on the creature. We all watched it stride past us and across the room, then up a narrow stone stairway that led to a tall, circular glass tank. A graceful stream of bubbles fluttered up the tank’s sides as it sat empty on the platform at the top of the stairwell. The Invader reached the tank and extended a hand, prompting the door to pop open, which revealed a solid wall of water. Casually walking into it, the Invader immersed itself in the tank, waiting for the door to close behind it.

“Ten seconds,” the smooth, robotic voice said. The hourglass image continued to blink in my upper right-hand field of vision. The tank went dark, its water inky as it churned and pushed all around the Invader’s body—black against white, white mixing into black. The voice began to count down, backward from ten. At zero, the hourglass disappeared and the water resumed its natural shade. The Invader was no longer floating inside, but was instead replaced by a pretty blonde woman.

Human.

I took a step forward, enamored with the process taking place before me. Did I just see that right? Did that monster just turn into a human by stepping into that contraption?

My eyes narrowed, scanning the beautiful form in the tank. The woman’s golden locks fanned out, her arms and legs gracefully swishing through the water. Her body was covered in a svelte ivory suit, her feet shod in elegant matching heels. Her eyes were closed as she extended a hand to reach for the door handle on the inside of the tank. The door opened and out she stepped, completely dry. There was no trace of dampness, not even in her blonde hair, which was now well groomed and perfectly coiffed. Half was drawn up and pulled back from her face, and the rest was left down, brushing the tops of her shoulders.

The woman’s face was stoic as she easily strolled down the stairway to meet us in the center of the tower. “Good day, and welcome home.” Her voice was just as smooth as the voice in my head, and just as monotone. “My name is Elara, and I am here to provide you with further instruction. I have chosen to appear in human form for your comfort and convenience. As you are now aware, I am capable of speaking to you via text command, and I may transfer my thoughts to you audibly, but our research has indicated that the human species responds best to the communication of their own kind.”

I shifted uncomfortably. This woman’s—this thing’s—obvious comfort robbed me of my own. A vague unease churned in the pit of my stomach, which was beyond conflicting, considering every other sense told me I was where I was supposed to be.