Metal Heart: Book 1: The Metal Heart Trilogy

by Melinda Crouchley

  “Her name is Eleni Garza. Until three months ago when she declared her allegiance with the Contra terrorists by blowing up our arms depot and destroying our helos, she was a National Service resident. You may remember her from the Paris bombing, the death of her parents and Prothero’s revolutionary medical interventions that saved her from a similar fate were global news for a few weeks. Despite the losses she suffered, and the assistance provided by both Prothero and the National Service Academy, Garza chose a different path and allied herself with those who would seek to destroy our freedoms.”

  “Eleni Garza escaped from Prothero custody early this morning and teleported here to Fort Columbia, destroying two telepads and wounding several officers and soldiers in the process. We believe she is here, somewhere on base, at this very moment. We are instituting a full security lock down until she is recovered. Our orders are to find her and remand her to the custody of Prothero once more. Alive.”

  His emphasis on the word and the hard glint in his eyes betrays the meaning of his statement. Dead would suit him just fine. And the entire room knows it.

  I exchange a loaded glance with Rabbit.

  “Should she prove a clear and present danger to herself, this military installation, or your fellow soldiers and residents, I am authorizing lethal force. I’m not losing anymore good people or valuable property to this terrorist. Do not directly engage, if at all possible. Report any and all sightings to your superior officer immediately.”

  “All residents are to report immediately to their afternoon assignments or to their barracks. Your team leaders will take headcounts every half hour until we are assured that Eleni Garza is not being harbored within this residential academy. Is that understood?”

  The residents snap to attention and salute. I follow suit, making sure to keep my face shielded as much as possible.

  “Sir, yes sir.”

  “You may only travel about this facility after hours under the watch of a team leader or superior officer. Is that understood?”

  “Sir, yes sir.”

  “All technology will be monitored for incoming or outgoing messages pertaining to Garza and her whereabouts. Do not assume that anything you do on your bands is personal or private until the lockdown is lifted.”

  “The elimination of terrorist threats at home and abroad is our top priority. We will not rest until this uprising is quelled. We will find and neutralize Eleni Garza. We will overtake Mexico City with ground units and ferret out the location of the terrorist cell once and for all. We will need an extensively trained urban combat unit, with access to innovative technology the enemy has not seen yet. We are going to need all of you. Ladies and gentleman, training is over. You are no longer residents. When you ship out in a week, you will be soldiers.”

  He announces more instructions are forthcoming from our squad leaders. We will be issued tactical assignments based on our field training SIM units. Further information tumbles out of the speakers but it’s lost on me. I can only concentrate on the last horrible words he uttered. The images of the Mexico City bombing and its aftermath flicker above us. Rotating with an image of the terrorist Eleni Garza. Only after the virtuals click off and the lights swell back on do I realize tears leak from my eye. Rabbit squeezes my hand tightly in his grip.

  “You OK?” His question brims with concern. I offer him a weak grimace and shake my head.

  Behind us the doors groan open, and I turn to face the light flooding into the mess hall.

  “What are we gonna do?” Rabbit asks. I’m momentarily stunned by his use of the word we. “Can you do the thing?”

  “The thing?” I ask stupidly. My brain reels.

  “The invisible thing,” Rabbit says. We’re being pressed forward by the crowd. I try desperately to dig my heels in and throw elbows to keep us back but the academy residents are relentless. They want out.

  “No. I don’t know. It’s not working right now.”

  “Well how does it work?” We’re near the doors where two guards stand to either side, scanning bands and faces with recognition software. No one leaves until a green light flashes on the scanner.

  “I don’t know. I can usually concentrate. But, right now—” I gesture frantically ahead of us.

  “What helps? Something must help,” Rabbit insists. “You have to control it.”

  I bite down hard on my lip. Our palms are pressed together in a hard bundle, our fingers slick with sweat.

  “Well—” My mind flashes to the image of Rabbit Santiago under the stars. I wince painfully and draw a deep breath, my gut filling with spiders. “You do. I sometimes think about you. And it helps.”

  “Huh.” He blinks and looks over at me.

  I can’t meet his eyes. I concentrate instead on our clutching hands and for a moment my head spins, reeling out towards that pleasant fuzzy abyss I was enjoying mere minutes ago. Rabbit clamps down even harder with his fingers. It’s a firm, reassuring, comforting squeeze and it flips a switch in my brain. I breathe out through my nose and the shivery cool of the nano cloak rushes over me.

  Rabbit's hand disappears along with mine and I drop it when he lets out a surprised grunt. He holds his hand in front of his face and watches with intense fascination as his limb materializes again. He doesn't have long to contemplate the sensation because we're shoved into a scanning lane. I shift up against the wall, avoiding contact with anyone else.

  Rabbit side-eyes the empty space where I stand.

  “Eleni?” He stage whispers too loudly.

  “Shhh!” I hiss and my voice comes out weird and digitized.

  “How?” He nods towards the guards.

  I shrug even though he can't see me, chewing the inside of my cheek in contemplation. I’m not sure, now that I’m cloaked, how I’m going to get past the soldiers who are blocking the doors. There is very little room to maneuver in this wall of bodies.

  As we inch closer, a familiar grizzling sensation crackles through my head. I could overload the scanners. But that might give me away. Or put Rabbit in danger. I survey him standing there with his rigidly held frame and scowling features. He looks suspicious enough without my meddling. My stomach clenches.

  The line surges forward. Rabbit is next to be scanned. He glances over at where he thinks I might be, foreboding lighting his face. For a heart-stopping moment I consider how easy it would be for him to turn on me, and turn me in. It would be so easy for him to reveal my location.

  Not so easy to catch me, of course. I would put up a fight.

  Rabbit steps up to be scanned. I shuffle closer, as close as I dare. My muscles tense and the cloak shivers around me. I’m still not sure how I’ll pass these gates. Maybe I should wait here until the entire crowd has been scanned. Safe and silent and hidden under the weight of all these nanos. I can’t. It takes too much energy and concentration to remain invisible, especially once people are looking for you.

  The soldier lifts the scanner and at the same time Rabbit pitches forward, loud coughs wracking his body. The soldier grabs his arm to offer support and waves her partner over. The line and scanning halts. Rabbits cough deepens and grows hoarse. It's the perfect opportunity to slip past unnoticed.

  I press my shoulder blades hard up against the wall and scoot sideways. There's not much room between the chaos Rabbit has created and myself. I come within inches of the scanning soldier. As I pass by, she drops Rabbit's arm and whips around to stare directly at me. She draws her weapon, glaring at the wall above my head.

  My heart thuds deep in my chest. Sweat blooms and trickles down my armpits. Impossibly, Rabbit's cough grows worse and he reaches out to the soldier to provide balance. The soldier, her arms straight and steely, squints, finger relaxing on the trigger.

  “What's up?” her partner asks.

  “Nothing. I thought—never mind. Kid, you OK?” She turns back to Rabbit and pats his back. He takes a deep gulp of air and nods.

  The soldier shrugs, returning her weapon to its holster. She waves her
partner off, who returns to his post. With a final disgruntled glance at where I stand, she turns and scans Rabbit’s band. Then his face. Green light washes over him and she raises her chin slightly to indicate her approval. Rabbit steps through the gates and stumbles away, nodding as the soldier admonishes him to drink some water.

  He shuffles off down the hallway crowded with residents. I pull the nano cloak tighter around my skin and bump towards him. He turns back once, eyes searching the sea of people for me. He seems to know I’m watching because he inclines his head slightly right, indicating a side hall that connects the barracks to an abandoned library building filled with mouldering books. I check for surveillance technology in the darkened hall. Aside from an electronically locked door which I can easily bypass, there are no cameras or audio recorders there.

  The only roadblock to gaining entry to the abandoned hallway is the soldier posted at the door. They’ve decided to search resident barracks now. Panic surges through me. The walls are closing in. Rabbit veers off in the direction of the hallway with the posted soldier, but I leap towards him, knocking arms and elbows out of my way. I reach his position and grab the back of his jacket.

  “Not there,” I say in his ear.

  He reaches up a hand to brush at his neck where my breath tickled the hairs and the rigid stance of his body relaxes.

  “Where?”

  “Commons.”

  Rabbit nods without turning and keeps moving ahead. There is a Commons about thirty meters away, on the left. He angles his way towards the open doors. Thankfully, no soldiers are posted there. I guess the Academy doesn’t see a purpose for limiting bathroom visits. Yet.

  We pass through the doors unnoticed and shut them firmly behind us. I switch on the automatic locks and mute the audio devices.

  Rabbit pushes through the third stall door. I follow, de-cloaking and sagging heavily against the metal frame, wiping absently at the black goo trickling from my nose. The heat from Rabbit’s stare burns at the base of my neck but I hesitate to return it.

  “That’s seven things.” Rabbit breaks the tense silence between us. “On the Eleni Garza list. I’m gonna start running out of fingers to keep track.”

  “Seven because I can cloak. Or seven because I’m a Contra spy?”

  “I don’t know Eleni—pick one.”

  He wants to sound mad. I know he wants to hate me, but the edge in his voice won’t let him. Rabbit nudges my elbow. I turn slightly. There’s a wad of toilet paper folded in his hand. I take it from him and blot my nose clean.

  “Thanks.” I pocket the black splattered toilet paper, chewing on the inside of my cheek. “How much do you hate me?”

  Rabbit blows air past his lips, the stall filling with the scent of cinnamon gum. I turn to catch him running a hand through his unruly curls, rubbing at the base of his neck.

  “Hating you is not my problem.” He glances up at the ceiling. “It’s the opposite of my problem.” He moves closer, erasing the space between us in one step. “Do you want to know what my problem is?”

  I nod, laying a palm flat against his chest. My fingers hit on a hard, round object beneath his shirt. An all-over tremble bounces up from my toes. I press my palm flat against his chest. I don’t need to lift his shirt to guess at the object. The rounded mystery item forms a slightly raised indent through the material, a chain looping his neck. He wears the coin necklace, the key to only one kind of lock. The metal tin with Mateo’s letters. He fishes the necklace out from under his shirt and it bumps against my skin, warm from contact with his.

  “You found it,” I whisper, voice going hoarse.

  “There you go,” Rabbit says. “That is my problem.”

  “The tin wasn’t for you.”

  “Then why did you leave it?”

  I press the heel of my palm to my temple wires. Bright lights burst behind both eyes.

  “You read the letters?”

  “Every single one. More than once. It was basic code Eleni.”

  “Why?”

  “You left them behind and I found them when I went looking for you. I was going to burn them. And then, I didn’t. I couldn’t.” He gives a heavy shrug. “I didn’t have you. But I had the letters.”

  “Did you tell Prothero?”

  He doesn’t answer immediately. Tilts his head to stare down his nose at me. “You know I didn’t. You know why I didn’t. Why’d you come back?”

  “To help people. A lot of people.”

  “Not for Scarlett?”

  “What? No. I mean—she’s coming with me. We’re gonna save her brother. We’re gonna save the world.”

  “To save the world? That’s why you left me?”

  “Rabbit,” I say, voice breaking around his name. “I didn’t leave you. I ran from Prothero.”

  He looks away, glaring down at the ground. “I can’t protect you from them.”

  “That’s not your responsibility,” I remind him. “Not everything is your responsibility.”

  He flinches. “Sure it is. And anyway, you’re trying to save the world now. What’s really going on, Eleni? What did the Matador ask you to do?”

  I shake my head, chewing on the inside of my lip. “This isn’t about the Matador anymore. It’s about what I want.” I put my hand up and close it around the necklace.

  “So what do you want, Eleni Garza?” He steps into me and my skin brushes against his hard collarbone. The band snaps to life, glowing blue and eerie in the dark.

  I swallow and look up into his dark eyes. His slightly furrowed brow. The crescent shaped scar on his cheek. His hair curling over his big ears. I memorize every inch of his face because if everything goes according to plan this is the last time I’ll ever see him.

  “Clint warned me. He said you’d ruin me. And you did. You ruined me,” he whispers, erratic flashes dancing around us, illuminating his mouth and nose. “You ruined everything.”

  “Then let me go.” My hand curls around the coin and I pull. He leans down and his mouth melts into mine. Blue fire pulses and crackles in the air between us. He makes that low rumbling moan in his chest, and it shivers across my skin and tingles all the way down in my toes.

  I almost stay. I want to stay here, pressing against him.

  Our kiss deepens and he cups both hands around my face, his thumb rolling over the wires. He bends lower and his mouth moves over my cheek and up into my hairline. His lips make a burning track down my temple, my cheek, and over to my ear.

  “There’s nothing left for me here,” he breathes, his words distorting and going fuzzy. “I can’t protect you, but I can help you. Let me do that. Tell me that’s what you want. Tell me you want me.”

  I want him. I want him to be with me. It would be wrong to ask him. He’s not like Scarlett. He doesn’t have a reason to go. He wants me and I want him but I can’t bear that kind of responsibility. Mexico City is a one-way trip and there’s a strong potential for death. I can’t have another death hanging over my head. Not Rabbit’s death.

  “No.” I give a sharp tug on the chain.

  The coin breaks off from his neck and I break free from him, cloaking until I’m invisible. As I dash out of the bathroom into the hallway, the lights pop back on above.

  Rabbit mutely watches me go.

  I run fast, breezing past a startled guard. I pass by whole platoons of soldiers searching buildings, kicking through scrubby bushes, peering with rifles drawn into the leaves of blossoming trees. There is something ominous about their stern faces and institutional gaits, hard against the sumptuous spring landscape.

  I race past them, and wander deep into the silent lakes, hiking up over the rocky terrain and dusty shrubs and red, sandy dirt. My bare feet are cold and dirty, but the revived nanos make quick work of healing the cuts and bruises. I hardly feel anything. I settle into a spot with a full view of the river.

  Rabbit read all the letters from Mateo. He knows about my involvement with the Contras, the inoculations, Javier. He knows everything. And
he still kissed me. He was still going to leave with me.

  Far away from any meddling humans or surveying technology, I click on the band and access a Fort Columbia administrative database, masking the band IP with a proxy server address from Paris, also routed to a hub in Portugal and another in Pennsylvania.

  Hacking brought to you by the letter P.

  It will take them awhile to uncover my actual location. I dig into the personal folder and access the dossier on Rabbit Santiago. Resident personal information and net presence is scrubbed as soon as we enter the Academy, replaced by whatever public relations articles the information officers disseminate.

  I hesitate over the file, drumming my fingers against the projected haptic keyboard. This is a huge violation. But I’m tired of being in the dark. I’m tired. I rip the files open, devouring the contents. It’s only fair if we reveal our secrets to one another. He took mine. I should be able to take his.

  What I discover leaves a splash of acid in my gut. Rabbit lived with his parents and six other siblings in Mexico City until he was ten years old. His family fled the country during the worst part of the NV outbreak—with the rioting at its peak. He took up residence in Houston, Texas where his father, Hector Santiago, worked as a hovercar technician and his mother labored in the kitchens of Prothero’s Randolph Space Center.

  When he was fifteen years old—six years ago—his sister Luna died as an innocent casualty in a shoot-out between Peace Officers and a Contra terrorist group. Shortly thereafter Rabbit started work at the Randolph Space Center, first in the kitchens, then the laundry department, then as a server, and finally as a lifeguard until age sixteen. Personal stats indicate he is now twenty-one. There’s no information between the ages of sixteen and nineteen—until he joined the academy three years ago. School records are impressive. Athletics are on-point with what he mentioned months ago—basketball and track and field.

  What happened in those three years? The Fullers and prison camp? Of course that’s not going to make it into anyone’s National Service file because residents can’t have criminal records. If they do—they get scrubbed from the administrative database.