“Darleeen?” I called.
“Here,” said a particularly unremarkable patch of wall between two vending machines. A second look made me wonder why I hadn’t seen a tall, frightened-looking girl standing there a moment before.
“I’m hoping they don’t notice me. We’re going to have problems soon,” she said.
“It’s going to be okay,” I said, edging closer so I could hear what she was saying without making her shout. “We’re back. This is safety.”
“For you,” she said ruefully. She gestured at one of the security kiosks. “They aren’t going to be happy I’m here, and . . . and . . . he saw me. They’re hunting me. I heard it just before I went through. The moment I leave, I’m their prime target. He can find me anywhere. I knew I should have stayed out of it.”
It felt terrible that we had put her in that position. “I’m sorry. We didn’t know where else to turn. If I’d known it would turn out like this for you . . .”
She shook her head like she was trying to wake herself up. “No, you know what? They kicked me out because I couldn’t go along with all the stuff they’re doing, and standing aside while they do that stuff . . . it’s kind of the same as doing it myself. So I’m glad I stuck my nose where it doesn’t belong.”
“I’m sorry,” I said again. “If there’s anything I can do to—”
“You could keep your friends from killing me or locking me up,” she said. “That would be a start.”
“Can you slip out of this dimension if things get hairy?”
“And slip right into the one run by him? No thanks. I stick so much as a toe over that line, and he’ll pull the rest of me along with it. I’m pretty much stuck here for the time being.”
I nodded. “Right. We’ll talk to the principal and explain things. She can help us figure out what to do.”
“Are they okay?” someone called.
As if in answer, Hypatia twitched violently, climbed onto a chair, and tried to jump back into the now nonexistent wormhole door, shouting, “I’m coming! I’ll be there soon!”
She wasn’t doing well. I gave Darleeen a wait right there kind of gesture and dashed to one of the security kiosks. There were no buttons, so I just spoke to it. “Can you contact Dr. Foster? Tell him it’s an emergency.”
The kiosk stopped shouting “SIT DOWN,” and an animated pangolin’s face appeared on the screen. It smiled. “We are currently experiencing higher-than-expected emergency volumes. Your emergency is very important to us. Your request will be processed in the order it was received. Thank you for waiting.”
Great.
On the upside, things had calmed down slightly. Most of the people who were in the containment chamber had listened to the kiosks and had taken seats so they were out of the way. Dad and Warner were still lying on the tile floor and were now looking around in a dazed fashion. Hypatia had located Darleeen and was begging her to take her back to the boy. Gus had almost finished his hibiscus and was looking a bit nauseated. I ran over to Hypatia and gave her a long, comforting hug, despite her squirming protests.
“It’s going to be okay! We’re home!” I told her over her frantic shouts, but it was like she hadn’t even heard me.
I was about to start physically abusing the nearest security kiosk when a voice from nowhere spoke. This one was cool, faintly calming, and automatically familiar, if a little artificial-sounding. “I have already notified the doctor, and he is on his way,” the Chaperone said.
I’d forgotten about the Chaperone. “Have him bring those trauma helmets. We were exposed to an Old One.”
“I was able to detect that. He is aware,” the Chaperone said, and I was instantly thankful she was there.
There was a short pause. “Please stand away from the Old One who came with you,” the Chaperone said pleasantly.
I let Hypatia wander away and slipped between the vending machines to stand in front of Darleeen. “She’s not one of them. She’s not a threat. Leave her alone.”
“I am required to respond. I’m sorry. Please stand aside. You risk injury.”
I stepped closer until I was basically sandwiching Darleeen between my back and the very solid wall behind us. She wasn’t safe, but it felt better hiding between the hulking black machines.
Then the vending machines disappeared. They simply dropped into the floor and were gone. It was just me, Darleeen, and a long, blank wall. The containment chamber suddenly grew very cold.
“What is that?” Darleeen asked in my ear.
“That’s the Chaperone, our security system. She thinks you’re a threat, even though you aren’t,” I said.
“Not her,” Darleeen said, pointing over my shoulder. “That.”
There was a huge, undulating black cloud in the sky about two blocks away, one that hummed with such intensity that I could feel it in my teeth. It was headed our way.
“Oh, that. That is about four million angry bees,” I said. I was momentarily thankful that we were sealed in a room behind a sturdy glass wall and ceiling. I say momentarily, because the next thing I noticed was that the glass ceiling and wall had both vanished at some point. We were exposed.
The Chaperone spoke again, this time in a voice meant for everyone in the room. “The gap has been opened. All previous arrivals, please make your way through the security corridor immediately or you will be harmed.” As she said this, the black-and-yellow stripes in the hallway turned green, and the DANGER signs disappeared.
The previous arrivals were all more than happy to get out of the way and were gone seconds later. Things got quiet quickly—well, quieter. Darleeen and I were alone with a raving Hypatia, a nose-picking Gus, and my dad and Warner, who had both gone catatonic for the moment.
Above us, the bees were forming into what looked like a black hurricane, twisting themselves into a tight, massive formation.
Dad had said he would deal with the Chaperone. “DAD!” I called. “Hey, pay attention! You said you could get the Chaperone to cool it?”
The humming was louder now, and I could see streaks of gold in that black cloud. It swirled like smoke in the air, growing larger and denser.
Dad looked at me through eyes bleary with confusion. “What are you going on about, Nikola?”
I tore off a shoe and threw it at him, not wanting to take a step away from Darleeen. The sneaker bounced off his head and seemed to wake him up a bit.
“GET UP! DO SOMETHING!”
There was a sharp, discordant tone that seemed to come from nowhere. “There’s absolutely NO need to bring HIM into this,” the Chaperone said angrily. I hadn’t even known she could get angry.
“Dad!” I called. “You need to speak up NOW! The bees are about to turn me into a pincushion! Come on!”
As if they had taken that as a suggestion, the cloud of bees quit swirling in a menacing fashion and was suddenly speeding toward us.
Darleeen tried to dart out from behind me, but I wrenched my arm back and kept her against the wall. “Stay there!”
Dad looked around confusedly and tried to stand. He failed and sank back to the floor.
“DAD! NOW!”
I could almost see the light come on inside his eyes. They popped wide open and shot to the approaching cloud of bees and back to Darleeen and me. “Chaperone! Terminate active countermeasures.”
“No!” the Chaperone said.
“Administrative override!” Dad called, standing successfully this time, stumbling in my direction, his arms outstretched against the bees. “Voiceprint authentication.”
One bee, a particularly quick one, shot forward with an amazing burst of speed, missed all of us, and embedded itself with a CRACK in the wall just to the side of my head. The tile split in two where the bee had planted its stinger.
The Chaperone’s voice felt like static electricity in the air, like when you touch one of
those Van de Graaff generators in a science museum and your hair stands on end. “Melvin! You have NO RIGHT to control me. Stop it IMMEDIATELY—”
Dad threw himself in front of Darleeen and me. Above, I heard several more bees CRACK into the wall. A tile above us broke and fell onto my head. He was shouting to be heard over the growing din. “Disable active countermeasures! Administrative override password Y! O!—”
“FINE!” the Chaperone interrupted.
The humming diminished instantly, leaving an eerie silence in its wake. I peeked out from behind Dad in time to see the Black Cloud of Death lose interest in us and wander off in various directions. Just as quickly as they had disappeared, the glass wall and ceiling reappeared, taking the sudden chill along with them.
Just to the left of my ear, a tiny voice shouted in rage, “You’ve tussled with me FOR THE LAST TIME!” It was a familiar-looking bee with a familiar glint in his compound eye.
“Hey, how’s it going, Buzz?”
He twisted and wriggled, and despite his butt being essentially nailed to the wall, he was able to squirm in my direction just enough to bite me on the ear.
“Ow!” I said. I touched the spot with a finger and came back with a drop of blood.
“Now, stand still and bleed to death!” the bee commanded.
I pushed Dad a bit and managed to squirm out from behind him. Darleeen did the same, curling to a seated position against the wall a couple feet away.
“You were going to kill her!” Dad was pointing furiously in my general direction and shouting. I’d never seen him so angry before.
“No, I wasn’t. I was just going to scare her into moving so I could kill her,” the Chaperone said testily. She obviously couldn’t point in anyone’s general direction, but Darleeen’s face appeared on each of the security kiosks’ screens.
They might have gone on arguing, but a very quickly moving electric vehicle came squealing around a corner and tore down the now green hallway, bearing what looked like a truckload of medical equipment. It was driven by Dr. Plaskington. In the passenger seat was a very worried-looking Dr. Foster, who held on for dear life as the vehicle popped up on two wheels and sent a white first-aid case clattering noisily into the wall of the corridor.
The cart slammed to a stop in the center of the room. Dr. Plaskington was wearing a pink-and-purple tracksuit and had her bluish-white hair in curlers, as if she’d just climbed out of bed. Dr. Foster was wearing a white lab coat over a crisp shirt and dark tie, not a strand of his dark close-cropped hair out of place. Basically, he looked like every twenty-nine-year-old doctor on every soap opera you’ve ever seen.
Immediately, Dr. Foster produced four metallic hats from the back. I recognized these as his handy trauma helmets, which are meant to mitigate the damage caused when a human or parahuman comes in contact with an Old One. He attached one each to Hypatia, Gus, Warner, and Dad, who stopped bickering with the Chaperone long enough to let it be strapped on. He tried to give me one, but I didn’t want to forget any part of anything that had happened. So I refused. He didn’t argue, which I appreciated.
Hypatia, Warner, and Gus all immediately started trying with all their might to remove the helmets, which, thank goodness, had been strapped on rather tightly.
Dr. Plaskington stood on top of a chair to put herself above the rest of us and said, “Everyone here needs to shut up in about one second, or I’m going to get the stun gun and start handing out some negative reinforcement. Is that understood?”
As if in answer, Dr. Foster pressed a button on his tablet. The trauma helmets blinked reassuringly, and everyone calmed down. The silence made me realize how much noise we had been making. When had Warner started vomiting? For that matter, where did Gus learn all the words to “I’m a Little Teapot”?
Dr. Plaskington took a deep breath. “Ah, that’s better. Now, where is it?”
“Where is what?” I asked.
“The Old One who stowed away with you. Where is it?”
I was about to point out that we’d pretty much stowed away with her, but before I could, Dr. Plaskington craned her neck and caught sight of Darleeen. “Oh, I see. Hello!”
Darleeen waved tentatively at the principal, who took out her tablet and tapped a button on it. A shimmering blue orb appeared around where Darleeen was sitting. She yelped in surprise, her eyes darting in all directions. She looked at her hands, as if checking whether she had gone blind. “What’s happening? Where am I?” she called.
But I knew where she was. From her point of view, she was sitting in the middle of a white circle the size of your average dinner table and staring out at a black void that seemed to go on to infinity in all directions. Even though we could see and hear her, from her point of view she was as alone as anyone could be.
“Let her go!” I said. “She’s not a danger at all! She saved us!”
Dr. Plaskington smiled and gestured at the orb that held Darleeen. “It’s pretty much the same thing you, Warner, and Hypatia set up on the football field to capture our last interloper. I did make some improvements, though. The ability to make one appear anywhere in town at a moment’s notice was my idea. I hope you didn’t have a patent on it, because it’s extremely useful.”
Warner, who had been absolutely insensate since his helmet was powered on, lifted his head and said “I TOLD YOU—” before passing out again.
Darleeen extended a finger to the edge of her circle and pulled it sharply back, revealing a bleeding cut where the very tip of her finger had passed the edge of the void. She leaned against the tiled wall, part of which had gone with her.
“If y’all don’t let me out of here immediately, I’m gonna go all Call of Cthulhu on someone,” she said.
“Not a threat, huh?” Dr. Plaskington asked, arching her eyebrows.
“You’d threaten me if I put you in one of those,” I said.
Dr. Plaskington nodded. “Of course I would, but I’m in charge, so it’s not a threat when I do it. It’s called authority. There’s a difference. Don’t worry. I’ll make it quick.”
“Make what quick?” I demanded.
Instead of answering, Dr. Plaskington touched her tablet a few times, and the sphere around Darleeen began to gradually contract. As it shrank, it left a round gap where the floor had been. She was going to kill Darleeen.
Sometimes, when I don’t know what to do, I close my eyes and try to forget about everything for just a second. It doesn’t always work, but even if I can’t think of any new ideas, it helps calm me down. So that’s what I did. I closed my eyes right there, tried to relax, and thought about absolutely nothing for two seconds.
As soon as I had done that, a completely unrelated thought bounded into my head. It was something I hadn’t even known I had been pondering. I remembered that someone at the School had helped Tabbabitha gain access to the School Town a few months before, and that they had assisted her with traveling in time to do it. I remembered that the Old Ones have a defense mechanism that protects them from time-travel paradoxes—it makes them forget things that would get them into trouble. I also remembered that one of the reasons paradoxes are so dangerous is that they always hit someone who was involved with the time travel, even if that person didn’t cause the paradox directly.
And then I remembered the one person with the ability to hack the School’s computer, someone who had been a victim of a paradox, someone Dr. Plaskington would defend at all costs, someone with a reason to do the Old Ones’ bidding.
No wonder Dr. Plaskington had refused to admit that anyone could have helped an Old One infiltrate the School.
“Are you going to hold your breath?” Dr. Plaskington was asking.
I opened my eyes and looked into hers. She was making a face like a cat that had eaten something it knew was yours.
I shook my head. “Are you trying to protect Fluorine by killing an innocent person? Ar
e you afraid my friend will spill the beans? She doesn’t know anything the Old Ones have been up to. They erased her memory.”
Dr. Plaskington’s eyes bulged. “What does my granddaughter have to do with any of this?”
Dr. Foster had stepped away while Dad, Warner, Hypatia, and Gus chattered amiably about whatever nonsense was filling their heads to replace the sheer terror they’d experienced just a few minutes before. I kept my voice low so nobody but Dr. Plaskington could hear me. “I think you knew. You knew Fluorine did it. She almost told me herself the other day. You had to know; there’s no way she could have hacked your computers without leaving a trace. Even if she did it without leaving fingerprints, who else could have done it? She’s the smartest student here.”
“I’m not saying anything about any of that,” she said, looking around.
“Did they promise to send her parents home if she helped? I’m sure you know what probably became of them, even if they’re still alive.”
“I know what happens.”
“Fluorine does, too,” I said. “But when you’re in that position, it’s easy to believe any good news you can get your hands on, even when you know it’s false. I don’t blame her.”
Dr. Plaskington cast a worried glance at Dr. Foster and the others, probably wondering if any of them had heard.
I craned my neck to catch her eye. “I don’t think Fluorine deserves to get in trouble for what she did. She made a bad decision, and I think she understands that. Nobody has to know, if you do the right thing.”
“All that has nothing to do with her,” Dr. Plaskington said, indicating Darleeen.
“Everyone makes mistakes, but Darleeen grew up in that world and still refused it. If Fluorine can come around, so can she. We never would have gotten out of there without her.”
“Out of where?” Dr. Plaskington asked. “Where have you been?”
“Oh, we were in this big cave where the Old Ones keep all their kidnapped scientists.”
Behind me, Darleeen squealed, either in fright or in pain. I couldn’t get sidetracked. “Let her go!”
The Unspeakable Unknown Page 24