by Julian North
Nythan led me through the dim corridors of the Everlast Center. Through the windows I saw that the sun had not yet risen.
“Where are we going?”
“Someplace private where we can talk without fear of being overheard.”
We walked outside, following the twisting, manicured pathways toward the ocean, our way lit by the crescent moon hovering above. The path ended, but Nythan kept going. He stepped onto the sand, leading me to the edge of the water, where the tips of breaking waves almost reached my feet. The air was chilly, the ocean smell overpowering.
“The ocean here is beautiful. Not poison soup like the Atlantic,” I said.
“This sea is just as contaminated and dead as on the East Coast. Everlast installed a filtration system just at the waterline, about thirty feet out.” He pointed into the distance. “It keeps the water closest to shore habitable, even with the overflow, and Yasoff stocks this area with specially bred fish, but I wouldn’t suggest you go swimming.”
I remembered almost drowning at the extraction platform. “I’m done swimming. How’s Alexander doing?”
“As far as we can tell, okay. The only physical damage was to his brain. We’ve removed the chip and stimulated regrowth of the damaged areas. The rest is up to him. How did he seem to you?”
I thought about it. “Mostly himself, if not completely. His memory has gaps, and his behavior is slightly off. I’m not sure.”
“That is to be expected. He’s been through a lot.”
“Could you save others? Matias, if we can find him, and all the other chipped slaves?”
Nythan kicked a bit of sand. “I’m sorry, Daniela, but I don’t think so. Alexander was never fully chipped—the damage was localized, and he was never actually controlled by the chip. With someone else, there isn’t enough left of the original person to bring back.”
“Don’t give up, Nythan.”
He didn’t answer. I’d learned to fear Nythan’s grim moods.
“What did you bring me out here to tell me?”
He looked out at the vast ocean, the waves tickled by moonlight. “Ansel’s Intelligence Directorate is coming through for us; we’re getting spy reports from California’s monitoring satellites and stealth drone network. There is a problem with our plan—a big one. The codes being transmitted by the special control drones cannot be hacked, not even with the unrivaled computer power and expertise available to us from California. It’s not a standard encryption, it’s not even a standard transmission signal. They’re using some kind of quantum technology.”
“Don’t bother explaining the details. We need to get control of those drones or none of this works, Nythan. How do we do it?”
“It’s a double verification protocol. First there is a password code of some kind—it’s an alphanumerical series of unknown length. Even if we could somehow get that or hack it, that’s still not enough. The system input can only be unlocked by direct physical link using the unique DNA sequence of a particular person.”
I didn’t need him to tell me who. “Virginia Timber-Night.”
“This isn’t a weapon of the United States—she has made it her own personal tool. She is the only person who can use it. The access protocol is in a virtual reality environment that can be entered only by Virginia—similar to what you described as being used inside Fishkill. Perhaps the Koreans helped her develop it. That is a key to her power, both as an external military force and internally.”
“So we need to get to her.”
“Not just get to her. We need the password code in her head, and it needs to be transmitted to a fortified monitoring station in the heart of Manhattan using a transmission sequence unlocked by her DNA—not a copy. She must carry the necessary transmission equipment with her—or likely it’s carried by a trusted aide. If we screw it up, the system locks, and she’ll know that California knows her secret and will attack. There is no telling what kind of destruction those contaminated visers could do.”
“With Virginia, it will be something horrible. We need to get to her. I hate to say it, but we need to kidnap and torture her to extract the necessary information.”
Nythan took a step back as the ocean water reached our feet. “You think any amount of torture or drugs is going to break Virginia Timber-Night? She has planned for that, I’m sure. And even if we manage to capture her, and if the code information could be extracted via torture—and we’re willing to do that—there is still the timing issue. This all depends on coordinating with Southern and California military forces. We need to know almost exactly when the new signal is going to be transmitted. There is no way to know that using those methods, and I don’t think it will work anyway. Virginia is too smart for it.”
“You’re saying I need to trill her. But she’s highborn—I can’t do it alone. I’d need Alexander… and even then…” I shivered. What I had done to Kristolan had almost killed me; it was still consuming me.
Nythan turned to me in the moonlight. “I know. I’m not sure you could survive that. You might become like Kristolan, or worse.”
He was right. Virginia’s mind was every bit as strong. I wasn’t sure if I would survive it and still be me. And I wasn’t sure the Californian authorities would permit it, in any case. Once I had control of Virginia’s mind and the control drones, I would become a potential threat. I remembered Dimitri’s warning. Governor Clarke and Jenn Ansel were not my friends.
“Alexander isn’t strong enough anyway,” I said. “It might not be possible to trill her. Perhaps Ansel has some special interrogation drug. It seems like something she would have based on what I know about her.”
Nythan shook his head in frustration. “I don’t know how we can possibly get to Virginia, in any case. I’m not the military person, but Ansel has given us access to some of California’s intelligence. Virginia is the frakkin’ president—she is holed up in Manhattan at the White House, which is probably the most heavily defended building in the world at the moment. Even with you, even with California’s help, we aren’t getting in there—much less with enough time to trill Virginia or do anything else. Some things are not doable, even for us. We have to consider playing defense here, Daniela. We can hunker down in California. I know it’s not ideal.”
“Virginia cannot be permitted to control the minds of free people, Nythan, to fill this country with slaves, to crush California and what is left of… hope.” My voice rose as I said it.
Nythan stepped away from me. He watched a giant wave crash onto the shore, the sound powerful yet somehow soothing. “I don’t get it, Daniela. You have Alexander back. We’re working on your brother. Kortilla is free—I’m sure we can get her and her family to California, and even your Aba, if they will come. We can make our stand here, helping their army. I’m not a Bronx City kid, but I’ve come to know the place, the code on the streets, and you. Your blood is safe, Daniela. If you tell the people in the cities to rise up in the name of the Nui Cohete, they may well do it, but for jack's sake, why would you? Why the hell are you risking your life and those of the people you claim to be protecting? This isn’t your war, is it?”
Another wave crashed down in front of us, its residual water rising through the sand. I didn’t move away this time. I felt the chill of the ocean through my shoes. Mateo would love to see this. I didn’t want to face Nythan’s question.
“Too many have died or been taken. There is no one else who can do this.”
Nythan’s face glared in the moon’s pale light. “That’s true, but it’s not good enough. You told me blood always takes care of blood. You’re fighting for strangers and highborn. Tell me the real reason you’re doing this.”
I thought about my brother as Nythan’s question hung over me, his dreams of what this world could be. We have to change the world, Mateo had told me. He’d been saying it in one way or another my whole life. I had never listened—I’d been too busy trying to save him. And it wasn’t just Mateo. Katrina, Jalen, Rhett, Alexander—each had shown me so
mething in their own way. The person I had been when all of this started did not want to accept what I now understood, but I was no longer that simpler person. A word kept coming into my head. It was a word I had heard Jalen use, a word Rhett had used; I think it was a word my mother would have used, had she still been alive. It was the answer to Nythan’s question.
I sucked the salty air into my lungs and answered in a voice that was barely my own. “It is my duty.”
Chapter 27
I left Nythan on the beach and walked inside as dawn broke on the eastern horizon.
I had set myself on a path, but the truth was that my will alone couldn’t get me to the end. The problems Nythan had revealed were still unsolved. We had no way of reaching Virginia Timber-Night, and without seizing the control drones, none of this worked. Even without speaking to Dimitri, I knew California would do nothing if they were not confident in victory. I needed a solution before the California leadership learned what Nythan knew and lost their nerve. If I told Alexander about the situation he would insist on going, even if we were doomed to fail, and I wasn’t willing to see him harmed for me again. He had already lost everything. Better for him to stay with his mother. Trying to storm the White House would be suicide. I had to find another way.
When I reached Alexander’s room, he wasn’t in his bed. I found him staring into his mirror in the bathroom.
“Are you supposed to be out of bed?”
“There is nothing wrong with my legs.”
“What are you looking at?”
He walked out of the bathroom. Even in his loose-fitting hospital robe, I could tell he’d lost considerable weight. “When you come so close to losing yourself, when your memory fails, you have to wonder if you are still… you.”
If Kristolan were here she would have laughed at him, but I understood his dilemma all too well—I had strange memories in my head. “I know what you mean.”
Alexander walked toward the exit rather than his bed.
“Where are you going?”
“I haven’t seen my mother in over a year.” He tilted his head as he looked at me. “Would you like to meet her? It may be disturbing, but I would like to believe that she is still somewhere in that shell and therefore would want to meet you.”
My heart hit the inside of my chest with a powerful thud. “Of course.”
I followed Alexander into the hallway. He led at first, walking slowly, but eventually stopped at an intersection of corridors. He rubbed his head, which made me think he was in pain, but I quickly realized that wasn’t the case. He was lost.
I placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “It’s all right, you haven’t been here for quite a while.”
“You know that’s not the reason.”
“Come with me.”
I brought us through the white corridors, through manicured interior courtyards adorned with quiet ponds and contemplative statues, then down two floors, and finally to the suite where I knew Alexander and Kristolan’s mother had resided for over a decade.
“You really do have her memories.”
I tried to smile. “Come on—please introduce me to your mother. That’s a very big deal where I come from.”
Alexander entered first, his movements hesitant. Although underground, the room was a far warmer place than the accommodations I had seen upstairs. Real plants decorated the rim of a high, vaulted ceiling with artificial light that did a remarkably good job of simulating genuine sunshine. One of the living room walls was transparent and looked out onto an elaborate series of interlocking waterfalls that extended downward from the surface. Real birds chirped in the manicured trees. Soft, soothing music played in the background. A silver-haired woman sat with a stiff back, her face toward the garden and away from us.
“Mother, it’s Alexander.”
The woman did not move. Alexander walked to her, each footstep seemingly a chore. He bent onto a knee beside her chair. “I’m sorry it’s been so long since my last visit.”
Her head turned, the movement coming in three small spurts, as if she was being tugged by an invisible string. Deep lines of age marked her skin, but I thought I saw the resemblance with Alexander. Although he had been engineered, this woman’s genes were still in him.
“Very nice.” She said the words but gave no sign of recognizing her son.
Alexander motioned to me, and I joined him beside her chair. Her eyes were almost as blue as Alexander’s but laced with weariness. They didn’t shine as his did.
“This is Daniela Machado, Mother.”
It took a moment, but her eyes gradually fell upon me.
I struggled for words, and managed only, “It is a pleasure to meet you.”
“Very nice.”
If Alexander was disappointed by the vacancy of her words, he didn’t show it.
“Mother, unfortunately I must tell you that Kristolan has left this world. She is gone. I know you loved her very much, as did I.” I thought he might mention his father as well, but he ignored that loss.
The woman returned her attention to the garden. I didn’t expect that she would say anything more after that, but she surprised me. “It will be good to have you and your sister together. The three of us at the house. That would be very nice.”
Alexander forced a smile. “Yes, it would be nice if we could be together as we once were.”
“It is a holiday… Thanksgiving, yes? Very nice to be together on a holiday.”
Beatice kept staring outward. To see someone like this was painful, but Alexander’s patience and love was heartwarming. But this was a time for family, which I wasn’t.
“I should go, Alexander. You should spend some more time with your mother alone.” I tried to make eye contact with her. “It was a great honor to meet you, ma’am.”
As I walked to the door, I heard Alexander’s mother mumble, “I will see you at dinner. It shall be very nice. Yes, very nice.”
I stepped into the hall, my chest heavy. Kristolan’s early memories of childhood dinners flashed in my head. My ears rang with the echoes of chattering voices I had never heard. I leaned against the cold wall, rubbing my temples, but the images didn’t fade. I recognized the house Kristolan had essentially died in among the scattered images—Alexander’s house, a long table filled with people I had never met, in happier times.
The house. The idea hit me like a lightning bolt, a way to salvage my plan. My joints went weak. I glanced at my viser, at the time and date. It could work. I ran to find Nythan.
There were men I had never seen before walking in the halls, all attired in drab suits of monotone gray. They wore earpieces and metal visers that looked like they’d been salvaged from a junkyard somewhere—which they might have been. I didn’t get far. As I ran past the first gray man, he spoke quickly into his viser, and two others were waiting for me around the next corner.
The taller of the two strangely similar-looking men held up a flat palm. “Ms. Machado, could you please come with us?”
“I’m looking for my friend, Nythan Royce.”
“All the more reason for you to come with us.”
I did as they bid, expecting to be brought down into the bowels of the Everlast Center. Instead, I was led to a small elevator that even Kristolan had not known existed. It brought us up to the top floor of the center—the domain of Dimitri Yasoff and his closest confidants. I didn’t get much of a tour. I was ushered through a short corridor adorned by works of art so utterly simplistic they were probably priceless, then into a windowless interior control center. Nythan was there, as were Dimitri Yasoff and Dr. Halen. They stood in the middle of a circular array of screens, with other, larger displays covering the walls. There was a live feed aerial view of Manhattan and another city I didn’t recognize on the walls, as well as close-up still images of convoys of military vehicles, airfields, and soldiers in trenches. Jenn Ansel stood in the middle of the group; she noticed me as soon as I entered, probably alerted by her men from the Intelligence Directorate who had
brought me here.
“We have a serious problem, Ms. Machado.”
She knew about the control drones. Of course she did—Nythan’s information was derived from sources she had provided to him. I walked slowly to her, my mind racing. I didn’t have everything pieced together, but I thought I had enough.
“We have several major weapon shipments scheduled for a drop by stealth cargo planes within the next hour. Tell me why I should make those deliveries if Virginia is just going to flip the loyalties of the people operating them? I can’t allow California to embroil itself in a war we cannot win. I have to tell the governor your plan will not work, and if I do that, your friend Jalen is going to be very disappointed in the result.”
She hadn’t told Governor Clarke yet. Which meant the military and the rest of the political leadership didn’t know either. That was a huge risk for her. Ansel must truly hate Virginia. She was hoping I would find another way to make things work.
“I believe I have a solution, but it may require a bit more of your help than we initially anticipated.”
Ansel arched a brow. “Go on.”
“I know how to get to Virginia Timber-Night. But we need to move quickly.”
“Quick is good. By the look of it, your friends in the South won’t last much longer. Tell me.”
“Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Virginia isn’t going to be at the White House. She’s going to be at her country estate—the estate of her former husband, Landrew Foster-Rose-Hart, Alexander’s father. She confiscated it when she became president—one of her new prizes. She’s the type to revel in such things.”
“How can you know that for certain?”
More bluffing. “I know how she thinks. And I know how to verify it.”
“How?”
“Virginia has no family—just a ghastly son who hates nopes. But she has plenty of sycophants, and these give her pleasure. Foremost among them is Jeffery Titan-Wind, her new ambassador to Korea. Even better, her son and Jeffery’s daughter have become close. Virginia’s travel schedule will be closely guarded, but I bet you’ll have no trouble verifying Jeffery’s.”