by Mike Essex
It was clear she remembered everything and deep down so did I. My actions had killed Trey and Taylor. Their death was on me, despite what little control I had.
It was clear Olive no longer trusted me, that whatever small bond we had formed in my efforts to protect her was now broken. If that was true she posed a real threat to me. Jacobi may have forgotten everything that occurred in the Tether event but all it would take was a few words from Olive and everything would start to unravel. Jacobi was a man of many resources and not an enemy I could hope to fight.
I looked down at my body and saw that I was now dressed in a medical robe, my body cleansed and my burns looking far less horrific. I could move my hands easier now although pockmarks remained on them and on my arms to remind me of the ordeal.
Jacobi’s medics must have tended to me whilst I’d been unconscious and the transformation was incredible. Further evidence they had the resources to heal when they wanted, so why keep me alive and punish Olive?
As I looked at the open first aid kit on the floor, a reminder of the broken promises that Jacobi had made, it dawned on me that perhaps Olive would never get the chance to tell anyone. That she could die before revealing my secret. At the thought of her death I snapped out of the daydream and put aside such selfish fantasies. Olive wasn’t simply an enemy to be disposed of. She was only here because of me. Perhaps if I saved her I could redeem myself.
“Ah, the first aid kit,” Jacobi spotted that my attention had been caught by the box. “That reminds me,” he retrieved the vial from the table and held it upwards.
“What is so important about the vial?” I asked.
“I said only you could save your friend and I wasn’t lying. We have a lot of supplies here but nothing that could have helped her. If you hadn’t made it back with the vial then she’d be gone from this world.”
“But, I don’t understand? We had a first aid kit.”
He laughed. “Utterly useless. Nothing in that kit would have helped her. She is dying of blood poisoning. A few bandages and some paracetamol wouldn’t have done the trick.”
Paracetemol? I’d never checked the kit Chris and Tom had retrieved but even I would have known that weak pain medicine wasn’t what Olive had needed. It didn’t make any sense. March had given us specific instructions on the drugs we needed and I knew the rooms under the Houses of Parliament had been well stocked with all kinds of medicine.
Had they wanted Olive to die?
Jacobi inserted a needle into the vial and started to draw out the medicine contained within. “This will do the trick nicely.”
I reached out to hold Olive’s hand but she pulled away and bore the sting of the needle alone. Her face didn’t flinch from the injection; she had suffered more than enough pain recently.
“She needs to rest now, which is good as it’s time we had a little chat. You passed my little test. Barely. For now I can trust you.”
“Trust you?” Jacobi didn’t seem like the kind of man to give those words out easily which only made the gesture hurt even more.
“And your friends too. We won’t carry any dead weight around here but if you chip in with supply runs and other tasks this place can be your home.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to Jacobi. Part of me wanted to thank him; it would be fantastic to have a base with a place to sleep and food to eat in our search for Will. Somewhere to feel safe. Except, how could I feel safe here? What if I hurt someone else? What if they discovered what I had done? Was it safer for us all to run?
The look on Jacobi’s face indicated that he wanted a reply and I went with a “thank you” although it came out a little more like a question than a response.
“My colleagues will take you to your friends. I have to clean up this mess with Trey and Taylor but I will speak to you later.”
Olive watched me walk from the room, the drug hopefully starting to work its way through her body. I hoped she would survive but even more than that I hoped she’d keep her mouth shut.
TWENTY FOUR
My ear felt bare without the earpiece in place. Whilst it was nice to be free of the explosive charge, it had reminded me of the comms unit The Deck had given me. It had been my one connection to March, the person who could help me most of all right now.
Whatever had happened to me in that room I hoped March would have the answers. I hadn’t lost control like that in a long time and even then I’d been wired up to a complicated machine. Surely it was impossible for my body to take over other people via their Tethers without the machine? Except, there was another element in play that could explain what had happened.
Tobias.
When I was wired up to his machine he had been the one taking control of me. The attack on Trey and Taylor seemed within the realms of possibility for him; he had after all, taken control of every soul on the planet. Yet such a thing seemed impossible now. I’d watched him die as I dragged his mind away from his body.
Had he returned to his body? It seemed possible. I hadn’t spoken to March in days. Maybe Tobias had somehow found a way back and was wreaking havoc across the world. In the isolated bubble of London could there be a chance we were oblivious to a nightmare erupting around us? Except wouldn’t we have seen something, surely one of the Tethered people here would have been taken by him?
Unless I was the target.
When Tobias had left his body it felt like a part of him had come back with me. March had said such a thing was impossible but I vowed never to return to the machine again in case it allowed Tobias to get back. Had that decision come at a cost? Could he really be lingering in my mind now, fighting for control of my body?
Such a thought sickened me. Tobias was a troubled man and had not left this world happily. Any vessel, whether it was his body or my own, would allow him to do unspeakable things.
Then another thought hit me. If Tobias was in my mind did that mean he could affect the things I saw? What if the vision I saw of Will was not even real and nothing more than a fabrication created by Tobias. What if everything that had happened was just a result of Tobias’ mind games?
I had no answers, only questions.
When the door opened and I saw Grace a wave of comfort washed over me. Next to March she was the only other person I really trusted at The Deck. My furrowed brow quickly rose up and a smile formed on my face as we embraced.
Grace echoed the smile. “Emzie!”
“I missed you,” I replied.
“Love the outfit,” she pointed to my medical robe and suddenly I felt very self-conscious. “So I hear you are the one that saved us. I always knew you were a superhero. I think it was all the brooding that gave it away.”
My smile turned into an open mouth which let loose a laugh. Grace joined in and soon we were both caught in a fit of laughter.
“So what do you think?” asked Grace, motioning to the room behind her. “Apparently this is my room now, which is pretty strange because a few hours ago it was my prison.”
“Yeah, they are the nicest prison cells we’ve ever been in.”
“I know! It makes Tobias’ cells look like dank hellholes. Oh wait, that’s because they were.”
I laughed along with Grace but the mention of his name sent a shiver down my spine.
“Come on, let’s go meet the others,” and with that we were dashing down the halls to see our friends. Jacobi’s colleague unlocked the door to R&R’s cell and I reached out my hand to push it open. Then the ugly truth hit me.
I pulled Grace to one side and whispered in her ear. “R&R aren’t safe. You have to come with me.”
I asked Jacobi’s colleague to let them go but told him not to tell them I was here. He shrugged his shoulders which I took as confirmation he would do what I asked and I ran toward Grace’s room as tears started to form.
When the door shut to her room the tears were flowing down my face. “I can never see Rex or Rufus again.”
TWENTY FIVE
I ran Grace through my theory of To
bias having control over my body and she nodded along diligently, until she explained “He’s dead Emmie. I’ve seen his body and there’s no way he’s back.”
“How can you be sure?” I asked.
“We have him frozen at the base and locked up tight. Even if he’d somehow found his way back to his body he wouldn’t be able to move. He’d still be trapped.”
“And what if he’s trapped inside of me?”
“Don’t you feel like yourself?”
“I do now but I couldn’t stop myself hurting those people. What if Tobias made me do it?”
“And what if you did it yourself?”
I sensed Grace knew more than she was letting on. “What do you mean?”
“We already know you are different Emzie. You survived even when you lost the connection to your brother and you came out unharmed from Tobias’ machine.”
“But why is this happening now?”
“What if a part of you was unlocked that day?”
“A part of me?”
“Well there’s a lot that the world doesn’t know about Tethers. Sure scientists can explain away their existence as a connection between our senses and the bond formed between twins but what else is there? Perhaps you’ve tapped into something we can’t yet understand.”
Grace was starting to scare me. “How can I control what I can’t understand?”
“Let’s say it’s not Tobias but it was you who killed those people.”
The thought made me sick. “It was an accident.”
“Exactly. If you accept that you did it then maybe you can control it. Even if it was Tobias it’s still your body, I know you can fight this.”
Control. Fight. Grace put a lot of focus on the power being in my hands but I felt more powerless than I had before. “And if I go too far?” I asked.
The words reluctantly escaped her lips. “Then I’ll stop you.”
“You promise?”
“Promise.”
We didn’t discuss the steps for stopping me but we both knew what we’d agreed to. If I tried to hurt R&R or anyone else then Grace would kill me. It didn’t matter if I was in control or Tobias was manipulating me, I would not let my body be used to hurt my friends.
I didn’t tell Grace that Olive had seen everything. It didn’t seem fair to cast further doubt on her and I hoped that there was still a chance we could make this place our home, at least until we found Will.
“So shall we go see them?” asked Grace.
“Not yet, there’s someone else I have to catch up with.”
“Well I’m coming with you.”
Trying to say “no” to Grace was a futile exercise so I let her tag along. Besides it felt good to know she’d be by my side in case I lost control again.
I decided the best way to check if I was still in control was to meet with Jacobi again. He’d been the last person I’d hurt so it seemed like he was the person most likely to trigger a further episode.
We found Jacobi located in an extravagantly decorated chamber, sleeping on a large golden throne.
“Who does this guy think he is?” asked Grace.
“The King?” I replied. “He’s all this place has for a leader.”
“Actually I’m more of a joker,” Jacobi rose up from the throne and lifted up a sword that had rested by his side. Grace instinctively went to grab her weapon but wasn’t wearing her holster. Our supplies were still being kept from us.
On spotting her reach out Jacobi replied. “Now, now, there’s no need to worry. Your friend here has bought you your freedom. I couldn’t possibly hurt you now.”
He swung the sword around and stabbed the air. I was still afraid of Jacobi but I didn’t feel the same rage that had formed before, nor the intense heat that had coursed through my body.
“And what is your name?” asked Jacobi.
“Jenna,” replied Grace.
Jacobi threw the sword into the air “Lies!” he shouted as the sword fell to the floor in front of Grace, piercing the ground. “I can see it on your face. This is not a good way to start your first day as part of my family.”
Grace looked at Jacobi with defiance. I elbowed her in the side as a sign for her to stop playing games, a motion that would usually fail to elicit a response but which worked on this occasion. “Grace,” she stated. Perhaps she was scared I’d go nuclear if she didn’t reply.
Jacobi studied her face and once he was satisfied, he drew the sword from the ground and remarked. “Taa-daa, that is the right answer. Now please take a seat both of you. My new family. It’s time you made this place feel like home.”
We sat down on two smaller chairs that were positioned to the left and right of the main throne used by Jacobi. The chairs were at an awkward angle, pointed towards the front of the room in the same way the throne had been, designed for greeting people in the entrance rather than having a practical three person conversation.
This meant talking to Jacobi involved talking to a side of his face each, with myself on his left and Grace on his right. When he talked to us he looked straight forward making slightly odd eye contact with each of us, his eyes presumably becoming crossed in an effort to see us both at the same time.
It added to the eccentricity of the man and his refusal to acknowledge either of us with the full turning of his head either showed a lack of respect or that he was too paranoid to look away from one of us for a long length of time. For someone who had welcomed us into his family, I doubted we still had all of his trust.
Or it could just be that I’d tried to kill him and he remembered everything. Although if that was true I reasoned that we would be dead by now. Jacobi had two other colleagues in the room, almost identical to those I had killed earlier. How quickly he had replaced them made me wonder how much he truly cared for his fake family.
“So David betrayed us? That rat bastard!” said Jacobi.
“It seemed that way,” I explained. “He trapped me inside the base and started ranting about how much he hated have-nots.”
“They’re all the same. These soldiers, they talk about restoring balance to the world but they just want money and power. They only want to join the haves.”
“How do you mean?”
“David said he wanted to defect and help our cause, so I told him to get the medicine for your friend as a test of his loyalty. Clearly he was playing a long game so we’d show him where our base was located.”
“So he was loyal to SO13 the entire time?”
“It seems that way. They probably offered him untold wealth to bring us in. A lot of people want to track us down. We’re pretty much the last resistance of have-nots in the city. Everyone on the surface has long since been rounded up so they can remake these streets.”
A knot formed in my stomach. Everyone rounded up. I hoped that didn’t include Will.
“You’re lucky you found this place,” said Jacobi. “On the surface you wouldn’t last more than a day now. That’s why I had to be sure I could trust you. If it meant you could save your friend’s life in the process then that seemed like a fair test to me.”
“How is she?” asked Grace.
“Stable,” his eyes flickered as he tried to focus on Grace now whilst keeping me in view.
“But who started the fire?” I asked. “It didn’t make any sense for David to start it and the soldier with him was as confused as I was. Are you sure it wasn’t your colleagues?”
“Not a chance. I told them to protect you, and they did save your life.”
I considered telling Jacobi about the burnt hand that saved me; the man with purple sleeves. Those red and yellow circles pulsing in the fire and the …
My mind connected the dots for the first time. Purple sleeves … Red circles … Yellow circles. I’d seen that pattern before. It was the last sight I’d seen of my brother.
Had Will been the one who saved me?
In all the time I’d been searching for my brother this was the first time I’d wondered if he had been
looking for me as well. When I was watching through Will’s eyes, Vlad had handed him a purple robe with red and yellow circles; exactly the same as the man who saved me had worn.
Or was it just my mind playing tricks on me again? A vision implanted there by Tobias? Perhaps Jacobi’s colleagues had saved me after all?
I wished there was a way I could get a message to Will. A way to make him stop searching and instead just wait for me. If we were both looking for each other in this maze of a city then our odds of being reunited were even smaller. Even worse was the knowledge that the more Will looked for me, the more he could draw attention to himself from the soldiers on the surface.
“They were good boys Trey and Taylor but also really reckless,” said Jacobi. “I know you feel like you killed them Emmie.”
I turned my body to face Jacobi and angled my feet ready to run if need be. I couldn’t see Grace but I figured she would be doing the same.
He looked at me face on, turning away from Grace for the first time in the conversation. Maybe it was because he trusted us or that he wanted these words to have meaning. “But it wasn’t your fault.”
I tried to mumble some words to explain myself but nothing came.
“Trey had a weak heart,” explained Jacobi. “Saving you from the fire would have hurt him but his heart could have given out any time. He wanted to save you and he knew the risks.”
“So that’s what killed him?” I asked.
“That’s what the doctors are saying. Using his strength to drag you from the fire used up what strength he had left. By the time he got you back here he collapsed and his brother died once the Tether was broken.”
I couldn’t tell if this was another test or what he believed to be the truth. Would not correcting Jacobi mean we’d betrayed his trust? I could have told him the truth there and then but it seemed like lying was the only option. The truth would surely result in our death; a lie would at least delay it a bit longer. Hopefully long enough to save my friends and get out of the city.