by Rayya Deeb
"Doro, please try to hear what I’m saying—"
Dom's unwavering gaze, his crunched, tight brow and the gravity in his voice scared the hell out of me, as if he knew of an imminent danger beyond my scope.
I became paralyzed in fear. I couldn't speak. I retreated back inside my cocoon. I had to regroup to figure out what was happening. Was my flexer even real? Was I living in some twisted simulation of my life? I just wanted this flex turmoil to end! I wanted to be back with my mom and Killer curled up in a ball in my bed.
"Come on, Doro, come back to me—"
I ended the FigureFlex.
Suddenly alone, I shuddered as the unrelenting rain pelted down on me. My mind couldn’t sustain its present torment, so it took me back to a time when my heart had been the part of me doing all the suffering. I flashed to the Monday night in S.E.R.C., before I’d set off for the South American Seneca hub to look for my dad. I found myself in a scene that I couldn't stop reliving— the last time Dom and I had seen each other.
I waited next to the door to "our closet" in S.E.R.C. at our appointed meeting time, but Dom hadn’t come. My FlexOculi monitor was up, and I was wondering when I'd get a flex from him explaining why he was late. I tried to flex him three times, but he didn’t reply. Considering the amount of planning we'd done leading up to this crucial juncture, I couldn't comprehend why, when 7:05 p.m. hit, Dom still hadn't shown up. Recalling our unpleasant history with the inglorious S.O.I.L., I’d started to freak. What if they knew about our plans? As The Seneca Society's top intelligence agency, they knew practically everything about everyone. And by now Dom and I knew for sure that certain individuals inside that organization would go to any length to control all of the information inside Seneca. This time, though, we’d thought that we had out-foxed them once again, like we had with the nanobots.
But what if Brittany Gilroy had sold me out? She was the daughter of a Seneca Senator and I'd thought I could trust her— and that she trusted me, too. When would I learn to pay attention to the cynical lesson to 'trust no one but yourself'? When you deny what experience teaches you over and over again, you're going to find yourself completely screwed. I was afraid we’d stepped right into it.
"Campbella."
"Reba!"
It was an incredible relief to see him, but he had a look about him that unsettled me. Reba’s special strength was his intuition, an intuition that was stronger than that of all the grandmas in the world, combined. I’d vibed with his spirit from the very first moment I’d set foot inside S.E.R.C. last year and we’d become great friends.
"It's 7:08," Reba said.
"Dom hasn't shown," I said, hoping he had answers.
"I was worried about that."
"Why?"
"Listen, chica, sometimes people fall out of sync... they get caught up in other things in life... but you can't let that stop you."
What was he talking about? I could tell Reba had information he thought would hurt me but was important enough for me to know. He just didn't know how to tell me.
"Reba, where's Dom?"
“You’re wasting your energy getting hung up on Dom. The important thing to remember is that the truth is out there for those who seek it. You shouldn't be worried about anything else but that right now. Finding the truth. Your truth.”
"Okay," I said as he avoided meeting my eyes. "I’m going to Colombia to find my dad no matter what, but I can tell you're keeping something from me, and I need all the intel I can get right now."
"You're right."
This was no time to play games.
"So?"
Reba's voice lowered, partly to keep the conversation just between us, but I think, too, because he wanted to soften the blow of what he had to say. "Listen, you shouldn't go to Colombia. You need to find your way in through Hub 48, in Peru."
I gave him a 'what-in-the-world?' look.
"I just feel that you should be headed to Peru rather than Colombia... I think that’s where your dad is. I can't let you go off in the wrong direction," he said.
I had more faith in Reba's insight than my own. Which was crazy because I’m normally such a hard-evidence kind of girl. Science, facts, math— you know. They’re my normal, reliable guides. While I believed in Reba's instinct, my own practical nature was kicking in.
"If your dad is as good a mathematician as you are—"
"He's the best."
"Then he would be working on the top secret projects going on in Peru. Seneca records show that Peru is where high up scientists live in order to protect them and the sensitive knowledge they have, to keep it from getting into the wrong hands."
"I see."
It added up. My father had been working on secret science stuff before he’d disappeared. Reba’s news was exactly the information I needed to help me find him. I was going to Peru.
"That and... one other thing. Dom knows, Doro..."
"Dom knows what?"
"He knows that he was framed for the flighter crash. He knows that you knew and never told him."
My heart jolted. Oh no.
"It's not your fault. You were trying to protect him, but the rumors were swirling and it was only a matter of time before it all came out.”
My head sunk. I realized why he hadn’t been flexing me back and it made perfect sense.
“So he’s not coming with me?”
“I’m afraid not.”
3
WITH A SLIGHT headache and a lump in my parched throat, I took a seat on the acoustic carrier. It was unusually quiet considering it was fueled by sound waves rather than electricity or gas. The stuff with Dom weighed heavy on my mind, but I managed to find solace in the silence of the ride. I loved traveling via this train-like transportation vessel. It was nice that the other passengers were chill as well, seemingly respecting the tranquility.
I knew Dom would be at Ty’s Sushi, Reba didn’t have to tell me, and so Ty’s was a pit stop I had to make before I set off on my journey. I could just picture Dom like someone in an old time movie hunched over a bar wallowing in their sorrows, he just did it at a sushi bar created by his best friend.
On my ride to Seneca City’s restaurant district I projected my FlexOculi screen and tuned in to a stream from Seneca’s own news network, B3 News. It played a few inches in front of my face, and of course nobody else on the acoustic carrier could see what I was watching. The Incognito Mode setting had become a super fun way to consume media.
A newscaster’s booming voice-over warned, “World Health Organizations in the Aboves have announced that ultraviolet radiation in many locations has reached levels too potent for people to be exposed to. Until yesterday, there was a thirty minute daily safe exposure limit for direct exposure, but scientists now recommend no one goes outside, unprotected, for any length of time. It is strongly advised that UV suits and protective goggles should be worn outdoors to avoid damage to DNA at a molecular level. It is too early to determine all of the dangers but the immediate effects are alarming. World Health Organizations are reporting levels of cataracts and snow blindness increasing at alarming rates in unprotected animals…”
While video images moved in and out across my monitor, a live, 3D satellite image of bright yellow UV pockets spreading across a black representation of the Earth came into view. Then there was a news feed from the Aboves of an extremely bright outdoor area at a shopping center with people walking around in metallic colored suits and clear, full-head helmets.
The newscaster continued with urgency,“Global authorities have been tirelessly researching ways in which to create massive UV shields, but nothing has been presented to the public.”
Video images showed a mining operation. A clear cylinder the circumference of the Eiffel Tower shot up through the center of a dome and into the sky. An entourage of people in both power suits and white body suits worked inside the clear domed-in digging site at a lake.
“Researchers are tirelessly at work on a solution, but the reality that we now
face is that without the layer of ozone in the stratosphere, life as we know it will very soon be over.”
Someone in that entourage suddenly caught my attention. I rewound and paused as I spotted a face I knew intimately: the one and only Ellen Malone. What was she doing there? And more importantly, what were they all doing there? My eyes narrowed on the logo emblazoned on the machinery in the background. The logo read ‘S.G.E. Corp.’, the same company that Ellen had told me used to operate a power station at Claytor Lake. The company was run by Senator Wallingsford’s brother, Billy. S.G.E. Corp and Ellen, had something to do with this operation. But what exactly?
I was mesmerized by Ellen from the moment we first met when she came to my Culver City apartment to recruit me to The Seneca Society. The offer came somewhat as an ultimatum though. She would be providing me a safe-haven from the fall-out of getting busted running an offshore gambling hack enterprise. If I hadn’t accepted her offer, my mom would have taken the fall for my wrongdoings, and that meant jail time. Of course I took Ellen up on her offer.
As we reached the stop and I hopped off the acoustic carrier, I powered down my monitor. All I could think about was that all Senecans had loved ones in the Aboves they had to worry about on an entirely new level. They could hear news about them and think about them, but they couldn’t communicate with them. This was par for the course with the agreement people made when they accepted Senecan citizenship and relinquished whatever citizenship and contacts they had in the Aboves. Things weren't looking good for human existence and that wasn't just some wild, apocalyptic theory. It was the new reality we were all facing. I knew that hyper-technologically-advanced Seneca was a means to Earth’s solutions, if there were any, but not if it was stifled by some insane, corrupt power struggle that would only provide resources to well-connected people.
I stood at the back of Ty’s Sushi, the ever-bustling eatery where Dom had a secret lab in the back until he and I got busted uncovering the nanobots in our bloodstreams. Dom sat by himself at the sushi bar with random people on either side of him. There wasn’t an empty seat in the house so I approached him from behind. I hesitated for a moment before saying his name.
“Dom.”
He didn’t answer. I felt a dagger twist into my stomach because based on his pause, I knew he was pissed and about to ream me out. My sweet fluttery butterflies were miserable and sick.
“What are you doing here?” he asked. His words felt ice cold. He didn’t even turn around.
I wished we could flash back to the first time we were here together and start all over, knowing what we needed to know now minus all the icky stuff. “Will you look at me?” I asked.
Dom stood up and turned around. His sunken eyes crawled up to mine.
“What’s going on?” I asked, even though I already knew.
I realized I’d probably made him cry and that made my stomach cringe. I literally couldn’t stand up straight.
“How can I look at you?” he asked.
His words crushed my heart.
“Dom, I am so sorry.”
“Does that make you feel better? Apologizing?”
“Nothing makes me feel better about this.”
Dom pulled his lips tight together and narrowed his eyes, looking into mine. Oh man, if looks could kill.
“I was so wrong, Doro. I was so, so wrong. I actually thought we trusted each other and that’s what hurts the most.”
“We do! I didn’t lie to you, Dom.”
“You did, though, and it’s just completely messed up, Doro. That was information that I should have known and you know that!”
“But I didn’t know—”
“Really? You didn’t think I should know I was being framed for that crash? Wouldn’t you want to know if it was you?”
“Who told you that?”
“That’s your response? I can’t believe you, Doro. Think about what I shared with you when we first met. And now that we know each other on a much deeper level this is how you treat me?”
Ty walked up to say hello, then noticed the tone of our conversation and quickly scurried away.
“You’re right, Dom, but I just didn’t know what to do. At first I was protecting you. Then you were so into our gig on Operation Crystal, I didn’t want to mess anything up. And then more and more time passed and it was like I should have told you earlier, but I didn’t, and I felt like you’d be so upset when I finally did.”
“I am upset,” Dom said.
“And I am sorry.” He had to forgive me. What we had was too good to be ruined from one mistake on my part. I wanted to hug Dom so bad, but I could tell by his closed-off body language that he wanted none of that. So I searched for the right thing to say. “I swear I wasn’t trying to hurt you, and I swear nothing like that will ever happen again.”
“Right. Okay.”
It seemed nothing I could say or do would change Dom’s mind. I was backed into a corner and there was only one way to go from here. I was about to have to go to South America on my own and that was my own doing.
“Okay. Never-mind. Enjoy your sushi.”
“Don’t flip this on me.”
“I messed up, Dom, but now this is on you! You didn’t show up and you know how important this is to me!”
“It’s not all about you, Doro!”
It suddenly got quiet around us and I felt people starting to stare, but I just looked square into Dom’s eyes and at nobody else. He clamped his lips down even tighter, cutting me with his sharp gaze. People started to talk around us again, but I didn’t want to risk being heard at all, so I leaned in and spoke in a hushed voice.
“Something insanely sketchy is going down in Seneca and you know it. You’re the one who brought this all up to begin with. I mean, why else would they want those bots in everyone? You know this is huge and now we’re in too deep to turn our backs! Everyone is in danger. I know this isn’t about me!”
I couldn’t stand to see Dom’s face looking at me like I was awful anymore. I turned to go and didn’t hesitate.
“Doro, wait.”
I wasn’t going to let him, or anyone, hold me back. I didn’t stop, and as I approached the front of the restaurant I heard Dom call out, “Good luck!”
I paused in my tracks. It was like I’d been shot in the back by someone that I loved. That was the worst “Good luck!” in the history of my universe and Dom knew very well that I did not believe in luck. It was a dual-pronged dig and I couldn’t believe that was how it was going to be between us. Just like that my heart was blown to pieces. Rather than try and pick it all up and put it back together, I left my heart there splattered across the cold, hard floor.
4
A TREMENDOUS WEIGHT tugged at my heart. It felt like suction cups were pulling me downwards, from the front of my shoulders, through my chest. I felt unreasonably cloudy. This untamable feeling stuck with me as I trudged through the mud the morning after the storm.
Slivers of sun began to slice through the towering Ceiba trees, slowly drying the moisture from my skin. I reached my hand up to the rays. Suddenly, out of thin air, FlexCore signaled me. I stopped dead in my tracks. I was back on the grid! Relief swept in like a breath of fresh air. I scanned my FlexOculi, studying all of my incoming nutrition data. My implant was communicating my health vitals with FlexCore, providing real-time computerized calculations on my caloric needs: vitamins, fats, proteins, etc.
My FlexCore’s recommendations were on point. I knew exactly what I needed to eat, and when I needed to eat it for optimal body performance. In that moment, it was suggesting that I consume a source of iron and vitamin B12 as soon as possible. Although information hadn’t been coming in consistently, or at all for the past day at least, FlexCore had recorded all of my nutritional activity and scanned every potentially edible object I passed for two days— two days?! I couldn’t confirm or deny that because I couldn’t differentiate between one hour and twenty-four. And how much of that time would I have been awake? Had I blacked
out at all? Calories. The FlexCore data was right, I needed calories and water.
I winced as I stepped on something sharp— “Oww!” I looked down to see that I was somehow barefoot. Somewhere, it seemed, I had lost my hiking boots. My feet were caked in dirt and who knows what else. The grime was so thick I couldn’t even see my toenails. The bizarre sounds of the mountainous terrain hadn't ceased since I had stepped into it. The natural surround sound was even more hardcore than the Virginia outdoors. My eyes darted in every direction, searching out any movement, any sign of life, and hoping for a friend yet dreading a foe.
Like a bolt of lightning there came my sign, in the form of an incoming FigureFlex. The possibility of human connection, albeit virtual, cranked me up.
“Reba!”
I slammed my finger onto ‘Accept’ and there he was, a static 3-D projection of Reba, glitching off and on with the poor connection. “Campbella!”
Overjoyed to see him and convinced I was going out of my mind, I started to cry. Reba reached out for my shoulder, but I couldn’t feel him and he couldn’t feel me. I was with him, but I wasn’t.
“Don’t worry. We have a plan to get you out of there, but we need your help,” Reba said.
Who was we? Ellen? Dom? Gregory Zaffron, that wretched S.O.I.L. agent that had fought to have Dom and me banished from Seneca altogether? I tried to force those thoughts to stop. Reba wasn’t against me. He was gentle and authentic and one of my best friends. Why would he be cooperating with Gregory Zaffron? I had a glimpse of just how irrational that thought was, like it wasn’t even mine to begin with. Or maybe Reba was against me. I couldn’t stop those suspicious trains of thought. I started to retrace every moment Reba and I had shared. Had he known about the Necrolla Carne vaccine that was required of every new Seneca citizen, and that it was actually a nanobot virus S.O.I.L. had put in all of us? Was he aware of the programmed mosquitoes S.O.I.L. sent to attack me in the woods when Dom and I were on the run after I had reinstated his memories that S.O.I.L. had wiped… did Reba know all of it?