Damaged Goods

by Jennifer Bardsley

  There’s only one place I can think of that would shelter that many people with lead-lined walls.

  “The soundstage,” I say, “that’s where the Harvest will happen.”

  From down below a small voice giggles. “This morning,” says Ms. Corina. “The Harvest is already over.”

  Too late, I remember the sound of helicopters.

  We ride our cavalcade of motorcycles through the dusk. Instead of Seth and Cal, I’m surrounded by total strangers, uniformed men and women in black. Agent Plunkett breaks the trail in front of me, and I follow blindly, forced to trust. If there’s any hope of rescuing my Vestal friends or saving the Tabula Rasa students, I have to cooperate.

  It’s a lonely road, my mother taught me. But she was wrong. All along there have been people trying to help me, but I haven’t let them in.

  A few hundred yards from the studio parking lot, Agent Plunkett pulls to a stop, and we gather close together. “I don’t want them to hear us,” she says.

  “Too late for that, Plunkett.” A male officer points to the air where a circle of helicopters hovers over the soundstage.

  “Defectos?” I look up at the sky.

  “No.” Agent Plunkett scowls. “Those are ours.” Her walkie-talkie buzzes.

  “Breaker 1-9, this is Oscar Marlow. Do you copy?”

  “Roger that, Marlow. This is Margie Plunkett.”

  “The cyber squad has located the source of the transmission as coming from a soundstage in Mountain View. It’s believed Defectos are involved. Birds are in the air. What’s your 20?”

  “We’re on the ground, Marlow, and you blew our cover.”

  “What?”

  “We planned to surprise them!”

  From my wrist, I hear my chip-watch crackle. It’s hard to hear with my helmet on, so I hold it up close. I catch Seth’s voice, small and faint. “Blanca, are you there?” I text him back.

  Me: I’m here. But I can’t talk.

  Seth: We unjammed the signal!

  Me: Congratulations.

  Too late, I realize how bad that sounds. What if Seth thinks I’m being sarcastic?

  Me: You’re amazing, Seth. I really mean that.

  Seth: You’re terrific too. I’m sorry I’ve been such a jerk.

  Me: I’m sorry I didn’t trust you.

  Seth: Doesn’t matter. Let’s go find my dad.

  I gulp. The last time I saw Seth, I was headed downstairs. Seth has no idea where I am or what I’ve gotten myself into.

  Seth: Meet you in the lobby?

  Me: Can’t.

  Seth: Why not?

  “Blanca!” Agent Plunkett barks. “Are you ready? Let’s go.”

  One more text! I only have time for one more text.

  Me: I love you. Tell your dad I love him too.

  I click off my chip-watch before Seth can text back.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Vehicles are parked everywhere. Police, fire engines, FBI sedans, and motorcycles form a giant group. Generators hum, providing small pools of light. Then the air sizzles, and the streetlights turn back on all at once.

  Cal did it! The grid is back on!

  The extra light allows me to see a small fleet of parked cars that I recognize. “Agent Plunkett!” I point to the black cars. “Those are Guardian vehicles.”

  Her eyes get big, and she speaks into her walkie-talkie. Then she hurries me over to a large SUV where we find Director Lister in camo and a flak jacket, with three different walkie-talkies hanging off her utility belt.

  “Guardians?” she asks when Agent Plunkett tells her. “But I thought you said we were dealing with Defectos. Recon has been digging into this Jeremy fellow for the past fifteen minutes.” She holds out a profile picture of Jeremy.

  Agent Plunkett stands her ground. “Blanca says those are Guardian vehicles, and I believe her.”

  Her support warms me up. I take a step closer and look at the picture Director Lister holds. For the hundredth time I see Jeremy’s neck tattoos.

  Only now, when I see those Chinese characters, they make sense. I was always horrible at written Mandarin, but two of those symbols are familiar.

  It’s like time stops, and I’m back in the cafeteria.

  “Tell me who it was,” bellows Headmaster Russell, lashing Keung’s back.

  “Tiānshĭ,” Keung whimpers, “don’t say anything. I endure this for you.”

  The painful truth hits me. I don’t want to believe it, but there is the evidence, right before my eyes. Maybe I wasn’t the only person Keung called tiānshĭ. Maybe I wasn’t his only hookup.

  “Angel,” I whisper, looking at the first two tattoos. Then I slowly decipher the others. I point my finger on the picture of Jeremy’s neck. “Guardian angel. Keung and Jeremy were lovers.”

  “She told you,” Agent Plunkett says squarely to Director Lister. “From the very beginning Blanca told you the Guardians were involved.”

  Director Lister grabs one of the walkie-talkies from her belt and bellows into it. “Get everything you have about the Guardians to me ten minutes ago!”

  I stare back at the stage worried about everyone inside. These are my people. These are my friends. I may never bear a child, but my Vestal Brethren will always be my flesh and blood. The only sister I’ll ever have is Fatima, and she might be in that box of a building, held captive by madmen!

  While Agent Plunkett and Director Lister argue, I slip away. My black spandex obscures me. I sneak among shadows away from the floodlights. I duck behind a fire engine and inch my way closer and closer to the building.

  By the time I’m walking, it’s too late for them to stop me.

  It’s also too late for me to stop myself.

  I don’t have a plan. No brilliant strategy ruminates in my mind. Only the strong pull of the Brethren, joining their fates to mine. Vestals are a collective power. United by secrecy and code. I don’t want to live my life knowing I didn’t do everything in my power to save them.

  Tears roll down my cheeks, and I can’t force them back in. These tears are human. I wipe them away with my sleeve and knock on the soundstage door.

  No one answers.

  “Blanca Nemo!” Agent Plunkett calls on a megaphone. “Return to the federal vehicles!”

  I don’t turn.

  “Blanca McNeal!” Agent Plunkett tries again. “This is a hostage situation. Please let the authorities handle it.”

  I turn my head and look back at the lights. I can’t see anything because of the glare so I hold my arm up to protect my eyes.

  Then I slip inside to total darkness.

  My heels echo on the concrete. I pause a minute, trying to let my eyes adjust. In the pitch-black, I can’t see anything. On my very third step, I bump into an aluminum chair, and it makes a wretched scraping sound. So much for the element of surprise. “Hello?” My voice echoes from every wall. “Jeremy? Keung? Fatima?”

  I click on my chip-watch. The connectivity features won’t work, but the flashlight will. I hold up my wrist and shoot a tiny arc of light around my perimeter. All I see are rows of chairs. I take a cautious step forward but then retreat.

  I’m a survivor, I’ve got good instincts, and I can think for myself. That’s what Cal taught me. Well right now, I’m terrified of the dark. I walk back to the doorway and look for a light switch. “I’m turning on some lights,” I say loud and strong. Then I flick a switch.

  And my greatest fears are realized.

  My best friends are missing.

  “Where is everyone?” I murmur. There are hundreds of chairs, some askew but most still arranged neatly. “Hello!” I call out again. “Jeremy! It’s me, Blanca!” I sense movement from the dressing rooms. Then I hear a moan.

  Frantically, I look around for a weapon. A broom? A wrench? But there’s nothing that can help. There’s only me and my bad-idea brain.

  “I’m coming to the dressing rooms!” I shout. “I’m walkin
g there now!” I will myself to step forward.

  The first room I come to, the one where Fatima, Pilar, and I lounged a few weeks ago, is empty, save for some old clothes on the floor. But when I come to the next room, I see a faint light emanating from underneath the door.

  I lift up my hand and knock. “Jeremy? Keung?” When nobody answers, I push the door open. My feet crunch on broken glass.

  Keung stares at me with dying eyes. He lies on the pleather couch, a shard of mirror stuck through his chest. Blood pools around him.

  So much blood.

  But there is a fragment of life left in the look Keung gives me. He smiles weakly before his eyes flicker to the side.

  I follow Keung’s gaze and see Jeremy on the chair next to him, both wrists slashed.

  “Jeremy,” I say slowly, “what happened? Are you okay?”

  “Go away, Blanca.” His voice gurgles. “You shouldn’t be here.”

  “But I want to help. Can you let me help? You told me we need to stick together.”

  “It’s too late for that now.” Jeremy heaves a great sob. “I’ve ruined everything.”

  “No. You haven’t. We can fix this.” I take a cautious step forward. “Why don’t you tell me what happened and I’ll figure out how to help?”

  “It’s too late for that now!” Jeremy tries to stand up and face me, but he’s too weak from blood loss. He slumps down in the chair.

  “Stay there! I’ll be right back.” I race to the next room and collect an old dress from the ground.

  “No,” Jeremy says when he sees me return with the fabric. “Let me die. I tried to stop him, and look what happened! I broke the mirror and stabbed him in the heart.”

  “Jeremy,” I say, “it’ll be okay.” I kneel next to him and bind his right arm.

  Jeremy tries to wiggle out of the way. “Don’t bother.” But he’s too weak to fight back.

  I cut a glance at Keung who groans on the couch next to us. I want to save Keung too, but if I pull out the mirror stabbed in his chest, he could die. As soon as Jeremy’s stable, I’ll race to get help.

  “Jeremy. What happened? Where did the Vestals go?”

  Jeremy cries so hard I can barely understand him. “They were supposed to return home. Keung told me we’d reunite the students with their parents. But he tricked me! We weren’t sending them to their families. Keung was rounding them all up for her.”

  Chills prickle my spine. “For Wu Park?”

  Jeremy nods. “She wants them, Blanca. She wants all of them. As soon as I realized where the kids were really going, I ended it.” Jeremy looks down at my handiwork and frowns.

  “Where are they now?” I can hardly hear my voice over my heartbeat.

  Jeremy doesn’t get the chance to answer my question.

  A harsh, raspy sound comes from deep in Keung’s throat. We look back at him just in time to see the final breath release from his soul.

  “Tiānshĭ!” Jeremy and I both say together. But thankfully Jeremy doesn’t hear me.

  “No!” Jeremy cries. His sobs pound into my heart. His anguish fills the small room. As gently as possible, I bind the wounds on his left arm

  I stuff my own pain down as deep as it will go. I don’t think about Keung tricking me into believing I was special. I don’t remember his lips, warm against mine. I don’t look at his brown eyes that were once so full of life, now staring at the ceiling. I focus on right now. My mission. The words I need to say to find my friends and the lost students.

  When I finally speak, I force my voice to be gentle. “Keung was your angel?”

  Jeremy nods. “And he was mine. That’s why I left Tabula Rasa. I had to follow him! Especially after Headmaster Russell punished him. ‘Tiānshĭ,’ he said, ‘I endure this for you.’ Oh, Blanca, what have I done?” The strength of Jeremy’s voice fades.

  I tie the final knot. “You did your best,” I offer. “I see that. But, Jeremy, where are the others? Where did the Guardians take them?”

  “I don’t know,” Jeremy whispers. “They were supposed to go home to their parents. That’s where I thought the buses would go. But then helicopters came, and I realized the truth. I was betrayed. He wanted them all, Blanca, but I stopped him …” Jeremy’s face becomes very still.

  I fling my hand against Jeremy’s neck to check for a pulse, which greets my fingertips with a tiny whisper. Then I put my wrist on his heart, the position for the tightest blessing.

  “Jeremy, you have a hard road. In so many ways it’s difficult being you. But I know that you can do it.” The Vestal blessing rolls off my tongue like water. “You have everything you need to achieve happiness.” My last words are a whisper.

  I didn’t expect Agent Plunkett to give me a big bear hug when I came out of the sound stage alive, but she did. After we watched helicopters whisk Jeremy off to the hospital, she yelled at me for ten minutes straight. “How could you be so stupid? You could have made things a thousand times worse for your friends! Did you think of that?”

  At the mention of Fatima, Beau, and everyone else, I disintegrate. Wherever they are, Jeremy didn’t know.

  Cal and Seth arrive to find me in hysterics and Agent Plunkett still shouting at me.

  “Back off, lady!” Cal rushes up to Agent Plunkett and looks her in the eye. “No one yells at my daughter like that.”

  Agent Plunkett squares her shoulders and explains that I ran into a potential hostage situation. Then Cal yells at me too.

  But Seth puts both arms around me in a circle of protection. “I love you, Blanca,” he murmurs in my ear. Over and over again. Then he tilts my face up and kisses me so hard I feel tingles all the way down to my toes. “I love you. I love you. I love you.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Seth, Cal, and I ride motorcycles back to the manor. The roads are still chaotic, and looters have emerged like locusts. Seth wraps both arms around me and holds on tight. I keep my vision pegged on Cal as he leads the way home. I don’t think any of us breathe easy until we’re past the security gate.

  When I swing open the mahogany door, I swear I see heaven. There, in the great hall, are Fatima, Beau, Pilar, Alberto, Richard, Sarah, Trevor, Ryan, and Zach. They’re all piled on couches eating sandwiches. Fatima has her legs up and Beau rubs her feet.

  I don’t stop to shut the door. I run straight to my friends and throw myself into Fatima’s arms. “Where were you?” I reach across and hug Beau too.

  “Stop freaking out!” Fatima’s smile is enormous. “We walked all the way here.”

  “I thought you were headed toward Tabula Rasa?” Seth tosses his jacket down on a couch.

  “We were,” says Alberto. “But traffic was so bad, we couldn’t reach it. Pilar suggested we come to McNeal Manor because it was closer.”

  Pilar runs up to Cal and snuggles. “And because of the company.”

  Cal cups her beautiful face in his hands. “You came to the right place.” He kisses her warmly.

  I discreetly look away, but Seth stares at his dad with eyes like saucers.

  “I wasn’t sure my bride could make it,” Beau says, indicating Fatima’s swollen feet.

  “Hey!” Fatima protests. Then she nods her head in agreement. “I had my doubts too.” She pats her baby bump. “But I was really hungry, and I knew there’d be food.”

  “Definitely,” I answer. “There’s always food at the manor. And I bet you’re hungry enough for croissants.”

  “Well,” admits Fatima. “Maybe this once.”

  Agent Plunkett calls me in the next day, and I answer every last question. Honestly and without reserve. Even though some of what she wants to know is none of her business, I don’t hold back. Nancy isn’t there, and I’m pretty sure Agent Marlow and Director Lister are spying on me through the one-way window, but I tell Agent Plunkett every last secret.

  I tell her about sneaking kisses with Keung underneath Ms. Alma’s watchful eyes.

  I te
ll her I hid in the back of Keung’s car with Seth and heard an explosion.

  I tell her my suspicions about what happened to Headmaster Russell.

  I tell her about Irene Page really working for Keung and that there might be other Guardians planted in our midst.

  I tell her my heart ripped open when I saw Seth in so much pain.

  And I tell her other things too. Because once I start talking, I can’t stop.

  I tell her that Sarah is dating Trevor and isn’t actually his mother.

  I tell her that the real Lilith is my aunt and that she is missing.

  I tell her how I’m still not sure if I should say “Ms. Lydia” or “my mother.” I tell her I’m not sure I can forgive my mother for leaving me.

  I tell her that I’m sorry I told Agent Marlow about her being a home-wrecker, but that I still think she’s a pretty good federal agent.

  I tell her how Dr. Meredith made me feel horribly uncomfortable and that I’m still not sure if she was spying on me or not.

  At this point, Agent Plunkett interjects. “Dr. Meredith checked out. I looked into her a few months ago.”

  “Oh.” I look down at my chip-watch.

  “If I see anyone tail you in the future,” Agent Plunkett says, “I’ll tell you. I tried to warn you about the Guardians, you know?”

  I swallow hard. “It’s my fault those kids are missing. If I had cooperated with you from the beginning, none of this would have happened.”

  Agent Plunkett shakes her head. “We can’t know that for sure, Blanca. But what we do know is that what the Guardians did is not your fault. And if you hadn’t helped us break into Tabula Rasa, it could have been a bloodbath. You helped keep a lot of kids safe.”

  “But not all of them.” I clasp my hands together. “I’ll do anything, whatever it takes to find the missing Tabula Rasa students.”

  The wrinkles around Agent Plunkett’s eyes are more pronounced than ever. Her boyish haircut has several more gray hairs. “Blanca,” she says with sincerity, “I believe you. Now you need to believe me too. I’m going to find them.”