by Sadie Turner
“I have no idea.”
“There is one reason Sobek is so desperate to Third-chip all newborn citizens, and it is the same reason that the Underground is so desperate to keep them untouched. We can’t save all the newborn children, so we target a few special ones.”
“Special ones?” There is a gnawing pit at the bottom of my stomach.
“Hybrids. The rare children who are born of human and Lien with dominant Lien genes. They have powers beyond imagination. They are few, and they are extremely rare. Sobek manipulates this to his advantage, identifying the children when they are five and immediately grooming them for Protectors. Their psychic energy is much higher, their instinct is quicker, they can read thoughts, and they can more easily see the future.”
“Wait,” I stop him, “so, you’re saying that Zilli is a Hybrid.”
“Indeed. She is one of the many who has both Lien and human blood. She is one of the few who has the dominant Lien genes which gives her unimaginable power.”
“So all the children who have been taken at birth are Hybrids with dominant Lien genes?” I dread where this conversation is going; and yet, I can’t stop talking. “Which means my sister Sun is also Hybrid … which means … which means … which means … .” I don’t even have to say it aloud.
The rest of the legs of my bracelet click into place.
I finally know who I really am.
“I HAVE NO IDEA WHO I AM,” Colin told Blue as the Protectors celebrated step one of their successful mission.
“You are the heir,” she said. Blue took a deep breath. She was walking a dangerous tightrope, hanging out with the son of the world leader. She needed to bury her own motivations deep, so no one, especially not Calix, would discover her ultimate plan. “Now start acting like it and stop sulking.”
Having thinned out the revolutionary group, the team was bunking at the home of a Protector who lived in the Ocean Community. The Protector, named Dan, was completely bald and had been particularly interested in the redheaded girl among the ragtag group of revolutionaries. Calix and Blue remained quiet as Dan filled in the group on the two probable targets.
An attack on the Desalination Plant or an attack on the Protectors’ Headquarters.
He recommended that the elite squad of four split up to cover the two possibilities and instructed Calix and Blue to stand guard near Keeva’s old house. Dan guessed that there must be a specific reason the revolutionaries had included newbies in their plan, and wanted to give them the job with the least chance of screwing up. Keeva’s most logical action would be to return to her homestead … even though it was no longer there. He guessed perhaps she had a hiding place or a friend nearby whom she might contact.
So, as the rest of the Protectors planned for a day of battle, Blue and Calix talked.
And waited.
I am determined.
Our mission may have lost our strength and our element of surprise, but we will not be defeated. Sobek has forgotten one thing: he’s now on my home turf and I have the home-field advantage.
We sneak into the Ocean Community in the middle of the night and go directly to my cave. It is the one place no one else knows about. It is the one place we will be safe. Our plan is to attack at dawn, before Sobek has time to amass his troops. As far as we know, Sobek thinks we are attacking the Desalination Plant. That is where he will station his Protectors. His Liens and his Hybrids.
I know differently.
The plan, all along, was for me to attack the heart of his operation, the carbon chamber with the red cap where the fluoride is being dumped into the water. The entire pipeline leads to the heart of the operation and it needs bypass surgery. My father always wanted to be a surgeon, to operate on people. Instead, when he was imprinted with my mother at Monarch Camp, he joined the Ocean Community rather than the Academic Community or the Protectors. But he never stopped learning. He would spend hours talking about different ways to save the human body. I was always bored during those lessons, but now I understand their purpose. He was educating me. The one operation he talked about incessantly was open-heart surgery, specifically bypass surgery. A surgeon takes a vein or an artery from your chest, your leg, or another part of your body and connects it to the blocked artery. The new artery then bypasses the blockage so that oxygen-rich blood can reach the heart muscle. That is what I am going to do to Sobek’s pipeline.
I am going to give it a bypass.
The only person who knows about this is Taj. We plotted it out together. Although everyone else on the team thinks we are blowing up the pipeline, that would be an ineffectual solution, as our water still needs to be desalinated. It just needs to be done without adding Sobek’s toxic chemicals to it.
Once we get to the cave, we split up: Lachlan checks out the security at the Desalination Plant, Magnum goes in search of dynamite and a wrench, and Kai goes to “borrow” some transportation: After the mission we will need an escape route back to the Zeppelin, and there’s no one better to steal a few motorglides than Kai. Zilli and I go up to the cave.
I pull my father’s knapsack from behind the rock and start to pore over his charts. When I was deprogrammed, his plan became clear to me. These aren’t random scribblings; instead, they are a complicated maze to the red carbon chamber. I understand the map now and trace the best path for me to swim to fulfill my mission. I also realize Taj’s “test” by throwing me in the well for two days had a practical value. She had to see if I could still keep my sanity in the water when put into a dangerous situation. She had to make sure that I could live in the now and focus on opportunities that presented themselves to me in the moment.
“What happens when you get there?” Zilli asks.
“I have to reroute the pipes to go around the carbon chamber.”
“How do you do that?”
“Well, look at this drawing my father did. See the two pipes which lead in and out of the carbon chamber? I need to connect the pipe leading in to the chamber with this other one over here. That way, it goes around the carbon chamber that adds the fluoride instead of through it.”
“Won’t they just put it back?”
Why is an eight-year-old questioning me? We’ve come this far, and this is the plan.
“No.” I say, but my voice has lost all of its authority. “It will take them months to realize the fluoride solution has been bypassed.”
“Will it?”
“Do you have a better suggestion?” I am at my wit’s end with this girl.
Zilli just smiles, ignoring my snarky attitude. She hands me the packet of vitamins my father left for me.
“I think it’s a little late for me to worry about nutrition,” I say.
“My father was a scientist,” Zilli says. “Vitamins weren’t exactly his priority. Creating an antidote to the fluoride solution was. What better way to sneak out potent chemicals from the plant without anyone noticing? You do it in plain sight.” She smiles, “Vitamins.”
“Your father?” I am speechless.
“My father,” she insists.
“But you … you can’t be.”
“But I am,” she announces. “Zilli means shadow. I was underground for so long, I was like a shadow. But now that I’m here, I can finally be myself.”
“Sun?” I gasp.
“I’ve always been near you, Keeva. Watching my sister with the sad eyes. Harijiwan raised me in the lighthouse, but I was never too far away. And I saw Father many times. We just couldn’t afford for you to see me. It would have endangered everything.”
“I … saw your room … at the lighthouse.” I am so stunned, I can barely get out my words.
“I know. That’s why I ran ahead. To warn Harijiwan and Inelia. They went through the trap door. They’re safe.”
“Inelia?”
“Yes. She is Harijiwan’s intended partner. She’s been one of Taj’s main insiders since Monarch Camp began. One of the reasons Sobek set up MC-5 was to identify Hybrids with dominant DNA. There have been
so many pairings between humans and Lien over the years that the Lien gene is all but diluted … save for the few who have the dominant Lien gene. Not even the parents know if their children will have the gene. Inelia is the one who identifies the Hybrids with dominant Lien DNA for the resistance. When you were identified, after your intended partner couldn’t handle the torture that you could, she reported back. She told Father, and the plan was all along for me to be extracted after my birth. Both to save me, but more important, to protect you.”
“But, how?”
“I’ve been watching you my whole life. It’s what I’ve been trained for. I’ve followed you since Father fire-bombed the house.”
“What?” I am not sure I can handle any more truths. “He started the fire?”
“Yes, he had to get you to the Labyrinth. Sobek’s men had been watching you as well. Hybrids with our DNA are in huge demand because of our power. Most of us get manipulated to the dark. You and I have managed to make it to the light.”
“You’re so little.” I’m still babbling. I’m still unable to comprehend what is happening. I have to complete a huge mission in less than an hour, and all I can think about is being reunited with my little sister. If this is, indeed, my little sister.
“Like I said, I’m small for my age,” Sun laughs, “but I can grow if you want.” With that, she shape shifts, making herself almost as tall as I am. Her eyes turn light lavender. She is shimmery and metallic. But she is … beautiful.
“Whoa. How did you—”
“It’s in our genes,” she says easily as she returns to her original shape. “Dad is able to do it and so are we. You just need a teacher. Harijiwan taught me, and I will teach you.”
I want to cry. I want to shout. I want to ask a million questions. Instead, I hug my sister as tight as I can.
“I’ve missed you so much, Sun.” I don’t know how I can miss something I’ve never had, but I do.
“I know. Me too. But we have work to do. You have work to do.” She picks up the vitamin packet and hands it to me, “And these are not vitamins, but an antidote to the fluoride solution. If you can put it in the carbon chamber, it will neutralize any past and future toxins Sobek dumps in.”
It is genius: a nonviolent act of rebellion, which the Protectors will never see coming.
“WHY DO PROTECTORS ALWAYS RESORT to violence?” Calix wondered.
He and Blue were huddled in the shadows of the cliffs near Keeva’s former home. The rest of the Protectors were meeting with Magnum, the spy, while Calix and Blue were kept at a safe distance. Tomorrow, the rebels would be killed and he would be miles away. Completely ineffectual. Not that he minded. He had quickly developed an aversion to murder.
“You need violence to keep the peace,” Blue said simply. “Look, I know Keeva and Kai. They are …” she hesitates, wondering which word will be most effectual and believable “dangerous. They were from the minute they entered camp. Curious. Individualistic. Headstrong. Most dominant-gene Hybrids are.”
“Hybrids?”
“Descendants of Lien and Humans. Children of mixed DNA with a dominant Lien gene. You and I are full-blooded Lien.” Blue said, “When I entered camp, I knew I was going to be a Protector … only my job was twofold. I was going to be matched with a Hybrid so that I could help manage him.” She shrugged, “I just didn’t think he would abandon ship so quickly to join the revolution. I barely had enough time to make a real connection with him.”
“You were a plant?” Calix was shocked.
“Sure. An undercover. A lot of us are. Another one of my jobs was to gain Keeva’s trust, which I think I did. That may help us in the future. She doesn’t like me, but she trusts me. Look, Calix, there are very few full-blooded Lien. We are of the highest order. One of our jobs is to be matched with dominant-gene Hybrids so that they are easier to control and able to conform to our agenda. It’s quite genius. So Lien plants are placed in camp as Anomalies to help identify who has the potential to help the Lien and who must be recycled. I was paired with Kai.”
“But now you’re paired with me,” Calix said flatly.
“It’s every girl’s dream to be queen.” Blue smiled, “It doesn’t matter that we don’t have feelings for each other, Calix. We look good together, we will have beautiful children, and we will rule this planet when your father gets bored of it.” She squeezed his hand. “Try to get some sleep, Calix. Relax.”
But Calix was anything but relaxed.
I am confident.
It is an hour before dawn when Sun and I meet the team a half mile down the shore from the Desalination Plant. I’m wearing my bathing suit, and my sister has the packet of vitamins safely tucked into the bandana on her wrist. My father’s bandana that he gave to me.
Which I then gave to my sister.
Lachlan and Kai are the first to arrive. I don’t share the news with them about Sun quite yet. There will be plenty of time when the mission is over.
“There are over a hundred Protectors on site already,” Lachlan reports. “They know we are coming.”
“Then our only move is to get in and out before they notice us,” I say.
“That’s the plan,” Lachlan agrees.
“I secured us two bikes,” Kai says. “It was fairly easy to disable the tracking devices. I figured Magnum and I can drive and you and Keeva can ride pillion.”
“What about me?” my sister asks.
“That’s why I got a bike with a sidecar,” Kai grins. “You’ll ride in style. They’re stashed behind the clump of trees behind us. The navigation is preset, so if we have any trouble, just jump on the motorglide and go. Although I think when we’re done, we should head straight back to the Labyrinth. Some Protectors may be stationed near the lighthouse.”
“Agreed,” Lachlan says.
Magnum waves at us from the distance. He is limping. When he approaches, his lip has been split open again, and his nose looks like it’s been broken.
“What happened?” I ask.
“Protectors. They’re everywhere,” he pants. “I broke into the emporium to get the steel basin wrench and the dynamite. They were waiting for me when I got out.”
“How did you get away?” Kai asks.
“I used one of the sticks of dynamite to cause a distraction,” he grins. “I think it worked; I took out three of them.”
“Most people don’t survive Protectors once, and you’ve managed to survive them twice,” Sun observes.
“What can I say? I’m a lucky guy.”
“Stop talking,” Kai says, “we’re running out of time.”
“Fine,” Magnum snarls and looks at me, “what’s the plan?”
And then I hear Lachlan’s voice in my head, “Don’t tell him, Keeva. Something’s not right.”
I suppress the new panic inside of me and look at Magnum through new eyes. Why hadn’t I noticed before? My instincts about Omri were correct. He wasn’t the traitor, Magnum is. I see the large wrench in Magnum’s hand. It is now a weapon, rather than a tool to open the chamber. And I am in my bathing suit, unarmed. I must think in the now. I must act quickly. Sun Tzu’s lesson comes to mind: The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.
“Well, Keeva?” Magnum is markedly impatient. I notice his eyes are scanning the sky. That means that any second a helicraft will be descending. I need to save as many people as I can.
“Yes, Keeva. We’re all waiting for your decision,” Lachlan adds.
I take a deep breath and repeat Mick’s mantra, ‘Aad Guray Nameh. Aad Guray Nameh. Aad Guray Nameh”
“What does that mean?” asks Magnum.
“We go ahead with the original plan,” I say.
“What is the original plan?” Magnum asks. “You still haven’t told us.”
“Kai,” I look into my friend’s eyes, hoping that he will understand the message. “Remember what we did the last night of Monarch Camp? What you taught me?”
“Yes,” he replies, completely confused.
“I need you to teach Zilli that lesson.”
“Now?” Kai is baffled.
“Right now. Trust me.” I turn to my sister, “Can I have my bandana back? When Magnum and I bomb the plant, I’m going to need something to cover my mouth to protect it from the smoke.”
She nods and unties the bandana, rewrapping it around my wrist with the antidote pills securely in place. I give her a quick hug goodbye. “Now go.”
“Keeva,” Kai lingers.
“Go Kai,” I say harshly, “I’m running this mission, not you.”
I stall while she and Kai disappear into the thicket of trees.
“What was that about?” Magnum growls.
“She’s just a kid. She shouldn’t be involved in this.”
“What about Kai?” Lachlan asks.
“I don’t trust him. He never got us the escape vehicles. I think he’s been working with the Protectors all along.”
“I never trusted him either,” Magnum adds.
“Good. So we’re all agreed,” I say and both Lachlan and Magnum nod. “We’ll deal with him after we complete our mission. Magnum, strip down to your skivvies.”
“What?”
“You want in on the plan or not?” I say with great authority. “You and I are going to do this. It is a two-person team.”
“No. No way,” Lachlan says. He is not happy. “I’m coming too.” In my head, he says to me, “He plans to kill you, Keeva. Let me help”
“We don’t need your help, Lachlan,” I say aloud. I then silently communicate to him, “Please trust me. I know what I’m doing.”
I figure if I can draw Magnum into the water, he will be the bait that the Protectors will follow. I can save my team, my friends, my family, and maybe even complete the mission as well. It doesn’t matter if I die, for I will save many.
Except I know Lachlan won’t let me go. His job is to protect me. Yet my job is to protect humanity.
“I’m sorry about this, Lachlan,” I say.