Gordian officials were too busy to devote much time to palace tours, so every child looked forward to this special occasion. Father Sampson himself greeted the children at the end, answering their questions and shaking each hand. Alina still remembered his coldness when he shook her hand. She didn’t dare look up but sensed him frowning at her. She’d always believed her looks disappointed him back then. Now she knew the real reason.
The grand hallway held the sculpture exhibition she remembered most about her visit years ago, named The Noble and Everlasting Life of Victor Sampson. The first bronze statue displayed him in tattered clothes, kneeling over the lifeless bodies of a woman and child in a pile of rubble. Clenched hands cradled his head. Her teacher told the children to squat down so they could see his face contorted with grief and tears. The name plate in front read The Last Great War of Carthem.
The second sculpture was simply named Hope. Sampson stood in a shabby laboratory uniform with a vial in each hand. He held one up, studying the liquid inside with intense concentration.
He appeared twenty years younger in the next statue, possessing a fine, robust body. The lines of grief were gone from his face. His eyes focused on an architectural plan spread out on his desk. The Birth of Pria.
The display of sculptures continued down the entire hallway. In one he cradled a new baby, another showed him hard at work in his laboratories. Others depicted him holding a sun in one hand and a world in the other, and delivering his Day of Genesis speech, complete with bronze tears on his cheeks. Two significant statues towered over the others, commemorating the hundredth and two hundredth Genesis celebrations. His most recent effigy, marking the three hundredth anniversary, stood outside in the central gardens.
Figure after figure lined the walls, each one handsome, stately, and dauntless. Alina rolled her eyes. This man is remarkably full of himself. But she feigned interest in every statue to slow their progress until Sampson stormed back, seized her wrist and yanked her at his pace.
The grandeur of the palace lessened as he dragged her down several flights of stairs and into a bright corridor with a heavy, bolted door. He tapped a code on the lock-screen, and as the door clanged open, Alina held her breath.
They were entering the notorious Gordian laboratories.
Laboratory workers were sworn to secrecy as to what happened behind that bolted door. In school they learned about manufactured food and babies being formed, but explanations were vague. Sampson did not expose such secrets carelessly. She was entering the laboratories never to leave.
The magnitude of the room overwhelmed her, and she stumbled as she looked up. Shiny machinery stretched into the highest turrets, surrounded by a labyrinth of stairs and platforms. The massive room must be deafening when operators were there, but for now, it was eerily silent.
“The workers have the night off for the Harvest Feast,” Sampson said, as if reading her thoughts. His lips curved into a cruel smile. “Very convenient, as I’d like no one to know you were brought here tonight.”
He guided her onto a steel platform, where she looked down and gasped. The room extended into darkness below her, with more machines and staircases. Rows of doors and lighted windows lined the platform to her left. She glanced into the window closest to her and froze in her tracks.
The room revealed columns of shelves and neatly stacked jars. She leaned in and narrowed her eyes. It’s food. Strange food I haven’t seen before. Maybe it’s for the next celebration. But then something twitched.
The jars’ inhabitants were black, spiny, and quivering violently. She jumped back and screamed.
A chorus of clicking noises started from the room. Alina darted after Sampson, who continued walking as if nothing had happened. Her legs trembled beneath her. Those creatures did not live in Pria. Only beautiful, pleasant things existed here.
She peered into the next window and saw a table lined with silver trays, panels and tools, as if the workers left without cleaning up. Her body relaxed a little. Nothing surprising was stored there. She expected the contents of the next room as well, but the sight stole the breath from her lungs.
A large, transparent sphere filled the room, drifting with fetuses in varying stages of development: some almost too small to see, others full-sized and squirming. Each baby possessed a glowing tube from its navel to a ball of light in the center, like a small sun, providing energy to grow.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Sampson whispered in her ear, startling her. “I can create life. Everything you see here are my creations. There’s no limit to what I can make, and no power great enough to stop me. I made the beginning, and I could make the end if I chose to. Someday, when I’m tired of it all, maybe I will.” He gave a soft, dark chuckle.
Alina shuddered as his breath tickled her neck. She would no longer gratify him by peering into the rooms. She waited, coolly, for him to take the lead, then passed three windows without a glance. But as she passed the fourth, a chill ran through her, and she halted, turning her eyes toward the glass.
The dark room looked empty, but the chill grew colder along her spine. She didn’t care to know what the room harbored, yet she stood transfixed, her eyes straining to penetrate the darkness. The fear spread to her heart, paralyzing her muscles.
A pair of beady, red eyes blinked in the darkness. She opened her mouth to scream but released only a rush of air. The eyes bore into her, growing brighter as her terror increased. She could see Sampson from the corner of her eye, watching her with a pleased grin on his face.
“Come with me,” he said. “There’s a room just for you.” When she didn’t move, he snatched her arm and jerked her along the platform, releasing her from the spell. She stumbled over her feet as the breath returned to her lungs.
Something had petrified her until she couldn’t move. What was that creature?
Her courage returned, warming her muscles, and she yanked her arm from Sampson’s grasp. He snapped his head to hers and they stopped walking, glaring at each other. He opened the door in front of him and extended his arm, inviting her inside. Her eyes didn’t flinch from his as she walked in.
The room had no windows. A tall, shiny machine filled a corner of the room, and next to it was a small slab with restraining straps. The slab looked uncomfortable, but that didn’t matter. She wouldn’t feel it. This was her permanent resting place.
No one would know she was there.
“It’s time,” he said with a smug smile, then his face went stern. He motioned toward the slab.
She crossed her arms and walked toward it, glancing over the machinery before sitting down.
“Lie,” he snapped. She tightened her jaw and complied.
“Do you know why you’re here?” he asked as he wrapped a strap around her wrist.
She saw no point in lying. “Because I’m mortal, and therefore a threat to you.”
His eyes flickered angrily. “You? A threat to me?” he cinched the strap, pinning her arm to the cold slab. “How could you threaten me?”
Alina caught her mistake. “I meant—I’m different, so I disrupt your perfect world.”
Sampson studied her as he pulled off her heels and strapped her ankles. “Is that what you think?” he asked.
“Yes. I have an awful temper—I yell and scream when I get angry. I cry when I’m upset. These things disturb your peaceful world. I always knew I’d be sent to Carthem. I don’t know why I’m here in your laboratories, but there must be some reason.”
He glowered at her for a moment, then took a small panel from his pocket and tapped it with his finger.
Alina couldn’t see the face on the screen. “Yes?” a male voice said.
“Everything is set here. Is the other matter resolved?” Sampson asked.
“We’re finishing the entry now, sir.”
“And Rex?”
“He’s on his way.”
“Good, I’ll be in my office in five minutes.”
Sampson clicked off the panel and looked at Alin
a. “We’ll see how Rex defends himself this time.”
Alina panicked. “Defend himself from what? He helped me yesterday when I was confused and—”
She stopped herself but too late. When she confessed her mortality, she’d condemned Rex. Defending him only implicated him further. She shut her eyes tight. How could I be so stupid?
She couldn’t meet Sampson’s glare. He folded his arms across his chest and spoke calmly. “You know, I should thank you, Alina. My methods are thorough, but I often wondered about Rex. Tonight, you exposed him as the traitor he is. He’ll suffer for his crimes and die in Carthem.”
“No!” Alina screamed.
“And you” —his voice rose as he gripped the side of the slab— “will begin a new life today. You caught on faster than I expected, but no matter—I’m ready. One last thing to arrange, and I will return.” He stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
Alina trembled and squeezed her eyes shut. Tears dripped down her cheekbones and into her ears. She’d be kept alive in this laboratory while her loved ones died in Carthem. Jade would be sent with Rex; she knew too much. No one in Pria would know what happened to her.
Unconscious. Forever. A sad, lonely way to exist. It would be better to die.
Her eyes flung open. Of course! She needed to die. Then Sampson would fall. Why hadn’t she thought of it before? Rex probably didn’t know how to tell her. She would sacrifice herself and take pleasure in it. Her personal gift to Sampson.
She forced herself up on her elbows and scanned the room. Something sharp should work. Sharp things made her bleed, and if she bled enough, she would die. She was pulling at the straps on her wrists when the door opened.
A worker in a white laboratory uniform walked in, pushing a cart with small, tinkling instruments. A white hood and plastic visor concealed his face.
Alina yanked at her restraints. “Go away!” she ordered, louder than she meant to. “I’m not going to sleep!”
“Alina, it’s me!”
It took her a moment to recognize the voice. Her mouth dropped in surprise.
“Rex!”
He put his finger to the mask. “Shhh! We have only a few minutes.” He lifted his visor and fiddled with the straps on her wrists, cursing under his breath. He snatched a tool from the cart and sliced through them. After freeing her ankles, he took a bundle from the cart and handed it to her. “Quickly, put this on.”
She unfolded a uniform and hood identical to his. “What are we doing?” she whispered.
“We’re going to Carthem. And don’t worry, it’s not as horrible a place as you’ve heard.” He paused. “Not that I’ve been there.”
“I don’t care if it is,” Alina said as she stepped into the suit and zipped it over her gown, then took the shoes Rex held out for her. “Any place is better than this cell for eternity.” She slipped on the shoes and placed the visor over her head. Her heart pounded in her chest.
“I’m sorry, Rex,” she whispered.
“Don’t be. It would have come to this, anyway.” He lowered his visor as they walked through the doorway onto the metal platform. “Sampson acted sooner than we expected. Not long after you arrived at the feast, two men escorted Jade away. When I saw you enter the aircar, I knew I needed to move fast. Our original plan is too risky, so I’m improvising tonight.”
“Can we find Jade?”
Rex’s shoulders drooped. “I don’t know. I hope so.”
Alina followed him toward the bolted door, glancing at the window with the red-eyed fiend as they passed, but felt nothing. All the rooms were dark.
She pointed to the windows. “These rooms hold Sampson’s creatures, and they’re terrible!”
“I know. My rebel friend who got me in here sealed the rooms off so they couldn’t affect us. Apparently, some of the creatures mess with your mind.”
“Yes, I noticed,” Alina shuddered.
They reached the exit and Rex tapped the lock-screen. They cringed as the door clanged open. It seemed loud enough to alert the whole palace.
“Now for the hard part,” Rex whispered. “Finding the serum dagger without being seen.”
“Serum dagger?” Alina squeaked.
“Shhh!” he said as he inched his head out and glanced down the hallway. “I’ll try to explain on the way.” He slipped out, sliding his body flat against the wall. Alina followed.
“We should walk normal,” Rex muttered under his breath. “That’s the whole point of the disguise, right?”
“Except Sampson said all the workers have the night off. We’ll look suspicious at first glance,” she muttered back.
“Having them gone is a good thing. Fewer around to find us. Come on, let’s go.”
Alina’s stomach was in knots. They scurried down the hallway, pausing to peek around each corner. Alina glanced frequently behind her as she followed Rex.
Halfway down the hall, they froze. Voices and footsteps carried toward them, growing louder. Rex scanned the doors, and when he saw one ajar, he dashed into the room and pulled Alina after him, closing the door softly from behind.
The sight of the room made Alina gasp. In the center sat the largest monitor she’d ever seen. Its flat, square screen stretched from the floor to the ceiling. Hundreds of narrow slotted trays lined the walls, filled to capacity with info-discs. A sliding ladder leaned against the right wall, next to the monitor.
“What in the world—” Rex started, but a man’s voice from the hallway silenced him.
“Interesting guy, this Zaiden fellow.”
Alina’s heart stopped.
“Put it back so we can tell Sampson it’s done,” another man said nervously. Alina glanced at Rex, but he was looking at the floor. She couldn’t see his face through the mask.
One of the men chuckled just outside the door. “I love taking Rex down. I always knew he was a fraud.” A long pause followed. “That’s funny. I could’ve sworn I left the door open. We’ve only been gone a few minutes.”
Alina panicked as Rex gripped her arm. They darted behind the monitor just as the lock-screen buzzed and the door opened.
Alina held her breath as the men entered, dreading discovery at any moment. Footsteps tapped the marble floor to the ladder near their hiding spot. She peeked around the monitor and caught a glimpse of a sharply dressed man, looking as if he’d come straight from the Harvest Feast.
He pulled the ladder toward him and began climbing, an info-disc in his hand. Alina made herself as small as possible, praying he wouldn’t have a reason to access the trays behind the monitor.
Halfway up the wall he slid the info-disc into a tray between the others, then climbed down and turned to the man standing in the doorway.
“You know, Brock, I’m not sure I want this promotion. It’s more entertaining here, even if the pay is lower. Access to all the beautiful women I want—it’s paid off many times. You’ll still let me into this room when I need it, won’t you?”
Brock snorted. “Whose girlfriend do you want to steal this time?”
“Well,” he dropped his voice as if sharing a secret. “I’ve been watching Sampson’s third woman; you know, the one with the nice body.”
“Phil, are you mad?” Brock hissed. “You dare try to steal one of his? You know he’s the only one who can let them go. Even they can’t choose to leave.”
“That’s what I want to find out,” Phil said. “Can you think of anything more thrilling? Is there any woman harder to get? It’s a challenge I can’t resist. Besides, I’m bored with easy women. I need some danger to get me excited about life again.” He chuckled. “I’m sure they get bored with Sampson, too. We all know they’re in it only for the fame.”
“You know, I never thought of it like that before.”
“What about the girlfriend you already have? You know, the one you’ve lived with for five years?” Phil teased.
Brock grunted with disgust. “Very funny. I need you to become an Emotion Officer so you can take
her off my hands.”
“Why don’t you leave her?”
“It’s not that easy. The woman is a master manipulator.”
“Yeah, blackmail is becoming more common these days. Have to be careful who you hook up with.”
Brock lowered his voice. “Let’s get the discs down for all his women. No harm in looking. Then if it doesn’t work out with one, you can try the next!”
“Do we have time right now?”
“We’ll just take a quick look.” Alina heard the sound of discs sliding out of place, and footsteps approaching the monitor.
“Convenient that Sampson likes them accessible,” said Phil.
“What, the discs or his women?” Brock joked. “Now, which one do you—” a soft pinging noise interrupted him, and the room went quiet. He swore as the sound came again.
“Well, answer it!” Phil hissed. “It’s not like he can see what you’re doing. There are no cameras in here. Just keep your face steady.”
Alina heard a soft click, and Sampson’s voice echoed into the room.
“Are you trying to vex me?” he asked. The anger in his voice chilled Alina; he seemed dangerously calm.
“We’re done!” Brock sounded nervous. “We’re on our way.”
“Rex should’ve been here by now. Get back to the control room immediately. No mistakes tonight. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, sir,” Brock answered. Alina heard a soft click, then a brief pause.
“Guess this’ll have to wait for another time,” Phil mumbled.
“Let’s hurry,” said Brock, a hint of worry in his voice.
They hustled around the room, sliding discs into trays. The light switched off, the door closed, and a lock clicked in place. Footsteps faded down the hallway.
Neither Alina nor Rex moved for a minute. Alina jumped as an info-disc clattered to the ground. Rex felt his way to the door, tapped the light and chuckled. “They were in such a hurry they didn’t put the discs back properly.”
The Perfect Outcast Page 6