Recall

by M. Van

  “Yep,” she said, sounding a bit more upbeat. “I suggested to Mom to kick you out, but she wouldn’t part with the doll-eyed, frizzy-haired you, and I learned to live with it.”

  “That’s very gracious of you,” I replied as I reached for the next bar and pulled myself up.

  “That’s me, gracious and—” she started to say, but the sound of a boot sole squeaking on the smooth surface cut her off.

  “Oh shit,” she muttered. I tried to brace myself, but Saera’s sudden weight jerking on my middle pulled me off balance, and I lost my footing. Fortunately, my fingers were locked around the bar as my body slammed into the building.

  A thud followed, accompanied by a yelp. My heart skipped a beat at the thought that the cable I had used to secure Saera with might have snapped, but then I registered her weight tugging at my waist.

  “Hold on!” I yelled without anything else sensible to say.

  “Hold on to what!” she shouted.

  Glancing down, I saw her arms flail and thrash against the smooth surface of the building, trying to find one of the fuses for a hold. Her boots thumbed and squeaked in a frantic matter against the slick surface, and her body swung from left to right.

  It occurred to me that anyone inside the building seeing her would immediately alert the guards, but that wouldn’t matter if Saera were to fall or if we were both to fall.

  “Stop thrashing,” I said in a loud voice, hoping she would register. Instead, Saera cried out in fear, and her feet bashed even harder against the panels. I only had one choice, and that was to pull us both up and over the fence before the cable snapped. Using the added strength that came from the built-in exoskeleton of my suit, I started to climb. I grunted as I found my footing and grabbed the next bar.

  “Don’t you dare let me fall!” Saera yelled. The fear in her voice was evident, but focusing on my task, I failed to answer. Jamming my foot into a slit, I forced myself to stand straight and wrapped an arm around one of the bars. I turned sideways and reached for the cable. As I caught it, Saera looked up, eyes wide. Trying to steady the cable, I wished I wasn’t wearing that damn heads-up so I could look her in the eyes. I wanted to calm her, but my voice would have to do.

  “Easy,” I said, “just calm down—”

  “Calm down?” she exclaimed before I could finish my sentence.

  “Look up to your left,” I said, ignoring her. “There is a fuse right above you.”

  She managed to grab it, and the back-and-forth movement of the cable lessened.

  “Now raise your right foot a few inches,” I said. “There is a vent right there.”

  Saera lowered her head, attempting to see what I was talking about.

  “Don’t look down,” I commanded.

  She froze and then looked up.

  “Trust me: it’s there,” I said.

  Easing her foot up, she found the hole and relieved the stress on the cable. I huffed out a breath as the strain of her weight lifted off my waist.

  We both took a second to catch our breath and find our bearings before I managed to guide her with my voice, telling her where her hands and feet should go next. Slowly she clambered up the last few feet until she could raise herself by my side, and I wrapped an arm around her. She glanced up, eyes wild from the adrenaline pumping through her veins.

  Those blue eyes bored into me, finding mine through the visor as if the tinted glass wasn’t even there. Beyond those wide pupils, I found something else—gratitude maybe—something that triggered a series of images bleeding through the blockage. Saera and me, sitting on a narrow bed in a tiny room. Bleak walls surrounded us while sobbing could be heard from the connecting room. Saera’s arms were wrapped around me, and my tiny chubby fingers were clamped around that grimy-looking bear.

  Chapter eighteen

  Reece

  My heart raced inside my chest, and I noticed Kelle’s tight grip on my upper arm as I peered through the long-range image enhancer. For a second, relief that Kelle wasn’t holding me with the prosthetic arm dulled the panic raging inside my chest. If she had used her robot arm, I’d probably be squealing in pain from her tight grip.

  “Oh, my god, I can’t watch,” Riffy said as he covered his eyes to shield them from seeing Saera dangle off a five-hundred-foot-high building. I held my breath, having my own trouble watching the scene unfold. Fortunately, Maece kept it together, helping Saera to find her footing and climb the rest of the building. At my side, Kelle sighed in relief, and I closed my eyes as I remembered to breathe again.

  Seeing her for the first time in so long—actually seeing her—reminded me of how much I had missed Maece. The thought of losing either of them wasn’t something my mind could deal with, so I lingered as I watched her remove her heads-up to talk to Saera.

  I had to stifle a gasp, not to draw Kelle’s or Riffy’s attention, but the woman standing on the rooftop of that building took my breath away, which I would have called a cliché if it hadn’t just happened. Her dark skin reflected bronze, almost golden, in the sun’s gleam, adding to her statuesque appearance. Shorter, less frizzy hair from what I remembered, had become a mess from wearing the heads-up, but zooming in on her face, I could tell that her eyes held the same intensity that they had always held.

  The second building of the ArtRep towers gave us an excellent view of the two women who had bridged the glass walkway and had climbed to the top of the third structure. That building held all the information needed to save our people and remove ArtRep’s final hold on Maece. She’d be free of them after we removed the device from her head.

  The prospect was a good one, but I couldn’t help wondering what else we were going to uncover. What secrets did those mainframes inside that building hold, and what was the council or the Subterran government going to do with that information?

  I had a feeling Harp had the same suspicions as I had that there had to be more going on. In fact, it wasn’t just a feeling—I knew he did. Knowing Harp, he’d probably have several contingency plans ready just in case he learned something he didn’t like. Harp might act like the loyal soldier doing the council’s and the government’s bidding, but his loyalty was to the Subterran people and, if I’d be honest, to us. He might not act like it all the time, but over the years, he had proven to all of us that he cared.

  The so-called terrorist attack on TED had set the law enforcement department on a frenzy. Large groups of enforcers searched the city to find the aggressors, leaving the ArtRep buildings only guarded by their in-house security. No one had ever attempted to gain access to the highly secured buildings, but then we never had anyone with enforcer skills at our disposal.

  Harp still feared Maece’s mind was too fragile. Kyran had done everything within his power to make sure that her brain was ready to trust Saera and distrust her former employers, but that didn’t mean it would keep. Her mind could relapse—doubting her decisions—and this worried Harp.

  I had known about the memory loss even before Saera had spotted Maece in that broadcast. We all knew Maece had volunteered to infiltrate Tenebrae and gather information. What only Harp and I knew was that she had volunteered to get herself caught and become an enforcer.

  She had confided in me, making me swear not to tell anyone. That had been the hardest thing I ever had to do, lying to the others and eventually letting her go. I hadn’t agreed with Maece’s decision, and I had even tried to talk her out of it, but that lady had always been of the stubborn kind.

  If I hadn’t known better, I would have sworn that she and Harp were related. She thought her cause to be just, and nothing would have kept her from trying to help the people stuck at TED forced to work as mindless drones for the Combined Districts of Tenebrae. She knew there might be some alternative motives behind the council’s actions, but she firmly believed that getting our hands on enforcer gear would give us the edge we needed. That it would gain us access to intel that would help us free our people.

  We probably all felt like that, growing up
under the tight rule of the sun-lover cities and all. If Harp hadn’t pulled us out, we would probably already have died working in one of those power plants. Although I’m not sure if any of the others would have taken the risks Maece had.

  It suddenly occurred to me that I didn’t know if Saera had found out about me knowing of Maece volunteering, and that veered my thoughts into a different direction. Saera would kill me if she found out. She was so devastated after Maece had left, thinking she’d died.

  None of us could console her, except maybe Kelle. I glanced down at the tiny woman, noticing she had released her grip on my arm and now held onto the railing surrounding the edge of the roof with an absent smile on her face. She should make a habit of that, because it lit up her face.

  For a second, I wondered if she would have told me if Saera had found out about me knowing of Maece’s volunteering. Saera would have surely confided in Kelle, and I then decided Kelle would have given me the heads-up. I blew out a breath, figuring I was safe for a little while longer.

  “Is it okay to look?” Riffy asked in a high-pitched squeak. His eyes were clamped shut and his face contorted into a grimace. I smacked him in the head.

  “Come on, you big idiot. Let’s get ready,” I said, picking up my backpack.

  Maece and Saera had reached the top of the tall building across from us and would surely be working with Kyran to override security. I stopped at the door leading back inside and waited for Kelle and Riffy to catch up.

  Like me, they wore a similar getup to the enforcer’s suit. It was more of a Subterran knockoff without a lot of the high-tech bells and whistles, but it added some muscle strength because of the similar exoskeleton. Unfortunately, it didn’t do much to protect you if you got shot by a magnetic blast.

  Despite the similar clothes, the pair approaching me resembled nothing of the bred-for-killing, broad-shouldered enforcers. Kelle almost looked like a child playing dress up, and Riffy barely fit into his suit. But there wasn’t anyone I would rather have by my side than the tiny sourpuss and the oversized dingbat—although I wouldn’t have minded adding Maece and Saera to the lineup.

  Tyrel’s voice piped up in my head as I opened the door to gain access inside.

  “Reece, can you hear me?” she asked in her usual tentative voice.

  “Loud and clear,” I replied. Kelle tapped her ear with a nod, and Riffy gave me a thumbs-up. “As do the others.”

  “Good,” Tyrel said, “you are cleared to move down one level and start across the walkway, but it might take a little longer to gain you access on the other side.”

  “What’s the holdup?” I asked, not liking these kinds of surprises. It had taken Kyran quite a while to get his programming in place before he managed to guide us past the security measures and guards. He hadn’t said it in so many words, but I knew for sure he had been only able to do that because of the data that had been gathered at TED.

  I didn’t have to be a genius to figure out that he’d been hacking at some new code—his cursing and questioning remarks had done that for me. Kyran had assured me that he would get us inside once he had gained access to the system with the help of Maece’s head-up, but it had taken a long time.

  Because Harp was reluctant to trust Maece’s state of mind, he hadn’t told them about us tagging along, but I knew it shouldn’t come as a surprise to Saera. I just hoped Maece wouldn’t shoot us since she didn’t know us anymore. There was also the fact that Saera had clearly protested our involvement. That was something that didn’t surprise me as my eyes fell on Kelle. It wasn’t that she doubted our abilities, but over the years, we had developed a certain way of doing things, and that involved all of us working together.

  “Kyran has some trouble working the other building’s systems.”

  “I don’t like the sound of that,” Riffy chimed in as he trotted down the stairs leading us one floor down.

  “He’s working on it,” Tyrel said, her voice sounding shrill. Kelle, who stood waiting for us at the staircase exit, shook her head and then sighed, saying, “Why doesn’t this surprise me.”

  Chapter nineteen

  Maece

  My heart raced even though my feet were planted firmly on the solid surface of the roof. The numbers scrolling down my screen indicated a heart rate that could have matched Saera’s, although I didn’t think mine came from dangling five hundred feet in the air. Somehow the memory of that grimy bear had made it past the barriers erected by the device planted in the back of my head, and it screwed with my body’s physical reactions. Even my hands were shaking.

  I had the good sense to scan the rooftop for any company, but then I ripped the device from my head. The thing made me feel trapped and made it hard to breathe. Saera stood by the fence, holding it with one hand and bending over to catch her breath.

  “I stayed in your room that night,” I said with the intention of asking a question, but the words came out forming a statement. Saera glanced up with evident shock in her eyes. “We sat on a bed inside your room surrounded by gray walls. There weren’t even any windows, and you kept the few clothes you owned in a pile on the floor.”

  Saera drew in a breath as she stood up straight, but kept quiet as if she wanted me to figure it out on my own, and so I continued. “That’s when you gave me Chester.”

  Her chin rose, and her eyes softened, lifting some of the coldness from them as her mouth curved into a smile. She took a step closer and then wrapped her arms around me in a hug.

  “Told you,” she whispered near my ear. It took a moment to let the words sink in, but then I wrapped my arms around her. If any doubt had remained inside my head about why I was doing this, then this little piece of memory had solidified my belief in Saera. This time I didn’t just see the image, but I felt the strange combination of joy and sadness, along with the comfort given by her. The sensation brought me a feeling of being safe—back then and now.

  “Guess I needed some help,” I said in a low voice. She chuckled and pulled back but left the palm of her hand to cup my cheek. Her hand felt warm against my skin, and even though this form of contact still felt alien to me, I felt its warmth seep into my chest, where it filled my heart.

  “Come on. Let’s go do what we came here for, and then maybe I’ll tell you how you got stuck in a defecation receptacle, and I had to come rescue you,” she said. With that, she turned away from me and made her way to the roof exit. I glared at her for a moment before I placed the heads-up over my eyes and said, “I’m not sure I want to know about that one.”

  The words had barely left my mouth when a different voice echoed inside my head.

  “I don’t know, sounds like an interesting tale to me,” Kyran said.

  I had all but forgotten about the people listening in, and the thought of Harp, Kyran, and Tyrel hearing our conversation about a teddy bear set my cheeks on fire.

  “Why don’t you keep from eavesdropping on private conversations and work on a way to get us inside,” Saera said, standing by the door that would get us off this roof. Shaking my head in defeat, I crossed the roof to where Saera stood waiting.

  The roof’s surface had a similar smooth plating to the sides of the building. From a distance, the paneling seemed to have a reflective quality, but from up close, they appeared see-through. What I hadn’t noticed before was that there were thin wires running from left to right through the panel itself that then connected with its neighboring panel.

  I glanced up, peering over the rooftop and beyond. This was the highest building in this city, and it gave me a clear view of the barren wasteland that lay beyond our protective dome. A slice of orange-red light emanated from the sun from where it couldn’t hide behind the horizon. A slight buzz came from the panels catching the light, and it dawned on me that they were using this building and probably every tall building in this city as accumulators to collect energy.

  More energy—everything seemed to be coming back to that every time. I shook the thought from my mind as Kyran ret
orted on the coms.

  “You would have been inside already if you hadn’t decided on hanging around.”

  “Well, I would like to see you climb up a—” Saera started to say, but I cut her off.

  “A little focus here,” I said, wondering why Harp hadn’t already intervened. Saera gave me a frown but then relented. “Kyran, why don’t you give us an update,” I asked. Acting on information was still one of my primary habits, and it seemed the smart thing to do in this situation. Kyran cleared his throat.

  “Tyrel and I have been working on breaching the system ever since you’ve managed to get at a close enough range,” he said. “We haven’t enabled full access, but we did tap into the smaller security systems, including roof access.”

  It seemed ArtRep didn’t fear anyone entering from the rooftop. The building was high and barely accessible if you weren’t an enforcer, and they had all of those under their command—at least that’s what they had thought. Kyran continued by giving us an update on what they had found out about what was happening inside the building.

  Apparently, an emergency meeting had been called, and a bunch of scientists had gathered on the twenty-third floor to discuss the problem with the enforcer designated 959. It wasn’t a surprise to hear that, but what I did find surprising was that the entire board of the company, including its CEO Harand Sulos, were waiting for an update two floors up from the scientists. These two floors, along with the ground floor seemed to have attracted most of the security forces.

  “They’re afraid,” Kyran said.

  “Of what,” I asked.

  “Of you,” Tyrel said, “who else.” She sounded a little stunned that I had to ask the question. “Their system has been infallible for many years and if a person with the capabilities of an enforcer might learn how to think for itself…or herself, that person might come looking for revenge.”

  At the mention of her last word, I glanced at Saera. With a smirk on her face, she guided her hand to her back and pulled a weapon from under her black jacket.