by Jeff Sampson
Yeah. Just a little.
I didn’t want to stand there anymore. I felt so exposed in the wide, empty green hall. It was just the two of us standing there now, me and the small man—the office lady had disappeared. It was eerily quiet, save for the distant sound of muffled voices leaking through closed classroom doors.
“Yeah,” I said. “Yeah, that was . . . Look, I should probably get to class, Mr. . . . ?”
“Savage,” the man said, not letting his kind smile drop. “You can call me Mr. Savage. And of course, your studies should come first. But you should come find me in the office after the school day is done.”
“Sure,” I muttered as I brushed past him and speed-walked down the hall toward my half-over homeroom. “See you around.”
“I’m sure you will,” Mr. Savage called after me. “There is much we should discuss.”
The Vesper Company
“Envisioning the brightest stars, to lead our way.”
- Internal Document, Do Not Reproduce -
Partial Transcript of the Interrogation of Branch B’s Vesper 1
Part 6—Recorded Oct. 31, 2010
Vesper 1 (V1): Looks like we’ve come full circle, Mr. Savage. Because that week ended the day I met you. Or at least who you pretended to be.
F. Savage (FS): [clears throat] I apologize for all the initial deception, Emily, but like I’ve said—
V1: You did all this for my own good, yes, I’ve been hearing that ever since you people put a gun to my face and marched me into a truck.
FS: It’s the truth, Emily, I swear to you it’s the truth.
V1: Are you sweating, Mr. Savage? I think you are. I can smell you. You’re afraid, and the stench is totally nauseating.
FS: I—
V1: What did that text message say, Mr. Savage?
FS: Everything’s under control, I—I—I—it’s—
V1: What were those noises in the hall? Are things not going as you planned? Did it turn out that you and your freak bosses and their shadowmen underestimated us . . . deviants?
[Chains clang and then make the sound of snapping as they are pulled apart. Screeching sounds as furniture is tossed aside.]
FS: Emily, please, please, I—
V1: You know, Mr. Savage, me and my friends thought about it, and we guessed that you weren’t actually going to let us go. Because we know what you and the Vesper Company have been up to all this time. We know all about BioZenith and how we were made into vespers and what we were made for. I know that all the horrible, awful things that have happened have been because of you and the other deluded people like you. And so we’re not going to sit here and take it. Not after you made me—you made me—
[There is a shuffle of loafers on linoleum.]
V1: You can’t really run anywhere, Mr. Savage.
[A cacophonous boom. (NOTE: Go back and detail time stamp here to clarify that this is the moment the door to the interrogation room was blown off hinges. Will need to reconcile with video footage at later date.)]
Unidentified Female (UF): Going somewhere?
FS: I—I—I—I—please, I—
V1: Took you long enough, Amy.
UF: Well, we had some things to take care of.
FS: Please, please, I don’t want to die, I was just doing my job!
V1: We’re not going to kill you.
UF: We’re not?
V1: No. Like I told him, I’m not a big fan of blood.
FS: Thank you, oh God thank you, I—
V1: You better hurry and get out of here before I change my mind.
[Running footsteps; FS leaving room.]
UF: Why did you let him go?
V1: Because I want him to go back to the people behind all of this. I want them to know what we’re capable of.
UF: You know, Em, I underestimated you. You’re not just an undercover skank, after all.
V1: Thanks, Amy.
UF: I mean it.
V1: So do I.
[Shuffling as the two move about the room.]
V1: Wait. Don’t destroy any of that.
UF: But they have your conversation recorded, and all that you wrote, too.
V1: I know. And I want it that way. I want them to read every single page and see who I was. Then I want them to hear everything that happened today and know what they made me become. And I want them to be afraid.
UF: You’re crazy, girl.
V1: Only a little bit. Hey, did you know that they call people like us deviants?
UF: Who? You wolves?
V1: No, you psychs too, maybe others. Any of their vespers that they didn’t totally control. Guess that tells you what they think of their creations.
UF: [laughs.] Deviants. I sort of like it.
V1: Me too. Now shut that thing off and let’s go. We’ve got others to break out, and the night only lasts so long.
[Rustling as the tape recorder is picked up. A click as the recorder is shut off.]
End of Partial Transcript of the Interrogation of Branch B’s Vesper 1
Acknowledgments
Getting the first part of Emily Webb’s journey from my brain and into your hands was a long and sometimes tumultuous journey that couldn’t have been completed without the help of many other very talented people. A special thank-you to Stacy Whitman, Nina Hess, Shelly Mazzanoble, and the rest of the Mirrorstone crew for helping me get the idea off the ground and for their continued support; to Michael Stearns for his endlessly excellent guidance, editorial or otherwise, and for tirelessly working with his fellow Upstart Crows to find this story a home; and to Kristin Daly Rens, Sara Sargent, and everyone else at Balzer + Bray for seeing me through to the finish line and for working hard to make this the best book it can be. Thank you all!
Copyright
Vesper: A Deviants Novel
Copyright © 2011 by Jeff Sampson
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-0-06-199276-6
EPub Edition © 2011 ISBN: 9780062062987
11 12 13 14 15 LP/RRDB 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
First Edition
About the Publisher
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Chapter 1 - You’re Not Going All Jekyll and Hyde, Are You?
Chapter 2 - I Mean, It Could Have Been Me
Chapter 3 - Big Ol’ Fatty Hambeast
Chapter 4 - What am I?
Chapter 5 - The Bubonic
Teutonics
Chapter 6 - Em Cee and Em Dub
Chapter 7 - Sounds Like a Plan
Chapter 8 - Thanks for the PSA
Chapter 9 - There Has to Be a Logical Explanation
Chapter 10 - I Heard What You Did
Chapter 11 - The Emily and Megan Milkshake Spectacular
Chapter 12 - Call Me Miss Webb
Chapter 13 - Not Now
Chapter 14 - When Will It Be Me?
Chapter 15 - Communist Herrings, Huh?
Chapter 16 - The Wolves Must Die
Chapter 17 - But First, Some Clothes
Chapter 18 - Nice to Meet You, Emily Webb
Chapter 19 - Grown-Up
Acknowledgments
Copyright
About the Publisher