The Ones

by Daniel Sweren-Becker

  Cody nodded, her curiosity piqued. She was genuinely excited to hear the question that could carry so much weight.

  “Okay, good,” Agent Norton said, and stared her right in the eye. “What can you tell me about the Ark?”

  The Ark. Cody sensed immediately that it was crucial to the Ones’ fight. And much to her embarrassment, she hadn’t the faintest clue what it was.

  Cody shrugged, not wanting to give anything away. “Like I said, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Agent Norton sat back, deflated, and shook her head. “God, I wish we could have done this the easy way. It would have been so much better for our friendship.” She stared at Cody for an uncomfortably long time. For the first time all day and all night, Cody began to feel a kernel of fear.

  Norton stood up from the table. “Cody, do you realize that you are being held under the Equality Act? Do you know what that is?”

  “Yes. It’s an absurd law that allows the government to arrest and detain Ones indefinitely for any phony reason connected to terrorism. It’s a law that violates the Constitution and hundreds of years of legal precedent. It’s a law that disgraces our country. And it’s also a law that doesn’t apply to me. Because I’m not a One.”

  The past few hours had been so intense that Cody had almost forgotten what this whole fight was about. It wasn’t just getting rid of a malicious high school principal. By reminding Cody about the Equality Act and the atmosphere that allowed it, Norton had refocused her and strengthened her resolve. She was here because her country was discriminating against its citizens. They were slowly crafting laws that normalized the subjugation of Ones. Someone had to stop this. That was why Cody was here.

  Cody stood up defiantly to look Norton in the eye. “Now either tell me what stupid crime I committed at the school, or let me go. You can’t keep me here forever.”

  Agent Norton smiled, as if something was dawning on her for the first time. “You’re almost right about that. You see, the Equality Act was created as a tool to protect this nation in case the Ones ever began to pose a threat to the rest of the country. Kind of like they are doing right now. Luckily, we have a law that enables us to get a handle on them. To make sure they can’t slip through some legal loophole and do some serious damage. The Equality Act also has a lot of fine print in it. And some of that fine print actually does apply to you, whether you’re a One or not.” Agent Norton began to recite from memory: “Any person engaged in a criminal association with genetically engineered individuals shall be subject to the provisions of this act in equal measure.” She smiled at Cody. “Now, you wouldn’t have anything to do with a group called the New Weathermen, would you?”

  Cody had tensed up, not sure how much to believe. Was it true that she could really be held under the Equality Act even if she wasn’t a One? She didn’t think so. Kai hadn’t seemed to think so back at the school. But she hadn’t read every line of the law, now had she? That kernel of fear was growing.

  “Whatever, so I talked to a One before. We still didn’t commit a crime. You can’t hold me for no reason.”

  “Didn’t commit a crime? We? Cody, I don’t think you understand. There’s no one else. You’re the only suspect. And I promise you, we can lock you away forever.” Norton paused and gathered her belongings.

  “You’re being charged with murder.”

  * * *

  Cody stood in a dark basement hallway and couldn’t believe what she was seeing. On the other side of the thick glass window, a body lay motionless under a white sheet. Only the head was exposed. It was Margie.

  Cody had seen her only hours earlier, when she’d checked in on the teachers before the SWAT team had crashed through the offices. She had even apologized to Margie for what Kai had forced her to do, staging the photo that depicted her about to hang from the light fixtures. Margie had reacted graciously, seeming to take a measure of enjoyment from all this unlikely excitement. She was invisible for most of her life, and then suddenly she was center stage during the most exciting thing that had ever happened in their town. And although Margie didn’t actually say it, Cody suspected she supported what the students were doing, if only by virtue of the fact that anyone who had to work for Ms. Bixley probably wanted to get her fired, too.

  But now Margie was dead. Cody could see her limp body laid out right in front of her.

  Cody didn’t understand how this had happened. Agent Norton, waiting in the hallway behind her, didn’t offer an explanation. But Cody grasped how the facts were being laid out: The students took over the school. They publicly threatened to kill Margie. When the police arrived, Margie was dead. Cody knew none of them had harmed her, but it didn’t matter. It certainly looked like they had. She closed her eyes and offered a prayer for Margie and her family. It was as heartfelt as it was pointless.

  “I take it you believe me now?” Norton said from behind her.

  “We didn’t kill her. I promise you.”

  “Let’s go.” Norton grabbed her roughly and dragged her away from the morgue window. They started to walk briskly toward an exit.

  “Where are we going?” Cody asked as they pushed through the door and into the cold air of the parking lot.

  She never got an answer. Instead, as they stepped outside, a heavy black bag was pulled over her head. Cody heard a car screech to a stop in front of them and felt herself being lifted off her feet and thrown forward. She landed with a painful thud in what felt like the back of a van. A door slammed shut. The car started moving and didn’t stop for a long time. Cody rode the entire way crying softly in total darkness.

  * * *

  The darkness followed Cody to her new home. It was a simple, square room. She measured it by pacing: three and a half strides in every direction, five strides on the diagonal. There was a door that fit perfectly in its frame without a shred of light on the edges. There was a slot in the door. A plate of food and some water was shoved through. Cody lunged at the food slot when she heard it open. It was the only way she could glimpse any light. Cody spent hours with her ear pressed to the door, trying to figure out where she was and what was in store for her. It was too cold to sleep, so she just sat there, shivering.

  Finally, without warning, the door to her cell opened, and someone stepped into the frame. Even with just the faint light from the hallway, Cody had to shield her eyes. But she could tell from the silhouette that it was Agent Norton. Cody’s heart leaped with the promise of at least some new information. Anything this woman might reveal would be better than this silent treatment.

  Norton stared at her and then pointed down the hallway with her finger.

  “Let’s go have another talk.”

  Cody jumped to her feet, eager to leave her cell before the offer was rescinded. Norton led her into an interrogation room much like the one at the police station. But Cody noticed that there was no camera in this one. She sat down on one side of the table and let her senses adjust to all the new stimuli. She could detect the scent of coffee from somewhere. And even though she hadn’t seen a window yet, she could tell it was daytime. A few signs of normality. Cody couldn’t resist a small smile.

  “Beautiful morning, huh?” Norton said.

  Cody nodded. “Can I go home now, please? I didn’t kill Margie, I swear. I don’t know what happened, but we never hurt anyone. Please, you have to believe me.”

  Norton looked across at her, unmoved.

  “When do I see my mother? And a lawyer?”

  “Cody, you are a terrorist. We can do whatever we want to you. You will die in here.” Cody began to cry. “Unless…”

  Cody looked up, desperate, clinging to any sign of hope.

  Norton continued. “Unless you help us. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  Cody nodded.

  “You weren’t very cooperative at the police station in Shasta. I hope you’ve had a chance to reconsider that choice. I know this hasn’t been very pleasant, but I can make things better for you,” Norton sai
d, then paused. “And I can also make things worse.” She opened up a notepad. “So let’s try this again, shall we?”

  Cody listened to the same questions she had heard back in Shasta. They wanted to know about Kai, about the Weathermen, about any future operations. Cody tried to explain that she didn’t know anything. It wasn’t even a lie; she’d known them for only less than a week. Norton was obsessed with something called the Ark—clearly desperate for any shred of information about it—but Cody was utterly clueless and couldn’t even help if she wanted to. And despite what she felt in her heart, Cody wished she had something small to tell them. She was getting the sense that it would be really bad if she didn’t.

  After not making any progress, Norton closed her notepad. She looked up at Cody, disappointed. “I can see why Kai picked you. You’re tough. And you’re his type. But we’ll get it out of you, won’t we?” Norton stood up and left the room.

  When she returned, Cody saw the bags for the first time. The clear bag was in Norton’s right hand. The black bag was in her left. Norton looked down, contemplating the two.

  “Water is always messier, but I think it’s the best way to get our feet wet, so to speak,” she said with a chuckle.

  Norton moved quickly now, grabbing Cody’s arms and handcuffing them behind the chair. Cody struggled to pull free but only managed to cut into her wrists. Then Norton grabbed the black bag—a canvas hood, really—and pulled it over Cody’s head, the rough fabric scratching her face. Cody tried to shake it off, already struggling to breathe through the heavy canvas. Someone leaned her chair back.

  And then the water hit her.

  It fell on top of her in a heavy stream, and Cody managed to keep her mouth closed and avoid it for a moment. But the water kept coming, and Cody’s shoulders were being held back and now she needed to breathe, but there was nowhere to turn for air. The water flooded the hood, making it tighter, sticking it to her face. And finally Cody had no choice but to open her mouth and try to get a gulp of air.

  It was pure drowning. Even with her feet on dry land, Cody knew she was drowning. The water rushed into her lungs, filled her entire head, it seemed, and even as she gasped for air, all she got was more water. The pressure started to squeeze her brain, and her entire body began to burn, begging for oxygen. She thrashed and twisted as much as she could, but there was nowhere to hide. She felt the skin tear from her wrists and then her muscles spasm in desperation. The water kept coming. It poured into her body, and Cody knew it was killing her. She tried to scream but couldn’t even make a sound.

  And then, just as Cody felt like it was going to crush her, the water stopped, and someone pushed her shoulders forward. She heaved and gasped and spit and breathed all at once, finally feeling a trickle of air sneak into her body. It was the greatest feeling she’d ever experienced, this air that filled her lungs at the last possible second. She took another huge breath, ecstasy rushing through her brain with the oxygen.

  The instant Cody relaxed, though, she was pushed backward again, and the water returned. As the onslaught filled her head and body, Cody began to understand the routine.

  Drown, drown … breathe.

  Drown, drown … breathe.

  Drown, drown … breathe.

  It went on like this for an hour, the waterboarding. Not torture, mind you, because the Equality Act didn’t permit torture. It did, however, allow for enhanced interrogation techniques, which included waterboarding, as Agent Norton explained between dousings. Even from underneath the hood, Cody could feel her smiling.

  And so it went, as Norton again and again brought Cody to the psychological edge of death, all in the name of protecting the country from a group of principled teenagers.

  Hours later, after she had been dragged soaking wet along the floor back to her cell, after she had lain motionless trying to breathe normally again, after she had sobbed and cursed and yelled and begged, after she had given up … some moment after that, a thought began to take hold inside her and lift her spirits.

  She had been subjected to that for a reason.

  No one could do that to another person without a good reason. No government could waterboard a sixteen-year-old girl without a good reason. Kai and the New Weathermen and whatever the Ark was … it was all somehow powerful enough to justify what they just did to her.

  Cody, almost smiling now, began to realize that they did, in fact, have a good reason. They were scared.

  CHAPTER 12

  DEEP IN THE woods and many miles away from the school, James lashed out at Kai as they stared at the update on his phone.

  “It says they have the suspect in custody. A sixteen-year-old student, not releasing her name.” James paused for a second. “Cody is arrested for murder because of you!”

  They had reached the area near the quarry, and Kai brushed past James and began poking around for a cavern entrance. James ran after him and got in his face.

  “We didn’t need your help. No one asked you to come to the school. And now Cody is screwed!” His words echoed off the limestone walls. As he continued glaring at Kai, James took a moment to allow himself a tiny sense of relief that at least she wasn’t dead.

  “Calm down, okay?” Kai said. “Obviously, she didn’t murder that teacher. When it all gets sorted out, she’ll be fine.”

  James stared at Kai, heart racing but unsure what to do.

  “And by the way, someone did ask me to come,” Kai said. “Cody did. I know she said she didn’t, but she was lying.”

  Taryn turned to Kai with a look of disgust. “Dude, what’s the point of sharing that? Now you’re just being an asshole.”

  “Oh, you too now? You’re going to blame me for this also?” Kai said.

  “No. But maybe we should be figuring out what to do instead of getting in a pissing contest.”

  “I thought you’d be happy. You clearly never trusted her,” Kai said.

  “Yeah, and now she’s sitting in the room with God knows how many federal agents asking questions about us. I’d rather have her dead than in custody.”

  James looked at Taryn, taken aback. “What is wrong with you two? Seriously. Your answer to everything is to kill someone. As much as you want to believe it, that doesn’t actually help our cause.”

  Kai shook his head condescendingly. “That right there is why we approached Cody, not you. No one asked you to get involved. In fact, why are you following us around? We don’t need you.”

  James knew there was some truth to this, but he also knew there was a part of him that Kai and Taryn hadn’t seen yet. And now that Cody was gone, he was just as invested in this fight as they were.

  “I’m not going anywhere until we figure out how to get Cody back. Shouldn’t you have some brilliant contingency plan for that?”

  “Who said we even want to get her back? If we couldn’t trust her before, we definitely can’t now that she may be cutting a deal with the feds,” Taryn said, then turned to Kai. “Remember, she’s not one of us.”

  “Cody will always be a One,” James snapped. “You don’t know her at all.”

  “Fine, let’s say you’re right and she tries to hold out. Everyone breaks eventually. They make sure of that,” Taryn said.

  James looked at Kai beseechingly. Even if they hated each other, James knew they at least agreed on one thing: Both of them had faith in Cody. They both knew how strong she was. Kai thought for a moment, clearly frustrated.

  “There’s not much we can do right now. I can talk to some lawyers we know, but if she’s charged with murder, they’re not going to let her out on bail. And if they think she’s involved with the Weathermen…” Kai trailed off instead of painting a picture of what that would mean.

  “That’s exactly why you owe it to her to do something!” James exclaimed.

  “We can’t. It’s too risky, and it’s a distraction from our real objectives,” Kai said. “One person is not worth putting everything else on hold. We all know there are risks involved in the choices
we make. Cody knew that, too. We move forward without her.”

  And then to top it off, Taryn looked at James and chimed in to trap him. “That’s what Cody would want, right?”

  James couldn’t believe how easily Kai and Taryn could rationalize this decision. They were colder than he had even suspected. It should have given him faith in their leadership, but at the moment it just guaranteed the miserable fate of the girl he loved. James couldn’t stand it.

  “If you’re not going to help her, then I will.”

  James turned around, walked into a cavern, and disappeared into the mine.

  * * *

  He spent the night trying to sleep uncomfortably on the hard, damp ground. He had climbed as far from Kai and Taryn as he could, using the light from his phone, until the walls of the old mining tunnel narrowed too sharply. When faint traces of morning light trickled in from odd angles, James roused himself, found an exit hole, and re-emerged into the piney world of Mount Shasta. It seemed crazy to him how anxious he had felt being at the quarry just a week earlier. The stuff he was worried about then seemed so insignificant now. A little hazing from Marco was nothing compared with what Cody must be enduring. Without saying good-bye to Kai or Taryn, he started downhill and began the long trek home.

  James needed the time to consider something serious. A nagging thought had kept him awake most of the night, but he still wasn’t ready to accept it. The realization came at the end of one of James’s typical logic sequences. He started with the basic problem: Cody was in jail, charged with a murder she didn’t commit. James needed to get her out of jail. The Weathermen were of no help. James couldn’t do it alone. It could probably be accomplished only by someone with more authority than the people detaining her. James needed the help of a government big shot. He didn’t know any government big shots.

  Unless …

  This is where James hesitated. His gut told him that he did, in fact, know someone who fit this description, however much he didn’t want to believe it. Still, James knew it might be Cody’s only chance: He had to figure out what the hell was going on with his father.