by Melissa Faye
“Do you think he knows we know?” I asked.
“What do you think?” Alexis asked. I sat up straighter. Breck and Alexis were looking at me, at my tear covered cheeks and messy hair, for answers.
“I think...” I paused and reread the messages. “He knows we’re here, and that we can see them waiting for us. He must know that we’re waiting to act. If I tell him we’re backing off, it won’t help. They’ll still see us coming.”
So what should I tell him? I thought. How could I use this to our advantage?
I flipped the TekCast open and shut mindlessly. Alexis and Breck waited quietly, until Alexis got annoyed and took my TekCast out of my hand.
The only thing I hadn’t told Vonna was that we weren’t planning on stealing the kids away from the Gray Suits anymore. We were taking over the whole complex. And not just with this group; we had others on their way.
“How long until the others get here?” I asked.
“Asher messaged Ann to get them here right away. But it’ll be another six hours, even if they drive much faster than we did.”
“Six hours,” I said. “I have an idea.”
Alexis raised her eyebrows.
“She – or whoever this is – thinks we’re here to save the kids. But we’re here to take over the entire place. If I can keep them thinking that’s what we’re doing, it’ll give us time to...try something else. They’ll focus on keeping us from the bio kids, and while they’re doing that, we can take the rest of the complex.”
Alexis handed my TekCast back and I sent a quick message. Only this time I knew I wasn’t writing to Vonna. I was writing to whoever was on the other end of TekCast #19492-0008.
Chapter 20 – Charlie
The isolation was driving us crazy. It hit me worst of all. I could tell how angry Sven was getting with me, more every minute, but I couldn’t stop pacing. The cell was only ten by ten feet, and I could already see marks on the floor from my constant back and forth.
“Would you please knock that off?” Sven spat, seething. He lay on his cot with a hand over his eyes. He had patience for a full day before he started to lose it, too. That’s when he began scolding me like a small child.
Etta wasn’t faring well either. She looked like...she looked like a mother whose child was stolen out of her own arms. Twice. She didn’t speak much, and when she did, her voice was hoarse and small.
I paced. Five steps this way. Five steps back.
“Charlie! Sit down!” Sven snapped at me. “Sit down and be quiet for five minutes. Please!”
I hadn’t even registered his first complaint. The cot’s springs squeaked as I sat down. Etta looked up at the noise.
“I have an idea.”
I wasn’t sure I heard her right. The voice was so quiet and sad. She spoke again.
“I said, I have an idea.”
We’d been trapped in the cells for days with very little food and almost no sunlight. I was hot, dirty, and constantly trying to peel my sweaty clothes away from my skin. Etta’s eyes sank into her face and her hair hung in clumps, but when I looked at her, I noticed a small change. She hadn’t just been mourning this whole time. She was plotting.
“What is it?” I asked. I got up again, causing Sven to scowl and the springs to squeak louder. I leaned against the bars. Our cells were several feet apart, and Etta and I found that we could just barely touch the tips of our fingers if we stretched as far as we could. A little more if I shifted my shoulder uncomfortably through a bar. One time that got me stuck. Sven only begrudgingly pulled me out.
“No one’s come for us. Maybe they never will. I don’t want to wait anymore,” she said.
I agreed. Yami should have gotten here a day ago, if not sooner. Breck would probably have torn through the walls of our prison if he was here.
“So what do we do, Etta?” Sven asked. He still lay out on his cot. I tried to keep myself from fidgeting too much. I secretly enjoyed annoying him, but if we were actually planning something, I didn’t want to waste time fighting.
“I haven’t worked it out completely yet. But Sven, I think you should punch Charlie in the face.”
I laughed. My nose was finally healing from the attack on the ACer camp.
Sven stood up and wiped his palms together. “I like it so far.”
“Wait, you’re kidding, right?” I looked between Sven and Etta. Sven’s face was twisted into an evil grin. Etta looked dead serious.
“No, I’m not kidding.” Etta smiled this time. I hadn’t seen her smile since we got there. “The guards come every eight hours we think, right?” Sven nodded. We didn’t have a clock, but the pattern seemed to be morning, late afternoon, and night. Three times per day.
“The next time the guards come, you two get into a fist fight. Sven can pretend he’s finally done with Charlie’s nonstop talking and pacing.” She smirked. “I’ll scream my head off. The guard won’t know what to do. I think he’ll open the door to stop you, or to help Charlie, or something like that.”
I huffed. I didn’t appreciate plans that involved me getting beat up. Then again, I wanted out.
“I like it,” Sven said. He gave me a big smile that I would have never expected to see on his face. “What do we do once the guards open our door?”
“That’s the part I’m not sure about,” said Etta. “You have to take the guard down. He might have a weapon, but they never seem to be that ambitious about their jobs. Between the two of you, you can take down one man with a gun who hasn’t been trained and doesn’t really care what happens one way or the other as long as he gets a pay raise.”
“I can do that,” I said. “I don’t like the first part. Maybe I can be the one attacking Sven?” I was ignored.
We all agreed that without a more detailed plan, we were taking a big risk, but it beat waiting things out. Sven threw some practice punches towards a wall while we waited for the late evening guard. I eyed him suspiciously. I was almost positive he was doing it to annoy me, but I couldn’t be sure.
WE HEARD FOOTSTEPS before the guard entered the room. As soon as we did, and without a polite warning, Sven lunged at me. He was bigger and stronger than me, and even thought I was younger and faster, he didn’t have much trouble wrestling me to the ground. Etta screamed.
The guard walked in to see Sven sitting on top of me, punching me, while I held my arms over my face in defense. Etta pushed against the bars of her cell, alternating between shaking them pathetically and reaching out as if she could stop us from there. I threw Sven off me completely and used all of my strength to ram him into the wall. I tried to hold his arms in place but he quickly pushed me over. I fell onto his cot.
“Stop them!” Etta screamed. “Do something! They’re gonna kill each other!”
The guard froze in place, staring at us. I rolled on my side to try to protect myself and was rewarded with a knee to my chest. And another.
“Can’t you stop it?” Etta screamed. She was tearing up, her whole face red. “Please! Do something!”
I felt the wind get knocked out of me by Sven’s third kick. I rolled onto my stomach but Sven pulled me off the cot by my hair. I pushed him off and scrambled to get to my feet again.
The guard was visibly confused. He fumbled with the desk drawer where they stored the electronic key that opened the jail cells. He pulled it out clumsily, almost dropping it, and rushed over to our cell. As soon as we heard the beep that signaled the door was unlocked, we turned to the guard and tackled him to the ground.
I sat on his legs while Sven held down his arms and delivered a swift jab to the man’s jaw. He groaned and tried to defend himself, but couldn’t move with Sven holding his arms. I pulled the key from his hand and swiped Etta’s door. She leaned over the guard.
“Get his gun!” she hissed at me. I pulled it from its holster. The guard started to yell, so Sven muffled his mouth with his hand.
Every time a guard came to check on us, they sent a message on their TekCasts before they left. Ett
a grabbed his from the ground and opened up the messages. She typed onto the holoscreen then pocketed the device. “Good thinking,” I said.
“What do we do with him?” Etta asked Sven. He was leaning most of his body weight onto the man’s chest and upper arms. The guard stared at us with wide eyes that kept landing on the gun in my hand.
“I’m not going to shoot him!” I said. “If that’s what you’re waiting for –“
“Don’t be an idiot, Charlie,” said Sven. “Etta, get the sheet from your cot and mine.”
While Sven held the man in place, we tied his wrists tightly together behind his back. We used the other sheet to gag him. Then we threw him in our old cell and locked the cell door.
“Now what?” Etta said. “We have to get Hope.” She pulled out the guard’s TekCast again. “Maybe there’s a map or a surveillance schedule...”
As soon as she opened the TekCast, it buzzed loudly three times in a row. Then a pause, then three more times. Etta gasped and turned the holoscreen to face us.
“INTRUDERS APPROACHING FROM SOUTH. TEACHERS - CONTINUE LOCKDOWN IN DORM AND NURS. GUARDS – SURROUND BUILDINGS. SHOOT TO KILL.”
There was a picture of people approaching the compound. I couldn’t see how many. They weren’t dressed like the Gray Suits, but they had guns. To the far left, I thought I could make out one person with big black curly hair, but I couldn’t be sure. I gestured to the person and Etta smiled.
“It’s time,” she said.
Chapter 21 – Yami
We walked to the complex on foot. I told “Vonna” we were going to get the kids out at any cost; this would ensure the Gray Suits stayed in position around the kids’ buildings. As we neared, the team picked up speed. Most headed straight for the Gray Suits. But several came with Breck, Alexis, and myself. We headed around the side of the complex. I hoped the sudden commotion would cover us. I had just replaced my pain patch and my ankle felt as good right now as it would all night.
We circled around the east side of the complex, opposite from where the battle had begun. The buildings were quiet, with a few lit windows but mostly darkness. One of the soldiers with us, Hollister, signaled the group – someone was nearby. We crouched down.
Twigs crunched. A foot knocked into something metal. Someone muttered something from a distance twenty feet away. Three heads passed by in the darkness. I couldn’t see their faces; they stayed out of the streetlights glare just like we did.
Hollister gestured for us to follow. We were looking for other people outside the guarded area. Maybe the head of the complex, or whoever was overseeing the operation from afar. Or maybe three people trying to escape. They could all provide information, or just serve as leverage for getting the Gray Suits to back down.
We snuck towards the group. They tiptoed around the side of a building. Alexis took out her TekCast and switched on Night Vision. It gave out a neon green light from her side of the holoscreen. I let her get ahead of me so I could watch with her. We turned a corner and kept down low. Alexis pointed her holoscreen at the three unknown people.
I laughed, a cheerful, loud, silly laugh that echoed into the night, before Breck clamped a hand down on my mouth. There was no mistaking the three people on Alexis’s holoscreen. Etta, Breck, and Sven had escaped. They turned towards the sound of my laughter and stood perfectly still. Breck let go of me and we grinned at each other. I let him do the honors.
“It’s Breck!” he whispered. Our friends didn’t move, so he said it again a little louder.
“Breck?” It was Etta. Her voice sounded ragged. I heard the unmistakable sound of Charlie chuckling.
Alexis let the others know what was happening while Breck and I snuck over to our friends. I stopped myself from jumping right on top of Charlie. I forgot how happy I felt being around him. I leaned into him and heard him groan. There was blood on his face, barely discernible in the darkness.
“Who did that?” I hissed.
“Sven,” he said. I looked at Sven, but he was already busy talking to the rest of the team. I looked back at Charlie but he just shook his head.
“I’ll tell you later,” he mouthed.
We reformed our group, now three members stronger. They had been through a lot; anyone could tell. It wasn’t just that Charlie looked like he’d been beaten up, or that Sven’s clothes were torn and his nose was bleeding. They were worn down. Their faces looked hollow, like they hadn’t been eating.
Hollister urged us to continue on. “We need to clear each of these buildings,” he told the newcomers. “If there are any stragglers, we’ll take them hostage. Meanwhile, more people are coming to help get through the line of Gray Suits.”
We began our task of looking through each building. Most doors were locked and most windows were closed, though a key card Etta held got us into a handful of doors. We found a few offices with their lights still on, but the residents had left. The central building, just like in real communities, was the fanciest one and had the UCA motto carved in front. The door was unlocked.
It was set up like the Chancellor’s mansions I had been in before, though much smaller. The entryway featured a thick red carpet and an enormous chandelier. It was a strange sight for a complex meant to hold little kids.
“Whoever’s in charge here must want to stand out,” I whispered to Charlie. His eyes grew wide.
“We know who’s in charge!” He stopped walking and two of our teammates walked into him. Everyone paused. “It’s Chancellor Lorenzo. He talked with us our first night here. We’ve seen him a few times since.”
I nearly fell over. I grabbed Charlie’s arm to stead myself. How had the Chancellor ended up here as well? Why was he always involved when someone I cared about was getting hurt?
“Charlie, back up,” Alexis said, stepping in front of me. “When did you see your Chancellor?”
Charlie looked to Etta and Sven.
“We saw him the first night, when they found us,” said Etta. She pursed her lips. “The next night, too. Just to check up on us, he said. Then maybe last night or the night before?”
Alexis frowned.
“Are you sure it was your Chancellor?” she asked.
“Of course,” said Charlie. “I met him before. If anything, he looks better now than he did a few months ago when we talked to him in the Med.”
“How does he look better?” I said. When we saw the Chancellor, I hadn’t noticed any differences, and I had stood close to him too.
“I don’t know,” Charlie said. He looked to Etta for help, but she shrugged. “I guess...younger? Younger than I remembered him. I thought he had gray hairs, but maybe he started dying them...”
“Charlie, you didn’t see the Chancellor.” Alexis’s face tightened. I felt lightheaded again. I was walking down a line of thought, but I couldn’t quite reach it, just like with Vonna’s messages. I remembered standing near the Chancellor outside the Gentle Acres F-Lab, and how his eyes just gazed past me as if he didn’t know who I was.
“The Chancellor must be a clone!” Alexis said. Etta sucked in her breath. “He couldn’t have been here and at Gentle Acres on the same night. And if what you say is true, Charlie, that he looks younger? Maybe he is younger.”
I felt like I had been punched in the gut. Two Chancellors?
“He didn’t look that different, though,” said Charlie. “Maybe five years younger, but not much more.” Etta nodded in agreement.
“Then there’s more than two,” I said. The thought was flipping around in my head, growing in size as more pieces connected. “Etta has a clone. She’s twenty years younger. If the Chancellor has a clone five years younger...even ten...It means at some point, someone in his clone line did this on purpose. He made multiple clones of himself so they could be in power at the same time.”
“And why stop at two?” Sven jumped in. “There could be three. Or ten. Or a hundred.”
I was sickened by the thought. When I saw the Chancellor during the attack at Gentle Acres, he di
dn’t speak to me even when I was standing near him by the F-Lab. I thought then that he was uninterested. But it probably wasn’t even the Chancellor I knew. Maybe the Chancellor I knew was holed up somewhere sending me messages, pretending to be Vonna. Or maybe that was a different copy of him.
“Alright, what does any of this matter?” asked one of our teammates, a man named Kaeto. “We’re here to find and capture stragglers.”
“It means if we find our Chancellor, we’ve only just begun,” I said with a flat voice. “Maybe there’s one in charge here, and twenty in charge of other communities, and one in charge of a region. It’s just the beginning.”
Etta bit her lip. “Then let’s start!” she said. “He’s involved with stealing kids, and we need to stop him. If we only find one tonight, that’s one we didn’t have this morning.”
Etta was right. It didn’t change tonight’s mission. It just changed everything moving forward. A network of Chancellors, connected by DNA and probably some advanced technology. The Chancellor saw cloning as immortality. They probably didn’t fear death. When one falls, there are twenty others to continue the work. I clenched my teeth and followed Hollister as he directed us around the building.
MY TEKCAST BUZZED WITH an update from Asher. The Gray Suits had taken several civilians into the dorm as collateral. His team tried to fight back but was unsuccessful so far. They were spread out around the complex, trying to get further towards the buildings, but the Gray Suits held them off. And the second wave wasn’t due for another two hours at least. The only upside was that most people on both sides were avoiding direct engagement with one another. There were very few gunshots.
The mansion had several floors, each luxurious, brightly lit, and empty. We entered doorways with our guns pointed and found only more empty rooms. We swept the entire mansion. Nothing.
“Now what?” asked one of the men.
“We try other buildings,” Hollister replied.