by Meg Xuemei X
Dr. Wren waved a hand. “After you stepped out,” he told Lucienne, “the boy’s heart rate returned to normal.”
“If you can help it, Dr. Wren, please refrain from calling me boy,” Ashburn said. “In my world, fourteen is considered an adult, fit to marry. I’m eighteen.”
The doctor clasped his hands together. “Well, the boy seems normal, except for a few moments where his heart raced like a horse on steroids.”
“That’s a bad metaphor, doctor,” Ashburn said.
Before Dr. Wren could think of a comeback, Ziyi bounced in like an excited puppy. “Hello, Ashburn. I’m Ziyi Wen,” she said quickly. “I’ll be assisting Dr. Christophersen in monitoring your brain activities so I think I should introduce myself formally. Don’t know if you remember me. We’ve met before, uh, in that… valley.”
“You’re White Noise,” Ashburn said.
“How—how did you know that? You checked up on me?” Her face dimmed a little at Ashburn’s blank expression. “Did Lucia tell you a lot about me?” She sent Lucienne a reproachful look.
Amusement and fondness for the Chinese girl danced in Lucienne’s eyes.
At a younger age, Ziyi Wen had stirred up trouble for governments and corporations. The cyberworld called her White Noise and had no idea she was a fourteen-year-old girl.
When Lucienne first met Ziyi at Phillips Exeter Academy, she had called out the scholarship girl. “Hello, White Noise. What kind of trouble are you making now?”
The Chinese girl stopped her fast typing, her face turning pale, as she slammed her laptop shut. Then she bolted, darting a wild look around the lawn outside the Class of 1945 Library.
Lucienne half leaned against an outdoor table so she wouldn’t tower over the shorter girl. “No one is within hearing range—for now.”
“You’re bluffing, lying, and slandering!” Ziyi cursed. “You don’t know a damn thing about me!”
“Besides the fact that international law says no hacking into the government’s database,” Lucienne said, “I know there’s a zero tolerance policy for cussing in the Academy. And I don’t lie when it’s unnecessary. I prefer to put lies inside the truth—one of my specialties.”
Ziyi didn’t find that funny. “You think you can intimidate me? I fear no one!”
“And I expected no less.” Lucienne stood up, straightening her skirt. “I’ve been watching you for a while, Ziyi Wen. I know much more about you than you realize. You’ve been White Noise for two years. In order to prove I’m not bluffing—” she flashed a leather notebook case in her hand, “—I’m taking this evidence to the authorities.” She turned on her heels and jogged toward the administration building.
Ziyi bolted after her and darted in front of Lucienne before she got three steps, her fists clenching. “Stop. Right. There!”
Fighting back a smile, Lucienne looked down at the girl. Ziyi was right—she was bluffing. The notebook case was empty. The only proof she had was in Ziyi’s mind. “You know you can’t take me,” she said, an amused expression lightening her rich brown eyes. “No one in this school can.”
Just then, a chubby squirrel scurried by, looking for a snack. Lucienne pulled a bead from her hair and flung it at the animal.
Ziyi blinked. When she looked again, the squirrel lay still. She turned from the small animal to Lucienne. “That was amaz—you killed it!”
“Relax. I only knocked it out. It’ll wake up maybe in half an hour. Stay or come back to check it if you want. I was trying to save you the humiliation of trying to take me down.”
“How did you know?” Ziyi asked.
“That you were thinking of wrestling me?”
Ziyi gritted her teeth. “No! My—my alias.”
“You mean your White Noise business?” Lucienne smiled. “Even Homeland Security assumes White Noise is an older male, probably ugly and unwashed, considering the hours White Noise puts in to cause havoc.”
“Shush.” Ziyi looked around again before glaring at Lucienne viciously.
“You’re the loud one.” Lucienne shrugged. “In any case, you’re a prodigy. You see patterns and understand abstract reasoning where ordinary people perceive only white noise. That’s how you got the name in the cyberworld—that and you’ve made constant, unpleasant noises that bother the rich and powerful. You’re quite a vigilante for such a young one.”
Ziyi rolled her eyes. “Aren’t you the same age as me?”
Lucienne laughed, and it disarmed the girl.
“Don’t tell my parents, please,” Ziyi lowered her voice. “They came to this country with nothing, and they sacrificed everything for me so I could have the best of everything and not end up like them at the bottom.” Her choked voice turned bitter. “As filthy rich and spoiled as you are, you’d never understand the hard life of people like me.”
“I understood hard life from the moment I was born,” Lucienne cut in fiercely. “I’m so rich that many people want my head on a spike.” She opened her palms to let the girl see her calloused fingers. “These hands weren’t trained to touch silk but to defend my life and protect those I love.” She then lifted her skirt to reveal a long scar above the knee-high stocking. “You don’t want this either. You don’t want to trade places with me.”
Ziyi gasped. She was still staring at Lucienne’s thigh when the taller girl let down her skirt. “So the rumors about the assassination attempts and your bodyguards outside the school are true?”
Lucienne nodded. “That’s why I can never stay in one place for too long. I won’t stay in Phillips Exeter long either.”
“I’ve always hated all rich brats. They feel so entitled, as if the earth is theirs. Their arrogance exudes out of their every pore, and they’re boring. I used to hate you the most. You’re an uncrowned princess. You’re also so—glamorous. I was determined to make trouble for you when you inherited the Lam Dynasty.”
“I know you have all those pretty plans,” Lucienne said with a smile. “But your secrets are safe with me.”
Hesitating for a moment, Ziyi said, “I hope you’re safe and can stay. I don’t have a lot of friends.” Then with a resolved look, she admitted, “I don’t have any friends here. Since you have scars and you’re honest with me, maybe we can hang out?”
“I hope I can stay and get to know you,” Lucienne said, “but I have to go on an expedition to Iceland. One of my family obligations.”
“I wish I could go away, too, someday, to a place that doesn’t feel like a zoo,” Ziyi said. “But I have to consider my parents.”
“Someday you can do both, Ziyi, because now you know me,” Lucienne said. “When I’m strong enough to rule, I’ll come back for you. We’ll go to a place that’ll never feel like a prison. We’ll have a lifelong fun ride together. I’ll guarantee your safety. Anyone who wants to get to you will have to go through me first.”
“Promise?”
“On Girl Scouts’ honor.” Lucienne opened the leather case. It was empty. Ziyi’s eyes widened. “I never planned to sell you out. I’ve also assigned people to look after you in secret. But you need to lay low until I come back for you.”
Soon after, Lucienne left Phillips Exeter Academy. She made arrangements to have Ziyi’s parents hired by a generous employer. After she returned from Iceland—searching for an ancient scroll with Jed and failing—she went to a different school. The move was intended to make it harder for her enemies to plan an assassination.
In every school, Lucienne found great minds. A year later, she met Vladimir Blazek at Desert Cymbidium—her family’s military school. And with Vladimir, for the first time in her life, she had all the fun in the world. It wasn’t all about family duties and survival anymore.
When she came back for Ziyi, the Chinese girl dropped out of Columbia University without blinking an eye and followed the Siren to the island of the Sphinxes.
Lucienne knew Ashburn must have viewed this memory through Ziyi’s mind as she watched him glance at Ziyi, who batted her heavily masca
raed eyes, waiting.
“Neither did I check up on you nor did Lucia tell me about you,” he answered lazily.
“Of course.” Ziyi banged her forehead with the heel of her palm. “What was I thinking? You’re Ashburn Fury. You know things without anyone telling you. I’m honored to make your acquaintance.” She even curtsied to make an impression. Under her white coat, she was wearing a qipao and, as usual, her stilettos.
“Are we here for soap opera or science?” Dr. Christophersen’s vigorous voice called from across the lab.
“They can’t tell the difference,” Dr. Wren said.
Ziyi made a face, and Ashburn smiled. Lucienne could tell he liked the girl.
As the Norwegian geneticist explained to Ashburn how he was going to use fMRI to get images of Ashburn’s brain structures and neural activities, Ashburn flashed a panicked look. “No fMRI,” he said.
“An fMRI is perfectly safe,” Dr. Christophersen said, pushing his silver-rimmed glasses up his bridge. “Is there any other reason you’re concerned, Mr. Fury?”
“Dr. Christophersen,” Lucienne said. “If Ash doesn’t want to do the fMRI, then we don’t do it.”
“Do you have any objection to a quantum magneto encephalography?” Dr. Christophersen asked Ashburn. “MEG works—”
“I know how it works. It detects a brain’s neural electrical activities,” Ashburn said.
“Very well,” Dr. Christophersen said. “Let’s save time and get on with the procedure. Miss Wen, make yourself useful, please. I need you to attach SQUIDs to Mr. Fury.” He turned to Ashburn. “If you need to know about SQUIDs—”
“Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices,” Ashburn said. “SQUIDs—”
A faint smile touched Lucienne’s eyes. If Christophersen knew that even with his lifelong works he could never reach the tip of the iceberg of the databank in Ashburn’s head, the geneticist would act more humbly.
Ziyi attached electronic pads to Ashburn’s temples after he settled in a chair.
Lucienne was supposed to do that, but she knew what her touch would do to him and herself. She definitely didn’t want the effect manifesting itself in front of a roomful of people. She put a wise distance between her and Ashburn and watched Ziyi hook SQUIDs to him.
The whole time, Ashburn’s eyes stayed on Lucienne. Sometimes she pretended not to be self-conscious of his gaze, and occasionally turned to flash a quick, encouraging smile.
MEG and SQUIDs ran in sync. Readouts flashed on a quantum sensor. Straight lines flowed across a monitor, then fluctuated wildly. Dots of different shapes and colors appeared, accumulating and pulsing faster and faster.
“The frequency of his brainwaves has jumped outside the delta range to the beta range of 0.5Hz to 30Hz,” said Dr. Christophersen, his blue eyes widening.
“I’ve never seen neural electrical activities like this,” Dr. Wren said. “Do you know what that means, Dr. Christophersen?”
“Means awesome?” Ziyi offered. “Very awesome?”
“An average human mind is incapable of going beyond three-dimensional thoughts or memories.” Dr. Christophersen darted his eyes between Ashburn and the computer screens. “Mr. Fury’s brain seems to constantly perform numerous mental steps at once. We need to find an explanation.”
Ashburn’s facial muscles twitched under the electronic pads. Lucienne tensed, ready to bolt toward him. Then smoke swirled from MEG and SQUIDs, and the alarm in the lab went off. Dr. Christophersen spun around, and Dr. Wren called for help.
Ziyi yelped. “Holy baby milk!”
Several soldiers, including Lucienne’s personal guards charged into the lab. Some of them held fire extinguishers. Lucienne rushed to Ashburn and unplugged the pads from his temples and forehead.
“You okay, Ash?” she asked.
He held her gaze. “I just fried your million-dollar machines.”
“You did,” she said. “But what matters is you aren’t hurt.”
Ashburn looked pleased with her caring, but then his expression darkened. “I can’t be tested.”
Just like the Eye of Time. The program inside him burned all of her test equipment.
“No more tests,” Lucienne said.
“I don’t think we should give up because of a little setback,” Dr. Christophersen said anxiously. Lucienne knew that this was a once-in-lifetime opportunity for him to study a subject like Ashburn Fury. “Now that we know what we’re facing we’ll be more prepared. We’ll move to genetic tests and experimental—”
All the other equipment in the lab burst into flame. What was in Christophersen’s mind about experimental must have ticked off Ashburn.
“Ash.” Lucienne bent over him and looked into his eyes. “It’s over. We won’t test you.”
“I can’t control TimeDust.” Ashburn grasped his head in agony. His eyes transformed to stormy gray. “It wants to burn all the machines in your lab. It won’t stop.”
“Ash, look at me.” Lucienne grasped his shoulders. He lifted his head to meet her eyes. “You can,” she whispered. Her hand moved to cup his face gently. He’d been bottling his dark emotions. She could see it in his eyes—the rage at all the unfair things that happened to him, and at himself for killing Seraphen, his protector. “I know you’re hurt, but don’t let anger get you. Let it go. You have a friend. You have me.”
Ashburn’s breathing evened and his eyes turned a light gray, then back to silver blue.
The explosions from the machines stopped.
Ashburn rose to his feet, his arm around Lucienne’s waist, and whispered in her ear, “You calmed it, Lucia. You tamed my power.”
Lucienne let her face press against his throat, feeling his pulse. The pleasure she felt at touching him didn’t suppress an increasing fear. She had encountered only the tip of the iceberg of his power when she first dove into his mind. The noises of trillions of human consciousnesses would have swallowed her if she hadn’t withdrawn in time. She might have calmed him for the moment, but she could never harness his formidable power. She had no choice but to venture into the uncharted territory of the most dangerous mind, if she ever wanted to enter Eterne.
Then she felt the familiar weight on the chain around her neck.
Release me, Siren, said the Eye of Time. I can help you. We both want him.
Always when she was at her weakest moment it would come through to her, but it had a point. The only way for her to see through things was to link it to Ashburn. She had come so far, and he was right here. Just by pushing the pin in her locket and setting free the Eye for a few minutes would move her forward at quantum speed.
Her hand went for the chain around her neck.
“I’m right to come with you,” Ashburn said, “to your home.”
Is he? She had caught him deep in the night wandering alone in the castle. He wasn’t aware of her presence because of the distance between them. She watched him for a long time. He was the most beautiful, powerful man she’d ever known, but also the loneliest. He didn’t seem to belong here or anywhere. She had everyone, and he had no one. No, he has me, she told herself. It might not be in the way he wanted, but he had her.
But she hadn’t stopped coveting his power, despite being wary of it. And she feared herself more than others—one of these days she would finally break her promise to him.
“I know I can count on you,” Ashburn continued. “You’ll help me put the beast to rest.”
Lucienne’s hand let go of the locket. It was time for her to rest hers.
Fire stopped spreading in the lab, but the fire between Lucienne and Ashburn had just started.
God, she exhaled, the Lure.
CHAPTER FIVE
Lucienne packed three sandwiches Aida made and went to the satellite lab. Kian skipped lunch again. Just as he kept tabs on her, she watched out for him, especially on his diet.
She handed him a grilled chicken sandwich wrapped in paper while he stared grimly at the satellite map. He shoved her hand away. “I’m no
t hungry.”
She tore the paper open and held the sandwich under his unshaved chin. “Eat.”
Kian gave her a look. Then with a grunt, he took the sandwich and a few big bites. Lucienne waited until he swallowed.
“How bad is the situation?” she asked.
Duncan had left Sphinxes to track down Vladimir. He soon made a contact with Juliette, one of their Russian agents planted inside the Sealers’ operation. After Juliette and Duncan reported that they had found Vladimir’s new haunt, they suddenly disappeared.
“It’s been three days now,” Kian said.
“The tracking device implanted in Duncan was deactivated,” said a member of Ziyi’s satellite tech team.
Kian and Lucienne didn’t say anything. Duncan was either captured or dead.
“I shouldn’t have let him go on this mission,” she said.
Duncan had just recovered from the battle with Seraphen, and she had objected to sending him out. She had lost Orlando and Cam, and she was afraid of losing him, too.
But Duncan had insisted. “I’m the most suitable man for this job,” he said. “I know Blazek’s moves. I’ll bring him in alive.”
“He is the best candidate,” Kian agreed. “He spent a lot of time with Blazek.”
“Fighting and bantering,” Lucienne said.
“We also drank together,” Duncan said. “I know about his vile habits, which are many.”
“If Duncan has to go, let him take a quad,” Lucienne advised.
“It’s best sending him alone,” Kian said.
And so he went alone—and it hadn’t gone well.
Lucienne handed Kian a second sandwich. “Send me out to look for them.”
“Over my dead body,” Kian said.
“I know that traitor’s weaknesses more than anyone,” she snapped back. After all, she used to be his greatest weakness. She wondered if she still was, even though his love had turned to hate. “If anyone can find him, it should be me. When I find him, I’ll end him and bring back Duncan and Juliette.”