Remember Me

by Stacey Nash

  I sigh and let my shoulders sag too as I step back from Lilly, still fuming. How dare she sling around blatant lies. I thought she was Mae’s friend, but clearly she’s not.

  “Sorry,” Lilly mumbles. She doesn’t sound it.

  I arch my brows, anger still churning in my stomach.

  Martha continues rolling pastry, and glaring at Lilly while Ace slinks around my legs like he knows I was defending his Jax.

  “I shouldn’t have said what I did about Mae,” Lilly continues.

  I scratch my nose. “And Jax?”

  She lets out a breath. “I don’t trust him.”

  Martha’s eyes narrow, and Lilly flinches as if she could feel the heat of her mother’s gaze. “Lilly dear, he’s a good boy.”

  “But Mom … He’s just … You weren’t there, you didn’t see it. He’s one of them and he was all along, hiding amongst us.” The knife slams through the apple.

  She’s wrong.

  “I was there Lilly,” I say, “and I saw how he fought against that serum and how he fought against Manvkye. He’s not one of them any more than you are.”

  Slice, clang. Slice, clang. Slice, clang.

  She cuts and dices and slices the apple with so much force it’s a wonder the knife doesn’t shatter, or maybe the board, or both.

  Ace’s cool nose brushes against my ankle again, but he keeps his head low.

  Lilly’s nose twitches, and she shoves her hair back over her shoulder. “Then how else do you explain what’s happened with Mae?”

  “I don’t think anything has happened with Mae. She’s not fighting with them Lil, she’s just saving her skin.”

  She focuses on the smashed apples like they’re the most important thing in the room and when she raises her head, her eyes glisten. “So what’s the mission you get to go on?”

  “How do you know that?”

  She looks up, an ugly smile curling her lips as she taps her nose with her pointer finger. Eavesdropper.

  I glance at Ace, still bunched on my feet like I’m his life preserver, and I don’t know how to tell her so I just spit it out. “I’m sorry, but he said you can’t go.”

  “Yeah,” she says. “You ready?”

  “I’m just after something to eat and I will be.”

  She points to the fridge. “Make yourself at home. We do.”

  A rummage in the fridge rustles up a slab of meat, probably beef. Martha slices off some hot bread and I thrust the roast between them with a squirt of ketchup then turn to leave.

  “Take that dog with you, this is a kitchen,” Martha says.

  I click my fingers to call Ace to my side and we leave. When I’m just out the door Lilly’s light footsteps tap along behind me. “When do you go?”

  “Bit under an hour,” I say around a mouthful of sandwich.

  “I’m coming.”

  I nearly spit the chewed food out. “No, you are not. If you go after he said you can’t, he’ll have my head.”

  She throws me a cheeky smile.

  “You cannot go.” I peer right into her bright, brown eyes. “Do you know how angry he was after my little experiment with the wall?” I wait for her to speak, but her smile just grows larger. “It wasn’t for what I’d done. It was for putting you in danger.”

  “Suck it up, Will. I’m coming and he’s not that scary.”

  A chunk of meat falls to the floor and I drop my hand, realizing I was I punctuating my words with my food. Good thing Ace is cleaning up after me. “Garrett won’t let you.”

  “Yes, he will.” She bats her curling lashes at me.

  With a resigned huff, I stride in the direction of the weapons room. “Fine.”

  Rushing up beside me, she smiles a satisfied smile.

  After we’ve been there and Lilly’s armed with her usual array of daggers, protect-it, and telcom, she takes me to the port room. Ace disappears along the way, probably to curl up for a nap. Garrett’s already there, along with a small group of unfamiliar faces: two girls a bit older than me and another guy, all dressed in cargos and tees—easy combat gear. The girls chatter while the guy gives Lilly a huge smile. It seems like we’re a young group. The older, more experienced fighters must be going with Sam and Evan.

  Garrett looks up, narrows his eyes at me then they slide to Lilly, running over her, up then down. “What are you doing here?”

  “Coming with you,” she says in a matter-of-fact tone.

  “I don’t think so.” He hands out port bands to the others.

  “Dad said I could.”

  He flat out laughs. I would too. We all know Beau. “Now you’re lying.”

  Walking over to us, he holds out a set of port bands. As I take them from him, Lilly reaches out, touching his wrist and speaking in a low voice. “Please, Garrett.” She looks down and I find myself swallowing as she bats her eyes. The girl has no shame. “I’m tired of being the only one left out because I’m his daughter. I’m just as capable as anyone else.” She looks up at him through her lashes.

  I chuckle inwardly as I see his Adam’s apple rise and return to its usual spot. “Okay,” he says. “But you stay by my side. Understand?”

  She nods.

  He returns to the center of the room. “We’ll be porting into a lab. It has a basement storage area. This is where we’ll port in and wait for them to close up for the day. Then we’ll move to the lab I’m certain will be the Collective’s striking point.” He looks around the mismatched group. Everyone watches him intently, hanging on his every word. “There are six of us. We’ll have to port in two groups of three.”

  The others all shuffle about and Garrett comes to stand by Lilly, who grins first at him then me. Like before, no shame about her. I pull the elasticized bands over my wrists and shuffle them into place, making sure the nodes touch the underside of my wrists just like Mae said they work.

  “The co-ordinates have been set, my group will go first then the other can follow. Please be silent when you arrive.”

  “What’s that sequence again?” I ask.

  Lilly grabs my wrist. “Let me do it.” She points to Garrett with her free hand. “You need to be in contact with him too.”

  I close my hand around Garrett’s wrist, squeezing a little tighter than necessary. Lilly taps the node with her free hand, once, twice, thrice, four times. Then we’re falling, the three of us connected through the darkness. It’s hard to know which way is up and which is down. Moments later, we slam into a hard floor. It’s all over before it began and it wasn’t too bad.

  I breathe in the unmistakable tang of chemicals and release my grip on Garrett at the same time Lilly releases hers on me. A quick glance around the room tells me this is where they store drums of chemicals, amongst a copious amount of boxes, cables, leads and computer parts. There are more bottles and boxes than there is space to walk between them, but at least they’re stacked neatly, so it’s not dangerous.

  “Out of the way.” Garrett speaks with the telcom.

  It’s too late, I don’t move in time. Someone slams into me and I’m face planting the ground.

  Garrett and Lilly both chuckle as I push myself up.

  “He warned you,” she says.

  “Sorry.” The blonde girl from the port room steps away, her thin lips pulled back in a smile.

  Once everyone’s here, we creep back in between the stored stuff. I find a nook between two stacks of industrial-sized bleach and wait for what feels like hours. There’s no sense of time in the windowless, darkened room. My thoughts naturally drift back to Mae and I wonder why she didn’t help Garrett help her. Something about it just doesn’t sit right. Even if she was scared they’d hurt her and had to play along she should have at least given him a signal. A smile, a wink, a nod. Something.

  Finally, Garrett’s voice comes to my mind. “Right team, the workers are gone, time to move into position.”

  He creeps across the room and up a narrow staircase, and at the top he creaks open a door. Then turns, gives a sm
all nod, and we all follow to emerge into a wide, sterile-looking corridor that extends out like a long path before us. The walls are painted the same stark white as the linoleum tiles under our feet.

  Garrett draws his blade as he moves down the hall. I follow suit, pulling my mace out of the loop at my belt. Best to be prepared. We pass several closed doors, one which is marked Restricted Personnel Only.

  Finally he stops outside a door labeled Testing Room. He reaches out and twists the silver knob, the door squeaks as it opens. We all creep through, one after another, and we’re inside a wide open space, almost like a warehouse floor with the same white walls and floor. There’s science stuff everywhere: a Perspex screen embedded with nodes and wires, balls floating between two horn-shaped prongs and whiteboards—lots of whiteboards—with numbers, images and markings scrawled over their entire surfaces.

  “This is it,” he says through the telcom. “Now we wait.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Mae

  I shoot Cynnie a sidelong glance as we stand in line just outside the stone storage room. The night Joshua and I overheard Nik and the Councilor remains a secret between me and him. I haven’t even told Cynnie. It was only two nights ago, but I’m not sure what to think other than maybe I shouldn’t trust either the councilor or his son.

  None of it makes any sense. The fact they want to keep us apart makes me want to be near him even more. We snuck back to our rooms, talking in hushed voices. He doesn’t know what to think either, and I can’t stop thinking about getting stuck in that barrier. If Cynnie’s right and it only works to stop people with non-collective blood, then there’s only one answer. Who am I, though? I’m not game to ask even Cynnie, because that knowledge could be deadly.

  Now Socrai faces our small group, hands clasped behind his back and feet planted wide. All six of us are here in the fading light of day. Six hands thump six hearts in time.

  “We, the Collective.” The chant starts and now I know the words I join in.

  “Righteous heirs to truth behold.” I snap my attention back to the front.

  “Preservers of civilization young and old,”

  “With the tools anciently bestowed,”

  “Will protect society from times foretold.”

  The words make sense now. I’m not sure I agree with them but they’re all about the Collective protecting society with technology. The same stuff we’ve been learning about in Collective History, only this chant talks about the present.

  Socrai takes in our whole class. “Because of the recent need to get every agent on the field, your elite training has been sped up.” He looks down the line at each one of us in turn. “I believe each and every one of you are ready to pass the final test. You will go out as a group, unsupervised but working in pairs. This will mimic how agents operate in the field, always in pairs, with one eye on your partner.”

  Partners. We’ve worked in pairs over the past few weeks of training. Trying each other out, seeing how we work together. I’ve been paired with every member of our class, and we each sat a written test with all sorts of questions about training, the Founders’ Vision, and our own ideals. We’ve even been interviewed one on one by Socrai. I thought I was ready for this, but now that the announcement is almost upon us, my stomach feels a little jittery and I can’t help shooting a nervous glimpse toward Cynnie.

  She gives me a wide smile in return.

  Socrai’s voice snaps my focus back to him. “I have assessed all of your training files and taken notes as you’ve worked together. You have now been assigned to the person you will be paired with for the rest of your career.”

  My heart starts to stammer. Who’s it going to be?

  “As I say your name, please move to the side with your partner and gather your weapons and armor.”

  I peep down the line. My eyes meet Joshua’s and he gives me a small smile. Maybe it will be him. My stomach flutters at the thought.

  “Cynisca.” Socrai looks at her. “Your partner is Xane.”

  My thoughts pound. Not Nik, not Nik, not Nik.

  “Joshua.”

  My heart’s going to jump right out my chest and my stomach flips. Me. Please be me.

  “Kalon.”

  And that’s it. My heart flip-sinks like a huge stinging bellyflop. I can’t bring myself to look at Nik, the guy who’s not as nice as he seems. Instead I stare at Socrai who smiles. “That leaves Nikias and Anamae.”

  I draw in a deep breath and turn to the weapons stash. Joshua looks up scowling and chews on his lip. Guessing what he’s thinking, I break eye contact first.

  “Well, at least I can say I’ve got the best looking partner.” Nik’s hand closes over my shoulder.

  Joshua glares at his brother. Since that night in the foyer, I sure as hell don’t trust Nik and neither does he. There’s something really weird going on and he’s in on it. The fact he’s supposed to keep us apart has made me determined to figure out why. I close my eyes and force myself to swallow as I reach for my usual set of daggers then shove them into the belt strapped around my waist, so they hang in their sheaths at my sides.

  “Last time we’ll wear tan,” Cynnie says by my ear. Hoping she can’t tell it’s fake, I smile, but every muscle in my face feels taut.

  Nik shoves a mesh bodysuit into my hands. “You’ll need protection, this is a real mission.”

  “What? Don’t you want the reputation of losing your partner on the test mission?” Xane chuckles. Joshua swings his glare onto Xane.

  “Hoi,” says Socrai, “move faster.”

  I pull the protective suit on, up over my legs and wriggle the rest of my body into it. It sits snuggly over my clothes, the black fishnet blending into my tan uniform. The transformation never ceases to captivate me even when we’ve used it so many times in training.

  Socrai taps the ground with the butt of a training baton. “Over the past few weeks, we’ve received intelligence of a science research company in the city working on a sound wave altering project. Not only are these people coming dangerously close to producing something like tech, but if they are successful this—” He pauses, screwing up his nose. “This experiment has the potential to disrupt the barrier system we have around our agoge and important offsite buildings.”

  A murmur runs through the small group. Communities not protected. This is huge. Bad.

  “We need to prevent this development.” He meets each of our stares square on. “This evening, you will enter this science lab and destroy not only their experiment but blueprints, notes and anything you can find associated with it.”

  Tap, tap, tap. The butt of the stick punctuates his words.

  “Your success in this mission is imperative to your future career. The elite force is busy stomping out this infernal resistance group. They don’t have time to go in and clean up your mess, so do it right. If you are successful in the mission, you will be ready to hit the field as full agents in the fight against them.”

  A small noise at the back of the room makes me glance that way where a sensor is standing by the back door, her cream cowl covering her head and hiding her face in shadows. Socrai gives her a curt nod.

  “As is custom, you will receive a safety blessing before the mission. Please take your places in line.”

  Everyone shuffles into a straight line and I find myself between Josh and Nik. The sensor moves to the front of the room and pulls her hood back, exposing her heart-shaped face and stubbly-bald head. My eyes widen. It’s her, the sensor from the temple. She looks right at me but doesn’t smile or acknowledge our earlier meeting.

  “In this time of personal danger, it is important to remember the Founders’ Vision and mantra,” she says. “Also to remember that we are a community. We look out for each other.”

  She steps toward Xane, the first person at the other end of the line. Looking him in the eye, she places her hand flat against his chest, right over the place where his heart lays. “In the name of the Founders, may you be guided and r
eturned unto us.”

  My insides quiver so much I’m sure everyone must notice. This is actually going to happen. We’re going out in the field and I have Nik watching my back. Nik, who ran off and left us when we were supposed to guard the fence. This can’t end well, but I won’t admit I’m scared. Chin up, Anamae, be strong.

  I peek down the line, and she’s blessing Kalon now with the same ritual. Socrai moves along behind her, saying a few words to each newly blessed student. We’re at the far end, I’m second to last, but I’m so nervous I can’t focus on what either the sensor or Socrai say to the other students. My hands scrunch into fists, let go, and fist once again in an attempt to expel the tingling in my fingers.

  Cynnie’s next, then only Nik’s left before it’s my turn. I can hear the mumble of the blessing and a few words after, but can’t make them out. She pulls her hand off Cynnie’s chest and moves on to Nik. Looking right at him, she doesn’t smile while she promises the Founders will bless him. “Good luck, Nikias.”

  She pulls her hand away and sidesteps, now standing in front of me. Her face straight and serious, her grey eyes staring into mine. She reaches out, and my muscles tighten, bracing for her touch, but when her hand settles over my heart, it feels nice. Physical contact isn’t something I’ve had much of. “In the name of the Founders, may you be guided and returned unto us,” she says, then drops her voice to a low whisper. “When all is lost, remember me.”

  Emotion clouds her eyes making them somehow softer. She still doesn’t smile. I want to ask her a million questions, but I can feel the heat of Nik’s eyes on me, asking the same questions, so I don’t. When all is lost, remember me?

  She moves to Joshua, and places her hand over his heart. “In the name of the Founders may you be guided and returned unto us,” she says, then her voice drops to the same near whisper and I tilt my head to overhear her words. “Look after your partner.” She inclines her head toward be so slightly I can only just tell it’s almost unnoticeable.

  “Good luck, Anamae,” Socrai says, drawing my attention away from Joshua and the sensor. He’s now standing in front of me. “You will do well in this mission if you follow Nikias’ lead. Your strengths complement each other.”