Cornerstone 02 - Keystone

by Misty Provencher

  But I can’t see any Cavis hovering over Chad’s forehead or anywhere in his dark field. He strikes and strikes, and even though I block each one, it also stops me from relocating my Cavis. It toddles closer to my heart. I push it away, to the opposite side of my chest and under my arm. Chad strikes again and my rib cracks, sending the explosion of pain straight through me. I hit the floor face-first and the feeling is like a glass bulb exploding in my nose.

  I get up.

  He swipes hard at my Cavis and just as I shoot out of his way, a tiny, dirty patch drifts to the surface of his field. It jiggles in the muck around him. The gray blob wiggles toward the center of his forehead, but Chad swishes it away.

  There! See it? Roger shouts in my head.

  His brain. That’s the blind eye. Right in the very front.

  Iris jumps at him and it throws Chad off balance. He stumbles away from me, grabbing Iris and jerking her up to his face.

  “Tell me what it says!” he barks, the veins rising in his neck. Iris screams and I hurl myself at him. I drive my fingers into the space between his eyebrows. My fingertips sink into his muddy Cavis, hard enough that his grip becomes putty. Iris slips away. I push hard enough that his eyes roll up and his head hits the floor with a sickening thump.

  Make sure he’s dead, Roger bleats in the back of my head. His voice is not savage, it’s frightened. Kill him, Nalena, it’s the only way. He’ll escape somehow. Or he’ll take his second chance in the rings and come back worse. Trust me, please. I know you don’t have a reason to…but please…

  Chad’s eyes are wide open. His chest doesn’t rise or fall. Iris struggles up to her feet, wailing. Zaneen is still unconscious on the floor. I take my grandfather’s Memory and put it in my pocket.

  I will not make my father’s mistakes. I will never be a murderer.

  But I will protect my family.

  And I strike, one last time, to be sure that Chad is dead.

  Chapter 20

  I’M TAPPING ZANEEN’S CHEEKS, CONCENTRATING on keeping my field up, as Mark busts through the bedroom door and Brandon barrels in right behind him. The two of them skid to a halt, almost falling on Chad’s body. I’m relieved to see them, but I can’t imagine how they got here.

  Garrett would have left Sean and the Addo with them and come back for me himself. My heart goes cold. Unless something happened to Garrett. Or one of our Addos.

  “Where’d you come from?” I ask. It’s weird to see them actually ready to fight, instead of just having their fields scared-up by their brother. They look vicious and threatening and maybe that’s why Iris is still clinging to me.

  “We came through Nok’s tunnel,” Brandon says. The moment he speaks, he softens back to the Brandon I know. “We’ve spied on Nok during perimeter watch, to figure out where he was coming out.”

  “He popped up right where we were hunting for earth worms,” Mark says, pushing Chad’s arm with the toe of his sneaker. “But it still took us three days to find the entrance. Hey, is he dead?”

  “Yes. It’s Addo Chad,” I say. Neither boy seems phased.

  “I don’t care if he’s the President,” Brandon says. “We’ve got to get out of here. The Fury are all over the tunnels.”

  “Did you see Nok?”

  “Oh crap!” Mark says. “Nok’s in there? Which one did he go through?”

  “We came through the bathroom sink,” Brandon says. “And we can’t go back out that way. There’s too many Fury down there to chance it.”

  “Chad said Nok went through a laundry chute,” I say.

  “We’ll figure it out, but we can’t just stand around and talk about it.” Mark glances at the bathroom door.

  “Okay, but I’ve got to get Zaneen conscious…I’m not leaving without her.” I say.

  “Neeny’s down here?” Marks asks. I point to the other wall, where Zaneen’s body is still crumpled on the floor.

  Mark goes out the bedroom door and returns with Sean’s abandoned cup of tea. He walks right over to Zaneen and dumps it on her face. It’s hard to tell if it’s my hollering at him or the tea in her face that brings Zaneen to, but her eyes pop open as she sputters and coughs.

  “Garrett locked the door at the top of the stairs when he got the Addo and Sean out,” I say. “So we can’t get out that way.”

  “Sure you can,” Brandon says. “Put in the Addo’s code and it’ll open right up.”

  “I don’t know it,” I say.

  “Oh great,” Mark throws up his hands.

  I send a thought to the Addo: Addo, are you there? I need your code to open the door.

  Nothing.

  I think to Roger, Can you help? I need to get the upstairs door open.

  My hands are tied, Roger says. As a Connection, I can only give you the information I have. I don’t know any of the codes or how those locks work.

  What about my Vision?

  Try it, Roger answers. Try everything you’ve got, Nalena.

  There’s rustling from the living room and we all go silent. Brandon and Mark skirt to the door and peer around. They dive out and there’s one clipped shout before there’s silence again. Brandon appears in the doorway.

  “You got to get up those stairs and figure out that code,” he says. “Me and Mark have to go back and try to find Nok. We’ll collapse all the tunnels we can find that lead here.”

  “You can’t go back down there!” I say. “Just come up with us. I think I can get the door open!”

  “Did you really just do that?” Mark says, crossing his arms over his chest with a smug grin.

  “What?” I ask.

  “Bring fear,” he says.

  “Just shut up and get out of here,” Zaneen snaps, getting to her feet. Her voice is hoarse and she totters when she’s all the way up, but her glare is all business.

  “Don’t boss us,” Mark says, but Zaneen jumps toward them and they both jump away from her like frightened cats.

  “Get out of here and do what you’re supposed to do already,” she says. Iris finally lets go of my leg and transfers to Zaneen’s. The boys stick out their tongues at her. It all seems just like their usual squabbles that it’s almost okay to see the boys scurry out the bedroom door…but not really.

  No, not at all.

  Once they’re gone, Zaneen slumps against the wall.

  “C’mon, Belladonna,” I tell her. “We’ve got to try and get up stairs.”

  Instead of rolling her eyes at me, Zaneen smiles. Iris looks up at me with her bottom lip open, wondering.

  “Marky said we gotta go,” she says. I grab Boodles off the bed and hand the grungy bear to Iris.

  “We do,” I tell her. “Keep your eyes on Boodles.”

  Iris does what she’s told, which helps in getting past the guy that Brandon and Mark creamed in the kitchen. Zaneen and Iris follow me up the steps to the top. There is a keypad at the side of the door and I think, here goes nothing as I focus on the keys.

  You’re doing great, Roger’s voice says in my ears and the numbers begin to swirl up and pop in front of my nose.

  7POP7POP7POP3POP3POP3POP2POP1POP

  I punch the numbers in as I see them and the bolts inside the door grind open. We step into the crazy-colored corridor and my eyes spasm. I focus on finding the door first, and then the dangling trapeze lever.

  “Out you go.” I put my hand on Iris’s back and scoot her from the hallway and into the gym, right behind Zaneen. I know what I have to do. The lever will collapse the corridor and prevent any of the Fury from gaining entrance to the sealed Hotel, but it will also collapse any hope of Mark and Brandon escaping this way too.

  “Go on,” Zaneen says. Her eyes are glossy too. It takes me a couple blinks to remember this is Zaneen. Zaneen, who usually wants to throw me off a roof top. She blinks back. “Don’t be afraid. They weren’t.”

  I jump up and catch the trapeze in my hand, pulling it back down with me.

  Roger hollers inside my head, Get out! Get OUT! GET OUT! />
  The ceiling rumbles as I dive out the door and the entire hallway collapses in on itself.

  “I want Garrett and Seany,” Iris whimpers, twisting from side to side as Boodles hangs limply from her elbow.

  “They’re around here somewhere, punkin. We’ll find them,” Zaneen says cheerfully before leaning toward me and dropping her voice. “Won’t we?”

  “They’re in the Courtyard, I bet,” I say. Then I lean in toward Zaneen and whisper, “As long as Garrett didn’t seal us out of the Core to protect the Addo.”

  The recognition spreads across her face like green glue. If the Core is sealed, that means we’re on the same side as The Fury.

  “What will we do then?” she asks. Iris and Mr. Boodles are both looking at me with unblinking eyes.

  “We’ll figure it out,” I say. “Let’s just see if we can get to the elevator.”

  “I know where it is!” Iris suddenly comes alive, stuffing Boodles’ legs into the waistband of her shorts. She runs down the hall and we follow her to the atrium with the elevators. Of the four, three are open and one is coming back to the ground floor, a tiny chime counting down toward us.

  And then I remember.

  Milo.

  We left him passed out and locked in the elevator. But the elevator that we locked him in is coming at us now.

  It’s no effort to keep my field up as the doors roll open, but it nearly bursts the moment I see Garrett standing inside. His eyes open and close with a sigh of relief as he rushes out into the hall. Iris lobs herself at him and Garrett scoops her up in his arms.

  “Thank God,” he says, watching me. His eyes stay glued to me as he hugs his sister and mumbles into her hair, “It’s so good to see you.”

  “There was a bad man. He hurt me right here,” Iris says, pointing to her neck. Garrett’s eyes well up as she tells him, “He squeezed my neck and I choked and I screamed at him. He pushed Neeny and he hit Nali and I tried to beat him up.”

  “Good girl,” Garrett says.

  “But Nali did this,” she pokes Garrett’s forehead, between his eyes, “and he fell down, like this.” She makes a face with her tongue hanging out and her eyes bugged wide open. Garrett looks to me.

  “Chad’s gone and we saw Mark and Brandon,” I struggle to keep my voice solid. “They went back into the tunnels to look for Nok and collapse the tunnels leading to the bunker.”

  Garrett just nods. He knows what that means. He clears his throat, but doesn’t speak.

  “And I collapsed the hall and stairs down to the bunker too,” I say, but I look at my feet. Garrett’s throat rumbles again.

  “You did the right thing,” he says, with a sad grin. It’s all he need to do to let me know we’re all going to put on happy faces, or at least not realistic faces, for Iris. I smile back and he says, “That’s what you were supposed to do.”

  “I know what the…” I begin. I want to tell Garrett everything—about the Memory, about Roger, about how I fought Chad, but Garrett’s quick nod cuts me off.

  “Tell Addo when you see him,” he says, his eyes flicking into the elevator. Zaneen steps inside and says, “Holy crap! What’s he doing here?”

  I peek in, following her gaze, and run into Milo, still out cold, on the floor.

  “I couldn’t have him running all over with the Addo upstairs,” Garrett explains, his voice clear again. “So I found the elevator control room and got the door open. And now I’m babysitting.”

  “Babysit!” Iris explodes with laughter as we pile into the elevator. “But he’s a big boy!”

  Iris climbs around Milo, leaning in close to get a good look while she hangs onto Garrett’s leg. “Is he sleeping?”

  “Yup,” Garrett says simply, punching the button to our floor. Zaneen leans over Milo, her head tipped to the side.

  “He really is good looking,” she says, more to herself than us.

  “He’s drooling!” Iris squeals. We ride up and my stomach flip-flops as the elevator drifts back to our floor and rolls open its doors.

  “I thought you were going to seal up the hotel core without us,” I say.

  “I was supposed to do it five minutes ago,” Garrett says with a grin. “Grab Milo’s legs and I’ll get his arms.”

  I do what he says and ask, “Supposed to?”

  “Freddie called,” he says. “My mom gave the order, so Freddie gave me all the instructions. There’s not much to it.”

  “So what happens?” Zaneen asks. “Metal girders over the doors or something?”

  “Something like that, but bigger.” Garrett nods, but he’s looking at me. I drop Milo like a side of rotten beef and his eyes squint open. He looks up at us like we’re all strangers, but I ignore him. Garrett wants me to know just what we’re up against, but he doesn’t even need to tell me. I can feel it, tingling in my hands. “The only problem is, once I do it, I can’t reverse it.”

  “What do we do when they come back?” I say.

  Garrett’s eyes flick to his little sister, but Iris watches him without expression.

  “Once it’s sealed,” Garrett finally answers. “Nobody can get in and until Freddie comes back, nobody gets out.”

  “What if Freddie doesn’t come?” Zaneen asks.

  Garrett just shakes his head.

  “Ever?” she says.

  Garrett just shakes his head again, instead of answering.

  But my mind isn’t on elevator rides or the way Iris is just combing her fingers through Boodle’s fur or even how Zaneen isn’t trying to hit on Garrett any more. I’m not thinking of Brandon and Mark or how our tiny Cura is out there, facing the others. I’m not even concerned with the glob of semi-immobilized guy at my feet, because my brain is stuck on something else happening in my head.

  It’s Roger…whispering to me…Milo has something to say.

  Chapter 21

  I NUDGE MILO WITH MY foot.

  “What did you want to say?” I ask. The confused look he gives me morphs into something more like shock. And then it blooms into dread.

  “Well, uh…I don’t…I mean, I’m going to...” he stutters. Garrett glances at Milo and looks back at me, silently questioning. But I have no idea what’s got Milo so freaked out. All I know is that if Roger’s telling me about it, it has to have something to do with my well being and Milo’s stammering is totally making me nervous. Finally, Milo spits out, “I need to talk to the Addo.”

  “About what?” Garrett says. Milo gets to his feet, watching the numbers climb on the digital display over the elevator door. He clears his throat and rubs the back of his neck as the elevator reaches our floor.

  “Well,” he says as the door slides open. And then he bolts past Zaneen. Milo sprints down the hall toward our rooms and I take off behind him, with Garrett on my heels.

  But Milo makes it to his room first, punching in the code and Garrett streaks to a stop in front of his own door and punches in his code too. I barrel toward Milo, hoping to take him down before he gets inside. At the same time, I project my thoughts to the Addo: Milo’s coming- get out of the Courtyard- we’re coming- lock yourself in-

  Milo disappears into his room, slamming the door in my face. Garrett’s door slams too and I race back to my own door, fumbling to punch in my own code. Zaneen and Iris run toward me, shouting to find out what’s going on, as my door unlocks.

  I can’t wait for them. I speed through my apartment, hurdling the coffee table to the sliding glass door that leads to the Courtyard. And I freeze when I see what’s happening outside.

  Milo is on his knees, collapsed, at the Addo’s feet. Garrett hovers between the Addo and Sean and when I open my door, Garrett looks up at me with shock paralyzing his face.

  Milo’s head is in his hands and he’s sobbing.

  “I never wanted to be like them.” Milo chokes on his words. “That’s why I didn’t. That’s why I’m telling you.”

  Chad? Addo’s voice asks in my head. I look up to meet his eyes and shake my head.
/>   Gone. I project back. Milo?

  Spilling beans, the Addo says.

  Milo keeps his head in his hands, rubbing at his eyes, as he continues. “Chad wanted me to come. He told me that Dale VanWeider would have a soft spot for me since I was related and he’d get me into your Cura. Chad said that once I got into your Cura, I was to find out where you were and…you know.”

  “Kill me,” Addo answers like he’s playing on a game show.

  “Yes.” Milo nods, lowering his head miserably.

  “So Addo Chad is our Mastermind after all?”

  “No,” Milo says, raising his head again. “There was someone Chad was answering to, but I don’t know who it was. Chad complained about having to report to him, but he never gave me a name. Chad only called him the Mastermind. But he did it like an insult. Chad said he was going to take over the first chance he got, because he was smarter anyway.”

  “If Chad was so much smarter, why was he working for the Mastermind?” Sean asks.

  “Chad only needed the one with the Vision, so he could read the Memory. Once he knew what the Memory said, he could hold it over both The Fury’s and the Ianua’s heads. He could threaten The Fury with it and, at the same time, barter for what he wanted from the Ianua. He told me he’d been searching while he was still an Addo, using the Indicium files from the other Addos to narrow down candidates, but none came and then all the Addos stopped recording their information anyway. The technology made them lazy.”

  Addo coughs into his hand and says, “Yes, yes, we’ve been over that part.”

  Milo continues, “Chad was killing off candidates once he found out they weren’t the Tralate he needed. But, as an Addo, he couldn’t keep going through, picking off Ianua members without being caught. Some people in our Cura began to suspect him, so he faked his own death. That’s when the Mastermind stepped in and agreed to be his eyes and ears. Chad’s connection to the Curas.”