We reach the place where Marco pointed, and it’s clear why. The room has transparent walls that let you look right in. A dozen Alks busy about inside, checking equipment and gauges. A huge vat sits in the middle. One of the Alks fills the vials from a tap on the bottom of the vat. He passes it to another Alk, who seals and labels the vial. A third swoops in to place the vials on a tray and carry them to another room in the rear. The doors to the back room slide open, and a cloud of chilled air puffs out. There are rows and rows of tiny vials extending as far back as I can see.
“What is this place?” Lucy asks.
“Not sure,” I say. “But I have an awful feeling in my gut.”
You know what’s in those vials, Mira says.
I push her words from my mind. I need to focus on making it to the other end of this hall, then I can think.
“Over here!” Addy calls.
I cross the hall to where she stands looking into another room. In the center is an enormous, elevated box. The box is filled with gray speckled eggs. Lamps hang from the ceiling and glow orange above the eggs, probably keeping them warm.
Marco slides in between us. “Why eggs?”
I shrug. “Not sure, but I am sure I don’t want to think about that right now.”
Lucy slaps my shoulder. “Let’s go!”
Marco and Addy dash ahead. I linger in front of the egg room. There’s something we’re missing.
In the next room four Alks lie on inclined exam tables. They all have cyborg arms, and they appear to be unconscious. Their robotic limbs are hooked up to elaborate machines that poke and prod and test reflexes.
“Good thing they’re not awake,” Cole says beside me. “I bet they wouldn’t be too happy about us being down here.”
“Why do you think they’d care?” I ask. “The other Alks don’t even notice us.”
“None of the others have cyborg arms. I think it’s a symbol of Alkalinian hierarchy.”
“And the higher up on the Alk food chain, the more likely you are to care about Bounders wandering around on their own?”
Cole shrugs. “It’s just a theory.”
Up ahead Marco and Addy reach the end and turn right. The rest of us are close behind.
“This way!” Cole says when we’re all out of the Alk-filled hall. “I think we’re almost there. He takes off in the lead. Three turns later we reach a dead end at two giant metal doors.
“If my estimations are correct,” Cole says, “the tube should connect at this room.”
“What are we waiting for?” Marco says. “Let’s find out.”
He grabs one of the door handles, and I grab the other. The doors are heavy, but they’re not locked. We pull them back, hoping our good luck continues and that there is no one on the other side who would care about seeing a group of unsupervised Bounders down here.
“Bingo!” Addy says, leading us in.
Sure enough, the tube connection is directly in front of us, and so are walls of windows holding back the millions of tons of water. The queasy feeling I’ve been wrestling with all tour comes rushing back.
I bend over my knees, trying to suck oxygen into my lungs.
Can’t get enough air!
Mira places her hand on my back. Slow. Breathe.
Her strength seeps into me. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. Then another. When I’m breathing normally again, I push myself up.
My other pod mates are standing next to the tube that heads out of the Alkalinian Seat and across the ocean floor to the saucer. I take another deep breath and walk over to them.
A pipe takes up most of the room in the tube. It comes right through the wall and continues on to a huge pump and storage cylinders.
Cole inspects the door that leads to the tube. “It’s open now,” he says, “but it looks like it could be sealed off.”
“But what’s that pipe for?” Lucy asks.
In front of the cylinders is a conveyer belt lined with vats like the one we saw in the Alk hall, the one used to fill the vials.
On the other side of the room, vats are stacked from floor to ceiling—at least two hundred of them—all labeled with Alkalinian characters.
Mira’s words return to me. You know what’s in those vials.
Everything we’ve been through in the last week comes rushing through my mind. Our quarters. My dreams. The vials. Serena and the forgotten shrine.
“Venom,” I say.
All my pod mates stare at me, and for a moment no one speaks.
“What do you mean, ‘venom’?” Addy asks. That’s right, she doesn’t even know about Serena.
“You really think all of this equipment, all of those vats, all of those vials, are for venom?” Lucy asks.
Marco shrugs. “What else could it be?”
“It must be,” I say. “Serena told us it was their main currency on the galaxy’s black market.”
“Who’s Serena?” Addy asks.
“Even Gedney said the Alks deal in illicit substances,” Cole says.
“You really think they’re injecting us with that?” Lucy says with a shudder.
“Maybe not all of us,” I say. “Maybe just me. Or me and Mira. I’m not sure.”
“Hello?” Addy says. “Can someone please clue me in?”
I take another deep breath and tell my sister about Serena and the shrine and my dreams and everything else that points to the disturbing conclusion that the Alks are bottling venom in what looks like a huge commercial operation.
Addy crosses her arms against her chest. “I can’t believe you kept this from me. You promised no more secrets, Jasper!”
This again? “I’m not keeping secrets! I’m including you! When did I have a chance to tell you before now?”
Addy gets in my face. “How about yesterday in my quarters?”
“We had other things to talk about!”
“Yeah, like how I shouldn’t be sharing so much with the other cadets! See? It’s still all about secrets!”
Lucy shoves herself between us. “Only because you have such a big mouth!” she says to Addy.
“Quiet!” Cole says. “None of that matters! We need to finish what we came here for!”
For a moment no one moves. Then Lucy puts her hands on her hips and looks at Cole. Marco takes Addy’s hand and walks her away from Lucy. Mira places her palm on my back.
Cole approaches the pipe and inspects the seal. “Where is the venom coming from? We’ve been over at the saucer multiple times, and the only Alks we’ve seen other than Serena are those guys who were performing maintenance.”
“And Serena said that was out of the ordinary,” Lucy says.
“There are lots of Alks down here,” I say, “at least, a lot more than we’ve seen before today.”
“True,” Cole says, “but this looks like an output valve. That must mean the venom is coming from the saucer. Not to mention we saw no signs of venom extraction on our way over here.”
“Venom extraction?” Marco says. “Wait a second, the venom is coming from the Alks?”
“Where else would it be coming from?” Cole asks.
Marco swings his hands to his head. “Those dudes are poisonous?”
I shrug. “I hadn’t really thought of it like that, but I guess?”
“I hate snakes!” Marco says, sinking to a squat. “These Alks are so much worse than the Youli.”
Cole claps his hands. “Hello! Over here! The tube, remember?”
We crowd around as Cole opens the door that leads to the tube. “The good news is there’s definitely enough room in here for someone to cross. The Alks must have constructed the tube so they could maintain the pipe without going into the water.”
“That means someone could make it to the saucer without going by Frog,” I say, peering into the tube. “If Earth Force needs to take out the tether, this is the best option.”
“Maybe,” Cole says. “We still don’t know where the pipe connects at the saucer. Half of the place is falling ap
art. The tether might not be reachable, or at least easily reachable from the tube. That would be a disaster, especially under time pressure.”
Marco steps into the tube. “Well then, we need to see where it goes!” He takes off jogging. Addy heads out after him.
“No!” I take a tentative step into the tube. It basically feels like stepping into the ocean. Water’s on all sides, and I’m immediately disoriented. Up ahead the black sea creatures swim near the tube. One smashes the side with its heavy tail right where Marco and my sister stand.
“We have to get back!” I shout to them. “If we aren’t there by the end of the reception, they’ll definitely know something’s up.”
“Jasper’s right!” Lucy calls. “We need to go!”
“Fine,” Marco says, reluctantly retracing his steps out of the tube with my sister at his side, “but tomorrow we need to find where the tube connects at the saucer.”
“And tonight we need to figure out what’s really going on while we sleep,” Lucy says.
“How are we going to do that?” Addy asks once she and Marco are out of the tube and the door is sealed behind them.
Lucy shoots an annoyed glance at Addy. “We aren’t going to do anything, sweetie. My pod is going to find out what those Alks are doing with those vials.”
“And I’m just supposed to go to bed and pretend I don’t know anything about it?” Addy asks.
“Sounds about right,” Lucy says with a patronizing smile.
We slide into the back of the Earth Force chambers moments before Seelok finishes talking. He must have decided to follow Sheek with a monologue of his own. He even does the side-to-side head tilt again for the EFAN cameraman when he finishes.
Once we’re dismissed, most of the cadets race to their quarters. Two juniors from Ryan’s pod ask Cole for Evolution pointers on the way. It sounds like they’re checking in for a big night of gaming. The junior twins from Addy’s pod—Orla and Aela—chat about what goodies will pop up in their candy buffet tonight, then they argue about which candy is best. If those two aren’t completing each other’s sentences, they’re bickering.
When we reach our door, Addy grabs Marco and me by the arms. “Please let me help tonight.” The words are for both of us, but she’s looking at Marco.
“We can’t.” I shake off her arm. I don’t know what’s going on with her and Marco, but I don’t like it. “The Alks are monitoring us. They’d know if you weren’t in your quarters. I’ll fill you in tomorrow.”
“You just expect me to sleep, Jasper?”
I look around the hall. Most of the cadets are already in their quarters. “Keep your voice down! You can’t tell anyone about this, Addy. I mean it!”
Again my sister looks to Marco.
“Listen to your bro,” he whispers. “We need to keep a low profile, or we’ll never best these Alks at their own game. There’s a reason for secrecy. A good one.”
“But how can I sleep if know they’re injecting me with venom?”
“We’ve been sleeping here for more than a week, and we’re fine,” Marco says.
“Jasper, please,” she says. “I want to help.”
“Addy, the best thing you can do is act as if everything’s fine. Not giving the Alks reason to be suspicious is helping.”
“Hardly.” She storms into her quarters without saying good night.
Marco shrugs and heads into our room. I lean against the wall and close my eyes. I need a break before debriefing with my pod about everything we learned today. Something tells me whatever comes next is going to be rough.
It’s strange having Addy here with me. When we were little, we’d pretend we were in space on these awesome missions. We were so excited to begin our Bounder training.
Nothing turned out like I imagined. I can’t keep Addy safe. I can’t even keep her happy with me. Our pod is pulled at the seams, and it’s not just because my sister is tagging along. Cole isn’t comfortable operating outside the rules, and Marco seems to thrive there.
Where does that leave me?
Four officers stand at the end of the hall. They must be the guards Admiral Eames said she’d send to make sure the cadets are safe. Guards or not, nothing about Alkalinia seems safe right now. Even with all the stockpiles of jewels and riches on this planet, the most valuable commodity is right in this hall. All the trained Bounders in the galaxy are behind these doors.
Once we’re settled in our quarters, Cole activates the SIMPLE. Lucy waves us over to the couch.
Marco flops down on the cushions. “Can’t we have a break before we shift back into secret agent mode?”
“It’s late,” Lucy says, “and we need a plan for tonight. Once we have one, you can do whatever you want.”
“I don’t like it,” Cole says. “Admiral Eames said not to do any investigating. We already defied her order once today. I told you I wouldn’t do it again.”
“Finding out what’s happening in our own bedrooms hardly counts as investigating,” Marco says.
“She specifically said ‘no nighttime science experiments.’ ”
“You don’t have to be involved,” Lucy says.
“Plus, there won’t be any experiments!” I say. “All we’re going to do is observe! Observe, hypothesize, report. Those are your words, Cole! We’ll observe tonight and talk tomorrow morning. If there’s anything to report to the admiral, we’ll do it! Okay?”
“You promise?” Cole asks.
I nod and discreetly cross my fingers behind my back. I’m not sure telling Admiral Eames is going to be the best idea, but we don’t need to decide tonight.
“Fine,” Cole says, “but keep me out of it.”
“No problem,” Lucy says. “Tell us again what you’ve been seeing at night, Jasper.”
“Well, I’m not entirely sure what’s real, but . . .” I tell them about how I’m lying on a bed in a bright, hospital-like room. Alks check gauges and monitors as they hiss and click to one another. They inject my neck with yellow fluid from the vials we saw earlier today. My eyes are open, and I can see, but I can’t move, except that one time I tried to escape. And since they talk in Alkalinian, I can’t understand anything the Alks say.
“Don’t forget that I heard the alarm last night and saw bright lights under your doors!” Lucy interjects. She nods at me to continue.
“One night I felt like Mira was calling to me. I was sure it was a dream, but again I felt like I couldn’t move. I struggled and finally managed to sit up, but when I did, I had the sensation that everything in the room shifted back into place.”
“That’s possible!” Cole said. “This is all VR. Remember how this room looked when we first came in? And how the VR gym at the abandoned habitat can shift?”
“Exactly.” I explain how I could still hear Mira calling for me through the brain patch. I ran to her door and couldn’t get in, but eventually the door unlocked and I found her safe in bed. Still, though, I couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d been trying to reach me moments before.
“I’m not sure how we find out the truth,” I say once I’ve shared the details of my might-not-be dreams.
“Well, for starters,” Lucy says, “don’t eat!”
As if on cue, the gears turn in the wall and out pops the nightly buffet. The smell of garlic bread races through the room and calls me to the table.
“What?” I can already taste the buttery bread in my mouth.
“We talked about this last night, Jasper,” Lucy says. “There’s something in the food knocking all of us out, and I’m betting it’s venom. That’s why we’ve been sleeping for fifteen hours every night. The first week we slept for days at a time.”
“No one said anything about not eating,” Marco says. He’s also eyeing the buffet. I think the chicken quesadillas might be calling his name.
“I think some of us should eat normally,” Lucy says. “We don’t want the Alks to know we’re onto them. If the whole pod stopped eating and stayed up all night, I’m pr
etty sure they’d be clued in. Steve already knows that Jasper hasn’t been feeling well, so hopefully it won’t raise any suspicions.”
“So what do you propose?” Cole asks.
“Everyone goes to sleep except me and Jasper,” Lucy says. “Once the bright lights switch on in the bedrooms, we’ll see what the Alks are really up to.”
“How are you going to do that?” Marco asks. “I thought you said the doors are locked.”
The patch. Mira sends me an image of us forming a mental link through our brain patches. It would let me see what she sees while she’s in her quarters.
“That will never work,” I say.
“Gee, thanks for your vote of confidence,” Lucy says.
“I wasn’t talking to you, I was talking to Mira.”
Lucy rolls her eyes. “And?”
“And she suggested we link up so that I can spy on her while she sleeps. Basically, my brain could use her eyes. If the Alks are injecting venom or running tests on her in the bedroom, I would see it, even if I were sitting out here on the couch.”
“Sounds like a pretty good idea to me,” Marco says.
“Yeah, except it will never work.”
It will.
“It won’t.”
It will.
“It won’t!”
“Will you knock it off with the brain-talk!” Lucy says. “I’m with Mira. Give it a try. What’s the worst thing that could happen? It doesn’t work so we need a new plan? That’s no worse than where we are right now.”
We can practice.
Practice? That means one-on-one time with Mira. What would I rather do, spend time with Mira, or eat loads of garlic bread and pass out on my bed and be poked and prodded by Alks?
“Fine,” I say. “But I’m starving.”
“Make a plate for later,” Lucy says. “You can eat after we spy.”
21
AFTER A FORTY-FIVE-MINUTE BREAK—HALF OF which I spend torturing myself by watching Marco ingest a whole quesadilla and two dozen buffalo wings, and the other half I spend getting annihilated by Cole in the hand-to-hand combat level in Evolution—Mira creeps into my brain and sets off a burst of sparkly lights.
I fall out of my chair in alarm. “Don’t do that!” I say to Mira. “You scared me!”
The Forgotten Shrine Page 19