by M. K. Krys
The new ship turned then, and Beacon saw the mop of blond hair and freckles occupying the driver’s seat. Galen.
He’d come back to save them.
“Victor can’t shoot,” Beacon said. “The queen’s on that ship.”
This was the third time Galen had saved his life. If they somehow got out of this alive, Beacon would owe him several fruit baskets.
Beacon’s relief quickly gave way to panic. Galen couldn’t block them from Victor forever. Sooner or later Victor would figure out a way to get past him.
Just as Beacon had this thought, twin hatches opened up on either side of Galen’s ship. Massive metal cylinders whizzed out of the openings. Victor couldn’t shoot Galen’s ship, but there was no reason Galen couldn’t shoot his.
Victor realized this and quickly retreated, narrowly avoiding one of the rockets that Galen had sent his way. The missile blasted through the sky, exploding against a mountain. An avalanche of rocks and snow went tumbling down the rock face. Victor’s ship hovered in the sky a moment, before it zipped up and away, speeding out of sight.
Beacon raked a shaking hand through his hair.
“Is everyone okay?” Everleigh asked.
“I can’t tell if I have asthma,” Arthur said between gasps for air.
“Deep breaths, honey, you’ll be okay.” Arthur’s grandma rubbed circles into his back.
“Beaks, you good?” Everleigh asked.
Beacon gave a weak thumbs-up.
Their dad just stood by the door, completely unfazed. Beacon guessed that in this instance having no feelings wasn’t the worst thing in the world.
Outside, Galen’s ship touched down. The hatch peeled open, and Galen stepped out. Daisy walked down the stairs behind him, wrapping a blanket around her shoulders. Even dressed in a nightgown and covered in grime from the secret passage, she managed to look regal as she surveyed the landscape.
“Open the doors!” Beacon shouted, slamming his palm against the metal interior of the ship.
The door opened and stairs whizzed out. Beacon didn’t even wait for them to extend all the way before he jumped down.
“You came back!” Beacon slammed into Galen in the biggest bro-hug ever.
“I can’t leave you guys alone for five minutes without you almost getting killed,” Galen said.
Everleigh rolled her eyes. “I was just about to lay the smack down on Victor before you swooped in.”
“Riiiight.” Galen squinted suddenly, looking behind Beacon. “Hey, is that . . . ?”
Beacon turned, too, then grinned a bit. “Yeah, that’s my dad.”
“You got him out? Way to go!” Galen stepped forward and extended a hand. “I’ve heard a lot about you. I’m Galen.”
The twins’ dad just stood there.
“Shake his hand, Dad,” Everleigh said.
He did as commanded. A confused look washed over Galen’s face as they shook, and Beacon could feel his cheeks going red. He fiddled with the zipper of his jacket.
“Yeah, he isn’t himself. Arthur’s PJ doesn’t work anymore.”
Whatever Galen was going to say next died on his lips when he spotted Arthur’s grandma. His eyes darkened about three shades.
“What’s she doing here?” he said.
“That’s my grandma,” Arthur said defensively.
“Yeah, well, your grandma tried to shoot me,” Galen said. Which, fair enough.
“I am sorry about that,” Arthur’s grandma said. “I didn’t realize you were on our side. All I saw was a Sov attacking, and I shot.”
“You ran off before I got a chance to explain everything,” Beacon said. “We didn’t betray you and we didn’t plan to hurt Daisy—”
Galen held up his hand to stop him, then took a deep breath. “I know.”
“You . . . do?” Beacon said.
“Daisy explained. But I already knew, even before that. I read your mind,” Galen added, seeing Beacon’s confused look. “Back in the forest when I was, uh, choking you. Sorry about that, by the way.”
“You can read minds?!”
“All the Sov can. Not every thought, and you need to concentrate pretty hard and be close to the target, but I could tell you were being truthful when you said you weren’t going to hurt Daisy. Even if I didn’t really want to believe it at the time. I was pretty mad.”
It all made sense now. Why Galen had believed him that night in the alley when he’d told him he didn’t know what Victor meant about him saving the planet. Why Galen had suddenly decided to trust them at the aquarium, when he’d initially greeted him with a knife. Why he’d let Beacon go in the forest.
A new thought occurred to him: This must be how the Sov guard had been able to take Jasper’s form that night back in the underwater tunnel. He’d read his mind.
Shock and indignation warred inside him.
“Then I talked to Daisy in the ship, and she told me everything,” Galen went on. “She said you were kind to her. Most of you, anyway,” he added, shooting a look at Everleigh. “And that you have only the best interest of your people at heart.”
Even though Beacon was disturbed at this new mind-reading revelation, he couldn’t help the small smile that formed.
“Also that you smell,” Galen said, smirking.
“Not just you,” Daisy said. “All of you. Seriously, do humans not bathe?”
Arthur sniffed under his shirt then gagged. “I can’t argue with that.”
“Hey! It was your idea to get on that trash barge, Alien Boy,” Everleigh said, but she smiled, too.
“As much as I’d love to continue this,” Arthur’s grandma said, “by now those ships have probably doused half of the Eastern seaboard with toxic rain.”
Her statement cut like a knife through the lighthearted moment. Even Everleigh had the decency to look ashamed.
“She’s right,” Galen said. “We’d better get out of here. Victor’s probably getting reinforcements as we speak. Come on, Everleigh. I’ll teach you how to drive one of these things properly.”
“Hey, I was managing just fine on my own,” Everleigh said.
“That’s what you call that?” Galen teased. They all boarded his ship.
Well, almost everyone.
“Board the ship,” Beacon told his dad. It was starting to feel like he had a dog.
All that was missing was a wagging tail as his dad obeyed the command and walked up the steps onto Galen’s ship. Galen watched the whole thing with a deepening frown.
“No offense or anything,” Galen said, not taking his eyes off the twins’ dad. “But this is weird.”
Beacon knew his dad was acting odder than usual for humans the Sov brainwashed, but having it pointed out by someone else made him feel sick.
“It was the same with the townspeople back in the clearing,” Arthur’s grandma said. “Those people were more than the usual docile and compliant we see after someone’s been given the antidote.”
“It’s like they’re totally droned out,” Arthur agreed. “Like they’re computers instead of people.”
Beacon wanted to tell everyone that his dad was right there and they could stop insulting him anytime now. But who was he kidding? His dad wasn’t there. Not really.
Was it permanent? Would they ever figure out a way to get him back? Or was that night in the Sov’s underwater tunnel all those weeks ago the last time he’d really had a dad?
One look at Everleigh told him she was thinking the same thing.
“We know the Sov updated the antidote because the electrocution glitch no longer works,” Arthur said. “But it seems like they changed more than that. You saw Donna—she wasn’t as bad as your dad. We didn’t even realize she was a lemming until she attacked.”
“And what about the scientists?” Everleigh said. “They weren’t like Dad, either. They actually
cared about each other. Even the Gold Stars have more going on up here.” She tapped her temple.
“I have an answer for that,” Daisy said sheepishly. “The antidote has different levels of strength. For the different things the Sov need you for.”
Everyone turned to her. “They can’t brain zap scientists, or they wouldn’t be able to do the kind of critical thinking needed for science,” she explained. “But if you’re a lab rat and they plan to do painful procedures on you, it would be helpful if you didn’t fight back or complain. Each human they inject has had their antidote adjusted to a level that suits their ‘use.’ Now that Victor’s enacting his plan for domination and doesn’t need the brainwashed humans to blend in anymore, it seems he’s turned most of the antidotes up to full throttle.”
A sick feeling coiled inside Beacon’s stomach. He couldn’t help imagining all the things his dad had been through. All that he might have been through if they hadn’t saved him.
“I’m sorry,” Daisy said. “I’ve never agreed with what they’re doing. I want to do right by my people, but they aren’t upholding the values the Sovereign used to stand for. No one deserves to be exterminated.”
Beacon was surprised by the anger in her voice.
“It isn’t your fault,” Beacon said. “There was nothing you could do.”
“I tried. I really did,” Daisy said. “But when I spoke up, they just locked me in my room.
Daisy fingered her necklace.
Beacon didn’t know what to say. But then Galen powered up the ship, cutting off his thoughts.
“Buckle up,” he said, breaking the tension.
There wasn’t enough space on the bench seat for all of them, so Daisy folded down extra seats along the sidewalls. Everyone snapped into their harnesses as Galen got the ship airborne again.
Beacon tried to put what Arthur had said about his dad being like a computer out of his mind, but every time he tried to think of something else, his mind veered back to it, like a bowling ball bouncing off the bumpers. For some reason, it got him thinking about what he’d seen in Nixon’s file the day he and Arthur had broken into Nurse Allen’s office. All the dozens of injections Nixon had received because he’d gone “Off-Program.”
“Hey,” Beacon said, thinking out loud. “So you know how kids are called ‘Off-Program’ when the antidote goes wonky and they can’t control us anymore?”
Everyone but his dad swung around to look at him. He instantly felt stupid and was sure they would laugh at his theory. But they were all waiting for him to talk, so he took a deep breath and went on. “Well . . . what if that injection is a program?”
“What do you mean?” Arthur asked.
“What if the Sov install a mind-control program in humans via the injections, instead of using a disc or whatever?”
For a solid ten seconds that felt like a century, no one said anything. Beacon just sat there, feeling stupid and hot. Then Daisy said, “Well, I have overheard my guards talking about participant software.”
“Really?” Arthur said.
“Yeah, I’m sure I heard them talking about installing the participant software, or something like that,” she said. “I didn’t know what it meant at the time, but they could have been talking about the antidote.”
“That has to be it!” Arthur said. “Software is a set of instructions for a computer to perform specific operations.”
Beacon felt something flutter inside his chest then, a tiny batting of wings. Hope.
“If you’re right, this means I can hack the system,” Galen said. “Disable the programs. We can stop the attack.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Everleigh said. “Let’s do it.”
“I’ll need access to a real computer,” Galen said. “I can’t do it from the ship.”
“Okay, so where’s the closest one?” Arthur said.
“We can go to the inn,” Beacon offered.
“That computer is older than me,” Galen said. “I’ll need better tech than that if I’m going to have any chance at this.”
“We can’t go to the base,” Everleigh said. “That place will be full of Sov.”
“Unless it’s not,” Daisy said.
Everyone turned to her.
“I’ll create a distraction. I’ll fly the ship nearby and take the Sov on a chase while you gain access to the building. They won’t expect you to go back after you freed your dad, so they won’t see it coming.”
“That sounds awfully dangerous,” Arthur’s grandma said.
“And you don’t know how to fly a ship,” Galen added.
“No. But she does.” Daisy jerked her chin at Everleigh, who did a double take before she threw her shoulders back.
“Yes, she does,” Everleigh said.
“You can’t be serious, Dais.” Galen had dropped his voice to a harsh whisper, even though the ship was small and they could all hear everything he said. “You can’t put yourself at risk like that. You know the consequences.”
“I don’t need to be lectured by you, Galen.” She unbuckled her harness and stood up, letting the blanket fall off her lap. In that moment, she looked more like the queen of the Sov than ever. “I make the rules around here. It’s about time everyone remembered that.”
Beacon thought Galen would be angry, but a small smile played at the corners of his mouth.
“About time,” he said. “So what’s the plan, boss?”
Daisy looked uncertain for a half a second before resolve stiffened her jaw.
“We’ll drop you off in the forest close to the base,” she said. “You can travel the rest of the way on foot. They’ll think you’re out here in the mountains, so they won’t expect you, and especially not on foot. Then we’ll get their attention and make a spectacle while we lead them away from you. Galen, you do your magic, and we beat the bad guys.”
Everleigh and Arthur let out a cheer, but Beacon couldn’t join in.
“I don’t know about this plan,” Arthur’s grandma said, echoing his thoughts. “A lot could go wrong.”
“Yeah, like what if they shoot at you?” Beacon said. “You’re just banking on the fact that the Sov wouldn’t shoot at a ship with the queen on board.”
“They won’t shoot at me,” Daisy said. “They’d never hurt a hair on my head.”
“What about her head?” Beacon said, nodding toward his sister.
“She’ll be safe with me,” Daisy said. “Your dad can stay with us, too. He’d be a liability inside the base. Your grandma is welcome as well,” she added to Arthur.
“I’m going with the boys,” Arthur’s grandma said. “I couldn’t in good conscience let you kids enter that base without adult supervision.”
The kids exchanged a glance. They’d done a lot of dangerous stuff without any adult supervision, but she didn’t need to know about that.
“You don’t have to do this,” Beacon told Everleigh quietly.
“I want to do this. Beaks, none of this matters if the Sov win. If they take over, we’re all screwed. We need to do everything we can to stop them, even if it means taking the biggest risks.”
Beacon chewed on his lip for a moment, before he finally nodded. “Okay.”
“Great. Because I wasn’t asking for your permission.” She sat next to Galen. They immediately began talking shop, going over the control panel as if no one else was on the ship.
Before long, they were airborne again.
Snowcapped mountains and trees flashed underneath them. Beacon couldn’t see the on-land base under the swirl of snow and cloud, but it must be close. Too soon, they were touching down in a small clearing surrounded by pines. The hatch opened, and a gust of snow crystals rushed in on a bitter wind. Beacon zipped up his jacket all the way.
“Go east,” Daisy called over the noise. “There’s an entrance near the service doo
rs that’s rarely manned.”
Beacon nodded.
“Take this,” Daisy said. She rooted around in a drawer, then tossed something into the air. Beacon caught it. It looked like a two-way radio.
“We’ll keep in contact with you this way,” Daisy said.
Beacon flicked on the power switch. Loud static filled the air, and he turned the volume down.
“Take this, too.” Daisy handed Arthur’s grandma a small keycard. She flipped it over. On one side was some type of bar code, and on the other was a picture of Daisy. “That’ll get you in any door.”
Arthur’s grandma pocketed the card.
Daisy looked at Galen then.
“I guess this makes me officially not a coward, huh?” Galen said.
Beacon had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but it must have been an in-joke, because Daisy gave Galen a small, sad smile that he returned. “You never were a coward.”
They looked at each other for another long moment, so long that Beacon got the distinct impression they were communicating telepathically. Galen frowned, then nodded. Daisy swallowed hard, then tore her eyes away from him and took a deep breath. “All set?”
“Yeah, just one thing,” Beacon said.
Daisy raised her eyebrows expectantly.
“Which way is east?”
Daisy closed her eyes, Everleigh let out an exasperated breath, and Arthur’s grandma mumbled something about this not “boding well” for their mission. Daisy pointed.
“Right. Perfect, thanks,” Beacon said brightly.
Then he looked at his sister. He opened his mouth to say goodbye, but she said, “Don’t,” in a tone that left no room for argument. “I’ll see you later.”
“Later,” Beacon said. Then he peered back at his dad, who was staring blankly into the middle distance. “See you later, Dad. I love you.”
His dad said nothing. Beacon almost ordered him to say “I love you” back, but that seemed too sad and pathetic, so he clamped his mouth shut.
And then they were off.
21
They ran through the trees, their heads down against the punishing wind. Snow swirled down the back of Beacon’s jacket, chilling him to the bone. Before long, his fingers felt numb with cold. He didn’t know how Galen was going to operate a computer if they managed to get inside the building, but that was a problem for after they got inside.