“You mean sociopaths!” Gadya interrupts. “That’s what the two of you are. Two-faced soulless monsters. I always thought you were a phony, Meira! Now I know that I was right!”
“Why are you leading the drones now?” I ask Meira coldly. “What is your agenda?”
She laughs. “To turn them into soldiers for the UNA. That’s what the wheel is all about now. Creating an army. Those were my new orders, as of nearly five weeks ago. The UNA is going to use the drone army to invade and conquer Australia. They’ll be sending an armada of ships soon to pick them up. I’m just doing my job.”
“An invasion of Australia?” Liam asks. “Was the destruction of Destiny Station the first step in that plan?”
“Of course.”
“Why are the drones acting so differently?” I ask her. “How are you making them follow your orders?”
“New drugs. Ones that work better. That’s why the selection units aren’t picking up as many kids. The units have been busy dispersing the new chemicals everywhere. The chemicals shut down most of the drones’ frontal lobes, and create a temporary chemical lobotomy. It works on ninety-five percent of them.”
I’m horrified, but it’s what I already suspected. I vaguely wonder what happens to the other 5 percent of kids. I’m guessing they just die from side effects, or get killed by the drones. I also wonder why this drug hasn’t worked on the travelers. I assume they must be naturally immune to the UNA’s drugs, or they wouldn’t have lived this long anyway without succumbing to the Suffering.
“Why do the drones follow you?” Gadya presses. “Of all people?”
Meira smiles, like our questions amuse her. “As soon as I got word from the UNA that Liam and Alenna had escaped, and Minister Harka was dead, I was given this new assignment. A feeler delivered me the mask, the robes, a voice alteration device and speakers, and a document with instructions on what to do next. I went out and walked among the drones. I told them I had the power to heal myself—to control life and death. They saw my miraculous recovery and believed that I really was a god. Combined with the new drugs, they now do exactly what I want. They follow every word I say, without questioning me.”
Liam, Gadya, and I are silent for a moment. I never would have thought that Meira would end up like this. No longer beautiful. No longer sane. I see her split tongue flick out and lick her swollen lips.
“Why are you telling us this now?” I ask.
“Because I want to suggest a trade,” Meira continues. “What I’ve told you is only a fraction of what I know.” Her eyes look disturbingly ferocious and maniacal. I wonder if the UNA drugs are affecting her in some way, even if she doesn’t know it.
“A trade for your life?” Liam asks. “You want to switch sides again? No chance.”
“Not just for my life. That you come back with me to my drones. I’ll get metal masks made for each of you.” She smiles at us. “You can be my council of spiritual advisers. You can join me in my power, and we can rule the wheel and the new army together for the UNA. I will tell you secrets that you’ve only dreamed of knowing.”
I suppose that nothing should surprise me at this point, but I’m startled nonetheless. “You want us to switch sides? Are you serious?”
“Your cause is doomed. The wheel is mine. The army of drones is mine. So is Dr. Barrett. You will never win against the UNA. You will only suffer if you try to fight them—”
“Let’s just kill her and get it over with,” Gadya interrupts, turning to me and Liam.
Liam shakes his head. “No, she’ll be valuable to us alive.”
Gadya looks at me. “Alenna?”
“I’m with Liam on this.”
“Of course she is,” Meira says to Gadya with a crazed giggle. “You’re out in the cold. A third wheel. You always were, even back at the—”
“Shut up!” Gadya snaps, spinning back toward her and raising her blade. “Do you want to die?”
“If I die, another trained spy will take my place. The UNA has a contingency plan for my disappearance or death. Someone has to lead the new army until their ships arrive. There are others waiting for the chance. Someone will wear this mask after me, just as Minister Harka did before me. The UNA now sees great use in the drones, and in the concept of the Monk. Minister Harka did them a huge favor by taking himself out of the picture.”
We’re silent for a moment.
“We’re going to have to tie her up,” Liam says finally. More blood has soaked through his shirt from the arrow wound. His skin looks as white as paper. I go over to him.
“Are you doing okay?” I whisper. “For real?”
“He’s dying!” Meira cackles. “Look at him!”
“Stop talking!” I yell at her.
Gadya advances on Meira with her knife. “If you say another word, I’ll cut your throat and pull your tongue out the hole.”
“She trying to upset us,” Liam says softly. “She wants to get under our skin. She’s been trained by the UNA. She can’t fight with weapons right now—only with words.”
“You think you know me so well, Liam Bernal?” Meira taunts him.
Gadya moves even closer to her.
“I know your kind,” Liam says tiredly.
“Really?” Meira asks. Gadya keeps getting closer, her knife raised. “Then what do you think about this?”
Out of nowhere, there’s a sudden flash of light and an explosion of noise that sounds like a firecracker.
Gadya stumbles back. So do I, blinking. Where Meira once stood is just a drifting pillar of dark gray smoke.
“It’s a flash grenade!” Liam yells. “She’s on the run!”
Despite his injury, he’s already chasing after her. Gadya is rubbing her eyes frantically. She was closest to the explosion. “I can’t see!” she yells.
“It’ll fade! You’ll be fine!” Liam calls back to her.
“Let’s go!” I yell, dragging Gadya along with me, despite her ankle. I know we can’t let Meira get away.
We race through the trees, following after her. I see her robes flapping in front of us. She’s much faster than I would have expected. Liam is in the lead, not far behind her. Gadya is still cursing and yelling, limping along behind me now.
It’s clear that Meira is never going to be anything but a traitor and a spy. We should have killed her when we had the chance. But at least she gave us some important information—assuming anything she said was true.
I dodge a tree branch and keep running.
Liam’s injury is slowing him down. There’s a chance Meira will get away. She’s darting through the trees like she knows this landscape well.
I keep running.
Liam is still ahead of me, with Gadya trailing farther behind us. Meira is slowing down a bit too. Perhaps she didn’t count on our perseverance. Or maybe she’s planning on unleashing more flash grenades.
Then, as I watch, I see her nimble stride get rudely interrupted. She stumbles over a tree root and falls to the ground face-first, her robes flapping up around her.
Liam bursts forward, going as fast as he can. I’m right behind him now.
Meira gets up and glances back, wide-eyed.
But it’s too late.
Liam and I are on her, both grabbing at the hem of her robes. She tries to pull away from us, but the robes refuse to tear. She falls onto the dirt again, kicking and clawing like a wild animal.
“Stop it!” I yell at her.
Liam manages to grab her from behind, and he drags her to her feet. She stands there swaying as he presses his knife against her throat.
Gadya finally reaches us, staggering up with her knife too. We’re all gasping for air.
“No more running!” Gadya says to Meira. Gadya’s eyes are red and painful-looking from the flash grenade. Their lids are swollen to twice their normal size.
“There’s something you should know,” Meira hisses, baring her pointed teeth at us. She’s not smiling anymore.
I gaze right back at her. “T
ell us.”
“The specimen archive? What you’re trying to save so desperately?” She pauses. “It’s already been set to self-destruct.”
“What are you talking about?” Liam asks.
Meira stands there, panting. “Now that the UNA has found their new drug, they don’t need the archive anymore. They’re going to blow it up. It’s part of their plan to reduce the wheel to rubble, so no other country can steal their technology once they abandon it. Acquiring Australia and dominating the globe is their only focus now. The archive has served its purpose.”
“You’re lying!” I say.
But the gleeful look in her eyes lets me know that she’s definitely telling the truth.
“Our friends are in there!” Gadya yells.
Liam tightens the blade even more. I see a thin line of blood appear across Meira’s throat. Does Meira want us to kill her? It almost seems that way.
“Why are you saying this stuff?” Liam asks her. “Why would you give us a chance to stop the destruction?”
“There’s nothing you can do to stop it.”
“How long do we have?” I ask her.
“It’s already too late. In four hours, the archive will be in ruins. The charges are set. And you will all be dead!”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” I tell her. “We’re not only going to stop the archive from blowing up, we’re going to stop you from causing any more harm.”
“Nothing you do will ever stop me,” she says, between gasping breaths. Liam’s knife is constricting her windpipe. “Don’t you understand? I am the UNA. I cannot be defeated!”
She suddenly grins, opening her mouth wide. Between the two halves of her split tongue, I see a small, clear capsule. It’s filled with white powder. She holds it there for a second. It must have been hidden under her tongue this whole time.
“No—” I yell, lunging forward to grab it out of Meira’s mouth.
Meira bites down on the pill instantly.
Liam tries to grab Meira’s jaw and force the pill back out. Gadya rushes up and we struggle with Meira together.
At first, I think she’s fighting back. Her hand knocks out and hits me hard in my mouth with a closed fist. I stagger back. I bring my fingers up to my face. One of my lower teeth feels loose, and I can taste the copper tang of blood.
I’m about to charge back into the fray, when I realize that Meira isn’t fighting us at all. She’s convulsing.
We step back from her.
She falls to the ground, twitching like she’s in the grip of a grand mal seizure. Her eyes roll back in her head, showing their whites.
Liam crouches down at her side, trying to keep her mouth clear. Trying to keep her alive.
But Meira has stopped breathing.
There’s nothing we can do.
“Damn it!” Gadya yells, flinging down her knife in frustration.
Within seconds, Meira’s body goes limp as the seizure finally stops. The life has gone from her now. Her eyes have the glazed sheen of a corpse.
“She killed herself,” I say.
“Cyanide pill,” Liam says. He’s checking the body to see if she has anything on her that we can use. But there’s nothing. “The UNA must have given it to her.”
“I’m glad she’s dead,” Gadya mutters, rubbing her eyes and trying to clear her vision. She looks down and picks up her knife from the dirt. “I’m not gonna cry any tears for her.”
I stare down at Meira’s corpse, feeling nauseous. “She was probably brainwashed like her followers.”
“Either way, now it’s over,” Gadya replies.
“Is it over?” Liam asks, glancing up at us. “Like she said, there’s another person set to step into her place. And the archive is about to self-destruct.”
My mind is racing. “Do you think the drones know what happened to her yet? I mean, that their leader is dead?”
“Maybe,” Liam says. “But hopefully there hasn’t been enough time for the UNA to step in and activate her backup.”
A terrifying plan is starting to form in my mind. “Then we might have a chance to stop everything. If we move fast.”
“A chance at what?” Gadya asks, looking puzzled.
But I can tell that Liam understands. “To send one of us back in her place,” he says softly. “Right?”
Gadya just looks at him.
“We could take Meira’s mask and her robes, and send someone back up to the highway. Using the feeler to take them there and drop them off.”
“That’s crazy—” Gadya says to me, but then she falls silent. I can tell that she’s considering my plan, turning it over in her mind.
“Meira claimed that the drones follow her every word,” Liam says. “They’re practically programmed to. If one of us went back, there’s a chance we could control the drones in her place and make them stand down.”
“And then we could use them to break into the gray zone, and try to free everyone in the archive before it self-destructs,” I continue.
“We could also send drones back to help the scientists in the cathedral, and find my dad,” Liam adds. “I don’t believe what Meira said about him. I think he’s still alive. Either way, we would be in charge. We could release Dr. Barrett. The drones would do the bidding of the Monk, without even knowing that it was actually one of us.”
“If it works, we could liberate the wheel!” Gadya says, nodding. “Like we always planned.”
I stare around at her and Liam. “That’s assuming no one knows what happened. There could be cameras watching us right now. But we could pull it off if we get back to the highway fast enough.”
“We just need to figure out how to make the black box do what we want,” Liam says.
I nod. “There must be a simple way. David used the feeler to bring himself here and drop himself off.”
“We need to learn how,” Liam says. “We can strip the robes off Meira’s body. Then we run back, find the mask, and bring the feeler down. I’ll get dressed and we—”
“Wait,” Gadya and I say at the same instant.
Liam looks at us. “What?”
“It can’t be you,” I tell him. “You’ve got an arrow in your back! Besides, you’re a foot taller than Meira.”
“She’s right,” Gadya says. “Meira’s robes won’t even fit you.”
“The drones are brainwashed. They won’t be able to tell the difference,” Liam argues. “There’s no way I’m letting either of you go.”
“Liam, you have to. You’re bleeding.” I gaze into his eyes. “Trust us.”
Gadya stares at Liam hard. “If you go, and you bleed out and die, it’s going to be your fault that our whole plan fails. Are you willing to risk the lives of the kids in the archive?”
“It’s a risk no matter which one of us goes,” Liam says.
I take Liam’s hand. “I let you put your life in danger when you went to save your father on the hydrofoil. I’m not letting you put yourself at risk again. Stay here.”
He looks over at me. His skin is pale and waxy. I know he’s badly hurt. “If I stay, which one of you will go?”
“Me, of course,” Gadya blurts out.
I turn to face her. “Oh really?”
“Yes.”
I shake my head. It’s time that I stood on my own. The wheel has taught me that I’m stronger than I ever thought. But I’ve relied on others to help keep me alive too many times already. I think of my lost book by Camus. He wrote that only by facing the harshness of existence head on, can a person live their life to the fullest. I want to step up and be a leader when the occasion calls for it. In all senses of the word, I want to live.
“No,” I tell Gadya firmly. “This was my plan. If it fails, then I should be the one to suffer the consequences. And Gadya, you sacrificed everything so that Liam and I could escape from the specimen archive and get to Destiny Station together. I can’t ask you to do that again.”
She looks aggrieved. “Who’s asking? I want to do it!”
>
“I know. But it’s my turn.” I stare her down. “Besides, I’m shorter than you. Closest to Meira’s height. And I don’t have a busted leg and ankle, or blue hair.”
“There’s no way!” Gadya snaps. “I’m a better fighter! I can—”
“Let her go,” Liam interrupts.
I look over at him, relieved and grateful for his support.
But in his expression, I see a mix of emotions. I see the torment of him letting me go. The pain and hurt of knowing that I might not come back. But I also see the love and respect.
He understands that I will do anything to free the wheel from the grip of the UNA’s tyranny, just like he would. That’s one of the things that brought us together in the first place.
“I can’t believe you’re letting her do this,” Gadya snaps at Liam. “You’re supposed to be in love with her, aren’t you?”
Liam stares at her. “That’s why I’m letting her do it, Gad.”
“But—”
“But nothing.” Liam cuts her off. “She has the best chance of any of us. You know it. So do I. She can blend in better than either of us can. And I know that the flash grenade hurt your eyes. I’m betting you can’t see right yet.”
Gadya looks away. “Fine,” she mutters. “Just tell me how that stupid box works, so I know which switches to push.”
I nod. “I’ll try.”
I hand her the box.
Then I bend down and start pulling the black robes off Meira’s corpse. Liam leans down to help, despite his injuries. Meira’s limbs are already starting to stiffen from the aftereffects of the cyanide. “We better hurry,” I say, as we pull the robes from her body. “We don’t have much time.”
23THE RETURN OF THE MONK
FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER, WE’VE run back through the jungle and found Meira’s wooden mask. It was resting on the forest floor in the clearing where Meira threw it. I already have it on, latched at the back of my head, along with Meira’s flowing black robes. My hair is in a bun like hers. The feeler still hovers above us, ready for when we need it.
The Uprising: The Forsaken Trilogy Page 28