Belle raised her arm, ready to let her spear fly, when a buzzing noise sounded behind us. Two small square hatches in the wall burst open on either side of Patricia’s portrait.
Chae Rin rose swiftly to her feet, her eyes wide. “What . . . the hell . . . is that?”
That was a machine gun. Two, one in each hatch, their barrels pointed into the room.
And they started firing.
Belle and I ducked to the floor, covering our heads while Chae Rin and Lake found cover behind separate suits of armor. Rhys had used the moment of confusion to free himself from Jessie’s grip. I could barely hear her gunshot above the rattling of the machine gun, but I saw the gun sliding out of her grip onto the floor as they both ran and dove out of the way. The bullets riddled the floor, turning right to left almost as if to make sure no life escaped its reach. The Haas family had truly spared no expense in the security of their secrets.
It stopped, maybe just for a moment, maybe forever. I didn’t know. Belle didn’t care. Once the coast was clear, she ran down the hall, crossing diagonally to the opposite end of the room to where Vasily was hiding. He came out to meet her, dodging the swipe of her spear, punching her in the stomach. Chae Rin ran to help but was intercepted by Jessie, who tried to catch the nimble Effigy with her fists. That wasn’t so easy with Rhys striking her from behind. Yet while Jessie fought her battle, I could see the clock reset. Ten seconds . . . nine seconds . . .
“Guys! Take cover!” I found a suit to hide behind. “Take cover!”
The rattling began again and everyone dove out of the way. It would go on like this forever if we let it. We were all going to die unless we figured out a way to stop it. But just in front of me, Jessie, taking advantage of Chae Rin’s distraction, leapt onto her, her head staying well below the rain of bullets even as they clinked against the metal suit they hid behind.
After a swift punch, Jessie started choking her.
“Stop!” I cried. Rhys tugged at Jessie’s leg, but he couldn’t do much while he tried to avoid the machine guns’ attack. Chae Rin was dying.
On my other side, Lake flung off her knapsack, searching for the cigar box while the bullets wailed overhead. She flung open the lid and grabbed some of the shards of stone strewn about the paraphernalia. Was she making a wish? But there was no black sliver in the stone she picked. It wasn’t powered up for a wish—
Then I saw the crystal phantoms stirring.
“Lake . . .” Slowly, the phantoms stretched their necks out with a shiver, the crystal crackling and melting off of their flesh. “What did you just do?”
“I just told it . . . willed it to . . .” Lake’s trembling hand dropped the shards. “It was the only thing I could think of.” The whimper in her voice begged me to understand.
Just like Saul who’d used the stone to force his phantoms to harden their bodies around the train in France. Lake must have remembered Pete discussing the stone’s power. It could control a phantom’s biology. It could make a phantom petrify.
And it could do the reverse, too.
If Lake’s plan was to distract Jessie, it worked. The girl had stopped choking Chae Rin just long enough for the Effigy to push her off her body with as much strength as she could muster. The crystal hides of dragon-like phantoms began to shift and shatter.
“Change them back!” I yelled, but Lake’s shaking, sweaty hand couldn’t grasp the shards of stone before the phantoms roared, their unpetrified wings crashing into the machine guns, breaking them to pieces. A hunk of metal flew at our heads. Lake and I left the shards behind to dive out of the way before the debris could crush us. The guns were out of commission, but we’d only replaced one weapon with another. The phantoms hadn’t fully shed their crystal skin when they spotted us and began rushing forward.
“Run!” Lake screeched. Leaving her bag behind, she took off, pulling me along with her. Chae Rin was on her feet too, and Rhys. Jessie, Belle, Vasily—friend and enemy alike made for the gates as the phantoms charged after us, destroying everything in their path. I could hear their cries echoing behind us, too close for comfort as we ran through the corridor that led back out of the hall. It was mayhem behind us. Bricks crashing, walls crumbling as the half-petrified phantoms stampeded after us. I was the last one up the stairs, and I could feel half of it bursting into pieces below me as the monsters smashed it. I managed to just barely squeeze past the open bookshelf and back into the Little Room, but the phantoms held no such courtesy. They crashed through the bookshelf itself, sending spines and covers and wood flying into the air. I stumbled over a globe rolling across the floor, but before I could recover my footing, a phantom’s wing slammed into my side, sending me flying back. I felt my left ribs crack against the door from the impact.
“Maia!” Rhys cried, but he paused and turned, staring at the phantom. Wincing in pain, I looked long enough to catch it too. The phantoms—their bodies were starting to dissolve. Maybe they already had been from the beginning, but it was more noticeable now. The parts of their bodies that had unpetrified disappeared first, but I was sure the rest of them would follow eventually. I could see the black mist sizzling off their bodies, their bones wafting off into black mists.
“It’s the effects of the city’s APD,” said Rhys.
The phantoms slowed down, but with parts of them still petrified, they wouldn’t be stopped that easily. With a roar, they smashed what was left of their wings into the wall and stomped forward menacingly.
“Yeah, time to go,” Chae Rin said.
I couldn’t move. The pain from my cracked ribs was nearly debilitating. Rhys scooped me up into his arms and, punching in the code he must have glimpsed from Vasily, carried me out of the room. Rhys and I ran across the museum with the other Effigies following close behind. But Vasily still had his gun—I could see one dart fly past Rhys’s ear as we neared the entrance. The phantoms did whatever damage they could before they disappeared, the floor rumbling beneath their feet. It didn’t take long. The last of the phantoms finally disappeared, their faint cries echoing into the air, but we were far from free. I knew it the moment we crossed the doors of the National Museum and into the open air.
We saw them lined up along both staircases leading down from the front entrance. The national police force. Sect agents. Some were on the ground, hiding behind the doors of their police cars. Some were standing in front of the Wenceslas statue.
And all had their guns pointed at us.
“Effigies! You are under arrest!” one agent said. I couldn’t tell who. But I was sure I’d hear all the juicy details on the news later on, if the helicopters above were any indication. “Put your hands up and surrender yourselves into Sect custody!”
I peeked back over Rhys’s shoulders. Vasily held Jessie back, both of them concealed behind the doors. Wordlessly, he parted his jacket, and what he showed me made my heart stop. The thirteenth volume. I’d been so concerned with running for my life from the phantoms and guns, I hadn’t kept track of my human enemies; I hadn’t noticed Vasily snake the book for himself. He smiled. But I couldn’t do anything. They knew it too. The pain in my sides was so horrible, I couldn’t even speak.
Jessie stuck out her tongue at me as they disappeared back inside the museum, leaving us to be captured.
29
WE ARRIVED BACK IN LONDON in chains. Well, at least they’d given us a bit of hospital time in Prague first. I heard they’d kept me sedated for about twenty-four hours, letting my cylithium levels rise to heal me enough for transportation before inoculating me again. They’d inoculated all of us, so they had nothing to fear while they hauled us through the front gates of the London facility in the back of a transportation van. They gave us the strong stuff. Top-grade.
What could we have done anyway, in front of the crowd of horrified protestors and fans alike begging us for an explanation or else just calling us murderers? The agents kept burlap sacks over our heads so that the news couldn’t capture our faces, but if the Sect truly wanted secrecy, they could h
ave taken us back through one of the secret paths.
Rhys wasn’t with us. Since he was technically an agent of the North American Division, Director Prince had stepped in to negotiate his “freedom” in Prague. The son was to be released into the father’s custody. For Rhys, that was probably worse. But as for us, we were going in the Hole.
Brendan himself led our grim procession through the same path he’d taken me before. Director Prince had apparently flown to London to advise him as they coordinated the Sect’s next steps. I tried to get Brendan’s attention without words, to signal to him that I hadn’t been responsible for the current state of his mother, but there was a wall of agents between us. I saw only a glimpse of his face before they threw me into my cell. I don’t think he meant to show me his confusion, his hurt. But when I grabbed hold of his pants cuff with my hands and spoke Rhys’s name, his expression turned cold.
“The Sect—maybe the people here—they’re responsible for what happened to your mother, not me,” I blurted out. I didn’t care how many agents were glaring down at me with narrowed eyes.
“Yeah,” said Chae Rin, who was fighting with her own group of agents as they tried to shove her into a separate cell. “The Sect’s corrupt, and yet we’re the ones being thrown into jail? What bullshit!”
“Stop,” Belle hissed at us.
We shouldn’t reveal our hand; we shouldn’t let on what we knew. I figured as much, but I needed to get through to someone. Saul’s clock was ticking down and time was almost out. Less than a day left. We couldn’t be locked up in here.
“You’ll be readied for interrogation soon,” Brendan said, his back still facing me. “Save your conspiracy theories for them.”
“Please. You saw Saul’s video, the message he sent all of us. Whatever he has planned is going to happen soon. We need to fight him.” When Brendan didn’t answer, I let out a frustrated cry. “Please! I’m not lying! Ask Rhys. He’ll tell you!”
Brendan jerked his foot out of my grasp. “Rhys,” he said, his voice hoarse and deep. “Rhys is my mother’s maiden name.”
He didn’t look at me when he left. I had to move my hand out of the way to protect my fingers when the agents shut the heavy iron door in my face. Three more such slams echoed against the cold hallway. The four of us were in our cages.
Time ticked away. Minutes. Hours. I was alone and shivering in this cold, tiny room, its walls of red clay different from the deep, blinding white cell Brendan had taken me to—the cell Vasily had been tortured in. Though Brendan had called that an interrogation too. Was that what we were in for?
There was no bed, only a dirty toilet I was never going to touch no matter how many days they locked me in here. The walls were soundproof, so I couldn’t know how the other girls were doing, couldn’t even ask them as I curled up against the wall, wrapping my arms around my knees. Vasily had already promised that Saul’s plan would launch soon. We couldn’t be here.
Hours passed. I didn’t know how many. I had just begun to fall asleep when the door creaked open.
“Howard,” I said. Or tried. My voice scratched painfully against the inside of my throat. I had just enough energy to lift my head. Howard kept his eyes concealed behind a pair of shades; maybe it was better. That way I wouldn’t have to see the distrust in them. In his standard agent black suit and tie, he held a tray of food. Beans, corn, and a slab of meat—who knew what kind?
“Howard,” I whispered just as he approached. “There’s something happening inside the Sect. Howard . . .” When I looked past his body, I could see five other agents, fully armed, including his wife, Eveline. She was in Lake’s room, directly opposite mine, giving her a similar tray of food. From what I could see, Lake looked worse for wear, and when she wiped her face and thanked Eveline, I knew she’d been crying.
“Ask Rhys,” I tried again. “Wh-where is he? If you ask him—”
“Agent Rhys is otherwise disposed,” Howard answered coldly. He didn’t get too close, but he was near enough that I could hear him speak even as he lowered his tone. “On a mission.”
“What mission?”
He looked behind him with a slight shift of his head and knelt down a few steps away. “Director Prince Senior sent him to Oslo.” He placed the tray on the floor. “To help stop Saul.”
The tray clattered against the cold floor. The terrible sound battered my shot senses as I stared up at Howard. “Saul attacked.” The words limped off my tongue.
“It’s none of your concern.”
I launched at him, desperately clinging to his jacket, but with a hand he pushed me back against the wall.
“I said it’s none of your concern,” he said. “In four hours, some people from the R & D department will come down to record your vitals and administer another inoculation. Until then, I suggest you eat. Unless you’re planning on starving yourself in here.”
“Saul’s finally attacked, and you’re keeping your best weapons drugged and locked up in a hole underground,” I whispered just as he turned his back. “Or are you another traitor, Howard?”
Howard didn’t answer.
“If Oslo’s APD went down, then there must be a ton of phantoms already.”
“It hasn’t gone down,” Howard said, so suddenly it gave me a start. “Not yet. It’s the most fortified city on Earth. Maybe that’s why Saul chose it. He’s sending a message.”
Through the door, one agent stared at the two of us with narrowed eyes. “Quiet down in there. Agent Day, if you’re done—”
“I’m done.” Howard got up, dusting off his hands. “Like I said, Finley, this is no longer your concern.” He turned his back. “The only thing you can do now is eat. Eat, Maia.”
Only my own reflection stared back at me from his dark lenses as he turned around one last time. Stroking the stubble on his chin, he left the room, slamming the door behind him.
The food looked sickly and dehydrated, as if it’d come from cans with expiration dates several years past. But my body was weak and my head was throbbing. I needed something. I pulled the tray toward me with a finger and picked up the disposable spoon, the only utensil they’d given me. Saul attacked. Oslo—that was in Norway, wasn’t it? But before, Saul had only attacked cities after their APD had fallen. How in the world did he manage to subdue the most protected metropolis on his own without the help of phantoms?
The food was ash in my mouth. It went down in lumps like coal. I had to do something. We had to figure something out, not stay locked here like rats, but for some here in the Sect, that was obviously the plan.
I prodded the mysterious slab of meat with my spoon—veal, maybe? I’d staved off eating it all this time because it smelled a bit funky, though maybe it was my imagination. I lifted it up to make sure.
Wait, what?
Furrowing my brows in disbelief, I leaned in for a closer look at the device that had been tucked underneath the meat—an earpiece. Dropping my spoon, I plucked it off the tray quickly and examined it. A little tawny-colored piece of plastic shaped to the curvature of the inner ear—it couldn’t have been anything else but one of the Sect’s communication devices, the same I’d used in so many of the missions they’d given me. Howard did this.
After rubbing the grease off carefully, I stuck the device in my ear.
“Hello? Hello?”
“Finally, you’re on.” It was Chae Rin. “I wondered whether she’d ever figure it out.”
“Well, Eveline could have been clearer about it,” Lake said. “I almost ate mine.”
“Lake, are you okay?” I asked because I could hear the weakness in her voice.
“Thanks for asking, love. I think we’ve all been better,” she answered. “Even still, we need to figure a way out of here.”
“They’re coming in four hours.” Belle kept her voice quiet, controlled. “We’ll need help if we’re going to escape.”
“We know.”
I sucked in a sharp breath. It was Eveline’s voice this time.
“That’s why we took the risk.” Howard.
“Howard,” I said, “you—”
“Don’t worry,” he said. “We’re speaking on a secure line. Though—” He stopped to greet someone. My earpiece caught the sound of his footsteps and those of others. He must have been in transit.
“We’re going to have to be careful,” finished Eveline.
“How many of you are there?” Belle asked.
“This is a delicate operation,” she answered. “We had to keep the circle small. But we need to get you out. Saul attacked Oslo only an hour ago. But we didn’t anticipate how he would infiltrate.”
I was almost afraid to ask, but I did anyway. “How?”
“With an army,” Howard said. “Traffickers, gang members, criminals. People on the outskirts with access to powerful military and Sect-grade weaponry.”
Jin was right. Saul really had been attacking and gathering up all those groups.
“Not just them.” It was almost imperceptible, but I could hear Eveline’s breath coming out of her in a shudder. “There was one . . . with powers. That girl, the one we met in the tunnels. There are dead bodies attacking with Saul’s army, and she is the one controlling them.”
“Jessie Stone.” My fingers naturally curled into fists as I spoke her name. “She’s one of the special soldiers helping Saul. We think she was created as part of the second phase of Project X19.”
“Project X19?” Howard repeated.
“Some secret project of doom we’ve been looking into. Saul and part of the Sect are involved. Phase II was called the Silent Children Program. There’re supposed to be two more like Jessie—the rest of the Fisk-Hoffman kids that supposedly died in that fire. Engineered Effigies.”
“They really engineered . . .” Howard caught his words.
“Gabriel and Talia are the names of the other two,” I said. “They could be there too. If you managed to capture one of them, you could interrogate—”
“We have to focus on the chaos in Oslo,” Howard said. “People are already dying, Maia.”
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