Immersed

by Jenetta Penner

  As she speaks, a realization comes over me. Kyra has changed since she confessed to me about her … assault. I flip through all the times I saw her in the last few weeks. The memory of her telling me what Representative Ayers did to her consumes me. He raped her, threatened her, and I did nothing.

  My insides ache as if they crumple into a ball and I rack my brain for what else I could have done. She wouldn't let me help, but I should have done more. I should have done more. No doubt they're maintaining these threats over her head; using her and making her comply with their will.

  I stare at Kyra on the screen, no longer hearing her voice. Even her face has changed, too. Hardened. Angry. This person is not the same girl I once knew. My best friend was focused but not ruthless, if anything, she was scared the last time I saw her. This Kyra's stare is determined.

  What have they done to her?

  Whatever it was, I can't let them keep doing it.

  Kyra leans in and narrows her eyes. "But my first duty is to announce the manhunt for a citizen turned traitor."

  My hands go clammy as she speaks. Tears burn behind my eyes.

  Don't do it, Kyra.

  To the left of Kyra's lovely, stone-cold face, appears the image from my Citizen ID. I gasp for a breath, but it suddenly feels as if a thousand bricks have fallen on my chest.

  "Avlyn Joy Lark has become a traitor to the people of Elore and the Direction Initiative. She is responsible for attempting to destroy the last VacTech update research, which puts Elore in danger of a potential viral threat. Lark is also responsible for the deaths of multiple protection guardians, and the destruction of valuable property at the GenTech facility."

  Still struggling for breath, I throw my hand to Kyra's face. I only did those things because Manning intended to destroy the majority of the Level One population because they were not intelligent enough. It had to be stopped.

  "If Lark is spotted in Elore, she should be reported at once. Anyone who reports her presence in the city, resulting in detainment, will be awarded an upgrade to privileges of the next Intelligence Level status for both you and your immediate family." Kyra scowls and tucks back a lock of golden hair which has fallen forward. "But I warn you not to engage. She should be considered armed and danger—"

  Gabrielle deactivates the screen.

  "No!" I yell, rounding on her.

  She grabs me by the arms. "You can watch it later if need be, but it's obviously upsetting you."

  Hot tears pour from my eyes. Is she being forced to betray me, or is she doing this on her own. I'm not certain anymore. "Why did she do that?"

  Gabrielle relaxes her grip and guides me into an embrace. "I don't know, Love."

  I pull from her, shaking my head. "I need to see Ben."

  I dash from the lab and find Ben in his room, sitting with his head in his hands on the floor. Spread around him is a mess of clothes, supplies, and clear, crumpled food bar wrappers. Stale air accosts my nose, most likely due to too many males packed into one cramped room and the lack of any fresh air in an underground living space. In the corner sleeping area, one of the three bed mats is free of trash; probably Aron's.

  "Ben?'' I ask.

  Ben jumps and sucks in a breath. ''Oh, you're back,'' he sighs, but then tenses as he sees my face. "What's wrong?"

  Wordlessly I walk over and slide my back down the rough wall to sit next to him. "Everything."

  He shifts his body toward me, guilt washing over his face "I'm so sorry. I was completely wrapped up in my thoughts. I usually choose to be open to your presence and emotions. Sometimes it gets a little overwhelming, so I blocked it."

  I tell Ben about the news from Thornton and Kyra's vid.

  "Those are the exact reasons we should get away as soon as we can."

  Kyra's vid keeps replaying in my head and nausea wells in my stomach. "I think we're wasting our ability by hiding—"

  "No, no, no," Ben cuts me off. "You told me staying at Gabrielle's was to get us off the map, and that was it. After that, we'd leave. Disappear. I agreed to let her study our ability ... but even that makes me feel jumpy."

  "I can't sit out anymore, Ben. I thought I could, but there are so many lives at stake, and we can help them. You and me."

  "Who cares about them?" he hisses.

  "What happened to you?" I tug the heart charm from under my shirt, showing it to him. "When we were four, you were the risk taker. You gave me this."

  "I was a kid. I missed you, so I stole something from Bess and gave it to you. It didn't represent what you think. You believe I'm somebody I'm not."

  His words punch me in the gut. The memories built from this necklace brought me to where I am now, brought me back to Ben.

  "You don't mean that," I whisper.

  Ben looks to the side. "Yes, I do." Black, cloudy emotions radiate from Ben, and I know he's lying.

  "No, you don't. You won't fool me. All those years, your memory was with me and pulled me through. The love you had inside you even as a small child was evident. I could sense it."

  Slowly he twists his head back my way and lets out a long sigh.

  "And I'm doing this with or without you," I say.

  "I already know you are. I can sense it. I just hoped you might change your mind."

  "Ben, I'm unwilling to let people die because I decided to be selfish."

  Ben stares across the room.

  "Now, are you with me?" I ask.

  He turns his attention my way, lips pinched. "My goal has always been to protect you, and if I can't do it by preventing you, I have to join you. You're right. Manning needs to be stopped. I simply didn't want us to be the ones to do it."

  I smile and reach for him, but he pulls from me slightly.

  "But I'm not going back to New Philly, and I'm not ready to tell Affinity where we are."

  The heaviness weighing me lifts slightly, but I'm as wary as Ben of trusting Waters.

  "Fine," I agree. "Let's go talk to Gabrielle. Maybe she can help us find another way."

  ~ ~ ~

  "Eat up." Sanda ladles a meat stew into a bowl and hands it to me. It's full of creamy potatoes and carrots, as well as greenish bits of another kind of plant. A different type than the one speckling the meal at Katherine's Café. I pick out a piece and taste it. Piney.

  I spoon the stew into my mouth. The savory flavors dance on my tongue. Meyer was right when he said Sanda was a fantastic cook.

  I lean over to Meyer and point to the vegetables. "Where'd we get these?"

  "Part of the trade."

  "And the meat?"

  I'm instantly sorry I asked as my thoughts roll back to the fresh rabbit we ate at the café.

  "While we were out today, Gabrielle had time to check her animal traps." Meyer scoops up a chunk of meat with his spoon and eyes it. "I didn't want to ask her what it was."

  My eyes go wide and a goofy grin crosses his lips.

  "Just eat it." He laughs. "Unless I should grab you a food bar."

  I shake my head. "Fine, just don't talk about it again."

  The meal really is delicious, a tribute to how tasty non-printed food really can be. As a bonus, we sop up our meal with generous chunks of grainy bread from the bakery. Meyer and Ben serve themselves hearty second bowls before I have even half of my food eaten.

  "You kids enjoy tonight. The rest of the supplies will go into storage. Back to food bars tomorrow," Gabrielle says in between bites.

  I groan. No more food bars. I lift my hunk of crusty bread and examine the fluffy texture inside, tiny holes speckled with traces of, what I now know from Sanda, wheat grains. I squish the spongy bread between my fingers and stuff it into my mouth, letting the yeasty flavor fill my senses. The perfectly sliced bread printed in Elore was never as tasty as this, but it's head and shoulders above the cloying fruit-flavored bars we've eaten since we arrived. I try to oust the thought of them with another bite of savory stew.

  "Plus, we should get this show on the road," Gabrielle adds, interru
pting my thoughts.

  Aron plunks his spoon down beside his bowl. "What work still needs to be done?"

  "First, I have to reach my contacts. But, and as much as I hate to say it, at this point I think you should contact Ruiz. I'm not sure how much longer it will remain safe for you to be here. You need more than I can offer you."

  I stand wordless as the pit in my stomach grows. I know it's the best choice. We can't go this alone, and Affinity is our only option.

  "Before that, Aron must complete my drones with the new parts," Gabrielle says. "I double checked them, and they look great. You made an excellent trade today."

  "Where did you get so many food bars, Mom?" Sanda asks, effectively lightening my mood.

  "Oh, I deal in information, and pretty much everybody needs some. Generally, I ask for food bars in return because I know the high trade value in the towns. I trade whatever I require for them. That, and there's always plenty to eat for hungry guests. Not that I have many." She raises her eyebrows in the direction of Ben and Meyer, too busy scarfing a third serving to notice.

  Sanda and I burst into a giggle, and even Aron cracks a wide smile. The two boys look up, both sporting baffled expressions.

  "What?" Meyer asks, shrugging. "I'm hungry."

  "We see that." I chuckle as he resumes his attention to his bowl.

  "Nothing wrong with enjoying a good meal, right, Meyer?" Ben adds while shoveling in another bite.

  "Mm-hmm," Meyer agrees, his mouth full.

  "Well, I'll accept that as a compliment," Sanda says. "And an indication you guys are equally as excited to do the dishes."

  Meyer waves in Sanda's direction without glancing up from his food and grunts an affirmative. Sanda shakes her head and returns to her bowl, as do I. It really might be the best food I've ever eaten, but food bars have ruined for me forever. So everything tastes better than those.

  "After dinner," Gabrielle says, "I have a few additional tests to perform on the twins. Avlyn, I could use your assistance with theories for infiltrating Elore's mainframes. If Manning is planning anything else, hacking in there is going to be our best bet, and I want to make sure we do it right. So far Direction has been the major aggressor, not Philly."

  "No problem." It makes me feel better that Ben agrees something needs to be done about the rift between Elore and New Philadelphia. Plans aren't solid yet, but once we get into the system, we'll get a better idea of what's left to be done.

  Gabrielle rises and places her napkin into the bowl in front of her. "There are projects for each of you to start on tonight after dinner," she says, then leaves the room.

  I look around at the remaining group. Each show signs of weariness from the job we have ahead. Heaviness hangs in the air, but at this moment, we're simply a group of kids enjoying a wonderful meal together. My brother is here, a dream I never thought would come true. Sanda laughs heartily and slaps Meyer on the back, apparently from a joke I didn't hear. Aron seems slightly uncomfortable from the volume of the others, he's a little stiff, but all in all he's made himself at home in the outside world.

  My shoulders slump at the impossible wish that we had the ability to freeze this place in time to create our own tiny haven and let the world fall away.

  Meyer reaches for the remaining piece of bread in the middle of the table, but I'm faster. I snatch the slice and have a bite into my mouth before he even has time to react. He chuckles and scrapes the remainder of his stew from the bottom of the bowl using the side of his spoon. I savor the stolen bread, making certain to chew deliberately slowly, holding onto this moment a minute longer.

  Chapter

  Nineteen

  I tap Ben's shoulder and he exits the Elore practice mainframe Gabrielle set up for us. It's not a perfect replica, but a valid starting point. Finding weaknesses is our goal right now.

  "You done?" he asks.

  "It's late and I'm tired." I rub at the tight muscles over my shoulder.

  Ben frowns, pushing some brown strands of hair from his forehead. "How are we going to do this, Avlyn? There's so much to sort through here, and this program isn't real. Direction might be hiding the information about it's attack strategies anywhere."

  "I'm trying not to wrap myself up in that," I lie.

  "Yes, you are." Ben removes the wiring attached to his temples and places it next to the system in front of him. "I can tell what you're feeling."

  I scowl at him. It's amazing to have another human so in tune with your thoughts and emotions most of the time, but also terribly annoying. However, the annoyance quickly dissolves when an idea comes to me.

  "We're searching in too many places. What if we could take everything out in Elore at once?"

  Ben tips his head in interest.

  "What if we took them off the grid?"

  He pauses to think. "There has to be some type of back-up system. There's no way Direction would make it that simple."

  "You're right, and I'm sure the data is encrypted, but I think it's better than what we're doing."

  "Yeah, it cuts our haystacks from ten-thousand down to a few."

  I have no concept of what he's talking about, but I'm too tired to ask.

  Ben laughs. He must sense my confusion. "It's worth a shot." He covers his mouth as he yawns and checks the time. "But I need a couple hours of shut-eye. Meet me at five?"

  Five in the morning doesn't sound all that appealing to me, but this idea is our best bet, so I nod. "See you later."

  Ben rises and steps to the open door of the lab. "I'll tell Gabrielle the plan before I head to bed."

  "Sounds good."

  I tidy the lab, throwing out a few food bar wrappers Ben must have forgotten and then walk to my room. From the hall, Meyer's deep voice echoes from a room on the left where Aron has been working on drones. I peer through the opening.

  "You know," Aron swings toward Meyer, "I didn't have a choice in the matter."

  Still unaware of me, Meyer straightens up, and two lines form between his dark eyebrows. "You had a choice back in Elore when you went into that building after Avlyn. You had no training in warfare. What were you thinking?"

  Aron scowls. "I was thinking the girl who was my future spouse pairing was in danger."

  "You two knock it off," I cut in, entering the room. "We are a team. Not this."

  Aron takes a step back toward the wall, holding a golden micro drone in his hand.

  "You have no frame of reference how the world functions out here," Meyer growls, ignoring my words. "And how am I supposed to know if you're trustworthy? Sure, you're doing this drone work for us that could protect us from Manning, but this was a guy who, up until a week ago, you agreed with."

  "Meyer, stop," I plead.

  "You're holding that against me?" Aron snaps back. "I had no idea what was happening in Elore. Nobody there does. We're bombarded with propaganda daily, and if you question the system, they'll cart you off for 're-education', if that even exists. When you experience something your entire life, you come to accept it, and you feel like a lunatic if you start to ask questions." Aron turns my way. "You trust Avlyn, and she was in the same place as me."

  "Guards didn't have to arrest Avlyn and detain her in New Philadelphia," Meyer says.

  "It's not as if I was doing anything wrong." Aron straightens and opens his hand to release the drone. The tiny piece of tech comes to life and whirs about the room. "None of this is about my loyalty." Before I can say another word, Aron casts his eyes on me. "You know Avlyn and I are friends. It digs at you, and maybe it should."

  Meyer stands near the door, silent. The heat of embarrassment climbs up my face. I like Aron's new-found confidence, but I'm also mad at him for his attempt to goad Meyer because of a girl. Me. This sort of problem was nonexistent in Elore. Competing candidates for a spouse pairing contract would never even meet, so jealousy or competition was rare.

  Maybe some aspects of the system in Elore weren't so bad after all. That and the printed blueberry muffins.
/>   Aron's drone zips around the room and buzzes no more than a foot from Meyer. Without warning, Meyer grabs it. "You're not coming with us."

  "Where?" Aron hurtles back.

  "If we aren't able to stop Manning and have to search for a safer place, Gabrielle will find somewhere else for you to go."

  Aron steps toward Meyer. "No way. It's not your choice anyway."

  "I'm not risking Avlyn to take a chance on you." Meyer squeezes the drone and smacks the thing onto the table next him. A piece of it breaks and flies off, skittering over the floor.

  Aron stands there, stunned.

  "Meyer," I warn him, "you should go cool off. We're not making this decision right now."

  Meyer whips his gaze to me. "I'm not risking you," he growls, then spins and heads out the door.

  The tension he and Aron created hangs in the air like a cloud. I move to retrieve the broken piece of the drone. "Here," I say, handing it to Aron. "You deserved some of that."

  He takes it without acknowledging my statement.

  "Can you fix it?" I ask.

  Aron nods. "I can fix anything."

  The cloud in the room lifts slightly and I chuckle. "I'll bet you can."

  Aron places the broken tech on the table beside him. "You're leaving me here?"

  My mind circles with what to say to him. I never pled the case that Aron shouldn't be left behind with Gabrielle.

  "I don't know. Plans have changed. Who knows what will happen."

  Aron crosses his arms over his lean chest. "I get Meyer's problem with me. Inexperience brings liability. If we have to get out of here quickly I don't intend to be responsible for risking you and the others."

  Aron's acting himself still. Logical, but with enough humanity to make himself endearing. On the other hand, Meyer is acting as himself, too. Impulsive, but loyal. He protects the people he cares about, and he cares about me.

  Aron interrupts me from my thoughts. "Avlyn? If things do go to plan, and there's peace again, what are you going to do with your life?"

  "You have no idea if that is going to happen. What we're doing is a longshot." I counter.

  "I'd rather think more positively than that." Aron grins and leans his hip to the side of the table. "I've seen your skills."