“That is not for you to decide,” Brecken said irritably. “The question here is, can you do it?”
“Theoretically, yes, but why would you need that much hydrogen?” She flung her hand in the direction of thousands of gallons of perfectly drinkable water.
“Fuel cell energy,” Dean offered. “Cheap, clean energy no one else could manage on this scale without you.”
“Renewable energy,” Brecken added. “And with the help of the very talented Tessa St. James, cheaper than cheap. No one else bothers with electrolysis on a large scale because it takes more energy to produce pure hydrogen than that hydrogen yields. But with you, we get the energy without all the hassle.”
“You have no idea what you're asking.” Tessa felt sick. She couldn't do this. She'd have to go home a complete failure.
“Tell me this isn't going to be a problem, Tessa. We've gone to a lot of trouble to bring you here.”
“I-you realize how difficult this will be? How exhausting … and painful it will be for me to do this? Removing toxins from water is easy enough because they don't belong. But even that can make me terribly ill, depending on what's in the water. Removing everything so that the only thing left behind is pure hydrogen … it will be like ripping myself apart to get through a gallon.”
“Well, this is the only thing required of you. You'll have twelve to sixteen hours each day. You may rest when you need it. But we expect a certain output, and we expect that output to increase over time.”
“It will take me a year to get through one or two of these drums.”
“That's not acceptable. We are aiming for ten thousand gallons of water to be converted to pure, liquid hydrogen this year. You will work in the lab daily until you meet your quota.”
“I-I'll do my best.” Tessa wanted to cry. She'd always seen her gift as a beautiful thing she could give to the world. To take her completely out of nature, putting her into a clinical lab, it would be torture. A perverse use of her gift. What had Soma committed her to?
“Your best is all we expect of you.”
Tessa's mind reeled with disappointment. They wanted cheap, clean energy with an endless supply only she could provide. They would make millions off her back, through her blood, sweat, and tears.
A shot of cold, stark reality rippled through her. How long would this go on?
~~~
“Dean, you have such a remarkable gift. I've never seen anything quite like it.” Brecken clapped him on the back as they walked through the maze of water drums, each containing one thousand gallons of water Tessa would have to practically kill herself to convert to hydrogen. Heartbroken, Tessa struggled to put one foot in front of the other.
“And what amazing use of my gift have you all cooked up for me?” The fury in Dean's voice was clear. He was not amused by the way things had gone for Tessa.
He cast a concerned glance in her direction. He seemed to recognize how completely crushed she was over this assignment.
“We just found out about you, so we aren't as prepared, but luckily you don't need much to work with.”
As they walked along a narrow pathway beyond the field of water drums, Tessa's heart dropped into her stomach at the sight of such ruin. Huge trees lay stacked in neat rows of logs. The ground looked like a minefield where ancient root systems had been ripped from the soil.
The pain of her gift took her breath away. Dean stumbled to a halt, his eyes narrowing with anger. His fists clenched tightly at his sides. If his gift worked anything like Tessa's, this needless destruction caused him the same physical pain she was experiencing.
“Priceless exotic woods grow in this rainforest. Species that don't grow in abundance anywhere else on earth. It's illegal to cut them down,” Brecken explained.
“Then why have you?” Tessa demanded. It was unethical and beyond reprehensible that they would do this.
“Because they want me to grow it back, so they can do this again and again. And again.”
“Correct,” Brecken said. “We will present the exotic woods as a newly discovered renewable resource previously hidden in the depths of the South American jungles. Valkyrie Enterprises will have a corner on the exotic woods market, not to mention the rare flowers and anything else you manage to grow for us.”
“It hurts him,” Tessa said, anger vibrating in her voice. “The use of his gift in this way … for both of us … it goes against nature. Our gifts are environmental, and you're asking us to rape the world of its resources for money!”
“So you do get it,” Brecken said coldly. “Anything less than what we've asked of you is unacceptable, and there will be punishments. If you cooperate and get on board, you will be rewarded. Any stress your job requires of you will be treated immediately … if your performance meets expectations. You can live like royalty here. Or we can do this the hard way. It's entirely up to you.”
~~~
CHAPTER
TEN
“How do you do it, Dean?” Tessa asked. “How do you take it all in stride the way you do?”
He shrugged, easing back into his ridiculous leather recliner in their living room. She'd asked for a comfortable armchair; he'd asked for the most hideous, leather Barcalounger they could find.
“It's not like we really have a choice, Tessa.” He pulled her down beside him.
Tessa lay her head on his chest, begrudgingly admitting the chair was insanely comfortable.
“I need to speak with Jayesh. This isn't right. We shouldn't be treated like … like … this.” She couldn't even think of a word to describe the way they were being treated.
“Well, it's not like Brecken is going to let you borrow his phone anytime soon.”
“It's exhausting, what they have us doing. What you go through every day.” She looked up at him. “The stress on your gift. The pain it causes you when they tear down the forests you've created with your bare hands. It's unbearable to watch.”
“I'm familiar with that particular torture.” He stroked the length of her arms. “You work yourself to the bone every day. It kills me when I have to carry you out of that lab because you're in so much pain you can't walk. And yet you hit your quotas every time. That's why we get to enjoy our creature comforts here in the loft. This is our home, Tessa. When we're here, it's just us and nothing out there can touch us.”
“You're right. We shouldn't even talk about what goes on out there. The loft needs to be our happy place.”
Brecken was true to his word. The day they found out about their jobs, they were moved to a two bedroom loft above the garage. They each had a spacious bedroom, with comfortable queen beds and their own bathrooms upstairs. And they shared the kitchen, dining, and living room downstairs. Even though they each had their own space now, they rarely spent their free time apart. They hadn't earned television privileges yet, so their waking nights were spent reading and resting in the peaceful quiet they only had when they were together.
“Hey, kids.” Brecken let himself into the front foyer. He never knocked.
Tessa scrambled back to her own chair. It wouldn't do for anyone to see just how close they were.
“You both had much better production rates this month than you did last month and even the month before. Great job.” He handed them each an iPad as a reward. “You are restricted to visiting two sites. Netflix and Primely. You can order just about anything you want within reason. Your monthly stipend is in your accounts. Go nuts.”
Tessa stared at the screen with a frown after Brecken left. She tapped on the Primely app. The action was such a familiar part of her life at Soma. She cast a glance around the New York style loft, with the exposed brick walls and shiny, sleek surfaces. She'd never noticed it before, but there were a lot of similarities here to her life back at Soma. The way they were rewarded for a job well done. The ranking system. She glanced down at the yellow stripes on her shirt. She'd earned a few more accolades since she'd taken the yellow uniform. With each passing day, they cooperated just a little bit
more, acclimating to the way of life here. They lived in luxurious accommodations with all the comforts they needed. A special thanks for how difficult and physically demanding their jobs were. Now they had almost everything they could desire at their fingertips. And every month they banked a nice salary, never having to spend a dime on living expenses. Tessa was able to send her mother a larger stipend that had allowed her to quit one of her jobs. Being able to do that for her mom had made much of this experience worth it. But what was all of this?
“Let's get one of those fancy coffee machines,” Dean suggested.
Tessa let out a strangled shriek as she threw the iPad across the room, watching it shatter against the wall. “How could I have been so blind?”
She had the word for it now: slave. Tessa St. James was a slave. She'd been a slave her whole life and never realized it until this very moment.
“I'm such an idiot.” She gripped the edges of her chair, fighting the urge to throw it. All her life she'd done what was asked of her as those she trusted trained her to be an arrogant fool, too stupid to see the shiny things they threw at her were nothing but treats you'd give a dog for good behavior.
Dean knelt in front of her, prying her hands from the armrests. “I take it you get it now?”
She nodded as tears of frustration streaked down her face. She moaned like a wounded animal, fighting to take a breath. Tessa met his cold gaze and saw the hate in his eyes. Not for her, but for what had been done to them.
She touched his face where he'd been injured upon his arrival at Soma. He hadn't joined. He wasn't a recruit. They'd taken him by force. Ripped him from his family. And he'd protected her from that knowledge.
Her gaze hardened as she gripped his hands. “How much do you think Soma made when they sold us to Vivian?”
~~~
“So that's why you've been so agreeable since we got here?” Tessa shook her head as they walked across the grassy hills behind the loft. Dean wasn't sure it was safe for them to talk freely in their home. They only spoke of their escape when they were certain they were alone. In the weeks since Tessa finally saw the truth, they'd continued to perform well in their jobs. As they earned more privileges, Brecken's watchful eye began to relax, and they had more free time.
“Make your enemy feel like they've conquered you, and they'll grow complacent, thinking they have the upper hand.”
“Giving us the time to make our plans. I want to leave now, Dean.” She gazed into the rainforest, thinking they could conquer whatever was out there as long as they stayed together.
“We have to take this slow. Everyone here needs to believe we are satisfied with the way things are. Let them think they've bought us with the nice apartment, money, and frivolous things. We bide our time, get them to trust us. Let Brecken think of us as friends. We earn the right to come and go as we please. And then one day, we walk out of here and never come back.”
“They'll have ways of tracking us,” Tessa said. She had no illusions about her status at Soma now. She had been fooled by all the praise and promises of a great life with Soma at her back. Growing up in a world where she was rewarded for doing what she was told and excelling at every task set before her-it didn't set her apart from the rest. Soma stroked her ego, letting her and her poor mother believe she was truly something special. That she was better than others. Tessa wasn't special. She was just a gullible child who'd turned into a well-trained slave, and sacrificed her life with her mother for nothing.
“We'll deal with that when the time comes. The plan now is to get them to trust us enough to give us all the freedoms we can earn. In time, we'll make our move.”
“Patience? I've never had much of that.”
“We will get our lives back, Tessa.”
“And then I will dedicate the rest of mine to ending Soma.”
~~~
CHAPTER
ELEVEN
Several years later
“Get up, lazy girl.” Dean jumped onto the bed they shared in the little cottage they'd earned more than a year ago. It was Tessa's happy place. When they were in their home, everything else paled in comparison to the life they had under this roof. “It's Sunday, Tessa.”
“Our day.” She sat up, her messy blond hair falling around her shoulders.
“Ready for a hike?” He leaned in for a kiss. “Or will it be another Sunday spent in bed? Your choice.”
“A hike to our valley?”
“Of course.”
“Meet you out front in twenty minutes.” She jumped out of the bed and scrambled to find her hiking clothes.
Thanks to Brecken, they had a little piece of land that was all theirs. A place to heal the wounds inflicted by the work they did for Valkyrie enterprises. Six months into their assignment, both Tess and Dean had grown dangerously ill. Fletcher Dyson actually came to visit them. He immediately recognized the source of their bad health. The work they were forced to do was such a perverse use of their gifts that they were suffering the consequences. It was Brecken's idea to give them the valley. A place where they could go to use their gifts in their own ways-how they were meant to be used. Fletcher made it happen, despite his wife's vehement disapproval. Vivian never deigned to visit them, but allowed this one small kindness because it improved her bottom line.
The valley was theirs, and it gave them an outlet to ease their physical pain. As a result, Dean and Tess grew healthy again.
“I wish we could move our little house there,” Tess said as she joined Dean on their front porch. Together, they set off across the grassy lawn to the trail leading into the jungle. It was a short hike to their valley.
When they'd first arrived, the valley was nothing more than a swamp. Vivian gave them her most useless track of land, and they'd turned it into a paradise.
Tessa used her gift in ways she'd never dreamed of to restore the marshy land to a pristine lake of clear, fresh water with a beautiful waterfall. Dean turned the surrounding land into a lovely meadow, bordered by a lush forest with the most exotic species of flowers. Some she was certain no one had ever seen before.
“Are you happy here, Tessa?” Dean asked when they arrived on the hillside overlooking their valley. It was something he asked often when they were here. Sometimes the answer was no. She'd never be truly happy without her freedom.
“Today, I am happy.” She reached up on tiptoes to kiss the most important person in her world. The thought of being here alone terrified her. She thanked Jayesh everyday for sending Dean with her. She often wondered if he did it on purpose to give her a chance of surviving this mess.
“I want you to be happy every day.” Dean sat on the grassy slope, pulling her down beside him.
“Sometimes I think I could be happy with this life. It can't last forever. And there are times when it's not so bad. We're treated well. We have each other. It should be enough.”
“But it's not.” He sighed. “It's not enough for either of us.”
“Not when I think of all the kids Soma has exploited in the name of the almighty dollar. One of these days, we're going to make it out of here. And when we do, I'm going after Soma.”
“I don't know, maybe we should try leaving through the jungle,” he said.
They'd talked about it often. The day they arrived, Tessa had thought the way the rivers wrapped around the complex made it a beautiful oasis tucked into the jungle. Now, she realized it was a prison. There were things out there she'd never anticipated. The only way out of this place was through the front gate.
“We can't risk it. I don't think Brecken would really hurt us, but his barrier is so dangerous.” Just beyond the rivers lay a slice of the Dreamworld-their prison walls. If Tess and Dean ventured too far beyond the rivers, they would wander into the Dreamworld where they might be lost forever. Knowing so little about it, they had never felt confident enough to try it. They were stuck.
Tessa had a hard time wrapping her mind around it when she'd first learned of it. Brecken was a dreamwalker. A talent
ed one, which explained why he had become head of Vivian's staff at such a young age. The Dreamworld was an ancient place, and he was the first true dreamwalker born in many centuries. The way he spoke of it, he was a king there, and the older walkers feared him.
“He might be willing to help us,” Dean said. Over the years they'd all become friends, but they never forgot their roles.
“He is too distracted these days. Something's happening in the dreamworld he doesn't like. I heard him talking about it with someone on the phone the other day. It sounds almost like there is a war brewing there.”
“Another reason we shouldn't risk it.” Dean sighed.
Despite the friendship they now shared, Brecken had learned quickly that the best way to punish them was to split them up. They now had the freedom to come and go as they pleased. They could even leave the complex with Brecken as an escort and visit the Valkyrie Enterprise holdings across the globe. But they could never go together. If Dean left, Tessa had to stay behind. And Brecken knew there was no way either of them would ever leave without the other.
“Let's not talk about anything depressing today. This is our day.” Tessa stood and held out her hand. “Let's go swimming.”
“Don't shoot. I know I'm not allowed in the love valley,” Brecken called as he jogged down the path to join them.
“What's up?” Dean stood to greet their boss.
“I'm sorry to interrupt on your day off. I know this place is sacred ground, but you need to come with me. Vivian is waiting for you. And she's mad as hell.”
“Vivian? What could she want after all this time?” Tessa frowned. She'd never laid eyes on the woman.
“I don't know, but she's not happy. We better run,” Brecken said.
“Let's go.” Dean took off down the path back to the main house. Neither of them had ever stepped a foot inside the mansion before today.
“Through here,” Brecken said.
They followed him through the rear servant's entrance and down the cool marble hallway.
Immortals of Indriell- The Collection Page 125