Barcode: Cavern of Youth (10 page)

He withdraws some of the older tools from his closet. It’s a box of equipment he made when Spencer was living.

The current one he’s holding looks like headphones with sunglasses attached. I’m not sure what it does, but it looks goofy.

Carmen and I ride the elevator to the thirty-seventh floor. “Are you really going to hurt him like this? You and Antonio are practically picking on him.”

“Not practically. We
are
picking on him, and yes, I will hurt him.”

“I read your thoughts. You’re still pretty fixated on Spencer yourself. He dances around the surface of your conscious mind. I’ve healed Seth two or three times and I don’t mean to offend you, but he seems to repress his issues more than you.”

Quietly, I walk to a maid’s office and lean against the door. The halls are long and lively on this floor. The walls are lavender and the carpet is white. They keep this entire floor immaculate. Hilarious pictures of the maids posing like the photos of previous Colt men at the academy decorate the hallways. Everything is neat. Nothing is out of place.

“Dennis cries himself to sleep every night. Though he smiles at me, I see his regret. He’s not treating me like the son I’m
supposed
to be. He’s giving me the affection he wished he had shown Spencer. Seth drinks because of the guilt he feels for helping me kill a guardian for the arena and for falling in love with Spencer. You think I have issues that deep? Spencer’s in my thoughts because I don’t hide from him. I keep him right where he needs to be.” I tap on my head to mimic Seth and open the door to the empty office.

After locking us inside, I force Carmen to sit in a chair next to the door. The room is pretty small to have so much space in this damn skyscraper. Maybe it’s bigger than it looks, but with stacks of papers, cleaning materials, and maid uniforms covering most of the room, I can hardly tell. This office is nothing like the hallways. It’s junky and smells like mildew.

The room stays empty most days. I assume that’s why the creature we’re chasing sleeps here.

For thirty minutes, I intricately place books on shelves and fold uniforms. I stack them on the desk, lean the mop against a wall, and balance the window cleaner next to it.

I unlock the door and motion for Carmen to follow me. We sit on the floor, directly outside of the office.

When we’re both comfortable, I say, “I didn’t know you could journey through my thoughts. Tell me something about you.”

“I’m from Texas, just right outside of your old hearing range, so you wouldn’t have noticed me.”

“Shame. You’re such a pleasure to look at.”

“Thank you,” she hums with a wink. “What else? I come from a family of purebred gladiators.”

“Meaning, the ones that are married and mated with others for the sole purpose of making strong warriors?”

“Yes.”

“Then why are you weak?”

“Aren’t you asking the wrong question? Don’t you want to know who my family wants to breed me with?”

“Not interested. Why are you weak?”

Carmen frowns and testifies, “Everyone is weak to begin with. I just haven’t figured out how to use my strength, yet.”

Her forced smile causes me to notice her sharp canine teeth. “Cute smile.”

“Why? Because Angie has similar fangs?”

“Wow. That had a hint of bitterness in it. Do you speak fast when you’re jealous too? I never mentioned the girl.”

The beautiful goddess prepares a comeback, but I hold up a finger and listen as the mop falls, causing the window cleaner to smash on the ground. Because I loosened the top, the liquid flies everywhere. The leg on the office chair breaks and knocks over a stack of books and uniforms.

Standing up, I offer my hand for Carmen and help her from the ground. She continues holding on as I lead her back into the office. Next to the desk, we notice a small figure struggling to free herself from eight heavy books that are anchoring a maid’s uniforms over her body.

I wrap the animal in my right hand and hold her up. She fights while wiping the cleaner from her eyes as I peel back the uniform.

Carmen says, “Awe. He’s so cute. Stop hurting him.”

“She’s a girl.”

The monkey continues fighting while I pluck a hair from her head. I planned on releasing her until she rubbed her scalp and made a faint, “Ow,” sound.

I hand the hair to Carmen and hold the beast in both of my hands.

“You can talk.”

The creature doesn’t reply so I pluck another piece of hair, but this time I open my eyes to see and hear things more clearly. Listening to her organs, I can tell the she’s very advanced, more than any of Gonzales’ pets. Upon closer observation, this small girl looks as evolved as liminal beings.

“Why were you always following me and Spencer around?”

She gazes into my eyes without saying a word. Her breathing calms, and she stops fighting, but refuses to speak.

Carmen leans against my back with her face pressed against me and pats the girl on the head. Though most of the animal is a monkey, the white fur, pink ears, and nose are definitely a rabbit’s.

“I’ve never seen a crossbreed of liminal beings like you. You’re not fooling me. I know you can talk and understand what I’m saying.” Realizing that she may only know Aeoy, I ask if she wants me to stop speaking English, “Bk o hiom wa mok omko opaioeog Aoegeoy?”

“No, brother,” she replies with a very adult voice. Her tone is motherly like Hayley’s, but gentle like Carmen’s.

“Why are you following me?”

“I was instructed to.”

“By who?”

“I’m not allowed to say,” her eyes water as though she’s in fear.

A sigh sneaks from my lips and a yawn follows. I shake my head and look into her eyes. “Listen, love. I’m not going to hurt you. Calm down.” Carmen’s eyes float towards mine. “What can you tell me?” I ask while loosening my grip and lowering her to my lap.

“My English name is Nevaeh. I am supposed to observe you until Master returns, so I may report all of your actions to him. But,” she tears up again, “I did not mean to cause you any trouble, brother. I will report this, I promise. I am responsible.”

“Whoa. Calm down.”

Carmen adds, “Then explain why you keep calling him brother.”

Nevaeh wipes her face again. The two women I’m paired with are emotional wrecks. Even Carmen’s starting to tear up.

“It’s not my place to say.”

“You’re going to tell me that part or I won’t let go.” I accidentally tighten my grip a bit and she fights for air.

She rubs her nose and mournfully says, “Everyone with the blood of ink are brothers and sisters. Master predicts that he’ll return within this year or the next to deliver the information himself.”

None of us speak a word for some time. Carmen’s the first to echo, “Blood of ink?”

I’m too afraid to ask what that means. Not to mention, Nevaeh probably can’t answer.

Her rabbit ears dart up and her body warms lightly in my hands. With her eyes glued to the door and her fingers tightly wrapped around my thumb, she pleads, “Brother, please release me. Father doesn’t know about my escape, and if he finds me, our family will be killed. Please.”

“Father?”

“He’s different. He doesn’t have our blood, but he created several of us. I cannot be responsible for their deaths. Please, brother. Please!”

Nevaeh’s pleading is frantic. As she pushes against my grip, I get a sense for how strong she really is. It’s quite amazing for her size.

At the last second, I release her. She dashes behind a bookshelf and into the wall. Seconds later, Seth opens the door out of breath.

He searches the room with his headphones buzzing loudly. As Nevaeh travels through the walls, the buzzing weakens. He seems crushed. To add fuel to the fire, I take the fur from Carmen’s hand and hold it up for him to witness.

Eight

After torturing Seth, Carmen and I head back to my apartment. I crash into my bed and don’t wake up until nightfall. Carmen curled at the foot of my bed. While sleeping, I watched as she had maids bring her food directly to my room. Whenever someone would enter, she sat next to me with her knees buried in her chest and one hand on my shoulder.

During her dinner, Dennis drags me out of bed. He practically has to carry me to the car.

The dark garage looks more like a parking lot. Though almost all of the trucks are military vehicles that can park anywhere, there are a few normal cars. They’re probably Hayley’s. I don’t imagine Dennis driving anything that’s not black and bulky.

We load into a military humvee and drive to the smoggy area of downtown Los Angeles, where the clouds are so low you can nearly touch them. City officials invested a lot of money to make sure this part of the town wasn’t abandoned because of the weather and pollution. There are so many fancy-smancy buildings in this location that you must be nearly as rich as Griffith Park residents to stay here.

Of course, there are local areas where lower class citizens live, but those parts are ignored by tour guides.

Dennis gives Carmen and me an unsolicited tour of the city. We pass the Department of Water and Green Energy. The entire building floats on top of a body of water. Scientist spent so much to make the building physically possible, they nearly bankrupted the city.

We bypass several dusty courthouses, an underground library, and the original city hall that managed to survive the Great American War. I don’t know where we’re going, but there has to be an easier way to get there.

Dennis looks back at us through his rear-view mirror. Then, he presses his foot firmly against the gas and zooms directly to the red-stoned Federal Building. It was renovated after the war, and now towers as a fifty-story structure. There are three helicopter landings on top of this monster, which makes me wonder why we couldn’t simply fly here.

We park in the red zone, directly in front of the structure. Carmen and I exit the truck first. She eases her body next to mine, but I don’t feel any warmth coming from her.

Dennis steps out seconds later and marches towards the building. He holds the door for Carmen to walk in first. She coughs when the crisp air inside hits her lungs. I continue observing Dennis without moving. He finally turns to me. “Why’d you come to the arena?”

The amount of guilt I feel can’t be explained. “Where is this coming from?”

“That’s answering a question with a question. Why’d you come?”

“To make Spencer strong enough to take on Helios.”

“Was that all?” Dennis huffs air through his nose and a small smile breaks on his face. “No matter what happens, never lose who you are.” Is that fatherly advice? Would he still feel that way if he knew I hated everything about big corporations like his and wanted to destroy it?

Dennis pulls me inside. He coughs, like Carmen. The air in here is much cleaner than outside, but we haven’t entered the actual building yet.

A loud vent under our feet activates. Carmen gasps as the cape around her waist is pulled into the tiny squares. She holds on tightly until the vent turns off.

An ugly pale face projects against the door that dryly and mechanically articulates, “Welcome to the Anthony Colt Federal Building. Please breathe onto the overhead devices. Make two short breaths and one long breath for optimal readings.”

Three small microphone-looking devices lower from the ceiling. We pull them to our faces and follow the instructions. Our results appear over the ugly man or woman’s face. Carmen and Dennis both show ninety-two percent. Three white masks drop in front of us as the voice continues, “To eliminate the city’s smog from your lungs, please breathe into the masks heavily prior to entering the building. This is an uncontaminated area, and we take pride in keeping it that way. Thank you.” As they inhale, the face turns to me and asks, “Why aren’t you breathing?”

“My results say one hundred percent.”

“That’s impossible. What did you do, enter in a bubble? Just breathe.” I raise my eyebrows, and the attendant begins typing on a keyboard. “What the hell? Mike, come here and look at this blind kid.”

Dennis dashes over to me once his results reach one hundred percent and slams the mask against my face. “I’m sure he didn’t breathe on the measurement properly. Give us a second.” My results remain at one hundred percent, but Dennis leaves the mask for a bit then says, “Okay. We’re going now.”

As we enter the building with marble floors and busy military officials rushing between the hallways, I tease, “Was that your way of staying low key? You probably brought more unwarranted attention with that hysterical move.”

“Yeah. Probably. Let’s go.” He rushes to the elevators at the far end of the building.

The interior seems more massive than Dennis’ skyscraper because of the open space in the center. There are small, round lights on the high ceiling that illuminate the floor below. The ground is burgundy and the walls are white. The symbol on the black welcome counter is Spencer’s tattoo.

Dennis rushes pass a man and woman in blue suits that are saluting “Senator Colt.”

Dad swipes his key-card for the elevator to open. Then, he pushes us in the doors and plants his fist on the button for the twenty-second floor. Right before the elevator reaches the top, he pulls the stop button.

Turning back to us, he commands, “Carmen wait directly outside of the elevator door. Stand on the left side, not the right. Which side did I just say?”

“Left side, Mr. Colt.”

“Excellent. And you. I want you to do one thing for me.”

“Nothing,” I answer.

“How’d you know?”

“That’s the only thing anyone would request from me so desperately.”

“Good. Stand in the center of the room. But understand something, if they begin charging you, I want you to grab Carmen and run. You can’t access the elevator, but I want you to avoid their attacks. They shouldn’t come towards you if you’re with her.”

“Whatever. Who are the seven blondes at the desk?”

The men and women are sitting on a high wooden platform. The largest and most threatening looking guy has a monstrous tattoo hidden underneath his armor. There’s a very detailed human heart across his chest with seven swords piercing through it. I have heard of the barcode. He hosts the power of Cronus.