Rebellion (12 page)

“Off grid?”

“Not connected to the mainframe, so the hope is Mother can't trace us through them.”

“I sense you're not convinced.”

“Mother's smart. She knows we're here. She has to. And if she doesn't, she will. It's just a matter of time. I don't plan on taking what she knows or doesn't know for granted.”

He takes the second data screen from me. “Then it's time to work.”

For the next few hours we focus on pulling information off the data cubes. It's long, tedious work. And while I learn a few things that prove Dr. Friar's responsible for the new additions to the nanos, there's not much I can use.

It's Asher, sipping from a cup of electrolyte water, who finally finds what we need at hour six of reading the files.

A complete list of every person Dr. Friar has ever experimented on, broken down by experiment—or experiments—and dates. Including date of arrival, date of testing, and date of disposal.

And I'd bet money that's also a fairly comprehensive list of people who've gone “missing.” Of course, it's not labeled that way, it just says “test subjects.” Since these tests more than likely included some form of torture—how else do you test a device that causes a person's nanos to eat them?—I can't imagine anyone willingly submitting themselves to them, but who knows.

This might be just the thing we need to get people to start questioning, if not Mother, then at least Dr. Friar.

Or maybe nothing will come of it.

I drag my hands through my hair and tug on the ends. I
hate
being this indecisive.

“Are you all right?” Asher glances up from his data screen.

“I'm fine. I just don't know what to do.” I get up to pace his little dugout. “I want to share the list.”

He lays his screen down. “Some of these people's families probably still don't know what happened to them. Remember what it was like not knowing if Gavin was alive or dead? I'd imagine it's the same for these families. At least telling them their family members are gone can give them a type of closure.”

“I agree with that. I'd be helping them. But how do I do it?”

“Like you did before.”

“I can't just pop a list of people onto their screens with the note, ‘Do you know anyone on this list? If so, they're dead. Have a nice life.'”

Asher lets out a strangled laugh. “Well, no, I wouldn't be
that
blunt, but there's no reason why it can't say, ‘Is anyone you know on this list?' The list itself will do the rest.”

“Don't you think it's a little harsh?”

He shrugs. “Maybe, but do we have any other choice?”

“Do you mind going through the rest of that? I'm going to find Nadia so we can get ahold of Father.”

He waves me away. “Take your time.”

Finding Nadia proves easy. The area is small and most of the people here ignore my presence. They're not rude about it. Just … unsure of where I stand, I guess. And I can't really blame them. If the situation had been reversed … Say I'd been the one living in a cave my entire life, always worried that today's the day I die. Then here comes a girl who's never had that worry. Who is the epitome, and essentially the offspring, of everything I feared. I'd be more than wary. I'd be downright terrified.

But I have the run of the place, more or less. So I find Nadia as she's walking away from Dr. Moreau's dugout and tell her what I want to do.

She scans the list. “It is a sad day for these people. But I agree it's the right thing to do. They must know what happened to their loved ones and the woman responsible for stealing their lives.” She takes the cube from me. “I will make sure Father gets this.”

She continues on her way as if I hadn't stopped her at all. I turn back around to help Asher sort through more of the files, but stop short of taking my first step when I almost barrel into Evangeline. She's standing with a family. A husband and wife and their daughter.

They're obviously from Elysium and not the Caverns because there's not a smudge of dirt on them, not to mention they're a bit more … fleshed out than the people living here. Probably because they get more to eat than the mush that's all the Caverns have to offer. The parents are both tall and Mother's requisite blond with blue eyes. Their daughter is a perfect mix of both of them.

Evangeline gives me another of her hopeful smiles. “Evelyn, this is Kara and Tate.” I nod my head at the couple, not exactly sure what's going on, but willing to wait and find out. They are the first new people besides Nadia who've given me even the time of day. “They … they've been a part of the Underground for a while and couldn't wait to meet you.” Kara and Tate exchange a look, and a buzz of nervous energy tingles up my nerve endings. They shouldn't be here, I think. It's too dangerous to be bringing people here. I'm just about to chastise Evangeline for bringing them, but then the little girl, who's more like a little two-foot bundle of energy, captures my legs in her arms.

“Are you Miss Evelyn?” She stares up at me with big blue eyes.

I kneel down so I'm eye level with her. “Yes, but you can call me Evie. What's your name?”

“I'm Myra!” She grins at me, showing two missing teeth. “Did you really go to the Surface?”

Her pleasure over it reminds me of myself and I grin back. “I did.”

“Was it pretty? Mom says it's pretty.”

I smile at her and her mother. “Yes. It's the most gorgeous place I've ever seen. Especially at night.”

Evangeline, smiling, folds her hands, delight surging from her. “Come. Let's find a more comfortable place to talk.”

She starts to take us in the direction of the dugouts, but something makes me stop them. “I think I know just the place. Follow me.” I lead them to the artifact room.

The nervousness I'd felt earlier continues to stream through me, but I'm excited to talk to them. Find out why they joined. It had to take a lot for them to both join. I can't imagine what Mother would do to their little one, should she find out they're helping. That thought instantly makes me want to tell them to go back to their apartment on the other side and forget this place ever existed. But I don't think that they would listen.

When I show them the room, they stop and stare, then slowly walk around the room, taking everything in. Myra finds some dirty, dingy stuffed animal in the mess on the table and carefully takes it in her hands to show it to me. “Is this from the Surface?”

I nod. “I believe so. Yes.” She grins, then declares it's hers. She looks so smitten with it and hugs it so tightly, I don't have the heart to tell her to leave it. In fact, I start going through the piles on the floor looking for more toys for her to take or at least play with while she's here.

A few minutes into the hunt, Kara kneels down next to me. “Still into the Surface treasures, aren't you?”

I frown at her as my heart falls into my stomach. There's only one person besides Mother who knew that, and he's dead.

She smiles knowingly at me. “Timothy was my brother.” It's said so quietly I'm almost sure I'm mistaken.

“What?” I whisper.

“I'm Timothy's sister.”

I stand so fast the blood rushes from my head and I sway as a wave of dizziness washes over me. I grab the nearest seat and sit in it before I fall over and pass out. Kara takes the neighboring chair.

“You remember him then.”

I nod, because I don't know what else to do. Of course I remember him. I was just thinking about him.

She smiles at Tate as if this is just what she wanted to hear. “My parents were both part of the Underground. They were friends with your mom. My mom and yours were extremely close and I think she was the only one who knew who your real father was. But she's also extremely loyal, so she kept to herself until your mother came to her for help when Father decided to restart the Underground. We've been a part of it since then.”

“And Timothy?”

She exchanges a look with Tate, her lip trembling slightly. “He was, too.” She smiles at me and places her hand on my leg. “He was so thrilled when Father told him that they needed him to become your Suitor and convince you to Couple with him. He couldn't wait to start.”

Ice water flows through my veins as my memories of him take on new meanings. I'm numb, but my heart pinches at the same time. “He was
chosen
to be my Suitor?”

Something in my voice obviously hints at my distress, because Tate touches my shoulder, but I can't even look at him. I turn toward the table and grab the coin I'd been playing with yesterday. Timothy was a lie, too? Everything that happened to us? My heart cracks a little more, allowing more of my icy blood to numb my body.

“It was just a mission for him when he started,” Tate says. “He went into it fully expecting for this to be just like any of the others he'd been asked to do, but that changed the first day he saw you.” He pauses, but I can't stop staring at the coin. “A few months after that he told me he was compromised.”

I look up at him through tear-filled eyes. “What does that mean?”

He gives me a sad smile. “He loved you, Evie. He was compromised. He was no longer an impartial member of the Underground.”

I take the coin and hold it tightly. “I loved him, too,” I say quietly, trying to wrap my brain around this newest info. “Mother stole the emotions I felt for him, but I still have the memories.” I glance at the coin. “It's like those memories are from someone else. Like I'm reading them from a book, but I loved him. I know that. And I know I'm the one who killed him.”

Kara glances at Evangeline and something passes through her eyes. Tate grabs my shoulder, his fingers pinching into my skin. “Mother made you do it?”

Tears spill down my cheeks as a crack finally opens the fuzzy door between me and those memories. “She made me watch. Made sure I knew it was my fault he was killed. That if I'd just chosen the Guard over Timothy, that he'd still be alive. I tried to stop her, but she gave the order and the Enforcer didn't even hesitate. He died in my arms and then Mother took even my memories of him away.”

Kara lets out a breath and says my name. I glance up at her. Her eyes are red and sparkle with tears. “He knew it was a risk. He knew it was even more of one when he fell for you. But he knew you loved him.” She reaches a hand out to me and squeezes mine. “He'd be so happy that you remember him now and that you're going to help take Mother down.” Then she smiles at me. “And he'd be happy you found your Surface Dweller.”

I don't know whether or not to feel guilty. I should. But when I fell in love with Gavin, I didn't remember Timothy. According to what Mother reprogrammed my brain to think, Timothy had never existed.

Myra pulls on the hem of my dress and I realize she must have heard everything. She lifts her arms to me in the universal sign of “pick me up,” so I do and she hugs me so tightly I'm surprised at the strength in her arms. “Are you my aunt?” she asks.

Tate and Kara immediately try to shush her, but for some reason, her simple question makes me feel better and I smile at her and return the hug. “Of course. Nothing would make me happier.”

For the next few hours, I talk with Kara and Tate. They fill in gaps I had of Timothy and tell me stories of him when he was young. And I, even though it's embarrassing, tell them of the times we were together. Of how we'd spend hours just talking. Or sometimes of how we'd just sit, doing nothing and enjoying the time we had together. It seems to give Kara peace. At least a little bit.

She tells me of her parents and Tate embarrasses her with his own childhood memories of them. And when Kara asks about Gavin, I tell them everything. Of the Surface and how at points it's scary, but most of the time it's peaceful and amazing and beautiful. And when I talk about Gavin, Kara gives Tate a knowing smile. It should embarrass me I'm so transparent, but it doesn't. It just makes me happy.

And Myra. She's simply an amazing ball of energy that you can't help but fall in love with. Which makes me think I should make them stay in the Caverns. To not only protect them—the only connection I have to Timothy—but for Myra's sake. If they're found out, Mother will not only kill them, she'll make an example of them, like she did of Timothy.

But when I suggest it to them as they get ready to leave, they refuse and assure me that staying where they are is the best thing. They'll be able to give me eyes and ears where I don't have them. Help grow the Underground from that side now that it's sure to grow.

As a more than unhappy Nadia escorts them to the tunnels, I'm, again, hit with that déjà vu, sick-to-my-stomach feeling. But I watch them go, because I know nothing I say will change their minds.

That night, I'm preparing more files for Father to send out the next day, when Father and Nadia find me. They've gotten word there will be another assassination.

“It's a nurse this time,” Father says. “She works almost exclusively with Dr. Friar, so she's probably no innocent either, but we can't let her die.”

“Why are they going after her?” Asher asks.

I hold up the data screen with our list on it. “Because of this.” I let out a long breath. “They're going to kill her because she's probably the only one besides Dr. Friar with access to these records.”

Father merely nods and tells me everything he knows about the planned assassination, one he says he helped plan in order to give me more of an advantage when I get there to save her. I can't say I'm pleased he's helping plan these, but I don't see where he has a choice either. If he refuses, Mother will know something's up. At least this way, I have some idea what I'm walking into. I'm not looking forward to another confrontation with an Enforcer, but I can't let this woman die for something I did. Besides, she could have more information the doctor didn't have. Or at least information that can be used to corroborate what we found on Dr. Friar's data cubes. We could use her.