Rebellion (5 page)

Luckily Father is still there and takes charge of the situation immediately. I try talking to him about what had happened, but he either grunts out terse answers or refuses to answer altogether. Eventually I take that to mean I'm in the way, so I leave Dr. Moreau and go to find Gavin.

I find him pacing in front of a little dugout in the Cavern wall. When we see each other, relief flashes into his eyes for that half a second before he takes in everything about me, including the blood staining my clothes. Before he can say anything, I bolt into his open arms. He holds me so tightly it almost hurts, but I need it. After everything that's happened, I feel like a statue littered with cracks and he's the glue keeping me from falling apart.

We don't say anything to each other. There's no need. He holds me for several minutes, while I rest my cheek on his chest and let his heartbeat soothe me … until a noise behind him draws my attention over his shoulder. I break into a grin.

“Asher.”

He stands just inside the dugout, leaning against the limestone. He's a little pale and he looks like he hasn't slept in a week. But at least he's not death gray anymore. Coming back and seeing him, if not well, at least alive and awake, seems like a pretty great reward for being mostly successful in my attempt to save Dr. Moreau.

Gavin lets me go so I can carefully hug Asher before helping him back to the cot in the cutout. He grumbles but doesn't protest, which tells me he's still not feeling a hundred percent, but the small grumble gives me hope it won't be much longer.

I sit in a rickety chair by the cot Asher rests in, my hand clasped in Gavin's when he takes the equally shaky chair next to me. I quickly fill the two of them in on what happened with the rescue.

“What do you mean his arm was
missing
?” Gavin demands, leaning forward so his elbows rest on his thighs.

“I searched that place from top to bottom, it's just … gone.” I spread my hands out to symbolize an explosion. “Poof! What was left looked like something had been eating it from the inside out.”

Gavin winces. “Ouch.”

“If what I felt earlier today was anything close to what
he
went through, I think ouch is an understatement.” I shudder again and let Gavin retake my hand. “That's not what worries me, though.”

“A guy's hand disappears and you're not worried about it?” Asher's voice is incredulous, even if it's weak and raspy.

I furrow my brow. “Something felt very wrong about all this. The Enforcer was the one from this morning. Not counting the fact she had that apparatus and the advantage, she took me out easier than I'd like to admit earlier. She should have been able to do it again. She gave up way too soon.”

“Maybe you're just better than you think,” Gavin suggests. “You've gotten your memories back, but your Enforcer Conditioning was the deepest buried and had the strongest ties to who you were. You could have easily tapped back into that. I've seen you do it before.”

I glance over at him. “There were several times she could have killed me. She didn't take a single one. Plus she dropped both the device
and
her orders. I'm not buying it.”

“Think it was a trap?”

“I don't know. Maybe.” I pause, then shake my head. “I don't think so. If it was just a trap, why didn't she take me out, or at the very least to Mother? Why did she leave all that stuff, including her target, behind? It doesn't make sense.”

“What did Eli say?” Asher asks.

“Not much. But he was busy.” I frown, rethinking our non-exchange when I dropped off Dr. Moreau. “I think she used that device on me when they tried to incapacitate me earlier. It felt like a worse version of when Father introduced the working nanites into me.” I shoot a meaningful look to Asher. “It's definitely something they're using to control nanos. I don't know for sure, but I think it did something to cause his nanos to turn on his own body.”

“Jesus!” Gavin hisses. “If that's true, we're in trouble. Everyone but me has them now.” He winces and gives Asher a sheepish look. “Sorry, dude.”

Asher shrugs. “Are you kidding me? This is the best thing to have happened to me. Did you see how quickly Evie healed? Now I might actually be able to kick your ass if I need to. I'm a fucking superhero!”

Gavin simply leans over and presses a finger to Asher's shoulder to push him back to the bed. “Lay down before you hurt yourself.”

Asher frowns. “Guess not.”

Gavin and I burst out laughing. “At least not yet.” I pat his leg gently. “Soon, though.”

Father steps into the room at that moment. “Well, this is a welcome sight. Finally the three of you getting along.”

I jump to my feet. “What's going on with Dr. Moreau?”

“Well, he definitely lost his arm, but everything else is fine.”

“Did he say anything about the gadget? He seemed to know what it was.”

Father runs his hands through his hair. “When he came to, he was delirious from pain. We've got him sedated now.”

I toss my hands in the air with frustration and turn around to stomp back to my seat. With him sedated, he's useless. Gavin gives me a sympathetic look, while Father looks like he's arguing with himself about something. Finally he sighs. “Just as the sedation started to kick in, he was able to tell me something.” I spin around and Father gestures for me to settle. “It's not much, but he said he hadn't created the monsters in Three—that was all Dr. Friar's doing. But he says he found a way to stop them.”

It doesn't take a genius to do the math. “The device,” Gavin and I say together.

“He made a bunch of them and gave them to Mother.” Father pushes his hand through his hair. “But he found out Mother wasn't just going to use them on her abominations, she was giving them to all the Enforcers, so they could be more … efficient.”

I exchange a horrified look with Gavin. “We're going to be in trouble if the Enforcers are all equipped with these things. No one will be able to stand against Mother.”

“Is there a way around it?” Gavin asks.

“I don't think so. I asked him and he just kept saying Dr. Friar was the only one who could.”

“What about the box?” I demand.

“Empty. There's some spots for data cubes, but they're all empty. My guess is he took them out and never got to replace them before you took it.”

“Did he have the cubes on him?”

“If he did, they're gone. There was nothing in his pockets.”

“Damn,” I mutter and tug on the ends of my hair. “There was nothing else in that room. Maybe the Enforcer made off with them.”

“That could explain why she dropped her orders. She was too busy trying to make sure she had the cubes,” Asher says.

“Maybe.” Could be, but I doubt it. I turn back to Father. “What are we going to do about this new device? We can't just let Mother use it on the Citizens.”

“Dr. Moreau is the only one with the answers right now. Getting answers from him is futile until he heals. That's if he even will help.” He looks as frustrated as I feel.

“This changes the game,” Gavin mutters to me. He's leaning forward onto his knees again.

I only nod. It changes
everything.

“What about my grandmother?” Asher blurts out. “She originally designed the nanos, right? Couldn't she help you come up with a way to counteract whatever that device does?”

Father purses his lips, but something flashes across his eyes. Hope? Longing? I'm not sure.

“She might be able to. Probably. Her help would be invaluable.” But then he loses all emotion. “But we'd have to send someone to get her. There's no one here we could send. Not without them forgetting the reason they went up there when they pass to the other side of the EM field.”

I glance to Gavin. He's the only one left who could go, but that's not an option. We almost lost him once in the Outlands. I'm not losing him again to the same thing. I'd never even know what happened to him. Selfish or no, I'd rather wait to see if Dr. Moreau can help us before sending Gavin to the Surface for a person who may or may not be able to help.

Father's hands drop to his side. “I need to get back to the Palace. Mother's probably wondering where I am. After the failed attack this afternoon and now this, she's going to be angry.”

“What about us?” Gavin demands. “You can't just leave us here!”

Father stares at him. “Where else would you prefer? The Residential Sector where Mother knows you've been staying? Or maybe since you're intimately familiar with the Detainment Center, you'd like to be there. Perhaps you prefer more palatial surroundings and would like to stay in the Palace Wing itself. It would make it easier for Mother to find you.”

“Mother can find us here! How do we know that these people”—Gavin makes a wide gesture—“aren't working with Mother?”

“We are not,” Nadia says from the doorway. She spears Gavin with her eyes.

I clear my throat. “Gavin brings up an interesting question. How can we be sure that Mother won't find us here? She knows everything. She has eyes and ears everywhere.”

“We've lived here in peace for almost fifty years. Mother may know almost everything, but she does not know about this place. I assure you.”

“And we're supposed to just take your word for it?”

“You do not have a choice,” Nadia says. “You have nowhere else to go.”

Gavin opens his mouth, but I interrupt. “Maybe it would help us if you could tell us a little about this place. Like why it's here, who you are, and why you want us here.”

She nods. “I'll start from the beginning.”

“I really must go or Mother will start wondering where I am.” Father leaves the rest unsaid, but I get it. If she starts to wonder where he is, then she really
will
know where to find us.

I nod my understanding and gesture for him to go ahead. I'm not exactly comfortable staying here in a place I don't know, with an entire group of people who I don't know, but at this moment
here
is safer than where I was.

He takes a step, then hesitates. “Do you want me to send for your mo … get Evangeline? She's been Linking me all day wanting to hear from you.”

I glance away from him. “No. She's better where she is.”

“Evie…” Father starts.

“Don't. Don't push this on me. I'm not ready yet.”

“You're going to have to deal with her eventually.”

“I'm not ready,” I say again in answer. I'm not ready for
any
of this. Especially not her.

No one in the room says anything. If this were the Surface, you'd hear crickets. Finally Father nods. He leaves without looking at me.

Nadia clears her throat. “Are we ready for the story now?” I nod so she continues, “I am Nadia. I was the staff nurse when this was the Elysium Resort. Now I'm the head of the Caverns.” I open my mouth to ask a question, but she holds up a finger and continues. “As you know, when Mother took over, she killed her own father, then everyone else she didn't want as a member of her own family. I made it through the first round of her culling.”

“How?” I demand. “She only kept those that look most like her.”

“Most like her mother actually. But that part didn't come until later. Her first culling consisted of those she disliked. I'd always been kind to her. And at first, that's all that was needed. No one is truly sure how she killed so many people, but I suspect poisoning. Their deaths were hideously slow. And to most of us, it appeared that someone had contracted one of the Surface diseases and it was spreading. Mother used our fear of another outbreak to inject everyone with nanites. She even convinced mothers to allow her to shove them in babies. Before anyone really had time to think about it and the consequences, everyone in Elysium had them.

“Then came the second culling. It started with anyone who Mother connected with the war. Basically anyone who wasn't American. Since the original hotel employed people from across the world, there were a lot to choose from. Most of the Citizens didn't agree with it, but they all had nanites themselves and Mother could kill them with a snap of her fingers. And did. Eventually Mother decided anyone who didn't resemble her ‘saint' of a mother was a liability. The Citizens stopped their objections, ducked their heads, and went about their lives, pretending everything was perfect until they believed it themselves.”

Gavin frowns. “So how did you make it out of
that
? Doesn't sound like she cared very much that you were nice to her anymore.”

“My husband. He was a close friend of Mother's father and Eli. He remembered this place and that, although it had been boarded up and never finished because of the war, it was finished enough for a small group of people to live. He gathered us in groups of five. He'd successfully gathered four groups here and was bringing a fifth when they got caught. She killed them all. Including Aleksandr—my husband.”

“I'm so sorry.” I lean over and touch the top of her hand.

She gives me a sad smile. “He managed to save twenty-one people.”

“Twenty-one?” Asher asks.

Her smile grows a little wider. “I was pregnant. Alek never got to see his son, but his son knows what he did.”

There's an awkward silence and I decide to fill it by asking something that's been nagging at me. “What does Father have to do with all this?” I ask.

“He started his own rebellion right after Mother showed her true colors, after an imagined slight from him. But Dr. Friar had betrayed him and Mother killed everyone who had any part in the rebellion. Except Eli. She kept him around for whatever twisted reasons she had. After that, he didn't trust anyone. For years he kept to himself and just did what Mother wanted.