Steel Lily ARC (22 page)

Sari tugged at my elbow. “Are you daydreaming? Come on, you’re blocking the way in.”

I followed her confident stride into a small room in the corner.

“This is my office,” she said proudly as she waved her arm around the space. “What do you think?”

What space wasn’t overrun by computer monitors, wiring, and keyboards was filled with coffee mugs, crossword puzzles, and posters. One poster had a man screaming into a microphone, with his band mates behind him. Another was pop art of someone I’d never seen before. Post cards littered a corner of the room with slogans like
Miss you in Paris
, and
We’re in Tallahassee and all you get is this postcard
. A small mattress was pushed into the other corner, a pile of blankets sitting on top. Pictures of Sari with people I’d never met were taped above the mattress. This glimpse into her world gave me so much more insight as to who she was.

“I think you could fit a small sticker right there if you tried,” I pointed to a bare spot of wall by a filing cabinet, “maybe a price tag or something.”

Sari nodded with a grin. “Good idea. We’ll have to go out to the abandoned stores in the Dome and see if we can find any good ones.”

The old mattress springs creaked as I sat down. “So this is where you work your magic, huh?”

“Indeed it is,” she said as she wiggled a mouse around on the table. All of the monitors sprang to life. “I can watch everyone on one of three hundred thirty seven different cameras, and I’m sure those are only the ones that Riggs lets me use. Right now though, we’re going to measure the brain waves of the Elementalists while they practice. I was wondering if it’d help you to see them in action.”

My mouth dropped in surprise. “So you’re a scientist, too?”

“Heck no,” Sari said with a laugh. “I attach the electrodes, run the program, and send the information to Riggs. I see the data as it comes in and I’ve kind of taught myself what I think it means, but I could be way off. Let’s go get everyone set up.”

I followed Sari from her office to find that the room had filled with students. Asher, Evan, and Kloey I recognized, but the rest were new. They were milling about, but when Sari cleared her throat, they all snapped to attention.

“Listen up, guys! Riggs wants you working on your respective elements. Easy day,” she said as she pulled a lever on the wall I hadn’t noticed. “You know the drill. Head to your element, attach your electrodes, and do your thing.”

The right wall groaned and lifted, revealing a long table filled with bowls. The table slid forward into the room, wobbling slightly as it came to a halt. Bowls of water, dirt, fans and candles already lit graced the slab of dark wood. The students made small groups around the elements, and took their materials to different areas of the room.

“Now the fun begins,” Sari said as she walked back to her office. She turned and looked at me, rooted to my spot, and she smiled. “Don’t worry, I’m sure Riggs has all kinds of things for you later. Get in here and relax while you can.”

I went back into her office and watched her fingers fly across the keyboard as though they had a mind of their own.

A small series of musical beeps sounded, and she pulled a mic from the second level of her desk. “All right, ladies and gents. Your music for the day is brought to you by one of my favorite rock bands. Enjoy.”

Guitars and drums filled the air, followed by the crooning of a male voice. There was a classical edge to the song, but it was definitely rock. She pointed to the poster behind her. “What I wouldn’t give to have been around to see them in concert.”

I shrugged. “I haven’t heard this band, honestly.”

She shook her head, dismay in her features. “We can remedy that. Consider it my contribution to your steep learning curve.”

“Fair enough.”

Sari gestured for me to come to her computer and whispered. “Now for why I really brought you here.”

With a few clicks, a folder popped up on the screen, quickly replaced by the words
FILE ENCRYPTED. PLEASE ENTER PASSWORD.

Undeterred, Sari began typing away. Coding that was jibberish to me filled the screen, then a ping sounded. The folder popped back up, now open and filled with more folders. She tapped the upper right one. “This one is about Riggs. Check it out.”

A movie file began to play, with a 3D version of Riggs rotating on the left of the screen. Pages of information ran down below the miniature Riggs’s feet, and the video depicted him shaking hands with dignitaries standing in front of the Alliance flag. “This is why I wonder how he got here,” Sari said, “and get this; there’s a folder for Xander that I can’t get into. Eventually I will, but I’ve been digging with no luck.”

“Alice found a picture of Riggs wearing the Alliance military uniform,” I said as I tried to connect the dots. “What do you think is going on?”

Sari leaned back in her chair and placed her hands behind her head, the front legs coming off the ground. Her eyes shined with the challenge of uncovering truths, and I could tell she wouldn’t stop until everything was out in the open. “I don’t know, but for some reason, I’m getting a bad feeling.”

“Didn’t you already have one of those?”

Sari dropped the chair back to the ground with a thud. “Oh, I love a good conspiracy theory, so I’ve followed along with Jaxon since I got here. Now though, let’s just say I don’t think he’s as crazy as I thought.”

“Jaxon said the journal he gave me to read is Riggs’s, and that Xander gave it to him. He said Xander has taken him under his wing like a father.”

“He has,” Alice confirmed, “which makes me worry that maybe Riggs has had enough and wants Xander to stop trying to be the dad he’s never been.”

The words I wanted to say were on the tip of my tongue, but I was afraid to say them. Sari cocked her head to the side and examined me carefully. “What are you thinking?”

“Am I that obvious?”

“You’re not subtle, if that’s what you’re asking.”

I smiled. “Well, I was wondering if you guys might be too focused on Riggs. You know, not seeing the forest because of the trees?”

Sari scratched her neck as she seemed to digest my suggestion. “And what trees do you think we’re missing?”

I looked around the room. “Are there, you know?” I nodded to the monitor that revealed Xander pacing in his study, Jaxon lying in his bed, and Alice digging in Riggs’s desk in the library.

I did a double take.

“Oh crap, Sari, look.”

We both watched as Alice dug in the drawers, pulling out pamphlets, blueprints, and journals. She leafed through them as she went.

Sari let out a low chuckle. “Well isn’t she Miss 007.”

“Who’s that?”

“It’s a movie character that,” she waved her hand, “ah, never mind. He’s pretty badass. He also finds himself in a lot of trouble most of the time.”

As if on queue, the camera lens slid to where Alice and Sari hid when they came to visit me.

Riggs was walking toward her, oblivious to her at the moment.

“No! Alice, move! Move now!” Sari squealed as she gripped the monitor. “Oh, this is bad. This is very bad.”

Xander appeared on the screen in a rush and placed his hand on Riggs. He turned Riggs and began to talk to him, motioning in the opposite direction. Riggs nodded and took off in a hurry, while Xander went to Alice.

Sari let out a sigh of relief. “That was too close.”

We watched as Xander helped Alice put things back in place, and they disappeared out of the camera together. Relief flooded through me.

Sari looked at me, her expression as relieved as I felt. “Were you going to ask if there were cameras in here? No way. I rerouted the one Riggs thought he was sneaking in. Made it look like I was always watching his cameras, no matter what I’m doing.” She smiled proudly.

I plowed ahead before I could lose my nerve. “What do you think of Xander? Where did he come from? Why is he so sympathetic to you guys, but doesn’t do anything to get rid of Riggs?”

Sari looked around the room nervously, then back to me. “Here’s the thing,” she said in a low voice, “you can’t trust many people to keep even a small secret for you. Xander, he’s kept secret after secret for Jaxon and I. He knows we leave the Academy and bring back insurgents. He mends them and sends them back to their homes when they’re healed. He’s helped us find out some of the things that Riggs has done. Xander’s on our side.”

“But how do you
know
?”

Sari’s voice became stronger. “Avery, did you just see the same video feed that I did? How do
you
know that you can trust me? How do you know that you can trust anyone you’ve met here?”

“What do you mean, how do I know I can trust you? You’ve made it clear I can!”

“And what has Xander done to make you think you can’t trust him?”

I spluttered, unable to come up with a case. How could I say,
Well, he didn’t mention Alice, who he hadn’t even met until a minute ago, when he started talking about us escaping. Obviously that makes him bad.
Even in my head it sounded stupid.

Sari seemed mollified by my inability to come up with an excuse. “Like I said, I love a good conspiracy theory, but it needs to have some sort of truth. Riggs has all kinds of dirt and I’m sure we haven’t found all of it,” she made it clear that the subject was closed. “We need to figure out how to get out of here and ruin his plans to reestablish the Resistance.”

Everything she said made sense.

Sari flipped the screen back to the program that was running brain waves. We watched the progression of the blips and beeps that sounded as the students manipulated their elements. I couldn’t understand anything on the screen, but Sari pointed out little nuances between the students. She pointed out Kloey more than once. Her finger jabbed the monitor, excited as a peak in Kloey’s brain activity reached an all-time high. “See that right there? That spike was huge! If you watch the video, you’ll notice that’s when she made the water stand in a pillar. See it?” The screen flashed the replay of Kloey’s feat alongside the brain activity. “Now we need to see what you do when you’re hooked up. Want to try?”

She pushed out from the desk and rolled across the small space to a bookshelf. I barely caught the package of electrodes she tossed to me.

“What do you want me to do?”

“Try to create an element. Only try once, so we can get a look at what’s going on.” She sat an empty glass in front of me and helped as I fumbled to attach the electrodes. “I’m not taking you out there with the rest of them because of the cameras. I want to see what you can do so we have a baseline to compare to Kloey’s without it being on record.”

With everything attached, I stared at the glass and hoped water would appear. Prayed for something—anything—to happen.

“Your brain activity is off the charts,” Sari said, now back in her chair with her nose inches from the monitor. “I mean, it’s crazy off the charts. What are you—”

I couldn’t hear her anymore. My limbs felt like rubber hoses. I couldn’t move, couldn’t even breathe.

Water.

Water everywhere.

I was drowning.

Sari was there in a flash. She smacked the side of my face, her eyes frantic. “Avery! Avery, come on, breathe!” She pounded my chest. “Come on, take a breath!”

On the third pound, water filled my throat and I coughed. It tasted of salt, burning my throat and nose. I rolled over, choking as I fought for oxygen.

Sari fell back and leaned against the wall. Her eyes were wide with fright and amazement at the same time. “What the
hell
, Avery?”

I collapsed back on the floor. The cold wet floor soaked through my clothes and my hair stuck to my cheek. I breathed deeper than necessary, my lungs burning from the overexertion. I croaked out a dry laugh, but regretted it immediately as it racked my already burning throat. “Well, that was fun.”

“Oh yeah, a barrel of laughs,” Sari said as she pulled me to sit beside her. She closed her eyes as she spoke, and I mimicked her. “Seriously, what did you do? What did that mean?”

When I began to respond, a voice cut me off.

A voice I didn’t want to hear.

“It means that we’re getting closer to figuring out Miss Pike’s talent.”

I opened my eyes to see an excited Mr. Riggs standing in the doorway of Sari’s office. He stepped forward and extended his hand to me. He never looked at Sari, but his words were directed to her. “Thank you, Sari. I think your lesson was exceptionally enlightening. I’ll take it from here.”

CHAPTER

TWENTY

Riggs’s strong grip on my shoulder steered me from the classroom, and we walked in silence. Our footsteps echoed off the marble floor and resonated in my chest—or was that my heart pounding its way out? Each turn we took led us further from the area I was familiar with in the Academy, and deeper into the bowels of Riggs’s fortress.

The narrow passageway was decorated in dark tones of burgundy and hunter green, and the flickering lights did nothing to make it feel welcoming. That was Riggs’s goal, probably; if it was, he was doing a good job.

His voice clung to the sugary sweetness that put the rest of his persona in stark contrast. “Do you care to enlighten me on why you decided to send my dining table up in flames?”

“Do you care to enlighten
me
on why you decided it was necessary to hurt your students?”

Blood thrummed through my shoulder as Riggs relinquished his grip. We stopped in the middle of the downward sloping passageway. It was only then that I realized the walls had turned to cement, and the grandeurs of the Academy had long disappeared. The cool smell of earth began to waft from down the hall, and I wondered where Riggs was taking me.

His voice was strained as he spoke. “Your allegations are nothing more than conjecture.”

“Do you think that by using big words, you’ll throw me off, Mr. Riggs? Because my allegations are more than conjecture. I watched you electrocute a student at breakfast and that, sir, is not conjecture. It’s proof of your ruthlessness.”

“Did you see me touch that boy? Did I lay a finger on him?” His eyes burned with an intensity I recognized; it was the same I’d seen in Jaxon’s. They burned as though he wanted me to believe him with every fiber of my being. “Because I didn’t. Therefore, you saying I was the one behind his misfortune is conjecture.”