The Grower's Gift (Progeny of Time #1) (8 page)

Maya steeled her features, determined not to show the mean girl how offensive she found her suggestion. Still, her voice was a bit too shrill when she answered. "I plan to attend school."

Lana laughed, as did a few of the others.
 

Ty looked at her from behind Lana's breasts. "A little old for elementary education, aren't you? Or will you be trying for one of the bio tech universities?"

Maya stifled a new wave of annoyance.
Why was he pretending he didn't already know? What did any of these privileged Citizens know of anything? The schoolhouse in Maya's town had most of the learning databases still intact. From antiquity up until about 2050 anyway, when nature started dying. "It's not so much what I know, it's what I can do. I plan to go into training at the school for the gifted."

She wasn't even sure if that's what it was called, but the dead silence that settled over the room told her they knew which school she meant. Ty's eyes widened, a perfect storm whirling there, icebergs crashing down. All in the moment it would take Maya to count to one. Then the vast frozen ocean was back and Lana laughed a shrill, mean laugh.

The white haired girl leapt to her feet. "Is this why she's here, Ty? So you can give her to your mother?"
 

"Sit down, Sage. It's none of your business," Ty said menacingly. Icy cold wafted from him as he spoke. His panic was a physical presence in the room.

Lana turned around and pinched Ty's cheek, leaving pink spots on his snowy pale skin. "I knew that story about Rober was a lie. Your mother will take good care of this one over at her school."

"Well, she's always complaining how there's never enough new students." Ty lifted Lana off his lap and stood up. "But it's none of your business either, Lana."
 

The deadly ice in Ty's eyes never shifted, but beside her, Giles had stopped pretending to sleep and was staring at Maya with such terror in his eyes she thought he might faint. She put her hand on his arm reassuringly, her own heart beating furiously in her chest at all this talk about her being a gift for the woman who had cut Giles' fingers off. What had she gotten them into?

"Maybe you should just let us out here?" Maya croaked quietly.
 

Lana's mean laughter was drowned out by Rober's voice coming from the speakers in the ceiling. "We'll be there in five."

"Should we hide?" Maya asked shrilly.

 
Ty didn't look at her. "No point, the human sensors will pick you up wherever you are. Just keep quiet."
 

Ty walked over to the wall screen and turned it on, then faced the room. "Alright, roll up your sleeves everyone, this might take some convincing, especially since it's so late there'll be a newbie on the gate guaranteed. You know how they always insist on following the entry protocol to the letter. I want to get home and go to sleep sometime before dawn."

Animal tattoos of various sizes and detail flashed around the room as they did as he asked. Eagles, sharks, a bear, and even an elephant. Lana's arm bore a king cobra tattoo. The only thing those animals had in common was that they were all extinct.
 

The hovercraft stopped and the black screen melted away to reveal a person, covered completely by a black body suit. His eyes were hidden by round, protruding goggles that reminded Maya of a fly. Ty gave his name, and requested permission to enter the city.

Fly man turned this way and that, surveying the room. Ty's hunting friends paid no attention to this interruption, but kept their tattoos clearly visible. "On whose authority are the displaced on board you craft?"

"Mine," Ty answered making sure the gatekeeper had a good view of his tattoo.
 

"You've been gone for nearly three days, Commander Remarque. I was ordered to send through the alert that you're back right away."

The rest of the kids straightened up in their seats and Lana walked over to Ty's side, making sure the cobra on her arm was very visible. "We all know how long we've been gone, and you won't be waking anyone to tell them we're back, not if you know what's good for you. We're not children."

The others yelled their agreement with Lana, a few threatening the man to let them in without a fuss or else.

"Let us through," Ty ordered. "I'll take full responsibility of letting everyone know we're back."

"With respect, I can't do that," fly man responded. "The order to detain you came straight down from your father."

"It's my mother you'll answer to if you don't let us go," Ty warned. "I have news for her that she'll want to hear right away."

Does he mean me?
 

The fly man took a moment to weigh his options. "Very well, have a good night," he finally relented.

The screen melted back to black and the hovercraft moved as though sucked into a wall of slime. They must have entered through the biological shield that separated the city from the surrounding wasteland.

~

Once they reached the Special Forces hangar and the buzzing of the engines stopped, Ty turned to the others. "Best you disappear as soon as possible. I'll take care of everything."

He dared not look at Maya. The volcano of dread that erupted as soon as she said what her real destination in Neo York was had yet to die down to a manageable flow.
What do I do with her now? Why do I even care?
 

She was nothing more than a random girl from the Badlands, too cheeky for her own good, or that of anyone around her. What he should do was take her to his mother now, present her as a gift to excuse his late return. Play it so his mother would never be able to doubt his allegiance to her goal of containing the spread of special abilities among the population.
 

He couldn't do that. He'd promised Maya he'd get her into the city safely. She had such a big dream of helping her town. Ty couldn't let her be destroyed in his mother's facility.

Lana hung back after the others exited the craft, tapping her fingers on the edge of her seat.
 

"You go on home, Lana. I have to go see my parents."

"I'll go with you. We can make a present of this one to your mother together," Lana said and pointed to Maya.

Ty winked at her. "We'll do that later. There's the big meeting with New LA and Dakota tomorrow. They'll want to prep me."

"Fine, tomorrow morning then. I'm going to visit my friend in Chicago after," Lana said and jostled past Rober.

Maya and her friend looked completely lost.
 

It would be best if he sent them back right away, on the next craft out.
 

"What was Lana talking about?" Rober asked from behind his back, startling Ty.
 

There was no way to explain it to him without Maya overhearing. "Can you take them home with you? Make sure they don't leave. I'll come and get them tomorrow."

Rober looked at him, disbelief fighting outrage on his face. His eyes screamed no, but he stayed silent.

"I'll owe you a big favor," Ty pleaded.

Maya let go of Giles' hand and came up to Ty. "I'm not a thing to be gifted around. Don't talk about me like I'm not here either. You can let us go now. We'll find our own way from here."

Ty reached up to stroke her hair reassuringly, covering up the gesture by rubbing the back of his neck instead. What he wanted to do was apologize for the harsh way he spoke to her before, tell her all would be well, that he'd keep her safe. But they needed to move fast, and he wasn't sure keeping her safe was even in his power, not with everyone on the craft knowing she was headed for his mother's facility.

"This is for your own good. I'm not gifting you to anyone," he said.

"Let's do as he says, Maya," Giles urged.
 

"Fine, but tomorrow you let us go."

Ty turned back to Rober. "So?"

Rober eyed Maya and Giles, then locked his eyes on Ty's. "Alright, but I'm collecting that favor now. Be at the boathouse by six o'clock tomorrow. Come alone and don't tell anyone where you're going."

The boathouse? What does he want, a date?
 

"I'll try. I doubt the conference about Nova 18 will be over by six," Ty protested.
 

"I'm hoping your father will start the trials by then, actually. That should draw a crowd. Make some excuse and be there at six."

"Alight," Ty relented. "Just make sure Lana doesn't know where they are."

Ty turned back to Maya. "I'll come and get you in the morning."

She ignored him and followed Rober and Giles from the craft.

It was for the best. That odd spark of longing she ignited came because she was so natural. The girls his age in the Ring were all the result of careful tinkering with the gene pool, and the scientists had yet to figure out how to replicate all of nature's diversity and life in a laboratory.

 
The pull Maya had on him would fade as quickly as it came. He'd make the arrangements for her transport back out the Ring before the talks started tomorrow, put her and her friend on a craft himself and make sure the pilot didn't stop until Maya was back in her sorry little town. Safe.

~

The hovercraft was parked in a vast black chamber lit by white strip lights. The entire hall was bigger than any Maya had ever seen and filled with hundreds of crafts identical to the one they'd just exited. There wasn't a single person around. Flying drones zoomed around above them. Two of them, a row of red lights flashing along their circular bodies, flew towards the hovercraft and attached themselves under the wings. The red lights started flashing then turned different colors.

"Come on!" Rober called to her from farther down the chamber.
 

She jumped off the ladder and ran to him.
 

He walked very fast and led them through a series of hallways. Each time they reached a wall, he pressed his snake tattoo against a panel, and doors appeared. By the time they reached the elevator with a door that rippled open like water, Maya was panting, still getting over the strangeness of the place. None of her lessons at school had prepared her for structures and technology like this.

The elevator door rippled shut after them and Rober pressed a complicated sequence of keys on a wall panel before holding his tattoo against the glass.

The elevator shot up with such force it glued Maya against the side, certain her stomach was now lodged in her throat. Giles was retching beside her.

"Oh, sorry," Rober muttered and adjusted some setting on the panel. The sickening centrifugal force lessened. "I'm so used to it, I forgot how it might affect you."

"Where are we going?" Maya asked, seizing the opportunity to speak.

"To my place."

"I have to get to the school for the gifted as soon as possible. Can you take us there instead?" Maya pleaded.

"Oh, so that's why," Rober muttered to himself. He shook his head. "Can't do that. Besides, it's closed now."

The elevator came to a silent stop and the doors rippled open to reveal a wide hallway lined with dark oak panels, a carpet of red, white and black wool covering the floor. The lighting along the walls was shaped like candles.
 

Rober led them to a large wooden door that glistened like water in the half-light.

Maya's entire house could fit into the room on the other side of it.
 

Enough sofas to sit twenty people dominated the center of the room. The huge windows beyond the sofa looked onto a lush green meadow, extending towards gentle rolling hills.
 

Maya gasped at the beauty, then pivoted to face Rober. "You have nature like this and you let us live in the dried up Badlands? My whole
town
could fit there with so much to spare."

It was a good thing Giles held her back. She was ready to claw Rober's eyes out.

Rober stared at her, looking puzzled at her sudden anger. She pointed furiously at the windows again.

He seemed to figure it out then, because he strode to the window where he pressed a few buttons on a panel behind the curtain. The meadow disappeared, replaced by the view of tall buildings, rising high into the air, glimmering neon pink, yellow, orange, even white. The sky visible around them wasn't black, but a dark green, signs flashing across it. A hovercraft zoomed by the window, leaving an orange streak of light behind it. There was not even a blade of grass to be seen, let alone a tree or a hill.

Rober pointed out the window. "This is Neo York. No rolling hills, no meadows. Unless you press this," he showed her on the panel, and the meadow was back. "I'm sorry. I wish I could do something to change all that."

"So do I. That's why I came here, so I can learn my gift and heal Earth," Maya said.

Rober stared at her with his mouth open.
 

"She doesn't know if it's possible," Giles interjected.
 

Maya cast him an angry look. "I know I can do it."

Rober walked over to them from the window. "How does your gift work? Can you fix the weather?"

Maya turned to glare at him. Was he making fun of her? Yet, there was no trace of a smile on his lips, and his eyes were fixed on hers, hopeful for an answer.

"No, not the weather. I can make things grow. From shoot to a ripe plant it a few hours," she explained. "I know I can do more. It's why I want to go to the school for the gifted."

Rober sat down on the sofa and laced his fingers together. "Your gift sounds amazing. I'd never considered enlisting the gifted, but it would make so much sense. Especially if there were more that could do what you can do."

Maya stared at him, not sure what he meant.
 

"Sit, tell me what you think," he urged her. "Do you know anyone else who can do what you can do?"

Maya sat down on the edge of the sofa across from Rober. "No. My dad told me of a woman, but she died before I was born, I think. Other than her, I don't know of any others."

Giles sat down beside Maya, his thigh pressing against hers. Rober leaned back and studied them. "I think the atmosphere is the real problem. Unless that's fixed there is no hope."