Unremembered (30 page)

‘But clearly it was a mistake.’ Repulsion seeps back into his voice as he rises to his feet. ‘A mistake we’ll be certain to remedy as soon as possible. This time
we’ll have to make
sure
you don’t have the ability to think for yourself.’

I hear a soft noise from the opening of the tunnel and my eyes dart in that direction. Is there someone else here?

‘Sera, just run!’ Zen screams, taking advantage of the lull in the conversation. It’s obvious he’s using every ounce of depleted energy he has left. ‘Forget about
me.’

‘I’m sorry,’ I say, looking to him and trying to convey exactly how I feel about him with a single glance. ‘I can’t.’

Alixter seems to find humour in this exchange. He smiles contentedly. ‘You see, this is what I’m talking about,’ he explains. ‘Despite every modification we made to your
DNA to ensure you would be suspicious of strangers, you still continued to fall for him time and time again, trusting him so blindly, going against every instinct that warned you not to.’ He
clucks his tongue against the roof of his mouth. ‘Free will is simply not your strong suit, Sera. Math and science and languages,
that’s
where you’re exceptional, but
making wise, sensible choices based on reason and logic? Not so much. It’s quite the dichotomy.’

He looks at Zen and plasters an artificial frown on his face. ‘Unfortunately he’s right though. You really
should
save yourself. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m
very fond of Lyzender. His mother is an integral part of my team. But
you
–’ he points to me with both hands, a look of pride flashing across his face – ‘you are
worth trillions of dollars. There’s simply no comparison.’

I hear another sound from the cave opening. And this time, it would seem, Alixter hears it too, because he glances up and a sly smile spreads across his lips.

‘Rio,’ he states, sounding pleased. ‘How delightful of you to join us. Welcome to our little party.’

My head jerks up and I see Rio stepping into the cavern, clutching a shiny black gun in his hand. It’s pointed directly at Alixter’s head.

The dark-skinned agent standing near Zen reacts, readying himself to charge.

‘I wouldn’t,’ Rio warns, with a wave of his hand.

Alixter calls off the agent with a nod, and he withdraws.

‘Sera,’ Alixter says formally, ‘you remember my business partner, Dr Havin Rio.’

‘Hand her over,’ Rio demands. His voice is grave and unyielding. A stark contrast to the way he spoke to me.

Alixter chuckles at this. ‘Oh, Rio. Always the idealist. Now why on earth would I do that?’

Rio takes a step forward, brandishing the gun. ‘Because I’ll kill you if you don’t.’

Alixter teeters his head from side to side, seemingly considering the validity of this threat. ‘You do appear to have the advantage here,’ he admits nonchalantly, gesturing to the
wide gap between him and Rio. ‘After all, we both know the Modifier –’ he hoists up the black device in his hand – ‘only works upon direct contact, whereas
that
–’ he nods to the gun – ‘can be used across distances.’

Rio stays silent, but it’s fairly clear this was his exact strategy.

‘Which means I could
try
to deactivate you, but I’d be dead before I could even reach you.’ Alixter clucks his tongue again. ‘Hmmm. Quite the dilemma we have on
our hands here.’

‘There’s no dilemma,’ Rio states evenly. ‘Put down the Modifier, hand her over to me, and no one gets hurt.’

Alixter raises his eyebrows and shrugs before finally conceding and placing the device on the ground by his feet.

‘Good. Now tell your goon over there to release her,’ Rio encourages.

Alixter inhales pensively. ‘I
could
do that, yes,’ he allows. ‘However, I should note there is one advantage I have over
you
.’

Rio’s eyes narrow. ‘And what would that be?’

‘Your foolish need to protect her,’ Alixter says matter-of-factly. Then, in a blur, he reaches behind him into his waistband and produces a gun of his own. He extends his arm, aiming
the gun straight at me, causing Zen to moan in agony and Rio’s stony facade to crumble.

‘Alixter, don’t,’ he pleads, the former menace in his voice suddenly gone.

I cower further back against the rock wall, trying to tuck my face to my chest.

‘Funny how life works,’ Alixter observes callously. ‘We confiscated this gun when we apprehended Lyzender.’ He chuckles. ‘I find it so ironic that
he
would
be the one to help me in the end.’

A look of pure hatred flashes over Zen’s face.

Alixter looks at the weapon in his hands, examining it with great curiosity. ‘Huh,’ he muses. ‘I always thought these things were so outdated. So
archaic
. Not to
mention absurdly heavy.’ He screws his mouth to the side. ‘It’s no wonder they stopped making them fifty years ago.’

‘Alixter,’ Rio warns, ‘you don’t want to do this. Think of the people you have to answer to. She’s worth too much to you.’

Alixter smiles. ‘This is true, but she’s clearly worth more to you.’ He lowers the gun a few inches and takes aim at my left leg. ‘I can repair any surface damage I cause
and she’ll be as good as new. But would you really be able to stand seeing her in that much pain? Having an entire limb blown off can’t be comfortable.’

‘Wise choice.’ Alixter motions to the dark-skinned agent, who sprints across the cavern, scoops up the abandoned gun and grabs Rio by the arm, jamming a knee into his stomach. Rio
groans and doubles over.

‘Please don’t hurt him,’ I whimper, tears springing to my eyes.

But no one seems to be listening to me. The guard leads Rio over to Alixter, kicking at the backs of his legs until they give out and he falls to his knees.

Alixter sighs and tucks Zen’s gun back into the waistband of his pants. ‘I’m sorry, Rio. But after this, I don’t think we can be business partners any more. I question
your loyalty.’

Rio doesn’t respond. He bites his lip, seemingly in an effort to hold back another cry of pain.

‘We started Diotech together,’ Alixter explains wistfully, addressing me. ‘We had such high hopes and so many aspirations. I had the business background but he was the genius
and brains behind the whole operation. The most brilliant scientist of his day, there’s no doubt about that. But I’m afraid, dear Rio –’ he peers down at him with a look of
longing – ‘that you went a little soft during our biggest and most important experiment to date.’ Alixter nods his head ambiguously in my direction. ‘You broke the cardinal
rule of science: never
ever
become attached to your test subject.’

I study Rio’s body language. His shoulders are slouched forward, his head hangs low. If it wasn’t for the bright red beard, I would say he looked like a scared little boy.

‘He put his emotions before his science,’ Alixter continues, looking at me again. ‘When it was discovered that you weren’t exactly what we anticipated, that you were more
humanlike than any of us expected, I suggested you be repaired right away. There was just too much at stake to allow you to have a mind of your own. To form thoughts and opinions and escape plans.
A few tweaks here and there and we could have easily avoided all of this. But Rio convinced me that the procedure was unnecessary. That you could be controlled with daily memory modifications. He
became so fond of you, so
protective
, that at one point he even tried to convince me to release you, if you can believe it.’ He huffs. ‘It was almost as if he really did
believe
he was your father.’

I shoot a glance at Zen. He meets my eye and offers me an apologetic shake of his head.

‘Well,’ Alixter says with a small grunt of repugnance, ‘we can’t have trillions of dollars’ worth of research and scientific advancement – not to mention
trillions more in potential profits – resting in the hands of a softy, can we?’

Rio lifts his head again. His eyes – where I once saw kindness and genuine remorse – now appear tired and conquered. ‘Seraphina,’ he says weakly, ‘I hope
you’ll find it in your heart to forgive me.’

Then, for a brief moment, an unmistakable intensity blooms across his weary face and he stares at me with such pointed determination I find myself leaning forward slightly, being pulled into his
sudden renewed willpower.

His gaze flickers down to my neckline briefly before returning to meet my eyes. And then he says it again. This time with an almost disconcerting conviction. ‘I hope you’ll
find
it in your heart
to forgive me.’

I’m so overwhelmed by his message and its strange delivery that I barely notice Alixter handing his Modifier over to the agent who’s holding Rio. And by the time I do notice,
it’s too late.

‘NOOOOO!’ I attempt to stumble forward but the other agent moves fast, thrusting me back with his leg. Everything seems to be moving in some kind of slow motion. The dark-skinned
agent’s hand extends, the tip of the Modifier makes contact with Rio’s cheek and his entire body starts to convulse. It writhes violently as the electricity is shot into his brain and
travels down the length of his body.

He falls hard to the ground, his bones making a horrific cracking sound upon impact.

Then the twitching stops and everything is silent.

I stare, aghast, at Rio’s lifeless figure. His eyes are closed but
his face is frozen in a state of sheer terror.

I know he’s not dead. He can’t be. I’ve seen the Modifier in action several times now. It doesn’t kill you. It only shuts down your brain for a few minutes, maybe a
couple of hours at most.

But then again, never in the handful of times I’ve witnessed that device being used on another human being, did I see it elicit a reaction like that. His body shook so hard and so cruelly
I thought he was going to explode.

‘Is he . . .’ I try to speak but I’m sobbing so hard now I can barely get the words out. ‘Is he dead?’

Alixter seems completely unfazed by any of this. ‘Trust me, he’s better off,’ is all he says.

‘Now, back to our little arrangement,’ he continues. ‘I’m a man of my word, so as soon as you and I are safely back on the Diotech compound, I’ll send notice and my
agent will release Zen.’ His lips tug into a scowl. ‘Of course, you do understand that we can’t allow him to continue to transesse. He’d only come back to Diotech and try to
kidnap you again. So I’m afraid, before we release him, we’re going to have to disable his gene. He will be forced to remain here, in this time period, but I assure you he’ll be
unharmed.’

He approaches me and leans forward. ‘Do those sound like amenable terms to you?’

I sense that I don’t really have a say. But as long as Zen is alive, I have fulfilled my purpose for coming here. So I sniffle up the last of my tears and say, ‘Yes.’

Alixter claps his hands. ‘Excellent! Then we’re all in agreement. It’s so much cleaner that way, isn’t it?’

‘You’ll never be able to take her back,’ I hear a broken voice murmur. Alixter and I both turn to Zen, leaning against the wall behind him, barely able to hold up his head, his
strength depleted.

‘What’s that?’ Alixter asks, clearly faking his interest in whatever Zen has to say.

Zen visibly struggles to speak louder. ‘I said you’ll never be able to take her back.’

Alixter continues his charade of entertaining this conversation. ‘And why is that?’

‘Because her transession gene is broken.’ Zen painfully hoists his head up and supports it against the wall. ‘It’s not working. I think it was damaged when she came
here.’

For the first time, genuine emotion seems to register on Alixter’s face: fear.

‘And how do you know this?’ he asks, irritation trickling into his tone.

Zen’s eyes close as he winces. ‘Because I tried to take her with me the moment I found her, and several times after that, but it didn’t work.’

My mind jumps back to the memory from the hospital. When Zen came into my room.

I’m going to get you out of here.

That’s what he said. And a moment later he seemed to vanish into thin air.

Then I remember what he said in the car as we were driving away from Wells Creek.

We just have to find a remote place to lay low . . . Until I can figure out how to get us out of here.

Was that what he needed time to do? To figure out what was wrong with my gene and try to repair it?

The thought fills me with simultaneous hope and dread. Hope that if what Zen says is true, there might be another way out of this predicament. And dread that if I’m unable to transesse
back to Diotech, Alixter might renege on his end of the agreement.

‘I’m not sure I believe you,’ Alixter says, glowering at Zen. ‘I think you might just be buying time.’

‘Try it yourself,’ Zen challenges in a hoarse whisper. ‘Try to transesse with her.’

Alixter refreshes his smile, but I still see the traces of frustration around his eyes. He doesn’t like to be told what to do. ‘It’s a fairly new technology, of course,’
he admits. ‘But from the way I understand it, if you have the transession gene, all you have to do is focus fully on your desired destination and you’ll be transported there.’

He gives the scar-faced agent next to me a subtle nod, and he wraps his thick, brawny fingers tightly around my biceps and pulls me back up to standing.

‘It’s also my understanding,’ Alixter goes on, interlacing his fingers, ‘that anyone in direct contact with the transessor, who
also
carries the gene, will be
transported with them.’

Alixter nods again. I shut my eyes tight and hold my breath. I can feel the agent’s hand vibrate slightly against my skin, and then I slowly feel his grip loosen. I open my eyes to watch
his hand blur in and out of focus, becoming more and more translucent until it’s gone completely. When I peer up, I see that the rest of his body has vanished too.

I drop back to the ground and let out a sigh of relief and a whimper of astonishment at the same time.

Alixter stares open-mouthed at the spectacle. I expect him to get angry, to start throwing things, but he’s exactly the opposite. He calmly rubs his chin and says, ‘Very
interesting.’ His gaze flickers to Zen. ‘It seems Lyzender might be right.’