22
“LOOK, I DON’T BLOODY KNOW what happened, Henry. Just try to spin this.” Lake paused. “I don’t care if you don’t work for the other girls; the press is killing us. Do something, yeah?”
In our hotel room, she wasn’t the only one yelling into her phone. Belle was by the heavy, drawn window curtains shouting angrily at Brendan on the other end of the line. Chae Rin sat with her feet on the couch and her knees to her chest, picking the skin on her lips distractedly. Next to her, Ha Rin watched the news with bloodshot eyes, listening limply to terrified pundits collectively implode while they tried to make sense of what had just happened.
What was there to make sense of? John Walsh, a Canadian premier, had just been torn to shreds, his death streamed internationally. There was no news of any city’s antiphantom defense systems being compromised, so Saul must have taken him to a Dead Zone. It had already been declared an act of terrorism. And while it was happening, the four Effigies whose duty it was to protect the world had been standing onstage at a teen awards show, collecting a spray-painted trophy for being role models. The headlines wrote themselves.
I was pacing back and forth by the door, unable to calm myself. Natalya’s voice had receded back into my mind, but I was still disturbed, still on edge, which is why I jumped at the sound of a few swift knocks at the door.
“It’s me,” came Uncle Nathan’s voice from the other side of the door. I let him in.
“What are you doing here?” I shut the door fast as he stalked inside with his laptop underneath his arm. “Nobody can see you here.”
“It’s okay—nobody saw me.” He set his laptop down on the table a few feet away from the minifridge. The sounds of pundits screaming over one another drew his attention, and after mere seconds of watching the television, he shook his head. “This is bad. Very bad.”
“You saw it, right?” I said.
“Yeah. I don’t drink much, but I definitely felt like knocking back a couple of those complimentary mini-scotches in the fridge.”
“Seven days,” I said.
“Seven days. Giving a timeline only ramps up global hysteria, fear, and anger. Anger at the Sect.” He looked at me with worried eyes. “At you.”
Belle clicked off her phone. “The top officials from the Sect are already planning on conferencing with the world’s leaders. But many of them are refusing to meet. They’re furious.”
“We should have done something.” Chae Rin gripped her knees, her chin pressed against them. Then, lifting her head, she glared at Belle. “We should have done something.”
“Done what?” Belle shot back. “We couldn’t do anything from where we were.”
“Exactly!” Chae Rin jumped to her feet, staying rooted to the spot only because her sister had climbed up after her and grabbed her arm to calm her. “We’re Effigies, damn it. We’re supposed to be out there fighting, not playing dress-up like clowns on TV. We’re not supposed to be looking pretty. We’re supposed to be making people feel safe. That’s what I . . .” She looked back at her sister before lowering her head. “Saul told the world he was an Effigy. I can’t even imagine what my parents think right now. What must be going through their heads.”
“I’m sure they’re all right,” Ha Rin said. “Well . . .” She paused.
Chae Rin became anxious, her lips parting as she looked back at her sister. “Well, what?”
“No,” Ha Rin said. “It’s nothing. I—”
“They’re slaughtering us out there and there’s barely anything my agent and my marketing team can even do about it.” Lake groaned, pressing her phone against her head as she walked over to the table. “What the hell are we supposed to do? How do we get Saul?”
“Brendan wants us to return to the London facility immediately,” said Belle.
“No!” Uncle Nathan stepped forward, waving his hand in protest. “No, no, no. Don’t do that. Trust me.”
“Why?” I asked.
He answered by pulling up a chair, plunking himself down, and lifting up his laptop screen. “Uh,” he said, turning to peek over at Ha Rin. “This is kind of sensitive.”
Chae Rin sat up quickly and tapped her sister’s shoulder, taking the hint. “Unnie, I’m glad you’re here, but, uh, I hope you don’t mind.” And she pressed her hands over her sister’s ears. “It’s for your own protection.”
“Okay.” Ha Rin let out an incredulous laugh as her sister kept her head facing forward. “This isn’t weird at all.”
I came around Uncle Nathan’s shoulder as he plugged in the flash drive. “Did you find something?” Belle and Lake gathered around me.
“I’ve only been able to get through the first few layers of defense on this thing,” Uncle Nathan said. A series of clicks on his keyboard brought up a black screen, but soon several dark, metallic-green letters appeared at the top left-hand corner.
Project X19.
Four large square icons materialized in a line, filling up the entire screen. Computer files. And each icon came with a label underneath.
Phase I: Research
Phase II: Silent Children Program
Phase III: Minerva
Phase IV: Consolidation
“ ‘Project X19.’ ” I stared at the cursor blinking next to the last number.
“What is that?” Lake asked, leaning over my shoulder. “What are those files?”
“I don’t know.” Uncle Nathan clicked on the first icon, an error screen appeared, and the screen blinked off. “That keeps happening.”
“The Silent Children Program.” I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to remember Jessie’s frenzied babbling as we rushed through Blackwell’s courtyard. “Silent . . . yeah. That’s what she called herself back then. Jessie. She said Grunewald put devices in all the ‘silent kids.’ ”
“I told you before about firms that have been trying to reproduce Effigy-like abilities. And you told me about the nanotechnology detected in that dead soldier, Philip. Creating empowered soldiers.” Uncle Nathan tapped his fingers on the surface of his laptop, his expression grim. “Looks like Phase II was successful.”
“But there’s more,” I said, my pulse quickening at the thought. “More phases. What’s Phase III? What’s Minerva? Do I even want to know?”
“I don’t know,” he answered. “But I do know that X19 was part of a code of communications between city defense control centers, like the one I work at, and the Sect. The APD technology was originally developed and fronted by Sect research, and if there were any issues, the communication between the two bodies would usually be encrypted to protect sensitive information. X19 is like a kind of Sect signature.”
“The Sect?” Lake repeated. “There you go. They really are evil.”
The Fisk-Hoffman kids could have been chosen for the project by people within the Sect. Those children, the traitors in the R & D department, the agents who helped Jessie ambush us in the tunnel, and now “X19,” a Sect signature. There were too many connections between the organization and Saul, but when had they begun working together? Had they recruited Saul recently, or had they been working with him since he appeared? They could have even linked up with him before he started his attacks all those months ago. This was insane.
I gripped the back of Uncle Nathan’s chair. It couldn’t be the entire Sect working with Saul. But for an operation this big, the network of traitors would have to have been extensive. An organization within an organization. Naomi had said herself that something was happening within the Sect.
“It makes sense,” I said. “The Fisk-Hoffman kids were reported dead and suddenly show up now. Higher-ups in the Sect could have faked their death records. And maybe they’re just the start.”
The Fisk-Hoffman kids. Jessie, Philip, and Alex were all connected to Saul. Vasily may not have had powers, but he was working with them too. And Rhys—
Rhys. My fingers felt numb, my stomach fluttering painfully as I thought of him looking up at me in Blackwell’s courtyard, at Natalya’s rage glinting through the whites of my eyes. He’d gone to that facility. He was there when the fire happened. Did he have something to do with this too? But unlike Vasily, he was just as surprised as I was when we were attacked in the tunnels—I know it. How far did this go? I buried my head in my hands.
“It’s the next phases that worry me,” Belle said. “Minerva. Consolidation. Saul’s stunt might mean that we’ve already entered into the next stages.”
“You . . .” Lake’s breath hitched. “You think it could be worse than fake Effigies?” The stiff quirk of her body told me she was terrified of the answer.
“I don’t know,” Belle answered, though the steady inflection of her voice told me she’d already made up her mind to the affirmative. “We need to know more. Nathan, can you crack these files?”
Uncle Nathan rubbed his neck. “I mean, usually, given the asymmetric algorithm, you can’t break into the locks by just guessing the key. So I was surprised to get even this far, but now that I’ve come to this screen, I’m just facing a wall. The real goods are through the veil. Peeking through it is gonna take me a while. But what I do know is that I won’t be able to figure out anything from here.”
I watched him take out the drive and stand up. “Where are you going?”
“New York,” he said, shutting his laptop. “If I’m going to crack this, I’m going to need stronger tech to mess around with it. The MDCC has far more powerful computers and other stuff I can use. There are some . . . issues I want to check out there as well.”
Like how had it gotten hacked all those months ago? I grabbed his arm, his black sleeve crinkling in my fingers. “Isn’t that dangerous? What if you get caught? What if you get—”
“Thrown in a Russian gulag?” He gave me a wry grin. “Well, I’ll just have to try not to let that happen. Don’t worry about me. You guys have other things to focus on.”
“Seven days,” I said, Saul’s promise echoing in my thoughts. “The clock is ticking.”
“What Saul did will only galvanize support against the Sect—and you. Not just among the people, but among world governments. But you can’t exactly go back to the Sect and do what they say anymore. There’s no telling what might happen. Whatever you do from now on, you’ll have to move carefully. And stick together.”
“We’ll go see Naomi,” Belle said. “In Madrid. All four of us.”
Lake and Chae Rin exchanged a puzzled glance as Belle moved toward the bedroom where all our suitcases had been stacked.
“Madrid?” Lake repeated. “Why? Who’s Naomi?”
“Rhys’s mother,” Belle said. “She has some information that can help us. At least that’s what she told Maia.”
“What if she won’t tell us anything?” I asked, thinking back to our conversation at Blackwell’s estate. “She asked me to come alone.”
“You’ll have to take that chance,” said Uncle Nathan. “It’s too dangerous for you to be alone right now.”
“If push comes to shove, I guess we can always just force her to give up the information,” Chae Rin added with a shrug. I could only imagine what she meant by “force.” As badly as I needed answers, I wasn’t sure I was prepared to beat it out of anyone. “I agree. The four of us should go together.”
“But how do we get there without the Sect knowing?” Lake prodded.
“Maybe we don’t have to,” Belle called back without turning. As she disappeared into the bedroom, Chae Rin finally released her sister’s ears.
“Looks like I’m heading off again,” she told her. “Give Mom and Dad my love. Make sure you keep them safe.”
“But that’s why I’m here.” Ha Rin shifted onto the couch, her weight on her right knee. “It’s Mom.”
I could see Chae Rin’s face fall from here. “Is she all right? She didn’t have another . . .” With a self-conscious glance at us, she lowered her voice. “Another episode, did she?”
Ha Rin looked very uncomfortable, her anxious gaze flickering between the rest of us and her sister. “No. Well . . . she just wants to see you and— Ah!” After an exasperated sigh she gave her sister a pained smile. “It’d be better if I could actually speak with you in Korean.”
“Like that’s my fault.” Despite the sharp note of defensiveness in her words, Chae Rin shrank back. “We can talk about it outside.”
They got up to leave. A few minutes after they shut the door, Belle came out of the bedroom again with her suitcase packed and ready, holding her cell phone to her ear. I didn’t pay any mind until I heard her say Rhys’s name. My heart skipped.
“Rhys? Why are you talking to Rhys?” I rushed forward before stopping suddenly. “Is . . . is he okay?” I asked timidly, but Belle put up a finger to silence me.
“You’re sure you can do this for us? Okay. Thank you, Rhys. I appreciate it.”
With a relieved sigh, she clicked the phone off. “I asked Rhys about the possibility of securing us a Sect jet under pretense. Remember, Communications can track our cylithium frequency—we can’t mask it like Saul. But Rhys said he can convince Brendan to issue an order to send us to Spain on a lead. It’s the best he can do.”
That he was willing to help us didn’t make the truth about him any easier to swallow. Especially when I still hadn’t figured out what to do about it. “What did you tell him?”
“Nothing about his mother,” she said, rolling her suitcase to the side of the door. “I only said it was important. He seemed to understand.”
“But—”
“Don’t worry, Maia.” Belle turned to me. “It’s Rhys. We can trust him.”
I stayed quiet as Lake went to pack her things, calling me to follow her when she’d noticed I’d stayed rooted to the spot for too long. Uncle Nathan went back to his hotel room to get ready to leave himself, but it was only in the prospect of his leaving that I realized how much I needed someone to talk to. I followed him to his room.
“What’s wrong?” Uncle Nathan said as he shut the door behind me. I kept my head low, so he couldn’t see my face behind my mess of hair, but he must have seen my shaking. “Maia? Are you . . . are you crying?”
He must have heard me whimpering too. I lifted my head, revealing the tears dripping off my eyelashes.
“Tell me everything,” he said.
I did. And by the end of it, I could have sworn his blue eyes were reddening too.
“God, Maia.” Calming himself with a sigh, he placed his hands delicately on my shoulders. “I had no idea you were going through this. I’m so sorry.”
I thought the weight of finally telling someone would make me feel better, but I only felt more lost. “I just don’t know what to do. If I tell Belle that Rhys killed Natalya, she will kill him. That’s not even a question. Depending on what his mom says, she might kill her, too. Belle had no one,” I explained. “No, it was worse than that.” I thought back to that day in France when we visited her old foster home. The simple, pragmatic way she asked the children living there, in front of their foster mother, if they’d been beaten. “Natalya was like the only family she’d ever had. Her mentor, her hero. She was like . . .” I shook my head. Natalya had meant the world to Belle.
And I understood. After my family died, there would be those quiet moments when I would lie awake in my bed, staring up at the ceiling, feeling that deafening silence of loneliness, that silence I’d felt that night after the funeral, the kind you feel in your bones when you truly have no one.
But then Saul appeared. I left my home, left my uncle, and yet despite the chaos, there were now people in my life, and suddenly it didn’t feel so barren. Running from city to city, completing missions, fighting monsters, escaping death. Always with them by my side.
And I . . .
“I don’t want to lose anyone.” I hastily wiped the tears dripping down my cheeks as Uncle Nathan looked on. “Not Belle. Not Rhys. Not anyone. I don’t want anything to change.”
“But, Maia.” Uncle Nathan held my hands to stop their shaking. “If this boy really did murder Natalya, even if it was because of impossible circumstances . . . it’s going to come out eventually. You can’t keep that a secret forever. The longer you hide it from Belle, the worse it’ll be when she finds out.”
“I know.” I gritted my teeth as the tears continued to fall. “I know that. But I . . . I just can’t. I hate myself.”
“There’s something else, isn’t there?” Uncle Nathan tilted his head, staring at me. “You have feelings for him too, right?”
My tears silently dripped onto his hands.
“I’m so sorry.” Uncle Nathan hugged me.
“Just judge me, please.” I shifted my head off his chest to free my voice. “Tell me I’m dumb, weak, stupid, selfish, delusional, a terrible role model, a terrible person, neurotic, overemotional, hysterical, whatever. Everything and anything you can think of.”
“That’s a lot of adjectives.” Uncle Nathan laughed softly. “But no, I won’t. This isn’t something I can judge. It’s not like I’ve ever been in your shoes. And to be honest, I wouldn’t wish your shoes on anyone.”
When I gazed up at him, the sight of his kind smile did give me a little comfort. I relaxed my shoulders with a quiet exhale.
“I don’t envy your burden, Maia. And I’m . . .” His voice broke. “I’m sorry that I can’t help you. You’re my brother’s kid, and I’m practically useless to you.”
“Never say that,” I told him. “Because it’s really very false.”
“Even still. This is a burden I can’t take from you. But I can tell you this.” Letting me go, he gently placed a hand on my head. “Secrets never stay buried. They always find a way to the light. Don’t let yourself be caught off guard. Soon, Maia. Even if it’s not today. Try to tell them.”
Two roads diverged. But neither path would lead me where I wished I could be. The whisper of dread passing through me, the quiet chill settling in my skin, told me as much. I was trapped either way.
“Please be careful,” I whispered before leaving him alone in his room.