Collision: The Alliance Series Book Three (24 page)

“You’re sure no one else knows?” I asked. “The Conners didn’t, they went after my family for another reason.” Markos knew. I hadn’t told anyone else here.

“I am sure. I am not in the habit of discussing confidential subjects outside of the office, Ada. That is in part why I have yet to select an assistant to help me with this. Markos has proven himself trustworthy.”

“You’re… looking for something? In the archives?”

Her gaze dropped to the desk. “I am. But as for that file, Ada, it is yours by right. The medical division has no claim on it. I would know, since I once interned in the department. None of the information will have got out.”

“Like the experiments,” I said, before I could stop myself.

Ms Weston’s shoulders stiffened. “What do you know of that?”

My heartbeat kicked up. “Skyla was out for revenge because of what they did to her, and those kids who attacked me. They worked with Delta–with the Campbell family. They were being used as weapons.”
Like I would be, if I’d stayed on Enzar.
Goosebumps prickled my arms.

“And?” Ms Weston prompted. But she didn’t meet my eyes. Uncharacteristic.

“There… there was a council member involved. The twins told me.”

“Lawrence Walker.”

I swallowed. The air seemed thicker, somehow, with the tension around that name.

“Kay’s father?” I asked. “He started the whole thing, right?”

She bowed her head. “I saw it.”

For a moment, I thought I’d misheard. “What?”

Her eyes flashed at my tone, more like herself. “I was an intern at the time. In the medical division.”

I stared. Ms Weston had been there?

“They injected kids with dangerous magic-based substances,” I said, my voice shaky. “Surely… surely you knew that was illegal?”

Her eyes flashed again. Now I’d really done it. I braced myself for the blow.

It never came. The life seemed to drain out of her, and she sagged against the back of her chair. “No. It’s not illegal, technically. They found a loophole in Klathica’s laws, as far as I know,” she said. “It’s common enough practice in other worlds, and isn’t dangerous if you know what you’re doing as those scientists did. I found out later,” she added. “I wasn’t even supposed to be there at the time. I didn’t know about it when I saw Walker brought his son in.”

I fought to untangle the questions in my mind. “You didn’t think it was unusual?”

“He never talked about his family, or so the rest of the staff at the time said,” said Ms Weston. “His wife was an Ambassador. I never met her. She… she died, not long before.” Her jaw tightened, like she was fighting an unpleasant memory. “And his son–never a word. Until that day.”

Oh, God. “She died?” I asked, in a small voice. I knew it already, but somehow it seemed the right question to ask.

“Failed offworld mission,” said Ms Weston, the tightness in her voice clashing with her attempt at nonchalance. “Unfortunate, but these things happen. In any case, that’s irrelevant. I put it out of mind, and nobody realised the far-reaching consequences of the experiment. Until now.”

I swallowed. “You know what Kay can do.”

“I know he is lying to me,” she said. “He hides it well enough–learned that habit from his father, I don’t doubt.”

“His father isn’t on Earth, right?”

“No, he and several other council members left for a distant world a few years ago. I can’t pretend I know all the details. Those are confidential. Like…”

“Like the experiment. He–Kay didn’t know. Not until he first went into the Passages, I don’t think.”

“Magical ability often only manifests offworld,” she said. “It’s not uncommon knowledge here at the Alliance, but thirteen years ago, it was less well-known on Earth. The age-restrictions on offworld permits meant no one thought the children’s abilities might only work if they went offworld, and in any case, Walker had long since lost interest in the experiment.”

I stared. “How could he do that? He wrecked those kids’ lives.”

“Kay told you nothing about his father?”

I shook my head. “I didn’t want to ask. If he volunteered his son as an
experiment…”

“Yes. Walker was–is–one of the most powerful figures in the Alliance, in the entire Multiverse, in fact. I–I can’t forget that day. It was plain to see Kay wasn’t here by choice. He was eight years old at the time, I think. When Walker wasn’t looking at him, it was obvious to me he was scared half to death.”

My heart twisted. “Why are you telling
me
this?”

“Because if Kay does something dangerous, I’m counting on you to stop him.”

“What? What’s he planning?”

She shook her head. “It’s beyond me to tell. He’s reckless, and if he isn’t careful, he’s going to end up making a terrible error that will cost him his life.”

My insides pitched down into darkness at the thought of the narrow escapes we’d already had. I couldn’t begin to guess what Kay might be planning.

I nodded. “I’ll talk to him, I’ll stop him.”
If I can.

“That’s all I can ask of you.”

“Well,” I said, hesitantly, “I can’t predict what he’s going to do. Not always. Sometimes I think I know him, but…”

“I’m not sure anybody does,” said Ms Weston, half to herself. “I certainly didn’t know what to expect when the Academy sent me his report. Aside from his grades, his tutor explained he had a track record of helping the other students. It certainly didn’t compare to the accounts I heard about Walker.” She shook her head. “But now he’s openly using magic, there’s a strong chance he’s going to get himself into a lot of trouble.”

I didn’t even know what to think right now. Except if Kay had a plan, I wasn’t sure I
could
stop him.

“I’ll talk to him,” I said. “But I think we’re all in over our heads. Is it absolutely essential we go back? Not just me,” I added hastily. “I’ve read the Ambassadors’ mandate and there’s specifically a clause about necessary risks, isn’t there? Is the base safe?”

Ms Weston looked more like her old self as she glowered at me. “I am aware of the rulebook, Ada Fletcher. And I will tell you what I told the others: stay at the base unless absolutely necessary. It’s protected by the Alliance.”

Except maybe from the apocalypse. And given what I’d seen in Aktha’s village, I wasn’t sure it was just a legend anymore.

“I don’t understand why the doorways can only open to the Passages,” I said, voicing a question I’d wondered about for a while. “Can’t we open one straight to Earth?”

Ms Weston went still. “That is not possible,” she said. “The interactions of substances from different worlds can provoke dangerous reactions, and most would react violently. The world-key is designed to work through the Passages, which are laced with thousands of years of protection. Used
directly
, you’re effectively tearing the universe itself apart.”

My heart lurched. “But–the Conners did that. How?”

“My guess is, they stole a source,” Ms Weston. “As far as I understand it, there’s a certain substance within the world-key which resonates with a particular frequency, and can be tuned into one world at a time. It’s an energy source. In some worlds, that energy is present in the atmosphere. I can think of one which is rumoured to be riddled with doorways.”

The emphasis she put on the word
one
made me tense, and a chilling certainty pressed on me. “Enzar,” I said. “Was it Enzar?”

A pause. Then Ms Weston gave a tight nod. “Enzar was cut off twenty years ago, long before I started working here, but I’ve recently become curious about the methods by which the people at the transition points between worlds smuggled refugees from Enzar’s war zones. According to reports from the offworld-aid department of the Law Division, the only way it would be possible for anyone to be smuggled out is if a doorway existed directly between Enzar and a different world, one linked to the Passages.”

I stared. “The Passages? That’s how Nell got me out.”

“I suspected as much. The war laid waste to most of the planet,” said Ms Weston. “I confess I cannot imagine the scale. For anyone to be smuggled out at all, the door to the Passages must be well-hidden, otherwise we might have been looking at a cross-world invasion. I don’t doubt this was one of the reasons the doorways were mostly closed off by the Alliance, and the noninterference stance issued.”

She was talking about
my
homeworld. And yet… I’d never been there, not really. Being born there didn’t count. I didn’t remember a thing, even if I’d put a picture together from the snippets of information the Enzarians we’d helped had told me over the years.

I fought to get back to the point at hand. “So you think high-magic worlds contain the energy to make doorways?”
Could Kay do it?
He was an amplifier… and he had control of the world-key.

Holy crap.
No. He wouldn’t do anything that risky.
But could I know for sure?

“I honestly don’t know. In the meantime, it is your job to help Vey-Xanetha. If, of course, you are willing.”

“I… there are four of us,” I said. “How can we save a whole world? What happens if we fail? What about Earth?”

She shook her head. “If it seems likely to fail, we have an emergency unit in place to permanently seal the doorway to Vey-Xanetha.”

I stared. “No way.”

“The Alliance’s safety comes first, Ada,” said Ms Weston, and for the first time since I’d met her, she appeared truly, genuinely tired.

“Could they not evacuate?” I said, desperately. “There has to be a way.”

“There is one permanent doorway on that world, Ada, and you know where it is.”

On the mountain. Cut off from the rest of the continent. I shook my head fiercely. No way was I abandoning those people. This was exactly what Ambassadors risked every single time they travelled offworld. And who else did Vey-Xanetha have? Someone had to do it. Just like helping the refugees from Enzar.

“If you can avoid unnecessary risks, your safety will not be in question.”

Avoid unnecessary risks? In a world where the deities themselves seemed to be going mad? Either Ms Weston had more faith in us than I’d thought, or she was deluding herself.

One of the communicators on her desk buzzed, and she glanced down. “Do me a favour and find the others, Ada. It sounds like the storm’s slowing down.”

“Sure.”

I left Ms Weston’s office and absently walked to Office Fifteen. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I found Kay waiting there. Ms Weston’s words replayed in my head as I imagined him as a kid—the same age I’d been when I’d first gone into the Passages, with Nell at my side. Tears burned my eyes, and I threw my arms around him.

“Jesus, Ada.” He stepped back, eyes widening. “Not that this isn’t nice or anything, but I’m gonna spill this coffee any second now.”

“
And
you got me coffee?” I half-sniffled, but let go of him.

“Are you okay?” His expression was a mixture of
why’s this crazy woman throwing herself at me
and genuine concern.

Dammit. “Am
I
okay?” I blinked furiously.

“What? Did I miss something?”

I took the coffee before I embarrassed myself further and sipped it, even though it was boiling hot. Apparently realising he wasn’t getting an answer, Kay retreated to the window, chewing on a breakfast bar. I went to grab a snack from my bag and joined him, watching the sun rise over the city and paint the sky in streaks of pink and orange. Sometimes I forgot how beautiful this world could be.

Kay eyed me, puzzled. “What was that about?”

“It’s nothing,” I said through a mouthful of squashed nutri-grain bar—most things I’d put in my bag had taken a battering when we’d run through the storm. “We need to find the others. Storm’s slowing down, apparently.”

“Thought so.” He took out his communicator. “I’ll message them if Ms Weston hasn’t already.”

I looked out the window again at the now-greyish sky. “She probably has. They won’t have gone offworld, will they?”

“Nah, the Passages are closed to almost everywhere right now.”

“Bet that’s causing chaos.”

“Sounds like half Valeria’s staging a protest,” he said. “I might have gone there if we didn’t have to go back right now.”

“Thought you said it was out of bounds. Oh, wait.” I tilted my head. “Invisibility, right.”

“Why not?”

“Hmm.” My eyes followed the crowds of people moving through the streets outside, commuters heading for the tube stations. It sure didn’t look like magical chaos had been all over the city for the past week. I watched the shape of the river curving through the heart of the city… and a huge, dark shape under the surface, momentarily breaking out with a spray of water before ducking under again.

I stared. “What in the world was that?”

“Not our business,” said Kay. “Don’t tell me someone bought a sea dragon, or…”

“The Loch Ness monster.” I grinned.