Flame (13 page)

“That is because I am irresistible,” Maya said, handing Seth his tea before plunking onto a beanbag chair with a grunt.

“Careful,” Anthony told her. “You don’t want to shake that baby loose.”

“Anthony,” Maya said warningly.

“I have a question about that,” Seth said.

Judging from the way everyone turned in unison to look at him, they were surprised he’d spoken at all. “Waverly left this ship months ago, but you can’t be that far along.”

Maya’s hand went to her belly. “This little one came from a frozen embryo.”

Seth braced himself. “How many babies came from Waverly, then?”

Anthony looked at him steadily. “We were able to divide several early embryos. We got a total of, I think, thirty-two from her. The total, from all the girls together, is about one hundred and eighty, not counting the ova Felicity Wiggam has been very generous to provide. We can only hope they all come to term.”

Seth was stunned at the number. “Did any of you think to ask Waverly how she felt before you took her eggs?”

Amanda ducked her head with a guilty glance at Maya but said nothing.

Anthony sliced the air with a fine-boned hand. “Anne Mather told me Waverly and the rest of the girls had given consent. Believe me, I wish I had talked to the girls myself before I took their eggs, okay? I lose sleep over it.”

Seth studied Anthony, who shoved his small round glasses up the narrow bridge of his nose. The man seemed to be telling the truth, but Seth still couldn’t forgive what he’d done to Waverly. “If it bothers you so much, why are you still using the embryos?”

“Should we let them die?” Maya said, her manner much more shy and hesitating than usual, which showed how mixed her feelings were. “And what about the rights of the men who donated their sperm? They don’t want the embryos of their children destroyed.”

“Where
is
Waverly?” Seth asked. “Do any of you know?”

“I’ve seen her,” said Selma, “but I don’t know where they’re keeping her. I can tell you she’s pretty feisty, and she looks okay.”

“
How
did you see her?” Seth asked. “Can you get me to her?”

“Impossible. The church elders are considering taking testimony from her. Until she’s on record, she’s being kept sequestered.”

Seth didn’t like the sound of that. “Can you get a message to her?”

“I don’t even know where they’re keeping her,” Selma said. “Don, could you try to find out?”

Don nodded deferentially to the woman, who seemed to have the kind of authority that comes mostly from a strong personality. Seth looked around the room at each careworn face and decided he liked these people. He instinctively trusted them. If he was going to help Waverly and the rest of the kids, he needed their help.

“Look,” Seth said, and he stood up to get their full attention. “Maya hasn’t told me anything, but I know who you people are. You’re part of a resistance organization, and I want in.”

Amanda’s cheeks puffed out. “Resistance! That’s rich.”

The other people in the room tittered.

“It’s not a joke,” Seth said, and the room quieted. “You
are
the resistance. Even if you haven’t done anything yet, that’s what you are.” Maya’s eyes shone with fondness as she looked at him. “Anne Mather and her friends killed our crew, hobbled our ship, stole our girls, and used them horribly. Is this a government you support?”

“I think everyone here agrees with you, Seth, but what do you propose we do?” Amanda set her small teacup on the side table. “Anne still has a lot of loyal followers.”

“Do they know the truth about her?” Seth asked.

“They know everything we know,” Anthony said as he adjusted his glasses on his nose, “but we seem to be the only ones who have a problem with what’s going on.”

“Not true,” Seth said, surprising himself with his certainty. “Others
do
have a problem with it. It’s
got
to be nagging at the backs of their minds. What they need is someone to bring it to the fore.”

“How do you do that?” Selma asked with a grin.

“You put it into words,” Seth said. He’d thought about this while he was healing under Maya’s care. The only way to get Anne Mather was to foment rebellion, and every rebellion in history was based on a few choice slogans. “Give them a battle cry.”

“Articulate it for them,” Maya said, nodding as she tucked a leg underneath her, adjusting a yellow crocheted blanket over her knees. “Frame it.”

“That’s what we’ve got to do,” Seth said. “Right? We convince them.”

The adults all looked at each other, worried.

Seth sat back down on the wooden chair and picked up his mug, looking thoughtfully into the mirrored surface of the black tea. “On the Empyrean, the kids would draw graffiti if they weren’t happy with Kieran Alden.”

“Like cartoons?” Amanda asked. Of all of them, she seemed the most interested.

“Sure,” Seth said. “Slogans, that kind of thing.”

“How do we do that without getting caught?” Anthony asked, seeming irritated by the idea.

“The kids always wore hooded jackets to hide from the cameras,” Seth said.

Suddenly the room exploded with the sound of knuckles rapping on the door. Seth tensed up, sending a throbbing needle of pain into his hand.

“Maya?” called a husky voice. “Open up!”

“It’s Thomas!” Maya whispered.

“Hide!” whispered Selma, shooing Seth out of the room. “Don! Come with me.”

Selma and Don sneaked into the bedroom where Seth had been staying. Selma hissed and tried to beckon him, but he knew all three of them would never fit inside that wardrobe, so instead he ducked into Maya’s bedroom just before he heard the door being forced open and heavy boots stomping into the room. Seth dove into the master bedroom closet and closed the door behind him.

“Is this a meeting?” said a booming voice.

“We’re a group of friends gathered for tea, Thomas,” Maya answered bravely. “Is there something wrong with that?”

There was a pause, then Thomas said, “I count six teacups here.”

“Some of my guests left a few minutes ago,” Maya said quickly.

“Search the place,” Thomas said to someone.

With his good hand, Seth pulled at the paneling at the back wall of Maya’s closet, creating a space just large enough that he could crawl into the narrow passage behind the wall. He sidled in, pursued by the sounds of her bedroom being ransacked, and pulled the panel closed just as he heard the closet door open and hangers screeching along the pole.

“Nobody here!” called the guard.

Another guard called the same thing from the other bedroom, where Selma and Don had hidden. Seth exhaled long and slow, leaning against the ductwork that surrounded him. He thought he might pass out from fear.

“Are you hiding the fugitive here, Maya?” Thomas said in the living room.

There was a pause before Maya recovered enough to say, “No!”

“You’ve been taking a lot more food from the stores than usual.”

“I’m pregnant,” she said. “Eating for two, you know?”

“Stand up,” said Thomas.

“What are you doing?” Maya cried.

“Anthony’s going to come with us now.”

“What for? He didn’t do anything wrong!”

“Maya,” Anthony said in a warning tone.

“When did this start?” she cried. “When did we become a society where guards barge into people’s homes and take away whoever they like?”

“What are you
doing
?” Anthony yelled in the midst of a scuffle.

“She’s coming with us.”

“Maya didn’t do anything!” Anthony said.

“Then she has nothing to worry about.”

“T-Thomas…” Amanda stuttered, “Maya is p-pregnant. You can’t…”

“Shut up for once, Amanda,” Thomas said, and Seth heard heavy boots leave the apartment.

Every cell in Seth’s body wanted,
needed
to know what had happened. But if he went back into that room, he could get them all killed. So as quietly as he could he crept through the narrow passageway that snaked behind apartments, tripping over electrical boxes and squeezing past plumbing and ductwork, his heart in his mouth, with no idea of where to go.

HEARING

“Mom,” Waverly said, then knocked on her mother’s bedroom door. She poked her head in to find her lying on the mattress, a washcloth across her eyes. “Another headache?”

“This one isn’t too bad,” Regina said, beckoning her daughter.

In the dark room, with her mother’s familiar smell, Waverly couldn’t resist lying next to her and laying her head on her shoulder. Regina had always suffered from migraines, and this familiar scene felt almost like home. Tears pooled in the corners of Waverly’s eyes as she gave herself up to the sensations of her lost home, her lost mother.

Lately Waverly felt more distant from her old life than ever, after what Jared had told her about her father and his supposed role in sterilizing the New Horizon crew. She didn’t believe it. It couldn’t be true of the man whose warm heartbeat had once lulled her to sleep.

“You’re quiet,” Regina said and tightened her hold around Waverly’s shoulders. “You okay?”

“I heard something about Dad,” Waverly said. She hadn’t planned to ask now; it just came out of her. “To do with phyto-lutein.”

She felt her mother’s body tense up. “Your father developed the formula for phyto-lutein. He was a hero. He saved the mission.”

Waverly could only whisper, “Someone told me Dad was the one who poisoned the women on the New Horizon and made them sterile.”

“Whatever Captain Jones is saying now, it’s to cover his own hide.” Regina spat, palpable rage bubbling out of her—so different from the muffled, distant woman of recent weeks.

She’s having a real emotion!
Waverly realized.
Am I waking her up?
She reached for her mother’s hand, but Regina drew away. “So you’re saying the Captain framed Dad for it, and then killed him to keep him quiet?”

“That’s why Seth’s mother and Dr. McAvoy had to go, too. See? If the Captain was to blame your dad for everything, he had to get rid of witnesses.”

“But then he covered up the whole thing,” Waverly said. Something about it still bothered her. “No one on the Empyrean knew the New Horizon crew was infertile. So what’s the point of framing Dad? And how did Captain Jones get
you
to keep quiet?”

Somehow, this was the question that frightened Regina the most. She got up from the bed, knocking Waverly away, and started pacing the room.

“Mom?” Waverly asked, bewildered.

“Was that a knock?” Regina rushed out as someone pounded on the front door. “Oh, Waverly,” she called from the next room, “look who came for a visit!”

Waverly groaned. It could only be someone making further demands, exerting more pressure. She covered her head with her mother’s pillow, but then she heard a familiar voice. “Is she doing okay?”

Felicity Wiggam? They’d let her come? Waverly dragged herself out of bed and went into the living room, squinting against the bright lights. Felicity gave Waverly a hug.

“How are you?” Felicity asked as she rubbed Waverly’s back.

“A handsome man has come calling for her,” Regina said teasingly, but when she saw Waverly’s face, she wiped her own smile away. “But I’m sure Kieran will come see her when—”

“Mom,” Waverly interrupted. She couldn’t bear another display of her mother’s delusions. “Felicity and I are going to my room, okay?”

“Oh, sure,” Regina said, but she looked hurt. “You two have lots to talk about.”

The two old friends sat on Waverly’s soft mattress, silent until Felicity ventured, “I saw Kieran a few days ago.”

Waverly pounced on this. “Is he okay?”

“Physically, yes,” Felicity said slowly. “Emotionally, he’s about how you’d expect. He’s safe, though.”

“For now, anyway,” Waverly said, wondering if her old friend thought she and Kieran were still together, not sure she even wanted her to know the truth.

“I’m sure he’s worried about you,” Felicity said with a forced smile.

I’m sure …
Obviously Kieran had expressed no such sentiment. Waverly didn’t want to talk about it. “You seem to be doing well here.”

“I’m with someone.” Felicity demurely tucked her hair behind her ear, and Waverly noticed a ring on her finger. “He’s a little old, but he’s gentle and sweet.”

Waverly studied her friend. “I’m glad for you.”

“Me too,” Felicity said, but with her furrowed brow and her darting eyes, she looked muddled at best. “I needed to feel a part of something when you all left. And Avery was willing to take things slow.”

“He sounds nice,” Waverly said, choosing to ignore her friend’s obvious doubts.

“He’s helped me make the adjustment to life here. That’s why I told the Pastor you and Kieran need each other…”

“You
told
her?” Waverly studied her friend. Did Felicity have some influence with Mather?

Felicity smiled. “Don’t look so suspicious. She only talks to me because she wants me to talk to all the survivors, smooth things over, try to get you to cooperate.”

“You’ve seen others? What about Sarah?”

“I haven’t seen her,” Felicity said, her blue eyes troubled. “You and Kieran are the only older kids I can get to. I can’t find anything out, either.”

“
Could
you?”

“I’ll try, but I don’t think the Pastor trusts me much more than she trusts any of you.” To Waverly’s questioning look she said, “I think she can tell I’m not her most enthusiastic supporter.”

Waverly lifted a finger to her lips and pointed into the air to indicate their conversation might not be private, but Felicity waved this away.

“I’m no insurgent,” Felicity said, flashing a sheepish smile. “You know me. I’m not brave enough for that.” This led to an embarrassed silence between the two girls as they remembered Felicity’s unwillingness to help Waverly escape the New Horizon. Felicity’s eyes darted around, but she seemed unable to make eye contact as she said, “I stayed here partly because I didn’t think you’d make it back to the Empyrean. I thought you and the rest of the girls were on a suicide mission.”