The 17 (24 page)

They swept over the floor gracefully, completely in sync. Zack was shocked that they moved so well and so flawlessly together. He thought for sure he would have mashed her toes with his blocky feet by now.

She peered into his eyes and then kissed him softly. He could taste the sweetness of her lipstick. He wanted to enjoy the experience, but found himself preoccupied with not stumbling or stomping on her feet.

The music stopped and Apparat climbed winding stairs to a podium set high above the floor at the far side of the ballroom. He tapped on the microphone and cleared his throat. “Can I have your attention, please?”

Everyone stared at him expectantly. Zack and Mizuki shared a concerned look.

Apparat continued. “Thank you. The Ankhs would like to take this opportunity to express their gratitude for your amazing service so far to their cause. You are, indeed, the finest the universe has to offer.”

He stopped, expecting applause, but none came.

“Well, that was awk,” Mizuki said sardonically.
She had mastered slang well.

Apparat cleared his throat, muttered something unintelligible, and began speaking again. “You are nearing the time when you will be asked to put your considerable talents and fortitude to the test. The Ankhs did not come to this decision lightly. It was one that has been mulled for many centuries, mulled before some of your species had even developed rudimentary tools. Please, enjoy yourselves tonight. Partake in the Saturnalia. Worry about what is to come tomorrow.”

With that, Apparat waited for the applause that again did not come and descended the steps in a huff.

Mizuki's words were biting. “I’m sorry, but these are not some of the best the universe has to offer. Some are complete dolts. And savage. The guy with the sloped forehead over there told me he disemboweled someone and then choked another to death with the entrails. Does that sound like someone with the ‘Spark’ to you?”

Zack's eyes searched for the boy with the sloping forehead and finally found him hulking over a table with an assortment of dipping bowls. He scarcely fit into the tux he was wearing and his short-cropped russet hair was a mess on his malformed, egg-shaped head. Zack watched as the husky boy poked his fleshy index finger into one of the bowls, pulled it out and sniffed it before popping his finger into his mouth to slurp the concoction off his slimy digit. He did the same with the next bowl.

Zack winced. “Jesus. I see what you mean.”

Mizuki cackled as she watched. “With only three of them, they have to be very desperate to pick someone like that. That tells me they couldn’t be so picky anymore. Anyone with a pulse seems to be good enough now.”

As those final words fell from her lips, the soft light cast down by the chandeliers flickered and caused the din around them to silence. The light flickered again and finally went out, plunging everyone into an eerie and complete darkness.

There were some cries of panic and Zack felt shoulders and elbows and knees crash into him. Finally, the room was illuminated again, but the light was much dimmer than before.

Apparat was already midway up the winding steps to the podium when he began speaking. “—be alarmed about. I repeat. Nothing to be alarmed about. Please, enjoy.”

Mizuki made a crooked frown. “Nothing to be alarmed about, huh?”

Zack glanced around the ballroom, at the nervous faces, all the different races from all the different parts of the galaxy united with one supreme thought.

There was definitely something to be alarmed about.

That’s when Zack saw her in a long, flowing, silver gown. He would recognize her hobbled gate and that blonde waterfall of hair anywhere.

“Caroline,” he whispered.

She was one of The Seventeen.
Such a small universe.

“Hey … where are you going?” Mizuki asked, but Zack didn’t hear her. He pushed his way through the throngs of boys in tuxes, girls in dresses and Ankh slaves and servants to reach Caroline, who stood quietly near a table dedicated to a race that considered large black beetle-like insects to be delicacies.

She still hadn’t noticed him until he was standing next to her. Zack had never seen quite an expression like that from her before, and he had seen her with a myriad of facial contortions. This one, as best as he could describe, was one of joy and dread.

Caroline was a babbler, too, when she became flustered and she babbled a bunch of garbled syllables before she finally squeezed a “Zack?” from her pouty red lips.

Before Zack realized what he was saying, he muttered “Of all the zoos in all the solar systems in all the universe, she walks into mine.”

Caroline burst into laughter and threw her arms around him, digging her chin into his shoulder. “Oh my God, Zack.” Her words came out muffled in his tux jacket, but he could feel them vibrate through his shoulder. “Oh my God.”

“Pretty cray cray, huh?”

She pulled away and squeezed his shoulders with her hands, concealed under white crochet gloves that rode up over her elbows. She stared at him with a smile as big and wide as she could possibly make it. “I guess the logical question would be, ‘How did you get here?’ But I kinda already know.”

“Small universe, huh?”

She giggled again. “So, this is where you disappeared to?”

“I guess so. I saw you, you know, with Harness in one of the battles. It’s a long story. I’m so glad you are okay.”

“You know Harness?”

“I was with him when I first arrived. Another long story. How are they? Zill? Cass? Brock? Harness?”

Her smile turned to a frown. “I don’t know. Not well. That’s a long story, too. I wasn’t with them for long before I was plucked out of there and dropped here. I have to say, my mind is blown. Completely blown.”

Zack talked with his hands a lot when he was nervous. They were flailing away now, even though he had engaged in a million conversations with Caroline over the years. This, though, was their first in unknown intergalactic space. “Getting kidnapped by aliens will do that to you.”

Caroline grabbed his right arm at the wrist and peered at the tattoo on his hand intently and curiously. “Where did you get this? Did
they
give it to you?”

“No,” Zack said as he felt the sharp stab of razor-like knuckles in the ribs. He knew instantly who they belonged to and pointed at Mizuki. “She did.”

Mizuki stood next to him, feigning a smile. “So, who’s your new friend?”

“Actually, she’s an old friend. She’s from my planet. My neighbor actually.”

Mizuki folded her arms on her chest. “Oh, you must be Caroline.”

Caroline looked at Zack and smiled. “You’ve been talking about me?”

“Just a little. Another long story.” Zack turned to Mizuki. “Caroline’s one of The Seventeen.”

“I got that impression.”

“She’s just a friend.”

“I got that impression, too.” Mizuki held her hand out to Caroline, who hesitantly shook it. “We’re gonna take those Ankh bastards down.”

Zack smirked. “Long story.”

“Lots of long stories here,” Caroline said.

“So, Caroline, what do you know?” Mizuki asked.

“What do I know?”

“Yeah, about what’s happening? We’re gathering intel to see how we can get out of this mess. We have a lot already, but more can’t hurt. Heard anything? Seen anything?”

Caroline looked at Zack with pleading eyes. They were asking for help.

“Anything,” Zack said, soothingly, “would be helpful.”

Caroline’s green eyes grew extremely large. “Well, I talked to one of them—a lot actually.”

Mizuki and Zack exchanged shocked glances and said “Really?” in unison.

“He asked a lot of questions about you, Zack. He told me his name—his real name—it was literally a garbled mess of random sounds, so he settled on George. I feel so bad for him. He knows what they are doing is wrong, but doesn’t know how to stop it. He’s very loyal to them, but really cares about us.”

“I talked to George, too,” Zack said excitedly.

“Did he appear to you as Zac Efron? So random, right? He said their true form would offend me. He told me they can see in like five dimensions.”

Mizuki rolled her eyes. “They’re also cruel. Don’t forget that.”

Caroline snapped back. “That, too.”

“Any idea what they are planning to do with us after this sham of a party?” Mizuki asked.

Caroline nodded. “A slaughter, I’d guess, a battle that will make the others look like a cafeteria food fight. They want the very best seventeen. George said it’s the only way they’d have a chance to save their race, but he admitted it was already too late.”

The three of them stared at each other. No words, just random sighs and handwringing and looks of trepidation. Zack had to admit, things looked pretty bleak. Hopeless even.

“Either we get slaughtered in the stupid battle or we get sucked into the Ankhs,” Mizuki groused.

Neither outcome was appealing.
Then a thought came to Zack. He grinned and Mizuki and Caroline took immediate notice. He could tell they both instantly recognized the look.

He had it from time to time.

Zack had an idea so simple that the Ankhs would never see it coming. They weren’t capable of such thoughts. They were advanced and commanded power both sublime and boundless, but were incapable of anticipating a scheme like his that was completely radical.

As well as a bit counterintuitive.

That made it perfect.

“Would you like to share with the rest of us?” Mizuki asked playfully.

“There’s a third option. Attrition. A stalemate. World War I trench tactics. They need to weed it down to seventeen. They
need
seventeen. No more. No less. What if it never gets reduced to seventeen? What if we don’t play to win, just not to lose?”

Mizuki’s eyes lit up. He loved it when her eyes lit up. “You’re a freakin’ genius! They’re already weakening. They can’t keep this going forever.”

“Hate to rain on the parade,” Caroline interrupted, “but how do we get everyone on board with this? Plus, we don’t know what else they’re going to throw at us. I haven’t been here long, but long enough to know they always throw us curveballs. And what’s to stop them from just plucking seventeen of us out at random if they grow weary of waiting?”

Caroline was always the pragmatic one. Perhaps it was because of her injury at such a young age. She was always careful, always calculated, never took a risk, never put herself out there, was just always closed off and guarded.

It was one of the things that drew Zack to her as a friend. She always told him the truth, always steered him in the right direction. She was his rock and he was hers. Zack thought she saw a lot of herself in him. He, too, was guarded and careful and never was one to draw attention.

They preferred to live in the shadows, shrouded and isolated—and insignificant. They hated the fact that they never really registered with anyone else in life, yet did nothing about it.

Being no one was so much easier than the risk of being someone.

“Waldan will be on board. So will Valentina,” Mizuki said. “I’ll make some rounds. I’m quite persuasive as Zack knows.”

Caroline was pragmatic again. “What about the other seventeen, wherever
they
are?”

Mizuki shrugged. “We’ll have to take our chances with them when we get there—whatever nightmare they are going to drop us into.”

Zack watched as she loped away, eager to spread the word of The Great Seventeen Plan as Zack began to call it in his head. Mizuki was a great emissary. She had the personality and the charisma for it. Zack had little doubt she could sway the others to their cause.

Caroline just looked at him with a simper on her lips. “She loves you.”

Zack, taken aback, felt his face flush and his jaw drop open. “Well, we’ve gotten pretty close, but, I, um, I don’t know if, um …”

“And you love her. I saw the same tattoo on her hand, the same one as yours. I’m sure there is an amazing story behind that.” Caroline chuckled. “I’m sure it’s a long one.”

“Pretty long.”

“She’s your bae. I’m happy for you.”

Zack broke a lingering moment of awkward silence by changing the subject. “How did you get here?”

“I just woke up one day in a cell, then the next day in an old cabin with Harness. He was so nice to me, helped me walk around, fixed me dinner, and gave me all his water. He’s my bae.”

“Harness?”

Caroline’s eyes lit up and she bit her lower lips as she spoke. “He’s such a gentleman. Smart, too. Brilliant really.”

“Harness?”

“Why are you so surprised? You were with him longer than I was. You know what he’s like.”