The Gryphon Project (31 page)

Marlin’s eyes blinked quickly as he looked at Nadia.

“Please, Nadia.” He held out his arms. “I can explain.”

“No!” Nadia screamed. And then again. “No!” And then she turned on her heel and started running.

“Nadia!” Marlin called after her, but she didn’t look back. “Go after her and explain!” he said to Phoenix. “Tell her I love her!”

Huy and Neko stared at the stranger, dumbfounded to hear him talk like that about Nadia, who as far as they knew he’d never met before today.

“There’s no time, Marlin.” Phee watched her friend sprint out of sight, down the stairs that led to the street.

“Go,” Tariq said firmly. “Go after her, Phee.”

Phee took a tentative step away from the small cluster of boys, still not sure if she should go after Nadia.

“Go, Phee!” Tariq yelled, startling her.

Phee ran along the platform and down the stairs. She found Nadia hugging herself, pacing in a tight circle. Nadia heard her coming and stopped. She looked up at Phee, and in that one glance Phee could see that this was not going to be easy.

“Nadia, let me explain …” Phee waited for Nadia to break in, yell at her, do something Nadia-like, but Nadia was quiet, waiting. “Saul had to leave. His family is a one-per family living here illegally. His parents were involved in illegal recons.” Again, she waited for Nadia to interrupt with a flurry of confusion, but she was still silent, staring at her. “Because they were about to be caught, they had to recon themselves so that they could go into hiding with new identities. But he still loves you. Very much.”

Phee left it at that for the moment. She watched the information sink in. Nadia blinked, opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out.

“That boy up there is Saul,” Phee continued. “He’s called Marlin now. He looks different, but it’s him inside.”

“Saul was a one-per?” Nadia whispered. She glanced around, making sure no one was within hearing distance. “All this time? He was lying to me?”

“Yes.”

“He’s one-per?” Nadia turned in another dazed little circle. “
My
Saul?”

Phee checked the time on her phone. One hour and forty-five minutes before the ruling. “Nadia, please listen to me.” Nadia started her stunned pacing again. “Nadia!” Phee shook her hard. “We’re running out of time. Listen to me!”

“I’m listening.” Nadia started to cry. “I know what you’re going to say. I know there’s no time left. I know you have to go save Gryph, or try at least. Now I know why you didn’t want me to come. I know that I have to just deal with this on my own right now. I get it, okay?”

“But—” Phee wanted Nadia to stay. Be a part of this. But she knew that wasn’t going to happen.

“Go.”

“You won’t stay?”

“No. I can’t. That’s not Saul. And I can’t be around somebody pretending to be him, true or not.”

“It is Saul.”

“It’s not!” Nadia gave Phee a shove. “Now go. Just go. Okay?”

Phee moved to hug her, but Nadia held up her arms, refusing. “Not now.”

“But—”

“Go, Phoenix. You have to go.”

Phee checked her time on her phone again. She did have to go. Right now.

“You’ll be okay? You won’t do anything crazy?”

“I’ll be fine.” She let Phee hug her now. Phee clung to her best friend, and could feel that her whole being was vibrating with what she could only imagine was shock and confusion and fear. “You go.”

“You won’t come with me?”

Nadia shook her head.

“You can’t stay here alone.”

Nadia looked around. It was true. The Cannery was no place to hang out in the midst of a crisis.

“Come with me.” Phee took her hand. “I’ll put you on the train. You go home. Tell your parents that Neko is with me.” At the mention of his name, fresh panic swept over Phee in a cold wave that nearly knocked her off her feet. She didn’t know what was going to happen to Neko. She didn’t know what was going to happen to any of them.

“One thing at a time,” she said as much to herself as to Nadia. “One thing at a time, okay?”

Crying now, Nadia nodded. “I trust you, Phee. You’ll fix it. You always fix things.”

Phee didn’t know what to say to that. She led her friend up the stairs. They waited as far away from the boys as possible. Phee glanced over at the small group, and shook her head when Marlin made as if to come to them. He stepped back, shoulders slumped.

The train came, and Phee ushered Nadia onto it with strict instructions to text her when she got home safely. She told her she’d come over as soon as she could.

“Don’t hurry, Phee,” Nadia said as the bell sounded, announcing that the train was seconds away from leaving. “You be with your family. Today is about Gryph.”

But today wasn’t just about Gryph. It was about Neko too. And Nadia had no idea.

“Love you, Nad.” Phee waved as the doors closed.

“Love you, Phee.” Nadia, still sobbing, waved as the train pulled away.

PHEE RAN BACK
to the boys. They watched her approach, Tariq and Huy and Neko with steely gazes and in stony silence. Only Marlin spoke.

“What did she say?”

“Not much.” Phee glanced at the silent threesome. “She needs time.”

“And she’s got time,” Huy grumbled. “As much time as she wants. But Gryph doesn’t. So what are we going to do about it?” He turned his attention to Neko, who looked as though he’d lost weight from his already skinny frame in the time since Gryphon’s death. “What are we going to do about it, Neko?”

Neko paled. “I don’t know.”

“You begged us to give you time,” Huy continued on, his tone cold. “There’s no more time, Neko.”

Clearly, Marlin had fully explained himself in Phee’s absence, because the boys—in true male fashion—had moved away from the surprise and shock and straight to the business at hand. Gryph. Phee glanced at the clock above the elevator. An hour and ten minutes. Tariq looked at the clock too, then at Marlin.

“So?”

“So obviously I didn’t pick today to tell you what happened to me because I wanted my old life back.” Marlin cleared his throat. “I picked today because I think I have a way out of this for Neko. A way that will bring Gryphon back.”

Neko lifted his red-rimmed eyes. “You do?”

Huy brightened. “What is it?”

Tariq turned to Phee. “You trust him?”

“I do.” Phee moved closer to Marlin. “He’s changed on the outside, but he’s still Saul on the inside.”

“What a crock of shit.” Huy rolled his eyes. “You want that on a T-shirt, Phoenix? Because that’s where a line like that belongs.”

“We don’t have time for this,” Marlin said. “We really and truly don’t. I’m sorry that I didn’t come forward earlier, but I thought you guys would figure something out on your own.”

Tariq and Huy and Neko shared a guilty look. They hadn’t figured anything out. And with an hour left, they still had no clue how to get Gryphon back and keep Neko safe at the same time.

“But you didn’t,” Marlin said. “So here I am. Hate me, don’t hate me. Trust me, don’t trust me. It doesn’t matter. You have no other option, do you?”

The three other boys shared that same look again, before Tariq spoke for all of them. “Okay. We’ll go along with whatever you have in mind.”

Huy aimed a sneer at Marlin. “But don’t expect us to be all buddy-buddy with you, because at best … at
best
… you are a liar. You’ve lied to us since we were five years old. And at worst—”

“Guys!” Neko broke in. “The time,” he whispered, pointing up to the clock. Exactly an hour left before Gryph’s fate was decided once and for all. “Please, let’s go.”

MARLIN LED THEM
down the stairs and out into the daylight. Phee was surprised that he was taking them in the direction of the illegal recon lab, but she didn’t say anything. There was no time for questions. He led them past the CAPTAIN MURPHY’S FAMOUS FISH STICKS sign and right up to the very same door Phee had gone through not long ago, when all of this was as much a mystery to her as it was to the boys right now. But this time, Marlin opened the door and ushered them all in without a word about what they were about to see or had to keep secret. Phee hesitated, waiting for the boys to go in ahead of her. When she went inside, it took only a few seconds for her to register what she was seeing. Or not seeing. The lab had been dismantled. Not a trace of it remained. Except for Polly, who sat in a lone chair in the middle of what now was just a big, damp warehouse.

The boys stood in a half circle around the chair while Marlin introduced Polly, not by name, though, only as his friend.

Polly nodded at Phee. “Good to see you again.”

“Again?” Huy turned on her. “You know about this place?”

“Quiet,” Tariq ordered. Huy crossed his arms and sulked while Polly began setting up a small camera and a smaller box with some sort of screen.

“What is all this?” Neko asked, his voice shaking. “Why are we here?”

“It’ll be okay, Neko,” Phee assured him, hoping that she was right. She trusted Marlin not to put Neko in harm’s way, because of his love for Nadia, no matter how conflicted Nadia was about it all.

Marlin addressed the group. “Listen to me closely. This is how it’s going to go—”

“Maybe,” Huy interrupted. “If we agree to it.”

Tariq shot Huy another harsh look.

“This is how it’s going to go,” Marlin began again. “Because there is no other way.” He paused with a glance at Huy, waiting for his objections. None came this time. Marlin checked his watch.
“Thirty-five minutes until the ruling. We have that much time to make this happen.”

Phee’s heart pounded in her chest, objecting to all of this. It wasn’t possible! Whatever Marlin had in mind, there wasn’t time! Her heart thumped and thumped, as if saying
no way, no way, no way
. Phee strained to hear Marlin speak.

“Neko will confess, and we’ll tape it. We’ll send it to Chrysalis.”

“No,” Neko said. “I’m not doing it. I don’t care who the fuck you say you are, Saul would never ask me to do that. Never!”

“I
am
asking you to do this. It’s the only way to save you and Gryph.”

“How the hell does that save me, huh?” Neko asked. “How?”

“You’ll be reconned.”

Huy’s eyes widened. “What?”

“How?” Tariq asked.

“Where?” Phee looked around. “Clearly not here.”

“You guys don’t need to know any of that,” Marlin said. “You just have to trust me.”

“This is crazy.” Neko started backing away, but he backed right into Tariq, who’d placed himself behind him, blocking the way to the door. “Let me go.”

“Just listen, Neko.” Tariq placed a firm hand on Neko’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about who he is or what his motivations are. Just listen.”

“Please,” Huy added. “For Gryphon.”

Neko clamped his mouth shut and glared at Marlin.

“You will have a new identity. They’ll never connect the new you to the old Neko. You can live the rest of your life without worrying that they’ll find you.”

“And I lose everything.”

“You stay alive.”

It could work. Phee’s heart slowed with relief. It could really work! Neko might lose his family, his school, his friends. But that was better than losing his life! And Gryph would come
home. “Would he go with you?” She directed the question to Marlin.

“Yes.”

“Hell, I won’t.” Neko raised his eyebrows, arms crossed defiantly. “No one can make me do this. I’m sorry about what—” His words started to catch in his throat. He dropped his chin to his chest to regain composure. After a moment he looked up at Phee. “I’m so sorry, Phee. It was an accident. I never meant to hurt him like that.”

“I know you’re sorry.” Phee offered him a small smile. “But it did happen. And you’re the one Chrysalis will blame. You’re the only one who can make this right. You’re the only one who can bring him back, Neko.”

“But what about my parents?” Tears streamed down his face. “What about Nadia?”

“They’ll think you ran away,” Marlin said. “ To avoid being decommed. Tariq and Huy will tell them so. They’ll think that you’re healthy and safe. And that is far better than being dead. Isn’t it?”

After another long moment, Neko nodded. “I get it.”

“You’ll do it?”

“I’ll do it.” With those few words, Neko grew up. Something in him shifted, and he was ready to do what was right.

“Twenty minutes,” Polly broke in, camera in hand. “I’m ready when you are.”

Marlin gripped Neko’s other shoulder. “Ready to do this?”

“Yes.”

“You’re sure about this?” Tariq asked.

Neko shrugged. “Does it matter? We’re doing it anyway. He’s right. I don’t have another option, unless Gryph stays dead. I don’t want that.”

Marlin steered Neko to the chair. Polly set the camera on a tripod before sliding the small screen in front of him.

“This is a bio lock,” she explained as she slid a thin glove over one of his hands. “It guarantees that the next transmission sent
from this camera is from you and no one else. It proves this isn’t a fake, or doctored.” She wrapped a slender band around each of his wrists. “And these tell them that you’re telling the truth.” She pointed to the small screen, where Neko’s heart rhythm was now dancing in irregular waves. “You have to calm down, son.”

“I’ll try.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly through his mouth.

Phee took Neko’s hand. “Thank you, Neko.”

“I just hope it works.”

“Thank you.” Phee hugged him, and the thought was not lost on her that this was probably his last day as Neko Balkashan. After this, he would be forever changed. But he would be alive. And Gryph too. That’s what mattered. Both boys would live.

THE ONLY SOUND
in the warehouse was the cooing of the pigeons roosting in the rafters, and Neko trying to steady his breathing. Polly set up the camera, checked the bio locks, and stepped back. She nodded. Neko stared at the camera, at the devices on his wrist like handcuffs. He dropped his gaze to the floor.

Phee stood to the side with the others. Would he go through with it? Was he changing his mind now? Phee checked her phone for the time, ignoring the twelve messages, all from her parents. Eleven minutes until the ruling. They all shuffled silently, not wanting their voices on the tape. Phee willed Neko to look up, to start speaking. To get this over with.