The Pearl Wars (15 page)

24

Something bursts inside me and I jump to my feet and lunge at the guy. I don’t think about it. I just attack.

I catch him off guard, reaching under his jacket and grabbing the pistol. Cassius stumbles to the ground.

Avery stands behind me. “Wow.”

I point the gun down at him, hands shaking.

Cassius gives an awkward grin as he pulls himself to a sitting position. The three of us are in an empty hallway, dimly lit by cheap overhead lights. The brown linoleum floor’s sticky. I guess Security Centers are the one part of Chosen Cities that don’t get the obsessive-compulsive scrub-down.

He stares at me, smiling. “Bravo. Looks like you got me.”

Dang right I did. And it’s the first thing I’ve done right this entire
time.

I feel the trigger against my finger, the same one responsible for shooting Mr. W
ilson. “Stand up.”

Cassius’s smile falls to a sneer as he lifts himself to a standing position.

“Finally grew a pair, huh?” He leans against the wall. “Good for you. And that must be your girlfriend. That’s twice in one week you’ve been saved by a girl.”

“Shut up.”

Cassius shakes his head. “You’re just delaying the inevitable. We both know you’re not going to shoot.”

“I thought this was between me and you.”

“Who said it wasn’t?”

Before I can respond, Avery steps forward and grabs him by the jacket. “Where’s Madame?”

Cassius squirms in her grip. “Who the hell are you?”

Avery ignores him. “I know she’s pulling the strings. If you—”

I glare at her. “Stay out of this, Avery.”

After a moment’s pause, she lets go and moves behind me without a word.

“Whoa.” Cassius grins. “Guess things aren’t as rosy in the happy little sky community as I thought.”

I ignore him. “Ever since I met you things haven’t been right. Something inside me went crazy today … like a heart attack.”

His eyes widen for a second before he can control his expression.

“Jesse,” Avery whispers behind me, “if we’re gonna escape we need to do it now.”

“Quiet.” I keep my eyes pinned to Cassius. “What happened on the rooftop?”

He shakes his head. “You … you don’t know? Madame said—”

“Answer me. Or I’ll shoot.”

His expression softens. He shakes his head again, saying nothing.

Avery pushes me out of the way and grabs the pistol, keeping it pointed at Cassius. “Get in the cell!” She prods him forward. “Sorry Jesse, but we’ve gotta get out of here before the guards arrive.”

I sigh, watching Cassius move cautiously toward the cell door. “You heard her.”

Avery backs away from him, keeping the pistol out of reach.

Once he’s inside, I slam the door and turn the deadbolt, sealing him in darkness.

“Here.” Avery forces the pistol back into my hand. “I wouldn’t want you to think I’d use it on you.”

She takes off down the hallway. I stare at the weapon for a moment before following her, keeping an eye out for any movement. I’m not sure what I’d do if we ran across a guard. This isn’t a stunner I’m holding. It’s made to kill.

We tiptoe down the long, barren corridor, past a dozen cells just like the one we came from. A plain wooden door blocks our way at the end. There’s no telling what’s outside. Could be freedom, could be guards. I’m kinda doubting it’s freedom.

Avery leans her head against the door, listening for sounds on the other side. She glances at me with a doubtful look, but it’s the only way out. On the count of three, we yank it open and make a run for it—right into the belly of a security guard.

The guy grabs my wrist impossibly fast and sends the pistol flying to the ground. I cry out in pain. So much for the tough guy act.

Luckily, Avery’s on it, with a swift knee to the poor guy’s crotch. He loosens his grip, giving us the opening we need.

We push past him and careen through the small office, winding up on a rickety metal platform hugging the outside of the building. The night air’s cool on my skin. The city skyline surrounds us, window-shaped lights shining like a bright yellow checkerboard. The buildings stretch up too far to see the sky.

Below us zigzag several levels of equally rickety, rusty metal stairs. There’s no way they meet government standards, but the only way out is down. Cautious of the guy in the office, we wind our way down the steps, clearing two or three at a time.

When we arrive on the next landing, a squad of security guards pool around the ground level of the building. Several surround the bottom of the staircase. From two stories up they look like insects. Insects with guns.

Shining heavy-duty beams in our direction, the guards notice us and raise their weapons to shoot. We stop at the landing and squeeze together in the spotlight.

A voice bellows from below. I can’t tell which soldier’s speaking, but it’s mass loud. Magnified. “All you’re doing is making things worse for yourselves. You won’t escape, and even if you did you wouldn’t get through the Net. Give yourselves up before we’re forced to shoot.”

I look over to Avery. She shakes her head, muttering something to herself. It would be easy for her to turn me in, show her true colors and let the guards take me to Madame. I wait for her to do it, to betray me like everyone else.

“Thirty seconds,” the guard warns.

Then, picking the absolute worst time in the history of the world, my chest goes insane. It’s pain like back in Mrs. Dembo’s classroom. This time it forces me to my knees.

I sink to a crouching position, holding my burning chest. Low alarms blare somewhere off in the distance. I’m so disoriented, I can’t tell if we triggered them or if they’re sounding for a different reason.

“Don’t move!” the guard orders. I can barely hear him. I open my mouth wide, hoping to puke or scream or something to stop the throbbing. The alarms aren’t helping.

“Jesse!” Avery sinks down to my side, gripping my
shoulders. I can’t feel her.

I shut my eyes, exhaling—pushing everything out of my system. But it’s not like back at the Academy. It doesn’t help.

And then, a flash of light.

My eyes dart open and I force my head up to look at the skies. A ball of energy hurtles down from the stars, lighting up the sides of buildings as it crashes down. Past the Bio-Net. Past security.

A Pearl, and it’s headed straight toward me.

25

I take a deep breath and push myself to a standing position. It’s like moving through syrup, muscles howling in pain as I watch the Pearl plummet closer and closer to the Surface. Avery and the guards notice it too. They pull back, dropping their weapons.

The alleyway glows a brilliant green as the Pearl’s light reflects along the windows of the towers. Its path stays fixed on me.

“Back up.” Avery grabs my arm, trying to pull me away. “Jesse! It’ll kill you!”

I keep my eyes on the Pearl, ignoring her. My feet are cemented in place, every bit of me hypnotized by the glowing ball of light speeding to the ground.

I reach out my arms, hands open.

One thousand feet.

My eyes widen. The pain shoots from my core and meets the Pearl head
on, pulling it forward.

Five hundred.

“Jesse!” Avery screams behind me, pressed against the railing at the back of the landing.

Fifty.

My fingers tingle with electricity as the Pearl rockets toward them.

Then I catch it. I don’t even stumble backward. It lands right in my hands like it was always meant to be there.

I hold it out in front of my face, gazing at the swirling chaos within—an entire universe before my eyes. It should have burned right through me. I should be dead. Instead, I feel mass complete, like a part of me I never even knew was missing has returned.

I glance down at the dumbfounded expressions on the faces of the guards, illuminated in soft green.

“What did you just do?” Avery whispers from behind me, approaching carefully.

The pain is gone, absorbed by the Pearl in my hands. Without realizing what I’m doing, I push it away from my skin. It floats off into the night until it hovers inches before my fingers.

My senses buzz, on overload.

I ball my hands into fists.

The Pearl explode
s, sending a shockwave of energy in all directions. The guards topple over into a heap. My body deflects the energy, sparing Avery and me. The alleyway cracks and hisses. Street lamps and windows shatter, raining shards of glass onto the ground. Everything beams a brilliant green for a second, so intense that I have to shield my eyes.

As this happens, a figure emerges from the top of the Pearl, shooting up into the sky like an arrow until it’s well out of sight. It was humanoid, I think, but too blurry to tell—like it hadn’t quite flickered to life yet. I’m not sure anybody else saw it against the blinding energy. I’m not even sure if it was real, myself.

The Pearl energy finds a home in the circuits and transformers throughout the area, and soon we’re left with nothing. No more Pearl—just empty air and stillness.

The night is quiet once more, with one big difference. The guards below us lie in piles, unconscious in the alleyway. I hope they’re breathing.

I survey the scene around me—the blanket of broken glass, the blown-out windows—and realize what I’ve just done.

My fingers hum with residual energy. The hair on the back of my neck stands on end.

Avery starts off down the remaining steps, stunned into silence. I follow close behind, eager to escape the alleyway and get away from the bodies. Too much damage. Too easy for them to find us again.

As I take the final step into the alleyway, Avery grabs my shoulder and pulls me close to her, hugging me tightly. “You’re amazing,” she whispers.

I keep my arms at my sides, breathing hard. When she releases me, the shock of what just happened begins to sink in. I crane my neck upward, looking between the two buildings at the narrow strip of stars so far away. The alarms continue to rumble through the city.

“I don’t know what I am,” I whisper back, shaking my still-buzzing hand in the cool night air. “Let’s get out of here.”

She nods. We take off running through the corridor, leaving the chaos of the alleyway behind us.

26

C
assius balanced on the tips of his toes, peering out the slit of a window at the top of the cell. He couldn’t see much beyond
the siding of the closest building. There was a street below. From his vantage point he could only make out the very edge.

Alarms rumbled along his ribcage. The Pearl Warning System. He recognized it immediately, though there was no telling how close the thing was to the city.

He’d been stupid and careless, allowing Fisher to get the jump on him. Part of him conceded that he deserved to be in the cell after underestimating the guy, but that didn’t mean that he was about to surrender. He’d contacted the head of security seconds after being locked up. They were taking their time.

He knew he had to stop Fisher
and the girl from heading out of the city. If Madame found out that their escape was his fault, there would be consequences. He’d seen it before—confident trainees reduced to whimpering chil
dren after a meeting with Madame. What she said or did to them was a mystery, but the results spoke for themselves. No, he could not let Fisher and the girl get away.

He frowned. The
girl
.

She’d made an already complicated mission even more treacherous. She’d known to stop him at the elevators back in the Academy. And the way she’d looked at him in the hallway … it was as if she knew who he was. Cassius had never seen her before. He’d need to be careful.

Footsteps echoed in the hallway outside, nearing the cell door. Good. They were coming.

He rested his heels back on the ground and turned away from the window. But something caught his eye outside, stopping him.

He recognized it immediately, the reason for the warning alarm.

Like a falling star, the Pearl plunged toward the building. Its radiance grew stronger the nearer it came.

He analyzed its descent, amazed. With all the empty Fringe space, Pearls didn’t often fall inside Chosen Cities. It was considered a good luck omen when they did, though a dangerous one. Worse yet, this Pearl seemed to be heading straight for the security building.

Cassius watched as it grew in size, unable to turn away from the window even though he knew the danger of staying close.

Then the Pearl made an unusual change in direction, curving past his cell and down to the street below. He’d never seen a Pearl curve before. Something was wrong.

He grabbed onto the thin windowsill and craned his neck to look down at the alley, but couldn’t find an angle where he could discern anything of note.

So he waited, impatient. There was nothing worse than a fallen Pearl with nobody to capture it. He longed to hold it, to be the first to touch it.

The lock slid open behind him and a guard pulled on the cell door. Before he could get it completely open, an explosion from outside rattled the building.

A blinding green energy coursed through the rectangle window, throwing Cassius backward into the guard’s legs. The guard stumbled into the hallway, crashing against the wall.

The energy lingered only a second before disappearing into the air. All was still once more.

Cassius rubbed his neck and waited for his breath to come back before standing up and returning to the window.

Two figures darted off to the left. Fisher and the girl. They’d be heading to the Chute, probably. Quickest way out.

He dusted off his jacket and prepared for a sprint. He’d need to be fast.

On his way out of the cell, he stepped over the guard. “You were late,” he muttered before racing full-speed down the hallway and out the open door of the emergency exit.

27

“Move it, Jesse!” Avery shouts back as we bound up a short flight of stairs to the Chute Station. I don’t know where she gets off throwing orders around after what happened in the cell, but right now my number one goal is to get out of this city. The two of us will talk later.

As I join her on the waiting platform, I watch the Chute crawl toward us, a thin white monorail approaching like a snake. They say these things can travel up to 150 miles an hour when they get out of the city. It’s a good thing, too. The
speedier, the better.

Finding the nearest station had been a hassle in itself. Tight alleyways gave way to tighter streets, while monolithic buildings stood watch on all sides like sentinels. I don’t see how people know where they’re going around here.

The Chute blows my hair to the side as its front end passes by and stops beside the platform. Circ
ular doors on each car whoosh open and crowds of people pour out, rushing past us to the exit queues. I spin around to see gov
ernment officials scanning the wrists of the passengers as they exit the station and head into the city.

“You don’t have some fancy ID code, do you?” I whisper to Avery.

She shakes her head. “They removed it before I came up to the Academy.”

I groan. Without codes we’ve got no credit. This is gonna be a stolen ride.

A crowd of waiting passengers fills in around us. We stay in the center and join the current, hands in pockets. Boarding this thing probably isn’t the safest plan ever, but we don’t have a lot of options.

When the car empties, a pair of scanner guns pop out from inside. Travelers push their way onto the Chute, wrists up to display their ID sockets. Blue lasers brush over codes with a series of electronic beeps. Avery and I deliberately keep our hands in our pockets as we squeeze in between passengers, hoping that there aren’t any security cameras watching.

If they don’t catch us coming on, they’ll get us for sure when we exit. We might be able to fool a laser. A government official won’t be so easy.

We board the Chute without setting off any alarms and find two corner seats in the back. I slump next to the window, making myself as invisible as possible. I peer out at the city, focusing on the third-floor window of a neighboring office building. Rows of desks stretch beyond the glass. Late night workers plug away at computer boards inside. Mass joyless—kinda like Visitation Day.

An elderly woman takes a seat across from us as the circular door slides shut. The Chute remains still, waiting for the rest of the cars to fill up.

“Hey, Jesse,” Avery points at a small screen affixed to the front end of the car, “this one heads to Spokane.”

I look over to the screen. Sure enough, bright yellow letters flash
Northwest District Line: Spokane - #46
. I allow myself a sliver of hope. “That’s near Seattle, right?”

“Not really,” she says, “but at least it gets us out of the city. It’s better than heading south.”

I nod. South is no good. I don’t feel like being eaten alive by mosquitoes.

A pounding on the door causes everyone to turn. I crane my neck to see a face pressed against the window, inspecting the travelers
around me.

It’s Cassius. How did he find us so quickly?

I try to duck out of the way but he spots me almost immediately.

He pounds his fists on the side of the car. The passengers stare at him in annoyance, especially the elderly woman.

“Frag it.” Avery flattens against her seat. “Persistent little bugger, isn’t he?”

I ignore her, wondering how he could have escaped the cell. This is getting ridiculous. It’s like trying to crush a cockroach.

A man in a government uniform grabs Cassius’s shoulder and spins him around, away from the door. I watch as Cassius motions with his arms for the guy to let him in, but the officer shakes his head and points toward the open cars at the back of the Chute.

Cassius digs through his jacket, searching for something. Before he can pull it out, the engine whirs to life and speakers around the perimeter of the Chute begin to beep.

With a frustrated glance at the officer, Cassius gives up and turns around, sprinting to the back of the Chute.

“He’ll get on,” I whisper.

Avery sighs. “I don’t doubt it. Just be glad he can’t get between the cars.”

“Unless we stop,” I remind her.

“There isn’t another Chosen between here and Spokane. It’s a straight shot. Relax.”

I recline in my seat. I could be lying in bed right now, safe and sound back at the Academy. Instead, I’m heading for a city I’ve never been to. On the run, chased by some psycho teenaged Pearlhound—and maybe even Madame. And Avery wants me to relax?

The speakers inside the cabin hiss to life, followed by a woman’s calming voice. “Welcome aboard this Northwest District Line to Spokane, city number forty-six. This is a non-stop journey with an arrival time estimated at eleven twenty-five.”

I glance at the digital clock beside the screen. About two hours from now. Two hours without any running.

“We hope your journey with us is a comfortable one,” the overhead voice continues, impossibly cheerful. “Our automated cabin crew is always available if you have any questions or concerns.”

The Chute begins to pull forward, slowly at first, but building speed until we’re rocketing along the track. The rapidly passing scenery outside is the only clue that we’re moving at all. Motion control.

The skyscrapers blur into a tapestry of fuzzy lights until we pass through the Bio-Net. Then nothing. No lights, no movement, just darkness staining every window.

The temperature control hums to life and stabilizes the air inside. During the night, it can easily stay above 100 degrees out here. And it’s not even summer yet. I hear it’s killer in the summer. Surface Tan turns to Surface Stroke. No wonder Fringers try to break into Chosens.

I stare out the window. The Chute dips forward until the tracks touch the ground. Dust kicks up from underneath our car, clouding the air before dissipating back into the blackness. We’ve officially entered the Fringes. Dustbowl territory.

“We made it.” Avery lays her hand on my knee. “Look, about what I told you back at the Security Center—”

I turn to her. “I don’t wanna talk about it. I don’t know what side you’re on, but I don’t want to do this alone. Not after what just happened.”

She leans closer, whispering. “It should have burned right through you, Jesse. You should be dead right now.”

I nod. It’s everyone’s worst fear. Even the crazy members of Heaven’s Rain wouldn’t want to be standing in front of an oncoming Pearl. But I’ve done it.

I pause in thought. I’ve done it twice.

The words spill out of my mouth before I even know what I’m saying. “When the Pearl almost smashed into Lookout Park, I stopped it. I caused it to veer off course somehow. It was me. I knew it wasn’t just a coincidence.”

“You think you can control them?”

“Or destroy them,” I reply, “like back in the alley.”

She nods. “It’s something you’re meant to do. They did something to you back in Seattle when you were little, didn’t they?”

I press my fingers against the glass, staring out into the nothingness. “A laboratory, with green energy. Pearl energy, like in my dream.”

“And a key,” she adds. “Maybe this lab’s in Seattle. Maybe that’s what Alkine’s key is meant to open.”

I frown, pulling my hand off the glass and sinking farther into the seat. “I need to trust you, Avery, if we’re gonna do this.”

“I don’t know what I can say … ”

“If I can really control Pearls, the government’s gonna want me. The Tribunal’s gonna want me. It’s just like Alkine said. They’d start a war over this.”

She leans closer, keeping her voice low. “I’ve burnt bridges on both sides, Jesse. For you. I can’t go back to the Academy
or
to Madame. I don’t know what else I can say to convince you.” She reaches up and rubs her forehead.

“Headache again?”

She nods, shutting her eyes. “Wouldn’t happen to have an aspirin, would you?”

I shake my head, turning back to the window and the thick darkness outside. The Chute lurches to the left. I turn my head to see the tail end of the train curving out behind us. Cassius is back there somewhere, planning his next move. He could be calling Madame at this very moment, letting her know where to pick us up.

My heart sinks. We escaped the city, but this Chute is a moving prison—a serpentine gift box wrapped up just for Madame. If the Unified Party’s anywhere near as organized as everyone says they are, they’re going to pounce on us as soon as we get to Spokane.

I face forward. Avery’s eyes flutter closed, exhausted. Rather than broach the subject, I keep the panicked thought to myself, searching my mind for a game plan as we tear through the Northwestern wasteland.