The Pearl Wars (23 page)

44

Madame marches through the intersection, kicking a scrap of metal out of her way as she approaches us. Shadows of cruisers dot the vacant street, growing larger as they find breaks in the rubble to settle down.

She glares at Avery, hand at her side. “What a terrible disappointment you’ve turned out to be.”

Avery grips my shoulder. I grab onto her arm, never wanting to let go.

Madame stops and smiles. She grips a small rectangular control pad. A tiny red dot flashes below a thin antennae. I watch her finger caress the buttons on the front end, then flip a switch at the bottom.

Suddenly Avery jerks away, cradling her forehead. Her eyes close in pain as she crouches to the ground and bottles up a scream.

I drop to her side, keeping my eyes on Madame. “What are you
doing to her?!?”

Madame holds up the control pad, smiling. The flashing dot is now a constant light. “Correcting behavior.”

“You’re killing her!”

“Again with the adolescent dramatics.” She outstretches her hand and cradles the controller in front of her. “Here. Come and take it from me if you’re so concerned. Be the h
ero.”

“No, Jesse.” Avery grips onto my wrist. “It’s a trap.”

“Preposterous.” Madame moves her thumb along the side of the pad and presses a silver button. Avery’s body falls limp. “Too late. Better be on the ball next time, young man.
”

“No!” I crouch by her side, running my fingers over her cheek. Her eyes are shut—arms lifeless at her side.

“Relax,” Madame says, “she’s not dead. Yet.”

I gently set Avery down on the ground, take one last look at her unconscious face, and stand to confront Madame. “If you hurt her … ”

She laughs. “You’ll do what? Tackle me? Mr. Fisher, I’ve been tracking you since the minute you left the Academy. I could have had you dead a thousand times over by now. There’s a chip in her head capable of disrupting brain
p
atterns. With the press of a button I could reduce her to a vegetable. You will do nothing unless I tell you to.” Her eyes shift to Cassius. He stands behind me, fingers drumming nervously on his thighs. Her voice softens. “Cassius. What a job you’ve done. A test, and you passed it brilliantly.”

“Why did you send me on this mission?” His voice comes out quiet and meek. “If you knew where Fisher was—”

“Ah.” She raises a hand to silence him. “Your brother survived the fall from the building in Syracuse because the two of you triggered your abilities. He was bathed in Pearl energy. It protected him. But it’s a process, Cassius. Your bodies needed to adjust in order to accommodate your new abilities. You were both dangerous, but not to each other. Not directly, at least. You were the perfect person for the job.”

“Wait,” I start, “did you say
brother
?”

Her eyebrows raise. “Didn’t you know? Two children without family, drawn together by Pearl energy. Etcetera, etcetera. I thought it was becoming quite obvious.”

Cassius glances at me, then frowns at the realization. “You … you sent me to kill my own brother?”

“Not
kill
,” Madame replies. “
Recruit
. I sent you to find your brother and bring him back where he belongs. I couldn’t have done it without you, Cassius.”

“She’s lying,” I say. “You’re expendable. Just like Avery.”

She chuckles, voice calm and steady. “Now what would give you that idea? On the contrary, you’re very valuable to me. One half of a very exclusive set.”

I glance at Cassius. He doesn’t smile, but he doesn’t try to stop her either.

She steps forward, gripping the controller pad. “The two of you are going to help me save the planet, ensuring the continued strength of the Unified Party.”

I scoff. “Like I’d ever help the Unified—”

“Twelve years ago I found you, Cassius.” She ignores me. “Our radar picked up an anomaly over Seattle. I came to investigate. I didn’t know there was another until I took you back to the Lodge. By then it was too late. Fisher had already been rescued.” She sighs, continuing to step forward. “By Jeremiah Alkine, no less.

“You were wearing a curious bracelet, Cassius. The rest of your attire was so simple, but the bracelet … I’d never seen anything like it before. Deep and dark and endless. I nearly got lost staring at the seamless material. It was cold to the touch. Didn’t want to part from your arm, either, but I had my methods.”

I stare at Cassius, watching him squirm as Madame approaches. Like usual, he tries to control his expression. But it’s not working very well. He’s crumbling.

“It wasn’t from Earth,” she continues. “Neither were you, for that matter. But I didn’t discover
that
until two nights later, when the bracelet began to glow by my bedside. I watched as text scrolled across the band—illuminated characters unlike any known language. Seconds later, the writing translated itself into English, as if it knew that
I
was reading.” Her eyes fall on me. “And that night I learned about
you
, Jesse Fisher.”

I lo
ok to the side, trying to avoid her eyes.

“For many years I was convinced that you’d bee
n knocked off course, sidestepping Earth altogether. I was relieved. As long as Cassius didn’t develop his powers, our planet would be safe.” She sighs. “And then I got word from Avery. Just fragments of information—strange little orphan child that all the teachers were whispering about—but enough for me to connect the dots. The mystery boy was alive.” She frowns. “He was a Skyshipper.”

She shrugs. “As it turned out, we’d still dodged a bullet. The Hernandez Treaty kept the two of you separated for a handful of years, but it was bound to happen eventually. I only wish I’d acted sooner.” She pauses. “The rooftop changed everything. Pearls are treacherous now. They are capable of being unlocked. By
you
. We’re in danger of being overcome by your people.”

“Our people?” My voice comes out as a whisper.

“That’s right,” she replies. “Alien. Extraterrestrial.
Invader
.”

My stomach turns. I fight back nausea as the words repeat in my head. I feel like I’m not really here now, that I’m watc
hing someone else’s life.

Alien. The word doesn’t sound right. It doesn’t sound real—just something made up by people with too much imagination. Groups like Heaven’s Rain. But as my heart starts to slow, I realize that I know it’s true. I’ve known it since I saw the girl.

The girl. I look down at her, lying unconscious in the rubble. She l
ooks so … human.

Cassius scoffs. “Aliens don’t exist.”

Madame shakes her head. “There are things we don’t talk about, remember? Your past is one of them. You are one of
them
.”

“No,” I sputter. “No. I’ve been here my whole life. I would’ve remembered—”

“You were very young,” she interrupts. “The first. The first Pearls and the means to unlock every one that fell after.”

I look down at my hands, the hands that destroyed two Pearls alrea
dy.

“And that makes you dangerous,” she continues. “An enemy to both the Surface and the Skyships. To the entire planet.”

I clench my fists. “You’re crazy.”

“Am I? Or am I the one unlucky soul who must carry this secret?”

“No,” I respond, “you’re crazy.”

Her eyes narrow. “Tell that to the millions of people who died the day our country exploded, the day your chemicals nea
rly drove this planet to extinction.”

Cassius steps up beside me. “The Scarlet Bombings. But terrorists did that. You said … ”

“There is terror beyond this planet.” She frowns. “The invaders were sneaky, disabling our radar systems to mask their location.”

I shake my head, unwilling to believe that anybody related to me could be responsible for killing millions of people.

Cassius frowns. “But the government’s retaliation efforts—”

“I told you I must carry this secret, Cassius. Our people demanded revenge.
Someone
had to pay. That someone happened to be a group of people that had been troubling our country for far too long.”

“Skyship was right,” I say, gritting my teeth. “There were no terrorists. Your retaliation … it was … murder.”

Madame pauses. For a moment I think that she’s gonna defend herself, but she just shakes her head, eyes shut. “No one knows what Pearls really are, what they carry inside. And nobody knows the terrible sins we’ve committed better than me. It’s our duty to correct our mistakes … to use the energy from the invaders to make this world livable.”

“And kill people in the process,” I say.

“They are not people,” she counters. “It’s Homeland Security. They’ve prepared this world for colonizatio
n … triggered environmental change and pitted us again
st one another. They thrive in heat, Jesse, and they’d prefer we lie down and die before they arrive. I cannot let them win.”

I look up at the charred, skeletal buildings around us, trying to imagine chemical-filled missiles shooting down from space. The only missiles I can imagine are the ones deployed by America after the bombings. It’s true what the Tribunal always said. The Unified Party is more than dangerous. They destroyed an entire chunk of the world. They’d do it again if they had to.

I cross my arms, glaring at her. “So what are you gonna do? Kill me?”

“No,” she replies. “Not unless you force me to.” She places her hand on her hip. “I’ve been
watching you, Jesse Fisher. As soon as I saw what you were capable of in Portland, I had my team move into action. We caught the invader you freed and disposed of it. I nearly pounced on you then, but decided it was better to wait. You were heading to Seattle, after all. What better place to have this conversation? Vacant buildings all around us. No one need know.”

“Captain Alkine’s on his way,” I start. “My friends—”

“Oh?” She holds the device up to her lips and whispers into it, smiling. “These friends?”

Footsteps surround us. I notice movement among the rubble and watch as Unified Party soldiers approach from every angle, forming a wall around the entire intersection. Their uniforms blend into one another until we’re surrounded on all sides by a dark, unmoving circle. Two particularly large soldiers approach farther, positioning themselves on either side of Madame. One grips Skandar. The other pins Eva close to his chest. Handcuffs, leg restraints, gags. The whole deal.

Madame’s eyes dart from side to side, then settle back on me. “Your so-called Academy really needs to raise its standards.” She cranes her neck, snapping her fingers to get the attention of the soldiers behind us. Before I can turn around, they creep up and drag the Pearl girl away into the ruins. Avery lies peacefully beside me. Skandar and Eva stare at me with wild eyes, struggling with their restraints.

“I can destroy everything you love,” Madame says, “so I suggest you listen closely to what I’m about to say.”

I glance around at the ever-increasing wall of soldiers, so many that the ones in the back fade into the smog.

Several hundred, at least, and only one of me. One snap of Madame’s finger and they’ll rush in. I don’t really have a choice.

“Join me,” she continues. “We need you. You can control them … bring Pearls to us and away from the Skyships. We’ll restore America to what it once was. A beacon of hope, of progress.”

I grit my teeth. “Why would I want to help the Unified Party?”

Her eyes slit. “Because it is the winning party. Because we alone have the capabilities to harness your power and use it where it is most needed.”

“No,” I say. “Not you. I won’t help you.”

She scoffs. “Perhaps you’re not understanding. You’re not in a position to be disagreeing with me. If you don’t turn yourself in, I
will
kill you. Sure, it’ll make things harder on my end, but I can’t allow you to exist if you’re n
ot working for me. It’s a matter of survival.” She advances. “Without a Pearl you’re just a scared little boy.” She glances up at the sky. “And I don’t see any Pearls falling, do you?”

Cassius shifts beside me, clearing his throat of the smog. “You lied to me.”

Madame stops in her tracks and turns to him as if she had forgotten that he was standing there. “Excuse me?”

“You said you’d find a cure,” he mutters. “You said you didn’t know where I came from. You lied to me.”

She shakes her head. “I was looking out for you, Cassius. I was protecting you.”

“No,” he continues, “you didn’t protect me on the Chute. You didn’t protect me afterward, in the desert.”

“There are very important things that you don’t—”

“There is no cure, is there?”

She sighs, dropping her hands to her sides. “This is what you are, Cassius. The reaction. Your brother unlocks the Pearls, you channel whatever energy he’s unable to control. It manifests itself as fire, an element native to this planet. I didn’t want this for you, but there’s no going back.
”

He stares at the ground, dodging her eyes. “That’s what I am to you, then. A reaction. An afterthought?”

“That’s not it, Cassius. You’re very powerful.”

His head darts up and he shoots out his hand. A fireball erupts from his palm. Madame staggers back, shielding her face. The fire dissipates almost as quickly as it had appeared. “That’s right,” Cassius says. “I’m powerful.”

Madame adjusts her jacket, then motions for another soldier to approach her. This one carries a black cube half a foot long on each side. When he’s close enough, he tosses it to Madame. Cassius watches her catch it with great interest.

“The cube I brought to you in the infirmary,” she says. “It’s not a lie. When your bracelet had finished decoding its warning it … transformed—melted and dripped from my fingers right down onto the floor.” She cradles it in her hand. “Into this.
This
is your bracelet, Cassius. There’s one keyhole at the top, that’s all. Nothing will open it.”