The Lost Code Part 28

"Wait." I stepped in front of her. Held her shoulders. "I think turning it off will let her die."

"She-" Lilly started shaking her head, almost like she wanted to keep the idea from sticking in her mind. "But, we can't, we need to-"

"Lilly. Look at her."

I did. Lilly didn't for a moment, then finally did, too. "Is that what you want?" she whispered.

Anna nodded at us, slight movements of her head against the tubes. More tears, but also something like relief in her eyes.

"Oh, G.o.d," Lilly sobbed. She backed away. "I can't."

I took Lilly by the shoulders and turned her to Anna. I knew what I had to do, and I hated it. "You stay with her."

Lilly was frozen, like this had broken her. But then she nodded. She reached into the tent and put one hand behind Anna's head. With the other, she rubbed a thumb on Anna's cheek, wiping away the tears. "It's going to be okay," she said, her voice getting thick. "You hear me? It will all be okay in just a minute...."

I stepped over to the wall. Took hold of the plug. The attachment was tight. I held my breath and tore it free.

The machines around Anna went dark. Humming cycled down to silence. Anna's breathing stopped.

"I love you," I heard Lilly whisper.

I thought about going back to her, to hold her, or something, but thought I'd leave her last moment with Anna for her. Besides, I didn't want to see that again.

I took a deep breath. Let it out slow. Now I knew what Paul, Eden, even Dr. Maria had been capable of. This This was what she'd been apologizing for up on the ledge. was what she'd been apologizing for up on the ledge.

I looked around this dim subterranean lab, the evil doppelganger of the Atlantean room. This, right here, beneath the cheery camp, the TrueSky, the SafeSun lamps, the entire dome, this was the heart of EdenWest, a chamber of blood and suffering. And now of death. In this place, they'd been searching for what was inside me. I ran my hand over my chest, imagined the ribs being sawed open, fibers tearing as the covers were spread apart, cold air on my bare organs.... He would do that, if he thought he needed to. He would do it without hesitation.

Yet even knowing that, it was still almost impossible to really imagine someone cutting open a girl and stuffing her insides with tubes, like she was nothing more than a piece of equipment.

I walked, dazed, over to the next tented table. I could see the outline of a body. I looked through the clear plastic window. He was a younger boy I didn't know. Probably one of the missing kids that the CITs had mentioned. This was where they'd all really gone. To be pried open and dissected, studied, understood. Lilly and Evan had talked about scientists growing ears on the backs of mice, of clones. None of that had ended. It had just gone underground, followed the money. Everyone knew EdenCorp had tons of money.

The next table held little Colleen, her insides on display. Her eyes were open. Wide, innocent. She looked at me. A soft moan from her tubed mouth. I could barely look at her, remembering her little pained voice the other day in the infirmary. Inside, I felt things closing up, locks going on chambers of feeling.

Let's just put these away for a while, said the technicians solemnly.

Then I stepped to the wall and pulled her plug.

Went around the edge of the room, from one tented table to the next.

Pulled all the plugs.

Humming slowing down to silence. Little lights going dark. Tortured lives ending.

When I was done, I slumped against the wall, c.o.c.keyed because of the pack on my shoulder. I felt heavy, too heavy. Slid down, and finally acknowledged the feeling in my gut. Threw up on the floor. A splat of liquid. Closed my eyes. Needed there to be nothing for a while....

But another sound began. A voice through a speaker. Coming from behind me. From Dr. Maria's backpack.

I pulled the pack off my shoulder, knelt, and dug into it. Under the medical kit, there was an extra shirt, flashlight, some soymeal protein bars, and a subnet phone.

"Is, um, anyone hearing this?" On the little phone screen was Aaron. "Oh, hey, it's the gill boy, I mean, Owen. Maria gave you the phone, I take it."

"Yeah," I said. "Dr. Maria said you were a friend."

Aaron nodded. He looked past me. "Oh, looks like you've been down to the chamber of horrors." I didn't know if that was supposed to be humorous or what. If it was, then Aaron had a sick sense of humor, and right then, I couldn't find a response.

Aaron glanced over his own shoulder. "Listen, we need to get you out of here," he said quietly, "as soon as yesterday. There's a maintenance hatch due south of the boys' cabins. Number six. How soon do you think you can get there?"

I tried to measure the distance in my head. "Half an hour?" I guessed.

"Okay, good. I can tell Robard and the Nomads to send a team to meet you there. And I can disable that door, provided you don't get caught before then. But, near as I can tell, Paul is back down in the temple, so you should have some time."

"Okay," I said. "We-well, Dr. Maria is-"

"I know, kid, I saw it happen live on the cameras. Just get to that south maintenance door, number six, okay? I'm opening it in thirty minutes and it can't be open long."

"Okay."

The screen went blank. I stared at it. Yes, leaving now. No special flying craft, no skull... no ending up on one of these exam tables.

There was a zipping sound. Lilly was closing the plastic window above Anna. She moved back to the middle of the room, to Evan, the closest CIT. I watched her check his pulse and nod. "Still there," she said. "I checked them when I first came down."

"Good," I said. "Hey..." I slung the backpack onto my shoulder. "Aaron says he can open a door for us, but we have to get there in thirty minutes. Which means, now."

"Okay," said Lilly. "Just help me get them down, and we'll go."

I looked at the bodies, felt the clock ticking. We had to move. "Listen, Lilly, Paul's not going to do what he did to Anna, to these guys. Now that he knows about the skull and us-"

Lilly spun at me. "They're my family family, Owen!" She was screaming suddenly, just screaming at me. Her face twisted. A furious animal. "You still have one. I don't!"

"We're going to end up like that that"-I pointed to Anna-"if we don't get out of here!" I couldn't help yelling back. I could almost feel the knives slicing my chest open, looking for the Atlantean inside.

"Then go go!" She turned and started unstrapping Evan. "I'd rather die than lose them, too."

Her words echoed around in my head. Lose them, too. Lose them, too. She'd already lost one family. She'd already lost one family.

I looked again at the CITs and then I realized I was wrong: Paul might not cut them open, might not need to, but now that they'd been down here, seen all this, was he really going to let them go back to lifeguarding? I felt pretty sure that once you ended up in this room, the only way you were getting out was the way Anna just had. "I'm sorry," I said. "You're right. It's just, the time-"

"Then start helping."

I did. Lilly pulled a needle carefully from Evan's elbow. We unbuckled straps, and he crumpled into our arms. "Evan, wake up," Lilly whispered in his ear.

"Nnnn," he moaned. We dragged his hulking body over to the wall and propped him there.

We did the same with Aliah and Marco. By the time we were done, they were coming to.

"Man." Marco was coming out of it the fastest. He rubbed the back of his head. "Security Forces busted in while we were visiting Evan in the infirmary. All I remember after that is something white.... What was was that?" that?"

"A skull from Atlantis," Lilly said matter-of-factly. Marco looked at her. "No time for all that," she said. "We're getting out of here, but we have to move. Can you guys walk?"

"We can try." Marco started pushing himself up the wall. He helped Aliah.

"Guh, what happened?" Evan's eyes blinked open. He saw me and frowned. "Last thing I remember, I... you..." He squinted at me. "Isn't that my shirt?"

"Yeah," I muttered, and switched topics. "Paul brought you here and tested you," I said. "To see if you were like me and Lilly. But you're not." I couldn't help feeling a little bit of satisfaction saying that.

"What does that mean?" Evan asked. He slowly got to his feet, too.

"It means," said Lilly, "that Paul and Eden have been looking for someone with a lost genetic code that connects them to Atlantis."

"Atlantis?" said Aliah. "Wait, you mean like Plato and the sunken city and all that stuff?"

Everybody just looked at her.

"What? I read my cla.s.sics in school."

"Something like that," I said.

"Point is," said Lilly, "they've been looking all along. It's why we were selected as Cryos. And..." She bit her lip, inhaled slowly like she was gathering strength. "I need to show you guys something."

She took Evan's arm and put it around her shoulder. I felt a knot form inside to see them like that, but this moment, what Lilly had to show them, it was theirs, not mine. I had to respect that.

I stayed where I was as Lilly led the CITs over to Anna. I heard Aliah gasp. Heard Marco curse. Then they were silent. I heard a kissing sound and saw Lilly take her fingers away from her lips and reach into the plastic tent. The others did the same. Then they whispered their good-byes and turned away.

"Paul never had to study us," said Lilly, leading Evan toward the stairs. "He had his lab rat in Anna. So he left the rest of us alone and just watched, to see what we'd do. Watched until the real Atlantean arrived."

Evan looked at me. "You mean him him?"

"Yeah," said Lilly. I felt their eyes on me as we headed back up the stairs. Lilly gave them the short explanation about the temple, the skull, Dr. Maria, and the Nomads, as we returned to the lab and then the cheery infirmary hallway. At each door, we paused, looking warily for Security Forces, but there were none.

We left out the front door, squinting against the bright daylight. There was a distant din of plates and forks. Lunch was still in progress. We headed around the dining hall and back down through the woods. The CITs slowly regained their legs, and we moved faster, rejoining the trail to the cabins.

"Hey, look." Marco was pointing out toward the fields. A squad of Security Forces was jogging down the path toward the boathouse.

"Good job, Beaker," I thought aloud.

We ran on until we reached the first cabins.

"We need to turn south," said Lilly.

"So, we're just heading out into the barrens of Radland in our bathing suits?" Marco asked.

I looked down at Evan's shirt. "We can stop by my cabin. Some of those clothes should fit everybody. And you can have your shirt back." I pulled the subnet phone from my pocket and checked the time. "We have to hurry, though. I told Aaron a half hour, and it's already been twenty minutes."

"So," said Aliah as we jogged over to the Spotted Hyenas cabin. "I have to wear sticky boy clothes? And by the way, I'm totally kidding, but still..."

We entered the front door. The subnet phone beeped. "This is Aaron."

"Hey," I answered.

"I am not seeing you on the wall cameras. Are you at the door yet, or what? Everything is set."

"Yeah, we'll be there, maybe a couple minutes late."

"Okay, well"-Aaron's mouth turned down like I was something bitter tasting-"a couple minutes is going to be shaving it real close, especially when it comes to the neck that is stuck out to help you, that being mine. Make it fast, got it?"

"Got it," I said, stuffing the phone away.

"Man, dude, this place completely smells," said Marco as we entered the bunk room.

I looked around. It seemed like forever since I'd been here. I hurried to my bunk and changed into a shirt and jeans. I stuffed an extra shirt, underwear, socks into Dr. Maria's backpack. It was too full to add any more.

Marco and Aliah were digging jeans and long-sleeved shirts out of cubbies and throwing them on. I tossed Evan his shirt.

"Anybody see a pullover that's not gross?" Lilly asked as she rummaged around.

"Here." I gave her mine, then considered the other cubbies. I remembered Wesley having a fairly nice sweatshirt, and he was about my size. I rounded the beds in the middle of the room and checked Wesley's cubby. It wasn't there. His bunk was below Leech's. I looked there and found the sweatshirt lying among other clothes and his blankets. It didn't smell terrible.

I stood up, slipping it over my head. As I did, I caught a glimpse into Leech's bunk. The things he'd taped to the wall: his Trilobytes poster (they were a super-popular band that toured the Edens and the Northern Federation), and his signed photo from the previous camp session with a big pink heart drawn in the corner around Paige's name. There was also a drawing in black ink, with the t.i.tle The Preserve: Secret Routes. The Preserve: Secret Routes. It was a map showing the whole Preserve in amazing detail. It had all the trails, animal pens, and here and there, dotted lines and arrows that were labeled with things like "good shortcut" or "ambush spot." So, that was how he'd known where to leave the trail. He'd been keeping track from his previous games. The map even had a compa.s.s rose in the corner. And there were funny things, too. Like, he'd drawn a little bear in its enclosure that was standing on its hind legs, fangs bared, holding a terrified camper in its paws. There was a curving monster like a sea serpent in the little pond where the CITs had surprised us. It was a map showing the whole Preserve in amazing detail. It had all the trails, animal pens, and here and there, dotted lines and arrows that were labeled with things like "good shortcut" or "ambush spot." So, that was how he'd known where to leave the trail. He'd been keeping track from his previous games. The map even had a compa.s.s rose in the corner. And there were funny things, too. Like, he'd drawn a little bear in its enclosure that was standing on its hind legs, fangs bared, holding a terrified camper in its paws. There was a curving monster like a sea serpent in the little pond where the CITs had surprised us.

The drawings were really good. Maybe that shouldn't have been a surprise, since he'd often had that sketchbook with him, but I guess I hadn't wanted to think of Leech as having any talents other than being a jerk. Did knowing this change how I felt about him?

"We good?" said Lilly. I turned to see her by the doorway. The others had left.

"Yeah." I took a step.

But I stopped. I turned back to the wall.

The map. Leech's map. Something about it was sticking in my brain. Something familiar about that little sea monster...

And then I knew. The black cylinder case he took on his trips with Paul. It wasn't a fishing pole.

"Oh," I said quietly.

"Owen, what?" Lilly asked.

Everything was swimming. I thought about sitting down. Or, falling over. But there it all was. He'd been here the longest... his injured hand that one morning... he and Paul finding me in the water by the Aquinara.... They hadn't been fishing at all.

I stared at the little map on the wall, and said, "I know who the third Atlantean is."

Chapter 24

"WHAT?" LILLY ASKED. SHE STEPPED OVER TO MY side. "You do?" side. "You do?"