Barcode: Cavern of Youth (8 page)

Seth’s place?

Seven

“But you spoke to Hades?”

“But you spoke to Hades?”

“That’s what he said his name was.”

“His name is Hades. That makes him Hades.”

“How long are we going to do this? You really think I traveled to Hades and spoke to a real life god?”

Antonio frowns his digital face and flares his nose. “Yes.”

After finishing the sandwich I stole from Seth’s refrigerator, I clean up my mess and place everything in the dishwasher.

Seth’s apartment is always a mess. I often sneak over in the mornings when he’s out getting drunk. Antonio says the ex-genius goes out for training, but not even the digital monster seems to believe that.

Though the nanobots aren’t as capable as they were before Seth’s skills started slipping, they do an excellent job of cleaning up the place when I come over. When everything’s organized, the living room is visually appeasing.

A few months back, Seth had the carpet removed and aesthetically decorated the stained concrete.

Though Seth’s intelligence has deteriorated, his home designer skills have evolved. The square patterns on the floor look more artistic than some of the best cubist paintings in the thirtieth century. The white, red, and black designs could make me dizzy from staring at them too long, but they increase the room’s attractiveness.

He’s been experimenting with using MMIBS on fabrics as well. Not only did he change the frames of his couches to a sleeker and durable threaded material, he brightened the color of the red pillows to give the room a lively focal point against the white furniture.

“What about after? Did you ever learn how to breathe the fog?”

Taking a seat next to Antonio, I reply, “Yeah. It was difficult though. First, Blue-Skin—”

“Can you please stop calling him that? You’re awful at making nicknames.”

“But it’s fun. Anyway, Blue-Skin took me away from his girlfriend and explained the similarities between the water and the fog. Supposedly, the fog that eats on dead flesh also helps restore life. But you have to drink from the Daughters of Danaus first. He gave me a fair warning. It seems that they’ll sometimes poison the water and kill you. Depends on their mood.”

“Nothing’s changed over the years.”

“Whatever. I don’t get it from a scientific point of view, but I was down for drinking cave water. It was obviously sterile because the golden bridge room boiled it at a ridiculous temperature.”

Antonio’s image begins flickering. “Damn software. Update!”

“Seth’s lost his touch, huh?”

“Get back to the fog.”

“It was simple, but painful. A low mist appeared over the river, and Blue-Skin said I had to drink as much as I could while inhaling deeply. I didn’t realize how hard that was, but I kept drinking. I tried getting up once, but the girls held on to me for an hour.”

Holding one finger up, I rush to the bathroom again. I’ve been doing this for the past eight hours. My overactive bladder has prevented me from falling asleep all night. That’s why I decided to visit the geeks’ apartment. Not to mention, I need Antonio’s help. But he keeps getting distracted.

I tell the rest of the story once I’m back in the room. “Drinking all that water was damn hard, but stopped my joints from hurting.”

Antonio looks at Carmen. She’s sitting neatly on an adjacent couch with her arms folded. “I keep forgetting she’s here.”

“Boring, I know. She was definitely more exciting when I first met her.”

“I just don’t want to interrupt. You’re already protecting me, and that’s a horrible invasion of your space as is,” Carmen gushes without a breath or pause between any of her words.

“Whoa. I can understand you, but can you slow that down some?”

“Nervous habit. Sorry.” Clearing her throat she says, “But Antonio’s avoiding helping you find Monte. You’ve asked him like three times, and he smoothly changes the subject.” Antonio glares at Carmen. Unable to maintain eye contact with him, she turns to me as though I’ll save her. “I’m just trying to help you out since I’m here and all.”

“She’s right, you see-through-nerd. Why are you avoiding the topic so much? Just to let you know, I
will
threaten you with a deathnote. I know your ISP and that encryption crap doesn’t work with me.”

The drama king releases an incredible sigh and confesses, “I’ve known about the trouble Monte’s gotten into for some time.”

Carmen barges into the conversation. “So spill the beans!” Her initial response was perfect, but she covers her mouth as though she regrets saying anything at all.

“Stop that submissive woman shit! I want you to say whatever you want. Drop your hands.” Turning to Antonio, I motion for him to speed up the story. “You’re stalling. Seth is on his way. He just entered my radius. He has a mile left to jog, and you can’t avoid me that long.”

Seth’s moving at more of a sprint, and Antonio could hold out if he tried.

“Fine. But first you have to tell me why you want this information so badly.”

“I need to know what he’s doing to determine if he’s working for someone.”

“Who?”

“You said I had to answer your previous question.”

Several projections appear in front of me displaying images of destroyed buildings, video clips of slain gladiators on rooftops, and articles about the massacre of mafia members in Southern California. “Monte’s been seeking various thrills since you’ve disappeared. I know all about the Cavern of Youth adventure Mr. Jules sent you on last year, but that’s nothing compared to the things Monte’s gotten himself into. I think you were his better judgment because he’s been nothing but trouble since you
vanished
.”

“I know about the bank robbery. What are these?”

“It’s not just one.” Antonio holds his palm out and swipes his hand to the left. A projection of an article about four violent bank robberies moves the other screens out of the way. “He robs them and sends the money to a foreign account that I can’t trace. He’s a serial killer that targets high ranking gang members, but knows a lot of East LA residents. He’s also attacked several student gladiators on rooftops.”

Seth bursts through the door.

His armor changed with his name. The epic gear that once graced the genius now resembles a densely padded leather jumpsuit. The gear is dark blue with red outlines. This armor looks like casual clothes with heavy, dark-blue shoulder pads.

Seth examines us while drinking a half-empty bottle of X-Eyes. The two black X’s on the front have been scratched off. The smile and tongue sticking out were left in order. Other parts of the bottle seem damaged, as though they were scraped repeatedly by bullets.

His eyes remain welded to Carmen while taking a sip of the alcohol. Then, he walks over to an empty chair and plunges his weight into it.

“Who the hell are you?” He wipes sweat from his brow and takes another sip.

“I’m Kay and that’s Carmen.”

Seth observes the both of us with his barcodes lit. Since I was forced to inhale fog and water, I’ve been able to see a hint of color with my eyes closed. Though it’s not much, I notice Seth’s bullhorns over his eyebrows shine a dull gold.

“You’re Kay? If that was your simple name all along, you could’ve just told me.”

My left eye ticks and I ask, “What are you talking about?”

“You’ve lost some size due to the bandages. The data they have coursing through your blood is compressing your muscles and bones. Even with the loss of girth, I know you. If that wasn’t enough, you didn’t change your jacket that’s too big for you now.”

“You can see the codes in the bandages?”

“I finally have control over my barcodes. If you received the bandages three weeks back, I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. But I recorded your data not too long ago,” he sputters while tapping on his head. Though he’s learning to control his intelligence, he remains a drunk with slurred speech and an unpleasant odor.

“Did you ever record people before you started X-Eyes?”

“I did, but the toxin deleted most of it. My memory is hazy and probably won’t come back.” Antonio stands up and walks out of the room quietly. “Why does he look so prissy?”

“You didn’t say hi to him when you walked in. You were rude,” Carmen snaps. Antonio ghostly fades away.

Seth blurts, “Fag.” Then, he takes another small sip before closing the bottle.

Tilting my head to the side, I jest, “Don’t you enjoy the company of boys in your back door as well? Don’t tell me you’re using hurtful words just to sound cool.”

Seth raises his eyebrow. “I’m bi.”

“Yeah,
that’s
different. You’re an idiot too.”

“I’m an idiot compared to the person I once was. I could still outsmart you.”

Leaning forward in my seat, I prod, “Please continue.”

“There’s nothing more to say. I’ve forgotten more than you’ll ever know.”

Antonio’s screen activates and it turns towards Seth. “You talk a lot now, but you hardly do anything. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. You do not know Kay.”

Seth dissects my forehead with his activated barcodes. “Yeah right.”

“Would you like to create a wager?”

“You’ll bet on someone you hardly know just to prove a point to me? Have I pissed you off that much, honey?”

“Because of the oppressed love you had for Spencer Colt, you’ve become obsessed with capturing the wild creature that once haunted your apartment. But you haven’t come close. Not a hair or a footprint.”

Seth falls back in his chair and takes a gulp of the drink. “Speed this up so I can get to the challenge.”

I run to the bathroom once more while they continue arguing.

“I bet that Kay could find a trace of him or even capture the creature within an hour.”

“Do I have to sit back and watch the magic happen or can I chase the monster too?”

“It’s up to you, as long as you don’t get in Kay’s way.”

They sit in silence for a few minutes. I exit the room and gesture for Carmen to follow me. As she clumsily staggers to her feet, I boast, “Be back in a few seconds with some trace of the miniature monster.”

I wait for the elevator to open, and listen as Seth walks into his bedroom and removes some of the most recent devices that he’s built to search for the monkey-rabbit. He stops completely and taps his chin. Then, Seth launches various materials across the room.

He withdraws some of the older tools from his closet. It’s a box of equipment he made when Spencer was living.

The current one he’s holding looks like headphones with sunglasses attached. I’m not sure what it does, but it looks goofy.

Carmen and I ride the elevator to the thirty-seventh floor. “Are you really going to hurt him like this? You and Antonio are practically picking on him.”

“Not practically. We
are
picking on him, and yes, I will hurt him.”

“I read your thoughts. You’re still pretty fixated on Spencer yourself. He dances around the surface of your conscious mind. I’ve healed Seth two or three times and I don’t mean to offend you, but he seems to repress his issues more than you.”

Quietly, I walk to a maid’s office and lean against the door. The halls are long and lively on this floor. The walls are lavender and the carpet is white. They keep this entire floor immaculate. Hilarious pictures of the maids posing like the photos of previous Colt men at the academy decorate the hallways. Everything is neat. Nothing is out of place.

“Dennis cries himself to sleep every night. Though he smiles at me, I see his regret. He’s not treating me like the son I’m
supposed
to be. He’s giving me the affection he wished he had shown Spencer. Seth drinks because of the guilt he feels for helping me kill a guardian for the arena and for falling in love with Spencer. You think I have issues that deep? Spencer’s in my thoughts because I don’t hide from him. I keep him right where he needs to be.” I tap on my head to mimic Seth and open the door to the empty office.

After locking us inside, I force Carmen to sit in a chair next to the door. The room is pretty small to have so much space in this damn skyscraper. Maybe it’s bigger than it looks, but with stacks of papers, cleaning materials, and maid uniforms covering most of the room, I can hardly tell. This office is nothing like the hallways. It’s junky and smells like mildew.

The room stays empty most days. I assume that’s why the creature we’re chasing sleeps here.

For thirty minutes, I intricately place books on shelves and fold uniforms. I stack them on the desk, lean the mop against a wall, and balance the window cleaner next to it.

I unlock the door and motion for Carmen to follow me. We sit on the floor, directly outside of the office.

When we’re both comfortable, I say, “I didn’t know you could journey through my thoughts. Tell me something about you.”

“I’m from Texas, just right outside of your old hearing range, so you wouldn’t have noticed me.”

“Shame. You’re such a pleasure to look at.”

“Thank you,” she hums with a wink. “What else? I come from a family of purebred gladiators.”

“Meaning, the ones that are married and mated with others for the sole purpose of making strong warriors?”

“Yes.”

“Then why are you weak?”

“Aren’t you asking the wrong question? Don’t you want to know who my family wants to breed me with?”

“Not interested. Why are you weak?”

Carmen frowns and testifies, “Everyone is weak to begin with. I just haven’t figured out how to use my strength, yet.”

Her forced smile causes me to notice her sharp canine teeth. “Cute smile.”

“Why? Because Angie has similar fangs?”

“Wow. That had a hint of bitterness in it. Do you speak fast when you’re jealous too? I never mentioned the girl.”

The beautiful goddess prepares a comeback, but I hold up a finger and listen as the mop falls, causing the window cleaner to smash on the ground. Because I loosened the top, the liquid flies everywhere. The leg on the office chair breaks and knocks over a stack of books and uniforms.

Standing up, I offer my hand for Carmen and help her from the ground. She continues holding on as I lead her back into the office. Next to the desk, we notice a small figure struggling to free herself from eight heavy books that are anchoring a maid’s uniforms over her body.