Bounders (16 page)

Why is he acting so weird? I turn to Cole, who turns to Lucy, who shrugs. There is definitely something going on.

“Boss, come on, don't leave us hanging here,” Marco says. He hops up and crosses to the bin of spiky balls in the corner. Marco never sits still for long.

Waters's slow gaze circles the room. “Gedney, the gloves.”

Gedney hobbles over to Waters with a pair of shiny gloves in hand.

I look at Cole again. His eyes blaze with excitement, but I can tell he doesn't know what to expect.

“Gloves?” Marco asks. He plops down on his beanbag and tosses a bumpy purple ball from hand to hand.

“I'll let Gedney do the honors,” Waters says. “How 'bout a demo, old man?”

“Well, yes, no time to waste.” Gedney steps to the center of our circle, and Waters dims the lights. Gedney shakes out the gloves and slides them onto his hands. He's careful, meticulous, making sure each finger is perfectly in place—a slow process for someone always urging us to hurry. He smooths the end seams of the gloves midway up his forearms.

Gedney's hunched body straightens as he raises his arms out and up. Moments before, he seemed small, forgettable, but as he lifts his arms, he morphs into something commanding.

Then he jerks his hands in the air.

Currents of light race through the gloves to the tips of his fingers and then out into the pod room. First ten then twenty then a thousand rays of light shoot out of the gloves, dancing and darting and weaving together like an army of spiders spinning their webs into the greatest net ever known. And then he's pulling and gathering the lines of light into a great ball. A great ball of yarn made of strings of light, knotted together in a perfect orb. Gedney has it there between his fingers, molding it, massaging it, gathering it together until it acquires a certain quality or symmetry that seems right, certain. Like it's the only design it can possibly be.

And then Gedney disappears. Or maybe he doesn't. Maybe I just blinked. Because he's there, and the ball of light is gone. The air behind him shimmers for a second and then is still.

“Ummm, what just happened?” Lucy asks.

Gedney's shoulders roll forward, and his knees shake. When I'm sure he's about to collapse, Waters eases him onto a beanbag. Gedney pulls the gloves off finger by finger and lays them lengthwise across his lap.

“Seriously,” Marco says, “what on earth was that?”

I don't have the faintest clue. It was the coolest thing I've ever seen, but I have no idea what it was.

Cole jerks up in his seat. He taps his fingers. He mumbles to himself. Then his face lights up like a lantern. “You bounded,” he says.

What?

Gedney nods. “Indeed, I did.”

“But how?” Cole says.

“Wait a minute, Geds,” Marco says. “Just slow down. What does he mean, you bounded?”

Waters places a hand on Gedney's shoulder. “Just that, Marco. You all just witnessed Gedney bounding through space. A very small space, yes, but he bounded.”

“How is that possible?” I ask. Bounding requires all kinds of sophisticated computers and calculations and precautions. You can't just free-bound. That's the stuff of sci-fi stories.

“Gedney's gloves make it possible,” Waters says. “Gedney is the mastermind behind this incredible new biotechnology. A biotechnology you were born to master.”

“But free-bounding?” I ask. “Bounding through space without a ship? How could that not have been leaked to the media?”

Lucy, Cole, Marco, and I huddle around a rear table in the mess hall. I thought we should debrief from the pod session, and I want to keep my mind off the afternoon's Mobility class.

“You heard him,” Marco says. “It's top secret. Highest-level clearance.”

“Yeah, I heard him about the clearance,” I say, “but that doesn't make it clear. Why would we need to keep it secret? What's compromised if it's disclosed? You'd think they'd want people to know about the greatest scientific advancement in modern time.”

“Unless,” Marco says, “there's a threat no one knows about.”

Marco's eyes drill into me. If this were a mystery movie, the camera would be zooming in for a close-up, and suspenseful music would be playing.

“You mean . . . ? You couldn't possibly . . . ?” I say.

Marco nods. I cover my face with my hands. I don't want to believe the gloves have anything to do with the alien prisoner, but I can't ignore the uncomfortable feeling in my gut.

“What are you talking about?” Cole asks.

Marco gives Cole a crooked stare. Even I know it means
shut up
.

It flies right over Cole's head. “What?” he says, indignant.

“The med room,” I whisper.

Cole's eyes widen. “Whoa . . . I guess it's possible.”

“Oh, come on,” Lucy says. “You boys stink at secrets. Just clue me in, will you? It'll be easier on all of us.”

Cole shrugs, and Marco gestures to me, giving me the honors. Well, I guess there isn't a lot of downside in telling Lucy.

“There's an alien being held captive on the ship,” I say.

We lean forward, awaiting Lucy's reaction.

“So?” Lucy asks.

“So, it's not a normal alien—not that there's anything too normal about an alien—but this one's not a Tunneler. Marco and I saw him on the first night. They had him in the med room. The same one I was treated in. And let's just say he wasn't friendly.”

Lucy rolls her eyes. Her hair is tied in ribbons again, even though Bad Breath made her take them all out in our last Mobility class. “So they've made contact with a new alien species. So what? I'm sure the public's not always the first to know. They're a lot more careful with disclosure since the Incident at Bounding Base 51. And just because one alien is a bad dude who needs to be locked up, it doesn't mean we have to condemn his entire species.”

“Fair point,” Cole says, “but this isn't just a normal disclosure delay.”

“What do you mean?” Lucy asks.

“Waters said the Bounders were born to master the glove technology,” Cole says. “That means Earth Force has had the technology, at least in the infant stages, since before we were born, before they started
breeding
us . . .”

I hadn't thought of that. Earth Force started breeding Bounders almost thirteen years ago. They've known about the glove technology for over a dozen years and never a whisper reached the media. Mom was right. There's a lot Earth Force isn't telling us.

“And if the alien has something to do with the gloves,” Cole continues, “then maybe they've known about him for that long, too.”

“Oh, please,” Lucy says. “What would an alien today have anything to do with a technology developed before we were born?”

“I'm not sure,” I say, “but I have a gut feeling it's all connected.”

“And don't forget,” Marco says, “Techie here discovered the alien prisoner is secured by an occludium shield.” Marco swings his arm around Cole, who flinches and scoots his chair over. When he realizes he's now closer to me, he flinches and shoves back.

“Occludium?” Lucy says. “I thought occludium was only used to stabilize atoms involved in quantum space travel.”

“Yeah, well, it must be used for security, too,” Marco says, “because they sure called in the heavy guard for the alien.”

“So let me get this straight,” Lucy says. “They're holding an unfriendly alien prisoner at the space station, and it's all hush-hush, right?”

Marco shoots me a glance. “
Unfriendly
is not quite a strong enough word, but yeah.”

“And they've been waiting for more than a decade for us Bounders to wave our hands around in their fancy gloves, right?” Lucy flips her wrists in a dramatic flourish.

“Is that really a question?” Cole asks. “We've been through this.”

“So, why all the secrets?” she says.

Marco laughs. “Well, that's the million-dollar question, sweetheart, now, isn't it?”

“Don't call me sweetheart.”

Marco and Lucy argue, but I tune them out. Images swirl in my head—the heavily secured hangar, the armed guards in the med room, the alien on the table, the occludium shield.

“That's it!” I say. “The occludium shield!”

“What about it?” Cole asks.

“The occludium shield doesn't just stabilize atoms for quantum travel; it can prevent quantum travel. As in it can block bounding!”

“And?” Lucy says.

“And so the only reason we need that kind of shield is if bounding is used offensively—you know, to attack.”

“I'm not following you, Ace,” Marco says.

“What if the gloves aren't just a new technology?” I say. “What if they're a weapon? And what if the aliens have the technology, too?”

“A weapon?” Lucy says. “Come on.”

“No, really, think about it,” I say. “Wouldn't it be awfully convenient to pop up on your enemy unannounced?”

“Use the gloves to bound to your enemy's exact location?” Cole asks.

“Exactly,” I say.

“Genius,” Marco says.

“And that's why they need the occludium shield,” Cole says, “to block the alien from bounding.”

“Ex-
cuuuse
me.”

I jump at the sound of the voice. Florine Statton is the last person I want eavesdropping as we talk about the alien. She strolls around our table until she stands behind Lucy. “Someone hasn't been following directions.” She pulls one of the ribbons out of Lucy's hair and curls it around her pink-polished fingernail. “No ribbons, Lucy dear. Now, all of you need to pay attention. There's a schedule to follow. The bell sounded for transition to Mobility more than five minutes ago. Do not forget you serve at the pleasure of the admiral and you've taken an oath to follow orders.”

Five minutes ago? I guess we missed it. We were all too focused on the mystery of the gloves and the alien. Florine flushes us up from the table and shoos us out of the mess hall.

When we reach the chute cube, Marco jumps onto the platform. “Ready, Bounders? Same order as last time?”

He doesn't wait for an answer. He pushes the button and shoots into the tube. Lucy grabs his ankles before he disappears.

Cole hesitates. Geez, that kid has horrible timing. As I'm about to shove him onto the platform, he turns around.

“I think you're right,” Cole says.

“About what?” I ask.

“The gloves. They're a weapon.”

Cole's talking to me again? “What makes you so sure?”

“Before I came to the Academy, I read everything I could find on the Bounder Baby Breeding Program, going back for years. Once I came across a military document. It probably wasn't supposed to be released, but I doubt many people could find it. It was archived and encrypted on a secure site, but the encryption software wasn't current, which is why I was able to decode it. I wouldn't say I'm a hacker, but I have a certain way with computers. . . .”

“Yeah, no kidding. I saw you in the med room, remember?”

Cole nods. “Anyhow, the military document set forth the protocol for the genetic testing—what our parents had to undergo to see if they carried the Bounder genes.”

“Okay,” I say, “so the military was involved. We knew that. The military took over the space program after the Incident at Bounding Base 51. They formed Earth Force.”

“Right,” Cole says, “but do you know what the original name of the Bounder Baby Breeding Program was?”

“What?”

“Operation
Ultio
.”

“Okay . . . ,” I say.

“Don't you know what
ultio
means?”

“Ummm . . . ‘ultimate,' maybe?”

“No. It's Latin.”

“Look, Cole, I don't speak Latin. No one does. Other than you, apparently.”

“It's Latin for ‘revenge.' ”

Whoa.
Ultio.
Revenge. No way. That could only mean one thing. The Bounder Baby Breeding Program is Earth Force's long-term offensive to stick it to the aliens. Gedney said the Bounders were born to master the gloves. That has to mean the gloves are weapons. So what does that make the Bounders?

What does that make us?

We catch up to Marco and Lucy in the hall leading to the hangar.

“What happened to you clowns?” Marco asks.

“Cole couldn't make the grab,” I say, sneaking a nervous glance at Cole.

Cole stares at his shoes. “Yeah, what he said.”

Hmmm. So Cole and I are tight again? Sharing secrets? I'm not really sure when we turned the corner, but I'm not complaining. Plus, Cole gave me a lot to think about.