How to Lead a Life of Crime (30 page)

“You knew about the files?” I can see real fear in Joi’s eyes. She’s worried about Curly and the colony kids.

“Certainly! I’ve been following your exploits since I misplaced my card key during that dreadful smoke incident. I had to make sure that the key hadn’t been stolen, so I checked when it had last been used. It seemed someone had opened the door to my office after the key left my possession. It didn’t take a genius to figure out who was responsible. I was curious to find out what you had planned. I assumed it might have something to do with the Fourth of July rooftop party you seemed so eager to throw. That was your second big mistake, I’m afraid. Did you honestly think I don’t have the roof under surveillance? The listening devices up there are activated when they sense the presence of more than one tracking chip. That way my conversations remain private—but yours do not.”

“You heard everything I said on the Fourth of July?”

“Of course. I was worried the sound of fireworks might drown out a few words here and there. So I asked Caleb to make a second recording. And I must say, I was not disappointed! Your speech was most inspirational—one might even say brilliant. Sending students to conquer the alumni! I wish I’d thought of it myself!”

“So you’re not trying to stop the top twelve?” I ask. “You don’t have anyone hunting them down?”

“Look around! The entire building is empty! Every employee at the academy has been sent out on the search! Unfortunately, they’re looking in the wrong places. There seems to be a flaw in a few of the tracking chips. The signals are off by a few hundred yards. We’ll fix the mistake, of course. Perhaps even tomorrow. But I’m afraid by that time, the escapees will have put all those files to good use.”

“And you’re going to let them? You’ve turned against the alumni?” Joi asks.

“Not all of them. I’m only punishing a few who’ve turned against me,” Mandel replies. “A couple of the files you stole belonged to supporters, so I made sure they were switched before the big day arrived. But all in all, you made some excellent choices!”

“You’re getting rid of your enemies, then.”

“Yes, but it seems my most powerful foe remains at large.” Mandel smiles pleasantly at the two of us. “So the breakout was only meant to be a distraction? Was I supposed to be chasing fugitives while you two lovebirds made your great escape?”

He reaches out and runs his thumb over the site of my incision. It comes away streaked with blood. Then he takes Joi’s arm and rubs the same thumb over the spot where her chip should be.

“What do you have in there?” he asks.

“Tinfoil.”

“Brilliant!” He chuckles before giving us both a fake frown. “But very, very naughty indeed. Oh well! Back to plan A.” Then he nudges my side with the tip of the Taser. “I don’t want to be rude, but you’ve interrupted my dinner. We should head back inside before it gets cold.”

I give his blood-splattered lab coat a once-over. “What are you eating? A whole sheep?”

“That’s what I admire most about you, Flick,” Mandel tells me. “No matter what, you never seem to lose your sense of humor.”

He steers us toward the lab doors, which are propped open by one of Gwendolyn’s limp arms.

“Don’t trip,” Mandel warns us as we step over her body. Once the three of us are inside the lab, he kicks Gwendolyn’s arm back into the hall.

“Thank you!” he calls out to her as the doors slam behind us.

The lab has been shut down for the night, but the morgue at the far end is brightly lit. I can smell steak and roasted potatoes. I haven’t eaten since lunch, and my mouth is watering against my will. As we draw closer to the light, I catch sight of Mandel’s desk. It’s covered with a crisp white tablecloth. I spot a hunk of filet mignon with a knife still stuck in the center. And an open bottle of champagne. I hear Joi gasp, and I assume she’s disgusted by the celebration Mandel’s been throwing himself. Then my eyes land on one of the autopsy tables. Caleb is lying on top. He’s naked from the waist up. He might have looked like he was sleeping if there wasn’t something wrong with his head. I glance down at a stainless steel tray by the side of the table. Inside is Caleb’s brain.

“That’s what you do to people who help you?” Joi mutters.

“It’s a shame, isn’t it?” Mandel agrees. “I’m afraid Caleb saw too much over the weekend. He knows I allowed students to escape. Which meant I couldn’t allow him to live.” He holds up the Taser and takes a sip of his champagne. “And now I’ll be able to assure the alumni that someone has been punished for this rather unfortunate turn of events.”

“The alumni aren’t stupid. They’ll know you had something to do with the breakout. The missing files only belong to your enemies.”

“A happy coincidence! And it doesn’t really matter what the alumni suspect. Thanks to you, I have plausible deniability. Of course it’s possible that I knew about the plan. It’s also possible that I didn’t. There’s not a shred of proof either way. Only the three of us know the truth.”

Which means he can’t let us live either. I wonder which one of us Mandel will cut up first. I should throw myself at him. He’ll shoot me with the Taser, of course, but it might give Joi a chance to run.

Mandel is watching me. “You are a funny pair,” he says. “Such splendid specimens. And yet you insist on acting so illogically. Your own survival seems to mean very little to you. So if either of you comes within ten feet of me, I’ll Taser the other one first. Do you understand?”

I nod.

“Good!” Mandel exclaims with a laugh.

“So does this mean you’re not going to kill us?” Joi asks.

“My precious hybrids? Not until it’s absolutely necessary! Perhaps Flick didn’t tell you, but I’m conducting a very important experiment. And now it seems as if I’ll need both of you to finish it. So sit down,” he orders, pointing at the two chairs on either side of his desk.

Joi and I obey. I take the chair with the view of Caleb so she doesn’t have to look.

“Now eat,” Mandel commands. “You missed dinner this evening, and you’re going to need all of your strength soon. The filet mignon is excellent. May I offer you both a glass of champagne?”

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

NEVER NEVER LAND

T
he warmth might feel good after our visit to Mandel’s frigid morgue—if it weren’t for the faint stench in the air. I doubt it would bother me if I didn’t know what it was. The thought makes my stomach churn, and I can feel a hunk of filet mignon still sitting undigested inside it. I was nauseous before I took my first bite, and I gagged on the second. But Mandel made us keep eating until our plates were clean.

“Now that your bellies are full, I think it’s time for a nap,” he announced. “But first, please return my card key if you would.”

I didn’t dare glance at Joi. “It’s upstairs,” I informed him.

“Still scheming?” Mandel didn’t seem at all offended. “I suppose I could search you, but I have a rather important phone call to make. So I’ll just have to put you in the one room that my key doesn’t open. It might not be as comfortable as your dorms, but I promise you it will be nice and cozy.”

He marched us out of the morgue and back toward the elevator. We opened the lab doors to find Gwendolyn’s corpse blocking our path.

“Oh dear.” Mandel sighed as though he’d forgotten all about her. “What a mess. Would you mind?”

I wasn’t sure what we were supposed to do. “Mind what?” I finally asked.

“Picking her up!” he exclaimed with exasperation. “She’s coming along for the ride.”

Joi and I rode the elevator with Gwendolyn’s body slumped between us. Two floors up from the Infirmary, the elevator stopped and the gates opened. A rusty door lay just beyond. It looked as old as the building itself—and just as sturdy. There wasn’t a card slot or a keyhole. The door was secured from the outside with a simple metal bar, which Mandel swiftly removed and set aside.

“After you,” he told us.

We entered a cavernous chamber with bare brick walls and a concrete floor. I knew it must have been the building’s original basement. A twenty-first-century central heating system took up half of the room. The other half was empty but for a large industrial furnace. Mandel opened its iron doors, and flames reached out and licked the mouth of the oven.

I saw a red square outlined in black. When I blinked, it was still there on the back of my eyelids. And I knew it would never go away. Once you’ve seen the gates of hell, the sight stays with you forever.

• • •

Gwendolyn must be nothing but ash by now. Joi and I are alone. We’re huddled in a corner, as far away from the furnace as we can possibly get. Joi’s head rests against my chest. I have both arms wrapped around her and my face buried in her hair. With my eyes closed, I can float away on a cloud of jasmine and cocoa butter. I kiss the top of Joi’s head and try to forget that Mandel will return for us as soon as he discovers the academy’s students are gone.

“What did you go back to get?” I hear Joi ask. It’s the first thing she’s said in a while. I was hoping she’d managed to fall asleep.

“Hmm?”

“When we left your room, you went back for something. What was it?”

I reach into my pocket and pull out the yearbook page. “This.” I pass it to Joi. She unfolds it and smiles.

“Peter Pan,” she murmurs. “So it wasn’t just a nickname. Jude really played the part. He must have been a great kid.” She thinks it all makes sense to her now. It shouldn’t.

“I need you to promise me something,” I tell her. “When Mandel comes, you have to do whatever it takes to get out of here. Even if it means I won’t make it. Let him shoot me with the Taser. Then make a run for it.”

“No,” she says.

“Yes,” I insist. “There’s something you don’t know. I lost my mind after Jude died, and I don’t think I’ll ever get it back. He visits me at night. Dressed exactly like that.” I tap the page.

“Flick . . .”

“My name is Jonathan Brennan. My father went to school here. Now he’s a drunk and a sociopath. He killed my brother. My mother died on the day of Jude’s funeral. And I’ve spent the last year talking to Peter Pan.”

I wonder why Mandel never mentioned my mother. He must know what happened. Maybe he just couldn’t think of a way to use it against me. I tried calling her the morning Jude was going to be buried. I’d been up half the night, thinking about those damn desert frogs. I wanted to thank her for all the times she tried to save us. And I was going to promise that I’d be back just as soon as I was strong enough to save her. But she didn’t think I could do it. Because when I phoned that morning, she was already gone.

My father always said I was weak. My mother made me believe it.

“What do you and Peter Pan talk about?” Joi asks softly.

“Everything I’m doing wrong.”

“Like what?”

“Well, he was really pissed when I left the Lower East Side. He thought I should have stayed with you.”

“Smart kid,” Joi says. “You like talking to him?”

“Sure. Aside from the nagging, he’s the most entertaining hallucination I’ve ever had.”

“Have you ever wondered if he might be real?”

“You don’t have to say that,” I tell her. “I don’t need to be coddled like the colony kids.”

“I’m being perfectly serious,” Joy insists. “How do you know he’s not real? Do you have any proof that he isn’t?”

“He’s a character from a book for little kids,” I say.

“He’s your brother.”

“Jude’s dead.”

“That doesn’t mean he’s gone,” Joi says. “Remember, Flick. You get to choose what you believe.”

• • •

I shouldn’t be asleep. I was supposed to stay awake to protect her. But Jude has sent me a dream. He’s not in this one. It’s early in the morning. My father’s already on his way to work, school doesn’t start for another two hours, and the servants won’t arrive until eight. I’m twelve, and my mother has just snuck into my room. She’s quickly pulling clothes out of my bureau and stacking them on top.

“Where are we going this time?” I ask.

When she turns around, I’m shocked by how young she looks. How pretty and petite. With hair just as blond as Gwendolyn’s. She had such a beautiful smile, but even then, I could tell when it wasn’t real.

“On an adventure. To Never Land.” That’s what she always said.

“Jude’s the one who believes in Never Land,” I point out with a huff.

My mother leaves the clothes on the dresser and comes over to plant a kiss on my forehead. “And you’re all grown up now. That’s why I know I can trust you to play along.”

“Why don’t you tell Jude the truth?”

“Jude knows what the truth is,” my mother says. “He just needs to believe in something else. Do you understand?”

I nod.

“I knew you would.” She wraps me up in a hug and holds me close so I can’t see her tears.

“What’s wrong?” I whisper with my eyes squeezed shut. If I cry, she’ll cry even harder.

“I just wish you believed in Never Land too.”

• • •

When I open my eyes, my mother is gone and Jude is here in the basement with me.

“I told Joi that I talk to you,” I say.

“And she didn’t run away screaming?”

I gesture to the room around us. “Where would she go?”

“Excellent point,” Peter Pan says.

“She said you’re real.”

“Of course I’m real,” Peter Pan replies. “Who do you think just sent you that dream?”

“It was nice to see Mom again,” I mutter.

“I know you’re still mad. But she tried, Jon. How many times did she try to take us to Never Land?”

“You were the one she was trying to save.”

“That’s not true. You were her boy, remember?”

“Then why did she leave me behind? I was going to rescue her. Why didn’t she wait for me?”

“I don’t know,” Peter Pan says.

“Well, if you see Mom in Never Land, be sure to ask her.”

“Jon . . .” I hear Jude start to argue, but Mandel’s cheerful voice drowns him out.

“Rise and shine!” he sings. “You have a visitor!”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

THE HEIR

W
e rise from the depths of the academy into a blaze of light. The ground floor has been transformed into a spotlit stage ringed by nine dark tiers. Mandel seems to be expecting an audience, but he must know by now that the dorms are all empty. The Androids and Ghosts have fled. And yet he’s perfectly composed, as if it were all part of his plan.

“We have a very special guest with us this morning,” Mandel confides just before the elevator gates open. “He drove all the way from Connecticut to be here. So let’s make sure we show him a good time. Oh, and Flick? Be on your best behavior, please. One wrong move, and I will be forced to turn my Taser on Joi.”

I see our guest now. He’s standing in the center of one of the three golden circles—like a token on a board game. He’s been awaiting the next roll of the dice.

“You woke me up in the middle of the night for this?” my father demands.

“Where are your manners, Henry?” Mandel responds blithely. “I believe an introduction is in order. Henry, I’d like you to meet Joi. Joi, this is Flick’s father, Henry Brennan.”

“I know who she is, Lucian,” my dad snarls. “You told me that the future of the academy would be decided tonight. And this is your experiment’s grand finale? If you think my son is going to dispose of his girlfriend, you’re a fool. He’ll die rather than kill her. As eager as I am to win our wager, this could have waited until a more reasonable hour.”

For once my father is right about me. I’ll never be like him. I won’t follow in his footsteps. If I’m forced to choose between my life and my one good thing, I will choose death. And I’ll die without a single regret. I take Joi’s hand, and our fingers lock together. Her amber eyes glow when she smiles. She’s not afraid either.

“I assure you this will not be a waste of your time, Henry,” I hear Mandel say. “The switch will take place. In a few short minutes, your son will become a predator.”

I watch the two men face off across the courtyard. Mandel is grinning. My father is glowering. Everything about this situation seems to disgust him. “Then where are Ackerman and Leavitt? They need to be here too.”

I remember meeting Ackerman at one of Mandel’s little parties. I don’t recognize the other name. He must be a member of the opposition.

“Ackerman won’t be coming,” Mandel replies. “And Leavitt is dealing with a little situation of his own at the moment.”

It’s almost amusing to see my father regard Lucian Mandel with the same contempt he always showed me. “Then this is a violation of our agreement. Nothing can be decided unless there are alumni representatives present.”

My father marches toward the exit and shoves a card key into the slot. But the doors won’t open. He tries once more before he charges back across the atrium with his nostrils flared, his chest puffed, and his fists clenched. It’s an intimidating performance. Mandel never budges.

“Have you disabled my key?” my dad rages. He’s got at least five inches and fifty pounds on the academy’s headmaster, but that doesn’t seem to matter much to Mandel.

“You’re critical to the experiment, Henry,” Mandel replies in the patient, patronizing tone of a kindergarten teacher. “Now that the final stage is in progress, we must see it through to the finish. I’m confident that the experiment will be a success. So confident that I’m even prepared to raise the stakes.” He holds up a folder he’s had tucked under one arm. “If I lose, this is yours to destroy.”

“Is that my file? And you’re carrying it around like it’s a copy of the Wall Street Journal?!” My father takes another step toward Mandel. Joi’s fingers tighten their grip on mine. I’m waiting for my dad to throw his first punch. But he doesn’t. “When the alumni hear about all of this, you won’t have a single supporter left.”

“When the alumni are told what happened here tonight, they’ll know I’ve accomplished something miraculous.” Mandel beams.

“No, Lucian. After tonight, they’ll finally be able to say what they’ve always believed. That you’re a raving little lunatic.”

Mandel’s smile is gone the instant that last word reaches his ears. There’s a sadistic smirk on my father’s lips. He knew his insult would wound. “If that’s what the alumni believe,” Mandel snips, “it’s only because you’ve worked so hard to convince them.”

“You’ve been telling yourself the same lie for the last twenty years.” The battle has turned. Mandel is on the defensive now, and my father is aiming for the chink in his armor. “You think I’ve dedicated my life to turning the whole world against you, but the alumni didn’t need to be convinced that you’re deranged. Neither did your mother. The facts have always spoken for themselves.”

“Facts you twisted to suit your agenda!” Mandel shouts. “You wanted my mother to make you her heir! You’ve been after my rightful inheritance since the day you arrived at the academy!”

“You forfeited that inheritance when you were fifteen years old, Lucian. Do you remember how you spent your holidays that year? You’d fly in from your fancy Swiss boarding school and head straight for the academy. You forced so many kids to take that psychopath test that you almost provoked a mutiny. You treated this school like your own little empire and the students like your personal playthings. Even your mother knew you needed professional help. But she had a school to run, and your father wanted nothing to do with any of you. So she asked me to step in.”

“My mother asked her masterpiece to be my mentor. How touching. I know how highly she thought of you, Henry. She always said you were one of a kind. I just wish she could be here to watch me make a thousand little ‘masterpieces’ just like you.”

My father’s upper lip curls into a snarl, and I know he’s about to go in for the kill. “If Beatrice were here, Lucian, you wouldn’t be allowed within fifty feet of this place.”

“Because of all the lies you told!” Mandel cries, his face a fiery crimson.

My dad shakes his head. “Lies? I never said a word to Beatrice the day I caught you in the act. I just took her down to the basement and let her see for herself what her fifteen-year-old son had been doing. Hoarding bodies that should have been cremated. Cutting them open and taking things out. Dissecting their organs and putting their brains in glass jars.”

“What difference did it make? The bodies were going to be destroyed!”

Mandel’s tone has grown shrill, while my father’s voice has deepened and darkened. “You had no right! Even the weakest student ever admitted to this school was a hundred times stronger than you’ll ever be. They may have died, but they survived long enough to die with dignity. Your mother understood that. What you did to those bodies disgusted her. I never said you should be banished. The truth is, your mother didn’t ask for my advice. If she had, I would have told her to kill you. Even then I could see what might happen if this school ever fell into your hands.

“Do you really think your mother would approve of the things you’ve been doing here? Experimenting on the students? Slicing up the dead children’s brains? Feeding the living ones pills? What would she say about Exceletrex, Lucian?”

“She would say it’s an elegant solution to the discipline issues we’ve always faced here at the academy. We haven’t had a single revolt since the predator students began taking the pills. I think she would see it as proof that I deserve the headmaster position.”

“Oh really? And how do you think she’d feel if she knew that you disposed of your own sister to get the job?”

“Marjorie died in a car accident,” Mandel sniffs.

“You’re even crazier than I imagined if you honestly think I believe that.”

Mandel glares at my father for a moment. Then he takes a deep breath. By the time he exhales, his smile has returned. “I can find a hundred psychiatrists who will testify to my sanity, Henry. But that’s not the subject we’re here to discuss. I’m on the verge of a scientific breakthrough.”

“There’s no goddamned gene, Lucian!” My father’s shout fills the whole atrium. “We’ve been paying dozens of geneticists top dollar to search for it. It’s been five years now. I’ve read all of the reports. They haven’t found anything! The gene doesn’t exist!”

“It does. Which brings us back to the reason I invited you to the academy this morning, Henry. I want to present the proof you’ve demanded.”

My father points at me. “He is not going to be your proof, Lucian.”

“If that’s what you think, then you should have no problem seeing our agreement to its conclusion,” Mandel notes. “You said I’d never be able to turn him into a predator. You said he didn’t have what it took. Well, I believe he does. Flick has the gene, Henry, just like you. And in a few short minutes, I’ll activate it.”

“His name isn’t Flick,” my father sneers. “It’s Jonathan. And if you weren’t so demented, you’d be able to see that he and I have nothing in common.”

I feel Mandel’s free arm slide around my shoulders. “Your insults are wasted on me. I know you’re afraid of us.”

“I’ll show you how frightened I am.” My father straightens his spine and seems to grow two inches. “You think that little toy Taser can stop me from snapping your neck?”

Mandel doesn’t flinch. “Go ahead, Henry. Kill me. But you’ll never get control of the academy. It will pass to my heir instead.”

My dad snorts. “You’re not capable of producing children. Your mother didn’t have the heart to get rid of you, but at least she listened to the board of directors and made sure you wouldn’t reproduce.”

When I hear Joi gasp, I know I didn’t misinterpret that last part.

“True,” Mandel concedes placidly. He won’t lose his cool again. “But I’m quite capable of choosing an heir. Flick and I may not share DNA, but we were forged in the same fire. Luctor et emergo, Henry. We’ve both suffered at your hands. Now it’s time for us to rise.”

I watch my father ponder the news. He’s trying to figure out if it’s true.

“I hope you heard that!” he finally shouts. It takes me a second to realize he’s not speaking to anyone in the room. He’s addressing all the academy’s bugs. “I’m looking forward to playing tonight’s tapes for the board.”

“The listening devices are automatically shut off at curfew, Henry,” Mandel informs him. “Don’t you remember? It was one of the cost-cutting measures you forced me to implement. And you’ve already had your last meeting with the board of directors. The time has come for you to watch your son become a predator. I’m afraid it will be the last thing you see. Because Flick is going to kill you.”

The shock hits me so hard that I laugh. The sound appears to confuse my dad. He studies my face for a moment but doesn’t seem to find what he’s looking for. “Are you?” he demands.

Joi is squeezing my hand hard enough to crack a few bones. The answer is no. But I’m not going to say so. “Wait—is this the kind of choice you told me I’d face here? I thought you said it was supposed to be hard.”

“This is no time for jokes, Jonathan,” my father says. He never appreciated my sense of humor. “Before you make your decision, there are a few things you should know. Did Lucian tell you why your brother died?”

“Yeah. Jude found out you’re a crook and confronted you.”

“Did Lucian tell you that he was the one who gave Jude the information? It was his first attempt to get me out of the way. He didn’t want anyone associated with the academy to know, so he went behind the alumni’s backs and tried to use my own son to destroy me.”

This is the father who once seemed like a god to me. A pathetic, broken man who beat his children and still blames other people for the things that he’s done. “The information didn’t kill Jude, Dad. You did.”

“I never expected your brother to die,” Mandel assures me. “I’m afraid I miscalculated.”

“Jude was not your toy!” my father bellows. “He was my son!”

“I didn’t treat Jude like a toy,” Mandel argues. “I simply gave him a few documents from your file.”

“A blatant abuse of academy data!” This is the rage that would have once sent me running. Now I see a man who’s lost control. “You should have been forced to resign. It was a perfect example of how dangerous you are—not just to me but to every graduate of this academy. But only half of the alumni had the guts to fight you. The rest were all terrified you’d turn on them next.”

“You had just murdered one of your sons, and you were demanding control of my family’s academy. Which of us seemed unhinged, Henry? Under the circumstances, I think it was quite sporting of me to offer to settle the dispute with a wager.”

“A wager that would force me to sacrifice my one remaining son!”

“Yes, it was very noble of you to accept my offer. But I don’t think you’re giving yourself enough credit. You had to make two sacrifices, didn’t you, Henry?”

My father goes silent. He’s panting softly as he takes out a handkerchief and wipes his brow. He folds the fabric into a smaller square and tucks it back in his pocket before he speaks again. “Our agreement forbids either of us from discussing that subject.”

Two sacrifices?

“And it forbid you from referring to me as insane. So I think we can both agree that our agreement is now null and void.”

Two sacrifices?

“What was the second sacrifice?” I demand.

Mandel sighs. “You never opened the present I left on your computer, did you?” he asks.

When you’re ready. The folder he said contained a reason to live. “No.”

“Ah, then you’re missing a crucial piece of data.” Mandel thumbs through my father’s file and plucks out a photo. “There was something standing in the way of our wager. Or rather someone. Someone who might have gone looking for her son.”

I remember what Lucas said. Most of the kids at this school are orphans. The rest might as well be. And my father confirmed it the day I was arrested. The academy only recruits students who are alone in the world. “You can’t mean . . .”

“A picture’s worth a thousand words,” Mandel says as he holds the photograph out to me.

“I thought you knew!” Joi whispers when I drop her hand to take the photo. “It was in the file!”

“I never opened the file.”

The photo shows my mother lying on her bed at our house in Connecticut. No, not lying. Being held down. There are three men in the room with her. Two have her pinned to the bed. My father is injecting a syringe full of liquid into one of my mother’s arms.