Terra (25 page)

She turns back toward me. “You understand now, don’t you, Terra? Whatever he’s been telling you, whatever he’s been having you do for him, he’s really been using you for information. Settlement locations, population numbers, military tactics… and before you know it—,” she stops and bangs her fist on the wall between our heads “—invasion.”

“This is ridiculous,” I say, shaking my head. “I don’t believe you.”

“No? What, he’s never displayed knowledge or produced technology beyond what you’ve experienced? He’s never done anything suspicious, anything you just can’t quite explain? Given all your time spent together,
that’s
what I find hard to believe.”

I stare at her, keeping my eyes narrowed to mask the thoughts that are now running amuck in my mind. Something
does
feel out of place—maybe it always has. The miraculous water filters, his anxiety at the Assembly, his lack of groundworld knowledge, his FX… what happened to Loran Underwood. Even when I had suspicions, I always wrote them off as symptoms of his skyboy life. But a researcher working for the Tribunal should have been prepared for a quarantine investigation. And just a few minutes ago, he didn’t want the guards to know about his abilities.

“Still not convinced?” Prime Whitlock says. “Fine, ask him yourself.” She pulls the gag out of Adam’s mouth and tosses it to the ground. He coughs violently.

“Adam?” I say softly, turning my head toward him. I search his face, looking for some sign that Prime Whitlock is lying, that she’s just trying to drive a wedge between us. Instead, his blazing blue eyes meet mine with fear and uncertainty.

“I—I…” he stutters, but he looks away before any actual words come out.

A rock the size of my fist falls in my chest.

“Oh God.” Bile churns in my stomach and I feel the blood drain from my face.

“Terra, no, it’s not like that. She’s twisting it, we just—,” Adam starts, but the tablet at Prime Whitlock’s waist starts to beep, interrupting him.

“Well, as much as I enjoy watching dashed hopes flit across this pretty young thing’s face,” she says loudly over Adam’s continued pleas, “I’ve got places to go,
people
to see.” She stresses the word, staring right into Adam’s dejected face.

My nostrils flare as I breathe deeply, trying to contain my emotions.

Prime Whitlock tucks her glasses back into her blazer pocket and turns to me. “I’ll allow you five minutes to… say your goodbyes. When you’re done, you will be escorted home. We have no reason to detain you further. The guardsmen will be waiting for you outside if you decide you don’t require all five minutes to do so.” She chuckles to herself as she unlatches my wrist and ankle cuffs, then pulls a key from a chain around her neck to unlock the plate on my chest. I fall to the floor and catch myself with my hands, wobbling unsteadily.

Prime Whitlock hovers over me for a moment. “I do apologize for how you’ve been treated, Terra,” she says with thinly veiled insincerity. “We had to assume the worst, you understand. Better safe than sorry, and all that. Speaking of which, we’ll be leaving him locked up. Safety first!”

She tucks the key back into her shirt and leaves. The guardsmen follow her out, and it isn’t until the door shuts behind them that the clacking finally fades.

Chapter 23

“So, you lied to me.”

“Only a little?” Adam says lightly, trying to ease the tension.

“This is not a joke.” I try to look at him with new eyes, but all I see is the same Adam. Despite what Prime Whitlock said, I can’t just leave him tied up and helpless. I loosen the bindings on his wrists, but I don’t have a way to unlock his chest plate. I imagine that once his hands are free, his FX can take care of the rest.

“Technically, I never lied to you. You made assumptions based on the information you were given, and I simply failed to correct you.” The side of his mouth starts to edge upward, forming that lopsided half-smile of his. It looks foreign now. No, not foreign. Alien.

“You think you’re going to get off on a technicality? Don’t you think the whole ‘I’m from outer space’ thing should have come up at least once?” My voice rises and I take a deep breath to steady myself. I can’t get carried away; who knows how alone we really are.

“It’s not that simple, Terra. I didn’t want to scare you. I didn’t want you to react—well, like this.”

“How am I supposed to react, Adam? Or, I’m sorry, is that even your real name? Or is it Zorqblatt, or something with a lot of Xs and Qs that our primitive human tongues can’t pronounce?”

“This isn’t some sci fi movie, Terra. It’s not like Mica’s comics.”

“So what is it then?”

“It’s complicated.”

“So complicated you couldn’t even
try
to explain? Not once? Not when we were marveling at your ridiculously expansive knowledge, or the technology at your disposal, or
your telekinesis
? You couldn’t have pulled me aside and said, ‘Oh hey, Terra, by the way, it’s not a big deal or anything, but I just wanted to let you know that I’m not actually a skydweller. In fact, I’m not even from this planet. Okay, carry on.’ God, I feel so stupid. I
am
stupid. I should have known something was wrong with you.”

Adam flinches at my words, and for a second I regret them. Before I can contemplate taking them back, however, he’s already moving on.

“I was just trying to protect you,” he says. “That’s all I have done, all I’ve wanted to do, since I first saw you.”

“No. Don’t give me that. You were lonely down there, you felt abandoned, and I was literally the first living, breathing thing you came across. All you’ve really done is string me along with your charm and your wit and your damn grin, and the whole time you knew. You
knew
. Every minute you spent with us put Mica and me in danger.”

“Please, just listen to—”

“And the worst part is that I believed you! Research, sure! You came down here to explore, you came here to learn! Of course! Never mind
where
you came from in the first place. Never mind the fact that it was preparation for, what, some kind of invasion? Never mind the fact that you’re not even
human
.” My voice cracks on the word. “That’s how you’re so good, I see it now. You answered just enough of my questions, I never even thought to ask the one that really mattered.”

“But it
doesn’t
matter, Terra,” he says, looking at me earnestly. “There is a reason that all of this has happened. Our ship was malfunctioning. We were going to crash. My team told me not to, but I went out to fix an external part and when I did… I was thrown. I fell. I shouldn’t even have survived, but I did. Though by the sound of it, it was partly at Loran Underwood’s expense. But by the time I woke up, I was alone. I thought my team might’ve stopped to look for me, but there was no sign of them. Not even landing marks. I figured they thought I was dead and had moved on. They had good reason to. I had no way to communicate and no idea where I was or where to go. The only city within sight was the District, completely devoid of life, but I couldn’t stray too far. What if they came looking for me? If I left, it’d be just another thing to blame on my reckless impatience. For days, I was completely alone. I was so close to losing hope.”

“You’re pretty much proving my point. I was your first living contact, that’s it. It had nothing to do with me.”

“It had everything to do with you! I could have landed anywhere, but I landed near Sixteen. Anyone could have found the converter, but it was you who did. You could have run in any direction when the raiders were after you, but you ended up running into me. And finding you… you gave me hope that I wasn’t alone anymore. Don’t you see? We were meant to save each other.”

My tear ducts prick as he speaks. I don’t want to hear this. I don’t want any of it.

“So I’m supposed to believe that this is all part of some greater plan? That it was, what, fate? I was meant to save you, huh? Why? So you could reunite with your extraterrestrial comrades and then what? Invade, enslave, and destroy?”

“No!” Adam tries to protest, but my words tumble out like an inferno.

“How long were you going to wait until you told me the truth? Until you could lock me up yourself? Until the rest of your
people
got here to back you up? I can’t believe I thought… you made me think… made me want…” My words catch in my throat. I glare at him, my chest heaving, and feel the tears stinging threateningly behind my eyes.

No. He does not get this, too.

I need to get away. I stumble toward the door as quickly as I can, though the teardrops lining the rims of my eyes blur my vision.

“Terra, don’t,” he says. “They aren’t just going to let you go. You see that, right? She’s only doing this to mess with us. Don’t give her what she wants.”

I’m ten steps away from the door.

“We can talk about this. I can help you understand. It’s not what you think. It’s not like she said!”

Five steps.

“Please,” he begs. “I… I would never hurt you. I care about you.”

I reach the door just as the first tear spills down my cheek.

“Go to hell, Adam,” I say, my hands curling into fists as I push the door open. “Or, at the very least, go back to wherever the hell you came from.”

Chapter 24

“I’d like to go home now,” I say weakly to the guardsmen once I’ve left the holding room. I don’t keep myself from crying; I don’t think I could even if I tried. I let the tears roll down my face as one guard catches the eye of his compatriot and nods. The guardsmen pincer me in as we walk down the hall: one leading in front, one at my back. We stop in front of an elevator and one of the guards hits the “Up” button.

“Where are we going?” I ask, wiping my cheek with the back of my hand.

“There is some final paperwork you need to complete before you can be discharged,” one of them says formally. “Your outprocessing.”

“Oh.”
Fine. Paperwork, I can handle.
“And my personal effects?”

“That too.”

I consider whether I’ll be able to stomach wearing my mother’s watch again. I can’t bear to leave it behind, but I know that all it will do is serve as a reminder of Adam.

The elevator dings, the doors open, and I am steered inside. I try not to, but I can’t help wondering if Adam has freed himself from his restraints yet. Will he be able to get out? Where will he go when he does?

It doesn’t matter,
I tell myself.
He’s not my problem anymore.

The elevator dings again as we arrive on the fifth floor. A cursory look at the elevator’s button panel indicates that this is the building’s top floor. Based on the number of sublevel buttons there are, however, it evidently goes down much further than it goes up.

The guardsmen lead me down a hallway. Halfway down, there is a row of chairs lining the right side. They face wide windows that look out the front of the building.

“Wait here.” One of the guardsmen guides me into a chair, while the other continues to the end of the hall and disappears inside a door. I can still see through the windows from my seat, and can’t help watching the scene outside. The sun casts a soft glow on the city, and everything looks completely different in the light of day; the glitz and glamour of Korbyllis nightlife has been replaced with polish and elegance.

Potted plants frame the front doors of residences and small trees decorate the sidewalks every few yards. I know they’re mostly fake, but I’m instantly reminded of the biodome. I pinch my arm to avoid reliving my time there.

Well-dressed citizens meander slowly through the streets below, engaging each other with pleasant expressions on their faces. It infuriates me to see how normal things are on the outside, when, inside this building, my entire world has been forever altered.

I watch a sandy-haired boy cross the street, guided by a woman I assume is his mother, and I feel a pang in my chest.

Today is Mica’s birthday. My baby brother’s fourteenth birthday, and I’m not there. I don’t even know if he’s all right. The best I can hope for is that he’s been left alone.

How ironic that I’m here in the very place I had wanted to send him. I’ve been so consumed with how the skyworld could change his life for the better, but instead it has irreparably distorted mine. The skyworld was supposed to be magical; now that I’ve seen it for myself, though, it seems… fake. Everything’s too neat, too pristine. Superficially, sure, it’s beautiful. But there’s something missing.

I wait for a long time, gazing out the window and watching the light grow warm and soft as the sun slowly glides across the sky. I nearly doze off in my seat. Finally, the guard clears his throat. I look up to see the other guardsman returning.

“Will this take much longer?” I ask wearily as I stand.

The guard ignores me, and we rejoin his partner. We reach the door at the end of the hall and enter a laboratory. The room itself is almost identical to the one I was held in with Adam—white walls, bright lights, and lots of open space. Along the walls, the shackles that bound us have been replaced by metal worktables, and instead of guards there are a dozen white-coated workers bustling about. The back of the room is lined with a row of cots that have metal bars around them.

“What are we doing here?” I stop mid-stride. Something feels wrong.

“Outprocessing,” one of the guardsmen says gruffly.

“I just want to go home.”

“And you will.” The guardsmen grip my shoulders firmly and tug me forward, toward the cots in the back. “After you are outprocessed.”

“No, stop,” I say, struggling against their hold. A few of the lab workers look up at me. As we near the beds, I see a small silver tray, a syringe of blue liquid resting on top. A prickle runs through my entire body as my mind flashes back to my inquisition with Wolfe. “No!”

I’m not strong enough to force my way out of the guardsmen’s grasp, so I let my legs fall limp. I drop to the ground, surprising the guards just enough to wrench myself free. I turn on the spot and race back across the room, the surrounding lab technicians fading into a white blur as I pass.