The Indigo Thief (3 page)

“Oh yeah, because an Indigo handshake would be
really
effective.”

“I don’t know. We’ve got screens that bubble, right? The whole procedure’s a lot to stomach, that’s all.”

Charlie squeezed my hand again. It was still pretty sweaty. I should’ve wiped it on my shorts before she squeezed it again.

She grabbed my right hand and put my first two fingers below her cheekbone. “At the appointment, they just have you do the Federal salute, look up, recite the pledge of allegiance—‘
The Federation must not fall
’—and you’re done. You rinse your eyes out with some drops and you leave.”

“Oh, that’s it? Great, no big deal then, just shovin’ a needle in the ol’ retina. It’s casual.”

She poked my side. “C’mon, Kai-Guy.”

“You’re tougher than me, Charlie.”

It was true. Her parents had been euthanized four years ago. They were old when they’d had her—thirty-nine—so she’d always known it was coming. It didn’t make things easier though.

The state moved her to from her home in Kauai to Moku Lani to live in H.E.A.L., the Federal orphanage. H.E.A.L. stood for the Home for Emancipated Adult Leaders, but the place had a reputation for doing anything but healing its charges, who had only a fifty percent chance of living long enough to receive their vaccination. They just didn’t have the support necessary to make it.

“You think I’m tough?” Charlie straightened the chopsticks in her bun. “The boy who free dives less than a hundred feet away from the megalodons thinks
I’m
tough? Quick! Call the press, this is big news!”

I laughed. “Not big enough. If you want the press’s attention, you’ll have to find the Lost Boys.”

She winked. “If I found them, they wouldn’t be lost, would they?”

The bubbling screens signaled we were fifteen minutes from Kauai. Through the subway’s windows and the Tube’s glass walls, I saw a shadow move among the photosynthetic plankton.

Charlie sighed. “When do you think they’ll finish the new Tube?”

The old woman who shushed us earlier lowered her newspaper. “Lord knows, honey.” Her voice was husky, like she’d spent her entire life with a cigarette between her lips. False eyelashes lined her eyes like dusters, and a purple scarf was wrapped tightly around her neck.

She cleared her throat. “If the Minister of Transportation & Commerce pulled his head out of HQ’s anemone for five seconds, then the Feds might actually finish construction on it one of these days.”

I stared at her, stunned. People didn’t insult the ministers. Or the government at all for that matter. We lived in a democracy, but most people were too grateful for the gift of Indigo to speak up. The Federation had created a way for us to live, to beat the Carcinogens. Who wanted to argue with that?

The subway car fell silent. The woman shrugged and pulled a wooden fan from her purse. A fiery bird was imprinted along its cloth binding.

Charlie pulled my sleeve. “You’re staring, Kai.”

I could hardly hear her. I was too mesmerized by the fire that danced along the bird’s wings when the woman flicked her fan. The flames ran to the base of its neck, curled around its beak, and smothered the rest of its body with fire.

The woman shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Don’t you know it’s rude to stare at strangers? Why don’t you look at your girlfriend instead?”

Charlie blushed. “I’m—er—not his girlfriend. We’re just friends.”

“Yeah.” I wiped a sweaty palm against my cargo shorts. “Just friends.”

The woman shoved the fan back into her purse and returned to the newspaper.

I stared at the bag. “That’s a pretty sweet fan. Where’d you get it?”

Her eyes darted back and forth in the subway car. “You’re kind of nosy, aren’t you, kid?”

Charlie put a hand on my knee. “He’s just a little nervous.”

“Why’s that? First date?”

“He’s getting vaccinated today.”

The woman narrowed her eyes. “Pity.”

Charlie looked stunned. “What? How is that a pity? He’s going to live.”

The woman looked at me sideways. “You seem like a nice boy.”

I shook my head. “No, I’m not. I’m a rebel.” I glanced at Charlie. Girls loved bad boys.

The woman’s eyes widened. “Okay, rebel. Whatever happens today,
skip your vaccination
. It’s the most important thing you can do. They’re not safe right now. There isn’t much time.”

Skip my vaccination? “Before what?” I asked.

The subway’s screens froze for a half second. The green-eyed girl’s face flickered across them again before the station cut to a reporter in the studio.

The old woman’s jaw dropped. “Too late.” She stood abruptly and pushed her way down the aisle. The doors to another compartment whooshed open and then closed. She was gone.

Charlie put in her hand in mine again. “What was that about?”

“Dunno. Probably on drugs. Maybe Neglex? Possibly a Fryer?”

Charlie frowned. “That’s not something to joke about.”

I’d forgotten there were a few Fryers—people who’d been hit by one too many Dummy Darts—at H.E.A.L. A single Dummy Dart was bad enough, it could make you forget the past day, week, or even month depending on its dosage. Too many Darts, and, well, you could kiss your identity goodbye. It was like you were born all over again. A toddler in an adult’s body. Of course, the Feds still said Dummy Darts were safer than bullets.

Red sirens lit the aisles. A feminine voice that sounded like velvet spoke over the speakers. “
This is a drill. This is only a drill.
”

Outside the windows, sparks flew as the subway skidded to a halt. Its doors swung open.

“
This is a drill
.”

There was going to be more time until my vaccination. More time for the Carcinogens to kill me.

“Just our luck,” said Charlie. “You’ll be okay.”

A clock blinked on the TV screen—it was 8:10.

Charlie reached for my hand. I wiped sweat on my cargo shorts and then put my hand in Charlie’s. My heart was beating hard in my chest. I glanced at my cheeseburger socks. I had to be brave.

“Stay close,” I said to Charlie. As if there were many options in a Tube a hundred feet below sea level.

A girl with black, curled hair elbowed her way to the back of the subway, keeping her head down. People hardly noticed her beneath the flashing lights.

“
This is only a drill
.”

The red lights lit the girl’s nose. She wore a diamond stud.

A scream caught in my throat. This was no drill. It was a terrorist attack.

The Lost Boys were here.

I squeezed Charlie’s hand. “We have to get out right now. Get as far away from this compartment as we can.”

Charlie didn’t understand, but she saw the fear in my face and nodded. We pushed through the aisle. Screams sounded from the direction in which the girl ran.

Charlie and I pushed out the door and hurried along the maintenance shelf in the Tube’s pressurized air. I glanced back. The subway compartment where we’d just been sitting exploded into flames.

“
This is a drill
,” the robotic voice droned calmly over the sounds of screams and explosions.

Charlie and I stared at our former compartment in horror. The flames leaped from the car, licking at the Tube’s glass ceiling, where cracks began to form.

Charlie buried her face in my chest. Shoulder, really. I wasn’t much taller than her—I hadn’t had my growth spurt yet. Mom said I came from a long line of late bloomers. I was glad Mom was safe at home.

Charlie sobbed. There had to be something I could do. Something I could say to make her feel safer. Maybe I should kiss her. Uncle Lou said fear went well with romance. Instead, I blurted the first thing that popped into my head. “I think this was a terrorist attack. I saw a Lost Boy.”

The screams of a woman next to us pierced the chaos. “IT’S A TERRORIST ATTACK! THE LOST BOYS ARE HERE!”

Another explosion sounded. The cracks in the Tube’s ceiling stretched wider. Water began to shoot from them in thick spurts.

The Tube was breaking in half.

The Tube’s leaking ceiling groaned and quivered beneath the ocean’s smothering weight. A boy dressed in a Captain Ultimatum shirt wept and kneeled on the maintenance shelf as throngs of people raced past him like water through rapids.

Charlie knelt next to the boy. “Shhhh, it’s okay, kiddo. Is your mom with you?” He shook his head, and Charlie wiped away his tears. “Do you want to come with us? It’s not safe here.”

He pointed to the burning compartment. “M-M-My sister S-S-Sandra is still in there,” he stuttered.

Charlie threw me a look. “We have to go back.”

I stepped back. “Not now, Charlie. Now’s not the time to be a hero.”

“You’re right,” she said. “Now’s the time to be a decent human being.”

My heart beat faster and my hands got sweaty. Charlie made me a better person.

She grabbed a woman and had her take the boy with her , then pushed through the crowd to the compartment. I sprinted to catch up with her.

Fire raged around us as we climbed back into the compartment we’d just abandoned.

“
This is a drill
,” the voice announced over a loudspeaker. “
This is only a drill.”

“Some drill,” Charlie muttered, pushing a strand of hair away from her bright blue eyes.

Another explosion sounded in the Tube. The cracks in the ceiling gave a final hiss and then burst wide open, the water rushing in. The loudspeaker fell silent, and the subway car’s doors slammed shut, sealing us in. Charlie, unfazed, pointed to a row farther down the aisle.

A six-year-old girl sat whimpering on the ground. “I think it’s broken,” she said between sobs. “I’m gonna die in here.”

I shivered. She seemed too young to be talking about death. I was reminded again how familiar it was, the threat of it perpetually hanging over all our heads.

The girl looked around. “Where’s Shawn?” she said. “What happened to Shawn?”

There was a loud crack—the Tube had snapped. The floor lurched beneath us as the subway car groaned and twisted, breaking free of the Tube’s shattered casing. We were sinking.

I offered the girl a hand. “We’re gonna get you out of here. Okay, little dude?”

She frowned. “I’m a girl. Don’t call me dude. My name’s Sandra.”

“Er—right then, Sandra,” I said, “we’ll get you out of here.”

Charlie tried to help her up, but she shook her head. “It hurts to move.”

Charlie offered her a chopstick. “Have a margarita, then.”

The girl smiled and cautiously took the dangling pendant. It was no dinosaur sticker, but it was better than nothing, and seemed to calm her a bit.

Something heavy slammed against the sinking subway car as it plummeted into deep ocean. The world grew dark. Water spurted in through cracks in the doors. Hands pounded against its sealed glass windows. People from the Tube, sinking alongside us, drowning like rats as water rushed to fill their throats.

The compartment began to tilt. It was quickly filling with water, and the remaining pockets of air raced to one side, lifting the compartment vertically. We wedged ourselves in between two rows of seats. My feet dangled beneath me as water lapped at my heels. Sandra held onto Charlie’s arm. Charlie held onto mine.

Beyond the subway’s walls, shadows sped toward us, growing larger as they approached. Shadows that big meant only one thing: megalodons. Monsters of prehistoric proportions. Another byproduct of the war’s nuclear fallout. Creatures born and bred from radioactive evolution. They usually lurked outside Federal waters, kept at bay by electrical nets. But today, of all days, those nets must have failed.

Just our luck.

Charlie squinted out the window. “What is that? What’s going on out there? Are those shadows—?”

A corpse slammed against the subway car. The red cabin lights flickered from the force of the impact. We didn’t have long before the power reserves ran out or the ocean short-circuited it. Red streams danced in the water outside the windows—blood.

A megalodon’s gnashing teeth came into view. It was one thing to be told about them; quite another to see one up close. Seven-inch-long teeth, and its body ran upward of forty feet. It was twice the size of the biggest great whites. It shredded the corpse into bits like paper.

Charlie shut the girl’s eyes and rocked her back and forth. The subway’s lights sparked and went out. The girl screamed again.

“Hold my hand,” said Charlie.

It was pitch black, but we could feel the water rise, and soon we were swimming. The subway dove deeper into the ocean. I kicked my legs to keep my head above the water.

Next to me, Charlie panted, struggling to keep herself and the girl afloat. I grabbed the girl and helped her keep her head above water.

Outside, green and white light flooded the water—lanterns. The Federal guards were here at last.

Charlie sucked in a breath. “You see that, Kai?”

I nodded. “They’ll get the nets back on. We’re gonna be okay. We just have to get out of here.”

A lantern pressed up against a window, lighting the compartment with a green glow. There was now only a foot of air between the end of the compartment and us. Not much time at all.

A guard equipped with a ReBreather motioned to us through the window. A shadow passed and his lantern flickered.

Gone.

His lantern floated away. Blood drifted through the water like leaves on a breeze.

The water in the compartment continued to rise.

Charlie gulped breaths. “What’s happening out there? Are the nets back on? Did they get rid of the megalodons?”

An explosion threw us downward, hard, into the water, pushing us all the way to other end of the compartment. There was no air. Hardly any light. Just enough to see that the subway car had broken apart around us.

There must have been another bomb onboard. My body ached from the force of the explosion. My lungs screamed for air—I hadn’t taken a last breath.

Charlie.

Where was Charlie?

A green glow—a lantern floating nearby. I snapped my eyes open and ignored the burn of salt water. A shadow swam past me, hurrying away from the sinking rubble.