The softwire : Virus on Orbis 1 (23 page)

I just stared at her. What did she mean? Madame Lee only smiled.

“History shows us that space travel always brings its share of risks, but it wasn’t easy when your ship was light-years away,” Madame Lee said, reading my mind. “I only wish I had destroyed the whole thing now. I would have, too, had I known they’d brought a carton of human eggs on board. But with your father gone, there was no way his mission could be completed. Besides, we never would have had the chance to meet,” she added.

“You killed my parents?” I said.

“And mine?” Theodore added.

“It was
you
who made the cryogenic sleepers fail?” Max said.

“Peons.” Madame Lee’s voice was full of scorn.

“Why did you kill them?” Theodore asked.

“His father forced my hand. I asked Quirin not to take the mission. I even begged him, which is very unbecoming for a Sinovian. The mission was foolish, nothing more than myths and rumors,” Madame Lee said. “The universe will meet its fate, and nothing can stop it. But Quirin thought he knew better.”

“You’re wrong,” I said. “My father’s name was not Quirin. It was Sam. Sam Turnbull,” I said. “And what did his mission have to do with you, anyway?”

Madame Lee shook her head and said, “So much of your mind is in the dark.”

“I think Madame Lee had a thing for your father,” Weegin said, taking great pleasure in piecing everything together.

“Never,” I said. “He would never have had anything to do with someone like you.”

“This is ridiculous,” Sar Cyrillus said. “We do not have time for this.”

“Is that why Johnny’s a softwire?” Theodore asked.

“It’s his destiny,” Madame Lee said.

“I don’t believe in destiny,” I told her.

“What
you
believe is as important to me as those lives I destroyed. And if you don’t do exactly as I say, I will add you, your friends, and your sister to that very unimportant list.”

A hate grew in my belly such as I had never known. There was not a rational thought left inside my head. Any fear that I felt now disappeared. My mind was focused on vengeance and nothing else. I glared at Madame Lee. I would have my revenge.

She read my mind and simply laughed. “Please, child.”

Madame Lee left the ugly Neewalker with Weegin. She gave him strict orders to kill Weegin if he attempted to contact anyone. Then she ordered everyone else out of Weegin’s World. A transport, guarded by two more Neewalkers, waited for us in the exact same spot where we had said good night to Charlie.

Sar Cyrillus forced the remaining Neewalkers to sit in the back of the transport with Max, Theodore, and myself. The vehicle reeked of Neewalkers, a fishy stench mixed with grease and sweat that matured in such close quarters. Theodore held his nose as long as he could, but he eventually gave up.

“You guys really stink,” Max said, but the Neewalkers did not respond. They simply stared at me. I could only assume the story of what I had done to the red-and-white-faced Neewalker had spread among their ranks. But they did not scare me. There was not a drop of fear in my body anymore. As far as I was concerned, I was dead anyway.

The trip took a very long time, and Max and Theodore kept dozing off, despite the putrid air. There was too much on my mind for sleep. First of all, where was Ketheria? Whatever Madame Lee wanted me to do, I needed to secure Ketheria’s safety first. I would do whatever she asked until I knew my sister was safe. Then I would get my revenge.

“Do you think she was telling the truth about your father?” Theodore was awake.

“I don’t trust anything she says,” I answered.

“Why would your father want to come back?”

“He’s not my father,” I said.

“Well, it might explain your abilities.”

He did have a point. I had begun to assume that the prolonged spaceflight and my parents’ science background had something to do with my being a softwire. It had never entered my mind that my father might be a Space Jumper.
Why isn’t Ketheria a softwire, then?
Maybe there were no female Space Jumpers. So many questions bounced around in my head. And what about Ketheria? Who would have known she was a telepath! And why did that Quirin guy come back — and with all those humans?

My head was spinning. This was too much information for me to take in. I now knew how Theodore felt the day he uplinked too much at social studies class. But I needed to concentrate on the task at hand. I had to get Ketheria back. I focused every cell in my body on that task.

When the transport finally came to a stop, we were forced to wait with the Neewalkers until the doors were unlocked. What little air circulated within the moving vehicle now evaporated. When Sar Cyrillus finally opened the back of the transport, we jumped out and gasped in the fresh air.

Max tapped me on the shoulder. I was not prepared for what I saw. I didn’t know where we were on the ring, but Madame Lee was preparing for war right under the nose of the Keepers. And she prepared well. Thousands of Neewalkers were camped in fields below a spaceship that looked like it was cut from a single piece of vulcanized metal. We stared in amazement at the sight of Madame Lee’s army.

“Look,” Theodore said, pointing toward a large pond.

“They’re like fish,” Max said as one of the Neewalkers struggled toward the water without his stilts. Once in the water, his short, finned legs gave him more agility and speed than he ever demonstrated on land.

Sar Cyrillus marched us toward the sleek and sinister spaceship, stopping at a small camp below its belly.

“This is far enough,” he said.

Madame Lee, who must have boarded the ship while we waited in the transport, now descended the craft on a lift. She smiled at us with an evil, knowing grin.

“Impressive, isn’t it?”

“For a murderer,” Max said.

“You earthlings love to label things, don’t you?”

“Remember, she can read your mind,” Theodore whispered to Max.

“That’s right,” Madame Lee said, and Max gave her a nasty look. “My, such spiteful thoughts for a young lady.”

“Let’s get this over with,” I said.

“That’s what I want to hear.”

“Tell me what you want me to do.” Madame Lee raised her eyebrows. I thought of anything but my plan. I did not want to give Madame Lee any more ammunition than she already had. I could see her trying to read my mind. It was a familiar look that I had seen often on Ketheria’s face. How I didn’t recognize it before, I’ll never know.

Clear your mind, clear your mind
. . . . But I had to think of something. The sweet taste of Ketheria’s favorite treat — toonbas. That’s what I thought about.

“Fine, have it your way,” Madame Lee said. “Besides, do you know what those disgusting things are made from?”

“If I do what you want, I get Ketheria back, right?”

“Of course. I always keep my promises.”

Max made a snorting noise.

“Then what do you want me to do?” I asked.

Madame Lee stood up and faced the thousands of Neewalkers below. “I
will
fulfill my destiny. The seed is within me! Now it is time we take what we need. What
I
need,” she said. “And I need you to enter the central computer and destroy the Keepers’ security controls before they commit you to their servitude. With this done, I will march on Magna.”

“Forget it,” Max said.

“Yeah, never,” Theodore added.

“Fine, let’s get started,” I said.

“What!” Max and Theodore said together.

“You said it yourself, Max: Maybe it’s the Keepers who are causing the computer malfunctions. Maybe she’s the victim. Besides, the Keepers want me to live in there forever anyway. I’ll be dead to everyone, so what do I care?”

“But she’s a murderer, JT. You’ll be helping someone who killed our parents.”

“I never met my parents, did I?” I said.

“Because of her!” Max pointed at Madame Lee.

“I’ve made my choice,” I told her.

“Very smart boy,” Madame Lee said. “We will do great things together.” Madame Lee ran her hand over my hair. I just stood there as Max and Theodore stared in disbelief.

“But you’ll destroy Orbis 1,” Max pleaded.

“I’m not very fond of this place anymore,” I said.

“JT, she killed our parents.”

I simply shrugged and turned to Madame Lee. Theodore and Max stared at each other as we walked away with Sar Cyrillus.

Toonbas, toonbas, toonbas, toonbas, toonbas
. . .

The inside of Madame Lee’s ship was nothing like the
Renaissance.
I did not see any controls or instruments. A solitary chair suggested that the ship could be piloted by a single passenger, despite the spacecraft’s massive size. Madame Lee led me to something that resembled an O-dat.

I tried desperately not to think about what had just happened with Max and Theodore. I had a plan and I couldn’t risk Madame Lee finding out. I sat at the O-dat and frowned.

“What’s wrong?” Madame Lee asked me.

“This won’t work.”

“What do you mean?” she said.

“I can’t access the central computer from here.”

“Make it work,” Sar Cyrillus demanded.

“I’ll only be able to read files from it, then,” I said. “I can only
push
when I’m near a main portal.”

“Wait,” Madame Lee said. She looked at me very carefully, trying to sniff out my lie. She whispered to Sar Cyrillus while I stared at the O-dat.

Toonbas, toonbas, toonbas, toonbas, toonbas
. . .

“What do you mean by
push
?” she asked.

“It’s how I get inside the computer. It’s how I manipulate it.”

She leaned in and threatened in the meanest tone, “If you’re lying to me, you will never, ever, see your sister again.”

“I’m not lying. I can try from here if you want. I don’t know if it will work, but I’ll give it a shot.” I turned back to the console, hoping she bought it.

“Let him attempt it from here,” Sar Cyrillus said.

“We don’t have enough time if he fails. Come with us,” she said to me.

As I exited the ship, the magnitude of her army unfolded in front of me. How had she gathered so many? Some Neewalkers drove strange single-wheeled craft instead of walking on stilts, and others drove large transports. I could only wonder how an army this large could go undetected on the ring.

“Much easier than you think, I’m afraid,” Madame Lee said, reading my mind.

I looked up at her —
Toonbas, toonbas, toonbas, toonbas.

Max and Theodore hadn’t moved an inch from where we left them.

“What do you want me to do with them?” Sar Cyrillus said.

“Kill them,” Madame Lee said without hesitation.

“Wait!” I shouted. “You can’t kill them.”

“Yeah,” Theodore added.

“Why not?” she asked.

I looked at Max and Theodore before I turned to Madame Lee.

“Because they are my family, too. If you kill them, I won’t help you. You might as well kill us all right here,” I said. “It makes no difference to me without them.”

Sar Cyrillus reached for his sword.

“If you don’t get in that transport right now, I will kill your sister and force you to watch her die,” Madame Lee growled at me, growing more and more impatient.

“You need me,” I said. “You may not need them, but I do. There’s no deal without them.” I went and stood next to Max and Theodore. Sar Cyrillus gave me a steely look that told me this was not over.

“Kill them anyway,” she said.

I stood between my friends and we took each other’s hands. Sar Cyrillus drew his sword. The sharp blade flickered in the light.

“I will enjoy this,” he said.

Theodore closed his eyes. “Good-bye, JT.”

“Good-bye, Theodore,” I said.

The Neewalker raised his sword over our heads.

I looked at Max. She squeezed my hand and smiled softly. We both closed our eyes.

“Wait! Argh, humans!” Madame Lee snorted. “Put them all in, then, if he needs them so badly.” She stomped over to the transport.

“Next time I will not hesitate,” Sar Cyrillus whispered, and he pushed us toward the vehicle.

The three of us sat in the back of the stinky transport by ourselves. Madame Lee rode with Sar Cyrillus up top.

“I thought we were goners,” Theodore said.

“You didn’t think I would leave you there, did you?” I said.

I looked at Max, but she was not warming up.

“I do not want to be any part of a plan that will destroy Orbis 1. I will not work for that monster,” she said.

“You have a plan, don’t you? You have no intentions of doing what she said, right?” Theodore asked, making me smile.

Max finally understood that there was a plan.

“A little slow there,” I said.

We all laughed, despite what we knew was waiting for us.

“I’m going to get the little girl in the computer to help me.”

The laughing stopped.

“You’re kidding me, right?” Max said, dropping her head into her hands.

“The one you see in your dreams?” Theodore wasn’t excited by this plan, either. He lowered his head and stared at his feet.

“I couldn’t tell you back there because I didn’t want Madame Lee to listen to your thoughts.”