“Some might even call you an oddity.”
Her eyes glinted with pleasure as if I’d just paid her a compliment.
“Behind you,” I said as the surface of the moon pool began to churn. Gemma whirled to see a black shape rising out of the water and scrambled to her feet. “It’s a sub,” I assured her, “not another scary singing whale.”
She gave me a shove.
The sub’s hatch opened and Mamie called out, “Who’s going to give me a hand with all this food?” Instantly, a line formed and the platters and bowls were passed from one person to the next, out of the hatch and right up the stairs.
“Did she make all this herself?” Gemma asked as she handed me a sea pineapple pie.
“No, all the families contributed something. Mamie went around and collected it all to bring today. It’s easier to unload one sub,” I explained.
“Gemma!” Jibby nudged his way into line between us. “How do you like Benthic Territory?” He passed a platter of crab cakes to me without peeling his gaze from her.
“I love it!”
“What part?” I was shocked. In one day, she’d witnessed a knife fight, escaped capture by outlaws, and discovered that her brother had been sent to a subsea reformatory. Not exactly Benthic Territory at its best.
“This.” With a wave, she indicated the line of talking settlers.
“Want to stay subsea permanently?” Jibby asked. “I’ve got a hundred acres.”
When Gemma’s brow crinkled with confusion, I gave her the translation. “He’s asking you to marry him.”
A laugh caught in her throat and came out as a cough. “I’m too young!”
“Oh. Well …” Jibby’s face fell. “It just gets awful quiet with no one else around,” he mumbled.
“You’re always welcome at our place,” I said. “You know that.”
He ignored me. “Hey, I know. How about you come visit for a while. As long as you like,” he told Gemma. “I’ve got three empty bedrooms. You can have your pick. Heck, take the whole house. I’ll move into an outerbuilding.”
When she didn’t reply immediately, I broke out of line to face her. “You’re not considering it?”
“A whole house?” she asked pointedly. “I’ve never even had my own room.”
I couldn’t tell whether she was teasing or not. Spinning on my heel, I headed for the stairs. “While you plan your visit, I’m going to ask Doc about that place we found.”
“Not without me!” Thrusting a seafood casserole into Jibby’s hands, she ran after me.
“That’s a standing invite,” Jibby called out. “Good anytime.”
The main floor of the Peaveys’ house was packed with settlers, clearing away the last of the mess. In the living room, Doc stood with a group of settlers in grim discussion. I couldn’t bring myself to question him in front of others. I was too angry about being lied to. So I was relieved when Shurl waylaid me and thrust a plate into my hands. “Ty, will you start the buffet line? The food is getting cold. And Gemma, honey, take two helpings of everything. A tide pool could drag you under.”
I followed orders since the more I thought about it, the more I realized that discussing Seablite in front of Gemma might not be a good idea now that she knew that her brother was one of the “escaped convicts” in Doc’s story.
After serving ourselves from the bounty laid out on the dining room table, Gemma and I joined Hewitt and Zoe on the stairs that led up to the bedrooms. Beyond the windows, the boundary lamps dimmed until they resembled pale moonlight.
“Why do you look so glum?” Gemma asked, taking a seat next to Hewitt. “I can’t believe how quickly your house got put right.”
“Lucky me.” He picked at the crab claw on his plate.
“You didn’t really think your parents were going to move Topside, did you?” I asked, settling two steps up. “They’re tougher than that.”
“But I want to live where I don’t have to do chores all day, along with schoolwork. Topsiders” — he pointed at Gemma—“don’t have to do anything. They push a button and they have food. Flick a switch and the garbage is gone. Turn a knob and friends come over.”
“Really?” Zoe nudged Hewitt to sit next to her. Instantly, he scooted up a step.
“Don’t ask me,” Gemma said, shrugging. “I’m not your average Topsider.”
“It’s that kind of lazy living that made a mess of this planet,” I snapped. “People wanted everything to be easy and disposable. Look where it got us.”
“Why aren’t you like other Topsiders?” Zoe asked.
“I’m a ward of the Commonwealth.”
“So?” Hewitt turned his back to me.
“Well, it’s just that families pay for their kids to live in boarding homes,” she explained, “while I get moved into whatever dorm has an empty bed that month.” She went on quickly, “It’s okay. Most of the time, I’m in with the little girls and they’re fun.” She grinned. “I taught the six-year-olds every bad word I know.”
I got as far as, “Please don’t —”
When Zoe yelled, “Teach me!”
“— teach them to Zoe,” I finished.
She threw her arms around Gemma. “Ma and Pa will adopt you! They always wanted more kids, right, Ty? They did,” she continued as if I’d answered. “But they didn’t have any more because Ma got too scared after Ty went to the hospital.”
Hewitt became absorbed in pushing peas across his plate.
“Thanks,” Gemma said, smiling. “But I’m going to live with my brother.”
“You still have to find him. What if he’s not even in Benthic Territory?” Zoe asked.
Shooting me a pained look, Gemma said, “I know he was here. I’m just not sure what he’s up to now.”
“Stow it, shrimp.” I wanted to get Zoe off the topic of Gemma’s brother, but also, I wanted to hear what the raised voices in the other room were saying.
Raj Dirani’s snarl rang out loud and clear. “Representative Tupper said dead or alive. Next time someone sees the Specter, I say we torpedo her.”
“I’ll be right back.” I set my plate aside. Quietly, I slunk down the hall and into a corner of the kitchen in case my parents thought that I wasn’t old enough for such talk. The adults had paused in their task of restocking the cabinets to form a casual circle.
“You’d kill them without a trial?” Ma asked hotly. “Even if Representative Tupper condones it, it’s vigilante justice, which isn’t justice at all.”
Scowling, Lars touched the bandage on his head. “We have the right to protect ourselves.”
“If we start ignoring the law,” Pa said, “this won’t be a community worth saving. I’ll join a posse — so long as our intent is to find the outlaws and turn them over to the Maritime Rangers.”
“Think a judge will convict them?” Doc asked evenly. At Pa’s scowl, he put up his scarred palms. “All I’m saying is you know the legal system is overloaded. The mainland prisons are packed to the rafters. Same with the penal ships. Unless the evidence is rock solid, the criminal goes free.”
“Doc’s right,” Lars said. “We know what we know. But we don’t have proof. We can’t even ID them. Their dive gloves don’t leave fingerprints and they keep their helmets darkened when they’re robbing supply ships.”
“Not Shade.” Raj pried his seaweed cigar from his mouth. “Pretty hard to miss an albino in a lineup.”
“Shade isn’t albino.” The words tumbled out of my mouth before I’d thought it through. Everyone in the kitchen turned to look at me.
“Why do you say that, son?” Lars asked.
My gut plummeted. I had planned to tell the others about my discovery, but this wasn’t the time or place. There was a ferocity in Raj’s expression that scared me.
“John, your boy says Shade ain’t an albino,” Raj growled. “What’s he know that we don’t?”
“I already told Ranger Grimes what I know,” I stammered.
Raj mashed out his cigar in a cup. “That dry
back has chum for brains. He couldn’t hook a fish swimming in a bathtub.”
“Tell us exactly what you told him, Ty,” Lars demanded.
Taking Gemma’s words about keeping secrets to heart, I spilled all of it. How I came face-to-face with Shade in the kelp field and then recognized him in the Saloon. I didn’t even leave out my encounter with him in the elevator or the sub chase, although I saw my parents exchange a look that froze me to the core. I knew what they were thinking—that I couldn’t be trusted to follow their rules and keep myself safe.
“Why would Shade use zinc-paste?” Shurl asked when I finished my story. “Why not just darken his helmet like the rest of the gang?”
“Because you’d know him by his size if you ran into him,” Lars growled. “You’d suspect anyway. But if you think the man’s an albino, you focus on that.”
Raj unholstered his pistol. “Big don’t stop a harpin,” he said, checking that its barrel was loaded with mini harpoons.
“This discussion has gone far enough.” Ma sent a stern glance around the group. “Raj, put the gun away.”
“Sure,” he said, holstering it. “But it’s coming out again as soon as I hit the Rec Deck.” He turned to Lars. “You coming?”
“A mud slide couldn’t stop me. Let’s round up some of the others, too.”
“Shade isn’t there now,” I pointed out. “I told you, the Specter came after us.” My words had no effect on them. They stormed out of the kitchen, leaving me torn up inside, not sure whether I’d done the right thing by telling them. Pa’s look of disappointment told me what he thought.
“I’ll fetch Zoe and Gemma,” Ma said. “We’re going home.” She and Shurl left the kitchen. Pa, too.
I started to follow but Doc drew me back with a hand on my arm. “Stay a minute,” he requested in a low voice. He seemed puzzled by something. Disturbed even. “Describe the man you saw in the Saloon again. The one you think was Shade. Only this time, tell me about his features, not his skin color.”
“Why?”
“Indulge me.”
That was just about the last thing I was in the mood to do. “I found Seablite,” I said instead.
He looked at me sharply but something in my expression must have told him that I wouldn’t be put off. “It’s not hidden,” he said, sounding resigned, and picked up his plate of food.
“It wasn’t a prison.” I couldn’t keep the anger out of my voice. “It was a reformatory.”
“Technically,” he acknowledged with a shrug. “If you’d met those boys, you’d understand. All of them, sociopaths and criminals.”
“They were just kids,” I argued. “Younger than me. And the ‘wealth kept them on the seafloor in handcuffs.”
“Your point?”
“You’re lying when you call it a prison. You’re covering up what the government did.”
Doc’s plate clattered onto the counter. “You think I don’t want to talk about what happened in there? Think I didn’t try?” His dark eyes blazed. “Five years ago, the ‘wealth filed the Seablite incident under ‘Confidential’ and if someone dared mention it, he was stripped of everything he cared about. Me, I got demoted and discredited. So don’t lecture me about honesty, Ty. We all have our secrets.”
I hesitated but could think of no reason to hold back. “Gemma’s brother was sent to Seablite.”
Doc turned whiter than a clam. “What was his name?”
“Richard Straid.”
Suddenly pensive, Doc rubbed one of his scarred palms.
“You remember him. Is he in the Seablite Gang?” I asked, voicing the worry that had plagued me ever since Gemma found her picture on the reformatory wall.
“No.” Doc drew out the word, still deep in thought. “He was the prospector they killed.”
Sorrow spread through me like puffer fish toxin. Sorrow for the freckled boy in the photo, but most of all for Gemma.
“The computer made the match an hour ago,” Doc went on softly, now meeting my eyes. “Richard Straid’s DNA was in the system because he spent time in a government institution—a reformatory.”
“He must have broken out with the others,” I guessed, trying to put the pieces together in a way that made sense. “But then Richard went his own way as a prospector. And then what? The gang decided they couldn’t trust him?”
“He would have known their real names,” Doc agreed.
“So they hunted him down and killed him.” I felt sick at the thought of it. Maybe it would be better not to tell Gemma. What was the harm in letting her believe that her brother was still out there, even if she couldn’t find him?
“As we just discussed, it’s best to be honest when you can,” Doc said as if he’d read my mind. “Bring her here and I’ll tell her.”
“It’s okay,” said a quiet voice behind us. “I heard.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE
Gemma sat like a sea lily for the ride back to the homestead — still, pale, and fragile. Ma and Pa exchanged concerned looks and whispers the whole way, having been filled in on Doc’s news—except the part about Gemma being a runaway. Doc kept his promise and didn’t tell, which didn’t matter because the viewphone was ringing the moment we climbed out of the moon pool. Pa answered and the face of a woman filled the screen.
“Oh, no!” Gemma ducked behind me. “It’s Ms. Spinner. The one who’s always moving me around.”
Surprised, I looked back at the viewphone. I’d assumed that the director of Gemma’s boarding home was a New Puritan. Boy, was I wrong. Ms. Spinner epitomized a very different sort of Topsider by removing everything natural about her appearance. Her overcurled hair shimmered with as many colors as a parrot fish while her features looked as if they’d been drawn on with pastel chalk. As always, the effect creeped me out.
“Are you John Townson?” she asked in an oh-so-nice voice that I wasn’t buying.
“I am.” Pa sounded like he wasn’t buying it, either.
“I’m Eudora Spinner, the director of the Elmira Boarding Home,” she said, then tacked on a smile. “I received a call tonight from a Ranger Grimes. He tells me that you may have one of our wards staying with you.”
Pa beckoned for Gemma. I wanted to grab her by the hand and hide her away, but I knew my parents would never agree to keep her presence a secret.
As if her body was filled with rocks, Gemma slowly made her way to stand in front of the screen. “Hello, Ms. Spinner.”
The woman tsked softly. “Gemma, how could you worry me like this?”
Gemma’s attitude remained courteous but she didn’t reply.
“Well, it’s a lucky thing that the teachers remembered all your questions about Benthic Territory.” Ms. Spinner’s smile turned pitying. “I suppose you haven’t found your brother?”
Stone-faced, Gemma studied her cuticles.
“Have you considered that maybe, just maybe he doesn’t want to be found?” Ms. Spinner steepled her fingers as if in thought. “Richard turned twenty-one six months ago. Isn’t that right? Gemma, darling, I think it’s time you accepted the hard truth: If he wanted to be your legal guardian, he would have come for you already.” She sighed dramatically. “I don’t know how you manage to keep up your delusions year after year, believing that your brother cares, when he hasn’t even bothered to visit you since you were twelve.”
“I’ve caused you a lot of trouble, haven’t I, Ms. Spinner?” Gemma asked, sounding remorseful, though I saw that behind her back, her hands were balled into fists. “I do hope you didn’t drop any lower on the housing waiting list on account of me. I know how badly you want to get out of your cramped little apartment.”
With a wheeze of outrage, Ms. Spinner cracked her polite facade.
“Oh, no, they pushed you down the waiting list?” Gemma exclaimed with mock horror. “I’m ever so sorry.”
“Sorry?” Ms. Spinner hissed, with her multihued curls trembling. “I’ve dropped a place for every hour you’ve been missing. Believe m
e, girl, ‘sorry’ will take on a whole new dimension when you get back.”
Ma, who had been standing next to Gemma throughout the call, put a protective arm across her shoulders.
“Ms. Spinner,” Pa said, taking up position on Gemma’s other side. “We’d like to offer Gemma an alternative. She is welcome to live here with us.”
“If she wants to stay subsea,” Ma added.
“Out of the question,” snapped Ms. Spinner before Gemma had a chance to respond. “We’d never place a ward in an experimental settlement on the seafloor.”
Anger propelled me forward. “Sending her to a reformatory is better?”
“Than living with Dark Life?” Ms. Spinner scoffed. “Please. There’s no telling what the water pressure is doing to you people. And I’m not going to have that ungrateful girl serve me with a lawsuit ten years from now because she has brain damage. I’m afraid, Mr. and Mrs. Townson, you do not meet the Commonwealth’s qualifications for suitable foster parents.”
A muscle ticked in Pa’s jaw and I knew it was taking all of his restraint to keep his temper in check. “We may not be living subsea much longer,” he said.
I felt my bone marrow harden.
“Well, when you’ve established yourselves back in civilization, feel free to fill out a foster care application. In the meantime, Miss Straid,” Ms. Spinner said, fixing her sharp eyes on Gemma, “you will be at the territory’s Trade Station tomorrow by seven A.M. Ranger Grimes has kindly offered to escort you to your new living assignment.”
“Which is?” Gemma asked in a hollow tone.
Ms. Spinner smiled unpleasantly. “The Altoona Reformatory for Wayward Girls. I have no doubt you’ll feel right at home with the other charges.”
Gemma didn’t wait for the viewphone to cut to black; she fled up the stairs.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-TWO
I couldn’t move. Straps bit into my arms and legs, holding me down. I lifted my head and saw that I was belted to a hospital bed, shirtless and shoeless. I thrashed, making the straps cut into my flesh, but still they held me in place. From out of nowhere a gas mask appeared, hovering over my face. I twisted away, my neck cramping with effort. Steely fingers gripped my scalp as the mask covered my nose and lips. I choked back my cries, holding my breath. Rolling my eyes upward, I saw a man in a surgical cap, pressing down on the mask. Foul gas pierced my lungs. My vision blurred and …