Chapter Twenty-Six: Caryn
“Good, you’re here,” the mayor says when she walks into the room I am waiting in. “Where is the other one, your companion?”
Ralph walks in behind her along with another man I don’t recognize.
“I--I didn’t think you would let him in so he didn’t come with me.”
The mayor’s mouth twitches in a half smile. “Before you give us an answer, I want you to know that we have been watching the Compound for years waiting for the right moment. They have never slipped up until now by letting you out of their shadow. You know them for what they are. You know the truth and you can help us stop them.
“But I am not only thinking about the people. We also want to stop them to save you and the other candidates. There is evidence to prove the Compound has been lax in their search for the anemone poison, but it has not been enough for a warrant. It’s possible they already have an antidote, but they have refused to use it so that everyone on the entire planet stays dependant on them. You of all people should understand how it feels to be left in the dark and unable to control your future. Help us control ours. Once we have the cure, we can force the Compound to release its research. One of our doctors has already been given limited access to some of their research.”
“I know the Compound has problems and I understand the frustrations you have,” I say. After what I overheard at the Tournament meeting I have my own doubts about the Compound’s honesty where the antidote is concerned. Part of me wants to march into Foreman’s office and demand to know if they are refusing to save me so they can keep the high status of their scientific community and all their grants. Being out in the city has given me a different perspective of the Compound. There is so much that they keep us from, so much that we don’t know.
“But?” The mayor raises an eyebrow.
“I can’t do what you want.” I know the Compound will have the cure ready for all who are sick now.
“Not even if it will save your life?” Ralph asks.
“I might live, but others won’t.”
“You’ve been brainwashed,” the gentlemen next to the mayor says. “The Compound is not as great as they want you to believe. Did you know that the cure should have been gathered twenty years ago, but the Compound said they weren’t ready? They had to play God with their genetics first. No one is ever supposed to get sick, but the Compound doesn’t care.”
His voice rises until he is nearly shouting. A few years ago I might have cowed under his gaze and done everything I could to make him happy again, but that was before Heather died, before I learned to speak when I disagree. I stand, push back from the table and in a quiet, controlled voice say, “If you don’t like the way the Compound controls things then maybe you should gather the cure.”
The words pop out and it is as if a concrete wall inside me crumbles. A whole new world opens as I realize the truth behind those words. The dark stares of Second Official Whit are drowned out by a flood of light. I am not the only one who could save the world. It is not my fault that everyone is sick. Then my whole body freezes and a wave of chills wash over my arms and neck.
The man frowns, “But that’s why they created you.”
“Marc,” the mayor says, a warning in her tone. She studies me with her light, piercing eyes for a moment. “If you change your mind or think of anything that can help us, please let us know.”
My hands and knees are shaking, but my voice remains strong. “I will.”
“We really do want what is best for Beta Earth, as I am sure you do,” The mayor says and leaves.
As soon as the door closes behind them I collapse in a chair. I can’t stop shaking. This is worse than watching those boys throw eggs at the Memorial. Kai didn’t know what the Memorial stood for, so how could they. How can anyone know if they are not taught and reminded again and again?
I am expendable. I have known that from the beginning. The only reason I exist is because I was pieced together in a scientist’s test tube. I never knew who carried me or whose egg and sperm were used. I never really needed to know. But I was special because I survived and because I was engineered for a purpose: to save the world. No one ever asked if I wanted to save the world. It was expected. It still is expected. The cure does not have to be gathered by me or anyone the Compound creates. Petyr Gurginsk was the first one to gather the cure and that happened 250 years before the Compound even existed. But people like Marc don’t think the world needs to be saved or if they do, they aren’t willing to do something about it.
I am trapped. I have all my training, the way I was raised and the values I was taught on the one side, and all the new experiences I have had the last three days. As much as I want to live, even Marc’s comment doesn’t change the fact that I want to help. I want to gather the cure, not because I am the only one who can, or because I did nothing to save Heather who would have gathered the cure sooner had she lived. I cannot leave the responsibility that was given to me. I can’t let the children suffer any longer than it takes for the cure to be gathered and made.
And of all the people I know I’m the one with the least to lose. I’m expendable. May has Janissa. I have Anderson, but there is always something he holds back, things he doesn’t say. He doesn’t want to get too close to me, doesn’t want to form deep attachments. The only person I don’t feel expendable with is Kai. He makes me feel real, alive. Just thinking about him makes me want to see him again.
Ralph pokes his head in the room.
“I wanted to apologize for the statements Marc made. It does not reflect the opinion of the mayor or all of the people in this city. What you are doing...we do appreciate it.”
“Thank you.”
Ralph disappears.
“Wait.” I rise from my chair. “Could you give me the travel documents that Kai, my companion, asked for as payment? I would like to give them to him myself.”
Ralph nods and leaves the room. I wait impatiently for him to return and leave as soon as he hands me an envelope containing all the proper documentation. I hope Kai is still at the orphanage. It is the only place I know where to find him, aside from the lake, and if he’s not there I’m not sure what I will do. The orphanage seems like the best place to start since that was where I saw him last and I increase my pace to get there faster.
“Excuse me, are you the White Lilac?” a young man asks.
I turn, give him a polite smile, but don’t slow my pace. “Yes, I am.”
“You have to come quick. Kai is hurt bad,” he says not even bothering to introduce himself, but once I hear Kai’s name I don’t care.
“What happened to him?” I ask. He starts to lead me down abandoned streets toward the lake. I practically jog to keep up with him.
“It all happened so fast. You’ll have to see for yourself,” is all he says. I picture Kai lying in a pool of blood, burned by a fire or with every bone in his body broken. I wonder if they have already called for medical help. Of course they have. It had to be the first thing they did. Perhaps we are jogging so we can get to the accident site before they fly Kai away. Or perhaps Kai is crushed under a building and they can’t get him out.
I start to run and my escort keeps my pace. Finally, we stop in front of a warehouse. The guy knocks on the door and it clicks open. Something feels strange about this and for a brief moment I wonder if I should have contacted the Compound, but all I care about is that this takes me to Kai.
“Where is he?” I ask.
“He’s in here,” the guy says and he holds the door open for me to enter.
The entrance area is dark, but as I walk in I notice the size of the warehouse. Then I see Kai sitting in a chair directly across from the entrance with a red-haired man standing over him. I first notice that there is no blood. My second observation is Kai seems to be sitting of his own accord. A wave of relief washes over me when I see he is awake, but then I don’t feel relieved at all. Kai’s face drains when he sees me and my back feels as if ice is melt
ing down my nerve endings. He is not hurt. I can tell that from where I am and my feet stop walking.
The door we came through shuts and the echo fills the warehouse. The scent of rotting wooden crates and rusting metallic beams fills my nose, even though I try to swallow it away.
“Welcome to the T-Man’s Compound,” says the guy with red hair.
“What is she doing here?” Kai asks. He tries to stand up but the red haired guy pushes him back down.
“Hello, Caryn. I’m the T-Man and I want to thank you for arriving so quickly,” says a young man on Kai’s left. He stands in the dark rays outside of the overhead light, but when he raises his hand out of the shadow, a gun with a red ruby glittering brightly in the center. The gun is aimed at my chest.
Then there is a blinding red flash and I fall to the floor.