A Crack in the Sky (14 page)

Marilyn considered. Her expression changed as she seemed to recall the conversation.
Eli … you lied!

No, not exactly. I just neglected to mention that part
. Miserable, he forced himself to his feet and started back to the house. But he didn’t get far. Marilyn blocked his path, her tiny orange eyes glaring up at him.

Tell me why, Eli. Why didn’t you give them the whole truth? It’s not too late. You can still ping them back
.

He could, but he wasn’t going to, and they both knew it. The thing was, if his family were aware the voices intended to contact him again, then they could probably find a way to prevent them from getting the opportunity. And Eli didn’t want that. Even after so much trouble, he still couldn’t stop thinking about the shadow he’d seen under the city, and the savage with the all-white eye, and the strange behavior of the sky. For so long he’d tried to shake the feeling something was wrong, something important. He couldn’t ignore it anymore. If there was even the slightest chance of getting answers at long last, he needed to take it. He
had
to know.

Even if it meant associating with Foggers.

7
the white room

Tabitha woke up terrified. Her breath came in sharp gasps. She’d had a dream in which something unimaginable had happened and everything she cared about, everything that mattered, had been taken from her. She was nothing. Her life was over.

And Ben? Where was Ben?

Surely he was coming for her, but what could be taking him so long?

Now she lay curled in a ball and covered in sweat. There was a throbbing pain on the left side of her head. Even in her groggy state, she sensed she wasn’t in St. Louis. First of all, it was warmer than she was used to, like there was something wrong with the blowers. And somewhere in the distance she could hear a sound like waves crashing. There was a faint smell like sour milk burning at her nose. She rubbed her eyes and tried to shake the remaining haze of her awful dream.

She opened her eyes.

White sheets. A white wall. Long, curly white lamps. A wardrobe and a low table shaped like a flower. Two puffy chairs. She was lying in silk sheets in what looked like a small but comfortable bedroom. Somebody had dressed her in pajamas.

It occurred to her that maybe she was dead.

She heard the soft click-clack of footsteps approaching. Then a girl’s voice. “Awake at last, are we? You were having a nightmare. Must have been a whopper by the way you were calling out.”

Tabitha turned her head, and it throbbed again like there was an ice pick in her brain. Standing over her was a beautiful green-haired girl with a kind face. She looked about Tabitha’s age, maybe a little younger. The corners of her mouth were turned downward in concern. She was dressed all in white. She looked like an angel.

“Please don’t be afraid, Representative Bloomberg. You’re perfectly safe.”

Tabitha yanked the sheets around her and pressed herself against the top of the bed. She didn’t know what was happening, but she knew she should be suspicious of everything and everybody. She wanted answers.

“Where am I?”

“In the admissions ward of an InfiniCorp reeducation facility,” the girl said, her voice calm. “You had a pretty severe jolt, and then you hit your head when you fell to the ground. You’ll be fine, though. My name is Representative Shine, and I’m the Guardian assigned to take care of you. I brought you breakfast. You must be hungry. You’ve been sleeping for two days.”

Tabitha felt it all come rushing back. The awful memory of how she’d been exposed. Her failed attempt to escape to Outside. Could that have been two whole days ago? Was it possible? Then she realized she wasn’t just hungry—she was ravenous. She eyed the tray of food the girl in white was carrying. A huge omelet. A tall stack of toast. A cup of fruit. Some kind of juice.

“Where is this facility?” she asked. “Why do I hear waves?”

“It’s the Gulf of Mexico. It’s all around us for hundreds of miles. This ward is twenty-three stories above the water.”

The Gulf of Mexico? How would she ever get home again if she was trapped in a tower somewhere in the middle of the sea?

“Look, let me set this tray down and we can talk. I’ll tell you anything you want to know.” As the girl placed the food on the bedside cabinet, she must have noticed Tabitha’s wary look, because she added, “Don’t worry, there’s nothing wrong with it. So many new arrivals start off thinking we’re going to, like, poison them or something. I promise you, that’s not what this place is about.”

Tabitha left the food where it was. “So what is it about, then?”

Representative Shine took one of the puffy chairs. “You’ve been assigned to a special offshore program for the reeducation of Wayward Employees.”

“Reeducation?” Tabitha didn’t like the sound of that.

The girl nodded. “Don’t worry. It’s going to be cool.” She settled herself deeper into the chair. “Years ago this place used to be an offshore oil rig, one of the biggest ever built. It’s twenty-four stories high. But the underwater reservoir is almost
dry, so now it’s mostly used as sort of a giant floating manufacturing plant. In addition to the admissions ward, where we are right now, we have seventeen separate production floors for making lots of different InfiniCorp stuff. This is where the company makes digital hair gel, electric pants, cooling windows, espresso makers—oh god, I could go on and on. All the products we make get shipped from here to the different InfiniCorp domes on the mainland.”

“So … why am I here? Where’s the reeducation part?”

The girl smiled. “You, kiddo, are going to join all the other Wayward Employees in one of our productivity areas. It’s how you Waywards can relearn what you may have forgotten—the peace of mind that comes with trust. Just looking at you I can see you’re still a nervous wreck. That’ll change, I promise. Plus, contributing on a Learning Floor is a way to redeem yourself.”

“A way to redeem myself,” Tabitha repeated blankly.

“Yes. Forgiveness through productivity. The company is giving you a way to pay back for what you did.” Her face was somber for only a moment before she brightened back up again. “You won’t start just yet, of course. Only after you’ve recovered. And the work isn’t too hard either, believe me. It’ll be fine. It’s really not so bad here. We have lots of activities and fun stuff to do. The company takes good care of everybody.”

Tabitha’s thoughts whirled. So she wasn’t going to die after all? Nobody was going to torture her or erase her memories? After all the horrors the Friends had described, working in some faraway manufacturing plant seemed like hardly any punishment at all. She glanced around the comfortable room again and at the breakfast that looked so delicious. She wasn’t sure what she had expected, but this wasn’t it.

The girl seemed to guess what Tabitha was thinking. “InfiniCorp might not like your past behavior, Representative Bloomberg, but we still want the best for you.” She smiled again. It was the compassionate smile of someone who truly cared. “Hey, it’s
totally
understandable you’re a little disoriented right now, but please don’t be nervous. I promise you, you’re going to like it here. Everybody does.”

Tabitha said nothing.

“Listen,” the girl said, getting up from the chair, “you should eat and rest. It takes some people a long time to get over the jolt.” She bit her lower lip sympathetically. “I wish they didn’t have to do that, but it’s standard procedure. Sometimes the Foggers mess people up so bad that when we try to help, they get violent.” With that she turned and started heading away.

“Wait,” Tabitha called. “One last question.”

At the door now, Representative Shine looked back.

“What’s that smell, like sour milk?”

“Oh, that’s just the gulf.” She wrinkled her nose. “Kind of yucky today, isn’t it? It’s the one neg to living over the water. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. I’ve been here so long I hardly think about it anymore.”

So it was the
water
that smelled so bad? Tabitha had always wanted to visit the shore, but of course she never had. Still, she’d played dream games about the beach, and in the games the ocean smell was sharp and salty. Clean. Not like this. It seemed odd, but then again maybe it was normal. There was no way for Tabitha to know. In any case, sitting up in her pajamas with the sheets wrapped around her like armor, Tabitha
felt exhausted again. Everything was out of whack somehow. Maybe it was the throbbing in her skull. All she was sure of was that she wanted to eat. In fact right then she was having a hard time thinking about anything but food.

“Can I get you something else, Representative Bloomberg?”

Tabitha wasn’t sure what to think. She shook her head.

Representative Shine smiled one last time and left the room. Tabitha waited until she was sure she’d gone before she reached for the tray. Within seconds she was stuffing her breakfast into her mouth and swallowing it in hungry gulps.

She slept on and off, a fitful sleep with strange, dark dreams. She was at her Initiation Ceremony again, standing in the center of a circle of hooded Friends who held hands and chanted as she recited the Oath of Loyalty. She was theirs now. Despite still holding secret reservations about what she was doing, she had chosen to join their ranks because she shared their commitment to seeing the truth through the illusion and their desire to fight the system. But now, in her dream, she had a lump in her throat as she watched herself make the solemn promise to give up her old life, swearing her allegiance to a shadowy organization, a team of high-minded agents who looked out for each other in secret. This time she better understood the consequences, though, and she questioned whether it had ever been worth the risk. She tried to call out to herself, to somehow stop the ceremony so she would have more time to think it all through. But no sound would come from her mouth, no matter how hard she screamed.

Again and again she woke up trembling.

She wasn’t sure how much time passed. It felt like weeks, but it might have been days. The heat drained her energy, and always there was that distant sour smell, making her stomach turn. Every now and then Representative Shine returned to fuss over her. She brought meals, changed Tabitha’s sweaty sheets, and occasionally urged her out of bed to walk around. She was patient and kind. But no matter how nice she was, Tabitha still didn’t feel safe. She suspected that somehow this kindness was another trick, a way for the company to keep her in the dark about its real intentions.

She wasn’t going to fall for it.

On their short walks up and down the narrow, peach-colored admissions-ward corridor, Tabitha’s eyes were always taking in the place. It was what the Friends had trained her to do. She never saw any other patient in the ward, but she noted every door, window, stairway, and duct. Any opportunity for escape. There wasn’t much. And even if she were to find some way out of the building, this floor was too high to jump from. She shuddered at the thought of a twenty-three-story drop. Even if she could somehow make it safely down to the water, what then? How would she get across the Gulf of Mexico?

If this was a prison, it was a well-designed one. She didn’t see any way out.

A sign in the corridor had the InfiniCorp logo, and words in curved, elegant letters:

The message was worrying, but Tabitha forced herself not to let it distract her. Secretly she was counting on the Friends. They were all she had, and she was convinced they’d come for her. She never said anything about this to Representative Shine, of course—she hardly even admitted it to
herself—
but deep down she imagined Sister Krystal, Brother Arnold, and all the others out there, searching for her. In her mind she kept envisioning them crashing through the door, taking her by the hand, and whisking her somewhere far away where she and Ben would be safe. And together.

It was just a matter of time.

Soon Tabitha met other kind Guardians, more beautiful, caring faces. Everyone smiled all the time here. Everyone was sympathetic and helpful. Yes, Tabitha had done something wrong, they said, but she wasn’t to blame, really. She had been the victim. Everyone seemed so reasonable. What was happening? Could the Friends of Gustavo have been so wrong? Could she have been so misled?

No. Tabitha still refused to believe it. The nicer everyone acted, she decided, the more she had to fear.

Soon she found herself more bored than afraid. After days in the same comfortable room, she spent most of her time staring into space. A CloudNet sphere glowed overhead. Even though she had a higher-than-average resistance to its influence—in fact, the Friends said her natural resistance was one of the strongest they’d ever measured—she sensed that this one was more powerful than those she was used to. Despite herself she found that her eyes were drawn to it. She knew it wasn’t wise to watch too much, but she didn’t have many options. Besides, it was always on, and there was little else to do.

“How’s your head, Representative Bloomberg?” Representative Shine would occasionally ask.