Justice (21 page)

‘So was the academy,’ said Vivian.

‘True, but that’s tucked away in a far-off corner of the globe,’ reasoned M. ‘This is smack-dab in the middle
of New York City. This isn’t the same kind of hidden; this is discreet.’

‘Wait. First floor, metal darts, earth. Second floor, water,’ said Keyshawn urgently. ‘Third floor …’

But before Keyshawn could finish his thought, a hissing sound erupted in the room like millions of snakes set loose, followed by an unmistakable odor.

‘Gas, FIRE!’ screamed M.

Suddenly the room exploded into an inferno of rippling torrents of flames that twisted and bit in every direction. A blast of heat surged and slithered around M, and she felt her suit bend and warp against the tremendous temperature change. The stench of scorched concrete filled the room as she pulled the door open and ushered her friends through to the next level. But Ben stayed behind, walking through the fire. M adjusted her mask so that the brightness wasn’t so blinding.

‘What are you doing?!’ she screeched.

‘Trust me,’ said Ben. ‘We don’t want the fire department showing up and getting in our way.’ Then, using his Magblast, he lifted up a giant scoop of water from the second level and cast the liquid in every direction, snuffing out the sparks in the hidden flamethrowers.

‘You did it!’ cheered M.

‘Yeah, let’s just not do it again, okay?’ said Ben as his suit, singed, trailed a line of gray smoke behind him.

They crept up the final flight of stairs, entering a small corridor that ended at a closed door with light flickering underneath it.

‘I’ll bet anything that this level is going to be completely
different from anything we’ve seen so far,’ said M from the rear.

At the front, Vivian nodded. ‘I hope you’re right.’ Then she slowly closed her hand around the doorknob and twisted. The room on the other side of the door wasn’t anything like the first three floors, but it was disturbingly familiar to M – it was almost exactly like the library from her old house. The furniture was arranged in the same way. The bookshelves were crammed with volumes of books, so many that the room had the same sweet odor of leather and old paper.

‘What is it, M?’ asked Merlyn.

‘It’s the smell,’ she said. ‘I know that smell.’

Sensing that they had finally reached the inner lair, everyone cast over the room, looking for anyone else who may be hiding, but there was nowhere to hide. Except for two chairs and the bookshelves, the room was clear.

‘Well, at least this library won’t try to eat us alive,’ said Vivian. She walked up and down the bookshelves that lined the wall.

‘Spread out and find those books,’ said Ben. ‘If they’re even here.’

Jules took a moment to look out of the windows. ‘Hmm, is it weird that these windows are so clean?’

‘Everything about this place is weird,’ said Merlyn. ‘Now let’s please get this over with, because I don’t want to wait around for whatever is going to happen next.’

The group combed over the shelves, looking for the familiar spines of the
Mutus Liber
but a quick scan proved futile. The black market books weren’t mixed in with the other titles. There was something that caught M’s eye,
though. It was a small picture frame, stuffed deep in between two giant world atlases.
What would John Doe keep in a frame?
she wondered. She reached in, pulled out the frame, and nearly jumped out of her skin when she flipped it around. It was a picture of her with her father. He looked so happy to be holding his daughter while the younger M posed with a funny face, hamming it up for the camera like a carefree kid with her father on a sunny afternoon. She gazed at the drastically different world through the glass and couldn’t believe it. Finding a fatherly memento here – it was surreal, disarming, and, worst of all, a reminder of her dad’s connection to John Doe.

‘M, what did you find?’ hollered Keyshawn from across the room.

Dazed and confused, M turned and tucked the picture behind her. ‘Nothing. I mean, I grabbed what I thought was a book.’ But when she tried to replace the framed photograph, a giant atlas tipped off the shelf and crashed to the floor.

‘Look!’ said Ben, pointing behind her. Above M, a false row of books had flipped open, revealing one of the remaining
Mutus Liber
volumes.

Standing on the thick atlas, M stretched to reach the top shelf and pull down the
Mutus Liber.
A slight cracking sound came from the atlas under her weight and she worried, irrationally, that she might have damaged its spine.

‘Guys, we did it.’ Merlyn smiled. ‘Way to fumble your way to victory, M.’

‘No, we didn’t,’ breathed M, gripping the tome to her chest. ‘There’s only one book here. Where’s the other?’
And what in the world is this place?
she wondered. It was so
much like her home, so familiar, too familiar, and it struck a chord inside of her that had warbled softly at first and was rising into a crescendo. Clutching the book, she twisted her foot one more time and felt the atlas beneath her buckle. ‘I don’t think this place belongs to John Doe. We were wrong. We were so wrong and we’ve got to get out of here before –’

But M’s thought was interrupted by the sound of glass smashing behind her, followed by a swift kick to her side that sent her reeling. She landed hard on top of the
Mutus Liber,
the wind knocked out of her.

‘Before what?’ came a calm, slithering voice. ‘Before you realize what was right under your feet?’ It was Zara, dressed in black, with a zip line attached to her harness. While the crew was stunned by the surprise attack, Zara swiped the atlas, flipped open the false cover that M had crushed, and pulled out a hefty-sized rock. ‘Poor M, don’t you know it’s true what they say? You can never go home again. Sayonara, suckers.’

Suddenly her zip line snapped tight and launched her back out of the window, where she disappeared into the gaping night. Without thinking, M leapt to her feet and charged toward the same broken window.

‘M, what are you doing?!’ screamed Ben. ‘We’ve got the book!’

‘But Zara’s got the moon rock!’ M yelled as she dove out of the window at full speed. Falling through the air, she flung out her hands and her suit produced two long ropes that latched on to the scaffolding across the street. To anyone on the street, she must have looked like a real-life Spider-Man, but M wasn’t concerned about who saw her anymore. The
only important thing now was getting that rock back.

She landed on the scaffolding with a thud and surprised Zara, who was placing the stone in her side pocket.

‘Still don’t know when you’re beat, aye, M? Cool suit notwithstanding, it’s best for you to run back to your friends now.’ Zara kicked M again, squarely in the chest, knocking her against the railing. Zara then grabbed a metal pipe and swung it, but M dodged the blow, shaking out her wrist to form a dark sword from her suit’s programmable matter. On Zara’s next attack, M sliced the pipe in half and used the other girl’s momentum to shove her over the railing. But Zara caught herself on another rung and swung back in one floor below. M heard Zara running below her and let loose a Magblast in the direction of the sound. With one shot the wooden beams burst open, and M leapt down to Zara’s level.

‘You don’t know what you’re doing, Zara,’ cried M. ‘Ms Watts could destroy the Earth with a rock that size.’

‘And what, I should give it to you and the Fulbrights?’ snapped Zara. ‘Yeah, that’s a good idea, because no black holes have ever come from that.’

Zara kicked a paint can at M and a wave of white splashed over her, coating her hand and the lower half of her suit. M didn’t even flinch, just aimed her Magblast at Zara, who had turned to run away, but the Magblast failed. ‘Paint beats the Magblast?’ she complained frantically.

‘M!’ Jules’s voice came over her comm link. ‘Where are you? Can we help?’

‘I’ve got this,’ yelled M, and her voice echoed down the city block. She retracted the sword and wiped the paint off her other glove before screaming, ‘If you’re not going to
stop running, I’m going to do something really stupid!’

But Zara wasn’t going to stop running. She had almost slipped to the bottom level when M reached out and waved for her friends, who watched from the broken window, to stay put. ‘Here goes nothing.’ She aimed her Magblast at the scaffolding anchor and fired. The anchor knocked loose and the levels of scaffolding buckled violently, unlatching from the new high-rise’s skeleton, which crumbled into the street. M held on to a pole and braced for the impact as it all came crashing down, but when she hit the cold ground, she was flung aside so hard that she bounced twice.

Staggering to her feet, M refocused her visuals to light the street and see past the clouds of dust that blanketed the area. Then she saw Zara running away again.

‘She’s like a cat,’ said Merlyn in M’s earpiece. ‘She’s got nine lives and always lands on her feet.’

M climbed out of the wreckage and ran after her. ‘I’m right behind her. We’ve got one of the books, correct?’

‘Yes,’ said Vivian. ‘But where’s the other?’

‘Don’t know. You guys keep looking and I’ll stop Zara,’ huffed M as she picked up speed. She turned the corner just in time to see her old roommate racing down a subway entrance.

‘She’s gone into the subway,’ M reported while she pulled her sleeve up, tearing away the tin foil and bandages. ‘Use my tracker to follow me.’

Skidding down the stairs, she startled some late-night passengers, who yelled as she rushed by, but the next sound she heard was the train in the station. Jumping over the turnstile, she ran to the door, but it closed just before she
got there. She looked quickly up and down the train until she spotted Zara inside, one car up from her. The train began to roll and M raced alongside it until she reached Zara’s car. Blasting the door open, she careened inside.

‘Don’t stop the train,’ Zara said to the shocked passengers as she turned and flew to the back of the car. And indeed the train didn’t stop. It kept on its path at full speed. Zara banged through the exit door and into the next car like a waiter gliding between the kitchen and the dining area. M tried to keep up, but the doors were trickier than she thought.

‘Keyshawn, I need for you to stop the train when I say so,’ said M.

‘I’ll try, but we’ve already wired into the network,’ said Keyshawn. ‘It looks like someone else is controlling this thing and they’ve put up firewalls galore.’

‘It’s Code,’ said Merlyn. ‘Give me the computer, Keyshawn. I can undo this.’

M raced past open-mouthed strangers and people in headphones listening to the disturbingly loud clack and crash of snare drums and cymbals. But she focused only on Zara, who was getting ever closer to the last car of the train.

‘Soon, guys, or she’s going to escape out the back,’ said M.

‘Okay, got it,’ Merlyn’s voice crackled. M was getting too far away from the transmitters. ‘Hold
shhhhh
tight.’

But M didn’t hold on to anything. Instead, as the brakes seized and the train abruptly stopped, she jumped forward into the air as Zara, caught off balance, was thrown backward into M’s ready tackle. Pinning Zara to the ground, M leaned
up and pointed her Magblast directly into the other girl’s face. ‘Maybe you know what this is and maybe you know what it can do, but you have no idea what I’m capable of if you don’t give me that rock right now.’

Zara smiled a bruised smile. ‘Wow, did Eaves just crack Code’s code? I’m proud of you guys. We taught you well. But there’s one lesson you never learned.’

‘Give me the rock,’ demanded M.

‘Never take on the Fulbrights by yourself –
I
sure don’t,’ said Zara. A bag swept over M’s head, her arms were pulled behind her back, and a vicious shock of electricity jolted through her body. ‘Gotcha.’

CHAPTER 21

DISAVOWED

The comm link was totally silent under M’s hood. That blast on the train must have short-circuited her supersuit. This was exactly why Professor Bandit warned her about relying too heavily on weapons. Well, lesson learned the hard way. Hopefully the tracker in her arm still worked.

Having exited the train’s rear door, Zara and at least two other people were marching her through the muddy tracks of the New York subway system. When a clicking sound started, they guided her carefully from one track to another, followed by a rush of air and the cacophonous rattle of a train speeding by. Her captors didn’t say anything to one another the entire time, leaving M alone with the sound of her own shallow breathing.

Underfoot, M felt nasty, indescribable things, and based on the awful smell, she was probably better off not knowing what kind of refuse she was walking through. Sewage and dead rats were only part of it. Then the sound of live rats assailed her senses. Tiny nails clicked and slid over metal
and plastic, a whole nest scared and rampant due to the unannounced visitors in their home. M shivered thinking about the thronging mass of rodents that surrounded her. It crossed her mind that she should be more concerned about where she was being taken, that the rats were at least more predictable than Zara and her cronies.

‘M,’ said Zara, and her voice tumbled in the wide darkness. ‘What did you want to be when you grew up?’

‘You mean, did I see myself underground in a sewer, handcuffed with a hood on my head?’

‘No, I mean, really, what did you want to do with your life? Before getting caught up in all this.’

M knew exactly what she’d wanted to be. ‘An artist. Like my mother and father.’

‘But your father wasn’t an artist … and really neither was your mother,’ said Zara.

‘They were to me,’ said M.

‘Some people see the glass half-full and some people see it half-empty, but you, M Freeman, you see a cold, refreshing drink, don’t you?’

‘Where are you taking me?’ M asked with the most relaxed tone she could muster.

‘Right here,’ Zara answered as the march ended. She pushed M against a wall and latched her bound hands to a hook. Then Zara removed M’s hood, snatching her mask off at the same time. M couldn’t see anything in the pitch darkness. ‘Listen up, because we only have a few minutes before they come for you.’

‘Who?’ M asked.

‘Did I say, “Hey, M, start asking questions”?’ Zara cracked
coldly. ‘No! I said,
listen
. Same old M. So maybe this will make you feel more comfortable.’

‘M.’ The voice that came from the darkness was familiar. It was her mother’s voice, and it reached into M’s chest and tore out her heart.

‘Mom? What are you doing here? What are you doing
with Zara
? She’s got the rock, Mom, the moon rock. And it’s, like, ten times bigger than mine was!’

‘I know, darling.’ Her mother was closer now, but M still couldn’t see her face, just shadow. ‘I asked her to help me.’

M listened hard to hear if there was any stress in her voice, some telltale sign that her mother was also being held captive and not really working with Zara. Then a hand reached out and lovingly cupped M’s face in the darkness. M felt the warm palm, the long fingers, and the gentle touch that definitely belonged to her mother.

‘I don’t know you anymore, Mom!’ M screamed. ‘What are you doing, working with
her
instead of
me
! And you kicked me off the helicopter, you left me there to die, when all I was trying to do was save you!’

‘M,’ continued her mother. ‘This will all make sense soon.’

M burned inside worse than when the Fulbright serum had rewired her guts. Her last remaining family member had double-crossed her, used her, and now could only talk to her when she was tied up. M had always known they didn’t have the most healthy mother-daughter relationship, but she’d had no idea it was this broken.

‘What was that loft?’ asked M, so angry, she could have spit venom. ‘Why was there a picture there of me and Dad?’

‘You already know the answer to that, don’t you, M?’
her mother said calmly. ‘The apartment belonged to your father. But that’s not what’s important right now. When the Fulbrights come, they will take you back to our old house. Your father prepared for this day. That is to say, he prepared
you
for this day.’

‘What do you mean?’ asked M, still straining to see her mother’s face.

‘There’s a message he passed down to you and only you, M,’ her mother said cryptically. ‘Somehow, when the time is right, you’ll see it, you’ll decipher it, and you’ll know exactly what to do to save us.’

‘Save us?’ asked M. ‘Us who, Mom? Like you and me? ’Cause I don’t know if I’d ever help you again.’

‘The world, you doofus,’ Zara chimed in. ‘One minute left. Last chance for good-byes.’

‘One minute until what?’ demanded M.

‘This is going to be the hard part,’ her mother said. ‘Soon this place will be flooded with Fulbrights coming to retrieve you and you will have to go with them.’

‘No!’ said M defiantly. ‘No. You’ve never given me a choice in my own life. If you leave me now, I’m going to hunt you down. You won’t be able to hide and I’ll make you pay for what you’ve done. Do you hear me?!’

‘I love you, M.’

The sentence hung in the darkness as Zara slipped M’s mask back over her head and took off. M quickly tuned her visuals to the brightest setting and could see four figures running toward a service exit: her mother, Zara, and the Flynn twins. As they fled, M could hear footsteps, hundreds of footsteps. She turned to look down the tunnel and could
see the Fulbright horde, with green eyes aglow, heading toward her from the distance, slowly and carefully, as if they were going to get the drop on somebody.

‘They’re gone,’ she yelled. ‘You can stop creeping around and come save me already.’

Her mother was right. As soon as M was pulled from the depths of the subway system, she was escorted to a helicopter and airlifted to her family home. During the flight, she struggled to find any possible answers her father could have hidden for her to find. Staring out the window, lost in thought, she suddenly realized that she wasn’t panicking from the height. Either she had finally conquered her fear or … she flexed her fists and felt the suit react, bristling to attention. The power was back on.

As they landed, M sat back and braced for whatever was going to come next, whether it was her father’s big plan or John Doe’s fury. She suddenly realized how much she truly despised waiting. Earlier in her life, waiting had seemed like a happy option. It gave her time to prepare, perfect, and plan. But after the Lawless School, after the Fulbright Academy, waiting had become torturous.

Finally the Fulbrights led her out of the helicopter and in through the door that led to her family’s library. The rest of her crew was already there, sitting in chairs well-known to M from her years of reading in those very spots. Looking more closely, she realized that they weren’t moving. She’d seen this state before. She’d even felt it. Jules, Merlyn, Ben, Vivian, and Keyshawn were all in a deep freeze.

At the head of this particular nightmare, John Doe was
seated in her father’s favorite chair, with two large Fulbrights at his side.

‘Please, make yourself at home,’ said M ironically. ‘Can I get anyone anything? Water, tea, crumpets?’

‘Sit down, Freeman,’ wheezed Doe. ‘You were contacted by a rogue operation. Tell us what happened, what they asked you.’

‘I was caught by surprise,’ said M, her voice level. ‘They disarmed me, tied my hands behind my back, and put a hood over my head. Then they told me that the Fulbrights would come and take me to my house. How did they know your next move, sir?’

‘That’s for me to worry about,’ said Doe.

‘So’s this!’ said M as she jumped up to Magblast him, but her weapon puttered out.

‘Tsk, tsk. Did you think I wouldn’t disarm you?’ asked Doe, holding up a remote control. ‘Not as smart as I thought.’

M seethed with anger and lunged at him, but one of the Fulbrights grabbed and held her tightly.

‘Oh, I knew you’d be trouble from the very start, M Freeman. That’s why I wanted you taken off the board. Back on your very first plane ride to Lawless. My spy rigged it to crash, but we underestimated you, didn’t we?’

‘You expect me to believe Devon did that?’ asked M. ‘No way. She may have been your eyes and ears at Lawless, but there’s no chance she had that kind of access.’

‘Well, you’re right on that count. Maybe you are a little smart, after all?’ Doe smiled. ‘Still, not smart enough to see the whole picture.’

The Fulbright next to Doe pulled off his mask and
revealed the hard, multicolored eyes that had haunted M in her dreams Professor Bandit stood in front of her, studying her coldly. ‘She has a talent for finding bad situations, Doe. I told you that from day one.’

‘Professor! It was you? You tried to crash my plane?’ asked M, astounded and confused. ‘But you, you failed Devon. And saved us from Watts. How could you be working for them?’

‘Ms Freeman,’ replied Bandit in his righteous voice. ‘I failed Devon Zoso because she deserved to fail my class. She earned it. And I saved you from the Box because it wasn’t Ms Watts’s place to finish the job.’

‘How could you?!’ yelled M. ‘You were friends with my father! If he knew what you were … he’d –’

‘He’d what?’ asked Bandit. ‘Roll over in his grave? Rise from the dead to avenge you? Grow up, little girl.’

As M pushed forward, the Fulbright behind her tightened his grasp, pinching her muscles into her bones. But her arms merely tickled as her suit dispersed the pressure from the Fulbright’s grip. The programmable matter was still working? Would Keyshawn have kept that detail secret from John Doe?

‘Well, now that we are all on the same page,’ said Doe, addressing his captive audience, ‘I have a gripe with a few of you. Ben, you broke protocol. I’m sorry to see such a good recruit dragged into this mess. We’ll deal with you when we return to base. Vivian, I can understand your role in this. Your knee wasn’t the only thing broken by Freeman that night. I’m afraid we will have to let you go. We can’t have a Fulbright who doesn’t follow orders. But, Keyshawn, you’ve hurt me the most. And not only me, but your entire family. I
can assure you they will be quite disappointed to learn that you failed to get the moon rock and the remaining
Mutus Liber
books.’

M froze. Doe knew about the moon rock. Not only that, but he had been using her to find the moon rock all along.

Keyshawn’s eyes shined as he struggled against the deep freeze. M almost thought she could see his hands move, but that was impossible. ‘I … got … them … here,’ he said through clenched teeth.

‘Yes,’ Doe admitted. ‘Yes, you did bring my experiments back home, but in a roundabout way that has necessitated a great deal of effort on my part. And you know how it pains me to travel in this condition. Now, as for you, Miss Byrd and Mr Eaves, Professor Bandit will escort you to the other room while Freeman and I have a private discussion.’

Bandit walked over and lifted Merlyn up onto his shoulder. M glared, but Bandit wouldn’t meet her eyes.

‘And I think, Professor Bandit,’ said Doe as if it were an afterthought, ‘we should add Mr Noles to the menu, too. Oh and, of course, we can’t forget Mr Foley.’

‘Yes, sir,’ said Bandit, and he directed another agent to grab Jules while he gripped the fabric of Keyshawn’s suit and, still carrying Merlyn, dragged him out the door and down the hall.

‘Ah, Freeman, at last,’ said Doe. ‘So where do I begin? For a long time, I’ve watched you grow up from afar. I have all of your old teacher reports and doctors’ files, which made for fascinating reading. It may also surprise you to know that I was very close to your father, until his
accident
.’

The word sounded violent when he said it.

‘You were on a wonderful path until that little roadblock. Then your mother took over and the reports stopped being sent. And I was content to let her have that small privacy, until she sent you to the Lawless School. That wasn’t part of the plan, you see. But in the end, plans can be revised.’

‘What are you doing with my friends?’ asked M defiantly.

‘The same thing I’m going to do with you, my dear. I’m going to drain you. Because, you see, we put something precious inside you. It’s what some people used to call the philosopher’s stone, though that term is so misused and misunderstood nowadays.’

‘Wait, you already have the philosopher’s stone?’ she said. ‘So that’s not why you want the
Mutus Liber
or the moon rock.’

‘Oh good, then you have been paying attention,’ said Doe. ‘No, my dear, we cracked
that
code last year. Keyshawn did, as a matter of fact. And then he made it so much better than it was before. Who wants to turn lead to gold? Gold is easy to come by. Why make gold when you could make more life instead?’

M shouted as loud as she could, ‘Total truth, Keyshawn! You promised to give us the total truth!’

‘Don’t blame poor Keyshawn,’ said Doe. ‘He was only protecting his family. Though it was foolish to use the concoction on himself. He’s a smart one, but too in love with his own science. Hmmm, I hope I don’t inherit
that
trait.’