Seers (23 page)

Instinctively. Of course! That means Tobias is squinting now, too, right? His hands are in front of his face. He’s distracted. She’s distracting him for me. I can make out Luke. He puts his hands on Eri’s shoulders and shifts her farther to the right as he takes his place beside her directly in front of Tobias. That’s the last thing I see before I step up to the table, lock eyes with Dr. Kuono, and go in.

I am already prepared for the worst. But I realize I am not prepared for this.

I am used to obstacles, but these are not coming at me. I am surrounded by them. I cannot swim down and into layers here. The surging, swimming-with-the-current feeling I am used to is replaced by the feeling of standing in the ocean attempting to jump the waves, only the ocean is angry and fierce, and even the sand is against me. It keeps sliding away from my feet. At the same time the waves come at me like a prize fighter charging, gloved hand raised, and swinging a right that can knock me out of the ring.

The only thing I have to go on now is the fact that Luke has been in here. And he didn’t succeed. I will need to do something he did not do. I think of Luke. He would fight this. He would identify the challenge and he would flail and trudge against it. And that didn’t work.

I let my legs go limp. I make myself smaller, straighter. Like licking a thread before sliding it through a sewing needle, I will try to make myself long and slip through. I put my arms against my ears, press my fingers together, and attempt to slither like an eel. I feel less resistance already.

I travel down through cold clumps. The ooze thickens to grayish brown sludge. I go down a little further, and the clumps now have the consistency of clay. It’s getting harder to move down. I feel like I am shoveling through rocks.

I take a second to think. I have to remember who I am in. This is a sane, decent, intelligent man. His brain should not be intentionally trying to fight me. I remember what Luke said about the memory being big. Everything around me is big, thick, gooey, which tells me I am where I need to be. It’s thick because I am in the right spot. This is it. This is the doublememory that I need. That should be it, but there is a hulking problem. I am in a mass. How do I know what to grab? What is here to Extract?

I try to focus. It’s like looking through glasses that are an inch thick. I can See movements and blurred images. It’s mostly gray with light and dark patches. I slither and inch deeper. I See something. A glow? Is that a color? I feel a flutter in my stomach that reminds me to pay attention to my physical reactions. I pay attention to my eyes. They only slightly burn. I haven’t been in long. Good. I have to be faster than I have ever been.

That flutter in my gut was telling me this is it. Color. Of course it would be color. It’s Eri. I am looking for the memory of her telling her father about her being an Aurae. She had just lit up the brain. Eri’s secret thrust itself at Dr. Kuono in a wave of color at the very moment he pieced together the formula of Extraction. That’s why the two memories are fused.

So this is it then. This green and yellow bubbling up through the gray. This colored mass is the conjoined memory. Can I Extract it? Can I grab color?

I slither down a little further. It’s warmer here. Like a sun patch in the ocean waves. The heat from Eri’s light? The light of the brain, maybe? I spread my fingers as I reach in.

The light is not what I thought. It’s not like a ray of light or a laser beam. It’s a jellyfish. It’s slippery and wants to avoid my grasp. I sink my fingernails into it and grip with everything I have. It resists and sends a stinging, burning sensation through my fingers, into my hands, and up my arms. Add that to the burning eyes. I feel as if I have suddenly burst into flames.

Now that I have what I think is the memory, I realize I have to get back up. I have to get out. I will have to stay straight and long, but I can no longer lead with my arms. I use my legs as a tail and do my best attempt at impersonating a mermaid. I am moving, but I am slow.

My hands feel as though what I am holding is less of a memory and more a glowing ember. At least that is trumping the burn in my eyes.

Do I have it? Do I have the memory? And if I do, what then? Will Luke be able to See and Extract it?

A little further. The thickness around me seems to be separating. I must be almost there.

I don’t feel like I have fingers anymore. My hands are oven mitts, only instead of keeping me protected from heat, they are made of fire themselves. I hope that I am still gripping this memory as if my life depends on it, because it does. One last kick, one last bending at the knees, and I feel the edge on the top of my head. I close my eyes and I am out.

I would love to nurse my eyes for a second, to keep them closed, but I don’t have time. I need to see his face. Dr. Kuono’s face. If the Extraction was successful, I will know immediately. This is not like my other Extractions, where the being did not know I was going in. Dr. Kuono not only knows I was in; he knows what I was after. Now that I am out, he will try to remember the secret of Extraction. He will search his brain. If he no longer knows, I’ve done it.

I force my eyes open. My eyelids rake over my eyeballs like gritty sandpaper. Everything is pink, but I can see one thing. Dr. Kuono is smiling.

Through a filmy haze I look around the room. Are Luke and Eri okay? A sinking question fills me. Has the room been swarmed with Seer soldiers here to do Tobias’s bidding?

But it’s still us three. Dr Kuono is fine, better, if I can guess by the expression of relief he wears. Eri is still standing before the brain, although she has let go and the singeing light is now a soft glow. Luke stands at the end of the table now. I squint to be sure, but I don’t see Tobias anymore. I make my way over to Luke. A foot from the table, I notice Luke’s stance, how hunched he is, that he is straddling something. When I look down, I realize he is straddling the lifeless body of Tobias.

“What
happened
?” I direct my question to Luke. My voice is tight like a clenched fist, and it surprises me. But then I feel the tightness take me over. Why am I angry with Luke for immobilizing the man responsible for all this?

He hears the anger. He must, because his answer is immediately defensive: “You don’t know what he was thinking or what he is capable of, Leesie. You don’t know what he was going to do to you!” he hisses. He sounds crazed. His eyes, red ringed, are wild with rage.

“How do you know?
What did you do?”
I demand.

“I went in. I Navigated Tobias,” he replies more calmly.

“I can see that by your eyes. But that doesn’t leave a man in a heap last time I checked, Luke! What did you do?”

“I went in, and the things I saw—” He steps over Tobias, brings his feet together, and stands up straight to look at me.

“I just started taking things, Leesie. Memories. As many as I could hold. I stuffed my hands and arms, and I swam out. I didn’t know what else to do. It just came to me. This idea that if I stole enough information, I could—”

“What? Kill him?” I challenge, though I don’t know why. I want him dead anyway, so why do I care? Why is this bothering me?

“Tobias is not dead,” Dr. Kuono says, moving toward Tobias and bending over him. “He is comatose. The brain is severely damaged, I am sure. But he is not dead.”

“Leesie, I had to act,” Luke explains. “I had to do something. You needed more time. Eri’s distraction provided us seconds, but you needed minutes. It just happened.”

It’s funny to watch him explain himself to me. He seems to feel the need to explain, almost apologize, for what he did to Tobias. And he looks confused by it, too. I guess we both have to figure out what it is about this situation that has us uneasy.

But we don’t have time to—that’s for sure. I need to switch my focus to Eri and her father.

“Are you guys okay?”

“We’re okay. You? Did you? Were you able to?” Eri’s voice grows more insistent with each question.

“Elise was successful.”

Dr. Kuono’s voice, even that he has one, that he is a person who knows us, is strange. I have been thinking of him as the neuroscientist for so long. Sure, as Eri’s father I wanted to protect him, but I wasn’t thinking of him as a living, breathing part of our lives. And now that I see him as such, I am relieved that he’s okay. He has been under Tobias’s thumb much longer than I have.

“Thank you,” he continues, “for risking your life for ours.”

“I’m glad it worked. I wasn’t sure I could do it,” I reply.

“I was. My daughter and Luke have told me about your abilities. You have gained a reputation.”

“I know nothing about that. There’s so much I don’t know.”

Dr. Kuono has kind eyes. Full of laugh lines. He smiles and moves closer to me. “You found your way today. You made a selfless choice. You saved me. You saved my daughter, Luke, and all her friends. Even if you never regain your memories, you will make new ones. With people who care about you. You are strong. Trust yourself.”

I know that he’s right. But I wonder how long it will take for me to be able to put his wise words into practice. The moment between us is gone. Dr. Kuono’s eyes refocus, become sharp, and his voice has a new sense of urgency.

“You two must leave,” he says. “This laboratory belongs to Seers, to Tobias. It is only a matter of time before someone comes. Elise, you must be on your way to safety by then. Now that you have the joined memory in you, it may have separated. The memory may be readable now. They may be able to Navigate you and See it. You need to be in a safe place before Luke can attempt to Extract it.”

He’s right. I know he’s right. But life is moving so fast today. I want to slow the world down. I want more time with Eri.

Luke and Dr. Kuono begin to discuss the next steps. I listen as he tells Dr. Kuono that his team will be here in minutes to collect Tobias. That Dr. Kuono and Eri are to wait for them. And he and I are going underground.

What?
Underground?
Suddenly I am aware that Luke is part of something much bigger than I have been led to believe.

Eri turns to me and rushes out a whimpering, “Leesie, be careful. I will miss you. I know I will see you again—” Her voice breaks before she can say any more.

Luke is beside me, ushering me to the door.

“Go. Let’s go.”

I know better than to argue.

We rush out the door, and as I listen to the screeching of his tires peeling from the parking lot, I know that my world is crashing and changing again. My mind is reeling.

“Leesie, it’s going to be okay. You’ll see.”

His voice is soft now, soothing. His voice attempts to convince me that I am heading into an unknown but that this time I travel with someone who cares about me. I want to believe that. I have to believe that.

“How do you know?” I ask, pleading with my eyes for him to settle me down.

“Because you are still alive. You are the only one who houses the formula, the ability to transform Seers into Extractors. And you are the key to ending this. I know you are.”

I let his words sink like a weighted hook into murky water. We have completed this mission, and even with the threat of the next mission to get rid of the Preceptors and Extractors working with Tobias, I can’t help the flutter in my gut from exploding into a surge of excitement.

With the loss of my past, I have felt so vulnerable and broken. And while the enormity of what I have lost will continue to fragment me, today I have proven that I am also powerful. This part of my life, the part that left me a pawn in the Preceptors’ game, is complete. But a new life, a real life for me, is just beginning.