The Madness Project (The Madness Method) (66 page)

“What’s going on?” I asked, staring toward the back corner
of the lab where the lightning device lived.

“Those incompetent idiots have been messing with the device
again.  I told them to leave it alone.  They think it’s because I’m jealous and
want to keep it to myself.  It’s really because they’re just fools who don’t
understand the complexity of the calculations needed—oh, damn.  They’ve set the
lab on fire.”  He gave a great sigh.  “All right, I suppose I’d better take
care of it.  You should leave now, Your Highness, or I’m sure I’ll be hearing
from Kalen tonight.”

“You know Zagger?” I asked, backing up as he shooed me
along.  “No one calls him Kalen.”

“Yes.  Now, not to overstep my bounds, but, get out of
here.”

I nodded, risking one last glance at the blue-lit corner
that now smoked and flamed and cast the walls around it in black shadows, while
a deep buzzing like a mad hive laced the air, stronger than ever before.

“Be careful,” I told him, and showed myself out of the lab.

Chapter 20 — Hayli

“I could’ve sworn I heard this door slam,” a voice said,
speaking just on the other side of the door.

I crammed myself into the corner, out of sight of the window,
and froze.  My heart raced fast as the crow’s, and I just kept praying over and
over again that whoever was out there wouldn’t open the door.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” another voice said—a voice I
recognized…
Dr. Kippler!

All the blood drained from my face.  Something like fury or
fear crept in to take its place, and I knotted my hands and bit my lip to keep
from screaming.  The door latch twitched, and shifted down.

“This door shouldn’t even be unlocked,” Dr. Kippler went
on.  “I’ll have to call Minister Blake and have him check the upper floors
again…”

I held my breath, willing them to move on.  But just when I
thought they’d gone, the latch jerked down and the door swung open.

“What the devil—”

I could feel the crow in my head, beating against my panic.  
Get
up.  Run.  Run!

“Ah,” Dr. Kippler said, standing in the doorway.  “You came
back.”

I launched myself at the stairs and—before I could think
why—I bolted down toward the Gen. Lab. door.

“Stop her!” Kippler shouted.  “Guards!”

I shoved open the door and closed it, quiet as I could,
behind me.  The corridor here was bright but empty, and I picked a
direction—right—and took off running.  All kinds of doors flashed past me as I
went, double doors, office doors, doors with windows.  I passed a glass door that
led into some kind of huge room, filled with men in long white coats and more
tables than I could count.  A strange bluish kind of light filtered over them
and their strange machines, not bright, but strangely powerful.  A minute and I
realized I’d stopped to stare, while the guards would be coming any second to
grab me.

I’d just passed an office door that stood a bit ajar, so,
with my pulse ricocheting in my head, I darted back to it and slipped inside. 
Leaving the door just as I’d found it, I scrambled through the darkness to
crawl underneath the desk.

Out in the hall, an alarm went off.

Footsteps stopped just outside my door, and I heard the
other scientist shouting over the noise, “What the devil is that?”

“Those idiots have gone burning up their lab again.  I don’t
see why that means they have to put
our
lab under lockdown.  Though I
suppose it serves its purpose.  We can put it back under lockdown as soon as we
get out, so we can be certain she won’t go anywhere.”

“That was one of your specimens?”

“She’s an intriguing one, that girl.  Shape-shifter.  Higher
energy readings than most we’ve had.”

“I don’t know how you did it,” the man said, a note almost
of reproach in his voice.  “She must be about your daughter’s age.”

“Don’t personify them,” Dr. Kippler said.  “That creature is
nothing like Eira.”

My breath hissed out through my teeth. 
Creature!  I’m
not a creature!

“Don’t tell me you believe all that, about mages not being
human.”

“If that’s what the King declares…”

“We’re scientists, damn it.  The King isn’t.  I’ve looked at
their flesh under a microscope just the same as you, and I haven’t seen a jot
of difference between them and us.  At least, no more difference than why some individuals
have a leaner or more muscled body type than others… Dr. Sturgan was just
explaining about some genes they’ve discovered on your specimens…”

“It is a settled fact,” Dr. Kippler snapped, interrupting. 
“We just haven’t developed the tools to observe the real differences yet.  It
has to tie in to Alokin’s theory about electromagnetism and the energy in those
specimens, which makes them so much easier to control if you can tap into it. 
As soon as we get the rest of the sample, things will be much clearer.”

“And when will that happen?” the other scientist asked.

“As soon—”

There was a sharp hiss and the sound of something opening.

“Finally,” Dr. Kippler said.  “That took far too long.  Tell
those idiots over in the Physics Lab that their emergency doors need work.  We
shouldn’t be trapped for five minutes simply because they set fire to their
lab.”

“I’ll tell them,” the other scientist said, his voice fading
with the sound of his footsteps.  Then he stopped and said, “It’s never
settled.  And I don’t want blood on my hands if we turn out to be wrong.”

“Oh, believe me, Toma,” Dr. Kippler said.  I could picture
his venomous smile from the acid in his voice.  “If you think you’ve proved us
wrong, it won’t be their blood you need to worry about.”

I swallowed hard and latched my arms a little tighter around
my knees, listening to the sound of their footsteps retreating down the hall. 
A moment later I heard the same hissing noise, only this time, it was followed
by a decisive thud.  I scrambled out from under the desk and into the hall,
only to find myself caged in by a massive door that filled the entire
corridor.  I ran my hands over the steel surface, but there were no locks, no
latches.

“No, no,” I whispered.  I pressed my ear to the door, but
couldn’t hear aught at all from the other side.  Panic surged up in me, and I
slammed my hands on the door, shouting, “Let me out of here!  Someone help me!”

I sank to the ground and leaned against the door, staring
down the corridor.  The crow begged me to Shift, because at least she could
hide more easily than me, but I couldn’t.  If I wanted to find a way out, I’d
need to use my hands. 

A minute and I realized that someone was standing in one of
the office doors, halfway down the hall.  My breath hitched and I froze.

Told you
, the crow muttered, but she sounded too
frightened to be smug.

The figure left the office to stand under the electrical
lights, and I squinted to see better, because I couldn’t be seeing what I
thought I was seeing.  Tanned skin, dark hair all in an unruly mess, fitted
charcoal suit…

That was grobbing
Prince Tarik
, looking for all the
world like he’d been hiding in an office same as me.  A minute and he just
stood there, staring down the hall at me, then I thought I saw his mouth quirk
in a smile and he strolled my way.

“Well,” he said, stopping a few feet from me and folding his
hands behind his back.  “Didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Your Highness,” I stammered, choking on the words, too
baffled to think of a better come-back.  “What are you
doing
here?”

His dark eyes glinted at me with that mischievous smile of
his.  “Same thing you are, I imagine.”

My mouth dropped open.  “But you’re…but you…”

“I’m…just a pompous prince?  A self-absorbed do-nothing?”

I stared at him, but he spoke honestly, without venom, like
he wouldn’t be surprised if that was what I thought of him.

“Not what I said!” I protested.  “I just div’n think…that
is, I never figured you’d be so quick about…um…science.”

He laughed, running a hand through his hair.  “Heard some
rumors about odd things happening over here.  I suppose I just thought it’d be
a delicious bit of fun to try to find out what.”

“Of course,” I said.

Of course it was just a game to him.  It was all about
getting in the spits, and making life dreadful for his father.  He really
wasn’t any different than everyone said.

“Did you find aught interesting?” I asked after a moment.

“Not really here in the Genetics Laboratory, but up in the
Psychiatric Lab, they’re doing some very strange things.”

I swallowed.  “Psychy…psych…what is that?”

He tapped his head.  “Study of the mind, Hayli.”

Oh God, he does remember my name.  The Prince knows my
name!

“They’re doing some kind of…hypnosis experiments, I think,”
he said.  “Psychiatric manipulation.  I couldn’t understand all of the science,
but it seems they’re trying to find ways to control how people think and
behave.”

“Like with drugs?”

His gaze snapped to my face, dark and utterly unfathomable. 
“Not really.  Drugs aren’t very effective, not for this sort of thing.  Why?”

“Oh,” I said, and shrugged.  “Just had a…a mate who got
dosed up by some street lord.  Seemed like they wanted information from him.  I
guess I was just thinking, maybe they were working for the scientists!”

And I kept thinking how I’d seen Kantian at Kalethelia,
talking to that spectacled man.  If only I’d got a better goggle at him. 
Spectacles weren’t enough.  It
might
have been Dr. Kippler, or it might
have been anyone else.

Tarik gave me a skeptical kind of look and turned to scan
the corridor behind us.  “I rather doubt that,” he said.  “This is a fairly
closed-off community.  I don’t think they care overly much what happens on the
street.”

“But they’re targeting mages!” I said.  “The folks Dr.
Kippler is experimenting on?  They’re mages!”

“What, really?” he asked.  “And this friend of yours, he was
a mage?”

I nodded.

His eyes hardened suddenly, and he took a step toward me. 
“This isn’t the first time you’ve been on the palace grounds.  Was this chum of
yours there then, too?  My friend’s aeroplane crashed that day, and the only
thing the engineers could say was that it had gotten damaged from the inside. 
Know anything about that?”

“I div’n have aught to do with that!” I gasped, pushing
myself to my feet and pressing my back against the door.  “Honest.  That was a
different mage.  Shade had nothing to do with that either.  He’s not a Flint.”

“But you do know who did it?  My best friend could have
died.”

I sucked in a breath and tried to hold his gaze, but he’d
got a fury in his eyes that I’d only seen once before, when the Ghost had shot
his father.

“I div’n want it to happen,” I said.  “But I can’t tell you
who did it.  I’m sorry.  I just can’t.  Dan’ ask me to rat him out.”

“He’s a friend of yours?” the prince asked, eyes narrowing.

“No,” I admitted.

“Then…”

“He’s still a mage!  I can’t betray another mage.”

“Hm,” he said, still holding my gaze.  “I’m surprised.  I
suppose I thought the south-streeters were a bit lacking in loyalty, especially
seeing as they have none for their King.”

“Not all of us are anarchists,” I said quietly.  “Lots of
folks are, but not everybody.”

“What about you, Hayli?” he asked.  There was no smile, no
humor, no sweet mischief in his face now, just a dangerous coldness that bit my
heart.  “Would you want to see my head on a revolutionary’s pike?”

“God, no!” I cried, more fiercely than I’d intended.

“At least that’s something,” he said, his eyes dark and
pensive as he studied me.  Then he smiled and backed a step with something like
a little bow.  “Well?  Come on.”

He jerked his head toward the corridor.

“What’re we doing?”

“Well, we’re stuck.  We’re in a top-secret scientific
laboratory.  And we’re both a bit too curious for own good.  So?  Let’s go
exploring.  We’d better at least try to find a way to open that door.”

I tracked close behind him, praying with every step that we
wouldn’t run into any other scientists.  Toward the end of the hall we reached
a double door that led into a wide laboratory, a bit dim and cold.  Unnervingly
silent.  The thick tables were strewn with brassy devices of all different
sizes, but all a bit of the same shape.  Nobody else was inside, which got me
both strangely relieved and oddly terrified at the same time.

“D’you know what those are?” I asked, touching one of the
brass tubes.

“Microscopes,” the prince said, casting a scant glance at
the device.  “They’re for viewing things that are too small for the eyes to
see.”

I bent over the thing and pressed my eye against what could
only be an eyepiece, but I couldn’t see much besides a blurry mess of lines and
blobs.  Didn’t seem particularly useful to me.  Maybe it was broken.  It had
some little knobs and wheels stuck to the sides of it, and I thought maybe if I
wiggled one of them…