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“What’s the Clean Slate Series?” Arrow demanded. He could barely keep his voice calm. The idea that he’d been poisoned caused fear to take over his brain. All his happiness at seeing her and thinking he was rescued ran off.
She turned away from him. She was probably uncomfortable with his intense stare, but he couldn’t help it. He was scared. What the hell happened to him? Who did this? What was in his body?
She spread out the papers on the desk in a neat row then held out her talking machine. Her hands grasped the clumsy-looking metal box. Attached at the top, was a square black case. When she held the strange item up to her face, she wrapped her small fingers around the back. Her eyes stayed glued above the desk as if the answers to all her questions floated there.
“CC. Is this the formula for CS3000?” Abruptly, the device flashed again. Nova swayed as if dizzy. Now she would answer him. She had to answer him.
Arrow’s stomach started to roll due to the flashing light. His palms rubbed his eyes.
“This is not the formula for CS3000,” the machine responded. For a moment, he relaxed, maybe she was wrong and he hadn’t been injected with whatever she was talking about. “This formula is the antidote to CS2000. I calculate this formula is not finished.”
His hand went to the hole in his thigh. His thumb brushed the wound.
“Tell me what CS2000 is,” he commanded.
“This isn’t the type of news people like to get.” Nova wouldn’t look at him. She picked up a few more papers studying the notes. Arrow came closer to the bars. His hands gripped them tightly on either side of his head. Why didn’t she answer him?
“Am I going to die?” He couldn’t die. He just met Nova. His life couldn’t end until he and Nova had many long and happy years together.
“No, don’t joke.”
“Joke?” He was as far away from joking as he could get. “Just tell me, what is CS2000?”
Nova visibly swallowed. He didn’t know her, but that wasn’t a good sign when anyone did it.
“CS2000 is—” the box started to explain, but Nova pressed a button and the machine went silent.
“Why did you turn off the talking machine?” He began to prowl the tiny space at the front of the cage.
“CC will talk for over an hour about CS2000. This minicomputer is filled with information, too much, like its maker. I’ll give the short version which is enough. Honest.”
“‘Honest,’ says the woman who won’t let me out of this cage.” Arrows eyes narrowed. She wasn’t going to give him a brush off answer. He wanted to know it all. His fingers touched the damaged skin around the injection site. He was unable to accept the hole was there.
“You’re not going to die. CS2000 is part of what the H.S.P.C. calls the Clean Slate Series. This is a sequence of drugs designed to erase people’s memories. The creator had a good reason for making the first drug, but over the years there’ve been perverted versions. CS3000 is the original. The drug removes your memories for a short amount of time. For everyone, it’s a different length of time. It can help with dealing with moving underground, or for dealing with cave-ins or Snow Flu. Once the memories come back, they’re not as traumatic. CS4000 removes your memories permanently. You’ll never get them back.”
“What about CS2000.” That was the one he wanted to know about. Telling him about the others was unnecessary.
“Last is CS2000. That’s the one I’m guessing you were given.” She paused. “Remember guessing is the important word here.” She shook her head. “That drug removes your memories, but you can have them back with the antidote. Antidotes are typically created out of the drug. You have to get the remedy that matches the drug, or your brain doesn’t work right. I’ve seen the drug mess with people if given the wrong cure.” She took a breath. When she finished, she peeked up at him. “Don’t panic.”
Damn straight he would panic. He would freak out. Someone had taken his memories. She was basically saying someone stole his past.
Arrow looked down at his leg, but when Nova didn’t speak again, he glanced back at her. This woman was meant to save him so the sooner she accepted that fact, the better. Once free, she could tell him what they would do next. He believed in her one hundred percent.
“How do I get the antidote? I mean, how do I get the right cure?”
“You have to find the person who gave the original drug to you. Find them and hope they have the remedy. Once you’ve got the cure, then you get injected again. After that, everything comes back. You’ll be however you were before.”
His face fell. The only thing he knew was his name. Terror flooded him. Air was no longer filling his lungs. He choked on his own breath. He thought it was bad enough to be in a cage, but this was much worse. Up to this point, he thought his lack of memories was due to the bruises on his face. He assumed he had a head injury, not that he’d been drugged.
“What now?” He tried to keep his voice calm, but his tone had a clear sharp snap.
“I’m thinking.” Her enchanting red eyes roamed all over him. What was there to think about?
He looked at her expectantly while he waited. She would help him. He felt it in his soul.
Standing naked in a cage waiting for her to make up her mind caused anxiety to twist through his stomach.
Nova picked up a few more papers studying the notes. “Why would someone steal your memories? What do you know? Are you dangerous?”
“Why are you asking me?”
She didn’t answer and instead she frowned at the desk and talked to herself. “What would Clare do?” she mumbled. “What would Gears do? What would Luna say?”
“Nova?” He tried to get her attention. Briefly, he considered her name. He’d been calling her “angel” in his head for so long that calling her by her real name felt funny on his lips.
She kept talking to herself. “Archer would tell me not to do it. I can’t trust my intuition. I’m nuts.”
“Nova.” His voice was louder this time. Finally, her eyes jumped to his. She bit her bottom lip. He would have to make another attempt to sway her. “Nova, could you please let me out? I promise I won’t hurt you. I trust you. I’m asking for your trust in return.” It was odd she didn’t want to free him. Couldn’t she see how he would never hurt her? Couldn’t she see how cold and alone he was? He needed her in so many ways. She had to see it.
Her palm scrubbed her forehead.
“What if someone put you in there because you’re dangerous?” Her brow wrinkled. She began to move like a rubber ball bouncing back and forth. “What if the person who put you in there comes back here and finds me? That’s not going to happen because I’ve not seen anyone on the base. Never mind about that.” She paused. “But what if the person who put you in there forgot about you? What if they never come back and you starve? You dying isn’t my problem. Is this my problem? Or I might feel guilty when I get home knowing that you died because I didn’t let you out. I could get depressed.” She stopped. “I can’t deal with another bout of depression. I just got better. Then again, if I’m dead because you killed me, then I wouldn’t be depressed.” She spun on her heels. Her eyes looked at him again as if remembering he was here. “I can’t be depressed if I’m dead? But how can I live if I’m guilty?”
Arrow wanted her to speak to him, not herself. He was right here. She seemed to ignore him, so he responded. He would join her private conversation even if he wasn’t sure what she was talking about.
“They say, ‘Understanding comes with time.’” The saying was all he could think of.
“What?” She kept walking. “Who is they?”
His mouth opened, but as soon as she looked at him with those captivating red eyes, he forgot what they’d been talking about.
“I don’t know.”
“I think that’s an ad for Time magazine. I worked in archives in the basement of HQ.” Nova shook her head. “You don’t need to quote ads. Instead, we need to figure this out. This all comes down to who put you in there and why? Is anyone coming back here? Ever? Why did they steal your memories?”
It cheered him that she used the word “we.” She would help him.
“I don’t know who put me in here. And I don’t think anyone is coming to get me. I think the place is caving in around me. I can hear the crumbling sounds. I need you. Help me, Nova. You’re my only hope.”
“Ah crap-shoot, not this again.” She hugged her arms around herself. “Again, with the ‘only hope.’ Everyone is starting to sound like Star Wars’ characters.”
He wanted to tell her everything would be okay, but he didn’t want to lie. And he really didn’t know what Star Wars was.
“Can you remember who gave you the black eye?”
How was he going to explain that he didn’t know dreams from reality?
“A man with blue eyes like the ocean hit me. I don’t think he put me in here, but I believe he took my sister. I have to find my sister, Dawn. If I get out of here, I hope to find her. I remember her.”
“I doubt you’ve ever seen the ocean, so you wouldn’t know how blue it is,” Nova grumbled.
The way her eyes softened made him think she cared. He loved that she tried to help him even if she was begrudging about it. “Is that all you remember? It’s not much.”
“I can’t remember anything about how I got here or anything before waking up in this cage. All I have is strange dreams. The only thing I was sure of was that my sister needs me. I thought I knew you because you’ve come to me in my dreams.” He glared at her when she opened her mouth.
She closed her lips.
“And I have no clothes or food. If you leave, then I’ll die. I know you won’t leave me here to die, angel. You’re the only thing I have. You’re my everything.”
The silence that followed made the room seem colder somehow. There was a huge gap between them. Arrow waited for her to jump across the figurative expanse. Nova was meant to save him.
“Say something.” He reached a breaking point.
“That’s unfortunate. Me being someone’s ‘everything’ is as bad as me being someone’s ‘only hope.’”
His shoulders slumped, breaking eye contact.
“Pay attention.” She got his eyes to come back to her face. “I don’t think I’m the right person to help you. You’ll have to figure out the memory problem on your own, either that or let it go and—”
“You want me to let go of my memories?” He cut her off. “You’re crazy. Letting go of my entire past isn’t like letting go of a favorite shirt or pants.”
“I’m not crazy,” she snapped back. Her eyes blazed. “I didn’t mean ‘let it go’ like that.” Nova looked down at CC. “I’ll free you, but you go your way. I’ll leave first and go my way. I can’t help you anymore after this. Letting you out doesn’t mean I trust you. Got it?”
“Got it.” Relief washed through him.
Nova studied the metal bars that made up the door.
“How do you expect me to let you out of here without a key?” Her fingertips touched the lock. “Of course, you must have some idea, you’ve been asking me to let you out for the better part of an hour.”
Arrow inclined his head toward the door. “The keys are on the nail where you came in. I’m sure those are the keys. I pray to the Great Spirit they are.”
Nova walked behind the partially opened wooden door. On a bent nail, there was a small set of keys on a metal loop. Flipping the keys through her fingers, she studied each one.
“Which one?” She held them up.
“Try them all. I’m sure one will work.”
Nova returned to the door and began to fiddle with the keys. The second one was effective. The catch released. Her hands shook as the door swung open. Even scared, she didn’t stop. He had to give it to her. She was brave. Her whole body tensed like he might attack her at any moment. She didn’t know it yet, but he would never hurt her. Never.
Arrow swiftly stepped out of his half of the room. At last, freedom. He didn’t have his memories but he was no longer caged, and that was something.
