Chapter Forty-Five

September 20X6, Stanford

I whip around as Kyran raises his gun and aims it at my mom’s head.

My lungs seize, my heart rate accelerating and hammering in my ears as everything I just found slips through my fingers.

“Don’t shoot.” Mom gasps and leaps in front of me. Hugging me to her back, she tries to become my human shield, but I wedge myself in front of her.

I just found her; there’s no way I’m losing her now.

“I won’t as long as you do what I say.” Kyran motions Dr. Nasif—my mom—so weird—forward with his gun.

She steps out from behind me, silently telling me with a glance she’s going to go.

I don’t want her to, but neither of us are armed and I don’t have a better plan. I nod my acceptance, trusting my overwhelming instinct that an opportunity to escape will present itself.

As soon as she’s within reach, Kyran grabs my mom by the hair and holds the gun to her head. “Come with me or she’s done.”

“Save yourself, Ella— Don’t worry about me.” She flinches and spots flash before my eyes to see her in pain. There’s no way I would ever leave her.

I clench my fists and slowly approach them. “I just found you.” To my surprise, my heart rate slows as I inch forward and my sinuses clear. A strange confidence overtakes me. “I’m not letting you go. Besides, I’m the reason for this mess and I’m going to clean it up. Lead the way, Kyran.”

He snatches my wrist and clamps a handcuff around it before cuffing himself to me. “It’s biometric so don’t bother trying to pick the lock.” He glares at me. “Only President Madden can unlock it.”

I shrug my indifference.

He feigns a smile and hands me a flashlight. “Hold this.” Keeping the gun trained on my mom’s head, he pushes her forward so she’s walking in front of us, while yanking on my cuffed arm and dragging me down the tunnel, back the way we came.

I stumble but catch myself.

“How’d you find us anyway?” I lift my chin as we squeeze past the pipe running down the center of the tube.

“What? You think you’re the only ones who knows about these tunnels?” Kyran snorts. “Madden’s drones have thermal imaging cameras that can detect objects underground. You weren’t hard to find.”

Heat flushes through me and my stomach muscles tense. “What happened to you, Kyran?” I ask, my nostrils flaring. “You used to be one of us.”

His normally golden skin is sallow in the shadows cast from the dangling lightbulbs and a vein pops out in his clammy forehead. “Keystone was boring.” His voice is flat. “I was always going to be second to your boyfriend—and do you really think anybody cares about real history? It was a waste of time. The real power is with President Madden, with rhetoric. A couple of rogue Disconnects aren’t going to change that. The world supports her. People want the Super Brain.”

“People want food, shelter, comfort, and the ability to do what they love with those they love. They don’t want the Super Brain,” Mom snaps. “They don’t want to be told what they love or who to be. What they need is to know their wildest dreams are possible in this reality. That they, themselves, are possible.”

“Shut up.” Kyran kicks her hard in the back and she doubles over.

“Watch it,” I yell, landing my elbow in his side, my instincts reacting before I can think about consequences.

Still keeping the gun trained at my mom, he yanks my cuffed hand behind my back, wrenching my shoulder. Fire shoots up my arm and, my muscles convulsing, I shove him with my free hand.

Unfortunately, he doesn’t budge. He lowers his face to mine. “Keep moving. President Madden gave strict orders to bring you to her and trust me, you don’t want to keep her waiting. She’s impatient to get the Super Brain up and running now that we have one of the missing components.”

“How do you know about me?” I gasp as he releases my arm.

“I stole your brain scans from Professor Allard and gave them to President Madden in the first place.” He pushes us all forward down the path. “You two thought you were so secretive, meeting in the Vault. I was hiding down there one day and overheard you. Madden wanted more information on your brain, then, so she had me steal your Book of Secrets from Crystal. She thought you were key, somehow, to the quantum computing to make the Super Brain work. We didn’t know about Garrett, though, until today.”

“How did you find out about him?” Mom’s voice hitches, betraying her fear.

“I’m not the only one loyal to President Madden.” He shrugs. “Chloe and Dr. Schilling transmitted all of the scans from your little experiment this morning to her.”

Despite the oppressive heat, my skin goes cold.

“The scans aren’t enough, though,” he says, shoving my mom right into a different, wider tunnel than we took earlier. “They may prove free will exists, but to truly understand how it works we need you. And Garrett. Any idea where he is?” He cocks his head to the side. “He was smart enough to stay out of the tunnels, so we’re having a little trouble finding him.”

“Do you really think I’d tell you if I did?” I narrow my eyes.

A smile plays on Kyran’s lips. “I’d make you tell me.”

I shudder.

We arrive at a ladder. Kyran releases my mom and points the gun at my head. “If you run, she’s dead,” he tells my mom, keeping his gaze trained on me. “Now climb.”

“She’s no good to you dead,” Mom says over her shoulder as she scales the ladder. “But I have no intention of leaving her.”

“Good idea.” Kyran forces me up the rungs, my right arm dangling, bound to him, as he follows me. Above me, Mom pushes open a metal grate. Dewy pink light rushes in on a blast of cool, fresh air and hands reach down, grabbing her and tugging her to the surface.

When I’m far enough up the ladder that I’m at eye level with the cement ground, the hands come for me, too. I emerge in a courtyard and am met with a chorus of cocking guns. The blood drains from my flushed cheeks and I squint, my eyes adjusting to the bright sky as men clad in black suits shove me forward with Kyran—who is still attached to me—trailing along behind us.

The crisp morning air sobers me and my head clears. I feel oddly like I did in my mom’s simulation, like my fear and doubt receptors are still repressed.

I tilt my chin to the clouds, my heart throbbing in my throat, and speak to my escorts all at once. “I hope you’re taking me straight to President Madden. I’m dying to meet her.”