Thirty-Five
I leave the room of death with Seph, Trip, Clara, Vaughn, and the group of WALTERs, and head toward the elevators. Before Trip can reach out and press the call button, it dings and the doors slide open. Trip’s dad, Fredrick, steps out with two uniformed enforcement officers. Who knows where Sebastian went, but knowing him, he’s long gone by now. Always one step ahead. That jerk. “There they are. Arrest them,” Fredrick barks.
I should run. That’s my first instinct, but my feet stay solid on the ground. I’ve done enough running. Now it’s time to stand and fight. Fredrick must’ve figured out his plan A of killing us didn’t work, so now he must be moving on to plan B. (Having a backup plan is a good idea. I could learn something from him.) I square my shoulders. “Arrest us? That’s funny, coming from you.”
One of the police officers steps forward. “Hang on. What happened to all of you?” His gaze slides over all of us, most likely noting all of our visible injuries.
“What does that matter?” Fredrick glares at me, his eyes full of rage. “They’re escapees from Ironport Detention Center. Arrest them at once, and take them back to where they belong.”
The taller officer puts his hands up. His last name, Ruiz, is written above the brim of his hat. “Now let’s everyone calm down. These kids look like they need medical attention.” That part might be true, but first, we need to finish this. I glance around at the others and they look just as determined as I feel.
“Yeah, Dad. Calm down,” Trip says, and Fredrick narrows his eyes at him.
“This is your son?” the other officer, Smith, asks.
“Biologically, yes. I suppose he is.”
Ouch.
“I don’t want anything to do with you, either.” Trip stands tall. “Not after what you’ve done. Using kids for your science experiments at that prison. Controlling people with your super-computer at home. It’s disgusting.” He doesn’t let his voice waver once.
“Those are some pretty serious accusations, son.” Ruiz adjusts his utility belt. “You know what the penalties are for making false accusations, don’t you?”
“I know it isn’t as bad as what he should have coming to him.” Trip spits out.
Fredrick chuckles, like Trip attempted to tell some kind of joke but failed. A pity laugh. It’s annoying he’s playing it so cool after listening to his secrets being spilled. Secrets none of us have proof of—and that little explosion upstairs doesn’t help either—but he doesn’t have to know that, right? Except half the building is full of….
I stand up straighter. “All those WAL—”
“This will all be resolved once you scan their prints.” Fredrick talks over me. Asshole. “Then you’ll know who’s lying here.” And if they do that, it won’t matter what any of us say. Because they’ll realize we are in fact from Ironport, and they won’t listen to us anyway.
Ruiz’s partner, Smith, takes out his SOUL and walks toward Vaughn. “Press your fingers on the pad, one at a time.”
She wasn’t arrested before, so she has nothing to worry about, but it doesn’t stop her hand from trembling. And once they move on to whoever’s next, they’ll find out the truth of who we are, which means we’re basically dead.
Vaughn lets out a long breath when she finishes and the SOUL flashes green—an indication I assume means she’s clean, since Smith doesn’t immediately try to put her in restraints. Next, he holds the SOUL up to Clara. Her hand is shaking, too, but she has a reason to be afraid. Slowly, one by one she places her fingers on the screen. A light scans her print, and she repeats the steps until they’re all done.
I hold my breath and wait for it to process. Whatever happens to her will likely be my fate. A green light blinks. “She’s clean, too,” Smith says.
Seph flashes me a sly smile. What did he do? Clara looks shocked—eyes wide, mouth open. Not that the cops seem to notice. Now they’re both watching as Smith repeats the step with Seph, then Trip, and finally with me. Each time a green light comes up.
“They’re all good to go,” Smith says.
“That’s impossible.” Trip’s dad is pissed. He has no right to be. Sure, I might’ve done a few things wrong. And so might’ve Trip and Clara. But Seph’s innocent. And none of us did anything nearly as horrible as Fredrick. “Your equipment must be broken.”
“Well if it is, you should be able to fix it, seeing as these are manufactured by you, right?” Ruiz says, not hiding the sarcasm in his voice.
“We would like to corroborate the boy’s accusations,” a voice comes from behind. The WALTERs. I’d almost forgotten they were here.
Now Trip’s dad looks like he swallowed a bug, with his red face and gaping mouth. What? Did he think they were guarding us?
“You would now, would you?” Ruiz asks.
The disaster that unfolds before me is too good to look away from. Colleen is able to recount the very instant Fredrick used his program to take control of her, probably by accessing her memory feed, something either Fredrick overlooked or he was so confident he didn’t think it would ever be an issue. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s the second. Smith has to hold Trip’s dad back and restrain him from jumping at Colleen while she speaks. Talk about making himself look even more guilty than he did before. Fredrick might have a right to want total control over his inventions, but this was the wrong way to go about it.
Once the rest of the group of WALTERs agree in unison that the information Colleen provided was true, Ruiz clicks off his SOUL, as he was recording everything, and turns to Trip’s dad. “Maybe we should talk back at the station—”
“You can’t arrest me. I haven’t done anything wrong. You can’t prove anything!” Fredrick yells.
“Are you sure about that?” Vaughn steps forward, tugging the chain from her necklace, and the pendant tumbles into view. It looks like a simple heart, with a line down the middle, an L on one half and a V on the other, but seeing it now, I remember. Vaughn and I had been collecting evidence, and I made her that necklace to hide our proof. I made one for myself, too, in case anything happened to either one of us. (Hello, plan B. I guess I was smarter than I gave myself credit for.) Who knows what happened to mine. Maybe it’s back at the prison somewhere. Or destroyed. Either way, she has hers, and that’s all the proof we need.
She pulls each side of the heart and it splits in two, showing the hidden Zip Stick inside. “I think this should help with your investigation.” She hands the stick to Ruiz, who thanks her and tucks it away.
Vaughn glances at me. “There’s something else you need to know.” She pulls Ruiz to the side speaking quietly, she motions to the half of the building we found all those WALTERs, and then she points outside the window to a building in the distance. The one I found her in. The one all those people are in. Although I can’t hear exactly what she’s saying, I’m pretty sure she’s telling him about who I saw and of course, about Sebastian, too. Who knows if they’ll find him, but it’s nice to think that he’s going to need to look over his shoulder for a long while.
“This is bigger than you think,” Fredrick screams as they drag him away. “It’s not over!”
“Not for us. But it is for you,” Trip yells after him. “Dick,” he says, and I can’t help but laugh.
After that, the group of WALTERs apologizes to all of us for what happened, but it wasn’t their fault. I just hope that now, since Fredrick’s been stopped, nothing like this can ever happen again.