Before Morse can respond, an agent to his right pushes forward and removes his helmet. I stare at the guy’s youthful face in astonishment. Even when I recognize him, I can’t get out his name. Eva has to.
“Bergmann?” she says.
August Bergmann crosses his arms, helmet hanging from the tips of his fingers. “Look, Fisher. Alkine wants you back and he doesn’t care how we do it. Cooperate, and I won’t have to kick your puny little butt. You know I can do it.” My mouth hangs open. Bergmann’s not even out of training yet. He’s still probationary. “Does he know you’re here?”
Morse steps forward. “Captain Alkine allowed me to make the appropriate arrangements. I thought it would be best to bring men you were familiar with.”
Anger seethes inside me. Sure, I’m familiar with Bergmann, but not in a good way.
I watch as Agent Johnson returns from the haze, only he’s not alone. A second figure approaches beside him. As they near closer, I realize it’s Skandar.
I hear a sharp intake of breath as Eva realizes what she’s seeing, but she keeps it at that. Skandar glances over at us. He doesn’t smile. His hands are free. I don’t see any bruises or marks on his face, but his body language-his posture- seems different than usual.
Morse grabs hold of Skandar’s shoulder and pulls him forward. “You’ve got nowhere to go.” His eyes focus on mine, then he nudges Skandar in the side. “Tell him, Harris.”
Skandar grits his teeth as he looks up at me. I keep my eyes on Morse for another second before turning. “What is it?”
Skandar shrugs. “Jesse… ”
Morse prods him. “Just spit it out, okay?”
Skandar glares at him before continuing. “They brought me back to Alkine’s office after those agents captured me. I thought he was gonna be pissed. I thought maybe he’d throw me out of the Academy.”
“Go on,” Morse coaxes. “He doesn’t care what you thought.”
He shoves his hands in his pockets, looking like he wants to sink into the dirt and disappear. “Okay.” He takes a deep breath. “So instead of throwing me in the brig, he opened a file. It was… it was things they’ve been saying about you.”
My grip loosens on the handle of the pistol. “Who?”
“The Drifters,” he mutters. “All sorts of stuff. Good things, bad things. Alkine had organized it all. I don’t know… he ran it through programs or whatever it is guys like him do. And he showed me this thing… he called it ‘the fork.’”
Eva shakes her head. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Skandar’s eyes meet hers, then quickly move away. “It showed these two lines… one pointing up to the right, one to the left. The one on the right had you as some kind of savior. But the one on the left… ”
Morse’s brows furrow. “Intelligence has led us in two directions, Fisher. Direction One: You use your Pearl powers and save the world from whatever invasion is supposedly at our doorstep. Direction Two: You’re the reason for the invasion. You get out-run around here like some kind of fugitive-and something happens. Something triggers. Half of the Drifters we’ve spoken to warned us to keep you close… said that there are people-things-out here that’ll find you. It all keeps coming back to one word. Ridium. Whatever the hell that is.” He pauses. “I knew you wouldn’t hear it from me. That’s why I had to bring Harris.”
I shake my head. “Ridium.” I rub the bracelet against my thigh, then consider the pendant around the red Drifter’s neck. That makes me think about the warning scrawled on my chest. I can’t feel it anymore in this heat, but I know it’s there.
I am already here.
I close my eyes for a second and I can see the symbols-burned flesh.
Morse sighs. “Alkine wanted you safe, yeah, but he also wanted you close until he knew what we were up against. Our intelligence doesn’t jibe. It contradicts itself and trails off on tangents. Maybe it’s a problem with the translation. But the fork… we’ve got two overriding roads here, and we can’t ignore either one of them.”
My grip tightens on the handle of the pistol. “He should’ve told me. Why didn’t he tell me?”
“How are you supposed to explain something like that?” Morse takes a step forward. “How are you supposed to tell a kid that he might be responsible for the invasion of an entire planet?”
Avery moves to my side. “You don’t know anything for sure.”
“That’s right,” Morse continues. “And the worst thing you can do is lash out when you don’t know the facts. We don’t know, Jesse. And until we do, you’ve gotta stay with us. You might call it a prison, but that’s not what it is. The Academy is our base of operations. Gallivanting around in the Fringes? It’s getting you nowhere.”
“So he lied to me,” I say. “Again.”
“If Alkine would have told you the truth, you’d have gone running off like you always do.”
“Yeah?” I glare at him. “Well, I ran off anyway, didn’t I?”
Cassius brings down his fist, but keeps the pistol aimed on Morse. “I don’t like this. These guys will say anything to get you back.”
I meet Skandar’s eyes, analyze his expression. It’s not the Skandar I’m used to. He doesn’t give me any secret wink or smile to show that he’s lying. He barely looks at me at all. He wouldn’t play along with this if he didn’t believe it was true. Whatever Alkine showed him, it convinced him somehow.
Morse clears his throat. The dryness of the air is getting to him. “Come back with us, Jesse. We’re family. We’re doing what we can.”
I swallow a mouthful of thick atmosphere. “I… ”
A voice comes from behind me, breaking my concentration. I glance over my shoulder to see Theo limping toward us, head low and arms at his sides. “What the hell is this?” he coughs. It nearly sends him tripping into the dirt, but he catches himself, keeping a slow pace toward the center of our standstill. Sweat drips from his hair. His shirt is torn in at least three places. Even more than normal, he looks like an animal.
I hear the cock of weapons behind me as every Academy pistol locks onto the boy.
Theo continues to approach. His right foot drags along the dirt. He coughs into his arm again, then pulls the sticky hair from his face. “Leave me in there like you thought I was dead,” he continues. “Like you wanted me to die.” He stares at the ground as he mumbles. I can barely see his face.
Avery moves to let him pass. He stops several feet behind me.
Morse motions for the other agents to hold their fire. “It’s just a kid.”
Theo cackles under his breath, which only elicits more coughing. I picture his body laying against the wall, still.
Morse frowns. “This a Fringer you picked up, Fisher?”
I shake my head.
Theo takes a deep breath. “You’re freaking useless. All of you.” He coughs again. “Jeez, I feel like I’m about to puke.”
He raises his head and stares at us all for the first time. Avery gasps. I take a step back from the shock of it.
Theo’s eyes glow a bright red-a glow that matches the energy from the red Drifter. Gone are the pupils and whites. It’s pure light, like someone carved out his eyes and replaced them with tiny generators.
Sweat pools on his face. His legs shake beneath him.
The agents raise their weapons again. Morse shouts. “What’s wrong with him?”
Cassius puts more distance between himself and the boy. “I don’t know.”
Theo smiles. “Did you morons do something to me when I wasn’t looking?”
Bergmann nudges Morse’s shoulder. “Shoot and ask questions later. That’s what I say.”
Theo stretches his right hand into the air, waving it in slow ripples like he can barely keep it up. “I feel like I swallowed a Pearl.”
Morse tightens his finger against the trigger. “You gonna tell me who this kid is, Fisher, or am I gonna have to shoot?”
I grit my teeth.
Theo’s lips curl into a wide smile and his hand drops to his side. Despite my better judgment, I lean in closer to get a look at him.
Then come the sounds, like enormous daggers slicing through the air.
