The Individuality Gene Page 7

  Jonn raises an eyebrow.

  “Why not?”

  “Think about it. We blackmailed the council into letting us pursue Avalon. Once she’s in their possession, we will lose all access to her. We should interrogate her while we still can.”

  “Why?”

  I could think of a million reasons why getting answers from Avalon would be a good thing, but none of them even come close to competing with Kara’s.

  “We still don’t know why Will is unable to return to his time, and Avalon is the most likely candidate to help us answer that question.”

  I hadn’t thought of that.

  “You’re right,” admits Jonn. “I also have a few questions I would like to ask her.”

  He slaps Avalon. Hard.

  She awakes with a yelp. Her eyes dart around the room and land on Jonn. She struggles for a moment before growing still.

  “Where am I? What do you want from me?”

  “We’re the one asking the questions,” says Jonn, slapping her again.

  She glares at him, but then the anger gives way to fear, and she once again tries to break free.

  “Let me go,” she demands. When that fails, she tries begging. When that also miscarries, she falls silent.

  “That’s better,” says Jonn. “Now, this is how it’s going to work. I’ll ask you questions, and you’ll answer. Remain quiet if you understand.”

  Avalon says nothing.

  “Very well. Let’s start with something simple. What’s your name?”

  “Ork.”

  Jonn raises his fist in warning.

  “Don’t lie or you’ll regret it. Now, let’s try this again. What’s your name?”

  “My name is O—”

  Jonn slaps her before she can finish.

  “Stop lying! Your name is Avalon.”

  “My name is Ork.”

  Jonn tries to slap her again, but Kara interrupts him mid-gesture.

  “Can I try something?”

  Jonn hesitates, then nods and steps aside.

  Kara gives Avalon a tentative smile.

  “I believe you, but if you’re not Avalon, then why did you try killing that child?”

  Avalon remains frozen for a second, then her left eye twitches and her expression changes. It goes from annoyed to angry.

  “The child is evil,” she snarls. “It must die. IT MUST DIE!”

  She thrashes and screams, spewing incoherent babble between bouts of insults and fatalism. The behaviour is so unlike her I can’t help wondering whether or not we have the right person.

  “Is it possible this isn’t Avalon?” I ask, but the screams are so powerful they drown out my question.

  “What did you say?” asks Kara. At least, I think that’s what she says, but I can’t be sure because I have to resort to reading her lips.

  “ARE WE SURE THIS IS AVALON?” I yell, but once again my question goes unheard.

  “WHAT?”

  We go back and forth like this for a while before Jonn throws a powerful punch. Avalon falls silent and goes limp.

  “What did you do that for?” asks Kara.

  “What?” says Jonn. “She wouldn’t shut up.”

  Kara rolls her eyes and turns to me.

  “What were you saying?”

  “I was wondering if it’s possible this man isn’t Avalon.”

  “Of course it’s her,” says Jonn.

  “I’m not so sure,” says Kara.

  “Why not?”

  “I noticed something earlier, but I didn’t realize what it was until now.” She grabs the back of Avalon’s shirt and pulls. I stare at her exposed neck and find a strange device attached to it. It’s a plain metal disc with four protruding legs. The metallic appendages are buried deep within her flesh, keeping the strange contraption in place.

  “Drowned!” gasps Jonn as the sight of it.

  “What is that thing?” I ask.

  “It’s a mind jacker,” says Kara.

  The name sounds familiar, but it takes me a while to figure out why.

  Avalon used a mind jacker to control Kara’s uncle, forcing him to betray his loved ones. At least, that’s what he claimed. In truth, he was evil and had been working with Avalon all along. And now he’s dead.

  I focus on the mind jacker, unsure what to make of it.

  “What does this mean?” I ask.

  “It means,” says Jonn, “this isn’t Avalon.”

  A heavy silence settles upon us. I should be devastated, but the truth is I’m not. We may have failed to capture Avalon, but we still saved the woman and her unborn child. As an added bonus, I now understand why my ring’s proximity alarm didn’t go off. The only downside is that, with Avalon still on the loose, Kara and I must remain mere friends.

  “What now?” I ask.

  “We do what we set out to do,” says Jonn. “We take down Avalon.”

  “How? We don’t even know where she is.”

  “Use the holo tracker.”

  Right. I forgot about that.

  “Will it work?” asks Kara. “The last time we tried using it it led us to Will’s older self.”

  “There’s only one way to find out,” says Jonn.

  I activate the tracker, but there’s no sign of Avalon.

  “She’s gone.”

  “For all we know,” says Jonn, “she was never here at all.”

  “She had to be here at some point,” says Kara. “The mind jacker is proof of it.”

  She’s right, but it doesn’t exactly help.

  “What now?” I ask again.

  “We activate the tracker and open a portal. It will take us to whatever time Avalon travelled to last.”

  “What about the child?” I ask. “Won’t he still be in danger?”

  Kara shakes her head. “Avalon never tries the same thing twice. Now that we’ve ruined her plans for this time, she will move on and start over.”

  “In that case,” I say. “We should get going.”

  My friends nod.

  “What should we do with him?” I ask, nodding to the unconscious man.

  “We should kill him,” says Jonn.

  “What? We can’t just…” I begin, but my voice trails off when I realize Jonn is smiling.

  Did he just make a joke?

  I stare at Kara, who shakes her head in a disapproving manner.

  Clearly, there are still aspects of Jonn’s personality I’m unaware of. As impossible as it seems, he may actually have a sense of humour.

  “We need to remove the mind jacker,” says Kara. She inspects the device and touches it in various areas, but it remains firmly affixed.

  “Let me do it,” says Jonn. He shoves Kara aside and grabs hold of the mind jacker, but no amount of brute force will pry it loose.

  “That won’t work,” says Kara. “We need specialized tools.”

  Jonn scoffs.

  “This is the only tool I’ve ever needed,” he says, unsheathing his knife, “and I’ll be drowned if I come across an obstacle it can’t overcome.”

  “What are you…” begins Kara, but her voice trails off when Jonn plunges the knife into Ork’s neck. For a brief moment, I think he’s dead, but then I see sparks fly out of the mind jacker, and I realize the grey-haired soldier merely stabbed it. I watch, stunned, as the metallic legs retreat and the now inoffensive device falls away.

  “What the drowned?” swears Kara as she rushes forward. “You could have killed him.”

  “Relax. He’s fine.”

  Sure enough, Ork is unharmed.

  “What will happen to him?” I ask.

  “He’s no longer under Avalon’s control,” says Kara. “He should no longer be a threat.”

  “Will he be all right if we release him?” I ask R’ha. He’s been standing near the door ever since we got here, quietly observing the events unfold.

  He nods.

  The worst thing that could happen is the drones will scan him and detect he’s running low on the compliance
drug, in which case they will inject him, and he will go back to being compliant and docile.

  All right. That’s one less thing to worry about. Now, all we need to do is find Avalon and take her down. But first, we must thank our friend for the role he played in protecting the past.

  “Thank you,” I say. “For everything. I know you probably have many questions, but it’s safer for everyone if you remain in the dark.”

  I understand, says R’ha. He may not be the most energetic being I’ve met, but I’ll miss him. I’m debating whether or not to give him a hug when there’s a knock at the door.

  We freeze, unsure how to react. We stare at one another, but no one has any clue who could be visiting us at such an early hour. It’s not like we know anyone in this time.

  “What should we do?” I ask.

  My friends shrug.

  “Should we answer?”

  Another shrug.

  I take a step toward the door, but a digitized voice fills the air before I can reach it.

  “Give up!” it says. “You’re surrounded!”

  It’s the drones. They found us.

  Memory 14

  M y friends and I stare at one another, unsure how to react.

  “How did they find us?” I ask.

  “Does it matter?” wonders Jonn.

  “What should we do?”

  “I’ll tell you what we shouldn’t do. Answer the door.”

  No duh!

  “Now would be a good time to open a portal,” says Kara.

  Now, that’s a good idea.

  “Open the door!” commands a digitized voice from outside.

  “Hurry up,” urges Jonn.

  I ignore him and turn to R’ha.

  “Will you be all right?” I ask.

  He nods.

  The drones won’t hurt me unless I attack them. It’s in their programming.

  That’s all I needed to hear.

  “Thanks for everything,” I say.

  I reach for my ring, but only make it halfway before an explosion of sound and wood fragments sends me flying across the room. I hit the wall and crumble into a heap.

  The next few moments are a blur. I sense someone—or something—tug on my leg. I scramble away from it, but the thing grabs hold of me and picks me up. I struggle to break free, but my captor is too powerful. I try to focus on the large shape that carries me, but my vision is blurry with tears and dust particles. I continue my futile struggle for a while before finally giving up.

  I’m carried to another room and set down. A blurry face appears before me, but I can’t quite make it out. There’s something familiar about it, but it’s not until I bat my eyelids a dozen times that I manage to make out Kara’s face.

  The sight of her is soothing, but the fact that I can’t understand a word she says worries me. For a brief moment I fear I’ve lost my strange ability to comprehend foreign languages, but I soon discover I hear nothing at all.

  I’m deaf. I should be worried, but the truth is I’m too confused to care. I look around and find Jonn standing over us. His mouth is moving, but I can’t hear a word he’s saying. I continue my examination and determine we’re inside the bedroom. I keep looking, hoping to find R’ha, but there’s no sign of him. Ork is also missing.

  It takes a while, but my hearing finally returns.

  “Are you all right?” asks Kara.

  I nod.

  “I think so. What happened?”

  “The drones blasted through the doors,” says Jonn.

  That explains the explosion.

  “What happened to R’ha?”

  “He’s still out there.”

  “We have to help him.” I try to stand, but my legs are too weak to support me.

  “He’ll be fine. We need to get out of here before the drones find us. Open a portal.”

  I shake my head.

  “I’m not leaving until I know R’ha is safe.”

  Jonn glares at me, but I ignore him.

  I pry myself off the floor and, leaning against the wall, shuffle toward the door. I ease it open and press my eye to the slit.

  The house’s main living area is a mess. The front door is gone. So are the windows. Wood, glass, and various other debris riddles the floor. R’ha stands in the corner of the room, alive but dazed. Ork is strapped to the only remaining chair. Scattered throughout the room are a half dozen drones. Most are in passive mode, but two have metallic tentacles protruding from their spherical frames. They hover on either side of the unconscious human, ready to restrain him at the slightest sign of danger. But the poor man remains oblivious to his surroundings. He doesn’t even budge when one of the drones scans him.

  I hold my breath, praying for the light to turn yellow.

  It doesn’t. Nor does it turn orange.

  The light is red.

  Oh, no!

  I don’t know why, but the man has no traces of the compliance drug in his system. Perhaps the mind jacker somehow counteracted the drug. Perhaps he’s immune. Either way, he’s going to die.

  I watch, frozen in horror, as a gun-tipped tentacle emerges from the drone’s spherical frame. I would probably remain this way if not for the fact that Kara tries to sneak past me in a foolish attempt at saving the condemned man. While admirable, her actions are foolish. Desperate to protect her, I do something that’s even more thoughtless.

  I shove Kara aside, yank the door open and burst into the adjacent room.

  “WAIT!” I yell, but it’s already too late.

  The gun bucks, and a blast of energy erupts from the barrel. It speeds through the air and slams into the unconscious man’s chest.

  He doesn’t cry out. He doesn’t even wake. He merely dies, unaware that his life has come to an end.

  I remain frozen for a moment before the thoughtlessness of my actions dawns on me. Not only did I fail to save Ork, but I now put myself in jeopardy. The drones will scan me and find no traces of the drug in my system. And, when they do, I will meet the same fate as the man I so foolishly tried to save.

  Memory 15

  I ’m going to die. I should be surprised, but I always knew this was how it would end. I dreamed of my death the day this insane adventure started. I always thought a dagger would be the weapon of choice, but the truth is that dreams are often symbolic. Death by any means is still the cessation of life. Who cares what weapon is used?

  I remain frozen as the drones converge toward me. Instinct tells me to run, but I refuse to lead them to my friends. I stand my ground. The robots surround me, wrapping their metallic tentacles around my limbs. I don’t react. I watch as one of them floats toward me. A hole appears in its chest, and a white light emerges. It travels up and down my frame, scanning me for traces of the compliance drug. Unsurprisingly, it finds none, and the light turns red.

  My fate has been sealed.

  The peace that once inhabited me is gone. In its place now stand fear and desperation. I try to break free, but the drones are too powerful. I keep struggling until my strength leaves me, and I’m forced to accept the inevitability of my fate.

  I’m going to die. Strangely, the thought doesn’t scare me. As long as my friends are safe, my death matters little. My only regret is that I never got to meet my parents. But that will change once I cross over. I’m not religious, but I believe in the afterlife. I’m also convinced my loved ones, both known and unknown, will be waiting for me with open arms.

  Death no longer scares me. I close my eyes and wait for the end. Time stretches on, immeasurable. I expect to feel the white-hot pain of death, but it never comes. It’s not until the sound of ripping metal reaches my ears and a blast of hot air slams into me that I open my eyes.

  The drone floats before me, immobile. A gaping hole has appeared in its spherical frame. Wires and circuits are visible through the shower of sparks that erupt from the wound. The strange display lasts a few seconds before the robot’s energy supply runs out and it plummets.

  All is still. All i
s silent. It’s not until I notice R’ha standing in the corner of the room that I realize he was the one who saved me. We stare at one another. No words are spoken, but I can tell he grasps the intensity of my gratitude.

  On my signal, he says, drop to the ground.

  I nod.

  Nothing happens for a while, but then the robots release me and converge toward R’ha.

  NOW! he silently yells.

  I drop just as a blast of energy speeds toward me. I avoid it by mere centimetres. The ground rushes up to meet me and knocks the air from my lungs, but it’s a small price to pay for being alive.

  The next few moments are a blur. I catch glimpses of R’ha blasting the robots with energy spheres. I’m not sure how he does it, yet I’m grateful for every blast of yellow energy that blossoms from his right palm. But I lose all track of him when he vanishes in a shimmer of vibrating scales. The drones try to locate him, but R’ha moves too quickly for them. He scurries around the room, firing every few seconds. Two more robots are destroyed before their compatriots decide to organize a counterstrike.

  Instead of trying to locate the shimmering alien, the drones start spinning. Blasts of energy erupt from the rotating spheres and randomly slam into exposed surfaces. The walls. The ceiling. The floor. It’s only a matter of time before I’m hit. And when that happens—

  A blast of energy emerges from my left and slams into one of the drones. It stops spinning and drops to the floor. Only two remain. Another goes down when the other drone accidentally shoots it. The damage sustained is minimal, but the sphere plummets and stops moving.

  One left.

  I expect the drone to keep shooting, but it turns and flees. It makes it halfway to the door before a blast of energy takes it out. It drops and, after bouncing twice, rolls out the front door and vanishes.

  A heavy silence fills the room. Debris and drone carcasses litter the floor. The walls have been reduced to a chewed up mess of stones and wood. There are dozens of holes in the ceiling, but only one is massive enough for me to make out the starry night sky that lies beyond. I even catch a glimpse of the moon. It would be beautiful if not for the fact that I nearly died.

  I scan the room in search of my saviour, but the air is thick with dust, and locating a shimmer among the wreckage is impossible.