فصل 31

Chapter 31: Jade Dragon

The only thing Taylor remembered about being captured at the night market was seeing Tara, her twin sister. For a second she thought she was looking at her own reflection in a mirror until Tara squinted, and paralyzing horror filled her so completely that she collapsed. Then someone powerful, someone she never saw except for the black material of their shirtsleeve, held a cloth over her nose and mouth. When she woke she was lying on the floor of a dim concrete cell, wearing different clothes, her head throbbing. She was wearing a RESAT, but it didn’t seem to be on. The whole situation was like a nightmare except she wasn’t asleep. Where am I?

As she lay there, something moved in the shadows on the opposite side of the room. It took her a moment to realize that it was a child. What is a child doing in my cell? Then the thought came to her—the girl was Jade Dragon. She looked even younger than nine years old. Her black hair was cut in bangs, cropped short above eyes that were so dark her pupils were invisible. She had full, pouty lips and her nose was slightly turned up.

Taylor stood, steadied herself against the wall, then slowly walked over to her. The little girl watched her curiously, but avoided eye contact.

Taylor crouched down in front of the child so they were about the same height. “You’re very pretty,” she said.

The girl said nothing.

“You should meet my friend McKenna. She looks like you.”

The girl stood as still as a statue.

“You can’t hear me, can you? Can you read my lips?” She thought of what Chinese she had picked up in the few days she’d been in Taiwan. “Ni hau.” The child looked at her and blinked. Taylor walked closer and reached out her hand. “I heard your name in Chinese. I think it’s Yoo Loong.” The girl stared curiously at Taylor’s glowing skin. “It’s okay. It won’t hurt you.” The girl reached out and touched her, then retracted her hand. Taylor nodded. “It’s okay. You can touch me. I came to help you.” Taylor moved forward and started to put her arms around the girl, but Jade Dragon stiffened and groaned.

Taylor immediately released her. “I’m sorry. You don’t like that.” She tried to remember what she knew about autism. For several weeks they had studied autism in her health class. She remembered learning that some autistic children were hypersensitive to touch.

“I’m sorry,” Taylor said. “This whole thing must be so awful for you.” The little girl looked at her for a moment, then, to Taylor’s surprise, stepped forward and touched Taylor’s arm again. This time she grabbed on to it and something peculiar happened. Taylor was drawn into the girl’s mind, as if the girl had hijacked her power. It was unlike anything she had experienced before. She couldn’t understand the Chinese words in the child’s head but she could understand the meanings and feelings that accompanied the language. It was the difference between the letters A-P-P-L-E, and biting into the crisp, red fruit. She was communicating better than she ever had before, understanding without words—something Taylor had not even known was possible.

She now knew, without a doubt, that this was the child they called Jade Dragon. She was inside the child’s brain, a participant of her past and present, in a way she’d never experienced with anyone before. Usually when she read someone’s mind she caught glimpses of their thoughts—language and symbols appearing in her brain like text messages. But now she felt as if she were standing in the middle of a theater and seeing the child’s thoughts and memories on screens around her. Was it the autism? Or was it the power of the child’s mind?

She could see the Elgen guards, the Lung Li, dressed all in black, grabbing Jade Dragon, taking her from her home accompanied by feelings of fear and confusion and curiosity. She saw her parents on the ground. Motionless. She could feel the prick as the Lung Li put a needle into her arm, then the mind-numbing drug spreading through her body as everything went dark. She could see, on another screen, thoughts poured out in numbers.

Suddenly math problems she hadn’t understood made sense. Except now they weren’t just numbers and equations, they were patterns and colors. Calculus, geometry, and trigonometry were easy to understand, simple as a game, like shooting balls at a basketball hoop that was a hundred feet wide. Then a specific sequence of numbers, letters, and symbols started running through her mind.

Images

She almost said the equation when a powerful thought came over her not to speak it out loud—that she must not ever divulge it. Somehow she knew that what she was receiving was something of great importance, even if she had no idea what it meant.

Images

Taylor looked at the girl. “Are you trying to tell me something?” The child just stared at her. She saw a glimpse again of the Elgen soldiers, then suddenly all the screens turned to white and the girl’s thoughts flashed into blinding fear. Anger and fear. Then Taylor left Jade Dragon’s mind, or, more accurately, Jade Dragon let go of her.

“What’s happening?” Taylor asked.

The girl was looking over Taylor’s shoulder. Taylor turned back to see what she was looking at, but saw nothing. Then she heard the hiss and click of a pneumatic lock. The cell door swung open and a Caucasian Elgen captain dressed in black and purple walked in flanked by two other guards. All the men wore mindwave helmets. How did she know they were coming? Taylor thought.

“It’s good to see you again, Ms. Ridley.”

“I don’t know you,” Taylor said.

“You don’t remember me from Idaho?”

“You’re an Elgen. That’s all I need to know.”

“You make that sound so . . . repulsive.”

“It is.”

The captain smiled darkly. “If you want repulsive, you should see feeding time in the bowl. Especially when the meal is human flesh.” “I’ve heard about it.”

“Hearing and seeing are not the same thing. Until you actually see someone fed to the rats, you can’t fathom the horror of thousands of tiny pointed teeth tearing the flesh away from live muscle, muscle away from bone, the little beasts seeking the tender meat inside, burrowing under skin.” Taylor turned white.

“What I find most remarkable about the human feedings is the perseverance of the human body. You’d be surprised at how long people actually stay alive while it happens. Sometimes we make bets on it. Of course, lowering our victims feetfirst into the bowl does make a difference. It adds at least a full twenty seconds to the misery.” Taylor felt as if she might throw up.

“Do you believe in reincarnation?”

“No.”

“You should.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small brown biscuit. “Have you ever seen one of these?” Taylor shook her head.

“They’re called Rabisk. Along with fresh meat, it’s the primary food we feed our rats. These tasty little biscuits are made from the bodies of the dead rats we collect from the bowl. So follow me here: Our enemies are eaten by the rats; the rats eventually die and are made into Rabisk, which are then again fed to the rats; the rats die and are again made into Rabisk. So, if you think about it, our enemies are fed to the rats over and over and over again. It’s reincarnation. They’ll spend all eternity as rat food. It’s a horrific thought, isn’t it?” “You’re sick,” Taylor said. “All of you.”

The man smiled. “I shouldn’t waste your time telling you about it. You have so little time left before you experience it yourself.” “I don’t want to see it,” Taylor said.

“You won’t just see it,” he said. “You’re going to feel it. Smell it. You’re going to hear the high-pitched shrieks of ten thousand ravenous rats as they swarm over your body like bees on honeycomb, seeking the moist meat under your skin.” Taylor froze. “Yes, dear. We’re going to feed you to them. Both of you.” Taylor’s knees gave out and she fell to the concrete floor.

“Good. I see you’re finally comprehending the predicament you’re in.” Jade Dragon walked over and knelt down next to her. When Taylor could speak she said, “Please, no.” He threw the biscuit on the floor next to her. It broke into several pieces. “Whether you’re an eternal rat meal or not is completely up to you. There’s only one way you can spare yourself that fate. You do this one thing and I’ll escort you out of here myself, with the child, and put you on a plane home.” “What do you want?”

“We need a scientific formula that’s in this little girl’s head. You get the girl to give you the formula and we let you go.” He put out his hand and one of the guards handed him a pad of paper and a pen. “We don’t care how she gives it to us. Just write it down here.” “I’m not a scientist. How would I know what the formula is?”

“We’ll know,” he said. “And so does she. She just needs to dictate it to you. So if I were you, I’d keep chumming up to this little genius until she spills her secrets. Because you’ve got eighteen hours until feeding time.” “My friends will rescue me before then.”

The other two guards who had stood quietly at attention suddenly laughed. The captain smiled, then said, “Sorry, you’re not in on the joke. The question is, who’s going to rescue them?” He threw the pad and pen to her. “Get the formula, write it down. Or spend eternity as Rabisk.” He spun on his heels, and he and his guards left the room, the heavy, metal door slamming shut behind them. Taylor looked down at the pad, then back at Jade Dragon. The formula was still in her head. All she needed to do was write it down. She might save her own life, but she would doom the lives of thousands of others. Taylor’s eyes filled with tears. “We’ll get out of here. I don’t know how, but we will.” She turned away and wiped her eyes. When she looked back, Michael was standing where Jade Dragon had been. “Michael . . .” She stood. “How did you get in here? Where’s Jade Dragon?” Michael just looked at her.

“Never mind, I don’t care how you got here.” She threw her arms around him. He stiffened, squirming beneath her embrace. “Michael, what’s wrong?” She stepped back. It wasn’t Michael in her arms, it was Dr. Hatch. She screamed as she fell back. Hatch started laughing.

The pneumatic door lock again hissed and clicked; then the door opened. Tara walked into the room.

“Hello again, Sis.”

“Tara.” She turned back to see Jade Dragon standing against the wall where Hatch had just been. “What are you doing?” Tara smiled. “I was just having a little fun. Like my new trick?” “You’re psychotic,” Taylor said.

Tara smiled. “Now, Sis, don’t be so judgmental.” She turned into Taylor’s mom. “I mean, you’re the one having delusions.” “Stop it!” Taylor shouted.

Tara laughed as she changed back to herself. “Have you figured it out yet, Sis?” “Figured what out?”

“That you’re on the losing team. While you were destroying one Starxource plant, we built five more.” She stepped toward Taylor, and Jade Dragon looked curiously back and forth at the girls’ identical faces. “And soon you won’t be special. There will be thousands of people with powers just like yours.” “And yours,” Taylor said.

“Real power comes from position,” she said. “That’s what I have. Someday we’re going to run this place.” “Real power comes from someplace else,” Taylor said.

Tara smiled. “What are you going to say next, that power comes from the heart?” “And mind,” Taylor said, rebooting her sister. While Tara was still confused, Taylor lunged at her, pushing her up against the wall. Then they both fell to the floor, wrestling.

A voice came over the cell audio system. “Occupants of Cell 19, stop your fighting immediately.” The voice was followed by a loud, high-pitched squeal, and Taylor suddenly screamed as she fell back from Tara. Her RESAT was squealing and the lights were flashing in rapid succession.

“It’s too much!” Taylor shouted. “Stop! Stop!”

Tara stood, wiping her face. There was blood on her hand.

“You made me bleed.”

Taylor was writhing in pain. “Tell them to stop.”

“Yeah, I’m going to do that,” she said. “I can’t believe we came from the same egg.” She crouched down next to her. “They will feed you to the rats. I’ve seen them do it. So you’d better grow a brain and get them the information they want.” She walked to the door. “I told you, Sis. You can’t win.” She walked out of the cell, leaving Taylor screaming in pain.