فصل 16

Chapter 16: I Sold You and You Sold Me

The two Elgen guards stationed outside the brig’s entrance stood at attention as Quentin, Torstyn, and Tara approached.

“Admiral-General, sir,” they said in unison, sharply saluting. The guards didn’t know it was Quentin they were saluting, as Tara was using her powers to make him appear as Hatch.

“Open the door,” Quentin said.

“Yes, Admiral-General,” the first guard said. He ran an electric key over the pad and the lock clicked. The other guard opened the door.

“Do not let me be disturbed,” Quentin said. “Do you understand me?” “Yes, Admiral-General.”

“These are sensitive matters. Level C10. I want complete privacy. If I am disturbed, there will be consequences. Do you understand?” “Yes, Admiral-General.”

Quentin and Tara stepped in through the door, leaving Torstyn alone with the guards in the hallway. Tara pulled the door shut behind them. Before coming down to the cell, Quentin and Tara had gone up to the ship’s bridge and taken out the brig cameras. Still, Quentin glanced up to the cameras again just to be sure they were dead. Then he looked at Welch sitting on the floor of the small cell. He had been there for less than twenty-four hours, yet he already looked haggard and defeated.

“Stand up!” Quentin shouted at Welch.

Welch quickly climbed to his feet. Like the guards outside the brig, he also believed Quentin was Dr. Hatch. “Jim,” Welch said. “Can we talk about this?” “Don’t ever speak that name,” Quentin said. “Jim Hatch no longer exists.” Welch lowered his head. “My apologies, Admiral-General,” he said weakly. “Please don’t do this.” “Quit sniveling,” Quentin said. “It’s unbecoming of an Elgen guard, especially an EGG.” “Yes, sir. I thought you had already left for Jakarta.” “My plans have temporarily changed,” Quentin said, taking a few steps closer, his eyes locked on the prisoner. “Because of you.” Welch just stared at him.

“I’m in a quandary, Welch. A quandary. You were my first. My most trusted. You have been with me since the beginning.” “Yes, sir.”

“Which is why you understand better than anyone else why mercy is not an acceptable strategy. To show mercy is to allow weakness. And to allow weakness is to promote more weakness. As soon as people think I’m getting soft, they’ll start testing the waters. Then the trust of my army is like water in my hands.” He took a deep breath. “But still . . . there might be a way around this.” “Sir?” Welch said.

“Don’t get too excited,” Quentin said. “It involves a choice on your part. Perhaps a difficult one.” “Please, sir. Whatever you ask.”

“You were in charge of Operation Jade Dragon. But you were not alone in this assignment. You and the electric youths were in charge. And Quentin is in charge of the youths. For reasons I’ve already explained, I can’t let this failure go without punishment. But the one I punish doesn’t necessarily need to be you. So I came to ask you, EGG Welch. Should I feed Quentin to the rats instead of you?” Welch stared at him. “I don’t understand.”

“This is not a difficult question,” Quentin said. “It’s you or Quentin.” Welch didn’t answer.

Quentin continued. “On the way to your cell this evening, I realized that, in this circumstance, life is imitating art. You are familiar with George Orwell’s book 1984?” “Of course, sir.”

“Then you must see the irony of what is happening here. In the book we have Winston in room 101 facing his greatest fear—his primal fear of rats. Do you remember what he does to save himself?” “Yes, sir.”

“And what is that?”

Welch swallowed. “He betrays his love, Julia.”

“Exactly,” Quentin said. “ ’Do it to Julia,’ he says. ‘Do it to Julia.’ Now here you are facing a nearly identical fate. The rat bowl. You and Quentin have always been close, haven’t you?” “Yes, sir.”

Quentin moved closer to the bars. “So what is it, Welch? Who should I feed to the rats? You or Quentin?” Welch gritted his teeth as he stared at the man he thought was Hatch, then he said forcefully, “It’s my fault. I’m the only one to blame.” Quentin stared at him in disbelief. A weak, frightened part of him had hoped that Welch would betray him, as it would make his path easier, as crooked as that path might be. But deep down inside, in a part of his heart that had been kept shrouded for too long, he wanted his friend and mentor to be true. Welch was. Now the burden of action was back on his own shoulders. Quentin looked at him for a moment, then said softly, “ ’Under the spreading chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me . . .’ ” He looked back at Tara. “You can stop.” Tara released her power, and Quentin suddenly appeared to Welch as who he was. “You didn’t betray me,” Quentin said softly.

Welch looked at him in disbelief. “Quentin?”

“I came as soon as I found out.”

Welch didn’t speak for a moment, then he said, “Thank you. But I’m afraid that there’s nothing that can be done. It’s dangerous for you to even be here.” “There’s always something that can be done,” Quentin replied.

Welch looked up at the camera. “You need to go. You’ve already taken too great a risk. . . .” “They can’t see us,” Tara said, furtively glancing at the dark security camera. “We took out the cameras before coming down.” “We’re safe,” Quentin said. “For a few more minutes. Tell me what you know about what Hatch plans to do to you and when.” “He plans to keep me locked up until we reach Tuvalu, then, after the revolution, send me to the bowl.” “That’s not going to happen,” Quentin said. “I won’t let it.” “He won’t change his mind,” Welch said.

“Then we’ll help you escape.”

“You can’t do that. He’ll punish you instead.”

“Then we’ll come with you,” Quentin said.

“It’s no use. They’ll find you. You’ve been implanted with tracking devices.” Tara looked at Quentin. Quentin had suspected as much, but it was frightening to hear it was true.

“We have tracking devices inside us?” Tara asked.

“You were implanted years ago,” Welch said. “When they gave you your immunizations. They’ll track you down in a matter of hours.” “Then we’ll have to fight him,” Quentin said.

“Fight Dr. Hatch?” Tara repeated as if Quentin had just blasphemed.

“Yes,” Quentin said. “He’s always talking about the extermination of the nonelectrics, but he’s a Nonel. He’s not one of us.” “I can’t believe we’re talking about this,” Tara said.

“We knew it had to come to this someday,” Quentin said. “We always knew.” “So did Hatch,” Welch said. “He’s always been paranoid, but he’s especially afraid of you kids. He’s like a man who has raised baby tigers knowing that they could turn on him when they grew up. He’s talked to the EGGs for years about what would happen if any of you turned against him. He’s prepared.” Quentin frowned. “Hopefully he won’t be prepared for all of us.” He looked into Welch’s eyes. “What do you think we should do?” Welch was quiet for a moment; then, in a rare show of emotion, his eyes welled up. “You should go back to your rooms before anyone finds out you’ve been here.” “But what about you?” Quentin asked.

“I knew the risks when I joined Hatch.”

“That’s not an option,” Quentin said. “I refuse to accept that.” “As powerful as you are, you can’t beat him,” Welch said. “Even if I somehow escaped, the Elgen would hunt me down until they found me. They have the men, the money, and the power.” “Michael Vey has beaten Hatch,” Quentin said. “Three times. I’m just as smart as he is. And Hatch doesn’t know that we’re not on his side. That gives us an advantage.” “Don’t be too sure,” Welch said. “Hatch knows that you and I are close. He’s going to be watching how you deal with this.” “He must not be too suspicious,” Tara said. “Or else he would have taken us with him. Or at least Quentin.” They were all quiet for a while; then finally Welch sighed. “No. No matter how you look at it, it’s too big a risk. You need to get out of here.” Quentin shook his head. “It’s already too late for that. The guards saw Hatch come in. They’ll report that visit. Their superiors know that Hatch is gone. It won’t take an Elgen scientist to figure out what really happened.” Tara turned white with fear. “You didn’t tell me. . . .” She began to tremble. “He’ll feed me to the rats.” She grabbed Quentin’s arms. “He’ll feed all of us to the rats.” “No one’s getting fed to the rats,” Quentin said calmly. “At least not any of us.” He turned back to Welch. “I need your help. You know Elgen protocol. What do we do to get you off the ship?” Welch looked at him for a moment, then finally relented. “We need to get rid of the guards before they file their shift report.” “How do we do that?”

Welch thought about it for a moment, then said, “It might be easier than we think.” He turned to Tara. “We’ll just have Hatch give them a different order.” “To do what?” Tara asked.

“Have them transfer a Taiwanese prisoner off the ship.” He looked at Tara. “You can make me Taiwanese?” “I can make you a dolphin,” she said.

“Taiwanese will do. Can you change more than one person at a time?” “No. It takes too much focus. It would be like playing two different songs on the piano at the same time.” “All right. We’ll just have to think around this.” He looked down for a moment, then back up. “Okay, I know what we need to do.”