Boy Robot Page 28
I feel a wave of energy surge through me, and my fingertips crackle with electricity. A thousand voices swell up in my head all at once for a single, brief moment as I step out into the balcony area above the main hall. Every light dims as power prickles on every inch of my skin. I feel bodies, minds, sources of life inside of me, everything and everyone, all at once. A million memories that aren’t mine, just beyond my grasp—
I release my breath and the sensation disappears. The lights come back to full strength and everything around me swirls. I’m so dizzy.
What was that?
I stumble past the elevators and head down the hallway that leads to my room. I need sleep. Whatever is happening to me feels out of my control. Everything does. The only thing I can even think to do right now is sleep and hope that everything is better in the morning.
I make it to the small, dead-end hallway and find Kamea waiting outside my door.
“Isaak.” Her eyes are filled with something I’ve never seen before. I can’t tell if it’s excitement, fear, or both.
“I have to show you something.”
I don’t think I’m going to get to sleep yet after all.
• • •
The elevator doors open to the basement. The long, rectangular table where the Assembly sat earlier today is empty. Kamea heads to a door on the left. Her fingers deftly spin the dial on a large combination lock built into the door until a loud click echoes through the room. She pushes the door aside and reveals a hallway lined with the same embedded orange lights as always. The door seals shut behind us, and we continue down the dim passage, passing several rooms until we make it to yet another set of double doors. She types a code into a keypad in the wall, and the doors slide back. The room beyond is pitch-black as we step inside.
Lights flicker to life as the door closes and Kamea steps into the center of the room. The echo of her footsteps reveal the size of this place before the lights are able to. It’s huge, like an underground cathedral. The ceiling might go up higher than in the main hall, even though it isn’t as large in circumference. Boards of electrical equipment, endless wires, and large generators hum as they come to life against the walls. In the center, right behind Kamea, is a large metallic pod.
I stare in awe and take everything in.
“Only a few people in the Underground know this place exists.”
I stand next to her and marvel at the large steel egg before us. About twelve feet tall, it gleams and flickers as it reflects the light from various machines powering on around it.
My mind races at its purpose—superweapon, vehicle, some form of alien spacecraft?
“What is it?”
Kamea looks at me. “This, Isaak, is a Gate. A machine that will allow Robots to teleport.” She looks back toward the egg and sighs. “Eventually.”
My mind spins. I shouldn’t be shocked by all of this by now, but somehow I can’t believe what I’m seeing.
“How does it work?” I approach the pod with my hand reaching out toward its smooth surface.
Kamea grabs me before I can touch it. “I think you might be able to help me figure that out.” She walks over to one of the panels near the wall and flips several switches before sitting in a chair in front of a large set of adjacent monitors.
“I have been working on this project with the Underground for several years now. There’s an entire team of people here devoted to projects like this, but this one . . . this is definitely the big one.” She spins in her chair to press several more buttons on a panel to her right. A loud humming noise builds from the generator units on the other side of the room as the machine begins to come to life.
“Robots here designed this?” I ask.
She spins in her chair to look at me. “We don’t know who created it.”
Confusion spreads across my face.
“The plans were obtained during one of our most dangerous espionage missions,” she says.
“Obtained? From whom?”
She takes a pause and looks at me. “From the SHRF.”
My mind spins faster, but before I can respond, she turns back to the panel and continues. “I don’t get to spend much time here with the equipment itself because I’ve been trying to crack a very big problem. One that requires me to spend most of my time in the field.”
She types a sequence into the keyboard, and a large hatch opens on the metal pod, revealing a small obelisk inside. “The team here has everything figured out—except for one crucial element.”
She turns in the chair to face me again. “Because of the synthetic nature of your body’s cells, you can essentially be dismantled and rebuilt, exactly as you are, without losing a single molecule or memory. The Gates are able to dismantle and record the very makeup of your body and mind, transport the data instantaneously, and reassemble you from the blueprint at a new location, anywhere in the world. From what we’ve been able to learn, a Gate requires the energy of multiple Robots to activate and control it, and we can only send through one of you at a time. But so far, attempting a transfer while multiple Robots are connected has resulted in splicing, death, and even . . .” Her breath catches. “There was an instance in which a Robot’s data completely disappeared. We never recovered it.”
The room suddenly feels very small as I realize Kamea might be expecting me to go inside this death trap.
“Isaak, I’m telling you this because I need your help. The Assembly deliberated tonight after finally determining the nature of your abilities, and I don’t know how else to say this—you are nothing short of a miracle.”
I open my mouth to speak, but she stops me. “I can’t say anything more than that right now, and I’m sorry. I know how frustrated you must be, how difficult this journey has been for you, but I promise you that I am doing every single thing I can to help you. No one wants to see you find peace and happiness more than me. I swear it.”
Her eyes bear into mine. Passion and truth and something that looks a little bit like hope fill them, pouring up from the center of her being.
I take a deep breath. “What do you need me to do?”
• • •
I’m already awake and ready to go by the time I hear the knock on my door. I don’t know what time it was when I finally got to bed, but I wasn’t able to sleep. Not restfully at least. Not with this moment looming just a few hours ahead of me. And now here it is. I close the journal that I still haven’t written in, set it on the nightstand, and go to the door to open it.
Instead of Kyle waiting for me on the other side, I find Malek.
“Are you ready?”
My mouth goes dry. If anyone could’ve helped buffer the weight of this long walk to the Assembly, it would’ve been Kyle. But here I am, with a guy who probably genuinely hates me. Great.
I nod, step out into the hallway, and let him lead the way.
We walk in an awkward silence to the elevator, and I count down the moments until the doors finally open. Once they do, an even heavier silent anxiety presses down on me.
All of the members of the Assembly stand behind the table at the other end of the room, waiting for me. Azure and V have joined them—Azure behind the table next to Aleister and his dogs, V behind Arielle. They all go silent as I approach.
I sit in a chair that’s been set in front of the table and notice Kyle in his same position as yesterday, off to the side, able to observe everyone. Malek nods to Azure and V as he takes his place in the center. They come around to the front of the table and stand in front of me. Azure looks into my eyes.
“When two Robots touch,” she begins, “they can link.” She reaches out and grabs V by the hand. “When Robots link, they become, temporarily, a symbiotic unit. Their instincts, senses, reactions, and abilities are shared. Some have claimed to have shared thoughts and emotions as well, but this is rare. I have yet to experience such things personally.”
I swallow as V lifts her hand.
Azure continues. “With proper training, this connection
allows us to increase our power exponentially.”
V flicks her wrist and a yellow, concave shield of electrical light flicks into existence beside her.
“Sever the physical tie however”—she pulls her hand from V’s and the shield disappears—“and the power is gone.”
Her eyes lock with mine once again.
“When you created the shield in the desert, I was skeptical that you were actually revealing shielding abilities. It was too great, too sudden.”
I feel every eye in the room bearing into me, and the sudden desire to shrink overwhelms me.
“V has an incredibly unique ability. In fact, she’s the only Robot we’ve ever heard of with such a power.”
She nods to V, who continues.
“I am able to store, metabolize, convert, and manipulate kinetic energy.”
My mind is puzzled, and I wait for her to elaborate. She furrows her brow as she tries to work out the best way to explain it.
“Any physical energy exerted against me charges my body like a battery. I can then use the charge to achieve incredible feats of strength and to create powerful concussive blasts.”
Something tells me that for her tough exterior and eagerness to intimidate, there is a genuine nerd inside V. It makes me wish I’d spent more time getting to know her on our journey together.
She turns to face Azure and nods, drops her arms to her sides, and broadens her chest. She closes her eyes as Azure pulls her fist back for the punch.
A lesser woman would’ve flown across the room and into the concrete wall at the impact of Azure’s fist, but V only teeters slightly on her feet. She regains her balance and opens her eyes—they glow with a bright yellow light. She raises her fist, and it’s as though she’s holding rays of it inside her hand. The feeling of unbridled, rage-fueled death streaming from my fingertips on the bridge outside of Vegas comes back to me as I watch her.
Azure makes a soothing shush noise and raises her hands in surrender.
V seethes and teeters on the edge of losing control for a moment before regaining her composure. I think the light has the same effect on her as it did with me.
She takes a few deep breaths and the light slowly begins to fade away. She shakes it off like a boxer shaking off a good punch, then goes back to her seat. Azure sits down as well.
“Isaak,” the girl with the nose ring says from the far right side of the table. “I want you create fire in your hand.”
A puzzled expression spreads involuntarily over my face.
I can’t.
“Hold out your hand,” she says. I lift my right hand, palm facing upward. “Now look into my eyes and imagine every molecule of oxygen around you flowing into the space above your palm. Feel them glide toward you—every last atom. Now ignite them with heat—heat from your surroundings, from yourself, your emotions. Spark them into flames as they gravitate toward you. You are bringing them to life. They have come to serve you. Let them live.”
I stare into her deep brown eyes and try to follow her guidance. As she speaks, I remember the feeling of catching fireflies in the summer back in Missouri. Running through the grass and the trees with a mason jar, filling it, one by one, with the little, glowing insects. Marveling at my bioluminescent lantern in the dusk before letting them go. I can’t make fire though. I don’t know how. I don’t know what I did in the desert with Azure’s shield, or what happened on the bridge, but it was nothing like this. I didn’t have to pretend anything, or imagine I had some power inside of me. It was defensive. I did what I had to do to protect my friends and myself. I still don’t even know how I did all of that.
A small gasp from Arielle breaks my train of thought and I look down at my hand. Tiny embers of light are flowing into the air above my hand from all directions, forming a glowing orb in my palm. I don’t know how I’m doing this. I can’t be. This doesn’t feel like me.
“Isaak,” the girl says, getting me to look back up at her. “Let them live.”
I let go and imagine myself pushing life into the cluster of glowing dots. A tower of flame shoots up toward the ceiling from my hand, and I stumble back. Everyone at the table lurches back at the heat, but the girl gets up and moves toward me. Her eyes glow with a deep, bronzed orange, and points of light collect in her hands as well.
“Calm yourself,” she says. “The flames can’t hurt you while you’re wielding them, but they can hurt the others. You must control it.”
The blazing inferno above me doesn’t feel like something that can be controlled.
How am I doing this?
“Fire is a beast. The beast. But you can tame her, Isaak. She bends to your will and obeys your every command. You must only refuse to fear her.”
I realize that the fire has yet to burn me and let her words sink in. I stand a little taller and try to bend the direction of the flame. It curves at my slightest thought, and my mouth drops in wonder.
“Radha,” Malek says. “This is not a training session in pyrokinesis.”
She keeps her glowing eyes on me and nods. “Now imagine all of the molecules you summoned, every particle of energy in your hand, finding peace, serenity. Let a sense of completion flow through your arm and up into your fingertips. Let them rest.”
I think of myself as a child, finally taking the lid off of the mason jar, watching as the fireflies slowly began to fly back out into the night sky, free.
The flame goes out and the energy disperses. The room looks cold and sterile now, no longer bathed in the red and orange light of fire.
The girl, Radha, turns to Malek and nods before taking her seat back at the end of the table.
Every eye in the room takes me in like a sideshow attraction—an anomaly, something they can’t yet figure out, a mystery that terrifies them.
Malek looks to Arielle. She bites her lip and then looks at me.
“Isaak, we believe you are a conduit,” she says. “A Robot with the ability to connect to other Robots . . . without ever touching them.”
The silence in the room is asphyxiating.
“The implications of your ability are unparalleled,” she continues. “No one in this room ever expected to find anyone like you. I don’t think any of us even imagined that a Robot could be created with such a power.”
I look to Azure for some sort of reassurance, but she’s staring at Kyle over by the wall.
“Your discovery has left us in a place where no one at this table is used to being—a state of confusion,” Malek says, drawing my attention back to him. “We’ve always known who our enemies are and what they wish to achieve. Although we have very different ideals as to how to confront them, we have always known our direction forward. Your presence changes all of that.”
My mouth feels like sandpaper. I try to swallow, but it’s like I’ve forgotten how.
“A being like you could save or destroy us,” Aleister says, glaring at me over his sharp nose and cheekbones. “Your abilities could lend us unimaginable power as a fighting force, but at what cost? Someone like you could also leave us vulnerable in ways we’ve never imagined. If you are able to connect to each of us without physical contact, who’s to prevent one of our enemies from capturing you and using this ability against us? How are we to know you aren’t a pet project of Asim himself, sent to collect soldiers for his private army?” He takes a pause and lets his uncomfortable gaze bear into me. “You are a domino standing at the head of an elaborate setup none of us were even aware existed until you arrived. All it takes is one push, and every single one of us will fall.”
I don’t think I will ever feel my heartbeat again. My entire body feels numb.
“The Assembly has much to discuss regarding your role in our society in the coming days,” Arielle says, in a gentler tone than Aleister’s, “but I think I can safely speak for all of us when I say that we are very lucky and very thankful that you made it to us safely.”
Everyone begins to shuffle in their seats, but their eyes remain silently on me.
I stand from the chair with weak knees as I try to catch Azure’s eye.
She spares me a glance, but turns to speak to Malek instead.
I pivot and head back to the elevator as their hushed voices begin to rise in conversation behind me. By the time the doors close they might as well be shouting my name as though I can’t hear them.
It feels like I’ve been thrown off a boat to see how well I can swim and came back up to the surface to find the boat speeding away from me, off toward the horizon.
I stare at the shiny steel of the elevator doors and pray I don’t drown.
• • •
“Tribo.”
It’s all I hear as I sit at the table by myself, dazed, staring at a breakfast I know I’m not going to eat. The word buzzes around my head like a fly—tickling my ears, annoying me out of my state of deep, anxious concentration.
What the hell is Tribo?
Erica, the telekinetic, sits down with her tray and tries to break my stare. “Hey! What’s wrong with you? You okay?”
The rest of her crew follows and sits at the table, just like yesterday.
“He must be nervous,” Brooke says, next to her.
The boy with the sandy hair, Dustin, speaks up near the end of the table. “Wait, is this your first Tribo?”
“I don’t even know that is.”
All of their jaws collectively drop, and Erica swallows her food in order to speak again. “Oh my God. Are you serious?”
“I only got here the day before yesterday. No one tells me anything.”
The others all look to one another.
“When did you manifest?” Erica asks.
“A week ago. Week and a half. I can’t really remember right now, to be honest.”
A sly smile spreads across her face.
“He hasn’t felt it yet,” Brooke says.