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  His question takes me by surprise. I sit up but don’t make eye contact. I can’t. Instead I study my feet, tears filling my eyes and blurring my vision. “I killed him, or his desire to protect me did. It was my fault any way you look at it. If I’d listened to him…”

  “Iia.”

  I lift my chin and use the back of my hand to wipe the tears away.

  “No person can predict the future or change what someone will or will not do. To control free will is wrong. He made a choice and gave his life to save you. You need to think of it as a gift and not something you caused.”

  “Was it? Or did he do it to pay some kind of penance?”

  “You tell me.” Axel shuts the book and puts his feet on the floor. He leans forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “Did he feel he had crimes to pay for, or did you hold value to him? Tell me, Iia, was this about making up for past mistakes or sacrificing for love?”

  “He sacrificed for love, but not mine. Eli’s heart belonged to another.”

  “But maybe a piece of it he’d given to you.”

  “Maybe.” I turn to look at the door, wanting to walk away from the conversation, not sure I can open myself up anymore to this stranger who sees way too deep inside me for my own comfort. Nor did I want to think about that day, not while awake. I relive it over and over every night since it happened.

  “What happened? It’s okay. It’s good to talk about it. When you are done, I will tell you what happened to me. Okay?”

  I take a deep breath and nod, deciding to let go of the memory. I’ve never had anyone to share my guilt with, and he seems to know just what to say to get me to open up. Perhaps I can unburden my soul as he suggests and this time the memories won’t drag me under. I tell myself, just this once with this stranger, who for some reason, feels like a friend.

  And as I look into his eyes, I can see he will tell no one my secrets. I can also see he has many of his own, one he’s offered to tell me in exchange. Not something he will part with for anyone. Whatever I tell him will remain with him. “I thought if anything would kill us, it would be the bees.”

  “The same robotic bees flying around your compound?”

  “Yes. They were—are—very dangerous, a weapon of unimaginable power in the wrong hands. But it wasn’t the bees, rather something from my own blood which opened a door for a man who didn’t want to just stop the government, but who wanted to replace it with himself. This man I’d once called friend, and as I look back on it, realize he was never my friend.”

  And so I begin a story I’m not sure how to tell, not without crushing the fragile walls I’ve built around myself.

  An hour after the soldier paged a tech to come up and open the door, the lift whooshed open and two men strode out. First from the lift was a giant I feared, a man I’d hoped to never see again, and I’d wondered how he’d made it to this place. “Akoni.”

  He eyed me, and the corner of his mouth curled into a half-smile which looked more like a snarl. When he stepped to the side, I nearly choked on my tongue. The second was none other than my ghost. And he didn’t exist as mist I could drag my fingers through, but was solid flesh and bone. I took two steps toward him, and Akoni raised a weapon, stopping me in my tracks. “Tyler,” I laughed out. “You’re alive.”

  My brain didn’t register why he stepped off the lift, or where he’d been the last few years. I didn’t question why he’d come to me as a holo-image and how he’d managed to project himself inside my head. I only wanted to celebrate. A person I’d loved as a brother—my family—breathed and walked on the islands. “Tyler.” I wrung my hands together, waiting for him to come over and take me in his arms and hug me as he always had, but he didn’t. The ice in his eyes had me take a step in retreat.

  Eli looked at me. “You know him?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “You never knew me, Iia. I’m an agent of the government, have been for years. I can spin any kind of cover story I want, because people in power back me. I assigned Akoni to infiltrate the rebels and report back if they found the heir. I can’t believe it turned out to be you.”

  And like an iron fist closing tight around me, my celebration ended. Tyler wasn’t here for me, or for the people of Sententia. “And Akoni? Why would he help the same government who killed his family?”

  “Let’s say he has a lot to lose if he doesn’t march to the beat of my drum, starting with the family he told you the government killed.”

  “This ruse? You show up as a ghost to me, for what purpose?”

  “To acquire the codes. You didn’t think I did it so you’d see fabulous images of me? I took the opportunity to listen in on your conversations. And then when I realized I’d need more than the codes to access the tower, I did it to make sure you went where I wanted you to go. Just like running a little rat through a maze. My ex-bosses preferred I torture the codes from you if possible, but they didn’t mind you being dead either. Any way you look at it, the towers would remain in their control if I followed orders.”

  “But you didn’t follow orders, did you? You set the bees on me. No way Akoni could have gotten here if you weren’t in control of them.”

  “Guilty as charged.” He thumped his chest and smiled. “But the first attack at the school wasn’t me. I took control of them when you were in the station. Hacked them right out from under my ex-bosses’ control. It’s better they’re under my control. Do you have any idea how much money I’m going to make when I also have the uplink to the towers? The things I will be able to do with them? Don’t be too angry with me. I’d have pulled the bees back before they hit you.”

  “Only because I can give you what you want. You didn’t stop them before they killed all those people. How could you do this to me? I thought we were friends.”

  “I had to push you into action before the government got their hands on you. You would never have shut the towers down without a damn good reason, and at the rate you were going—it would’ve been never. So, I gave you a reason.”

  “The hundreds of lives lost quantifies that?”

  “Sometimes you have to sacrifice a little to gain a lot.”

  “If you think I’m going to help you, you better think again. I’m not shutting the towers down. It’s not happening.”

  “Akoni, please open the lift and show Miss Danner what’s behind door number one.”

  The giant hit a button, opening the door to the lift. He reached in and yanked the young mother out. In her arms, her baby. By her side, her young daughter, who clung to her shirttail, crying.

  “No. Let them go. They have nothing to do with this.”

  “I think they do,” Tyler said. “If you won’t do it for me, you’ll do it for them.”

  He had me and knew it. I wouldn’t let that woman and her children die. I’d even considered backing out of the playhouse when I’d seen them. I opened my mouth to surrender.

  “You, sonofabitch!” Eli lunged for Tyler. Akoni spun around and caught him with the butt of his weapon, knocking him into a wall. He leveled the sights of the blaster on Eli. The red light on the side indicated full charge. His weapon would blow a hole in Eli big enough to walk through.

  “And you will most definitely do it for him, won’t you?”

  “Let him go.”

  “Promise you will do as instructed.”

  Akoni raised the blaster, a small light centered on Eli’s forehead. I watched in horror as his finger slid over the trigger.

  “On the count of three.”

  “Don’t kill him. Stop. Please.”

  “One.”

  “I don’t know how to give you what you want.”

  “You’ll figure it out. Two.”

  “Please. I didn’t know about the codes until a few days ago.”

  “Do what I want, or when he’s dead, the woman and her kids are next. Don’t make me kill them, Iia. I kind of like Eli.” He opened his mouth to say three.

  “Stop! Don’t. Okay. I will do it.”


  “See, it wasn’t so hard.” Tyler nodded at the giant.

  Akoni lowered the weapon and holstered it.

  “Hold your hand out,” Tyler said as his henchman stepped forward and pulled a knife out of a sheath at his waist.

  “You don’t have to use a weapon. I said I would take the tower down.”

  “No, you promised to do what I want, and what I want is for you to put your hand out.”

  My gaze darted from Akoni to Tyler and back.

  “Now.”

  I lifted my hand and flipped it, palm side up. Akoni grabbed my wrist and sliced across the meaty part of my palm, filleting me open like a fish, deep and nearly to the bone.

  The scream that came out of me didn’t seem real. Stars swam across my vision, and for a second, darkness crept in. A copper smell filled my nostrils. Just as I thought I’d pass out, Akoni jerked me around to face the door.

  “You wanted someone to come up and open the door.” Tyler walked up behind me. “I tried to replicate the DNA from the towel you used the day you cut your hand. The problem is, it was too old and corrupted by chemicals we’d used to create a bandage for the wound, even a slight variation in the sequence is detected. Your great-great-grandfather was quite thorough in his security precautions. Because of it, for the longest time, I assumed you weren’t the heir. I’d crossed you off the list.”

  “You were the one kidnapping the hive keepers and killing them.”

  “Yes, I knew the ancestor was a hive master, I just didn’t know who—well, until Akoni mentioned Eli claimed the Danners all had the same eyes, a seaweed green. I told Akoni about you and to feed the information to Eli. He danced on my strings as you did. Went in and got you, burned your chip so my boss couldn’t find you. He did all my dirty work and didn’t even know it.”

  Akoni slapped my bloody palm against a jelly pad. My entire hand sank into it, and the gel turned red. A tube feeding into the door drew my blood up and into the lock.

  “Deoxyribonucleic acid sample confirmed,” an electronic voice chimed in right before the lock glowed and the door slid open. I’d known my DNA played a role in accessing the tower, but I wasn’t certain how it would. My great-great-grandfather had been a sick fuck.

  “I just love it when a plan comes together. After you,” Tyler piped up. “By the way, without the sample you just provided, the tower would cut all the uplinks to the satellites the second anyone touched anything in the room. Of course I could have bled you out, but I still need the codes, which you either haven’t managed to uncover or decided to keep to yourself.”

  Before I could make some snide remark, Akoni jerked me back, freeing my hand from the bio-collection pad, and then shoved me through the open door. I stumbled and went down on my knees, hitting a hard floor with a loud oomph. Blood from my palm pumped out, forming a puddle. Eli came next, followed by Tyler and Akoni. The door slid shut, and I turned to see if the lock had engaged. It had.

  They weren’t getting out of here without me. Eli reached down and helped me to my feet. He stripped off his shirt and tossed it to me. “Put pressure on the cut.”

  “Please do. We’re going to require a bit more of your blood before we’re done, and I can’t have you drained dry.”

  Eli balled his fists at his sides.

  “Don’t, Eli.” I knew Tyler would kill him. He hadn’t thought twice about threatening the lives of the woman and her children. Nor did he give the consequences a second thought when he released his swarm on hundreds of innocents to convince me I should help the cause. But he still wouldn’t get anything he wanted without me.

  I still had some power, and he knew it.

  “Give me the codes, Iia.”

  I wrapped the shirt around my hand. “I don’t have them.”

  “No, you do. You have to have them. Your great-great-grandfather would not have died without leaving a means to shut these towers down. He had your bio sample programmed into the security system so he wouldn’t have left the codes out of the equation.”

  “I don’t know what they are.”

  “Now, I know you’re lying. You wouldn’t have come here if you weren’t sure one way or the other what they were. Give me the codes. Now.”

  I shook my head. I had to think of a way to stop him.

  “Akoni, please escort Eli outside to the balcony.”

  Like a lighthouse, glass walls circled the room, giving anyone in the tower a three hundred and sixty degree view of the islands. Around the outside of the tower’s crown, the very room we stood in, an external deck circled 360 degrees. I didn’t know its purpose, if it was for aesthetics, or if my ancestor had enjoyed standing in the clouds, but I didn’t like what Tyler wanted to use it for. Akoni pushed Eli toward an external door and pressed his hand into the lock. The glass panel slid open, and a gust of wind caught my hair, lifting it off my shoulders.

  “Stop!”

  “The codes.”

  “Why are you doing this?”

  Tyler shrugged. “Because I can. I’m losing my patience, Iia. Give me the codes or Eli learns how to fly.”

  “They’re in the nanites.”

  “The bio-cosmetics—the silly device that changes your hair?”

  I nodded, not sure if I said it I would be believed. I doubted I could spit one word out without stuttering.

  “Press your hands flat on the table over there.” He jerked his chin to a metal work station.

  “Why?”

  “I’m going to retrieve the codes. It might hurt a bit, but if you stand real still, I won’t slip and accidentally cut your spine with my knife. I’d thought it odd you gave into the hype. You never struck me as a girl with vanity issues, but now I understand the why. What a clever way to hide them, even if your hair turns the most god awful colors.”

  “Yeah,” I said and looked at Eli who shook his head. I walked over to the table.

  “Iia, don’t!”

  Akoni yanked Eli back in and shut the door. He shoved him to the side and, with a nasty smile cast in my direction, walked over to Tyler and handed him the same knife he’d cut my palm with.

  “When the towers come down, so will all the technology on the islands. If you can’t transfer them to your control, you’ll cripple yourself as much as the government. How do you know my great-great-grandfather didn’t plan for a hostage situation like this one?”

  “The towers need to come down if I’m going to be able to hack into the system. When they do, I can reboot with my own codes. Once I have control, the people, the soldiers, the citizens will all swear allegiance to the new order, or my bees will fry them and everyone they care about. Bonus, because of Akoni, I know where the rebel rats are hiding, and I’ve already sent my bees over to eradicate the pests. Can’t have them causing trouble in my new world order.”

  “You can’t kill them. There are women, children with them.”

  “Not too concerned about it. They won’t be a pain to me the way they were to my boss. I take out the trash and don’t leave it sitting around to stink. Because of you, Sententia will be great again. It’s time for us to get out and explore the world, conquer new lands, and claim what is rightfully ours. That will only happen if we leave the islands. We are limited here. There are people out there. I’ve talked to them on the long distance coms I’ve built, and they want the same thing: to conquer all who stand in their way.”

  His goal wasn’t to save everyone, but enslave them under his regime. I’d felt it wouldn’t be as simple as taking the technology down. Tyler didn’t want Sententia, he wanted the whole damn world. And I would give it to him.

  “Now put your hands on the table.”

  I pressed my palms to the cool surface, staring at my reflection. My hair had gone green, much like I felt. Tyler came up behind me and lifted my braid. He raised the knife.

  Clang!

  Tyler jerked and dropped to the floor. Akoni stood behind him with a fire extinguisher in his hands. He looked down. “When you take those towers down, they’
re not coming back up. Understand? Nobody will have control of them again.”

  I nodded.

  He lifted his gaze and stared me down. “Now would be a good time to do it. Free my family, and you can keep your life.”

  “I don’t know how to extract the codes.”

  Akoni growled. “Don’t make me cut them out of your head. I have one goal right now, and your living or dying doesn’t factor into it. Get the process started, and I will finish it.”

  I walked over to a station, the blood soaked tee shirt around my hand. Akoni most definitely wasn’t my friend, but we both wanted the same thing. I sat in a molded seat and gazed at the control panel. For several seconds I stared at the dials and buttons. Reaching over, I flipped one of the switches. Nothing happened.

  Someone grunted behind me. I twisted in my seat to see Tyler back on his feet, a bloody knife in his hand. “He should have chosen allegiance to me.” The skin on the side of his head where Akoni had hit him had split open, and instead of blood running out, lights flashed from within the cut. The giant lying at his feet didn’t move, a pool of blood formed under him. Tyler took a step toward me, and Eli tackled him.

  “Get on with it, Iia,” Eli yelled.

  I turned back to the panel to see my fingertips now glowed as green as my hair. What the hell? I lifted my uninjured hand, studying it. I no longer had a chip, but something had activated the tech in my hands. The nanites were processing the code.

  Crash. I spun the chair in time to see Eli slide along the same table Tyler told me to press my hands to. He landed on the floor on the other side, before staggering to his feet. “Shut them down! I can’t hold him off for long.”

  Right. The towers. I knew what I had to do but couldn’t seem to look away from what happened before me. All technology would come down, including whatever my ex-friend had installed in his head.

  Tyler’s eyes flashed bright red as he launched across the room at Eli with inhuman speed, grabbing him by the throat and lifting him into the air. Tyler didn’t exist anymore. He might have at one time, but after what I saw, heard since he’d arrived, I doubted anything of him remained inside the monster who looked like him.