The Spark, page 23
“Sleeping now,” I say, distracted.
“Aldrich is due to call in 30 minutes,” he says as we walk. “Edward and Neeve want to talk about what we do next.”
“Right.”
I can’t get my head around what Rivers just showed me.
Who on earth is Albert Hickman?
How do I find Farah?
And why did Mum mention Edward? Am I supposed to confide in him? Or is she warning me away from him again?
Maybe everything Rivers said was just the drugs talking, just like Hansel and his warning about Selena’s betrayal.
"You're quiet," Seb says.
“Rivers thinks he isn’t going to survive,” I say.
“We’re going to help him.”
Seb opens a door into a small kitchenette. Inside, Edward sits at a plastic table cradling a chipped mug of steaming tea. Neeve leans against the counter, arms folded. They look up as we enter. “How is he?” Neeve asks.
“Sleeping,” I say.
I don’t tell them what he did for me.
“Good,” Edward says. “I’ll check on him once we’ve spoken with Calvin.”
Seb and I pull out chairs and sit at the table with Edward.
Edward fills another mug with hot tea and pushes it toward me.
“I think we can get your Savant friend here,” Neeve says as I take a sip. “I can source a couple of IDs to get us into the Inner Sanctum. Are you up for a road trip?”
I agree immediately.
“Hansel had a dose of Neurodex less than twenty-four hours ago," Seb says, "but you'll have to be careful. The three of you together could cause all kinds of problems, at least if Aldrich's Triptych experiments in The Facility were any indication."
“I’d prefer to send one of you with James or Clark,” Edward says. “It’s too much of a risk for you both to go.”
Neeve shakes her head. “Hansel knows Aura, and she’ll be safer with me having her back.”
"Agreed," I say decisively.
Edward still doesn’t look happy, but he lets it go.
“And you both should know – Aldrich’s cooperation for the food bank extraction tomorrow is a setup,” Seb says.
“Backing out is not an option,” Neeve says. “We need Aura’s body back here.”
“I know that,” Seb says, “but –”
“We already knew we couldn’t trust Calvin completely,” Neeve interrupts him. “Our entire plan is based around that fact. Nothing changes.”
“Should we warn the SLA, though?” I ask. “Reece? James? I think they should know what we’re walking into.”
“I think that Calvin’s true intentions are best kept among the four of us,” Edward says.
“Telling people what Calvin has done to you might make things worse," Neeve says. "We need everybody thinking clearly."
I look at Seb.
He rubs his face with his hands. “I think she’s right,” he says. “We can’t put the operation at risk. If we can get your mum and Opal to safety before The Assembly, I think we should.”
“So when Calvin calls, we do what Commander Reyes suggested,” Neeve says. “We tell him that we’ve been in contact with the SLA, that they’ve offered him immunity, and we’re going to pull him out along with your mum and Opal at the food bank tomorrow.”
Seb and I exchange a look.
Calvin Aldrich will never willingly leave The Society.
“Okay, fine,” I say. “But I go too.”
“What if you’re recognized?” Seb asks.
“I had long blonde hair when I left The Facility,” I remind him. “Now I just look like Neeve’s kid sister.”
“Aura, getting your Savant friend is one thing, but sending you to the food bank is something else entirely,” Edward says. “What if something goes wrong? We aren’t about to let you fall back into Calvin’s hands.”
“We’ll know more if I’m there,” I say. “Without Aldrich’s drugs, I can hear his thoughts and use my Gift against him if we need.”
Edward takes a slow sip of his tea, closing his eyes as if he’s exhausted by the whole thing.
Neeve looks at me. “I’ll tell Davis we’ll have an extra team member tomorrow.”
She pushes off the wall, preparing to leave the room.
“Wait,” I say.
“What?”
I take a breath, and Seb looks at me.
“We need to talk about The Triptych.”
Chapter 49
“Aldrich has his own agenda for The Assembly,” I say, looking around the table. “If we can’t get him out of The Society tomorrow, none of this will work, not your plan to expose Robert, not the SLA’s plan to save my Dad, nothing.”
“Calvin can’t form The Triptych without an Influencer,” Edward says.
Seb and I exchange another look.
“What?” Neeve asks.
“There is another Influencer,” I say.
Edward’s face pales.
Neeve stares at me.
“She’s just a baby, but she’s already strong. I could feel her power.”
If a pin dropped on the floor in the room, we could hear it. I keep going.
“So Aldrich controls three Telepathe Savants, eleven Prophets at The Facility, and an Influencer who has no will of her own yet.”
“A baby couldn’t be part of a Triptych,” Edward says, furrowing his brow.
“Aldrich is convinced he can use her Gift, and he’s more than proved he will do whatever it takes to get the outcome that he wants,” Seb says. “He doesn’t care who he kills to get it.”
“The SLA needs to know what they might be up against,” I say. “They’ve planned for anything Robert might do, but Aldrich and his Triptych are the real threat.”
“So you want to tell the SLA about The Triptych?” Neeve asks. “They’d think we were insane.”
“No,” I say. “But I think we should tell them that Aldrich controls a weapon they haven't seen before, so they're not taken completely by surprise. And then we do everything we can to make sure that their mission succeeds."
A phone vibrates on the counter.
“This will be Calvin and Opal-Aura,” Neeve says.
“How do you suggest we help the SLA, Aura?” Edward asks.
I swallow.
“I think we fight fire with fire,” I say, trying to ignore my fear. “If the SLA are going to succeed in rescuing my dad and freeing The Society, they’re going to need all of us – me and Neeve, Seb, and Rivers and Hansel, and even you, Edward – to use our power against Aldrich’s power.”
Edward and Neeve look stunned.
“Two Triptychs?” Edward exhales. “That could –”
“Create a cataclysm?” I interrupt. “Yeah, I heard.”
“It could kill us all,” he says matter-of-factly.
“I’m stronger than I was, Edward. You said so yourself. I can take the brunt of it,” I say. “If we don’t fight Aldrich, nobody anywhere will ever be free.”
“I don’t want my father at The Assembly,” Neeve says. She looks at Edward. “You should go to the rendezvous point with the others.”
“How many times do I have to say this?” Edward asks, irritated. “I’m not going to Fort Saph.”
Neeve sighs in frustration.
The phone vibrates again in her hand.
“We should go,” I say to Seb. “Neeve, answer that – Aldrich can’t think anything has changed.”
“We’ll update you when we’re done,” Neeve says, accepting the call.
As the door closes behind Seb and me, I catch a glimpse of my own face on the screen.
“Hey, Neeve,” my voice says.
“Hi, Aura,” Neeve says. “Could we speak to Calvin?”
I lean against the wall in the corridor outside of the kitchenette. My mind is spinning.
What have I just done?
“Neeve cleared out some space in a storage room for us while you were with Rivers,” Seb says, eyeing me. “Come on.”
“She didn’t want us answering any awkward questions from the others, huh?”
“I didn’t want us answering any awkward questions from the others,” he says.
Neeve has set up bunk beds and left snacks, bottled water, and a pile of fresh clothing on an upturned crate for us.
I close the door and lean against it, rubbing my temples. Seb lies back on the bottom bunk and closes his eyes.
“Have I done the right thing?” I ask.
“Define ‘right thing,’” he says.
“I just suggested to Edward Law that we assemble a second Triptych,” I say. “I really have lost my mind.”
But I don’t know any other way to fight.
“Everything you said back there was true,” Seb says. “The SLA may have people on the inside, and they may be brilliant strategists and soldiers. They may even have the people in The Society on their side. But none of that will count for anything on Assembly night if Aldrich gets control of everyone’s minds.”
He looks hard at me. “The way I see it, we don’t have any other option. They don’t even know who the real enemy is.”
I go to the bunk and lie down next to him.
“How did it come to this, huh?” he asks.
I close my eyes. “What do you think our chances are of getting Hansel to come back with us?”
“I don’t know,” he says. “But I hope he does, for Rivers’ sake.”
I roll to face him. “Rivers had a message for me from Mum.”
“What? How?”
“When you guys left, he said he wanted to do something for me,” I say. “He held my hand, and then I was inside a kind of simulation. Mum was there, trying to tell me something. I had no idea that Savants could do that.”
He intertwines his fingers with mine. "Powerful Savants can make connections between consciousness across time and space. It's part of what they do at The Telepathe."
“It was surreal,” I say.
“What was the message?”
“‘Find Farah,’” I say. “And something about someone called Albert Hickman, who apparently wants Dad dead.”
“Do you have any idea who this person could be?”
"No. I mean – someone named Farah tried to contact Mum last week. Mum was going to tell me about her, but she never got the chance because I ended up in The Facility. I hope she didn't try to tell Opal."
“Maybe you can ask her tomorrow if they get her out,” he says. “There’d still be time to get a message to the SLA before The Assembly.”
I let go of his hand and rub my eyes. “Can you pass me some water?”
Seb reaches for a bottle. “Keep in mind, Rivers is on a lot of medication right now too. He might not know everything he’s saying.”
“I thought of that.” I yawn, unscrewing the cap.
I drink the bottle of water in one go.
Seb raises an eyebrow. “Want another?”
“Please.”
He stands and throws a bottle for me to catch.
"I'm going to find a shower. Get some sleep." He tosses a blanket from the pile of clothes at me. "You'll feel better."
“Hey – did we get our things back?” I ask.
“We did.” He slides the bag out from beneath the bunk.
“Can I borrow the laptop?”
“Sure.” He unzips his bag and hands the computer to me. “Back in ten.”
Once Seb has gone, I climb up to the top bunk, lie down, and fire up the computer.
I search again for ‘Farah,’ but this time, I cross-reference the name with ‘Fort Saph.’
There are no results at all. In fact, there is nothing to be found anywhere that even resembles ‘Fort Saph.’
The same goes for ‘Trontan.’
The names themselves have been blacklisted.
After a few minutes of fruitless searching, I try ‘Farah’ and ‘SLA.’
I find one file on a remote server containing a short 30-second clip of the Cogs dragging Eleanor Bird out of the press conference at The Telepathe.
An image search throws up three pages of results.
Most of them are SLA memes and slogans, but the picture at the bottom of the second page catches my eye.
In it, a twenty-something young woman with dark hair piled on top of her head gives a military salute to the camera.
The photograph is dated fifteen years ago.
The woman’s name is Farah Reyes.
I zoom in. The likeness is unmistakable.
“Commander Reyes,” I mutter.
The woman from the video call.
Mum’s “Farah” is SLA.
Chapter 50
Spurred on by my discovery, I open a new window and search for ‘Albert Hickman’ next.
This search throws up ten pages of results detailing executions, criminal convictions, Vocation Party attendees, and 11+ exam results for Albert Hickman, Albert Hickmann, Albert Hickmaine, and Albert Hickmanne.
It’ll take time to cross-reference all of these with Dad and Farah.
Someone raps on the door. I snap the laptop shut as Neeve opens the door and peers in.
Her eyes dart around the room, finally locating me on the top bunk. "Where's Seb?"
Her voice is tight.
“In the shower. Are you okay?” I ask, climbing down from the bunk.
She turns and heads back the way she came. “It’s my father,” she calls over her shoulder. “He started nodding off during the call with Calvin, and then he collapsed.”
I dash after her.
"He banged his head on the counter, and now he won't open his eyes. I can't find his meds."
“Neeve, wait.”
I take the blister pack out of my pocket. “He gave me some of his meds this morning after he examined me. I didn’t take them because he needs them more.”
She snatches them out of my hand. “Thank you!”
“I’ll get Seb,” I say. “Where’s the shower room?”
"Downstairs. Last door on the left." She opens the door to the kitchenette, and before it swings closed, I see Edward slumped on the floor, his chair tilted on its side.
I start running.
I bump into Seb on the stairwell.
His dark hair is tousled and wet, and he’s carrying his t-shirt and hoodie bundled under his arm. “Aura, what –”
“Edward collapsed,” I say. “He hit his head.”
“Where is he?”
“Kitchenette. He hasn’t been taking his meds.”
By the time we get there, Edward’s eyes are open, and he’s groaning and trying to get off the floor.
The empty blister pack is on the table with the mugs and the teapot. Somehow, we need to get our hands on some more medication – for Edward and me.
Neeve moves aside as Seb dumps his dirty clothes on a chair and goes straight to Edward.
I hang back, staying out of the way.
“Don’t try to move,” Seb says, crouching down next to Edward.
“I’ve just given him his meds,” Neeve tells Seb. “Do you need anything from his lab?”
“There’s no bleeding,” Seb says, examining Edward’s head and checking his eyes. “But it looks like he has a concussion.”
“I think what you said about Calvin and The Triptych was too much for him,” Neeve whispers to me.
“It’s too much for all of us,” I say grimly.
“I had no idea there were so many Gifted people,” she says.
“Me either.” I look at her. “Until I met them.”
For a moment, we just watch Seb work on Edward.
“The plan is still on,” Neeve says. “Calvin said he’d come with us tomorrow.”
“Did he seem… different?” I ask.
“No. And he didn’t mention you or Seb or Hansel, if that’s what you mean,” she says.
I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
“What happened?” Edward croaks.
“You fell,” Seb says. “Hit your head and knocked yourself out.”
Edward groans.
“Do you know your name?” Seb asks.
“I’m Albert Hickman,” Edward says.
My eyes widen.
Seb glances at me before refocusing on Edward.
Neeve frowns and goes back to his side. "Your name is Edward Law," she says gently, putting a hand on his forehead.
“Edward Law,” Edward says, as if testing out a new name.
Seb continues asking questions to test Edward's memory and concentration, checking his vision, hearing, reflexes, and coordination.
Edward said his name was “Albert Hickman…"
My skin crawls as Mum’s words echo in my mind.
‘He wants your father dead.’
Why?
‘I overheard Dr. Aldrich.’
What did Mum overhear?
Edward might have turned Dad in, but I know he didn’t want him dead.
Aldrich is calculated.
He doesn’t leave loose ends.
With all his memory disk research, he had to know that Hickman’s memories would eventually take over. But killing Dad is Robert’s obsession, not Aldrich’s.
And Dad was in the Eden Wing long before Edward was even arrested.
So why did the doctor put Edward’s memory disk into Hickman’s body all those years ago?
What am I missing?
Once Seb is satisfied that Edward’s injury isn’t severe, he helps him to his feet. Edward's legs wobble a little, and he grabs for the table.
“Where is your room, Edward?” Seb asks.
“It’s next door,” Neeve says.
We help Edward out of the kitchenette and into his bunk.
Seb gives him a sedative so that he can rest.
"Who is Albert Hickman, Neeve?" I ask once Edward is asleep.
She takes her time answering.
“He’s the body Calvin chose to put my father in,” she says. “We think he was a Worker from the Old City. The meds usually keep Hickman’s memories under control, but when my father doesn’t take them, he forgets who he really is.”
She exhales and looks at me. “It happened in the bunker the day you decided you would stay with us.”
“I remember.”
I’d thought he was going to kill me when he used a command word to send me flying across the room, knocking the air out of my lungs.
