Amaranth: Amaranth #1, page 14
“The full potential?” asks Mira, her eyes wide open. “What exactly do you mean?”
“Well, in his last message he said that the amount of information contained exceeds simple memories. There might be another layer of data buried.”
“I don’t want to be a party pooper, but where is this gathering?” Emily cuts them off as the elevator doors open. These overly technical discussions never interested her. That’s why she never pursued a career in science.
Mira gets out first and beckons them to do the same.
“You will see.”
They climb down to the main floor and work their way to the dining hall, but then branch off into a nearby corridor. Emily’s stomach rumbles with frustration, and she cannot help but look back with a stealthy, almost disappointed look.
They take the emergency stairs and sink into the bowels of the ship. Sky seems lost in thought as usual, but his energy shows that he is nostalgic. What can he possibly be keeping inside like this? This is something to work on once this whole Brotherhood thing is sorted out.
Back in the hallways, her vision has to adjust to the faint blue emergency lighting along the walls. She coughs at a strong ocean smell that fills her lungs.
The lower levels. So, this is what they look like. Two years ago, the Incident flooded this area, in the very spot where the search team disappeared. According to Dad, this should be the Mavericks’ stronghold.
No one dares to speak out while Mira leads them deeper into a network of derelict corridors. Mold has infested every discernable nook and cranny. Large dark clumps glow in muted hues of blue. A slight buzz on the ground ripples through Emily’s knees as they come to a stop.
“Here we are,” says Mira in a clear voice. “We must show our wristbands at the door.” Mira feels the wall looking for the reader, her eyes squinting in the darkness.
“Is it safe?” asks Sky, looking around him.
“You really should get out more often,” Emily sighs, rolling her eyes.
“Didn’t anyone suspect the Paragon could arrest us for breaking the law? This party is illegal.”
“I don’t see any officers around. Stop whining and—”
Emily shushes as she follows his gaze to the ceiling, where a red glow flashes at regular intervals. A surveillance camera.
Mira glances at it too, then casually says, “They are not operational. The wires have been severed. Look.” The naked wires are hanging in a ray of bluish light. Just what they needed.
“Too late to run now.” Emily winks at Sky, and he grunts while she suppresses a laugh.
Mira dabs at something on the wall, then waves her arm. Almost impossible to spot for anyone who has never been here is the eye of a reader. Mira doesn’t look like it, but she is sharp-eyed.
Lower levels. Illegal party. Hidden reader. This setup is most definitely the work of the Mavericks.
See Mom? It will be over soon.
The invisible eye recognizes their wristbands one by one. Only when the three of them are done does the contraption in the wall slide quietly open to the din of music.
They step into some kind of vestibule with no light filtering through. There is something exciting about total darkness. Thanks to her sharp senses, Emily can feel Sky, who’s a little nervous on her left. For fifteen seconds, some mechanism whirrs around them, shutting the entrance behind and slowly opening up to a dancing crowd. What kind of security system is this? Probably very sophisticated to slip under the Paragon’s radar.
Emily’s eardrums are buzzing with repetitive rhythmic music, toned down by a melodious male voice that rushes into the vestibule. Let the party begin!
“Over here,” Mira mouths silently, her face lit by the strobe light.
It’s a large abandoned warehouse, the ceiling higher than usual. Heavy crates are scattered around, and people dance to the beat of techno music. There must be more than a hundred people in this room alone. It’s hard to believe they are under nearly a kilometer of water.
Sky’s face lights up as soon as they mingle with the crowd. He’s taking a liking to it.
Emily scans the crowd to see whether she recognizes anyone. Mira skitters off, and Emily puts off her search. Nearby, on a retrofitted stage, Chris is busy chatting with Leander, who spots them first. He leaves Chris hanging to greet them.
Emily laughs when she sees Chris also went for a tux. Sky’s face is priceless.
“You’ve got some competition,” says Emily in Sky’s ear. He grunts, displeased.
Chris gives Emily a kiss on the cheek and Sky glares at him in defiance, a sharp contrast with his gentle face. Chris drives them a little further back, where the crates shelter them from the music.
“Not bad for a farewell party, don’t you think?” Chris says as he takes a sip of a beer-like drink.
“Don’t fool yourself into thinking that this party was thrown for you,” retorts Sky, his serious air back in full force.
“True that, but why not take advantage of it, my lord?” Chris says, laughing in his shy and arrogant way.
Chris is awfully cute. After the Brotherhood, he will be her next mission to tackle. Mom, I swear.
“Relax.” Mira hands a glass to Sky and another to Emily, the same drink Chris is sipping. It’s velvety, a blend of beer with a dash of something sweet to drown out the bitterness.
They go closer to the stage where the party is in full swing, and Emily lets the music sweep her away. Sky stays close to her, turning his back on Chris.
It’s so … strange. This kind of atmosphere is rare on the Ark. Some iconic songs are available on the common network, but after a while, you know them all by heart. However, this type of music, these regular beats, this guttural voice, as if possessed… It’s euphoric. Chris doesn’t hesitate to grab her waist and let the flow of music guide their steps. He even gives her a taste of his beer now and then.
Before she knows it, Emily is sipping the third glass Chris offered. Sky isn’t around, so she asks Leander, who tells her he has gone to get something else to drink.
Emily leans over one of the large crates to come to her senses. The alcohol gives her renewed energy for now, but on an empty stomach, it’s never a winner. She feels almost as dizzy as she did at graduation when she and Sky had been drinking champagne. Good times, although the next morning had been a mess. According to the others, they had a lot of fun.
Well, so much for her potentially dangerous maiden look. Her reflexes are not at their best, anyway. She takes a bigger sip that tingles her nose.
Sky still hasn’t come back, and Mira is busy ogling Chris. Leander joins Emily, who puts down her glass a little more forcefully than she first meant to.
“Hey, be careful,” says Leander, who catches her glass just before it spills and splashes her feet.
“How long has it been?” she says, staring at Mira who wears her elegant dress with grace. She is not as stiff as she looks. She dances with Chris in a goofy way, an easy smile on his face.
Leander follows Emily’s gaze, then says, “Does it show that much? I never had the courage to tell her.”
“Are you kidding? She is leering at him.”
“Oh, that! Yeah, I know. But I talked it over with Chris and he said he’d straighten it all out with her.” Leander is frowning while shaking his head to himself.
“Okay, I don’t think we’re talking about the same thing.”
“Forget what I said.”
Emily smiles as she rewinds what he just said. “You love her, don’t you? I can help you make it happen.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. It has to come from her. When you push things, there’s only—”
“It’s pretty simple,” cuts Emily with a sigh. “The sooner you tell her, the sooner she’ll be yours.”
Emily smirks as she thinks about what the future might hold for her. Lord Chris of the Bates family: She glances at him while he sings at the top of his lungs. They grew up together, but if something was going to happen between them, it would have by now. Emily pouts.
“Are you going to tell Chris that you love him?” retorts Leander, still spellbound by Mira.
“What are you talking about?” Her face feels warm all of a sudden. Where’s her drink again? “I’m not that kind of girl,” she adds before groping for her glass.
“Don’t wait until Sky realizes that.”
“What difference does it make? We’re best friends. Nothing is ever going to happen between us.”
“That’s the point.” His comment is left hanging, and he pulls her closer to the stage, at a safe distance from Chris and Mira. Emily must focus so she doesn’t trip.
The lights go out and the atmosphere quickly shifts. The intoxicating music gives way to the fast beating of drums from the stage. Each beat sends a shiver down Emily’s spine. Rain sticks and other instruments she has never heard before joining them, reviving an ancient tribe of Earth celebrating the power of the gods. They are on their territory, in their jungle, in the dead of the night.
Four dancers enter from the sides of the warehouse and wow the audience with their blazing flames that make the crowd ecstatic. Fiery rings swirl around, creating a truly hypnotic dance. The next moment, the dancers burst onto the stage with an acrobatic entrance and whip the air with flaming chains that hiss, with the drumbeats following their every move. The speed at which the tongues of fire waltz through the air is frightening: snakes ablaze. A reddish glow stains the frenzied crowd.
Sweat sticks to Emily’s skin, the heat growing more and more overpowering with each breath blown by the beating chains. She almost feels as if she is back on that balcony during the simulation.
A final bare-chested dancer joins the group by making a dramatic somersault with a large, flaming stick that he twirls. The burning glow lights up his thick beard and gives him a wild look. He hits the ground, which flares up and sends sparks flying in all directions. The percussion becomes angrier, each blow beating throughout the warehouse. The bearded dancer performs a spin and breathes out a long blast of fire towards the ceiling, as if reaching out to the sky. Emily’s skin cooks under the gust of warm air as the heat spills out in the room.
The fire’s glow lights up a familiar face a few meters to her right. Emily takes advantage of the thunderous applause and Leander’s distraction to sneak through the crowd.
His color does not lie: a yellow that defuses any hostile emotion—a magnetic sun. It’s a wonder it had so little effect on Reyes.
Milo stands there, clapping, but Emily pulls him back hard and, when he meets her gaze, she gags him with her hand. He meekly follows her, knowing that resisting is pointless. She leads him away from the cheering crowd to a corner of the room concealed by several crates. Emily wrenches Milo’s arm and presses his youthful face against the wall.
It’s time for some answers.
She pulls the pen out of her pocket and presses the tip on Milo’s wristband. It doesn’t glow red as she had hoped. Is he in the passenger records?
“Where is the Brotherhood?” she asks in the hollow of his ear. “How did you escape?”
“You already know the answers,” he says with unnerving calm. “Don’t waste your time.” Emily’s body is pressed against his to make sure he can’t wrench himself free. She can feel Milo’s rapid heartbeat pounding against his rib cage.
“I’ll be the judge of that. Tell me where I can find the leader of the Brotherhood.”
“Even if you knew, it wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference. He doesn’t care about you or anything else.” Mom’s murderer doesn’t care? Although it disgusts her, at least he won’t stop her from coming to him.
“You haven’t answered my question,” she insists, tightening her grip. “Answer. Now.”
“Or what? Are you going to kill me? Or take me back to your prison?” he scoffs, breathlessly. “That’s the problem with all of you, it’s your law and nothing else. You’ve lost your sense of humanity.” Emily gives him some space so he can get his face off the wall. He stretches his neck to have a better look at her and licks his chapped lips.
“I’m not the one jeopardizing thousands of people and generations of effort to keep the survivors of the Flood alive,” she says.
“What’s the point of saving those who will persecute us once we get to the ground? I’d sooner die.”
The certainty that shines in his eyes is truly admirable. A force … as powerful as his aura claims. The last time she saw such determination was in Mom’s eyes when she and Dad argued shortly before she was sentenced. Mom had insisted on going back to her proteges and taking the risk of exposing herself further, even though suspicions of her betrayal had already been raised. Dad did everything he could to hold her back, but there was nothing he could do. Mom had gone back to continue her work among the Mavericks like Milo. Did he know her? Probably not. He must have only been a kid at the time. But the other members of the Brotherhood…
“People like you will get us killed,” she says more insistently. “Pursuing an illusory dream at the cost of others…”
Sacrificing lives for nothing—Mother was a beautiful, generous, and loving soul. And what did she get in return? A public execution.
“What the Brotherhood does is lie to itself and to all of us,” she adds. Milo turns his body to face her, and she doesn’t stop him. His gaze softens.
“Where is your leader?” she repeats, her drunkenness making her a little sluggish. “He came to me during the simulation, so I guess he doesn’t mind if I know who he is.”
“Neal knows what he’s doing and there’s nothing you can do to stop him. It’s already too late.”
“Then tell me where Reyes is.” Powerful hands suddenly haul her back. Emily curses the alcohol for slowing her reflexes. Her neutralizing shot is a total failure and before she knows it, a blade presses against her throat.
Milo coughs while he catches his breath and Emily turns around to see the specimen of a man holding her captive. He is bare-chested, his cold sweat clinging to her. A dancer.
He tightens his grip on her and makes sure Milo is okay. Then he threatens Emily.
“Dan! It’s all right. Just let her go.”
“I don’t need your help,” she spits, still numb.
“No way,” says Dan, the dancer. “She will alert the others. Turn around while I get rid of her.”
“Is this really how you want to make things different? We promised we wouldn’t stoop to their level. We must change now.”
“Who says she won’t hurt us?” Milo is looking right through her. Emily can’t believe her life is in the hands of a bloodthirsty Maverick. She hates to admit it, but she really screwed up on this one.
“She doesn’t know.” Dan and Milo exchange a glance that makes Emily regret not being able to read minds. Their auras reveal no more than their current emotions. Distrust. Anger. Anxiety. A contradiction typical of terrorists who are on the verge of destroying everything they know.
“By the way,” says Milo as he draws closer to her, resolute. “Reyes is safe and nothing you can do will change that. Not after what she’s been through.”
“I gave her a choice.” Emily can only imagine the torture Yasmina must have put her through. “All she had to do was talk.”
Milo turns his back on her and for a second, his energy flickers. Emily doesn’t see the blow to her temple coming.
Her ears ring and Milo’s face freezes before her eyes. Sweaty and suffused with sadness.
For Emily.
15
SKYLER
“What made you change your mind?”
Chris’s pupils are more dilated than usual, his lips still wet from the orange liquid he just swallowed for the umpteenth time. At this stage, it’s almost methodical, sipping the bottle after each sentence.
“Don’t get too excited,” Skyler shouts over the music. “I didn’t do it for you.”
“Who did you do it for then?” For his own sanity. To live in peace and move on, so he doesn’t have to remember that the only thing Chris cares about is himself and that he would drag in anyone foolish enough to believe his wise advice.
Skyler used to, but not anymore.
“What difference does it make?” says Skyler, stoic. “I’m here. That’s what you wanted.”
“Don’t be so heartless,” replies Chris, taking another sip. “I know that deep down, you’re going to miss me.”
“Don’t make me wish I hadn’t come.” Skyler swiftly rids himself of his glass, put off by Chris, who is reeking of alcohol.
“Are you dwelling on the past again?” Chris staggers towards him: too close. “Do you think all the moments we shared ended when your brother killed himself?”
“You killed him,” says Skyler in a hollow voice, his face numb. “If it wasn’t for you, he wouldn’t have died.”
“It’s easy to blame someone else when you can’t stand your own mistake. Let’s put the past behind us and start over. I don’t want this night to be a reckoning.” Their breathing quickens.
“I can’t forget,” drops Skyler, teeth clenched, the words burning in his mouth. “His death haunts me every day. That day destroyed my family. My life.”
“Yeah, well…” Skyler stops Chris’s jerky motion and pushes the bottle out of reach. Things will get out of hand quickly if he keeps drinking.
“You’ve had enough to drink now.”
“If you say so, doctor,” he says tauntingly. Chris is sweating profusely, deeply intoxicated. One more drop will get the better of him.
Should he trust Chris?
Skyler shouldn’t be here. Coming to this party was a bad idea.
He walks away, ready to let Emy know he’s leaving, but Chris catches up.
“There’s something I’ve been wanting to tell you. Maybe this will help you understand.” Skyler sighs loudly and wrests himself free.
“You have ten seconds.”
