EXPERIMENT Page 6

  *

  Connor was quiet through the drive back home. Words had lost him and the only thing he could think about was that it was over and that he would have to give up on the idea of ever getting Lane back. Of course he had no idea how he was supposed to do that considering every thought inside his head reminded him of the ticking clock that was counting off to the days left in the extradition.

  “You can’t give up trying,” Mekha said. “This is just a bump in the road. There will be other options.”

  “This is not a bump in the road Mekha,” Connor said. “This is the end. I just have to start facing facts.”

  “What I don’t understand is what the Science Bureau has to do with this?” she said. “Maybe that’s the key to the whole thing. Maybe if we found out the answer to that, we can get someplace.”

  “And how do you suggest we find out?” Connor said. “You heard what your father said. No one knows anything more than what he just told us now.”

  “We con people,” Mekha said. “Isn’t that what we do? We figure out ways to get information and money out of people. If we try I’m sure we can crack this case.”

  Something, a thought, a visual of Dominic came to Connor’s mind. “There is something,” he said. “Something Lane’s friend said, the night they got Lane.”

  “Yeah?”

  “He said Officer Kei knew Lane’s real name,” Connor told her. “Like he knew who Lane was, even though neither Lane nor his friends have ever seen him before, and he was a stranger to them.”

  “So my dad’s right, this was a setup.”

  “Officer Kei,” Connor said. “He knew what he was doing, that much is obvious. He knew exactly what was going to happen and where to find my brother. They knew his weak spot, they knew they could force him to do this. For some reason, those twenty-five people on the list are important to them.”

  “We just have to find out why,” Mekha said. “Why the Science Bureau would go through such lengths to place someone in Black Walls.”

  “It doesn’t make any sense, does it?” Connor said. “If they wanted Lane so bad, why would they send him to some far-off prison?”

  “It must serve their purpose somehow,” Mekha said. “Maybe their end-game is something they think we won’t even consider.”

  Connor took out the e-file he had stored away into the car’s glove box, and dialed Kevin’s number.

  “Who’re you calling?” Mekha asked.

  “I need to find out who these other people are.”

  *

  Kevin placed the file in front of Connor on the table. It was obvious he had been drinking while he was waiting for Connor to arrive. “This is just some initial research,” Kevin said. “Gives you details of the whereabouts of the twenty-five people on the list. You’d be happy to know that nine of these people have been put behind bars for some felony. All of them have shady histories. Seven of those have no families to speak of, just friends who aren’t that concerned with having them gone obviously. The remaining sixteen are listed in various missing persons’ reports in all thirteen regions.”

  “Missing persons?” Connor said. “No one knows where they are and they don’t care?”

  “Well there’s a reason for that,” Kevin said, pouring himself a fresh drink. “All sixteen of these people who’ve disappeared are homeless. No homes, no jobs, no families, nothing to trace them back to.”

  “In short, easy to make them disappear without creating a fuss.”

  “Exactly,” Kevin said. “Makes you think they’re the type who hate fuss.”

  “In that case,” Connor said. “Let’s create some fuss.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “They obviously want this to go down quietly,” Connor said. “That’s what they want from Lane too, they want the case to fizzle out, so people can’t remember it. Pretty sure if it wasn’t for that reporter, what was her name, Chang something, it would have died out much earlier.”

  “So?”

  “So,” Connor said. “We make sure this case doesn’t fade. We’ll make so much noise, people will be forced to remember this one for a long time to come.”

  “How exactly will you manage that?”

  “I’ll file official complaints,” Connor said. “I’ll even talk to that reporter, she must know how to help me. With a bit of help we can cause trouble for them. There’s still a week left in the transfer, right? We can still do something.”

  The TV switched itself on, Connor saw the tiny red light appear and then the holographic image burst through the furniture. Someone had programmed it to be turned on.

  “I set it up to turn on for any news regarding the Lane case,” Kevin said, grabbing the remote and turning on the volume. “I guess it must have found something.”

  “Reports state that the decision was made two days ago, but that the public is getting to know about this only now,” a reporter said. Not Chang this time, but some random face Connor couldn’t recognize. “It is speculated that this kind of rash decision making policy might have some negative effects on the Zyre campaign and Commander Krole might lose some votes, but it doesn’t look like he’s concerned about that.”

  “What decision are they talking about?”

  Kevin pressed a button on the remote and the TV took them to the beginning of the story.

  “Extradition orders for all detainees in Holding Cells have been passed, and all prosecuted convicts will be transferred within the next twenty-four hours.”

  The rest of the words were a blur to Connor. “Are they saying they’re transferring him tomorrow?”

  Kevin turned off the TV and the image went away. He stood up and tried to calm Connor down. “It doesn’t change anything, Con—”

  “It changes everything!” Connor snapped. He felt like he was running out of air. He had to sit back down on the couch and let his brain process this new information. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

  Kevin just stood there like he didn’t know how to respond.

  *

  The nightmare clung to his brain.

  Connor tried to shake it off but finally had no choice but to check the time. It was too early for the allocated visiting hours, they had allowed him to see his brother one last time but he wasn’t sure if that was something he was ready for. On one hand, he couldn’t wait to see Lane and on the other he couldn’t face him. Despite all his promises to Lane, spoken and unspoken, he hadn’t been able to come through for him. He could tell himself he wasn’t going to give up, and he could still keep trying, but there was no denying the fact that he was losing his brother, in all respects he had lost him already. No one ever came out of Black Walls, everyone knew that. Lane must know it too. He had seen a kind of resolve in his voice the last time they met, it was like he had somehow come to terms with something that Connor had trouble even thinking about. Maybe he knew something Connor didn’t.

  Connor had been drinking all night and it still wasn’t enough. Not enough to kill the hurt. Not enough to kill the constant reminder his brain kept sending out that he had failed. That there was nothing he could do to save Lane and he had never felt this alone or that helpless. The tears came to his eyes without warning, and he wanted to get this phase over with because come tomorrow, he was going to have to face Lane and he had to be strong for him.

  It was the least he could do.

  *

  The Administration Building Holding Cells,

  Zyron Region-One

  Kevin went in first.

  He came back out, and Connor knew what he was going through just by looking at his face. Connor was about to go in, when Kevin gripped his arm. “I told him we weren’t giving up,” he said. “Lie to his face if you have to, but don’t take away that hope no matter what he tells you.”

  *

  At least his arm was no longer in a sling and physically he didn’t look any worse than before. This time Lane actually managed a smile when Connor went in. He was probably trying to do the same thing
for Connor that Connor was supposed to do for him. Connor had expected him to be broken but no matter what was going on inside him, Lane was keeping up a cheerful front. He had a beard, and it was strange seeing him that way, he looked all grown-up.

  “What’s the matter don’t they have barbers in this place?” Connor said when he went to sit across from Lane.

  “You could just say you don’t like my new look.”

  “It makes you look older,” Connor said. “And by definition that makes me look older so yeah, I don’t like it.”

  “Kevin didn’t like it much either.”

  “For once he might be right.”

  There was silence and Connor was afraid he would never have the kind of words to fill it up. Thankfully, Lane didn’t allow it for long. “Are we going to talk about it or do you want us to keep ignoring it?”

  “Talk about what?”

  “The elephant in the room, Con. I’m going away and there’s no telling when I’ll ever see you again.” Even though Lane had managed saying that with a straight face Connor could see the effort he had to do to make it possible.

  “Hey,” Connor said. “I haven’t given up, alright?”

  “Con, please—”

  “Don’t,” Connor said, leaning in and whispering. “I’ll get you out one way or another, Lane, doesn’t matter if you’re in the Holding Cells or Black Walls. I’m not giving up, and I’m not going to let you do it either, you hear me?”

  Of all the things that had happened, this was the one that broke Lane’s resolve. “I’m going away Con,” he said, his eyes gleaming. “The least you could do is not lie to my fucking face!”

  The guard hit his baton on a table and the room rang with the noise. “Keep your damn voice down!” he yelled.

  Connor turned to Lane. “Look,” he said. “I know you’re angry, you have every right to be. I was supposed to help you out, and I haven’t done anything so far—”

  “I’m not angry at you,” Lane said. “Don’t you get it, Con? We’re born this way. We were born with a deficiency—a gene that makes us different from the Zyre. And that means we’re forced to live these fucked up lives forever, that’s our curse, Con. All of this, its not your fault, and its not mine, it’s the fault of that one missing gene.”

  There was nothing Connor could say in response that would make a good argument to what Lane was saying. He was right, they were cursed. All of this running that they had to do, all the problems they had to suffer simply because they were born Citizens. It was unfair. Unfair that one faction had that kind of control over their lives.

  “I want you to say goodbye to me,” Lane said. “I need a proper send-off I don’t want some bullshit optimisms from you while I’m waiting for my life to be over.”

  “Lane, don’t say that.”

  “Please Con,” Lane implored. “Who knows when you’ll have the chance to give me what I need again.” This time there were tears in his eyes that he wasn’t even trying to hide. Connor stood up and pulled his brother into a hug. He was certain the guards were watching them, but they said nothing, didn’t break them up. They had searched Connor outside and they must have done the same for Lane, they probably didn’t have any reason to feel threatened.

  “I’m sorry,” Connor said. “I’m really sorry this is happening.”

  Lane said nothing in response, but Connor could feel his brother gripping him harder.

  CHAPTER 6

  BLACK WALLS

  Black Walls Detention Camp,

  Delta-Bay, Zyron Region-Two

  Everything happened in fast forward after the confession. Lane couldn’t remember most of it. Not that he missed much. His memory started going weak right after he left Connor in the Holding Cells meeting area. It marked the end of something, of everything as it was and Lane knew it. Knew he was a criminal now and people were going to treat him that way. They wouldn’t know the truth and as usual they wouldn’t care. All they did care about was image, and Lane’s image was nothing but a mug-shot right next to the picture of a dead girl on television.

  Lane had never really cared what people thought of him, as long as he knew what the people who loved him thought of him and more importantly, what Connor believed. If his brother thought that Lane killed someone then he was really screwed, but Lane had to believe wasn’t the case. Not that it made a difference. Neither Connor nor Kevin could help him. They weren’t rich. They were what The Administration liked to call Citizens. They were workers, parts of a machinery, nothing more. That’s what Connor was, and that’s what Kevin was and that’s who their parents were before they died and left them alone to fend for themselves.

  The first time Lane arrived at the Detention Camp, they took him inside some chamber and asked him to strip. In retrospect, that was really the beginning of everything. Of never having control of his body or his life again, and the beginning of being humiliated and tortured every day just because no one would stand up and speak out for a Citizen like him. Because for people like them, there were no laws. They lived just as long as the Zyres wanted them to live, and they were safe just as long as the Zyres didn’t want entertainment.

  And as if he didn’t know that already, they brought him here to some concentration camp to further drill that point into his head. The chemical shower they made him stand under burned his skin, especially where they hurt him back in the Holding Halls, but no one seemed to care. Then the stench of chemical finally stopped and Lane realized there was only warm water, but it didn’t help matters much, his body was still on fire. They handed him a gray jumpsuit to wear after that, and took him to a hallway right next to the chamber.

  A few doors down they stopped and led him into an office.

  “I’m Commander Jones,” the man sitting at the desk said and kept writing in his file just as the official in the Holding Cells had. But this was no holding cell. This was a place so far-off that one needed a plane ticket to arrive here from Region-One, and despite Kevin’s scores, Connor couldn’t even afford a bus ticket most days. Everything they earned they blew it on necessities and alcohol.

  Lane wanted so badly to beg for them to let him go back. He wanted to run far away from the fact that this would be his life from now on, but the gray uniform he was wearing was supposed to make him remember. His life was set in stone and he had to deal with it, only he had no clue how he was going to manage it.

  “You need to sign these documents,” the Commander said. He turned the file around towards Lane and handed him a pen.

  Connor always said look before you sign anything. “What’s this?”

  The Commander grinned as if it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard. “Just sign it, kid.”

  “I need to know what it says first.”

  “It says we own your ass for as long as you live, that’s what it says.”

  “I’m not signing that.”

  The burning pain in the back of his knee was the guard using a shock-prod. The guard shocked him again and Lane staggered to the floor on his knees. The urge to hit someone, at least one of them, became persistent but he held himself back. That kind of behavior always made things worse back at the Cells.

  “I always enjoy teaching new ones a lesson,” the Commander said, and as if on cue, the two guards started beating him with their batons while the Commander just stood there and watched. Even when Lane started begging for them to stop, told them he was ready to sign anything, they wouldn’t listen. Lane didn’t think they were going to quit until his heart stopped but they did stop eventually. When they did, Lane was on the floor, his face against the carpet and the metallic taste of blood in his mouth making him nauseous. His one eye was already swelling up and he couldn’t keep it open.

  “Bring him here,” the Commander said, still perched on the edge of that table. The guards didn’t even bother trying to see if Lane could get up, they knew he couldn’t. They hauled him off the floor, made him stand in front of the Commander and the Commander pushed his pen in Lane’s direction
, the file right next to his face and open to the sign here page. Lane took the pen and with trembling fingers, he signed his name which he realized he had forgotten for at least a few seconds. Blood smeared across the surface of the glowing electronic paper as he scrawled on the dotted line, but the Commander didn’t seem to mind. “For the record,” the Commander said. “The papers you just signed confirmed that instead of receiving the death penalty, you’ve agreed to become part of a program we call ‘The Experiment’.”

  The what?

  “That’s all you need to know for now,” Commander Jones said. “Just be glad we’re not putting you in the damn chair.”

  *

  When the guard hauled him to his cell, Lane was still in pain. Bones everywhere on his body had started to hurt and the way the guards had handled him bringing him here it became so much worse. His side of the cell had a single rusty bed and some faded sheets. They tossed him on the bed, didn’t even care that he had started groaning in pain. He barely heard the locking mechanism on the cell door go into lock position, and was alarmed by someone’s presence in the room.

  “Hey,” said his cell-mate. Lane turned his head to glance at the man who was all tattoos and dark strength, but possessed a strangely compassionate face. Lane batted his eyes, but didn’t have the strength to speak. Thankfully, the man understood.

  “Looks like you got the Commander Jones’ new arrival special,” the man said. “Did you refuse to sign the documents?”

  Lane said nothing. Didn’t want to or couldn’t, what difference did it make? But the guy wouldn’t stop talking. “I’m Martinez,” he said. “They brought me here for treason five years ago. Haven’t seen sunlight ever since.”

  Oh God, I’ll never see the light of day again.

  Just like I’d never see Connor. Or Kevin. Or Arianna or Dominic or Mackenzie.

  Lane squeezed his eyes shut against the pain but it wasn’t helping.

  “Hey talk to me,” Martinez said. “What’re you in here for?”