Dissonance - Book One

nine

"We have her. They'll be landing in 30 minutes."

"Is everything prepped?"

"Yes."

"Good. We don't have much time. As soon as she's recovering and coherent, I will debrief her on the situation. If we can get her to understand, and cooperate, we'll be at a great advantage."

"And if we can't?"

"I'll convince her."

"I know a much faster way to get her to do what we want."

"If you lay so much as a finger on her, you'll regret it."

"The only thing I regret, is allowing the General to give you so much power, but time's a ticking and yours may very well be coming to an end. There are some things, not even the General, can protect you from."

"As the only person here with any sort of pull to try and convince Ever of what we need, I'd say I'm pretty safe."

"We'll see about that. Have you thought about the fact that when she finds out the truth, the shock of it all might close her off instead of convincing her to help?"

"She's a Mod. She's designed to help."

"Is that why you're aiding Environettix?"

"I'm cooperating because of the carefully crafted deception implemented by Environettix."

"Are you saying you're switching sides?"

"No, I know the truth and I'm still helping. I'm able to see the bigger picture. That's the beauty of being an Unwanted; I can see both points-of-view. Now get off my back and go manage the landing. I want Wyler in my quarters as soon as they dock."

"He's been quarantined until they decide what to do with him."

"The decision has already been made. Tell me when you've moved him safely from the hovercraft to the isolation tank. I'll handle him from there."

***

The nurse with the kind eyes sits next to me, monitoring my status. She informs me that they will be waiting until we land to operate. I'm stable for now and it's far too risky to perform surgery at 40,000 feet in the air, especially since we're about to enter a very turbulent area, I'm told. The doctors are elsewhere, and it's just the two of us. I've remained mainly silent since she told me about Wyler. My brain is working double-time, trying to formulate a plan. The way I see it, I only have one option, which is risky and less than desirable, but this girl is the only person I can trust right now.

She stands over me taking my vitals. I stretch my fingertips, restrained by the leather handcuffs, and brush my fingers gently along her wrist to get her attention. She retracts suddenly, probably worried that I'm going to try to do something, so I throw my hands up in surrender, as the straps tighten around my wrists, indicating she has nothing to fear. She relaxes and removes the oxygen mask that's over my mouth.

"I know you don't know me," I begin.

"Everyone knows you," she cuts me off. "You're the Mod that died at the hands of Environettix and was resurrected years later as the sole Gen 3 able to procreate. You're not just a ghost. You're a legend."

"I..." I don't really know what to say. To the other Mods, I'm some sort of hero, but I feel far from it. Maybe that's it though. Maybe that's how I can get her to help me, by making her feel like I'm the savior they've been hoping for, by convincing her it's us against them.

"I need you to do something for me." I curl my fingers around the pad on which I lay and pry the beacon from where I hid it.

"Take this," I say, handing it to her. She takes a step back and looks around nervously.

"What is it?"

"Humanity's last hope."

"I thought that was you?"

"Not if I'm in the hands of Environettix. Please, take it and hide it at the headquarters."

"They'll kill me if they discover it."

"Aren't you already dead? Think about it. Your life isn't your own. You live for them. You belong to them and their demented science project. You're not human. You're just a number."

She's on the fence. I can see it in her eyes. She wants to help, but she's scared and whatever I say next could push her either way. I pray it's the direction I want her to go.

"This is all a game to them. They're playing with our lives. Don't let them win. If they do, it won't just be our lives that'll be lost, it'll be everyone, every last living soul."

She hesitates for a moment, then looks up as she quickly takes the beacon and slips it under her shirt, tucking it into the top of her pants. The plane jerks suddenly and she grabs onto a safety railing that lines the inner rim of the aircraft. We ascend into the sky at a rapid pace and before I can ask the nurse why, I look out the window to see a dense mist covering the valley floor. All that can be seen is the snowcapped mountain skyline which peaks up above the encroaching fog. I notice the nurse arranging several respirators along the wall and something tells me that this "fog" has a more sinister make-up.

"What is that?" I nod in the direction of what lies outside my window.

"Pollution," she replies. "Pollution so thick it could kill you after being inhaled for more than five minutes."

The sun is rising and it casts a brilliant yellow light across the land, which instantly turns orange and then red as it hits the polluted air. The hovercraft levels out, and through the pollution, I can begin to make out the semblance of the earth, only what lies below looks nothing like the earth I know. It looks more like an alien planet. The land is barren and white. A putrid smell wafts in through the ventilation system. It's the putrid stench from my nightmares.

"What is that horrible smell?" I ask. "The pollution?"

"No," she says, shaking her head. "It's the lake."

"The lake?"

"The Great Salt Lake. A useless body of water. Between the swarms of brine shrimp and the saltiness, it serves no purpose."

My mind starts spinning. The Great Salt Lake. The Salt Flats. That was the grainy white substance in my dreams, the one that crunched under my feet and looked like snow, but didn't quite feel like it. Utah. We're in Utah. This is the direction my aunt pointed us on the map. This is where she wanted me to come. But why? Just as I think the words, my eyes see the answer. An enormous hole lies before us. Its depth is immense, so much so, that it is one of the few manmade creations that can be seen from space. The earth spirals around and around, down, down. The aircraft makes its way deeper into the ground as we come in for a landing.

"The Kennecott Copper Mine," I state, and the sweet nurse with the kind eyes suddenly looks sullen, afraid even.

The mine. I remember it. This is the image I saw on the map in Kelly's room. This is the image from my nightmares: the tunnel that kept spiraling downward, a giant pit with endless terraces winding around and around. This is the hole that my aunt was talking about. This is what she wanted me to find. This is what my dreams were trying to get me to remember.

"I've been here before," I say aloud, more to myself than to the girl. I'm lost in a trance, stuck in my nightmare, only my nightmare is now a reality, and apparently, it's not just mine, but this girl's as well.

She slips a respirator over her mouth and then does the same for me.

"That's right," she says somberly. "Welcome home."