The Revealed Page 16

At that moment, it hits me.

  It isn’t the moon.

  It’s the sun.

  We are underwater. I am underwater.

  I turn back to her. “Rory!” Everything sways around me. “Where are we? We have to get out of here!”

  “Well, I can tell you’re taking this real well,” she snorts.

  “You’re—”

  “A member of The Revealed?” In answer to her own question, she snaps her fingers, and a flame flickers over her hand. “Never would’ve guessed it, huh?” She grins excitedly.

  I back away, pinning myself against the glass.

  She shrugs and puts out the fire. “You’ll get used to it.” She pauses, looking me over. “Deep breaths.”

  I realize I’m panting, and my arms are shaking.

  Behind Rory, the sharp-featured woman comes sprinting into the room. Her shoulders grow slack with relief when she sees me with Rory. “I’m glad you found her,” she says, then turns to me. “Lily, like I said before, just give me a chance to explain. First of all, my name is Julia.”

  I keep my back pressed firmly against the window.

  “No one here will hurt you,” she promises, then waves a dismissive hand at everyone watching. “Break it up, people. You were new once too.”

  The people milling around the hall oblige and begin filtering back to tables to eat and talk, but I still see their quick and curious glances in my direction.

  “Who are you?” I ask.

  “She’s kinda our leader,” Rory says. “Everyone here is part of a team. There are no superiors and definitely no inferiors. We work together, but Julia has been here since the beginning. She knows the most about us.”

  “Us?” I demand, horrified.

  “I’m not asking you to accept all of this yet,” Julia says, “but I’d like a chance to explain.”

  “I just want to go home.”

  “Not exactly possible,” Rory replies. “Trust me.”

  “I don’t know who to trust anymore,” I snap, shrugging away from her. “You take me here, mess with my head! That ice—” I point at the window, “came out of my fingers!”

  Rory shrugs. “Pretty cool if you ask me.”

  “It’s not normal!” I yell. “I want to go back.”

  A few people in the hall raise their eyebrows at me. Julia lifts her hands in a gesture meant to calm me down.

  I put a hand on my head. What have they done to me?

  “If you go back,” Julia says, “Westerfield will kill you just like he’s planning on killing your father.”

  That snaps some reality into me as I remember what Jeremy said. He was supposed to take me out, and Westerfield would handle my father. My stomach heaves.

  “Lily, Westerfield’s goal this entire time has been to start another world war,” Julia explains. “He wants to take over the rest of the territories around the globe, and he’ll get away with it if we don’t do something to stop him.”

  “Westerfield? He’s crazy but … a murderer?”

  “Your father’s assassination will be set up to look like it’s coming from the Eastern European Sector. If he can force them to surrender to the North American Sector, then it’s only a matter of time before the others fall as well. He’ll control everything.”

  “I don’t believe you,” I say firmly and look at Rory. She’s supposed to be my best friend. How can she do this to me? She’s been lying to me this whole time, working for The Revealed.

  “You don’t have to yet,” Julia says. “Just listen.”

  “Fine.” I cross my arms over my chest, waiting for her to start talking. It’s not like I have many choices here. I’m at the bottom of the freaking ocean.

  Julia nods. “Good. Follow me.”

  “I thought you were going to explain.”

  “And I will,” she promises, and then beckons me to follow. I walk warily to her side. Julia places her hands behind her back, walking steadily with me through the stainless steel corridors. “About fifteen years ago, a group of researchers calling their organization The Revealed requested government funding to unlock the potential of the human mind. The lead scientist in the group, Anthony Roben, wanted to better understand why humans didn’t utilize all of their brains. At a given time, in a normal person, only about ten percent of our minds are active. His theory was that by upping the percentage active at any moment, he would greatly expand human capabilities. Do you understand?”

  I nod tentatively. I’ve never heard anything about this Anthony Roben or any secret experiments.

  She continues, “His research lasted for two years before he discovered a breakthrough procedure he was convinced would change the world. The government refused to fund the program. The surgery was too risky. In order for the procedure to work, the subject had to be young enough that the brain wasn’t fully matured, but old enough that the body could handle the surgery. Eighteen was chosen as the prime age, but no parents were just going to hand over their children to the government for testing. It wasn’t possible. Dr. Roben knew he couldn’t give up on this research, however, and so he went underground, experimenting in hiding. Eventually, he perfected the surgery with the help of volunteer subjects. His child was actually one of the first to undergo the procedure. Then, he was ready to make his results public. That was eight years ago. The war struck before he had a chance to share what he’d learned. Roben was killed during the war, but I was able to protect his records and continue on with his research. After the war, we discovered what Roderick Westerfield was planning and couldn’t risk the information falling into the wrong hands. Instead, we continued recruiting new students with the hope that we could stop Westerfield and avoid another world war.”

  I glance down at my hands again. “But what does the surgery do?”

  “The procedure is complicated. But in a nutshell,” Julia says, smiling knowingly, “it expands the capacity of the mind, making it possible for humans to manipulate the elements. Fire,” she snaps her fingers, sparking a small flame. “Wind,” a breeze kicks up, blowing out the flame. “Earth,” she grabs something from her pocket; a small seed began to sprout on her open palm. “And water,” she places her empty hand on the stainless steel, and ice forms beneath her touch; the sprout in her other hand shrivels and crumbles through her fingers onto the gray counter.

  I picture the lights going out suddenly at the gala, the glass shattering throughout the building, the winds that kicked up around my face. All of the rumors are true.

  “After a while, and with more procedures, we found a trend. Only certain types of people can survive the surgery.”

  I cut in without thinking. “People died?”

  “Sacrifices must be made. Something no one is proud of, but if it means we can stop Westerfield from forcing what’s left of the world under his control, then it’s all worth it.”

  “And that’s worth all the kidnappings?”

  “We’re talking about another world war, Lily,” she says, “but in truth, we aren’t kidnapping anyone. No one is forced to stay. For that matter, I’ve never heard a student ask to leave once they understand. It has to be done this way. If we were to take the potential students in front of the whole world, we risk exposure and corruption. We have to keep ourselves hidden from the government, which is why our facility is underwater. If they found us, we’d all be dead.”

  The weight of her words hangs heavily on me. I’m not sure I believe any of it, but it doesn’t seem to matter one way or the other. By now, the government will know I’ve been taken. The world will know it was The Revealed. Julia is right. I can’t go home. Who knows what they’d do to me if they saw me? Whether I like it or not, they performed this procedure on me. I’m one of them now.

  I snap my fingers like I saw Rory and Julia do.

  No flame.

  “It takes practice to control,” Julia explains. “Let me show you to your room.” She leads me down the west wing. “We have coed living quarters for our students—” Julia motions to the line
of stainless steel doors in the hall, “but we expect all of our students will demonstrate the utmost respect for one another.”

  A spritely boy leaps from one of the rooms into the hallway before us.

  “Watch out!” he calls. He throws his hand out, and a spark of fire reflects off the walls. The tiny ball of flames grows larger. Another boy, this one with a large build and curly short hair, follows the smaller boy into the hallway only seconds later.

  The sprite throws his ball of fire into the air like it’s a baseball.

  I gasp.

  The blaze explodes, and I duck away from it.

  The curly-haired boy doesn’t even flinch as he dodges the fire. It explodes and peters out against the wall. Now the stainless steel makes sense. He pulls something from his pocket, and it rapidly begins growing. It’s green and twists quickly from his hand. Vines! He now holds a plant that snakes out toward the other boy.

  “Romni!” Julia puts her hands on her hips.

  The curly-haired boy folds his palm over the vines, and the leaves droop and turn brown.

  “Sorry Julia,” Romni says, shrugging. “We were just practicing.”

  “It was just a little fire,” the blond boy says mischievously. “It wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

  “Nero,” Romni shoots back, “you nearly took off my arm!”

  “Yeah right!” Nero rolls his eyes. “That orb was half the size of my usual ones!”

  “Boys.” Julia holds up her hand. “Classrooms are for dueling,” she scolds lightly, “not the hallways. You’re scaring our new student.”

  “Hey!” Nero’s eyes light up. “You’re Lily Atwood!”

  He walks closer and sticks out his hand. “I’m Nero.”

  I don’t take it. What if that spark thing comes out of his fingers again? He could burn off my whole hand!

  He raises an eyebrow. “It doesn’t work like that.”

  My shoulders tense.

  “The fire,” he clarifies. “We can control it.”

  “How did you …,” I trail off, watching him skeptically.

  Nero’s lips curl into a proud grin.

  Romni pushes Nero aside and smirks at me. “Don’t mind him. He’s a little stupid sometimes.”

  I look to Julia. She has one eyebrow raised at the boys.

  “Alright, that’s enough boys,” she finally says. “She’s overwhelmed as it is.”

  Nero lifts his hands in surrender and begins walking backward down the hall. “Fine, fine. We’re going down to the dining hall to get food anyways.”

  “Lunch was two hours ago,” Julia says.

  “Exactly,” Nero says, “I’m famished. See you later, Lily!” He grins before turning around.

  Romni gives me a wink before running to catch up with Nero.

  “Those two.” Julia shakes her head.

  I just stare at her, disbelief clouding my vision.

  Julia takes me to a room at the end of the hall. It looks like the college dorm rooms from old movies, only a stainless steel version. There are two desks, each with a laptop on them. The beds are neatly made with colorful sheets. Drawers are set against the wall. One is cracked open, and I can see the dark pants inside. No doubt the other drawers are filled with folded black T-shirts as well. The Revealed don’t seem to wear anything else.

  I walk inside the room and move to the empty side, which I assume is mine. The other side is untidy. The bed isn’t made and the laptop lies askew on a pillow. A black tank top is strewn across the desk.

  “Surprise!” Rory pops her head in the door.

  I jump.

  “I’m your roommate,” she says cheerfully.

  “Roommate? I’m not staying here.”

  “What do you mean? You have to stay.”

  “No, I have to go warn my father. Roderick Westerfield is planning on having him assassinated, and someone has to get my parents to safety.”

  I stride to the door, but Julia is standing in the frame. “You need our help, Lily.”

  “I don’t need anything from any of you.” I can feel myself losing control of my emotions again. “I’ve spent the last six months thinking my life was about to end and now it’s just, ‘Surprise, join the club’? No way.”

  I push past her.

  She follows. “You can’t stop Roderick Westerfield on your own. You need help. His operation is much bigger than you think. He has a whole cadre of power-hungry people working on his side—almost as expansive as our organization. Warning your father makes him aware, sure, but it doesn’t stop Westerfield. You really think your father is that blind to Westerfield’s hidden agendas?”

  I think about all the times my father warned me about Kai. He told me the entire family was rotten, not to be trusted.

  “So what?” I spin on my heels and face Julia. She’s taller than I am, but only by a bit. It’s enough that I can hide how intimidated I am by her. “You want me to just stay here and do what exactly?” I manage to ask rather defiantly.

  “We want you to train. You have abilities now. It’s important you learn how to use them. We brought you here to keep you safe. But now that you are here, we want your help.”

  “And then? How do you save my father?”

  “We stop Westerfield. He’s planning his attack on Election Day. He wants to assassinate your father and make it look like the Eastern European Sector is to blame. We’ve been tapping his phone and his computer, but he’s careful to use codes. He’s paranoid and smart. We’ve cracked some of his code though. From what we can tell, he’s going to have a sniper in the crowd on Election Day. He’s been importing illegal arms—AK-47s, to be exact.”

  “So why don’t we take him out now?”

  “It isn’t that simple. He knows we’re after him. We have to be more clever about our tactics. He was originally going to conduct the assassination at the gala. We got there in time to stop him, but someone had tipped him off about our arrival before we got there. He’d fled the scene. Election Day is a time and a place he can’t avoid. He has to be there so when the assassination takes place he won’t be considered a suspect. This means he won’t be able to flee the scene if we show up. And we’ll finally have him.”

  “Are you going to kill him?”

  “No. We’ll hold him in custody until we can gather enough evidence to prove, without a doubt, his guilt. Then we’ll hand him over to the proper authorities and let due process run its course. My guess is the justice system will be the death of him—either by rotting in a cell or by lethal injection.”

  “And his followers?”

  “We’ll take out as many of them as we can. We suspect once Westerfield is in custody, the others will disband on their own. We’ll still be here to keep an eye on things though.”

  “So?” Rory asks hopefully as she comes out of the room. “Will you stay?”

  I take a moment to think and realize it isn’t enough. “I need time,” I say, “to process all of this.”

  “We’ll give you private quarters this evening,” Julia offers.

  “Thank you.”

  “No one will disturb you until you’re ready to talk more. And I do hope you’ll come to me with any questions you have. I suspect you will have quite a few.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  The next morning, I find Rory in the dining hall. She pats the seat next to her, offering me the empty space, and I take it.

  “How are you?” she asks. “Anything you want to talk about?”

  I look around at the rest of the table; Nero and Romni sit across from us, as well as another girl with dark ringlet curls and chocolate skin. I’m not sure if I want to discuss my doubts in front of this crowd, all of them strangers, as well as members of The Revealed.

  Rory waves it off. “It isn’t anything they haven’t been through.”

  “So I’m not the only one who’s thought about leaving?”

  The girl with the curls laughs. “Everyone thinks about leaving. It’s a shock, suddenly being in this new place. You nee
d time to adjust.”

  “Lily, this is Maya. Maya, Lily,” Rory says.

  The girl sticks out her hand, and I shake it.

  “Nice to meet you,” she says, and grins widely.

  “You too,” I mumble, still afraid one of them is going to zap my hand somehow. Like these niceties are just some kind of joke.

  “Listen,” Rory says, “you have to understand. None of us came from the background you do. Most of us lost everyone in the war. We were out of school, working in the factories. I was living on the street when The Revealed found me. Both my parents were dead. I didn’t have anywhere to go. Everything but the clothes on my back had been destroyed by the war. I hadn’t eaten in two days.” Rory presses her lips together, the memory hard for her to recall. “I would have done something bad,” she admits. “I was desperate.” She looks away from me for a moment. “Being taken was the best thing that’s happened to me. Yeah, I was scared. I thought they were evil just like everyone else. But Julia gave me a room and food. After time, I also found a family. I learned the mission and gained a purpose. Now I’m working for something good. I am someone good.”

  I take in everything Rory tells me. And after a long moment of silence, all I can say is, “Rory, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

  “I didn’t want you to. I don’t like pity parties,” she waves it off with a few flicks of her wrist.

  “So I take it this means The Revealed isn’t going to kill me.”

  Rory snorts and rolls her eyes, “Of course not.”

  “Well that’s a relief, at least.”

  “Get something to eat,” Rory tells me. “I want to show you something.”

  After shoveling eggs down my throat, I follow Rory into the east wing.

  She takes me down an elevator to a basement that houses dozens of computers on desks. Next to them are shelves with rows of books, articles, and boxes, which I assume hold more papers. It reminds me of the libraries I went to with my mother before the war. A lot of books were destroyed in the war. Of course, there are still some bookstores and archives, but most information was placed in an online database that is accessible to everyone. This makes research much easier. Rarely do people—my father being an exception—keep collections like the one I am now looking at. It takes a lot of time and wealth to accumulate artifacts like these.