“It’s the simple pleasures,” Hatch said.
Abigail began shaking. McKenna leaned into her. “Don’t say anything.”
“You’ll notice an improvement to the process. Since the rats can’t digest fabric, what’s left of the clothes wreaks havoc on the Rabisk machines. So we tried something new. We created what we refer to as ‘the dinner jacket.’ Not what most exclusive diners are looking for, this jacket is actually edible. It’s made of dried vegetable and fruit textile. It’s like wearing apricot leather. It’s nothing you’re going to want to serve to guests, but the rats like it.
“They say clothes make the man, and you are what you eat. I think we just proved both statements correct. But I digress. Our dinner guests are waiting. Contestant number two. You might recognize this one.”
As the conveyor started again, the first man’s bones dropped into the bowl and were quickly covered by the teeming swarm. The second man was screaming loudly enough that they could hear him even above the frenzied squeal of the rats. Cassy recognized the man as one of the crewmen from the Joule—the one who had tried to kiss her. She turned away.
“No fair looking away,” Hatch said. “Turn back, or I’ll slow down the chute so he can suffer more.”
Cassy forced herself to watch. Even before the man was completely consumed, the third man began rolling down the chute, another crewman from the Joule.
“Now notice what he’s wearing,” Hatch said. He suddenly laughed. “I sound like I’m an announcer at the Miss Ratworld fashion show: our third lovely contestant is wearing an inedible creation by Christian Dior.” He laughed again. “I was saying, the third guard was a little more defiant than I preferred, so he didn’t get the dinner jacket. He got the leather corset. The significance? The corset protects his vitals. So that means the rats will have to burrow through his body to get to the really juicy stuff. It also means that he will be fully alive and feeling all of it. Some of these unlucky corset wearers not only get to see their own bones; they can see rats burrowing under their skin.
Abigail gagged.
“I know, it sounds unpleasant. It is, of course. Far more so than you could imagine. But I point out his attire because the one of you whom I choose to feed to the rats will be wearing the same thing—leather armor. I think with all this buildup and anticipation, it would be a shame to have it over so quickly.”
“Just take me!” Quentin shouted. “You deranged madman.”
“Noble Quentin,” Hatch said. “Cool your tongue before I cut it off like I did to the other inhabitant of the monkey cages, which is exactly where I’m returning you. I hope you’re not too disappointed.”
Quentin gritted his teeth. “I’m good. I like monkeys.”
“Ah, I miss that. That’s one of the things I always liked about you, Q. Your unabashed sense of humor. Joking in the face of terror. What a remarkable gift. You would have made a grand king, maybe even my successor if you hadn’t gotten so . . . stupid.”
“I could never fill your shoes, Hatch,” Quentin said. “Actually, I couldn’t fit my feet into them, they’re so small. What do they say, small shoes, small . . . brain.”
Tara laughed.
“That’s one for you, Tara. And you, Quentin, you jest with the boldness of a man whose fate is already decided. But just because your fate is sealed, don’t believe that I can’t make it worse. Trust me, I can always make it worse. There are other things I can cut off besides just your tongue. And, if not to you, perhaps I could arrange something for your girlfriend, Tara.”
Tara blanched.
“I’m sorry, sir,” Quentin said.
“I thought that might get to you. And for the record, Frank, the young man formerly known as Zeus, isn’t in the running for the bowl either. His destiny is with something as unspectacular as the sprinkler system in the courtyard. He will be tied to a chair. Then, as each sprinkler makes its rounds—you know the sound, cha, cha, cha, cha—each time that water hits him, it will burn like acid. It will likely take hours to finish him off. Imagine that, burning him alive with water. What a fascinating twist. We’re all very excited about this. We plan to record it for posterity.
“In fact, the guards talked me into having him installed with a heart monitor so we can call the exact time of death. They’re doing that because they’ve already started putting down bets on how long he’ll survive.” Hatch’s voice lowered. “I give you forty-five minutes.”
Tessa’s eyes filled with tears as she looked at Zeus. Zeus just looked down, defeated.
The alarm began to beep again. With the meat devoured, the rats’ brilliance had already started to fade. The sliding doors began to close on the bowl.
“Show is over,” Hatch said. “Got to save some for later. I hope you enjoyed it. More important, I hope it inspired you. You will now be taken back to your rooms. Get some rest, if you can. I will be meeting with you in the morning. And I have a very big surprise for you. All of you. Sleep well, Glows.” The speaker clicked, and the room went silent.
The guards unhooked the youths, then took them all back to their cells.
“What do you think his surprise is?” Tessa asked Quentin.
“No idea,” Quentin said. “But I can wait to find out.”
34
Number Seventeen
Just an hour after sunrise, the Electroclan was brought back to the same room above the bowl. It was the one room designed so that all of them could be chained down together. After the guards had again chained them to the floor, the lights were turned off. The room was lit only by the dim combined glow of the youths.
It was a full hour later when a door opened and a voice spoke from the darkness. “I’ll never get tired of seeing that.” Dr. Hatch stepped forward, followed by two guards, Bryan, Kylee, and a young woman none of them had ever seen before. “You really are remarkable creatures,” Hatch said. “Granted, trying to control you is like herding cats, but as physical specimens, you are truly remarkable.”
“Hey, Q-tip,” Bryan said to Quentin.
“Hey, moron,” Quentin said. “Still wetting the bed?”
Bryan blushed. He turned to Hatch. “Can I hit him?”
“No,” Hatch said.
“You always were such a lapdog,” Quentin said.
“All right, go ahead,” Hatch said.
Bryan walked up to Quentin and slugged him in the stomach. Quentin’s hands were tied behind his back, so he was unable to completely double over. When he could speak, he said, “What a coward. You wait to hit me when my hands are tied?”
“What did you call me?” Bryan asked.
Quentin looked up at him. “I don’t know. I called you so many things. Did you mean ‘lapdog,’ ‘moron,’ or ‘coward’?”
Bryan slugged him again. “What did you call me?”
“What, you want me to come up with something else?”
“Stop it,” Hatch said. “Get back over here.”
Bryan slapped the top of Quentin’s head, then walked back.
“Chicken,” Quentin said.
“I told you I had a surprise for you this morning. I think this one is really going to blow your minds.”
“Who’s the girl?” Zeus asked.
“You always were one to jump the gun, Frank. This young lady is the surprise I promised you. Come up here, darling. Let’s give these Glows a look at perfection.”
The young woman stepped forward. She looked to be the same age as them, only there was something older about her. She was tall and shapely and had long black hair that fell to the middle of her back, with a magenta streak running down the middle. Her face was narrow and pretty, with pale skin and radiant blue eyes. She wore tight designer jeans and knee-high leather boots. She carried herself with a confidence that could be construed as arrogance or cruelty. It was obvious that she looked down on the other Glows as inferior.
“It’s been written that the first will be last and the last will be first,” Hatch said. “You knew there were originally seve
nteen electric children. You’ve met sixteen of them. Let me introduce you to number seventeen. Zara.”
The youths all looked at her, wondering where she had come from.
“Did you know about her?” Tara asked Quentin. Quentin shook his head.
“I remember her,” Nichelle said.
“No, he must have just found her.”
“No, I didn’t just find her,” Hatch said. “In fact, the opposite was true. I knew her before any of you, except Nichelle. Zara was the second child we found. Nichelle is right. Even though you don’t remember, most of you have met her. Quentin, you were five years old when the two of you played together. But that didn’t last. Zara was so unique, I decided to keep her to myself. No one but me knew about her. A good card player never shows his hand.”
He turned back. “Say hi to your siblings, Zara.”
“Yeah,” she said, staring at them as if it were the last thing she wanted to do.
“There you go,” Hatch said. “I know what you’re all thinking. What can she do? What’s her power? This is why I kept her apart. She can do it all. While Nichelle can diminish your power, Zara can replicate it.”
“Vey could do that,” Zeus said.
“There is no Vey,” Hatch shouted. “Vey is dead. While Zara, as you can see, is very much alive. And, like those of you who once were with me, she has been trained and sharpened like a deadly tool.”
“You’re a tool,” Torstyn said.
“Another mark on Torstyn’s run for the bowl,” Hatch said. “You’re not making this hard for me.”
“Looking at you is hard for me,” Torstyn said.
“Well, don’t worry. You won’t have to for much longer.” He turned to Zara. “As I was saying, Zara can replicate your powers. But the best part is, anything you can do she can do even better. So, this morning we’re going to take some inventory. Zara, if you will . . .”
Zara began to rise off the ground.
“Great,” Tessa said. “She can fly.”
“She’s not flying, per se,” Ian said. “It’s magnetic repulsion. It’s like the opposite of Kylee.”
Zara floated to the end of the line, where McKenna was chained. She held out her palm in front of McKenna’s face.
“Zara,” Hatch said. “This first Glow is McKenna.”
As Zara looked at her, Zara’s hand turned to fire. Then she turned it into an intense flame so hot that even McKenna tried to push away from it.
“That’s fun,” Zara said. “Light and heat. That could be very useful.”
“That is correct,” Hatch said. “And next to her is a Glow I’ve wanted to meet for a very, very long time. No one told me you were so attractive, Cassy. What do you young people say, ‘hot’?”
“I’m going to throw up,” Cassy said.
“So where have you been hiding, Cassy?”
“I’ve never wanted to meet you,” Cassy said. “And where I’ve been is none of your business.”
“Every aspect of your life is most assuredly my business,” Hatch replied. “And you will tell me where you’ve been. You should know by now that I always find out what I want to know.”
Zara put her hand over Cassy’s head. “Wow. She’s a powerful one. She could kill everyone in this room with a thought. Everyone but me, of course. I’m definitely going to hang on to this one.”
“Very good,” Hatch said. “You do that. Going down the line, this next one is Abigail.”
“Abigail.” Zara held out her hand. “Boring. Taking away others’ pain but not your own. What a waste of electricity. Moving on.”
Abigail turned away from her.
“Next,” Hatch said with disgust, “is Frank, the Glow once called Zeus.”
Zara held her hand above Zeus’s head for a moment. Then she turned and fired a lightning bolt so intense that it split apart the lectern at the front of the room. “Sorry, Admiral-General. I don’t always know my own power.”
“It’s not your power,” Zeus said. “It’s mine.”
“What’s yours is mine, and what’s mine is mine,” Zara said. “Sucks to be you, little man.”
“When I get out of here . . .”
“The only way you’re getting out of here,” Hatch said, “is when your heart stops beating. Move on. The girl next to him is Tesla.”
“Tessa,” she said.
“Tessa, Tesla,” Hatch said. “What’s in a name? Doesn’t matter anymore. You can call yourself Bob for all I care.”
“Why would I call myself Bob?”
“This one’s power feels a little weird,” Zara said. “So this one amplifies others’ powers. In fact . . .” Zara stepped back a few paces. “I can pick up different powers at the same time. She could definitely come in handy.”
“So glad I’m useful,” Tessa said.
“You should be,” Zara replied. “That means you might live longer.”
“Next is Ian.”
Zara stepped up to him and smiled. “Oh, that is cool. I can see . . . everything. Do you know how many rats you have around here?”
“We breed rats,” Hatch said.
“I’m not referring to the electric ones,” Zara said. “This power is not only useful. It could be a lot of fun. Oh, look at the guards . . .”
“Next up needs no introduction. Torstyn.”
Zara nodded. “So that’s what microwaves feel like.” She pointed her hand across the room at a picture of Hatch, and the frame began sparking. “That’s pretty dangerous. I can see why you keep this one locked up.”
“Dangerous but stupid. Next to him is Nichelle.”
Zara closed her eyes as her hand fluttered around Nichelle’s head. “So that’s what you do. You’re basically a black hole.”
“I’d love to shove something up your hole,” Nichelle said.
Zara laughed. “Crass little emo. I could use her power against any of these losers and kill them with it.”
“Next is Tara.”
“Tara,” Zara said. “I’ve heard of you.” Zara suddenly changed her appearance to look exactly like Tara. She then changed to look like Dr. Hatch, Justin Bieber, and then Michael Vey.
“Stop that!” Taylor shouted.
Zara turned back into herself, then stepped past Tara to Taylor. “So you’re the other half of the twins. You don’t like that, mind-scrambler? You and Vey were tight?” As she moved closer to Taylor, Zara began to grin. “Oh my, oh my, oh my. That is going to be so useful.”
“What’s going to be useful?” Hatch asked.
Zara turned back. “The prettier twin can read minds.”
Hatch looked at Taylor in amazement. “ ‘Oh my’ indeed. That explains a lot. Will the revelations ever cease?” Hatch said, “Take her power. Now.”
“Yes, sir.” She turned back and held her hand a few inches above Taylor’s head. “Done.”
“We’re going to find out some things right now. We’ll start back here with Cassy. I thought she was dead. Let’s find out where she’s been hiding. Or who’s been hiding her and where.”
“I’ll never tell you,” Cassy shouted.
Zara walked over and held her palm over Cassy’s head. “She’s been in a secret compound in France.”
“Stop it!” Cassy shouted.
“She’s very afraid. She doesn’t want you to know that she’s been living with the one they call the voice.”
“Has she, now?” Hatch said. A broad smile crossed Hatch’s face. He turned to the two guards next to him. “Bring her to the interrogation room. We’re going to have a little discussion.”
“Stop it!” Cassy shouted. “Leave me alone.”
“You’re asking me to walk away from a diamond mine,” Hatch said. “Come with me, Zara. Bryan and Kylee, you’re dismissed.”
Hatch and Zara left the room.
“C’mon,” one of the guards said to Cassy.
“No!” Cassy screamed.
“Leave her alone!” Abigail shouted.
“You’re coming one way
or another,” the guard said.
“I’m not going.”
“Not your decision,” the guard said. The two guards unchained Cassy, then lifted her, carrying her down the hall to a small, mirror-walled office where Hatch and Zara were sitting. They dropped Cassy in a sobbing heap onto the floor.
“Shut the door,” Hatch said. “Then take the others back to their cells.” He pointed at one of the guards. “You stay.”
“Yes, sir.”
Hatch sat back in his chair. “You can read her from here?” he asked Zara.
“Yes, sir.”
“Then we’ll start.” He leaned toward Cassy. “All right, hot little Cassy. You’re being recorded, so everything you say will be captured. And I think you have a lot to say. I know I have a lot of questions.”
“I won’t tell you anything,” Cassy said. “You can’t make me talk.”
“You don’t have to talk,” Hatch said. “You just need to think. So let’s begin with a softball question. Tell me, Cassy, who is the voice?”
Cassy struggled with her restraints. “You can’t make me tell you.”
Zara turned to Hatch and nodded. “Got it.”
“I’m afraid you already did, sweetheart. Who is it, Zara?”
“Some man named Dr. Coonradt.”
Hatch almost gasped. “Coonradt? I didn’t see that coming. Well, well . . . Dr. Coonradt is supposed to be dead. How clever of him. The doctor was a very intelligent man, but I don’t see him starting a revolution. Where is Coonradt holed up?”
Zara turned back to Cassy. “France.”
“It’s hard to believe I was so close to him all along. Tell me about the compound. Where is it exactly?”
“Please let me go.”
“I will once I’ve milked you for all you know. Now, where is this compound?”
Zara shook her head. “She’s trying to think of different things.”
“Just wait for her to slip. There’s no better way to get someone to think of something than to tell them not to think of it. Tell her not to think of a pink flying monkey, and what have you got?”
“She just thought of a pink flying monkey,” Zara said.