“It’s, uh, so, uh, so hard,” Violet grunted. Sweat was pouring down her face from the effort, and she had planted her feet on the side of the wall and was bracing them to create additional leverage. “Ahhhhh.” With a burst of energy, Violet gave it her all.
Snap. The wire broke free, sending Violet flying. Or more to the point, free-falling off of the ledge. “Ahhhhhh!”
“Hold on, Vi.” Piper flew after Violet as the elevator sprang to life. Because the elevator traveled at lightning speed downward, Piper was suddenly in a race against time. Violet was free-falling directly below the elevator’s path, and if Piper didn’t get to her first, the impact would undoubtedly be fatal.
CURRENT TIME 12:04:10 A.M.
Daisy and Lily ran across the atrium to join the others.
“Where’s the elevator? It’s supposed to be here!” Lily demanded. The fog had become so thick that it wasn’t possible to see more than a few feet in any direction.
“We dunno—” Nalen (or Ahmed) panted.
“—what’s happening. That’s Piper’s—” (ditto)
“—job. Go ask her.”
“Ahhhhhh!” a wee voice screamed.
Violet tumbled through the fog and a moment later Piper snatched her to safety.
Singed and coughing from her accidental fuel cell explosion, Kimber stumbled into the atrium with an unmistakable look of pride on her face. Just then Piper’s feet hit the floor and the elevator arrived. Seeing the elevator, Kimber let out a whoop. “We’re getting out of here!”
CURRENT TIME 12:04:20 A.M.
Myrtle and Smitty stormed the open elevator, joining the others inside.
“We’re gonna make it,” Smitty smiled broadly.
The first stirrings of excitement could be felt.
CURRENT TIME 12:04:23 A.M.
“What are we waiting for?” Myrtle fidgeted. “Let’s go, go, go.”
“Wait, Conrad’s not here,” Piper insisted.
Smitty stuck his head forward and quickly found him. “Conrad’s leaving the security room now.”
“What the heck?” Kimber practically yelled. “He’s gonna blow it for all of us, and after he lectured us about being on time and sticking to the plan. What was he doing anyways?”
“Maybe it just took him longer than he thought.”
“Yeah, right.” Kimber sarcastically snorted. “Like Conrad didn’t calculate everything down to the last second. And he’s never wrong.”
She had a point.
CURRENT TIME 12:04:28 A.M.
“Go, go, go,” Conrad roared as he ran for the elevator, diving inside.
Pulling wires from the control panel, Kimber wove a blue wire to a red one. “Elevator, commence,” Kimber commanded. The doors slid shut. “What took you so long?”
“Nothing. Nothing. We’re alright.”
CURRENT TIME 12:04:39 A.M.
Each kid silently counted down as the elevator passed upward.
“Level eight.” The computer voice spoke evenly.
With every floor successfully achieved, hearts grew lighter and anticipation peaked.
“Level five.”
Jasper couldn’t contain himself and he started to jump up and down excitedly. Lily’s smile broke her face wide open and Violet grew four inches and squeezed Piper’s hand.
“Level three.”
“We’re free!” Kimber squealed.
“I’m gonna see the world again!”
“Level two.”
Myrtle, in a fit of euphoria, threw her arms around Daisy, and Piper turned to Conrad. “What’d I tell you, Conrad? I knew we’d do it. I just knew it.”
Conrad couldn’t look at Piper’s dancing eyes and smiling face and he turned away. Piper looked at him in confusion as—
“Level one.”
Bing! The elevator chimed and slowed. Then it stopped.
“What’s going on?” Shocked eyes searched out fearful faces.
“Why are we stopping?”
“What’s happening, Conrad?”
Hearts fell like stones. No one breathed. All suffered silent suspense as time slowed and they watched helplessly as the doors to the elevator opened. . . .
“Oh no!” Piper whispered.
Click! was the sound the elevator doors made when they were fully retracted, exposing a brigade of agents, several lines deep, positioned in rows and armed with weapons aiming into the elevator.
There was a moment that lasted no more than a heartbeat. In it, the children’s dreams of freedom continued to flicker before their eyes so brightly that they were unable to reconcile the reality of being surrounded with their fervent need to escape. The two contradictory ideas effectively short-circuited their brains, causing them to go completely blank.
Alas, the stillness would not stand.
Agent A. Agent lunged forward and seized Piper. Pandemonium ensued.
Everything happened so fast—there was no time to prepare and certainly no time to organize any sort of resistance. There was a loud scream. It sounded like Lily. Myrtle tried to run but they had a net. Someone cried out. Probably Jasper. Daisy was the only one who proved difficult. Several agents had broken arms and legs before a tranquilizer dart lodged itself in her arm and she fell to the floor with a thud.
The agents had prepared for everything. Each team was assigned to a child and prepped for their particular ability. Had the children been primed, or even had an inkling that they’d been discovered, they would have had a fighting chance. In the end, it was the element of surprise and the agents’ strength that effectively made them sitting ducks.
The escape had officially failed.
The time was 12:05:59 a.m.
The kids were promptly escorted down to the thirteenth level. Each child was guarded by three agents, who were not only armed to the teeth, but looked more than ready to use the weapons at their disposal. Agent A. Agent lined the children up in a row on the atrium floor.
From the moment she’d been seized and restrained, Piper was so shocked that she was almost completely unaware of her surroundings. “I don’t understand,” she whispered quietly to herself, over and over again. “It doesn’t make sense. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Conrad stood next to Piper in the atrium lineup. On the verge of losing control, her feverish utterances hit his ears in unremitting waves. “Piper, stop it. It’s over. You’ve got to snap out of it.”
Nothing prepared Conrad for the look of haunted horror that had come over Piper as she turned to him. It was worse even than when he’d told Bella the truth about I.N.S.A.N.E. and she’d torn the precious petals off her flower in savage movements. It was even worse than Ang Chung, who started to hit himself and wouldn’t stop.
“But we had a plan. We were all working together. I knew here”—Piper pointed to her heart—“that it would work. I felt it. I knew it. How . . . ?”
“Thank you, Agent A. Agent.” Dr. Hellion swept into the atrium, perfectly outfitted and absolutely calm. “Quite an evening you have all had.” Moving down the line, she looked each child in the eyes and, without exception, they all looked away.
“I’ve been so worried about you all.” She shook her head sadly. “So concerned for your safety and well-being. What could possibly be going on that you felt the need to—?” Unable to actually use the word escape, Dr. Hellion waved her hand, indicating the events of the evening. “I’ve been wracking my brain as to the cause of all of this. And then it came to me. Someone lied to you.
“It’s a terrible thing to be lied to. That person probably told you things that aren’t true. They made them up. Lied. I can imagine how easy it would be, once you have mistakenly accepted the lies for truth, to jump to a conclusion where your only option is, well, to do what you did this evening.” She paused and smiled, and there was nothing but warmth and understanding about her person. Her whole being said, I understand and you can trust me. “I see your actions tonight as nothing more than a call for help.
“Rest assur
ed, I’m here to answer your call.” Dr. Hellion sighed and spoke as though she was sharing a terrible secret. “I can be sympathetic to those who were misled. But at the same time, the person who told you the lies really needs my help the most and I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t help that person. So”—Dr. Hellion smiled in the most kind and caring way—“which one of you will tell me whose idea this was?”
No one moved. Even though Piper knew better, Dr. Hellion’s sincerity was so persuasive that despite herself, she began to doubt. What if she had been mistaken? If she had been so wrong about the escape, then maybe she’d been wrong about everything. What was real? Who could she believe? Certainly not herself anymore. She’d proved that, that very evening.
“Of course, if you feel that you can’t tell me, then I’m compelled to help you all equally. Certainly not my choice. But I will respect your wishes. Nurse Tolle?”
Nurse Tolle came forward with a cart. On it were eleven hypodermic needles. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that they were filled with drugs.
“It came to Nurse Tolle’s attention this week that you have not had appropriate nutrition. Undoubtedly this has contributed to your confusion. Nurse Tolle and I would like to rectify that immediately. Nurse Tolle, please bring Jasper forward.”
Nurse Tolle and three agents dragged a squirming Jasper front and center. The other children were forced to witness his feeble attempts to resist. “N-n-no,” he stuttered. “P-p-please, Dr. H-h-hellion. P-please don’t.”
Piper’s eyes couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Poor Jasper, the weakest and most helpless, was twisting and turning like a bird with a broken wing before a pack of hungry dogs. Dr. Hellion watched him without mercy and, with the slightest nod of her head, Nurse Tolle plunged the needle into Jasper’s thin arm. Jasper yelped and the kids averted their gaze, unable to watch. A moment later, Jasper’s eyes clouded over and his body became limp and relaxed.
Dr. Hellion waited, but still no one came forward. “Very well, Nurse Tolle, please assist Lily.”
“Nooooo.” Lily’s high-pitched voice hovered in the cadences of true panic. Her cry struck Piper to the quick.
“Wait!” Piper stepped forward. “Wait.”
Dr. Hellion nodded to Nurse Tolle, who pulled the needle away from Lily’s arm. “Yes, Piper?”
“It was all my idea, Dr. Hellion. They didn’t do anything. Please let Lily be.”
Dr. Hellion carefully looked at the others. “I see. And no one helped you?”
“No, it was all me. And I’m sure sorry.”
“I understand, Piper. I really do. There’s no need to be sorry. Why don’t you come stand here by me?” Dr. Hellion waited for Piper to shuffle forward and come to her side. “There is something I can help you understand, Piper, and it will change your life. It’s very important.” Dr. Hellion bent so that she was eye level with Piper. Lowering her voice, she spoke with a quiet intensity. “When you fly, people get hurt. Your flying causes pain and it hurts everyone you love.”
Piper got lost in Dr. Hellion’s eyes and doubt took advantage of her confusion, taking firm root and quickly spreading its poison.
“Piper, I am here to support you, but it’s important for you to see the consequences of your flying. You may proceed, Nurse Tolle.”
“But, Dr. Hellion, please. They didn’t do anything. You don’t have to do that to Lily.”
“You still don’t understand, Piper. I’m not doing anything. It is you who are doing this to them.”
“I am? But—” Piper fought with the notion, but as the needle plunged into Lily’s arm, her gut-wrenching scream took away all of Piper’s ability to form rational thought and left in its stead guilt, remorse, and pain.
And that wasn’t even the worst of it. As Piper was forced to stand and watch, Nurse Tolle went down the line and one after another picked out a terror-filled, writhing victim and injected them with the drugs. Daisy cried. Smitty covered his eyes. Myrtle tried to run. But nothing could save them from the needle. Before the injection they struggled and resisted; afterward their bodies were limp and their eyes vacant.
Each one broke Piper’s heart. How could she have been so wrong? If she couldn’t trust other people and she couldn’t trust her own heart, then there was nothing left for her to believe in and trust.
And right then and there Piper’s heart broke in two.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
PIPER DIDN’T resist when Agent A. Agent and Dr. Hellion escorted her to the fourth level. Led past row upon row of experiments, she saw the rose covered with black soot and a closed door behind which the banging of the silver giraffe was no longer heard. Finally, at the far end of the laboratory, Piper was led into a room protected by more security protocols than any other in all of I.N.S.A.N.E. At the center of that room stood a strange metal contraption. It looked to Piper like a giant metal frame shaped into the outline of the human body, almost like a life-size version of what her mother used at Christmastime to cut out gingerbread men from cookie dough.
Dr. Hellion approached the contraption reverently and ran her hand down the cold, shining metal with admiration. “This device, Piper, is specifically designed to help clear your mind. It’s called a Molecular Orienting Limitation Device or M.O.L.D. for short.” Dr. Hellion’s face appeared very helpful and kind. “At a core level, it will adjust you so that you can enjoy a more normal way of life.”
At Dr. Hellion’s command, Nurse Tolle and Agent A. Agent lifted Piper up and placed her into the center of the metal shape.
“As we input your information on this computer over here”—Dr. Hellion indicated where a scientist was working by a monitor against the wall—“it communicates with the M.O.L.D. and instructs it to create the exact normal specifications for someone of your age and sex. While you relax, the M.O.L.D. will help you discover what it feels like to be normal just like everyone else. Wouldn’t you like that?”
“I—I can’t rightly say.” Piper didn’t know what she wanted anymore. She no longer had any frame of reference.
With a few more keystrokes, the scientist completed his data entry and the metal frame began to contract around Piper from all sides. It quickly went from feeling snug to pressing against her with a force that made her scream out in agony.
“Ahhhhh!”
“You’ll learn to love that feeling, Piper.” Dr. Hellion caught the scientist’s eye. “I think it would best serve Piper if you increased the intensity, Dr. Fields.”
Dr. Fields’s brow furrowed and he looked as though he wanted to object, but then thought the better of it. Silently, he complied, and after a few more pecks at the computer, the metal instantly responded to the commands and squeezed Piper even more tightly.
“Owwwww.” Piper’s eyes widened and she couldn’t catch her breath. The M.O.L.D. was literally crushing the life out of her. It took all of her strength just to stop herself from begging for mercy.
“I’m told that the more you resist, the more painful it is. When you learn to relax and accept it, you’ll feel nothing but comfort and safety.” Dr. Hellion smiled reassuringly. “Dr. Fields, I believe that Piper still requires greater assistance. Please increase the intensity.”
This time Dr. Fields was not able to restrain himself. “But, Dr. Hellion, it’s already at the maximum level.”
Letitia Hellion turned with icy calmness and fixed Dr. Fields with dead eyes. “Is there a problem?”
Dr. Fields inched forward and lowered his voice fearfully. “Dr. Hellion, if I increase it any more, it could cause permanent damage, maybe even cripple her. It’s not . . . I can’t . . . it isn’t recommended.”
“Thank you, Dr. Fields, for that information. Shall I ask someone else to come in and take over your responsibilities?”
The beads of sweat on Dr. Fields’s brow became tiny rivers. His hands hesitated and then trembled as they returned to the computer. Even as he did it, Dr. Fields knew that on the day he died, this was the moment he would remember with the m
ost regret. He couldn’t bring himself to look at Piper as the metal responded one more time and somehow, although he couldn’t imagine at this point how it might be possible, pushed Piper in farther.
“AHHHHHHH.” Piper would have begged if she had been able to speak. It took all of her resources just to draw breath.
“Perfect. That’s much better,” Dr. Hellion approved. “Now, Piper, when I see you again, you will not only never remember the fact that you flew, but you will never have the desire to do so again. Flying is a nasty habit. It hurts people. It hurts you.”
“B-b-but”—Piper had to struggle through the pain to remember how to speak—“I love flying.”
“No, Piper, you don’t. You just think you do. Soon you’ll know that you were mistaken. Just like you were mistaken about the escape.” Dr. Hellion snatched Piper’s wooden bird from around her neck, smiled brightly, and left the room. Nurse Tolle and Agent A. Agent promptly followed on her heels, leaving Dr. Fields behind.
“I’m so sorry,” Dr. Fields mumbled and fled. He sealed the door and left Piper alone with her agony.
“Oh, it hurts. It hurts. Make it stop. Make it stop,” Piper begged no one in particular. The pain was unmanageable. The word pain couldn’t even contain the feeling. It was like being hit by a train, specifically the moment after you’re hit but before you die (and are given the comfort of oblivion).
“Oh, Ma, Pa, help me. Someone help me.”
A tiny wiggling motion moved against Piper’s leg. Then it wiggled some more and traveled up toward her waist, until the white linen handkerchief her ma had given her was pushed out of her pocket and fell to the floor below. A moment later Sebastian squirmed free of the pocket, hopped over the metal, and found a perch on the wall at eye level with Piper. He settled himself across from her.
The sight of her dear black cricket brought tears to Piper’s eyes. “You’re a sight for sore eyes.” She was so grateful that she wasn’t alone.