Super Spy (Book 2)

7. The Border

Before she joined Tristan and Nia, Jace had one other thing she had to do. The other two agents headed to their rooms to grab supplies, but Jace headed in a different direction.

Up here in the top levels of the City, she couldn't see more than a few feet in front of her due to the heavy orange Smog thick in the air. But that was fine because she knew exactly where to go, having walked this path dozens, maybe hundreds of times. It was a sunny day and the Smog just amplified the heat so that beads of sweat already gathered on her brow. The sunlight glinting off the glass buildings spiraling into the sky all around them, built so beautifully because they were in the Super Sector. She wondered if the people who built them knew that the Smog would get so heavy their architecture would go for the most part unappreciated.

She walked into the building from a side-door and bypassed the code lock. Like always, guilt squirmed in her stomach. No one had expressly told her she wasn't allowed to come here, but she was pretty sure it broke ten different kinds of rules. Besides which, she wasn't even supposed to know about this place.

But she needed to visit. Grayson's words had sent her mind spinning. It's not any kind of technology we've seen before, she'd said. Which meant that Xavier had discovered some kind of new cryo-tech. She'd only seen the man once, and had heard horrifying things of his abilities to twist people's thoughts with his superpower of manipulation. Still, if he'd discovered some advancement in cryo-tech . . .

The chamber she walked into sent a cold shock through her after the heat of the Smog and sun outside. She shivered, hairs rising on her arms, and blinked to adjust to the dim blue lighting. She didn't need to think about where she was going; her feet automatically carried her through the well-known turns.

Lining the walls here were dozens of glass tanks, soft white lights blinking in between them. The place was silent except for the sound of Jace's footsteps, usually so quiet, her boots made of material that muffled sound, but in here she heard each one.

She stopped in front of one of the tanks. The number 893 was printed to the side of the tank, which was filled with a bluish-gray fluid. Inside, attached to a lattice-network of tubes, was a boy a couple years older than Jace. His features were difficult to distinguish in the liquid, but his body was stiff as he floated upright in the tank. His eyes were closed.

Jace always wished they would've opened his eyes, because she didn't remember what color they were and she really wanted to know. But at the same time she didn't know if she wanted his lifeless eyes giving her an accusing look. He sometimes seemed to disappear into the liquid, a thin silver ghost. Except for the bright orange of his curly hair floating in the liquid, the same color as Jace's hair. Despite their relation, that was really one of the only things they had in common.

Jace searched for the same features for reassurance that it was really him: the thin white scar slashing across his left cheek, the smile lines still etched on his face, the crooked line of his nose where it had been broken. She stared at him for a long time, the rest of the world seeming to fade out of view, something cold and slimy twisting inside her. She didn't let it take her over.

She touched the cool glass. At first the cold pricked her fingers, but they adjusted and she laid her entire palm on it. The boy's frozen face floated in front of her.

It always felt somewhat foolish, speaking to the dead-silent hallway of floating bodies, but it felt more wrong to ignore him. So she cleared her throat and spoke into the silence.

"Hang in there, Luke," she whispered. "I'm gonna get you out of there soon."

*    *    *    *    *

"What took you so long?" Nia said, narrowing her eyes at Jace. "We've been waiting for you."

"Sorry," said Jace, feeling herself blush. "I came as fast as I could."