22
THE PARK
“All right.”
I’ll do it. I have no choice.
Fortis might not be a Merk—but he’s downright mercenary. There will be no book until I go with him to the Icon. It disappears almost as quickly as it came.
“First we walk.” Fortis pulls himself up.
I can’t let it drop. “Fortis. I have to know. What’s so important about that stupid book?”
“Not yet. We take a field trip. We check out the Icon, do a little reconnaissance. Then we can have readin’ hour, as long as you like.”
There is no arguing with Fortis—at least, no more arguing—which is why, within a matter of minutes, we find ourselves walking down a dusty street in the distinct direction of the foothills.
“He’s following us, do you see him?” I look over my shoulder, nervously. The walk to the Observatory has taken hours, during the last few of which we’ve been followed.
A small, ragged-looking boy walks in the shadows on the same side of the street as us, only a block behind. He looks like a Remnant, tattooed and ratty. But there’s too much purpose to his walk, and as he wanders he keeps his eyes on us.
I say, “That boy.”
“Don’t mind him.” Fortis walks more slowly, if possible. I find myself watching his gait, to see if he is drunk. Especially since what we are doing can only be explained by intoxication or insanity.
“What if he’s armed?” Lucas speaks up, and I can feel his pulse quickening. “We’ve already been shot at once today.”
“Only once? That’s a bit anticlimactic and all, don’t you think? Seeing as you made the trip all the way here?” Fortis takes a handkerchief out of the pocket of his long jacket. He mops his brow and I wonder what else he has in there.
“You’ll be fine. We’re almost there, aren’t we, Hux?” Fortis glances at Lucas, but it’s not Lucas he’s speaking to.
Doc replies, as easily as if it was Lucas who had asked. “Just around the next turn, Fortis. You should be safe until you reach the perimeter.”
“And the field?”
“All systems operational. The pulse wave is transmitting normally, directly from the Icon.” Doc’s voice seems farther away, now that we are outside, on the street.
Though of course he was never here, not really.
The fallen sign on the edge of the road says GRIFF PARK, or at least those are the letters that remain. Somewhere up this road and up this hill, the Icon waits for us.
In the scrubby green-brown foothills that surround us, there is no sign of life. No birds sing; nothing rustles in the stiff, dried brush. There is only the buzz of the atmosphere, and the silence of certain death. That is what the pulse field sounds like. Like machine noise and nothingness in my ears.
The road is called Mossy Fern; at least, it looks like it used to be. The sign is overgrown now, as is the road. Overwhelmed with brown, decaying ferns. It looks like the wrong place. It looks like nowhere anyone would ever go.
But then the road twists, and the gates come into view.
Of course.
Griff Park is gated off.
A chain-link fence is wired carelessly shut, probably because the Embassy knows that nobody can survive long enough to enter, and if they did, they wouldn’t make it all the way up the hill to the Observatory.
Lucas stands in the road, staring up the hill, or what we can see of it through the brown piles of dead plant life, banked against the gates. It looks like it once was a neighborhood, with nice houses and nice lawns and probably nice families. Now it is a ghost neighborhood, haunted by memories that no one is left to remember.
I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be a ghost. I turn and look behind me. The boy is that much closer, standing now where I was standing, minutes ago.
“Why are we here? There’s no point. There’s nothing we can do.” I’m annoyed.
Fortis just stands there, hands in his pockets, waiting. For what, I don’t know.
“So this is the perimeter, I guess.” The words sound strange in Lucas’s throat, and he doesn’t move his eyes.
Fortis nods, his eyes equally fixed. “Apparently so.”
Then I see why they are staring. It’s not only the brush that is dead.
Around me, piled in the debris at the base of the fence, are skeletons—four, six, ten skeletons, pressing against the wires, dumped like trash on the side of the road.
One has his hand at his throat.
My heart skips a beat.
I’m looking at the bodies of people who have tried to infiltrate the Icon, tried to do something about our common situation. People braver than me.
They’re all dead.
I turn to Lucas and Fortis. “We should go back. We can’t—they’re everywhere.”
Fortis sighs. “That’s what happens when you try to get near the Icon, for us regular blokes. Like I said.”
“Why are there so many?”
He laughs, but he isn’t smiling. “Are you pulling my chain, love? This is nothing. Think about it. Since 6/6, any time people try to demonstrate, they drop dead. Any time we try to stage a protest. Any time we make our voices heard. As long as that Icon stays in place, the Lords control everything we say and do. It’s the Silent Cities, every day, all over again.”
He shrugs. “After a while, we just stopped tryin’. Now we take our numbers and stand in line with the resta the livin’ dead.”
Lucas is silent. Instead, he starts to walk around the perimeter of the gate, searching for something.
“What are you doing? You’re going to get yourself killed.”
I grab Lucas’s arm—I have to stop him. I’m thinking of the newsreels. I’m thinking of the empty streets and the faces of the dead. How could I not be? It’s what we’re staring at, right now. It’s where we are.
I’m panicking. This may not be a Silent City, but it’s still an Icon. It can still kill us.
We all know that.
“There. Look.” Lucas points to where the chain-link fence bends up into the brush. A hole, not big enough for him, but barely big enough for me. “You’re the smallest. You can get through there. You can go around and let me in the front gate.”
I shake my head in disbelief. “What? I’m not going to die for you.”
“I’m not asking you to die for me.”
“Look at those piles of bones. That’s exactly what you’re asking.”
“No, I’m not. Look at me, look at us. Does it seem like anything’s wrong?”
I stare at him.
“We’re not tired. Our heads aren’t aching. Our hearts aren’t pounding erratically.”
Speak for yourself. I notice, though, that Fortis is not looking well and is once again wiping the sweat from his forehead.
“Don’t you get it? It doesn’t affect us.”
“That’s impossible. The Icon affects everyone. That’s the whole point of the Icon.”
“We don’t know that,” Fortis says. “That’s why we’re here. Each brain is unique. Your brains seem to be—uniquely unique. You may not be affected in the same way as everyone else. At least, that’s what I’m bankin’ on. Fingers crossed.” He holds them up, double crossed, even.
“What if Fortis is right?” Lucas looks at his hands. “What if we’re the way into the Icon? Around the Icon?”
“You don’t trust Fortis! You’ve never trusted Fortis. Look at those skeletons and then tell me you think Fortis is right—”
“Hey now. Be kind. I’m standin’ right here.” Fortis grins. Nothing I’m saying gets to him. Not even standing in the shadow of the Icon bothers Fortis, aside from a bit of sweat. It’s like all this is a game.
“I don’t know if Fortis is right, but I know something’s going on. They’re lying to us, the Embassy.”
“Your mother.”
“My mother. Especially her. She hid the records. She sealed off the secrets. We need to find out—whatever it is they don’t want us to know.”
“Is that why you came? To find out if the Icon can kill you or not? Or is it that maybe you just don’t want to live anymore?”
“You tell me. Why did you follow me all the way out here?”
Then I understand what I have to do.
It isn’t Lucas who has to know.
It’s me.
The Padre.
My family.
My fate.
I have to find out for myself.
Why me?
Why am I here and what am I here to do?
What makes me an Icon Child?
Before anyone can say a word, I turn and throw myself through the hole at the bottom of the fence.
Which is where I lie on the ground in the dirt, waiting to die.
But I don’t.
RESEARCH MEMORANDUM: THE HUMANITY PROJECT
CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET / AMBASSADOR EYES ONLY
To: Ambassador Amare Subject: Icon Children Origins
Subtopic: Research Notes
Catalogue Assignment: Evidence recovered during raid of Rebellion hideout
Page torn from book
Book title: Brain Power: Unlocking the Energy Inside
Author: Paulo Fortissimo
INTRODUCTION
Energy is the foundation of life.
Energy controls, creates, changes, and destroys.
EXAMPLES
Radiation can kill, slowly or quickly. Infrared light can change a channel. Electromagnetic waves can be used to see inside your mind and body. Sound waves, like music or voice, can trigger emotions of sadness or joy. Light gives us vision and can generate untold feelings.
HUMANS ARE CONSTANTLY CREATING ENERGY.
Sound, shock, emotion. However, we are now discovering that the human brain has untapped potential to generate more power than we could have dreamed.
Locked away, we all have a nascent star inside us that can burn brighter than we can imagine.
We need only find the key.