Unremembered (Unremembered #1)(79)

But then again, never in the handful of times I’ve witnessed that device being used on another human being, did I see it elicit a reaction like that. His body shook so hard and so cruelly I thought he was going to explode.

‘Is he . . .’ I try to speak but I’m sobbing so hard now I can barely get the words out. ‘Is he dead?’

Alixter seems completely unfazed by any of this. ‘Trust me, he’s better off,’ is all he says.

‘Now, back to our little arrangement,’ he continues. ‘I’m a man of my word, so as soon as you and I are safely back on the Diotech compound, I’ll send notice and my agent will release Zen.’ His lips tug into a scowl. ‘Of course, you do understand that we can’t allow him to continue to transesse. He’d only come back to Diotech and try to kidnap you again. So I’m afraid, before we release him, we’re going to have to disable his gene. He will be forced to remain here, in this time period, but I assure you he’ll be unharmed.’

He approaches me and leans forward. ‘Do those sound like amenable terms to you?’

I sense that I don’t really have a say. But as long as Zen is alive, I have fulfilled my purpose for coming here. So I sniffle up the last of my tears and say, ‘Yes.’

Alixter claps his hands. ‘Excellent! Then we’re all in agreement. It’s so much cleaner that way, isn’t it?’

‘You’ll never be able to take her back,’ I hear a broken voice murmur. Alixter and I both turn to Zen, leaning against the wall behind him, barely able to hold up his head, his strength depleted.

‘What’s that?’ Alixter asks, clearly faking his interest in whatever Zen has to say.

Zen visibly struggles to speak louder. ‘I said you’ll never be able to take her back.’

Alixter continues his charade of entertaining this conversation. ‘And why is that?’

‘Because her transession gene is broken.’ Zen painfully hoists his head up and supports it against the wall. ‘It’s not working. I think it was damaged when she came here.’

For the first time, genuine emotion seems to register on Alixter’s face: fear.

‘And how do you know this?’ he asks, irritation trickling into his tone.

Zen’s eyes close as he winces. ‘Because I tried to take her with me the moment I found her, and several times after that, but it didn’t work.’

My mind jumps back to the memory from the hospital. When Zen came into my room.

I’m going to get you out of here.

That’s what he said. And a moment later he seemed to vanish into thin air.

Then I remember what he said in the car as we were driving away from Wells Creek.

We just have to find a remote place to lay low . . . Until I can figure out how to get us out of here.

Was that what he needed time to do? To figure out what was wrong with my gene and try to repair it?

The thought fills me with simultaneous hope and dread. Hope that if what Zen says is true, there might be another way out of this predicament. And dread that if I’m unable to transesse back to Diotech, Alixter might renege on his end of the agreement.

‘I’m not sure I believe you,’ Alixter says, glowering at Zen. ‘I think you might just be buying time.’

‘Try it yourself,’ Zen challenges in a hoarse whisper. ‘Try to transesse with her.’

Alixter refreshes his smile, but I still see the traces of frustration around his eyes. He doesn’t like to be told what to do. ‘It’s a fairly new technology, of course,’ he admits. ‘But from the way I understand it, if you have the transession gene, all you have to do is focus fully on your desired destination and you’ll be transported there.’

He gives the scar-faced agent next to me a subtle nod, and he wraps his thick, brawny fingers tightly around my biceps and pulls me back up to standing.

‘It’s also my understanding,’ Alixter goes on, interlacing his fingers, ‘that anyone in direct contact with the transessor, who also carries the gene, will be transported with them.’

Alixter nods again. I shut my eyes tight and hold my breath. I can feel the agent’s hand vibrate slightly against my skin, and then I slowly feel his grip loosen. I open my eyes to watch his hand blur in and out of focus, becoming more and more translucent until it’s gone completely. When I peer up, I see that the rest of his body has vanished too.

I drop back to the ground and let out a sigh of relief and a whimper of astonishment at the same time.

Alixter stares open-mouthed at the spectacle. I expect him to get angry, to start throwing things, but he’s exactly the opposite. He calmly rubs his chin and says, ‘Very interesting.’ His gaze flickers to Zen. ‘It seems Lyzender might be right.’

Then he glances at Rio’s body on the ground. ‘It’s too bad the man who knows the most about your genes is –’ he lets out a vile laugh, amused by his own depraved sense of humour – ‘well, it appears we may have dealt with him prematurely.’

He stops laughing and tilts his head pensively to the side. ‘Although it’s not as if he would have divulged any of his secrets to me. It would seem that he’s been keeping far more secrets than he’s been sharing lately.’

He presses his hands together and rests them under his jaw. ‘An intriguing predicament indeed.’