Your One & Only(34)

Samuel-299 took a quick breath. “What’s she talking about, Jack?”

Jack backed away, shaking his head. “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean, he tried to kill you?” Althea asked Nyla.

“He was so angry,” Nyla said. “He started the fire; he locked me in the lab.”

Samuel-299 spoke sharply to Jack. “Is that true, Jack?”

“No.” Disbelief filled Jack’s voice. “When she told me what you did, I was mad, but, Sam, I wouldn’t hurt her!”

“Jack,” Samuel-299 said, his whole body sagging over the bed.

“Sam, I didn’t do this. You have to believe me.”

“He was angry,” Nyla said, her nails digging into Althea’s hand. “Angry at me. There was no one else in the building last night!”

Nyla shuddered at the sight of Jack. Althea could tell she wasn’t lying, that she believed what she said was true, but it couldn’t be. Jack had saved her.

“I was with Jack last night,” Althea said, to Nyla and Samuel-299. “He couldn’t have started the fire.”

Samuel-299 ignored Althea. Three Samuels converged on Jack at the same time four Viktor brothers came in to take him. They’d been just outside the door the whole time.

His head still bowed, Samuel-299 said softly, “You should have run, Jack. Why didn’t you run?”

Jack paled as if Samuel-299’s muted words were a blow to his face. The Viktors took his arms, which hung limp at his sides, all the fight drained from them. They led Jack from the room, and Nyla watched him go, still squeezing Althea’s hand.



The next day the Council convened about the fire, and Althea was there not as official Council Recorder, but as a witness. One of her sisters sat at Althea’s little desk in the corner, taking the minutes.

They’d rearranged the main room of Remembrance Hall in a way Althea had never seen before. The Council was no longer facing each other around their familiar table, but rather in a straight row facing out. Jack stood on a dais behind a wooden railing. As the members explained to the small crowd sitting in the hall, they had convened to discuss the explosion in the labs. They were calling Jack the defendant, or sometimes the subject. The way the Council members glared at Jack made Althea wonder just how hard they’d investigated. They seemed sure already of his guilt.

Althea had read about court trials in old records. Vispera had no experience with such things. With only nine known and predictable personalities, breaking the law had become a thing of the past. The words Harmony, Affinity, Kinship were painted in bright oils on the wall of the hall and embroidered on the badges sewn into the Council members’ clothes. Jack stood alone before his accusers.

He’d been led in by a Viktor and a Kate, his wrists clapped in chains they unlocked once he reached the dais. The metal jangled together in a sound that would have seemed almost cheerful if the image of them weren’t so disturbing. None of the brothers or sisters had ever been held by chains. It was too horrible to think about.

She tried to make eye contact with Jack as he stood on the dais, but he stared straight ahead with a mask of indifference, as if girding himself against what was to come.

Althea hadn’t been allowed to speak with Nyla-313 after the clinic, or to Jack. She’d failed to calm Nyla, or convince her that she couldn’t know it was Jack who started the fire. She hadn’t even figured out how Nyla ended up in the labs that night or what had made Jack so angry. All she knew was that she’d heard the explosion and seen the beginnings of the fire while Jack lay sleeping a few feet away from her.

A Kate opened the meeting by outlining the details of the fire. All fifteen fire alarms in the building had been disabled, and most of the exits had been blocked from the inside. North Lab was in ruins, and all the amniotic tanks had been destroyed. The only person injured had been Nyla-313, although the Kate said three Viktors and a Hassan had been endangered as well. The Viktors had suffered smoke inhalation, and the Hassan had been hit by falling debris.

Nyla-313 was brought in. She walked slowly, leaning heavily on the Samuel escorting her. He helped her into a chair facing the Council, with Jack to her left. The Council asked her a series of questions to establish the events that led to the fire.

An Inga took over the questions. “And when was it you arrived at North Lab?”

“Early in the evening,” Nyla said. “Around six.”

“And you went straight to the subject’s room?”

“Yes.”

Althea sat up, listening for the question she was sure was next.

“And when did the subject leave the building?” Inga asked.

“About eight.”

Althea couldn’t see Nyla’s face while she spoke. She saw the back of Nyla’s head, and the faces of the Council members, and Jack’s hard expression. Why didn’t they ask what happened while Nyla-313 was in the labs? What had led to Jack running away? The Council didn’t usually tolerate secrets. Unless, Althea thought, they already know what Nyla was doing there.

“When he left, what did the defendant say to you?” Inga asked.

Nyla paused, ordering the events in her mind. “When we were done with the Pairing, I stayed for a little while, and then Jack—the subject, I mean—he threatened me. He was aggressive and emotional. I was scared of him.”