Your One & Only(74)
The main cavern was immense. The beehive ceiling arched above, and row upon row of shelves lined the open space. Jack had never been in the Tunnels, he’d seen only what Inga or Sam brought back to him. Shelf after shelf was cluttered with a haphazard array of photographs and paintings, sculptures, pottery, porcelain, and figurines. Incalculable numbers of books and crates of discs sat on shelves that soared up to the ceiling, the farthest ones accessible only from metal walkways and a rolling ladder. Behind it all, the veined granite walls of the cave, treated with a polymer for climate control, glowed with milky light.
The Tunnels contained all that was left of human effort and knowledge, and included cultural objects and relics that went back to the beginning of recorded time. Here was all the poetry and stories, statues and drawings, and the texts on language, science, history, and philosophy. It felt strange to be surrounded by such things. Even if Vispera cared little for them, these were human creations, relics of a time that would have found Jack entirely familiar.
Jack peered around the cave, but could see nothing beyond the constrained rings of light under the faint bulbs ensconced in the stone walls.
“Jack,” Sam said, his voice hushed in the dim space, “if Jonah’s here, what do you intend to do about it? We should tell the Council Althea’s missing. They would help.”
“No,” Jack said. “Jonah won’t end up dead because of me. All I want is Althea back. That’s all.”
“You can’t be sure she’s here, or even know what you’re getting into.”
Jack stopped walking. “Everyone keeps saying Jonah and I are the same. They think everything he does, I’m capable of too. And maybe I am. But it also means I know what he’s not capable of. He won’t hurt her.”
“He killed one of the Gen-300 Altheas in the boat explosion just tonight. What makes you think Althea-310 is any different to him?”
Jack looked at his feet. “I know he doesn’t care about her. But he won’t hurt me, not like that.”
“You believe that?”
“We’re brothers, and that means something to him. He won’t hurt me by hurting her.”
Jack sounded more confident than he felt. He didn’t think Jonah would hurt him, but Jonah hated the clones. And even if Jack was somehow right and Althea’s life wasn’t in danger, Jack didn’t know if he could say the same for Sam.
They continued on to the far side of the cave, where a clear wall separated a section of the Tunnels that held the Sample Room, or the Ark, as Jonah and the Originals called it. The room was pitch-black inside. The shelves in front of the door were cluttered with more sculptures and figurines piled on top of each other. If the humans had a system of organizing the relics, Jack couldn’t figure it out.
A clattering came from behind a painting of a horse.
“Did you hear that?” Sam said.
Jack listened. The cavern didn’t feel empty anymore. He felt eyes watching, but couldn’t tell from where.
The air in the Tunnels tasted stale and metallic, but Jack caught a scent underneath of earth and tamped fire. Facing Sam, Jack could see at his back rows of framed pictures jutting from the walls. The faint light repeated against the glass throughout the length of the dome, creating a mottled pattern on the floor. The pattern danced, then broke into a long shadow that emerged from behind a row of pictures.
“I know you don’t want to hurt her,” Jack said, his voice carrying loudly through the cavern.
He waited, hearing only Sam’s soft breaths.
Jonah spoke from the darkness. “Sometimes we do things we don’t want to,” he said. “You know that, Jack.”
Jack still couldn’t see him, but then a form slipped from between the pictures and, catlike, Jonah climbed the balustrade to the stacks above them. Jack strained to see through the blanket of gloom. A light flickered on, illuminating Jonah’s face in yellow. Jack didn’t see Althea. Jonah crouched on the low metal walkway. He wore a black jacket and a black cap, hiding his pale hair in the darkness. He pushed a rolling ladder to the side.
“Where’s Althea?” Jack said.
“There are nine more in the dorms. Why not get one of those instead?” His face twisted into a wry smile. “Oh, wait. They don’t like you much, do they?”
Jack said nothing. Sam stood next to him, his gaze traveling back and forth between the brothers. Sam had never seen Jonah before, Jack realized.
“What do you figure it means, by the way, that her sisters hate you so much? She’s the same person as them in every way that matters. But she likes you, and they don’t. How’s that work?”
“Tell me where she is, and we’ll leave,” Jack said. “I don’t really care what you do with the Sample Room.”
Jonah ignored him. “On the other hand, I don’t think she likes me very much, and I’m just another version of you. Go figure. This might not bode well for your relationship.”
“I didn’t come here to talk.”
“Fine.” Jonah shrugged. “The lights work in the Ark. Turn them on.”
Sam approached the glass scanner and placed his palm on the surface. The room beyond hummed to life, and fluorescent brightness filled the Ark, seeping out through the clear walls into the main cave, which was still lit only by faint bulbs. The stark whiteness of the Ark was blinding at first. Jack squinted, making out the tiered samples lining the walls. Then, in the center of the room, trapped behind the glass and standing with her hands at her sides, Althea.