The Cage(73)

35

Rolf

ROLF STOOD AT THE top of the mountain, ankle-deep in snow, gazing at the line of little red flags. At the bottom of the racecourse, Mali waited in her oversized military jacket, sled slung over her shoulder. Lucky stood behind her, looking like he hadn’t slept in days; he’d only come when Nok had dragged him along.

Rolf pitied Lucky—to a point. Earth was gone; it was a fact. Fighting the truth was like fighting gravity. The news had hit Rolf hard at first, too. He’d thought about the little curry shop two blocks from his dormitory, and about the secret patch of tulips tucked away behind the manor in T?yen gardens, and how he used to count the beautiful red bricks on the walk to school (11,321) as a boy—but there was no logic in mourning what was already gone. Besides, it meant no more bullying from his classmates. No more parents’ rigid expectations. No more being stuck with an entire race of people who were too stupid to see they were destroying their own planet.

But Rolf wasn’t stupid.

He arranged his sled to match up with the red flags. He wasn’t good at the physical puzzles, but this one wasn’t about strength or speed but reflexes. It involved throwing one’s weight at the precise angle and time to turn the sled through the flag course. He’d never sledded with the other children in T?yen gardens, afraid of being mocked. But he was good at it. Who knew?

“Just go already!” Nok jumped up and down by his side, a smile stretched between her red cheeks. Her lips were stained bright blue from candy. He still couldn’t believe how beautiful she was, and that she was his. On impulse, he pulled her close for a kiss. She laughed and kissed him back.

He’d never understood unspoken rules on Earth: social norms that flew over his head, polite conversation, a hierarchy of coolness where he’d always been on the bottom rung. But here, he understood the rules. There were only three! Clean, logical, efficient. The only thing that didn’t make sense was that the food was still missing. At first he’d thought the Kindred just favored Cora, but it made no sense, because the Kindred had sworn to keep them healthy. So it had to be Cora stealing on her own, but if she was gone, who was stealing it now? The only conclusion Rolf could reach was that Lucky had been mistaken when he said the Caretaker had taken her—she must still be here, hiding out like Leon. Maybe they were even working together.

He narrowed his eyes. From the mountain, he could see all the way to the farm. He’d spent the last two days organizing a system of rationing fruits and vegetables to keep them fed. Cora might be trying to starve them, but he would keep them alive.

Nok tugged on a red curl hanging in his face. “Go, silly. It’s my turn next.”

Her candy-blue lips pulled him from his thoughts. The same shade of blue as the cubes in the Kindred’s medical room. He’d studied them at first to distract himself from the idea of stripping nude, and then because curiosity set in. There had been one above each doorway. Several more built into the cabinets. Both the doors and cabinets had opened automatically according to the Kindred’s thoughts—and then it had hit him.

The physical equipment was different, but the theory was similar to the research his colleagues at Oxford’s robotics lab had done on brain waves controlling prosthetic limbs. The blue cubes had to be thought amplifiers. Which meant the Kindred weren’t as powerfully psychic and telekinetic as the others believed. It also meant, if the cubes could be modified, it would hamper the Kindred’s abilities.

A fact Cora would die to know. A fact he would never tell her.

“If I’m going,” he said to Nok, pulling her into his lap on impulse, “then you’re coming too!” She shrieked in surprise as he pushed them down the mountain together. It was a challenge with her added weight and his restricted view. The wind flew by them, making Nok squeal with delighted fear and clutch him harder. They passed trees in a blur: Abies recurvata and Ducampopinus. Her hair brushed his cheek. The snow kissed their faces. He adjusted their angle, and they moved faster, faster, until Lucky and Mali had to jump out of the way as they shot straight into a snowbank.

They flew off the sled, tangled around each other, and landed in the soft snow. Rolf was half buried in it, numb except for the fire raging in his heart.

Earth? Good riddance.

Lucky picked up the token that had slid out of a trough at the bottom of the sledding course. “Here. You earned it.” Heavy worry lines framed his face. He had to be as aware as the rest of them that it was the twenty-first day, and Cora showed no signs of returning. But he tried for a tired half grin. “I’ve never seen anyone navigate the course that fast.”