say or do next. Dr. Collins stared blankly through the front window, almost as though he were trying to summon the courage to move again.
Cerise was the first to speak. “So, are you going to tell us how you know Denise?”
At these words, the scientist seemed to break free from his trance. He jabbed at a button on the console, and the doors of the aerocab slid open. But just before stepping out, Dr. Collins glanced back at Cerise with a forlorn look, and said, “She’s my daughter.”
- CHAPTER 41 - ALOUETTE
THE KETTLE ON THE STOVE let out a long, high-pitched whistle.
“Who would like tea?” Dr. Collins asked as he began pouring hot water into the teapot.
Alouette couldn’t imagine stomaching anything right now. She just wanted answers. But she also didn’t want to be rude, so she quietly raised her hand along with the others.
“You mecs really like your tea here, don’t you?” Gabriel said.
Dr. Collins smiled as he took down five cups from a nearby shelf. “Yes. It must be an Albion thing. I suppose it comes from our ancestors on the First World. But mostly, I find tea helps me think.” He carefully poured the tea and handed a cup to each of them. “And how about a bickie?”
Alouette shared a confused look with Gabriel.
Dr. Collins pushed a round silver container toward them. “You know, biscuits. Would you like a biscuit?” Then, after another series of blank looks, he said, “They’re sweet.”
Gabriel launched himself forward and grabbed for the container. “Thanks, mec. I’m starving.”
After they’d each taken one—or in Gabriel’s case, five—Alouette sipped at her tea and peered around the main room of this curious little house. It was as if she’d been transported back to the propagation room in the Refuge, where Sister Laurel used to produce all her herbal tinctures and medicinal syrups. Polished test tubes and cone-shaped beakers sat in neat rows on the shelves, and jars of powders and strange-colored liquids crowded every surface. A vast whiteboard held tangles of sketched drawings and diagrams, while a bank of cabinets hugged its way around the room. Even the ceilings were low like in the Refuge, and the blacked-out windows made Alouette feel like she was back underground.
“So, okay, apparently I’m the only one who’s going to ask the million-larg question of the day,” Gabriel said through a large mouthful of biscuit. “How did you end up building that … that … thing for General Bonnefaçon?”
Dr. Collins sipped his tea and leaned heavily on the kitchen counter, as though the answer itself was weighing him down. “I didn’t know I was doing it. At least not at first. Dr. Cromwell and I are old colleagues, and he asked me to come and join him on what he called ‘an exciting new research project.’ ” He cast an apologetic glance at Marcellus. “I promise, I had no idea what we were developing until it was too late. I thought we were expanding our research in the field of neuroelectricity. Dr. Cromwell said they desperately needed a neuroengineer, and I thought it was harmless. Then they started bringing in the test subjects and I heard the general’s name mentioned a few times and I …” He grimaced. “I realized what the research was really for.”
“What exactly did you develop?” Marcellus asked. He seemed to shudder at the memory of what they’d all just seen back in the labs.
Dr. Collins stared vacantly into his tea, a lifetime of regret playing out across his face. “The program is called TéléReversion. It’s essentially a modified operating system for the Laterrian TéléSkins. The source code has been rewritten so that the neuroelectricity that powers the implanted interface can be manipulated and rerouted.”
“I’m sorry,” Gabriel said, looking mystified, “but what?”
Alouette placed a reassuring hand on his. “The Skins are powered by the naturally occurring electricity in the brain. Dr. Cromwell’s team has managed to reverse that electricity so that instead of the brain powering the Skins, the Skins can now be used to manipulate the brain.”
“Precisely,” Dr. Collins said, tapping his finger against the edge of his teacup. “The TéléReversion program allows complete control over the mood and emotion of the subject at any given moment. For example, imagine the angriest, most destructive, most vengeful you’ve ever felt—”
“I’m getting there,” Gabriel said through gritted teeth.
“Well, that’s a reaction in your brain,” Dr. Collins went on. “A neuro-response, we call it. Now multiply that feeling by a thousand, and essentially that’s what the test subjects