now it felt like it would shoot out the top of my head at any second. If I ran into a scientist, I would shove his nose up into his or her skull.
Clete elbowed me, pointing to a door sign. LAB K. This was it. If they were alive, our friends would be here. I clamped my fury down, but it still smoldered, like coals in my belly rather than an outright fire.
Meeting Clete’s eyes, I nodded, and he slowly pushed the door open. Like the other labs, this one was dimly lit. There was a wall with a big glass window in it, like for people to spy on this room. Behind the glass, I could see a table with computers on it.
This room was so dim that it took my eyes a minute to adjust. Soon I saw that there were no tables in here, no cages or anything. But two walls had big thick iron rings stuck into them, and my family was chained to three of them. Rain and Moke, sitting on the floor with their hands chained above their heads, looked forward dully, as if they hadn’t noticed us yet. A third person hung by one arm, skinny legs folded underneath the unmoving body. Calypso.
I clapped my hand over my mouth hard, the anger rising back up in a hot wave that wanted to come out in a scream. Calypso’s eyes were closed, the thin white arm she hung from stretched taut. Her head was low, lifeless. I understood Rain and Moke’s dull looks, why it seemed like nothing mattered to them anymore.
Calypso was dead.
CHAPTER 29
I knew the second Clete saw her because I heard his quick intake of breath. I whirled, slapping my hand over his mouth so hard that I’d probably leave a mark. I waited until his eyes showed that he was under control. We stared at each other for a long time, and had a whole, silent, freaking convo about finding Calypso like this, being too late to save her life.
We’d have to figure out a way to break or unlock their metal wristbands, but first, I needed to comfort my friends. I knelt next to Rain, touching her shoulder, and she turned her head slowly. Her eyes saw mine, but they were fixed on something far in the distance. I checked over my shoulder—there was nothing. When I turned back, Rain was smiling, her streaked face looking happy for maybe the first time in her life.
“Butterflies,” she said dreamily. “They’re real. They exist.”
I wasn’t going to take the time to argue that they’d gone extinct long ago. “Listen, Rain, we’ve got to get you guys out of here! Have you tried to get your hands out of the rings?”
Rain didn’t move, didn’t react to my words. It was like she was looking through me to another world. “I’m in a car,” she said, sitting up a bit straighter, turning her head back and forth as if looking through car windows. It was the creepiest thing ever. She made the quiet humming of a car as if I didn’t exist.
“Rain! Focus!” I said sternly, shaking her shoulder a tiny bit. Her fluffy, cloudlike hair waved back and forth, and that was when I saw it: a tiny, green blinking light behind her ear. I moved her hair aside and looked at it closer. I had just reached out a fingernail to see if I could scrape it off when Clete stopped me.
“Don’t!” he whispered, pushing my hand away. “I think it’s a parietal stimulator.”
“Uh-huh and what now?” I asked.
“I think these probes go deep into their brains. Moke is in another world—not even here, just like Rain. I don’t think they know that Calypso is—gone. And they definitely don’t know that we’re here.”
“Well, shit!” I said.
“We can’t rescue them like this,” Clete went on quietly. “They wouldn’t be able to come with us—they’re tripping, basically. Maybe on Rainbow.”
Rainbow was a street drug. Not every Ope liked it, but the ones who did were nuts. “Goddamnit,” I said, my mind racing ahead for possible options.
“Should we… try to get Calypso?” I asked. “Get her body out of here?” I took a deep breath and tried to swallow the thought. Until this moment I hadn’t let myself even stand next to the idea. Now, with Rain and Moke tripping happily, I had to face the worst thing I could think of: losing Calypso… and maybe having to leave her dead body behind for