Chapter Thirty-Three

We landed in the room with the large tubes. In the darkness, each of the glowing contraptions stood taller than six feet, illuminating perfect rows between them. I scanned the room and instantly found the familiar eyes of Audrina, who was standing slightly in front of me, but who had turned to look back at the group. She appeared shocked, and I knew I probably had a similar expression on my face.

The containers were empty. All of the bodies were gone.

I shook my head. A few minutes ago, I would have had a different thought sequence, but now things had changed. I hadn't seen this coming. I had assumed the bodies would still be here. How had Dr. James been able to move them? And, more importantly, why? We had put explosives around the building. Had she known and then lured us back here with the intention of killing us?

"Guys, I think this is trap. Let's get out of here."

"Hold on," Samuel said as he walked down one of the rows, looking at the empty containers.

What if Dr. James had finally found a way to alter all of the normals who had been in the tubes? She would then have more soldiers to add to her army. She would need more time in order to complete her experiments. That was the only way for this to happen.

Then the sound of deep laughter sliced through the silence. She was taunting us from somewhere. I peered into the darkness, but the room was empty. She had to be here somewhere, watching us, seeing the looks of disbelief on our faces. I craned my neck around the other side of one of the containers to see if I could get a better view, but there was nothing.

Suddenly, I was thrown backward. It felt like a large fist had crushed several of my ribs. My eyes watered from the surprise attack. I looked over at the rest of the team and noticed they were facing similar assaults, but I couldn't see anyone else in the room with us. We were under attack. There was no doubt about that. She had built an army of invisible soldiers and they had us surrounded. There was no way for us to escape. They would easily see the Jump Line open, and then we would have no way of knowing who had jumped on with us. Panic filled my thoughts. We were going to die.

I stumbled toward Samuel. My foot hit the hard ground just as I felt something block it from moving any farther. My head jerked around to the other side, but nothing was there. I paused for a second, trying to slow my panicked breaths, but it was no use. I tried to calm my rapidly beating heart. That's when I felt something, or rather someone, grab me by the waist.

A large arm squeezed tightly around my stomach. "Don't fight me," a deep voice whispered into my ear. "Just hold on."

Like hell I'll hold on, I thought as I gasped for air. The sound of a voice gave me just what I needed: a target.

As fast as I could, I lifted my right foot and tried to land a blow on my attacker's face or throat.

"Crap. Esa, stop. Just relax," the voice whispered angrily in my ear. "Try to look like you're fighting me, but, please, I'd like to keep my face intact."

I knew the voice, but I also knew that I couldn't trust Luther.

"I'm going to kill you." I seethed as I plowed back my elbow as hard as I could. "Somehow, I'm not surprised to hear that you are, once again, turning your back on your team."

Luther's grip only tightened. His strength had definitely increased. His body was rock hard. Before I could blink, he had the rest of the group in his grasp.

"Now, Theo!" he called.

My gaze snapped toward Theo. Had he gone against us too?

There was a bright light, and Theo quickly put a hand on me, reaching the other toward Audrina and Gave. A strong bolt of electricity passed through me. The pressure caused my knees to buckle and then suddenly everything was dark.

***

I woke staring into a bright light.

"Am I dead?" I asked no one in particular. I really didn't expect an answer, but suddenly Theo's head appeared over mine.

"Esa, we need to talk about what happened."

"What? Where are we?" I asked groggily.

"Don't worry about that right now. I need to explain something to you."

I stared back at him in disbelief. Even through my anger, I found it difficult to tear my gaze from his eyes. I watched him for several seconds before squeezing my eyes shut again. This had to be a bad dream.

Theo shook my shoulders. "Esa, wake up."

"What?" I mumbled with my eyes still closed. There were so many questions swirling around aimlessly inside my head.

"How do you feel?"

"Tired. Mad. How about you?" I slowly sat up and rubbed my shoulder. There was still a dull pain in the area where Theo had sent a bolt of electricity ripping through me.

"I figured you might be a little upset."

"I'm not just a little upset, I'm really angry right now." I knew Theo had been behind that attack at Artek. He couldn't deny it. I had heard Luther and then seen Theo.

"I'm sorry."

"Where are the others?"

"In another room. I wanted to talk with you first."

"What about Samuel?"

"We haven't seen him."

"Where are we?"

"In the year 1965."

"Really? Why?"

1965 was the year in which I had thought Luther was hiding at one point. There had been a lot of energy emitted from that year.

"We finally put all of the pieces together." He looked down at his hands. "I'm sorry, Esa, but I saw more than I told you when I was invisible. Dr. James sent me on several missions, including the ones where I attacked the team, but then she also sent me to find Luther and Troy. I easily found them, and I also learned the truth."

"Well, it's about time. Theo, why couldn't you just tell me?"

"I tried to talk to you, but you pushed me away. Remember?" He arched his eyebrows.

I remembered it now. He had wanted to talk before our mission. "So now you're on the same side as Luther?"

"We're all on Luther's side. Don't forget, he's a part of this team. Besides, I knew he hadn't intentionally gone against us. It just didn't make sense. One minute he would be goofy and normal and then next he was completely different. Then, when we started questioning if I was the one who'd attacked the team, I figured it out. Just like me, he had been given something to alter his state of mind."

"Okay. We knew something was up with him," I looked into his eyes. There was something more that he wasn't telling me. "What else? I can see it in your face. You're keeping something from me."

"I don't think we're human."

"That's not possible. We look and act human--"

"We've been nothing but guinea pigs for these jerks. Esa, think about it. Where are my parents? Where are Audrina's parents? And, none of us have aged in years. We all look the same since we were changed."

My hand flew to my mouth. "Oh my God. I hadn't really thought about that."

"We all died in the Century War. The radiation from the Jump Line didn't cause us to change...Dr. Marie and General Paul James did this to us. We were the first normals they tested. Apparently, we are officially called "Ciphers." I'm not sure what that means, but Dr. Marie hasn't changed more of the normals here into Ciphers because she's saving their bodies for Merak."

I thought back to Luther when we had seen him walking outside of NorthStar. His eyes had looked dead at that time.

"I've taken out all of our trackers. Dr. James can no longer follow us."

I looked down at my wrist. My watch was gone.

Theo nodded. "Our watches are gone too. We can't risk it anymore. This is a new day and we have to take more precautions. For the past five years, Dr. Marie and Paul James have led us through a series of obstacles and lies to test us. Not because they were trying to make us stronger, but because they wanted to tweak their research. It's always been about starting over in their new world."

"Where is Dr. James right now?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure we will hear from her again. For now, I have decided it was time for us to get away to a safe place. We anticipate the three of them will try to get to Merak very soon."

"She's still alive? I thought we were going to blow the place?"

"We did, but she was able to get out in time. We saw the bright light just as we were leaving too."

My eyes shot open. "I saw that light."

"I'm not sure where she is at right now. We don't believe there's another transportation mechanism to get to Merak. There's no way to simply jump to the new planet. It would mean jumping into the future, and that's not possible."

"Where's Luther?"

"He's here."

"Where?" I peered around the dimly lit room.

"Hello, Esa," Luther said from a shadow in the corner. I saw his bright blue eyes staring at me in the darkness.

"Hello, Luther."

"I'm sorry if I hurt you."

I rubbed my hands together. "I'm fine. Are you guys sure Samuel is not here?"

"Yes. Why?"

"I think we need to find him. He is just as smart as Marie. I know he has been hiding the truth from us. There is no way he could have known we're not human. I don't think he's just a bystander any longer. He's one of the enemies."

|$(H}