Nick James - The Pearl wars

She steps forward, gripping the controller pad. “The two of you are going to help me save the planet, ensuring the continued strength of the Unified Party.”

I scoff. “Like I’d ever help the Unified-”

“Twelve years ago I found you, Cassius.” She ignores me. “Our radar picked up an anomaly over Seattle. I came to investigate. I didn’t know there was another until I took you back to the Lodge. By then it was too late. Fisher had already been rescued.” She sighs, continuing to step forward. “By Jeremiah Alkine, no less.

“You were wearing a curious bracelet, Cassius. The rest of your attire was so simple, but the bracelet… I’d never seen anything like it before. Deep and dark and endless. I nearly got lost staring at the seamless material. It was cold to the touch. Didn’t want to part from your arm, either, but I had my methods.”

I stare at Cassius, watching him squirm as Madame approaches. Like usual, he tries to control his expression. But it’s not working very well. He’s crumbling.

“It wasn’t from Earth,” she continues. “Neither were you, for that matter. But I didn’t discover that until two nights later, when the bracelet began to glow by my bedside. I watched as text scrolled across the band-illuminated characters unlike any known language. Seconds later, the writing translated itself into English, as if it knew that I was reading.” Her eyes fall on me. “And that night I learned about you, Jesse Fisher.”

I look to the side, trying to avoid her eyes.

“For many years I was convinced that you’d been knocked off course, sidestepping Earth altogether. I was relieved. As long as Cassius didn’t develop his powers, our planet would be safe.” She sighs. “And then I got word from Avery. Just fragments of information-strange little orphan child that all the teachers were whispering about-but enough for me to connect the dots. The mystery boy was alive.” She frowns. “He was a Skyshipper.”

She shrugs. “As it turned out, we’d still dodged a bullet. The Hernandez Treaty kept the two of you separated for a handful of years, but it was bound to happen eventually. I only wish I’d acted sooner.” She pauses. “The rooftop changed everything. Pearls are treacherous now. They are capable of being unlocked. By you. We’re in danger of being overcome by your people.”

“Our people?” My voice comes out as a whisper.

“That’s right,” she replies. “Alien. Extraterrestrial. Invader.”

My stomach turns. I fight back nausea as the words repeat in my head. I feel like I’m not really here now, that I’m watching someone else’s life.

Alien. The word doesn’t sound right. It doesn’t sound real-just something made up by people with too much imagination. Groups like Heaven’s Rain. But as my heart starts to slow, I realize that I know it’s true. I’ve known it since I saw the girl.

The girl. I look down at her, lying unconscious in the rubble. She looks so… human.

Cassius scoffs. “Aliens don’t exist.”

Madame shakes her head. “There are things we don’t talk about, remember? Your past is one of them. You are one of them.”

“No,” I sputter. “No. I’ve been here my whole life. I would’ve remembered-”

“You were very young,” she interrupts. “The first. The first Pearls and the means to unlock every one that fell after.”

I look down at my hands, the hands that destroyed two Pearls already.

“And that makes you dangerous,” she continues. “An enemy to both the Surface and the Skyships. To the entire planet.”

I clench my fists. “You’re crazy.”

“Am I? Or am I the one unlucky soul who must carry this secret?”

“No,” I respond, “you’re crazy.”

Her eyes narrow. “Tell that to the millions of people who died the day our country exploded, the day your chemicals nearly drove this planet to extinction.”

Cassius steps up beside me. “The Scarlet Bombings. But terrorists did that. You said… ”

“There is terror beyond this planet.” She frowns. “The invaders were sneaky, disabling our radar systems to mask their location.”

I shake my head, unwilling to believe that anybody related to me could be responsible for killing millions of people.

Cassius frowns. “But the government’s retaliation efforts-”

“I told you I must carry this secret, Cassius. Our people demanded revenge. Someone had to pay. That someone happened to be a group of people that had been troubling our country for far too long.”

“Skyship was right,” I say, gritting my teeth. “There were no terrorists. Your retaliation… it was… murder.”

Madame pauses. For a moment I think that she’s gonna defend herself, but she just shakes her head, eyes shut. “No one knows what Pearls really are, what they carry inside. And nobody knows the terrible sins we’ve committed better than me. It’s our duty to correct our mistakes… to use the energy from the invaders to make this world livable.”

“And kill people in the process,” I say.

“They are not people,” she counters. “It’s Homeland Security. They’ve prepared this world for colonization… triggered environmental change and pitted us against one another. They thrive in heat, Jesse, and they’d prefer we lie down and die before they arrive. I cannot let them win.”

I look up at the charred, skeletal buildings around us, trying to imagine chemical-filled missiles shooting down from space. The only missiles I can imagine are the ones deployed by America after the bombings. It’s true what the Tribunal always said. The Unified Party is more than dangerous. They destroyed an entire chunk of the world. They’d do it again if they had to.

I cross my arms, glaring at her. “So what are you gonna do? Kill me?”

“No,” she replies. “Not unless you force me to.” She places her hand on her hip. “I’ve been watching you, Jesse Fisher. As soon as I saw what you were capable of in Portland, I had my team move into action. We caught the invader you freed and disposed of it. I nearly pounced on you then, but decided it was better to wait. You were heading to Seattle, after all. What better place to have this conversation? Vacant buildings all around us. No one need know.”

“Captain Alkine’s on his way,” I start. “My friends-”

“Oh?” She holds the device up to her lips and whispers into it, smiling. “These friends?”

Footsteps surround us. I notice movement among the rubble and watch as Unified Party soldiers approach from every angle, forming a wall around the entire intersection. Their uniforms blend into one another until we’re surrounded on all sides by a dark, unmoving circle. Two particularly large soldiers approach farther, positioning themselves on either side of Madame. One grips Skandar. The other pins Eva close to his chest. Handcuffs, leg restraints, gags. The whole deal.

Madame’s eyes dart from side to side, then settle back on me. “Your so-called Academy really needs to raise its standards.” She cranes her neck, snapping her fingers to get the attention of the soldiers behind us. Before I can turn around, they creep up and drag the Pearl girl away into the ruins. Avery lies peacefully beside me. Skandar and Eva stare at me with wild eyes, struggling with their restraints.

“I can destroy everything you love,” Madame says, “so I suggest you listen closely to what I’m about to say.”

I glance around at the ever-increasing wall of soldiers, so many that the ones in the back fade into the smog.

Several hundred, at least, and only one of me. One snap of Madame’s finger and they’ll rush in. I don’t really have a choice.

“Join me,” she continues. “We need you. You can control them… bring Pearls to us and away from the Skyships. We’ll restore America to what it once was. A beacon of hope, of progress.”