CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE #2
I shrugged. ‘My pain doesn’t change how I feel about my community.’
‘True, true.’ He sighed. ‘You shouldn’t have to live your life like this. I’ve gone to more of those town halls. I’m questioning the Freedom System. There are too many people like you – people in pain for a disease they should never have been given to carry. There has to be another way.’
‘You sound like Estelle. I know about all of it, Leo. She told me everything.’
‘And she told me you had two hellflares last night.’ He pulled a card from his pocket, one side bearing the protestors’ emblem, the other a matrix barcode. ‘I know someone who can help and give us answers. You’ve done enough for us, Nova. It’s time to put you first.’
Thirty minutes later, the three of us were packed in Daddy’s truck, passing a row of rundown warehouses. I’d agreed to come along for the answers, but that was it. No chip removal. The risks weren’t worth it. Estelle agreed.
She pointed to the next intersection. ‘Apollo’s place should be up here on the right. We’re supposed to park in the empty lot behind it and walk around.’
‘Are you two sure about this?’ I asked. ‘An unlicensed doctor who goes by Apollo?’
‘It’s all we got.’ Leo parked, and we made our way to the front of the dilapidated building.
He jutted his chin toward a door half hidden by a dumpster.
The door was solid steel, a small biosig scanner where the handle should’ve been.
I shook out my nerves, locking eyes with Estelle.
There was a gleam in hers that made me wonder if she remembered our agreement.
‘Now or never, right?’ She placed her thumb over the sleek black pad.
An AI voice came through a hidden speaker. ‘Estelle Taylor, Pain Carrier.’
‘What system is that?’ The hairs on the back of my neck rose. ‘It’s not Centaurus.’
‘I doubt Apollo is on the grid like that. He probably works off his own ghost networks.’ Leo pressed his thumb to the scanner, and the AI announced him as well, stating his Freedom System denied status.
My turn. ‘Now or never,’ I mumbled, echoing Estelle’s words. I shook out my hands one more time and pressed my biosig to the pad.
‘Nova Williams, Pain Carrier. Voluntary to Castor Fox.’ I cringed at the extra detail in my file. It felt like slime on my skin. I’d never escape the Fox name.
Warm green light flashed, and the door opened.
Inside was a dark hall lit with retro computer monitors switching between lines of code, news feeds, the satellite-grid maintenance schedule, and footage from the security cameras surrounding the warehouse.
A young man stood in the middle of it, much younger than I expected.
‘Apollo?’
‘Get inside first,’ he grunted.
The unlicensed doctor was a kid – no older than twenty. He was South Asian, brown-skinned, with thick, inky hair and dark eyes under heavy brows. I didn’t know what I expected – maybe a lab coat, rimmed glasses – not someone in a metal band tee who could be my classmate.
I raised a brow at Leo, trying to gauge whether he felt as skeptical as I did.
Apollo fixed his attention on me. ‘Nova Williams. Voluntary Pain Carrier to Castor Fox.’ He spat Cas’s name like it was poison. ‘I can’t believe you’re dating your Pain Giver. Did he think kissing your forehead could soften your hellflare?’
I held up a hand before Leo could jump in.
I’d received enough hate online; I wasn’t going to go through it here.
‘I’m not dating my Pain Giver. The Foxes used me, but that’s none of your business.
So you can stop judging me like you know me.
I’m not questioning why a teenager is calling himself a doctor. ’
He lifted his chin, amused. ‘You’re right. My bad. If it matters, I graduated from North California Institute of Technology at sixteen. I’m a third-year med student now.’ He grinned. ‘I’m glad we have something in common.’
Estelle scoffed. ‘What could that possibly be? Did you date Cas too?’
‘No. I prefer my boyfriends a little more in touch with the world outside the glassways,’ he muttered, then assessed us one by one.
‘If you’re here, that means someone I trust trusts you.
And that means there’s no need to sugarcoat things.
The Foxes used my family too. Then they killed my mom three years ago. ’
I gasped, my heart skipping out of my chest. I’d accepted the Foxes’ capacity for lies and manipulation.
I’d seen it in action. Murder was a different monster.
But I was learning how far they’d go to protect their own.
Apollo had made the accusation with such ease, but something faltered behind his steel expression. I couldn’t blame him.
He turned and walked further into his lab space. We followed, weaving between the rows of flickering monitors.
‘My mom –’ he cleared his throat – ‘was a senior scientist at Dominion, working on developments for the Freedom System. She was the best – her research was lauded in the scientific community. Then, with no cause, they sacked her for gross misconduct.’
We’d reached a locked door. Apollo scanned his biosig and retina before it opened, revealing his lab.
Beyond a small living space with worn leather couches were more computers curved around a command center, and a sterile glass-walled room with scalpels laid meticulously on a tray.
I shuddered at the last area, walled off in glass.
It mirrored the transference box where I’d screamed for an hour while Cas’s helical disease flooded my nervous system. I couldn’t pull my gaze away.
‘Hey.’ Estelle looped her arm through mine. She knew what I was feeling – of course she did. I managed to take a step and joined Leo on one of the couches.
Apollo leaned against the one across from us.
‘My mom’s last night alive, she burst through our door with a wild look in her eyes.
She’d found proof Dominion was corrupt. She made me promise to stay put after telling me everything.
There was a journalist across town she was going to meet.
But she never made it. She died on the way.
A truck driver T-boned her car, driving the wrong way down a cross street.
He didn’t even stop once the damage was done. ’
Heat drained from my body as I listened. I didn’t know if Apollo had proof, but the conviction in his tone made me believe his story. It had never reached the news, but the Foxes could’ve made it disappear. I’d seen how easily they crafted narratives.
‘At that point, I was in my first semester of med school and an emancipated teen. The only things I had of hers were a few pictures, her journals and research notes. When I hit eighteen, I gained access to a trust Dominion had set up for me. Guilt money. But it pays for my tuition and everything you see here. I’ve been working to replicate her research. ’
Leo cleared his throat. ‘Respectfully, we’re all sorry for your loss. I can’t even imagine, man. But can I ask what she told you? Was it about the false positives?’
‘Oh, that.’ Apollo laughed, but there was no humor behind it. ‘Her research led her to discover that Dominion wasn’t just manipulating pain-tolerance stats – there’s no need for disease transfer at all. It’s all a lie. There’s a cure for helical disease.’
Estelle slammed her hand over her mouth to muffle her cry.
I struggled to breathe. ‘Wh-what? Are you serious?’
Dominion couldn’t be that cruel. Tears stung my eyes. Pain Carriers suffered for nothing. The Freedom System didn’t need to exist. There was a cure.
I thought of all the nights I’d curled up in a ball, trying not to sob too loud in case Skye heard me. Of how I’d taken to popping nervxs like candy, how others had sought out perceta and hydromorphone, the rising number of addicts, the overdoses.
Leo swallowed. ‘Do you have it? The cure?’
‘I’m not entirely sure my mom ever had her hands on it – or if it truly existed.
I’ve never been able to access her full research.
From what I do have, I think it’s more likely a procedure or extraction.
But I saw my mom’s eyes as she told me. She believed in it.
’ He nodded toward the monitors behind him, lines of code streaming on them.
‘I’ve tried hacking Dominion for the rest of her files, but their system’s been scrubbed of anything she ever touched.
Her employment record too. So instead, I help people remove their Pain Carrier chips and connect them with our underground network so they can stay safe. It’s the least I can do.’
Estelle was shaking. ‘This is deep. Like, really deep. I don’t have to hurt. I never had to hurt.’
‘It’s funny, when you think about it. Maybe if Dominion hadn’t killed my mom, I wouldn’t have met Brenson Moorehouse through the South Alta Community Center’s Big Brother program.’ Apollo rolled up his sleeve, revealing a tattoo matching Mr Moorehouse’s – a lightning bolt overlapping a sun.
‘You two started the protests together,’ Leo said in awe.
‘Eh. Brenson keeps his distance for political reasons. But him running for mayor encouraged me to start whispering to the right people, get things moving, share what I can from Mom’s notes about the fake screenings.
There’s no scientific proof Pain Carriers have higher tolerances – especially not by race.
Yet everything Dominion publishes makes it seem like only certain communities can carry helical disease.
’ He pointed to himself. ‘Brown.’ Then to me.
‘Black.’ He paused, glancing at Estelle.
‘Poor,’ she said. ‘You can call me poor.’