6 #2
Following him through the last door on the left, we move into the lab dedicated to armoury sticks after a scan of my father’s thumb.
I have been in here before, but only ever with him; I have never had any use for these rooms, and I know nothing in here could help me with the situation in my eye.
Despite being so self-assured that he has had my fingerprint recorded on the biometric scanners in here, Father would not be so careless as to leave the remaining pixels in his Avri cluster that are not in his person or belongings somewhere so obvious.
I fight to keep my irritation in as he moves further into the room, the Evots, Exots, and Neutrals working in here embarrassingly falling for his constructed charming outward appearance as they share warm looks and friendly waves.
Would I even find any brain cells other than my own if I were handed a device to scan over the heads in the room?
Holograms float mid-air, and I roam my eyes over them, taking in the displayed light crimson Avri dagger in one and the throwing star in another as my father creates tedious conversation with a scientist working on Avri belonging to a boy whose name I catch on the screen before him is Tam Fletchings.
Upon a single glance, it is evident he is a new Evot; enabled by the microchips all Avri scientists have in the backs of their necks that can direct every cluster, aided by computer coding, the eleven-year-old’s luminous green pixels make a faint flickering sound as half of them pile into one ebony baton lying on the polished white desktop, the other half moving into the one on the right.
Unless it is my father’s that he has made very clear over the years needs special permission to be altered with the unique way his energy has been coded—it was very anticlimactic when the Neutral I had demanded connect to the Game Master’s cluster dropped dead seemingly out of the blue when I attempted to test the truth of his words, trying to find a way to remove his ability to cause me pain whenever he wishes—Avri clusters can be commanded at any time by scientists who have been given the chip.
They only need to be near our free pixels, which are contained in yet another location my father never deigned to divulge.
Beneath the hologram of the bow and arrow, I watch a woman with a tight platinum-blonde bun sat low on her head with interest as her attention bores into the ruby-coloured pixel hovering in the air above her desk.
The energy begins to move, the larger pixel breaking down into hundreds of tiny ones before they reshape, merging together, solidifying into a slim arrow with a lethally sharp tip, and the woman’s pale blue eyes observe the weapon created, flicking back and forth between it and the design she has copied from the hologram before she types rapidly with a click-clacking of her fingers on the keyboard before her.
Strings of complicated information run across the black background of her computer screen in response.
I have seen this happen many times, and little things outside of killing—as well as admittedly now my Bonds—actually manage to capture and hold my attention, but I do find it consistently held when I am able to watch the creation of Avri weapons and vehicles.
However, Father does not take me down here too often these days, so I do not get to be fascinated very often.
I would like to think it is because he is more wary of my talents and what I have learned from the labs over the years.
“Daughter.”
At my father’s single-worded command, I peel my eyes away from the Avri arrow, settling them on him.
With my helmeted head turned enough for him to know he has my attention, his lips curve in that sickeningly fake way, and he extends his arm out, settling his hand on my lower back as I move closer to him. “Come. I would like to show you something.”
Without a word, I allow him to take me to another door, one I know before he opens it leads into break rooms for the workers. The urge to jump on him and rip his innards out before he can try anything prods at me, and his lips twitch in amusement. “I breathe, and you wish to do me harm, Ezla.”
“And why is that shocking?”
There is a long stretch of corridor that his legs eat up with long strides, and I match each as he replies, “It is not.”
I huff, then snap, “What are we doing down here?”
“Patience.”
Lips tightening, I decide to keep my mouth shut before his dull responses can annoy me to the point I throw caution to the wind and forget I must behave for my men.
But I cannot help but contemplate the most torturous ways possible to end him when I am finally free when we stop before a dead end.
“Do you now possess the ability to walk through walls?” I grind out as he presses a hand to the pristine surface. “I grow impatient—”
Iridescent pixels flicker into view, parting to reveal a taalk door.
For a moment, I can only stare.
Please do not tell me that all this time, this has been right here. That the rooms I believe must be behind this indestructible slab have been hidden by Avri the entire time, in a break room I am too superior to even have considered stepping into for more than a brief, cursory glance.
As if he can sense all I am thinking and feeling, Father chuckles. “This is why you cannot always think with a superior attitude.”
“As if you are the slightest bit humble,” I hiss under my breath. “You are the one who drilled into me that I am above everyone else.”
“You are above all others,” he tells me without inflection. Then he adds, “All but me.”
I only manage to keep my growl in because he opens the taalk door, which slides away to allow us access after another scan of his thumb—a thumb I wonder if I will have to chop off when I absolutely come back here in the future considering the likelihood is below zero that my fingerprint will be accepted by this specific biometric scanner.
Labs identical to the others are revealed, and my father and I step through the doorway. I roam my eyes over the space slowly.
There is nothing immediately unique about the first lab, nor the second one I can see through a crystal-clear wall at the end of the sizeable room; there is the same fresh smell, the same gleaming white walls, and the same number of Evots, Exots, and Neutrals scattered about.
Yet on closer inspection as Father takes me to the nearest desk where an Exot man is working, my focus comes to rest on its top, where I catch odd intermittent flashes of multicolour.
My head tilts.
“The cameras,” Father supplies.
“I gathered.” My voice is even, holding none of my suspicion at the fact he is showing me this so readily.
“And what do you think?” he asks as we both watch a small onyx marble-like ball materialise on the desktop.
I hum as the camera floats up into the air before winking out of visibility completely.
This time, there is no blip of light or ripple in the air to indicate there is anything there at all.
“Impressive,” I reply evenly, roaming my eyes about in search for more information on this using the cover of my visor.
“They are, aren’t they?” Father moves right in my way, blocking my vision before I can get a good look at the computer screen on the desk.
“Would you like to know why I have shown you?” he asks, taking my arm and walking me deeper into the lab.
Stopping us when we reach a more secluded area by the wall separating this room from the next, he turns to face me.
“I am sure you will tell me either way.”
He chuckles under his breath, good-naturedly for any observers.
“Correct.” Then his voice lowers along with the head he dips closer to me.
“I brought you here to let you know you are being watched. I always have my eyes on you, Daughter, so this is a strong reminder to behave, yes? These are not just used during Bonding Games—I have access to all equipment whenever I wish.”
Did he . . . Is he truly so thick as to reveal this to me? Of course, he did not know that I was already aware of the information he shared with me that he seems to believe is groundbreaking, but why . . . ?
I simply cannot comprehend the stupidity in him.