Monster (Gone 7)

“You didn’t just come here for old time’s sake,” Diana said. “You came to see if . . . if it is still alive.”

Dekka nodded slowly.

“They’ve closed the mine shaft,” Diana said. “At first they had crews down in there, but various bad things happened, so they blew up the shaft. They sealed it up like they meant it this time. Concrete.”

Dekka said, “They took it. They dug it out. That’s the only answer. HSTF-Sixty-Six has whatever is left of the gaiaphage. I should have realized that’s what they were using for their god-awful experiments. Jesus, Diana, they put some of the gaiaphage in me! Part of the thing that made Gaia, the thing that killed . . .”

Dammit, will I ever be able to say it without choking up?

“Peaks tried to tell me there was still something dark and sinister in Perdido Beach,” Dekka said, back on less emotionally draining turf.

“There is,” Diana said. “The town is still about half empty. Drive through the neighborhoods and you see houses half rebuilt, then abandoned. The school’s running again, but they’re closing it next year for lack of students. No one even tried to reopen Coates Academy. I guess when your private school lists alumni that include Caine and Drake and me . . . Anyway, no, it’s not all gone. There’s something still here, like a sort of echo, a memory of what happened here. The whole town is like a graveyard, not just the square. It creeps people out. You know about the shoot-out?”

“Which one?”

“Bunch of bikers—gang type, not weekend riders—and cops. Like, a year ago, before they sealed the mine. Bikers had moved in, set up a kind of camp. They were actually conducting tours down to see the rock. Cops rousted them and there was a gun battle. Bunch of the bikers were arrested. Two died.”

“That never made the news.”

Diana formed her wry, seen-it-all smile. “Yes, news out of Perdido Beach tends not to be widely covered. The whole world wants to forget this place, Dekka.”

“Don’t we all. But I’m afraid the world is about to get a wake-up call.”

“So, what do you do next?” Diana asked.

Dekka took her time considering her answer. “Peaks and HSTF-Sixty-Six want to keep the whole thing quiet so they can create their own army of superpowered warriors. Supposedly just to stop whoever might get their hands on the rock.” She shook her head. “But that’s bullshit. The government wants the power and doesn’t want anyone else to have it, and that scares me. The Mother Rock is supposedly heading to LA. Once they have that . . .” Dekka shrugged.

“Are you sure it’s a bad thing, the government having the rock? I mean, they are the government.”

Dekka kicked at the sand with her toe. “What they’re doing at the Ranch, that’s way past anything a government is supposed to do. They’re experimenting on people. Doing awful things. Nightmare stuff. No, that’s not a government I need to obey.”

They walked back to the town square in silence, both young women lost in thought and memory. Armo went ahead and now waited by the motorcycle.

“Diana, Armo,” Dekka said.

They shook hands. Dekka offered no further introductions or explanations.

Then Dekka offered Diana her hand.

Diana took it solemnly and held it for a moment. “Take care of yourself, Dekka. There’s one thing your Peaks person was not wrong about: if anyone can be trusted with this power, it’s you.”

If, Dekka added silently, recalling the dark and distant whispers.

If.

“Hey, I thought of something,” Armo said as they crossed what had been the southern border of the dome. He was behind her on the bike, which put his mouth near her ear. She’d lost her helmet along the way and now her dreads streamed back, whipping at his face, so he hunched close to avoid being whipped. His powerful arms were around her waist, and his hard chest was against her back.

This is the most intimate I’ve ever been with a dude, Dekka thought. Meh.

“Like what?” asked Dekka. “I made a promise to see Carl’s family . . . But first I wanted to, I don’t know, I had to see Perdido Beach. I couldn’t just drive on by.”

“So, what are you up for?”

“Up for?” She had to yell to be heard over the engine and the wind and the steady rhythm of tires on concrete.

“I mean, are you hiding? Or are you fighting?”

Dekka breathed a small laugh. “You have a nice way of getting to the point, Arm