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He’s right. I’ve thought about the poem with the Pilot’s name in it and whether that was the one Grandfather really meant me to find. He gave me the compact, he told me the stories of hiking the Hill, of his mother, who sang forbidden poems to him. What did Grandfather want me to do? I’ve always wondered.
“Why did you gather people at the Gallery?” the Pilot asks.
“So they could bring what they’d made. ”
“What did you talk about there?”
“Poetry,” I say. “Songs. ”
“And that’s all,” the Pilot says.
His voice can be as cold or as warm as a stone, I realize. Sometimes it sounds generous and welcoming, like sandstone under sun, and other times it’s as unforgiving as the marble of the steps at City Hall.
I have a question of my own for him. “Why did my name interest you now?” I ask. “People in the Rising must have seen it before. It meant nothing to them. ”
“Things have happened since you first joined the Rising several months ago,” the Pilot says. “Poisoned lakes. Mysterious codes. A Gallery built where people could gather and exchange things they’d written. It seemed your name was worth a second look. And when we looked again, there was a great deal to find. ” And now his voice is very cold.
“Cassia’s not fighting against the Rising,” Xander says. “She’s part of the Rising. I can vouch for her. ”
“So can I,” Ky says.
“That might mean something to me,” the Pilot says, “if it weren’t for the confluence of data around the three of you. There’s enough to make all of you suspect. ”
“What do you mean?” I ask. “We did whatever the Rising wanted us to do. I came back to Central to live. Ky flew ships for you. Xander saved patients. ”
“Your small obediences did serve to camouflage your other actions to those in the Rising with less authority and information,” the Pilot tells me. “They initially had no reason to report you to me. But after you were brought to my attention, I saw things and made connections that were unavailable to others. As the Pilot, I have access to more information. When I looked closely, I found the truth. People died wherever you went. The decoys in your camp, for example, many of whom were Aberrations. ”
“We didn’t kill those decoys,” Ky says. “You did. When the Society sent people out to die, you sat back and watched. ”
The Pilot continues, relentless. “A river near the Carving was poisoned while you were in the area. You detonated wiring in the Carving, destroying part of a village that belonged to Anomalies. You destroyed tubes in a storage facility in the canyons, a facility that the Rising had infiltrated. You conspired to obtain and carry blue tablets. You even killed a boy with them. We found his body. ”
“That’s not true,” I say, but in a way, it is. I didn’t mean to kill that boy by giving him the blue tablets, but I did. And then I realize why the Archivist asked me about locations where tissue preservation samples might be stored. “You’re the one who wanted to know how much I knew about the tubes,” I say. “Do you really trade them?”
“You trade the tubes?” Ky asks.
“Of course,” the Pilot says. “I’ll use whatever I need to secure loyalty and resources for finding the cure. The samples are a currency that works when almost nothing else will. ”
Ky shakes his head, disgusted. I can’t help but be grateful that we were able to get Grandfather’s tube
away from the Cavern. Who knows what the Pilot would have used it for.
“There’s something more,” the Pilot says. “The Cities where you lived were among those who suffered contaminated water supplies. ”
The lake. I remember those dead fish. But I don’t understand what he means. The three of us look at each other. We have to figure this out.
“The Plague spread too quickly,” Xander says, his eyes lighting up. “It stayed contained in Central for a long time, and then all of a sudden it was widespread. Until the virus went into the water, we had an epidemic—people getting sick from transferring it to one another. After the water supplies were contaminated, we had a pandemic. ”
And now Ky and I are right there with Xander, putting together the pieces. “It’s a waterborne Plague,” Ky says. “Like the one they sent to the Enemy. ”
The numbers of the Plague make sense to me now. “The sudden outbreak we saw at the beginning of the Rising—widespread contamination in several different Cities and Provinces—means that someone added the virus to water sources to hurry up the process. ” I shake my head. “I should have realized. So that’s why the illness was everywhere, all at once. ”
“And that’s why we were stretched so thin at the medical center,” Xander says. “The Rising didn’t anticipate the sabotage. But we handled it anyway. Everything would have been fine, except for the mutation. ”
“You can’t think the three of us could coordinate all of that,” Ky says.
“No,” the Pilot says. “But the three of you were a part of it. And it’s time to come clean with what you know. ” He pauses. “There’s something else for Cassia on the datapod. ”
I look back at the screen and see a second file embedded. Inside I find a picture of my mother, and one of my father. The screen flashes back and forth between the two of them.
“No,” I say. “No. ” My parents look up from the screen, glassy-eyed. They are both still.
“They have the mutation,” the Pilot says. “There is no cure. They are both in a medical center in Keya. ” He anticipates my next question before I ask it. “We have been unable to locate your brother. ”
Bram. Is he lying somewhere where no one can find him? Is he dead like that boy in the Carving? No. He’s not. I won’t believe it. I can’t imagine Bram still.
“Now,” the Pilot says, “you have an incentive to tell us everything you can. Who do you work for? Are you Society sympathizers? Someone else? Did your group introduce the mutation? Do you have a cure?”
For the first time, I hear him lose control while he speaks. It’s only on the last word, cure, and I can tell how truly desperate and driven he is. He wants this cure. He will do anything he can to find it.
But we don’t have a cure. He’s wasting his time with us. What should we do? How can we convince him?
