Page 27 of The Infinite Glade
“Of course you are.” Frypan wrapped his arm around Jackie. “And whatever these boys say . . . won’t change that . . . but hell . . .” He stabbed his walking stick into the ground. “Ximena’s near boiling over this, and if she’s strong enough to hear whatever these two knuckleheads have to say about the past and Kletter bringing us all over here, then so are we.” He looked to Jackie. “Good that?”
Jackie took her time before slowly nodding. “Good that . . .”
Old Man Frypan, Glader of Old, walked back into the full light of Cian and Erros’ fire. He and all the rest of them were ready to listen. To learn. To decide what they believed and what they did not.
Isaac sat down next to Ximena, right beside the backpack that held the Cure. Just in case she did anything else crazy. Just in case.
CHAPTEREIGHT
Hidden Truths
“How will we know it’s the truth—what you tell us?” Jackie asked reasonably.
Hay que sentir el pensamiento y pensar el sentimiento.You have to feel the thought and think the feeling, Abuela would say. An old saying.
“You islanders . . .” Ximena shook her head at Isaac and Jackie. “You went your whole lives without knowing things, and ignoring how bad the rest of the world was becauseyourworld was perfect. Well, now . . . now, you need to hear it.” She felt everyone’s eyes on her again as she turned to Cian and Erros. “The truth. All of it.” Ximena held eye contact with Erros, the weaker of the two for sure. “Whois the Cure for, Erros?”
He looked to Cian as if he needed approval to speak.
Cian rubbed above his eyebrows and winced. “Can’t go back, now.”
“¿Qué pasa?” Ximena threw her hand in the air. “What truth could hurt you this much that you can’t even admit it to a bunch of strangers?” To her, telling the truth was easy. Maybe too easy sometimes. Adults in her Village chided her for being too honest.
“Well . . .” Frypan sat on the other side of Isaac. Ximena waited for Jackie to join, but she lingered in the shadows. “Say it as simply as you can, just out with it.” He held his walking stick tightly with both hands, as if it were a sword.
Cian shook his head. “Okay. A hundred years of hidden history is hardly simple . . .” His crossbow slid down the tree it had been leaned against and Jackie finally came close. “Look, I’m sorry we offended you. You’re right, there were people within WICKED who weregood. And there wereotherpeople who held the responsibility of protecting certain families. Families with special genetics. But they ended up dooming everyone in the long run because they believed in keeping secrets in order to keep power.”
Keeping secrets in order to keep power.
Ximena felt the truth in that.
Cian took a deep breath. “The Sequencers held DNA they valued as the future of humankind.” He lit his own coltsfoot cigar. “It’s messed up, but they decided in all their grand wisdom that people with certain patterns of sequences should be valued higher than others. Those were the people, one from each family . . . that WICKED studied.”
“So . . .” Frypan took his time. “You’re talking about the Gladers? Each one of us came from a ‘special’ family?” The old man took in a breath so big that Ximena could hear the air fill his lungs, and again as he exhaled. “Go on . . .”
Erros chimed in. “Families with the best DNA sequences. The ones that the Flare Coalition deemed worthy and in need of protection . . .”
Cian took back the conversation. “Scientists. Doctors. Heads of Political Movements. The top geniuses of the time . . . and their families of course. But because the Coalition included scientists and the outcome of life after the sun flares was unknown, each and every family who participated was forced to agree to a control subject.”
“A control subject . . .” Isaac pondered, nudging Jackie. “That’s the same thing Cowan said to me. . . . Remember how I wasn’t on the list to get on theMaze Cutter. . . ?”
Jackie shook her head.
“Frypan and me . . . Cowan said . . .” Isaac paused. “How did she say it?” He paused again. “She said that I wasn’t supposed to be on the ship. I wasn’t on the original list to go . . .”
“Oh . . . that’s right!” Jackie tapped Isaac’s arm. “I asked Carson and Lacy where you were because everyone made such a big deal about waiting for you. We went to Stone Point the weekend before and had a great time, but then we were all getting on theMaze Cutterwithout even inviting you . . .” She looked confused. “Sadina begged her mom the whole way to bring you but Ms. Cowan kept saying no, that it wasn’t important to bring you and that you’d be better off for the island staying behind.”
Isaac turned his whole body toward Jackie. “She told me when I first spotted her rash that it was because I didn’t have family on the island.”
Ximena couldn’t help but feel for Isaac.Why didn’t he have family?She felt the thought and thought the feeling.
Jackie shook her head. “See! All the more reason for you to go with the only family you’ve known since they died, right?” Their whispers had distracted Ximena from Cian.
“The important people?” Ximena asked Cian to repeat what she missed.
“Families of top generals, scientists, doctors, engineers, all of the professions and intellectuals a society would need to be born again—they were approached to be part of the Sequencers. They were told about the incoming Flares and WICKED didn’t know if the Solar flash would be small or large, or how much of the grid it would take out. There were different contingency plans, but those families who signed up knew only about the most attractive parts of the plan.”
“Manipulative language likehope, survival, interest of the human race. . .” Erros rubbed his throat again. “They weren’tliesbut . . . it wasn’t the whole truth.”
