Activated, p.20
Activated, page 20
I finger my emp-bracelet. “That’s because you’re not factoring in new variables. Including the fact that my dad and I are joining forces with you and Cesare, and my knowing about Kai’s involvement.”
“I considered that, but you’re also not familiar with the Infinity Dome or Scale Tech’s security system, which I’ve been studying for months. There’s only one way to solve this. You can’t see everything I’m seeing.”
I lean in, my voice stronger. “Then show me.”
“I wish I could,” Noble says, frustrated. “You have to trust me on this.”
“Well, you have to trust me too,” I snap, hurt dripping in my tone. “Maybe if you had told me about all of this sooner, we wouldn’t be in this mess.” The table goes silent for a full five minutes…
“More pasta anyone?” my father says, breaking the silence. “It’s delicious, Cesare.”
The vegetables on my plate are now lukewarm and the spaghetti is all stuck together, but I slowly start to eat anyway.
Soon Noble’s numbers are micromanaging the dinner table. He reads my thirst again and pours more water. I want the pepper—he reaches for it a split second before I do. “Here,” he says, eyeing me through his hair.
“Thanks.” I take the pepper, not sure if this is his way of apologizing or proving he’s right. But my numbers jump in like it’s a game of chess.
The next time he wants more bread, I push over the basket. “Butter with that?” Later when he’s about to reach for pasta, I jump up awkwardly to serve him.
“It’s okay,” he says, quietly. “I can reach it.” He turns away, his frequency erratically dropping up and down.
My heart sinks. In Tunisia, my gift only turned on a few times around him—only for a minute or two. This is intense. It’s almost a battle for who sees more—me or Noble. The constant flow of my numbers counteracting his is dizzying.
The two dads at the table notice our obvious ability to counter each other’s moves and watch us as if we’re a spectacle. I didn’t realize it would be like this. Noble said there’d be no more surprises. Learning how to help each other when we know too much is harder than I thought.
Noble and I finish dinner with awkward glances, listening to Cesare and my father happily talk about Rovaniemi and the Arctic. They’re actually enjoying each other’s company, which is what I want to be doing with Noble and I’m pretty sure he wants to do with me.
After dinner, Noble thanks Cesare, then bends down to me, his voice soft again. “Will you take a walk with me?” His eyes lock onto mine like a promise. “I want to show you something.”
My stomach flips thinking of being alone with him. After all, this is why I came. To find out what he means to me. I nod, setting down my napkin, and stand.
“Dad,” I say, and he looks up, “I’ll be back. Noble and I are going to take a walk.”
“Now? In the dark?” My father squirms in his chair. “It’s 28 degrees below zero.”
Cesare stifles a laugh. “Ragazzi never get cold when they are alone.”
“Alone?” my dad repeats.
“It’s safe, sir.” Noble swallows. “It’s not far from the house, and we have to keep our face masks on...” He clears his throat. My cheeks burn again.
“I’ll be fine,” I say, patting him on the shoulder.
Trust melts onto my dad’s face. He knows I’ve waited months for this moment.
While Noble grabs his gear, I slip into my white snowsuit, which is at 50%. More than enough time for a walk.
We meet at the front door. He’s decked out in gear that looks made to survive a nuclear winter. A thick hat is pulled down on his head. He stretches out a polar-gloved hand. “How about that hot chocolate in a field of fractals?”
I take his hand. “I’d like that.”
Chapter 40
THE FULL MOON gleams on the white landscape, brightening the dark terrain. The arctic air rushes at my eyes, making them water. A resounding silence echoes through a frozen land.
“This way,” Noble says, leading me by the hand past the house and dome and onto a trail between the trees.
Shadows shift on the path as the breeze moves the branches. It’s strange having been here before in a simulation. The trail is familiar but also absolutely new. Unlike the sim, the dark changes the landscape. There’s also a squeak in the snow as we walk, which means the snow must be cold and dry.
We follow a trail, passing snow-laden trees stooped over like old men, while others—covered in hoar frost crystalized designs—are like decorated women at a winter gala. My numbers hum.
After four minutes, we round the hill. As in the simulation, a table and two chairs are set up next to a small metal encased fire pit. Noble pulls a miniature device from his pocket, points it at the fire pit, and up blazes a smokeless fire. Then, he pulls a small thermos and two cups from one of his many pockets.
“Welcome to my Arctic home.” He points to a small frozen pond, the ice refracting into brilliant patterns in the moonlight. He brushes snow from the chairs. “As you can see, there are as many fractals as I could want here and an even better view.” He looks up at a night sky untouched by city lights.
My head tips up. The sky is so bright it looks like it will fall under the weight of so many stars. “It’s beautiful.”
“Yeah,” he says, pulling down my face mask, followed by his. “It is.” The shy grin on his face, coupled with the freckles on his nose, make my breath come out in faster puffs—or it could be the cold air.
“I thought we were supposed to keep our masks on,” I say, a lighthearted challenge in my voice. His numbers, now that we are alone, are even more attentive. They make me flutter nervously.
“We were…” he says, “until we arrived at the fire pit.” He cracks a playful smile.
We each settle into a chair, knowing which one the other would pick. I stifle a laugh. “This is new, right?” I say, pointing out the obvious. “Being around each other like this.”
“It’s what I predicted. No surprises.” He smirks, growing silent. It’s not like in the Sahara Desert where things felt more understood…natural. Here, it’s like we’re high school students forced to dance together after we just met. Only, the dance will be over all too soon. Red claims time isn’t our enemy, that it helps us see what’s ahead. But with Scale Tech and Palermo nearby, what’s ahead doesn’t look promising.
The fire flickers heat onto my cheeks, but an entirely separate pulse of energy spikes in me. The phantom frequency flashes its familiar equation like a ghost in the wind boomeranging into me, then vanishes. It’s jarring, but also reminds me of all the questions I need to ask Noble about my gift, the crescendo of numbers building up inside me.
Noble pours me a cup of hot chocolate. I take it. He drops his defenses a bit, and there’s a shift in both of us. There is nothing stopping our numbers now. I’ve waited days to see how our numbers would interact. To solve these feelings dividing up my heart. I push Kai’s face from my thoughts, and focus on Noble, a boy who can understand me in a way no one else can. But as soon as I do, Noble tightens up, like he did in the house. I think I know why. Real questions have to be answered. Maybe we aren’t sure what the answers are.
I rub the tip of my freezing nose. “This is silly,” I say. “Let’s just be a normal boy and girl for a minute, asking normal questions, okay?”
“Is normal possible for us?” he jokes, then gives me a look that implies he’ll try until he sips his hot chocolate and an odd expression crosses his face. “So first question. Are you over Kai?”
If the weather doesn’t freeze me, the question does. “What?” I avert my eyes, stunned, not even sure how to answer him, not even sure what he’ll see if he looks at me. I swallow the lump in my throat trying to come up with an answer.
Noble groans. “I’m sorry, Jo. That wasn’t fair. Forget I asked.” He shakes his head like he screwed up. “As I said, I suck at normal.” He shakes it off and changes the subject. “New question. I’ve wondered for a long time about your gift—if it’s taken a parallel journey to mine.”
I breathe, relieved he’s talking about our gift, a subject I’m eager to discuss. “Let’s see. If you mean picking up on new frequencies every day, even if I can’t identify what they are; my brain processing at the speed of light; a path of numbers, scrambling dates and equations that just keep building and thickening like it’s going to erupt? Sound familiar?”
Noble nods knowingly. “Very familiar. I went through it too.”
“Good to know I’m not crazy,” I say, thankful I’m not alone in this. “Eddie says the frequencies are activating dormant areas in our brain.”
“Eddie’s a smart guy,” Noble says. “Our brains are able to pick up on much more than what we see with our eyes. These dormant areas are turning on like light bulbs, activating abilities we’ve only dreamed of and they’re pairing with the math gift we share.”
“Does it go on increasing forever?” I ask.
“It didn’t for me. There was a period of build-up which led to a very clear intensification, then after ‘an eruption’ as you called it, the frequencies balanced out.”
“What do you mean intensification?” I ask.
His eyebrows shoot up. “For me, I heard something that made my gift skyrocket into a blurry, crazy amount of energy. After that, it was a day or two before it erupted into a vision I’ll never forget. It was as if the photoreceptors in my eyes partnered with my math gift. For a few minutes I could pick up what only nocturnal animals or machines could see, even the light we emit as humans. The phenomenon ended minutes later and balanced out. If it hasn’t happened to you yet, it’s probably coming.”
“What did you hear that triggered it?” I ask, remembering what happened when I ran into Kai in the Banquet Hall. I avert my eyes.
“A voice.” His tone is solemn.
“Whose?” I ask.
He tightens his lips, a darkened expression on his brow. “Not one I was expecting.” His frequency curls into clouds of mist like a hiding child. “My father’s.”
A protective surge rises in me. “He contacted you?” I ask, shivering not from the cold but from his stories from years ago of his parents’ abuse and the way they never understood him and manipulated his prodigy gift.
“Both my mom and dad did. Audio messages on an old app I previously used.” His eyes dart to the fire. “Turns out, they were looking for me.”
“Noble…that’s huge…” I say, calculating the weight in his eyes. “Did you respond?”
“Not yet. But my numbers say that if I don’t soon, I may not get another chance.” His boot kicks a pile of ice. We’re both silent. He’s lost in his thoughts, which are clearly as heavy as me showing up on his doorstep. “I’ll think about them more clearly after this business with Palermo is over.” The tone of his voice is all wrong. He squeezes his eyes shut, clearly wanting to change the subject. “I’ve always wanted you to see this place. Not the best timing though, huh?”
“If you had invited me instead of making me decipher your code, I would have come sooner.” My voice shakes with emotion.
His lips turn up. “I knew you’d crack it,” Noble says, staring into the fire.
I study the beautiful enigma in front of me. He’s holding so much in, even I hurt because of it. So I drive the conversation forward.
“Why, Noble? Why did you let me search for you for so long? What held you back? What was more important?” I grow embarrassed at what I want to say next, but I push the words out anyway. “You made some pretty big confessions in Tunisia…” My face burns at this admission. If he sucks at normal, I suck at all things love. “But now that I’m in front of you, it’s like you don’t even want me here.”
He looks up at me. “I’m sorry. That’s not it at all. I do want you here. But things just didn’t work out the way I wanted them to.” He stares back into the fire. “I’m sure you know I’m trying really hard to hide things.” His tone drips with remorse.
“Please don’t,” I whisper. “You’ve already hidden enough.”
He lowers his eyes. “There are reasons I didn’t want you coming right now. Reasons you might not understand.” He inhales slowly, considering how much to say. “Everything is so complicated. Out of control. Blackouts started happening two weeks after Tunisia…and I need to fix that first. No one will understand the choices I’ve had to make. But after it’s done, if things don’t get worse, I’ll need to leave again.”
“Already?” I ask.
He raises his eyebrows at me. “Jo. There’s a mafia boss in my kitchen. This place is obviously compromised,” he says with a huff. “Too many things have gone wrong. I have to fix it all. But I’ve done the math, and even I don’t know how it ends.”
“Forget math, Noble. This isn’t your fault. Palermo’s men are causing this chaos. You’re not the only one who has to help solve this.”
“You’re wrong, Jo,” he says. “This is my fault.” Regret pools in his eyes. “Everyone is blaming me for the satellite failures and blackouts, because they’re right. The tech Palermo is using to cause them is mine.”
Chapter 41
FIFTY-TWO HEADLINES BUZZ through my head where the NASA Tipper was blamed, and now I learn it’s all true. But that can’t be the whole story. Noble wouldn’t create anything that hurts people.
“What do you mean?” I ask him.
He stands, his hand outstretched once more. “Come on. I’ll show you.” We walk back toward the house, entering the side door into the glass igloo-like structure, the Aurora Dome.
There are computers and tech everywhere, along with multiple telescopes. The desk is littered with hand-drawn diagrams, blueprints, a map of the Arctic and another piece of stony coral. Noble’s surveillance program and facial recognition software is actively scanning on two different computer screens. There’s also a futon covered in brightly colored pillows, the perfect spot for looking up at the stars through the dome.
“This is the soul of the property, where the magic happens,” he says, attempting a smile. He sits at a computer and gestures to me to sit in the chair next to him as he pulls up images and files with equations and formulas from the code I cracked, then points the screen my way.
Looking closely, I scan through pages of designs for a Super Satellite design that looks hauntingly familiar.
“You see?” he says. “I figured out how to harness and convert a lot of light energy that we’ve never been able to tap into before.” He brings up a screen showing the design for a new giant folding solar panel. “As a kid, I thought it was amazing that the sun was always at work, even at night, even in the darkest times and seasons. Its power is evident in the auroras, activating the most beautiful energy, but it’s totally untapped. So why not use that?” He smiles wide. “Today, we can only harness a small percentage of light waves out there. But with this design, I can activate and harness the energy in auroras and other stellar explosions, as well sunlight beyond the visible spectrum. Imagine a massive solar and stellar panel that could convert all of these phenomena into energy. I know you already understand some of this stuff because you cracked my code,” he says, with gratitude in his eyes. “I’ve worked on these designs since I was a kid, but they weren’t fully complete. I hadn’t yet discovered what material I needed to use for the panel in order to convert the energy or figured out what would work as a conductor to send it back to earth. After my gift resurfaced and the frequencies started, I finished my research. Just think, now we can have sustainable energy even in polar regions all winter, even at night, all the time.”
I scan his notes and spot the key to his design—radium—the 88th element. I can never seem to escape that number.
I’m silent for a beat, lost in awe. “Noble…this is amazing. It’ll change the world.”
“I thought so too. Until my designs got into the wrong hands, and my ideas for harnessing this energy were turned into a weapon. That’s how Palermo will wipe out power grids and satellites. Instead of using the energy of auroras to power homes and cities, they’re pointing it like a gun to take out grids and satellites. They’ve been experimenting with my designs in a nanosatellite they launched three months ago. So far, it hasn’t been able to create the amount of damage they were hoping for. So Palermo’s scientists built my technology into the Super Satellite. Thankfully, the weapon’s programming isn’t complete yet. That’s what the last scientist who Palermo is holding captive is trying to finish.”
“How did they get your designs in the first place?” I ask. “Did they figure this out from one of your tips to Scale Tech?”
“No.” He shakes his head, a hard expression on his face. “They got it from someone who saw my designs long ago.” Pain is written across his face. “If they finish the weapon, no nation will be safe.” His entire body tenses up, until something distracts him. “Look.” Noble points up.
Above us, a light show is taking place. Bright greens and reds swirl in the sky. The aurora borealis is dancing a waltz and my numbers go wild calculating frequencies of all kinds, within this room and above us. I stop looking up at the lights. Like magnets, my eyes are drawn irresistibly to Noble.
“I’m going to miss this place.” He notices me and moves closer, an intensity burning in his eyes. “Jo, I have a refuge for every season hidden around the world. This time when I leave, I want you to come with me.”
“What?” Ripples of shock shoot through me, though I don’t know why. This is Noble. Complicated, brilliant, enigmatic Noble. Of course, it would come to this. This is how he lives.
The offer hangs like icicles, frozen and suspended in front of us, sharp and breakable. His eyes radiate light and fire like stormy nebulas worlds away. A part of me wants to cut this string keeping me tied to earth and float away with him. To see what we could do, what we could have, what we could be.
“I’m serious.” He takes both of my hands. “I was going to ask you after this was over. But now that you’re here, there’s no point in waiting. After tomorrow, if you’re ready, I want you to run away with me.”
