False Memory by Dan Krokos Page B

“You knew we’d be sold all along...you knew .” His jaw is clenched. It’s like he’s fighting the urge to feel betrayed. We all are. But there’s love in Tycast’s face, even if I can’t remember it.
    He fights the pain with clear eyes. “I did. Yes. But I was unwilling to let you go. And now it’s happening without me. . . .”
    Noah says, “That’s what I heard. That’s why we left.”
    Tycast says, “I should’ve sent you away. Sooner. I was a coward. Didn’t stop it.”
    “Until now,” Olive says behind me.
    “Too late, my dear,” Tycast says. “I said I would have no part in it, so they destroyed all my work . . . our home. They must’ve known you four were out. They still want to use you. You are worth so much.”
    Peter shakes his head. “Even if they capture us, they can’t make us cooperate. They can’t break us.”
    Tycast’s white eyebrows go up. “All they have to do is deny you your memory shots. Then you won’t know what side you’re fighting for. And there are other ways, too.”
    A freezing hand reaches inside me and grips my stomach. Olive gasps. I guess the thought of future shots wasn’t on anyone’s mind, including my own.
    Noah is huddled next to Peter and me now. “Where can we get more shots, Doctor?”
    “There is a place,” Tycast says. “I made a secret cache for emergencies. I sunk it, in the lake. Off the third pier downtown. Red paint. Third pier. I’m sorry. I failed you. There’s enough to last. Get it, and hide. Don’t fight them. Don’t...”
    He’s fading. I squeeze his shoulder, trying to keep his attention. Maybe he can hold on. But even as I think it, I know these are his last moments.
    “This Beta team,” I say. “Who are they?”
    Tycast grimaces, but it’s not from the pain. Disgust or shame, it seems. “They are just like you,” he says.
    Just like us.
    Noah asks him another question.
    “Rhys,” he says. “The rogue. Who is he? Will he help us?”
    Noah asks something else but I don’t hear it. I’m too busy watching the light fade from Dr. Tycast’s eyes. They shut halfway but stay cracked, like he’s slowly waking from a nap and adjusting to the light.
    For a few moments, none of us moves or speaks. I can’t read their minds, but I’m guessing we all ponder the same question— did Tycast betray us? He knew what was coming, but that doesn’t mean he was powerless to stop it. I want to believe he meant what he said—he wouldn’t leave us, or use us. I know the others do, too. But as usual, I don’t know what to think.
    Eventually, Peter stands up and walks away from us, gripping his forehead with his palm. The rest of us watch him, waiting for orders I guess. We should be moving. Standing here makes the bottom of my feet itch. Or maybe that’s the blood still leaking from my ankle, pooling under my foot.
    Noah puts his hands on his hips. Sweat glistens in his short brown hair. “We need to get that cache of shots,” he says to Peter.
    Peter doesn’t face us. “Don’t you think I know that?” “Then what are we standing around for?” Olive says. She’s so quiet, but her presence is still reassuring, maybe because she isn’t loud about it. She’s like Noah’s opposite. Especially now with the dirt on her face, and the way she seems to hang a few steps back, watching us rather than taking part. There’s something feral about Olive. A strange light in her eyes that seems more than human.
    I want to know more about her. I wonder what I’ve forgotten.
    Peter finally turns to us. Behind him a squirrel skitters over the dirt path and up a tree. The helicopters still drone in the background, far away.
    “We need to stop this dry run,” Peter says. “If what he said is true...”
    We all know it’s true. I spin my staff around and hold it behind my back.
    “That’s not our priority right now,” Noah says. He looks at me and Olive to make sure we’re listening. “Our priority is making sure we don’t lose our