supposed to find them?” Marco said. “Antique shops?”
“Why us?” I cut in. “Why are we having these dreams? And how does the G7W marker fit in with all of this? And why are we the ones who have to find these…containers?”
“They are called Loculi,” Bhegad said softly. He thought for a moment and took a deep breath. “There is much I need to tell you, when you are all conscious. Suffice it to say, for now, that we are not the only ones bent on finding the Loculi. There is another group—and we must get them first.”
The hatch in the floor opened, and we could hear a rhythmic mechanical beeping. A silver-haired doctor poked her head into the hole and gave Bhegad a thumbs-up. “Signs are stable,” she announced. “Patient is conscious.”
“Any permanent damage, Doctor Bradley?” Bhegad asked.
The doctor scratched her head. “Her first words to me were, ‘We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.’”
“ The Wizard of Oz ,” Cass explained. “That means she’s okay.”
“Well, she will need a full day to sleep this off,” the doctor replied. “Perhaps they all will.”
Bhegad nodded, his eyes traveling from Cass to Marco to me. “I have no more wind to answer your questions,” he said. He checked his wristwatch. “It is now six A.M. Your training begins in exactly twenty-four hours.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
T RAINING D AY
“S ORRY .” T ORQUIN YAWNED as he entered my room, his bare feet slapping the floor like dead fish. “Overslept. Come.”
I slid off my bed and followed him down the corridor. It was nearly 7:30 A.M. on Training Day. Exactly at 6:00, a technician had arrived to take Cass to the media center. Marco had run off with a bunch of jockish-looking guards. And someone had whisked Aly off in a golf cart to the system control center. We were all supposed to have a morning of “skill building,” followed by a classroom lesson at 2:00 P.M. with Professor Bhegad.
Torquin had been late. “Where are you taking me?” I asked.
“Garage,” said Torquin.
Great. Either my gift had something to do with cars, or I was destined to be a world-class custodian.
As we stepped outside into a crisp, sunny day, I realized I had no idea what the weather had been for about twenty-four hours. The previous day had been spent sleeping, arguing, and eating food that Conan had wheeled to the dorm on a cart.
It took a while to fill Aly in, because she’d had no memory of the night’s main events. In the end, we’d all agreed to toe the line. To go along with Bhegad’s plan. Even though I, for one, still didn’t believe his story.
“ Heeee-yahh! ” came a distant shout. At the other end of the compound, way across the open lawn, a group of guards seemed to be in some sort of martial-arts fight. They were dressed in robes, attacking each other with sticks.
No. Not each other. From their midst, one lone figure leaped upward, doing a complete backflip over their heads. Landing behind the line, he plowed into the backs of their knees with his own stick, sending nearly the whole group sprawling.
“Marco?” I murmured.
“Dangerous,” Torquin said, waddling toward the media center. He opened the door and we walked into the huge main room, with its beanbag chairs, monitors, and games.
My heart leaped. “Cool,” I said. “So you were joking about the garage!”
“Shortcut,” Torquin replied. He went through a door at the other side, which led to a long, tiled corridor. As we passed one of the rooms, I could see Cass working at a desk with some scientists. Someone had placed electrodes on his head, which were attached to some machine. He and two KI guys were staring at a massive, highly detailed map of an island. In the middle stood an enormous black mountain, labeled ONYX .
“Is that where we are?” I asked.
“We are walking on floor. That is map.” At the end of the corridor Torquin pushed open a door. The smell of hot rubber and grease assaulted us. “Inside. Now.”
We