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Chapter 16

  “I can’t stay here,” Alex objected, a tide of panic rising. Winston regarded him impassively, not replying. “I have a life! I can’t just leave it behind, I have—” he started to say he had friends who would miss him, but besides Leeann, did he? Instead, he said, “My father is very important to a lot of people. They’ll ask questions. They’ll search and search until they find something. What if they found his research on the suit and it brought them here, just like it did me?” Unbidden, an image of Silas’s emotionless eyes flashed into his mind. Silas was definitely the last person they’d want coming to Domus. “If I bring him home,” Alex pressed. “If I can do that, they won’t have any reason to dig through his research.”

  Would Winston really hold him prisoner? Forever? He couldn’t, the thought was inconceivable! The world Alex knew simply didn’t work that way.

  But this wasn’t the world Alex knew.

  “You must stay,” Winston sounded apologetic, but there was no hint of yielding in his tone. He wasn’t trying to convince Alex, he didn’t need to. His words were a statement, not a request. Indisputable. “Your father’s status on the surface is of no consequence. Your return would carry with it the potential for far more harm than good. Surely, after all I have told you, this must be clear to you.” Alex tried to object but Winston held up a hand. “Your intentions, no matter how pure or accidental they may be in nature, could change over time. The simple knowledge that we and the Core exist would eventually come out, and more like you would come. And then the world would be engulfed in a tidal wave of evil.”

  “Winston, I would not—”

  Winston shook his head, refusing to listen. “By creating thralls,” he continued, “the Nocuous would spread their evil like a virus until no one could oppose them. Down here, they do not have the human resources available to build such an army, but on the surface—the world is not ready to face them. The world will never be ready. It would only take one escaped Nocuous from the Under to change the course of humankind.”

  “But I would never tell anyone!” Alex objected. “They would never believe me if I did, anyway.” But Winston’s eyes remained inscrutable and Alex began to get angry. How could this man, this so-called leader and protector of mankind, care so little? “I just want to save my dad,” he pressed relentlessly. “This is all a big mistake. A coincidence! Maybe one of my ancestors is part of why you’re here, but that was hundreds of years ago. I’m not him, and I never will be!” He’d raised his voice by now, fists clenched at his sides. He didn’t care that he sounded like an angry child. “I just want to go home!”

  In the silence that followed Alex’s tirade, Winston calmly asked, “And then?”

  “And then what?” Alex was way past simple frustration. He was mad. “There is no ‘and then.’ We leave! We go home and never come back! Is that the ‘and then’ you’re looking for?”

  “The suit?” Winston swept his eyes over Alex. “What of it?”

  “Wha—” Alex raised his hands palms up, helplessly. “What do you mean?”

  “That suit, in the wrong hands, would be a direct link to the Core.” Winston’s eyes were insistent, piercing. Eventually Alex had to look away. Again, unbidden, Alex thought of Silas. What would someone like Silas do if he knew the Core existed? Winston nodded slowly, as if he could read Alex’s mind. “Even those without malice, like yourself, who found their way here by accident, could fall prey to its promise of power.”

  Alex reflexively opened his mouth to object, but he couldn’t—he knew Winston was right. He could say he would just destroy the suit and all the research that had gone into building it, but he couldn’t make that promise. Not really. For all knew, Silas’s men had already found his father’s lab in the basement and had begun studying the notes. Silas had seen the video from the airstrip—he knew the suit existed. Even if Alex brought Dad home alive, Silas would ask about the suit. Especially if he brought Dad home alive.

  “Yes,” Winston read the look on Alex’s face. “I can see that you understand.”

  Alex blew out a defeated breath. “That thing,” he said, changing the subject. “In the tunnel. The thing that almost killed me.”

  Winston nodded.

  “Was that a Nocuous?”

  Winston chuckled, slapping his thighs once and rising to his feet in a single, fluid motion. “That,” he told Alex, “was a mole.”

  Alex blinked. “What?”

  “A cave mole,” Winston clarified. “Not necessarily a carnivore, more of an omnivore with a bent for insects, but certainly willing to fight if it was protecting any of its young.”

  “I was almost killed by a mole?” Alex asked disbelievingly. “That was not a mole. It was at least as tall as me!”

  “Yes?” Winston appeared genuinely confused. “Possibly not yet full-grown, but certainly still large enough to do you harm.”

  If what had been in the tunnel was not yet full-grown, Alex had no desire to find out how big they could get. And judging by Winston’s reaction, cave moles were nothing in comparison to the threat a Nocuous or their thralls presented. He’d been such a fool to attempt to escape without any idea where to go or what might be in his way! He had no business being in this place.

  “I can’t stay here,” Alex repeated quietly.

  Winston remained silent, looking down on Alex emotionlessly.

  Alex suddenly looked up, hope in his eyes. “What if we gave you the suit?”

  Winston’s eyes narrowed.

  “Not right now,” Alex clarified. “Look,” he said. “If the suit my Dad was wearing still worked, he would have come home already. But he didn’t, so that means this Rasmus guy either has it or it’s broken. Either way, Dad doesn’t have it.”

  Winston nodded slowly following Alex’s train of thought. “If Rasmus had the suit and it worked, he would already be on the surface.”

  “Okay then, it’s broken,” Alex said impatiently. “So if that’s true,” he was pacing now, “it means my dad needs to be rescued. And if we rescue him, he can figure out a way for this suit,” he plucked at the fabric across his chest, “to take us both back at the same time.” Alex stopped pacing and grinned. “And if he can do that, he can make it so you can come with us.”

  Winston remained motionless.

  “You could come with us, we could show you the research and you could watch us destroy it. And then you could use the suit to come back here, and then you can destroy it!” Alex announced, like it should have been obvious. “Or,” he said with a sly look, “you could hide it somewhere super-secret, somewhere safe, and save it for the day when you kill all the Nocuous. Then you could use it to bring all your people home.”

  Winston’s jaw clenched once. Alex smiled, feeling hope build in his heart.

  And then Winston turned stiffly on his heels, leaving the room so quickly Alex had no time to ask what he’d said wrong. The stone door ground aside and in less than a minute, Alex was left alone again, staring after the man in bewilderment.