N I N E T E E N

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"Are you ready for the meeting?" Laura asked as I walked over to the counter. I extended my hand for my daily tablet, but she had nothing to give me. She blinked instead. "Didn't you hear me? The meeting. Don't tell me you forgot, Roger."

My hand remained extended. Just as she'd done to me—blinking in disbelief—I did the same to her. Folding my hands back into my palm, I pushed a fist into my pocket and chuckled nervously. "Of course, I know about it."

I lied.

I'd forgotten all about the meeting with Prime. I knew it was supposed to happen soon, but I didn't think it was today. My calendar didn't register the date for another month or so... "Shit," I whispered.

"Hm?" Laura batted her long lashes. "What happened?"

"Nothing." Laughing, I scratched my head and looked towards the entrance for a distraction. Because not only had I forgotten about the meeting, I forgot what month we were in, the day. Diving back and forth into my memories really left me out of touch from reality.

"Well, he's waiting for you and—oh, hey!" Laura waved excitedly at Xerses as he walked into the lobby. He glanced back at the front steps, rather than forward, but he turned back and locked eyes with me, he seemed confused.

I glanced back at Laura who continued to try to get his attention. "Are you ready for the meeting, X?" she called out.

I turned back just as Xerses walked through the automatic doors. He lifted his backpack strap higher on his shoulder, eyes on me. I wasn't going to wave like Laura did. While I was happy to see him, I was confused.

How did he get here so fast? Weren't we just on the phone?

"Hey." He stood in front of me, wiping his head. He glanced at Laura with a small smile. "Prime preparing the meeting?"

"Mhm." Laura nodded happily as she turned to her laptop. Then her smile faded. "Um..."

Both Xerses and I looked at her. "What?" we said.

Biting her lip, she glanced at us. "Looks like the meeting was bumped up an hour ago."

Xerses pressed his hand against the counter. "To when?"

She looked at us with timid eyes. Slowly, she moved her hand to her mouth and bit her nail. The blue numbers shimmered over the iris of her eyes.

I pressed my hand on the counter, too. "Laura, when?"

"Um," she frowned, "now."

Xerses and I looked at each other, wide-eyed, before pushing away from the front counter and hurrying over towards the elevator. Behind us, Laura, cried out, "I'm sorry, I missed it!"

I side-stepped between a small crowd. Xerses did, too. We looked at each other as I slapped my hand against the elevator's call button. "You didn't tell me the meeting was today, X," I whispered.

He blinked at me. "I thought you knew."

The doors chimed, and a quiet robotic voice greeted us as we stepped inside. I shook my head. "X, I don't even know what day it is."

"Shit," he hissed.

As the doors closed and he selected our floor, I leaned forward to look at him. "And how'd you get here so fast? Didn't we just talk? You were in bed, just getting up, you—"

"Rog." Xerses frowned as the elevator started to move. "That was an hour ago."

|||

All of the time I spent with Xerses—the experiments, the testing, uploading sealed files back into my memory—didn't help me. It broke me. I was worse. Time was still irrelevant. Especially if I couldn't keep up with it.

Rubbing my eyes, I stepped off the elevator with Xerses and headed into the meeting hall. I didn't have to look. I knew my way there, muscle memory. And I was glad I still had that. After all of these dreams with Polk, and the shifts in my data, I couldn't help but feel like Polk was the real issue. No, I knew it. Everything he'd said, everything he'd hinted... it was happening.

"Gentlemen—" At the sound of Prime's voice, my head snapped up. I scanned the room filled with few people. The Importants—the people who hung on Prime's every word. The fact that Mr. Province, the leader of half of our world, stood in the same room as us, took me off guard.

Every time I had spoken to him, it was over a video call. He was never in the right corrected State. New York was his home. To visit New Chicago was a journey and a half for him. But to do it for the Codes? For us? I had to smile.

Prime, with his grey hair and thin mustache, opened his arms wide. He smiled at us, grinning even. "You're late."

"We know, we know," I said, putting my hands together apologetically.

"We're sorry." Xerses removed his bag and put it on the table right beside the door. Unzipping the main pocket, he pulled out a small drive. "We've got all of our notes from—"

"No need." Prime laughed as both Xerse and I straightened. I scanned the room. His Importants didn't bat an eye but patiently waited for him to continue. I was confused as to why there wasn't a need.

Xerses and I spent months preparing for this meeting. The livelihood of Codes was on the line; my life was on the line. The Domes needed to succeed, and we needed to find a way to calm the Rebels on the streets.

"I appreciate everything both of you have done. Xerses," Prime pointed at Xerses with a professional nod, "and you Roger," he looked and pointed at me next. I locked eyes with him but didn't say a word.

"Everything you've done to assist with the Restoration project was and is exactly what the Province needed. On both ends of this world."

"I'm not following, sir." Still holding the drive in his hand, Xerses took a step forward. "Our project isn't done yet. Our jobs are far from complete."

"Oh, I know." Prime cupped his hands together and nodded. "It isn't, and there is more to do."

"There is." Taking the USB from Xerses' hand, I moved forward and placed it on the closest table. "And that's why we're here. We need to—"

Cutting me off, Prime extended one hand to the side, motioning for someone to come in from the back entrance. "You both need to meet the last Code left dormant in the system."

The last Code? No. There weren't anymore. Clara and Erica undid the cork. Each and every one of us was out on the streets, living, breathing; some were better than others, but life was there. But as I followed Prime's hand to the person that entered, my heart stopped. My eyes widened. My fingers slowly dragged the USB back into my palm, where I gripped it tightly. Two steps back and I was right beside Xerses again.

"I don't know how you all would have missed him," Prime chuckled as the Code stood beside him. "It's been months since you've alerted me of the Codes' completions. But this man here," Prime patted his shoulder, "was waiting for his revival."

That wasn't a Code. I knew every Code, every ounce of data from within the salvaged system. Shit, based on my memories, I lived with them. But him? No, he wasn't one of us. He wasn't anything. He shouldn't... be alive.

How can they not recognize him?

"Everyone, say how to John Plum," Prime said.

No. That isn't his name.

"Polk..." I whispered.

Xerses dropped his bag. "Fuck..."

He looked younger, yeah, but his face was the same. The way he stood, the stupid grin on his face. He was Hank Polk, he was the VF creator. He may not have been the reason we were unleashed into the world over a year ago, but he was the base of all of this. He was the start.

And if he was unlocking our truths, revealing the crimes to the Codes who committed them, he couldn't be here. He was more harm than good.

"Rog," Xerses leaned in close and whispered, "we need to say something."

Prime had his arm around Polk. "And now with everyone in creation, I think the Domes are ready to go into full effect."

The entire time he spoke, Polk looked at me. With his hands in the front pocket of his jeans, he held my gaze. His grin widened. The Code shimmer in his eyes intensified. I wasn't sure what he was doing, or what he was planning, but I couldn't just stand around. I also couldn't make a scene. If there was already a plan in motion, one wrong move meant Polk had us all under his thumb.

I inched back, glancing at Xerses. "Don't say anything," I said quietly.

"What?" Xerses hissed. "Rog, we—"

I forced a big smile, and patted Xerses on his back, just as Prime had done to Polk. "It's cool, X," I needed the room to see I was okay, "all is going to be okay."

Xerses' eyes widened as he faced me, but he understood the assignment. His chuckle may have been quiet, unsure, and unbelievable, but for the moment, it would work. He needed to seem on board. And the room bought it.

"Plum," Prime pointed at Xerses and me, "meet the leaders of the Restoration Project."

Both Xerses and I looked back at Polk was forced grins. Introductions weren't needed; at least, not fake ones. But we played along. I nodded first, then Xerses. I'd give him an acknowledgment, but that was it; I wouldn't shake his hand, I wouldn't get any closer.

"Nice to meet you," I lied.


There was nothing nice. Seeing Polk's new "body" wasn't what we expected or needed. Prime's "This a new beginning for all of us," dramatics wasn't what anyone wanted. Xerses and I had plans and they needed to be followed. Creating an undocumented Code into the world, without advising us, wasn't it; it didn't matter how much of a good thing he thought it was.

Polk had no original data. And if he had a number, it would've been adjacent to Zara's—the beginning of the number line. Prime and whatever team he had helping him create Polk wouldn't have been able to see the warning in that. They would've only seen the surface:

Codes has numbers. That was it.

But I couldn't be as blind as they were. I knew there was more beneath the surface. I knew it in my thoughts, in my memories, and this panging belief that Polk was going to ruin the world as we knew it. Did I know how? No. But he'd said things that made me think:

This wasn't the first time I'd switched times. I'd done it during the war. I'd done it when I met Clara. But I felt like there was something more. Something else. I just couldn't... remember. And I needed to.

After the meeting ended, with no further in the Project than we had been for months, I stopped Xerses from leaving the room. The others left, following like a tail after Prime. Polk did, too. But I didn't pay him any attention.

"Hey." I put my hand on Xerses' shoulder. His attention was what I needed. So, when he looked at me, I sighed. "I think I need you to put me back through my memories."

"What?" His brows pinched together. "No, that's not happening. After what you said happened, and the fact that you can't put two and two together—"

"I can add, X," I hissed.

"—It's better if we leave you out of that machine. I can't have you losing your grip on reality any more than you already were."

I stopped. What Xerses said was true. I'd gone to him to help fix a minor issue, and instead, we created a rip in my normality. Reuploading my memories may have made me disoriented and confused, but it also let truths bubble to the surface. Truths Polk knew and had as leverage.

If there was one thing I'd learned about myself through all of this; I was never the one to settle for the losing squad. I didn't do it then; I wouldn't do that now.


And as Xerses forced his USB drive back into his bag, readying himself to leave, I grabbed his arm. "He knows something, X. Something about me, about everyone. So, if I can get to the end of the war, even farther than that, I need to see it. I need to remember."

Lifting his eyes to the ceiling, Xerses sighed. The debate was on his face. He had always been one to see reason pretty quickly, but this time, he took a second. He grumbled. He tapped his foot. It wasn't until he dropped his bag back on the seat it'd been and faced me that I knew he'd help me; even if he didn't want to.

"Exactly how far do you need to go, Rog?" He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "You've seen it all. I got every file—"

"You couldn't have," I said quietly, leaning against the table so I faced him. "I saw all the crimes I'd done, the people I hurt...my mother." I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath. When I opened them again, I had his attention. "But I need to know what happened with this," I pointed at my head, "when the world I'm from promised me a second chance."

Xerses gulped. "You want to... relive your death?"

I shook my head. "Not relive it. I don't need to be all the way in, X."

"Then how far?" Xerses straightened.

"I just need it to be a dream. Let me see it." I pushed off the table. "I need to learn my mistakes there a different set of eyes."


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