Vai

I called my father when we got back to our quarters. He didn't answer. I sent him a message.

«Owen has been arrested. I gave the police a statement that will hopefully lead to his innocence.

I sat on my bed and looked through my volo recordings. I chose the most recent one that should show the girl the previous day when she was in the museum. There was me in front of the K'thaktran wall display. I spoke. But it was like I was having a conversation with myself. There was nothing where she stood. Her voice was not recorded on my volo.

I went back to the first day Owen and I saw her. The day she got on the elevator and went to level 8. Owen was on the recording. I was on the recording. Warpaint was on the recording, but no girl. The volo hadn't recorded the levels indicated above the elevators to show the girl stopped on level 8. It did show the elevator door close before we reached it, but according to the recording the elevator was empty. It did record our conversation about the girl.

That was impossible. Unless she was a ghost. I knew she wasn't a ghost. Maybe Owen was right and she was a wizard. But wizards only existed in fairy tales. There had to be another explanation. If she wasn't showing up on my volo recordings, it made sense that she also wouldn't be on the surveillance. How had she managed to do it?

"Warpaint."

"Yes, sir."

"You saw that girl yesterday in the museum, right? You said you did. You saw her that first day I went down to the museum too, right?"

"Yes, sir."

"Playback the recordings of those days."

"I can't, sir."

I stood up to face him. He stood nearby the foot of my bed.

"What do you mean you can't?"

"Your father has programmed me to only . . ."

I held up a hand. "Since when?"

"After we arrived on the Shadow."

After the tailor shop incident and he made Warpaint erase his memories.

My okulus beeped as a call came in from my father. I answered it.

"What do you mean you gave a statement to the authorities? You should have called me first."

"Sorry, but he's in trouble."

"That's not your concern. You . . ."

"He's my friend," I interrupted. His mouth pinched tight. His eyes narrowed slightly. I didn't give him a chance to lecture me. "He didn't steal from the museum."

"He has broken the law before."

"I know," I said. "Smuggling onboard chocolate. And he did it this time too. The officers found it in his room, but, father, he admits to that. He didn't steal from the museum."

"Hold on," my father said. His fingers opened a file on his okulus. "The records say he is denying the museum theft, but that he does admit to smuggling onboard chocolate." He looked at me. "Owen and you both mention a girl, but a girl has not been seen on the surveillance."

"I know. I looked through my volo recordings hoping I could prove she was on level 6, but she's not on my volo recordings either. Father, I'm not making her up. I spoke with her yesterday in the museum, but my volo recording looks like I'm talking to myself. She isn't seen or heard. Warpaint has seen her too, haven't you, Warpaint?"

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"It is true, sir. I have seen a girl. Vai keeps saying she is about his age and I haven't corrected him, but she isn't his age. She would be about 16, not 97."

"Warpaint," I sighed, "now isn't the time to be arguing about my age. I tried to look at Warpaint's recordings to see if she shows up on his records, but he told me I wasn't allowed to look at his recordings."

"You aren't allowed," my father said. "Come up to my lab on the second deck. I'll take a look."

"Right now?" My father nodded. "Thank you. We're coming now."

I broke the connection and immediately made my way to level 2.

My father had shown me the labs on my second day on the Shadow. I felt the same way now that I did then. Like I shouldn't be there. Like there were secrets. Like I was disturbing everyone there and might make them mess up somehow causing a catastrophic event.

I stepped lightly into the large room. Tables, science equipment, scientists were all around. One of the younger scientists smiled and nodded to me when I came in.

I forced a return smile. Even if there were scientists who I hadn't met, it was obvious I was my father's son. I couldn't remember if she was there the other time I had come.

"Vai," my father's booming voice echoed across the quiet room. He waved me to him and his private lab.

I made my way quickly to him. I tried to squeeze my body into a smaller shape whenever I passed the scientists or their equipment. I held my breath when I did accidently bump into a table, but nothing happened.

The door slid shut behind me when I went into his private lab. "Show me your volo recordings first of where the girl should be."

I showed him. She still wasn't there. He copied them into his okulus. "There is something." He said as he projected them through his volo.

"What?" I still didn't see the girl.

"Here," he said and pointed to the empty space in front of the K'thaktran wall.

"That is where she stood," I said.

"Let's try this," he said. He punched something into his okulus.

The projection changed so there was a slight glimmer in the air where the girl should have been.

"That's it," I said. I pointed at the shimmer. "That's where she was."

My father frowned. "How did she do this?"

He tapped again on his okulus, but nothing else happened.

"That wasn't it," my father said under his breath. He shut down the projection. "I'll try again later. I only heard your side of the conversation. What did she say to you?"

"Her answers were cryptic, but what I did find weird was that she indicated the wall in the display wasn't K'thaktran and that it shouldn't exist."

"Really? That's interesting. Manipulating the image is one thing, but how is her voice not recorded? Warpaint, let's see your recording. The one from yesterday at the museum first."

"Yes, sir." The playback started where Warpaint, the Brist and I entered the museum.

"Fast forward a bit," my father said. "Wait. There. You left him alone?"

"No, sir," Warpaint said. "He was always close by. You and he both told me to show the Brist the museum. I always knew where he was and who else was nearby."

"Including the girl? She shows up on your sensors? Then why isn't she in your recordings?"

"I don't know sir. She does show up on my sensors."

"Let me see."

I wasn't privy to see what was on Warpaint's sensors. It went directly to my father's okulus and he wasn't sharing.

"Yes. I see her on your sensors."

"You do? What does she look like?" I asked.

I tried to get a glimpse of his okulus, but he turned it away from me.

"The sensors don't give a detailed description, just that there is another life next to yours."

"Oh."

"Warpaint," my father said, "fast forward the playback until you see Vai again."

The images projected whirred passed all the museum displays until he was back on the aisle as I was. There wasn't a girl. In the recording, I turned to look at Warpaint.

"This is when I saw the girl leave," Warpaint said. "I don't understand why she isn't showing up, sir."

"Yes," my father said. "I see her on your sensors. Let me see the recording again from when you step on the aisle the second time, but this time in infrared."

And there she was. Her infrared image wouldn't show any features, but at least there was proof that there was someone else and she could hide from the cameras somehow.

"Ah," my father said. "I see. That's how she is doing it."

"How?" I asked.

"A distorter." He pointed at a cool dot at her hip. "An incredibly advanced one to get by me." He pulled up my original recordings. "Let me try this." His fingers typed quickly over his okulus. The image being projected didn't change. "Yes. Incredibly advanced. Where did she get it?"

"You'll send all this information to the security office right? To clear Owen?"

My father sat in his large chair. "I'll send it. Warpaint, send me this recording and the one from the first time you saw her on level 6, both in infrared."

"Yes, sir."

"Thank you, father." I started to walk to his lab door.

"Vai," my father said. I stopped to look at him. "This will only clear him from the museum theft. It won't clear him from the smuggling charges. He is a minor, but he has had these exact charges before. I'm not sure what the security office will decide to do as punishment."

I hadn't thought about the smuggling. Still, smuggling chocolate didn't seem nearly as bad as stealing the Aether Field Prototype.