The Shimmers in the Night

Nine

They all stared off the rail at the gray ocean. The mainland was too far behind to see anymore.

"Is that the only way to help them?" asked Jaye, after a minute. "The memory thing?"

"It's the official way the dissenters have," said Jax, thoughtful. "For curing the hollows. I mean the hollows have only existed for a few years. Most of the dissenters' methods are way older than that. I don't even know how old. But my point is, they may not have figured out the best way to fight the hollows yet. So...maybe I could try something else. It's possible. But it could be risky."

"What could you try?"

"I think maybe I could go there. Go to where they are. The Rift Valley. The Rift Valley of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge."

"Go there?" echoed Jaye.

Her nose was red and running in the cold wind off the water, Cara noticed, but she wasn't complaining.

Unlike Hayley, who was warm and comfortable inside the boat and in a worse mood than anyone. Because of Cara, she and Jaye had both had to go through this—but in fact, she'd had a way easier time of it than Jaye. No one had tried to strangle her.

Still, here was Jaye, cheerful and friendly, and there was Hayley, the prima donna.

"With my mind, I mean," explained Jax. "And if she's there, I think I could find Zee's mind, too, in with the other hollows. Because when I was a hollow and went there, I could read them all around me."

"I wondered about that," said Cara, and felt almost sad. Unlike Jax, she'd been alone.

"I think any hollow in our neck of the woods would be at that source, instead of one farther away. Just like we were. The Cold is systematic. And maybe, if I had someone to help pull me back.... We'd have to be in the same place, Zee and I. So I mean, first we'd have to find her physically. And then, assuming she was a hollow, we'd have to get her in a room and someone would have to guard us, her and my body, while I was out basically, you know...looking for the rest of her."

Jaye shook her head, half disbelieving.

"Say it didn't work," said Cara. "What could go wrong? Could you get hurt?"

They should take a risk to get Zee back. Because what had Roger said? If she was a hollow, she was just waiting to be a so-called channel for the Burners' fire, or something. She was in danger right this minute. And always, from here on out.

But what about Jax—should they really risk him again? She couldn't forget those black eyes, expanding in his face like pools of spilled liquid. It made her scalp creep thinking of it; she could hardly believe it had been just hours ago.

"I think the worst-case scenario would be failing—that I couldn't get her back. I don't think they can make me a hollow again. Or you. If you get pulled back before the Burners use you, I'm pretty sure you're immune. The Burners use this one connection in the brain, this one pathway, that kind of gets destroyed in the process. Like a short circuit, basically. So they can't use it to get in again."

"But they brought the hollows back, didn't they? Roger and them? When we were on the oil rig? They brought them back to consciousness so they could give them their instructions. Remember?"

"Not really. It's like hypnosis, where there are different levels of sleep—they can bring the hollows up from the deepest level, where they have those black eyes and are open for the Burners, without waking them up all the way. When they're in lighter states, they don't have the black eyes; I think they might look like regular people. They're practically robots when their eyes are like that, they only understand basic commands. Nothing complex."