False Sight by Dan Krokos Page A

says. “Did you see? How did I know that?”
I don ’ t know, I think.
“There’s more, I know there is.” Noah paces away, hands laced on top of his head. “Give me a minute.”
When I turn back, everyone is still staring at Nina.
Gane’s stone face veils his curiosity, but not completely. “You told me that before,” he says to her. “Make me believe you.”
Nina steps to the bars and grabs them with both hands. “I know how to control them. I can prove it to you. I’ll lead them through the Black.”
Through the Black . . .
Her voice is steady. “I know where the Torch is.”
I try to fit the pieces together—the Torch, the Black, and the eyeless. Through the Black, she said. I went through the Black. And now I’m here.
What ’ s the Black?
“I don’t know yet,” Noah says. “Some kind of transport system. I can’t see it. Dammit!” Noah spins away and punches Gane in the face, but his fist passes through like a ghost, as we both knew it would. He walks away with his hands clasped behind his head, breathing through clenched teeth, frustration that he can’t do anything written all over his body.
Gane remains quiet.
“Ask yourself this,” Nina says, not giving up. “How could I know about the Torch?”
Good question. A better question is How do I know about the Torch? Noah somehow granted me the understanding that the Torch is an instrument to control the eyeless, but how did he know?
“There are thousands of eyeless,” Gane says. “Tens of thousands. The Torch is a myth. And you are an interloper. Anything that comes through the Black is not to be trusted, not ever.”
Nina shakes her head against the bars, gripping them tightly. “Don’t be a fool.”
Rhys says to Gane, “Hey, Cobra Commander, maybe you should listen to us instead.”
Gane holds up a hand. “Quiet.”
As if by the motion of his hand, the bars between the two cells rise into the ceiling, rumbling and scraping, iron on stone. Now Nina shares the same space as Peter and Rhys. She steps back again. Smart girl.
“You will be together while I think on this,” Gane says. “I’m going to open the cell door. Make no move toward it, or I will strike you down.” To the right, a door cut into the bars swings open.
Now there’s unbroken space between Commander Gane and Peter and Rhys. They’re smart enough to believe Gane, so they stay put. I don’t. I stride forward and Peter wraps his arms around me and lifts my feet off the ground. He sets me down and kisses below my ear and whispers, “Where are we?”
I have no answer for him.
The cell door closes behind me, followed by the bang of the big iron door opening and closing again.
Alpha team is alone again. The three of us are on one side of the cell, Noah and Nina on the other.

19
    N
    oah walks a circle around her slowly, less than a foot away. Fresh tears fall from his chin. “You killed me,” he whispers. “You killed me. You killed me.” I keep
    waiting for Nina to notice him, but she doesn’t. He’s just some kind of illusion, an expression in my mind. I guess I have to keep reminding myself of that.
    “What do we do with her?” Rhys says.
“We don’t do anything,” Peter says.
I blink, and Noah disappears. This time it felt like he’d seen
    enough and decided to leave on his own. Not sure if that’s a good sign or not. I should tell the others he’s still here. Alive and not alive.
“Remind them about the memory shots,” Noah says in my
    head.
“We need our shots,” I say.
Nina watches us from just twenty feet away, hands loose
    at her sides. She rolls her head from shoulder to shoulder; her neck cracks. It would take no time to cover the distance, to drive my fists into her body until she begged for forgiveness. I could make her tell Noah she’s sorry, so sorry, that she knows he had so much longer to live, that he missed out on his whole life, all the good parts we had dreamed about as a team, when the fighting would be over for good.
    My hands