Barnaby stood on the other side of the glass, and Youri looked back at him with a face that showed nothing at all. After a moment, Barnaby turned toward the door at the end of the hall and called out, "Hey. What's wrong with him? He looks like he's seen a ghost."
Malden walked slowly over and stopped beside him. The two men stood looking at Youri through the glass. "He wished to be relieved of his pain," Malden said calmly. "This is the result."
Barnaby frowned and took out his pack of cigarettes, slid one between his fingers and lit it. Malden glanced at him. "I'm sorry, sir. You're not permitted to smoke in here."
Barnaby gave him a menacing look and blew out a stream of smoke, then turned back to the glass. "So he took the coward's way out, huh."
Malden adjusted his glasses. "Enduring his pain was a tremendous mental strain. Anyone else in his place would have broken and gone insane long ago. That he's functioning at all is a miracle in itself."
Barnaby exhaled again. "So you made him like this."
"It was a mutual decision," Malden put in quickly.
Barnaby flicked his cigarette away and started walking off. Without turning around he said, "I expect him capable and ready, like he used to be. I'm leaving in two days, so you'd better get to it."
When he had gone, Malden turned back to Youri and watched him closely. In all that time, Youri had not made a single movement. Malden tapped the glass and the door slid open. He went in and sat on the edge of Youri's bed. "So the world needs you now," he said. "It's a shame. You truly were a worthy specimen."
Then Jean and Zayn came into the hall and walked Youri out. Malden stayed behind for a while in the doorway of the empty room, his eyes drifting over the piles of books stacked everywhere. Youri had lived alone in that hall for more than three years. EH17, EH26 and EH33 had been lost long ago, broken by the endless testing and the sheer quantity of drugs that had been forced into them.
As Malden walked out, a thought crossed his mind. Never in a million years did I imagine I would see Project Infinity with my own eyes, let alone examine it and test it. He stopped at a window in the corridor that looked out over open space. I hope, for all our sakes, that God does not truly exist. Because if He does, that boy may very well become our devil.
Zayn and Jean laid Youri on the operating table, and Malden came in shortly after, walking slowly with his hands in his pockets. He leaned over Youri and shone a small light into his left eye. "EH36," he called. "EH36, are you in there?"
His voice echoed deep down in Youri's mind. In his subconscious, Youri was drifting through a vast, dark sea, naked and frail, floating weightless with his long brown hair spread out around his face and his eyes closed. Malden's voice rang through that watery void.
Back in the lab, Malden softened his tone. "Youri."
Youri's pupil shifted.
"Youri," Malden said again. "Do you remember Volar?"
The pupil moved once more. "There you are," Malden murmured.
In the dark water, the memories came flooding in. His home world rose up in fragments. Bubbles escaped his lips as flashes of Lira's face surfaced, then Emma's, then Liam's. He was running beneath summer skies, laughing, until the picture shattered and he was standing in the lab at the Institute of Potential hearing Flavio's last words before the basement exploded. Darkness swallowed him, and when he opened his eyes again, he was lying across Thirty-Five's back, being carried through a cold, snowy forest. He closed his eyes. When he opened them, he was in the warehouse loading cargo with Liam and Six. Another blink, and he was inside a crate while Terrian soldiers stormed the ship. He closed his eyes again and opened them on the shuttle to Altex, stepping out to be greeted by Malden.
He closed his eyes once more. This time he was in Leonora's room, sitting beside her while she read aloud. She looked up at him and said, "Thirty-six, you made my biggest wish come true. I'm so glad you snuck into my room that day. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart."
Bubbles poured from his mouth in the dark. He opened his eyes one final time and found himself in the operating room, giving his blood to Leonora, looking at her fragile face while the machines hummed around them. Then he opened them again in the depths of his own mind. His mouth opened wide, and a great rush of bubbles burst out of him.
Youri gasped awake. He forced himself upright with sweat pouring down his face, breathing hard and staring at his trembling hands. Then the door hissed open. He turned his head and froze.
Barnaby stood there with a cigarette in his mouth and his hands in his pockets. He walked over and sat down beside the bed, took one last drag and flicked the cigarette away. "I see," he said. "So you're finally back."
Youri lunged out of the bed at him. The pain came crashing down on him all at once, and he collapsed onto the floor. His breath came in ragged gasps, but his green eyes were fixed on Barnaby.
Barnaby smiled. "That's how you welcome me, after all this time?" He stood. "I've got good news for you. I found you a new job."
Youri stared at him. "What are you doing here? What do you want from me?"
"What do you think I'm doing here?"
Youri pushed himself slowly up with the bed for support. "What more could you possibly want from me?"
Barnaby took out another cigarette and lit it, breathed in deeply and let the smoke out. He looked Youri straight in the eye. "Hell isn't forever, you know."
Youri frowned, confused.
"To really appreciate life," Barnaby went on, "you have to lose everything first. And you, my boy, have nothing left. So take this as payment for all that suffering. You're free now."
He walked to the door, and as it hissed open he turned back one last time. "My ship leaves in eight hours. Hop on, if you want out of this hell."