Reaching out with her mind, she nudged Penny for a response, but she was still dormant. “Fine,” she thought. “If you don’t want to be upfront with me, I will just have to find answers from him.”
He peered at her earnestly. “I think your PEA has a lot more answers about your heritage and how you survived that night than what it lets on. It’s probably encrypted data. I know you don’t trust me and I know you’ve been through a lot, but I think I can unlock the answers if you’ll give me a chance.”
Layla narrowed her eyes at him. “What kind of data could my PEA possibly want to hide from me?” She knew he was right. Penny had already told her there was an encryption code at the very core of her programming that didn’t allow her to reveal Layla’s true heritage, but she wasn’t going to reveal that to Max.
“Does your PEA talk to you?” he asked. His grip on her shoulder tightened. “Does it seem to have thoughts unusual for a PEA?”
Layla hesitated. Penny had been her one constant companion her entire life. She’d comforted her when her mother and father passed. She encouraged her when her life crumbled around her. If it hadn’t been for Penny, she was certain she would’ve ended up in a delinquent center by now. But doubt crept along the cracks of their relationship. Penny had lied to her. She kept secrets from her.
Absently, Layla picked at a hangnail on her right index finger. She didn’t know what to do. She needed answers; that much was certain. She just wasn’t sure how to get them.
Her skin began to glow faintly. The welts on her wrists shrank as they mended. She sighed in relief, trailing her fingers over the fresh, tender skin.
“You’re a healer?” Max asked.
“Yeah,” she replied. She didn’t focus on him as she spoke. Her consciousness slammed into the place where Penny normally resided. She called to her, begging her to reinitiate.
A small pop followed by the fizz of electricity told her Penny was back online.
“How did you know? I mean, about my PEA?” she asked. Her heart hammered in her chest as she spoke. Penny hummed angrily at the back of her mind.
“My aunt told me about the artificially intelligent PEAs. They’re very rare.” He shrugged. “But I believe yours could prove you to be the princess—the lost queen—we’ve been waiting for.”
She leaned against the back cushion, breathing in deeply. “I’m going to give you one opportunity to tell me everything, Penny,” she thought.
“And I already told you, that’s information I cannot access. I’ve tried, Layla. Believe me, if I could give you the information you want, I would.”
Layla breathed out slowly from her nose. She had hoped that her appeal to Penny would finally get her PEA to relent, but it was obvious now that the only way she was going to get answers would be to try something different. She met Max’s gaze.
“What do you propose?”
Chapter Nine
Max attached cold pads to her temples and chest. Wires ran from them to a machine. He’d given her a sedative to calm her nerves, but Layla couldn’t stop thinking about discovering, finally, the truth.
“Layla, listen to me,” Penny whispered with consternation. “You cannot do this. Please. You have to believe me when I say that this will wipe me. I will be gone. My code overwritten.”
“I don’t believe you,” Layla replied.
Fear crept into Penny’s voice as she pled, “I promise you, if I could give you the information you want, I would. But I’m not lying about this Layla. I have never lied to you. If you do this, I will not be able to regenerate. I will be gone.”
“Then I guess you’ll be gone.” The words came out harshly and she regretted them the moment she thought them, but she refused to take them back. Whether it was pride or embarrassment, she wasn’t sure. She just couldn’t bring herself to stop what she’d started. She wanted the truth too much. She needed answers.
“I’m almost done setting up the procedure,” Max whispered. His breath was warm against her skin in stark contrast to the iciness of his hands. She gave him a wan smile.
“Will it hurt?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Not in the slightest.”
“And my PEA?”
“It’ll be fine. We do this kind of extraction all the time. It’s intended to collect data from traumatic events that PEAs file away in order to protect their humans. In this case, your trauma occurred when you were barely four months old. These memories are locked away so deep, it’s no wonder your PEA has kept them from you.”
She sighed in relief at his words.
“See,” she hissed at Penny. “Nothing is going to happen to you.”
A shudder of electricity fired through her body. She shivered.
Max smiled down at her. “If you’re cold, I can get another blanket for your feet.”
“No,” she replied quickly, “I’m fine.”
“I know you’re not happy I’m doing this, but I have to know the truth,” she said to Penny. She felt like a broken record as she confronted her PEA yet again. “I have to know who I am. Definitively.”
“If you do this, it will destroy me,” Penny replied weakly.
Layla considered asking Max to stop. She trusted he would. There was something about the tenderness in his voice and touch that made her feel like he would do anything to help her. To keep her safe.
Max bent over her and pressed a cool hand to her brow. “We can stop this now, if you want,” he whispered.
She shook her head. With the sedative he’d given her coursing through her veins, the movement made her dizzy. He squeezed her hand. “Ok. Then let’s get started.”
“Please, Layla. Once he begins, it’ll be too late. Anything that attempts to access these files will cause a wipe of my system. I do not want to lose you,” she paused. “I do not want to die.”
“You won’t,” Layla said.
“Ready?” Max asked.
She breathed in deeply. In a moment, she would know everything. She would know if she was the lost princess. She would know how she survived when her parents had not. She would know it all.
“Ready.”
“I love you, Layla. Always remember that,” Penny whispered. “Always.”
Pinpricks of pain crept along the path of the pads adhered to her skin. Gritting her teeth, Layla closed her eyes and focused on the outcome.
The pinpricks turned to an intense burning. Currents ran through her body, causing small convulsions. Tears welled in her eyes as she tried to remain calm. All she could hear was Penny screaming. Her voice wavering as each new current shot through her. Her teeth chattered as her body shook.
She wanted to stop. She screamed, her throat turning raw. She was aware of it all. Felt the pain coursing through her. Tasted the tang of blood coating the back of her throat. She gagged, unable to swallow.
“I’ve almost got it!”
The sound of Max’s voice pulled her focus onto him. His face hovered over the machine, illuminated in lime green as he clicked on a screen. Closing her eyes, she tried to find Penny. Her memories exploded before her in a parade of hazy images. There she was with her mother and father. They were always so hard on her. She was crying and her mother smacked her. A thin line of blood pooled at the corner of her mouth. Her mother’s funeral followed. And then her fathers.