Page 88 of Wreck My Mind

“That’s a horrible expression.” Zee sniffed back her tears, then she shrugged the Facet wrist computer off and handed it to me. “Arrange for the surgery. You have the money, Beryl can deal with Alvarez, and when you come out of surgery, hopefully a little smarter, we’ll figure out who exactly hired you to take him out.”

I grimaced at her jab, but turned the device over in my hand, realizing I could use some extra smarts about now. “How do I even operate this thing?”

“Here,” she said, holding her hand out to take it back. “It’s a hybrid Morse Code. Tell me who I need to talk to.”

After Zee sent the orders and assured me everything would be a go, she explained, “I learned Morse Code from one the crew members on the Esmeralda. I taught it to my aunt.”

“I thought you said she’d died?”

“My other aunt.”

“It’s truth time. Tell me what happened, tell me it all.”

Aziza

After I explained about the confrontation in the deep freeze that had led to me to killing Zaki, I expected Coop to flinch or recoil. Certainly to question me about who the hell he’d been talking to all these years if it wasn’t Omar Zaki. But instead he encouraged me to continue with the night of the wreck. “You and the captain were in the life raft, but he didn’t survive?”

“The waves were huge. He fell out and he struggled to get back in. I tried to help him, but I was just a kid. His hands kept slipping out of mine. When he did get a good hold he was heavier than me and was pulling me over and into the sea with him. A wave knocked him off me or I would’ve drowned too.”

Coop nodded understanding. “I had a hold of this man off the roof of a building, but he couldn’t keep his grip on mine and he was panicking and pulling me with him. He wasn’t listening to my direction and he fell. It bothered me for a long time. But you did everything you could.”

“I don’t even know how I stayed in the raft as long as I did. Or how I survived after the raft ejected me. Somehow I made it to this island. It was like the ocean spit me up. I was here for what seemed like forever, but then a boat came along. A security sweep from Marakata after reports had gone out about the disappearance of the Esmeralda. I didn’t know who I could trust, or who would even believe me about what had happened. So I didn’t tell them who I was. They kept calling me boy, because my head had been shaved, so I went with it. With my skin tone, I’d become quite tan by then, and looked like any other Caribbean kid. The security team took me back to the island to decide what they were going to do with me, and I escaped.”

I’d known exactly where to go thanks to my many conversations with Zanji about the island. But after living off berries and coconut milk for a week I’d scarcely had energy for the hike and Zaki’s palace was at the top of the mountain. My fear of being sent back to the desert had kept me motivated. Who else would have taken me in? Zaki’s brothers? They were worse than he.

After finding the palace came the task of sneaking inside past the guards, but after many days at sea playing hide and seek with the crew, I’d gotten pretty stealthy. I knew from our conversations that Zanji was deep inside the palace, so I’d just kept working my way down.

I hadn’t been prepared to find Zanji locked away in what was essentially a cave-like prison. Nor had I been prepared for her to know I was coming. “Nice move back in the dining room,” she’d said in her specialized computer voice. “Don’t look so shocked. I have access to all the cameras. I’ve been watching you since they got you ashore.”

I’d huddled against the rock wall, terrified of what I would find. What must she be like if they had to lock her away?

“You’ve come all this way,” she’d said. “Don’t chicken out now, kiddo.”

I’d reminded myself of the things my mother had assured me. When I’d dared to peek around the corner and saw my aunt Zanji for the first time, my eyes had widened in shock. She was just a woman. She’d gotten up and came to the barred door. And it was only then that I saw the unique way she moved her face and body, but it was hardly anything scary, in fact she was actually quite beautiful. But suddenly she had become overcome with distress, she’d made groaning noises that startled me and began flailing her arms. As soon as she was back at her computer she’d merely said, “I forgot. The code to the door. You need to enter the code.” She’d rattled off a long series of numbers and it had taken me five times to enter it correctly.

She hadn’t rushed to hug me or even smile, but she’d quickly started typing and telling me she was happy to see me. Her corresponding facial gestures hadn’t correlated, and at first it had been disconcerting, but soon I’d stopped even noticing.

“I saw the news story about OZ’s yacht going missing. What happened?”

I’d told her everything and within an hour, she’d had a plan concocted. One that would ensure both she and I would be safe from Zaki’s brothers and no one would ever know what I’d done on the Esmeralda.

She’d said the only way for it to work was to keep Zaki alive and well. She’d known all of his habits and schedules and the fact that he tended to be a recluse, especially when on the island, had made it even more likely for our plan to work. Zanji had been the one to program all of the holographic systems, because while he’d locked her away, he’d made sure to put her talents to good use for him.

“Zanji had been the brains behind it all. With Zaki gone, she knew no one would respect her to run the empire. Zaki’s brothers would take it and make things worse for us both. She reformed his emerald empire and turned it into something better.”

“What happened with you?”

“I pretended to be an orphaned island boy for a long time. People called me Tip and I served as Zaki’s personal assistant, the only one he’d allow to care for him. While I wasn’t doing that, Zanji trained me on all the systems. But obviously pretending to be a boy wasn’t something I could do forever. Besides which, my role with Zaki had the undesirable side effect of starting a round of rumors about him. Obviously we couldn’t allow them to perpetuate. So we killed Tip off and I laid low for a long time. Years. Once my hair had grown out, we did a whole makeover and I resurfaced using the name my mother had always called me. The OZ you know of today had been firmly established by then and no one really questioned anything anymore.”

“It must’ve been a relief to be yourself again.”

I turned in Coop’s arms to face him, to see his reaction. Our legs twined, and our breath merged. “You don’t seem as surprised as I thought you’d be.”

“I am. I mean, I’d realized you weren’t exactly you, and Zaki wasn’t at all Zaki. But I didn’t know the how, or the when, or the why.”

“Zanji passed away a few months before I hired you. Sometimes I still pull Zaki’s hologram up and to talk things out with her. But it’s really just talking to myself. In case you were wondering who’ve you been talking to this whole time, it was me. But I’m guessing you knew that, too—given your attitude with Zaki was always a bit put out.”

“I was put out. You only went through Zaki when you didn’t think I would agree with you, when you didn’t trust me to support you. I hated talking to him, knowing you were hiding from me behind a mask.”

“I’m sorry. I should’ve trusted you.”

“I understand now. I understand everything now. Why you’ve never left the island. I’m sorry it took this to make me come. I should’ve just come. I love you so much, Ozma Zamirah Aziza Zaki.”

“I love you more, Michelangelo Amadeus Cooper. But, um…what happens on the island stays on the island, right?”

Coop let out a deep, rumbling chuckle as he pulled me closer to him and kissed my temple. “Don’t worry, Presh. Your secrets are safe with me.”

For a long time we held each other close, closer than I’d ever been to anyone. Our naked bodies were nothing compared to how naked our souls had become. No more secrets, no more masks, no more lies.

---