The Roar

After another session in the healing chamber (a perfunctory exercise meant to delay their departure), Mika, Asha, and David leave for home. The fold-down apartment seems especially depressing after their Caribbean vacation. Mika pleads with his mother to let him compete—“Just imagine how different it would be if we lived in the Golden Turrets” (291)—but the image of Mika’s blood is still fresh in her memory. As a last resort, Mika sobs with grief, telling them the competition has helped him deal with Ellie’s death. They finally relent as long as he promises not to take part in anything dangerous.

Gorman watches the recording of Mika’s memory scan. It’s all darkness and shadows—repressed memories—until he sees the memory of the Telly Head, “a memory so vivid, Mika hadn’t been able to suppress it” (295). The image terrifies Gorman because he is the Telly Head. Mika has had a dream memory of someone he’s never met. Gorman is in a no-win situation: He can’t kill Mika because his abilities may be too valuable, but the Telly Head memory profoundly unsettles him.

Mika and Audrey go to the arcade, but find all their friends distracted by a new round of prize offerings from the YDF—consolation prizes to keep the losers hopeful. At night, Mika practices moving a pea with his mind. Progress is slow at first, but by the third night, he can move—and even levitate—larger objects.

On Friday, Mrs. Fowler is oddly upset, and Mika realizes she is crying not for herself, but for these children she’s known for most of their lives. After school, Mika packs for the final round of competition. While waiting for the YDF to pick him up, Helen calls. She warns him to drop out of the competition, that he’s in danger, but before she can elaborate, an unknown figure intervenes and tries to confiscate her phone. Her last words as she’s dragged away are, “Save yourself...Get away from them!” (306). Her admonition to stay away from the arcade makes him anxious for Kobi, so he goes to warn him. Outside, he runs into Tom, and urges him to avoid the arcade, but Tom, with a sick mother to care for, needs the prize money. He can’t save Tom, so he continues to Kobi’s. Kobi senses from Mika’s insinuations about the arcade that he knows something, so he pulls out a slip of paper and writes: “If you can’t say it, write it” (311). Mika warns him of danger in the arcades. Kobi nods and rips up the note. He returns home just as the YDF representative arrives. He’s taking him to “Cape Wrath.”

Gorman visits an arcade, one of the many participating in the latest competition. He insists on forgoing the tour and seeing the “Implanters Room.” Gorman assesses the Implanters to make sure they have the clinical objectivity to perform their duties without “an atom of compassion” (315)—duties that include implanting devices in the children to make them compliant so they can be shipped off to Cape Wrath. Mutant children will simply be sedated and locked up. Convinced all the staff understands the plan, he leaves, but as his pod lifts off, he feels something in his mouth—a leaf—but after a moment, it vanishes.

Cape Wrath—the site of the final round—is a series of rugged cliffs in Scotland. Mika is flown to a massive black fortress that contains a hangar filled with new Pod Fighters. He is then taken to a room and ordered to change into a uniform. His old clothes are taken away, he is fed, and told to get plenty of sleep in preparation for the following day. Audrey visits, her excitement a welcome reprieve from his fear and gloom. After she returns to her room, Mika takes a shower where he encounters Leo, who has a tail. Mika is struck by the irony of being bullied for his mutation when that difference may help him win the competition.

Aboard the space station, the Queen of the North, Gorman dreams he is standing in an abandoned parking garage when it begins to convulse and shudder. Cracks appear in the floor, spreading rapidly, and vines begin to grow out of them, wrapping themselves around his body and his Telly Head, strangling him. He wakes up in a panic, reassuring himself it was only a dream.

A guard wakes up Ellie and tells her she’s being relocated to Cape Wrath. She collects her one possession—a book of poems from Gorman—and retrieves Puck from his enclosure.

Mika dreams of the Telly Heads again, but this time they actually draw blood. He senses Ellie’s presence in the Pod hangar, and he’s able to rouse himself from the nightmare, certain she is somewhere in the fortress.

That morning, Mika is taken to a room where he and Ruben’s psychic abilities are tested. While each tries to push a ball towards the other, Mika realizes anger fuels his ability. Neither boy wants to give in, and the ball bursts into flame from the force of their opposing wills. Ruben claims to be the stronger one, arguing that Mika’s love for his sister is a weakness. They fight, and Ruben begins to strangle Mika. Mika’s head fills with The Roar—a blinding, white noise of rage—and a powerful burst of energy throws Ruben to the floor. The fight is broken up, and Mika cleans Ruben’s blood from his face. He sees Awen, but the dog cowers in a corner, frightened of Mika’s anger. A short time later, he and Ruben resume the testing.