Phoenix

by Elizabeth Richards

  We pass a number of Sentry guards in the corridors, but they don’t stop us. It must be common to see children being escorted to the cargo bay, ready to be shipped to Centrum. One guard, though, a woman with a thin face and a blond ponytail, slows down as she passes by us. A flicker of recognition registers in her eyes as she looks at me.

  I lower my head and keep on walking, but the blood is swooshing in my ears.

  “Natalie Buchanan?” the woman calls out after me.

  I almost turn. Rookie mistake. Every part of me is screaming to run, the fight-or-flight instinct taking over, but somehow I manage to keep my composure and carry on walking at a steady pace. I turn my head slightly toward Elijah.

  “Is she following us?” I whisper to him.

  A faint nod is all the answer I need.

  She must not be certain it’s me; otherwise, she would’ve raised an alarm by now. But she keeps a watchful eye on us all the way to the cargo bay. I scan the bay for the prison Transporter heading to Centrum and find it at the far end of the room. A row of children are being ushered onto it by Victor.

  The blond female guard goes over to one of her senior colleagues, casting another suspicious look in my direction. I turn my back on her, not wanting to give them a clear view of my face.

  “We need to get out of here, right now,” I mutter to Elijah.

  Victor waves a hand, and the Transporter’s hatch begins to close. No!

  “Wait!” I call out to him.

  I shepherd the group of children across the hangar, toward the aircraft.

  Bree grips Nick’s hand.

  “Remember, it’s just a game,” he whispers. “But we can’t get caught, or we’ll lose, all right?”

  She nods.

  We reach the aircraft just before the hatch shuts.

  “Phew, that was close. Patrick would’ve had my neck if I’d missed the transport,” I say.

  Victor glances at the group of children. “I wasn’t expecting any more passengers.”

  “We got the call when we were down on the prison deck,” I say.

  Victor lets out an annoyed sound. “They keep doing this. All right, put them on.”

  Stuart quickly herds the kids onto the Transporter.

  I peer over my shoulder. The female guard and her colleague are walking in our direction. My heart races.

  “How much do you think we’ll get for the cat?” Victor asks me as Elijah climbs on board after Stuart.

  “Enough,” I reply vaguely. “I’m going to escort it to Centrum. We don’t want the creature eating the cargo, right?”

  Victor laughs.

  The blond guard and her colleague are just twenty-five feet away.

  “Stop that girl!” she calls out.

  Victor turns at the sound, but I grab his arm, drawing his attention back to me.

  “So when should we get that drink? I’m free tomorrow,” I say, furtively glancing over his shoulder. The two guards are now running toward us. “Pick me up at nine?”

  “Sure.” He grins.

  “Great. See you then.” I quickly step onto the aircraft. The hatch begins to close.

  “Hold on,” Victor says.

  I turn, giving him my most winning smile.

  The other two guards are now just fifteen feet away, and getting closer.

  “Tell Patrick not to put in any more special orders unless they’re through me,” Victor says.

  “Okay, I’ll let him know,” I say.

  I hurry to find my seat between Elijah and Stuart.

  “I’ve been recognized,” I say to them.

  “Stop!” I hear the female guard yell.

  The engine starts up. The hatch is almost closed. Come on! Come on!

  Through the gap in the closing door, I see Victor talking to the woman with the ponytail. He flashes a panicked look toward the Transporter. “Wai—”

  The hatch shuts, and the aircraft lifts off. It speeds toward the Destroyer Ship’s cargo hatch, the clouds and sky beyond it just within our reach—

  A voice crackles over the pilot’s radio.

  “Turn around.” Victor’s voice sounds over the airwaves. “There’s a rebel on board.”

  The pilot doesn’t have time to register the order before Elijah leaps up and tears open the mesh door in front of the cockpit. I’m stunned by his strength. He loops an arm around the pilot’s throat.

  “Keep flying,” Elijah says, baring his saber teeth.

  We’re just a few feet from the cargo hatch.

  “Turn around now! That’s an order, pilot!” Victor’s voice demands over the radio.

  Gray skies fill the windscreen.

  Stuart squeezes my hand and says a prayer under his breath.

  Daylight floods the aircraft. We’re out.

  We’re getting closer.

  I say a prayer.

  We’re out!

  I rush out of my seat and join Elijah. I yank the radio out of the socket, stopping any further communication.

  “Land on Union Street,” I order.

  The pilot steers the aircraft toward the rendezvous point, flying over the smoldering rooftops of Black City. In the distance, I spot a distinctive white marble building. It’s Sentry headquarters. We’re nearly at Union Street. We’ll have only a few minutes’ head start on Victor, so we need to be quick. I just hope Roach is waiting for us as promised.

  “They’ll know you attempted to rescue Polly,” Elijah says to me.

  I nod, understanding his meaning. The dance that we’ve been playing with Rose is over. He has no hold over me or Ash anymore, which means there’s nothing stopping us from fighting back. He’ll have no choice but to kill us, and do it quickly.

  The Transporter lands, and the hatch opens, revealing Roach, Garrick and the rebel team, all pointing guns at us. Ash hangs slightly back, his eyes glittering in the shadows of the alleyway.

  “Some welcoming party,” Elijah says to them.

  Roach lowers her shotgun, and Ash pushes past her onto the Transporter. He draws me into his arms, and it takes all my willpower not to just break down there and then. He suddenly pulls away.

  “You smell of blood,” he says. “Are you hurt?”

  “No,” I murmur, but that’s not entirely true. Inside I’m dying.

  Garrick boards the aircraft, his head brushing against the roof. He searches the faces of all the children in the transport.

  “Where’s Polly?” he says.

  My throat tightens. I can’t form the words.

  “Polly’s dead,” Elijah says for me.

  Ash inhales sharply. “Natalie, I’m so sor—”

  “What the fragg?” Roach says, boarding the Transporter. “Who are these kids?”

  “They’re coming with us,” I say.

  “I don’t think so,” she replies.

  “We don’t have time to argue. There will be guards crawling all over this place any minute now,” I say.

  We hurriedly take the children off the Transporter. There’s a pop of gunfire behind us. Roach has just killed the pilot. I find it hard to care. We split into groups and set off in different directions to make it harder for the guards to find us all, agreeing to meet back at the Legion ghetto.

  A few minutes later, there’s a low rumble like thunder, announcing the arrival of more Transporters, but Ash and I are already deep within the maze of the city streets. We reach City End, and the Legion guards help us over the wall.

  As Sigur greets us in the Assembly, I notice with relief that Stuart and Elijah have already made it back. Day and her parents are also there, anxiously waiting for us, and they run over to me, all three of them crying.

  “We heard what happened . . . ,” Day sobs.

  The others arrive in dribs and drabs over the next thirty minutes, some wi
th a few scrapes and bruises. Juno helps Beetle patch up the wounded while Sumrina finds rooms for all the children we rescued. Nick shoots me a grateful look as he’s led upstairs to the living quarters.

  When everyone is back, the Darkling ministers arrive for the debriefing. It doesn’t take long for the meeting to erupt into chaos as the Darkling ministers and rebels discuss our next steps now that Polly’s rescue mission has failed.

  “Surrendering is not an option,” Sigur says. “Our only solution is to escape.”

  “How will we get past the roadblocks?” Garrick says. “They’re heavily guarded.”

  Day raises her hand, like she’s at school. “What about the humans? We can’t just leave them here to die.”

  “We need a diversion,” Elijah says. “Something to keep the Sentry guards distracted while everyone makes a break for it.”

  “It’ll have to be one hell of a diversion, mate!” Beetle says.

  I can’t listen anymore. Nothing matters. Polly is dead. On the digital screen to my right, the countdown clock ticks away, letting everyone know we’ve got only thirty-two hours left before Black City is razed to the ground.

  An idea suddenly hits me.

  “I know how we can evacuate everyone,” I say.

  “How?” Sigur asks.

  “We do what Elijah suggests; we create a diversion.” I eye them all steadily. “Tonight we burn down Black City.”

  PART II

  * * *

  ESCAPE

  14.

  ASH

  NATALIE STARES OUT the window while the rest of us try to catch up with what she’s just said. Burn down the city? Can we really do that?

  A deep, throaty chuckle comes from Sigur.

  “I think it is a marvelous idea,” he says.

  “Where would we go?” Logan says.

  “North,” I reply. “We’ll try and cross the border into the Northern Territories.”

  “But what about the rebellion, bro?” Beetle says. “Even if we get everyone out of Black City, that still doesn’t solve the problem of Purian Rose. We can’t just leave the country. People need us. We have to keep fighting.”

  I glance at Natalie and imagine what our lives could be like in the north. We could get married, move to the country and live a quiet, peaceful existence. But I know these are just dreams. There’s only ever been one path for me to follow.

  “I won’t be going,” I say. “I intend to stay to search for the Ora and take down Purian Rose. Anyone who wants to fight with me can do so.”

  Natalie briefly squeezes my hand, letting me know I have her support, before getting up and leaving the room. I think she wants to be alone to grieve.

  “Won’t we risk killing innocent people if we set fire to the city?” Day asks.

  “Not if we’re careful.” Roach stands up and presses a few buttons on the com-desk, projecting a map of Black City on the digital screen on the far wall. “We could strategically plant bombs here, here and here.” She highlights Chantilly Lane Market, Union Street and the Park. “It will cause a lot of damage, but because those areas aren’t residential, the risk to human life will be minimal.”

  “Won’t the fires spread to the inhabited areas?” Garrick asks.

  “Yeah, eventually, but it should give people enough time to make a run for it,” Roach says.

  “We should target the Cinderstone factories first,” I say. “That should keep the guards busy.”

  It’s a long shot, but during the air raids last year, Purian Rose didn’t bomb the factories because he needed the Cinderstone to fuel his munitions operations, so I’m hoping he gave the same orders this time round and will want to protect them.

  There are excited murmurs as people start putting a plan together. I glance at Sigur, and he nods, understanding I need to be with Natalie.

  I find her in our bedroom, curled up on our bed, her arms wrapped around herself. I lie down beside her so we’re nestled together like spoons. We stay like this for an hour, saying nothing. Only the thrum of her aching heart sounds in my ears. Eventually she turns around and cries against my chest.

  “He raped her,” Natalie whispers. “Sebastian, he . . .”

  I tighten my arms around her as the horror of her words sinks in. They didn’t just kill Polly; they made her suffer in every way possible first. My fangs flood with venom. I want to rip Sebastian’s head off, tear him to shreds. I’m going to make him pay for what he did.

  After Natalie’s cried all her tears, she looks up at me. “Ash, will you promise me one thing?”

  I nod. “Anything.”

  “Promise me that when we face Purian Rose, I’ll be the one who gets to kill him.”

  * * *

  That evening, Natalie and I sit on the roof of the Legion headquarters, hand in hand, watching the sun set over the city. By the time the sun rises again, the city will be destroyed. Natalie gazes up at one of the Destroyer Ships hovering over the city and says a final good-bye to her sister, the first of many family members and friends we’ll be parting ways with tonight.

  The Sentry stopped playing the footage of Polly, knowing the jig is up, but so far there’s been no other sign they’re intending to change their strategy, and they have continued to run the countdown on all the screens across the city. Rose still thinks he’s in control.

  The inky blue of night slowly seeps into the bloodred sky, until a shroud of darkness descends over Black City.

  “It’s time,” I say to her.

  We all meet in the Assembly and go over our plan again. Fifty teams, led by Dad and Logan, Michael and Sumrina, Pullo and Angel, plus all the Legion guards, will escort groups out of the ghetto and head toward the northern border. The rest of us will lead the attack on the city.

  “Okay, so does the rebel team know what they’re doing?” Roach asks. She’s wearing a gray jumpsuit, and her long blue dreadlocks have been tied back. “Garrick?”

  “I’ll hijack a Sentry truck and travel back to the Mountain Wolf State to gather support from the Lupines,” Garrick says. “Then I’ll meet you at the rendezvous point in Centrum in the Dominion State, to prepare for the final assault.”

  “Good,” Roach says. “Sigur?”

  “I’ll head to Fire Rapids and assist with the evacuation of the Darklings there,” Sigur says. “Once that’s done, I’ll send word out to the other ghettos about our plans to head north, then join you in Centrum.”

  “Excellent,” she says. “And while you’re doing that, Humans for Unity will begin our strikes against the Sentry government, to keep them distracted. We’ll focus on targets like factories, farms, fuel supplies, roads—basically anything that will sabotage their infrastructure and make life hell for them.”

  Beetle grins at me, making the scar tissue on his cheek pucker. He’s looking forward to this.

  “Phoenix, you know what you’re doing?” Roach asks me.

  “Yup. Natalie, Elijah and I will rescue Lucinda and Yolanda,” I say. “Once we’ve located them, we’ll retrieve the Ora. Then we’ll go to Viridis to speak to the Bastet senate about joining the rebellion, before heading to the rendezvous point.”

  “You better return with that weapon, Ash,” Roach says. “We can only hold off the Sentry for so long. We’re all counting on you.”

  “I won’t let you down.” I just hope I can keep that promise.

  “Right, everyone get ready. We leave in an hour,” she says.

  Sigur exits the council chamber with Elijah, and I wonder where they’re going, but I don’t have time to think about it, as Roach walks over to me and Natalie. Garrick’s standing nearby, counting out the boxes of ammunition. We were able to gather a few guns and supplies, after our stockpile was stolen, but it’s not much.

  “You guys got everything you need for tomorrow?” she says in a low voice.

  I no
d. Getting out of Black City is going to be our first challenge, but we’ve got a plan. It’s risky, but it might just work. Only our families, Roach and Amy know the plan. After what happened with James and Hilary from Firebird, we can’t chance telling too many people.

  When Roach leaves, Garrick comes over to us.

  “I want to come with you and help plant the bombs,” he says.

  “That’s okay, we’ve got it worked out,” I say.

  “I want to be useful,” Garrick replies. “Besides, if you meet a pack of Lupines on the streets, you won’t stand a chance against them.”

  He has a point. “Thanks.”

  We can go our separate ways once the bombs have been planted and continue with our original escape plan. Garrick isn’t in the loop about our plot to leave the city and head to Thrace, and I want to keep it that way. I trust him, but if he gets captured tonight, I don’t want him giving away our escape plan to the Sentry.

  Nick laughs as Amy paints his face with Cinderstone powder, decorating his eyes just like she did mine a few days ago so that he resembles Phoenix. He’s dressed in my LLF jacket, black trousers and boots, his disheveled hair tinted black with Cinderstone. Except for his green eyes, he looks startlingly like me, which is the whole point. Nick is my decoy.

  His counterpart is Amy, who is wearing one of Natalie’s tops, cropped leather pants and knee-high boots; her usually auburn hair has been roughly bleached and curled. Her disguise isn’t quite as convincing as Nick’s, but we’re not looking for perfection—just likenesses close enough to draw the guards away from me and Natalie.

  It was Roach’s idea, and I was dead set against it, as were Natalie and Juno, but we were overruled by Amy and Nick. They want to help, and they’re old enough to make their own decisions. Juno keeps glancing toward her sister, a mixture of worry and pride in her blue eyes. The Jones sisters have never been afraid to stand up to the Sentry, but it still can’t be easy for her. At least she’ll be going with them, so they’ll be looked after.