by Julian North
“If it fails, our best weapons will have been used up in the attack. We’ll have left the other forty-nine states no choice but to attack us with everything they’ve got. California will be crushed.”
Ansel smirked at the men in uniform. “We’ve been told we can repel any attack, correct, Generals?”
The bearded Border Security chief, Francis McClellan, cleared his throat, eyeing General Lopez as he worked up the courage to speak. “Let us speak plainly in this room. We have never had the resources we need to rebuild our forces to where they should be. Our air force is superior to theirs, but our ground troops rely on older equipment with a few upgrades. But most critically, we are badly outnumbered. Thus far, the bulk of the United States military has remained out of the civil war. However, if they are faced with an attack by California, they will act to defend the country. We risk waking the sleeping giant if we attack. We do not have the numbers to conquer the rest of the United States.”
Silence descended again as everyone contemplated the choices laid at their feet. Dimitri’s eyes urged me to keep quiet as the others considered what had been said so far. I had made progress with many, but not enough. The fate of everything balanced on a knife’s blade.
Kateras spoke into the silence. His slithering eyes told me all I needed to know of his intentions: he was going to be trouble. “I am not a general. I am not elected. I have no great corporation behind me. I am a simple man who speaks for other people—men and women and children who have nothing, and will end up with even less if you fight your folly of a war. My people don’t have fancy visers; they have nothing except a few scraps and their lives. Now you propose to start a war based on the words of some Bronx City girl that will mean many more suffer. Even if you achieve your so-called surprise attack, we are still facing a long, costly civil war that will be fought by my people. No thank you. Let us take our chances defending our homes if it comes to that.”
His words hurt because they were something I would’ve said a few days ago. I was now the one advocating for a war where thousands or more could die—my people and Kateras’s. But Virginia had left me no other choice. Hers was an evil that could not be allowed to endure. If she was not stopped, her plague would grow and become unstoppable. I held my breath as I waited to see if others would side with Kateras.
Leeland Block rubbed his arm at the spot where he had been tricked into believing the phantom wasp lurked. “Ms. Machado conveniently forgets we have another option, perhaps one more appealing to our people and Mr. Kateras: we can lock up her and her friends and extract every last bit of information from them. I’m sure there is plenty she hasn’t told us. Perhaps we can use her to develop some weapons of our own, as Virginia Timber-Night intended. Our Thought Giants are rather capable. It seems like a less risky option for California than starting a war with our American brothers and sisters.”
Block’s challenge hung heavy in the space between us; he bared his polished teeth like a wolf, a predator worthy of the roughest street corner in Bronx City. To retreat from a challenge like that was death; to allow another to fight my battle would be almost as bad. I shot back before anyone else had a chance to speak, my voice low and dangerous.
“Virginia and her minions tried that. They imprisoned me, hurt my friends, tried to enslave me. Now her scientists are dead and her prison burns. If you think I walked in here to put myself at the mercy of a bunch of richie politicians and their toy soldiers, you are mistaken. If I disappear, I’ve made arrangements for Virginia to know what I’ve told you today, and she’ll assume you plan to attack. You’ll be her slaves, or worse, within a week.”
“You’re bluffing,” Leeland declared. He said the words, but he wasn’t certain. I heard the quiver in his voice, and so did everyone else.
Ansel stood. “We must stay united if we are to survive this. I know Virginia Timber-Night. I knew her when she was a ruthless kid we had nicknamed Nia. She is all Daniela has said she is, and worse. She is no politician. This is not a person to be bargained with—she is a predator.” Eyes blinked in surprise at the vehemence in Ansel’s voice and the revelation that she knew Virginia so well. She gazed first at General Leeland, who would not meet her stare. Then she turned to Kateras, his arms folded as he slouched in his chair with stubborn arrogance. Ansel sighed heavily. “We do not ask our least fortunate to bear burdens without also lending them a hand.” Her eyes flickered to the governor, who nodded his assent to an unasked question. She sought a similar confirmation on behalf of his Thought Giant backers from Marcon, who also silently agreed. “The minimum income allocation to the general population could be increased, Mr. Kateras, effective immediately.”
This was California politics at work: bribes for the mob. I forced myself to keep still, my face blank.
Kateras shifted his lips back and forth, as if deciding what he should order at a restaurant. “You are asking parents to put the lives of their sons and daughters at risk…”
Ansel’s chin twitched in anger. “The additional money could be distributed by a company of your choice.”
Oh, democracy in action. Mateo was lucky to be in a deep freeze. These people were no better than their brethren on the East Coast. No better than a pusher on a Bronx City corner.
Kateras grinned like a Cheshire cat. “Done.”
Ansel sat, and Governor Clarke assumed control of the room again. “It seems we are nearing a decision. General Lopez, what are our options for a first strike to be organized within the next forty-eight hours?”
Lopez shifted in his seat. “With such little time, only our special forces could be properly deployed. We need days to call up and equip reserves. The border patrol could be utilized, but they lack enough high-speed transport or heavy weapons. We could deploy no more than ten thousand troops on that time frame, and we have only enough stealth transports to move half that number.”
“That’s nothing,” Ansel spat. “After all your boasts, we must be little more than a pinprick.”
Lopez steamed red. I spoke before it could get ugly. “That’s all we need.”
Every head turned toward me again. I began to understand why Kristolan had enjoyed this game.
“Start shipping weapons to the South and to the cities—to Atlanta, Baltimore, Denver, Bronx City. Airdrops with stealth transports. I can put you in touch with the people you need on the ground.”
The governor’s eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?”
“The South will fight. And the people are ready to rise—my people. We are the many. Give them weapons and they will keep Virginia’s troops occupied and buy us enough time to act.”
Lopez scoffed. “That might get us a few days. We still have a long war ahead. We would be best served keeping our weapon stockpiles for our own army. We’ll need them.”
“The fight will be over in a few days at most,” I said.
Lopez scoffed again. “You’re a general too?” Contempt practically dripped from his mouth. “How do know that?”
“Because Virginia was betrayed, and that betrayal will win this war for us.”
Chapter 25
They forced me to wear a mask returning to the aircraft, but this time I was permitted to remove it once we took off. I flew back aboard Dimitri’s private plane, no restraints required. The crew served us dinner on a table covered with white linen beside a long window that looked down over fluffy white clouds. The meal was tofu, tomatoes, and cheese, and I devoured it as if it might be my last.
“Trilling Leeland Black was reckless, young lady. We never discussed that—quite the opposite.”
“It was necessary. Until then, they saw only a dark-skinned girl, a tool of Dimitri Yasoff’s, no matter what words I spoke, no matter what the world looked like. Only the truly shocking can make you reevaluate what you thought you knew.” That’s how it had been with me. The world had been a far simpler place when I just needed to cure Mateo and all the richies were the enemy.
Yasoff took a sip of sparkling wine fro
m his crystal glass as he studied me. “Leeland Block was a good target if you had to pick one—apart from not being highborn, he is the weaker and less respected of the generals. Angering him probably helped you to win over the others; facing him down sealed their support. Your words resonated with Jenn Ansel in a way even I have never seen before. It’s as if you knew us all. Is that part of the power, the trill?”
I hesitated to answer, and Yasoff noticed. He placed his glass back on the table. “I have risked much on my intuition, Daniela, which has served me well in the past. At least I thought it was my intuition, but after what I have seen and heard, I am beginning to fear I have been manipulated. I need the truth in this.”
It was hard to trust anyone after what I had been through, much less a near stranger with more money than I knew existed. Kristolan would have offered more deception, more evasion, but I wasn’t her. I dared to tell the truth.
“I killed Kristolan Foster-Rose-Hart.”
Yasoff stopped chewing and put his fork down on the table.
“She was like me, both her and her brother. I shattered her mind with my trill. It shouldn’t have been possible to do that to a highborn, but Alexander helped me. We had no choice. For a moment near the end, our minds were linked to a far greater degree than happens with an ordinary trill. She is dead, but her memories live within me. Some part of what she knew or thought about those people—and you—is still a part of me. And she knew a great deal.”
Yasoff placed a hand on his chin. “That is… remarkable. It also validates the possibility of the work we have been doing at the Everlast Clinic.” He glanced out the window for a moment before returning his attention to me. “I was friends with her mother, Beatice, a long time ago, before California broke away, before she met Landrew. I was glad to help her, glad to meet her children, even with the danger of violating the embargo. Kristolan reminded me of Beatice, at least for a while. As she grew older, as she grew ever more charismatic and charming, the fire inside her changed. It turned from shining bright to something dark and dangerous.”
I looked away. “Yes.”
“You know why that happened, don’t you?”
I released a heavy breath. “There is a cost to using the trill. People were not meant to have such power, I think. Each time I use it, something happens. I think it absorbs parts of what the other person was—and not the good parts. The darkness that is at the core of us. I think that is what happened to Kristolan. She had the power the longest.”
“And you, Daniela? How long have you got before this ‘darkness,’ as you put it, consumes you as well? Or has it already happened? Was that Daniela Machado manipulating the leaders of California to do her bidding, or was it someone else entirely?”
I closed my eyes, looking inside myself. I had not dared to ask myself that question, although I knew it needed asking. I opened my eyes again and answered honestly. “I don’t know.”
“Daniela, I ask these things not to be cruel or to alarm you. Rather, I ask because you must know that the people you have just convinced to start a war—Governor Clarke and Jenn Ansel, and even Antionio Kateras, are not stupid. You took them off guard today, but they will catch up quickly, and they will ask themselves the same questions I have asked you. You had best be prepared to deal with their conclusions.”
I managed to fall asleep on the ride back to the Everlast Center. Night fall while I slept. One of the white-clad attendants met our v-copter on the tarmac.
“Ms. Machado, Mr. Royce bid me to bring you with me the moment you landed.”
I blinked several times as I realized what I had forgotten in the frantic events of the day: Alexander. Nythan was going to attempt to remove the chip today. I had completely forgotten. My thoughts turned inward as I realized the nearly unbelievable selectiveness of my amnesia. How had my thoughts been so completely focused on matters of war and politics while Alexander’s life was in the balance? Dimitri’s questions about who I really was echoed loud in my head and weighed on my conscience. Was I even me anymore?
“You better get going, young lady,” Dimitri said.
I walked faster than the attendant. After I had to stop a second time for him to catch up, I demanded the room location and took off at a sprint. I took one wrong turn. When I finally reached the correct room, I was breathing hard, but from anxiety rather than exhaustion. My feet skidded on the floor as I dashed inside. The sight awaiting me nearly brought me to my knees. My eyes watered, and for once I didn’t try to hold back the tears: Alexander was staring at me, an exhausted smile on his face.
I froze as I stared at those sapphire eyes, the endless blue. “Is… is it still… you?” I whispered, trembling.
“As far as I can tell.”
I made it to his bedside in a single stride, throwing my arms around him and planting my lips on his. I pulled him to me with the force of someone who had no intention of ever letting go. It was one of those all too brief moments, when life was sweet and all other cares were forgotten.
“Let him breathe, Daniela. Sheesh…”
I spun toward Nythan, grabbed him, and squeezed. “Thank you.” I released him only to wipe the tears from my cheek. “For this…” I groped for words. “Anything I have, it’s yours…”
“I’m glad you’re happy with the work.” Nythan’s grin split his face. “Although I must give credit to Dr. Vard in this case as well. Her prior research and amazing understanding of chip and brain interactions made this all possible.”
I belatedly realized there were other people in the room: Alissa, and Rhett, who stood near the door with a blank expression on his face, and a tall woman with long hair of chestnut and gold whom I had never seen before but knew was Halen Vard.
Halen’s lips formed into a shape that might have been a smile if ice was capable of such things. I didn’t care; I thanked her. I would’ve hugged her if I wasn’t afraid she’d crack.
She spoke like she looked. “I am pleased with the result thus far. The data we collected from this procedure has been unusually useful, and it continues to accumulate.”
I stared at her because I had no idea what she was talking about.
Alissa stepped into the awkward space between Halen and me. “Let’s get dinner and let Daniela and Alexander catch up.” She tugged at Nythan. Everyone left. Rhett smiled at me as he left the room, but it wasn’t his usual easy grin. Nythan lingered longer than he ordinarily would, his face once again serious. I couldn’t hear what Alissa said to him, but I could read her lips: tomorrow.
It was a reminder that all was not well with the world. Alexander being conscious was a gift that I would fight to protect. Still, for the moment, I had him. It was precious, as fleeting times often were.
“Do you remember what happened?”
“I recall Havelock and his soldiers surprising us on the extraction platform, although even that is… hazy. There are other gaps as well—things I should remember but don’t.”
I looked him up and down, as if I could locate some other injury. “What other things?”
“This place, for instance. I know I’ve been here, but somehow the details of those memories won’t come to me. Dr. Vard told me we have met several times before when I visited my mother, but I do not remember any of those meetings. Nythan and Dr. Vard said it is due to the remapping of the damaged areas of my brain. Not all the connections have been repaired as yet.”
I tried not to look worried. “You just need to rest.”
Alexander stared at me. “How were you able to fight them off?”
I didn’t want to think about that time, or what had happened to me on the platform. “I don’t know. I’ve thought about that, but I don’t really remember either.”
“It seems like you do know something, though. It is bothering you.”
I sighed. “It was Kristolan, I think.”
“What?” Alexander sat up.
“Her memories, her consciousness—they are with me.”
It took a lot for Alexander
to betray shock or worry. His eyes grew wide with both. “Her memories… Daniela…”
“It’s the part of her I picked up when our minds were joined. It’s like a collection of thoughts and instincts inside me sometimes, but it functions in a different way than I do. Even when I was asleep, even when I was drugged, that part of my mind where Kristolan’s residual consciousness resides remained awake. And she protected herself—and me.”
“Amazing, and frightening, Daniela. And right now, do you… are you aware of the things she knew?”
I shook my head. “It’s not like that. It isn’t quite that there is another person inside me—I’m not crazy. It’s more like memories, instincts, personality, all fighting for dominance with my own. I can hear something like a whisper in my head at times. But the more I trill, the more the residual consciousness of others leaks into my mind. I realize that now.”
“Then you must stop. We must stop.”
“Not yet.” The truth was I did not want to stop. The cold was my strength; it had been with me my whole life.
“Tell me what you are planning.”
“Not now, Alexander. Tomorrow, please.”
He stared at me as intensely as any person ever had, with eyes more exquisite than should have been possible.
“You are beautiful.”
The chipping had clearly messed with his brain, but I didn’t care.
Chapter 26
A hand on my back woke me.
“It’s Nythan.”
I forced my eyes open. The hospital room was illuminated only by the faint blue glow of medical monitors. It was cool in the room, except for the warmth of Alexander’s sleeping form next to me on the hospital bed. I wasn’t anxious to wake up, or move.
“Sorry to do this, Daniela, but we need to talk. It can’t wait any longer.”
I had known the world wouldn’t leave me in peace for long. I disentangled myself from beneath Alexander’s arm and slid onto the floor, still wearing yesterday’s clothes. Alexander continued to sleep, his face peaceful.
