“We’re fine, I’ve got it from here,” I said to the officers. I tapped my tracker. “You’ll know where we are at all times.”
Aya hopped into the car.
“Take care of her,” the one closest to me said.
“I promise,” I said, following her inside.
I couldn’t see Sol through the screen separating the passengers and driver, but I knew he would be nodding in agreement. I wished he’d left the divider down, but keeping up appearances in front of Purples—even a young Purple—was important.
I considered telling Aya that we were making a stop in Crimson, but I thought better of it. She knew very well that she wasn’t supposed to go there, and if she voiced her concerns, the PAE would come down harder on Sol and me later for breaking the rules. Instead, I had her show me her game to keep her distracted from our route.
She lit up at the chance to show it. After a few touches to her tracker a small 3D city sprang to life. Seven buildings, each at various heights, stood in a perfectly rendered circle. Each one flashed a color of the ring, all in seizure-inducing patterns. “It’s called New Ville,” she said. “It lets you build a city and then you get to run it. Right now I’m playing Ministry Mode. See, first you have to develop the land. And then you make a settlement, which is really hard. At first I couldn’t figure out how to fit the Ash zone in and all of the settlers kept dying. If you don’t have all the rings your city fails.”
I nodded. “That’s a good metaphor. The more the rings can work together, the stronger the city will become,” I said, keeping one eye on Aya, the other out the window. We were just about to the border, which meant we were about to cause a huge spectacle with officers speeding to our car.
“Right,” she said. “This is the longest I’ve been able to keep it going. I just got my first Destiny badge today. You have to have…”
I tuned her out as Sol took a sharp right, avoiding Crimson. I leaned forward, rapping on the glass. “You missed the turn,” I said, my voice shrill.
I heard a whining sound and then the separator slid down. I didn’t know what Sol was playing at. He knew how serious this was. As the panel came to a rest I stiffened, clutching the leather seat under me.
“Yes, ma’am,” Zane said from the front seat. His eyes met mine in the rearview mirror, and he touched the brim of his chauffer’s hat. “I know a shortcut, don’t you worry.”
Any minute now, Aya would be safe. I was too wound up thinking about Zane and what was about to happen to stay at home, so I decided to catch the action first hand. I sat in a bench at an air rail stop by the Purple/Crimson border. It was near where Sol and Madden planned to drive by and set off Aya’s security alarms. I glanced at my tracker. There was still a little time. Yesterday at school, Sol told me he’d be leaving Madden’s place at 1pm.
My tracker buzzed. It was another ping from Theron. He’d written repeatedly to ask how I was doing, but I never responded. Each message felt like a small stab. I knew he was trying to prove he cared, but being around him—even just pinging or holo-talking—was too hard when I knew we couldn’t be together. Besides, I wanted to keep him out of my mess of Revenants and fake kidnappings and lies. At least until Madden came clean.
Theron hadn’t been the only one trying to get in touch with me. I had a bunch of pings from Laira. I’d been avoiding her since she went off about destiny breakers and my brother. But I had to give her credit, she was trying. She’d pinged me daily to check in, even going so far as to keep her destiny beliefs out of it. Maybe I’d been too hard on her. It wasn’t her fault she believed all the lies the government told her. She tried to be a good friend, and it wasn’t like I could push everyone away. I wrote her back and told her we would hang out soon.
Then I checked the time again. Sol should have driven past already. I punched up his location in my tracker to see how far off he was, but it still showed him in the garage. That couldn’t be right. He would have left for Madden’s estate way before now. He wouldn’t risk being late, especially not when it was this important.
Before I even realized it, my feet were moving in Sol’s direction. I watched the geolocator, and kept going, following Sol’s glowing dot until I was at the government garage.
It was an open-air facility. Sunlight streamed in through the concrete beams around me, casting long shadows. The vehicles here were each locked into individual safety cubes making it impossible to access them unless you had an entry code. I had never seen so many cars all at once. There were about fifty of them lined up, and that was just the first floor. Of course there were officers who drove around in government-issued models, but it was rare to see so many in the open. With the exception of Madden, I didn’t know anyone who rode in one. The light rail was the normal mode of transportation, except by the most elite.
“Hello?” I called out. The concrete carried my voice. There was no response. I walked to where the tracker showed Sol should have been. It was an empty parking space, with a storage locker behind.
“Sol?” I called softly. “Are you here?”
Still nothing. I checked my tracker again. I pinged him. “Sol?”
I heard a ding and followed the sound to the next parking space.
“Where are you?” I called louder this time.
That’s when I saw him. He was curled on his side behind a parked van, his wrists bound behind his back, a cloth gagging his mouth.
“No,” I heard myself say as I ran to his side. “No, no, no, no. This can’t be happening.”
His body was limp and his hair matted to his head. I touched it and my hand came away smeared with blood. I forced myself to stay calm. He was breathing. That was the important part. Stay calm, I reminded myself. I needed to make sure he was okay and that he wasn’t still bleeding. I lifted his head from the floor as gently as possible. I gasped when I saw the lump swelling off the back of his skull. His hair was plastered with blood, but it was starting to dry.
I untied the gag, then the binding around his wrists. My fingers stumbled over the knots. I was beginning to panic when I heard him moan.
“Sol,” I said, leaning down over him. “Are you okay?”
“Dax? What are you doing here?” He winced as he tried to move. “Where am I? What happened?”
“You’re in the garage,” I told him. “Someone attacked you. How do you feel?”
“Awful.” He groaned as he pulled himself up to a sitting position. “My head is killing me.” He closed his eyes, squinting against the pain.
“Do you remember anything?” I asked him.
“Just getting to the car.” His words slurred slightly as he spoke. “I was opening the door and then I don’t know what happened,” he trailed off, once again opening his eyes to register the empty parking space beside us. “The car’s gone.”
We just looked at each other. The fear settled over his face—I knew it reflected my own.
“Where’s Madden?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “She’s out of my ping circle. I can’t see her location.”
Sol’s face scrunched up in pain and he held the back of his head. “We have to get you help,” I told him.
“No,” he said, “It’s not me I’m worried about.” He squinted down at his tracker, tapping slowly. He looked up, confused. “It says Madden’s at the UV.”
I shook my head. “If you didn’t come for her, she’d be looking for you, not giving Aya a tour.”
“Zane,” he said. “Somehow he must have found out what we were planning.”
“But how could he have known?”
“I don’t know,” Sol said. “I have to find them. I need my plexi.” He looked around him.
My eyes darted around the garage. “Where is it?” I got up, doing a quick inspection. “I don’t see anything.”
“In my bag.” His eyes fogged with pain and he struggled to stay focused. “It’s in the car. I put the bag in the trunk.”
“Okay,” I said. I wasn’t sure what to do.
>
“That’s a good thing,” he said, his voice getting more animated. “I should be able to track my bag, which means we can find the car.” Once again Sol tapped onto his tracker until it projected a map. A stationary purple dot glowed near the Purple running trails.
“That’s not too far from here. I know the area,” I said. “It’s where I met the Revenants last. That must be where he’s taking them.”
“We need to call the PAE,” Sol said. “Get them there before anything happens.”
“We can’t. If Zane sees the PAE, who knows what he’ll do. He’ll probably kill everyone—starting with Aya.”
“Then what?”
“I don’t know. But the PAE isn’t the answer. They’re the same people who want to kill Link and all the Revenants. They’re not exactly the good guys.”
“So what are we supposed to do?” Sol asked. “I don’t even think I can stand. You can’t go after Zane by yourself.”
“I’ll ping Link. He can meet me there.”
“You can’t. It will ruin any surprise advantage we still have. They’re monitoring everything, Dax. They must be. Otherwise how did they find out our plans?”
“Then I guess that leaves me.”
“Dax,” he said, trying to get to his feet and failing. “Don’t even think about it—it’s crazy. You can’t stop him on your own.”
Maybe he was right, but did I have a choice?
I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t—not in front of Aya. I had to stay calm. I’d been trained to act composed in stressful situations. Despite my façade on the outside, on the inside I was panicked.
How had Zane gotten here? What had happened to Sol? Had Zane killed him?
I couldn’t think that way. I tried to ping Sol, my father, Dax, anyone using my tracker, but it wouldn’t go through. I looked at the geolocator. It showed we were already at the UV, the opposite of where we were really going. Maybe someone would notice that we never arrived. Even if they didn’t, Aya had her chip. It was just a matter of moments until her team noticed it didn’t match the tracker coordinates. I had to stay calm until then.
“Aya,” I said. “I have some ministry business to finish up before we get to the UV. Do you mind putting up your sound cloud for a moment?”
“Okay,” she said.
She tapped her tracker and a ripple of air whooshed around her. The cloud guaranteed that my conversation would remain private. Even so, I spoke in a harsh whisper to Zane.
“Where’s Sol?” I asked.
“Where I left him.”
“Is he okay?”
“Okay is such a relative word.”
I wanted to reach over the seat and throttle him, but I needed to keep my cool. Both for Aya’s sake, and so that I wouldn’t set Zane off. “Is he alive?”
“I can’t give away all of my secrets.” He winked at me through the mirror, making my skin prickle. Sol had to be okay. Zane wouldn’t be this nonchalant if he murdered him, would he? My head was spinning. I needed to get Aya out of here. Now.
“It’s not too late,” I said. “Pull over and leave us here. You can get away before the PAE arrives.”
“You must still think you’re getting saved.” He gave a hearty laugh. “Typical Purple mindset, underestimating those born below you. Given your actual standing, you really should reconsider some of those values.”
He was wrong, I knew he what he was capable of. He was Blank. But he was forgetting, so was I. “They’ll be here.”
“Counting on her chip?”
My body tensed up.
“Yeah, I know about that,” he said. “Amazing what you can learn when you have access to a minister’s accounts. Thanks for that by the way.”
I glanced at Aya who was still engrossed in her game. This was all my fault. She had no idea what was going on, no idea of the danger we were in.
“What are you going to do to her?” I asked.
“You’re a smart girl, figure it out.”
The look on his face told me enough. If I didn’t do something soon, Aya and I might not come back from this drive. The car was moving slowly. Zane was probably afraid to get pulled over after what happened at Laira’s Destiny Day. I could use that to my advantage. I just had to open the door, grab Aya and jump. Hopefully my body would cushion her fall. I reached for the handle, but the door wouldn’t budge.
A flicker of amusement passed over Zane’s face. “You really think I wouldn’t see that coming?” he asked.
I hated him more by the second. Aya and I were prisoners. A few turns later and we were surrounded by bushes, trees, and dirt. There were no homes or people in sight. We were on the outskirts of Purple, beyond the normal walking trails. I never came this far out. There had never been a reason.
“We’re here,” he said, turning to look at Aya. “Time to say your goodbyes.”
“Wait,” I said as he opened his door. “I have a better idea. It can help you, the Revenants and keep Aya safe.”
“Go on,” he said.
“Not here,” I said. “We should talk away from her in case she takes down her cloud.”
“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing. Trying to buy time. But what’s a few minutes? I’ll admit I’m curious to see what another Blank mind can come up with.” He looked at me knowingly. “I’m telling you Madden, when the Purples cast you aside, you’ll need an ally. Like is drawn to like.”
I’d never work with him. I’d never hurt a child—no matter what it could do for me. I might have been a Blank, but I still knew what was right.
I waved at Aya to get her attention and gestured to let her know I’d be back in a minute. I hoped she’d see the fear in my eyes and somehow understand the need to run. Instead she looked up and nodded happily before going back to her game. I walked out of her view, about twenty feet, with Zane at my side. I looked for a rock or stick or something I could use to fight him, but there was nothing I could reach without him noticing.
“This is far enough,” he said. He glanced down at his tracker and opened his screen to a timer. “One minute,” he said, tapping in the number. “I do hope you make it interesting.” The seconds began to tick down. “Fifty-eight,” he prodded. “Fifty-seven.”
“You can use me,” I spoke as fast as I could, “I’ll get bills reformed, I’ll make it legal for the Revenants to live wherever they want. Then it won’t matter if Aya knows where you are.”
“Bills take too long. And they’d never pass. Try again. Forty seconds.”
“I’ll tell everyone the truth. If my destiny was messed up, maybe other people’s were too. They’ll want to know. It will cripple the system.”
“The Seven will spin it as a fluke,” he replied. “There won’t be any discord. If there is, the PAE will have the troublemakers removed in minutes.” He studied the numbers as they continued to tick down. “Fifteen seconds left. I have to say, this is all a little disappointing. It’s like you’re not even trying.”
The only other thing I could do was beg. “Please,” I said, “she’s just a little girl. She doesn’t want to hurt anyone. What if…” an idea finally hit me, one that could actually save Aya. “What if we let her lead people to one Revenant: Me. I’m already helping you. I’ll officially become a Revenant, and Aya can expose me. This can work.”
He cocked his head, thinking it over. “Not a bad idea. But exposing one leads to exposing us all.”
I started to speak again as the timer hit zero, but Zane shushed me. “You knew the rules. And your time is up.” He took out his gun.
A black car was parked near the trail. I snuck toward it, darting from tree to tree, doing my best to stay hidden. I stepped as lightly as I could over the fallen leaves and stones. I grabbed a large rock as I neared, adding it to the collection in my backpack I’d gathered on the way over. As weapons went it wasn’t much, but I could improvise if it came down to it. I hoped.
As I approached, I glanced into the car. A little girl sat in the back, huddled over some k
ind of holograph game. I felt the weight in my chest lighten just a bit. Aya was alive. I crept closer and ducked down near the passenger side to open the door. It was locked. I considered trying to get her attention, but was distracted by voices arguing. I peeked over the car, but I couldn’t see anything from where I was. I crept closer, hiding behind a tree stump. The scene playing out in front of me looked grim. Madden was waving her hands in Zane’s face, trying to block his path as he headed back in Aya’s direction. Her face was twisted into a kind of snarl.
“I’m not going to let you hurt her,” I heard her say.
“You’re not really in a position to make demands,” Zane replied. A gun dangled from his hand.
Don’t do anything stupid, Madden, I willed her.
She didn’t heed my silent warning. Instead, she lunged at Zane, knocking them both—and his gun—to the ground. Zane might have been thrown off, but as Madden reached for the weapon, he easily beat her to it.
He stood up, brushing the leaves from his pants. “My thanks for that. You know, I had planned to keep you alive for a little while longer. Hoped you’d make yourself useful, but it’s probably easier this way.”
He aimed his gun at her head, his finger twitching at the trigger. He was going to shoot her. I couldn’t wait any longer.
“Stop,” I said, revealing myself.
Zane’s eyes darted toward me, momentarily taking his eyes off of Madden. His aim didn’t waver. “Dax,” he said. “Joining our little party?”
“What are you doing?” I asked, feigning shock. “You can’t shoot Madden. We need her. For your plan to work, for me to take over as the future minister, we need her alive.”
“Dead or alive, it’s all the same,” he said.
Madden was watching me. The look in her eyes made me think that if I didn’t come up with something soon, she’d try to take Zane out again. Only this time she would wind up with a bullet in her head.
“No, it’s not,” I said moving toward them. “If she’s killed before I tell everyone the truth, they’ll never believe it. They’ll think I murdered her and faked the evidence about our destiny swap. They’d never trust me. Not with her gone.”
Ash Page 29
