“All right,” his father said and waved for the guards to leave. “Drake had written his account of the events for us. You have both read it, I’m told. Is there anything you’d like to add to it, Brody?”
“No.”
“It doesn’t make any sense that you’d willfully let an enemy target go. It goes against everything we are fighting for here. Please, tell us there is something else to all of this, some plan you had that you didn’t bother sharing with us for some reason,” Max asked, his voice rising.
“There was no plan. I would have let him go. I still will, if I have half a chance to. The report is accurate.”
Max ran his hands through his hair in a gesture of exasperation and slumped into his seat, telling Lancer to take over.
Lancer gently touched Max on the arm and stood, looking at Brody. “Why did you call for this council?”
“I was accused of treason by one of the seniors. The only appropriate course of action was to call for the council. I am a soldier. The code demands that any such accusations be addressed. You know that, Lancer, you helped write it.”
“Yes, I get all that. What I’m really asking you is what you hope to accomplish here. I want to know what you expect us to do. You sit on this same council. You know how this works. So I’ll ask you again. What do you want from this proceeding?”
Brandon stood, looking at Lancer, and said very quietly, “If I may, sir, I know why he called the council and what he wants.”
Lancer nodded to him to keep going.
“He wants you to let me go because he feels he owes me. But I understand that you can’t. I’m asking you to release him with all charges of treason cleared because it wasn’t that. He felt injured by what that man said to him, and he had every right to feel that, but there was no treason in it. In exchange, I’ll help you with whatever I can in your fight.”
“You’ll betray your people?”
“I don’t have any people, Maxton. None that I have left…” There was a sadness, a wistfulness in his voice when he said it. “My fight has always been of a personal nature, not an ideological one. I understand that you can’t trust me not to run or betray you in some way. I am okay with remaining a prisoner for as long as you find me useful. You can do with me what you will afterward,” he said evenly and sat down again, and nobody moved or said anything for a long time after that.
It struck her as strange that he’d volunteer to do all of this for them to let Brody out of this stupid trial but he seemed sincere, and she thought it had something to do with what she told him, that Brody didn’t kill that horrid woman after all. She glanced over at him but his head was down and she couldn’t see anything of his face like that.
“I can’t let you do that,” Brody finally said to Brandon in a quiet voice and turned back to the council. “This council will make a decision about what I did or didn’t do the way you would for anyone else who comes before you. I will not accept any bargaining on my behalf no matter how much you want whatever intel he may have. You’ll just have to find another way of asking him for it.” Brody looked at Max, said, “You should know that if you release me, the moment I’m free to move, I will let him go.”
Max called for the guards to take them out of the room so they could conference in private, and as soon as the door closed behind them, he lunged for Drake and grabbed him by the neck. “What the hell is wrong with you? How did you think he’d take it?”
Drake didn’t move, letting him. “We don’t let important intel targets go no matter our personal history with them. I did what I had to do, Max, and I would do it again. You can lash out at me all you want, I am not apologizing for it.”
Max released him and went back to his seat, shaking his head.
Riley glanced at her briefly and averted his eyes. “Brody knows the Code as well as the rest of us. If he doesn’t disown the charge, he knows we have to convict him,” he said miserably.
He was right, of course. Brody was baiting them to do just that. She just couldn’t figure out why. She walked up to them and leaned on the table they were sitting at. “We need to let Brandon go. We need to let Brody keep whatever deal he thinks he made with him. We have to,” she said to all of them, not looking at any one face.
Drake shook his head. “We can’t just let him go, Laurel. We did that once before, remember? Never mind that he is one of them! I don’t need Brandon’s permission to get whatever he knows out of him, none of us do, and I’m not asking that son of a bitch for it either so that’s a non-issue, but he isn’t going anywhere. As for Brody, we need to wipe out the record of this stupid trial and you need to take him home. This never happened, is how I see it.”
Max nodded to him and everyone else seemed to agree. All but Loren.
He stood, looking uncomfortable. “We can’t do that to Brody. It’s a matter of honor for him, and we can’t do this to him. He won’t let us. What Drake accused him of was the worst thing he could have said to him. I could see it all over him. And what Brody isn’t telling you is that he feels Drake only said it because he isn’t Zoriner by blood. It hurt him, is what I’m saying, and we need to find a way to fix it without doing him any more injury.”
Max stood and started pacing around the room, hands behind his back, looking very much like Brody when he did that. Finally, he stopped and in a carefully controlled voice said that he sees no other choice but to proceed as if Brody were anyone else for now. That they all swore to uphold the Code above all else, and as the most senior of them, even if they disagreed with his decision, he had the power to force it, and he would use it. And without waiting for anyone to reply, he called for the guards to bring them in.
“Do you believe you committed treason in your desire to release the Eagle soldier?” Max asked as soon as Brody was standing in front of them.
“According to the definition of treason as we have it, I believe I would have,” Brody said calmly.
“Will you let this go if we released Brandon?”
“No. I will not let this go.”
“Do you understand what you are asking us to do?” Max snapped angrily.
“Completely.” There was no irony in his voice and Laurel noted with dismay that particular stiffness in the way Brody held himself, the kind that meant he was fighting to control his rage.
“You’re leaving us no choice then but to charge you as guilty and sentence you as such,” Max said in a whisper and sat back down.
Brody didn’t move, just stood still with a strange, calm look on his face, and he was looking at Drake, not his father, something of contempt passing between them.
Lancer stood and read some notes on his screen for a few seconds, and then addressed Brody in his quiet, patient voice. “Do you have anything to add before we recess for sentencing?”
Brody shook his head, his eyes still on Drake.
“All right then.” Lancer looked at Brody for a long moment, shook his head. “I move to recess until tomorrow morning, so we all have enough time with this if there are no objections.”
There weren’t, and they had Brody and Brandon taken out of the room, and then everyone but Riley left without saying anything to her or to each other.
Riley finally got up and walked over to her, took her by the arm, and told her softly that they were going for a long walk. She let him take her outside and into the woods and they walked for a very long time in silence, Riley not looking around him, eyes on the trail.
Finally, he stopped and slid down against one of the large, sick-looking trees and looked up at her. “I’ll find a way to fix it, I promise. I just don’t know how to do it so nobody gets hurt…. Whatever it is that happened with him and Drake, I don’t understand it, but I know Brody feels like he doesn’t have any kind of choice. It’s not the kind of insult he can let go from him.” He dropped his head for a beat, exhaled a heavy breath. “I think Brody is so pissed at Drake he is doing the thing he knows will hurt him the most. He’s getting back at him. I’ll take you home and I’
ll go see him. I’ll make him talk to me. He doesn’t have any kind of choice about it now.” He put his head in his hands for a while after that, then straightened, grunting as if it hurt him to do that.
She let him walk her home after that, let him kiss her on the cheek at her door. “You’re a good friend, Riley,” she said softly.
He walked away from her heading back for the council building, his head down. She watched until he disappeared around the curve, went in and finally let herself cry, let all the sadness spill out of her in streams, and it took a long time for all the tears to finally leave her, and longer still for her to find the will to get up and make herself something to eat. They wouldn’t kill Brody, of course, but she was terribly worried he’d make them do something that would hurt all of them in the end.
14
The Last Eagle
Riley, June 30, 2244, Reston.
He was surprised to see Trevor guarding the door to the room Brody was in, didn’t know they made him a guard and trusted him with a weapon so soon, but he was pleased.
“Let me in, Trevor. I know he said not to let anyone in, that he doesn’t want to talk to anybody but he doesn’t have any choice about it now.” Trevor nodded, swinging the door open for him.
Brody turned away from him. “Even the bloody guards in this place don’t listen to me anymore. Leave, Riley. I know what I’m doing. I’m not changing my mind on it. Even if you all come in here and drag her in and cry enough tears to flood this damn room,” he spat at him, facing him now, his voice tired as if he hadn’t slept in days.
Riley walked up to his friend and cut the tie at his hands and he gasped, couldn’t help it, looking at the way his wrists were, raw and bloody. “What the hell is wrong with you?” he snapped at him. He walked to the door and knocked, Trevor’s red head peeking in through the opening. “Get me a medkit,” he told him sharply and waited for him to close the door and leave.
He threw the thermal he’d brought at Brody, then leaned on the wall and closed his eyes, waiting for Brody to lash out at him, say something, but he didn’t move at all, didn’t say a word. “I’ve known you my whole life, Brody and I’m pretty sure this is the first time I have no idea how to talk to you…. I know you’re pissed at Drake, I get that part. I know it hurt you, what he said, but this? This whole council charade”—he shook his head, Brody watching him—“I don’t know what to make of it. Don’t know how to help you get out of it honorably and without hurting everybody you love. I know you can’t possibly believe yourself to be a traitor. Why do you want to be branded as one? Help me understand it, please, because I got nothing.”
Trevor came back, handed him the kit without a word, and soundlessly locked the door behind him. Riley took out the antiseptic and the bandages he’d need and walked over to Brody, took his wrists one at a time and sprayed them with the antiseptic mist, and gently wound the gauze around his wrists. Brody didn’t move when he did it, just kept looking at him calmly as if all of this was perfectly normal. Riley looked him in the eye. “I need to at least put a clean bandage on it, Brody. Please, let me.” A small nod, but it was enough. Riley steeled himself for what he’d see when he unwound the dirty cloth but he still winced at the wound. His heart clenched just thinking about Brody being hurt like that.
“It doesn’t hurt as bad anymore,” Brody said softly, not looking at him.
Riley took a few steps away from him when he was done and sat cross-legged on the floor, facing him.
Brody slumped down on his cot after a while, eyes on his. “He never came to see me, not once. Drake, I mean…. Don’t know why it matters but I thought for sure he’d at least try to apologize for what he said to me, you know? But he never did. I think he honestly believes that of me, Riley. I have to let it play out now. I don’t have any kind of choice about it.” Brody looked down, his whole body slumping as if in defeat.
Riley went to him and wrapped him in a hug, running his hand through his hair like he always used to when they were kids. “I’m sorry, Brody, I truly am. I don’t know what’s going on with him but I can see from the way he looks at that Brandon kid that he really hates him, which is saying a lot for Drake, who doesn’t hate many people, no matter what they’ve done. I think he was angry at you because of him, is what I’m saying. He lashed out at you because you dared treat that man as an equal and he can’t stomach it for some reason. But you can’t go through with this.” He pulled him in closer, hugging him hard. “I’ll go talk to the pissed-off giant but you will need to let this go, Brody.” He let him go and went to the door and knocked.
Trevor let him out and he told him in a whisper that he would kill him or any of the other guards if they dared put anything on Brody’s wrists, and that they all should have known better just looking at them. Trevor blushed deeply, head down, and nodded to him, and he left then, knowing what he had to do to make all of this okay for all of them, and hating himself for not getting it earlier.
Drake glared at him when he got to his place and he could tell that he knew why he came to see him. Ella was still working so it was just the two of them, Drake told him quietly and let him in, telling him to sit where he wanted.
Drake put a mug of steaming tea in front of him and asked him if he was hungry.
He shook his head.
“What did he say?” Drake asked without any more preambles.
He ignored the question and asked him quietly why he never went to see him.
He saw a flash of anger in Drake’s eyes but his voice was calm when he said simply that he had nothing to say to him, so there was no point.
“Do you think he is a traitor?”
“No,” Drake said, still glaring at him in that way he’d only seen him do a few times in all the years he’d known the man.
He couldn’t help himself then. He stood and put the palms of his hands flat on the table to keep them from shaking. “What the hell are you doing then? You bloody accused him of treason. That carries the death penalty, in case you forgot. I would like you to please tell me why you’re trying to kill my friend!” he screamed, his whole body shaking.
“Are you quite finished?” Drake asked after a little while.
Riley sat down and dropped his head, trying to calm himself. He nodded, looked at the man in front of him again.
Drake’s soft eyes were looking back at him. “I don’t know if I can explain this right but I’ll try. This Brandon, what he did to him in the woods … it wasn’t okay. In the same way that what his mother did to you wasn’t okay. He didn’t just want to kill him, he wanted to make him suffer as much as he could, without killing him too quickly. He was toying with him, Riley, giving him just enough hope to run but knowing the whole time that even after all that, he’d still kill him. It was the most cruel thing to do to anybody…. Maybe he really couldn’t shoot him in the end for some reason, I wasn’t there for it, so I don’t know. But there is no way I was going to just let him go, and it wasn’t just because he might be useful to us in some way.” Drake looked down, chewing on his bottom lip, then looked at him again. “Brody … he always feels he owes people for one thing or another and most of the time, I get it, I really do. But this kid? He doesn’t owe him shit but a bullet in his head, and that’s after we milk him for everything he’s worth. But I know Brody well enough to know that if he feels he owes him, he won’t let it go. I said what I did to him so it wasn’t personal for him, that’s all. I want him to feel like a bloody traitor for trying to let him go, not like Brody who’s going back on his word.”
Riley got up and paced around the room for a while, letting all that Drake said sink in. “You need to go see him. Tell him what you just told me, or whatever else you want. It doesn’t matter, but you owe it to him to at least go see him. Please, swallow that damn pride and go see him before he makes all of us do something we’ll regret,” he said, and he left him and headed back to the council building.
Brandon jumped up from his cot in one fluid move as soon as he walked in
and stood stock still, hands bound in front of him, and he could see the tension in every taut muscle on him. He looked as if he expected him to shoot him or hit him but his steely gray eyes stared at him defiantly and he couldn’t help but see that woman in him.
Riley took a few steps toward him, stopping close enough to hit him if he wanted to.
“I don’t know what he is doing. If you think I can help in some way, tell me, and I’ll consider it,” Brandon said quietly, still looking at him in that way that made him want to punch him.
Riley wrapped his hands around his skinny neck, squeezing hard enough to hurt him, and whispered in the deadliest, quietest voice he could muster, “You’ll consider it? You’ll do whatever the hell you need to do so we don’t end up having to execute my best friend because of whatever happened between you two!” He shoved him away from him.
Brandon staggered back a few steps, then said in a surprisingly soft voice, “No, Riley, but I will do everything I can that I can live with. You saved my life once, and I’d like to pay back for that, and for what my mother has done, for what all of my family have done. I’m the last of them so it’s on me to make some of it right. If you have any ideas on how I can help him, I’m willing to listen. Or you can strangle me again or whatever else you look like you want to do to me if it’ll make you feel any better. I won’t call for the guards.” Brandon took a step closer to him, bracing in that way he had.
He remembered how he was with them the first time when he was still a kid and Brody ran that knife into him. How he didn’t beg or hide, staring right at Brody when he swung the knife at him, and how he told Brody he’d kill him when they were letting him go afterward. They could have shot him just for that but the kid didn’t seem to care. And for the first time, he knew why Brody was so adamant about going through with all of this, why he couldn’t just let them take this man prisoner and milk him for intel or shoot him. He knew why his friend felt he owed him, and that he just did the same thing to him that Brody did all those years ago, only he didn’t even need the knife for it. They were punishing him for what his mother was, for something he couldn’t help any more than Riley could help how he looked.
Alliance: The Complete Series (A Dystopian YA Box Set Books 1-5): Dystopian Sci Fi Thriller Page 68
