Rhonda punches the gas. “No. Mom will help tremendously once we free her. Besides, I’m not willing to risk her again.”
Having just lost Wesley, I understand her point. I don’t argue any further. A tall, white-haired man in a suit waits by the guardhouse. He nods at Rhonda and the gate opens. She barely even slows down before flying through the gap.
“That’s Dad’s friend,” Rhonda says. “I wish Dad had connections outside of Security, though. Other than Mayor Fairchild, he doesn’t know anyone on the Council.”
And if Uncle Dan told him what happened with his son, he’ll be out for blood.
Heads turn toward us on every street as Rhonda shoots down them like a pinball, bouncing unchecked through town. She finally skids to a halt on a red curb in front of a stately old building. The Unmarked set up their administrative offices in the former Tennessee State Office building, an imposing structure of limestone that rises five or six stories high. I’m nervous to enter a place that, as far as I can tell, will be full of arguing Port Heads. Sam's face looks like it always does, perfectly beautiful and completely calm. I reach for his hand and he doesn't hesitate to take mine.
It's such a simple connection, palm-to-palm, fingers interlaced. It shouldn't ground me. It shouldn't center me. It shouldn't give wings to my heart. After all, I'm strong, I'm capable and I don't need Sam to save me. I'm a queen for heaven's sake.
But knowing Sam sees me, that he loves me for the good and accepts the bad, well. It gives me the energy to hold my exhausted, Medusa-haired head high as we climb the steps into the State Office building. I don't need Sam, but there's no one I want to be with more.
Rhonda marches in front of us, her booted feet pounding up the stairs straight for the entrance, like a missile headed for an unsuspecting grain silo. We’re stopped at the entrance by two armed guards.
The tallest one, his dark hair slicked back, scowls at Rhonda. “You can’t park there. You’ll have to move that car.”
Sam steps around Rhonda. “I’m Samuel Roth.”
The black haired guard’s eyes widen. “My apologies, sir. Please go ahead.”
I hear him speak into his walkie as we move past them.
“I just admitted Samuel Roth. He has two women with him, both blonde, one in a fluffy red dress, over.”
Static, followed by a loud voice. “Detain him. Over.”
I expect Sam to knock the guards out in half a second. He surprises me by splaying his boots on the ground and holding his hands up.
The guards won’t meet our eyes. They take Sam’s weapons: twelve handguns, four knives and a throwing star. The shorter guard pulls a sock from Sam’s pocket.
“Uh, what do I do with this?”
“You’re confiscating spare pairs of socks now?” Sam chuckles. “I haven’t been gone that long, have I?”
The black haired guard shakes his head and the shorter man hands Sam his sock back. The taller guard reaches over to pat me down, while the shorter man with light brown hair searches Rhonda.
Before the guard’s hand touches me, Sam grunts. “Mike, don’t tell me you’re going to do a body search on the Queen of World Peace Now, because that’s a terrible idea.”
“Uh, I have to. Sir.”
Sam shakes his head slowly. “Touching her is a capital offense with WPN. They believe she’s God’s chosen.”
Where’s he going with this? Maybe he’s worried they’ll notice his rocks.
Mike glances from me to Sam and back again. “I’ve been ordered to detain you,” he says to me. “I need to search you as a part of that order.”
I hold out my dad’s old briefcase. “You’re welcome to look at this.” I lift one eyebrow. “But touching me is considered by World Peace Now to be an act of war. I offer you my assurances that I do not have a single knife, gun, bullet or throwing star on my body.”
Mike searches the briefcase, which he can barely pry open. Then he turns toward me. “Uh, I don’t know—”
A deep voice interrupts the uncertain Mike. “You disarmed Samuel?”
I turn toward the voice. A tall man with flinty eyes wearing a dark brown uniform faces us, flanked on either side by half a dozen soldiers. All of them have guns trained on Sam.
“I did, sir.”
“That’s sufficient, thank you Private Collins. I’ll take custody of them from here.”
“I’m sorry,” Sam says, “why am I being taken into custody?”
The man in uniform smiles. “Significant charges were recently leveled against your father.”
Sam’s eyebrow lifts. “I’ll ask again. Why am I being taken into custody, Drake?”
“Commander Drake,” the flinty-eyed man says with a smile. “You’re being taken into custody because I deem you dangerous and you’ll stay there until the Council tells me to do otherwise.”
I expect Sam to argue. He shrugs his shoulders and nods, looking for all the world like he’s chosen to walk alongside fourteen armed guards, rather than being taken into custody by them.
As we walk down the hall, my dad’s old briefcase safely clutched in my arms again, my mind races. Uncle Dan surely caught them all up. Which means they know John Roth is Jack. They know the Marked are dying en masse, and soon. Rhonda says they know I’m queen of WPN.
Do they know Sam may be able to save the Marked? Do they even care?
“Where are we being taken?” I look around me. We’ve nearly reached the far left side of the entry hall a hallway opens up to the left and to the right. To the right the building opens up and a set of large, heavy double doors are shut. To the left, sunlight shines from a glass door. To the outside.
“You’re all going to holding cells,” Commander Drake says. “Offsite. Until the Council decides what to do with you.”
“I’m about done with holding cells,” I mutter so only Sam can hear me. “I’ve been stuffed into one like every few days for the past few weeks.”
Sam nods at me, and I know he’s ready.
Commander Drake turns left ahead of us, but if we turn right, we could walk right down the hall to those double doors. I’m pretty sure that’s where the Council is meeting. I hear raised voices coming from that direction and I strain to hear what they’re saying. I narrow my eyes at the Commander and slow my pace. “Where exactly is the Council making these decisions?”
Commander Drake turns toward me, but before he or I can say anything else, Sam trips me. There’s no doubt in my mind he did it on purpose. Sam’s far too coordinated to trip me accidentally. I stumble forward, dropping dad’s briefcase, and fall on my face, cursing loudly.
Before any of the soldiers can help me, Mike shouts, “Don’t touch her. It’s a violation of WPN protocol. It could start a war.”
While the guards scramble backward, one of them retrieving the black briefcase, Sam ducks toward me, his hands wrapping around my waist. He lifts me up, and sets me upright. I notice that my sash is lighter now. Several rocks lighter than it was before.
Commander Drake scoffs. “Where did you get that idiotic idea?”
Mike’s eyes widen. “From her! She’s the queen of WPN, that’s what they said.”
“This little girl?” Commander Drake snorts. “Why do you think that? Because she’s wearing a tiara?” He shakes his head. “Could you be any more idiotic?”
Sam grunts. “Actually, Ruby is the queen of World Peace Now. Also, I don’t like your tone.”
The next part happens so fast I’m not entirely certain how it goes down. It looks like Sam swings a sock full of rocks in a circle, slamming Commander Drake and four other guards in their heads and knocking them to the ground. Rhonda disarms Mike in the upheaval, while Sam kicks another guard’s weapon away.
The guard right behind me tries to put me in a headlock, but I’m learning. I elbow him in the stomach and then I duck. While he’s groaning, I snatch his gun and point it at his head. “Uh, uh. I’m not going to any more cells.”
By the time I turn around, Sam’s holding tw
o guns with who knows how many more tucked away, and fourteen guards are clutching their heads on the ground. The walkie closest to me on the ground crackles.
“Wade? Where are you guys? Shouldn’t you be outside with Samuel Roth by now? Over.”
Sam kicks it away and turns to me. “I think you’ve got something to talk to the Council about,” Sam says.
Rhonda bobs her head toward the door. “I don’t think we have much time before someone checks on good old Wade.”
I hear loud shouts coming from inside the double doors, and I start toward them. It’s time the Unmarked hear WPN’s demands.
17
I retrieve my dad’s briefcase, pull the partnership paperwork out of it, and walk toward the double doors, Sam and Rhonda on my heels. I shove the doors open a little too hard and they fly back and clang against the wall loudly. I gulp when more than one hundred sets of eyes turn my way. I square my shoulders and straighten my head, the weight of the crown my mother insisted I bring resting heavily on it.
“I am Ruby Carillon Behl Solomon, only biological daughter of the now deceased David Solomon, Queen of World Peace Now. I’ve come to demand the release of my aunt, Anne Orien.”
I notice out of the corner of my eye that Uncle Dan and Job are standing, hands behind their backs, at the edge of a raised dais at the front of the large room. Rows of tables with high backed chairs, a wide column between them, lead up to the front. A man with a thick shock of white hair tilts his head and purses his lips.
“If you’re planning to try and detain my uncle, Daniel Orien and his son Job, I’ll be clear right now. They’re all coming with me. We will leave in the next few hours, because your former leader John Roth sent a strike team to Baton Rouge, accelerating the death of almost all of the Marked kids who are still alive.”
The man with all the white hair frowns. “Welcome to the CentiCouncil of the Unmarked, Ruby Carillon Behl Solomon. I’m sure we’re all pleased to welcome an Unmarked citizen, one whom I understand recently turned seventeen and became an adult.”
I don’t repeat that I’m queen of WPN. I also don’t ask who he is. Doing either thing would weaken my position, but I do offer this man a half smile. “I brought evidence with me, evidence that your Chancellor John Roth, worked with my father more than a decade back and was ultimately the man responsible for the release of Tercera.” I hold up the partnership document.
I take a step forward, and the man at the podium inclines his head to the side.
Before I realize what’s going on, Sam fires a dozen shots. Men all around the room fall to the ground, clutching their legs. Rhonda jogs around the room, collecting firearms from injured guards. Shouts fill the room, as well as the sound of chairs scraping on tile. The squawks and beeps from walkies, and groans of injured men surround me, but Sam steps up to my side. “Counselor Quinn. As Queen Solomon’s Chief of Military and Strategic Defense, I obviously couldn’t allow you to harm her.”
“This girl walks in here threatening war. Does that mean you’re a one man army now Samuel?” Counselor Quinn sneers. “Will you shoot us all? If this girl and her raving uncle are to be believed, your father caused the death of millions upon millions. I suppose you’re primed to follow in his footsteps, starting with the murder of everyone in this room if we oppose you?”
My eyes flash. “Sam merely shot the men you planned to have take me out. We aren’t killing anyone.”
One voice rings out over the cacophony of the room. “But you killed my son, didn’t you, Queen Ruby?”
I turn slowly to face Wesley’s dad. His red-rimmed eyes meet mine and his mouth twists. “You and your insane uncle killed John Roth and my son when he wouldn’t go along with your plan. You were desperate to free your aunt, and no story was too absurd, no action off limits.”
I shake my head, no longer worried about anyone else in the room. “A few weeks ago, I’d take that blame you’re laying at my feet. I’d wallow in it and punish myself for it. You know I didn’t kill Wesley, and you know that because you raised your son. He’s a hero and he was my best friend and he died to save me. Saying I killed him lessens his decision. When a bad man, John Roth, tried to do a bad thing, killing all of us because we’d discovered his long-buried secret—” I choke up and take a big breath so I can continue. The room has fallen utterly silent. “When John Roth tried to kill me, and Sam couldn’t save me, Wesley dove over the side of a bridge, taking John with him. In that moment, with no time to think, Wesley Fairchild showed his true colors, proving himself a hero and saving my life.”
Mayor Fairchild’s face falls, his eyes locked on mine. He shakes his head, very slightly.
A single tear runs down my face. “Wesley has been my best friend for years, sir. I would do anything to bring him back to you. I wish he hadn’t sacrificed himself for me, but he did.” I look around the room at the men and women gathered here today, deciding the fate of Rafe and all the other Marked kids. Deciding how the world will look in a week, a month, and a year. “I am leaving with my aunt and uncle and their two brave children, and we’re going to try and set things right. We believe we may have found a cure to Tercera. We won’t know until we have time to run some tests, but if we have even the slightest chance to cure the Marked kids who are on death’s door, we need to take it.”
“We can’t free a confessed criminal.” Counselor Quinn bangs his hand on the podium. “In the absence of our Chancellor, and in light of the charges laid against him, I call for a vote of no confidence.”
“Let me be very clear,” I say. “Your first vote will be with regard to my aunt. And if you vote against freeing her and try to hold me here, you will be declaring open war with World Peace Now. They have tanks, they have jets with missiles, and they have a standing army that will consume the Unmarked government whole. Don’t worry though. After we’ve wiped you all out, I’ll be happy to step in and clean up the mess.”
A tremendously large sound, one unlike any I’ve ever heard, starts from the south and grows, culminating with a whooshing sound overhead. The chairs shake, the floors vibrating beneath me. I hunch down while all around me Counselors duck and huddle under the tables.
“What was that?” I ask Sam.
He shakes his head. “I don’t know, but it’s not something the Unmarked ordered.”
Banging at the double doors startles me.
“Answer that,” Counselor Quinn orders.
The man closest to the door turns toward me.
“Don’t look at her,” Counselor Quinn shouts. “She’s nothing to you.”
“Respectfully sir, her Chief of Defense is holding the only active firearm in the room.”
“You can open it,” I say.
I brace myself for hundreds of armed Unmarked soldiers to pour into the room. Sam turns and aims his guns at the door, his hands steady and his eyes flashing.
When the man opens the door, and I catch my first glimpse of the soldiers on the other side, I almost stumble back. “Frank?”
Frank’s face lights up when he sees me. “Your Majesty!” He bows deeply and then straightens. “Your mother and brother sent us to relay your message. I’m so glad to find you here.”
A tight little knot I didn’t even realize existed in my chest eases. Josephine and Adam are okay. I breathe in and out once, then twice. Frank bows deeply and the men standing behind him do the same. I cross the few steps that separate us and hiss. “Stand up.” More loudly, so the rest of the room can hear, I ask, “How many of you are there?”
Frank glances around the room. “Only fifteen hundred soldiers came, Your Highness. Adam didn’t want to frighten the Unmarked, but we wanted to make sure you were safe. Also, he sent two fighter jets. They’re flying above the city now, waiting to see whether you require an airstrike.”
I turn toward the front of the room and put my hands on my hips. “How about it, Counselor Quinn?” I spin around, making eye contact with men and women across the room. “CentiCouncil? I have evidence.” I wave th
e partnership paperwork at them. “I’ve got witnesses.” I point at Frank, Sam, Rhonda, my uncle and Job. “And I have an army. All I’m asking for is that you release my wrongfully accused aunt. Do we need that airstrike, or can you see reason?”
18
The CentiCouncil unanimously votes to release Anne Orien and remand her into my care. They also readily offer the supplies I need and access to the equipment I want, but only on condition that I send the army directly back to Galveston. Do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars.
Frank and Paul don’t like it, but they reverse direction and head back, making plenty of threats to return immediately if I don’t quickly follow. I tell them to have Adam send me aid in Baton Rouge as soon as he can.
Counselor Quinn releases Dan and Job and signs Anne Orien’s pardon, and we’re ready to depart. I spin on my heel and almost slam right into Mayor Fairchild.
I pull up abruptly, Sam’s hands bracing me on either side.
Mayor Fairchild’s eyes follow the motion and I feel guilty about Sam. I shouldn’t because I had Wesley’s blessing, but I do. Maybe I always will in my heart of hearts.
“I don’t think I can ever really convey how sorry I am. About Wesley.” My eyes well with tears again and my hands clench into fists, my nails digging into my palms. “It shouldn’t have been him.”
“Wesley always said you reminded him of a gale force wind stuffed into a teakettle,” Mayor Fairchild says. “I never saw it. You were so timid around me, so soft-spoken and unsure.”
I look down at the ground, my feet not even visible in this stupid ball gown.
“I saw it today, Ruby. I saw what Wesley always saw in you, from the very beginning. And you’re right.” Mayor Fairchild’s lips compress and his hands shake. “I dealt with losing Wesley last month when I heard he was Marked. It felt like a knife sliced up my insides that day. Horror, sorrow, and an underlying feeling of guilt, because I knew he had Marked someone else. You.”
Sins of Our Ancestors Boxed Set Page 71
