Sent Rising (Dove Strong)

by Erin Lorence

  Diamond made her solo trek to the group of rocks where she’d left us. She balanced on the highest one and peered around. Still no uniforms emerged through the doors. I relaxed. Jezebel was right. She hadn’t given our position away after all.

  The kid’s whisper started back up. “But even if she did do those things to you, aren’t Christians supposed to forgive and—”

  I let go of her sock. “Fine, Jezzy. Tell her where we are.”

  But Diamond had spotted the girl, poking out from behind the vehicle. She wandered over. Instead of joining us in the minefield of broken glass and trash, she settled in the front seat of the Jeep. She stared straight ahead as if ignorant that two fanatics hid behind the garbage bin next to her.

  “They won’t let him go. The morons are convinced he’s part of a Christian cell that’s responsible for a majority of the local detention center break outs. Nothing I say will change their minds.”

  Jezebel rummaged around in the back of the Jeep. “Who ate the rest of my candy bar? I was saving it to give Woof.”

  I slouched against the warm, rusted metal and massaged my neck. “Did you at least talk with him?”

  “Huh! Tried. All he’ll say is, ‘I know.’ Repeats this brilliant phrase to everything. I asked, ‘What happened, Wolfe?’ ‘I know.’ ‘How can they think you’re a Jesus Fanatic?’ ‘I know.’ Oh, and then he kept whistling some strange tune.”

  “What tune?”

  She whistled a few notes then broke off. “How should I know? I told you it was strange, didn’t I?”

  I eased my neck around to Trinity, next to me behind the bin. What was my cousin’s reaction to why Wolfe—the guy who wouldn’t shut up—had suddenly clammed up and would only say two words and whistle?

  Her face was super pale under its tan. At my gaze, her eyes flickered up from the greenish brown stain at our feet where flies congregated. “I can’t think, Dove. It’s too gross here. You figure it out.”

  I shifted my feet away from the insect larvae. “What else did you find out, Diamond? What did he look like?”

  “I swear, radical, I will come over there and beat you if you’re imagining his pretty, kissable face—”

  “I’m not. I mean, since he was talking weird, did he look weird—do anything else strange?”

  “I told you! He just sat there. Except one time he pointed at the wall behind him. But when I asked him why he pointed he said—”

  “’I know.’” I rested my chin on my knees. “Maybe someone on the other side of the wall was listening. Someone who...” Who what? What could another prisoner do even if he or she did listen in?

  “I’m hot. Are we getting my brother out or not?”

  Diamond’s voice answered. “Sure, brat.” Click. “I’ll go start the fire in the back. When they bring him out front, we grab him.” Click.

  I lurched in a hurried crawl to the dumpster’s corner and peered around. A sharp stab zinged through my kneecap from the broken glass I kneeled on so I could see Diamond. She reclined in the front of the Jeep, flicking a lighter on and off.

  I slashed my arms in an X. “No way. No fire.”

  “You telling me what to do, fanatic? I’m in charge now. I start a little blaze, and I let you use your wind powers to aim it at those morons holding Wolfe. What? I watch TV.”

  The memory of Satan’s wildfire that’d chased me through the Texan desert last spring scorched my skin—although the burning also could’ve been from the heat reflecting off the garbage bin.

  “No fire.” An insect clipped my ear on its way to the larvae pile. “No fire. We use bugs instead.”

  I reached into my backpack for a small, hollow object and held up my bee call.

  12

  Diamond’s elbow smashed my kidney. The bee call I never left home without fumbled and fell from my lips onto the pine needles.

  “Save it for later, fanatic. That’s enough bees for now.”

  I picked up my belonging and smirked at Diamond. She hated my bee call as much as she hated me. A year ago, I’d used this tiny object to summon a miraculous horde of bees to my defense when she attacked. And again today, God provided. The amount of bees my call had already drawn to this parking lot made my old enemy edgy.

  Diamond turned her back on me. “Jez, you ready for your part?”

  “That’s as bee-stung looking as I can make her.” Trinity scooted back to scrutinize Jezebel’s face. She swatted at my hand when I tried to touch the kid’s shiny, red cheek. The slit eyes. The lips that appeared bloated, triple their normal size.

  I breathed deep. “Uh. Jezzy? You’re sure it doesn’t hurt?”

  The little girl snorted. “It’s makeup, dumb-dumb. Or whatever your cousin used to make me look all stung up. Do I look like I’m dying? I want to see.”

  Diamond grabbed Jezebel’s arm, but it slipped out of her grip. Both of them were well coated with bee repellant. “You can see your reflection when you get to the doors. Now tell me again. What do you say when you get inside the center?”

  Jezebel spoke in a flat monotone of boredom. “Help. Killer bees. I’ve been stung. You’ve got a monster hive out there...” More energy entered her words. “...and my mama’s going to sue your pants off for—”

  “Stick to what I told you to say.” Diamond’s hand smacked the girl’s backside. “Show them your face, scream something about a huge hive, and then beat it before they catch you.”

  “They won’t catch me. I’m too fast!” She ran in place, her spine curved forward with the speed of her high-pumping knees.

  Diamond grabbed the back of the girl’s purple shirt and steered her from behind the boulder onto the pavement. She let go when she reached her motorized bicycle and pointed at the CTDC. Go.

  Wolfe’s sister bounced toward the doors alone.

  Trinity groaned. “All my work making her look like death, and she’s skipping. I’m not watching, Dove.”

  I thrust the tubular object at her. “Fine. It’s your turn anyway to call the bees.”

  A low car pulled into the lot and traveled in a collision course with the skipping girl. Its fat tires screeched to a stop, the car’s thin nose a couple feet from Jezebel. Honk! The car reversed and pulled out of the lot.

  “No. This part of the plan will work, Trinity. See? She spooked away those guys in the car. You’re right, she looks like death. When the guards behind the desk see her...no way they’ll risk having that happen to them. The godless don’t like to take chances with their lives. Their number one priority is to stay alive since they think they have no better alternative.”

  The lazy, droning of the bee call petered out. “So, what happens if Diamond realizes the risk is too high for what we’re about to do?”

  The sun reflecting off the glass door wavered. Jezebel reappeared, burst through, and sprinted for the two-wheeler idling at the edge of the concrete. Diamond hauled her onboard and took off. They roared around a bend in the road, and the kid waved at me.

  Seconds later, the only sound interrupting the silence was the frequent whine of an annoyed insect. But those two nonbelievers would be back. I needed them to help me carry out our rescue plan. A plan that included bees, a blackout, and a quick getway.

  My breath whooshed out. “God uses Satan’s workers for His purpose too. Leave Diamond to Him. As long as we don’t forget that though we work together, she’s godless. And she hates us.”

  “Dumb, Dove. As if I could forget.”

  ~*~

  Hours later, I eased up on the fragile branch of a half-dead fir. The tree was positioned in the tree line at the edge of the woods next to the CTDC, a stone’s throw away from the back of the building. From my position so high I could see my cousin on a safer branch below, the heat shimmering up from the detention center’s flat roof and the almost empty parking lot next to the road.

  Diamond pedaled across the white-lined pavement on a bicycle. She passed the parked Jeep and stopped at the front corner of the building. Her hand held a bulky
object, which she raised to her brow as if searching for us.

  Jezebel jumped off the back of the bicycle where she’d been a passenger. She also held something in her hand. Had she and Diamond been successful in gathering the supplies we needed to rescue Wolfe?

  I shook my branch for their attention. Why were they being so blind? I shook it again. Finally, I made an owl sound.

  Hoot. Hoot.

  “There they are, Diamond! Up in that tree behind the building—the big tree in front of the deader ones. See them? Dove! Trinity!” Jezebel dashed down the narrow strip of pavement at the side of the CTDC toward us and beamed up at me, her face no longer swollen.

  She clutched the power-killing piece of technology and waved it in the air. “I found it, Dove! Woof’s last EMP. You’ll never guess where he’d hidden it. Under a drawing of you in his—”

  “And I got some bolt cutters. So at least my part of this highly improbable plan will work.” Diamond glared up at us from the fir’s lengthening shadow. “Why are you freaks messing around in a tree? And give me some more of that repellant, but if you drop that jar on my head, I’ll drop you on yours.”

  I swung down, leaving Trinity above to keep summoning the bees, if she remembered. She kept letting the call droop from her lips. Her dreamy eyes focused far away...probably somewhere close to Mount Jefferson by now.

  I handed the jar to Diamond. “What took you two so long to get back here? Pest Control showed up forever ago. Actually, they showed up so fast, Trinity and I barely had time to hide.”

  “Think about it, idiot,” Diamond said. “This is a government facility. If they reported a little girl fatally stung on their property, then Pest Control was going to be burning rubber to get here fast. But too bad they didn’t arrive five minutes earlier and catch you. Knowing you were locked up where you belong would’ve made my afternoon more bearable.”

  I shrugged. “They hunted for the source of the bees but gave up. We kept out of their way in the woods and ended up in this fir. From so high up, we’ll have a decent view of people going in and out of the building, and we’ll be better hidden than in front. It won’t be long now until they relocate prisoners.”

  “How do you know?” She paused with a golden blob on her fingertips.

  A shiver ran through me. From Diamond’s presence? From some other evil approaching? I snatched back the jar, grabbed Jezebel around the waist, and heaved her to the lowest limb. I faced Diamond. “You coming up?”

  She picked up the bolt cutters and stepped closer with its sharp edges between us. “I’m counting the minutes, radical, until Wolfe is free and I don’t need you. But if you let Jez fall...I can help Wolfe without you.”

  She marched toward the front of the low building to her bicycle. She had returned with a nonmotorized one this time since the EMP would eventually kill all power in this area, including her motorbike’s ability to work. She settled closer to the center’s front doors.

  I climbed up and balanced on a limb above Jezebel’s head. “Either keep blowing, Trinity, or hand the call over.”

  She handed it. We passed around the tubular object every couple of minutes until Jezebel, unable to create a sound, attempted to hurl it into the underbrush. After that I distracted her with elk jerky from Trinity’s pack. We shared the last of the water and a can of fizzy juice from Jezebel’s pink purse. The bees’ buzzing filled my ears while Jezebel’s purse whipped back and forth at them.

  “Let’s quit blowing.”

  Evening morphed into a night of moving black dots. Finally, three official-looking vehicles with flashing lights lit up the parking lot. Their headlights glanced off Diamond, who still waited at the side of the building nearer the front doors. She eased back into the building’s shadows and flicked her lighter once.

  The signal.

  I secured my pack over both shoulders and placed the compact EMP device in Jezebel’s greasy hand. “Hold it tight. Keep your thumb on the trigger. But don’t press until I say to.”

  “I’m not four years old, Dove. I’ve done this before.”

  I paused. How many illegal EMPs had this girl activated? I shook my head and scurried up past where Trinity studied the pricks of starlight between branches.

  Perched on the high branches yards above her head, I could see the fake light radiating from the building’s glass doors and the single light post at its exterior. The far-off Jeep was a white ghost next to a rectangle that was the garbage bin.

  Humans in uniforms exited and moved into the building. The net masks they wore over their faces to protect from stings muffled their conversations.

  My whole body quivered and pulsed with the need for action.

  This would work. So far, each step of my plan had been flawless. The bees had arrived. Jezebel had terrified the CTDC workers into believing the insects to be killer wasps. She’d found a spare EMP. And now...the people in charge had decided the insect threat to be serious enough to shut down the center and relocate their prisoner—Wolfe—to a different facility.

  I crouched, locating Jezebel’s round head in the tree below. As soon as her brother appeared, I would give the whispered signal, and she would kill the power to the area with her EMP.

  In the confusion of bees, darkness, and nonworking vehicles, Diamond would grab Wolfe and race away...or hide if needed. The bolt cutters would free him from his shackles so he could run or share Diamond’s bike, whatever they decided.

  The getaway was Diamond’s part of the plan to figure out. My part was to watch for Wolfe to come out. Positioned higher than the rest, I was the only one with visibility to know the moment for Jezebel to set off the EMP...

  “Get ready,” I whispered.

  Two uniforms came into view, sandwiching a figure in orange that towered over the guards. Too tall to be Wolfe. The captive also had light, frizzy hair.

  I bit my lip. It was the prayer warrior I’d knelt next to last autumn at the Council. He was the one who’d cracked up under the strain of a possible attack thousands of miles away and became hysterical.

  He disappeared into a car that would transfer him to a new facility. My body leaned forward as if to help him. But no, I couldn’t. And Diamond would only have time to free Wolfe.

  Another orange-clad figure emerged, also male. But he was way too short as well as having a beard the same shade as Micah’s.

  I slipped down the limb an inch. “No!”

  “Now, Dove? Did you say now?”

  “Hang on, Jezebel. She didn’t say that,” Trinity answered. “Dove, what’s wrong?”

  “No!” I breathed.

  Zechariah Brae—Micah’s brother—turned his head in the direction of my denial. The fluorescent light illuminated his wild eyes that seemed to lock onto me. He paused at the opening of the car and lifted his handcuffed hands to mime locking his lips. He tossed away the invisible key. Then, stooping, he climbed into the vehicle.

  Blood thundered in my ears. He was the prisoner Wolfe had been too afraid to speak in front of, no doubt on the other side of the wall. They’d met before, and Wolfe must’ve believed Zech to be dangerous, even as a prisoner.

  “Now, Dove?” Jezebel asked.

  I blinked at the vehicle that held Micah Brae’s older brother while something orange moved in my peripheral. Zech’s mocking motion proved he didn’t mind being locked up as a Christian terrorist. He thought it a joke. Was he here by choice?

  “Now?”

  Sky alive! It was Zech’s fault that Wolfe was captive. He’d made contact with my brother and Micah during their journey to Ochoco and set up the traitorous plan. Yes, it made sense!

  The third vehicle door slammed, locking its third prisoner inside its depths.

  Oh, no!

  “Dove! You stop messing around and answer me! Tell me when to activate this dumb EMP!”

  Three unformed officials next to the cars turned. One pointed at the group of trees where we hid. “There’s someone back there!”

  “I heard the shout, to
o. Let the dog check first.”

  A canine barked and cut through my shock. A four-legged body bolted down the strip of pavement towards us. Its padded feet thrummed closer, its excited panting louder, following our scent.

  I dropped down past Trinity, snapping branches in my hurry. Jezebel. Jezebel, on the lowest branch.

  Jezebel screamed.

  My hands wrapped around her wrist, and I pulled to get her higher.

  I couldn’t. She was too heavy. The thick-bodied dog had jumped and latched onto Jezebel’s leg or shoe. It dangled, its back feet clawing against the fir’s trunk.

  My branch bucked as Trinity dropped onto it. She reached for the girl...

  Pop. Crack. The branch’s ominous breaking noises grew worse, but I tightened my hold. There were shouts. Running footsteps. Beams of light.

  The skinny, bee repellant-covered wrist slipped from my grip. I held Jezebel’s palm. Her fingers. Her fingertips

  No! She fell with a nightmarish thud onto the pavement. The dog’s shaggy bulk leaped on top of her.

  “Hey-o up!”

  The canine bounded aside at the approaching official’s shout. The wolf-like snout pointed at the girl’s still body.

  She rolled onto her side.

  I breathed again, and Trinity exhaled in a whoosh. She pulled at me, gesturing. Move to the roof. I scrambled up a few layers of branches and leaped.

  I cleared the gap to the building and rolled to a stop on the flat rooftop next to Trinity. Flashlights lit up the darkness below where the guards had caught up with the dog.

  “It’s a little kid!”

  “Is she alone?”

  “I dunno. Seems to be. But I thought I might have seen something in that tree. The branches were moving.”

  “Wind?”

  I squeezed my eyes shut.

  “Maybe. There’s no one there now.” The man’s shoe scraped the ground as he knelt. “You hurt, little miss? Who’d you come here with? There’s a hornets’ nest around, so you shouldn’t be here, especially at night.”