Outcasts

by Jill Williamson

  Lawten’s assistant, Kruse, entered then, still pink-skinned and bald, and still wearing the same black SimArt hand on the side of his head. He led the way for his boss, who was frail and hobbling like an old man. Mason had never seen the task director general walking, and now he saw why. No one should move so slowly at thirty-nine years old. Why was his condition so accelerated? Ciddah had said she’d loved him once. Did love go away like a stomachache? Mason didn’t think so. It must hurt to see someone you love waste away from illness. She couldn’t really be his lifer, right? He’d betrayed her.

  The head of Lawten’s security carried the warrant to Kruse, who started to read it.

  “General Otley,” Lawten said, “what right have you to barge into my home at this hour?”

  Otley turned away from the mirror and stood with his hands behind his back. “I have a warrant for your arrest and to search your house.”

  Lawten lowered himself onto one of the red chairs. “And what am I being arrested for?”

  Kruse stepped up behind the couch, just to Lawten’s right. “Kidnapping and conspiracy against the Safe Lands, according to this.” He handed it to Lawten, who waved it away.

  Lawten crossed one leg over the other. “Preposterous. Who have I supposedly kidnapped?”

  “Baby Promise,” Otley said.

  Mason edged toward the far wall and peeked out the doors there. A formal dining room. Perhaps the bedrooms were upstairs.

  “Baby Promise is here as part of an experiment, General Otley,” Kruse said. “I can produce the paperwork if necessary.”

  “And now that we’ve cleared that up, what conspiracy do you accuse me of?” Lawten asked.

  Mason started back toward the door he’d come in, intent on reaching the stairs.

  “We have reason to believe you helped several outsider women escape the harem,” Otley said. “That you bring them here to receive medical check-ups from Ciddah Rourke.”

  “Miss Rourke is my lifer,” Lawten said. “And I’ve never brought any harem women to my home.”

  Even though he’d been prepared for it, the statement shook Mason. And Otley’s accusation of medical check-ups compounded the doubt in his mind. He reminded himself that Otley was trying to frame Lawten. The Glenrock women had never come here for check-ups. So Ciddah was here for a different reason, but what?

  “We’ll see, Mr. Task Director,” Otley said. “My enforcers are going to search your home.”

  Lawten narrowed his eyes at Otley. “And who will your men find, General Otley?”

  “How could I know?” Otley said, innocently.

  “Oh, I think you know. This isn’t the first time you’ve tried to set me up. All of the dead in Glenrock. I know you ordered your men to kill.”

  “The outsiders were armed. I warned you it might be necessary.”

  “But you fired first. And it made me look bad. That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it? To make me look incompetent?”

  “You’ve served the Safe Lands well for many years, Mr. Task Director. Because of that, I’m willing to negotiate.”

  “I’m listening,” Lawten said in a low voice.

  “Resign as task director general, and I’ll dismiss the charges. No X. No record.”

  “No task?” Kruse said.

  “Oh, he’ll task,” Otley said, “just not as the TDG. And not in the Highlands. Or the Midlands.”

  Mason had heard enough. It wouldn’t be long before the remaining enforcers were let inside to do their search. He slipped out of the parlor and went up the stairs.

  CHAPTER

  34

  When Ruston returned from helping Mason and Omar, he and Levi and Beshup went over the list of Glenrock and Jack’s Peak families until Ruston had found a basement location for each to move into. Then Levi sat beside Zane and watched on the video screens as Mason and Omar walked through the gates surrounding Champion House, invisible to the enforcers they were walking beside. So strange.

  “I can’t believe I’m seeing this,” Zane said. “I mean, I knew Bender and Rewl were doing their own thing, but seeing them walk beside Otley …”

  Ruston, who was standing behind Zane, squeezed Zane’s shoulder. “I know, son.”

  “But what are we going to do? Bender and Rewl, they know the basements as well as anyone.”

  “We keep doing what we do and trust God will continue to protect us. He has from the beginning, you know.”

  But Zane sighed heavily, like he didn’t like that plan. Levi wanted to ask Ruston what he meant by “God,” but his brothers were approaching the gate. Levi was thankful that Jemma and the others were already on their way here. But if Ruston’s basements weren’t any safer than the cabin, what was the point?

  “I wish we could hear what they’re saying,” Zane said. “I don’t know the cameras so well inside, so bear with me.” He switched the view on one of his six screens to a camera on the front porch, looking out at the approaching vehicles. No sign of his brothers, though on another one of Zane’s screens, Levi could see through Omar’s eyes as the second car branched off and Omar followed it.

  Seeing his brothers walk into danger and having no ability to help them was strange. Levi didn’t like feeling so helpless. There was nothing to do but watch and pray.

  He glanced at Ruston, who stood beside him, arms folded as he watched the screens. Could the two of them possibly be related? It seemed insane, but Levi hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it the entire time Ruston had been gone. “That was quite a statement you left me with,” Levi said.

  Ruston grinned without removing his gaze from the monitors. “Got you thinking, did I?

  Thinking you’re mad. “I’d like to hear why you think we’re related.”

  “Good,” Ruston said, “because I’m happy to explain.”

  Zane groaned and turned on his chair. “He’s always telling it. The Tale of the Outsiders has been a legend to basement kids since before I was born.”

  “Because my father told me stories of the Elias McShane,” Ruston said, “the smart young man who got away from the Safe Lands and took his family into the woods to live off berries and rabbits.”

  Zane spun back to the monitors. “As if people would eat a rabbit.”

  But the back of Levi’s neck prickled at what Ruston had said. “Elias McShane was my great-grandfather.”

  Zane’s twisted his chair around again, eyes narrowed. “Hold the flavor.”

  “Didn’t I say so, Dathan? Didn’t I?” Ruston broke out a wide smile and grabbed Zane’s shoulder. “The stories are true!”

  “Dathan?” Levi asked.

  “My real name,” Zane said. “We all have fake ones to use above ground. I was born Dathan McShane.”

  “And I’m Seth McShane,” Ruston said, “named after my — ”

  “Papa Eli’s father?” This was too weird. McShanes in the Safe Lands? How?

  “You called Elias McShane ‘Papa Eli’?” Ruston asked, as if the mere idea was ridiculous.

  But Levi wasn’t jumping ahead to that until he got more answers. “How can you be related to Papa Eli’s father?” No one from Glenrock had ever moved into the Safe Lands. Papa Eli would have said, wouldn’t he?

  “First, let me show you this.” Ruston went to the ammo shelves and pulled a rifle down from the very top.

  Levi’s heart fluttered at the familiar weapon. “That’s my gun! How did you get it?”

  “Dathan told me about it after he went with you to shoot out those transformers. He said it looked a lot like mine and that you claimed it came from Arizona.”

  “For the record, I thought it was merely interesting,” Zane said. “I did not believe my dad’s crazy stories were true.”

  Ruston pulled down a second rifle from the top shelf. “This is my gun. It belonged to my great-grandfather, Seth McShane.” He handed the rifle to Levi.

  It didn’t have the engraving Levi’s had, but they were almost identical.

  “I’ve got a guy loyal to me i
n the enforcer’s evidence warehouse,” Ruston said. “And after you got thrown in the RC, I had my guy steal the gun. When I saw the engraving, I knew.”

  Levi turned his rifle over, baring the engraving on the bottom of the stock. But he knew what it said: Elias McShane — March 22, 1996. “It’s Papa Eli’s birth date.”

  “That’s right. And when Dathan told me so many of you were nines, I pieced things together. See, our family are all nines too.”

  Levi looked at Zane, but he wasn’t wearing his gloves right now. “But Zane, er, Dathan … He’s a five.” Levi hadn’t forgotten that.

  “It’s fake,” Zane said. “I can program SimTags to bear any number. Nines get too much attention from Safe Lands medics, so we always use lower numbers. I’ve got Mason’s eyes on the screen now, by the way. Lhogan switched suit two to the main feed. I wish he’d give me access to his GlassTop so I could see all his screens.”

  Levi looked at the second screen. Mason was standing in a fancy room with General Otley, Bender, Lawten Renzor, and Renzor’s weird assistant. “No sound?”

  “Nope. All we can do is watch,” Zane said. “Unless Omar taps us.”

  “What do you know about Seth McShane?” Ruston asked.

  “Uh …” Jemma would know the story better. “Papa Eli’s father sacrificed himself so that Papa Eli and his friends could get out of the Safe Lands. He distracted the guards and got arrested and put in jail. Papa Eli said they’d never have gotten out otherwise. As far as we know, no one else ever got out.”

  “So Seth McShane is a legend to your people, and Elias McShane is a legend to mine.” Ruston smiled. “Isn’t that something?”

  Bewildering was a better word. Levi didn’t think it had ever occurred to Papa Eli that his father might start a new family in the Safe Lands. “Papa Eli always made his father look like a, uh …” What was the name of those men of Old who didn’t marry? “A missionary priest?”

  That seemed to tickle Ruston, and he hooted in laughter. “Once those gates closed him in, Seth McShane had seven more children.”

  “Seven!” Levi couldn’t believe it. “Papa Eli only had four, and he was a lot younger.”

  “I still can’t believe Elias McShane was a real person,” Zane said. “All this time I thought it was just a story.”

  Levi had greatly respected and admired his great-grandfather, but it was weird to hear people talk about Papa Eli like he was some kind of legend. “Otley shot him,” Levi said. “In the raid. But he died later when I found him.” Died right in front of him.

  Ruston’s eyes bulged. “He was still alive? After all this time?” He walked across the nest and sat on the chair in front of the green wall. “How?”

  “He was ninety-two,” Levi said, smiling, “and he could still keep up with me on hunting trips.”

  “Ninety-two? That’s stimming ancient,” Zane said.

  Ruston just stared at Levi, his expression awestruck. “I can’t believe you knew him.”

  “Lived in the same house as him,” Levi said. “You must have old people in the basements, right?”

  “Old people, yeah,” Zane said, “but none that old.”

  “We don’t have great access to medical care,” Ruston said. “If our elderly get sick, we can’t take them to the MC.”

  “Because they’d be liberated,” Levi said. This place was nuts. “Do you have the thin plague?” Levi asked Ruston.

  “Not me. Some Naturals do, most don’t.”

  “I’m a flaker, Levi,” Zane said. “Go ahead and hate me.”

  “I don’t hate you.” But Levi doubted that was enough to convince Zane, whose words brought a rush of shame over Levi. No one had helped him more than Zane. “Liberation,” he said, thinking of his mother. “What is it?”

  “Ah, that I can’t tell you,” Ruston said. “We’ve tried to figure it out for years. And we have some men in very high positions within the Safe Lands government too. But the Guild is very careful with the truth about liberation.”

  “Could it be death?” Because that’s the only thing that made sense to Levi.

  “Could be,” Ruston said. “Killing Xed people would be one thing, but I can’t imagine it would help the Guild’s cause to kill the innocent.”

  “We have to find out what it is,” Levi said. “There’s got to be a way.”

  “Then we need to take down the government,” Ruston said.

  “Operation Lynchpin,” Zane said.

  “What’s that?” Levi asked.

  “Omar’s idea for taking down the government,” Zane said. “He thinks we need to do something that will cut off the food or water supply to the people, which would force everyone to leave the Safe Lands. And it could work, but enforcers have a lot of supplies stocked up. And they can always take flights to Wyoming to get more.”

  “So find a way to cut off access to flights?” Levi suggested.

  Ruston shook his head. “Only a few helicopters are kept inside the walls. The rest are out at the Old Crested Butte airport.”

  “Are any of your people pilots?” Levi asked.

  “I wish,” Ruston said. “Flight is a heavily guarded task in the Safe Lands. They have the test programmed to select only two new pilot candidates each year. And even though we have a man in registration, the pilot positions are always assigned by the task director general.”

  “And the tutorials for pilots are kept in some vault. Not really, but it sure seems that way when I’ve tried to — Mason’s leaving the room,” Zane said, drawing Levi’s attention back to screen two, which showed that Mason was walking up a fancy staircase.

  Be careful, brother, Levi thought, wishing he could see Omar too, wishing he was there to keep them both from getting killed.

  CHAPTER

  35

  Shaylinn forced herself to calm down as the car rolled forward. Omar would come back. He had to avoid being caught or he couldn’t help her. He’d be back. He’d promised.

  But she didn’t know what to make of Omar’s promises. Loving him was easy, but trusting him was hard. At least he’d come for her. Omar had come. Not Levi or Mason or even Jordan. That had to mean something, didn’t it? She repeated the verse Omar shared — or at least tried to: I trust in God and won’t be scared. What can man do to me?

  Man could kill her. But then she’d be in heaven with her mother and father and grandparents and her brother Joel, and she’d be happy. That wouldn’t be so bad, right? She recalled a quote Jemma loved. “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

  The car left the smooth road and rocked over jagged terrain before coming to a stop on an incline. Shaylinn slid forward and pressed her hands against the back of the trunk to hold herself steady and protect her head.

  She struggled to turn until she had her back to the wall, which was a bit more comfortable. If she thought too much about where she was, that she was trapped and couldn’t extend her legs, panic fluttered in her chest. So she forced her thoughts elsewhere. But Shaylinn was torn. She wanted to get out, yet staying in the trunk might be safer. At least the trunk was a barrier between her and Rewl and his icky teeth.

  But then the trunk slid open. Shaylinn covered her face with her hands, hoping that whoever it was would think she was sleeping.

  “Get out,” Rewl said. “Don’t make me drag you.”

  Shaylinn blew out an angry breath and pushed herself to a sitting position. “You don’t have to be mean.”

  Rewl stepped back from the car, his gun trained on Shaylinn. She looked beyond where he stood and gasped. Rewl had parked on a grassy hill beside a castle made of smooth gray rocks. Lights lit up the doorways and balconies like yellow stars glowing in the dim light of dawn. The sky was pink with purple-gray clouds, and the pine trees that loomed beside the house were black silhouettes against it.

  “It’s beautiful.” Who might live in such a place? She wished Jemma could see it.
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  “Hurry up.” Rewl lunged forward and grabbed her arm. He pulled so hard that she scrambled to get her feet underneath herself so she wouldn’t fall onto the ground.

  They walked up to the house, and once she was level with the back patio, she saw the pool. “Oh!” Like a mirror of glass, it stretched out from the back of the house, surrounded by the patio made from slabs of gray rock that matched the castle. Fat stone bowls edged the pool and were filled to overflowing with dark pink and purple flowers. Shaylinn breathed deeply, enjoying the mixed scent of the spicy sweet flowers and pine.

  Rewl grabbed her arm again and pulled her along the patio onto a porch of wood slats. Just ahead, an enforcer was holding a door open for them, and they entered an oval-shaped room. The walls were paneled in light pine, and the floor was stone. Ugly blue-and-peach-flow-ered chairs sat around the perimeter except where three long closets broke the space. The closets had no doors and were filled with outdoor clothing and skis and helmets.

  “Where am I taking her?” Rewl asked the enforcer.

  “I’ll show you.”

  The enforcer led them down a hallway that was covered in paintings of landscapes. She wondered if Omar would like them. They took a narrow, wooden stairway up to the second floor and walked down another hallway. This one was twice as wide as the one downstairs and covered in soft beige carpet that reminded her of the harem.

  The enforcer opened a door and held it. Rewl nudged Shaylinn inside and remained right behind her.

  “Wow.” Shaylinn stopped inside a bedroom. Almost everything was white. The bed was fat with white pillows and a fluffy blanket. Curtains ran floor to ceiling over the balcony windows. The carpet was a background of green covered in white flowers and leaves. Here and there accents of jade and gold complemented the room.

  A baby’s gurgling pulled her gaze to one of two green wingback chairs sitting before a golden hearth. A blonde woman was sitting in one of them, holding an infant. Ciddah, the medic Mason loved.

  “Oh,” Shaylinn said, wondering if Ciddah was helping Rewl or not.

  “Talkative one, isn’t she?” the enforcer said.