Numbers Collide (Numbers Game Saga Book 5)

by Rebecca Rode

  As promised, four hundred soldiers arrived in the dead of night. Chadd had cleared the station of security much like that first night I’d traveled with him, but even more remarkable was the fact that Dane’s Firebrands didn’t show up to stop us. It wasn’t until we’d reached an old gym to hide the soldiers that Kole explained Zenn’s hand in all of this. He’d paid a rival Shadow gang to stir up trouble at headquarters. By the time Dane realized something was happening at the Block, it would be too late to stop us.

  We waited for hours in that gym, enduring heat and body odor and several coughing soldiers who looked like they hadn’t seen a shower in weeks. It felt like at least three nights before Foster peeked his head in and said it was nearly five.

  An hour later, the moment arrived.

  I flattened myself against the brick wall of a building across the street from the Block, brushing the shoulder of the soldier next to me. His felt as bony as Chadd looked. My supporters looked positively huge next to most of Kadee’s fighters, who sported narrower frames and gaunt cheeks, their dark-green uniforms looking to be a century old. The soldiers didn’t talk much either, watching suspiciously, as if the city would crumble down on their heads.

  As the sun climbed and cast long shadows across the road, I tried to see all this from their point of view. A city this size would certainly have seemed a marvel after a lifetime underground or living in the ruins of destroyed border towns. That, if nothing else, seemed a good reason for my bargain with Kadee. I clung to that thought as the sick feeling in my stomach grew.

  This was the right thing to do. Our deal meant help for her people and freedom for mine. We would prevent the world’s leaders from getting technology that could hurt an unfathomable number of people. I would get medicine for Kole and buy Millian time to heal many of our patients, including Dad. Kadee’s soldiers would be gone before most of NORA even knew what had happened. Anyone in my position would have been patting themselves on the back. It was the perfect plan.

  So why did I feel like this was the biggest mistake I’d ever made?

  I resisted the urge to peek around the corner at the Block. Reports said Alex hadn’t left last night, which meant he’d taken to sleeping in the Copper Office. It also meant more guards to incapacitate on our way in. Thankfully, we’d chosen early morning for our raid since most of the city would still be safe in their homes. The Malrain soldiers, led by our new Firebrand recruits and a few select followers with Enforcer training, had orders not to hurt any civilians. I’d armed them with nearly every weapon we owned, giving strict orders to use stun mode only. I’d thought of everything. Hadn’t I?

  Kole, wearing a protective helmet and serving as a captain over twenty Malrain soldiers, caught my eye across the street. He crouched behind a building much like ours, his twenty soldiers circling him and listening while he gave directions. I smiled at seeing him in his element before remembering what was at stake. I’d tried to convince him to go to the island in case he got triggered again, but the more evidence I presented, the more stubborn he grew.

  “Not a chance,” he’d said. “We had a deal. We stay together.”

  A solitary transport drifted past, followed by a long silence. No more traffic. Travers had succeeded in getting the construction barricades up on either end of the street. The time was almost here.

  “Ten minutes,” whispered the figure crouched next to me. His whisper sounded in my earpiece a hair’s breadth after it left his lips, and I knew the other troops hidden around the Block had heard. Kadee would be listening to this feed as well, I knew. She had more to lose today than I did.

  I patted my stunner, surprised at the comfort I took from it lately. I barely felt it at my hip these days.

  Soon, our mission leader, a former Enforcer who had joined my supporters near the beginning, barked her orders. “Team one, advance.” Then a long pause. “Team two, advance.”

  Kole sent me a sharp look as if warning me back, then rose and trotted down the street. He needn’t have worried. My team wouldn’t allow me to fight if I’d ordered them to. No, my stunner would be used for another purpose.

  Five more teams joined them over the next two minutes. I listened hard, barely daring to breathe, before I finally heard it. A shout from the Block.

  The fighting had begun.

  My earpiece filled with the sounds of shouting and grunts and orders. When the mission leader didn’t call for more troops, hope swelled inside. Maybe it was going better than planned and they wouldn’t need the rest. Maybe nobody would get hurt or die today after all. Relief joined my hope as I looked at the troops waiting for their turn. Since our weapons had run out, these soldiers held guns with real bullets. Once they began using those, the entire city would know we were here.

  And soon the entire city and my cabinet would know I was a traitor too. Eventually, the council members would discover I’d only sent them away to keep them safe.

  The horrible sounds in my earpiece went quiet.

  Soldiers reporting to their commanders in low tones filled my ears now, their words blending in a quiet cacophony of nonsense.

  The soldier next to me relaxed and grinned.

  I looked at him quizzically, then at the others. “Is that it? Did we win? Where is Alex?”

  Our captain, the Firebrand recruit named Rosa, looked at me with annoyance. “We have him, but he called for reinforcements before his capture. Now the battle truly begins.” She lifted her stunner. “I hope this is what you wanted, Your Honor, because it’s too late to go back now.”

  I clamped my mouth and tried to wait, but my nerves felt jumpy and skittish. I wanted to be inside with Kole and those soldiers, to explain to my brother that everything would be okay—and if he tried to fight, I would stun him myself. I wanted to sit at that desk and make an announcement to the country that this was all over and we could begin the healing process at last. I wanted to be able to tell Dad when he woke that we’d done it and the country was ours once again.

  Instead, I leaned against a rough brick building with a sick heart, dying for the news that would change our lives.

  “They’re ready for us,” Rosa said. “Team, you will protect Her Honor at all costs. March!”

  My stomach leaped ahead of my feet, and soon we were trotting down the street after her, carrying our weapons in both hands, scouring the street for any sign of danger as we approached the Block. A crowd swarmed the front lawn. Occasionally, I caught a glimpse of an anxious face in a building window. I had no doubt these stores had locked their occupants in.

  It made me feel like an invader more than a leader, and I didn’t like it.

  As we arrived, the Malrain soldiers lined up in formation outside the building, leaving a straight path to the front doors. I wanted to stride in like I had a hundred times, to set foot in Dad’s office and see him smiling at his desk. But no, it was Alex I had come to see and Dad’s office I had come to seize.

  Today I wasn’t a daughter but an invader.

  It seemed an eternity before Kole and Zenn emerged from the building, shoving Alex out in front of them. I exhaled, feeling the tension in my shoulders relax slightly. Everyone looked fine. Maybe this would go as planned after all.

  Alex glowered at me as they pushed him toward me. “Malrain soldiers, huh, sister? That’s low, even for you.”

  “Oh, so I can’t work with them, but you and Virgil can? That makes total sense.”

  He blinked, looking genuinely confused. “I didn’t—wait, why did you think that? I allowed Virgil to lease some equipment and buy supplies for his lab. That’s it.”

  So Virgil had made arrangements on his own. That didn’t surprise me. “Virgil always meant to overthrow you, Alex. You’re lucky we beat him to it. Now we can stop him together.”

  Alex’s jaw clenched as he took in the army standing behind me. The glint in his eyes was all fight and no acceptance. “Looks to me like you joined our enemies, Legacy, not the other way around. Whatever they told you, they lied, like
always. If you’d ever come to the office with me, you’d know Dad’s been trying to sign a treaty with them for years. Every time Malrain agrees to something, they break their word within weeks. They can’t be trusted to fulfill a trade agreement, let alone a military alliance.” He shook his head. “I bet you don’t even know about the train, do you?”

  A chill crept over me despite the heat. “What about it?”

  “We intercepted a train full of Malrain soldiers about an hour ago. Since my Firebrands were occupied elsewhere, they easily took the station and everything else within two blocks of it. They have hostages and everything. I’m willing to bet there will be more on the way. I was dealing with that when your boyfriend dragged me from my chair.” He glared at Kole, who grunted.

  That familiar strangling sensation returned. I heard my breaths coming in a series of ragged gasps.

  A train full of soldiers.

  I’d half expected Kadee to order her soldiers to turn on us, and I’d prepared my troops for that possibility. But I’d never considered that Kadee would send additional soldiers on a different mission. No wonder she’d given in to our negotiations so quickly. Clearly she meant to take over the city on her terms while we were distracted here. Once we took the Copper Office, it would be nothing to unseat me. She’d get everything she wanted with barely any cost to herself.

  Kole pulled his helmet off and dropped it to the ground, staring at me with dread. He’d just realized the same thing.

  In trying to save my country, I’d doomed it.

  A siren sounded several blocks away, then another, closer.

  “They’re getting closer,” Alex said. “You’d better—”

  The soldier to my right cocked his weapon and placed it at my temple. It felt cold against my skin. A metal barrel. I went still, barely daring to breathe. This was no stunner.

  He tore my weapon from my hands and straightened, his gaze sweeping the crowd of green before us as the other soldiers swung their weapons at my supporters. At least ten kept theirs on Alex. I counted four guns aimed at his head.

  “Every NORA soldier will put their weapons down now,” my captor said.

  Kole’s eyes widened as he lifted his arms to the sky, his stunner hanging loosely in his hand like it had two days ago. Except this time, there would be no sweet-talking our way out of this. Even Zenn set his stunner down and raised his hands, eyeing me warily.

  “Alex,” I called to my brother, “I’m sorry, but I’ll make this right.”

  My brother gave a dark chuckle. “You opened the gates, sister. It’s too late to close them now.”

  “Unit Blue, come with me,” my captor shouted. “Bring the brother too. There’s someone waiting for them in the Copper Office.”

  I held Kole’s gaze as the soldiers shoved me toward the doors, watching his dismay turn into a terrible pain that hurt my chest. Then the darkness of the Block swallowed me up.

  Twenty-Eight

  Legacy

  Virgil sat at my father’s desk, hunched over the glass screen. “Well, well. Look at all these breaches. Never thought I’d see the day a Hawking allowed Malrain to conquer us.” He glanced up at me. “Or maybe not such a Hawking after all?” The burns I’d given him at Neuromen gave his face sinister shadows that seemed very appropriate.

  “Get out of my father’s chair,” I growled.

  “So possessive. Speaking of your father, I want you to tell me where he is.”

  Alex slowly lifted his head to meet my gaze. I’d spent the past weeks sure that the brother I knew was dead, replaced by a stranger who wanted Dad to die. He’d nearly told me as much in our last conversation. But I saw a different truth in his eyes now, one that reminded me of the brother I thought I’d lost.

  Don’t tell him, he seemed to say. Keep Dad safe.

  I raised my chin, feeling the gun against my temple tighten. “You’re going to kill us anyway, so why would I tell you anything?”

  “Because despite the way you spoiled children have acted over the past weeks, you care about each other. I’ll wager that neither of you wants to watch the other die. The question is, which sibling to choose?”

  “How dare you,” Alex growled with gritted teeth. “You said I could trust you.”

  “I said you could trust me to help secure the country, and I kept that promise. You only assumed I meant under your hand. You didn’t really think we meant to keep you in power long, did you? The nation has spoken. The Hawking dynasty ends today.”

  “This isn’t how you end a line of succession,” I snapped. “You don’t get to march in here and kill the entire family. The people will never accept you if you try.”

  “They’ll never know. We’ve been conquered by Malrain soldiers, after all. Haven’t you heard? They can be brutal in their methods. Assassinating an entire family is exactly what everyone would expect from them.”

  The soldier standing next to me stiffened, but his weapon didn’t lower.

  Virgil turned off the desk screen and rose to his feet. “But assassination is the messier of our two options here. Once your sister has revealed the location of your comatose father, young Alexandrite, I will allow you to make one last public announcement. You will tell your supporters you’ve decided to turn the reins over to someone with more leadership experience. The transition will be both pain-free and bloodless.”

  “You always wanted the throne,” Alex said, his voice trembling with anger. “This was your plan all along.”

  I shot my brother a look of pity. I wasn’t the only one who’d trusted the wrong people. Now we’d both suffer for it.

  Virgil threw back his balding head and laughed. “Ah, but my sights have been set quite a bit higher for some time now. You children have never crossed our borders. You don’t know the world beyond, much less the potential it holds.”

  “I’ve been to Malrain, and I like NORA much better,” I snapped. “As it is now, though—not controlled by a Rating system that turns people into mindless robots.”

  “The people disagree with you, then, young Legacy, because the response to our announcement has been overwhelmingly positive. Your citizens are ready for a change, Hawkings. They’re willing to give up a little freedom to live a better life.”

  “They shouldn’t have to give up any freedom,” I said quietly.

  Virgil stepped around the desk and stopped in front of me. “It’s a trade most of us make every day—spend your day lining someone else’s pockets and live in a warm home with food to eat, or sleep on the streets in total freedom and starve. You aren’t immune to such choices either. Your grandmother and father traded their family for power. Alex betrayed his father to take that power. You betrayed the country to take it from him. If we allow this to continue, we’ll have more of the same.” He stepped up to me, standing so close I caught a whiff of antiseptic that brought me back to my days at Neuromen. “Your people are tired, Legacy Hawking. Can you blame them?”

  I lowered my head. Virgil had done terrible things, but about this one thing, I had to admit he was right.

  Virgil frowned. “Now, tell me where your father is, and we can end this peacefully.” He leaped toward Alex and swept the gun from his guard in one swift movement. A second later, it was Virgil who held a gun to my brother’s head. A real gun. “Right now.”

  A strangled gasp came from Alex’s throat, and his eyes flew open, but he went still and tense.

  “That won’t be necessary, Director.” A figure entered the room. This time, I was too shocked to do anything but gape.

  Dad.

  The air around us seemed to change. The Malrain soldiers seemed to shrink, and the room somehow grew bigger, brighter. Everything was as it should be. The Copper Office’s true owner had finally arrived. Dad would know what to do. He would fix this.

  Then I saw the guards on either side of him and his arms locked behind his back, and reality struck me with its cruel truth yet again.

  As the shock wore off and the joy at seeing him on his feet—
so normal, so usual, yet so incredible—dissipated, I took note of the little details that meant all wasn’t well. The dark skin under his eyes. His slightly hunched shoulders. The way he dragged his feet as if barely able to move them. How his hands trembled, barely visible beneath his shirt cuffs. He’d put on regular clothes, but they clearly weren’t his. The sleeves hung too long, the waist was too baggy, the trousers too short.

  Regardless, Virgil looked ready to fall over. “How?” he managed. “When?”

  Dad’s eyes stopped on the gun at my head. “Our laboratory head discovered Legacy’s plan and made a quick decision. Before you try to damage my mind even further, I assure you I’ve been freed from the clutches of your brain implant for nearly twenty-four hours now. My healing will continue long after we’re done here.” He walked over and claimed a space between me and Alex, forcing his guards to scramble to keep their weapons trained on him. “Now, remove those weapons from my children so we can begin our negotiations.”

  Virgil leaned against the desk as if to remind himself that it belonged to him now. “I don’t negotiate.”

  “Oh?” Kadee said from the doorway. “You seem to enjoy it quite a bit, if I recall.”

  Twenty-Nine

  Legacy

  Dad groaned, and Virgil’s expression darkened.

  The Malrain leader barely sent me a glance as she headed toward the desk and sat down in the chair. “You’re a smart man, Virgil. Surely you remember the terms of our agreement. I take NORA and everything the Hawkings have built for myself. You rebuild Neuromen and head your Ratings project. Everybody leaves happy.”

  Virgil glared at her so fiercely I expected him to lunge at any second. But he folded his arms instead. “Of course. That was always the plan.”