The Calling

by Rachelle Dekker

  Remko could feel the nervous energy of his team rising and felt his own chest tighten.

  “I have spoken with this family, the mother specifically, many times. She is committed to change, to seeing the Authority changed—destroyed if necessary. I know that you will be resistant, but just like the rest of us, she was never given a choice before. Now that she has one, I truly believe she is choosing to follow Aaron out of a genuine desire for real freedom. More so than many I have sent with you in the past.”

  “Who is it?” Remko asked, though he was certain he already knew the answer.

  “Selena Carson and her two daughters.”

  “What?” Sam said.

  “Ian Carson’s wife, Selena?” Wire said.

  “No way,” Kate said.

  Remko said nothing.

  “Are you crazy?” Kate demanded.

  “I understand your concern—” Seth tried.

  “Clearly not! Otherwise you wouldn’t be asking us to possibly surrender to the enemy,” Kate said.

  Seth’s tone remained even and kind in the face of Kate’s panic. “Ian has been locked away for months now; he no longer has any sway within the Authority Council. All of his power now lies with our new president.”

  Remko had actually met Damien Gold once. A couple of years ago Remko had stood guard for a case in which Damien was the presiding judge. All Remko remembered was that Damien was smart and cruel.

  “Remember that you have a common enemy. The Authority—including her husband—killed her daughter. Selena should not be punished for being chosen for her role as Ian Carson’s wife. She had as little choice as any of us.”

  “I don’t care. It’s too risky,” Kate said.

  “She’s right. What if this is all a ploy to get inside the camp?” Sam asked. “It could be a trap.”

  “I’ve spoken with her myself,” Seth said.

  “No offense, but I’m not sure why that’s supposed to make me feel better,” Kate retorted.

  “Kate,” Remko said. Kate might have a point, but he would not stand for her speaking to Seth in such a manner.

  Kate bit her tongue, but the air around her was filled with heat.

  “Everyone is forgetting something very crucial,” Wire said. The room turned toward the thin boy in the corner.

  “What?” Kate snapped.

  “Aaron sent us for them.”

  Remko watched the anger drain from Kate’s face as she dropped her eyes to the ground.

  “Let all who come, come,” Wire said. “Aaron always says that. I’m not even sure why we’re having this debate.” He turned his eyes to Remko, searching for approval.

  Remko knew Wire was right. They may not understand his reasoning, but Aaron had sent for Selena and her daughters, and that was reason enough. He looked back toward Seth and nodded. “So what’s the extraction plan?”

  9

  “The fastest route to meeting site four is a combination of aboveground travel and the facility tunnels that run under the main city streets,” Sam said, tracing his finger across the map Neil Stone had given them back at camp. “Traveling on the streets is risky, but if we stay in the tunnels the whole way, we won’t reach them in time to extract and get back to the escape point. We’ve used this route before and made it successfully.”

  “I can’t believe we are doing this,” Kate said.

  “Do you want to go back to camp empty-handed and tell Aaron we didn’t extract the target because you were afraid?” Sam asked.

  His sister glared at him but got on board. “We should split up aboveground. We’ll blend in better as smaller groups,” she said.

  Seth had given them all brown City Worker uniforms that would help them move through the crowds they were sure to encounter. The uniforms came with hoods that would help shield their faces. Kate was the biggest risk, being a girl, but if they moved quickly and could keep from being detected, she should be able to pull off being a very small man.

  “Sam, you go with Kate,” Remko said. “Wire, you’re with me. What’s our time look like?”

  Wire was already tapping away on Roxy, calculating distance and speed within the route they had selected. “We need to reach the middle point, where the east and west water veins meet, in the next twelve minutes and forty-three seconds, then across the central vein in under six minutes and fourteen seconds, and up the side of the northern wall to site four with only four minutes and fifty seconds to—”

  Kate pushed past Wire, cutting him off. “You could have just said quickly,” she said. She and Sam already had their cloaks on.

  Sam turned to Remko. “We’ll take the east side and meet you at the central vein.”

  Remko nodded. “Be careful.”

  Kate threw a smile over her shoulder. “Always.”

  Then the two siblings were off, running down the alley and out into the traffic of the city.

  “She never lets me finish,” Wire complained.

  “Let’s go,” Remko said and started off toward the opposite end of the alley. Wire followed, yanking up his hood as they moved toward the herd of people already visible on the street ahead.

  In order to get to meeting site four, they had to cross directly through the middle of town. Thankfully, it was nearly midday, which meant the streets would be flooded with people. That gave them some protection from onlookers. They could easily just become other faces in the crowd.

  Remko tucked his hands inside the pockets that hung near his waist and traveled swiftly with his head down. Wire had pulled out in front and moved a couple steps ahead. The city was bustling. People meeting up for lunch, others trying to get errands done during the middle of the day, shop owners working to entice people to come inside their stores. Smells from cooking meats, frying potatoes, baking pastries—things the Seers rarely came across in their current humble way of life—reached Remko and made his mind buzz.

  He remained focused and pushed forward. They had traveled half the distance to their destination. He could hear CityWatch whistles, the guards’ booming commands, the grinding of a nearby CityWatch vehicle. All of them close enough to spot the intruders if they knew what they were looking for. Remko tucked his chin farther and walked faster.

  Ahead of him a man carrying a load much too large for him to manage alone knocked Wire’s shoulder hard. Wire stumbled sideways and lost his footing, falling to the street. His hood came loose, and Roxy crashed with a thud to the ground beside him. The device tumbled a couple of feet away, and Remko moved quickly to scoop it up and out of sight. A couple of people around them stopped to see what the commotion was, and Remko noticed that the attention of two CityWatch guards standing a few feet away moved to them as well.

  Remko yanked Wire off the ground and nodded to the few people who had moved to help.

  “He’s fine; thank you,” Remko said softly, trying not to expose too much of his face. He glanced sideways to see that one of the guards was moving toward them. He felt a string of panic pull inside his chest.

  He gave a couple more half smiles and nods to the surrounding City Workers, trying not to seem desperate, but they needed to move.

  “Sorry,” Wire said.

  “We need to go,” Remko said. They kept their heads low and pushed forward. Remko glanced back to see the guard still following them. He slid Roxy back into Wire’s hand. “We’re being followed; give him something else to worry about.”

  Remko heard Wire swallow. They were still moving—though hopefully fast enough to draw no further attention—and Wire quickly tried to punch Roxy’s screen without people around them noticing. Remko could feel the guard getting closer, and sweat gathered at the back of his neck and across his forehead.

  “Come on, come on,” he said under his breath.

  “I’m working on it, but it’s hard without being able to properly see what I’m doing.”

  Remko looked around and saw a butcher’s shop only a couple of feet away. Still holding Wire’s arm, he tugged him toward the shop and the two
stepped into the meat-filled room. Several customers were in line; another few shopped the aisles. Remko yanked Wire behind a large shelving unit that held several varieties of pork, and Wire pulled Roxy into his full sight. From their position Remko could still see the door, and a second later the guard stepped through.

  “We need that distraction now,” Remko said.

  The guard looked around the shop, searching for them, then began to walk in their direction.

  “Got it,” Wire said.

  Suddenly a loud siren rang out in the central city square. A sound Remko knew immediately. Everyone in the store came to a halt for a moment before a sense of panic, followed by chaos, set in. People scurried toward the exit, leaving their items unpurchased, trying to push past one another to leave.

  Remko looked at Wire, whose face was glowing. “Severe weather alarm?”

  “You said distraction. I just hacked into the closest mainframe system, and since we are so close to the central weather hub, all I had to do was defeat a set of rudimentary firewalls and recode the alarm to go off on a trigger control that could be wirelessly connected with Roxy here.”

  “Everyone remain calm and exit single file,” the guard shouted at the people shoving through the door. The guard was the last one out, and after a few seconds, Remko moved to see if their exit was clear.

  “Impressed?” Wire asked. It was clear from the brash look on his face that he was impressed with himself enough for the both of them.

  Remko rolled his eyes and motioned for Wire to follow as they slipped out of the butcher shop and across the main square, which was now in a complete frenzy.

  They easily bypassed the chaos of people, moving onto the side road that led them to their underground entrance. They quickly moved to the large round grate at the end of the short side street, and Remko pulled it open. Wire dropped in first and Remko followed, pulling the grate back into place overhead.

  Inside the tunnel, the two shrugged off their brown cloaks and tossed them aside. The interior of this water pipe looked identical to the one they had traveled through earlier, except since it ran unused underneath a larger part of the city, the pipe was wider and thus easier for them to move through with speed. They reached the connecting point and found Sam and Kate waiting.

  Sam gave Remko a curious look, and Remko just shook his head. “Let’s go,” he said, and the rest of his team fell into line behind him.

  “Did you have something to do with—?” Kate asked Wire as they ran behind Remko.

  “Sure did,” he said proudly, and Remko chuckled softly, imagining the disgusted look Kate was surely sending Wire.

  “How are we doing on time, Wire?” Sam asked. “And if you could just be general, that would be helpful.”

  Roxy beeped in Wire’s hand. “Roughly nine minutes left.”

  All four surged forward faster. They still had a little over half a mile to travel before heading back up to the surface. They ran in silence, the sound of steady breathing accompanying their footsteps.

  After several minutes, Remko spotted their escape up. “Here we go—final stretch,” he said as he reached the ladder first.

  He stepped aside to let the team climb up, none of them even pausing to breathe. One after another they slowed their pace only enough to grab the ladder and start the climb. This brought them to the surface in another alley that ran alongside a large steel factory. Meeting point four was tucked inside the steel factory, which was only half in operation. Since it was so close to the central plaza, the Authority was shutting down the factory one section at a time and transferring the workers to a different facility farther away from the city center. The side on which meeting point four was located hadn’t been used for months.

  Wire used Roxy to manually override the automated keypad lock, and within seconds they were moving inside the building. It was dark, a pungent burning smell still strong even after months of abandonment. One flight of steel stairs led up to the second level, where a small office served as the meeting location. Remko could see shadows moving inside and he held up his hand for the team to stop.

  He was sure the shadows belonged to their Sleeper and the Carsons, but a sliver of caution caused him to take the last few feet alone just to be safe. He moved quietly and pushed through the door to find exactly what he’d expected. He recognized J. J., and relief washed over the young man’s face at seeing Remko and the team. He moved to shake Remko’s hand and smiled.

  “Wow, the rush I felt when I heard your footsteps. Glad to see it’s you, my friend,” J. J. said. J. J. was a small, kind man who had joined the Sleepers a couple months back after a dear friend had been arrested on suspicion of colluding with Aaron. Before his friend had been executed for his crimes, he’d made J. J. promise that he would continue to fight against the Authority’s corruption so that their children might see true freedom one day. Remko couldn’t help but fear that day would never come.

  Remko shook the man’s hand and smiled. Wire, Sam, and Kate had moved to stand behind him and Remko’s gaze fell to the Carsons.

  He recognized Selena at once. Anyone in the city would know who she was. Jet-black hair that she had pulled back under the hood she wore, her face aged with time and stress but still beautiful and soft. Naturally red lips that made her skin look light and untouched by the sun. Honey-brown eyes that nearly glowed met Remko’s gaze and he could see her overwhelming fear.

  He stepped past J. J. and extended his hand, smiling. “Mrs. Carson.”

  She clasped his hand with her own. “Please—Selena. And these are my girls, Lucy and Rayna.”

  Two small girls moved out from behind their mother. The older one, Lucy, who couldn’t have been more than eleven, nodded hello, while the younger girl’s eyes filled with fear and tears. They both looked so much like Arianna that a pocket of grief burst in Remko’s gut. He knew it would be hard for Carrington to see them every day.

  Sam stepped up next to Remko and knelt so that he was eye level with the girls. “Hi, my name is Sam. We are going to have to move pretty quickly, so you two need to stay together the whole time. Can you do that?”

  Lucy nodded and grabbed Rayna’s hand as the smaller girl started to cry. Before Selena could comfort her, Sam took Rayna’s free hand. She looked at him with huge brown eyes but didn’t back away. Remko was always impressed by how good Sam was with children.

  Sam smiled at her and pulled a long thin chain from his shirt. On it was a small gold pendant that he always wore. It had belonged to his mother and was one of the only things he had left of hers.

  “This may look like a normal pendant, but actually it’s magic,” Sam said. Rayna’s eyes fell to the pendant with awe. “You may not believe me, but it makes me invisible to anyone who wants to do me harm. It protects me from the guards and keeps me safe.” Sam pulled the chain off his neck and held it in his palm. “Now I don’t normally do this, but do you wanna wear it so it can make you invisible?”

  Rayna gasped and looked at Sam’s face for confirmation. He nodded and placed it around the girl’s neck. Her mouth broke into a shy smile as she let go of her sister’s hand and touched the pendant carefully.

  “I know you’re afraid, but I am going to hold this hand, and your sister is going to hold the other. And now you have a magic weapon, so everything is going to be okay. Got it?”

  The little girl nodded. Sam stood and Selena placed a hand on his shoulder. She mouthed the words thank you and turned to Remko.

  “Thank you. I know how much of a risk this is,” Selena said.

  “Doubtful,” Kate said under her breath, but the room was quiet enough that everyone could hear.

  Remko shot her a warning look, and she turned to stand guard at the door. It wasn’t difficult to understand Kate’s frustrations; they were all on edge.

  “I’m not sure what to say to ease your suspicions,” Selena said. “Just know that I saw Arianna’s transformation firsthand. Her words filled our home and touched my heart long before she was mo
nstrously taken from me.”

  Remko could see the pain that was still fresh behind Selena’s eyes, and with a young daughter of his own he could imagine the anger and sorrow that would engulf him if she were ever taken from him. He nodded.

  “Damien keeps a very close eye on me. He will know we are missing by now,” Selena said.

  Remko turned to J. J., who led the group out of the office and down the steps. They would have to leave by a different route, and they were running on a tight timetable.

  “Thank you,” Remko said to J. J. and turned to Selena. “We are going to be moving quickly, so as Sam instructed, the three of you are to never leave his side.”

  Selena nodded, and Remko motioned for Kate and Wire to go ahead. Sam would then move into the middle with the Carsons, and Remko would follow at the rear. He said a quick prayer as the group moved forward through the bottom half of the abandoned factory toward their path out of the city.

  10

  The move through the city went quickly and without incident. Remko could feel the tension in his shoulders and back releasing. They were close to their vehicle now, moving through the trees that provided shelter from their enemies. The largest and most immediate threat was gone. Behind him, Sam was carrying Rayna on his back, her small arms wrapped around his neck, her tiny giggle spilling through the air as Sam told her tales of Sir Gregory Hoppoliss, a mischievous brown toad who always found his way into trouble.

  Selena held Lucy’s hand, and the two walked beside Sam, listening intently as Sir Hoppoliss tried to find his way free from the shipping crate he’d gotten himself stuck in for being, once again, much too curious. Wire and Kate walked in front of Remko, quietly discussing Wire’s uncanny ability to try to be helpful but instead usually almost get them all killed. Remko noticed the change in Kate’s tone. She might constantly rebuke Wire’s actions, but the warm, flirtatious tease was hard to miss.

  Remko tuned out all the voices around him and set his gaze ahead as the lowering sun pricked through the hanging branches. He could feel the weariness starting to make its way through his bones, and he used the thought of heading home to Carrington and Elise as a shot of energy. He tried to imagine what it might feel like to never have to leave them again. In the stillness of moments like this, when the sun was stretching downward to meet the earth and those he cared about were lost in conversation around him safe from harm, he could almost see the light at the end of the tunnel. A time when they would actually be free of the Authority and its threats. A time when he wouldn’t close his eyes and be tormented by his fears. A time when each new morning would present peace and stability and he wouldn’t worry for the lives of everyone he loved.