It was a miracle we had survived, even with the Amplifier giving me the ability to alter the plants into something incredibly strong and shielding.
My wrist comm was still active. I pulled it off and threw it into a still burning metal wall. Sparks popped and crackled. Carrying Keisha on my back I staggered down the hill, toward the truck.
There were bodies, bodies of more guards, and scientists, I guessed. Dead. The neutron radiation must have killed them. How much danger was there from the radiation still in the air?
I staggered faster.
Any moment Support would be here. Somehow I reached the truck.
Incredibly, no helicopters or VTOL craft swooped down on us. No sign of any Empowered, or any Support agents.
I laid Keisha in the passenger seat, got behind the wheel, and drove the truck down the hill and away from the ruins of Emerald Green.
#
I took the road back to the highway and headed away from Colorado Springs.
Miles away, I could just make out the Citadel’s spire and what looked like a swarm of gnats.
Support and the Hero Council must have decided, in the end, to go after the Inner Circle’s strike on the Q-T network and the Hero Council fortresses. Otherwise, we should have been captured.
It took us three days to get back to Oregon. Keisha had a fever. I thought I’d have to take her to a doctor or an ER, but she wouldn’t let me. Said her body would heal her, she just needed to rest. So she did, sleeping most of the time.
The newspaper headlines screamed Scourge Destroyed and Wunderkind Brandon Ellis dies in Scourge attack. But nothing about Emerald Green. The whole thing was a lie, a secret lie, but still a lie.
I had time to think. Support must think we were dead, along with the others from my cell. I could start over. I’d been so busy lately trying to stop Emerald Green and keep the Scourge and Support in the dark I had no idea what starting over would look like. A new identity for sure, but beyond that?
I found a motel in east Portland, got a room for Keisha and me. We didn’t talk much on the way back, just a few words. I told her that Simon and Connor were dead. If the armored guards hadn’t killed them, the neutron blast would have.
But when I got her back into the room, she asked me point-blank.
“The Scourge is gone, isn’t it?”
“It is. Everyone else must have died when the scheme to take out the Q-T went south.”
“Now what?”
“I need to see my family.” I looked at her. “What about you?”
She looked back at me, her face open and vulnerable, like I’d never seen before.
“You’re the only family that counts to me,” she said.
I blinked and rubbed my eyes.
Tried to swallow. Damn it.
“Rest here,” I said. “I’ll be back.”
“I want to meet your family.”
I hugged her. “You will. But you need some rest. I just need to check on them. I’ll be back, I promise.”
Neither of us said anything else. She hugged me back, then let me leave.
#
I missed my Dodge Dasher, but I couldn’t drive it any more. It would be a sure way for Support to find me.
I parked the truck a block from Ruth’s. The afternoon shadows were long. The leaves had all fallen from the walnut trees on her street. The air was crisp against my skin. I closed my eyes for a moment, standing beneath the walnut trees, and listened to the trees murmur in my mind. My power had returned, in little dribs and drabs, until finally that morning, it felt like it had returned in full.
Ruth opened the door when I knocked. She looked like she’d been crying. She wiped her eyes.
“Mat, I didn’t expect you. You, you aren’t supposed to be here, you know that.”
“Where are the twins?” I asked.
She hesitated.
“Ava’s in school.”
It was a Monday; of course she’d been in school.
“What about Ella?”
She hesitated a second time, looked away. “Ella’s not here.”
I pushed my way inside.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Ruth repeated, and suddenly her steel was back, and she stood straighter.
There wasn’t any reason not to tell her.
“I’ve been working for Support as a covert agent,” I said.
Her eyes widened, and she shook her head, like she hadn’t heard me right.
“What?” she asked, suddenly confused.
“I had to keep it secret,” I said, “but it doesn’t matter now, because they think I’m dead.”
She stared at me, eyes wide.
“What happened with Ella?” I asked. Anger bubbled up inside me, and I grabbed Ruth by the shoulders. It hit me then, like a bolt of lightning out of the fall sky. “She’s Empowered, isn’t she?”
Ruth sobbed. “Yes!”
My heart pounded. “You tried to hide it.”
She nodded, cried. “I didn’t want them to come and take her away. It took longer, far longer than you did.”
The apparition—Princess Warrior. That had been Ella. Her power—
“She creates apparitions of herself, doesn’t she?” I asked Ruth. That had to be it.
Ruth nodded.
Princess Warrior had saved me more than once.
I took a deep breath, swallowed. This changed everything. Ella was in trouble, whether she realized it or not. She’d be considered a rogue Empowered. “I’m going to find her.”
“You weren’t a criminal,” Ruth said, shaking her head, trying to clear it. “All this time, I thought you were a criminal, and you were actually a covert agent?”
“An infiltrator.”
The hell of it was, I was about to become a criminal, because I wasn’t going to go back to Support. I was going to find my sister.
“If they come looking for me, tell them the truth—you don’t know where I’m at.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m going to find Ella before they do. Understand?”
She rubbed her eyes. We hugged then. She felt like a bird in my arms, trembling, bones so light and fragile she might break if I hugged too hard.
I was going to find Ella and bring her home.
No matter what.
THE END
Afterword
Thank you for reading Empowered: Traitor! It means a lot that you made it the end. I hope you enjoyed the novel. If you did, please post a review on Amazon! Reviews make a real difference in helping readers decide on which book to buy, and I certainly appreciate them!
Mathilda’s story continues in Empowered: Outlaw, which will be released later in 2017.
Subscribe to my newsletter here to stay up-to-date about The Empowered series, and receive a prequel story as a free gift.
You can also find me at my author page on Facebook and you can contact me at [email protected]. I love hearing from readers.
Acknowledgments
I couldn’t have written Empowered: Traitor without the support and help of so many folks: my writers group, the awesome Masked Hucksters, Jennifer Willis, Rebecca Stefoff, and Wendy Wagner; my equally awesome editor, Mary Rosenblum, whose keen insight into what makes a compelling story helped more than I can say; my beta readers Cindy, Greg, Jill, Mark, Nick, Rebecca, Tracy, Vic; my cover designer Clarissa Yeo; my professional proof reader Kendra Moll; and my sharp-eyed typo hunters Janet and Corine.
Most of all I couldn’t have done without the support and encouragement of my wonderful wife, LeAnn, who is my first reader.
About the Author
Dale Ivan Smith writes fantasy and science fiction, and is the author of The Empowered series. When he’s not writing or reading, he’s working as a para-librarian for Multnomah County Library, in Portland, Oregon.
You can find him here:
@daleivan
daleivansmithauthor
www.daleivansmith.com
[email protected]
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Dale Ivan Smith, Empowered: Traitor (The Empowered Series Book 2)
Empowered: Traitor (The Empowered Series Book 2) Page 23
