by Kate L. Mary
She started to follow them, but Jim put his hand on her arm and shook his head. “Let him.”
Jada stayed where she was, but her frown deepened.
Glitter took a tiny step forward when her father headed for the door, but she was smart enough not to follow. Sabine walked only a few steps behind her mother, her head down like an obedient servant. I hadn’t known the girl very well in school, only who her mother was, but the few interactions I’d had with her had always left me with a bad taste in my mouth. She was worse than her mom because she followed without a second thought, had probably never had a thought of her own in her life, and would never consider that this whole thing might just be insane.
When they’d disappeared out the front door, Glitter let out a deep breath.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
My gaze went to the crooks of her arms and I realized I hadn’t given much thought to what she had been put through. It was understandable, the twenty years my uncle had spent locked up kind of overshadowed the years Glitter had been a prisoner, as well as the fact that my sister and dad were still in the CDC’s clutches, but the girl at my side had gone through more than I could ever imagine. She’d been created so the CDC could use her. That had been her only purpose. In there, she hadn’t even been a person. Test Subject 06, that’s what Angus had said they’d called her. It made my stomach twist. That’s how sick it was.
“I’m fine.” She wrapped her arms around her chest and stared at the door her father had just disappeared through before turning her gray eyes on me. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” I asked, even though only a few hours earlier I’d been as angry at her as I was at Luke.
“I wanted to tell you about Jackson that first day we met, when you came to the bar with him. I wanted to warn you what he was really like, but I couldn’t. It would have put us all in danger.” Her gaze dropped to the ground. “I wanted to tell you.”
“I wouldn’t have listened,” I said, and I found my hand resting on her arm. “People tried to warn me about him before, my family had always hated him, but I didn’t want to hear it. He had me fooled.” I was a fool, I’d wanted to say, but I bit the words back.
Glitter tore her gaze from the floor. “I still feel bad.”
“Don’t,” I said. “Some secrets need to be kept…”
My gaze moved across the room to Luke when I realized that didn’t just go for Glitter. My cousin had lied to me, yes, but he’d had a reason, one that wasn’t much different from the one the girl at my side had.
Nine
Meg
Mom was on Angus the second he was back from talking to the High Priestess. “What did she want?”
I was a little surprised she hadn’t noticed that my uncle had indicated to the priestess that he’d wanted to talk, but it seemed like she assumed the conversation had been all this crazy woman’s idea.
“Nothin’ to worry ‘bout, Blondie,” my uncle replied. “Just chattin’.”
“About what?” Jada asked, her voice so loud that everyone in the room turned to look at her.
Angus held her gaze, his lips pressed together like he was trying to decide what to say. “‘Bout The Church. ‘Bout what they believe and what they want from me now that I’m here.”
Parv leveled her gaze on my uncle. “You’re not seriously considering helping them?”
“Never said that.” He pushed past everyone so he could cross the room to Glitter. Once he was back at her side, she looked more relaxed. “Was just curious is all.”
He was lying. I barely knew my uncle, but even I could tell he wasn’t being honest with us. Even crazier was the fact that he wasn’t even trying to hide it. It was like he wanted everyone to know that there was more to the story that he wasn’t willing to share just yet. It had something to do with The Church and his supposedly divine state, I was sure of it, only I couldn’t figure out why Angus would want to align himself with them.
“Are we sure this is something we want to get ourselves involved in?” Al said, pulling everyone’s attention away from my uncle.
“What do you mean?” Mom asked.
“I mean,” Al replied, speaking slowly as if he was trying to figure out how to spell it all out, “Have we considered how this could turn out? I mean, most of the people in New Atlanta already believe that crazy woman is preaching the truth. If we involve The Church in our plans, if it gets out that Angus is actually alive, what do you think will happen?”
Mom and Lila exchanged a look, one that said they got where my uncle was coming from. I did too, and he was right. I hadn’t considered it until now, but this whole thing could turn out very badly.
“He’s right,” Parv said. “This is insane.”
“We shouldn’t have brought them into this,” Mom agreed.
“Can we still get out of it?” Lila looked around the room. “Separate ourselves from them somehow?”
Angus stiffened. “We ain’t backin’ out. It’s the only way.”
“Why?” I asked, speaking up for the first time. “Why is it the only way?”
“We need them,” Jada said. “We need the numbers and the distraction.”
“We could have had that without calling them here,” Al argued. “I mean, I know I’m not in your little club at the moment and I have no clue what you’ve been cooking up over the last few weeks, but you knew the festival was happening and that the city was already going to be distracted, so why bother even talking to that crazy woman?”
“Because we needed her to be ready,” Jada said calmly.
She and Jim stared at Al with unwavering, unblinking eyes.
“Ready for what?” Parv asked.
Jada let out a sigh and turned toward the door. “Follow me.”
We did as we were told, following her into what had once been a dining room but now looked more like a planning area. The chairs had been pulled away from the table and were lined up against the wall in case they were needed, and several different maps and diagrams were stuck to the walls with pushpins. A rough drawing of the wall surrounding New Atlanta, complete with notes and circled areas and even a few red X’s in certain places. A map of Georgia, one of all of Atlanta, old and new, and another drawing that had to be the layout of the back halls of the CDC, as well as others like it that I was sure were other floors and areas inside the building. They had it all.
Jada pulled the diagram of the wall surrounding New Atlanta down and spread it out on the table, motioning for all of us to gather around. I leaned forward, trying to get a look so I could identify the areas that had been circled. One was the gate, and next to it some notes had been written about the guard shifts as well as where the spotlights were. Another circled area had to be the wall right outside Dragon’s Lair, but the third was a place that I knew as well. A place I knew better than anyone else in this room. It was the section of the wall that I used to climb so I could look out over old Atlanta.
“We plan to go in during the festival,” Jada began once we’d all gathered around the map. “We’ll go back in the way we came, through the tunnel leading to Dragon’s. We’ll be able to wait in the basement until it’s time to make our move. ”
“How will we know when it’s time to make our move?” Parv asked, and I could tell by the way she had her eyes narrowed on the younger woman that she already had a good idea what was coming.
For my part, I was stumped. The only thing I could think was that they were going to cause some kind of scene—an altercation or something—at the festival. Maybe a riot. That might motivate Star to pull his guards out of the CDC, although even that was doubtful. There was really only one thing I could think of that would be big enough to need more gun power, and that was a breach.
My eyes snapped to Jada, who was staring at Parv calmly as if this whole thing were no big deal. When I looked at Jim though, the expression on his face was slightly more torn. There was pain in his eyes, but determination too.
Jada looked away from my aunt an
d tapped the place on the map that I’d already recognized. “This is where we will blow the wall. For some reason, this small section wasn’t cemented up like the rest of it was, so it will be easier to create a hole in it.”
“I think it was because of me,” I found myself saying as I stared at the map, thinking about all the hours I’d sat in that very place. “Jackson and I used to sit up there. I loved looking out over the old city, imagining what the world had been like. When they started sealing up the wall I was upset that I wouldn’t be able to climb it anymore. Jackson never confirmed that he had anything to do with it, but when that section got missed, he didn’t seem too surprised.”
“Well, it will help us,” Jada said, her gaze still on the map.
The realization of what was coming had my stomach in knots, and had me wishing that Jackson hadn’t done that for me. That this section hadn’t been missed. That it had been cemented up at the same time that rest of the wall had.
“We couldn’t get our hands on a lot of explosives,” Jada continued, “but since this section isn’t packed with cement, what we have should be strong enough to blow a hole in it.”
“Then what?” Mom asked, looking back and forth between Jada and Jim. It was obvious by the expression on her face that she had come to the same conclusion I had, but that she was hoping she was wrong.
“Zombies,” Jim said simply.
Silence stretched out across the room.
There had only ever been one breach in the history of New Atlanta, and it was the same one that had claimed Margot, as well as a dozen or so other people. Of course, we now knew that my sister hadn’t died after all, but that didn’t make the devastation of that day any less intense. We’d mourned for her, cried, we’d had a funeral even though we’d never recovered her body. If we let zombies into the city other people would go through the same thing. People would die. People would lose their children, their parents, their loved ones.
“We can’t.” Lila was the first to break the silence. “People will die.”
“Maybe,” Jim said, “but it’s for the greater good.”
“Greater good?” Mom shook her head and the expression on her face said that she thought he might have gone insane. “No. You can’t really think that.”
Jim’s blue eyes captured hers. “I do.”
“And if Amira were still here? If you’d had the family you wanted and they were in the streets when the zombies broke through, would you feel the same way?”
Jim’s entire body stiffened as he glared at Mom across the table. “She isn’t here, so there’s no use talking about it.”
“You know just as well as I do what the devastation of losing someone you love is like,” Mom said through clenched teeth. “How can you, of all people, be okay with this?”
“Because I know who took her from me and I will do whatever it takes to make sure they get what they deserve,” Jim said, his voice quivering with barely restrained fury. “If we don’t do this, who the hell knows how many more people will die.”
They stared at each other for a moment before Jim shoved away from the table and stomped out of the room.
Jada watched him go, the look on her face a mixture of jealousy and concern.
She didn’t let it distract her for long, though. Only a couple seconds later she had turned back to the map and was once again focused on the plan. “We’ll already have the zombies rounded up by that point. Max is going to lead a group into Atlanta to gather them. When the wall is blown open he’ll release them, and then one of our men will take off through the hole so we’re sure the dead head into the city. The blast will of course lead more zombies to the wall, but we want to make sure a big group gets in there as soon as possible.”
The tension grew as Jada went over the plan in more detail, but no one argued. Mom was right, but so was Jim. People were going to die, but we needed to distract the CDC so we could get in. It was the only way to get the failsafe Jane had told Angus about all those years ago, and getting it had to be our priority.
“You’re leading this thing?” Al asked Max, who was present in the room but still standing off to the side like he was only a spectator.
Max nodded. “Sure am.”
Al’s gaze moved to Max’s prosthetic legs. “What if things get out of control? Will you be able to run?”
“I’ll be about as effective as anyone else would be I suspect,” Max replied, his expression staying the same as if he was neither offended nor surprised by my uncle’s concerns. “Truth be told, I’ve had these things for so long that I barely remember what it was like to have real legs. Know what I mean?”
When Max stared pointedly at Al’s missing limb, my uncle frowned, but then let out a low laugh. “Yeah, I guess that’s true. Sometimes I wonder if I’d be as effective at my job if I still had both arms. I mean, putting my sword prosthetic on has to make me look pretty intimidating.”
Charlie rolled her eyes at her father. “Yeah, Dad, everyone is just terrified of an enforcer who can’t stop smiling and joking around.”
A little laugh moved through the room that seemed to lessen the tension. It wasn’t a lot, but it was enough that when Jada cleared her throat and continued, she didn’t get any glares.
“Once the zombies are inside there will be panic. Every available enforcer will be sent to take care of them, which will give us the opening we need.” She pushed the map aside and turned so she could grab another one off the wall, this one of the CDC. “Helen’s contact will meet us at this door—” Jada tapped her finger on the map. “—at ten o’clock on the dot. We can’t be late. Can’t miss him. This will be our only chance to get in. There are cameras everywhere, and after this Star will know that he has a spy working amongst his most trusted guards.”
“Who is this guard?” Mom asked, eyeing Jada doubtfully. “Who did you find to betray Star?”
“Helen found him,” Jada replied. “Years ago, back when she first got Glitter out.”
All eyes turned to the girl with the pink hair, who shifted closer to her father.
“He helped get me out too,” Angus said.
“Apparently this man had a family when Star released the virus. A wife and newborn twin sons.” When Jada pressed her lips together, she looked like she was on the verge of spitting. “He’s not the forgiving type, and when he found out that Star released the virus, he was more than happy to double cross the man.”
“Who could blame him?” Lila muttered.
“Exactly,” Jada replied.
“What do we do once we’re inside?” Parv asked, moving us back on track. “What then?”
“Helen will be with us, as will the guard. They both know the halls inside and out, and they will be able to get us where we need to go.” Jada ran her finger along the map, tracing a hall. “This is the observation wing where they keep all the test subjects. Axl, Margot, and Donaghy will all be there.”
Mom let out a deep breath like she was trying to hold it together, her eyes on the hall Jada had indicated. I looked at it too, thinking about how small the little squares seemed and how suffocating it must be in there.
“Then the failsafe?” Al asked.
“We gotta get somethin’ outta my old cell first.” Angus leaned forward and tapped one of the little squares. “A code Jane left behind. I tried to memorize it, but I think the drugs and stuff they gave me messed up my memory. I’d have it locked away one day, and then forget it completely the next.” He shook his head. “It’s a damn good thing I wrote it down.”
“How does this thing work exactly?” Parv said, looking up to meet his gaze. “What are we supposed to do with it?”
“Let it loose,” Angus said simply. “Jane said that all we’d hafta do is break the vial on the streets and it would work.”
“But how?” I asked him.
“Don’t know exactly. I ain’t a doctor and I can only tell you what Jane told me. That it would eat away at the zombies’ brains but leave people alone. That’s it.”
>
“It seems too simple,” Mom said.
“They’re already dead, though.” Lila looked around. “I mean, they aren’t alive, so who’s to say it would take something major to stop them? Maybe that’s the point. All this time people have been looking for a big, complicated solution to the problem that they totally overlooked the small things.”
More questions were thrown around, but it only took a minute for me to realize there were a lot more questions than there were answers. Angus was going by the word of a woman no one had trusted—except for him—and one everyone else seemed to despise even all these years after her death.
Jada finally raised her hand, putting a stop to the conversation. “We can go around and around about this all night, but it would be pointless. At least until we can talk to Helen. She has more information about how this thing works than we do.”
“She knew about it?” Parv asked.
Other than earlier when Angus revealed his love for the woman I could only think of as a mad scientist, my aunt had remained as unemotional as a statue throughout our planning. She’d always been reserved, but this ran much deeper, and it didn’t take a genius to realize it had a lot to do with Joshua and the baby they’d never had.
“Helen has worked deep within the CDC since the very beginning,” Jada replied.
Parv looked toward my uncle. “She was there, working on the same wing where you were held for all those years?” If the accusations in her tone weren’t enough, the look in her eyes when she moved her gaze to Glitter said it all. “She didn’t just stand by and watch it all happen, did she? She helped.”
Silence stretched over us. I didn’t know Helen that well, but the woman I’d gotten to know over the last few days didn’t seem like the type who would be okay with the things the CDC was doing, but she had to have been. She’d been there. She’d stood at Dr. Helton’s side and participated in experiments. She’d watched Angus suffer, knew Glitter was there and that she was suffering too. She’d known about Margot and Dad the first time I’d met her.
