Selah pulled up beside her and slowed to a fast walk. “Cleon, talk to us. What’s going on?”
“Father brought Mother and Dane to the Mountain, and he hired Jaenen to grab Mari. Apparently he’d been trying to find her long before we showed up in TicCity, and had stopped in her woods many times but could not lure her to show herself.”
“And I came out for you and Selah,” Mari said.
Cleon ran his hand through his hair and nodded. “Yeah, because of us, you and your people were found.”
Treva put her arm on Mari’s shoulder. “Thank you for risking yourself for Cleon and Selah. They are my family.”
Selah felt her face flush. It hit her much deeper than she’d expected to hear those words from Treva. She rested her arm on Treva’s shoulder, and the three girls kept their arm-to-shoulder link for at least ten steps before laughter overtook them.
Out of nowhere they were surrounded by seven militants brandishing weapons—knives, clubs, and a pulse disruptor with a TF insignia. Selah swallowed hard but her mouth had gone dry. That weapon had come from one of Mojica’s TFs. Selah slipped her knife from its sheath.
The four of them stood in a square pattern—Mari positioned on Selah’s right, Treva at her back, and Cleon to her left, where he kept them moving toward the hideout.
“Selah, do you see the disruptor?” Treva asked.
“I sure do,” Selah said. “I think we have a bunch of Green Court security here.”
“Should they be out this late at night without their mothers?” Mari waved her knife slowly in front of her, as if carving patterns in the men’s chests.
“If you ladies wouldn’t mind,” Cleon said, “I don’t have a weapon. Let’s not agitate the already agitated sea slugs.”
Selah snorted, bringing a hand to her mouth to cover her smile. Maybe it was nervous laughter or she was really tickled because her brother used her favorite descriptive phrase for annoying people.
The men moved closer. They were not the men from before.
Mari bounced from her place and rolled under one of the militants. His head hit the road, knocking him out. She snatched up his knife and jabbed at the guy trying to cut her off from Treva and Selah.
Mari rejoined the square. “Here, now you have a weapon. I hope you know how to use a knife for more than skinning rabbits.” She handed it to Cleon.
“Thanks, I think,” Cleon said.
Five of the militants charged, while the one carrying the pulse disruptor stood guard. One man with a club swung at Selah. She dodged the swing and stomped on his Achilles tendon as he turned. The man roared in pain and crashed to the road, clutching his leg.
Selah, confident of Mari’s skills, turned to help Treva with the men holding knives. The man in front of Cleon had the other club. Selah thought about swinging around and trying to take that one out too, but it occurred to her . . . he was allowing them to move up the street.
Her pulse soared. “Stop! There has to be a trap up there. We fight here.”
The guy with the pulse disruptor was still just standing there, not joining the action. Wary of when he’d start firing, Selah thought of two ways to tackle him. At the moment she wanted the guy with the club gone. He had the least damaging weapon, so if she took it out they could fight in teams of two against the three knives they were fending off.
She came up beside Cleon. The guy with the club swung it. They easily avoided it. He moved swiftly enough the second time that Selah misjudged his bouncing distance, and he hit her in the hip with a huge swing and a solid thud. She screamed out in pain and crumpled to the road. Cleon threw down his knife and went crazy on the man, knocking the club from his hand and beating him with his fists. Throwing punches was an apt description of Cleon’s childhood.
Selah saw stars and felt lightning shoot from her head, down her torso, and out her toes. Fiery heat radiated from her hip. It felt like her pelvis had split in half. She pressed her hand to the pain, trying to will it away, begging her body to heal itself so she didn’t die here.
Cleon and the club man were still throwing punches and occasionally rolling around on the ground without the pulse disruptor man getting involved.
Selah tried to get up from the ground, but her leg refused to hold her weight. It felt like her hip had been dislocated. She turned to crawl toward Treva. Maybe she could trip the guy for her.
One of the knife men knocked Treva to the ground. The one helping him turned his attention on assisting the last militant as he took down Mari.
Treva struggled with the man and knocked the knife from his hand. He rolled her over and straddled her with his knees pressing her to the road. Holding both her hands with one of his, he sought the dropped knife with his free hand.
Selah dragged herself toward them, trying to reach the knife first. She slumped from the separating pain wracking her hip.
The man grabbed up the knife. He let go of Treva’s hands, clutched the knife in both hands, raised it over his head, and started to plunge it into Treva’s chest.
Selah screamed. An arrow zipped through the air and landed in the center of the man’s chest. His eyes widened. He looked down at the arrow protruding from his chest as though he didn’t believe it. The barest dribble of blood spread out in an ever-growing circle around the arrow. His eyes closed and he slumped to the side.
Treva scrambled from underneath him. Arrows thumped the ground all around the attackers. Another militant was shot through the arm by the arrows raining from the nearby buildings. The other men dodged arrows for only a couple of seconds before they promptly ran away and left their dead friend. The one carrying the pulse disruptor dropped it in his escape from the road.
Selah still had her hands up covering her head. Later she would realize how useless an exercise that was. Cleon and Mari ran over to her while Treva retrieved the pulse disruptor. She hurried back.
“They’re coming! I see a lot of people, guys and girls with crossbows coming out of those buildings over there,” Treva said.
Selah grabbed the pulse disruptor and aimed it at them as they strolled closer, crossbows slung over their shoulders. They casually walked right up to Selah despite her holding the weapon at the ready.
“Hello. Let me guess. You don’t belong in Green Court.” The girl talking was fit and tall, with about a yard of black hair. Her tattoo was identical to the bird Selah had seen on Conti.
“No, we don’t belong here. We’re passing through to—”
“Yeah, I know, Duncan and Marrow,” the girl said.
Selah and the others exchanged startled glances.
“I noticed your tattoo. Are you related to Conti?” Selah asked as she winced in pain. Just trying to move in any position caused the stabbing rush to consume her thoughts till she wanted to scream.
“Yes, you can say we’re related. He told us to get you to the station without incident. Our Trac ends right before your station but we’re always itching for a fight, so we wouldn’t be averse to taking on those boys for you if necessary. We were a little late catching up to you. Sorry you got hurt.” The girl leaned down and looked at Selah. “It looks like your hip is dislocated. I can put it back in, but it’s going to hurt like all get-out.”
Selah didn’t care about the pain. She needed to get to the rest of her family and find Bodhi. “Yes, please do it. Then it can heal,” she said.
The girl looked at her oddly for a second and then sat on the ground in front of her. “I need you to lie flat, and don’t fight the way I’m going to turn you.”
Selah nodded.
“Someone give her something to bite on,” the girl said.
“I don’t need anything.”
“Trust me, you do,” the girl said.
Cleon stripped off his jacket and gave her the rolled sleeve to bite on. Selah sniffed at the pungent aroma and made a face.
“Let’s go, people. We don’t have all night,” the girl said.
Selah held her nose and bit down on the sleeve. The gir
l positioned her feet on opposite sides of Selah’s left hip, cradling her leg in between. She grabbed Selah by the foot, made her stiffen her leg, and rotated it back and forth. Sweat beads broke out on Selah’s forehead as she moaned in pain.
Her hip clicked back in the socket with a sharp sound. Selah screamed a guttural cry that bounced from the buildings in such a fashion that the returning sound scared even her. She dropped her head to the ground in exhaustion. Bodhi.
Within fifteen minutes Selah’s body had healed enough that they could stand her on her feet.
The girl looked at her, uncertain. “Are you sure you’re ready to go? It usually takes a couple of days to feel strong enough to walk. We were going to litter-carry you if necessary.”
“I’m going to be fine, but we have to leave.” Selah tested her hip. It held her weight. It was quite sore, but she was standing. She bent and picked up the pulse disruptor.
“Oh, that won’t work for you,” the girl said.
“Why not?” Selah asked as she pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. She pulled it again. Nothing.
The girl smiled. “That’s why that idiot holding it didn’t use it. He could have done better using it as a club.”
“Why won’t it work?” Selah looked it over for any obvious damage but saw none.
“They’re keyed to TF technology. If you aren’t wearing a uniform or accessories with TF signatures, it won’t fire.”
“Give it here,” Treva said, motioning with her hand. Selah handed it to her.
Treva fired off four pulses at an evergreen bush, making it ever dead.
The girl’s mouth opened in a perfect circle. “How did you do that?” She looked genuinely excited at the prospect of firing the weapon.
Treva held out her ComTex. “TF technology. We’re supposed to meet our support team at Duncan and Marrow, but we heard TFs had a showdown with Green security. Do you know if it was a unit at Duncan?”
The girl thought for a second.
Selah’s pulse pounded in her throat. Please don’t let it be Bodhi who was hurt.
26
12 Hours to Egress
Selah still worried about Bodhi even though the girl said his team hadn’t been the one attacked. With all the firepower she’d experienced in the Mountain, she still feared the worst. His safety came high on her list of wants. Without Bodhi and Mojica, she had little chance of saving her family from Varro and Jaenen, especially if Varro had the backup forces from Bethany Everling that Cleon had seen while in captivity.
“Help me understand,” Selah said to Treva as they walked. The limp from her hip had slowed them down considerably, but the pain diminished steadily. “I grew up believing the Mountain was some idyllic society that achieved utopia and we peasants should learn to emulate it. From what I’ve seen this time, in some ways it’s worse than the life I had in Dominion.”
“The Mountain has achieved perfection as far as no one going hungry or without a job, housing, or essentials, but that’s where the wall comes down. Class distinction is a part of life,” Treva said.
Selah took note of where they were. At night with no fake sun for illumination, it was hard to get her bearings. Yes, there were fake stars and a moon, but they were in the wrong place according to the sky outside. She had noticed most of the inside mimicked the outside, including time of day and weather. So this difference in star charts was jarring.
“So there are rich people and poor people?” she asked.
Treva snickered. “Not so much rich and poor as occupationally challenged.”
Selah stopped and looked at her. “What does that mean?”
“It means that people with jobs like scientists and top-school instructors don’t usually hang around with oil and gas drillers or farmers,” Treva said.
They turned the last corner of the section and stopped. When they crossed the road, they’d be out of Conti’s Trac and into someone else’s domain. The girl wouldn’t tell them who the boss was because she said he would rather kill outsiders than talk to them.
Cleon had been walking ahead, but he stopped when they did. “Are we crossing or waiting for traffic to go by?”
Selah sighed at his humor. “We had a chance to relax the last couple of sections with our shadows watching over us, but when we cross this road, we’re back on our own.”
Cleon looked up at the buildings surrounding them. “Are they really up there? Or did they just tell us that to get rid of us?”
Selah raised a finger. “Watch.” She put two fingers in her mouth and emitted a whistle shrill enough to wake a dog in Dominion. An arrow streaked by their location and thunked into a nearby tree. The fletching on the arrow vibrated to a stop.
Cleon ducked and moved ten feet away. “That’s why you and that girl had your heads together. You could have warned me first.”
“Yeah, that would have saved me a lot of vigilance,” Mari said. “I didn’t trust they would be there for us.”
“I confess, I thought the same way. That’s why I didn’t say anything. I was hoping but not convinced. Now that we’re about to leave their territory, I’m convinced.” Selah shook her head, raised her hand to wave goodbye to the air, and limped across the street with her crew.
“Before we start getting shot or attacked again, tell me why all these people are so hostile. They live in utopia, for crying out loud,” Selah said.
“Do you remember the history of the United States?” Treva stayed close to Selah and watched her surroundings.
Cleon groaned. “Don’t we have enough problems without you teaching Study Square?”
“Study Square?” Treva wrinkled her nose as though she smelled an odor.
Selah waved a hand. “Ignore him. He’s talking about school. Yes, I remember the history. That was my favorite part of our studies.”
“Think of the Mountain as the United States, each of the Courts as a state, and each of the Tracs as a town. History showed most of the United States never got along.” Treva waved her hands. “And neither do any of these. They’re just stuck a little closer together, space-wise.”
“When people don’t learn from their mistakes, they’re sure going to make them all over again. I guess that could go on—” Mari gasped and pointed to a figure halfway down the next section. “See the way that man walks?”
The other three slowed and observed.
“With his right arm much farther away from his body,” Selah said.
“Security people walk like that because they’re used to keeping their arm from brushing the weapon on their hip.” Cleon started moving a little faster toward the man.
“It’s a giveaway because it becomes a habit, and they do it even when they’re not wearing their weapon.” Mari pulled Cleon back. “Stop.” She turned to Selah. “That man is one of them. He was with Jaenen.”
“He’s probably one of Bethany Everling’s security, out of uniform so he doesn’t get spotted by the Politicos,” Treva said.
“We have to keep up with him,” Cleon said. “I know where I was held, but Father split me and Mother up when he saw us talking too much. If this man goes where Father is, then Mother must be nearby.”
“We have to use stealth, like when I’m tracking deer,” Mari said as she motioned them to the other side of the road. “Keep a tree between you and him at all times, whether on our side or his side of the road.”
Selah watched Mari work the hunt like Varro had taught her and the boys. She reached Mari and slowed her advance. “Varro taught us the same, so this guy might be ready for that approach.”
Mari stopped. “Straight point. Anybody got an idea of something he wouldn’t think of doing?”
“With it being dark, let’s follow along from this distance for a while.” Selah limped slowly down the other side of the street, staying against the buildings. “As long as the man is still in view, we’re not losing—”
A hand motioned to her from a doorway three feet ahead.
Selah tried to stop but was steppi
ng forward with her bad hip. She missed the step and nearly threw herself on the street. Bodhi darted from the doorway and caught her mid-fall, cradling her in his arms.
Every moment of the day crashed in on her at once. Selah burst into tears.
Mojica herded them into the open doorway and closed it behind them.
“I didn’t know if you were alive, and we couldn’t call you because of the stupid Politicos—wait, we saw a guard!” Selah pulled away from Bodhi and tried to run to the door. He held her arms and she tried to pry his fingers off. “We have to go! The guy is walking down the other side of the street. He’ll get away.”
“I know,” Bodhi said, still holding her arms. “We’ve been here since five o’clock this afternoon when you were due. We’re watching the commerce rental spaces Bethany Everling loaned Varro and his crew for trading inside the Mountain. We couldn’t converge because no one knew when you’d show up or what we might cause you to walk into.”
Selah grabbed his arm. “You found Mother?”
“Better than that. We found all of them in one spot. Apparently all is not happy in Bethany-land, and she’s told Varro to get his crews out of the Mountain in twenty-four hours.”
“We probably know why,” Selah said sheepishly. “We rescued Mari from Bethany and Varro, and we sort of dropped into their laps and had to beat them up and run away.”
Selah watched Bodhi and waited for the explosion. It was like he’d sucked all the air from the room.
Bodhi ran both hands through his hair. His face went crimson. He bit down on his lip, probably to keep from yelling, and walked away.
Mojica grinned and shrugged, giving Selah a wink. “News story of the hour—Varro is planning on moving his operation to another part of the Mountain. Seems he found a new benefactor.” Mojica motioned for Mari and Treva to accompany her to the operations layout.
“Why would he need a new benefactor? He’s paid back my dowry. This should be over,” Selah said to Cleon, grateful to Mojica for trying to defuse Bodhi.
Lightning Page 24
