“Certainly you’re not naïve enough to think I didn’t know about them. I welcome them. When they first started popping up years ago, I quashed them. But I’ve discovered that they give kids a way to blow off steam. It’s amazing what happiness it brings to kids when they think they are getting away with something. Of course, I monitor them closely, and if they get close to doing something they shouldn’t, I put an end to it.”
I tried not to look too crestfallen, but wasn’t sure if I’d managed it. He couldn’t know about all of them, could he?
“I let them go wild for a day and a half so that I have a captive audience for five and a half. It’s a good trade-off don’t you think?”
I was struggling to pull all the hope I’d felt earlier from off the floor, but I squeaked out a yep, before it got too awkward.
“Yes. I give them everything they need to feel like they are pushing the limits so they keep working. It helps keep their creative juices flowing. It’s great. They know to report to me. It all works out nicely. There is no way any of them can escape.”
He looked me square in the eyes, unflinching. A warning. I must heed it, or die.
He turned the conversation back to planning the president’s poetic death.
We’d figured out how to get the slow-acting drug on the podium and microphone. We made doubly sure his personal physician wouldn’t help him once at the hospital and that the roads would be sufficiently blocked.
The days we discussed the assassination, he seemed remarkably lucid, but other times, I really wondered. Half of the time I was with Sterling, we watched TV encircled by the elements, which was still just completely bizarre. One day he took me into his special room. When he opened the door, he took in a deep breath through his nose and then let it out through his mouth. He raised his arms in the air like a conductor and then stepped in. The room was a large square with a bunch of rainbows all over. On the rainbows were animals, people, and buildings but the colors of those things were way off. The dogs were green, the cats purple, the people all different colors, as well as the buildings. Everything had its own distinct color.
His mind was so different from Dakota’s. I couldn’t help but admire Dakota for keeping his wits about him. I couldn’t imagine how it must have been to live your whole life with a madman. How could you stop yourself from going mad?
“Isn’t it beautiful? It’s my little color world. If I’d have been God, I would have colored everything like this.” As I moved closer to the walls, I noticed everything that was the same had the same color. All horses were gold, all lizards were yellow, and so on. I tried to look amazed and delighted because I knew that’s what he wanted.
At our next meeting, he was back to business. We went over the plans about the president that we’d already made. Sterling went over the president’s schedule for a typical day during the week and one when he was scheduled to speak. We discussed security on the routes he’d taken and how to thwart those plans. He pulled up diagrams of the area where the hospital was located, but no street signs or real buildings were shown. Boxes were marked “building” and streets were labeled with the alphabet.
All our talk about power failures for the mission got me to thinking about how handy they were and really, how easy it was to cause one.
After waiting patiently for a long time, I finally met with the TV guys again and watched a fun show. I pulled who I’d figured was the leader to the side as everyone was leaving. “Have you ever tried to get a radio signal?” I whispered.
“Of course. I’ve been here for four years.”
“So you weren’t able to get a signal?”
“We got signals all right, all kinds of signals coming in, but we couldn’t transmit out.”
“Is it because of faulty equipment or lack of the right equipment?” I shifted my weight.
“I think it was lack of the right equipment. Something messes with outgoing signals here. If we could find a way to disrupt that, we could get a signal out.” He rubbed his five o’clock shadow.
“Could a power failure cause that?”
“Sure. If electronics can’t disrupt the signal, we might have a shot at getting a signal out.”
“How long would we have?” I asked.
“It depends on how fast the electricity came back on, but I’ll estimate about twenty seconds.” He frowned.
“If I provided you with a power failure, would you send my twenty second Morse code message?”
“Now you’re talking,” he said, whistling. “I’d have to know exactly when this power outage would be occurring. You better pare that message down to fifteen seconds to compensate for human error.”
“No problem. And how long do you think we’d have if you had this and a power failure?” I held up the lip balm.
“Chapstick? What do you think Chapstick is going to do?”
“That’s the best part. It isn’t Chapstick. It’s an amplifier/blocker.”
“Huh?”
“If you press the bottom, it blocks signals from being intercepted. It was coded to a tracker in my arm, but I’m sure you can recode it and use it to get a longer, completely secure signal out.”
He reached for it. I pulled it back.
“My message goes out first.”
His eyes shifted to mine. “Fine.” He raised his eyebrows.
I handed it to him. “I’ll let you know when we’re going to have the power down.”
I had Zoey sold on the idea of getting a radio signal out, and we brainstormed how to do it.
I asked the subversives to please give me any information they had on the power in this place. I wasn’t hopeful. I was getting less and less information from them as time went on. I figured they didn’t know whether to trust me or not. It was just like Duncan and Frankie. I wasn’t sure what side they were on. Two days later, I got detailed drawings and specs on the power to this place.
When I saw Zoey next, I hugged her hard.
“I guess you got it?” She smiled.
“Yes. Thank you. I’m sure they wouldn’t have sent it if you hadn’t intervened.”
“You got that right. They are so suspicious. And it cost me.”
“Whatever chores you have to do, I’ll do them for you,” I said.
“It’s not chores. Adam wants three dates with me.” She frowned.
I laughed out loud then covered my mouth and giggled. “He totally likes you. How cute.”
“It’s not cute.”
“Come on,” I said. “He’s not that bad.”
“I know. I just hate to be forced into it.”
“Just keep in mind that you are forging the way for us to escape, and the cost will be small.”
“You better get us out of here. Could you hurry up?” She giggled and slapped me lightly in the arm. I laughed.
In the diagrams, I’d noticed some important connections, like cable and Internet. I sauntered out to the middle of the baseball diamond. The techies searched me and demanded I tell them what I needed quickly because they were busy.
“I need to talk to Rakon,” I said. “Alone.”
“Ooooh!” came out of almost all the other techies’ mouths. Rakon gaped at me.
“You can’t,” the leader said. But Rakon was already standing, heading my way. The leader tried to get in his way, but he pushed past him.
We walked around the circle of techies and about half way to the far side of the diamond.
“If I knew where the Internet and cable lines came into this place, could you attach directly to them and have Internet and cable?”
“Of course.”
“Would you be detected?”
“It’s hard to say. The shorter the amount of time I was in, the smaller the possibility. That would mean I’d need the password. It usually takes me three to five minutes to get past that stuff. We’d probably have three minutes total before we were detected. Of course, if we used the line while a bunch of other stuff was traveling the same lines, it might give us another two
minutes.”
I thought about this.
“Are you saying you know where the cables are?” he asked, eyes wide, sparkling in the moonlight.
“I might. And if I did, I’d need you to send my message first.”
“Is it long or would I have a chance of sending one, too?”
“Mine isn’t long or complex. I’m sure you could send yours, too.” I shifted my weight to my right foot. “I need to look into a few things. This is between you and me, you hear?”
“Sure. No worries. I stuffed this conversation in my vault, and no one’s gonna get to it.”
“Thanks, Rakon. By the way, do you know Frankie?” I tilted my head to the side and raised my eyebrows.
“Who doesn’t? She’s a babe.” He snorted and chuckled.
“Well, she thinks you’re a babe,” I said, smiling brightly.
“No way,” he said.
“Yes way,” I said. “Just some food for thought. I better scram. I’ll be in touch.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
I met with Zoey and filled her in on the developments of our escape plan. Things were really looking great. If I could get to the Internet cables and have Rakon send out an email then immediately cut the power to the compound, making sure the generators couldn’t kick in for at least four minutes and with the aid of the lip balm, I might be able to get a radio transmission and an email out to Division.
Tomorrow, I would physically locate the cables with Zoey and see if the gardeners had some tools that might cut through wire. The gardeners might end up being a very important part of my plan. I was up most of the night going through every possible problem we might run into and making sure there was no way the TV guy or Rakon would be discovered.
I woke to a message beeping on my tablet. It was ten. I shot up. Had I missed class? I tried to rub the sleep from my eyes as my mind focused. It was Sunday. It was okay to sleep in. I let out a deep breath and looked at my tablet. Why had it beeped?
Dakota wanted to meet me in an alcove on the north side of the main building. While I’d missed him, I’d been so busy, his absence wasn’t painful this time. I had started reckoning my time with Dakota’s absence and presence. That meant I’d been here almost five months. I hadn’t given up on the idea that Jeremy would be saving me. He simply couldn’t find me yet. I had to save myself, and I would. I hoped it would be Dakota that gave me my break.
When I got to the alcove, he handed me a letter, but I didn’t get to read it. I had to slide it behind some bushes behind us because someone approached.
It was Sterling. When he saw us together, he said, “Son, what is this?”
Without even a second’s hesitation, he said, “Father, we just ran into each other, and she wanted to see if I would help her escape since I wasn’t wearing the neckband.”
A ball of fire tried to annihilate my insides, but I forced myself to stay calm.
“Did she?” he said, walking around me like he was assessing his prey.
“She thought I would help her.”
“Is that true?”
The word true hit me hard, and I knew that if I told the truth, I wouldn’t live. I had to go along with his story, as stupid as it was. “Of course,” I said, pushing my hip out in defense of myself. What else could I do?
He pushed something on his wrist, but he wasn’t wearing a watch or anything that I could see. “Well, I thought we were coming along, but apparently, we weren’t. I thought you understood the importance of our mission.”
“Maybe I wanted to do it on my own.” I was faking the attitude and it got harder to do as time went on. I knew I was in deep trouble.
A couple guards came and took me into custody, holding my arms tight. I struggled but I knew I stood no chance against Sterling and his army. I would have to endure whatever punishment he was about to give. My insides seemed to be filled with scaly worms, cutting into my gut.
“No. That’s just not possible,” Sterling said. “You work as part of this team or not at all. I think what you have done shows me that you are not. It hurts me, really.” His voice was devoid of feeling, and the guards took me into the building.
“Admit it,” I said as the guards dragged me down the hallway toward Sterling’s dining hall. Both Sterling and Dakota walked in front of us. “If you were in my position, you’d be doing the same thing.” I had to keep playing up this angle hoping he would show some mercy. He would do just as I was doing.
He didn’t answer until we were in his dining hall, and the wait made me wonder if I’d misjudged him. Ice seemed to form on my spine. We stopped by the table, Sterling and Dakota stood to our left.
“It’s true. It’s hard to work together on something like this. I think I better make my position abundantly clear. It would do you well to remember who your master is. Do you understand?”
I nodded. Then something crushed my neck. An invisible hand? No. It was the neckband. I leaned forward, gasping for air, but unable to get a breath. Nothing would come into my lungs and nothing would come out. I would die of suffocation. The guards held my arms tight—I couldn’t even reach for the offending band.
“This little act of insubordination requires a bit of swift justice I’m afraid.” His tone was icy cold and flat.
Then the pressure on my neck subsided, and I coughed and pulled hard on the air around me to fill my aching lungs. “Please,” I croaked. “I’m sorry. I just wanted to be in control. Under the same circumstances, you’d have done the same thing.” I looked at him, forcing a look of pleading to take over the look of hatred in my eyes.
“But I’m not in the same position, am I? I don’t have time to worry about your loyalty to me and our cause. I truly believed we could work together, you and I, but no, we are no longer a team.” He looked off into some unknown section of the ceiling, a look of despondence and betrayal on his face, as if he’d just lost his best friend.
Dakota looked pale and stood there beside Sterling, unmoving.
“I am your master, your King, and you do as I decree. Misha Roberts. You have been charged and found guilty of disloyalty. You shall be punished in a manner that ensures the infraction will never again occur. The severity of the punishment will match that of the crime. You will remember to treat me as your King. Who is your King, girl?”
“You are, sire,” I said, figuring humility was in order, and bowed. In truth, I wanted to send a crushing blow to his larynx.
“I am. Who is your King?” This time he said it louder, with more force.
“You, your Majesty,” I said, bowing once more. My anger had turned into a lance in my chest. It begged to be released.
“I think ten stripes should do it,” Sterling declared.
What were stripes? Did I want to know? Could he mean ten tigers? I was so wound up, I could feel the tension in my ears.
“Take her to punishment alley, please,” he said, waving his hand toward me. “Room fourteen.”
“Your Majesty,” I said. “Should I be punished for not wanting to be tethered to another human being? I made a mistake. Forgive me, please. Aren’t I allowed one mistake?”
“Don’t beg, Misha. It doesn’t become you.”
Dakota had once used almost those exact same words with me. It made me sick.
“You are going to learn that you will always be tethered to me. Learn to like it. Crave it or you won’t be.” They grabbed me and brought me to a door on the left side of the room.
He then pushed his wrist again and said, “Please bring Yellow, Frankie to punishment alley room fourteen.”
I craned my neck back to see him and he said to the men taking me, “She goes in the middle of the room.”
“Yes, sir.”
The hallway we entered was all white and plain. At the end, they opened a door that led into another corridor. The walls, ceiling, and floor were made of stones. We had reached punishment alley. The numbers were made of wood and hung above each door. I counted down the numbers until we hit fourteen. Near e
ach of the four walls and in the center of the room were sets of hand and foot manacles. They took me to the ones in the middle of the room and had me facing away from the door. The manacles clanged into place around my ankles, and after they stretched my arms high above my head, the hand manacles clanged into place on my wrists. I was not stretched to the intolerable level, but I wasn’t comfortable, either.
I heard someone coming so I twisted my body to see. Sterling and Dakota came in followed by Frankie, who walked in willingly, without force. Guards were on her back, however. Upon seeing me, she gasped and said, “Oh my gosh! What did you do? What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything,” I said.
“The truth, girl. Give her the truth.” Sterling walked in a slow circle around me while saying, “She was trying to plot an escape with this young man.” He pointed to Dakota. I saw Frankie’s eyes fall on him and show recognition, but she didn’t say anything about it. I thought she’d yell at him, accuse him, something.
“It’s true,” Sterling said, “and it was foolishness, I tell you. Foolishness. And I’m sorry to tell you that her foolishness has caused us to have to include you.”
Realization dawned on her and her eyes grew wide. She turned to leave, but the guards grabbed her. She screamed and pulled, but they were easily able to lock her hands and feet into the manacles on the wall in front of me, her face turned to the wall.
My whole body shook. “Let her go!” I screamed. I was cold to the bone.
“I knew this would be an effective punishment for you,” Sterling said. “I’m truly sorry about that, but the punishment has to fit the crime. Only hurting you wouldn’t be half as effective as hurting your friend.”
I had played into his hands. I should have been impassive, pretending it didn’t bother me that he was planning to hurt her. It made him even more excited about his chosen punishment. I had been a fool. If only I could have pretended she meant nothing to me.
“You will feel the depth and breadth of what you’ve done,” he cooed. “Emotions are so powerful. It’s simply your bad luck, Frankie, that she likes you. It’s not a good position to be in right now.”
Adrenaline Rush Page 23
