by Rebecca Rode
The NORA receiver in my pocket vibrated, making me groan. Dresden. I had no idea what to tell him.
I cleared my throat, but my voice was still wobbly. “Ametrine here.”
“I shouldn’t be talking on this thing,” Maizel’s voice said. “But it’s really early and nobody was guarding it, so I thought I’d give it a go.”
I sat straighter. Odd. Why would Dresden leave the transmitter unguarded? “Is anything wrong?”
“Wrong question. Is there anything right? And no, there’s not. I mean, isn’t. There isn’t anything right, and everything’s blowing up in our faces. You wouldn’t believe what’s been going on here.”
Someone pounded on the washroom door. Finley went to block the door, her lips pressed in a firm line. I turned away, grateful for the privacy. “Tell me.”
“The citizens know about the war now,” Maizel said. “They’ve known for three days. I swear we didn’t tell them, but somehow they found out. It’s been spreading like an out-of-control fire, and there are riots, and people are trying to break down the walls to escape. The military keeps stunning people to keep them in, but there are too many to arrest, so they just get left in the street. And the lower colors are all fighting with each other, trying to steal each other’s food pills and supplies.”
My jaw dropped. I didn’t know what to say. All this had been going on for three days? Why hadn’t Dresden called me? “Tell me what the council is doing about it. Did Dresden issue a statement? Send more security?”
“My spies say the council had a big argument in their meeting yesterday and ended it early. Everyone was red-faced and angry when they left. The emperor didn’t go. He’s been acting really weird, like sitting in his room and refusing to leave. He won’t make any announcements.”
“He’s staying in his room alone?” Now that didn’t sound like him. Avoiding the spotlight was never a Dresden thing.
She hesitated. “Actually, that girl has been coming in and out, running errands for him and ordering servants around. Edyn. She says the pressures of leading a country to war have ‘rendered him ill.’”
I growled. Of course that girl would have her hands in this. Since Vance sent her to NORA, Edyn had grown increasingly secretive. I should have known.
Dresden was such an idiot.
“I need to talk to him,” I insisted. “Can you have someone fetch him?” The other end of the receiver was too large to carry around, so we’d put it in a utility room near the roof and rigged a powerful antenna. The system dated back to Old American days, but NORA didn’t have the advanced international communications systems other countries did, and it worked well enough.
She snickered. “Go wake up the emperor this time of night? Right, if you want me thrown in jail. I’m supposed to be a NORA guard, remember? New recruit, even. I don’t go ordering the emperor about.”
I sighed. “Is he still asleep?”
“If he’s smart. It’s early here, remember?”
“I’ll call again in a couple of hours, then, and I’ll keep calling until he answers.” It would give me time to gather my thoughts.
“How are things on your end?”
I hesitated. “Not good.”
Maizel cursed, a word I’d never imagined coming from her lips. “We’re all going to die, aren’t we?”
We were like a cornered animal, knowing the predator was sneaking up and having no recourse. People talked of animals like they were lesser beings, but perhaps that wasn’t the case. We acted like them all the time.
Kill or be killed.
I felt the outline of Peak’s diary in my bag. We weren’t out of options yet. When it came to the survival of my people, I would do anything. Anything. Just like my grandfather had once done, and just like every family member since.
“No,” I said. “No, we aren’t going to die. There’s one thing I haven’t tried.”
“It better be good,” Maizel said. “And quick, too, because this country is falling apart. There won’t be much left for the Eastern Alliance whatever-it’s-called to conquer if you wait much longer.”
“I’ll be in touch,” I assured her.
I closed the call and stood, resolve filling my body like molten lava. I was done with this. No more politics, no more tiptoeing around. It was time for desperate measures, and I was as desperate as a person could get.
Chan’s note confirmed one thing in my mind, and that was the fact that the Russian president was being coerced into this. Whatever agreement they’d reached was probably based on blackmail and promises of power from a single source, a source that had to be removed.
It was time to kill President Chiu.
It was the middle of the night at the settlement when I landed atop the rim. The valley below was dark except for the moon’s blue reflection on the water below. Even the usual tiny pinpoints of lanterns held by our night guards were absent. It was like any signs of life had been completely extinguished. I suppressed a shiver and grabbed a few boxes to carry down. I had no lantern, but that didn’t matter. I’d traversed this mountain many times in the darkness.
I encountered no one on the way to Ruby’s hut. The place had become a ghost town, and the banner—my banner—flapped far too loudly from its place on the pole near the cafeteria. I counted the dark structures in the moonlight until I found Ruby’s, then shoved my way past her tattered curtain. A hand lantern sat overturned near the opening. I flipped it on. It bathed the area in a dim light that barely helped. “Girls? Ruby?”
No answer.
I lifted the lantern toward the bed. Empty. The blankets were missing. Then I remembered that Selia had been caring for them. Of course they wouldn’t be here.
As I turned to leave, my boot caught on something. I lowered the lantern and leaped back in horror.
A man lay there on his stomach, arm outstretched toward the doorway, head turned to the side. His eyes were open, glazed, sightless. His lips were pulled back as if snarling. Dried blood stained his teeth.
I knelt by the body, holding the lantern above the dead man. He’d been gone for a while, judging by the smell. At least a day. Why hadn’t anyone moved him?
“What were you doing in an old woman’s tent?” I muttered. I examined the room again, more carefully this time. Two beds stood near the back. Ruby had shared this hut with three other women. A long figure lay in one of the beds, facing away from the door.
I approached slowly. Strands of silver lay strewn across the pillow. There was no sound, no movement. I stood over her and dared to look at her face.
It wasn’t Ruby.
The relief was short-lived. Her eyes were wide in horror, frozen in death. Dried blood trickled from her lips like drool. This woman and the man on the floor had died in a similar way. Dread slammed into my consciousness. Laura and Lucy.
Within seconds my boots pounded the ground outside. I’d left the lantern behind, but it barely registered. I was entirely focused on a single hut near the rim. Selia’s place. No light shone from the structure.
A figure came outside as I approached. Selia. She’d aged ten years since I left, her eyes swollen, her shoulders hunched.
“Did you bring supplies?” she asked, then coughed into her hand. She wiped it on her pants.
I’d left the boxes by Ruby’s hut, but they could wait. “You’re sick too? Let’s get you inside.”
A flash of her usual spunk returned, and she pushed me away. “There’s no time for that. Did you bring supplies or not?”
“Yes, some.”
“If we’ve got—” She coughed again, and I detected a thickness in her lungs. “If you brought clean water, that’s a start.”
“Are my sisters inside?”
“Yep, sleeping away. I checked on them a few minutes ago.”
My shoulders sagged with relief. “Any news from the lab? Did they find a cure for the poison?”
“That’s the weird thing,” she muttered. “The physician assumed it was poison because of our symptoms, but the
scientists said that was impossible, that poison would get diluted in such a huge body of water. I told them to look into it anyway, and I got the report back just before you arrived.”
“And?”
“Coltrane said they’ve detected no poison in the lake water. Not a drop. No malicious bacteria, either.”
I stared at her. “That’s impossible.”
“But they did find something. A molecular compound or something like that. The compound attaches itself to the water molecules themselves. It literally dissolves the water from the inside.”
I let that sink in. “So the lake water—”
“—has literally been disintegrating,” she finished for me. “Yes. And it’s in the wells, too, which makes me think the compound was planted there intentionally.”
“But then why would everyone get sick at once?”
“Coltrane said there are traces of the compound in the water packets they’ve been drinking from a few weeks ago, but the levels are minute. Just enough to wreak havoc with the water itself but too diluted to affect the humans who drink it. But then they tested the water from two days ago.”
“The levels were higher.”
“About five thousand times higher,” she agreed.
Five thousand times? I slowly shook my head in disbelief. “Then it was definitely deliberate.” A compound that attached itself to water . . . and ate it from the inside. The damage that could do to a human body, which was mostly water—it was the worst kind of death imaginable.
“I think that’s safe to say. What I don’t understand is why it would hit some people harder than others. The first to get sick were the lifelong settlers, underground and otherwise. Those who’ve spent time in NORA are faring a little better—some aren’t sick at all. Not sure why that is.”
Why, indeed. My thoughts stumbled over each other, refusing to make sense of it. Molecular compound. Intentional tampering. Where would Ju-Long have gotten such a weapon? It had already been in the water while he was imprisoned.
Unless it wasn’t Ju-Long at all.
“I know it’s a lot to take in,” Selia said.
“My sisters,” I said. “I want to see them.”
“There’s a lantern just inside,” she said. “They’re toward the back. Careful where you step.”
Selia’s hut was far larger than ours, but I hadn’t expected to see so many bodies in there. It seemed she’d moved several of the settlers in as well. Two and sometimes three people lay in each bed, head to feet, and sleeping bodies were sprawled across the floor. I turned the lantern onto the lowest setting and picked my way carefully through. Nobody woke.
I studied each face on my way back. None had the glazed eyes and bloody teeth, but it was obvious by the rasping and coughing that they all shared the same symptoms.
Two smaller bodies hugged each other in the smallest bed. I narrowly avoided stumbling over an elderly man on the floor in my haste to reach them.
Lucy was the closest. I touched her shoulder and recoiled from the heat. Her small body shivered despite her blanket cocoon. I placed my palm on her forehead. It was drenched with sweat. Her body had obviously taken a huge hit trying to fight this thing.
“They’ve been asleep all day,” Selia whispered from the tent entrance. “Lucy woke up once, but she didn’t seem very coherent. She asked for her mother and went back under. I’ve been slipping them broth made from what little clean water we had.”
She asked for Mom. I closed my eyes against a memory of my mother sitting on the bed, spoon-feeding broth into my mouth as I lay sick at age seven. Her face was worn, her eyes red from lack of sleep, her clothing rumpled. The concern on her face had warmed me even more than the broth.
Sitting on the bed, I took Lucy into my arms and pulled her across my lap. She didn’t stir. She just lay there limply. Laura whimpered next to us, and I took her hand. It was clammy and cold.
Our family was disintegrating just like the lake. If I lost these girls, too—I couldn’t lose them. That was that.
“We need to discuss our next course of action,” Selia said, stepping closer so she could lower her voice. “How long will your supplies last?”
“Not long. A few days, if we’re lucky.” We could pour clean water down the throats of every sick person, but it would only delay the compound’s effects.
Selia nodded as if she’d expected that answer. “What we really need is medicine. Something to counteract whatever this thing is. I know you don’t want to hear this, Vance, but I think it’s time we considered asking NORA for help.”
Anger rose in my chest, but she held up a hand.
“I know what you’re going to say, but hear me out. Those of us who’ve lived there aren’t as affected. If we could get the sickest people into their hospitals, maybe they can help us. Just to buy us time until we figure out another solution.” She looked down at Lucy in my arms. “You know how much I hated NORA and what they did to my boys. Trust me, I wouldn’t suggest this if there was another way.”
I clasped my sister to my chest. She shuddered and gave a long sigh, then went limp again, her chest moving slowly with each labored breath. Could I face Bike Boy and his minions again if it meant saving my sisters? My people? Bike Boy would love to get his clutches on my people, to make us all slaves again under his rule. Or soldiers in his army, considering the circumstances. With the ECA coming any day, going to NORA now seemed like the worst idea imaginable.
“I’m going to start bringing down the supplies,” she said. “They’re on the rim?”
“No, Selia. You need to rest.” Where, I didn’t know. There wasn’t even floor space here. I swept the hair out of Lucy’s eyes and lay her gently down on her pillow, which was damp. “I’ll go. But first I need to check on Ruby.”
Selia stopped and turned slowly around.
I froze. “She’s already gone.”
“No, but it won’t be long. I doubt she’ll survive another day. She’s closer to the door.” She pointed at a bed with three tangled figures all covered with a single blanket.
Ruby lay closest to the aisle of the makeshift hospital. Her body was curled up much as Lucy’s had been. Instead of sweat, her body was ice cold. I nearly recoiled before realizing she was still breathing. Her cheeks had grown sallow and pale since I’d left.
Guilt sat solidly in my gut.
Selia was right. Ruby didn’t have long, not without a miracle. NORA could give us that miracle.
A tiny, thin scar ran down the length of her forehead. I fingered a similar one on my own. It was a connection few would understand. We’d both lived there and survived, then fought to escape. The ugliness of the society had been too much for us, and yet now we were faced with having to return.
There was no guarantee going to NORA would work. But the small chance that it could work gave me a sliver of hope, and that was dangerous, because this was all very personal now.
If anything, this was my punishment for leaving the girls here alone. If I’d stayed, I could have stopped it somehow.
I should have stopped it.
And it wasn’t only my sisters but my people who had placed their trust in me despite my past. I refused to let them down again, even if it meant dancing with the devil himself.
“I’ll bring the supplies down,” I said and slipped out of the shelter. “Then I have a call to make.”
I swore. “That’s not enough, and you know it.”
“My apologies.” Edyn’s voice was anything but apologetic. “The emperor has been under a lot of stress lately. You should take his offer. I had to pull him out of a meeting to get an answer at all.” I could just see her smug smile on the other end.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. That playwright knew what he was talking about.
I turned and looked down over the valley. The sun had risen sometime in the last hour, and there were finally signs of life below. Smoke plumed upward from campfires, but not nearly as many as usual. I dreaded sending someone around for last
night’s death count.
“We’re not crossing the desert to have Dresden shove us into some makeshift tent across town,” I told Edyn. “These people need medical care. They’re going straight to the hospital or we aren’t coming at all.”
Her voice went soft and coy. “I just can’t believe the great Vance Hawking is begging permission to return to NORA. I thought you were too good for this.”
My hands curled into fists, and it was all I could do not to snap back at her. Edyn wasn’t the one who’d lived two years in that blasted place, a military slave whose family was kept under guard. She hadn’t sold her soul every day while arresting her own people and silently mourning her father’s death. I’d sent Edyn over to help us, and now that her time had arrived, she was too busy gloating to do anything.
Like a growing seed, a suspicion buried itself in my mind, and I chose my next words carefully. “Is his bed comfortable, Edyn? Because I’d hate for you to sell out your own people for anything less.”
Silence.
“That’s what I thought.”
“You have no idea what’s really going on here,” she growled.
“I see. Then what part isn’t true, selling out or sharing his bed?”
There was a sharp intake of breath on the other line, and then her voice went cold and quiet. “Shut your lying mouth right now and listen to me. NORA’s in an uproar, and people are killing each other in the streets—high and low colors alike. This isn’t the time for you to dump seven hundred sick people into the chaos. Our medics are already working triple shifts. Personally, I don’t see why Dresden’s willing to take you in at all, so take what you can get. The transports will be there tonight.”
The line went dead.
I threw the receiver. It hit a rock and bounced to the ground. Not broken, although I almost wished it was.
Lightning streaked across the sky in the distance toward NORA. As always, it was tinged with green. No clouds gathered to release their precious water into the earth. There had to be somewhere the atmosphere hadn’t been polluted in the Great War all those years ago.
