“He did.”
“So he can survive this.”
Violet shook her head. “I don’t know. I’m not convinced. We’ve all got a day to die, and those days have come closer now with the outbreak. What if his day is now?”
“You can’t think like that. Like, ever,” Missy said. “It’s disheartening.”
“It’s honest.”
Missy sipped at her wine. “They’ll be fine.”
Violet shrugged. “I hope so.”
There was a knock at the door. They paused, wondering who it could be. “Are you expecting anybody?”
Heidi shook her head, getting to her feet. “It’s probably Cedric.”
She walked out into the hallway, heading towards the door. Violet hurried after her, waiting at the stairs.
Heidi unlocked the heavy door and pulled it open. “Ruby! Great to see you!”
Ruby Minister smiled, holding a bottle of champagne and looking at Violet. “I hear its somebody’s birthday!”
“It is!” Violet said, though she was panicked. Ruby would notice that the others weren’t here. They couldn’t tell her what was happening. “Why are you here?”
Ruby looked affronted. “Can I not come and wish you a happy birthday? I’d like to exchange a hand and offer my friendship! I know Cedric can be a bit uptight, but I’m one of the girls, too.”
Violet looked at Heidi for help. Heidi cleared her throat. “We’re not really doing anything. Violet is just going to have a quiet night. Go to bed…”
“Blah!” Ruby said, walking in to the house and shutting the door. Heidi placed a hand on the lock. “It’s your birthday! We need to celebrate!” She strutted her long legs into the kitchen. She smiled at Caroline and Missy. “Looks like you are having a few drinks! That’s good! Where’s everyone else?”
Ruby turned to see Violet and Heidi exchanging looks.
“They’re…” Missy began, but she stopped. She had no answers.
Ruby dropped her happy girl image. She looked genuinely panicked. “Where are they?”
Violet swallowed. For some reason, she felt nervous. “They’re breaking Connor out from V. They’ve gone to government headquarters.”
Ruby gasped. She dropped the bottle of champagne to the floor. It smashed. Fizzing champagne pooled out around her feet. She couldn’t allow The Louvre to be infiltrated. If she did, she would be in trouble.
“Why would you send them out there?” Ruby gasped. “Don’t you know how dangerous that is? Does Cedric know? Maria?”
Violet shook her head. “Nobody was doing anything, so we decided to take things into our own hands.”
Ruby shook her head, her blonde hair rippling. “No, no. No, that is awful. I have to tell someone.” She took out a phone from her small handbag and began dialling numbers. Her fingers dialled the wrong numbers and she cursed.
“Ruby, what are you doing?” Missy asked.
“Ringing Maria.”
“You can’t.”
Ruby placed the phone to her ear and after a few moments she spoke. “You need to get over here. Right now.”
She hung up.
“Who did you call? Maria?” Violet furiously questioned. “How dare you? Real smart.”
“No, I rang Cedric. But he will be just as angry about this.”
“Why should he be angry?” Violet fired back. “We’re the ones who have a right to be angry. The Union aren’t doing a fucking thing to save Connor, or Winter’s parents. How do you think that makes us feel?”
“I know it’s difficult but to go out unsupervised is dangerous.” Ruby shook her head. “I just can’t believe you’ve been doing this.”
“If The Union paid us attention, maybe you could have stopped us,” Caroline said, surprising Ruby.
“How long have you been planning this?”
“A month or two,” Violet answered.
Ruby looked like she was going to faint. She gripped the chair and looked at Violet. “A month or two?”
“Yes. Give or take. I can’t be specific for you.” Violet strode to the window, where the blinds were drawn, and lifted them up. They shot up, rattling as they did so. She pointed outside, to the darkness, to the skies that were full of stars that were untouched. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Ruby, but Paris is fucked. I’m sure the rest of France is fucked just as much, too. We need to take action; otherwise we’re going to be in a lot of trouble. The Union have words, but they don’t have action. Which is why we’re here. We put action into your empty words.”
Ruby looked like she wanted to slap Violet. An emerald ring on her finger glistened. “You’ve broken in to government headquarters, where Blitzers keep guard. Your friends aren’t going to get out of that place alive.”
It stunned Violet to hear the words from someone else. It made her worry for Zach, lose faith in the plans she had helped made, but had been forced not to be a part of.
“If you hadn’t have come tonight, Ruby, you wouldn’t have ever found out,” Violet said, as calmly as she could. “They’re going to be fine. They’re going to come back tonight with Connor, and Mr and Mrs Smith. They’re going to be fine.”
“If you believe that you’re deranged.”
There was a knock at the door. Violet glared at Ruby. “Are you going to answer that?”
Ruby didn’t move. She stared at Violet, but finally broke ground. She composed herself with shaking hands and strutted out of the room. As she was halfway to the door, she heard a commotion from the other side. Cedric was shouting, there were arguments, and then there were bullets, raining on the door.
“Shit.” Violet exclaimed, coming up behind Ruby as Cedric pounded on the other side.
Ruby opened the lock and pulled the door open just wide enough for Cedric to get through. The bullets stopped, but heavy footsteps came towards them.
Cedric gripped Ruby’s toned arms. “Get ready. They’ve followed me.”
They had no time to ask questions. Cedric darted into the living room, leaving Ruby and Violet out in the open. The door burst open, and stood in the doorway were red Blitzers with white strips on their helmets. Something told Violet these were worse than the regular orange Blitzers they saw.
They aimed their guns and fired. The first shot missed. The others bounced off the marble floor and pelted through the walls.
Violet turned and ran back into the kitchen, Ruby close behind. They slammed the door shut, and Caroline and Heidi pushed chairs against it. Missy cowered behind the table. Cedric was trying to unlock the back door, but his hands shook too much.
“Give yourselves up and we don’t kill,” A voice said from behind the door. “Give yourselves up and we will go peacefully. We only want one man dead tonight, and that is Cedric. Harbouring a fugitive is illegal. Conspiring against government is a felony. Hand yourselves in, and we go peacefully.”
Violet had seen Nathan Smith being taken away. She had heard of the stories of government experiments. They couldn’t be taken. That wouldn’t be safe.
“Get out of our house,” Violet called back. She heard the unmistakable sound of a gun loading. “Get out of our house or we’ll kill you.”
Cedric had just opened the door when he let out a yelp. Stood at the door were two orange Blitzers, their weapons raised. They were cornered, locked in a room where there was no hope of escape.
“Give yourselves up,” the same voice said. It was mockingly kind. “This safe house you have secured is no more. We have you surrounded.”
“They’re bluffing,” Cedric said. “The security here is top notch. They would have had to be shown in if they were to get here. I didn’t have a problem until I got in to the barriers. They followed me from there. They’re bluffing.”
“We’re not bluffing,” the voice said. Violet felt chills creep up her. The girls gathered in the middle, worried. Violet stood separate from them. “The whole street is ours. There are no safe houses in Paris. Everything belongs to us, the government, as it rightfully should.
”
The handle of the door turned, but didn’t budge. Ruby had locked it.
“It doesn’t belong to anyone!” Violet called back. “You’re supposed to be helping people. Not fighting. Not killing.”
“Oh, we are helping people. In the long run. You’ll see. If you would just conform, for this short transition period, you’ll see the benefits of the new world order.”
“Fuck the new world order.”
“Shame. I didn’t want blood of an innocent spilt tonight. But if you will not cooperate, we will dispose of you.”
“They want me,” Cedric said. He cleared his throat and spoke louder. “If you want me, you can take me. I’ve been on the run long enough. You can have me, but leave the girls alone.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” the voice said. “They are involved with you. They are just as guilty.”
“I was the one who set The Union up,” Cedric shouted. “I was the one that betrayed V, and stole a good chunk of her money. I’m the guilty one here. Not these girls.”
Ruby shifted on her feet.
“Open the door.”
Cedric walked forwards. Violet turned, placing her hands on his chest, trying to halt him.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“I need to hand myself over.”
“Are you crazy? They’ll kill you.”
“Maybe it’s my time.”
“Shut up. We can’t just give up.”
“Move, Violet.”
Cedric pushed Violet away from him. The force of his push sent her a few feet away. She gripped the table, steadying herself. She turned to see the door opening. In walked the white striped Blitzers. The orange Blitzers walked in from the other side, too. They all hand the guns pointed at the group, who were in the middle of the room.
“Where are the others?”
“There are no others,” Cedric said.
“Don’t lie to me,” the white striped same voiced Blitzer spat. “Where are the others?”
“We’re the only ones.”
A gunshot was fired. They jumped. Nobody was injured.
“Take them.”
The Blitzers stepped forwards. Heidi was grabbed, her arms yanked backwards and handcuffed. Caroline, who tried to put up a fight, was punched in the face. Her head flung back, blood flying from her broken nose.
Violet tried to fight. She punched the gun away from a loose-handed Blitzer and made to grab it. Arms circled around her waist, hoisting her off her feet. She kicked, screamed, but it was no use. Her hands were cuffed, and she was man handled out of the kitchen.
Ruby was dragged by her hair screaming and crying. Cedric walked out calmly, assisted by a white striped Blitzer.
They were pushed into the back of separate vans. Ruby was saying something, but Violet couldn’t hear what. Tears streamed down her now ugly and flushed face.
As the doors slammed shut on Violet, and she sat in the back of a riot van, she felt ashamed. They had truly fucked up. She knew they were in trouble, and there was nothing she could do to warn the others.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Winter avoided a puddle that had gathered at the bottom of a set of stone stairs, leading up to more darkness. They couldn’t hear anything, only silence. The underground feeling weighed heavily on them. It was dusty, and the air was thick and sticky. It made Winter feel uncomfortable.
They climbed the stairs, and emerged onto a hallway, which stretched away from them. Brackets of flamed torches on the wall lit the corridor. There were cells along this route, but from what they saw they couldn’t see anybody inside.
“They will be further up,” Lara whispered, aware that her voice may carry if she spoke any louder. “There are rows of cells here.”
“How do you know?”
“Cedric has told us. He worked here, remember?”
Winter did. They walked, slowly, afraid of coming face to face with another living being. The cells they passed looked cramped. They were built into the stone tunnels, sloping at the back. There were buckets inside, which Winter realised were for toilets. There were no beds, and the cell doors were made of thin bars of metal, a lock on one side.
“Shh, can you hear that?” David whispered.
In the distance, they could hear running water. It sounded like more than a lone tap. It sounded almost like rainfall, splattering on stone ground.
“That sounds like life,” Lara whispered. “There will be people nearby.”
They crept a little further, until they could see around the corner. A hallway of dim fluorescent yellow lighting lit up small box rooms, and a door that was open and leading into communal showers. There were Blitzers inside, watching their prisoners wash, ensuring they did not escape.
In the dim lighting, and stood naked in the middle of the showers, was Connor.
“Look at him.” William sighed. “He looks really thin.”
“They’re probably starving him,” Winter said, counting the bruises up and down his arms. “He needs to get out of here, otherwise they’ll kill him.”
“We’re getting him out,” Lara said. She was stood a few feet away from them, holding open a cell door. “Get in.”
“Why?”
“Just get in.” Lara said. “We’ll ambush them when they come back.”
Winter led the way into the cramped cell. Before she got in, she peered at the other cells. All the doors stood on latches, either slightly ajar or unlocked. It held out hope for her that her parents were here, too, and could be saved.
Once inside, Lara closed the door. For one bizarre moment, Winter thought they had been betrayed.
“I’ll be back,” she whispered.
They watched her walk across the hallway, and hide in another room, directly opposite the showers.
“What are we doing?” Zach whispered. “We are sitting ducks.”
“Don’t,” Winter scolded. “Don’t lose faith now. Keep it.”
The water from the showers stopped. Suddenly the silence was strong, floating around them, reminding them of the conditions Connor had been living in.
They heard Blitzers ordering the prisoners in the shower rooms. They heard people protesting. They knew at any moment they would walk through that door.
The Blitzers emerged, only two, leading the prisoners out of the showers. The prisoners were still naked. Winter saw two girls, who she didn’t know, with bruised eyes. They looked close to death.
Pop, pop.
The Blitzers crumbled. They lay on the floor, bullets through their helmets. The prisoners looked stunned. They stood in the hallway, naked and shivering in the cold, wondering what had just happened.
Sensing that the coast was clear, Winter burst out of the cell they had hidden in. Lara stepped out of the room, looking left and right. There was nobody around to stop them. “I didn’t think it would be that easy.”
Connor broke through the two girls. He covered his privates, looking sheepish, but mainly tired. “Winter…”
“I’m here.”
Connor embraced her in a hug. Winter hugged him back, feeling his skin against her clothes. In any other situation this may have been comical, but the relief between the two was overwhelming.
“I’m so glad you’re alive,” Lara said. “I don’t want to interrupt this reunion. But I’d rather not hang around dead Blitzers.” Lara addressed the two girls, a man with a beard, and a woman with dirty blonde, straggly hair. “You’re all coming with me. Are there any other survivors?”
“They moved everyone a few days ago.” Connor said. “Winter…your parents. I don’t know where they are?”
Winter’s heart sunk. “Are they alive?”
“I don’t know.”
Winter wanted to scream. She couldn’t give up on them. But now was not the time to worry, or think through what to do. Her parents could be anywhere.
“We’ll find them,” Zach assured her. “We’ll save them.”
“I know.” Winter nodded, but she wasn�
�t convinced.
Just then, the hallway was flooded in sweeping red light. A few moments later, a blaring sound echoed around them. Alarms were ringing. They blared in their ears, and alerted those who needed to know that there was danger. Someone knew they were inside government headquarters.
“We need to go,” Lara instructed. “Can you all run?”
The naked survivors nodded. Lara led the way, away from the hallway of dark rooms, and back down past the empty cells they had walked past earlier. Winter wondered where her parents had been kept, and how long for. She wondered if they had been moved because they had passed away from the harsh conditions of living underground, or if they had been moved because they were important.
The alarms rang around them. Winter thought she could hear shouting. She worried that they were being pursued.
They sped down the stone steps, leaping over the puddle at the bottom, and down the dark, narrow hallway leading back out into the tube station. Once outside, the two girls scattered, leaving their saviours behind.
The man with the beard looked like he was out of breath, as if he hadn’t run like this in a long time. The woman with the straggly hair gazed at air, disjointed from the situation.
“They’ve all been subjected through some ordeal,” Connor explained, when he saw Winter looking. “I’ve got some news.”
“What?”
“They wanted me because I’m immune. They’ve been taking blood from me to try and determine why. The only reason I’m still alive is because they haven’t been able to find out yet.”
Winter’s heart flipped. “I’m immune, too.”
“I knew it.”
“Guys, move,” Lara said.
They headed up the tube station, and got halfway before they heard something unbelievable: the sound of a train coming towards them.
“That’s impossible,” Lara exclaimed. “They’re not running anymore! They can’t be!”
The light from the distance began to light up the corners of the tunnel they were in. With the light illuminating their path, Winter saw just how disgusting it was down here. Bodies littered the sides of the tracks, as well as rubbish and broken Blitzer helmets. Graffiti on the wall had arrows, pointing to The Louvre and government headquarters.
Winter Smith (Book 2): The Secrets of France Page 21
