Ren was unconvinced. “I don't know about that, Skye. I wouldn't put it past Nikolai, but it's too much of a gamble, and we don't have time to start looking for Black Dawn right now. We need to focus on finding Archie before tomorrow morning.”
“If we find Black Dawn, we'll find Archie. This should be our new priority.”
“No, forget about it, Skye. There's no time, and I can't take that chance. Come back to base and help us here.”
“Too late, Ren. I tried to attack Nikolai this morning at Ying's. The police are going to be coming for me any second.”
Ren could hardly believe her ears. She looked back at her monitor and quickly began to work her way into the public security system. Unlike the system used by Government House, this one was far easier to breach. “There's a warrant for your arrest,” she muttered as she read the words on her screen. She stared blankly for a moment before slamming her fist into her desk. “What were you thinking!” she erupted.
“Just trust me, Ren!” he shouted back. “We're never going to find Archie on our end. The best chance we have is if we find where Black Dawn are hiding.”
“Skye, you'll never find them on your own,” Tango chimed in.
“I will. I've got Juliet with me.”
Tango looked at Ren, who was too enraged to speak. “You can't be serious,” he said. “Then why are you trying to get yourself arrested?”
“Why on earth would you take her with you!” Ren screamed.
“Because if Athenia goes into lockdown, they'll delay the inauguration.”
Ren slammed her fist into her desk once again, splintering the wood. “No, they won't! The inauguration is going to proceed regardless. If the country is in lockdown, it just means they'll hold a private ceremony. You've just ruined our chances of finding the president, Skye!”
The call was terminated from the other end. Tango and Ren stared at each other, shocked by what they just heard.
“Unbelievable,” Tango said as he tried to wrap his head around the situation. “What do we do?”
Ren stared up at the monitor with bleak eyes. “I have to try and delete his warrant.” She pounded her fingers into her glass keyboard screen, trying everything she could to revoke the order from the system. “What was he thinking?”
Tango buried his head in his hands. “Skye, what have you done?” he whispered to himself. He knew that Ren was right—Skye's decision to take the mission into his own hands was a poor decision, and it may just ruin everything they'd worked so hard for during the last few months.
He turned to Ren and saw that she had stopped typing. Instead, she stared absent-mindedly at the screen, her mind deep in thought.
“What?” Tango asked. “What is it?”
“His warrant,” she began. “He was issued an arrest warrant yesterday morning, but it was later removed from the system. I've been thinking about it ever since it happened.”
Tango listened attentively, waiting for her to continue. “And ... ?”
“Who removed it?” she asked, looking up at him. “Only one person on the island would've put a stop to Skye's arrest.”
Tango began to see her point. “Nikolai.”
“And only someone in a position of power could have actually removed it.”
“The president,” Tango said, his mind reeling from the conversation.
They stared at each other in silence as they began to convince themselves that Skye's theory might be true after all.
“So what do we do?” he asked.
“Wake the others,” Ren said. “I'll do everything I can to have the new warrant removed, but I doubt I'll have much luck. Maybe Nikolai will remove it for me.”
She went back to work, gliding her fingers across the screen. Skye's strategy that morning was nothing short of audacious, but she had to ensure he wasn't arrested. The inauguration drew closer with every second, and the last thing White Shadow needed was for Athenia to go into lockdown.
Three
“You've lost your mind,” Juliet hissed as she ran behind Skye. They tried to cut through as many alleyways and small streets as they possibly could to avoid being seen.
“No, I haven't,” he said, annoyed. “I know Nikolai better than you. This is all part of his plan.”
“Why didn't you tell me any of this earlier when you woke me?” Skye had simply marched into her bedroom and said that he urgently needed her help, but he never once told her that it would involve trying to locate Black Dawn while on the run from the authorities.
“There was no time,” he said as he peered cautiously around the corner. Once he was certain it was safe, he continued running through Shangwu.
Juliet looked up and watched as the cameras mounted on the buildings all turned and followed Skye as he raced past. “Slow down!” she yelled, barely able to keep up with him. A slow pace for Skye was still faster than Juliet's top speed.
He turned and faced her, ignoring the handful of civilians around. None of them were present on the promenade, and had no idea that Skye was a wanted man. “Hurry up!” he ordered, waiting for Juliet to catch up. Once she was close enough, he continued moving at a pace he deemed fit.
“Your eyes are bloodshot,” she said. “Did you sleep at all last night?”
“Nope.”
They pressed on, running from street to street. A short distance away, sirens could be heard. The authorities were closing in on them.
“We're not going to make it,” Juliet said.
“Yes, we will. And stop panicking—the police aren't after you. They don't know you're here.”
“But Nikolai knows. What if he orders them to arrest me too?”
Skye stopped running. He wheeled around and looked Juliet in the eyes. “That's enough,” he whispered. “Stop worrying. I know what I'm doing.”
She looked at her leader with doubt. In the months she'd known him he had always been calm and collected, but in this moment she actually began to feel afraid of him. She had never seen him act so recklessly and deranged.
“Do you?” she asked. “Do you actually know what you're doing? This plan doesn't make any sense.”
He bit his lip as he tried to hide his anger. None of them had any faith in what he was trying to achieve, and it was beginning to infuriate him.
He took a moment to compose himself. “Listen,” he said quietly, “the inauguration is tomorrow morning at dawn. We'll never find the president by then. We've searched for him for an entire year, and we haven't come close once. The best thing we can do right now is to focus our efforts on finding Black Dawn. Wherever they are, Archie will be too.”
“But causing a lockdown of the city isn't going to help anyone!” she protested. She spoke too loudly, rousing the attention of a nearby businesswoman.
Skye looked at the woman, and then back to Juliet. “Quiet,” he warned. “Just trust me. Nikolai is always one step ahead of us. The only way we'll succeed today is if we take a risk. He wouldn't expect a lockdown. It will either delay the inauguration, or it will force Black Dawn out of hiding. Either way, it gives us a chance.”
Juliet shook her head, still sceptical. Something suddenly caught her attention. She tilted her head up with a worried look on her face. “We're not alone.”
Skye's eyes widened at the warning. “Who is it? The Tianzu?”
Juliet nodded. “The one I sensed yesterday. He's back in Shangwu.”
Skye paused and glanced around him. The warrior in blue was in the business district for the second day in a row, he thought to himself. Does he know we're here? Or is he searching for Nikolai?
The blare of sirens snapped him out of his daze.
“They're getting closer,” he said. “We need to get back to the van.” He turned and started running again. “I need you to find Black Dawn. If we find them, we'll find Archie.”
Four
“This is ridiculous,” Echo muttered. “Nikolai absolutely despises Archie. It's not possible.”
“It's definitely possible,”
Ren said without looking away from her screen. “But you're right—it's also ridiculous. It's typical of Nikolai to do something like this. He knows that we'd never suspect it.”
“Any luck with the warrant?” Tango asked, pacing the room frantically. The situation was starting to become tense. If Skye was found by the authorities, it would greatly diminish any chance they had of finding Archie, and their chance of success was already bordering on impossible.
“No, I can't do it,” Ren admitted. “I could only do it if I hacked directly into the state's system, and that would take me far too long.”
“So what should we do?” Romeo asked. He was still wiping the fatigue from his eyes. The day before was one of the longest in his young life. One night's sleep was not enough to recover from the frantic day that almost resulted in his death.
“I'm trying to gain access to Nikolai's company's records. If I find something useful, it might give us a shot at finding Archie.”
Tango and Echo exchanged a concerned glance. “What about Skye?”
“He's on his own for now. We need to find Archie before Athenia goes into lockdown.”
Tango stepped forward. “But, Ren, last night we agreed we were going to work as a team. We can't let Skye get arrested.”
“And we also agreed last night that our first priority was finding the president!” she said, her voice loud and stern. Her mood had changed dramatically in the previous ten minutes. “If Skye is stupid enough to get himself arrested, then so be it. But I can't risk the government closing off the entire island and imposing a curfew.”
Tango opened his mouth to protest, but he knew she was right. For the time being, Skye's fate was in his own hands.
“What about Tahlia?” Sierra asked.
Ren ignored the question.
“I can't believe that Nikolai and Archie would be working together,” Echo said, still unable to comprehend the idea.
“Neither can I,” Tango agreed. “Before Nikolai left us, all he ever spoke of was killing Archibald Denning.” He stroked his chin. “How did he even manage to find him?”
“Why would they work together?” Romeo asked. “Is it so that Nikolai can run the country?”
“Exactly,” Tango said. “Nikolai has some very strong beliefs about the way Athenia should be run. He hates what it has become, and he wants to fix it more than anything. Working with the president would be the perfect way for him to come into power himself.”
Echo nodded, though still dubious. “And Archie would have to do everything that was asked of him, otherwise Nikolai would take his life.”
Romeo stared down at the ground, amazed by what he was hearing. “If that's true, then it's the perfect strategy.”
“Stop talking!” Ren hissed. “Stop admiring Nikolai. I'm trying to concentrate.” She pressed a button on her comm. “Skye, are you there? I can't remove the arrest warrant. It's too heavily encrypted.”
“I don't want you to remove it; I want you to guide me out of the city.”
Tango and Echo were unable to hear. They watched as Ren tried to restrain herself from attacking her desk again.
“Well I don't have a choice, do I? But while I'm helping you I'm also going to try and break into Nikolai's company's records to see what I can find.”
Skye laughed smugly on the other end. “So you believe me that Nikolai's involved.”
Ren rolled her eyes. “Skye, I don't know what to believe. But Nikolai is the only one who would've had your arrest warrant from yesterday deleted.”
Skye paused. Her words had convinced him all the more that he was right. “I never thought of that. It makes sense that he wouldn't want me to get arrested.”
“Of course he wouldn't. And he wouldn't want you arrested now either, so he might just go ahead and hopefully have this warrant removed too.”
“Maybe. For the meantime, Juliet and I are heading back to the van. We're going to try and find Black Dawn and Archie ourselves.”
Ren scoffed at the foolish strategy. “I doubt you'll find anything.”
“You let me worry about that. I just need you to guide us out of here. Monitor where the police are and keep me updated.”
“Fine. I'll let you know if I find anything from his company. I haven't bothered logging in since Archie won the election.”
“Keep me posted,” Skye said before terminating the call.
Tango continued pacing back and forth around the room, hopeful that his friend would be able to successfully evade the police. “What did he say?”
“Nothing useful. I'll do what I can to help him.”
“We should be in the city with him,” Echo whispered.
“No, stay here. Wait until I've found something useful. Remember, the Tianzu could still attack us at any second.”
The mention of the Tianzu made Romeo shudder. It was a terrifying reminder of how many enemies he'd made in less than twenty-four hours.
Five
“Skye, slow down!” Juliet called again for a third time.
He stopped running and looked at the trailing girl. “Juliet, there's no time for this.” He tilted his head upward and watched a camera rotate in his direction. He had been fast enough to keep out of their line of sight at times, but slowing down for Juliet gave the automated system the opportunity it needed to remain locked on to the offender.
“What do you want me to do then?” she asked once she caught up to him.
He paused for a brief moment and pondered. He had parked the van much further away than Sierra had the day before. While he knew that Nikolai would have easily tracked him, he didn't want to leave the vehicle in its typical location whenever he visited Shangwu. “You stay here. I'll go ahead and pick you up.”
“But what if—”
Before she could finish her sentence, he was gone, leaving her alone in the city.
What if the Tianzu warrior attacks, she thought to herself.
She turned to her left and saw a small supermarket. A woman stood out the front and stared at Juliet in awe. The woman had watched Skye run off at an abnormally fast speed.
Juliet decided to keep walking and avoid being asked the bizarre question of how her friend was able to move so quickly. The less the Athenians knew of the shengxian, the better. She picked up her pace and walked down the street. She glanced over her shoulder and saw the woman still staring, obviously in a state of shock from what she had witnessed.
I can't blame her for feeling so surprised. I felt the same way when they found me. After Black Dawn tried to kill me.
She stopped walking when she reached the end of the small side street, which opened onto Xuewei Jie, one of the larger roads in the southwest corner of the district. She stood patiently and waited on the path, watching the citizens go about their daily business. It was another typical morning for the city-state, with nothing out of the ordinary catching her eye.
Juliet looked down and noticed a homeless man sleeping in the entrance to one of the buildings, with many people having to sidestep around him. It made her think about what Athenia would be like if Nikolai was to actually come into power. She had no doubt that he'd be a violent ruler, but she couldn't help but wonder if he would indeed fix the problems that plagued Shangwu district.
She snapped out of her daze when she saw a van screech to a halt in front of her.
“Get in,” Skye ordered through the open window. She obeyed and climbed into the passenger side, and the van was in motion less than a second later.
“The sirens are getting louder,” she said.
“I know,” Skye muttered, dismissing the obvious. “Ren, talk to me.”
“I'm still trying to work my way into his bank records. They're heavily encrypted.”
“No, I'm talking about the police. Where are they?”
She looked at her other monitor. “They're close. They're approaching from the west.”
“What should we do now?” Juliet asked. “Do you want me to try and locate Black Dawn? Are we going to just dr
ive around the city?”
Skye turned to face her. “More or less.” His eyes seemed to be redder than earlier. “Today's the last day to stop Archie.”
“What if he's not around here? Maybe they're hidden on the other side of the island?”
“I hope not. It would take days to search the entire island, maybe even weeks.”
Juliet nodded in agreement. Her tracking ability was useful, but its limited range meant that scouring the entire island was an impossible feat. Worse still, their movements could easily be monitored by Tahlia from afar.
Skye continued driving, picking up speed as he did. More commuters began appearing on the streets as the morning grew late. “Nikolai would need to be relatively close to the city for this to work. He and Tahlia have the ability to transport themselves a short distance, but the rest don't. I can't imagine they'd be too far away.”
“I just hope no one gets killed this time.”
Skye shook his head. “Forget about what Nikolai said.” He remembered the foreboding ultimatum that was given after Foxtrot's death. Despite the fact that it was the Tianzu who killed Foxtrot, Nikolai had warned White Shadow that more would be killed if they ever attempted to locate him again. “He told us yesterday that none of you are safe anymore. We've got nothing to lose by finding him and killing Archie. Hopefully he drops his guard today. He'll have a lot to do before the ceremony tomorrow.”
The sound of cursing caught his attention.
He tapped his comm. “What's wrong, Ren?” he asked.
“Nothing good, Skye. A warrant for Juliet's arrest has been issued too. I told you this was a bad idea! Neither of you are going to avoid being seen.”
Skye let out an annoyed groan. It had only taken mere minutes for the cameras to recognise Juliet's face and send her identity to the local authorities for arrest and prosecution. Either that, or Nikolai purposely arranged for the girl to be arrested too. “We can fix that,” he said, placing his mask over his face. “Let me know if you find anything useful.” He muted his microphone again.
“Skye, you can't wear that during the day,” Juliet protested. “If anyone sees you—”
Eternity's War (Books 1-3) (Eternity's War Boxsets) Page 22
