The Phoenix Project (The Liberty Box Book 3)

by C. A. Gray

  I kept to the shadows, which wasn’t hard in the new moon. I didn’t know who might be looking, but I knew at least somewhere, Ben must have guards keeping watch. I crept along the shrubbery as far as I could go, until I reached a broad section of open grass. Then I charted the course least exposed to starlight with my eyes, before I took off running.

  “Hey!”

  I couldn’t see where the voice came from, and I didn’t care. I made a break for it, sprinting all out toward the trees.

  “Hey!” the voice called again, and I could hear the heavy boots pounding the ground behind me. Next thing I knew, two agents cut me off in front and another one blocked my path behind me.

  “Miss Brandeis?” one of them asked in disbelief. “What are you doing out here?”

  I couldn’t answer. I was too busy trying not to cry with frustration.

  The agent who had spoken wrapped his hand around my forearm, and nodded at the other two. “I got her. I’ll take her back inside.”

  When the other two had gone back to their posts, the agent said to me, “Is everything all right, Miss Brandeis?”

  He seemed reasonable enough. I had to try. “Please,” I begged. “You can tell the others I decked you and ran, but please, you have to let me go. Please!”

  The agent frowned. “But why? I thought you were a personal guest of the Potentate.”

  “Do you have orders not to let me escape?” I countered.

  “Yes, but—”

  “Then I’m not a guest, am I? I’m a prisoner!”

  The agent gave a short, incredulous laugh, looking me up and down in my skimpy nightgown. I pulled my arms around myself self-consciously. I wish men in this palace would stop doing that. “Best treated prisoner I’ve ever seen, then. Come on, whatever grievance you have, I’m sure the Potentate will be happy to address it in the morning—”

  Bang. The agent’s voice caught, and his eyes bulged. I stared at him, trying to understand what had happened an instant before he pitched forward onto his face. Dead.

  For a split second, I stared at his body before I turned to look into the shadows of the forest. My mouth fell open.

  “Will?”

  Chapter 14: Will

  Kate just stood there, her mouth hanging open, staring at me.

  “Get over here!” I mouthed at her. The other agents would come to investigate the gunshot in seconds, and I didn’t have enough time to run out and get her. Beside me, Charlie beckoned her with his arms as hard as he could.

  “What’s she doing?” I hissed, desperate. I could feel my heart pounding in my ears.

  Finally Kate moved, running toward us just as we heard more footsteps in the distance. She threw her arms around my neck first, and then moved to her brother.

  “Will? Charlie? I don’t understand, Ben said you were both dead!” She looked beyond us, and whisper-shrieked, “Mom? Dad?”

  Albert, who had been watching Denise up until this point, let go of her and grinned as he hugged his daughter and kissed the top of her head. “Aren’t you cold, baby?” He wrapped his arms around her shoulders, rubbing his hands on her bare arms to warm them with friction. Denise watched the pair with an odd expression that might’ve been jealousy, rubbing her hands against her own arms.

  Kate was crying now, her face buried in her hands and her head pressed into her dad’s chest.

  “There will be time for that later,” I snapped, feeling a little slighted that it was her dad and not me whom she wanted to comfort her. “We’ve got to get out of here, now!”

  “Hold on!” said Charlie, pulling Kate’s shoulder back to face him. “Is Jackson in there?”

  She sniffled, wiping her face and nodding. “He’s in the dungeons.”

  “Let’s go break him out, then!”

  “No way!” I protested, pointing at the grounds, “with all those agents?” They swarmed around their fallen comrade. There was no way we’d get past all of them.

  Charlie ignored me and turned to his sister, handing her the butt end of a pistol. “Kate will go in and get him with me, won’t you, Kate?”

  She stared at the gun but didn’t take it. Then she looked up at Charlie. “Are you… sure he’s not dangerous? He killed all those Tribunal members… and guards…”

  Charlie blinked at her. “Wow. They really did a number on you, didn’t they? He did all that to rescue us, remember?” He pulled the signal disruptor out of his pocket and held it up in front of her face. “This thing means they can’t get through to you anymore. From now on, as long as you stick with us, all your thoughts are your own. So is he dangerous? You tell me.”

  Kate opened her mouth to reply, but I snapped, “It doesn’t matter, we can’t get in there anyway. But we’ll all get ourselves thrown in there with him if we don’t get out of here right now!”

  I stopped, turning to see Denise slipping around her husband and daughter and passing in front of Charlie and me. Up until now, Albert’s job had been to keep an eye on her, but now he was too distracted with Kate. Denise walked slowly, almost like she was in a daze, or else wrestling with herself. A split second too late, I smacked Charlie in the shoulder and pointed at her.

  “Charlie, grab her—!”

  I think my gesture tipped her over the edge. Before Charlie could register what was happening, his mom ran out of the shadows toward the swarming agents, waving her arms in the air.

  “Hey!” she cried. “Over here!”

  Stunned, I looked at Charlie. His eyes were wide, and he clamped a hand over his mouth. Albert looked aghast. Kate looked confused still.

  “Why weren’t you watching her?” Charlie hissed at his father. “That was your only job!”

  “I—I only looked away for a split second!” he protested.

  I ran through our options in my mind: We could just leave her here and run. But I could see in Albert’s face that he would never do that. We could try to pick off the agents and rescue her, but how long would that last if she didn’t want to be rescued? Besides, there were way too many of them.

  We could kill her, before she could tell the agents about the repeaters…

  If only.

  If we did nothing, though, the agents would come and investigate our position within minutes, to see who else was here. They’d come looking for Kate.

  “We’ve got to get out of here,” I hissed at them all. “Right now!”

  “This is my fault,” Albert murmured as he met my gaze. “There’s only one thing I can do to make it right: I can try to keep her quiet.”

  “Dad, you can’t—no!” Charlie protested. But like a martyr heading to the gallows, he kissed the top of Kate’s head, and walked out into the clearing too even as Charlie lunged to try to hold him back. Kate stared after him, dazed.

  Charlie swore, and stamped the ground with his foot.

  I grabbed Kate’s hand roughly, and she tried to jerk it away, startled. But I held her fast.

  “Last chance,” I told Charlie. “You coming?”

  He looked tortured, but at last he shook his head. “If anybody can help the rebels now, it’s the guy in those dungeons over there.”

  I sighed, cross at this last comment. “Fine. Good luck.” My hand tightened on Kate’s wrist so hard she cried out, “Ow!”

  I loosened the grip, but not much. I couldn’t risk yet more mutiny. “This way. I have an idea.”

  I fled, forcing her to follow.

  Chapter 15: Jackson

  After Kate slipped off into the shadows, I stared at the spot outside my cell where she had been—wondering what to do now.

  After the first time I’d seen Kate, I’d thought she was too far gone to even want to be rescued. I’d been nearly certain that if I ever saw her again, it would be at my execution.

  But tonight showed me that she might not be so far gone after all. She was beginning to doubt. I could see it in her eyes. I couldn’t control whether or not she returned to me again, but�
�she let me hold her hand tonight, and she actually listened to my reasoning. Ever since the Potentate inadvertently told me about the brewing revolution, I’d been planning my escape. Could I abandon Kate now, though, as the only voice of truth in her world?

  Who needed me the most—Kate, or the rebels?

  I sat up straighter: there were voices outside. I looked up at the sky: judging by the position of the stars, it was probably around one thirty in the morning. I strained, trying to catch what they were saying. There were three male voices, and the sounds of heavy boots upon the ground.

  And—could it be? Was that Kate’s voice out there?

  Bang.

  My heart stopped.

  Without thinking further, I lunged for the rope I’d been making by stripping down my blanket. It was unfinished, but I had enough for my purposes. I draped one length of it across my neck, and crawled up to the bars on the window, threading it through there as well. I propped myself up on the sill with my elbows in a gymnastics cross form to relieve the weight on the makeshift rope so that I wouldn’t actually hang myself, and then started yelling, “Help! Somebody help me! HELP!”

  Footsteps: as I’d intended, the guard approached to investigate. I went as limp as I could. I left my eyes open, too: seemed like that would be more convincing. Besides, that way I could see the guard’s reaction.

  “What the—” the guard muttered, swearing to himself as he fumbled with the keys to get into my cell. The doors swung open, and he ran over, presumably to check my pulse, as he muttered, “No, no, no, you can’t die like this, you bastard…”

  As soon as he was in range, my eyes snapped back into focus. I kicked the guard in the jaw. He fell, unconscious. I grabbed his keys, and his gun.

  “Jackson!” The voice came through the faulty brick. It was Joe. “What’s going on over there? You all right?”

  I didn’t have time for him, so I didn’t bother answering. I’d intended to use Kate’s secret passage to escape eventually, but right now I just needed to get out into the garden as quickly as possible. So I ran straight out the dungeon’s front gate.

  Chapter 16: Jackson

  It took me a second to orient myself to what I found outside. Some hundred yards away, a body lay on the ground. An agent, by the looks of the uniform. Nearby was another cluster of agents, weapons drawn. I lunged for the shadows—the last thing I needed was for one of them to look up and see an escaped prisoner. But I scanned the group: no Kate.

  I’d heard her voice, though, I was sure of it. She was out here somewhere.

  The agents fanned out and headed for the edge of the surrounding forest. They were looking for something. For her?

  I darted into the shadows of a nearby tree, farther away from the dungeon, and zigzagged closer to where the agents conducted their search. But I felt a presence somewhere behind me and spun around. More agents, with two more people who looked familiar in their postures somehow. One, the man, seemed to be a prisoner and the other… it was unclear whether she was a prisoner too or not, since the agent held her by the arm, but she wasn’t cuffed. It wasn’t Kate though, I could tell that much. What was going on?

  I decided to ignore them: not my primary objective at the moment. I checked my weapon to see how much ammo I had, pleased to find a full clip. When I looked up again, I saw another figure in the shadows about fifty yards from my hiding spot. I watched it: every few seconds it crept closer to the dungeons. Not an agent. Also not Kate.

  I blinked. “Charlie?”

  Careful to stick to the shadows myself, I made my way over to him. I was almost upon him when he noticed my approach. He looked stunned for a moment, and then broke into a relieved grin, clapping me on the back. I winced and sucked in a hard breath, only then remembering my injuries. The adrenaline had briefly made me forget.

  “I was just coming to get you!”

  “What’s going on out here?” I asked the question, but before he could answer, I gestured to the forest to indicate we should talk there instead. Charlie shook his head.

  “Can’t go there, the forest is crawling with agents right now. They’re looking for Kate and Will.”

  I digested this. Will is alive, then. That meant the rest of the hunters had probably survived the Beckenshire blast too. I’d figured as much when I heard about the repeaters, but this confirmed it.

  Aloud, I said, “So she’s okay, then?”

  “She was when I last saw her ten minutes ago. Will grabbed her and dragged her off, so they’re still around here somewhere. She’s priority, so I think the agents are all trying to find her. Guess they don’t know about you yet.” He ran a hand through his hair. “They took my parents back to the palace, though. My mom decided to run out to them, and Dad went after her, so now they’re both in custody.”

  I shook my head. “Why would she do that?”

  “Because she still thinks the Republic is grand and the Potentate’s a peach,” Charlie muttered. “I’ve been worried about her being a liability ever since we left, honestly. She periodically made comments that we were all terrorists and she didn’t want to be part of a terrorist organization. Dad’s whole job on this mission was to keep an eye on her, but he was distracted with Kate, and she just slipped off before we could stop her.”

  “But your mom had a signal disruptor the whole time, hasn’t she?”

  “She’s been in the radius of one, yeah, but those have never worked on Mom,” he told me, clearly frustrated. “I think for some people, the signals don’t even have to get through, because they’re in here now.” He tapped his forehead. “Once that happens… can anything be done?”

  I had plenty of philosophical responses to that one, but now was not the time. “We’ve got to go after Will and Kate, then.”

  “No, you don’t understand,” Charlie cut me off. “If we don’t shut her up, my mom is liable to tell the agents exactly what the rebels have been up to!”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Breaking repeaters, I assume?”

  Charlie nodded. “Which means not only will we lose that strategy, which apparently is the only one that’s ever worked for us—but once the Potentate knows, he’ll fix what damage we’ve been able to inflict so far, and he’ll also station agents around the remaining repeaters and gun down the rebels that show up to break them. If she tells them, she’ll doom the rebels to die!”

  I groaned. “What do you think the chances are that she hasn’t told them already?”

  Charlie met my gaze, his face grim. “Slim to none,” he admitted. “Dad went after her to try to shut her up, but once she gets an idea in her head, she’s impossible to control.”

  I bit my lip as I weighed our options. Going after Denise and Albert, if they were inside the palace already—and they almost certainly were—was suicide. Chances were high that she’d already done what damage she was going to do anyway. At this point we’d have to assume the Potentate already knew about the repeaters. We had to get to the rebels and warn them.

  “I don’t think we can help your parents right now,” I told him. “And if we don’t get out of here ourselves, pretty soon we’ll be in the same predicament, or worse.”

  “What?” Charlie demanded. “You’re not going to help me free them? That’s why I broke you out of prison!”

  I tilted my head to the side and raised my eyebrows. “You broke me out, huh? How do you figure that one?”

  He waffled for a minute. “Well, I was gonna break you out if you hadn’t broken yourself out already!”

  “Uh huh. Remember the last time I broke you and Kate and your parents out of the palace?”

  “That’s my point, if you could do it then—”

  “We all would have died if they were using real bullets, like they are now,” I cut him off. “The Potentate’s not an idiot. Not to mention, I’m not in the best shape I’ve ever been in.” I gestured at my swollen face.

  “I know, but… those are my parents in there, I can’t just lea
ve them to the likes of him! And if anybody can rescue them, it’s you, banged up or not!”

  I sighed. “The Potentate won’t kill them. He’ll likely keep them as leverage to be used against you or Kate later. The most useful thing we can do at this point is get to the other rebels and warn them not to keep trying to break repeaters.”

  Then I remembered Joe, as I stood right outside the prison, with the guard’s keys still in my hand.

  Do I really want to leave a guy that valuable in the Potentate’s power?

  As much as I hated him for what he’d done to Kate, and to me, I couldn’t afford to let that influence me. Not now.

  “Stay here,” I hissed to Charlie, “I’ll be right back.”

  “Are you going after my parents—?”

  “No! I’ll explain later!”

  Wincing with every step, I ran back into the dungeon as lightly as I could to blunt the harsh sound of my footsteps. The guard inside my cell was still unconscious as I passed by to the cell on my left. I saw Joe leap to his feet as I fumbled with the keys. He gasped.

  “It’s the big gold one!” he told me running over to the front of the cell and pointing eagerly. “But—how in the name of all that’s holy—”

  I picked out the one he indicated, shoved it into the lock, and turned, hearing the satisfying click. “We haven’t got much time, let’s go!”

  “I’m afraid I’m not much of a runner—” Joe panted as we bounded down the halls and out the front entrance.

  “Yeah well, I’ve got a couple of broken ribs, you can’t be slower than me.”

  When we rejoined Charlie, flattened in the shadows, he took one look at Joe and hissed, “Oh, so you won’t rescue my parents, but you’ll rescue this guy?”

  “This guy is the creator of the Liberty Box technology,” I shot back, still in a whisper. “Joe, Charlie. Charlie, Joe.”

  Instead of greeting Joe, Charlie just stared at him, and then at me. “You’re not serious.”

  “He is, I’m afraid,” Joe gasped, leaning his hands on his knees to catch his breath.