'Hey, it's okay,' Lil said. 'You're back at the barracks.'
Kit took a moment to try and compose herself as confusion flowed through her. 'What happened?' She asked.
'We were ambushed,' Lil said. 'Rook managed to get us out, you've been out for a few hours.'
'Kingsley?' Kit asked.
Lil went quiet and shook her head. 'He didn't make it,' she said.
Kit was quiet for a moment as she absorbed the news, 'Help me up,' she said.
'You need to rest,' Lil told her.
'I need to be with them,' Kit said.
Lil helped her sit on the bed. 'We think it was the rebels who attacked, but Rook has picked up something on the satellite,' she told her.
'Picked up what?' Kit asked.
'A helicopter coming from the north,' Lil said. 'It's unmarked...likely from the Capitol.'
'Hawk?' Kit asked.
'We don't know,' Lil said.
'Is the guard here?' Kit asked, her voice had grown quiet as she tried to think normally.
Lil was quiet for a moment. 'He's in the infirmary, along with Shep,' she said.
'Shep?' Kit asked in a whisper, dreading the thought that he could be lost as well. 'Take me to them,' she said.
Lil gave her a walking stick to help her stand and led her out of the room. The barracks large main room was empty and felt strange. Kit was used to Rook being at one of the computers, or Canaan training in the corner, there was always someone in the barracks and something going on. To see it quiet felt like Galen's attack had managed to end any efforts they had made in a single hit. They walked through the room to the back-cargo room that had been transformed to a makeshift hospital wing. Shep was on one of the beds to Kit's right and the guard was to her left, handcuffed to the cot.
'There's no sharp objects in here is there?' She asked.
'I'll remove them,' Lil said. 'I don't want to be an accomplice to anything you do to him.'
Kit walked over to Shep first, Rook was at his bedside looking concerned and exhausted. 'Rook?' Kit asked. The girl got to her feet and hugged her. Kit was surprised and tentatively returned her embrace. 'It'll be fine,' she told her. 'I need you to get back online and see what's going on with that plane in our airspace.'
Rook looked tired, like she needed sleep. They all needed rest, time to grieve and process what happened but there wasn't time for that now. They were under attack and they had to fall into their roles.
Lil took charge. 'C'mon kid,' she said. 'There may be a coffee cart nearby that will help us get through the next few hours.'
Lil left Kit alone in the room and watched as she took a seat next to Shep's bed. Lil shut the door and Kit took the older man's hand.
'Shep?' She asked. 'You awake buddy?'
He took a moment before he answered. 'I am little buddy,' he said.
Kit smiled and wiped away a tear at the nickname he had for her from the moment he met her so many years ago. 'Are you going to be okay big buddy?' She asked.
'You know me,' Shep said as he coughed. 'I'm a fighter.'
'You are,' she said and saw Shep look over to the guard.
'He's called Jack Fox,' he said. 'Managed to give me his name before he passed out.'
'And he's one of us?' Kit asked.
'He's marks don't lie,' he replied. 'Even though he's been skilled in covering them up.'
'What's he doing wearing that uniform? And why is he here and Kingsley isn't?' Kit asked. Tears brimmed at her eyes at the thought of her friend no longer being with them, Shep held her hand tighter and she allowed herself a moment to cry and grieve for Kingsley before she pulled herself together.
'He's trying to break the Shard,' he said. 'The deep shard that's been in this nation's side for too long. That's what you need to be, you need to be the person who breaks the Shard that's been dragging through us for too long.'
Kit had known this since she had first escaped, she had sensed it every day when she tried to live a normal life and pretend that her history wasn't what it was. 'I don't think I can,' she confessed. 'People have given me the role of protecting us but truth is I've just want to hide. I don't know if I can face going back.'
'Sometimes,' Shep said. 'You have to go back to be able to go forward. You escaped for a reason, don't let that reason be for nothing.'
Kit gave him a comforting smile. 'You need to rest,' she said. 'Do you need anything?' She asked.
'Just peaceful dreams,' Shep said.
Kit leant over and hugged him. 'Love you big buddy,' she said.
'Love you little buddy,' he replied.
In the look they exchanged they both seemed to know the inevitable but neither dared speak it. Kit looked over to Jack and went over to him.
'What am I going to do with you?' She asked quietly.
'Believe that I'm not here to hurt you,' Jack replied, startling her. He opened his eyes slowly and looked over to her. 'And I'm sorry about Kingsley,' he said.
'You don't get to say his name,' Kit said, her voice cold. 'And you don't get to tell me what to think.' Jack was quiet and Kit could see he was in pain but wasn't ready to help him just yet. 'You're a mutant,' she said.
'Yes,' Jack replied.
'You work for Galen?' She asked.
'Yes,' Jack answered. 'But I think I'm out of a job,' he said.
'Why?'
Jack tried to sit up and become adjusted to where he was. 'Do you have my pack?' He asked.
'Your what?' Kit asked, struggling to contain her irritation.
'My backpack, it has something in it that I need to see,' he said. 'That you'll want to see.'
'Let me go check,' Kit said.
She didn't know what he wanted her to see or why she was helping him do something but he was here for a reason and she needed to know if it was to attack them or not.
She left the medical room and went back out to the main unit. Rook was at the computer and Lil was sat in the corner with Canaan. He rose to his feet when she went over to him and she hugged him.
'I'm sorry,' she said. He pulled away and nodded, wiping a tear away in the hope that neither would comment on it.
'What are you going to do?' He asked.
'We're going to fix it,' Kit told him. 'I promise. Did he have a backpack with him?' She asked.
Lil looked at her curiously. 'Why?' She asked.
'He says there's something in there that could be of interest,' Kit said.
Kit could see that Canaan was irritated but he went to one of the storage units and pulled out a knapsack and handed it to her. 'Here,' he said. 'There's not much but a box and a change of shirt in there.'
'You went through his stuff?' Kit asked.
'Tried to find ID,' Canaan answered.
Kit nodded. 'How are you going finding out more information?' She asked.
'Slowly,' Lil replied. 'We need to be back out there finding rebels rather than sitting around here,' she said.
'It's too dangerous,' Kit said. 'If rebels are coming to the Stacks then we need to be together rather than apart.'
'We need to be out there, tracking down the bastards that killed Kingsley,' he said. 'Don't you want revenge?'
'I want justice,' Kit said. 'There's a big difference. You're not to go out in search for rebels without a unit to back you up,' she told him. 'And your unit is staying put.'
Canaan looked furious with her. 'Fine,' he said. 'Then I'm signing off my shift and going home.'
He began to walk away when Kit called after him. 'You're just going home?' She asked him.
'I'm going to shower, eat and pound a punching bag,' he said. 'Happy?'
Kit nodded and let him go, wishing she could do something that would help ease his pain. 'He'll be right,' Lil said.
'What if he's not?' Kit asked.
'Then we'll deal with it,' Lil answered. 'Do you want me in there with you?' She asked.
Kit considered it for a moment then shook her head. 'I want to know more about him first,' she said. 'You and Rook should
get some rest.'
Lil nodded. 'She's a little cut up about Kingsley,' she said.
'Keep an eye on her for me, I'll come and see you both when I'm done here,' Kit said.
Lil gave her a tired smile and called over to Rook. 'C'mon kid, boss has given us the all clear to get some down time.'
Rook looked exhausted when she got up from her computer. 'There's nothing in the airspace for the surrounding two hundred miles,' she said to Kit. 'Whoever attacked us has now gone.'
'Good,' Kit said. 'Thank you for what you did today.'
Rook smiled at her. 'Any time Chief,' she said.
Kit watched the two women leave, Rook was a head shorter than Lil and the two could have looked like sisters to onlookers. Kit hoped she could spare Rook from the horrors of the world she was living in but deep down she knew that they were in a world that was ready to devour them at a moment’s notice. She felt the weight in her hand and looked down at Jack's backpack, wondering what secrets it held.
Kit took the backpack to Jack but held it back from him before he could take it.
'What's in here?' She asked.
'I don't know,' he said. 'I went back to our old apartment and found something belonging to my family. I think it could be about my sister.'
'You have a sister?' Kit asked. 'Is she like you?'
'A mutant?' Jack asked. 'I don't know,' he lied. 'She can do things but I need to see what my father left us.'
Kit handed him the bag as he struggled to sit up. He pulled out a small box that was dented and dusty. He flipped open the catch and at first saw nothing inside.
'Well that was anticlimactic,' Kit said.
'There has to be something here,' Jack said as he examined the box. He couldn't see anything and Kit could sense his frustration.
'It's a puzzle box,' Shep told them. 'There'll be a secret compartment in the base.'
Jack looked through the box until he found a small slit but found that he couldn't open it with fingers alone.
'You need to use your powers to open it,' Shep told him.
'This will be interesting,' Kit said.
Jack set the box down on the cabinet beside the bed and looked at it. He felt the shift in his mind click into place and could feel the electricity flow to his fingertips. He sent a small jolt of energy to the slit and the box shuddered open. 'Believe me now?' He asked her.
'I now just have more questions for you,' Kit replied.
Jack decided they could wait and opened the compartment in the bottom of the box and found a hologram Dias. 'You don't see these much anymore,' Jack said as he flipped it over in his hand.
'What do you think it is?' Kit asked.
'A message from my dad,' he said. 'He worked for the government, and was killed by the virus.'
Kit looked at him confused. 'I hadn't heard of officials getting infected,' she said. 'I thought it only attacked people living in the prefectures.'
Jack gave her an incredulous look. 'Some officials lived in the prefectures,' he told her. 'He was marked as an Elite but didn't want to live in like they did, he said it wasn't who we were as a family. It wasn't a very popular decision and a costly one.'
Kit felt foolish for assuming his family's situation and averted the conversation. 'You should play it,' she said.
Jack pulled on his handcuffs. 'Kinda hard to do that,' he said.
Kit went and got the keys to his cuffs and unlocked them. He placed the circular tablet on the floor and turned the different parts until it clicked into place. A holographic dome flickered out from the old piece of equipment and Jack saw his father flicker into view. Henry Fox had been a young man when he passed away. Forty-nine, only four years older than Jack.
'Son,' he started and Kit watched as Jack reacted with a sudden intake of breath at the sound of his father's voice. 'If you've found this then I am sorry, the world as you know it, the one I created for you and your sister has changed beyond what any of us could comprehend. I hope you both are safe...and still alive.'
From his pained expression, Kit could sense this was difficult for Jack to watch and it made her think of her own father, the vision she had and what it meant. She tried to ignore the sense of jealousy she felt that Jack could at least see his father even in this form when she couldn't see hers. She pushed through the thoughts, knowing that they weren't helpful and continued to listen to the man in front of them.
'You need to protect your sister Jack,' Henry continued. 'I've always told you this, but if me or your mother are no longer there, then you need to protect her. She will make it difficult but she's the key.' Jack sat up at this point, making Kit think this was the new information he hadn't known before. 'There is a way to end the outbreaks and cure people from the virus that was sent here but it's buried so deep in human genome that only a skilled scientist can extract it. This is why Evie will become a scientist for Galen, because she will need the training to know how to find the genetic code that will cure millions of people.'
'Your sister works for Galen?' Kit asked Jack but he shushed her.
'Part of this genetic code sits in you both, but you need to be tested, Evie cannot do this, she cannot know. She'll need protecting if she's to ever leave Volt's security, there are people at Fort Isa who can do this, if you can, you need to travel there,' Henry said as the hologram began to flicker. 'Evie needs to be out of Volt, away from Hawk, protect her. She's the key, she has the code,' the last words crackled to silence and the hologram ended, plunging them into the dark.
Chapter Eleven
THE HELICOPTER LANDED IN the southern prefecture of the Spire and Evie was grateful to feel solid ground under her feet again. Even Cara looked a little green when she climbed through the doors. Max and Connor were talking in hushed voices and whispered something to Hawk.
'Rebel soldiers have attacked the city,' she said. 'Keep the chopper on standby,' she said to Max and Connor. 'If we're going into the bowels of the Spire, I'm not going to go back to headquarters without having anything to report.'
'Yes ma'am,' Max said and relayed the instructions to the pilot.
'Intelligence suggests that the mutants reside in what was once Brooklyn,' Connor told her as he brought up a map. 'Thirty blocks away towards the East.'
'And the chopper can't get us any closer?' Hawk asked.
'It'll get fried in the Dead Zone,' Connor answered.
'Then looks like we're walking,' Hawk said. 'You two are up front,' she told Cara and Evie.
Cara and Evie were happy to head a few paces ahead and Evie was quiet as she looked round the city that her family had once called home.
'I wonder what it would have been like before the invasion,' she said quietly to Cara.
'I read it was a bustling city,' Cara said. 'One of the major landmarks of the former Union.'
'Where did you read about unofficial history of this country?' Evie asked.
'I have my sources,' Cara told her. 'You're not the only one who's curious about the world before the Others arrived.'
Evie was quiet as she looked at the old buildings, the neighborhoods that once were bustling with life that now lay in ruins and in silence. 'We have to escape Hawk and her men,' she said in a whisper.
Cara looked at her surprised. 'Are you crazy?' She asked. 'We'll be killed.'
'We'll be killed if we stay with her,' Evie said. 'We've already caused enough trouble for her to have the right to exile us and if we find Jack there's no way he'll be let back into Volt and he'll be tried for treason.'
'How are we going to escape her and the guards?' Cara asked. 'We might have guns but it doesn't mean we can outshoot them,' she said.
'No,' Evie agreed. 'But we can't wait for the right moment and run,' Evie told her. 'We weren't meant to live in this regime, we need to find a way to be free, and we'll never do that in the walls of Volt.'
'This was your plan all along wasn't it?' Cara asked. 'You wanted to break out but knew that running over the wire wouldn't work.'
'We saw w
hat happened with Lux,' Evie said. 'I wasn't going to attempt the same thing and get the same results.'
'You're crazy,' Cara said. 'We'll never be able to run from her. Or her government.'
'We have to at least try,' Evie said.
The walk through the outlying prefectures of the Spire felt long and Cara jumped at every turn, certain something was going to attack them. They didn't know this part of the city, Evie's government card only allowed her to remain within the few block radius that she needed for work and home, this new part of the city amazed her as she saw how different it was. Buildings were in ruins, streets lay in cobbled debris and she sensed they were being tracked. She was surprised Hawk was continuing with this mission, if anyone did attack them, they would certainly kill her. Why was she putting herself at risk? It couldn't be just because she didn't want one of her workers unaccompanied out in the streets of the Dead Zone, there had to be another reason.
'Maybe she felt like a vacation,' Cara mused when Evie poised the question to her. 'You don't normally get much of a break in a secured government facility.'
They were rounding the corner to what was once Brooklyn Bridge, a bridge that had long since been broken by air strikes in the city. Evie and Cara stopped to look up at it as Hawk and the guards joined them.
'The rebels have destroyed so much of this land,' she said. 'It's because of them we're unable to return here safely.'
'Why would they attack mutants?' Cara asked. 'Surely they're both on the same side?'
'The rebels are human,' Hawk told her. 'They want to restore the Empire back to its former Union state, before the Galen legacy came into being, which goes against our mission. The mutants just want to attack Volt. There's some overlap in their goals but they mostly work separately and give us two warring factions to worry about rather than just one.'
'They just want freedom,' Evie said as she began to continue walking. 'In the end, that's all anyone will fight for.'
'Poignant,' Hawk noted. 'But a foolish belief. People want power and we need to protect our power in this new world, if we let mutants or rebels take over then our world will fall and I cannot allow that to happen. Just like I cannot let you reunite with your brother,' she said and raised her gun to Evie's head.
Rogue (Convergence Series Book 1) Page 11
