Elite (Citizen Saga, Book 1)

by Claire, Nicola

  I shouldn't have been surprised. It was obvious she'd do it. What surprised me was the sudden spike of panic I felt at her words.

  I went to open my mouth, but Alan beat me to it.

  "You're not going alone," he declared.

  She slowly turned her head to look up at him and the smile she offered, despite Alan's chilled tone, was all warmth.

  It should have been my smile. Not his.

  It should have been me declaring she had back-up. Not him.

  But instead I just stood there and watched as Alan nodded agreement, the chill evaporating from the room, and they became a team of sorts.

  "So, when do we go?" he asked in a much more friendly manner, satisfied now that she'd do the right thing.

  Lena opened her mouth to answer, but it was me who was doing the beating this time.

  What I meant to say was, no one was going to sacrifice themselves at Chew-wen's feet until we had a plan. But clearly this fixation with Lena was affecting my intelligence.

  Because what I did say was, "Neither of you are going anywhere," in a tone that conveyed the full weight of my authority as their leader.

  Alan stilled, Si muttered, "Here we go," under his breath, and Kevin turned back to his switches and toggles as though he hadn't just been hanging on each word. While I tried not to cringe at my lack of tact.

  Then Lena picked up the thumb-drive with the Sat-Loc codes from Wántel and made a show of slipping it safely back inside her bra. Out of reach for more reasons now than I cared to admit.

  My eyes met hers and I smiled. "You think I can't get them?" I asked, and even I admit it sounded a little cocky.

  She smiled back, it wasn't as warm as the one she gave Alan.

  "I'd like to see you try."

  No she didn't. She most definitely did not want to see me try, but I had to hand it to her. Nothing she did lacked class.

  The woman was spectacular, but unfortunately it was clear she didn't feel the same way about me. And I only had myself to blame.

  Oh, and Alan.

  Chapter 28

  Oh, Little Zebra

  Lena

  Oh, God. Aiko.

  All I could think was how did I get her out of there? And all I came up with was handing myself over in her stead. It's what Chew-wen wanted. Why, I couldn't say. But his message was clear; return home and she's safe. Keep hiding and she gets hurt.

  Aiko. I wanted to scream with frustration. He couldn't have chosen a better threat.

  I first met Aiko when she was walking the streets in Wáikěiton late at night, plying her wares. I watched from my perch on a rickety rooftop as she was approached by a group of men. At first, it seemed fairly benign. The odd joke in Wáitaměi. The friendly smiles and flirtatious looks. But then things changed. I'm not sure what made them do it, maybe they didn't like her price. Aiko is top dollar, because she can become anyone you want and make it work.

  High class call girl to Arthur Chen, appropriate model Citizen to an honest worker, Wáikěiton hooker in the back streets. Honourable courtesan to the Chief Overseer. She can play it all, do it well. A skill that has earned her much business over the years, but even then it was never enough. Aiko took risks that weren't necessary, had a compulsion to push her limits every day. Which was why, I found out later, she was walking the streets of Wáikěiton instead of entertaining a repeat customer in much more pleasant surroundings.

  The first punch made me suck in a surprised breath of air; I hadn't seen it coming. The second and third had been landed by the time I was off the roof and across the alley. There were no more after that. Well, not for Aiko.

  I helped her home and met Lee Tan, or as he liked to be called, Tan. Her older brother. We have been friends ever since.

  Tan and I worked hard to protect Aiko. What must he be thinking right now?

  I had to get in touch, but first I had to get out of here.

  I held Trent's impassioned stare. He really didn't want any of us going after Aiko. At first I thought it was jealousy. But then he made it obvious it was all about risk. And he wasn't prepared to risk Alan, or risk losing the Sat-Loc codes I now had back down between my breasts.

  "I won't leave her there," I announced, crossing my arms over my chest and drawing his eyes to my cleavage in a flash.

  "I'm not suggesting that," he argued, reluctantly bringing his gaze back up top again.

  "Then what are you suggesting?" I demanded.

  "Why does he want you so badly?" he threw back instead of answering.

  "He doesn't like rebellion, or had you missed that fact."

  "No, I got it."

  "He especially does not like rebellion in his family," I added.

  "And you're his family," Trent said, the look on his face was a mixture of sadness and surprise. As if he'd forgotten that fact and was only just now being reminded.

  "I'm his responsibility, in the eyes of his peers," I corrected. "It doesn't look good if I boycott the celebration."

  "But he brought the celebration forward by a week," Alan pointed out. "He could have just given his drones more time to pick you up and not made an obvious issue out of it."

  "Wang Chao," Trent murmured. "At Elliott Street he said to you, 'I always get my woman.' What did that exactly mean?"

  I hesitated too long and before I could think of an adequate answer Trent huffed out an incredulous breath of air.

  "That home was yours," he accused. "Your alias lives there. He knows."

  I nodded my head slowly.

  "What will he find there?" Trent asked, his voice softer now.

  "He found Aiko," I replied, only just now realising how she'd been picked up. My legs gave out and I collapsed into the chair behind me. "She often spends the night at my flat when she's argued with her brother Tan."

  Oh, God. This was all my fault.

  "Lena," Trent murmured, crouching down to look in my face. "This is not how people should live. Do you understand? This is not living, this is existing at someone's command."

  I shook my head, not understanding what he was getting at.

  "General Chew-wen has not been protecting Wánměi, he's been controlling it."

  "But that's how he shields us from overindulgence and inappropriate influence from the outside world." The words were spoken by rote. I didn't mean them. I'd just been taught to think them.

  I realised that now.

  His hand reached up and a finger gently entwined in a strand of my hair. He pulled it forward so I could see the white and black colouring.

  "White and black, Lena," Trent said, holding my gaze. "Why not red, blue, or pink?"

  "People have those colours in their hair," I argued.

  "Yes. But don't you see? It's the Overseers' way of allowing us a measure of freedom within the constraints of a dictatorial society."

  A long, slow breath left me. To say those words aloud left my stomach in knots. To think them was heresy. To voice them, madness.

  "And he couldn't even give you that," Trent added. "White and black," he said, stroking my hair and then releasing it. "Our world is white and black. Do you think it was his decision to let us have different colours for our hair? Or do you think if he had his way everyone would be white and black?"

  I flicked my eyes across the room to Simon, who had nondescript natural looking blond colouring in his hair. What was not natural for Wánměi, though, was the length of it. He wore it loose, down past his shoulders, completely slamming model-like and appropriately acceptable haircuts. There was no way he could walk freely on the streets, and yet he still wore that hairstyle.

  And shouldn't he have that choice?

  I bit my lower lip, feeling the familiar sensations of panic well up inside me. Whenever I had questioned our regime in the past, I'd be punished by my guardian. Locked away in my room and ordered to read Wánměi's manifesto. Then be pulled before a scowling General Chew-wen and made to recite the reasons why we lived the way we did.

  For the better of the people. For
the future of Wánměi.

  We should not desire for more than we have. Wánměi provides all that we need.

  Wánměi above all others. Wánměi leads the way.

  My eyes came back to Trent's and I saw his conviction, his belief. I saw a man who did ask those questions, and when made to recite the reasons why we lived the way we did, he shouted back, "No."

  Could I do that? Could I stand behind my beliefs like this man did?

  Did I want to?

  Aiko. I believed in Aiko. In her beautiful and innocent face. Despite her choice of livings, Aiko was simple in her desires, simple in her beliefs. Simple in her thought processes. She did not deserve to be at Chew-wen's hands. Just like she did not deserve to be beaten for daring to ask too much for her service in that Wáikěiton alleyway.

  "We can do more than just save Aiko," Trent said quietly, still crouched before me, still staring patiently, but expectantly into my eyes. "We can save Wánměi."

  "How?" I said, the words mainly just air, made up of the part of me that was letting go of my past.

  "Those codes," he said. My breath all but stalling. "They unlock the satellite that allows us access to outside networks. Not Wánměi's; they open up the rest of the world through cyberspace. A world we're not even meant to know exists.

  "It's the first step towards bringing down the walls. Educating the people, allowing them the information to fight back. If they knew there was a world out there, free, they wouldn't settle for General Chew-wen's Wánměi."

  "Revolution," I whispered.

  "But a revolution involving the majority of the city."

  "More than you had last time," I offered.

  "Yes," he said simply. "We need more. We can't do this alone."

  I sat there and considered his words. I actually played them over and over again inside my head. They still scared me. They still sounded so foreign. So evil. But I couldn't stop myself from repeating them again and again.

  "People died last time," I said, my voice hitching on the words.

  "Yes," he said, a sheen of something painful washing over his eyes and then vanishing. "And they will again. But it's worth it."

  "Death."

  "Freedom," he countered. "What price would you pay for Aiko to be free from all of this?"

  I truly believed he was playing me, but I couldn't fault his tactics. I'd do the same for something I believed in, and I believed in Aiko and Tan.

  "I need to make a phone call," I said, which clearly wasn't the answer he was expecting. "Privately," I added.

  "We can do the phone, but not the privacy."

  "You still don't trust me," I surmised.

  "Do you trust me?" Trent asked. I smiled. He was right. I didn't.

  But we might just need each other.

  "Who do you want to call?" he asked, his eyes stuck momentarily on my lips.

  "Aiko's brother. He could help."

  "How?" Alan asked, reminding me that Trent and I had not been alone, an audience had witnessed everything we'd said. I was guessing alone time in this place was only possible when you went to bed.

  My cheeks heated fractionally at that thought. Which was stupid. Trent and I may have needed one another, but we were worlds apart when it came to sharing a bed. Unfortunately, he caught the blush and raised a single eyebrow in query, making me picture all manner of things that didn't help.

  "He knows people," I said, directing my answer to Alan. "He knows a lot of people."

  "I don't know him," Trent offered.

  "Did you know me before I stole those files out from under your nose?"

  "You got lucky," Alan muttered from across the room, just as Trent said, "You were a delightful surprise."

  I couldn't help smiling. His eyes darted down at the movement again.

  "What type of people does this brother know?" Trent asked, pulling his gaze back up.

  "Palace staff," I offered. "Citizens who are trusted by the Overseers."

  "No Citizen is trusted by the Overseers," Simon argued.

  "Some of these ones are."

  "And you trust them?" Trent asked.

  "I trust no one," I replied. "But that doesn't mean they can't help."

  Trent laughed. "You really aren't a typical Elite, are you?"

  "I keep telling you," I said, smoothing the material of my skirt to seem at ease. "I am not Elite anymore."

  He stared at me for a moment and then stood back up and moved away.

  "Open up a line for Lena," he instructed Simon. "Let's see what Aiko's brother has to say."

  "This is going to backfire," Simon muttered under his breath, but did as he was told.

  I moved over to him and picked up the headset he offered, as he dialled in Tan's number while I recited it. The phone rang once. And only once.

  And then my close friend answered in Wáitaměi. Not Anglisc.

  I reached out and hit disconnect on the panel in front of Simon.

  "What did you do that for?" he asked. "Did I misdial?"

  I took two steps back and shook my head.

  "Lena?" Trent said appearing at my side.

  "They've got Tan as well," I said, feeling my entire world crumble around me, the ground buckling at my feet.

  "Oh, little zebra," he murmured, pulling me close to his side and brushing a kiss in my hair.

  It seemed so natural, I wasn't even sure if he knew what he was doing. But I took advantage of the moment and buried my face in his chest and inhaled.

  He smelled good. So good I took another sniff, trying to be inconspicuous about it, but probably failing.

  "Call Harjeet," Trent said, still holding me. "We need more information before we walk blindly into Chew-wen's trap."

  And I knew, right then, right in that second, that I would follow this man anywhere. He didn't know Aiko. He didn't know Tan. He really didn't know me and kept reminding me that he didn't trust me. The files with the Sat-Loc codes were down my top, he could just reach out and take them at any time, or order one of his men to do the same.

  But despite all of that, he took one look at the devastation on my face at the loss of my two closest friends, the only true family I had left, and he reached out immediately to hug me.

  He chose to support me. Comfort me.

  And then he got to work on helping me free my friends.

  Chapter 29

  It Was A Toss Up On Who Would Kill Me First

  Trent

  Lena was exhausted. She'd not eaten since Wáikěiton, and she'd been through the wringer since then. I was sure she wouldn't sleep if I suggested it, but when I saw her lift the edge of her sundress up and take a whiff, I knew I had one shot at getting her out of the room and at least switching off for a while.

  "Hey," I said, coming alongside her. Her hand dropped from her dress so quickly it was almost comical. "I've been a bad host."

  "You have?" she asked, arching her brow.

  God, the desire to reach out and kiss it flat was undeniable. But I'd made too much progress with her to fuck it up by overstepping the mark now.

  "Yes, I have," I admitted. "I should have offered you a shower, fresh clothes. That sort of thing. You are homeless after all."

  She smiled, it was still a little tremulous.

  "It can wait." Her eyes darted back to the screen where Si and Alan were checking out the blueprints we had on file of the Palace. They were old and out of date and probably would make it more confusing than help us, but it was all we had.

  "Look, take five," I said. "Harjeet won't be here for at least half an hour, and we really need his help to even contemplate storming the Palace."

  Her smile tipped up further, amusement gracing her face.

  "You don't plan to storm it, Trent," she said and I was so fucking close to kissing those twitching lips it wasn't funny. "You plan to go in by stealth."

  "Say it again," I instructed. Oh, damn.

  "Say what again?"

  Ah, hell. "My name."

  "Trent," she said, and
she sounded breathless.

  I couldn't pull away. I couldn't see anything but her lips, her smile. Her tongue darting out and flicking back in.

  I groaned softly and closed my eyes. "You will be the death of me, zebra."

  "Not unless you kill me first," she quipped and my eyes snapped open to see hers dancing.

  Shit. I was in deep trouble, all right.

  I watched as reality stole back across her features. The smile dimming, the laughter in her eyes snuffing out.

  "They mean a lot to you, don't they?" I asked, already knowing the answer intrinsically.

  "They became my family after my father died."

  And there was my dose of reality. If she knew who my father was, who her father had been defending the Chief Overseer against when he died, she'd never look at me with laughter in her eyes again.

  I had to make sure she never found out. And that meant keeping Carla away from her. My eyes came up just as Carla and Damia chose that exact moment to walk into the room, their gazes landing on Lena and me, and how close we were standing.

  "Alan," I said softly, daring the two women to take a step closer and suffer my wrath.

  "Yeah, boss?" Alan asked at my side.

  "Take Lena to her quarters, she needs clean clothes and a rest before Harjeet arrives."

  "What am I? Her butler?"

  I flicked him a quelling glance and said, "Please." It hardly sounded like a request at all.

  Alan snorted, turned to Lena and held out his hand, "Come on, Princess. If you ask nicely I'll even scrub your back."

  He danced out of the way of my fist making Lena laugh out loud. I think the sound surprised her. It certainly earned her a few looks from around the room. The men all surreptitiously thinking dirty thoughts involving her laughter and their part in making it come out.

  The women just giving her filthy glares. Thankfully, Alan cottoned on to my reasons for his sudden change in assignments, and steered Lena away before she saw the hatred in Damia and Carla's eyes.

  Oh, this was going to be fun.

  "We've got a new project," I announced, thinking it best to just focus on work and nothing else. Like how on earth did I ever consider sleeping with these women would be a good idea. Was I mad?