“Okay! Covering the hair is first up. That color is so pretty, but so bright.”
She tossed me a wig and Sharra helped me position it correctly. My eye-catching, spiky hair was now hidden beneath a wig that fell just short of my shoulders in limp, mousy-brown waves.
“Perfect,” Toni proclaimed. “And then the face. Does the ink come off or is it a tattoo?”
“It’s a painted design, but it’s a long-lasting ink. It will wear off after a month or two if I don’t reapply, but I can’t just wash it off.”
“Ah well, that’s why we have make-up,” Toni proclaimed. She applied a layer of foundation to cover my facial ink but left the rest of my makeup alone. The dramatic eye and lip makeup was very different from anything I’d ever worn as First Lady. Toning it down for a more conservative look was likely to make me more recognizable rather than less.
Rob returned then with the second part of our disguise, which was nothing more than a light blue jacket with a familiar courier-service logo and a matching helmet with sun-shielded faceplate. I had seen these couriers running all over the city for as long as I could remember. So many people used the service that the couriers were an accepted part of any scene; just part of the background. Dressed like this, we should be able to go almost anywhere without drawing notice.
“I’ve got your bikes outside,” he told us, walking toward the door.
“Oh wait,” Toni cried. “Let me give you a hug for luck before you go!”
“Thanks for your help, Toni.” I hugged her in return, grateful for one cheerful personality in the midst of a hard situation. “Keep an eye out for my cat, would you? He’s off exploring, but he might get back before we do.”
“Of course,” Toni promised. “I’ll take care of him for you.”
Sharra gave Toni a quick hug of her own before we followed Rob to the front doors. I pulled on my courier jacket, but held the helmet in the crook of my arm for now.
Rob led us around the building and through the trees to a small building set next to a narrow, overgrown access road. Two sliver-blue mag-lev bikes were waiting next to the shed. These were slim and airy-looking in comparison to the muscular bikes we rode back in Denver, but the basic operation would be the same.
“You know how to ride?” he asked.
“Yeah, we ride at home,” Sharra said. “We’ll be fine.”
“And you know about the commuter zip?”
“I do,” I told him. “I’ll fill her in.”
“Okay then. You’ll have to push the bikes to end of this road, then you can catch a regular street out of Old Town to catch the zip. See you later.”
“What’s the zip?” Sharra asked as Rob walked away.
“Special type of mag-lev track,” I explained. We pushed our bikes down the rutted driveway as I continued. “Once you merge onto the rail, you’re stuck in place. That’s the zip zone, where the current pulls you along instead of you steering and braking and all. No accidents because everyone’s pulled by the same current at the same rate.
“You can only pull free of the rails in entry and exit zones, so that’s kind of a pain if you have to overshoot your destination because it’s not at an exit point. But the good part is that you really fly through the zip zones; a hundred, hundred and twenty miles an hour usually.”
“Mag,” Sharra said, eyes sparkling.
We waited until the road was clear so no one would see us appear from the bushes with our bikes, then pushed the bikes onto the road and hopped on. A moment later, we had helmets in place and were sliding away.
19
The first part of our mission went smoothly. We caught the zip and flew across the town at exhilarating speeds. Sharra had no trouble negotiating the exit zone and easily followed me off the track when we reached the University District.
The courier bikes were equipped with navigation systems, so we simply entered the address Lucas had sent. The clear directions had us pulling up to the location in only a few minutes. It was a small convenience store crowded with customers.
Sharra and I each took our pictures of Mateo and started cornering store employees.
“Have you seen this guy in here?” I asked the man at the back register.
“Nope,” he answered, not even glancing at the sketch.
“Excuse me, do you think you could actually look at the picture?”
He rolled his eyes and took a long look at the picture. “Nope,” he said again. “Never seen the guy.”
“This would have been very early this morning,” I pressed. “Were you working? Is there someone else I should ask?”
“We’ve all been here since the store opened, but like I said, I haven’t seen him.”
“Thanks,” I muttered. I worked my way through a few more employees with similar results before meeting up with Sharra at the front doors.
“Any luck?” she asked.
“Nothing.”
“Yeah, me neither. Let’s go check out the next place.”
I followed her out to our bikes and we entered the next address. The Medical district was a short drive across surface streets, so we wouldn’t need the zip. We took a road that cut through a peaceful residential section where everything seemed to be completely normal. There was no sign that a hostile government had taken control of the country, no evidence that only yesterday a massive explosion had destroyed a chunk of the city. Wistful, I wished I could just stay here for a while, where I could pretend the last eighteen months had never happened.
We left the residential section behind for the busy Medical district and I pushed away my melancholy mood to focus on our task. Sharra’s bike pulled into the parking lot of a small medical clinic and I followed.
Stepping inside, we saw a typical waiting-room setup. Rows of of semi-comfortable chairs were available for the people who waited impatiently to be seen by one of the med-staff. The waiting area was almost empty this morning and only one of the intake windows was occupied.
Sharra headed straight for the window and leaned on the counter as she flipped up her face shield—the better to flirt with the attractive man behind the counter, I assumed. A few minutes later she blew the man a little kiss and walked back to me.
I followed her outside before demanding, “Well?”
“No guarantees,” she said, “but Kurt over there thought he saw someone that looked kind of like Mateo first thing this morning. I convinced him to look up the guy’s info. He wouldn’t give me a name, but could tell me that the guy came in looking for painkillers after taking a fall yesterday.”
“Could be him,” I said. “Send that info to Lucas and maybe they can pull a name from the appointment records.”
My instructions were unnecessary, since Sharra was already swiping away at the keyboard for her wrist com. She sent the message and then turned to me. “So? What do we do next?”
Deflated, I realized we had already reached another dead end. “We can show his picture at a few places around here, in case he stopped in before or after the clinic. And then I guess we go back,” I said.
An hour later, we had visited a dozen businesses with no luck and decided we’d better head back to headquarters. The ride back was not as fun as our trip out had been. We returned the bikes to the shed, where Gene took the ignition sticks and showed us where to put the helmets and jackets in case we needed them again.
“Thanks for the help.” I managed to sound gracious in spite of my grumpy mood, unlike Sharra, who had stomped out in disgust when Gene asked, “How’s it going?”
I caught up with Sharra outside and we walked back to the school together. I stopped off to update Luna on our unsuccessful investigation.
“Sucks,” she commented. “But not unexpected. Would have been too easy to just drive out there and find him hanging out, I guess.”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “I couldn’t help but hope it would work out that way, though.”
“Would have been nice,” she agreed. “Hey listen, Martín was here earlier.”
“Did you tell him I wanted to talk to him?”
“Yeah, but he had to take off again. He promises he’ll catch up with you as soon as he can. In the meantime, he asked me to ask you if you would record a holo for us.”
“A holo of what?”
“He wants you to tell your story of the assassination, along with Cruz’s role in the conspiracy and naming as many names as possible.
“I can do that. I assume you have the equipment?”
She pointed across the room, where Rob and Brady were setting up lights and cameras.
“And do we have any idea why Martín wants this holo?”
“Of course we don’t,” Luna said with a little snort.
I scowled. “I trust Martín, so I’m going along for right now. But if you see him again before he talks to me, you tell him he’s on borrowed time before I decide to rebel against the rebellion. I want details.”
20
A week later, I was still waiting for those details, I mused. I had woken in the gray hours before dawn and couldn’t fall asleep again. Instead, I lay in my cot listening to the people sleeping all around me and dwelling on our lack of success so far.
I didn’t know what Martín had been up to this week, but he’d barely set foot in headquarters, it seemed. When he was here, it was always while Sharra and I were out. I relayed increasingly irritated messages through Luna, but I hadn’t laid eyes on Martín since the night he’d brought us here.
Sharra and I spent time each day following up on more leads in the search for Mateo. Lucas’s group combed the cameras and databases every day for any possible signal that Mateo was out there. They sent the info to us and we put on our courier gear and went looking for details. So far, we had plenty of hints that Mateo had survived his fall, but no proof. We were no closer to finding his current location than we had been a week ago.
I felt useless and sorry for myself. I wanted something meaningful to do instead of filling my days with an endless search for Mateo. We also did a few chores to help out and spent hours watching newsholos, hoping for snippets of actual news buried in the drivel that the government restrictions allowed them to broadcast. None of it felt like I was making an actual contribution to this effort.
Even Roomie led a more purposeful life than mine. He disappeared into the overgrown tangle surrounding the school each morning, ears and tail perked eagerly as he headed out. He rarely returned before the sun set and always seemed very satisfied with himself. I wished he could tell me what he was doing all day. His stories would surely be more interesting than mine.
I didn’t remember falling asleep again, but I had obviously drifted off at some point since I was awakened when Martín sat down on the end of my cot. Surprised, I scooted up to sit cross-legged on the cot beside him. Roomie grumbled at the disturbance but made room for me to shift position.
“Good morning,” Martín said, patting my knee through the thin blanket. “Sorry to wake you, but something’s come up, and I could use your help.”
A thrill of excitement ran through me. Finally. I was tired of sitting around, waiting to be useful. “Whatever you need,” I blurted. “Anything.”
Martín laughed a little at my eagerness, and I had to laugh with him. Maybe I had been a little too enthusiastic, but I was anxious to be doing something.
“Why don’t you grab your friends,” he nodded toward Sharra and gave Roomie a chin scratch, “and join me outside to talk.” He stood and walked back to the control center to speak with Luna for a moment, then headed out of the door leading to the hallway and the outside doors.
Sharra had heard our conversation, and she was already jumping out of bed. She was as anxious for an assignment as I was. Roomie trotted at our heels, never willing to stay behind when something interesting might happen.
Martín was waiting for us as we hurried over to join him beneath the giant oak tree that shaded the front entrance to the old school. He wasted no time with small talk.
“I watched the holo you filmed; it’s exactly what I needed, thank you.”
“Are you going to tell me what it’s for?”
“Soon. First, from watching your vid I know you realize that Cruz was originally a minor player in this whole conspiracy and that Luis Gutierrez, Madelaine and Antoine Carlson, Raymond Nexen, and Louisa Smythe-Garwick were the leaders in this plot.”
“Yes.” My heart still hurt when I thought about it. These were all people I had considered friends, and they had been the ones to decide my father and I needed to die. Roomie rubbed his head against my knee in comfort. As always, he understood more of the conversation than any cat should have.
“We’ve been trading information with your … pack, you called it? They had a lot of information we don’t have and vice versa. So between our sources and yours we have a pretty clear picture of the situation in the White House now.
“Cruz sat back and let the rest of the group organize the coup for the most part, but as soon as he consolidated his position as President he moved to take over. The rest of the group has been scrambling to try to keep him in line. Basically, they wanted to just maintain the status quo with a new person as the figurehead. If things had continued to go according to their plan, life today would be pretty similar to what we had two years ago, only with a new president.
“Instead, Cruz seized real power. He wanted changes and he’s implementing them, no matter what the rest of the group says.”
“I had a feeling,” I murmured. “Everything that’s happened lately is just too overt. It never made sense. Why would this shadow government that has quietly controlled things from behind the scenes for many years suddenly abandon all subtlety and start strong-arming everything?”
“Exactly right. They’re panicking now. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were considering another assassination to get him out of the way. There are hints of it.”
“But he would be on guard against that, having been part of the first one,” Sharra pointed out.
“Yes, he’s being very careful and keeping a close eye on the rest of the conspirators.”
“Any chance the whole nasty group will just take each other out?” Sharra asked.
Martín smiled a little, “That would be convenient, but I don’t think that should be our go-to strategy.”
“What is our go-to strategy?” I asked. “I know you are keeping the plan quiet, but I want to know the details. I’m not going to run tell anyone and neither is Sharra.” I crossed my arms and waited. I wasn’t going any further with Martín’s plans until I had the whole picture.
“Yes, you’ve made that clear. That’s why we’re having this conversation. To begin, we need to take away Cruz’s military power. If we can take away Cruz’s troops, he loses a lot of his power.”
I nodded in agreement.
“Most of my work the last couple of months has been in trying to get a connection in the military who will throw in with us. We need someone high enough in the chain of command to take control. We also had to be sure that person is not working with either Cruz or the rest of the conspirators. It’s taken some time, but we narrowed it down to General Lang Tilden as our best candidate.”
My lips curved with fond memories. I glanced at Sharra and explained, “General Tilden was my father’s commanding officer for a long time, and then later he was a liaison between the military and the White House. I’ve known him since I was about six years old.” Turning back to Martín I asked, “General Tilden is still in service? He’s been telling everyone that he’s ready to retire for as long as I can remember.”
“He might have finally followed through if the coup hadn’t occurred. He’s stayed in place to do what he could to minimize damage, but he’s limited by having to avoid drawing attention from Cruz. That’s why we thought he might be willing to throw in with us, to finally have the chance to do something big.
“I’ve spoken with him, and he’s willing to consider cooperating with us, but he wants some reassurance that h
e wouldn’t be helping to put a new government in place that would be even worse.”
“I’m not surprised,” I said. “He’s a very careful man.”
Martín nodded in agreement. “I think your long relationship with the general will be enough to sway him. If you speak with him and let him know that you approve of the plan, he’ll come on board.”
I crossed my arms and looked at Martín. “Well, I can’t tell him that I approve of the plan, Martín. You’ve been so secretive that I still don’t know the plan. I’m not going in there to convince General Tilden to join up until I know the rest.”
He looked annoyed and tried to stare me down, but I held his gaze until he sighed and rubbed a hand over his shadowed chin. He looked at Sharra, and I jumped in before he could suggest that she should step away. “I’m just going to tell Sharra anything you tell me, so you might as well talk in front of her.”
His voice was clipped and irritated as he gave in and shared a few details, obviously trying to still keep as much to himself as possible. The man was seriously paranoid about the possibility of leaks.
“It’s a four-pronged approach. We have citizens like the people gathered here at headquarters. Those who are living here are the people who have to hide from the authorities because they fell under suspicion for one reason or another. However, most of the citizens committed to this plan are still in place in their homes and going about their day-to-day lives. They are divided into a number of groups, and only the group leaders know who belongs to their unit and what their target is. When we’re ready we’ll contact the group leaders, and then the group leaders will contact their members with instructions.”
“Targets like what?” Sharra interjected.
“Some groups are assigned to find and capture leaders in the current administration. Others are to take over strategic businesses or government buildings.” The stubborn look on his face indicated that he was not going to give us any more detail than that, so I didn’t press for the moment. I would have time to weasel more information from him later. He relaxed a little once he saw that we weren’t going to push and continued his explanation.
Into Light (Shadow and Light Book 2) Page 11
