Abandon p-3

by Elana Johnson

  Insider Tip #6: Use what resources you have, as long as you can do it without detection.

  Ten minutes later the dome went down.

  * * *

  Gunn and I managed to float over the city at four hundred feet, well out of range of any guards, even if they had vision enhancements. When we hovered dead center, I gave the signal to descend.

  We landed on the roof of a medium-size building, where I fondled a cool westerly and said, “Thanks.”

  The air current zipped away, buzzing with pride.

  Before we could even begin, the dome regenerated, trapping us inside.

  “At least we can get two things done,” Gunn said, folding his board and shoving it in his pocket. He looked to his right, then his left. “So, which way do you think we should go?”

  Shouts filled the sky, and that same crazy-unsettling unease I’d felt in Harvest filled my gut.

  “Toward that sound,” I said, though every particle of my being wanted to get back on my board and fly far away.

  Gunn looked at me, shock darkening his features. “What’s going on?”

  “I’d say a rebellion,” I answered calmly. I felt it deep, deep down. And I wondered—again—if canceling the transmissions and providing the general population their free will was a good thing.

  Free vs. functioning? If Saffediene were here, I’d ask her. But I didn’t dare voice anything with Gunn, lest Jag hear about it and question my loyalty again.

  I led, walking fast across the close-knit rooftops and waving off Gunn’s repeated questions. He’d see for himself soon enough.

  After only a few minutes, we arrived on the scene. I blinked, activating the recording capabilities of my cache before I looked down.

  Gunn and I stood on a ten-story building, looking down on complete mayhem. The open area was circular, with banners and flags waving every few feet. A celebration had obviously been interrupted, but by whom and for what reason I couldn’t determine.

  All I saw were crazy-mad people crying in crazy-loud voices about something I didn’t understand.

  A group of Thinkers stood in the middle of the fray, wearing bright-as-the-summer-sky blue robes, holding their hands out in the same placating gesture.

  “What are they saying?” Gunn asked.

  “I don’t know.” I listened, but the voices combined into a cacophony of anger and fear and desperation.

  “Equal rights,” a voice nearby said.

  Both Gunn and I startled. A boy, not more than ten, stood on the roof about fifteen feet from us, surveying the madness below.

  “Who are you?” Gunn asked, edging the tiniest bit closer to me.

  “Stone,” he said, still not looking at us. Like we didn’t even matter.

  “Equal rights?” I asked.

  “Yeah, you know, like education and food and water and stuff.”

  “You don’t have food and water and . . . stuff?” I asked. I liked this kid already.

  “We used to. Everyone did. Everyone had the same stuff, actually. Same clothes, same rations, same houses. Now—” He finally turned to look at me, and I saw how sunken his cheeks were. “Now we don’t.”

  “What happened?” Gunn gestured down to the open area. “What happened to make them act like that?”

  “They woke up,” Stone said.

  Jag

  19.

  I don’t want him here, I don’t want him here, I don’t want him here. I couldn’t stop thinking it. Even when Vi smacked me in the chest and glared my face off.

  Even when Pace gave me another dose of meds.

  Even when “he” came over and said, “I can just go if you want.”

  “It’s fine, Thane,” I said. “I need the information you have.”

  “I reported two nights ago when I woke up.”

  “Sure, yeah, whatever. I need the information you have.” I sat at the head of the war room table with only a small contingent surrounding me. Pace, Vi and Saffediene, and Gunn and Zenn, who needed to report on why they couldn’t finish their objective in Lakehead.

  My only consolation was that Indy had opted to stay back in the infirmary. I couldn’t have handled her here too. I’d given her an assignment she was less than pleased with, but someone had to watch Thane while our plans moved forward, and I couldn’t spare anyone else.

  Her displeasure at my decisions reminded me so much of Vi.

  “You’ve seen some of what I know already,” Thane said, and I read between the lines. The cloning experiments. I nodded in unspoken acceptance. “I gave you everything else I know.”

  I swiveled in my chair. “Vi, if you would, please.” I hated putting her in this position, but I couldn’t read the joker’s mind. I could, however, feel a massive vein of deceit flowing through the room. Nearly all of it emanated from Thane.

  And the rest?

  Zenn. The guy held a secret, and no one was leaving here without me knowing what it was.

  I tapped my foot against the chair leg, waiting for Vi to excavate the information I needed.

  “He knows what Van’s plan is,” Vi replied.

  “Which is?”

  “He wants General Director,” Thane said stiffly, cutting a tight look at his daughter. She returned it in force. Ah, how I loved her.

  “Keep talking,” I said.

  “I maintained Rise Twelve, as per Resistance instructions,” he said. “Starr Messenger was supposed to take over, and she’s a fighter. I left her a file that was only to be opened if I didn’t return. I can only assume she gave it to Mason Isaacs when he was appointed Director of Twelve.”

  “And what was in the file?” I asked.

  “Instructions for how to arm the Citizens of Twelve. How to bring in the Insiders. I knew that if I disappeared, Van would know I’d double-crossed him. He’d start with the Insiders. Van’s biggest problem is his craving for power. He cannot tolerate people disobeying him.”

  “Hmm,” I said. “Sounds like a common thread among Thinkers.” I steepled my fingers under my chin, ignoring the pull of skin on my back. After two days of rest, my head and thigh were almost healed. But my back . . . Ouch. Pace had used sealant last night to keep two of the wounds together.

  “We know he wiped out the Insider hideouts,” Zenn said. “What’s his next move?”

  Thane looked at Zenn, and his jaw unclenched. I watched their exchange with interest. They both had a cache, they both served both sides, they both didn’t have my trust. For all I knew, they’d been working together—against me—for years.

  “You’re in a room full of people,” I reminded them. “Speak out loud. General Director Darke is in Freedom. What do you know about that, Thane?”

  Zenn slid a piece of paper from my own notebook toward me in response. I didn’t look at it.

  “Van is looking for a replacement,” Thane said. “And he didn’t wipe out the Insiders, as I was telling Zenn. Isaacs was able to bring most of them in. The casualties were very low.”

  “Define low,” Zenn said, clearly agitated.

  “Less than two dozen.” Thane delivered this news with calculated coolness. Typical Thinker. No emotional attachments.

  I suppose I was just like them. “How do you know all this?” I caught Gunn’s eye, and he nodded. The information so far had matched everything Starr had been caching us.

  “I have talents too,” Thane said. He didn’t even blink. I knew his talents all too well. Voice and mind. A lethal combination.

  “No,” Vi whispered, but it sounded like a shout. She shook her head, looking from Thane, to me, to Zenn. “No.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “No,” she said again, more forcefully now.

  “Violet,” Thane said.

  “Tell me,” I commanded.

  “Van Hightower is looking for his replacement,” Thane said. “He believes his appointment as General Director is coming soon.”

  “And?” I prompted.

  “He wants Zenn,” Vi said, anguished.

&nb
sp; I looked down at the paper Zenn had passed me. The note read, Should I say yes?

  Voices broke out, but I sat silent, staring at Zenn’s message. He sat silently too. When he caught my eye, he jerked his head toward the closest hallway. I stood up and followed him into the tunnel.

  “Well?” Zenn asked.

  I folded my arms. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  He held my gaze, unflinching. Classic Insider. But the pause before he spoke told me everything.

  “I don’t trust you,” I said. “And this is why.”

  Still no outward sign that Zenn was withholding information. But he was. He had to be.

  “Should I say yes?” he asked, sidestepping my question.

  I raised one shoulder in a shrug. “If you want. I don’t care.”

  “Think how much I could do in Freedom as Director.”

  It was exactly what I was thinking.

  Zenn cast a glance toward the argument still raging in the war room. “Will it help Vi?”

  “Vi doesn’t need your help,” I said. “She’s safe with me.” I said it to hurt him, and even cool-cat Zenn couldn’t hide the pain/fury/anguish fast enough. I saw it. I saw it all.

  It hurt me to hurt him. We used to be best friends once, united in our zeal to take down the Association. I’d fought from the outside, and he’d crippled them from the inside. My barricades softened, just for a second, but it was enough.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “I would change so many things,” Zenn said. “Starting with you and Blaze.”

  I cleared my throat, trying to scrape back my tears. I nodded.

  Zenn copied me, and actually brushed his hand across his eyes.

  “It’s your decision,” I said. “I’ll support it.” Then I returned to the war room, kissing Vi before I sat down.

  I still didn’t trust Zenn. A few tears and a couple of nice words didn’t buy confidence.

  * * *

  “Zenn will choose,” I said, effectively ending the discussion/argument/shout-fest. “Thane, what else?”

  “Everything should be set inside the city,” he said. “We’ve still got Starr Messenger and Trek Whiting who are Informant. I believe Gunner’s been receiving their reports.”

  Gunn nodded. “When I’m gone, Saffediene’s been picking up the chats.”

  “Yes,” Saffediene said. “But I’d like to request to be on the traveling team.”

  “Gunn?” I asked.

  “She can have my spot.” He looked down the hall. “I’d like to stay . . . . Starr likes to deal directly with me.”

  “Right,” Zenn said, having rejoined the group. “I think Raine likes to deal directly with you.”

  I laughed with everyone else. In response Gunner handed his dad’s journal to Zenn. “She does, actually. Can you be in charge of this?”

  “When he goes into Freedom, I’ll take it,” I said.

  Zenn fingered the leather-bound book, his eyes taking on a far-off quality. “If I go.”

  But I knew he’d go. Zenn wanted to matter. He always had—and what better way to matter than to hold an important government position? He’d definitely be going. It was just a matter of when.

  Vi put her hand on Zenn’s arm, and my stomach flipped. I didn’t want her touching him, even if they were just friends.

  “How’s the tech, Pace?” I asked to distract myself, but I found it impossible. Vi’s hand remained on Zenn’s arm, and I couldn’t look away.

  “Coming along,” he said. “We got some good stuff in Freedom, and I’ve been tinkering. We’ll have what we need in a couple of weeks.”

  “Which works out well with the traveling schedule,” Zenn said. “Last I checked, we still had six cities to visit.”

  “Maybe seven,” Saffediene noted. “I don’t think all the objectives were completed in Lakehead.”

  “True,” Gunner said. “The city was in lockdown. We managed to upload the software and start the false feeds, and that’s all. But those are the important things. The last objective came from the journal and doesn’t have to be complete in order to launch the attack on Freedom.”

  “Will we have support in Lakehead?” I asked. “Will they send people?”

  “Yes,” Zenn said, too loud. He and Gunn wouldn’t look at each other, or at me.

  And there it was. The thing Zenn wanted to hide from me. No matter. I’d get it out of Gunn after Zenn left with Saffediene. They’d have another mission coming up soon, probably tonight.

  “Next mission?” I asked.

  “Cedar Hills,” Saffediene replied automatically. “Zenn and I leave in a couple of hours.”

  “Fantastic,” I said, almost smiling. “Let’s go over assignments. Pace will run communication with all the cities we already have on board, letting them know our schedule. He’ll also be equipping us all with defensive tech.”

  “You got it, bro,” Pace said.

  “Zenn and Saffediene will finish visiting the cities and compile the travelogue. We’ll also need a list of supplies each city can contribute, and how many people they estimate sending.”

  Saffediene nodded, typing something into her e-board. Zenn watched me, his expression unreadable.

  “Gunn and Raine will be in charge of maintaining contact with Starr to stay updated with events inside Freedom. Oh, and Zenn, you know Mason Isaacs and have a cache. Can you contact him before you leave this afternoon?”

  As soon as the words left my mouth, I couldn’t believe I’d asked him. I didn’t ask anyone anything. I assigned. Zenn waved his hand in agreement.

  I surveyed my group. “Excellent. Adjourned.”

  “Wait,” Thane said. He’d been silent so long, I was happy to have forgotten about him.

  “What?” I snapped.

  “I just received a chat from Van Hightower.”

  Zenn

  20.

  “Impossible,” I said, too quietly for anyone to hear. If Thane had indeed received an e-comm from Director Hightower, the Director would have to be close-by.

  Very close-by.

  Way too close.

  Instead of questioning Thane, Jag simply hit a button, which caused a strobing blue light to fill the cavern. He began issuing orders: “Pace, get all the tech. Tell Indy to help you. Vi, stay next to me, see what you can find, and don’t hold anything back.” He spun, his eyes wild, but his voice calm. “Saffediene, Zenn, go to Cedar Hills. Gunn, get Raine and start evacuations. Don’t leave any sensitive material lying around!”

  People emerged from the doorways lining the war room, most of them in time to hear the end of Jag’s directive.

  Panic hung in the air, but no one acted irrationally. Saffediene linked her arm through mine. “I need to go to my room first!” she shouted over the many footsteps and voices surrounding us.

  “Let’s hurry,” I said, a vein of fear snaking through me. Director Hightower would love to get inside my head if he could. I’d been branded a traitor because of my Informant activity, but my file in the Association listed me as rehabilitatable. I hadn’t decided if I wanted to pretend to go through that. I didn’t know if I could pull off such an act convincingly.

  In her room Saffediene shoved her extra clothes and the contents of one drawer into her backpack before declaring she was ready. She followed me to my room where I did the same, leaving everything but my clothes, a blanket, and four memory chips I’d taken from Freedom.

  They contained all my fondest thoughts of Vi. Things from the Goodgrounds before we’d left. Lucid moments in Freedom. My father had also sent a chip—an old, out-of-date model compared to the tech in Freedom—filled with vids of me as a child, my brother, our family.

  I tucked the chips into my pocket and joined Saffediene in the hall. The blue light danced off the dark walls, washing her pale features in an eerie glow. She gripped my hand, her tension evident in her touch.

  “This way.” She tugged me away from the only entrance—and thus, the on
ly exit—and toward the mess hall.

  “What—?”

  “Emergency exit,” she said. Two guys from Indy’s team were filling packs with canned food. They didn’t look up as we passed. Part of me wished I could’ve at least said goodbye to Vi. Part of me wanted to march out the front entrance and confront Director Hightower. All of me was desperate to get away.

  But as we entered a square opening I could barely fold my shoulders through, all I could think was, This place had another way out and I didn’t know?

  * * *

  We flew south, away from the cavern, expecting the Director would approach from the north, from Freedom. Saffediene wanted to talk, and I let her.

  “I wonder how Hightower found us,” she mused. “I mean, we’ve been so careful. Flying in from different directions, meeting Starr in random sectors. And we’re over a hundred miles from the border of Freedom. The orchards are a huge buffer as it is . . . .”

  On and on she went. I grunted every now and then. Just thinking about how Director Hightower had discovered the hideout made me tired. Everything Saffediene said made sense though. I couldn’t help but wonder if someone inside our ranks had narced.

  Insider Tip #7: Suspect everyone. Trust no one. When things go wrong, assume someone has tipped off the enemy.

  See, that’s what Insiders do. We provide information to both sides. But as far as I knew, I was the only Insider at the cavern.

  “Besides Thane,” I said out loud.

  Saffediene didn’t miss a beat. “I suspect him too,” she said. “Funny how Hightower shows up at our hideout within days of Thane’s arrival, after we’ve been safe there for months.”

  She hadn’t been there for months, but Pace and a small contingency had. And no one had been the wiser—not even me. At least until Thane had brought me outside the barrier a couple of months ago. We’d been sneaking tech and med supplies to the safe house during our “training sessions.”

  “Do you think Director Hightower put a tracker on him?” I asked. “Why didn’t we check that?”

  “Pace checked when we returned, remember? Thane was clean.”