Satisfied with her plan, Zira leaned her head against the window, closed her eyes, and finally got some of the sleep she so desperately needed.
* * *
They stopped just after noon at another old home in a rural area. Apparently, the rebels used to use it as a safe house for transporting weapons and other supplies, but they’d abandoned it a few years back. Ezekiel had started nodding at the wheel, and everyone agreed that it might be better to travel at night from there on anyway. They parked the van behind the house, out of sight from the road, and went inside. When Ezekiel asked who would be willing to take the first watch while the others slept, Zira volunteered herself and Tripp. “We’re not tired anyway,” she said. “We slept in the car.”
Tripp gave her a suspicious look, but nodded. “Sure. No problem.”
The others went upstairs while Tripp and Zira went out onto the front porch, and she told him about her idea.
“Absolutely not,” he said as soon as she’d finished.
Zira sighed and rolled her eyes. She’d expected this and knew he’d give in eventually, but the more time they spent arguing about it, the more time there was for Aubreigh to get herself into trouble if she wasn’t already. “Do you have a better idea?”
“I know you don’t want to hear this, kid, but I really think we should just wait it out. It hasn’t even been a full day yet. She could be fine for all we know.”
“Or she could be locked up in a cell somewhere,” Zira said. “Or—dead. We don’t know. I can’t just sit here and not do anything about it.”
“I’m not sure if we can trust Jared.”
“I am. We can trust him not to turn us in. Isn’t that what you’re worried about?”
“That and about a dozen other things.”
“Please, Tripp. You said we were a family, and she’s my family. I got her into this in the first place. I have to know if she’s okay.”
Tripp looked at her, shook his head a little, and sighed. “Fine. Give me his code and I’ll set it up.”
He went to retrieve the computer from his bag inside the house. When he returned, Seth trailed a few paces behind him. Zira shot Tripp a glare, but he just shrugged apologetically and sat down on the step.
“Shouldn’t you be resting with the others?” Zira asked.
Seth sighed and leaned against the porch railing. “I’m too anxious to sleep after everything that’s happened. What are you two doing out here? It’s freezing.”
It would be more time efficient to tell him the truth than to try and convince him to go away. “We’re calling Jared to find out what happened to Aubreigh.”
He gaped at them for a moment. “Are you insane? That’s a terrible idea. If Chase finds out about this—”
“He won’t,” Zira said, “because you’re not going to say anything.”
“Jared just tried to kill both of you, and now you want to call him up for a friendly little chat? You’re putting all of us at risk.”
“He saved our lives,” Zira said. “And we wouldn’t even be doing this if you hadn’t left Aubreigh there in the first place.”
Tripp gave Seth a wry smile over his shoulder. “Trust me, this isn’t an argument you’re going to win.”
Seth clamped his mouth shut, which Zira took as a sign that he wouldn’t be giving them any more trouble. She sat down next to Tripp and gave him the code to Jared’s CL. It only took him a few minutes to establish a secure connection.
Jared didn’t answer right away. Zira was beginning to wonder if he’d answer at all when his voice came through the speakers. “Who is this?”
“Jared? Are you alone?”
There was a long pause, then he said, “Give me a second.”
Zira waited. She glanced over at Tripp, who flashed an encouraging smile, and at Seth, who gave her a withering scowl.
“Are you still there?” Jared said.
“Yes.”
“Where are you?”
“Far away.”
“Good. Why are you calling me?”
“Have you seen Aubreigh lately?” Zira asked.
“No, but I just got back. What’s going on?”
“We had some people inside the compound helping us.”
“By ‘us’ you mean you and Judah and the people he’s been working for?”
Judah? Zira glanced at Tripp. He nodded and waved his hand, urging her to continue. “Yes,” she said.
“So you are working with radicals. What have you gotten yourself into?”
“It doesn’t matter right now. When Revolver came after us, everyone we had inside tried to get out before Ryku could put all the pieces together. Aubreigh was supposed to leave with the others, but no one has seen or heard from her since yesterday.”
Jared swore. “I haven’t seen her yet.”
“Will you look for her?”
“Zira,” he said, exasperated. “I don’t know if I can just start poking around asking questions. Do you have any idea how much trouble I’m in already?”
“Of course I do!” Zira snapped. She regretted her irritable tone as soon as the words were out of her mouth. He had to be under a lot of stress right now, and making demands that could put him at even greater risk after last night’s events wasn’t going to increase his willingness to help her. She took a breath and tried a gentler approach. “Believe me, I understand, and I’m sorry. I know you risked a lot for me and I appreciate it. Really. Thank you.”
“You killed three of my team members,” he said.
“You didn’t give us much choice.”
“Yeah. Neither did you.”
“Look, Aubreigh never should have been involved in any of this, and that’s my fault. But I need your help. Please.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Just find out if she’s still there. If not, that means she got out okay. If she is, you have to help her escape. It’s not safe for her there anymore.” She hesitated, then added, “It’s not safe for you, either. You should leave with her.”
“I can’t just leave.”
“Yes, you can. It’s only a matter of time before Ryku figures out that I’m alive, and when he does, he’ll blame you. Like it or not, you’re a traitor, Jared. This makes what—the third time you’ve let me live since Ryku ordered you to kill me? You have to pick a side.”
“I have picked a side,” Jared said. “Ryku might be a little extreme, but he’s getting things done. He’s a good leader.”
It was the same argument he’d used before, but his voice lacked its usual conviction. “He’s a tyrant,” said Zira. “He kills anyone who stands in his way.”
“Sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the greater good.”
“You don’t actually believe that anymore.”
“What do you want me to say? That you’re right? That Ryku is a tyrant and I’m an ass for supporting him?” The uncertainty in his voice was more pronounced now. “It doesn’t matter. I can’t just walk away from the Project—it’s who I am.”
“It doesn’t have to be.”
“Your rebels would never take me.”
He might be right about that, but Zira wasn’t willing to give up yet. “They might if you save Aubreigh.”
Another long pause. “I’ll do whatever I can to help her, and I’ll think about what you said. That’s all I’m promising.”
“Thank you,” said Zira. “And if you change your mind, we’re heading to the rebels’ main base. They haven’t told me exactly where it is yet, but it’s east somewhere. I’m sure you can find us with Aubreigh’s help.” Seth groaned loudly behind her, but she ignored him.
“You shouldn’t be telling me that.”
“I know, but I think I can trust you.”
“You can,” he said. “Always.”
Something around Zira’s heart loosened—something she’d been carrying around with her ever since she left the Project. “Goodbye, Jared.”
“Goodbye.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
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As soon as he said goodbye to Zira, Jared erased all traces of their communication from his CL, then tried to call Aubreigh. There was no answer, but he hadn’t really expected there to be. He left his apartment and made his way to hers, thinking about what Zira had said to him as he walked.
She was right. He’d been trying to deny it for a long time, but Zira was right about Chairman Ryku. He was a strong leader, but he was also merciless and domineering. In his ambition to reform the country, he’d tear it all apart first, then build it back up again piece by piece until it was exactly the way he wanted it. It didn’t matter what anyone else wanted, or how many lives were sacrificed to achieve his goals. He didn’t care.
Everything had become so heavy and out of control. Though it made Jared uncomfortable to admit it, he was finally starting to see the harm Ryku was doing. He’d thought he was making the right choice in helping the chairman create a better, safer America. He’d always been loyal, always found a way to justify everything the chairman did, but he just couldn’t anymore. Ryku had killed his colleagues for no other reason than because they’d stood in the way of his objectives. His excessive arrests and increasingly harsh punishments were destroying countless lives. The radicals he was so hell-bent on hunting down were people Jared knew and trusted—people like Zira and Aubreigh, both of whom never would have gotten involved in something like this if they didn’t believe their cause was worth fighting for.
This was all wrong, and if this was the world Ryku was trying to create, Jared didn’t want to be a part of it anymore. He just couldn’t see a feasible way out.
He knocked on Aubreigh’s door, but there was no answer. He knocked again, then tried calling her name, which drew the attention of her next-door-neighbor. She stuck her head out the door to give him a dirty look. “What are you doing?”
“I’m looking for Aubreigh. Have you seen her?”
Confusion replaced the young woman’s irritation as her face paled. “Haven’t you heard? She was arrested yesterday evening.”
Jared managed to keep his expression neutral. “Arrested for what?”
The girl glanced around nervously before responding. “I’m not sure, but the rumor is she’s been working with radicals.”
Damn it, Zira! She never should have gotten Aubreigh involved in any of this. Jared turned away from the door and headed for Chairman Ryku’s office, trying to cobble together a plan as he walked. Attempting to break her out of the holding cells would be difficult, if not impossible, and if things went wrong, he might end up putting Aubreigh in a worse situation than she was already in. If he got himself caught in the process, he could be locked up, too, and then he wouldn’t be able to do anything to help her. The safest option was to go to Ryku and calmly discuss the issue. Ryku knew he and Aubreigh were well-acquainted and might be willing to listen to Jared’s assurances that she was a loyal and devoted servant of the PEACE Project. If he could convince the chairman that this had all been a big misunderstanding, Aubreigh would be released. They could figure out how to get out of the compound safely after that. It was a gamble, but Ryku trusted Jared. He could use that to his advantage.
He knocked on Ryku’s office door and entered without waiting for a response. The chairman sat behind his desk, flanked on either side by Cecilia and Revolver. He spoke before Jared could even open his mouth. “Speak of the devil and he shall appear.”
There was something eerily calm and simultaneously threatening in the chairman’s voice that unsettled Jared, but he ignored the feeling and got straight to the point. “We need to talk about Aubreigh.” He glanced between Cecilia and Revolver, hoping Ryku would take the hint so they could speak in private, but the chairman made no move to dismiss them.
“I agree that we need to talk, but Aubreigh is the least of my concerns right now,” he said.
“Sir, please—if you’ll just listen to me for a few minutes, I think you’ll realize this is all just a big misunderstanding.”
Cecilia made a guttural noise that was equal parts amusement and disgust. She glared at Jared with enough icy hatred freeze oceans. Jared looked at Revolver, searching for some kind of reaction. Did he know what had happened to Aubreigh? Did it bother him? His face was as cold and blank as ever, and Jared could find no sign of empathy or surprise in his red-hued eyes. Perhaps he’d given Revolver too much credit in assuming that he did, on some level, care about Aubreigh.
Ryku spoke again at last. “Cecilia came to me just now with a very interesting video. Would you like to see it?”
This had nothing to do with Aubreigh’s arrest, but Jared obliged the chairman anyway. “Okay.”
Ryku turned to Cecilia. “Show him,” he said. She tapped a few buttons on her CyberLink and a video hologram popped up over her wrist. “This was pulled from a street camera just minutes after Judah’s escape,” Ryku said.
In the video, two figures ran with their backs to the camera. One was tall and lanky. The other was short and lithe. A dark, ugly feeling began to claw its way up from the pit of Jared’s stomach, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away. The shorter figure turned to look over her shoulder, and the camera captured every feature in perfect clarity. Even with the blood smeared across her face from where he’d hit her with his rifle, anyone who knew Zira would have recognized her instantly.
There was nothing left now, no excuses Jared could make to get out of this. Ryku would kill him.
Instinct took over as he pulled his gun from the holster under his jacket and started to aim it at Ryku. Revolver seemed to appear out of thin air beside him and disarmed him in one quick motion. He had the gun pressed against Jared’s temple before he could take another breath.
Jared waited for the gunshot, but the seconds just ticked by. Revolver wasn’t going to shoot him. Not yet, anyway.
Ryku stood and pressed his fingertips against the desk. “Words cannot express how disappointed and hurt I am right now,” he said. For some reason, the purity of the emotion in his voice terrified Jared. “I admit, when I sent you to kill Zira, I wanted to test your devotion to the Project. I was sure your sense of duty would win out over whatever petty feelings you had for a silly little girl who posed a threat to everything we’ve worked for. I was wrong. That was my mistake, and I accept full responsibility for that.”
Jared’s thoughts spun frantically as he tried to come up with a way out of this. Fighting was out of the question. Revolver was much too strong and fast, and neither Ryku nor Cecilia would go down easily. He was trapped.
The chairman walked around the desk and approached him with slow, deliberate steps. “You let her escape again in Austin. She tried to kill me. She was working with the traitor you were supposed to apprehend, and you just let both of them go.”
“I didn’t know she was involved with Judah,” Jared said.
“She killed Lucas,” Cecilia shouted. “He’s dead because of you.”
“Your actions cost three of your comrades their lives,” Ryku stood directly in front of Jared now. He was several inches shorter, but no less intimidating for it. “You lied to me. You’ve been lying all this time. You had so much potential, and you threw it all away.”
Jared clenched his fists. “I had no choice! I couldn’t do it. I loved her, and you knew that.”
“You must have realized what would happen if I found out she was still alive.”
Jared let out a short, barking laugh in a pathetic attempt to hide his fear. “You’ll kill me. But she lives. That’s all that matters anymore.”
“I’ll find her. I’ll find Judah and everyone else they’ve been working with.”
“You don’t even know where to start looking.”
“Not yet. But they can’t hide forever, and when we bring Zira in with the others, you can watch her die.” The chairman gave him one long, final stare, then turned to Revolver. “Take him to the holding cells with the others.”
Jared didn’t even try to resist or break free as Revolver pushed him out the door. He’d tuck
ed the gun away somewhere, but even so, Jared had no chance of escaping with speed or brute force.
“Are you really going to let him do this to Aubreigh?” he asked. “You know what the penalty is for treason, don’t you? He’ll kill her.”
Revolver didn’t respond for a few moments, and then simply said, “She’s a traitor.”
“She’s your friend.”
“She was only using me to get information.”
Jared rolled his eyes. How could someone who was supposed to be so smart be so dense? “That’s what Ryku wants you to think. He’s the one using you.”
“I know.”
“He doesn’t even see you as a human being.”
“Nobody does. And if I am simply a tool to be used, isn’t it better that I am used in the capacity I was created for?”
Jared couldn’t think of any further argument that might convince him, and they had already arrived at the small building that housed the Project’s holding cells. Revolver scanned his CL to unlock the door and followed Jared inside. They passed by two E-1 guards and walked down a hall lined with heavy metal doors. There were small glass windows on most of them, and Jared caught sight of a familiar face peering through one.
Aubreigh’s eyes widened as she glanced between Jared and Revolver. Jared tried to smile reassuringly as he passed but found it impossible. There was so much fear in her eyes, and there was nothing he could do to help her now.
Revolver prodded him in the back and he kept walking. Behind them, Aubreigh screamed Revolver’s name and pounded on the door in an effort to get his attention. He ignored the commotion.
They reached the end of the hall, where Revolver turned to a cell door without windows, unlocked it, and motioned for Jared to enter. Jared sighed and took one last look at the bright lights overhead before stepping inside. The door closed with a heavy clank, and everything went dark.
Renegades of PEACE (Secrets of PEACE Book 2) Page 19
