Charged

by G. P. Ching

  “A flasher. Lydia, this is bad.”

  “Why? What’s a flasher?”

  “This is a sophisticated piece of spy equipment. It was a mobile camera and transmitter. When triggered, it takes a picture of its surroundings and transmits it back to whoever is doing the spying.”

  For a moment, my face can’t decide how to react to this information. My eyes twitch, and my mouth opens and closes in confusion. “How did it get here?”

  “I’ve heard of the Green Republic doing this in the deadzone. They drop these things from drones. The pictures they get back tell them about the activity in the area.”

  “I’ve never seen one of these in Hemlock Hollow,” I say, shaking my head. “This is new.”

  “They’re looking for us,” Korwin whispers.

  “Do you think it saw anything?” The way it flipped out of the horse’s hoof, the flasher was traveling away from us when it went off. I pray it photographed the night sky or the open field.

  “I don’t know, but I tried to destroy it before it could transmit anything. Hopefully, if it did catch anything, the photo didn’t go anywhere.”

  I check the horse, who is still huffing and stomping her feet. “We’re lucky Daisy didn’t bolt.” I rub slow circles on her flank. “Easy. Easy, girl.”

  “Maybe we should tell your father about this.” He frowns at the thing in his hand.

  I recoil and shake my head. “No.”

  “They’re not going to give up. The Green Republic can’t tolerate us being alive and missing. They’ll assume we’ve joined up with the Liberty Party, which means we are public enemy number one.”

  “It’s not our problem.” I climb into the buggy.

  Korwin balks. “Not our problem?” He stares at me for a moment and then climbs in beside me.

  “God will take care of us. He always has. Let the Englishers run themselves into the ground looking for us. I don’t care.”

  “There won’t just be one flasher,” Korwin insists. “Even now, they could be peppered across the countryside. What if the Kauffmans come across one while threshing? What if a child finds one? What if the Green Republic learns that Hemlock Hollow is a thriving, organized community rather than a cage for sick and wild scavengers?”

  I shake my head. “You’ve got to trust in God. He won’t let that happen. He’ll protect us.”

  “Maybe we are supposed to protect ourselves. We know about this. We have the knowledge.”

  “What are you suggesting?”

  “Maybe we should tell the bishop.”

  “Are you mad? We’d have to explain what we are and why they’re after us. The Ordnung would shun us, Korwin.”

  “Shun us. What’s shunning?”

  “Kicked out of the Ordnung. Sent packing. This type of thing would be the worst type of vanity. Some would think it was sorcery. They don’t understand beyond the basics of science. We can’t do this to them.”

  “But what if there’s more?”

  “I seriously doubt they are going to waste this technology on us. For all we know, it might have walked from the Outlands.”

  “Highly unlikely, but possible,” Korwin says. “I just think we should do something.”

  I turn in my seat and glare at Korwin. “What exactly would you propose?”

  He sighs and prods Daisy into motion. We ride in silence, his eyes vacant with thought. “If we can’t tell the bishop, and you don’t want to tell your father—”

  “It would be a sin to worry him about this.”

  “Then we have to handle this ourselves. There’s only one thing we can do,” he whispers.

  “What?”

  “We search for flashers in the most populated areas. If we see any more, we know how big of a threat this is. Then we can decide what to do.”

  I nod. “Fair enough. And if we don’t find any, we forget this ever happened and go on with our lives.”

  “Fair enough.” We’ve arrived at my house. He pulls into the driveway and parks the buggy.

  “What should I do with this?” he asks, retrieving the burnt flasher from the bin in the dash.

  “Bury it. We can’t allow anyone in the Ordnung to see it.”

  He slips it into his pocket with a nod, a silent promise to do the deed later.

  With a deep sigh, I place one hand on his, an act that makes a tingle of energy flow from my fingers. “Do you want to sit on the swing for a while?”

  He smiles, blinking slowly as if he’s enjoying our connection as much as I am. “Wouldn’t miss it.”

  Without hesitation, I slide from the seat and run for the front porch, laughing. He chases me, catching me around the waist and scooping me into his arms in order to carry me up the three stairs to the porch swing. He’s just set me on my own two feet when a sound from the darkness chills me to the bone.

  A man’s voice rasps, “Well, well, well. Aren’t you the loving couple?”

  2

  “David?” I squint into the darkness.

  “The one and only.”

  My lips part on a swift inhale. “We thought you were dead.”

  He steps out from under the mulberry tree in my front yard, into a swath of moonlight. He looks older than I remember. Thinner. “Faking death was an important part of my escape plan. Having met Dr. Konrad, I’m sure you understand.”

  “Natasha?”

  “Did not fair as well.” His face is momentarily grim.

  “I’m sorry. I’d hoped you’d given her the solution in time.”

  “Too far gone,” he says.

  I nod once. Memories of my time with David flood my head. He’d been responsible for Maxwell’s and Korwin’s arrests, and under the guise of training me, beat me to a pulp. For that, I hate him. But the confusing part is he also made me strong. He made me capable of escaping and saving Korwin. If it weren’t for David, I wouldn’t have known where the Greens were keeping Korwin or how to escape. All the same, I feel little warmth when I look at him, even having believed him dead a moment ago. His physical presence makes me squirm with unease.

  “What do you want?” Korwin asks.

  “To speak with both of you. You need to know what’s happening on the outside.”

  Just then, the door behind me opens and my father’s face appears. He scans the dark horizon before fixating on David. “Voices carry. Get inside.” He seems as unhappy to see David as I am.

  I lead the way inside and light the gas lamp above the farmhouse table. It flares to life with a hiss. As my eyes adjust, I’m able to make out David’s formfitting navy blue uniform, made from the kind of material that maintains body temperature in any weather.

  “Are you still working for the Greens?” I ask, blunt and accusing.

  David pulls out a chair and sits down without breaking eye contact with me. “No.” He crosses his arms. “Are you?”

  “Of course not!”

  “But you did before. I trained you.”

  “I was cooperating to save the people I love.”

  He leans forward, elbows on the table. “Exactly. You and I have that in common.”

  My bottom hits the chair across from him, and I scowl to think that I am anything like David, although I can’t deny it.

  “Now that we’ve cleared that up,” Korwin starts. “How did you find us?”

  “Lydia is a bad liar, and I have good ears. The argument you had with Maxwell when he kidnapped Jeremiah? I was standing in the kitchen. Why would you think I wouldn’t hear? Not to mention, Hannah and Caleb work for the Liberty Party now.”

  “Did you share that with the Greens?”

  “No. Despite what you think, there were several things I did not share with the Greens.”

  “And lots of things you did or my father wouldn’t have been captured and killed,” Korwin snaps.

  “I had to give them something or they’d suspect my loyalty. I did not foresee that the Greens would separate Korwin from his father. Even I didn’t know where they were keeping him in CGEF.”
David stops his harried words abruptly and runs his tongue across his upper teeth. He closes his eyes as if he’s in pain. “I don’t owe you an explanation. I did what I had to do.”

  “Saving yourself came first, huh?” I say.

  He opens his eyes and fixes me with a pointed stare. “Saving my wife came first. I failed at it, too, in case you forgot.”

  The memory of Natasha’s wasted body comes back to me, and I turn my attention to my clasped hands.

  “Let’s cut to the chase, David. Why are you here?” Korwin says.

  My father nods and taps the table in agreement.

  “Things on the outside have gotten worse since Maxwell’s death. We think one of the rebels captured during the insurgency talked. We’re worried Konrad’s learned of the Stuart compound.”

  “Konrad’s alive?” The last I saw him, he was twitching on the concrete in front of CGEF.

  “Alive and as evil as ever. If he succeeds in accessing Maxwell’s research, we’re all doomed. Not only is the compound home to a wealth of classified information about the Liberty Party and its supporters, but the scientific knowledge about you two could help Konrad resurrect his research without you. We can’t let that happen.”

  “Impossible,” Korwin says. “Even if he knew the compound was there, he’d never get inside. The place is a fortress, and we left it sealed, physically and biologically.”

  I glance at my father and then at Korwin. I’ve never asked him what happened the night Stuart Manor was taken by the Greens. I never wanted to know the painful details. Like everything else in the English world, I’ve tried to bury it, to cast aside the memories as ancient history. My time in the English world pushed me beyond the limits of propriety, but that’s all behind me now. It happened, after all, before my baptism, when all my sins were washed away.

  “How can you be certain the compound was sealed effectively?” David asks. “I’d heard the Greens overtook the manor in minutes.”

  Korwin rubs his chin. “Dad had a panic button. When they broke through the gate, he executed emergency protocol. He locked down all entrances and exits. The Greens might figure out the physical key—the code is complex but not unbreakable—but the biological key is my father’s blood, and that doesn’t exist anymore. He’s dead, or did you miss that news flash?”

  David shakes his head. “I didn’t miss it. I’m sorry for your loss. I’d hoped to get Maxwell out of there.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure you’re all broken up about it.” The look Korwin gives David could sear flesh.

  “So, then there’s no way in,” I say, breaking the tension. “The compound is safe. You have nothing to worry about.”

  “There are ways,” David says.

  “Why do you care?” my father asks.

  David groans. “Because Maxwell Stuart’s basement office housed the only copy of the Liberty Party’s organizational charts and all of the data about you two. Everyone involved, all of our plans, all of the research and tissue samples. Konrad has been systematically torturing the men captured during our botched rebellion with one goal.” David narrows his eyes at me. “Konrad will stop at nothing to get his hands on you two.”

  “How many has he killed so far?” Korwin asks softly.

  “Around fifty.”

  Suddenly, I feel nauseous. My stomach twists, and I fold my arms around my middle. “That’s awful. I don’t understand. They hit us with a rocket. With all the rubble, I thought they presumed we were dead.”

  “They did, at first. But then they sifted through all of the rubble and didn’t find you. Your DNA was not among the dead. Mine was, only because Natasha died in my arms, and I’d made careful preparations to ensure my DNA was with her.”

  My mouth drops open.

  “Do you think they’d let you go so easily? You two were Konrad’s most prized possessions—the hope to resurrect Operation Source Code. And you, Lydia, you are a one-woman army.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “I programmed you myself. You are an expert in hand-to-hand combat, weapons, stealth operations. You know things about the Greens that could do some serious damage.”

  I shake my head. “No, I don’t. Sure, I learned to fight. I shot a gun. But I hardly remember any of it.”

  “Oh, you’ll remember when you need to remember.” Guile oozes from his half-baked smile, and he crosses an ankle over his opposite knee in a way I find haughty.

  “What did you do to her?” Korwin asks between clenched teeth.

  “He injected me with something,” I whisper.

  Korwin glares at David. “Tell me it wasn’t Nanomem.”

  David’s jaw shifts, and he glances at the table.

  “He told me it was a supplement mixed in with my painkiller that helped me remember our training.” I glance between Korwin and David.

  Korwin sighs. “Nanomem is a controversial technology.”

  “Technology? You told me it was a supplement, like vitamins.” I look pointedly at David.

  “I never said it was like vitamins.”

  “How does it work?” I ask Korwin.

  “Nanomem is a serum containing biological memory via nanotechnology. The cells he injected into you attached to your nervous system, and the proteins inside those cells fed information directly into your head. It is fairly close to how someone might program a computer, but on a biological level.”

  My father’s face screws up, and he taps the table with his open palm. “Are you saying that Englishers can put memories into our heads? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

  David leans toward him. “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. Inside your nervous system, there are cells called neurons. When you experience something, you remember it because your body forms synapses or connections by creating special proteins associated with memory. Nanomem is a serum created by copying the memory proteins from one person and injecting them into another. Those false memories attach themselves and form new synapses in the person’s brain. Phantom memories.”

  I take a deep breath. “I have someone else’s memories inside my head?”

  “Mine, to be exact,” David says. “I needed a way to ensure what I knew made it out of CGEF. I might have died helping you escape. You were my hope for the rebellion. All my military experience is in your head.”

  A laugh parts my lips and I glance from David to Korwin and back, waiting for the punch line. “This must be a joke. I assure you, I do not have your memories inside my head. I think I would know.”

  In a blur, David seizes a long silvery object from his pocket and hurls it toward my face. I snatch it from the air and whip it back in his direction. It barely misses his head. Only after he catches it, and thumbs a button on the side, do I register that it is only a flashlight. The entire exchange occurs in two blinks of an eye, as if we’d practiced it all day.

  I grip the sides of my chair as my limbs begin to shake. “What have you done to me?”

  “I imagine you haven’t had much use for what I’ve given you living here, but believe me, it will be there when you need it.”

  Korwin slides his chair back and rises to put an arm around my shoulders. My father has gone stone still, mouth an angry slash.

  “You mentioned side effects,” my father mumbles.

  Korwin nods. “The serum is outlawed in the English world, which is why you’ve never heard of it. It was tested on university students a few years back, and there was a higher than average rate of psychosis among the test subjects. What David isn’t telling you is the technology can’t differentiate well between memories. Inevitably, other stuff comes through. Imagine taking a test in history and suddenly remembering being shot during the Great Rebellion or having a leg blown off by a landmine. That’s the kind of stuff that was happening to people.”

  “You.” I glare at David. “You are cruel. You knew this and injected me anyway?”

  David stands and paces toward the sofa. “If I hadn’t, you would have never been able to esca
pe CGEF with your family in tow.” He points accusingly at me. “I did you a favor. I saved your goddamned life.”

  My father is on his feet, staring at David in an oddly aggressive way. “You will not use the name of the Lord in vain in my house, David. I don’t care who you are or who you’ve saved.”

  David’s shoulders slump. “My apologies.”

  “Get to the point. Why are you here?”

  “The Liberty Party needs your help,” he says. “What remains of the leadership have organized a rebel base inside the reactor.”

  “The nuclear reactor?” Korwin asks. “What about the radiation?”

  “The reactor was salvaged using a new technology after the meltdown. It’s completely habitable now. Why do you think everyone in the preservation isn’t glowing green?”

  Korwin runs both hands through his hair.

  “We can’t reignite the rebellion without you.” David hammers the table with the side of his hand. “The Green Republic has created a hostile environment, and the Liberty Party doesn’t stand a chance without a secret weapon like the two of you. We need your help.”

  I shake my head. “It’s not our problem.”

  “Are you serious? Don’t you think they’ll eventually look for you here? It’s only a matter of time, Lydia, before there’s no place else to look.”

  The memory of the blackened flasher rolls through my mind, and I lower my eyes from David’s. The Greens have already started looking here. I won’t give him the satisfaction of sharing that particular detail. Besides, it’s more than likely an isolated incident.

  “I think you should leave,” my father says.

  Korwin stands, folding his arms across his chest. “We’re not interested.”

  David doesn’t move until I stand and frown in his direction. “Leave now. I don’t want any part of your rebellion.”

  “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

  “Go,” I say again, and this time I walk to the door and open it. In the wee hours of the morning, the sounds of crickets and cicadas float in on the night air.

  David sighs and walks through the door. “I can’t force you. Jonas says you had an agreement.” He’s talking about the deal we struck to take down the reactor in exchange for our freedom. I’m relieved Jonas is honoring it. He points to the reactor behind the wall in the distance. “You know where to find me if you change your mind.”