by G. P. Ching
“No.” I sit down on the bed.
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“But the specimens are useless to Konrad without my genetic material, right? Unless he makes another Alpha and then the children wouldn’t be true Gammas.”
“He won’t need to.” David’s voice cracks.
I swallow hard and wrap my arms around myself. “Why?”
“He has yours.”
“No,” I say. “He doesn’t. He was going to take it, but I escaped before he could do the procedure.”
David shakes his head. The muscle in his jaw twitches with anger. “By the time he talked to you about it, he had already harvested your genetic material.”
I recoil. “I would have known if someone took my genetic material,” I say through a false smile.
“Not if your trainer slipped you a drug that knocked you out for a few hours while a needle was used to extract what Konrad needed. You were in and out of awareness anyway because of the Nanomem and so beat up you didn’t even notice the pain of recovery. He had what he wanted the fourth day you were there.”
“You did what?” I say through my teeth.
He closes his eyes. “I had to, Lydia. I didn’t have a choice. You don’t know how it was.”
I hold up my hand. “I know exactly how it was.”
“And you didn’t fair much better than I did. Last I heard, it was your information that led Brady to us. Lord only knows why the Greens haven’t attacked yet.”
“I…” I can’t find the words to defend myself. “Why did Konrad meet with me and tell me he was going to extract my cells if he already had them? Why tell me what he was going to do if he’d already done it?”
“You know why.”
I roll my lips together and pace between the bed and the door. “He wanted me to know what he was doing for the purpose of getting his hooks into me. A child would cement my loyalty to his cause. He knew I wouldn’t leave my child.”
“Exactly.”
“But he had Korwin too. If he took my genetic material, why did he need to get Korwin’s from Maxwell’s specimens?”
“Because I destroyed Korwin’s genetic material before we escaped.” He rubs his fingers together. “Electrocuted it, then placed it back in the freezer. I suspect Konrad had a rude awakening to find a vial full of dead cells after we left.”
“And now he has both,” I say. “Because of you.”
He turns on me, his gaze digging in. “Do you think I wanted this? I sent you for the vials because I wanted to avoid this. It was only a matter of time before the Greens found it.”
“You don’t know that.”
“The safe used power. Once the auxiliary power went out, they would have known the basement was drawing energy from the main breaker. And once they knew something was back there, they’d use any means necessary to get inside. They would have found the specimens eventually, Lydia. I was trying to intercept Konrad.”
“Then why not tell me to destroy it?”
“Would you have destroyed something with Korwin’s name on it based on my word? Honestly.”
The answer is no, but I don’t give him the satisfaction of a direct response. “You should have told me the truth.” I rub my temples. “What now?
“Now we make a plan to break into CGEF and stop Konrad from using what he has. He has a limited supply. He could try to use a surrogate, but I doubt it. He’ll want ultimate control of every detail.”
“In his office at CGEF, he told me he didn’t need a mother.”
“He doesn’t. Last year, the first human baby was born in an artificial womb. It’s a complex process, but knowing Konrad, he’ll want to tinker with the science. Who knows what he’ll try.”
“So our job is to destroy the vials before he can use them.”
He nods. “As soon as we can assemble a team, we’ll go. The sooner, the better.”
At the thought of returning to Konrad’s lab, my stomach turns and my knees shake. I sit down on the bed. “Does Korwin know?”
“I spoke with him first. He was going to come with me but I asked him to let me tell you.” He places a hand on his chest. “I never meant for this to happen.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Is that your idea of an apology?”
He gives a small half smile. “The only one you’re going to get.”
“Where is he now?”
“In the chapel, waiting for you.”
“This place has a chapel?”
I find Korwin kneeling in front of a table of candles in a small dark room labeled chapel. There are rows of folding chairs and a statue of Jesus with his arms outstretched at the front. It’s not a statue of the crucifixion; it’s the resurrection. I’ve never been in a church like this before, but I find it quiet and comforting with its dim lighting and flickering candles. It seems a hopeful place.
“I didn’t think they would have a chapel,” I say as I walk down the aisle between the rows of folding chairs.
Korwin looks up from his prayerful pose. “I was surprised they allowed the room for it. Space is limited.”
I stare at the candles, trying to find the words to say what I need to say. “David told me about your father’s specimens. After the ceremony, we need to make a plan to destroy them.”
He frowns. “Right. The induction ceremony. Are you sure about this, Lydia? We swore we’d never do this. If we go through with today, we are promising to join the war—to be part of the problem instead of the solution.”
“War is the solution.”
He widens his eyes at me. “I never thought I’d hear you say that. Have you changed your mind? We didn’t want to be part of this. We swore this wasn’t our war and that we’d keep ourselves out of it.”
“But we were wrong.”
“How so?”
“When Konrad took your cells from my hands at Stuart Manor, it became our war. He has the power and the technology to make our children. You know what he will do if he succeeds. He will use them as soldiers, as bait, as weapons against us, all to continue Chancellor Pierce’s brutal reign. The Liberty Party is our only chance to stop him. Our only hope to survive.”
“This wasn’t what I wanted for us.”
“I know. I asked you at the manor when we could stop, when we could have a home again.”
“I remember.”
“You can’t imagine what I felt when Konrad was torturing you. I thought he’d killed you.”
“I can imagine because I felt the same way.”
“I realized as David and Laura were carrying us out of there in body bags that the only way we can ever stop fighting is if we help the Liberty Party win.”
“Was that the same time that you decided to become an atheist?”
I cross my arms over my chest and look at the floor. “I don’t know what I believe anymore.”
“You know what I think? I think you don’t want to believe in God anymore because you can’t reconcile the horror of what we experienced with the existence of a greater good. You grew up in a bubble and now that bubble has burst.”
“So what?” I say too loudly for the small space. “You’re right, okay? Lying on Konrad’s table…when I watched him torture you, it changed me. All I know is I can’t believe the way I did before and protect the people I love. God wasn’t there for us that day, Korwin.”
“You’re so angry with God, you never want to think about him again. You killed Brady to make the break permanent. You want to be so lost that God can’t find you. And if he doesn’t find you, he can’t judge all the horrible things we’ve had to do to stay alive.”
I shake my head. “You don’t know everything.”
“But I’m right about this. God didn’t fail us, Lydia. He sent David and Laura. He saved us.”
My heart softens slightly at his words—until I realize we are not saved. We’ve just lived to die another day. The Greens know where we are. They could attack at any time. “You know why I killed Brady? I killed him because I was sick of waiting
for someone else to save me. I killed him because if I didn’t, he would have killed both of us. And I killed him because I hated him. And you know what? I don’t regret it.”
He rubs his chin with two fingers.
I take a deep breath. “Can we talk about this later? I think the ceremony is about to start.”
Blinking slowly, he says, “I don’t mean to upset you.” With a huff of breath, a violent shiver passes over him. “It wasn’t just that you killed Brady, Lydia. It was that, at that moment, I saw it all melt away.”
“Saw all what melt away?”
Korwin stands. “A house and a farm, a wife in long skirts, laughing children climbing a half-dead tree, the feel of wheat through my fingers, church on Sunday. I thought we’d get there. Even when I left, I thought somehow we’d get there.”
I tangle my fingers in front of me and look at the floor. “I’m not the same person I was in Hemlock Hollow.”
He crosses the chapel to me, gathering me in his arms and planting a kiss on my forehead. “Maybe not. But I love you, just as you are.”
Governance Hall in the reactor is the largest room I’ve ever been in. The circular and towering white walls almost glow between the blue uniforms in rows and rows of tiered seats. The shape of the place means that everyone will be able to see Korwin and me as we progress up the ramp to the curved desk where the Grants, Laura, David, Charlie, and Jonas prepare at the head of the room.
With a few minutes before the ceremony, we wait in the shadows outside the entrance as blue uniforms pass me uttering congratulatory words. The soldiers scramble up the ramp to the stairs to find their seats amongst the crowd. Part of me is amazed at their sheer numbers. The Liberty Party is bigger and more organized than I’d expected, while another part of me bristles at the thought that the Greens are far better off. More men, more weapons. The only thing they don’t have is Sparks. Those are all ours. For now.
“Excuse me.” A man in blue steps between us and points one hand toward the ramp. “It’s time to begin.”
The music starts and we take our marks at the entrance to Governance Hall.
Korwin turns a nervous glance my way. “Here we go. No turning back now.”
I bite my lip. At the urging of the man behind us, we begin progressing toward the table. When we get there, Jonas approaches us with a large leather tome in his hand.
“Place your right hands here and repeat after me.”
I lower my fingers next to Korwin’s on the leather cover and repeat the oath.
* * *
“I pledge this day
on my life and eternal soul
to uphold and protect
the ideals of the Liberty Party.
The freedom to live,
The right to liberty,
and autonomy to pursue fruitful aspirations
without undue burden of government.
I promise to serve the Liberty Party
and to advance its causes,
including obliteration of tyranny in all its forms,
reinstatement of democracy,
and promotion of justice
so help me God. Amen.”
* * *
Jonas sets the Bible down and retrieves two silver pins from the table. He lifts the lapel of my blue jacket and affixes it. A circle of five silver stars shines against the blue, the same symbol that is on my armband. “In the tradition of nations past and rooted in the hope of a new tomorrow, I induct you into the Liberty Party with the symbol of five stars in a night sky.”
He turns and pins Korwin. “The five stars represent the five true sovereign provinces. Their placement in the night sky, a new constellation, a revolution of mind and spirit.”
With a firm grasp, he shakes Korwin’s hand and then mine before turning us by the shoulders to face the crowd.
“Please join me in welcoming the two newest members of the Liberty Party, Korwin Stuart and Lydia Troyer.”
Applause breaks out, and I face my future in the form of thousands of blue uniforms. Korwin’s hand bumps into mine at my side, then folds around my fingers. He is right to think our future has melted away. Nothing will ever be like it was in Hemlock Hollow. We can’t go back. There’s only one way out of this inferno, and it’s straight through the fire.
David told me once that Konrad and Pierce wanted to kill us when we were born. They were worried we’d be monsters. It wasn’t our birth but our near-deaths that made us monstrous. As I face my future, side by side with Korwin, I can’t wait to show both of them just how monstrous I can be.
Thank you for reading CHARGED. If you enjoyed this book, would you be so kind as to leave a review at your place of purchase? Reviews are the lifeblood of indie artists.
* * *
Please turn the page to enjoy an excerpt of Wired, book 3 in the Grounded Trilogy, Available Now .
Wired (Excerpt)
Book Three in the Grounded Trilogy
Trinity Pierce pushed her breakfast around her plate and smiled sweetly at her father. She hoped the happy act was convincing. It should be; she was an expert. If there was one thing she’d learned from living with the Red Dogs, it was how to fake a smile. Under the persona of Bella, she frequently feigned contentment among the pack, especially when the men in her life acted distressed. And at the moment, her father, Chancellor James Pierce, was clearly distressed. His upper lip curled and his bushy gray eyebrows plunged above his nose as he scrutinized her eating habits. Yep. Distressed. With a side of agitated.
“You’ve hardly touched your food,” he said.
“Just not hungry this morning.”
Her father’s mouth twisted with disappointment. “You’re too thin.”
“The people who held me prisoner didn’t feed me regularly. I don’t think they had a lot of food.” Straight-out lying was also something she learned from the Red Dogs. Actually, she ate well at the Kennel, as did everyone there, fresh food they killed or sometimes grew themselves. Even sewer rat tasted a hell of a lot better than this Crater City slop. She’d stayed thin in the Deadzone due to her workload, not the food.
“Thank goodness we saved you from those monsters. I shiver to think what you’ve been through these years.”
“Thank goodness.” She did her best not to sound sarcastic.
“I understand your condition is not your fault, but now that you’re home, with a little effort, it should be easy enough to rectify the deficiency.” He forked eggs into his clean-shaven maw.
“Deficiency?” Trinity was thin but not so much as to appear ill or weak. Her arms and legs still carried a healthy amount of muscle. The way her father talked it sounded like she was an embarrassment.
“You’ve been gone for some time. The current fashion is to carry a softer appearance. You don’t want to look like a laborer.” He chuckled. “The boys at the Ambassador’s Club will think I’m abusing you. I’ll make sure Cook knows you will require extra meals, and we’ll send Esther out to get a padded shaper for under your dresses.”
Trinity sighed over her uneaten breakfast. The dresses her father referred to were nothing like the ones she wore in the Deadzone. She didn’t mind the extra material, but his choice of style made it clear he still thought she was a little girl. She was nineteen and had lived with the Red Dogs for two years, since the day she’d run away from home following her mother’s death.
As rough as things could get with Sting, most of her time was spent doing as she pleased. She valued independence above all else. Now that she was found, or as the media called it—rescued, she had a schedule and social expectations, a chancellor father who was looking forward to introducing her to the Republic elite. Introductions that would occur at the Ambassador’s Club, a swanky social destination for government leaders and their families. Just thinking about the sons of dignitaries sizing her up for marriage potential made her claustrophobic.
For the thousandth time, Trinity regretted the night she’d been found. She should have followed Lydia and Ace and ta
ken her chances escaping through the sewer. Being eaten alive by rats would be a better fate than slowly suffocating within her father’s tight grip. Not that she missed being owned by Sting. That part had always been an unfortunate side effect of her liberation. But in some ways it was more honest than this. Her relationship with her father was truthfully strained but outwardly affectionate. All about appearances.
“Eat, Trinity,” her father said, clearly exasperated with her. The doorbell chimed. Trinity released a held breath as her father’s scrutiny ebbed with the distraction of the bell and he turned his face toward the foyer. “Who in the name of the Republic?”
Trinity used the interruption to hide some of the rubbery eggs in her napkin.
“Esther!” her father boomed, calling for the housekeeper.
Esther emerged from one of the bedrooms, dusting cloth in hand. She was undoubtedly cleaning an already clean room. Trinity’s father had an unnatural obsession with cleanliness and organization. Everything must be kept in its place. Everything and everyone. He could have answered the door himself or asked Trinity to do it. But he didn’t. Instead he used the opportunity to reinforce Esther’s lower rank and position. Trinity hated that about him. Undoubtedly, he thought about her in the same way. Daughter or not, she had her place too.
Esther waved her hands in the air. “I will get it, Mr. Pierce.” She jogged down the main hall to answer the door.
“Good morning, Dr. Konrad.” Esther cleared her throat. “Chancellor Pierce is not currently receiving guests. Can I give the chancellor a message for you? Or perhaps make an appointment for later in the week?”
Trinity wasn’t sure whom Dr. Konrad was, but Esther was right to put him off. Her father hated to be disturbed during meals. In fact, he looked quite peeved at the arrival of this visitor as he returned to eating his eggs.
“He must see me,” came a gruff voice. The shuffle of feet echoed from the foyer.
“Dr. Konrad, please!” Esther was a ninety-pound Asian woman with a dust rag. Not exactly high security.
