It would normally take almost half an hour to get to the mansion from the warehouse. With no traffic and the panic rising in me, it only took half that time. We approached the gate cautiously.
The usual platoon of guards were nowhere in sight. The checkpoint at the fence was manned by one of us. “Trenton, what’s happening here?” I asked, hanging out the window.
He squinted in the midday sun as he looked up. “We almost have the mansion under our control. All the guards are inside, they abandoned their posts. Joseph and his team went inside just a few minutes ago. I don’t know what’s happening in there. My orders are to stay here.”
“Was Wren with them?”
“The Defective Clone? Yeah, she was with Joseph.”
I thanked him and he opened the gate for us to enter. Being anywhere near Stone’s mansion gave me a sick feeling in my stomach. The last time I was there still played vividly in my mind.
I was running away then.
Now I was voluntarily returning.
This time I was going to do what I should have done all those weeks ago. Stone was living her last minutes. If she was inside, we would get her.
We left the truck on the manicured lawn and hurried inside. A pack of guards were waiting for us, ambushing us the moment we stepped inside.
There were five of them and eight of us. Finally the odds were stacked in our favor. I hit the first one as he lunged for me. I grabbed the gun in his hands and played tug of war with him. His fingers slipped and the gun landed in my hands. I threw it to the side, it was too big to be of any help right now.
Everything was a blur as we fought. I threw punches with my right fist and copped plenty in return for my efforts. One guard lunged for me, managing to land a blow to my stomach. I jumped backwards from the punch, all the wind knocked out of me.
I charged at him, grabbing onto his helmet and shaking it vigorously. His head flapped from side to side, trying to pull out of my grasp. While he was distracted, Samson stepped in and laid a punch to his kidneys. He crumpled to the floor.
We fought our way through all five of them, their numbers dwindling quickly until there was none left. We used the guards’ own cuffs to secure their hands behind their backs. They wouldn’t be going anywhere when they woke up.
After the ambush we hurried through the mansion with trepidation, expecting more guards around every corner. In some rooms we found a few, but they were either on the floor or secured with restraints already.
They were the only signs of our group being there. We saw none of the Resistance members on the lower floor. Samson ducked down to the basement, finding more guards but they were secured behind bars.
They weren’t too happy about it either.
Their insults drifted all the way up the stairs.
“They must be on the higher levels,” I said, looking upwards as if I might be able to see through the floor. All I saw was extensively intricate carvings on the ceiling’s skirting board.
I’d say one thing about Stone, she surrounded herself with luxury. Nothing in the mansion would have been cheap, from the ceiling to the floor. Gold dripped all over the decorations and large pieces of artwork hanging on the walls. Her floors were all marble, polished to a high sheen and kept incredibly clean by a team of housekeepers.
Stone lived in absolute luxury while her people starved. It did nothing to quell my anger, it only fueled my determination to make today her last.
“There’s gotta be stairs around here somewhere,” Samson muttered as we walked.
“She has two sets. We’re almost at the servants’ staircase,” I replied, remembering the last time I was there. The memory still gave me the creeps.
Before we reached the steps that would take us up to the second floor of the mansion, we froze.
Someone screamed.
And a gun went off.
We started running.
Chapter 19: Wren
Everyone was looking at me.
Probably because I was the one holding the gun.
My hand felt clumsy around the metal as I held it steady and pointed toward the woman I hated.
The woman who was me.
The woman who was responsible for my creation.
The woman who wanted to kill me.
Joseph had given me the gun once we cornered her in her very own office. She was sitting behind the desk when we arrived, trying to get her communications system working. Not once had she looked scared or worried.
President Portia Stone was standing in front of me, only a few feet away. Her hands were by her sides, her stance relaxed. She didn’t think I would shoot her.
I wanted to.
I wanted nothing more than to pull the trigger and put a bullet through her chest.
So why was I hesitating?
Every member of the team was behind me, spread out for the show. All our training, all our suffering, had brought us to this moment.
The moment of reckoning.
I’d begged Joseph for the right to end Stone’s life and all I could do was stare at her.
“I’m impressed, clone,” President Stone said, her lips twisted into a cruel smirk. “I didn’t think you had it in you. I never thought you’d want to return here.”
“It was easy,” I replied. “All I had to do was think like you. Once I did that, I found I could commit the cruelest of acts against innocent people. Just like you, just like my Maker.”
Her head cocked to the side. “Are you sure that’s what it was? Or are you just that cruel and sadistic all by yourself? Huh, little clone?”
“I’m not the same as you.”
“No? You’re the one with the gun here. You’re the one pointing it at my chest.”
I didn’t have a response for her. Deep down I had always feared turning into her. I always worried my heart would turn black and cold. That it would shrivel up in my chest and become nothing but a forgotten piece of me.
I didn’t want to become her.
But we were the same person. Her genes were mine, our faces only different because of our ages.
“What’s the matter, clone? Cat got your tongue?” Stone taunted, enjoying every moment of it as she smiled with cruel delight.
Everything else in the room faded around me until it was just the two of us. Nothing outside the space between us existed. She was my sole focus.
Her and my gun.
It was heavy in my hands. I wanted to put my arms down until they were at my side but I didn’t dare. I was still going to shoot her, I just had to prepare for it.
“Shut up,” I said. “You’re going to listen to me for a moment. It’s my turn.”
She shrugged her shoulders in a ‘whatever’ motion. I slipped my finger onto the trigger. Her life was counting down now, coming to an end when I decided it would. All the power over life and death rested with me now. The tables had turned and karma was coming to get her.
“From the moment I came into this world I have been living with your lies,” I started, somehow managing to keep my voice steady. “You threw me away like I was trash and let me grow up thinking I was an abomination. When I was old enough you started to hunt me like I was an animal, sending every one of your troopers out to get me.”
“You are an abomination, clone,” Stone spit out. “You are the reason I couldn’t have any more clones. You are the reason I needed to find you and take organs from your filthy, deformed body. You really think I want any organs from you?”
“I have lived my life hungry and cold, like tens of thousands of your citizens. We have suffered through the harshest of winters with nothing to eat but whatever we could scrounge from the trash of your rich friends. We have worn rags, had to run when we couldn’t take another step, and we have lived in fear for our entire lives. While the whole time you sat in your mansion and issued orders to make our lives even harder. You are the monster, Stone. You are the defective, except your problems are all in your head.”
My hand shook while I tried to ho
ld the gun steady. I wanted Stone to know everything, be forced to hear every word I had ever wanted to say to her.
Still, she didn’t seem to understand.
“You have no idea who I am,” Stone said, her voice like cold ice creeping into my veins and spreading itself over my skin.
“I am made from you.”
“And you’ve done nothing but disappoint me since the moment you were created.”
I levelled the gun and locked my knees in place. “You’re not going to hurt me anymore.”
My eyes met hers.
For just a moment I thought for sure she looked scared. For just that moment, she thought I would really shoot her.
Because that’s what she would have done.
Without hesitation.
But I was better than my Maker. “Handcuff her. Now,” I ordered. Movement came from behind me, Joseph and his men stepped forward to take her into their custody.
Stone let out a scream as she lunged to get out of their way. She struggled, scratching and spitting at them to pull free. I pointed the gun to the ceiling and I pulled the trigger.
The distraction was just enough for Stone to succumb to her captors. They grabbed her wrists and used cable ties to secure them behind her back.
Stone was ours.
She didn’t stop struggling, never admitting defeat under any circumstances. She screamed for her guards, continually called out for them with an ear-shattering scream.
The door to her office opened. I jumped around, pointing the gun in that direction and bracing myself for the onslaught of guards that were about to burst through the entranceway.
But they weren’t guards.
Reece led his team in, quickly scanning the room to ascertain the situation. I pointed the gun to the floor, my hands still shaking with what I could have done.
“Good of you to turn up,” Joseph said to the team, the joke making his eyes sparkle. “Help us get this one out to the vehicle.”
Everyone moved to assist Joseph, Stone still screaming bloody murder. Reece was only looking at me. He stepped nearer until he was so close I could feel the warmth of his body. “You did it,” he said.
“I couldn’t shoot her,” I admitted.
Reece wrapped his arms around me and enveloped me in a reassuring hug. Gently, he took the gun from my hand and clipped the safety on.
He didn’t give it back.
I didn’t want it.
“You took her down, you’ve done what everyone else couldn’t,” Reece continued as he stepped back. The gun looked much more at home in his hands than in mine.
“It wasn’t really me, everyone did this.”
“You were the only one who knew where she was going to go.”
I shook my head, not wanting any recognition. “We would have looked here anyway.”
Reece leaned down and kissed me gently on the lips. “Don’t underestimate how extraordinary you are. I’ll see you downstairs.”
I watched Reece leave. As he opened the door I could still hear Stone yelling and screaming. She wasn’t going to go quietly. Just like I didn’t. When I was moved from my cells I kicked and screamed just like she did.
But we weren’t the same person.
I spared her life.
That was the difference.
I couldn’t allow myself to think that by taking Stone into our custody that meant everything would now be fine. There were still so many things that needed to be done, we had to convince an entire city that we were in charge now.
Stone was just one step.
The first in many, but a big one nonetheless.
I gasped in some breaths, trying to calm all the adrenalin surging through my body. I didn’t know how Reece could have been a trooper and face that kind of confrontation every day.
A part of me could still feel the weight of the gun in my hand and the weight of the decision in my heart. I had wanted to shoot her. I wanted Stone dead so she couldn’t hurt me anymore. But, when it came down to it, I wasn’t a killer.
I wasn’t her.
Glancing around her office one last time, I decided I never wanted to be there again. I didn’t want anything to do with Stone and the buildings that stood so grandly above all others. They could burn to the ground for all I cared.
This time when I walked through the house it was my choice. I had no escorts, no guards to stop me. I took my time, allowing my gimp foot to slow me down.
Stone’s mansion had no family photos along the walls like I’d seen in other mansions and homes. There was nothing soft and personal. Everything was sharp-edged and hard, ready to hurt at a moment’s notice. The house could have belonged to anyone, not just the woman whose genes I shared.
It was almost sad imagining her in the large, opulent rooms by herself. Did she walk around in silk pajamas while sipping on hot cocoa? Or did she sit behind the desk in her office even late at night and think up new and cruel ways to torture us?
Her ghost lingered by the gold-plated statues but her imprint was nowhere to be seen.
Portia Stone would not be missed here.
I joined the others in the vehicles downstairs, riding back to the warehouse next to Reece in his trooper truck. The others were all speaking loudly and excitedly while Stone was cuffed to the back seat. She had either run out of voice or hope. Either way, she was now quiet.
Maybe she was still plotting her next move.
I wouldn’t have put it past her.
The warehouse was about half full when we arrived. Everyone turned to watch Stone as she was pushed through the crowd. The moment everyone realized who she was, a deafening cheer rushed through them.
Samson allowed everyone to look at Stone and revel in the success for a few minutes before he led her away to the cell they built in the warehouse.
Crushed and defeated didn’t look good on Stone but she wore the emotions like badges anyway. She hated every moment of our victory, her distaste rolled off her in waves. I wondered briefly if I had looked that same way when she had me locked up.
Joseph stood on the podium and clapped his hands until everyone hushed. “We have done the impossible today and I thank you all for playing your part in our victory. Former President Stone is ours and Aria City will now follow. I am sending teams to Parliament and also to Stone’s mansion. By morning everyone in the city will know who we are. Prepare for the next stage of our revolution.”
More people clapped and cheered. Everyone was exhausted but high on the victory. We felt invincible, like we could pull down buildings with our bare hands and swing on the crook of the moon.
A group of television reporters arrived with a camera. Joseph welcomed them in and then took them to his office with a few of his team. One hour later he was on the television, informing the people of Aria of our plans and mission.
He was trying to convince them to follow us, to denounce Stone as their leader and rejoice in the revolution. I watched on, my mind numb. I wasn’t sure if people would do what Joseph hoped they would, but there was nothing I could do about it tonight.
Reece’s hand linked with mine. I looked up at him and smiled. It seemed like such a long time since I had made him promise to come back to me.
He did.
Stone couldn’t hurt me anymore.
Life was wonderful.
We returned to the safe house we had left in the early hours of the morning. It was just Reece and I now, Joseph was staying at the warehouse and working through the night to make sure Stone’s followers didn’t cause trouble.
I went into my pink bedroom, the only room I had ever had all to myself. It seemed different now, like it belonged to a different Wren. The Wren I was this morning wasn’t the same as I was now.
This morning I thought I could kill Stone.
I liked this Wren better.
I was not Stone.
I was not a killer.
I felt eyes on me and turned around to see Reece standing in the hallway watching me. “Can I sleep in your bed wit
h you tonight?” I asked. Having my own room was nothing compared to having Reece.
“I was about to ask you the same thing.” His smile was a drug, making me giddy with one look.
Running into his arms, he scooped me up like I weighed as much as a feather. Reece carried me to his room – almost a mirror image of mine – and placed me on the bed. He slid in beside me.
His room was blue.
We fell asleep in one another’s arms.
Chapter 20: Reece
My eyes flickered open to see the sunlight flowing freely through the window. I’d never seen the start of a new day so welcoming before.
Wren was wrapped up in my arms, her face peaceful while she slept. We were still in the same position we held when we went to sleep late last night. Both of us were like the walking dead, we barely made it back to the house.
Today was a new day in Aria. It was the beginning of a new world, one where we didn’t need to live in fear and we were all able to live our lives the way we wanted to.
Stone would no longer rule anything.
When I saw her being hauled away from her opulent mansion yesterday I thought I was dreaming. When I joined the Resistance, I always knew that was our goal but I never imagined we would win so wholeheartedly.
I was glad that Wren hadn’t shot Stone. She wasn’t the killing type of person. It would have haunted her for the rest of her life. And I could only begin to imagine what she would have felt knowing she had killed her Maker. Clones had weird relationships with their Makers, complicated beyond my understanding.
My communicator beeped on the nightstand beside the bed. They must have restored the coms after Stone was secured. I stretched over Wren to grab it before it could wake her. It was a message from Joseph, calling us back to the warehouse as soon as possible.
We might have won but there was still plenty of work left to do. Highest on the list was convincing the rest of Aria to allow us to be their leaders. The citizens who Stone favored weren’t going to be converted easily.
As much as it pained me to do it, I gently nudged the sleeping beauty beside me. “Wren, wake up. We have to get moving.”
One Spark of Hope Page 18
