by Jenn Vakey
A round of acknowledgements came from the group. We readied our weapons, checked around one last time for any sign of Sentry hiding in wait, then walked as one toward the front door.
Though most of the people leading our group were dressed in Sentry black, those stationed inside the headquarters didn’t hesitate before attacking.
The five men in the main room scattered, hiding behind desks and walls as they started to fire upon us. We outnumbered them greatly, but with only two or three people able to enter at a time, they were in position to cut through our party before we could even reach them.
“Down!” I yelled as something whizzed past my head and slammed into the wall behind me before I could even make it more than a step inside the room. I reached out and shoved Lamont to the side before he even had a chance to react. It would appear that my new speed wasn’t limited to running. The Sentry who had taken aim at Lamont had barely managed to tighten his finger on the trigger before I had knocked him aside.
But it wasn’t enough. With more of our people coming in, all I was able to do was shift him a foot to the side before he was stopped by one of the men we had released from the prison. Not enough to keep the shot from slamming into him.
Lamont’s grunt was still echoing through the room as I ran through it as fast as I could and pulled the guns away from each of the Sentry. I had collected all five of them and stopped at the back of the room before even the first one realized it was gone.
Several moments passed where no one moved. Dex’s Sentry had no idea what had happened, and mine were processing the fact that I was no longer standing with them and the shooting had stopped. Then, like a switch had been flipped, both sides charged toward each other.
I turned my back to the fighting going on and marched down the hall toward my father’s office. Heavy footfalls sounded behind me. Others leaving to join me.
My throat was tight as I walked the familiar path. Part of me still rebelled against the idea of facing my father like this. Eden never allowed confrontations in public. Disputes were to be handled inside the privacy of one’s home. Even then, I had never challenged the man directly. As a child, I had feared to. By the time I had reached the age of my test and moved into the temporary housing in Grower section, I had come to the realization that it wouldn’t accomplish anything.
Now I was going to do far more than tell him that I didn’t agree with his stance on something.
“Lillith,” I whispered. She was the reason I was doing this. Even the thoughts of everything I had been raised to believe weren’t strong enough to keep me from doing what I had to in order to protect her. To give her the life she deserved.
Letting out a breath, I grabbed the handles on the double doors and twisted. They didn’t budge. I scowled in disgust and shook my head. His men were out here fighting a battle they must have known they couldn’t win in order to hold the building while my father had locked himself away. It was in that moment that I saw him for what he really was. A selfish coward.
“Back,” a deep voice said from behind me.
I stepped aside at the same time as I looked to see who had spoken. One of the members of my group was looking at the door, almost studying it. He was dressed in black, so not one of the people we had released from prison. I vaguely recognized him. He was older, perhaps even more so than my father. One of the many Sentry I had been surrounded by growing up as my father tried his best to convince me to change my mind and become a Sentry.
The man stepped toward the door, his eyes passing over the placement of all of the hinges and locks that were keeping it closed. Folding my arms, I watched and waited. After a moment, he gave a small nod like he had settled on something. Then, with the most powerful kick I had ever seen, he connected with the center where the doors met and sent them flying open.
A Tainted strong kick.
A blast bounced off the walls. I thought it was the doors hitting the walls inside. That was until the man who had just removed that final barrier jerked his head back like he had just been hit in the face. Then he fell.
I didn’t have time to think about what I had just seen. About what it meant. I ran through the door and into the room.
The funny thing about this new ability was the way things around me looked as I used it. From my perspective, I wasn’t traveling fast. At least not faster than anyone moved when they were running. Instead, it appeared that everything else was happening in slow motion.
I ran along the perimeter of the room, looking over everything as I went. The doors were still inching toward the walls where they were destined to hit. The monitors lining one of the walls showed people moving almost comically slow elsewhere in the city.
And standing behind a desk in the center of the room was my father.
Councilman Meltzer looked almost like a statue as he stood with his arm extended toward the door. One of the only things about him that appeared to be moving was the finger that was slowly pulling the trigger on the gun in his hand.
Like I had with the Sentry in the lobby, I pulled the gun from his grasp. Instead of stopping behind him, though, I continued until I was standing directly in the path that he had been firing.
I guess it said something that he jerked his hand up the moment I was still and he registered who I was. His eyes were wide in shock. First at seeing me, then when he realized that his hand was now empty.
I could see that question there. Wondering what the hell had just happened. I answered by holding up the gun for him to see. That was when a myriad of emotions played through his expression. Confusion, disbelief. Then finally pure, simmering rage.
“You’re one of them,” he hissed in disgust.
And that was all there was to it. Rhydian had said that his father had been heartbroken when he revealed himself as Tainted. Not because of what his son was, but at the realization that his children were in danger because of his own laws. That wasn’t what I saw when I looked into my father’s eyes.
I wasn’t a reason for him to rethink his beliefs. I was now part of everything he hated.
“By the order of the rightful king, you are under arrest for crimes against Eden,” I told him.
His lip curled up in a sneer, but he made no attempt to move as people walked past me into the room to detain him. His eyes stayed locked on mine. That fury turning to hatred as everything really settled in.
It was in that moment that I realized that he had no idea I had even aligned myself with the Tainted and our princes. If he had even tried to get in contact with me after I left Eden, he must have just brushed it aside as conflicting schedules. Assumed that I was in the fields and didn’t see the need to track me down. He had probably been too busy plotting with Dex and his fellow councilmembers to worry about the son that had already proven to be a disappointment.
I shook my head and reached for the band on my wrist.
“Leopard is in hand,” I said at the sound of Rhydian’s voice in my ear. “We’re leaving five for transport when available.”
“How many down?” he asked.
My anger at my father that had been clouding my thoughts fled at his question. It was only then that I made myself turn to face the Sentry who had knocked the doors open for us.
I met the eye of another who was kneeling beside him. I didn’t need to ask before he shook his head. Though I tried to keep from seeing it, there was no way around it. There was just too much blood. It was as if my eyes were pulled like a magnet to the dark hole on the left side of his forehead.
My father had shot and killed him. A man he knew.
Then I remembered everything else that had happened.
Stepping around the man that couldn’t be helped, I walked briskly down the hall toward the entrance. The defending Sentry had gotten several shots off before I had disarmed them. One of them I knew had hit its mark.
The first thing that came into view when I reached the front room was a pair of feet. Unmoving. My stomach turned, but I made myself go further. Up the blac
k clad legs and body. Finally to the face.
I felt bad for feeling the relief that came when I saw the man lying there. It was only eased a little when I realized that he was still alive, although the abdominal wound another was putting pressure on was serious.
“Two dead back here, and these two need a Healer,” a voice to the right said. I followed it and blew out a breath when I found Lamont standing next to the window. At his feet was another injured Sentry, this one propped up as a man affixed a tourniquet to her thigh. Lamont’s focus was moving between the window and me, watching for any sign of an incoming attack.
“And you?” I asked.
He shook his head, but his left hand was pressed against the upper right side of his chest. Just under the collarbone. His fingers were red with blood.
“Three down, another two in need of a Healer,” I answered Rhydian’s earlier question. “I’m leaving a small team behind with them.”
Rhydian made an unhappy sound, but he didn’t argue. I didn’t have a choice here. While the main priority was getting my father to the prison, I couldn’t leave the two who were unable to move without both protection and the hands needed until they could get to a Healer.
“I’m sending people over now,” he said. “Make sure they know both Healers and Sentry will be arriving. Code phrase four.”
Signing off, I looked around the room as people started to move back in. Before my father was in hearing range, I looked to the man assisting the woman at Lamont’s feet. “You’ll be part of a team of five who will be staying behind,” I told him. He looked up and gave a single nod. “Sentry are being sent over to take those we’re leaving behind into custody. There will also be Healers coming to tend to our wounded. Don’t rely on the red band. They’ll use a code phrase so you’ll know they’re really with us. Kip. You’ll respond with one of your own. Good dog. Do you understand?”
He nodded again, but his brow dropped in confusion. Even more so at the sound of Lamont’s low chuckle.
“Dog?” he asked, as if clarifying.
Despite the tenseness of the situation, I couldn’t keep from smirking. I had thought it was a joke the first time I had heard it. Well, I guess it still was. Leeya’s attempt to lighten things wherever she could. It was surprisingly successful.
“Prince Evran and his fiancé have a dog. A pet,” I explained simply. “And he’s a good boy.”
His eyes widened slightly, and he cracked his own smile.
Moving quickly through the room, I selected the four others who would be staying behind and told them the one I had already spoken with would give them details after we left. We couldn’t take the chance of my father overhearing anything. With no hovercrafts outside, we would have to move on foot toward the prison. It was too much of a risk to let him know anything that he could relay to others if the worst happened and we didn’t make it there.
“Let’s move,” I told the rest.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
PAXTON
The remaining fifteen of us moved through the door, my father at the center of the group. I could see by the way he was looking around that he expected us to be met by some resistance. His people waiting in the dark to defend him. If there had been people stationed out here, they had either gone elsewhere or decided that they weren’t willing to risk their lives for a side they weren’t certain would win. While it didn’t inspire loyalty in the future, it would work in our favor for now.
We made it nearly halfway to the prison before the quiet was broken by the sound of gunfire. One of our men went down.
“Against the houses!” I called. My grip on my father’s arm tightened as we surged to the side to get out of the line of fire. He tried to fight out of my hold, but Lamont and another were right there to keep him from going anywhere.
The man who had been shot was pulled by another out of the way, but it didn’t look like anyone else had been injured.
“Shots are coming from behind us,” Lamont said, motioning toward the house we were pressed up against.
I nodded. We could stick to the walls and run from house to house, but eventually whoever was shooting would converge on us. We were still too far out.
“You four,” I said, motioning to the men at the end of our group. “Double back and try to get behind them. We’ll keep moving and draw them out. The dark will help to hide you as you watch for where the shots are coming from.”
My father snickered and shook his head. “Give yourselves up now. This boy and his people have no chance of winning. Your king will be lenient and understanding for all those who were drawn in by Tainted trickery.”
Not a single person even faltered. The men I had pointed out met my eye again and nodded, then turned and did as I asked. My focus turned to my father as he watched them go, and for the first time in my life, I saw it soak in that he didn’t have complete control like he had always had before. Those men, his Sentry, completely disregarded what he said and chose to listen to his son. A Grower. As he watched them go, it was almost like he couldn’t make sense of it.
The man who had been shot pulled himself up, but I could tell by looking at him that he was in pain. The pale blue outfit from the prison had darkened with blood on the side of his abdomen. He was determined to fight through it, and if we weren’t going to have to move quickly, I might have considered it. His sheer will wouldn’t keep him from slowing us down, though.
I was just about to explain that to him when tapping from just beside my head pulled my attention. Startled, I turned to see a young woman staring at us through a window. Her eyes moved over those of us that she could see through the darkness before settling on mine again.
“Leave your injured,” she said, as if reading my mind. “When it’s clear, we’ll help them. We have Healer supplies.”
I gave her an appreciative nod. There was no way for her to get to our man without putting herself in danger with the Sentry positioned on the other side of the house. She had to know that. Still, she wasn’t just sitting back and waiting for others to do what needed to be done.
“Count to a hundred,” I told her. “Stick to the shadows as best you can.”
There was no other way I could protect her and whoever else was in that house. The line between Dex’s Sentry and those who weren’t wasn’t clear anymore. The only way any of us knew who was on our side right now was by waiting to see if they attacked or offered assistance. Too much time had passed to count on the red arm band as a sure sign. And this wasn’t Sentry section, which meant she would be helpless if anyone came after her.
Well, unless…
After ensuring my father was secure, I moved to the man we would be leaving behind. It still looked like he wanted to argue, but he must have known the truth in it. Even if it wasn’t what he wanted.
“Take these with you,” I said, pulling a few vials from my pocket and pushing them into his hand. “Tell the people taking you in what we told you about them. If they want them, they can have them.”
He looked down at the serum he was holding without responding. He had the look of someone who was struggling for a moment. I didn’t understand it until he took one of them into his other hand, opened it, and drank it. Then I knew. He was one of the people in the prison who had decided not to take the serum. In taking it now, he was making it clear just where his loyalties lie.
There was no time to waste after that. The rest of our group stayed close to the houses as we rushed ahead. Another of our people took a shot in the arm as we moved, but we didn’t stop. Not until we were certain we had gone far enough to pull any attention away from where we had left our injured.
We moved until the Laborer’s section ended and we had no other homes close enough to shield us. There was no other choice but to stop and regroup.
“I told Rhydian where we are and what’s going on,” Lamont said as he walked up to my side. His eyes moved over the open area around us, assessing. I watched his face, but there was no relief there. Nothing that said we would ha
ve support any time soon.
He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “Our people say that word has gotten out that we’re moving him. Nothing about our specific location, but we can expect things to get heavier before we reach the prison.”
I looked back at our much smaller team. They had been listening to his report. While no one showed any signs of wanting to cut their losses and leave, there was a mutual look of resignation on each of them.
“We can’t wait here,” I said, thinking aloud. “We have more allies within the wall than Dex has supporters. We’ll have to keep pushing forward and hope we encounter some friendly faces.”
Tightening their hold on their weapons, each of our people nodded. Ready.
“You’re pathetic,” my father spat out. He shook his head in the way he used to when I was a child. “You have no idea what you’re doing here. Do you really think the sheep in this city could even hope to stand up against my Sentry? You can brainwash people to think Phineas’ Tainted brats are worthy, but they have no idea what it takes to keep this city running. You’re blind faith is going to lead to the destruction of Eden.”
