Abandon (21 page)

32
.
The next six days passed slowly, having to watch Jag holding Violet’s hand while they whispered preparations for the invasion of Freedom, and not having any chance to escape and be alone.

Gunn was awful company, as he’d learned that Starr had been sent to Baybridge as Hightower’s representative. He and Raine spent most of their time huddled together in a corner somewhere, talking.

I felt terribly alone. Before, I’d had Vi, and together we’d blended with other couples. Now, I felt abandoned by the
friends I’d had in Freedom, simply because I didn’t have a partner.

I avoided Saffediene. I didn’t want to be the guy Jag had accused me of being. I would not use Saffediene’s crush on me to influence her behavior. I knew what rejection felt like, and I couldn’t do that to her.

Vi hadn’t told Jag about our kiss. If she had, I would’ve been punched again. And Jag is considerably stronger than Vi.

I spent most of my time following Jag’s exact orders and lying on my cot, wondering if I wanted to return to Freedom as Director Hightower’s protégé.

Finally, March twenty-eighth arrived.

*   *   *

Jag found me in the weapons room, getting my cache reset and the Resistance frequency uploaded. Pace scurried around, activating belts and vests and making sure we had all the equipment we needed for the attack.

“Zenn, you and I will stick with Vi.” Jag stood just out of the fray, dressed in black from head to toe, not a stitch of tech anywhere. Typical Jag. He wasn’t exactly anti-technology, just cocky.

“Did you hear me?” he asked.

“Yeah, stick with Vi. Got it.”

“Between the two of us, she’ll be safe.” He stepped toward the door.

“Did it ever occur to you she might not want me around?” I called.

“More than once,” he said. “Vi doesn’t hold much back, you know.” He looked straight through me. “But I know you’re the one person who’d rather die than allow her to get hurt.” Then he left before I could respond.

I didn’t have a defense anyway. He was right. Over the past few days I’d tried to imagine a situation where I’d leave Vi in danger. Where I’d fly away while she bled, or where I’d turn her over to Director Hightower to save myself.

I hadn’t succeeded. Vi didn’t want me—she didn’t even like me—but I couldn’t stop loving her. I was pathetic.

Pathetic and alone.

While Pace plugged a line into my transmission portal, I thought about what life could be like north of the dead border just beyond Cedar Hills. I could build a house. I could scavenge for food. I could live a simple life, full of nothing but breathing and chopping wood and purifying water. I wouldn’t have to worry about girls or Thinkers or Jag Barque.

I could simply take the backpack Pace had given me, get on my hoverboard, and fly away. Far, far away.

It sounded like the best idea I’d had in a long time.

I also knew I’d never do it.

I worry too much about what people think of me. And I want my life to mean something. I want to be important.

*   *   *

Armed with my backpack and my hoverboard, I joined the others in the open field behind the safe house. Stars twinkled overhead, partially eclipsed by clouds. Close to two hundred Insiders had arrived over the course of the last week, and everyone was restless for the invasion of Freedom to begin. Tense whispers filled my ears, but I didn’t join the groups of people surrounding me.

I stood behind Jag—forever behind Jag—and Vi, waiting for who-knows-what. Part of me died a little when he turned and kissed her. The rest of me wanted to howl in pain.

Finally, everything was in place, and Jag gave the signal to lift off. He’d assigned everyone a specific spot in the advance party, and everyone had a task in the city too. Voices were flying up front, so I nosed my board between Gunn and Thane while keeping an eye on Vi.

Jag flew in the lead position, with Vi just behind him.

Where’s Raine?
I chatted to Gunn.

She’s staying here.

Bet she’s happy about that
.

Actually, she is
, he said.
She doesn’t want to run into her father.

I nodded in response. All I wanted to do was run into my father. I wondered where he was right now. Did he still work in the Transportation Department in the Goodgrounds? Did he still have clearance to the best tech?

I could’ve sent someone to find out. I hadn’t. If I didn’t know for sure, then I could imagine the best possible scenario.

Hey, you okay?
Gunn’s question sliced through my thoughts.

Yeah
, I chatted.
Just great.

It’s going to go fine
, Gunn said.

We only have four voices
, I said. Me, him, Jag, and Thane.

That’s all we need.
He sounded so confident. I allowed his enthusiasm to infect me as we flew around the tech barrier.

The ocean below me felt dark and sinister. The water chopped toward the shore. The lights emanating from the Rises gave the city a false sparkle, making it almost seem inviting.

I caught bits of conversation from the others around me, but I didn’t join in. Speculation just isn’t my thing. I didn’t want to stew about what I might or might not encounter in the city.

I’d find out when I arrived.

About ten minutes from shore, Jag motioned with his hand, and I sent the chat out to everyone.
Maintenance
teams veer north-northwest toward Rise Twelve. Rescue teams stall and hover. Tech teams veer southwest toward the orchards. Circle the barrier and rendezvous at the Tech Rise.

As the group split into four, thirteen people remained in the lead group. Me, Jag, Vi, Gunn, Thane, Saffediene, Indy, two technopaths from Baybridge, an empath from Northepointe, and three people to run communication between our group and the others.

Our target: Rise One. Our goal: capture and detain Director Hightower. It sounded easy in my head. I knew it wouldn’t be.

Water met land, and I nudged my board north, following Jag. Just when I thought we’d successfully executed the element of surprise, bright white tech lights blinded me.

I automatically slowed my board to a stop. Next to me, Gunn did the same. To my left, the Confinement Rise strobed from ground to roof. The door gaped open, and out marched two men, shoulder to shoulder.

They split as soon as they left the building, creating a space for the two men who followed them. And the two who followed them. And the two who followed them.

I hovered, stunned, as clone after clone after clone filled the street in front of the Confinement Rise.

“Thane,” Jag said. “I think you can handle them by yourself.
Let’s continue, guys.” He maneuvered his hoverboard away as Thane descended toward the Confinement Rise. I paused, waiting to see just how many clones there were.

They kept coming and coming and coming. “Ja-ag,” I said, but he was too far away, and the hoser didn’t wear an implant. Saffediene heard me, and she settled by my side to observe.

Thane had reached the clones. Nothing happened. I waited, expecting him to put them to sleep, the same way he had in Grande. Saffediene had cached me the report, and while I knew she’d wanted to talk about the clones, I hadn’t engaged her because I didn’t want to “use her” the way Jag had accused.

What’s he doing?
Saffediene asked over my cache.

Thane gestured wildly at us. Without another chat, Saffediene and I took off to help him. The frontward clones pulled out tasers. The motion rippled back through the crowd until
every single one
was armed.

“Whoa,” I said out loud, forgetting completely about being stealthy. They obviously already knew we were here.

Thane shot straight up as at least twelve tasers fired in his direction.

Evasive maneuvers
, I chatted to Saffediene.
Thane! What did you say to them?

My heart beat double time, my body vibrated with crazy-adrenaline
as I flew in close to the clones who had already discharged their tasers. I had a three-second window before their weapons would be ready to fire again.

“Sleep,” I said in my most powerful voice. The clones didn’t move. They didn’t so much as blink.

I ducked as taser barbs arced toward me. Saffediene cried out behind me. She didn’t have a voice; she couldn’t do anything but get killed.
Retreat
, I commanded her.

Thane!
I called again. I couldn’t find him in the night sky. The lights surrounding the Confinement Rise were too bright.

I twisted back and flew in front of the clones who’d just fired at me. “Deactivate your weapons,” I said. I’d never achieved this level of control in my voice. It should have worked. They should have pocketed their tasers.

They didn’t.

Another wave of taser fire caught my board. The hovercraft lurched under my feet and went right while I continued left. I couldn’t help it. I screamed.

I was falling, falling into an army of clones that wouldn’t respond to my voice. I hit the ground hard. Four clones stood over me. I reached for the taser at my belt. If my voice wouldn’t work, maybe I could at least fight my way into the orchards.

Zenn!
Thane’s voice over my cache could barely be heard over the pounding of my heart.

I fell!
I chatted, sprinting down the line of clones. If I could just make it to through the fray . . .

I’ll pick you up on the beach
, Saffediene said.
Can you make it there?

I dodged a clone as he stepped out of line. I plowed into another clone, and we both fell to the ground. My legs and arms tangled with his, but I scrambled to my feet just as a taser discharged. Techtricity struck where I had stood a moment ago.

I ran.
I don’t think so.

“Stop! Stand down! Drop your weapons!” I shouted as I ran.

They don’t respond to voice control
, Thane said.

What gives?
I asked.
They’re just clones.

They’re deaf
, he said.

Horror struck me, and I tripped over my own feet. I slapped away the reaching hands of a clone even as the whine of a taser filled my world. I pulled myself to my knees, desperate to get away and reach the safety of the orchards.

We’re screwed
, I thought just before the techtricity entered my body.

33
.
A jolt of fear struck me as Vi’s voice sounded in my head. I didn’t wear an implant, but when she screamed,
Jag!
I heard it reverberate in every cell.

I twisted to find her several yards behind me, hovering in the air, pointing back the way we’d come. Below me, where the ground was once black and forbidding, it was now streaked with light.

Curses flew through my mind. I zoomed toward Vi, but I didn’t need her to tell me the problem. Zillions of tech lights chased every shadow into the orchards.

Thane hovered near the roof of the Confinement Rise,
but I couldn’t see anyone else. Anyone besides the hundreds and hundreds of clones.

Deaf
, Vi said inside my head. Her voice rattled around in there, as if it didn’t quite know where to settle.

I cocked my eyebrow at her.
Deaf?

Meaning they can’t hear
, she said.
Your voice won’t work.
A tremor shook her body.
Zenn fell.

Should I have been worried? Yes. Was I? Absolutely. I’d seen the naked fear in Zenn’s eyes when he’d spoken about Hightower. I’d heard him say,
You don’t know what he’s like.
I could not abandon Zenn here.

Where?
I asked.

I don’t know. I can’t find his mind, either. It’s like he’s . . .
She didn’t finish the thought, but she didn’t need to.

A rocking
boom!
shook my attention from Vi’s escalating worry about Zenn. We faced the direction of the noise. Rise One wasn’t hard to spot, what with it being the tallest building in the city. Smoke wafted from it, illuminated by a pulsing blue light.

Can you communicate with Thane?
I asked Vi.

Yeah.

Tell him to stick with Saffediene and try to find Zenn. We have to get to Rise One.

She looked at me, and her accusation didn’t need to be
said—or thought. I could read it in the way she stiffened.

Are you coming?
I asked, unwilling to apologize for what needed to be done. Did she think Zenn didn’t know the risks? That he wouldn’t leave us all behind to finish the job? He knew this was bigger than one person—even bigger than him.

“It’s Zenn,” she said out loud, which was somehow worse than her infiltrating my mind.

I couldn’t leave her there, but I couldn’t waste any more time stalled in the sky. “I know, babe,” I said, and that would have to be enough.

I swung my board around and held my hand out to Vi. She took it, and our group advanced toward the smoking Rise One.

Because of the other Rises, I didn’t see the swarm of Enforcement Officers until we crested the last building. The square mile of green area surrounding Rise One was completely filled with Officers. Armed and dangerous Officers.

They wore standard-issue uniforms and held tasers at the ready. They didn’t move, not even a twitch. Normal people couldn’t stand that still. My breath stuck in my throat.

The Enforcement Officers were either clones or—

“Jag Barque.” The voice belonged to Van Hightower, and it echoed through the empty streets, rattling off the tech buildings and coating my nerves in fear.

What was I supposed to say in return?
Hello? I’m here to burn your city to the ground?
That didn’t seem quite right. So I said nothing. I nodded to Gunner, who flew in closer to the Officer-clones. He spoke, and nothing happened.

“Deaf,” I said. Despite all my careful planning, I honestly hadn’t anticipated that my greatest weapon—my voice—would be useless.