Abandon (23 page)

“Sure.” Starr left, and I felt that familiar itch under my skin. I wasn’t doing enough. I needed to find a hoverboard and visit every Director within three hundred miles.

“I have to go talk to Zenn,” I whispered to Vi. “Your mom is going to sit with you. I love you.” I pressed a kiss to her forehead as Laurel entered the room.

“Thanks.” I stood up. “Where’s Thane?”

She put her hand on my shoulder, and a strange understanding passed between us. “They’re all waiting on you.”

*   *   *

The bunker where we’d crashed had twisty-turny halls that radiated from one large, circular room. We’d converted the smaller rooms into a dining hall, a kitchen, food storage, and sleeping quarters. Any tech we had here we’d taken from our safe house in Grande.

After Vi had incapacitated the Officer-clones, we’d taken as many tasers as we could carry. We had three food-generating cubes, a handful of scramblers, a half dozen teleporter rings, and enough tech to broadcast a transmission over a specific frequency.

Gunner had given his father’s journal to Zenn, and then Zenn had been tased and taken. I’d had to make another hard decision and evacuate the safe house before he’d returned. I hated that Resistance information could’ve fallen into Hightower’s hands, but I couldn’t do anything about it. And now Zenn had returned.

I entered the room to whispered conversations and the sight of Zenn and Saffediene broadcasting onto the wall. Thane stood at the front of the group, talking about Vi and her expected recovery. Zenn visibly relaxed, and some of
the tension seeped from his shoulders. Next to Thane, Trek manned the gadgets to keep the transmission open. My chest tightened. Pace should be doing that. Pace was my tech—

“Jag,” Zenn said. He seemed beyond relieved to see me alive. Was I thrilled to see him alive? I’ll admit that I was.

“Hey, bro,” I said. “You look rested.”

He gave a mirthless laugh. “Director Hightower detained me for a little speech.”

“Oh yeah? Did he have anything good to say?”

Zenn’s eyes flickered to Thane and back to me. “He said Thane’s a liar.”

The room erupted in laughter, and I allowed myself a chuckle. “Yeah, well, who isn’t?”

Zenn cracked a rare smile. “Saffediene and I intercepted a transmission from Baybridge. The city’s been destroyed. Sounded like they were evacuating, but we didn’t catch where.” He swallowed and exchanged a glance with Saffediene. I watched his body language, the way he shifted toward her, how she put her hand on his forearm.

Zenn had himself a new girlfriend—and his feelings seemed genuine. Nice.

“Have you heard from Starr?” Zenn asked.

“She’s here,” I said. “Everything in Baybridge was fine when she left. Our people got out.” I saw her hurrying out of
the room, probably to check with her contacts about what had gone down in Baybridge.

“We checked Castledale,” Saffediene said. “We found a message there.”

“Well?” I pushed.

“Resist and die,” Zenn said.

“Was the city dormant?” Thane asked from the front of the room. “The people sequestered?”

“Yes,” Saffediene said.

“Let me guess,” Thane said. “The message was in a funky location or as a puzzle. Am I right?”

“As these weird painted ‘shadows’ on the buildings. We only found the message after we rotated the image,” Zenn confirmed.

“Okay, so what?” I asked. “We’ve known for years that Darke wasn’t going to just roll over. Why does this matter now?”

“Did you say Baybridge was burning?” Thane asked. “Or it was already burnt?”

“Burning,” Saffediene said. “Lots of smoke in the projection, and a fire in the building behind the guy.”

“What guy?” I asked. The Insiders in Baybridge had been evacuated with everyone else.

“Probably not an Insider,” Thane said. “Probably just someone trying to get a feed out, searching for help.”

“Where are you guys?” Zenn asked. “Can we fly in?”

“Arrow Falls,” Thane said. “We should be able to get you in tonight.”

Zenn and Saffediene nodded, but I wanted to go back to the burning versus burnt question. “Why does it matter if the city was burning or already burnt?”

Thane angled his body so he was looking at me and at the p-screen. “It lets us know Darke’s timeline. He’s not in Castledale right now; he left the message there and flew to Baybridge, which was
burning
. So he must have just launched the attack there.”

“So we can launch an attack on him when he returns to Castledale,” I said, seeing where Thane was going with his reasoning.

“Exactly. From Baybridge to Castledale, you’re talking a two-day flight. If the feed Zenn saw was in real time, then we’ve got a short window to prepare a second wave.”

I nodded, proud of myself for having a conversation with Thane without wanting to tase him. “Let’s pack up,” I said. “We’re heading to Castledale. Zenn, can you guys meet us there?”

“By morning,” he said.

“Can you check Freedom first?” Raine’s childlike voice piped up. “See if there’s any word on Gunner?”

Trek put his arm around Raine. “See if you can cache Ivory Bills. She’ll be in charge of communication now that I’m gone.”

Zenn nodded, his jaw set. “I’ll find out, Raine. I promise.”

I’d heard Zenn say those words before, but this time was different. This time I believed him.

36
.
Ivory Bills met Saffediene and me on the north side of Freedom, near where I’d met Trek a week earlier. She stood just beyond the wall, her eyes narrowed in our direction. I’d activated my cache, but I wasn’t sure I had a frequency she could hear. Pace had reset them all before the invasion.

I heard whispers of thought only from Saffediene, but Ivory had obviously received something. She strode forward, her reddish-brown hair barely brushing her chin. Her slate-gray eyes scanned me, then Saffediene, stalling on our joined hands for a moment longer than necessary.
“Hey,” she said, her voice wavering as it passed through the barrier.

I squeezed Saffediene’s hand to signal that I thought Ivory would deal better with her than with me.

“Hey,” Saffediene said. “News?”

Though I didn’t expect anything different from Saffediene, I almost smiled at her all-business attitude. I tamed the urge when Ivory folded her arms and remained silent.

The loudest sound became the sighing of the breeze as it mixed with the crackle of the techtric barrier.

She squinted at us again, as if that might allow her access inside our heads. My skin crawled; I felt exposed, like that’s exactly what she was doing.

“Your caches have been altered,” she finally said.

“Yes,” Saffediene immediately responded. “Trek Whiting said you were his second and would be able to fill us in on any developments inside the city.” She took a deep breath as Ivory visibly relaxed.

“Trek sent you?” she asked. “You’re part of the Resistance?”

“Yes,” Saffediene said. “We’re most concerned about a talented Citizen, Gunner Jameson, and our tech developer, Pace Barque.”

I cleared my throat. “And the second-in-command, Indiarina Blightingdale.”

If any of those names meant anything to Ivory, she didn’t show it. Talk about one cool cat. With every passing second, my chest felt tighter and tighter. Maybe she was sending an e-comm to the Enforcement Officers with our location.

Ivory blinked, then focused on us again. She’d been checking something on her vision-screen. “Pace Barque and Gunner Jameson were logged into the Evolutionary Rise yesterday.” My heart skipped a beat at the mention of the Evolutionary Rise. Pace and Gunner wouldn’t come out of there alive, and their DNA was probably under fifty scopes right now.

“That’s not good,” Saffediene said. “What for?”

“Experimentation,” Ivory said, her delivery smooth and unemotional. She was the perfect Insider. She’d probably get along real well with Jag.

“Are they dead?” Saffediene’s tone pitched a little higher.

“Their status is ‘experimentation,’ ” Ivory said. “And Indiarina Blightingdale has been slated for Modification.”

I closed my eyes and felt my body slump. Modification. A new life. A new name. Like Raine, who still struggled to introduce herself properly. After the procedure was done, Indy wouldn’t remember Jag or me or the Resistance. Nothing.

“When?” Saffediene asked.

“Friday.”

What day is it today?
I cached Saffediene.

Tuesday
, she said.

“Can your team get them out?” I asked.

Ivory squinted at me again. “I think I know you.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Yeah? How?”

“Couple of years ago, someone needed an emergency teleporter in an alley outside Eleven. I was sent.”

My blood ran cold. My heart raced double time. I’d tried to forget that night. The strobing lights. The barking dogs. That empty alley where I’d left the memory of Blaze and made Jag hate me forever.

I shook my head to disagree, but Ivory forged on. “It was you. You look older, but it’s you. I threw the capsule. You left without even saying thank you.”

Zenn, you’re hurting me
. Saffediene’s voice stopped my downward spiral.

I released her hand, unaware I’d been squeezing so hard. I swallowed. “Someone died that night. Jag Barque’s brother.”

Ivory shifted her weight onto one leg, waiting for more of an explanation.

“Blaze Barque was an Assistant Director. He couldn’t get caught evacuating Insiders. I could do the job without him, but he wouldn’t stay. I voice-controlled him. Forced him to remain in the alley. I thought he’d be fine. I was in and out.
He wasn’t there when I returned, and I had to leave so fast.” My words sounded like excuses.

“You could’ve said two words,” Ivory said.

“I wasn’t thinking clearly,” I replied. “But I am now. Thank you. We’re flying to Castledale to launch a second wave on General Darke. We desperately need Pace, Gunner, and Indy, though.” Ivory scowled, and I quickly added, “And anyone who wants to come fight for freedom.”

I had a feeling that’s what she wanted. She hated this city, this controlled life, and she hated me for not taking her away from it years ago. I waited while she stared at us, but not really. She was vision-screening again.

“When are you leaving?” she asked.

“As soon as possible,” Saffediene said. “We told Jag we’d be there by morning.”

Ivory focused on Saffediene. “We can’t get your people out by morning. But we can launch a breach when you throw your second wave at Darke. When is that?”

“We’ll arrive in Castledale in the morning,” Saffediene said. “The second wave goes out when Darke arrives back in the city.” She glanced at me. “We’re not exactly sure—”

“Day after tomorrow,” I said. “Full dark.”

Ivory scrutinized me again. Her lips pursed, and she brushed her hair out of her eyes. “Day after tomorrow. Full
dark. That should give us enough time. We won’t launch too early so as to draw Darke here instead of back to Castledale.”

“It’s a deal,” I said.

After Ivory had walked away, and after Saffediene and I had climbed on our hoverboards and set a course for Castledale, my body buzzed with adrenaline. It felt good to be working in the Resistance again. Really working.

If only I could quell that nagging voice in the back of my head. The one that spoke in Director Hightower’s timbre. The one that asked:
Are you sure you’re on the right side?

*   *   *

I can’t outfly Director Hightower’s words, just like I can’t hide in the dark.

“Here’s how this is going to go,” the Director says, still stroking his protocol-breaking beard. “You’re going to lead me directly to Jag Barque, and once we’ve annihilated his Insiders, you’re going to come back to Freedom with me.”

I can’t move, and I can’t speak. But the horror inside me must show on my face—or maybe the Director is inside my head. It doesn’t matter, he knows what I’m thinking.

“I know it’s Jag’s group, Jag’s objectives, Jag’s everything. None of this has anything to do with you, Zenn.”

I wish it were my Resistance. My cause. But I know it’s not, and Director Hightower knows it too. “You simply got
caught up in the Resistance before you were old enough to know better.”

I want to tell him I do know better, but he smiles in that patronizing way that makes me both angry and afraid. “You didn’t know better then, Zenn. You do now. And you know what we’re fighting to maintain. Clean water. Jobs and food for everyone. A life without sickness, without suffering.”

He nods. “Yes, I know what you’ve seen in Harvest.”

He knows nothing of what I’ve seen. I try to look away, to break the connection between us, but I’m too weak. I’ve felt defeated before. Like I don’t matter. Like I’ll never be good enough. But I’ve never felt this level of anguish before.

I search for the root of this pain and find it hidden deep within myself. I hate the truth that I’ve been trying to hide from, but Director Hightower speaks it, makes it alive and real.

And deep in my soul, I know he’s right when the Director says, “You could be Freedom’s Director, Zenn. Big things are happening here. Are you sure you’re on the right side?”

*   *   *

The streets coming into Castledale were just as Saffediene and I had seen them on the feed: lifeless. Part of me wondered why, and the other part already knew.

Even though Thane had said sequestered, I knew the city had been abandoned. I’d learned about ghost towns in my
ancient civilizations classes; they usually died because the water dried up or legend claimed a spirit haunted the area.

In this case, General Director Darke drove away the people with threats and mind control. Already the buildings seemed older, the sidewalks cracked. I imagined what this city might look like in fifty years. In one hundred years.

Would it look like Seaside? Or the Badlands? The Citizens there had survived wars and fires and brainwashing. People had survived. Built new buildings. Cultivated trees. Castledale could be repopulated, no matter what General Darke had done.