Renegade (17 page)

There has to be a way in. Some kind of latch. Mother wouldn’t want to use something that had a key that could get lost, and a hand plate or key code would be too conspicuous.

If there’s even anything there.

Finally my fingers catch on a little button that is barely visible. I press it, then there’s a click and the wall moves, pouring out a cloud of dust through the tiny crack. The dust chokes me and I stifle the urge to cough and tug harder on the door. It swings completely open with a loud squeal.

Suddenly, I hear running feet coming toward us.

I quickly scoot through the opening and Gavin crawls in behind me before shutting the wall with a click.

The close call makes me giddy and I start giggling. Gavin gives me a strange look, but he, too, is laughing.

“That was close, huh?” he asks, his eyes already scanning our surroundings. He’s frowning, but his eyes are alight with excitement.

“Yes.” I glance around. The area is just as I remembered, very similar to what we just left. In fact, it’s almost as if we’ve stepped through a mirror and come out in a reflection of our own world. It’s an abandoned Sector. A thick coat of dust covers everything and is making breathing difficult, but otherwise it looks like the Square does every morning before anyone is awake.

“Wow. This place has got to be more than twenty years old, right? I mean it just feels old. Way old. Like it’s been empty and abandoned for ages.” Gavin does a quick whole-body shake, then pushes the hair that fell into his face back. “It’s kinda eerie.”

The strangest part is the lights are fully functional. It’s lit up like a beacon. There are no shadows anywhere.

I rub my arms briskly. “I know. Okay, let’s try to find an escape route. Let’s look for a utility closet.” I step forward, ready to walk the perimeter for a door, but he holds up a hand to stop me.

“Okay, I could be wrong, but this was a working Sector at some point, right?” he asks.

“Yes, it seems like it.”

“Well, I’m thinking from the fact she gave you and probably everyone a fake escape map, and that letter made it sound like she didn’t really care if people escaped or not, she probably wouldn’t just have the escape door in plain sight, right? She’d probably have it hidden. Like this entire Sector.”

I have to admit that he’s probably right. “So, what then?”

He seems a little surprised I’ve asked him for advice, but says, “We should search the perimeter of this Sector for another of those catches like we used to get in here.”

“Okay, good idea.” I smile at him and he smiles back.

I lead the way to the perimeter. “It would be faster if we split up, but I don’t think it’s a good idea. We have no way of communicating with each other and you don’t know the city. You could get lost or hurt and I’d never know it.”

He puts a hand on my shoulder and squeezes. “We’ll be fine,” he says. “You just keep looking for that door and I’ll cover your back.”

For over an hour we go over the perimeter before I find a section of the wall that looks slightly different from the rest of it. I trail my fingers over the bricks looking for the catch.

“I found something,” I breathe when my fingers find a smooth spot on the rough bricks.

When I press it, a section of the wall moves, but only slightly. Just enough for me to grab a corner and pull, but I can’t budge it.

Gavin kneels next to me and places his hands over mine. Together we tug until a small section of the wall reveals a space only large enough to crawl through. I peer through and see what looks like a lab of some sort. Only tiny. It can’t be any larger than five meters by five meters. And along one wall is a stockpile of weapons and ammunition.

I back out quickly. “That’s definitely not our exit,” I tell him.

Just then another ear-splitting screech sounds from the far side of the city, drowning out whatever it is he says.

The wall! I share a glance with Gavin.

Someone is coming.

I take a minute to study our surroundings. The only place to safely hide is this hidden room.

“We’ll hide in here, but we left quite a large trail in the dust,” I say. “We’ll need to destroy part of it.”

Gavin narrows his eyes. “Or create a false one.”

Or two. “Take your shirt and drag it along the ground. Run as fast and quietly as you can to the corner and around it. Find a door or shop or something to lead the trail to, then run back here as quickly and quietly as you can.”

He nods and takes off at a sprint, dragging his shirt behind him and destroying the footsteps he makes in the dust almost as soon as they appear. I take my pack and do the same in the opposite direction, going toward the entrance. Then I make an abrupt turn at one of the boarded-up restaurants and drag my bag inside and through the door. It won’t trick them for long, but I hope it’s long enough to buy us time. I run back through my cleared path and back to the small door.

It’s only about two hundred meters around that corner, but my heart races as I run back, worrying Gavin won’t have enough time to get there and back. He’s quicker than I think, though, and he’s already back when I get to the door. I crawl in beside him while he shuts the door behind me.

We both huddle by the door in order to hear the Guards. We try to monitor our breathing, but between the dash we made, and the nerves from waiting to see if our ruse worked, it’s hard not to pant.

His hand trembles on my back. I shoot him a concerned look, but he shakes his head and holds a finger to his lips, warning me not to say anything yet.

We don’t have to wait long for the Guards’ voices to come to us. They’re muffled and I have to strain to hear what they’re saying.

“I didn’t know this existed, did you?” a deeper voice asks.

“I think Mother said something about using this for the refugees from Three.… There’s two trails.”

Even though my heart trips again at the mention of Three, I’m able to count two heartbeats during the silence and I swallow hard. Gavin’s hand clenches on my back. It sounds like they’ve stopped right in front of the door.

Please let them fall for the trick. Please. Please. Please.

“You go that way. I’ll keep following this one.”

“Sure, boss.”

I wait until the sound of their footfalls trail off before taking the chance and leaning back against the wall.

Gavin leans forward to whisper in my ear. “Where did you go? I was worried they had found you.”

“I created that second trail. It would seem kind of strange that a much thicker trail started right at the door, wouldn’t it?”

“Smart thinking. Next time, warn me, okay?”

“Of course. Where did you lead them?”

“I found another service door, like the one I came in from. I thought it might be another exit, but it’s just a closet.”

I hear the Guards’ footsteps returning and signal for Gavin to stop talking.

The Guards pause a few meters from where we are, probably where the trail splits.

“Didn’t find them either?”

“No, the trail stops in a restaurant’s cellar. You?”

“Ended at a storage closet. Nothing in there but service supplies.”

“Mother can’t be serious about moving the refugees here. It would take weeks to get this place cleaned up enough to be livable.”

Their voices trail off as they walk back the way they came.

Gavin stands and holds his hand out to me. “Now what?”

“Now we wait and see if it’s a trap,” I say, letting him pull me to my feet as I take a closer look at the room we’re in.

“What did they mean about refugees?”

“Oh. Sector Three”—there’s that stupid flutter again—“has a leak or something. They’re probably just taking precautions in case it gets worse.”

He wanders around the small room while I go to the one and only lab table. I trail my hand over the dusty microscope.

“Why are there so many weapons here?”

“I don’t know. Only Guards and Enforcers are supposed to have weapons.”

“Is this where Mother keeps them, maybe?”

I look at the stack again. They’re piled neatly by type, but they’re all dusty and don’t look like they’ve been handled in years.

“I don’t think so. Mother has a strict policy on keeping weapons in top condition. I doubt she’d ever let them get this dirty.”

He goes over and kneels in front of the stacks, while I go to the desk to see if there’s anything there that might suggest an escape route. I don’t think I’ll find anything, but it never hurts to look.

The top is empty, but the rest of the drawers are filled with old-fashioned writing utensils. There’s even some kind of book in the top right drawer. “Eli” is engraved on the gold plate located on the cover. The leather binding creaks as I open it, the paper quietly crinkling with each page turn. “Look what I found.”

“What is it?” Gavin says, coming to stand behind me.

I flip through the book and scan the pages for relevant information. “It looks like a journal of some sort.”

Gavin quietly reads over my shoulder, but I’m reading so fast he can’t keep up and just rests his chin on me instead. His breath warms my neck, which makes my own breath catch. At first I’m not sure if it’s from the fact that he shouldn’t be touching me, but then I realize I’m enjoying it, even though I shouldn’t be.

It’s distracting, but I don’t want him to move, so I make myself concentrate on the letters in front of me and not on the tingles running from my shoulder, where his chin rests, to my heart.

At first it’s just a bunch of entries about the inventions the writer—Eli?—came up with and how. Then there are a few entries about the epidemic that killed half the Citizens. I remember that from my classes about the importance of hygiene and making my monthly medical appointments.

Then there are a few entries about how he was trying to convince someone named Abby—Mother?—to hire someone from the Surface to develop a device to prevent another outbreak.

02.08.30–1000

It seems that Abby has taken my advice and hired an expert from the Surface named Ms. Lenore Allen. She is to arrive this evening. I know Abby isn’t happy about it with her distrust of all Surface Dwellers—but even she can see the logic of it after that epidemic. We need something to protect what’s left of our population. Abby may be young, but she’s smart. Her father’s daughter.

02.08.30–2345

I’ve met with the engineer from the Surface. Lenore’s qualifications are beyond reproach and I dare say perfect for this task. Lenore’s ideas are simply fantastic. Turning the Surface military tech into something to save people instead of harm them? Brilliant, I say! Abby has asked that I work with Lenore myself (and to keep an eye on her—she still doesn’t trust Lenore), and it’s my privilege to do so. I’m certain we will work well together and I find myself excited to be working alongside such a brilliant woman.

There are a few more entries here about how wonderful this Lenore—or Nora, as he began to call her—is and how well they’re working together. Then there’s more entries detailing their plans for the Surface technology. I don’t understand most of it, to be honest. There is a complete log of the subjects they used for testing—the control groups, as well as those infected with viruses or bacteria. I can’t believe they’d injected innocent people with viruses that could very well have been a death sentence.

But then there’s a breakthrough apparently.

12.15.31–1837

We’ve done it! Nora and I have done it! The nanobots are working perfectly. All infected subjects’ blood work shows an immunity to previously deadly strains of bacteria and virus. There also appears to be no ill effect, aside from the initial reaction to the injection of the nanobots. It is nothing short of miraculous. Abby is still suspicious of the technology, since it derives from Surface technologies, but I’m convinced that they’re ready for full deployment to the population. And, to prove I’m in earnest, I’ve allowed Nora to inject me with the bots, and I’ve injected Nora. Now I’m off for a celebratory dinner with the lovely Nora.

I wonder if she likes roses.

The next entries explain exactly
how
Eli and Nora celebrated. For the sake of their privacy, I skim over the details, only making note that they got caught by this Abby person and how she then instituted a new law that made Eli and Nora want to leave.

But then an entry catches my attention and I slow down to read it carefully.

1.25.31–1154

Abby has officially leaped off the deep end. I can’t believe I didn’t see her madness before now. Of course, in hindsight, it all makes sense. How foolish I was! At least now Nora is safe. I forced her back to the Surface. But I came back. Seeing how Abby used our nanobots against me, I have no doubts she wouldn’t hesitate to use them against the Citizens. I could never live with myself if I left them helpless. A few trusted friends and I have developed a plan to wrest control of the city from Abby. My God, she’s demanding everyone call her Mother now. She’s drunk with power.

Our first step is to start making weapons, because I know she won’t go without a fight, but in order to make them without Abby knowing, we’ll have to split the manufacture of the weapons between several people. On top of that, there should be several teams, so if one team is discovered we still have others for backup. And each team will not know anything of the others. Location, team members, etc. Even I won’t know the details. In the meantime, I’ll start looking for a way to deactivate the nanos, so they can’t be used against us.

There are more detailed entries about what weapons he himself was making and how he’d discovered some kind of electromagnetic field or EMF around the submarine bay and how he was worried what it would do to the nanos. Because of this, he started researching possible ways to counteract any of the effects it might have and leaving more and more of the revolution planning to his closest friend … Dr. Friar.