Sovereign (Sovereign Series) (37 page)

I
have no time to waste, so I take a deep breath and jerk the metal out, tossing
it on the ground and ignoring the pain.  Hopping to my feet, I whip around and
spot the back of the Underage building.  My heart explodes with anxiety and
joy. 
This is happening.  I can really do this
.

I
sprint toward the building, anxious to get clear of the open space.  While I
slide alongside Underage, I make sure to check every direction--I can’t get
caught.  Reaching the corner, I spot the supply building, just like before.  I
check the area for guards then rush across the divide and duck behind the
shed.  I step back a few yards and get a running start toward the building then
leap up the side.  It might be easier to get traction if this building was made
of wood instead of concrete, but I make it up nonetheless.

I
grip the ledge of a high window and slam my fist through.  I climb in without
bothering to clear the glass shards.  My arms shake until I’m inside and
kneeling on a high shelf of stock. 

After
landing on the floor with a thud, I search up and down the aisles for the black
panel Dylan told me to find but don’t see it. 
I’m wasting time.  I’m going
to get caught.

Refusing
to give up, I whip around in desperation.  I pace the whole place again,
looking closer.  Then I see it--a large crate that seems out of place,
protruding from one of the lower shelves, and I move it onto the floor.  Relief
ripples through me as I lay eyes on a black, metal case, attached to the wall,
like an electrical panel.

Taking
a deep breath, I pry it open with the bolt cutters then reach in my pack.  I
pull out a small device with a blue screen and power it on.  I clip wire
coating from the inside of the panel before attaching wires from the device to
the exposed ones.  With a small flashlight in my mouth, I match the colors like
Dylan showed me.  Then I punch in a numeric code, exactly as I rehearsed with
Dylan.  Actually, numbers are almost the only things I’ve said to him lately. 
But I can worry about that later.  For now, my mind is a hundred percent on
Go
,
and I can’t think about why or how or anything other than my objective.

I
have to try the sequence three times before I get it right.  And when I’m sure
I’ve done it correctly, nothing happens.  I’m not sure what’s supposed to
happen, I just have to trust it’s right.

When
I close the panel and stuff the gear back in my bag, I hear the door open and
close, then boots on the floor coming toward me.  I hear a few muffled voices
outside, and I know I’m busted.  But I won’t go down without a fight.

My
heart rate seems to double while I listen for an alarm, but I don’t hear one. 
I tuck my legs so I’m totally inside the bottom shelf, but the crate is going
to catch his attention.  Did he hear me break the glass?

I
grow too nervous to stay down here, it’s the worst possible position.  I peek
out and don’t see anyone, so I jump out and climb the shelving.  The noise of
my movement draws the guard’s attention and he barrels toward me.

For
a split second I feel frozen in time as he charges at me.  I’ve had plenty of
encounters with guards, but none like this.  And not one-on-one.  This is real
danger.  Pushing the fear of him away, I pull my gun and leap from the shelf,
wrapping my legs around him.  He struggles against me, but I slam the butt of
my gun into his temple.  He goes limp on top of my leg, and I almost scream but
stifle it.

I
slip out the door, checking for more guards before running back for the fence. 
I slide through the hole with ease this time, and it’s pure adrenaline that
keeps me going. 

As
I make the trek across no man’s land, my lungs burn and my hurt leg throbs. 
For the first time, really, I’m grateful for all the hours I spent on
treadmills over the years.  An eternity later, I find the first bronze pole I
can and kneel in front of it, barely noticing the shadows waiting for me in the
tree line nearby.  I point the device at the pole and punch “transmit.”  

Holding
my breath, I toss a rock at the force perimeter and it goes through.  A deep
sigh escapes me--I opened an entrance.  I wave toward the woods and the cavalry
runs toward me.  As I see them getting close, I smile, happy and proud to have
pulled it off. 
That was the hard part,
I tell myself.

But
I hear a familiar sound, one that I’ll never forget.  Something electronic
buzzes inside the pole and a slot opens, releasing a device just like the mine
that got me when we escaped.  It slams hard into my chest, knocking me off
balance.  I land on the trigger device and the first soldier to cross the
forcefield doesn’t make it through.  The tip of his gun ricochets off, knocking
him back.  Shocked and defeated, I stare at my comrades not more than ten feet
away, but they can’t come through.

Panic
surges through me while I clutch at the device on my chest trying to pry it
off.  I attempt to keep myself calm, but I feel the chemical piping in and know
I’m running out of time.  I draw my weapon and weasel the tip between my chest
and the bot and angle it outward.  I search the men’s faces for my father’s,
trying to garner the gumption I’ll need, but I don’t find him. 

This
is the dumbest thing I’ll ever do.

I
squeeze my eyes closed, tilting my head back and away, and pull the trigger. 
The bot splits in two and I could swear I feel prongs scraping bones.  With the
mine broken, I maneuver the claws out of my chest.  But I already feel woozy.

I
retrieve the fallen transmitter and send the signal again.  I finally see my
father with Max, and Dylan, all looking on with horror from the other side,
helpless only a few yards away.  I wave to them, and they test the space
between us before rushing through. 

My
father scoops me onto my feet, assessing me.  He catches Jason by the sleeve. 
“Get her out of here.”

“No,”
I shout, steadying myself on Dad’s arm.  “I’m fine.”  Then I let go to convince
him.  I’m not sitting out of this mission.  One moment he’s struggling to
decide, and the next we’re jogging toward Antius’s fences.

Soldiers
flood in, and there’s more than before so the other groups must have caught up
while they were waiting for me.  I lead the men to the hole I made, then two
men step up with saws and cut giant openings in mere seconds.  They move over
to create more openings while the rest of us pour into Antius. 

Moments
later, I stand by the back door of Underage and look around until I see Dylan
running.  Reaching me, he pulls a different mechanism from his bag.  Without a
second glance my way, he scans it in front of the chip scanner, and it grants
him access.  Once he pulls the door open, we charge the building. 

Half
the group follows me upstairs to the girls’ floor and the others follow Dylan
to the boys’ wing.  At the top of the stairs, with Max and my father on my
heels, I turn a corner and come face-to-face with a startled young guard who
fumbles for his gun.

Max
puts a bullet in his head, and the rest of us fan out, pulling girls from their
beds.  They scream in panic, and I realize how impossible it’ll be to convince
them we’re not trying to hurt them.  I dip out into the hall and try to reach
as many of them as I can.  When they lock eyes with me, they quiet down.  When
I tell them everything’s okay, they nod and stop fighting.  But there are too
many to reach one-by-one--we don’t have enough time.  My heart aches for their
confusion and fear, and I’m desperate to put them at ease.

I
grab the two closest soldiers I can find.  “Lift me up.”  They look confused
but each grab a leg and hoist me up between them.  “Girls!”  Most of them stop
and look at me.  “We’re here to help you, to take you somewhere safe.  These
men won’t hurt you.”  It finally occurs to me that most of these kids haven’t
encountered men on any sort of regular basis, and certainly not up close since
all of their caretakers and teachers are women.  The only men they’ve known are
guards.  Armed ones.

Crying
girls and teenagers follow the soldiers to the stairwell.  Hearing gunshots
from that direction, I run, ducking around men and girls alike.  Max shoots
down the stairwell as screaming girls back away from the gunshots. 

In
a split second, I remember the way the men in The City surrounded the women and
children to protect them.  “Surround the girls.  Everybody spread out.  You
guys bring up the rear, you guys follow me.  Keep them encircled.”

Max’s
men spread out and take up the borders of the terrified girls.

“Move
forward!”  I take the lead and peek down the stairwell, a soldier at the bottom
shoots.  I duck and fire a shot of my own, hitting him somewhere around the
shoulder.  As he goes down, I run to disarm him. 

I
check the hall at the base of the stairs--where I first fought Sean and
Billy--and the coast is clear.  “Bring them down!”

When
we get the girls out the back door, the boys are already headed for the fence
while Commanders Emilio and Michelle guide them through, forcing them to fan
out and not all exit the same hole. 

Dad,
Max, and Dylan regroup with several commanders.  I jog to them, looking over my
shoulder as the kids are led to safety.  Before they make the trek back to the
perimeter, Michelle and Emilio form a line of soldiers in front with their
weapons drawn, hopefully prepared to trip mines like I did. 

“The
women’s building?” I ask, somewhat desperately.  All the kids under five are
there.  I’ve never felt so alive and motivated, and I don’t want it to stop. 
From here out, I only ever want
good
to come of my actions.  If we can
save more, I want to.  I have to.

“Yes,
we’re going there next, but we’ve given them half of our troops to guarding the
children.  How do we proceed?”  Max looks to me.  I blink, trying to process
how I became in charge of this raid.

“If
Dylan can get us in, we can infiltrate the same way we did Underage.  But it’ll
be more heavily guarded.  Dylan?”

He
wipes the pooling sweat of his forehead.  “I think we should go in the front
entrance, it will give us easier access to all three floors.”

A
gunshot rings out and we all aim in its direction.  The Lakeview commander,
John, goes down with blood on his chest.  The rest of us fan out, trying to confuse
the shooter and locate him.  Other Antius soldiers fire, while Emilio leads a
small squad that fires back as Antius’s sirens blare.

Jason
ducks around a corner and rolls out into the open.  He fires his gun and the
Antius sniper goes down, but strikes Jason, too.  I run to him and someone
helps me drag him around the building.  Two of his comrades wrap his arms over
their shoulders and carry him after the escaping children.

“Split
up,” Max calls as more enemy guards show up and more gunshots ring out.  We all
fire back and take turns reloading.

I
catch up to Dylan and grab onto his shirt to get his attention.  His hand
shakes, and the gun looks awkward in his grip.  I can tell by his expression
that he had to use it. 

“Let’s
go,” I encourage, gently. 

Still
in a bit of a trance, he nods and leads the way while I cover us.  Once we
reach the door, he goes to work on the access while I keep my back to him and
my gun on the battle.  No one seems to have noticed us, but I see a spotlight
flare up and know the other snipers will be out soon. 

The
access pad beeps and then the door opens.  I back inside after Dylan as a
handful of our soldiers catch up, including Max.  We take out two guards at the
entrance.  I aim for the knees, Max aims for the heart.  Neither of us misses. 

“The
third floor is where they keep the small children and infants.  We should start
there.”  Dylan heads for the stairs and several follow. 

As
more soldiers enter the front door, I stay on the first floor to look for women
while I hope someone addresses the middle floor.  We head down the hall and
take out a couple more guards.  Max covers me while I enter a room to rouse a
woman.  She’s young, and her eyes look almost empty. 

“I’m
here to help.”  She stares at me.  “We have to go now.” 

“Go
where?”  She wipes her tired eyes.  “I don’t want to go anywhere.”

“Please,
just come with me.  We’re getting the babies out, too.  You can see them
again.”  I try to appeal to her maternal instincts, hoping they’re still in
there somewhere.

She
seems reluctant but follows.  When we reach the hallway, other women are
already out there, and several stand in their doorways watching, unwilling to
move.  I search every face hoping to find Ginny, but don’t.

“Please,
if you want out, come with us.”  My eyes burn as I plead with the women,
knowing they won’t be as easy to convince as the kids were--the kids aren’t
drugged.  It takes much longer to gather the women, and once we’ve gotten as
many to follow us as we can, Max tells me we have to go.

I
follow him back to the entrance, but gunshots riddle that side of the
building.  From how hard they’re hitting, I’d say it includes sniper fire. 
Dylan runs down the stairs.  “Back door!”

A
Mercy soldier who must not have heard Dylan tugs open the front door and takes
a bullet to the chest, then three women behind him are struck as well.  We rush
the entrance, Dylan slamming the door closed while I try to get the wounded
women to their feet.  Only one of the three gets up.  The terror in her eyes
strikes cold to my core, and for a second I’m frozen looking at her, aching for
her.  Then a bullet flies into her chest, and I fall to my knees, catching her
and easing her down.