The Legend (7 page)

 

chapter 9

B
rooke is about a year younger than Alex. Not knowing her real birth date, I had simply chosen a random date in the same month as Alex's birthday for her. They had turned five and six respectively last month, while I was still unconscious.

I hasten down the stands and cross the track to stand beside Michael.

“Can you explain it?” he asks, wide-eyed.

“No,” I shake my head, still watching.

“But she has the Power of Three?” he prompts.

“Not yet. But two out of three is a pretty big indication that she will.”

Alex's abilities manifested in the order: strength, speed and, finally, healing. Brooke's healing was already integrated when we found her on the street – it was how she had survived the coyote attack – and speed is obviously her second. Random orders, I muse, wondering if there is any logic in it. I am also fairly certain that if Brooke's abilities are manifesting she must have inherited them from one of her parents. My father was right all along.

When she finally comes to a stop, she has barely broken a sweat and looks incredibly pleased with herself.

“Wanna race, Alex?” she grins, her green eyes alight with mischief.

Before I can stop them, they speed off in the opposite direction, the sound of their laughter carried back to me on the wind. In that instant, my heart constricts with the agony of what will never be, and for a fleeting second the walls that I have so carefully built are stripped away. As Michael races after the two giggling children, my eyes well with tears. I trail my fingertips over my concave stomach and my jaw trembles as I push back the agony of her loss. It crept up on me during my time in the prison when losing her became a real fear, and when it dawned on me that I might never get to know her. And I knew, somehow, that the child I carried would have been a girl. A little girl with startling green eyes, just like her daddy's.

Oh my God!

“Michael!” I yell across the space between us and his blond head whips around. Seeing the panic on his handsome young face, I try to calm my voice. “I have to do something, it's urgent. Could you take these two back to Aidan's for me?” He nods immediately and I hurry back towards the main building.

I search the dining hall and his office to no avail but finally I track my father down in the library. He is sitting in a comfortable looking armchair reading a book called
The Great Gatsby
.

“Dad!” As I rush over he gets to his feet, dropping the book onto the chair behind him.

“What is it, Bex? What's wrong?”

“It's Brooke,” I quickly correct his assumption that there is something the matter with me. “She's fast – her speed has just manifested.” My father's eyes open even wider.

“The Power of Three?” he shakes his head. “Then she must have . . .”

“. . . inherited her abilities,” I finish. “Just like Alex.”

“I knew it!” His excitement is mounting. “It makes sense. That's why she doesn't remember.”

“I feel bad for believing her mother to be a monster who would allow her child to undergo a life-threatening procedure.” In my head I take back every horrible thought I had ever had of Brooke's mother, who had died of dehydration a few hours before we found her daughter.

“Ouch,” my dad remarks wryly and I smile despite myself.

“I volunteered, remember?”

It doesn't take long for my father's natural scientific curiosity to emerge.

“I wonder if it came from her father or her mother,” he muses. “You said her mother died?” His brow wrinkles as he considers this. “It couldn't have been from her then – if she was as exceptionally Gifted as you are, she would never have been overcome by something as simple as dehydration.”

“It was her father,” I say softly.

“Yes, I believe you're right, it's the only logical explanation. I wonder if he was perhaps one of Dane's men . . .”

“No,” I shake my head, “he wasn't. Brooke's father wasn't with NUSA. He was out here in the Rebeldom, all along.”

“Who . . .”

“Think about it, Dad,” I smile. “Think about her. Who does Brooke
look
like?” I can see the moment the truth dawns on him and I nod.

“She's Reed's child. I'd bet my life on it.” I speak with absolute conviction.

“Reed's not back until later tonight,” he mutters, lost in thought. “I'd have to perform a blood test to be sure.”

“Do it. But until we get the results I think we should keep this between us.”

I can't believe I didn't see it before. With her dirty blonde hair and startling green eyes, Brooke is the spitting image of Reed. Reed had travelled extensively in the Rebeldom over the years and it is no secret that he was a ladies' man. Brooke's mother must have been a lover of his a few years back, and she had conceived his child. I wonder idly if she had ever gone in search of her daughter's father. Was that what she had been doing when we found her? The thought isn't a pleasant one and I figure it best not to share any of this with Reed until I can make some sense of it myself.

“Rebecca,” Aidan's voice interrupts and I turn to find him standing in the library between Alex and Brooke, a small frown on his face. “What are you doing here?” he asks, and I am slightly taken aback.

“What are
you
doing here?” I counter.

“I came to see your father.” A strange look passes between them.

“What's going on?”

“Not really your business,” Aidan retorts, reminding me strikingly of Reed. Both of them are cutting me off now.

“Fine,” I raise my hands and push past them towards the door.

“Um, Rebecca,” Aidan stops me. “Could you be something other than a soldier for an evening?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“I need you to take care of Alex and Brooke tonight. And tomorrow morning. I have things I need to do.”

“Yeah, sure.” Disconcerted, I grab Alex's hand and smile down at Brooke, whose green eyes once again confirm everything I have just learned. As we reach the door, it swings open from the opposite side.

“Sorry I'm late,” Sofia's breathless voice calls out. The most awkward silence follows, no one saying a word. Sofia looks almost apologetic, but glancing back at Aidan I can see that there is a resolute set to his jaw.

“Let's go, kids,” I smile, passing Sofia and walking out of the library.

We hold another meeting the following afternoon. I am inexplicably irritated that when I went to drop Alex and Brooke with Aidan at lunchtime his dorm room was empty, and I have not seen him or Sofia the whole day. In desperation, I had dropped the children with Jenna, rather than be late for the meeting. Despite our current differences, Jenna has always adored Alex.

“We'll leave at the end of the week,” I say, focusing on the task at hand.

“I assume David has found a way into the States?” General Ross asks.

“Not exactly,” I answer vaguely. “We're going to sneak in under cover of one of the raids.”

“Not exactly a stealthy plan. What if they see you?”

“They shouldn't, but even if they do, they won't stop us.”

The General, being the frank person that he is, voices what everyone else is too polite to say.

“Don't you think you are becoming a little reckless, Miss Davis?” Always Miss Davis when he is taking me to task, I think, fighting the urge to roll my eyes. “We can't just barge our way in and hope for the best.”

“The time for hesitation has come and gone,” I reply, just as candidly. “Unlike Eric Dane, Kenneth Williams knows about us, about our community. He knows we want him defeated. Do you really think he will simply wait for us to come to him?” A murmur of dissent goes up around the table. “Exactly,” I say. “Kenneth will be scouring the Rebeldom trying to find us. And how long do you think it will be before he puts two and two together? He knows you have family in Georgia,” I address my father and he nods in affirmation.

Of course Kenneth knows this – he knows everything about us, my father in particular. They were very close for a very long time. The only upside is that Georgia is not the only place with a connection to the Legion, and Kenneth will not expect our entire community to have travelled so far. He will search closer to Vegas first.

“Anyway, I do have a plan,” I relent slightly. “It involves Chase Crawford.”

Jupiter and his lab are situated in the state of Missouri, the same state where I had found Michael and Morgan Kelly. I had visited there often with Eric – one of his associates, a man named Richard Carlisle, resided there with his wife Lucy. Lucy Carlisle was an annoying, spoilt woman, with whom I had feigned friendship. Utterly selfish, Lucy had always had a roving eye and had set Eric in her sights for a time, until she had come to realise that, if nothing else, Eric was a faithful husband. At the time I had half-hoped that he would take Lucy up on her obvious advances, allowing me more free time to sneak around and carry out my Resistance duties but, alas, he had not and Lucy had soon turned her attention to another attractive man. A man who was currently living amongst us: Chase Crawford.

“You cannot take a civilian into the States on a mission of this magnitude,” the General is practically apoplectic.

“I can and I will,” I correct him. “I need him. And I need the Kellys too. Both of them,” I clarify as Morgan's eyes widen in alarm at the same moment that Michael's widen in delight. “Kansas City, Missouri is your hometown and it's not far from where we're going,” I explain to Morgan, who has always been vehement that Michael will not actively participate in the Legion's missions. Up until a few weeks ago I wholeheartedly agreed with her, but circumstances have changed; I have changed. I know now that war comes at a great cost, and sometimes you have to do things that you don't want to, for the greater good.

“Why Michael?” she challenges. “I know our hometown better than he does, you don't need him.”

“I do, in case something happens to you.” A deafening hush meets this statement and Morgan looks as though I have slapped her across the face. “I'm just being realistic,” I snap, frowning at the horrified faces.

“Who else?” the General asks brusquely.

“Jethro.” He remains impassive, barely noticing I have called his name. “Archer,” I continue, but Archer is gazing at Morgan with something akin to adoration in his eyes. That brings me up short. I had not even suspected that the bowman had feelings for Morgan. Judging by her sullen indifference, she has not noticed either, unless she simply doesn't feel the same way. “Reed,” I find my voice, “and Kwan, obviously.” Kwan is the link to Jupiter – I will need him to facilitate the meeting.

“Archer does not have any of your Gifts,” Adam speaks for the first time, and I turn to him questioningly. Adam is still fond of and protective towards his old friend.

“I need someone I can trust as a watchman,” I explain, “and Archer's skills with the bow will come in useful.”

“Count me in,” Archer agrees, glancing again at Morgan.

“Well, that's settled then.” General Ross recovers first and I recall that he would have drafted Michael into the Legion a long time ago if I hadn't opposed it. Even so, I catch him staring at me as though trying to establish whether I have a hidden agenda.

“We'll wait for Reed to return, and then we'll begin preparations.”

Morgan pushes her chair back furiously, and strides out of the room before I have even called the meeting to a close.

“In case you haven't noticed,” she sneers from the doorway, her blue eyes boring into me, “the raid team that was due back last night hasn't returned. Reed was with them.”

 

 

chapter 10

I
try to get some much needed sleep, but Morgan's words echo over and over in my head. Of course I knew the raid team wasn't back yet, but I had not been particularly concerned. Delays were a common problem, and Reed could take care of himself. Now, however, I was starting to fear for his safety. What if something had gone wrong? Over and over I play every possible scenario out in my head until, mercifully, I fall asleep.

My fears are unfounded. In the morning, Reed is back laughing and jesting in the dining hall, recounting dramatic tales of his successful raid. I notice Elizabeth, our local school teacher, eyeing him with obvious adoration. Elizabeth has always had a crush on Reed. Jenna is grinning nearby, Chase beside her. I filled Chase in on our plan last night after the meeting. He was surprisingly agreeable, his only concern being that he would not be able to convince Lucy of his sincerity.

“You underestimate yourself, Chase. You can be exceptionally charming.” His chest swells with pride. “Just look how you have everyone here convinced,” I continue spitefully, and he deflates instantly.

Jenna, on the other hand, is not quite so agreeable.

“You can't take him back there!” she objects. “It's too dangerous.”

“It's a chance we have to take, Jen.”

“That's easy for you to say.” She is uncharacteristically tetchy. “You can't get hurt!” I don't answer, and after a moment the fight goes out of her. “I'm sorry . . . I didn't think . . .”

“It's fine.” I turn back to Chase. “Be ready to leave on Friday.”

I enter the dojo, a black cloud over my head. Jenna's words had cut more deeply than I was letting on, and Reed's parading around this morning had irked me.

“I hear you're recruiting juveniles these days,” he drawls as I approach where he, Morgan, Michael, Jethro and Kwan are gathered near the weapons shelves. Morgan glares at me hatefully.

“Stay out of it,” I snap. “Where do you want me?” I ask Kwan, and he nods at the centre of the dojo while Reed mutters something under his breath that sounds suspiciously like “anywhere but here”. Morgan steps forward at Kwan's signal. Normally, I would question this decision. Now that my abilities have begun to return, Reed is the only worthy opponent present, but since my strength has been somewhat erratic, coupled with the fact that he and I are barely on speaking terms, it hardly makes much of a difference.

“Have you had your blood test yet?” Reed asks Kwan as we get into position, and I cast a nervous glance at them.

“What blood test?” Kwan replies, bewildered.

“I had mine this morning,” I lie. “I think it's just a few of us – routine health check.”

“I'm healthy as a horse,” Reed drawls, grinning at Kwan. I ignore him, relieved that the tense moment has passed.

I raise my hands and before I have even braced my legs, Morgan lunges at me, her fist connecting with my chin, the impact jolting right through me. I shake my head as stars burst in my vision, but before I can even get back into position, she hits me again from the other side.

“Can't say you didn't ask for it,” Reed announces casually.

Morgan keeps coming, one blow after another, and I am so preoccupied trying to defend myself that I barely have a chance to fight back. Reed keeps up a running commentary until even Kwan and Jethro are chuckling, and my face flushes in mortification. Angry and embarrassed, I launch myself at Morgan, dodging her incoming fist, and tackling her around the waist. In a blind rage, I raise my arm and pound it into her face, not even registering that in this moment my strength is working perfectly. I hit her again and the laughter comes to an abrupt halt but I barely notice as I raise my arm once more. This time I hear the crunch of bone beneath my fingers and I smile sadistically. I have never before experienced such a complete loss of control but in that moment I don't care. Morgan is just another opponent, someone like Kenneth, who has hurt me and deserves to be punished. I hear Michael yelling and then feel an ineffectual tugging on my arm. Ignoring both, I raise my arm yet again but before I can punch Morgan one more time I am knocked sideways by the force of a moving car.

Snarling, I get to my feet and face Reed. His green eyes are narrow and furious, and he has the air of an enraged bull.

“What the hell are you doing?” he roars, gesturing at Morgan who is unconscious. Michael, Kwan and Jethro are all crouching beside her and then Jethro gets slowly to his feet and comes to stand beside Reed, facing me, but saying nothing.

“She hit me first!” I scoff. “You saw her!”

“Seriously? You're going to justify
that
?” Reed points at her again. “You have the Power of Three. It was never a fair fight.”

“She hit me first!” I repeat.

“She's supposed to! That's what sparring is about!”

“Exactly!” I snatch at the comparison. “We were sparring. I'm supposed to retaliate. It's kind of the point!”

“You've lost your mind,” he shakes his head in wonderment. Jethro is silent at his side.

“Are you two staging a coup?” I laugh at the absurdity of it.

“Apologise,” Reed hisses, his demeanour changing. A muscle is twitching in his jaw and his hands ball into fists as I watch.

“Not a chance,” I goad him.

I expect it, so when he flies towards me I manage to sidestep and use his own weight against him. He crashes heavily to the ground and slides across the dojo floor on his stomach.

“Don't you even think about it,” I hiss, holding up my right hand as Jethro takes a step towards me. He hesitates, indecisive, but a second later Reed is back, tackling me from behind and barging me straight into the concrete wall on the other side of the room. At the last minute I shove both hands out in front of me to take the impact, and I yelp as my left wrist snaps.

The force of the impact affects Reed too, and he staggers back a few feet, which gives me the room I need to manoeuvre. My left hand is useless so, tucking my body in tightly, I leap into the air, swinging my leg in a roundhouse kick which catches his jaw. Blood sprays from his mouth as he spins almost three hundred and sixty degrees before finding his footing. I jump again, bringing my leg up in a front kick, but he anticipates it and shoves my leg aside before it makes impact.

Reed's chest is heaving with emotion, his body tensed for the fight. I ram his chest as hard as I can with my right hand and he takes a few steps backwards, trying to recover his balance. Only his eyes show the extent of his suffering and the pain this is causing him, but he lifts his arms regardless, preparing for further combat. I am about to grab him and bring my knee up into his stomach, but in the second it takes me to reach forward, Aidan appears between us, his face unreadable yet terrifying.

“Enough!”

“Get out of my way.” My wrist is still hanging limply, but to my relief I can feel the tingling sensation that signals that my healing ability is working. Reed's mouth has already stopped bleeding. Aidan ignores me, his eyes as hard as flint.

“Go,” he mutters over his shoulder at Reed and the others. “I've got this, just go.”

To my surprise, Reed complies immediately.

“She's all yours,” he growls. I watch as he makes his way over to Morgan, lifting her infinitely gently in his arms and carrying her from the dojo. Kwan, Jethro and Michael follow in his wake. Slowly coming to my senses, I am relieved to see that Morgan is stirring as they leave.

Wordlessly, Aidan turns his back on me and fetches the first aid box from a cupboard in the corner of the room. Digging through its contents he pulls out a bandage. When he lifts my hand I stiffen, but he ignores me and starts to bind my wrist. His silence is unnerving and I watch him warily. After a long while, I can't take it any more.

“I suppose you also think I was too hard on her?”

Aidan doesn't answer, he simply raises my hand higher to make it easier to bandage. With his back to the light, his face is cast in shadow and his brown eyes look almost black.

“How was your evening?” I continue, the stifling silence making me feel claustrophobic. Still no answer is forthcoming, and I snatch my hand away, grabbing the bandage as I do. “I can do it myself.”

Aidan doesn't react and he calmly packs up the first aid box and returns it to the cupboard.

“So you have absolutely nothing to say to me?”

He walks over, coming to stand a few feet away from me.

“I have plenty to say, Bex, but I'm pretty sure you wouldn't listen anyway.”

“I'm doing the best I can,” I rationalise, hating that I feel like I owe him an apology.

“No, you're not. You're behaving like a child. An angry, impulsive child. You have fallen so far that your ideas of right and wrong have been warped to the point of lunacy.”

“You sound like Kwan. Maybe you should go into motivational speaking.”

“Do you think that's funny?” he spreads his arms questioningly. “Do you think that you're so clever and perfect that whatever you say or do goes without consequences? You left me and Alex a long time ago for a cause that I didn't understand. Now I do understand and I have accepted that it was worth it. And yet, here you are – a long way from finished and falling apart.”

“I'm not . . .”

“You're not? Not falling apart? Rebecca, you are losing
everyone
. You're treating people like shit, and you are in such a bad place that I'm starting to wonder if you will ever be able to claw your way back.”

“I will,” I vow, “the second NUSA is defeated.”

“If you continue as you are now,” he sighs, “I have my doubts you'll ever defeat NUSA. You're completely out of control. It's like watching a train wreck and being powerless to stop it.”

“So what, Aidan? Are you going to
save
me? Is Reed? I know you two have been talking about me, whispering behind my back.”

“Listen to yourself,” he answers calmly. “Do you even hear what you are saying? We're not in high school any more. Yes, Reed and I both care for you and, yes, we would do anything to protect you, but even we have our limits. I will always love you, Rebecca, I won't deny it. But sometimes even love is not enough. And I will not waste my time trying to save somebody who doesn't want to be saved.”

“So you don't want to help me, is that it?”

“Do you want to be helped?” he counters. “You just attacked a man you claim to love. Physically attacked him. Would you do that to me if I disagreed with you?”

“You don't . . . it's different . . . Reed is strong, I didn't hurt him.”

“There is worse pain than the physical. You think you didn't hurt him? Really?”

Unable to stand the intensity of his gaze any longer I get to my feet.

“Okay, I get it! I get it! I'm dark and ugly and none of you want anything to do with me. But none of you have any idea what I have been through! You weren't there, you weren't in that cell, being beaten, and tortured, and stabbed. Feeling the blood slowly drain from your body, and seeing only a blackness so dark that it terrified you!”

“I
have
been there. I was tortured and beaten by Nina. I was shot, I almost died. Morgan was betrayed by her own father; Kwan by his wife. Reed, well, he lost a child, just like you, but he lives with a different anguish – the guilt that it may have been his fault. That he wasn't there to protect either of you. We all live with pain, Rebecca. It's how we choose to deal with it that makes us who we are.”

“I don't know how to deal with it,” I finally admit, my voice breaking as Kwan's words come back to me: “Let go of the fear and peace will follow.”

As I brush angrily at the unbidden tears trickling down my cheeks, I see a glimmer of hope and unexpected warmth in Aidan's eyes.

“Crying is probably a good way to start,” he murmurs.