The Renegades (The Superiors) (37 page)

“Would
someone really do something like that? I mean, he couldn’t just kill me, could
he?”

“Yes.
That is why it’s good to stay inside the Law, Cali. It cares for you. At the
Confinement, even at the restaurants, there is regulation of these things.
You’re safe. Here…we are castoffs. Anyone who stumbled upon us could choose to
use us and discard us as easily as turn us in.”

For
a few moments, they rode in silence. Cali’s foot lay close to Draven, its heat
tickling him with infuriating relentlessness.

“Am
I going back to Byron? Master, I mean?”

“Yes.”

“He…he
said I was lucky he didn’t hobble me. Last time. He said he’d take the whole
leg.”

Draven
did not answer. He grappled with a boiling rage that crashed into his mind at
the idea of Byron slicing into Cali. The Law was immaterial. Cali was
his
.

“Do
you think he will?” Cali asked.

“No.”

“Maybe
he’ll just do something like… the chain he had on me?”

Draven
paused. No use increasing her fear. “Similar, yes.”

“Well,
that didn’t work, so what would he do this time?”

“Oh,
I don’t know.”

“What
do you mean? Tell me what he’d do. What kind of hobble…that’s not the leg?”

“Sometimes…Superiors
cut the tendon on the back of your foot to make walking difficult.”

“Oh,”
Cali said, her voice even smaller. “Does it hurt very much?”

“I
don’t know, Cali. A bit, I’m certain. You’re a brave girl, though.” He could
not bear the thought of Cali that way, crippled. And he knew of much worse
cases of hobbling. To spare her that fate, he would have ripped his own arms
off. To ensure she went to anyone but Byron. Even if Draven could not keep her,
knowing he’d left her somewhere safe would have eased his mind. She might
prefer the blood bank to what Byron had in store. Byron’s revenge would not be
inconsequential or painless.

“What
will happen to you?” Cali asked after a time.

Draven
considered how to best let Cali know not to speak of his deeds, not to utter
some careless word about the trackers, further condemning him. The government
had outfitted prisoner transport trailers with built-in microphones, and
sometimes cameras as well, so Enforcers could observe their captives. Draven
should not know that, but Byron had told him once, when they had been friends.

“I
will be sent to Princeton,” Draven said. “There, I will be tried and…depending
on the nature of the crimes they find me guilty of, I will be punished
accordingly.”

“Oh,”
Cali said. She began moving the toe of her shoe up and down against his hip. “I
don’t know what that means,” she said after a bit.

“It
depends on the charges against me,” Draven said. “Stealing you, of course.
Perhaps they will find evidence of other crimes I’ve committed to ensure your
survival.”

“You
mean—”

“Yes,”
Draven said, before she could finish. “All I’ve done to avoid capture, such as
stealing food for you.”

“Oh.
Well, what will they do to you?”

“I
imagine it depends on who is called to judge my case. Usually the arresting
officer is on the panel, but since I’m going back to Princeton… If Byron is on
the panel…I could be executed. That will be his desire.”

“What
does that mean?”

“Killed.
It means I could be killed.”

“What?
How can they kill someone? I mean, isn’t that illegal?”

“Not
when the government does it.”

“That
doesn’t make sense. I mean, Superiors don’t. How is it okay if they do it, but
not okay if
you
do it? You’re one of them.”

“That
is as it is, Cali. Do not make me speak treason. It’s one more crime against
me, if I’ve yet to be charged with it.”

“What’s
treason?”

“Speaking
out against or wronging the government. Which I suppose I have, as the
government supplied you to Byron, and I stole you.”

“I
still don’t understand your laws at all.”

“As
you shouldn’t,” Draven said, hoping he wouldn’t receive further punishment for
revealing so much to a human. If anyone discovered all he’d told her, she would
perhaps face a far worse punishment than hobbling. Humans should not know so
much, should not know Superior weaknesses or the other information Draven had
imparted. The government wanted all saps ignorant. They certainly did not want
one knowing how to kill a Superior. The last time Byron had found that a human
had such knowledge, he’d somehow deactivated the boy’s brain.

“Cali,”
Draven said, after a moment of thought. He lowered his voice to a whisper,
although Enforcers surely had access to equipment that could separate it from
the other noises coming through the microphone. “Remember when I told you, back
home at the Confinement, that you were smart for a sapien?”

“Yeah…”

“Do
you remember what else I said? What I advised you do about it?”

“You
said I should—”

“Then
do it,” Draven cut in. “It’s important, when you’re back with your master. He’s
smart. Not in the sapien way. When you’re obedient to him, your life will be
easier.”

“Now
you’re telling me to be obedient? You’re the one who stole me, aren’t you?”

“Yes,
quite. Now that I’ve failed so miserably, I only wish I’d not put you through
this. I am…sorry.” His mouth could not form into words the thoughts that
hurtled through his mind. Fears crowded into him and multiplied more and more
rapidly—Cali’s future, Byron punishing her, someone torturing her to get
information of Draven’s crimes. He had told her she’d be fine, she’d return to
Princeton and life would resume as before. He should not have given her such
hope.

And
his own life, what did it amount to now?

He’d
lived his life as no one, with no importance, and now he’d die a criminal, less
than nothing. The Enforcer would have taken Cali’s stake, and he’d find some
trace of the trackers’ blood on it, and that would be the end for Draven. A
sense of panic rose in him, an instinctive will not to die that he had
forgotten in his desire to live. He’d spent the winter trying to live—trying to
find food so they could eat, trying to keep them warm, to survive. All these
months he’d focused on living. Now he had to face death.

His
mind teemed with fears and desperation, longing to go back and change
everything, every part of his life. He’d done it all wrong from the beginning.
He’d been given life, potentially endless, and he’d squandered it. Ineffectual
in life even before becoming Superior, he’d been the wrong type for evolution.
Good at surviving, poor at living.

The
only happiness in his outcast existence had now come to an end. He’d lost his
freedom, and he’d lost Cali. Because he’d allowed her to convince him to remain
in the endlot, they’d been captured. Neither would know freedom again for a
very long time, if ever.

“Cali…”
For a moment, she seemed not to have heard him, but after a short silence
during which the hammering of her heart echoed about the steel chamber, she
murmured in acquiescence. “Lie with me a moment,” Draven whispered.

Again,
a moment’s pause preceded her answer. Then her rustling movements muffled her
heartbeat, and her hands moved over him, feeling for his position before she
nestled herself against his bound body. Her warm breath licked his cheek. A
tremor traveled through his arm where her hand settled, her cold hand that,
like her body, held the promise of heat inside.

“May
I… Once more?” he asked. His position made penetration difficult, but he
twisted his head and slipped his chin under hers. Pressing his cold face into
the warmth of her angled throat, he inhaled her scent, letting it spread
through him. His teeth broke the skin and he slowly began to draw on her. His
usual desire to continue was curiously absent in the absence of hope. He drew
only a bit, letting his tongue lap at her trickle, again inhaling her as if he
could capture her scent to savor until his last moment. If he died with her scent
still lingering inside him… If he didn’t eat again, with her taste still on his
tongue…

The
trailer’s abrupt halt interrupted Draven’s thoughts. The minute vibrations from
the car ceased when the engine switched off. Overwhelming fear surged through
Draven, and he released Cali’s throat.

“Cali,”
he whispered. His mind fought to tear through the webs of panic descending over
him. “Cali, I…I love you.”

“Oh,”
she said faintly. “That’s really…nice.”

Before
Draven could fully absorb what he’d said, what she’d said, the door slid up.

“Alright,
you two,” the Enforcer said. “Let’s get you in the system and then we’ll send
you on your way. Looks like your master has been missing you,” he said to Cali.
“Good thing we caught this guy before he killed you. Can’t be too careful with
these renegade types. You’re lucky to be alive, I’d say.”

The
Enforcer extended his hand to help Cali down from the trailer. She inched forward,
took his hand and stepped down into his arms. Then, at the exact angle Draven
had taught her, she thrust her aspen knife into the Enforcer’s chest.

Chapter 52

She’d
thought he would scream. She’d thought he’d bring his fist down hard enough to crush
her skull. But he didn’t do anything. He just blinked like he couldn’t believe
it, and then he fell over backwards, that expression of shock and pain frozen
on his face. The knife stuck out of his chest like a deformity, a strange third
arm.

She
had forgotten, had let it slip from her hand. Draven had told her that the most
important thing was to never let go of the knife. But she’d shocked herself too
much to remember. Sure, she had planned it since the moment the Superior had caught her, pouncing on her from behind and trapping her arms, arresting her
step in midstride. But planning was fantasy, not real. Just like planning an
escape had filled her days with dreams of heaven, while the reality had proven
much more complicated.

Though
she’d been running, the Superior had caught her up like she stood still. She
hadn’t been able to pull the knife out of her pants then, not until she lay
next to Draven in the trailer. Still, she fully expected their captor to snatch
the knife from her hand before she struck, twist her arm off. While she’d
planned, while her heart hammered with nervousness and her ears roared with the
rush of blood in her head, she hadn’t thought any further than this moment. Now
the whole world had stopped in its tracks as efficiently as Cali had when the
man caught her. Everything waited, waited to see what she’d do next, and she
couldn’t think of a single thing but
RUN RUN RUN
.

Draven’s
voice cut through the shock, at once urgent and calm. “Cali,” he said. “Reach
into his pockets and find his keys. One will unlock me.”

Half
her mind screamed for her to just leave him, while the other half abhorred the
thought. After all, he’d saved her hundreds of times. But all she wanted to do
was get as far away as she could, as fast as she could. Still, he’d always told
her the right things, even when he’d lied and when things hadn’t turned out
like he’d promised. But he had kept one promise, the most important one—he’d
kept her alive.

She
crouched next to the cold body on the cold ground and began to pat at his pants
with none of the respect due a Superior. Her hands shook as she thrust one in
his pocket, ignoring the urge that ran through her bones into the very marrow.

RUN
RUN RUN

Her
fingers closed around a slick sheaf of cards. She wrested it from the pocket
and scrambled into the seed-shaped canister where Draven lay. He was her
master, after all. She should protect him just as he’d protect her.

But
then she paused, the fan of transparent cards with their metallic organs
displayed under the iridescent shells glimmering up at her. She glanced from
the cards to Draven. Had she turned into one of those brainless saps who obeyed
as blindly as a dog?

Her
eyes met his. In that moment, she knew her internal debate showed through as
clearly as those internal workings of the key cards. She didn’t spend time
dissecting the look on his face when he realized she might leave him there.
Instead, she tucked it away for later contemplation and forged onwards. She
knew she had only minutes to decide, if that. When someone spotted them, she
would lose her chance to decide anything, probably for the rest of her life.

At
least she had a little freedom with Draven, even if it wasn’t as good as she’d
dreamed. Without him, she would have died months ago. And if she left him here
and ran, she wouldn’t live long without his protection. Even now, after months
with him, she didn’t know how to live out here. He’d done everything for her.
She had let him, because he’d wanted to. If she thought honestly about it,
she’d wanted him to, as well. The hard and painful things that she doubted she
could do at all, he did with apparent ease. It was easier to let him.

But
if he died now, she would die, too.

“If
I get you out, you have to teach me how to live,” she said. “If I’d made it out
of the endlot, I would have died.”

“I
will,” he said without hesitating. “Let me see them. Yes, fine. The blue one.
Slide it through the slot on the wall, here where my hands are.” He indicated a
slit in the wall, lost amid the grooves of the paneling. Cali would never have
noticed it at all, but he found it without trouble, even with his back turned.
Directly below it, a shiny metal cable snaked from the wall to Draven’s bound
wrists. At the memory of her own chain, Cali’s hesitation melted away. Draven
didn’t treat her like a slave, or a servant, or even a meal. He ate only when
he had to, less often than she did. He fed her. He talked to her, really
talked, and told her things, and listened to her, and laughed with her, and
kept her warm so many times. She couldn’t leave him chained up and waiting for
execution.

Once
he’d taken her chain off and set her free. Now she would repay him.

She
slid the card through the slot in the wall, which began emitting an eerie blue
color. The edges of the clear card pulsed with a soft electric-blue glow. A
smooth silver device that resembled a large bead secured the metal cord that
bound Draven’s waist and hands, and as the key card returned to its normal
colorless state, the bead snapped open and the metal cord around Draven’s waist
loosened. He pulled it over his hips and wriggled free, then turned to extend
his bound hands to Cali in a strangely supplicating gesture.

“Cali,”
he whispered, seeing her moment of indecision. His eyes shone darkly, a glimmer
of light reflecting on the surface of two pools of black oil. She didn’t want
to look in his eyes anymore, to see the mixed emotions flitting across his
face. If she looked, she would do what he wanted, not what she wanted.

How
could she let him go? She would be giving herself, her freedom, to him. He was
one of them. If she released him, he would always own her. She had a chance her
most of people only dreamed of. How could she not take it?

But
she had decided. She would not waver now.

In
one swift motion, she swung the card downwards, slicing through the smaller
silver bead that nestled between his wrists, still cuffed with metal cable.

Nothing
happened.

She
started with shock when the Superior outside let out a rasping, quavering wail,
as quiet as a kitten. Again she ran the card through the bead’s slotted curve,
this time moving slower, her hands trembling so hard she could hardly find the
slit. Nothing. Her eyes darted up to Draven, and back down. Her mind, set only
moments before, began to waver again. If someone caught them now, knew what
she’d done…if the Superior outside closed the door on them…Why hadn’t she run?

Why
didn’t she run now?

“Unlock
the cuffs,” Draven ordered, his voice low and firm. Not demanding, but
undeniable.

“I’m
trying. It’s not working,” she said. If only her voice would come as steady as
his.

“
Merde
.
Let me see the cards again. Try the yellow.” His words ran together in haste.

“They
all look the same to me.”

“The
third one down. That one.”

After
a moment she said, “It doesn’t work either.”

“The
red, the red. Try the red one. The next one. And hurry. He could rise any
moment.”

“Okay,
okay, don’t yell at me. I don’t know how to work these things, and he’s dead
now, anyway.” For one ridiculous moment, she thought she might cry.

“You
do. Come now, hurry…” With a clamping sound, the bead snapped apart at the
slit, and the cord holding Draven’s wrists fell away. “There we go,” he said,
drawing his hands apart. “You did it,” he said, grinning at her. She’d grown so
used to him that she hardly noticed the long teeth anymore. She couldn’t
remember the last time she’d seen a human.

She
forced her mind away from the irrelevant details, focusing instead on the
current crisis. She’d killed someone. It had been so easy she still hadn’t
fully absorbed what she’d done. It didn’t seem real. The Enforcer had never
suspected a mere human would be a threat to him. He hadn’t even searched her.
Superiors were all so confident, so arrogant. And why not? If Draven hadn’t
told her, she’d never have known how to kill one. Superiors had to assume no
one would be brainless enough to go around arming the enemy with the knowledge
and weapons needed to kill them.

In
an instant, Draven had unlocked his ankle cuffs and slipped from them. He
dropped down from the trailer without the slightest sound. The absurd notion
that she’d like to be so graceful flitted through Cali’s mind, which really
should not be her main concern when she’d just killed someone. A Superior
someone.

She’d
simply stepped out of the trailer, and the man had reached to help her down,
just being nice. Gentle, almost. For all she knew, he would have treated her
well, even better than Draven. She hadn’t thought of that. She’d been too
filled with fear. So she’d kept one hand around the knife while she put her
other hand in his, letting him steady her. Distracting him. The knife had gone
through him so easily, like coring a tomato or some other act she’d performed
for years without thought. One minute her heart had been going wild, and she’d
been sweating under her clothes despite the cold that left her hands stiff and
numb, and the next, she’d been standing over a dead Superior.

“He’s
alive,” Draven said from outside.

Well,
maybe just a Superior, then.

“Come,”
Draven said. “Quickly, he’s nearly recovered his senses. Yes, fine. Stand right
here.” Draven gripped the handle of the knife and twisted. The Enforcer’s eyes
flew open, then rolled back until she could see only the whites through his
madly fluttering eyelids. He thrust an arm upwards, which Draven easily evaded.
Instead of further defending himself, the Enforcer only gasped in a sharp
breath, then gave a weak cough, producing a droplet of blood. Mucus-like, it
sputtered from the corner of his lips trailed by a string of saliva, which slid
down his cheek and settled in his ear, leaving a crimson streak across his
face.

Draven
snatched the blade from the Enforcer’s chest after the gruesome twist, lifted
the Enforcer and heaved him into the trailer in much the same way the Enforcer
had done Cali half an hour before. Draven pulled the door most of the way
closed. “Listen, this is important,” he said, as if she needed reminding at a
moment like this. “Hold this here, like so, but whatever you do, do not let it
latch. Hold it open just a bit. If you release it, I’ll be locked in with no
way out, and you’ll be alone out here. Understand?”

“Yes,
I understand. I’m not brainless.” Or maybe she was. But he always acted like
she couldn’t grasp the simplest instruction. She knew urgency when she heard it
in his voice. He didn’t have to tell her it was important.

Draven
had already ducked in. He crouched at the doorway. “Do not open the door,
regardless of what you hear.” He pulled the door closed until its edge settled
into Cali’s hand. She kept the door from falling closed and turned away. She
didn’t want to see what he did to make the man scream like that. Hearing it was
more than enough to convince her. The Enforcer hadn’t screamed when she’d
stabbed him, so whatever Draven did must hurt awfully bad.

As
she stood waiting, once more she debated leaving him. Maybe he was just like
the others. Maybe he only seemed different from other Superiors, but really he
thought of her as property, something to own and control, to feed from and do
whatever else he liked. For all she knew, he was more vicious and cruel than
the Enforcer who had not hurt her, the one whose screams filled the trailer and
burst through the small opening she’d left for Draven’s escape.

All
she had to do was let go. Let go of him, let go of the door, let it slip into
place and seal him inside to fight to the death with their captor, the one she
had knifed. She would have done it a year before, maybe even a season before,
when Draven had first taken her. But now she knew how naïve she had been to
think she could escape Superiors. To think she could escape the enemy without
the help of the enemy. It was the closest to freedom she could get. No matter
how incomplete that freedom proved, it was better than the captivity she had
known her whole life. Maybe it was even closer than most Superiors came.

After
what seemed the longest minute of her life, the door jerked in Cali’s hand. She
had the sudden impulse to slam it shut and run. But then Draven stepped out,
holding a bundle against his bloody shirt. Despite a burst of queasiness, her
curiosity took over and she peeked past Draven. In the brief moment before he
closed the door, she couldn’t see much in the shadowy darkness inside the
trailer. What was in the shirt—the man’s heart?

By
now she knew that Superiors, like people, were not all good or all bad. Even
one who treated her well most of the time, like Draven, could do something so
brutal he wouldn’t want her to see. He would probably cut out someone’s heart
if he felt he needed to. Maybe even hers.

“Go
around the front,” Draven said. “Wait for me.”

She
began to obey, but before she’d even reached the door, Draven had finished
whatever hidden business he had, slipped around his side and into the seat with
the control panel. He’d already started the car when she got in. Her door
snapped shut like a live trap, startling her. Draven drove fast, without
talking. Cali snuck a glance at him, noted his locked jaw and the way he kept
glancing at the black square on the dash between them, and she thought she
should offer to help.

“What’s
that?” Cali asked, nodding at the blank screen.

“It’s
a…it tells things,” he said.

“You
said you’d tell me how to live.”

“That’s
not important to life. Not yours, anyhow.”