Vendetta Nation (Enigma Black Trilogy #2) (26 page)

Chase looked back up at the screen. He hadn’t really taken notice of the superheroes before to know whether the woman in the audience was correct in her assessment, nor did he really care, but there was something about the way the woman superhero carried herself that seemed familiar, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

“I wonder if she’s single,” Trey said without removing his eyes from the screen.

“I’m thinking she’s a tad out of your league, Bro.” He rolled his eyes.

“Oh, I wouldn‘t say that. I’ve been stepping up my game lately at the gym. Maybe I’ll try to get her attention after this whole shindig is over.”

“If you do, it’ll make this whole evening so much more entertaining,” Chase laughed, happy that Paige was too engrossed in the arrival of President Brooks and the superheroes to listen to their conversation.

“I don’t know,” Trey answered. “Something tells me this day is about to get a whole lot more interesting.”

*****

We entered a tunnel constructed out of canvas, which began about a hundred feet from the dock and led up to the stage. This would allow Brooks to meet with us in private once more before he took the stage and it would also allow us to keep up an air of surprise with the crowd. Outside, the people were going crazy with applause. If Brooks’ popularity was faltering, you couldn’t tell it by their reaction.

The tunnel was long, or so it seemed, and every step I took felt heavier and heavier as if my boots were made of lead, though I didn’t care. I was in no hurry to take the stage. Actually, I still clung to the hope that the address wouldn’t even take place at all. Whether that hope sprung from optimism or stupidity, I wasn’t sure.

About every thirty feet a soldier stood guard. It was one of the first signs of there being security here, but still a far cry from what I would have expected. At the end of the tunnel sat the stairs that lead to the stage. As we approached them, Brooks took a moment to straighten his tie and run his fingers through his hair. He then turned around to face us. “Remember our little discussion from last night. We are as one, you and I. They are to see us not as a separate unit, but as the whole package. You are to smile and wave, and completely play into their enthusiasm. If they didn’t love you before, they will after this evening.”

“Don’t worry, they’ll be head over heels,” Ian said flatly.

“They’d better be,” he said, flashing the same phony smile he’d given us at our first meeting. “Change of plan. I’m going out there first to whet their appetite a little, and then I’ll formally introduce you. That should be worth the price of admission.” With that he turned around and climbed the steps up to the stage, pausing at the last one to await the announcer’s introduction.

As soon as his presence was announced with an overabundance of fanfare, he finished ascending the stairs and strutted toward the center of the stage. At the base of the stairs, Ian and I remained. Brooks would be making our formal introductions soon, but until then we had one final moment alone. I lifted my visor. The tunnel was dark enough as it was without a shield covering my face.

“You and I, we’re on the same page,” Ian said. He stood a step in front of me; the way he’d grown accustomed to standing before we entered a potentially hostile situation. A part of me wondered whether this was naturally him, or if his feelings for me ran that deep. “I can feel it; I can see it in your eyes right now. Something’s not right here, is it?”

“No,” I answered simply. I moved my body to put myself just slightly in front of him.

“Seriously,” he laughed. “Your rebuffs at my attempts at chivalry are quite aggravating.”

“I don’t need your protection, Ian.”

“I know you don’t. That’s one of the things I lo…think is great about you.”

My eyes widened as I turned my head to look at him. “So, you lo me?” I asked, trying to contain myself as the exposed flesh on his face took on a steadily reddening appearance.

“I said I think you’re great. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.” He took two steps forward so that his body was once again positioned in front of mine. “You may want to put your visor back down. Our introduction is fast approaching. Any success this evening may award Brooks is going to be at our expense, and he’s going to bleed us dry.”

“He wants a war, and he’s going to get one. That’s all this address is; it’s all we are. A way for Brooks to get what he wants.”

“More power,” Ian stated.

“Complete control,” I answered. “I don’t know how he’s going to do it, but we’re being used somehow. We’re serving as fuel to the fire he’s created. Maybe he’s banking on the protesters making an appearance, or an assassination attempt. That would give him just cause to fight back without the rest of the country crying foul. And if one of us is taken out in the process, then all the better. Our deaths at the hands of the protesters will only solidify Brooks’ stance that they’re the enemy. The people will again rally with Brooks, and the threat of the rebellion, coupled with The Man in Black, will be billed as the reason for all of this madness.”

“And in the end, Brooks will come out more powerful than ever,” Ian finished my thought. “Then, I guess we do whatever we can to keep that from happening.”

“That’s easier said than done,” I said. I thought of all of the people in the crowd who awaited us. People who had no idea what was in store for them, that they were a part of a suspected set-up. My blood began to boil over in my veins. A part of me wanted to run out right then and there and take him down in front of the live audience and whoever else may be watching the broadcast of the address—which I was sure was mandatory—from the comfort of their own homes, but the more sensible part of me stood her ground, keeping a firm hold on the more brazen me’s arm. One of these days, that goody-two-shoed bitch was going to go down.

Ian took a deep breath, which reverberated over my ear bud. “Stage fright?” I asked him, only half-seriously.

“Something like that.” He flipped his visor up so that we were now looking at each other eye to eye. Outside, a cheer erupted from the crowd. Our time backstage was swiftly running out. “It’s funny how you can be scratching on action’s door one minute, begging it to let you in, but in the next, hope it doesn’t answer. Priorities. They can change in a blink of an eye.”

“Your priorities haven’t changed. You as a whole have. So have I, for that matter.”

“I think it’s a mixture of both, actually, but mainly my priorities. Not too long ago, I wouldn’t have cared much about the consequences of my actions, only what I thought I could gain by them.”

“And now?” I asked.

“Now, I’m rethinking my life entirely. What I wanted before, what I believed lay in store for me. There’s only good that awaits me now. Something better than I ever thought I deserved.” He leaned in to kiss me, his lips just inches away from mine when our presence was announced on stage. “Damn,” he muttered.

“Let’s just get this over with so we can get back to The Epicenter,” I said, pulling his visor back down over his eyes. Inching myself back in front of him, I jogged up the steps, making sure to pull my own visor back down. Ian’s exasperated sigh hit my eardrums. From the stairs to the stage was only a matter of thirty feet.

When we came into view, the already explosive crowd erupted, their cheers deafening, especially to those with the heightened sense of hearing Ian and I possessed. It was all I could do to keep myself composed, and not cover my throbbing ears as I so desperately wanted to. The groans coming from Ian told me that he felt the same way. Upon coming into view of the enthusiastic masses, we performed as we were instructed, smiling at the people, waving to them just as we’d been ordered to do. To me, it felt disingenuous, rehearsed to the core. My arm was stiff, my hand barely moving back and forth. Ian, however, was a pro. His years of charming bar patrons was paying off at this very moment, and would undoubtedly win over the television audience where my wooden performance failed. Thankfully, the crowd didn’t seem to notice. They remained on their feet, clapping and cheering wildly as though we were the answer to their prayers and not mere puppets under Brooks’ control.

We approached Brooks, who motioned for us to flank him on each side as though we were his guardians. His enhanced Secret Service agents. The idea sickened me. This wasn’t what I’d signed up for. It wasn’t what I’d given literally my entire life to do. My thoughts drifted to my family. For over a decade, I’d lived my life in a manner which I thought would have made them proud. I’d neglected thinking of myself, of caring about what would make me happy. Is that what they would have wanted? No. I knew that answer already. My parents and Jake would have wanted me to be happy. They would have wanted me to carry on. They would have wanted me to live. Instead, I’d allowed revenge to dictate my decisions, destroying who I was and a part of them in the process. That would end tonight. If given the opportunity, I would fight tooth and nail to reclaim my life.

“As you well know,” Brooks’ voice brought me back down to the stage where we stood, “we have an uphill battle. There are those who oppose our ideals. They prefer, instead, to wreak havoc on our country by committing acts of violence, instilling fear in much the same way as The Man in Black. It’s how they gain control. By spreading their lies, their poison across our land, they have gained a following. Misguided individuals who have no idea that they are being recruited to further the agenda of sociopaths. Rest assured, we will find them and put a stop to their reign of terror. My administration, together with my allies standing here beside me, will fight to make your streets safe again.”

Applause resounded throughout the park. I had to hand it to Brooks, the man knew how to win over a crowd with his tongue, but then again, so did Adolf Hitler. Next to Brooks, I noticed Ian waving to the people, and I quickly followed suit to maintain appearances. And as I looked out into the audience, I again took notice of the lack of security. Unless they were hiding within the park and out of plain sight, which I doubted, there was hardly anyone to defend Brooks if the situation were to get out of hand. The only somewhat daunting figures present at the address were a dozen or so soldiers who stood wooden and statue-like along the side of the stage. As with the others we’d previously encountered, their expressions were cold and blank, like a chalk board in an abandoned classroom, waiting to be filled with instructions.

A fine mist fell from the sky, but did nothing to dampen the spirit of the crowd nor diminish the gloating smile on Brooks’ face. Even from within the confines of my suit, I could feel the chill in the air. It sent a shiver down my spine. The resistance was coming, I could sense it, and the anxiety I felt preceding it was unnerving. I glanced over at the soldiers again. They remained stiff, unnerved. Could they sense it, too, or were they where it was all coming from in the first place? Again, I found myself fixated on them. They were all too perfect. In their coordinated movements, their lack of emotion, their robotic nature.

Their robotic nature.

Then it hit me.
“Your brainwaves are picked up by receptors in your helmet while you’re in the simulation so, yes, in a sense I can control them.”
That conversation Ian and I had with Cameron while outside the simulation room the day he manipulated my body. Was it possible that this was occurring on a much grander scale? I imagine that if Cameron could come up with something so diabolical, Brooks probably had someone in his back pocket who could trump it tenfold…or even Cameron himself. Of course, The Epicenter was funded by the Brooks’ administration. It only made sense that their investment produce dividends somehow. I felt the rage boiling from within the very depths of my soul. If my suspicions were true, what else had we been lied to about?

Brooks’ sudden silence broke my attention away from the soldiers. He stood, staring out on the horizon, his expression remarkably unchanged, perhaps even a little relieved as though he’d been anxiously awaiting a party guest who’d arrived fashionably late. Ian’s relaxed form hardened in my peripheral vision. His body was already preparing itself for a fight. A gasp escaped from the lips of most in the crowd. On the sidelines, the soldiers came to life, awakening as though someone had flipped their switch to ‘on’.

On the horizon, they appeared. An organized group, marching toward the stage, determination evident in their walk. Were they protesters or the much cursed rebellion everyone was talking about, or a combination of both? I couldn’t tell from my vantage point on the stage, but no matter what the answer was, this wasn’t going to end well.

From thin air, or so it seemed, more soldiers appeared. A handful here, a group there, until the entire stage was surrounded, sending the already anxious crowd into a tailspin. Women screamed, children cried out in fear, and men were shoved back by soldiers as they tried to push their way out of the crowd. No one was going to be leaving the park anytime soon, and a part of me wondered whether this is why this location was chosen to begin with; a place surrounded by water, where a simple roadblock could mean the difference between escape or entrapment. Everyone would be sitting ducks.

Some of the soldiers appeared on stage and placed themselves around Brooks, Ian, and myself. Their guns were drawn, ready for the slightest provocation. All of this was for show. I could sense the cameras trained on us right now, while others stayed focused on the frightened reactions of the crowd to give the audience at home a sense of dread. Anything that could be used to paint the rebellion in a bad light with the public would be utilized to the max tonight.