The Girl Who Dared to Endure

by Bella Forrest

  Those were also on my list of concerns. “Exactly,” I told her.

  She considered it, and then nodded. “I’ll go with you. We’ll stop by your quarters first, to see who can help Dylan, and then I’ll accompany you to the roof, and wait on the other side of the door so you can talk to him alone.”

  “Really?” I asked. “You don’t want to hear what he has to say?”

  “Of course I do,” she replied. “But number one, all of us going up to the roof at once to listen to him is foolish, and two, you’re his sister. If it were Tian or even Quess, I’d want some time alone with them. It’s scary—he’s so far away, and if anything goes wrong out there…”

  My stomach clenched, and I looked away. “Thanks,” I said sardonically. “Exactly what I needed to hear.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said. The elevator chose that moment to stop, and we quickly got off, making room for the group of Cogs who were next in line. I nodded at them respectfully as we passed, and I got a few surprised smiles, as well as a greeting of “Champion” delivered in quite a few excited voices.

  I smiled, but didn’t say anything as we slipped past them, moving for the large opening that would take us out of the shell and back into the central chamber. We took one of the nearby bridges into the Citadel—I inclined my head at one of the sentries as we passed his station—and then entered the reception hall, aiming for the elevator.

  The entire time, I searched the crowd for some sort of hidden danger lurking among the people who seemed to fill the wide space. I couldn’t help it. Maddox was right not to let me go alone; there had been hundreds of people between Biggins and the Citadel, and any one of them could’ve been sent to kill me. It wasn’t until I hit the final elevator that I was really aware I had been doing it, and the relief poured through me as soon as the elevator slid upward and away.

  I couldn’t wait for this paranoia to be finished and done with. I was sick of it—always worrying about someone’s motivations or goals, never being able to trust that they were on my side. If we could just get all of the legacies collected, and then convince the council of what they had done, maybe I could finally relax a little. Maybe I would finally have some people in the council I could share the burden with.

  But until then, I had to keep everyone at arm’s length.

  The lift stopped between levels 42 and 43—the spot I’d chosen yesterday for the new entry to my quarters, after everything was said and done—and we stepped off and headed down the hall toward the war room. With the exception of Leo and Tian, everyone was in the room working on something when we got there. Even Eric, it seemed, although his pile of work seemed significantly smaller than anyone else’s—no doubt Zoe’s requirement for letting him out of bed.

  Quess was the first to notice us. His smile for me was kind, whereas the one for Maddox was pure hunger, his dark eyes lightening significantly. “How’d it go?” he asked lightly.

  “We’ve got hair and a handkerchief,” Maddox said, pulling the bags out of her pocket. “But we need someone to get down there and help Dylan keep an eye on Plancett and Dreyfuss. I’d do it, but I’m going with Liana up to the roof to call her brother. And before anyone asks, it’s just us two. No need for anyone else to come.”

  “Awww,” Eric said. “But I missed the adventure last night!”

  “And you’re missing it tonight, too,” Zoe said from next to him. “The war room and back was what we agreed to.”

  Eric huffed playfully, but I could tell he was pleased. I was, too. Their happiness was a spot of joy in my life. I honestly wasn’t sure what I would do without them.

  “Well, Liana wants some time alone with her brother,” Maddox said. “So everyone can forget about it. Now, who’s ready to pull an all-nighter and help Dylan? We need someone to help her shadow Plancett and Dreyfuss for the rest of the night.”

  Everyone groaned, except for Eric. “I’ll go,” he said.

  Zoe snapped her eyes toward him, already sucking in a breath to tell him how wrong he was, but he beat her to it. “There’s a chance Dreyfuss killed my dad,” he told her flatly, and I realized that Zoe must’ve shown him the graphic novel and the messages between Sparks and Plancett. “Quess did fine on my wounds, and I’ve slept enough. Besides, it’s not exactly like I’m pulling much weight, here. Staring at these files is making my eyes cross. I can’t make heads or tails of this crap, and you know it.”

  Zoe’s mouth remained open for a second or two longer, and then closed slowly. I could sense an undercurrent to their conversation—something that told me Eric was conveying some deeper meaning that I wasn’t picking up—and for some reason, it seemed to change Zoe’s mind.

  “Fine,” she said with a scowl. “But I’m going with you.” I absorbed the oddness of their exchange, mentally making a note to ask Zoe later, but tucked it away, relieved. Especially that Zoe was going with him. I loved Eric to death, but he couldn’t stay awake for a shift to save his life.

  Eric smiled. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. Let’s go grab some supplies and head down there.”

  I watched them start to get up and realized that I hadn’t asked about Grey or Leo. I wasn’t sure who, if anyone, had checked on them since they had fainted this morning and I had tucked them in, but I wanted to make sure they were okay. “Did anyone check on Grey and Leo?”

  “I did,” Quess said. “They are still out. I gave them another bag of fluids and left them a plate of food in case they wake up, but that was a few hours ago. Also, I may have gotten a step closer to figuring out who this plastic surgeon guy is.”

  I perked up a little. “Really? What do you have?”

  “Well, like P, he’s clearly important enough to warrant his own alias. He goes by ‘Dr. Smiley’ in the transmissions, which are untraceable. The messages don’t contain much in the body, but the attachments have files documenting the surgical changes with before-and-after pictures. None of the files are complete, so I’m having Jasper compile the different images to feed into the Citadel’s files and figure out everywhere they’ve been. It also gives us the most recent images of our targets.”

  “That’s great,” I said. “But no clue as to who he is yet?”

  “No, but I’m going to figure it out. I have a feeling having the most recent pictures of people will help.”

  I wasn’t sure why, but I trusted Quess on this. His instincts had proven accurate before, and I was willing to go with anything that led us to the surgeon’s identity. “Keep me updated.”

  There was a pause, and I found myself thinking of Leo and Grey again. As much as I wanted to go check up on them both, I didn’t want to put calling Alex off any longer. I could check on them when we got back.

  “All right,” I replied. “Quess, looks like you’re in charge while we’re gone.”

  Quess looked around the empty conference table, and then back to us. “Gee, thanks.”

  “Don’t worry, my boy,” Jasper said. “I’m also here, and happy to help!”

  “Well, that’s something at least,” Quess replied dryly before rolling his eyes. “Have fun, I guess?”

  “You mean climbing the forty stories of stairs?” Maddox asked sweetly. I started to remind her that there were elevators, but realized she wanted to mask our comings and goings as much as possible, which meant keeping off the elevators. And she was probably right to. Dammit. “Yeah, I’m sure we’ll have a blast with that. We definitely got the better job.”

  I chuckled, but my legs were already aching in anticipation of the climb. Quess, however, laughed outright and ducked his head. “Fair point, beautiful. But seriously, be careful?”

  “We will be,” she promised as she turned to me. “Ready when you are.”

  “Oh, I’m ready,” I said. “But what do you say we raise the quarters first, before we start our little climb?”

  Maddox laughed outright, nodding her head in agreement. “Yes,” she replied dryly. “Let’s do that. Because I am not looking forward to this climb either.
”

  32

  Getting to the roof only took us half as long as it had the night before—likely because we weren’t hauling a body between us—but the climb was no less painful. If anything, it was even more so, given that we had barely had a day to recover from the last time.

  What was worse, there wasn’t a way to lash our way through it, as the stairs in the shell lacked a ceiling (unless we were passing a farming department). And we couldn’t exactly use the walls, which prevented us from swinging. So that meant climbing each agonizing step.

  My legs were mush when we finally reached the last door, and I took a moment to wipe away the sweat that had accumulated on my face and neck, knowing the air outside would be frigid.

  “I’ll come out with you to make sure there’s no one else up here,” Maddox said as she turned the massive wheel on the door. A moment later there was a hiss of air pressure, which turned into a blast, the air of the Tower racing past us to try to escape. I helped Maddox pull the door back against the breeze that formed, and then followed her through the door and up the stairs.

  The night was darker than the one before, the moon hidden behind gray clouds blanketing the sky in the distance. Our skies were free from clouds overhead—they always were because of the arid nature of the Wastes surrounding us—but the moon was still low enough that it hadn’t broken through the faraway cloud cover. We stepped onto the roof and spun around, looking for a sign of anyone else being up here.

  It took us a few minutes to clear the roof—we wound up walking a small perimeter around the immediate area just to make sure no one was eavesdropping—and then Maddox disappeared back inside. As soon as the door was closed, I took a deep breath and pulled out the black device Thomas had shoved into my hands before we left the ship.

  It took me a second of studying it to spot the “on” button at the top, and I pressed my thumb over it. The button didn’t move, and on closer examination, I realized that it slid to one side. Feeling stupid, I quickly clicked over, and then squeezed the large button that read “to talk” on the side.

  “This is Liana Castell, calling for Alex Castell.” I said into the device. I stared at it for several seconds, wondering if it was supposed to light up or have some sort of digital interface that would indicate the message had been sent. Instead, all it did was make a static sound.

  I stared at it for a few more seconds, and then tried again. “I repeat, this is Liana Castell, calling for Alex Castell. Alex, are you receiving me?”

  More static. Maybe I was using it wrong? Or maybe he wasn’t next to his? Or what if the Tower was still interfering with the signal? We’d never tested it, so how could I tell?

  I knew there was another possibility, but I wasn’t ready to jump to it yet. I didn’t want to believe that Melissa and Thomas had hurt him. Instead, I tried again. “This is Liana Castell, trying to reach Alex Castell or any representative of Patrus. Please respond.”

  Nothing. I waited for a long time, much longer than I had before, staring at the black box while a wave of helpless frustration came over me. “I knew letting you go was a bad idea,” I muttered, letting go of the talk button in irritation.

  There was a pop of louder static, followed by “…Your damn finger off the button so you can hear me!” in my brother’s voice.

  It took me a second to decipher his statement, but once I did, I flushed with embarrassment. The rudimentary machine required me to press the button when I wanted to talk and let go of it when I was done, so I could hear the reply. How was I supposed to know that? They had just shoved it into my hands with almost no explanation.

  Unless they had explained it, and I had been so preoccupied by the fact that my brother was leaving me that I had missed it. “Sorry,” I said, pressing the button again. “This technology is new to me.” I let go of the button.

  “I know. There’s a lot of stuff here that’s new for me. I’m hiding out in my room, actually. I… um… got a little sick.”

  “Are you okay?” I asked, instantly concerned. “What happened?”

  “Motion sickness,” he replied, his voice colored with embarrassment. “Both in their airship and in these things they call cars. I really did not enjoy that experience at all.”

  I laughed in delight, imagining what it must’ve felt like to ride in a car. I couldn’t believe they were still being used! It was just so far-fetched, and I couldn’t help but to ask the myriad of questions that came bubbling out of me. “They have cars? What are they like? What about where they live? What is it like?”

  He laughed through the speaker, and I realized he had pressed the button so I could hear his response. The sound made me wish he was here, if only so I could wrap my arms around him and reassure myself that he was okay. “They’re cramped and small,” he replied. “Mine came complete with some older woman named Magdelena, who was a little scary. Apparently, she’s a general in the Patrian army. She had a lot of questions for me about the Tower.”

  “About our defenses?” I asked, alarmed. I didn’t like the idea of someone from the Patrian military asking anything about the Tower. Who knew what they were planning? They talked about trying to imitate our technology, but what if they decided it was easier to steal it?

  “Um, no, about our lives there. She was writing up a report for Prime Chancellor Croft, and wanted a description of our society and how we did things—whether we had a justice system, how the people were treated, our system of government… I told her about the ranking structure, the council, the expulsion chambers. But I left out a lot.”

  “Good,” I said, relieved that none of the questions had been about our technology. I wasn’t comfortable giving them information on that front. I wanted their help, not to give them information that they could possibly use to attack us, on the off chance they had been lying to us. “It’s a petition for refugee status, not an invitation for war.”

  “I don’t think they’re like that, Lily,” he said a second later. “They didn’t press for me to tell them anything more than I was willing to share, but then again, I was brought to the capitol building in a covered truck with armed guards. Even my room is nice, but I’m not allowed to go anywhere without an escort. Both sides are keeping secrets, and it seems to me that they expect it. I get the sense that they won’t press too hard either way; it’ll be how forthcoming I am about our situation that will be the deciding factor for them, not what technology I can procure for them.”

  “Does it feel… unsafe?” I asked him. I didn’t like the idea of my brother being monitored at all times, but at the same time, if I had an outsider in the Tower, I wouldn’t allow them to go anywhere unsupervised, either.

  “No, no, no. I can come and go as I please, even in the middle of the night. I just have to have a little company. And the guards aren’t bad. They’re pretty curious about me and are willing to talk. I don’t sense anything like what I sensed in the Tower. Even Magdelena was sweet, in her own terrifying way.”

  “Can you give me an example?” I asked, not able to imagine anything like what he was talking about.

  “Well, um… after I told her about how I shot Baldy and my rank dropped, she said something along the lines of, ‘That’s too bad, seems to me that you were defending your sister and that stupid net thing of yours just didn’t get it. Still, try that crap here, and I’ll kick your ass all the way back there and leave you and your friends to rot.’”

  I laughed, remembering to press the button down before I was done. “Wow—at least they are honest?”

  “I mean, yeah. Brutally so, at times. They told me that they’ve only ever accepted sixty refugees: a small community of survivors who had run out of water and food, and the remnants of a settlement who had barely escaped that skirmish in the south... Anyway, I’m supposed to get a briefing soon, which is supposed to explain what the next few days will hold for us. I’m trying to get them to accelerate the process. I think it’s helped that the files are digitized. I get the feeling that the other civilization
s aren’t as advanced as us—but it takes time. And I’m apparently meeting with Thomas and Melissa’s mother, and she’s their head of internal security, which I am guessing is code for being in charge of all the spies, so no pressure on that front.”

  A spy? That meant she was good at interrogating people. My brother needed to be careful about what he said. I knew he knew that, but I said, “Be careful,” anyway.

  “I will be, don’t worry. Anyway, what’s going on with you? Is Eric okay?”

  “He’s fine,” I told him. “Already up and trying to help out.”

  He chuckled. “That must be driving Zoe crazy.”

  “It is,” I replied. Then I sighed. “They’re all really excited about getting away from here.”

  There was a pause that made me nervous for a handful of seconds, as I wondered if we had lost the connection. Then he said, “You sound like you’re not.”

  I bit my lip, glad he couldn’t see my face. “I’m not… without excitement. I just… feel weird about leaving things unfinished.” I swallowed, worried that my brother would pick up on the fact that I wasn’t actually planning to leave, but before I could embellish my answer, he said tersely, “That sounds like you’re planning on staying. Which is madness.”

  Sadness gripped me, then, and I realized that no matter what I said, I wasn’t going to get my brother to agree that fighting for the Tower was the right move. He had already abandoned it in his mind, back when he agreed to go in the first place.

  Well, he might not agree, but I didn’t care anymore. I would let him know I was staying and let him know why.

  “I’m not crazy, Alex,” I told him. “I just care about what happens to the people who have no idea that the Tower is on the verge of falling apart. I’m a councilor—the Champion. I owe the Tower more than just leaving them to rot. Mom found out that Scipio was broken and wanted to help me save him, and if I don’t stop the people who killed her, then all of this will have been for nothing.”