Dissident

by Lisa Beeson

Once she reached the elevator, she smashed the down button and the doors immediately opened. She hopped in and pushed the button for the ground floor. Then before the doors closed, she hopped out and ran back towards the dome.

  “No!” Gordon yelled as he ran out of the dome and saw the open elevator. He sprinted the distance and managed to squeeze between the doors just as they were closing.

  Skylar sprinted back through the dome’s door before it closed again, to her hiding place under Enzo’s house.

  Catching her breath, she saw that Enzo wasn’t alone. Asa and Claudia were walking quickly towards him from the door on the other side of the dome.

  There was something in the way they were looking at him that frightened Skylar. Something had changed.

  “After everything we suffered, Asa?” Enzo asked him with an incredulous shake of his head, as the two approached.

  “Because of everything we suffered,” Asa answered.

  “How can you live with yourself?”

  “You and I both know that there are many things people can learn to live with,” Asa said. “We do what we must to survive. We will not hide in the shadows in shame and obscurity any longer. We are meant to be more than that. We are meant to make the impossible possible. We are meant to be the leaders of men. Not to dominate, but to elevate them to their true potential.”

  “That’s Markus talking, Asa. Those were never your views.”

  “My views have changed.”

  “And why is that, old friend? Think on that. Think hard. Please, before it’s too late.”

  “Shut up, you stupid old man!” Claudia shouted. “You don’t understand anything! We’re trying to make things better for everyone, so stop wasting our time and tell us where Skylar is.”

  Skylar didn’t understand why everyone was looking for her or why they were being so mean to Enzo.

  Without warning, Enzo’s porch lights and the sodium lights outside went out with a pop. Saved from total darkness, Skylar could still see by the light from the flames in the fire pit and the bright full moon overhead.

  “What we’re trying to do is too important, Enzo. I can’t allow you to stand in the way of that just because you’re too stubborn to open your mind; not when we’re so close. The Cause is bigger than you and me – it’s more important than the ties of old friendships.”

  A low whirring sound coming closer and closer to the rooftop distracted Skylar from the conversation. As the sound came nearer, it felt as though the air around her was rapidly pulsing with the noise. She inched towards the backside of Enzo’s house, and looked up through the glass of the dome to see a couple lights in the sky and realized that the sound was coming from two black helicopters.

  The bigger helicopter passed over, and the smaller one stopped to hover right over top of the roof. Then, to her horror, men in black armor – the same as in her and Soren’s reoccurring nightmare – slid down on ropes to land on the roof. They spread out, holding their guns ready.

  Skylar clutched the black wand to her chest, as she shook in fear. These were the men who had taken her parents away. Grandma Mara had somehow convinced her and Soren that they were the police, but seeing them again, Skylar knew they weren’t policemen at all. Soren wasn’t here to seal the door against them this time. Her need for her brother increased a hundred fold. The world was so much scarier without him by her side.

  She had to put her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming when one of the men started smashing the glass door to Enzo’s dome with the butt of his gun. She went to crouch under the porch steps, watching him smash the glass repeatedly until there was an opening large enough for him to get through. Another of the armored men followed in after him.

  Skylar scrambled further under the house, clutching the black wand like a talisman to keep her safe.

  Through the old train car wheels, she saw the first man pull away the black mask that had been covering his face. He shouted something, but Skylar couldn’t make out what he was saying over the noise of the helicopter.

  Claudia eagerly ran over towards the black-armored men. Asa took something out of Enzo’s neck and put it into his lab coat pocket. He then placed a hesitant hand on Enzo’s head and bent over to say something into Enzo’s ear before turning away and following after Claudia. Skylar could see the shine of tears in his eyes reflecting the flames of the fire pit. It made him look like a demon.

  The armored men helped Claudia and Asa through the jagged opening in the glass. As soon as they were out of the dome, their hair and clothes began to whip around from the wind generated from the helicopter.

  Skylar saw Gordon and Marin come out of the greenhouse, and then walk to the ropes still hanging from the helicopter.

  The men put harnesses around the four of them and attached them to clips on the ropes. They were then lifted up into the helicopter.

  Where are they going?

  Skylar couldn’t understand why Marin was willingly going with the black-armored men. They were bad people. Marin wasn’t bad, but Skylar was beginning to think that Gordon, Asa, and Claudia were.

  As soon as they were in the helicopter, the four black armored men left on the roof crumpled to the ground one after the other, as if they had all suddenly fallen asleep. The helicopter immediately pulled away, leaving them behind.

  Skylar closed her eyes tight, shutting everything out, and curled into a tight ball. It was all too much. A part of her knew that the men hadn’t fallen asleep – they had been hit by something…something bad.

  Someone was on the roof shooting people.

  A big explosion shook the building and cracked some of the panes in the dome.

  Skylar made herself as small as she could and leaned against a train car wheel. She desperately wanted to be back in her dream, safe in Ari’s arms. Come back and make it all better, Ari…I need you!

  When there was nothing but silence, Skylar peeked out to see Enzo still in his chair. There was no one else out there that she could see, so she dashed out from under the house towards him. As she came closer, she knew that something was wrong. His pipe had fallen from his open hand, and his head was hanging forward.

  With her heart hammering in her chest, Skylar stepped in front of his chair to see his eyes closed and his glasses hanging halfway down his nose.

  “Enzo…” she whispered tearfully – not bothering to make herself invisible anymore. “Enzo are you okay…?”

  She didn’t really expect him to answer. Deep down she knew that he wouldn’t, but she didn’t want to believe it. She couldn’t. “Enzo please wake up…” She grabbed the lapels of his maroon jacket, and tried shaking him back into consciousness. “Come back, Enzo! I need you!” she sobbed. “Enzo I’m scared! …Pleeeease!”

  *****

  9:59pm

  Cam lay motionless in his hiding spot in the greenhouse.

  He could feel his heart pounding throughout his whole body, as two of Anaximander’s asshats walked in to sweep and clear the greenhouse. He didn’t bother calling them Suits anymore; it was too dignified a moniker for them.

  Cam knew that he was perfectly concealed however, because Tauber had made sure of it before hiding himself.

  The special suits they wore cloaked them visually and dispersed their heat signatures to blend in with the plant clutter surrounding them. It broke up their silhouettes, so the infrared sensors in the goggles the asshats were wearing wouldn’t pick them up.

  The asshats passed by their hiding places without a clue, continuing on towards the back of the greenhouse.

  Cam smirked triumphantly behind his mask – the only movement he dared make – and had to admit that Kael had access to some top shelf black-ops gear.

  Concentrating back towards Enzo’s dome, he looked through his night vision specs to where another asshat was smashing the glass door to pieces.

  He used his ability to focus-in his vision to look into the dome where Claudia was standing next to Asa in front of Enzo. It still galled him to think that he had b
een attracted to such a duplicitous liar.

  Claudia and Asa had been talking to Enzo earlier, but now Enzo was grasping Asa’s wrist, which was going for his neck, as Claudia stared at him as if she was concentrating on something.

  “I couldn’t find her,” Gordon’s voice shouted angrily above the noise of the Blackhawk, distracting Cam from the scene. They must have just come out of the emergency stairwell. “I was lucky I got off the damn elevator before they cut the power. They shouldn’t be able to access our systems.”

  “We can’t leave without her,” Marin’s voice insisted. “Markus wants them both. And the twins do much better emotionally when they’re together!”

  “We don’t have time, ma’am,” one of Anaximander’s asshats responded. “The terrorists are in the immediate area. We can’t endanger the others. We have to leave now. The squad downstairs will search for her and bring her with the rest.”

  Cam didn’t move a muscle, he didn’t even breathe, so Marin wouldn’t pick up anything with her supersonic hearing as the four of them passed by.

  He still couldn’t believe Marin was in league with the Reinholds and all the Anaximander asshats. She’d always been so nice. No one had a clue. Not even Ari had picked up any evil or conniving vibes from her. Just like Asa and Claudia … Well, I guess if they thought what they were doing was right, there would be no reason to give off evil vibes.

  He felt bad for George. Ever since the man found out that his girlfriend had been lying to him and spying on everyone for Anaximander, his face had held a perpetual grim and haunted look.

  As soon as the four of them went out the door to the open roof, Cam allowed himself to breathe, and he saw Asa and Claudia following the other asshats out of the dome.

  While they were busy hooking onto the rappel ropes hanging from the Blackhawk, Cam raised his head infinitesimally to aim the tag launcher, hidden under some camouflage netting. He adjusted the tip of the muzzle, barely poking through the small hole in the glass, and aimed at a place on the bottom of the helicopter that wouldn’t be easily seen by the naked eye.

  Once the four traitors were in the copter, Cam squeezed the trigger and launched the magnetic tag. They needed to find out where they were going. They’d found out that the New Mexico compound had been shut down and evacuated for a while. It was just a cardboard city with a skeleton crew operating a communications hub now.

  He heard four quick reports from Tauber’s sniper rifle just before the copter pulled away.

  Cam glanced over to Tauber’s hiding place across the walkway to see him remove the muzzle of his gun from the precise circular hole he had made with his glasscutter. He turned to Cam to give him the hand signal that meant that he had dispatched the targets.

  Cam pushed the button attached to his gloved finger to activate his throat mic. “Roof targets dispatched. Tag is launched. Is everything good to go?”

  “Copy,” Myles’s voice said into his earpiece. “The tag is attached, and working perfectly.”

  Yes… Cam mentally congratulated himself. The tag was not only a GPS tracker, it was also able to tap untraceably into the helicopter’s intercom system. Anything they said into their mics would be recorded.

  “Inside targets are dispatched, and the assets are secured,” Kael’s voice said through the comm.

  “I got one outside trying to run back to the Chinook,” Reid’s voice said. “The fewer toys they have the better, I say. Hold on to your hats, lads.” A moment later, an explosion blazed from the front lawn.

  Cam and Tauber both ducked and covered their heads in case any debris came through the greenhouse glass.

  Sweet baby Jesus, Reid…

  Because of the blast, their timetable was now cut exponentially shorter. They had to get everyone out and away as soon as possible before law enforcement arrived.

  Cam quickly broke down the launcher, and just as he was putting it back into his pack, he heard a child’s voice screaming something hysterically.

  Skylar…

  He focused-in his vision and saw her pounding on Enzo’s chest with her little fists, his limp form unresponsive. Without a second thought, Cam raced out the greenhouse door towards the dome. Ignoring the bodies strewn across the open roof, he ducked through the hole in the glass.

  “Skylar!” he called.

  At the sound of her name, her head popped up over Enzo’s shoulder and she disappeared. Cam took off his hood, the specs, and mask, then went down on his knees to seem less threatening. “Moxie, it’s me. It’s Cam.”

  “Restore power,” he heard Tauber order through the comm.

  The lights immediately came back on, and Cam was tackled by a mass of frizzy, white-blonde hair and wiry little arms.

  “Cam! You’re back,” Skylar sobbed into his ear. “What’s going on?”

  Cam puffed her hair away from his face and wrapped his arms around her. “It’s all right, moxie. All the bad guys are gone now,” he said trying to comfort her, while turning her away from the dead bodies.

  “Why did they go with the bad guys? Why are you dressed like that?” She sucked in a quick breath. “Who’s that?”

  Cam turned to see Tauber making his way towards the equipment on the roof that Joshua and Myles wanted them to take back to Paradise Glades.

  “That’s just my friend, Tauber. It’s okay, he’s on our side,” Cam said. He stood up with her still in his arms. She was barefoot and there were shards of glass all over the ground by the shattered door.

  Skylar turned back towards Enzo, who was slumped in his chair. “Something’s wrong with Enzo.”

  Cam quickly walked over to the chair. He carefully set Skylar down, then took off one of his gloves and put his fingers on the old man’s neck to check for a pulse.

  “Is he dead?” Skylar whimpered.

  Cam exhaled in relief when he felt a pulse, it was slow and weak, but it was there. “He’s alive,” he assured her, but he wasn’t’ sure for how much longer.

  “It was Asa,” Skylar said, her eyes welling with tears.

  “What?”

  “He was mad at Enzo. And before he and Claudia left with the bad guys, he stuck something into his neck. I think he hurt him bad.” She looked down and pointed towards something on the ground, tears falling from her eyes. “And Gordon tried to kill him with that before I took it away from him.”

  Cam bent down to pick it up and recognized it immediately. “It’s one of the modified Tasers that my dad and Joshua made…”

  He pressed a button towards the bottom and the top sparked to life with blue arches of electricity.

  Skylar reached for it. “Can I have it in case the bad guys come back?”

  “You don’t need it, mox. And I don’t want you to accidently use it on yourself. Trust me; it’s not as fun as you’d think.” Cam let go of the button and collapsed it to its smallest size, then attached it to his belt. “Anyway, we’re taking everyone to a safe place where the bad guys won’t find us.”

  “Did you find Ari?” the little girl asked – hope brimming in her eyes.

  A quick twinge of pain twisted his heart. “Not yet.”

  Skylar came over to squeeze his hand, as though she knew how much he was hurting. “It’s okay, Cam. Ari’s in a safe place too. And she’ll come back as soon as she’s strong enough.”

  “How do you know that?” he asked. Cass had told him as much, but how did Skylar know?

  “She said so…” the little girl said with complete confidence, then began poking the tip of her tongue through the hole where her front tooth should be.

  “When?”

  “…In my dream. I wished on a star and she came and saved me from the sea monsters in the fish pond.”

  “Skylar…” he began, trying to find a gentle way to dissuade the little girl from her fantasy. However, something pricked at the back of his mind… Then it hit him. Ari had told him that she could sometimes go into other people’s dreams. Why not Skylar’s?

  He dropped to his knees in
front of her. “Did she say anything else?”

  “Yes!” Skylar nodded her head excitedly. “She said uh… something about how shades weren’t going to bother people anymore…and that if you didn’t believe me to say…um… to say…trans umba…ehkt lucksss…pert… stop…?”

  “Transit umbra, et lux perstat?”

  “Yeah! That’s it!”

  Cam’s head fell back as he closed his eyes, letting out a breathy laugh, to keep himself from crying. She beat the Shades. And she’s still my Pipes…

  “Markus Reinhold!” a strange voice screeched from the branches of a nearby tree – startling them both.

  Cam looked up to see the old man’s parrot agitatedly flapping its wings on a branch. “Markus. Is. Anaximander!” Then the bird suddenly calmed, and Enzo fell forward onto the ground with a faint exhale of breath.

  “Enzo!” Skylar screamed as she ran over to cling desperately onto the old man, but it was too late. He was already gone.

  Chapter 5

  Little Sennah stood with the dignity and poise the daughter of the Magiri should present, as she watched her mother leave so soon after arriving at the temple. Malu did not turn back as she proceeded down the corridor towards the Public Quarters with Ubrim, even though Sennah knew that she wanted to. With the Sages, Rysura, and Vrahnon looking on, they both had to play their roles with grace. No matter how much Sennah wanted to run crying after her mother and beg her not to leave, she was determined not to shame them in that way.

  A Magira is a beacon for her people, Sennah thought to herself, remembering her Malu’s words to help her stay strong in front of others. A Magira shows courage in the face of fear and tribulation. A Magira does not falter. A Magira does not cry.

  Sennah stood stoic and steadfast until Malu and Ubrim were out of sight. Then, swallowing back her tears, she turned to face the uncle who had been left behind.

  Vrahnon towered over her. The top of her head did not even crest the height of his waist. He embodied the strength and stark impassiveness of a son of the Magira. Born into the title of Magrah, he was bound to protect the Magira bloodline.