Shatter the Suns

by Caitlin Sangster

Anger is like a blade inside me, cutting off my air. If only I could speak now. If only I could tell them what their precious Chairman has done to their wives, their daughters and sons, bombing them, infecting them, and torturing them in the Sanatorium. Tell them exactly where Dr. Yang’s hope lies and how many have died to realize it. Firsts had the cure all along. None of this would have happened if the Chairman hadn’t used the cure to secure his place on his throne.

  Dr. Yang might be even worse. I only know some of what he has done, setting SS free, trapping Mother, letting her die. Murdering everyone in the City who knew how to make the cure because he thought he had it safe in his pocket.

  I look over my shoulder into the mass of Reds behind me, some faces strangely bland, as if they aren’t sure what to make of this news. Some are openly hopeful, determined. The Firsts on their benches don’t cheer, their mouths bulging with food. The Thirds who were serving seem to be absent, not important enough to know this news.

  I don’t understand, though. What do Dr. Yang and the Chairman mean by Kamar? Kamar isn’t real. Where are they really going, if not the Mountain? Is it possible that “Kamar” is actually Port North, the place Mother told me to go?

  The Chairman continues speaking, his voice boiling the crowd into a frenzy. The Reds immediately around me begin to clap, one even going so far as to pump his fist against the air. How can they believe promises of change mean something? Nothing ever changed back in the City. Nothing ever got better, no matter how many times they broadcasted the Chairman’s voice over the loudspeakers, promising bombs would stop, factory shifts would get shorter, life would improve if we could just hold on a little longer. It never did, and I know now the Chairman never meant it to.

  I pull my bowed shoulders back, pulling on my hand linked with Tai-ge’s. We’ll find the key, the maps. If this place they’re going to get the cure is Port North, then we’ll just have to get there first.

  “Seven days?” Tai-ge pulls back, leaning close to speak in my ear. “If they’re headed the same place we are, then we have seven days to get in and out first.”

  I nod, mind whirling. Even with a map, we don’t have the heli anymore. But, for June, for Lihua and everyone else in this entire camp who will end up branded and fit like cogs into Dr. Yang’s new order, we will figure it out.

  “How long until we have a real answer? Something concrete. An actual cured Seph?” a voice rings out from behind us, snaking out from between cheers and claps. “And when will we have contact with the other camps? I don’t even know if my wife is still alive.”

  I look back to find the dissenting voice, my eyes flitting from face to face as the Reds’ feet shuffle, their eyes focused and unblinking on the Chairman’s form as if that would deflect any sort of blame.

  Except one. He’s far away from where the voice originated, but he’s looking around the way I am. But not for the speaker. His eyes find mine. Dark brown. Familiar. Deadly.

  Howl.

  My stomach lurches and I face forward, his eyes a hot poker burning at the back of my neck. I squeeze Tai-ge’s hand in mine, the ground suddenly feeling much weaker under my feet, only seconds from swallowing me. Howl didn’t tell us Dr. Yang would be here. He told us the Chairman wouldn’t be here. This is where we have to move our stones, to use the competing confusion to slip through . . . only it isn’t confusion. Dr. Yang and the Chairman are standing before the crowd of Reds in a united front while Howl’s at our backs, waiting to shepherd us toward them.

  I try to fit the pieces together. Dr. Yang doesn’t want me to leak the things he told me over Mother’s dead body—easy to ensure if I’m dead. The odds against Howl were too high back in the heli, so he followed us here. I can’t think of another explanation.

  As the Chairman begins speaking again, addressing concerns with his rust-corroded voice, I clock the distance between me and the tents beyond the edge of the crowd. If we run now, Tai-ge and I would be too noticeable.

  The Chairman finishes with a roar, “We will take the cure. I promise you, you and your families will be safe again!” This time the faithful cheer is deafening.

  The soldier with the grinning gore mask yells along with everyone else, the girl beside him raising her arms in excitement. A full flash of white catches my eye, the bracelet at her wrist catching the firelight.

  Bones. She’s wearing bones around her wrist. Like a Menghu.

  The last bits of me reserved against panic disintegrate as I realize where I’ve seen the soldier in the Chairman’s guard. Slicked hair, Cale’s toothy mask. High cheekbones that cut like knives. My heart’s off-kilter gallop leaves me gasping for breath. The soldier in the painted mask is Helix.

  CHAPTER 18

  “WE HAVE TO GO,” I yell over the tumult, pulling on Tai-ge’s hand. There are Menghu here surrounding the Chairman. Only ones with dark hair and City features, or the Reds would know. They haven’t yet caught us, but it’s only a matter of time.

  The crowd begins to jostle us, as people move toward the long table set on the far end of the cleared space where Thirds are setting out tubs of rice and vegetables. The Chairman goes to the head of the tables, ladle in hand. Serving the Reds as he has always claimed to. The crowd seems fastened to him by the eyes, by the hearts, even as the invaders who took their City, infected their families, stand to either side of him. It will be all right, they say to each other. Look, there’s the Chairman, serving me rice with his own hands.

  Tai-ge follows my lead as I slip through the crowds. I don’t see Howl in the sea of bobbing heads, but I know he must be following us. Herding us toward the other gores so they can come at us from all sides.

  I pull Tai-ge into the first ring of tents, only pausing for a moment before slithering across the pathway dividing the first ring from the second. A Red walks along the pathway behind us, a bowl of rice in hand. Another, darker form—a Menghu slithering after us into the flickers of lamplight? No, it’s just a Third taking a breath from the food line’s grabby hands.

  “Do you think the Chairman meant what he said about— Sevvy?” Tai-ge puts a hand on my shoulder. “You’re shaking. What’s the matter?”

  Yes. I’m shaking. Menghu in the camp, and Howl watching from between tents . . . “Howl was in the crowd. And those were Menghu around the Chairman.”

  “That’s impossible.” Tai-ge scoffs. “How would Menghu get into the camp? And there’s no way Howl—”

  “There are Menghu here, Howl is here, and we can’t afford to hope they aren’t working together.” I grab his arm and drag him to the next ring of tents, look toward the paddies cut into the hillsides above us. “None of the stones are on the board where we expected. Some of them aren’t even the right colors. We have to run.”

  That patroller on the paddies—no stars, and disgust in his eyes as he looked at us. Was that whole group Menghu too? My skin crawls at the thought of June standing just above a pack of gores hiding in plain sight.

  “We can’t, Sevvy.” Tai-ge’s voice pulls my attention away from the mountainside. He rubs his eyes, looking back toward where we left the crowds eating their rice. Tai-ge starts walking again, his shoulders hunched, waiting a second until I follow. “We have to get the maps or Dr. Yang wins.” He swallows. “Do you think the Chairman and the General know about him?”

  “I have no idea.”

  We quiet as a group of soldiers pass us, one of the men sending another stumbling toward us with a laugh. The stumbling man manages to stop before bumping into Tai-ge, but only just, giving us an apologetic wave before hurrying after his friends.

  I let out the breath trapped in my lungs, my eyes crawling over the shadows like spiders, waiting for Howl to appear. “You’re right. We can’t just run.” I swallow. “Howl told us to go after the Chairman’s tent for maps and the key. I thought it was just so we’d have to let him come with us. We would have needed his stars to get in.”

  “So we should go after the General’s instead?” Tai-ge sounds hopeful. “Maybe there’
s some way we could warn the Reds about Dr. Yang—”

  “How? Leave a note?” I look up at him in the dark, then shrug. “I mean, maybe we could. Almost everyone is tied up in the mess area, and we know the General isn’t due back for a few hours. So let’s go.”

  I start walking, Tai-ge close behind. “The Red strategy tents are probably near the First section of the camp. They might even be inside the Firsts’ area so the Chairman doesn’t have to leave in order to join meetings.” He falls into step next to me, nodding up to the flagpole in the center, tall enough we can see the City’s falcon-and-beaker seal flapping overhead.

  Lanterns grow more and more numerous as we draw near to the flagpole, as if Chairman Sun is determined to keep all the light for himself. When we get to the sixth ring of tents, there’s a fence barring entrance to any who would go farther, something Howl failed to mention but which Tai-ge and I anticipated. Firsts don’t like to mix with everyone else, not even in the close quarters of camp.

  I look back into the lamp-strewn lines of tents, eyes darting from shadow to shadow, person to person. No one seems to be following us. But would I be able to see Howl or any of the other Menghu if they didn’t want me to? I try not to think too hard about the people about to march into an attack without even knowing who they are really fighting for. It’s not just Outsiders who need help, and it isn’t just SS that needs a cure.

  I hope we can leave some kind of warning for the new General.

  We follow the fence until we come to a gate illuminated by bright lamps. Men and women are beginning to walk the pathways between tents, released with food and an assurance that the Chairman has a plan to fix all the wrongs in the world. Those who come near the gate, though, are rewarded with a severe frown from the guard standing in front of it, his hand tight on the gun at his side.

  Tai-ge veers off the walkway into the lines of tents, and I follow, keeping an eye on the hastily erected fence, looking for gaps. It’s not an impossible barrier—only chain link, a healthy space between it and the tents on either side. No guards. No spotlights. We walk until we come to a dim area between lanterns. Opening his bag, Tai-ge extracts a pair of pliers with a sharp wire-cutting edge, a tool we found in the heli. Hopefully strong enough for the fence. Tai-ge shoves the tool into his outside pocket, then slips over to the fence, checking both directions before he kneels down, much more visible than I would like.

  “Interesting plan.” The voice comes from right behind me. My stomach contracts down to a pinhole, and I grab for the inhibitor spray, but before I’ve even turned around, Howl grabs my arm and pries the spray from my fingers.

  “No, thank you, Sev.” He rasps from inside a gas mask, his expression hidden by the dark. “I don’t feel like being knocked out at the moment. If you and Tai-ge actually want that encryption key, maybe you should let me take you to it.” He cocks his head, eyes falling to the double stars at my collar. “Those are cute.”

  “Tai-ge!” I jerk my arm away from Howl, backing into the no-man’s-land around the fence, wanting to run but not wanting to leave Tai-ge behind. The spray probably wouldn’t have worked anyway. Not with him wearing a mask.

  Tai-ge looks up from the chain link, standing when he sees Howl’s shadowed outline standing just beyond the tents.

  Howl sticks his hands in his pockets. I tense, waiting for a knife, a gun . . . but he just nods to Tai-ge. “There’s a Red patrolling the fence, about to come around the corner. I’d move away from the fence if I were you.”

  And so would Howl. Sweat slides down my temple as Tai-ge slides back into the cover of the tents, and Howl sidesteps so we’re sandwiched between him and the fence with nowhere to run. A woman in a City uniform comes strolling down around the curve of the fence as Howl predicted, pausing to look us over. “Stay back from the fence, please,” she says, then keeps walking.

  Howl’s hand circles my wrist, and I have to force myself to hold still until she’s out of sight. His fingers clamp down when I try to pull away.

  “If you run, people are going to notice you, Sev,” he says quietly. “And you can’t get in there without me.”

  “You’d let me run?” I whisper, anger grating against my vocal cords. If I scream or try to fight him off, the Reds walking through might come to investigate, and looking closer would reveal Howl, the Chairman’s fake son, grappling with two traitors. It’s not hard to imagine what would happen next. “If you’re going to hurt us or turn us in, just do it.”

  Howl shrugs. “I’d rather get the encryption key, if it’s all the same to you. I still think the Chairman’s tent is our best chance. The General could arrive any minute, so her tents are probably being prepared for her return.”

  “You want to help us after we left you locked in the heli?” Tai-ge asks, his eyes narrowing at Howl’s hand around my wrist. My heart hammers against my rib cage, desperate to escape.

  “Reds like shooting people.” He shrugs. “So I decided not to sit and wait for them to find the heli. Following you seemed as good a plan as any.”

  “What do you want, Howl?” I try to jerk my hand away from him, but he doesn’t let go. “Didn’t you hear the speech? Like I’ve already said, Dr. Yang doesn’t need you. There really is a cure. You can go home.” The words fall in an ugly rush. “Just leave us alone!”

  Howl’s face is an inscrutable mask. “You still think I’m trying to hurt you?”

  “You’re hurting me right now.” I look down at his hand around my wrist.

  He lets go, putting a hand up when Tai-ge twitches forward, though I don’t know what a scuffle will help at the moment. “Dr. Yang wasn’t in the camp when I was here before,” Howl says. “And did you see the Menghu?”

  I give a hesitant nod.

  “Then you know we don’t have enough time to hash this out at the moment. I don’t know what’s going on in this camp, but I don’t like it. We need to get the key and get out of here.”

  “There has never been a we, Howl.” I hate the way my voice stumbles over the words, the way Tai-ge’s brow furrows, looking from me to Howl. Turning away, I start along the fence again, looking for another spot to cut through. If Howl isn’t going to knife us or shout for his Menghu friends, then I’m going to do what we came to do.

  “Remember all those times you told Tai-ge you were worried I’d get free and kill all of you, Sev?” Howl calls after me. I turn to look at him. “Guess what! I got free, and you’re still alive. And there are plenty of people here who’d be interested to know you’re in the camp—”

  “Are there?” I cut in. “Yet another thing you forgot to mention while we were asking you about Dazhai?”

  “No. You’re not worth anything to the Reds, so far as I know.” I hate the coldness in Howl’s voice. “Traitors set on thieving, however, would get some attention. I didn’t know the Menghu were here, but until they see an actual working cure, you’re an asset worth holding on to.”

  “If they still believe that, then so are you.”

  “It wouldn’t be that hard to focus their attention on you and not me, Sev.” He takes a step back, giving an exaggerated shrug. “But you’re still standing there. Breathing and everything.”

  Tai-ge draws up next to me, the two of us shoulder to shoulder, not sure which direction to step.

  Howl turns away from us, walking back toward the fence. “I came for the encryption key. Come or don’t, it’s up to you.”

  CHAPTER 19

  THE WORLD SEEMS TO BE tipping sideways as I follow Howl’s familiar outline, his hands stuffed into his pockets as he walks. There isn’t enough room in my head to burn through all the conflicting thoughts and emotions carving bloody trails in my brain.

  “What do we do?” Tai-ge whispers, so low I hardly hear.

  “I’m thinking,” I whisper back, but my feet keep following Howl, leading us to the bright lights at the gate.

  The guard eyes Howl warily, eyes flicking over his weathered City coat and the single star at its collar. He must not
recognize Howl under the gas mask. “Where are you headed, sir?”

  “Command tent. These two just came in with reports of contagion just south of here, but the symptoms are a little different from what we saw during the outbreak back in the City.” Howl doesn’t ever really stop walking, pulling back his sleeve to bare the single white line on his hand that marks him a First with an off-handed flick before pushing through the gate, as if argument from the guard is something he hasn’t even considered. He turns back to meet the guard’s gaze. “Keep your eyes open. Even with masks to keep cases down, we don’t know what to expect. Hopefully the containment panel will know what to make of the new information.” Howl’s attention slides off the guard to Tai-ge and me, giving us an impatient gesture to follow. “Don’t waste my time. Come on.”

  I quicken my steps, nodding to the guard as I follow Howl through the gate. The Red holds it open for me, waiting until Tai-ge catches up to let it swing closed. We follow Howl toward the lights, the brighter they shine, the longer his shadow creeps out behind him. I lag back a step, not wanting to be caught inside it.

  “How long before June sneaks off?” Howl rasps over his shoulder.

  Tai-ge glances at me, and I can almost feel him echo the shivers fingering down my spine. Howl must have been watching us all day. “We have at least an hour.”

  “This way.” Howl swings to the left, ducking behind a group of tents, a strange sort of smell issuing from inside that burns my nostrils through the gas mask. I cough, putting a gloved hand to my mask’s snout. Labs? What are they brewing in there that gets through masks?

  “The Chairman’s main tent is over here.” Howl crouches next to the lab tent, a snowy breath misting from the filters of his mask when he looks back at us. “Shall we?”

  “Wait, we’re just walking in?” Tai-ge starts, just as I say, “If we’re caught, we can’t pretend to be anything but thieves.”

  Howl shrugs. “Or assassins. It’s true. But he’s not likely to come back here once he’s done feeding Reds.”