by Lu, Marie
A new call comes on. I answer it. My hand trembles against my ear.
Even before he speaks, I know it’s him. His presence hangs in the air. “Your brother is already calling for me to meet with him,” he says. “Does he know you’re down here?”
So Daniel and June have already made their move. I tilt my head up, listening for their voices being broadcast. It’s faint, coming from the heart of the city where the advertisements jumble the closest on the skyscrapers.
“No,” I reply.
I can’t tell if he believes me or not. “And why is that? A change of heart?” he asks, a touch of amusement in his voice.
I will never be able to fool him. This will all go terribly wrong. But I still take a deep breath and answer. “I just want to meet again,” I say.
He’s silent for a moment. My eyes lock on a silhouette that appears at the entrance of the shuttered bar ahead of us. It’s one of his men; I recognize him as one of the people who had held me hostage in the Undercity. Beside me, Pressa stiffens.
He approaches us. His eyes are expressionless. “Come with me,” he says.
DANIEL
The main difference between the Antarctican military and the Republic one is that, back in the Republic, we knew exactly who we were fighting. The Colonies were pushing on our border, and their airships filled our skies.
Here, though, they hide in the shadows. Our enemies are ourselves. And it makes it that much harder to fight back.
I frown as we survey an area where we are to try to make an announcement to catch Hann’s attention. Ross City used to be filled with virtual billboards that stretch all the way across the entire sides of skyscrapers. Their 3-D advertisements wandered around on each floor, all the way to the ground. Now though, with the Level system shut down, only a few screens still work, ones that were physically installed and operated before the Level system was implemented. Old-fashioned tech.
June holds out a device to me. “Here,” she says, tapping its screen once so that it lights up with a blue glow.
I study it with a thoughtful frown. “What’s this?”
“When we send our message out to Hann, let’s send out different versions on different frequencies.” She nods down at the device. “With all of Ross City’s systems down, Hann will be using more primitive communication tech, just like we are. This will tell us whether or not he’s listening in on one of our frequencies.”
I look at her. “So we run a different message on each frequency,” I reply, puzzling out what she’s saying, “and based on how he responds, we get an idea of roughly where he might be in the city.”
She blushes a little at me. “It’s how I first tracked you down in Lake.”
A dark figure standing in the middle of a midnight street, holding up vials of plague cure. Me, crouched in the shadows of a second-story ledge, talking into a crackling speaker. The memory wavers in my thoughts. “So that was how you did it,” I murmur.
She looks away toward the city, as if sorry to bring it up. I wait a moment before I reach out to touch her hand. Her skin is cool to the touch.
Our beat of silence ends as an officer comes up to us to set the frequencies on the device. She nods toward the platform where we will be playing my statements. “We’re ready to start, whenever you are,” she says.
I nod back, then get up and head with June over to the platform. There, we run through several of the alternate statements we’ll be releasing. Finally, I clear my throat, and as they start recording my voice, I begin the first statement.
“We have a deal we’re ready to cut with you,” I say, forcing myself to stay calm and my chin to stay up. “I know there’s something you want from this city that we can offer you. But we want a meeting with you, face-to-face.”
My voice reverberates into the mike. It’s jarring to hear the silence around me as I record. Has Eden already found his way back to Hann? Has the man even responded to him?
“We are prepared to give you a good offer,” I go on. “But the city can’t go on like this. Both you and I know that. So let’s find a way to negotiate, unless you want to continue this stalemate. We will meet you in two hours in the Undercity, at the intersection that divides the four quadrants of Ross City. If you choose not to come, we’ll have to force you out. Let’s do what we can to avoid a bloody end to this.”
I finish. The message starts to play from the beginning again, looping endlessly until the meeting time. I listen to it several times. When we’re all sure that it sounds right, we move on to the next statement.
A half hour passes before I record every single variation. There are differences in the locations where we’re asking Hann to meet us, with the kind of deal we’re offering him. I feel a sense of hollowness as we go about it. He could easily not be listening at all—or he might have figured out what we’re doing in the first place. But it doesn’t matter if this works or not.
All we’re doing is buying Eden time.
June gives me a nod when we’re done and begins broadcasting out the different messages on each frequency.
“Place a call to Eden,” she says quietly. In order to give a realistic illusion that Eden and I are at odds, I need to try to contact him.
I call Eden. As expected, he doesn’t answer. Even though I know he isn’t supposed to, a part of my chest still tightens in fear.
I call several more times, then stop. It’s a good sign that Eden isn’t picking up, I tell myself. It most likely means that he and Pressa are in, and that he’s no longer on the grid.
June is already checking the harnesses on her waist and legs. She’s going to lead a small team into one of the intersections we requested Hann to show up in, to watch for where he might appear. I’m wearing a similar getup—hooks, harnesses, and an assortment of knives and weapons. My team will head to the opposite side of hers. Still other teams are on their way to the other locations.
I watch as she works. She may not be with her Republic teams, but even here, with a patrol of foreign soldiers at her beck and call, she exudes a natural leadership that makes them wait respectfully for her command.
A sudden sliver of a memory returns to me at that. I remember the swing of her dark ponytail as she stood in an alley, her hand on her hip and her chin tilted up, the light in her eyes invincible, calling out a challenge for a Skiz fight. The first time I saw her. The first moment she caught my eye. How could I not have known then, immediately, who she was?
June notices me looking at her. A curious smile touches the edge of her lips, and she tilts her head at me. “What?”
“Nothing.” I shake my head, embarrassed to be caught. “I was just making sure you looked like you have everything, yeah?” I point out the gun at her hip and the climbing hooks hanging from her belt. “If, for some reason, Hann does show his face—”
“—then our teams are ready on the ground, hiding in our zones on every side of the intersection.” June nods down at the street. It’s desolate right now, the usual rows of cluttered shops and neon signs shuttered and fenced off. “And if he doesn’t show—”
“Then we hope that it’s because he listened to Eden’s warning and has taken him into his circle.” I take a deep breath, run through the elements of the plan in my head, and look down at my watch. “We should hear from him in several hours.”
June walks up to me. She reaches out to touch my wrist with her hand, gently coaxing me to lower my arm. “We’ll hear from them before then,” she promises. “I’ve seen Eden in worse situations.”
“I know.” I run a hand through my hair, trying to keep my eyes on the horizon instead of on her so that she can’t see my worry. “I’m just thinking everything through.”
June hesitates, then edges close to me. Her lips brush mine in a light kiss. For an instant, it’s as if she has created a small, sheltered space for us—even here, on a tower overlooking a standoff. I close my eyes and let myself lean into her, savoring this small moment of peace.
Finally, we pull away.
“You’d better make sure you’re careful,” June says.
I smile back. “You know I always am.”
Then she pulls away, and the moment’s over. We straighten, step back from each other, and go to our teams. I do stop, though, to glance one more time at her over my shoulder. You rarely regret the things you do, but always the things you don’t. A last glimpse of June walking away. Then she’s with her cluster of soldiers, and I keep walking.
Lara and Jessan are here, along with two other AIS agents. Then there are a handful of Antarctican soldiers. They give me wary looks as I join them. Guess they must’ve heard enough about my reputation to be nervous. Good.
“There are a number of supplies missing from one of the factories on the city outskirts,” Jessan says to me.
“Weapons?”
She nods grimly. “I don’t think this is just an operation to destabilize the city. Hann is ready to start a war with us.”
That’s where Eden and Pressa are right now. I grit my teeth, pushing the thought back, and nod down toward the intersection. “I know wars,” I reply. “He should be careful what he wants.”
Moving stealthily with all these gadgets strapped to me is always a strange feeling. I’m used to finding my footing on my own—running and hiding with the help of nothing but a sturdy pair of boots. If I’d had all this equipment with me on the streets of Lake, the Republic might never have caught me at all.
It’s the work of a moment for me to scale the top of a shuttered shop and slide my way inside its second story, then weave in and out between the windows until I’m perched at the vantage point I need. From here, I get the perfect view of the street. Down below, the others are slowly getting into position—crouched in the shadows of alleys that branch off down the street, hiding behind parked buses and stations.
June should be in position now too. I look at my watch. It’s almost time. My heart thuds. My head feels light. I keep imagining Hann’s cold, lean figure walking up the street, using Eden again as his hostage. What if we’d overestimated his desire for Eden’s work on his project? What if he’s already guessed what we’re doing?
The seconds drag by. The time comes for Hann to show up.
No one appears.
I hold my breath. He shouldn’t appear. If all goes well, he should stay put. Maybe he’ll send out a broadcast to us, just as we did to him. My hands are sweating, and I press them idly against the wall. We should receive an insect drone from Eden later, telling us that they’re in. Telling us what he’s doing.
The silence continues. Over the city, my repeated message continues to play. I start to let myself believe that Eden has made his way in.
But I’m not ready for what happens next. Because just as the thought occurs to me—I hear a loud pop come from the opposite side of the street. My head jerks to where June and her team should be waiting.
It’s all I have time to do before an explosion engulfs their building.
EDEN
The first thing they do is blindfold us. I stay quiet, trying to remember every stair and turn we take. My shoes clank against metal floor, then clip against wood. All I hear beside me is the flutter of Pressa’s breath, soft and rapid. She doesn’t say anything.
I have no idea how long we walk, but finally we come to an abrupt halt. I stay still, listening intently as our guards murmur to each other in low voices. Their words are too hard to make out.
Then rough hands are undoing my blindfold, and I squint in the sudden, artificial light.
This isn’t where I’d been held the first time. Instead of the estatelike property where Hann had first taken me, we’re now standing on a balcony overlooking what seems like a series of walled compounds. I realize that this is right near the border of Ross City, where the biodome ends. When I look out beyond it, I can see the expanse of frozen tundra that still makes up the vast majority of Antarctica’s terrain.
“You’re back. Just as I thought.”
His calm, smooth voice is like a knife scraping against my skin. I whirl around and find myself face-to-face with Hann.
He looks paler than when I last saw him. His skin appears almost entirely drained of color, nearly milky white, and new circles of exhaustion seem to drag underneath his eyes. But his gaze is as sharp and cold as ever, and his smile is the same: confident, secretive, and intimidating.
Pressa stiffens. I reach out instinctively to touch her hand, and she startles at my gesture.
At my hesitation, Hann takes a step closer to us and tucks his hands behind his back. “You took longer than I would have guessed, though,” he continues. “You have a high tolerance for watching chaos unfold. I should have known that, given your past.”
Remember why you’re here. The words clank through me, and I force myself to swallow and open my mouth. When I speak, my voice comes out hoarse. “Where are we?” I ask. “And what are you doing out here?”
He shrugs, glancing out at the frozen wasteland. “The chaos in the city won’t last forever. But while it does, this is the best place for us to be. Now is that something you’re transmitting to the military, or are you genuinely here for a reason that matters to me?”
I hold my hands up. Already, my heartbeat has jolted up to a feverish rhythm. “No one else knows I’m here. Or, at least, they don’t know where I’ve gone.”
Hann doesn’t look like he believes me. He nods at two of the guards behind him, and they head over to pat us down. I hold my arms up. Pressa does the same.
“I know you left the city with your brother,” he says as we’re inspected. “What did you spend the last few days talking with him about?”
“We didn’t talk so much as fight.” I hope the bitterness in my voice is convincing enough. Beside me, Pressa snaps at the woman searching her—the woman shoves her roughly against the glass wall. I take a step toward them. “Hey, how about telling your folks to cool it?”
Hann’s smile turns amused. “What’s this? You’ve brought your friend with you? Maybe you’re serious after all, if you’re willing to risk her life.” He tilts his head at me. “What are you doing back here, Eden?”
The two guards finally step away from us. Pressa straightens her shirt, still mumbling under her breath, and comes to join me again. If she’s putting on an act of bewildered innocence, she’s doing a good job of it.
“I came to find you without my brother knowing. Right now, he’s probably sending out search parties for me.” I take a deep breath. “When I last saw you, you told me that you wanted my help on your plans for restructuring the way Ross City’s system works. I’m back here because I’m wondering if you still need me.”
At that, Hann narrows his eyes. “Why the change of heart?”
I hesitate. We may be here because we’re trying to fool Hann, but suddenly I feel like I’m here of my own free will. Hann studies me with the same concern and interest he had on the first night of the drone races. And even now, knowing what kind of person he is, I feel the urge to impress him.
“I did what you said,” I end up muttering, forcing myself to go on with my lie. “I had an audience with my brother and the AIS. They’re studying the chaos happening in the city right now.”
“And what did they say?”
“Their solution to fixing it all is to just—sacrifice the people in the Undercity.” I pause here and look at the floor. “I told Daniel he couldn’t let that happen. I thought that he would understand, of all people.”
When I trail off, Dominic Hann studies my face carefully. “But he sided with the AIS, didn’t he?”
I look up to meet his eyes. They’re still studying me, and I wonder if I remind him of his son right now. “They’re trying to lure you out with a deal,” I say. “They might even have broadcasted it by now—that they’re willing to meet you somewhere and negotiate a truce, in exchange for you disabling your system.”
I’m not sure whether Daniel and June have already made their move, but when a glimmer of recognition appears in
Hann’s gaze, I get my confirmation.
“They’re setting up a trap for you,” I go on, my words speeding up in my urgency. “So I came here to tell you that, as a gesture of goodwill. I can give you the details of what they’re planning as far as their operations go.”
“A gesture of goodwill.” Hann is still watching me with that lethal stare, and a shiver runs through me. He doesn’t look convinced.
I glance at Pressa, and on cue, she pulls out the glass vials that she’d carefully packed for us. “My name is Pressa,” she says, slightly bashful. “I was the one who had the counterfeit money at the drone race.”
Hann nods once at her. “I remember you,” he replies.
Pressa’s voice is small but clear, more secure than mine, and I find myself admiring her calmness. “Eden told me about your condition, so I got these from the apothecary where my father used to work.”
“Used to?” Hann raises an eyebrow at her.
Pressa trembles for a moment. Hann sees it, and to my surprise, sympathy flickers in his eyes at her. “I’m sorry,” Hann says to her, gently now.
In spite of everything, I can feel Pressa want to take his pity. Is that what I look like when I feel drawn in by Hann’s charisma too? My anger flares suddenly. Mr. Yu had suffered under the Level system, but he’d died because Hann had caused this chaos in the Undercity.
Hann may be a father figure, a man with a painful past. But he’s also a master manipulator.
Pressa doesn’t answer Hann’s words. She tightens her lips instead and holds up the vials. “This is a serum that’s supposed to ease the symptoms of your lung infection. I used to make it for my father, when he was suffering from his condition. It’s not a cure. But it’s the next best thing.”