Blacklisted

by Gena Showalter

Remaining in the shadows, we edged to the side of one particular house. A robodog barked in the background. A wide iron fence stretched from the center of each side and angled backward, blocking in the grounds. Two towering white columns opened to a bricked pathway, which was lined with fake trees and led to an arched entrance.

  Welcome, the place seemed to say. Nothing bad happens here. Nothing illegal.

  Silver had given Erik the security code before we'd left the safe house. Thankfully Onadyn operations had been shut down temporarily due to A.I.R. interest, so we didn't have to worry about stumbling upon other employees while we "worked."

  I'm now a thief, I thought.

  The closer we came to the front door, the brighter the motion light shined, pushing away the comforting shadows. That didn't slow us down as we trekked up the steps.

  "Stay here," Erik said, depositing me on a swinging bench and striding to the French double doors. He punched a series of numbers into the ID box and the entrance opened eagerly, like it had been waiting for him all day. He disappeared inside.

  I was alone.

  Several minutes passed. Long minutes. Torturous minutes. What was going on in there? The robodog barked again and I gulped. A part of me feared A.I.R. agents would jump out at any second. "Erik!" I whispered fiercely.

  Nothing.

  "Erik!"

  With a shaky hand, I withdrew a knife from my boot. The hilt was cool and heavy. Menacing. At least the neighborhood was calm and--

  Headlights appeared in the distance. I shot to my feet and raced inside the house. I closed the door behind me and pressed my back against the frame, trying unsuccessfully to control my shallow breathing. My heartbeat galloped at full speed. Logically I knew A.I.R. would not announce their presence with blaring headlights. (Or would they?) They would have sneaked up on me so that I couldn't warn Erik. (Right?)

  Oh God. I didn't know.

  I turned and surveyed the house. The foyer was empty, devoid of furniture. Total silence. "Erik!" I hissed.

  My voice echoed.

  Where was he?

  I held the knife in front of me and inched forward. Had he left the house? No, he wouldn't have abandoned me. Right? Right. Was he hurt? Knocked out? Totally fine and simply going about his plan without any thought to the fact that I might want to throw up?

  Or, what if there were people here and he'd been subdued?

  Total panic filled me. Paranoia. Terror. I forced my back to straighten and my shoulders to square. All right. Here's what you're going to do, Robins. You're going to search the house and incapacitate anything that moves. Yes. That's what I'd do.

  "I was just coming to get you," a sweet, familiar voice said.

  I gasped, my wild gaze searching the darkness. Erik stood beside me but I hadn't heard or seen his approach. Scowling, I slapped his shoulder. "I was just about to do a search and rescue. You have no idea how close you came to feeling the sting of my knife."

  To his credit, he didn't laugh.

  I slapped his shoulder a second time. "I was worried about you. You didn't tell me how long you'd be gone before you entered the house. You didn't tell me what to do if I spotted anyone."

  He confiscated the knife and slid it back into my boot. I think I saw the hint of a smile. "On edge, are we?"

  "I saw a car," I told him.

  "Camille, sweetie, people do drive through neighborhoods."

  Sweetie. I rubbed my hands up and down my forearms. "Why'd you leave me out there anyway?" I grumbled.

  His hand tangled in my hair, pulling me forward for a quick kiss. "I wanted to make sure the house was safe first."

  Hmm, I forgot everything but Erik when he kissed me like that. "And is it?"

  He nodded. "It's just you and me, babe."

  "Did you find the the stuff?"

  The mention of Onadyn caused his eyes to go a little flat. "Yeah. But I want you to wait here while I gather it up."

  No way. "I'll help."

  "Nope." He shook his head, several white strands of hair falling over his forehead. "You're already involved in this mess, so there's nothing I can do about that, but I can make sure you don't actually handle the goods."

  I anchored my hands on my hips and stared up at him. He wasn't doing this without me, wasn't taking the responsibility and the blame for his own. I was involved now; he was right about that. And I would be doing my part; he was so wrong about me not handling the goods. "I'm going to help."

  "Nope," he repeated. "Sorry."

  My eyes narrowed to tiny slits. He hated that he had to break the law, I realized that. And he didn't want me to have to hate it, as well. The more time I spent with Erik, the more I peeled away his layers and discovered the honorable guy underneath. But I wasn't going to let him do this alone.

  "I want to help the Outers, Erik, and I'm willing to break the law to do it. Let me help. Please. Let me make a difference. What we're doing isn't something we should be ashamed of. This needs to be done."

  A pause. Heavy, unsure. Wistful.

  Then the flatness of his dark eyes began to give way to light, a shining gold. "I don't think I've ever met a girl like you, Camille." He kissed me again, lingering this time. Savoring.

  "I've ignored aliens most of my life, not helping when they were teased and taunted. I think it's time I crawled out from under my rock and saw the world for what it really is: a sometimes violent place in need of change and more people willing to step out and do something good, something right." And maybe one day, I thought, I'll be able to do even more. Maybe I'd be able to actually change the law.

  Hopefully my dad had already started...

  Hope rushed through me. By now, my mom had to have told him what I'd said. My dad had to have paid attention and was now doing everything in his power for the cause.

  The cause. My cause. Our cause. Tolerance. Acceptance of differences.

  "Time is our enemy, I'm assuming," I said, all business, "so show me where that Onadyn is."

  Without any more hesitation, Erik ushered me out of the foyer and into a room at the top of the staircase. No, not a room. A laboratory. The air smelled sterile, layered with chemicals. Throughout the entire enclosure, there were long tables, each loaded down with decanters and pots. Lab coats hung on the hooks beside the door, as well as boxes of gloves. There was even a stove--or what looked to be a stove with four fire rings.

  "It's amazing, really," Erik said. "The stuff in here can kill humans in the blink of an eye but it can save certain Outers just as quickly. Be careful. Don't touch anything that has liquid inside." He moved forward, but paused midstep. "I don't want you to suffocate."

  Me either.

  "It's an ugly death. The skin turns blue, flaky, and sinks in. The eyes bug out. Limbs flail as the body fights for a single drop of breathable air."

  Images played through my mind and I cringed at the horror of it.

  "Most humans have accepted our visitors. But there are still those who fear them. I understand that fear, I really do, because some aliens can walk through walls or simply disappear. Some can control our actions with their minds. But like humans, there are good and bad."

  I'm guilty of that fear myself, I thought, a little sadly. Never again, I vowed.

  Erik raked a hand through his hair. "I was never allowed here, though I fought and fought to gain an invitation. Funny that it took an A.I.R. arrest to get me in." He gave me another of those swift kisses. For strength? It was almost as if he couldn't stop himself, as if he had to kiss me. Was compelled by a force greater than himself to do it.

  I hoped he would never stop.

  "Look around. I'm going to check the Onadyn and make sure the vials are sealed properly before you touch them."

  "Okay."

  He strode to a cabinet in back, opened the doors by cutting the ID wires and rehooking them. ID boxes were supposedly thief proof, but I'd seen him bypass many with ease.

  I walked to the closest table and lifted one of the empty decanters. There was a blue cr
ust on the rim. Careful not to actually touch it, I sniffed. There was a subtle hint of...jasmine? Orchid? Some type of flower, definitely.

  "Have you ever tried Onadyn?" I asked, setting the bottle down.

  "No," Erik said. "Never."

  "Ever thought about it?"

  Several seconds ticked by in silence. I glanced over at him. He had his back to me and was rummaging through a metal box. "Yeah," he finally said. "Once or twice after I was kicked out of A.I.R. and faced a lifetime of imprisonment. I wasn't sure I could go on. I wasn't sure I wanted to go on."

  I lifted another glass, one with pink striations on the bottom. Glitter seemed to cake the inside of it, like a snow globe. "What stopped you?"

  He shrugged. "Thoughts of death. Addiction. Most of all, thoughts of becoming sloppy and forgetting who I am, caring only about my next high."

  Before I could reply, a board creaked. The sound scared me and I froze, heart hammering. Erik didn't seem to notice or mind, so I forced myself to relax. "I don't understand why we're stealing from Silver's dad. We could have asked him and saved ourselves the trouble of breaking in."

  "He never would have given us what we needed and now that A.I.R.'s found me, I'm sure they've frozen my accounts. I wouldn't have been able to buy it."

  "But I thought Silver's dad was sympathetic to the cause."

  "He is, but only for his family. Everyone else has to pay. He's gotten used to his lifestyle, I guess."

  I pushed out a sigh. "Silver's cheating his dad, then. Can we trust him not to change his mind and tattle?"

  "Yeah. It's, uh, not the first time he's had to go to such lengths." A pause, then a happy whoop. "Found it!" He pocketed several small vials of clear liquid. I'd never done Onadyn, either, and didn't ever want to--for all the reasons he'd named.

  "One day we might get a medal of honor for this," I told him. Did I believe it? No. But it was a nice thought.

  He tossed me a grin, the expression somehow sad.

  "Well, it's possible," I said, refusing to back down.

  Several more vials found their way into his pockets. "So is this the wildest thing you've ever done?" he asked, changing the subject.

  "Yes. No question. You?"

  "Nah. Going back to high school tops the list for me. Those first few days, I was convinced someone was going to realize I wasn't who I said I was and I didn't belong there."

  Approaching him, I traced a fingertip over the tabletop. "But no one did."

  "Sometimes people only see what they want to see." He paused a moment to look over at me.

  "I certainly did." Grinning, I closed the rest of the distance until I stood beside him. "Since you're stuffing them in your pockets, I'm going to assume the vials are sealed properly."

  "They are, but I still don't want you to handle them." He closed the cabinet with a soft click, then turned toward me. "Ready?"

  Clearly he still wanted to carry the bulk of the responsibility on his own shoulders. I, however, was having none of that.

  "Nope," I said. "Not quite yet." Rising on my tiptoes, I planted a kiss on Erik's welcoming lips, just as he'd done to me several times. But I didn't embrace him. I jabbed a hand into his pocket and withdrew a fistful of the vials. I shoved them in my pockets, peering up at him and silently daring him to say something. "Now I'm ready. You're not doing this alone."

  He shook his head, but admiration glowed in his eyes. "You constantly amaze me," he said, not trying to take them away.

  "Thank you," I said primly.

  "You're very welcome," he said, mimicking my tone.

  We shared a laugh.

  We left the lab then and descended the staircase. I could hear the vials clanging together every time Erik moved. My dress was so tight the vials had no wiggle room and remained in place.

  "I can't believe I'm doing this," I said when we reached the front entrance. "Where are the Outers staying anyway? The ones who need the Onadyn?"

  "Southern District on Main. The Offworlder Apartments, which should have collapsed years ago. I'm sorry, but we've got a long hike ahead of us."

  "I'll live."

  He pried the double doors apart, rather than mess with the ID box and code again. "You're--"

  "Caught," a woman said just in front of us. It was Phoenix. Wisps of brown hair whipped around her smug features. She aimed a pyre-gun at Erik's chest. "You're caught."

  13

  In the ensuing seconds that seemed to take an eternity to tick by, chaos erupted. Erik had his gun aimed at Phoenix before I could draw in a panicked breath. Other A.I.R. agents surrounded us, a thousand it seemed, weapons poised and ready to fire.

  Death had never seemed closer.

  "We can't thank you enough for showing us the lab's location," Cara said, stepping forward until she stood beside Phoenix. She appeared just as smug as her coworker.

  I grit my teeth.

  "You didn't follow us here," Erik said stiffly. He held the gun steady, seemingly unimpressed by the agents and the weapons they'd trained on him. "How did you find us?"

  There was a man standing on Phoenix's other side and he laughed, drawing attention to himself. "I just got into town, haven't been briefed because I've been too busy fighting Morevvs, but even I can tell you the answer to that."

  "Ryan," Erik said, shoulders tensing. The name was spat out, as if it was the darkest curse. He inched forward, scooting me behind him as best he could so that I was out of the line of fire.

  Ryan was obviously a few years older than Erik. He had dark hair and eyes so blue they sparkled. He was handsome and muscled and wore all black. And he was grinning like it was Christmas and he'd gotten exactly what he wanted from Santa. "If I know my girl, she pegged you with a GPS chip."

  Erik growled low in his throat.

  "Yep. That's exactly what I did." As unconcerned as Erik had first seemed, Phoenix unsheathed a blade and reached around him. She stabbed the silver tip into one of the welts on his upper back.

  He didn't move, didn't show any reaction, though it had to have hurt.

  When she pulled away, there was blood on her hand and on the knife and a tiny black dot on the tip of her index finger. "That's why we whipped you. That, and you deserve a little punishment for what you've put us through. There was a sedative on the whip. You passed out and we were then able to inject the chip without your knowledge. And you never suspected, because you simply assumed your back hurt from the whipping."

  "You--you--"

  "Outsmarted you," Phoenix interjected.

  My hands tightened into fists, but I forced myself to relax, to touch his back in comfort. He, too, relaxed.

  "There'll be no escaping this time," Phoenix said, scowling. I guess she hadn't gotten the reaction she wanted. "And guess what? There'll be no help from your Morevv buddies, either. We've got them surrounded, too. And they're going to pay. They injured Bradley."

  Shanel, I thought. Silver. No, no, no. Were they okay?

  "Now, why don't you drop the gun," Ryan said, losing his smile. "I don't want to kill you, but we both know I'll do it in a heartbeat. You do not hold a gun on Phoenix. Ever."

  Erik didn't drop his gun, but he did raise his free hand as if he meant to give up. I knew he had a knife strapped to his wrist, so the action would arm him further, not leave him vulnerable. Still. Defeat pressed heavily on my shoulders.

  Defeat? That's the old Camille. The new-and-improved Camille did not give up, did not back down. I'd come too far to be captured now. You have weapons, too. Remember? You aren't helpless.

  "You, too, Camille," Phoenix said, perhaps sensing what I meant to do next. "Hands up."

  I didn't move. Not yet, not yet...Oh God. Oh God. Can't believe you're doing this, can't believe you're even thinking it.

  Start believing, I thought, eyes narrowing as determination rushed through me, strengthening me.

  "Dragging innocent girls down with you." Ryan tsked under his tongue. "Sinking lower every day. Troy, is it? That the new last name you gave
yourself? Funny. Troy was defeated, too."

  "Like you have room to talk about dragging innocent girls into the gutter," Erik snarled. His finger twitched on the trigger. "You started dating Phoenix when she was your student. How depraved is that?"

  Anger darkened Ryan's features, not hot enough to be classified as rage, but hot all the same. "Don't bring Phoenix into this."

  "Don't bring Camille into it, either. She's done nothing wrong."

  "Then why are Onadyn vials sticking out of her dress pockets?" Cara demanded, no longer content to remain in the background.

  The agent named Kitten stepped into my line of vision, at the corner of my eye. I could see that she was programming her gun and aiming at Erik.

  Act now, Robins. You won't have another opportunity.

  Before I could talk myself out of it, I kicked up one leg and my boot banged into Phoenix's wrist. The action startled her and knocked the gun out of her hand. With barely a pause, I spun and grabbed hold of Erik.

  Everything that followed seemed to happen in slow motion, but I knew--logically, at least--that everything was moving quickly. I jerked Erik past the front door. His reflexes were stellar and he knew exactly what I wanted him to do without being told. He slammed the door closed.

  Pop. Whiz.

  Pop. Whiz.

  Sizzle. Sizzle.

  Agents fired, some using pyre-fire, some using bullets. The bullets created gouges and the fire melted bits of the metal.

  "Run, Camille," Erik shouted. I expected him to grab me and leap into a sprint. He didn't. He walked backward, his gun now trained on the door as he waited for A.I.R. to break through. A knife rested in his other hand, like I'd suspected.

  For the first time, I noticed that there weren't any windows.

  I remained in place. Behind me, I could hear footsteps and knew A.I.R. was closing in, blocking every possible avenue of escape. "They're everywhere! We have to leave." Panic rolled through me, thick and oppressive. Almost debilitating. Almost. "Now! Come on!"

  "Damn it, Camille. Listen to me this time and run. Hide. If they take both of us, we're lost. The cause is lost; Outers will die."

  "No."

  "Houses like this are made to withstand attack, but it won't hold out much longer. You have to go. Now."

  "I can't." I shook my head. "I can't leave you. I won't."

  "Take the Onadyn and run, damn it." He didn't face me, but continued to face the door. Waiting..."I'm begging you! I've worked too hard for those kids to die now."