I un-Linked myself and swung the curtain from my bed back. “Taylor’s still on site, right?” I asked Xona.
She looked up from the weapon she was polishing. “Yeah, why?”
“Thanks.” I jumped down off the bed and pulled some slippers on my feet. I had already failed Max. There must still be time to rescue Markan, and the families of the other glitchers who’d been left behind.
* * *
All I could think about was Markan as I walked towards Taylor’s office. I remembered the way I used to tiptoe into his room at night and watch him sleep. That was months ago. He might look very different now. I wondered if his soft cheeks had leaned out and how tall he’d gotten. As I got closer to Taylor’s office, I saw the door was partially open already, and I could hear voices.
“Got the skeleton darn near done, but that don’t mean nothin’ if we don’t have the contents to put in the godlam’d thing.”
“Don’t you think I know that, Henk?” Taylor’s voice was sharp. “Obviously I know that.”
“I got myself cracked puttin’ this together for ya. You promised we could take them down for good. That’s the only reason I risked my position to do this.”
“Your position? That’s right, here on the outer dregs of the Rez we don’t get to eat caviar and drink gin.”
“You know I don’t care about any of that.” Henk’s voice got louder. “I wanna bring the whole thing crumblin’ down on the shunters’ heads, same as you.”
I tiptoed closer to hear better. Henk sounded far different from the joking prankster he’d been when I’d last seen him.
“Then find me another way to get what we need.”
“How am I supposed to do that if I’m watch-listed and on the run? This was your side of the bargain. You said if I designed the thing and brought you a prototype, you’d take care of the rest.”
“Chancellor Bright always seems to be two steps ahead of us.” Taylor grimaced like she’d eaten something rotten. “All we can do now is figure out another way to get what we need. You work things on your end and I’ll work mine.”
“I ain’t got an end anymore, or haven’t you heard a single word I’ve said? I need access, machinery, resources. It’s all gone.”
“We both know you have clientele outside the Community you could talk to. You moved product between global Sectors all the time.”
“You’re trying to get me killed, is that it? Need your project all hush, hush, so let’s get Henk to cut deals with the ganger bosses and get his throat slit?”
“I would die for the cause tomorrow,” Taylor shot back. “A sacrifice that all of us should be willing to make, no questions asked.”
“Dyin’ for something that actually makes a difference is one thing. Takin’ a suicide run is somethin’ else entirely.”
“I’m not saying you have to steal it—”
“Well it’s gotta come from somewhere, don’t it? And last I checked, the Rez ain’t got near enough resources to buy—”
“Stop,” Taylor said, and I heard feet approach the doorway. “You can’t even close a door correctly, no wonder you got cracked trying to leave the factory with the prototype.”
The door shut fast before I could hear his response.
I pulled back, my heart beating fast. What were they talking about? I was stunned, but I couldn’t turn back to my dorm room. I’d come here with a purpose, and I was going to see it through.
I waited a few minutes, so they wouldn’t know I’d heard them, then knocked on the chrome door until it slid open. I looked at Henk. He was staring at the General, his face mottled with anger. She looked down at her console screen as if purposefully ignoring him.
“I’m sorry if I’m interrupting.”
“I was just leaving.” Henk grabbed his jacket and strode out the door.
I looked around. Every ounce of wall space was covered with paper maps and a wall-wide monitor that had digital notes scribbled all over it. The clutter gave the room the look of a lair. And all the actual paper surprised me. I leaned in without thinking to try to read her small scratch. I was used to everything being digital. Other than me and my drawing stock, I didn’t know anyone who used paper anymore.
“What?” the General asked, still not looking up.
Nervousness struck, but I held my ground. “I want to talk to you about something.”
She finally looked up, but her eyes were narrowed. “What?”
“I saw over the Link News feed that glitchers are showing up younger and younger.”
The General nodded, her face impassive. Of course she already knew.
“That means the Chancellor is getting access to even more glitchers every day,” I went on, “building up her ranks when we haven’t been able to rescue any new ones other than the few from the raid.”
She didn’t respond. I hesitated.
She stared at me, her face still expressionless. “And? Is there something else?”
“They say glitching runs in families sometimes,” I rushed on. “So I want to put together a mission to rescue my brother and other people’s siblings. We’ve got to get to them before the Chancellor does.”
She stared at me blankly for a long moment, then took a deep breath. “Oh my, you’re serious. Listen carefully, Zoel. Chancellor Bright has your family’s housing unit under constant surveillance because she thinks you would be stupid enough to try to attempt such a thing. It’s probably the same for the family of every other glitcher we’ve rescued. There might be a lot of rumors and talk about you becoming a leader, but this army doesn’t belong to you. These aren’t your lives to risk. And if you think it’s worthwhile to get good soldiers killed just so you can play happy family, you’ve got a hell of a lot to learn about being a leader.”
“But his life could be in danger,” I sputtered. “I have to try. And he might be a glitcher.”
“Might is the operative word. And all of us have family.” She turned her attention back to the file in her console screen.
“Which is why I’m not just talking about my brother, but the others’ families too. There can’t be that many of us with siblings, and if we organized coordinated strikes all at the same time—”
“No,” Taylor said simply, looking back at her console screen.
“You don’t understand.” I sat down at the chair across from her. “I betrayed my older brother a long time ago, and I couldn’t save my friend Max. I can’t do the same to Markan. I have to try to get him out. I could disable any Regs who are assigned to follow him, then we could—”
The General looked back up at me, her face suddenly hard as marble. “I’ve already wasted too many of our resources in the hope that you might turn out to be useful. We built this entire facility with you in mind, to protect you. We saved you.”
“But—” I started to protest, but she cut me off.
“No, Zoel, you have yet to pay back any of the great debts you owe. And that’s fine. I have one task that I need you for, and then I’m happy never to work with any of you glitchers again. You’re all unnatural anyway. A by-product of the enemy we are trying to destroy. I’ll take care of mine, you can take care of yours.”
I gasped, taken aback. “What does that mean?”
“It means I’ll take care of freeing the drones. Your job is to get rid of Chancellor Bright.”
“You can free them?” I leaned forward. My worries about my brother were momentarily sidelined. Getting rid of the V-chip was everything I’d always hoped for. “How? I’ll do anything to help.”
“Would you?” Taylor raised an eyebrow. “Would you really? You speak of sacrifice as if it were simple. As if choosing who can be saved and who can’t is a burden easily carried. Yet you come in here begging me to risk losing countless good fighters, people who have their own families and lives worth protecting.”
“But it’s our families—”
“We all have families.” Her voice caught for a moment before her eyes hardened again. “The question i
s not whether you are willing to give your own life, it’s whether you’re willing to give up the people you love most. Even if it was for the greater good, could you do it? Could you?” She waited a moment with her hawk eyes on me. “I thought not. But you can kill the Chancellor. You’re powerful, you’re immune to her compulsion, and she will kill you unless you take her down first. That is all you are here to do. You are dismissed.”
I left Taylor’s office both fuming and terrified. We couldn’t get Markan back. They were watching him, all because of me. If he was a glitcher, the Chancellor would know first, and if he wasn’t, she’d still make sure I never got to him before he turned eighteen and the final adult V-chip was implanted. He’d turn into a drone forever, just like our parents.
No. I wouldn’t let the Chancellor take the only family I had left. Anger surged up inside me like a billowing red sheet. The idea of Markan glitching and being able to feel emotion—only to be made a slave to the Chancellor’s compulsion—chilled me to the bone. If it was in my power to end the Chancellor’s life, I could save my brother and so many others. This was my destiny, and, sooner or later, I had to face it.
Chapter 19
TRY AS I MIGHT, I could never seem to catch Adrien alone. I wanted to talk to him about everything the General had said, or just spend a couple of hours holding each other. But I never could. He’d show up late to meals and would disappear right after classes. He always seemed tired and drawn. He’d brushed me off when I asked if he was okay and said he was working on a special techer security program for the General. He looked like he never slept. What happened on the raid seemed to have ruined the peace he’d spoken of when we watched the sunset.
Meanwhile Tyryn was pushing us harder than ever in training. We ran a long loop up and down the stairwells between the two floors, over and over again.
“Faster,” Tyryn yelled as Ginni and I ran by on our tenth lap.
“I take back ever thinking he was cute,” Ginni said through huffing breaths.
Xona flew by, lapping us. Again. It seemed like she was in a race to keep up with the ex-Regs, whose pounding feet had run past us three times already.
I looked behind me, trying to see where Adrien was in the pack. He was so far back he must still be on the stairwell. I frowned. Adrien had been running slower than normal the past few days. His late nights must be taking their toll. Saminsa jogged down the hall behind us, carefully keeping her distance from Ginni and me.
“Rally up,” Tyryn called on our next lap. I came to a stop inside the training center and leaned over with my hands on my knees. Ginni collapsed on the ground. Adrien and City were the last to finish their laps. Right when they came in, Tyryn called out, “Everybody on your feet!”
City let out a long complaining groan.
Xona smirked, bouncing around from foot to foot as if the workout hadn’t even begun yet. City glared, her blond hair wet with sweat and matted on her forehead. Before she could fire off a snappy comment, Tyryn interrupted with his booming voice. “You all need to start acting more like a team. Until we get another chance at the Chancellor, you’ll be called on for more and more dangerous missions, and your life will depend on the people standing around you now. You all did as well as could be expected on your first mission together, but when we go up against the Chancellor herself, we have to be flawless.”
City nodded toward Xona. “Then I don’t know why she’s here. She’s not even on our task force.”
Xona’s jaw tensed like she was barely keeping herself in check, but she didn’t say anything. She looked at her brother.
“She is now,” Tyryn said.
City’s mouth dropped open. “What?”
“She’s been testing through the Rez fighter training program and was just officially assigned yesterday. Taylor thinks she’ll be good to have on your team.”
City scoffed. “Why?”
“The General believes it’s imperative to have non-glitchers on every task force, and Xona is the perfect choice since she already lives and trains with you. I don’t want to hear another word about it,” he finished, staring at City. She put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes.
“Stand at attention.”
With another audible sigh, City dropped her arms and straightened her back.
“Now,” Tyryn said, “as I said, you have to start working more as a team. You each have varied and unique gifts, but you have to start working as one. Which is why today instead of moving directly into weapons training, we are going to do some trust exercises.”
We all stared at him.
“First, everyone needs to grab one of these poles.” He pointed to a pile of poles on the ground. They were thin metal rods, each with a rubber hand grip on the bottom. They didn’t look like anything we usually trained with.
“Each of you will hold this and let Filicity cast her electricity at you. You have to trust she’ll hit the pole. Don’t let go or drop it. And Filicity,” he looked at her, “keep the amperage to a low stun just in case.”
City nodded, her attitude suddenly changed now that she was the center of attention. She grinned and rubbed her hands together, sparks flying between her fingertips. Rand was the first to go and pick up a pole. I reluctantly followed. As much as I might not like City, I had seen her aim, and she was always spot-on.
Ginni tried to hand Saminsa a pole, but the pixie-haired girl took one look at the pole and City, then crossed her arms and turned to go sit by the wall. Tyryn let it go without comment. I guessed there was a grace period for trust when you’d been the enemy on the last mission.
We lined up and let City attack us. It was unnerving to see the blue-white spiral coming straight toward me when it was my turn, but other than a faint vibration in the handle of the pole, I didn’t feel a thing.
“Good,” Tyryn said after we’d all gone. “Now we’ll turn to Cole and Zoe. Cole,” he looked at the ex-Reg, “I want you to hoist each team member gently by their waists and toss them up into the air a few feet. Zoe, you catch them with your telekinesis and return them safely to the ground.”
Xona’s eyes widened until I thought they’d pop out of her head, but she kept her mouth a tight-lipped line.
“Do I have any volunteers to go first?”
“Hell yeah, I’ll try it.” Rand stepped forward. He put his hand on Cole’s shoulder. “Be gentle, my good man,” he said with mock seriousness before turning to grin at the rest of us.
“Let us know when you’re ready, Zoe,” Tyryn said.
I closed my eyes and let the buzzing in my ears grow. I imagined my connection to everything around me. The people standing in front of me were just extensions of the floor which was merely an extension of myself. I still meditated every day, and accessing these connections came more and more naturally now. After only a moment’s resistance, a projection cube of the entire room rose in my mind. I marveled for a moment at being able to call on my power so easily, then latched onto Rand’s figure. “Ready.”
Cole lifted him up by the waist. Rand was a big guy, surely over two hundred pounds, but Cole lifted him as if he were no heavier than a paperweight. He tossed him up. I’d had my power lassoed around him the whole time, but when he peaked in the air and began to fall again, I grabbed hold and lowered him slowly to the ground.
“That was awesome!” Rand said, pumping a fist in the air. “You could’ve let me fall faster though. Where’s your sense of fun?”
One by one the rest of them went through. Adrien felt bulkier in the air than I expected, but I was glad because it meant he was still putting on weight. Finally no one was left but Xona. She gritted her teeth and walked over to Cole. She looked up at the ex-Reg who towered a good foot over her and took several quick breaths. I could see her arm trembling slightly as he reached toward her, but she managed to stand still. Cole hesitated before gently placing his metal-reinforced hand on her waist. She jerked away. “I can’t.”
“Xona,” Tyryn started. Cole dropped his hand.
“I can’t.” She spun on her heel and ran out of the room.
For a second no one said anything, then Ginni grabbed my hand and we headed out the door. We caught up to Xona halfway down the hall. She’d slumped to her knees, her hands covering her face.
Ginni dropped down and smoothed her hair out of her face, rubbing Xona’s back with her other hand. I crouched down too. “Talk to us,” Ginni said. “Tell us what’s wrong.”
When Xona finally looked up, her face was tear-stained. I was stunned. The only emotions I’d ever seen from her were annoyance or anger.
“My mom and I were sleeping when they came.” Xona’s voice was a low guttural whisper. “Out of nowhere, there’s this huge boom and the wall was blown in on us. A beam landed on Mom and me. I was able to crawl out from underneath it, but she was trapped. That’s when the Regulators burst into the room.
“They were animals. Dad fired off a couple of rounds, but they all bounced off the Regs’ chests. Then one Reg grabbed my dad by the neck. The snap of his spine was so loud.” She winced. “I’ll never forget that sound.” Another tear escaped from one eye and ran down her cheek before she swiped it angrily away.
“Oh, hon.” I reached out to put an arm on her shoulder, but she just shrugged me off and kept talking, staring at the wall like she was watching the memory play out.
“I should have made Tyryn stop and get the beam off of Mom. I should have made him save her instead of me. But I didn’t.” Another errant tear escaped. “Tyryn grabbed me up in his arms and took off. I watched over his shoulder as a Regulator crushed her chest like she was nothing.” She looked up at Ginni and me. “I know everyone thinks I’m a jerk for not being able to stand the ex-Regs and saying they aren’t human. But what human being could do that? And how could I ever see them as anything other than the monsters they are?”
Xona turned her face away and wept. This time she let Ginni and I get close to hug her, our arms around her like a shield.
Over her shoulder, I could see Cole standing in the doorway with a pained look on his face as he watched Xona’s back shake with sobs. I didn’t know how much he had overheard, but it was obviously enough. He looked over at me, raising his eyebrows and gesturing a question. I shook my head. No, I didn’t think he should come talk to her.
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