29° (Twenty-Nine Degrees) (Twenty Nine Book 3)

by Nancy Pennick

  How could our country change so drastically in such a short period of time? People should rise up and rebel, not let it happen. Right? Good usually won out in the end. But not this time. At least not yet.

  A new story formed in my mind about how something came to be, but it was just the beginning of the tale, the end still needed to be written. I couldn’t let Doug become the King of the Jungle.

  We were stuck for now. I just needed to find my wings. My brother clipped them for the short term, but that wouldn’t stop me. He could have this battle, but not the war. It had just begun.

  Chapter One

  “Zak’s safely tucked in for the night at Mom and Dad’s penthouse,” I said as I ticked off the chores I had completed on my hand. I flopped back on the bed next to Lucas. “Ashley comes home from the hospital tomorrow, and Doug’s changed the name of our country to New America. What a day!”

  Psychopath. That was my personal clinical diagnosis for my brother, Douglas Sanders. I didn’t know how many times I had looked up the word’s definition or read articles about the affliction. Maybe I was wrong about him. He could be a narcissist or an egomaniac or maybe just an ordinary person gone bad. I shuddered at the thought of being related to him.

  The President of the United States, Brandon Roth, and Vice-President, Angelina Bradford, had been missing for over a month. Their plane had suddenly disappeared during its flight back to Washington D.C. The big question was, why were they both on the plane? Doug, being Speaker of the House, was sworn in as acting President until they could be found. He wasted no time taking over the country and changing the name to New America. It had happened too fast and too easily.

  I nodded off from exhaustion unable to deal with any more drama. When I woke the next day, I realized I’d had a dreamless night, surprising after the day I had experienced. I expected to have relived my covert mission to Patriot Village, only with dire consequences factored in as dreams often do. To tell the truth, I’d expected a nightmare. My invisibility shield could have failed, Josh Reed, the STF driver and my high school boyfriend, might have found me in the trunk or I disintegrated as I tried to go through my screen to the other compound in Montana instead of what truly happened. I’d actually made it there and back safe and sound.

  “Lucas?” I poked him. He was staring at the ceiling as if in a trance.

  “Yeah?”

  “What are you thinking about?”

  “How we get out of here.”

  I sat up, excited. “You have a plan?”

  “No,” he said as he rolled toward me and took my hand. “I wish I did. You know what was stupid?”

  “Lucas,” I said as I rolled my eyes. “You and the other Niners are not stupid. In fact, you’re the smartest men in the world.” I remembered back to Lucas’ confession on the beach early in our relationship, telling me he was born on February twenty-ninth and all men born on that day had special qualities.

  “Not like that, Allie.” He kissed the top of my hand. “When you left for Patriot Village, I should have been on top of things. All I worried about was you getting safely through the transporter to Montana. I should have had you get some things while you were there.”

  “Like what?” I wrinkled my nose. I had just gotten back yesterday from Victorian Village, the place Lucas and I and many Niners called home. It hurt to see the place with no one there, except a band of men guarding it. I’d only gone to the bio lab and back to headquarters, never visiting my house.

  “Well, for one thing … some chips.” He lightly rubbed the top of my wrist where mine was embedded. Every Niner family had been checked for chips before entering New York City. I had convinced my old boyfriend, Josh, not to dissolve mine before we entered the tenements in the city.

  “Then call me stupid, too.” I slid off the bed. “I was so focused on getting the Fountain of Youth serum, I thought of nothing else.”

  “I should have done the thinking for us.” Lucas hit his forehead. “You were under enough pressure.”

  “Too late now,” I said as I pulled Lucas to his feet and wrapped my arms around his waist. I looked up into his chocolate brown eyes and hoped he saw how much I loved him. He’d let his hair grow out since we’d been here, and dark locks fell in shaggy layers on his forehead. His strong jaw relaxed then he brushed my lips with his.

  “I love you,” Lucas said. “You and Zak are the most important people in my life. I won’t dwell on the what/if’s anymore. I will live in the here and now, and hopefully with my Niner brothers find a solution to this problem.” He flung his head back and yelled, “And get the hell out of here!”

  “Well, if you’d give in and take all those Niner brothers to Patriot Village to live and work with the STF, we could end this thing.” I teased, then grew serious. “But you wouldn’t, right? We’d never get to go home.”

  Lucas shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe in extreme circumstances we would give in. But we’re not there yet. And may never be, thanks to your bravery.”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “I did what I had to do. Now all you have to do is get another meeting with Doug and offer him the drug, The Fountain of Youth. How could he resist?”

  “I’ve been thinking it over. How do we prove it’s real, Allie? That the serum will erase twenty years of your life and takes you back to your younger days. Then you stay that way for fifty years before you begin to age again. Sounds bizarre saying it aloud. How will Doug ever buy it?”

  “Rosanne.”

  Lucas lifted his eyebrows. “Your therapist?”

  “My former therapist and now friend. Think, Lucas. She’s Oliver’s wife. He created the serum and tried it out on her. She was in her fifties and now is in her thirties. All she has to do is show a picture …” I stepped back. “Damn! We don’t have any pictures.”

  “No, but you’re on the right track. I’m sure Doug can look her up in his database. Rosanne’s our only hope.”

  “I’m sure she’d agree to help. At least I know her phone number now.” I looked around our dismal living quarters. We lived on the second floor of a converted hotel in a cramped room that held two double beds and not much else. I refused to call it home and referred to it as Thirty-eighth, the street we lived on. We had a small retro flat screen TV and an old cordless phone on the dresser, our only means of communication with family and friends who also had been transplanted to New York City for their safety. Doug insisted people move to designated big cities where he and the STF could protect them. Supposedly, each place was equipped with a protection shield.

  “Don’t call her. Not just yet,” Lucas said and took my hand. “Let’s go down for breakfast.”

  As I was about to put my hand on the doorknob, someone pounded on the door.

  “A bomb!” a young girl screamed. “A bomb went off in the city!”

  I opened the door and watched the teen run down the hall, pounding on doors.

  “Does that mean we have to get out of the building?” I looked at Lucas over my shoulder. He already had turned on the television, searching for the news channel, one of the five stations we received.

  Lucas motioned for me to stand next to him in front of the screen. “Looks like a bomb went off in Times Square early this morning. We don’t have to evacuate.”

  Our friend, Kim Wells, stood in Times Square reporting the news. “The bomb was placed in the bottom of a burn barrel so not much damage was done,” she said as she walked along the street. “The authorities believe it wasn’t meant to hurt anyone but was some type of warning.”

  “Warning, Kim?” The newscaster at the station asked.

  “Yes. Someone inside the city has the means to make a bomb. The STF has asked everyone to be vigilant. Keep your eyes open and report anything suspicious to the number below.” A scrolling bar traveled across the bottom of the screen bearing the phone number. “I’m Kim Wells, reporting for WSTF.”

  I looked at Lucas. “Why doesn’t she use her married name, McLeod? I wonder how Sean likes that.�
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  “Allie!” Lucas ran his hands through his dark hair. “Weren’t you listening? A bomb went off, and people are supposed to be on guard now, and you’re worried that Kim is using her maiden name?”

  “Well, it’s a small distraction. Sorry.”

  “Don’t be,” Lucas said. “I overreacted.”

  “It’s okay. We’re all on edge. Think, Lucas. This is another one of Doug’s tactics.” I slumped onto the bed. “He is slowly and methodically trying to get to us. Doug wants people not to trust each other. He probably ordered the bomb to explode at just the right time.”

  “Maybe.” Lucas sat next to me. “Or he has a new plan, and this is just the first step.”

  “What else could he want from us?” I tugged my hair in frustration. I’d let my brunette locks grow longer, too, and my hair now hung past my shoulders. “All the people in the country have been rounded up and put in big cities under protective shields. We’re waiting for the STF to wipe this unknown assailant from the earth so we can go home. But really? Doug’s holding all the people of the United States hostage until you and the Niners agree to work for him.”

  “You summed that up nicely.” Lucas teased. “And since nothing’s worked so far, Doug’s on to a new plan.”

  I threw myself back on the bed, bouncing off the mattress. “Why can’t some of his Niners find the antidote to the nuclear bomb? Then he’d leave us alone, and we could all go home.”

  Doug had four Niners on staff, recruited long ago from the military. He knew their secrets but never exposed them. Why should he? He had control.

  “I wish we could come up with that formula for the antidote to the nuclear bomb, how great would that be?” Lucas said. “But then again, in the wrong hands, it could be deadly.”

  “And if Doug had it?” I sat up, brushing my bangs out of my eyes. “He could finally become King of the World.” I shivered as goose bumps ran down my arms.

  Lucas placed a finger under my chin. “Let me see those beautiful aqua eyes. There’s still hope in them, right?”

  I blinked and looked at him. “Yes.” I dropped my shoulders. “But it’s hard at times. We’re stuck here, our son is living with my mom and dad, and our best friends seem miles away.”

  “We could remedy that.” Lucas kissed the tip of my nose. “When Ashley’s up to it, we’ll ask your mom if we can host a party at the penthouse.”

  “Ash isn’t going to be in a mood for a party, Lucas. She just lost her baby and may never have another.”

  “You’re right. We’ll call it a brunch or whatever you want, so we can be together.”

  I placed my head on his shoulder. “As long as I have you, I can get through anything.”

  “Don’t let Doug hear you say that,” Lucas whispered. He kissed the side of my head. “Since you’re not fond of breakfast, I’m going to get a head start. Come down when you’re ready.”

  Lucas could tell I was about to break down and cry, but I wasn’t about to give Doug that satisfaction. Cameras were everywhere on the first floor, in these hallways and God knows where else. Lucas continually checked for devices in our room.

  “Thanks. I just need a minute.”

  He left the room and I headed to the bathroom to splash cold water on my face. I got a call on my chip as I carefully patted my skin with the rough bathroom towel and answered.

  “Zak?” It had to be him since we were the only two with chips in the city. My smart little boy had somehow smuggled his into New York past security.

  He’d also been born on February twenty-ninth, like his dad. I had been told he’d be a Niner-squared, doing everything twice as fast as regular Niners because of his parentage. Niners aged every four years on the twenty-ninth, but Zak would turn two. No one could say for sure how he would grow or act. There were no written records since this happened so rarely. In real years, Zak was eighteen-months-old. In the Niner world, he should be like a five-month-old. But it was just the opposite. He looked and acted like a three-year-old.

  “Mommy! Come to Grandma’s?” Zak asked.

  “You know Mommy and Da come every day to see you, Zak. We’ll be there soon.” He didn’t answer. “Zak? Are you there?”

  “It’s me, Allison. He handed me the chip.”

  “Tobias.” I let out a breath of relief. My rock, my surrogate grandfather lived at my parents’ apartment to help watch over Zak.

  “We heard about the bomb, Allison, and I think Zakary wanted to make sure you were all right. After all, you are a few streets away from Times Square.”

  “We’re fine, Tobias. Thanks. And thank you for being there for Zak and the Howard twins. How are the girls? Did they hear the news?”

  “Yes, your mother is letting them call their parents on that ancient phone you all have to use.”

  I laughed aloud.

  “What is so funny?” Tobias asked.

  “You! The Niner who doesn’t like change and new inventions.”

  “You have to admit some of the Niner technology was quite fine the way it was. We didn’t need new phones that are now little chips or food transporters …” He stopped. “I take that back. Thank God they invented those.”

  “Yes, or I would never had gotten to Montana and back.” The Niners had been working on connecting all the compounds by way of our chips. All one had to do was bring up their virtual screen, think the name of the compound and walk through to the other side arriving in their headquarters. That was how I had returned to Victorian Village.

  “I like to call you old-school, Tobias.” I teased. “Nothing wrong with that.”

  Tobias had never told me how old he was, and Lucas had no idea, either. Since Niners could live over six hundred years in real time, we guessed he was close to that age. He was tall and handsome, like all Niner men, with kind crystal blue eyes. His pure white hair hung almost to his shoulders, and he had a neatly trimmed mustache and beard of the same color. Still, he did not seem old, his face barely had any lines.

  “Well, my dear Allison, you know I have to stay up with the times since I am part of the security team. So regardless of my personal preferences, I will always have the latest gadgets.”

  “Thanks for making me feel better, Tobias.”

  “You were feeling poorly?” he asked.

  “Yeah. Sort of. I don’t know.” I shook my head in frustration. “I try really hard to be strong, but Lucas and I were talking about Doug …” I took a breath and exhaled. “It gets to me. I’ll be okay. I’m just tired. I’ll go down to breakfast in a bit and grab some coffee. That will help.”

  “You know we are trying to get that second meeting with Doug, then we’ll make progress.”

  “Like the first one went so well,” I said sarcastically. “The Niners were ready to offer him a formula that would make him twenty years younger and keep him that way for fifty, but all he wanted was for them to watch a recruitment video.”

  “Maybe they should take him up on the offer.”

  “What?” I fought to keep my voice low so I wouldn’t scare Zak. He heard everything with his Niner super hearing. “To live in Patriot Village?”

  “Think, Allison. We move into the Pennsylvania compound, and now we are close to headquarters. We’re stuck here in the city with no way out. At least, Sean is stationed there, and we know he’s on our side. He would help us get back and forth to Montana.”

  “And get more chips.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Not a bad idea.” I mulled it over. “I’ll talk to Lucas and let him know your plan. See you later?”

  “Of course.” Tobias chuckled. “Where else would I be?”

  “True.” I had to laugh with him, then ended the call. Tobias was the grandfather I never had, and I loved him with my whole heart. Even separated from the rest of us, he still was planning and scheming on his own … or maybe with Zak. Those two had a bond only they understood.

  And Sean? He was like a brother, or should I say was my brother, more than my real one could eve
r be. He had been a lone wolf, head of Niner security, until we brought him into our family. We were shocked when he turned on us so quickly when we came to New York but later learned it was all part of a plan. He wanted to be on the inside of the STF, as a double agent.

  The weather had turned hot and steamy for the first week of September. I threw on a tank top, shorts and sandals and headed for the second-floor stairwell which came out to the lobby. As I pushed open the door, I expected to see Greg, our teenaged hotel employee, behind the desk. Instead, a taller man with the familiar STF ball cap, but no uniform which signified he was a volunteer, stood in his place. I questioned it for a moment then shrugged and turned the corner to go to the atrium for breakfast.

  “Carli? Carli Nelson, is that you?” A voice I hadn’t heard in over six months called to me, and only a few people in New York City knew me by that alias.

  Don’t miss what happens next:

  mybook.to/TwentyNineForever

  BEFORE YOU GO.

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  Continue reading the series:

  29 (Twenty-Nine)

  29² (Twenty-Nine Squared)

  29° (Twenty-Nine Degrees)

  29∞ (Twenty-Nine Forever)

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