“We’ve been ordered to place this girl beside the other one.”
The woman assessed me closely. “Fine. For how long?” She gnawed on a cuticle.
“Mr. Layne or Vice President Rhodes will be by to deal with her tomorrow.”
“Whatever.” No one said anything for several seconds after that. Finally, the lady in red raised an eyebrow and gestured with an exaggerated hand motion to her left. “Well? What are you waiting for? An invitation?”
With a hard jerk, the guards pulled me in the direction of an open door and shoved me in. A light flickered on above me, and the door slammed behind me.
I was officially imprisoned.
chapter thirty-eight
West
It was nearly three a.m., and I hadn’t heard a sound outside my bedroom in over an hour. I couldn’t wait much longer. I stared at my PulsePoint, which told me that Justin was officially offline. Hopefully that meant he would be asleep for the next several hours.
Unfortunately, he had taken the wedding announcement as an invitation to begin sleeping in my mother’s bedroom. However, I did know exactly where he was.
I quickly typed a message and pressed send. Ten seconds later I got the response I needed.
Your guards are in place and ready.
Good. See you in five.
I replaced my PulsePoint on my belt next to my Taser, then as quietly as possible slipped out of my room and toward the door to exit the suite.
“West.”
The tiny hairs on the back of my neck stood at attention at the sound of my mother’s voice. I turned slowly. She was wrapped in a long black silk robe. Her eyes were puffy and filled with emotion.
“Mother. What are you doing out of bed?” I glanced nervously toward her bedroom.
“Don’t worry about Justin,” she said in answer to my silent question. “I found the drugs he’s been giving me.” Her lips quirked slightly before turning serious.
My shoulders fell forward in relief. “Still, Mother, you should be sleeping.”
“Willow was never meant to survive. You know that, right?” A tear slid down her cheek.
I’d never seen her look so frightened. “Don’t say that. You have to keep hoping. I’m still fighting for her.”
“I know you are. That’s why I need you to know that the council is behind everything. I don’t know if it’s the entire council, or just some members, but it’s definitely them. They found out that I knew the whereabouts of Christina Black, and they knew she would be the key to developing the vaccine our city needed.”
“But why did that matter? Why did we need a vaccine for a virus that was gone from our city?”
“Because the council knows that the city is getting restless. More and more citizens are wanting to venture back outside.”
“So Cricket was right from the very beginning.” And Mrs. Canary confirmed it for me. “They’ve been intentionally infecting people with the virus in the hope that they might save one of them. Because without a survivor, they don’t have the antibodies.” Not to mention that would have meant they’d found a treatment.
More tears slid down my mother’s face. “I didn’t know about it until recently, I swear. Not until they infected your sister. They used Willow to force my hand. So that I would tell them where Christina was.”
“Why didn’t you just tell them where she was in the first place?” I cringed at the thought, but I needed to hear Mother’s version of this—to verify she wasn’t part of the council’s plan. “You had the resources. You could have simply sent guards for her.”
“If I had left it up to the council, Christina would have been locked in a room in the medical sector, never to be heard from again, while they harvested antibodies from her. Christina was like a daughter to me, West. I promised her parents I would treat her like one of my own. I was trying to protect her. But when Willow got sick… I couldn’t just let Willow die.”
“So you sent me for Christina. Because you wanted her to be able to choose whether she returned or not. Our guards wouldn’t have given her that choice.”
Mother shrugged. “She was your first love. But she was my responsibility, and I failed her years ago.”
“And where does Justin fit into this? Is he working with the council?”
“Somehow, Justin convinced the council that he was on board with the scouting mission; he cast himself as being more agreeable than I was about the idea of reentering the outside. At the same time, he was making a play for the presidency.”
“So he infected Willow with the virus?”
Mother remained expressionless. “No. Some members of the council, desperate for a vaccine for Bad Sam, infected Willow. And I’ve almost narrowed it down to exactly which members. Justin had nothing to do with it—but it played directly into what he needed.”
“To slow down the election.” I grabbed the chair next to her. “So why send Bad Sam out into the settlements?”
“Why go after a presidency of a city that might not exist at some point? By putting Bad Sam back out in the outside world, it scares our citizens to stay right where they are.”
“Continuing to give him a city to preside over.”
“That’s right.”
“And what does he have over you, Mom? Why did you agree to give him the presidency? And to marry him? Why would you do that?”
She looked me directly in the eye. “I would do anything for my son.”
“Me? What does any of this have to do with me?”
Mother didn’t answer straight away. “You know,” she said, “after you left to find Christina, Justin got great joy out of cutting your ties to the city.”
“Shutting off my PulsePoint.”
“That’s right. He would have been delighted if you had never returned. And then, when the two scouts entered our walls infected with Bad Sam, he got his wish. With Bad Sam running rampant on the outside, it was decided that none of the scouts would be allowed to return to the city. It was too great a risk.”
“That’s… that’s heartless.”
Mother was silent.
“But, the council still wanted to bring in Christina.”
“Yes. The council wanted Christina. And I wanted you. And Justin… Justin has surprising influence with certain council members. He assured me that he could convince the council to bring both of you in together. A ‘package deal,’ he called it.”
“But only after you agreed to marry him and hand over the presidency.”
She nodded. “The marriage is just for show, West. For all his faults, Justin is a clever manipulator. He knew that our people would never believe the council had simply handed the presidency to him. But a marriage would increase his legitimacy in the eyes of the people. As would his relationship with you.”
“He claimed that the council was ready to groom me to take over.”
Mother stood and placed a cool hand on my face. “That part is true. You have two things that neither I nor Justin can give them: Christina, and the hearts of the people.”
I cocked my head, not understanding.
“The younger people—the up-and-coming generation of leaders—love you. They will follow you to the ends of the earth. If you tell them the outside is too dangerous, they’ll believe you. If you tell them it’s time to establish homes around the country again, they’ll ask you to lead them there. The council knows this.”
I stared deeply into my mother’s eyes. “But I don’t have Christina.” I bowed my head. “I don’t even deserve Christina. She’s so good and brave and unselfish.”
“So are you, my son. Or you wouldn’t have developed your own team of guards and supporters that are ready and waiting for you tonight.”
“How did you—”
“Know?” She smiled. “Please. I’m president of this big city. I have eyes in every sector. And my supporters will join your supporters.”
As if on cue, my PulsePoint pinged at my waist: Where are you?
I quickly typed a re
ply: Start without me. I have something I need to take care of first.
I leaned in and gave my mother a kiss on the cheek. “Cricket is still going to get a chance to save Willow. But I’m going to need your help.”
“Anything.”
chapter thirty-nine
Cricket
I lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling of a room very similar to the one I was taken to on my first day back inside New Caelum. A clock hanging over the door ticked loudly with each passing second. Hope slipped away as the hour hand moved closer to the five.
My stomach growled loudly, reminding me that I had skipped dinner the night before, yet the thought of food repulsed me as I thought of the people who were fighting for their life.
Instinctively, my hand went to my neck. As I fingered the bloodstone beads my parents had given me, and the small charm hand-carved by West, I went over Caine’s notes in my head—notes I had helped him take as he tried over and over again to develop a medicine to treat Bad Sam.
Caine’s treatment had worked. The rats had been getting better. It was just that their hearts and other organs had given out anyway. “That’s what the bloodstones did for me,” I said to myself.
But I had figured this out while I was on the roof with West. The problem now was how to get the bloodstones into the patients’ bloodstreams. I lay an arm across my forehead and closed my eyes. “Nothing’s that simple.”
Then I remembered something my dad used to tell people when he was preparing a team for a trip to Africa—something he learned from his time in the Navy. He would tell his team to never expect to have enough medical supplies to treat every injury or illness. Be prepared to work with the bare minimum and to do it effectively. And he would tell them of another principle coined by the Navy: “Keep it Simple, Stupid.” I whispered the phrase to myself over and over while listening to the ticking of the clock.
At the sound of the door rattling, I rose and jumped to my feet.
It was the girl from the reception desk. “Well, well. So, this is what all the fuss is about. The famous Christina Black.” She crossed her arms and leaned against the doorjamb.
I gave her a once-over. I probably could defend myself against her, but based on the fact that she wore red—meaning she was a member of military or emergency personnel, according to West—I assumed she was fully capable of handling anything I could throw at her.
“Don’t you talk? West assured me you were very nice.”
I raised a brow. “Oh yeah? And what else did West say about me?” Even I could hear the contempt in my voice as I spat out his name.
She grinned. “Don’t get your panties in a bundle. He asked me to help. I’m Shiloh. Come on.”
She motioned me forward and out into the reception area. Then she lifted her arm, punched a few buttons on her wrist PulsePoint, and flashed it against a sensor beside the door next to mine. That door clicked and opened to a dark room, but instead of entering, she backed away from it.
“Dax, I’ve brought you a surprise, so if you’re planning on wrestling me to the ground again, please know that someone is here to see you, and she is entering first.” Shiloh smiled at me. “Dax and I like to play this little game.”
I eyed Shiloh with extreme curiosity. I would have liked to have seen this woman, barely bigger than I, wrestle Dax, a man twice my size.
I entered the dark room with slow steps, not sure if I trusted this Shiloh quite yet. “Dax? It’s me, Cricket.”
He stepped out of the shadows, his blond hair catching the light of the lamp just outside the door. When he saw me, he scooped me into his arms.
Shiloh flipped on a bright overhead light, revealing a white room identical to my own, and then she turned and disappeared.
Dax squinted his eyes against the light, and placed his hands on my cheeks. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
Shiloh returned with a small duffel bag. “We don’t have much time.” She set the duffel on the small bed and began rummaging through it.
“We don’t have much time for what?” I asked.
“Here.” She thrust a bundle of white at my chest. “Put these on. And Dax, these are for you.” She handed him light gray clothes, the color guards wore.
I looked down at the white clothing she’d given me. “Can you get me in to see Dr. Hempel?”
“That’s the plan.” She pulled a brown wig and some eyeglasses from the bag.
Dax looked from me to Shiloh and back. “Will someone tell me the plan?”
Understanding, I began to shed my royal blue clothes, turning when I removed my top so that Dax would only see my back. “This is our disguise, Dax. Do as she says. Because she’s right. We’re running out of time.” I quickly slipped into a pair of scrubs and a white lab coat.
Shiloh helped me with the wig, adjusting the straight brown hair and bangs so they framed my face and hid the blond strands underneath. When she was done, she backed up a step. “You are pretty. He wasn’t wrong about that.”
I assumed she meant West. “West had me locked up,” I said.
“Yes, and now he’s letting you cure his sister.”
So that’s what this was about.
Shiloh set some other things on the bed: a couple of belts, Tasers, small flashlights, and a PulsePoint. I reached out and snatched the PulsePoint, turning it over to verify that it was, in fact, my own.
“West thought you might need that.”
I eyed Shiloh. “Where is he?”
“I wouldn’t know.” She looked away from me and down at the PulsePoint on her wrist. Something close to irritation flitted across her face. “We need to go.”
“Wait.” Dax ran a hand through his hair, his eyes locked on mine. He held a Taser loosely in his hand. “Look, I’m more than thrilled to use this on someone. West, even.” A fleeting grin played with the corner of his lips. “But the last time I saw you, the president of this stupid city told her flock of sheep that you were marrying their stupid prince.”
“Prince,” Shiloh laughed. “He’d like that.” When Dax furrowed his brows at her, she held her hands up. “Sorry. I’m just trying to help.” She backed up toward the door. “I’ll give you two a minute, but don’t take long. Our window is closing quickly.”
Dax placed the Taser and one of the flashlights on his belt. “Can you at least give me the thirty-second version of what you’re planning?”
I took in a deep breath. “The doctor that Caine said could give us a cure for Bad Sam is now sick.”
“What? How did that happen?”
“I can only guess that he mishandled the virus.”
“Or whoever gave Ryder and Key the virus also infected the doc.”
“That’s also possible. I think the government is somehow behind the reappearance of Bad Sam, but I have no proof yet.”
“You think they sent the virus out into our settlements on purpose?” His brows tilted inward, and deep lines of shock formed across his forehead.
“It looks that way, but I don’t know why.”
“And who is West to you?”
Good question. I was starting to believe that West was a figment of my imagination—my past catching up to me to play tricks on my heart.
Reaching down and grabbing Dax’s hands, I let a heavy sigh pass through my lips before looking up at him, my eyes holding his gaze. “I want to tell you everything. I do. And I will. But right now, we need to get to the labs, get a treatment for Dylan, and get out of here so that we can let New Caelum destroy the bomb, or the innocent people of this city are going to have another deadly virus outbreak on their hands. And if the virus spreads inside…”
“The people will flee to the outside.”
“Yes. Or a large part of the city’s population will die. Or both.”
“You promised me we would run away from another outbreak,” Dax said.
It was true. Dax and I had spent hours and hours in the past talking about human nature and our need to survive. We’d alwa
ys promised each other that if there was another outbreak, we would flee the heavily populated areas and ride out the illness together. We would not look to anyone else for help. We wouldn’t risk infecting another.
I blinked away any emotion from my eyes. “Yes, but that was before our friends—and your brother—got sick.”
“So… you’re not staying and marrying this West-person?” Dax smiled like he was joking, but I think a part of him was scared I would do exactly that.
“No,” I said, and my heart constricted. “Let’s get to the lab and get what we need so that we can get away from this crazy city.”
“Lead the way.”
~~~~~
According to Shiloh, it wasn’t out of the ordinary for representatives of red, gray, and white to walk together in the middle of the night through the halls of New Caelum, and she assured me that I looked nothing like myself under this brown wig that perfectly hid my scars. “However,” she warned, “it could get a little tricky once we get inside the medical sector. Dr. Hempel is in an isolation unit within the main research lab, so that he can be close to Dr. Pooley while he works.”
“How do you know so much?” I asked, glancing out into the darkness as we passed through one of the tunnels leading us between buildings. “What’s your role inside this city of hierarchy? Besides being a part of the emergency sector, that is.” I couldn’t hide the disdain in my voice. I was starting to believe every person inside the city was given a specified role, not for their own individual good or even for the good of the city as a whole, but for the good of the government who ran things.
“I am a supporter of a growing movement to overthrow the council and turn the city into a full-fledged democracy. We believe that the people should have the right to decide for themselves what happens to them. And we support doing away with the dictatorship we seem to have now, and cherishing all of our differences and the gifts we provide to New Caelum.”
Interesting. “And does this growing movement support the marriage of President Layne and Vice President Rhodes?”
“We don’t care who they marry,” she deadpanned. “We just don’t want them running our lives.”
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