Project Integrate Series Boxed Set

by Campbell, Jamie

  The voices only grew louder as the dissent grew deeper. None of them liked having a member order them about, especially not when I had gone behind their back and involved the Department in order to do it.

  Garrick stood. “She’s right. You need to believe her.” I gave him a thankful look but his opinion carried no weight. They paid him as much attention as they had me.

  I stared at Kyle, pleading for him to listen. While he shifted uncomfortably in his seat, he never said a word. I shouldn’t have been surprised, he was more aligned to his fellow satellites than to me. Nobody had any reason to be on my side except for Garrick.

  I didn’t know what more I could say to convince them. I couldn’t find the words to completely express how important my plan was. If I could have done it without them, I wouldn’t have bothered. But, when it came down to it, I did need them. I couldn’t get thousands of people out of the complex by myself. I couldn’t drive dozens of buses all at once.

  “Please listen to me,” I begged. “You have no idea how important this is. You are going to get them all killed, I know how to save them. Please, just listen.”

  “That’s enough,” Krom’s voice carried around the room, bouncing off the walls and filtering through the crowd. They immediately silenced, acknowledging his authority.

  I stood there, unsure if I should leave or not. I told myself I wouldn’t give up but that was before I entered, when I still had some hope. Now every movement just felt awkward. My heart pounded in my chest, matching the rhythm of the blood echoing in my ears.

  Krom continued while I was still dithering. “We will hear no more of this nonsense.”

  My eyes locked on Garrick, reflecting the same helplessness that I felt. I dreaded having to call Rob back and tell him I failed to keep my side of the deal. All that work he and Finn had done was for nothing. All those members would die while waiting for their rescuers that would only come too late.

  I now knew what I had to do, I turned and headed for the door. My footsteps were the only sound in the room as everyone witnessed my downfall. They might even ask me to leave the bunker completely for speaking against them. I couldn’t worry about my future when there were so many now doomed.

  “You should all pay more respect to member Amery,” Krom broke the silence. I stopped in my tracks, had I heard right? I turned around slowly to make sure. Krom was smiling kindly at me. Nobody else was smiling though. “We are going to do as she says.”

  “Excuse me?” I asked, hurrying back to the table.

  “You will tell us exactly what you have planned and we will take notes,” Krom replied. “We will listen to your instructions and we will follow them. Please begin.”

  He stepped aside and settled back into his seat. Looking around the faces, nobody seemed happy with the new development. Frowns and disbelief confronted me while Krom’s gaze drilled into my side.

  “Uh, it happens on Thursday,” I started. The entire time I was explaining the plan, I was waiting for someone to interrupt me. At any moment I expect to hear a snort of disbelief or grumbles of dissent. Nods of encouragement from Garrick and Krom were the only things keeping me going.

  By the time I was through, having exhausted myself from being so detailed, the satellites all had an adequate number of notes written.

  “Any questions?” I finished, looking at each face in turn. I finished with Krom, giving him a smile and a silent thanks. Without his backing, I would have been completely stuffed.

  “I think we’ve all got it,” Krom replied for everyone. “Thank you, Amery. We will be prepared by Thursday and we will bring our members home.”

  I left the meeting hall with the others, keen to get out of the spotlight. It was Lola that enjoyed being the center of attention on stage, definitely not me.

  Garrick caught up with me, pulling me into a hug from behind. He leant down and whispered in my ear. “You did really well, way better than I could have done.”

  He was gone before I could rebuff him. I climbed the ladder upstairs and sat beside the lid to the bunker. I sent Rob a text, confirming everything was in place from our end. I only waited there long enough to ensure he received the message.

  Three days. It felt like too much time and not enough. If everything went to plan, our biggest concern would be over by Thursday night. From there, we would start to plan for the future again. That either involved us staying in seclusion for the rest of our lives, or fighting back.

  Krom had given no clues about what he was planning, each time claiming he needed the members free before he could decide. I got the feeling he already had a plan in mind but kept it to himself for whatever reason. I had no concrete evidence for that, it was just overhearing little snippets here and there. Plus, my gut was telling me so.

  The days passed by in a blur. The satellites actually asked for my input several times in their preparations. They prepared the vehicles and readied the bunker. Hopefully we would be returning with two thousand members and they would all need to sleep somewhere. Not to mention eat. We readied our stores and threw in as many bunks as we could. It was going to be a tight squeeze.

  Early on Thursday morning, I was checking our plan for the hundredth time. I was alone in the food hall, everyone else was keeping themselves busy so the nerves didn’t win out. So much hung on a successful mission that we were all right on edge.

  Garrick sat down across from me. “Big day.”

  “You can say that again,” I replied, putting a tick next to the last item on my list. I looked up to meet his gaze. “Do you really think this is going to work?”

  He shrugged, at least he didn’t lie to me. “Who knows? But we’ve got to try, right? Isn’t it better to die trying than to do nothing?”

  He reminded me of something my dad used to always say, the road to Hell was paved with good intentions. I wished they were there to tell me everything would be okay. Perhaps I needed to hear the lies more than I thought.

  “We’ll be fine,” Garrick said to break the silence, placing a comforting hand over my own. I forced a smile for his benefit.

  “I know. It’s just that, if it doesn’t work, then it’s going to be all my fault. If anyone else gets hurt because of me…”

  “None of this is your fault. Blame the Department, blame the Originals, blame our leaders, but don’t blame yourself. We’re just the pawns in this game, not the puppet masters holding the strings.”

  I squeezed his hand for his effort. It was a nice sentiment and I truly believed Garrick believed it, but I didn’t. I had hurt Lochie, my parents, everyone who I had ever met. I had betrayed them all and caused them pain. Failing to rescue the other members would just add to my crimes.

  “We’ll do it, Amery. In a couple of hours, this place will be packed with our peers and then we’ll be wondering why we ever bothered to get them out,” Garrick joked, smiling for my benefit. “Especially when the queue for the bathroom is a mile long.”

  I grimaced. “I didn’t think about that. Ten bathrooms for two thousand people? Is it too late to back out now?”

  “Perhaps. Or, perhaps we could-” Garrick never got to finish his sentence as an alarm started ringing. We only took a second to look at each other before moving. Something was wrong, very wrong. The alarm was only to be used in extreme circumstances.

  I ran through the corridors to the control room, desperately seeking some answers. Nothing could go wrong today. We only had one shot at getting the members out and no way of putting the brakes on the plan. If we weren’t there to do our part, all the members would be gunned down at the gates.

  Satellites were running everywhere, all in a panic. I had visions of the entire Department surrounding the bunker door. All their guns would be pointed at us and there was no other way out of the underground facility. We would be trapped. It would be like shooting fish in a barrel.

  How did anyone even know we were down here? You couldn’t see the place from the road and we were always super vigilant when we came or went. The ca
rs were all parked a mile away in different directions.

  I spotted Kyle making a run down the hallway. I grabbed his arm to stop him getting away. “Kyle, what’s going on?”

  “I don’t know, someone’s breached our security,” he managed to get out as he continued on. The satellites were scurrying about like ants, nobody seemed to have anything to do but they were doing it with intent anyway.

  I burst through the control room doors, the alarm even louder in there. I had to yell to be heard. “What’s going on?”

  One of the satellites answered, not turning his head away from the computer monitor. “We’ve got an intruder. Someone is trying to get into the bunker.”

  My stomach dropped with the thought. If we ended up being trapped in there, hostages to the person trying to get in, our plan was over. I didn’t have time for that, not today. Why did it have to be today?

  “What are you going to do about it?” I asked frantically. I didn’t care that I didn’t technically have any authority to be asking, but it was my plan I had to protect. I would do that at all costs, even if it put a few satellite’s noses out of joint.

  “Krom told me to use any force necessary to protect us.” His head nodded toward a semi-automatic rifle standing in the corner. I didn’t want to know where they got that. He didn’t have to tell me his plan for it to be clear.

  “We can’t just shoot people,” I pointed out. Perhaps he had lost the ability to remember the law… or common morality. I wanted to protect us too, it was the most important thing, but you had to ask questions before you shot people.

  “We can if we’re threatened. A team is already up there taking care of it.”

  Their version of taking care of it was way different to mine. I would try to talk my way out of something, I got the feeling the satellites would declare war and take care of them more permanently.

  I stood over his shoulder to look at the screen, dreading what I was going to see. The camera system was extensive around the field with a number of hidden cameras picking up any movement. Every time I snuck out I had to be careful of them. Thankfully, my favorite tree was out of sight of them all.

  I peered down as the camera flashed up to the one closest to the bunker hole. The image was of a male, he looked quite tall, and… I recognized him. Even with the three satellites tying a rope around his feet and hands.

  “Turn off the alarm,” I ordered.

  “I’m not doing that, he needs to be destroyed.”

  “He’s my friend, turn it off.”

  His fingers made a fist on the keyboard, refusing to move. I leaned over and pressed the flashing red button myself. It was only a guess it was the right one but the sound stopped so I got lucky.

  The silence was an instant relief. Already the blood was flowing slower through my veins. I could think again now the alarm wasn’t shattering my eardrums.

  “I’m going up there, don’t let anyone shoot him,” I warned, only half-joking. The satellite just shrugged, taking another sip of his coffee.

  I ran through the corridors and up the ladder, ignoring all the looks I got along the way. Nobody tried to stop me, it seemed they didn’t care that I might have been putting myself into the hands of a dangerous intruder.

  CHAPTER 6

  The ladder seemed too long, my hands were hurting by the time I pushed open the cover. The guy jumped back as he saw me emerging. Judging by the look on his face, perhaps I should have brought the rifle with me.

  “You can let him go, he’s not here to hurt us,” I told the three satellites holding the ropes like he was a raging bull. I hoped I wasn’t lying to them.

  “He’s an intruder,” one of them answered me, standing resolute.

  “He’s a friend.” Again, I prayed I wasn’t lying.

  The three of them exchanged a glance, silently questioning whether they should follow my direction. I rolled my eyes while I waited.

  “Are you sure he is of no threat?”

  “Yeah, he’s fine. He’s had plenty of opportunity to kill me and he hasn’t so far.”

  The three of them each handed me their rope and disappeared down the hole. I questioned whether I should let him go or not. Perhaps it would be better to keep him tied up for a little while longer.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked, replacing the cover so nobody else could overhear us. I didn’t need a bunch of nosy satellites knowing all my business.

  “I came looking for you,” Lochie replied. “Can you please untie me?”

  A memory flashed into my mind, the time when my hands were bound together and Lochie had just given me a cheeky grin when I asked him to free me. The thought made me smile. “I think I like you tied up.”

  “Very funny, come on, it’s cutting off the blood supply.” I relented and started loosening the ropes. The satellites had done a thorough job keeping him immobile. I let him shake off the last of the bindings himself.

  I stood staring at him, afraid to say the wrong thing. I desperately wanted to know why he would come looking for me but I didn’t dare ask. Whatever I said, it never seemed to be the right thing. Especially when all I could think of was how much I wanted to wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him like there was no tomorrow.

  “So… I spoke to Lola,” Lochie finally said. His arms hung loosely at his side, not crossed. That was a good sign, right? I tried not to get my hopes up.

  “Is she okay?”

  “She’s fine. She, uh, told me about the rules.” He stared at me with his intense blue eyes, the ones that were so beautiful they took my breath away.

  “She did?” I asked, wondering if that was a good or bad thing. If he and Lola were talking, he would know I had told her the truth about me before him. That couldn’t bode well.

  Lochie nodded. My God, he had a way of making my stomach turn with butterflies. He was the only guy who had so much of my heart that it could break with whatever he might say. I thought it was already broken, but there was still so much more he could do to twist the knife in even further.

  “She explained about how you weren’t allowed to tell anyone,” Lochie continued. “How all the rules had to be followed or the Department could relocate you. She told me how important they were to you.”

  “It didn’t stop me from wanting to tell you. So many times I wanted to, but I couldn’t. I didn’t even know where I would start.” A lump was beginning to lodge itself in my throat, threatening to cut off my air supply. The last thing I wanted to do was cry like a hysterical woman in front of him.

  “If the rules weren’t there, when would you have done it?”

  “Fourth grade.”

  Lochie smiled, it looked so perfect on his face. So much better than the frown he had been wearing the last time I saw him. A thousand times better than the scowl. “A lot happened in the fourth grade.”

  “It did.”

  The trees rustled in the distance, I imagined the satellites sitting around the control room watching us. Even that image couldn’t make me move. Time seemed to stand still while we stared at each other. I dared not move an inch in case it scared him off. Watching Lochie leave would be more painful than anything the Department could do to me.

  “What they’ve been saying about you… your kind… on the news, it’s bad. Is any of it true? Was I part of some plan?” Lochie asked. He looked so vulnerable, like a lost little boy. I so badly wanted to hug him and promise I wouldn’t let anything hurt him again.

  “None of it is really true and you definitely weren’t any part of a plan. Did Lola explain about Project Integrate? Not the one on the news, the real one?”

  He shrugged just a little, the action so minute I could have missed it if I wasn’t paying attention to every single one of his muscles. “She said it was a twenty-five year plan.”

  “A plan to integrate into the community, not take it over. The Department was supposed to explain everything when it was time. The Originals beat us to it.”

  “Are your parents really in the FBI?�
�

  I nodded. “The Department called for volunteers to be adoptive parents. My mom and dad were Special Agents at the time and really wanted a baby. They were happy to be a part of the project if it meant they could have a family.”

  “So you didn’t lie about everything then.” He said the words like they were just a joke but I knew they weren’t really.

  “The only thing I lied about was being an alien. Everything, everything, else was the truth. I swear, Lochie, if I could go back in time I would have done things differently. I wouldn’t have hurt you.”

  “You did, you know.”

  “I know.”

  I tried to get a reading from him, tried to work out what was going on in his brain. Months ago, before he told me he loved me, it was so much easier to know what he was thinking. Most of the time, he was annoyed with me. And the feeling was mutual. Now, I had no idea. He was getting so much better at hiding his feelings from me.

  “Do you think you can forgive me?” I asked, staring at the ground. I couldn’t look at him while I wanted to cry so badly. If he was going to tell me he couldn’t, I didn’t want to see the look on his face.

  Lochie’s feet started moving, slow at first before rushing. Before I could process what was happening, his hands cradled my head, holding it up while he brushed his lips over mine. They lingered, barely touching. If I moved my head forward just a little, I would be able to taste him. He held back though, teasing me as the seconds felt like hours.

  Finally, he gave me what I had been waiting for. Lochie’s lips pressed against mine, needing, wanting, taking. Warmth flushed through my body as my mind emptied of thoughts. I had nothing to think about when Lochie was holding me so close. My heartbeat next to his, in perfect sync.

  The world disappeared around us as he hungrily kissed me. Over and over again, neither of us could be satiated. I didn’t think anyone would want me like this after the Originals’ exposure. To have this, to have Lochie, was… extraordinary.

  He finally let me go, resting his forehead against mine. “Sorry,” he panted. His breath tickled my cheeks.