The crowd disperses, rushing away from the building Enid has just extinguished. I hop down off the shuttle as Willow storms over.
“What are you doing?” she growls.
“Sparking the flame,” I say, then walk away.
“We need to move,” Bianca says, leaning close and eyeing Willow.
“We need to kill that tracking device the Directorate put in you for good,” I say. “Bri somehow reactivated it while you were asleep. She claimed it was impossible to remove, but I’m not sure I trust her judgment anymore.”
Sho finishes rummaging through what remains of the kitchen, collecting stray papers from my dad’s bundle. Some burned up or blew away to another yard. Some were lost in the explosion. But most of what my dad left behind ended up pinned under debris. He rushes over to me and holds out the stack of papers he managed to gather. I still have the drives in my jacket, and I grab the papers, tucking them back into the lining of the jacket and zipping it shut.
The first DMA shuttle rounds the corner.
“Cover them!” I bark at the others, pointing toward the road.
Enid sticks to my side, and I nudge her toward the street. She knows this is where we part ways and her pleading gaze lingers on me. “It’s too soon,” she says.
“I need you to help them. Keep Willow from losing control. And don’t trust anything she tells you. She’s using everyone. I don’t know what she will do once she finds out what I’m up to. Please.” I take Enid’s hand and kiss it. “It’s time. Meet me at Harvey’s place.”
Enid’s forehead creases, but she nods and places a quick kiss on my cheek before jogging toward Lily, Willow, and Chase. As Enid readies her Power against the new wave of DMA troopers, she turns around one last time and our eyes meet. This is it. It’s time for me to go, and if all goes according to my plan, I may never see her again. But as long as she survives, it will be worthwhile.
Troopers spill out of the DMA shuttle, and the thunder of battle breaks out in the street once more. Gunfire and Powers combat against each other, making the ground quiver.
Miller approaches with Jayme, supporting Jayme as he limps along. The healing worked enough to close the wound and allow Jayme to move, but clearly, Rosie’s healing isn’t what it should be.
“I can kill the tracker,” Miller says.
“Rosie, Bianca will need immediate healing,” I say, moving to join the group. And hopefully, Rosie has the strength to manage it.
Miller reaches for Bianca’s head, and she easily dodges, shoving him to the ground.
I jump forward. “Bianca, let him do this, we don’t have time!” Her fierce coppery eyes turn to me. “Please. It will hurt like hell, but the DMA will find you, find us, no matter where we go.” I put extra emphasis on the no matter where. I don’t want Willow to know, assuming she’s listening.
Bianca nods but the tension remains, keeping her muscles taut. Miller glares at her as he puts his hand on the back of her head where Leo mentioned yesterday that the tracking was located. Miller’s hand starts pulsing with electric light, but it’s so focused and controlled, more so than when he fried the nanos in our blood at Paragon. He couldn’t manage that task alone and needed Celeste’s help. Now he appeared to have no trouble at all on his own.
Miller hovers over Bianca and she lets out a shriek that makes me jump out of my skin. Blood trickles from her nose and the corner of her mouth. Her muscles flex, and I hold my breath, afraid she will take a swing at Miller. Then her body goes limp and Miller catches her before she hits the ground, easing her down. Rosie kneels at Bianca’s side, her hands unsteady. I can’t see what Rosie is doing, but I can tell that it takes several attempts before she successfully works her Power. I kneel beside Rosie, watching.
Bianca reaches out and snatches the collar of my shirt. Rosie leaps back. I jump, but Bianca’s fierce gaze isn’t meant for me. I know exactly what she wants. To see her parents. And so do I.
“Now.” Her single word confirms my suspicion. Bianca releases with a force that makes me stumble back.
A house beside us explodes from the strength of a DMA trooper’s Power. Screams emanate from inside. Startled, I turn toward the sound as the dust settles and see them staggering out of the house in a daze, carrying a child of about ten who hangs limply in his dad’s arms. This has to stop!
“Go!” Jayme calls. “You’re right. That information needs to get out. Willow won’t agree, but we can’t get out of Pax now. I’ll deal with Willow. But you won’t have long, Ugene.”
I nod. “Try to protect these houses and the people inside.”
Jayme waves us off as he and Miller rush off together toward the front line where the others battle four full squads of DMA men and women. Bianca and I take off in the opposite direction of the battle before anyone has a chance to see us.
As we disappear into a backyard, I glance back at the others. Four DMA shuttles block either side of the street. Enid casts a wild flurry of gale-like winds at one of the shuttles. It rolls on its side, pinning some of the troopers beneath it.
“Ugene!” Bianca hisses at me, grabbing my arm and yanking me around one of the houses.
But not everyone is accounted for. Leo is still missing.
35
I have no idea where we are. This side of Elpis is a total mystery to me, having never ventured so far from Salas before. At first, Bianca and I just run away from the sound of battle, but Bianca is so much faster than me. I can’t keep up with her speed for more than a few steps before she pulls ahead. She stops at the corner with her back pressed to a house with misshapen siding and an impatient look plastered on her face.
“Do you know where you’re going?” I ask, resting my hands on my knees as I try to catch my breath. Running a block normally wouldn’t leave me so winded, but trying to keep up with her is like trying to keep up with the metro as it charges along the tracks. “I can’t keep running like this. I’m not a Super Somatic like you.”
“I’m just trying to put distance between us and them,” Bianca says. “We can worry about direction later.”
“Unless we’re going the wrong way.”
Her lips compress in irritation—something I’m not used to seeing displayed so freely on her face. Bianca didn’t irritate so quickly. She had more patience than most Somatics or most people in general. Not anymore. Yes, Bianca is certainly different.
I scrub a weary hand against my neck. “Just give me a second.”
Bianca seems ready to argue, but instead, her gaze flicks around, searching for signs of trouble. I feel sorry for whoever tries to pick a fight with us.
I look to the sky with the hope that constellations will show me the right way to go, but the city lights make the stars hard to see. Instead, I spin in place, peering over the taller apartment buildings and seek out the skyscrapers of downtown. I have to step into the street to get a clear enough view over some of the apartment buildings of the towers. Paragon looms in the distance.
“People are watching us,” Bianca announces. “We need to keep moving.”
Headlights from an intersecting street grow as a vehicle approaches us. The hum of the engine makes my skin crawl.
Bianca grabs my arm—not my hand like Enid would—and starts toward the mouth of the alley. We duck out of sight just as a DMA shuttle glides through the intersection on patrol.
My breath catches.
“I hope the others don’t try to make a stand,” I say. “The DMA will overwhelm them soon enough.”
“They can hold their own,” Bianca says curtly. “But we need to hurry before the streets are crawling with DMA shuttles.”
I nod, and the two of us run back into the street. Bianca slows just enough for me to keep pace with her and guide the way.
Paragon Tower spikes out through surrounding buildings like a twisting rotten tooth in the distance. Celeste’s cosmic ray decimated the first five floors of the building, but the integrity of the support structure wasn’t compromised, and Paragon easily
repaired the damage.
Going through downtown would be a serious mistake, but if we take the metro from the southern borough near Pax—since it doesn’t run through the poorest part of the city—we can switch tracks underground, hopefully undetected, until we get to Lettuce Eat where Harvey will hopefully help us reach Bianca’s house. He was open to my ideas earlier during the meeting with Willow. I can only hope he still is.
Bianca jogs so I can keep pace with her, but after a mile, I’m spent. Cold night air burns my throat and lungs as I suck in deep breaths.
“We need to stop running,” I wheeze. “The two of us running through the streets like this has to look suspicious, especially with you in that.” I wave a hand at her DMA uniform.
Bianca nods.
A few vehicles drive along the street sporadically, meaning we’re nearly out of the worst part of town. No one in the slums can afford a car. We must be closer to downtown than I expected.
Bianca turns up one of the streets, keeping downtown ever to our right as we walk. A sense of urgency presses down on me from above. I glance at the sky—not that I expect to see anything.
But I do.
A set of bright stars form a line in the sky—the only stars I can see anywhere.
I stumble over my own feet in alarm. Bianca reaches out and grabs me for balance without allowing us to slow our steps.
Those weren’t there before, were they?
The first star pulses with life then shifts to a dull glow as the next in line does the same, moving from our position toward the southwest.
Stars don’t act like that. What are those lights?
Bianca and I continue due west, and the further along the street we walk, the brighter the lights pulse. But they don’t grow larger, as I would expect a light to do. They remain firmly in place like stars would, but the lights continue pulsing brighter and brighter.
What are they, really?
As Bianca and I step out of the intersection, I spy a DMA shuttle parked at the side of the intersecting street and grab her arm to pull her back into the alley.
Bianca doesn’t hesitate to slip into the shadows, pressing against the wall before peering out. Then she turns her attention to me. “There are only two guys. I can take them.”
I shake my head. “If we attack, even if you get to them before they alert others, the DMA will figure out where we are when those guys don’t check-in. We can’t leave a trace.”
Bianca huffs. “Then what do we do? If we cross the street, they’ll spot us.”
I look up at the strange lights again. The first in the line glows steadily for a moment as if indicating a point of direction, then the line of motion begins again, guiding us southwest as it did before. Logic tells me to keep moving in the direction we are headed, but my instincts want to follow the lights. I need to know where they are leading. Did it warn us of the DMA shuttle? Bianca was right about one thing. We can’t cross the street, and we can’t backtrack too far. Time isn’t our friend tonight.
We need to follow the lights.
I nudge Bianca’s arm. “This way.”
~
We follow the direction indicated by the mysterious lights for nearly two miles. A few times, I change course abruptly when the lights do, and Bianca protests, insisting that we go straight. Yet every time we don’t follow the lights, we end up backtracking to avoid potential DMA confrontation.
At first, I think I’m crazy following some lights in the sky, but by the third near-encounter with the DMA, I can’t ignore the instinct telling me the lights are keeping us safe from detection.
Near the end of the second mile, Bianca spots the entrance to the underground metro and grins, slapping me on the shoulder with more gusto than I think she intended. I wince and rub my shoulder as the two of us jog toward the steps.
Once we enter the metro, the lights in the sky won’t be able to guide me anymore, and a sense of dread fills my gut. I hesitate at the top as that dread keeps me from descending. I glance once more at the lights and notice that they now pulse furiously away from the station. My heart jumps into my throat.
Bianca takes the first couple of steps in bounds, then stops when she realizes I’m not following. “Let’s go. We’re almost there.”
I shake my head.
Bianca climbs back up the steps, glaring at me. “You said we should go this way.”
“Something isn’t right.”
I glance up again, and the lights all blink like crazy away from the station.
Bianca looks up. “What are you looking at?”
But she either doesn’t notice the lights—though I don’t know how she can miss them—or she doesn’t recognize the significance. I’m not sure I do.
Then the lights go out.
My stomach drops.
Logic screams at me to go get on the metro and ride it to our destination. Instinct screams at me to run away from this station as quickly as possible. So far, those lights have been our guide, protecting us from DMA detection. Now the lights want me to go anywhere else but down. I peer into the darkness of the station below.
My feet carry me away before I even make the decision that it’s time to go.
Bianca quickly catches up. “What is wrong with you?”
“The lights went out.”
“What?”
I wish I could explain why going into that station is a bad idea, why I trust those mysterious lights more than my own logic at the moment, but running has made me winded.
I follow the direction they were blinking before they disappeared, away from the station. Once we reach the next block and disappear around the corner, the thump of dozens of heavily booted feet fills the silence of the night. The sound comes from the direction of the station.
Good thing I’m trusting my gut…and whatever is guiding me.
Bianca hears the boots, too, and her steps hasten.
Neither of us speaks until we are three blocks away, out of trouble for the moment. Exhaustion makes my limbs ache and my lungs are burning as we approach a tram stop. I collapse on a tram-stop bench, leaning back to catch my breath.
Bianca sinks down beside me. “Do you care to explain how you knew they were coming?”
If I tell Bianca the truth, she will think I’m crazy. Maybe I am. Who follows directions from the sky? I’m also not sure I can fully trust her.
Enid’s voice rings in my head, warning me that Bianca could be playing along to walk me into a trap. I can’t ignore the logic in her argument. The less Bianca knows, the better.
“I just…had a feeling.”
“A feeling,” she says flatly.
“It’s gotten me this far.”
Bianca doesn’t seem convinced, but the evidence makes it clear to me and that’s all that matters at the moment.
A self-driving tram approaches from the east and I turn, examining the route map on the tram stop wall. A grin spreads across my face. Again, my faith in the lights in the sky has been restored.
This line will take us right into the heart of Salas.
“We are taking the tram instead,” I announce.
~
It isn’t very late. Just short of ten at night, but the tram is fairly empty. It’s one of the last rides of the night. A few people give Bianca in her DMA uniform a curious look as we climb on board, but they all quickly avert their gazes. Because of her uniform, no one takes a second look at me.
Just to be safe, I keep the hood of my jacket over my head and try to keep my face obscured from sight. Despite this concealment, I feel exposed in the bright white lights of the self-driving tram.
Bianca and I take seats in the back. The tram heads out of the southern borough into Salas. The nearest stop to our old neighborhood is about a quarter-mile walk.
We keep silent. A conversation will draw attention. The silence between us leaves me too much time to think about the others…about Enid.
Up until this moment, I’ve been too preoccupied with escaping DMA notice to th
ink about them. Now, it’s all I can think about.
What if the DMA overwhelmed them?
What if Enid died in the fight?
The thought leaves me devastated, forcing me to lean over my knees and take a few deep breaths with my hands laced behind my head.
She has to be alive. Enid is a survivor. A fighter.
After everything she’s endured, I can’t allow myself to believe Enid wouldn’t survive again.
Will Willow listen to reason? Will she bring in more people to help fight off the DMA? My hope is that once word gets out about the truth, once we can get the people to rise up against the Directorate, that the new recruits from Pax will turn on the DMA.
The tram pulls up to a stop, and Bianca stands. “This is ours,” she says quietly as if afraid someone might hear. Not that they wouldn’t notice us getting off.
I follow her off the tram and survey the street.
The difference between Salas and Pax isn’t simply jarring—it’s revolting. Here, people live in large houses, well-maintained with nicely kept lawns, not condemned buildings on the verge of collapse. The smell of flowers and freshly cut grass fills the air instead of the stench of trash and sewage.
How can people be content to live like this when others survive in squalor?
I was one of these people.
The thought makes me loathe my former self. Maybe, like me, they don’t realize how bad things really are in Pax. Or maybe the Directorate has convinced them that they really will fix things.
Bianca knows where she’s going now. Still, I glance at the sky.
Nothing.
The two of us try to look like we belong on these streets—at one time we did—but her uniform and my soot-covered clothes don’t really say “this is our neighborhood.”
Residents linger outside even at this hour, which must be just past ten. They pull weeds from front yard gardens or talk to their neighbors. Their conversations are so mundane and oblivious to the horrors I’ve witnessed tonight that I want to scream at them, open their eyes to the truth. Patience. I will do it soon enough.
Salas is a completely different atmosphere to what I’ve grown used to, and I struggle to find comfort in my old stomping grounds.
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