I press my lips into her salty forehead and pull her close to me. We stand here, next to our child for I don’t know how long, just holding each other.
“Hey guys,” a familiar voice beckons from behind us. Timber hobbles in painfully. Pollen told me that Drake shot her. At first we both thought she’d died, but as it turns out, when she hit the ground she rolled over and the bullet went into her side, puncturing her kidney. “It’s nothing,” she said. “I’ve got another one.” I can see deep down she’s hurting for the loss of Drake, but she’s keeping it hidden for Pollen’s sake. Pollen couldn’t have picked a better friend.
“Hey, Timber,” I say. Pollen doesn’t speak and buries herself into my side. She can’t even look Timber in the eyes for the guilt of what she’d done.
“I thought maybe Pollen and I could take a walk. Outside?” She tilts her head to look at Pollen, her eyes full of hope.
Pollen grips me tighter.
“Maybe we should all go,” I say, hugging Pollen closer to me. “I could use some fresh air, too.”
“Thank you,” Timber mouths silently.
***
The exterior of Ceborec looks like an enormous pile of ancient ruins. We had to take an off-road vehicle to get here, since the exit to the bunker is so far off from the main building, and Pollen is so weak from lack of nutrition. Neither of us has seen the site since before the attack. I am struck with awe and sadness.
What was once a sturdy and imposing piece of architecture has been reduced to a mountain of concrete, steel, and rubble. In the center of the mountain, long distorted steel beams emerge from the rubble like an enormous set of antlers. Just beyond that, a huge chunk of concrete, shaped like a half-moon lies atop the debris. The scorch marks on it give the appearance of seeds in a wedge of an apple. The guys I used to work with when I was on the construction squad here almost a year ago are working day and night cleaning up, but it’ll take months to clear the space by the look of it.
Timber, Pollen, and I climb some of the rubble and perch on a huge flat chunk of concrete. The silence between us is palpable. We all simply stare in amazement at the destruction before us. The wind tosses Pollen’s hair to the side, revealing the infinity fly tattoo on her left temple. I lean over and kiss it.
“Marcus!” a voice calls out from behind me. I pivot to find the source of the voice, but can’t tell whom it is coming from.
“Hey, Marcus!” I squint and see Jansen hopping meticulously over the slabs of concrete and steel beams protruding from the debris.
I begin to approach him, but Pollen clutches my hand firmly.
“Don’t leave me,” she whispers.
I cup her face in my palms and gaze deeply into her trembling eyes. “I’ll just be over there with Jansen. I promise I won’t go anywhere.”
After a moment she nods reluctantly and I leave her behind with Timber. She needs to settle things with her friend. She can’t go on being afraid like this.
Jansen’s hair for once is in disarray just like the shambles below us. Pretty boy still looks pretty though.
“Hey, Jan. What’s up?”
“You heard from Granby yet?”
“No, why?”
Jansen glances over my shoulder and I turn back to see that Pollen is staring us down. Maybe it’s the daylight, but I hadn’t noticed before just how sallow she really is. She almost looks like a corpse next to Timber’s golden skin.
“Maybe we should go—”
“I’m not going any further than this spot. She’s already freaking out that I’ve left her alone with Timber. I won’t put her through any more stress.”
“Okay, but just keep it down,” Jansen mutters quietly.
“No problem.”
“Granby’s organizing a mission. The mission. A last ditch effort to destroy the Trinity before they can do any more damage. He thinks he’s located their whereabouts. Chances are, if it fails, we’re all screwed. With Drake gone I’m pretty sure he’s going to recruit you.”
“What about Pollen?”
“Out of the question. I shouldn’t even be talking to you yet. We’ve been sworn to secrecy. Under no circumstances is she to know about this. I think you know why.”
“Of course.” There’s no way Pollen would sit back and let this mission take place without her. If she finds out, not only will she insist on going along, she’ll demand to be the one who pulls the trigger on the Trinity. But I’m not so sure it’s a good idea to keep her in the dark. Nothing good will come of lying to her.
Chapter 29
(Pollen)
Please come back Marcus.
I shiver as the breeze rustles the hair away from my neck, even though it is far from cold. The biting concrete, rough even through the denim of my jeans, adds to the chill.
The gigantic pile of rocks that we’re sitting upon used to be our home. That’s a strange thought to wrap my head around. I search the remains for something, anything, that I could recognize from our lives that existed a week ago. A butterfly from Evie’s wall. A shred of carpet from our room. A floor tile from the atrium. But there’s nothing but a heap of rock and metal. It’s all alien to me. Another chill zips up my spine.
“It wasn’t your fault Pollen. I don’t blame you.” Timber maintains a safe distance from me. How can I face her now? First she lost Yoric—only a few months ago. Now she’s lost Drake. At my own hands. How can she not blame me? How can she not hate me? I can’t even look at her. These past few days I’ve done everything in my power to avoid her. Timber is my best friend and I let her down.
“I pulled the trigger,” I mutter, almost incoherently.
“You saved my life.”
“Not by killing him. There could have been another way. I killed the man you love. How can you not hate me right now?”
I stare down at my hands like they are the vilest creatures I’ve ever laid eyes on. The hands that killed my brother. What would my parents think if they were still alive?
“Yes, I think I was falling for Drake, and it hurts to think of the future we might have had. But that’s no comparison to what you must be feeling right now. I could never hate you for what you did Pollen. It had to be done.”
“No, it didn’t.” I pick up a handful of broken concrete chips and throw them, one by one, into the rubble below as if tossing stones into a pastoral lake. “If we could have incapacitated him and gotten him back to the clinic, to Dr. Nesbith—”
“Pollen,” Timber jumps in. “Hasn’t Myra told you?”
“Told me what?”
“About patient X?”
My mind drifts back to that day in the lab. She explained my genetic mutation and showed me the lab reports for the mysterious lab rat the Trinity used for experimentation.
“Yes, I know about patient X. She showed me the documents in the lab. But I—”
Timber looks at me hard, as if she’s trying to transfer her thoughts into my thick head. Of course. How did I not get this before? It’s so obvious now. The headaches. The twitching.
“Drake was X,” I murmur in quiet acknowledgment.
“You didn’t kill him, Pollen. The Trinity did.”
“But the reports showed that the experiments didn’t work on him. I don’t understand how he could just snap like that. And why at that specific moment? Why didn’t it happen before?”
“Myra thought the electromagnetism from the fence might have triggered it.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense. The fence was a deactivation mechanism for the others. It caused them to lose whatever it was that made them attack us. I don’t understand.”
“Pollen,” Timber shimmies closer to me and places her hand gently upon my shoulder. “Myra found a chemical soup in Drake’s brain during the autopsy. It could have been any combination or all of them that interacted with the fence and caused him to turn. There was nothing that could be done. Even if we had gotten him back to the clinic safely, he wouldn’t have survived long. Those chemicals were eating his brai
n alive.”
Timber breaks away and wipes the tears spilling from her eyes.
“Wait a minute. The fence? I still have my memories.”
“It’s been deactivated. It’s already served its purpose. Granby shut it down a few days ago.”
“Oh. So what happens now?” I ask, staring back at Marcus. His conversation with Jansen has grown more serious. Every now and then Jansen glances back at me. What are they talking about?
“I don’t know.” Timber stares off in a different direction, watching some of the workers haul off some concrete pieces. “We try to move on?”
“Something’s going on,” I whisper.
“Huh?”
I nod discreetly toward Marcus and Jansen. “I’ve never seen Jansen like that; that look on his face. See?”
Timber leans forward past me to get a better view.
“Hmm.” Timber’s voice lowers a notch and her words come out slowly. “I think you’re right.”
“You think Granby’s planning something?”
“If he is, you can be sure he’ll leave you out of it. You’ve been through too much as it is.”
Suddenly, the weakness that has drowned me from lack of food begins to wash away. I feel my strength returning as if I’m absorbing energy directly from the sunlight. I push out the depressing thoughts that have weighed heavily on my shoulders and my mind clears.
“Like hell. If something’s going on I want in.”
***
“Tell me.”
Marcus stops and leans against the smooth bark of a birch tree. He picks a piece of the papery bark off, tearing it to strips between his fingers. Timber stayed behind at the ruins to talk to Jansen. I insisted on walking back to the bunker instead of riding. Marcus agreed reluctantly, only because he wants me to spend more time outdoors.
The struggle in his face is evident. He wants to tell me, but there’s some barrier keeping him from talking.
“Tell me what’s going on Marcus.”
“Something tells me you already know what I’m going to say,” he mutters under his breath.
“You’re going after the Trinity, aren’t you?”
“Not officially, but yes, a mission is being planned.”
“I’m going.”
“Now wait, Pollen. We don’t know anything about this yet. I don’t even know if Granby is going to include me or not. And he definitely won’t let you tag along.”
“I’m going.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea either. I don’t want to risk losing you again. And if we rescue Evie, she’ll need you.”
“I’m going,” I say more firmly this time, glaring at Marcus, unwavering. He knows he can’t stop me if it’s what I really want.
“You haven’t eaten in days. You haven’t trained. You’re in no shape to do anything rash.”
I ease up to Marcus and lean against his chest. My hands slide up to his shoulders and behind his neck. I brush my lips against his and he takes them, kissing me deeply, with a power that sends sparks into my weakened muscles. It’s our first real kiss since before the battle.
“So let’s go eat.”
Chapter 30
(Marcus)
As expected, Granby called upon me this afternoon to meet for a highly classified security meeting. After meeting in the armory, Granby led Sage, Nicron, Jansen, and me through the ammunitions storage closet, through a secret door into a hidden security room. Monitors cover the walls of the circular room, some blank, some displaying outdoor shots of the perimeter. Two of them flicker with different angles of the Ceborec ruins. In the center of the room sits a sleek round table with an inner circle of holographic glass.
“Thank you for joining me,” Granby begins as my fellow soldiers and I find our seats at the table. “Let’s get right to it. We received some intel last week and I sent Lars, Meg, and Charlie on a stakeout. They believe they found where Evie is being held and there was some evidence that the Trinity are close by. The committee has been briefed and we all came to the conclusion to take action.
“The facility is located on the southwest side of the Baerstynn mountain range and is heavily guarded. I think it would be unwise to stage a full-scale attack. Our primary goal is to rescue Evie and destroy the Trinity. The risk of losing the Trinity is too high with a large army. I’m not willing to take that gamble when we’ve got them so close. That’s where you all come in.
“We will launch a . . . distraction . . . at Crimson, which may or may not lighten the load of Enforcers at the site, but should shift the focus of their security away from the hideout. The difficult part will be getting through their barricade of Enforcers. I’ve chosen you men specifically for your stealth and strength. Once you’re in, you will locate and remove Evie, plant this device,” Granby holds up a round object that resembles a small metallic button, “and get the hell out of there. We’re not in the market for a ton of casualties men, we just need their leaders destroyed.”
Granby pauses and looks each one of us in the eye for approximately three seconds each. “I shouldn’t have to say this, but it is imperative. This mission is. Top. Secret.” Granby rests his eyes pointedly at me. “Nobody, and I mean nobody, is to know what has been discussed in here. Understand? This discussion does not leave this room.”
I nod fervently, knowing that the comment is directed exclusively toward me and my relationship with Pollen.
“Sir,” I interrupt. “She’ll want to know what’s going on when I leave. What should I tell her?”
“The official mission,” Granby says as he makes quotations with his fingers, “is that you will be scavenging for medical supplies in the north. The outcome of our most recent attack has warranted a need for them making it a reliable cover. Are we all on the same page?”
Granby meets each pair of eyes again.
“Yes, sir,” we all say in unison.
Granby flips a switch under the table and fingers a black glossy portion of the table in front of him. Above the center of the table, a three-dimensional holographic blueprint for an underground facility rises and flickers for a moment before anchoring its glow in place. It’s the location of Evie and the Trinity.
I focus intensely on the blueprints, committing them to memory, as Granby and Sage devise a plan to get in, and point out the locations where they believe we will need to infiltrate and areas to steer clear of. My years of experience in construction come with an advantage. I can look at this raw structure of beams and supports and visualize exactly what this place looks like.
Granby reminds us, or me, one final time before releasing us to keep the mission silent. Now I’ve got to figure out how to bring Pollen along without him knowing. I hate that I’m doing this: putting her in danger, deceiving and betraying my commander. But it’s what she wants. And somehow I can’t bring myself to stand in her way this time. She deserves a shot at vengeance.
***
I slide my dagger out of its sheath on my hip and make a quick slash into the bark of the nearest ash tree. It’s the only one nearby with a surface smooth enough for Pollen to identify the mark later.
We set out on foot this morning: Sage, Nicron, Jansen, and me. It’ll take at least three days to travel to the western side of Mount Baerstynn where the Trinity’s secluded lair is located. Granby commanded that we avoid the use of vehicles to stay under the radar. A small group traveling by foot will easily avoid surveillance.
I said goodbye to Pollen with the expected fanfare in the center of the atrium in front of the Earth shuttle. With all the tears shed, they shouldn’t suspect anything unusual. Pollen and I came up with a plan to have her join us, though I can’t say I’m completely comfortable with it. It took some convincing to get Timber to go along, but she finally agreed. Timber and Pollen would go out to train together. Pollen would take off from there, and after a couple hours Timber would return to Ceborec, claiming that Pollen has disappeared (again). By that time, she’ll be far enough away that the search efforts will be futi
le.
To help guide her along our trail I’ve been slashing small fissures in the smooth-barked trees we pass. I also drop a few bullets when there is a long distance between trees. That way, Pollen will be armed in case of any rogue bounty hunters on the loose. That’s the part that still worries me. I know they are still looking for her. I just hope they don’t find her before she finds us.
As the sunlight begins to dwindle I convince the others to stop and make camp. Pollen won’t be able to see my marks in the dark. It’s a full moon tonight, but with the smog in the sky I doubt the bullets will be able to hold a glint of moonlight. If she runs, at her speed, she’ll be here in half the time it took us.
“If we stop now, we’ll have to get an early start in the morning to stay on schedule.” Sage frowns. “I think we should keep moving. We can still get a few more hours in.”
“Yeah, but we don’t want to exhaust ourselves on the first night,” I protest. “Get a good nights’ sleep, wake up early, and we’ll get a full day’s hike tomorrow. We won’t fall behind.”
“This is a good place to camp,” Jansen pipes in, always the peacekeeper. “Good cover, we just passed that stream so there’s plenty of water. We could all use a good rest after the day’s journey.” Jansen thumps Nicron with his elbow.
“Sure,” Nicron agrees nervously. “I’m beat. Let’s kill it for the night.”
Sage huffs and drops his pack roughly at his feet, making it absolutely clear to us all that he is not happy with our decision.
We all sit on the ground in a circle, though I take a seat further away from the bunch so I can keep an eye out for Pollen. No campfire—too risky.
“I’m tellin’ you Marcus,” Sage says, bunching up his backpack, and lying back on it like it’s a pillow, “We don’t make it on schedule, it’s all on you.”
“We’ll make time. I’m sure of it.” As the others attempt to find a comfortable position on the hard ground, I sit upright, ready to move at a moment’s notice.
The Trinity Page 18