Encender (The Enertia Trials Book 2)

by J. Kowallis

  “What are we waiting for?” I whisper.

  “An escort.”

  “An escort to where?” Nate asks.

  Carmen looks at him like he’s stupid. “To Israel.”

  I take a deep breath, and immediately wish I hadn’t. I didn’t registered the rank smell of sewage and earth permeating the walls around us. I don’t know where the smell is coming from. I cough into the bend of my arm, my lungs struggling to get rid of what I took in.

  “C-can’t we just go find him?”

  “That’s not how it works.”

  “Well,” Nate says, “that’s how it’s working tonight.”

  “I second that,” I reply. From inside my uniform jacket, I pull out a small LED. The light coats the walls and floor with a bright white glow. With my other hand, I beckon to Carmen.

  She hesitates to follow me, but Nate elbows her in the back. She jogs to catch up, Nate following tightly behind, his hand on one of his guns. I reach out to press the panel on the first door and try the same pattern Carmen used in the corner. Even when I push in, nothing happens.

  “Wrong password,” Carmen states bluntly.

  “Yeah, thanks,” I whisper in irritation. “Come on.”

  The light from the LED glows and bounces off the walls with each movement of my hand, casting shadows that keep pulling my eyes from side to side, motioning me to follow them. The movements, although I know they’re mine, make my adrenaline pulse in waves.

  “I have a question for you,” I say to her, trying to hide the shake in my voice.

  “¿Sí?”

  “The Nexis. Did they make you go through it?”

  She sighs behind me. “No. I chose to.”

  I abruptly stop and turn to her. “What?”

  Nate looks down at her, keeping his eyes constantly shifting around, watching.

  Carmen’s face falls, and her bottom lip starts to shake. “My mamá died when I was young. Since that time, my abuela raised me.”

  Nate and I both look at each other briefly. He motions with his head to keep going. I turn and keep talking to Carmen. “No father?” I ask.

  “I never knew him. My mother said he was a black hole. She was glad to be rid of him. I lost them both.”

  “Your parents?”

  “Mamá y Abuela. I was all alone. I was sad. I’m still sad. But they promised me a life without disease. Told me I would be special. I wouldn’t be alone. They made it sound so—”

  “Perfect,” I whisper.

  “Of course they did,” Nate’s voice rumbles.

  “So remind me how you know this man?” I ask Carmen.

  I glance back to make sure she’s still following. Even though I don’t have to. Nate keeps her moving. Her dark black hair falls in wisps around her porcelain-smooth face, her eyes wandering and curious. “I programmed him.”

  “How do you know he’ll help us?” He may have sold her excess injections and meds before, but whether he does that for money, or out of the blackness of his heart will make a huge difference in how this works out.

  “Dr. Folland is suspicious of him. I programmed him ten months ago. He’s not been right . . .” she pauses and I look back at her. She touches her forehead with her finger to indicate her head injury. “No one’s been like me before. So, if I’m like this, maybe he is to? Maybe that’s why he sells underground?”

  Her answer doesn’t give me much confidence. I swallow hard. I hope she’s right about this.

  Around the corner I see a glow of light in the distance begin to grow brighter. The shuffle of feet. Someone’s coming. I motion both of them forward and I plow down the hallway. The faint light from the LED in my hand gets closer to the corner and I can actually see the other light stop. They see us coming too. It makes me want to move faster.

  The closer we come to the bend, I slow down and carefully lean around. Standing a few feet from me is a figure. Three disfigured fingers lace around a dirty old flashlight. He shines it right in my face.

  “What are you doing here?” The voice is powerful and deep.

  Carmen’s voice flits behind me. “Where’s Israel?”

  Through the glare of his flashlight, I can see his outline breath in deeply. I still can’t quite tell what he looks like.

  “What’s your business?”

  “We need . . .” Carmen’s voice trails off, “the, uh—”

  “. . . a new stash of injections,” I finish for her. My heart beats heavily in my chest. I hope the man doesn’t suspect anything’s wrong with Carmen. I knew it was risky to use her.

  “You know the protocol, Mata,” he glares over my shoulder. “You should have waited.”

  “Yes,” Carmen answers. “But . . .”

  “But we don’t care as much,” Nate cuts her off.

  “You’re a guard?” the man questions Nate.

  Nate nods.

  The man turns and his flashlight waves over the wall and back down where he came from. “Follow me.”

  The hallways he takes us through aren’t any different from the others. Dark, a little chilly and dry. Bare walls, no differentiality or design. Carmen keeps looking curiously down each opposite hallway we pass, glancing at each movement of light like an energetic animal. Even though she’s struggling to act normal, at least she’s functional. I mentally cross my fingers, hoping to myself that this man, or Israel especially, doesn’t notice anything different with her.

  The man ducks down into a small oval doorway—reminiscent of a submarine access way—and the top of his hood catches on the arch, pulling it off his head a bit. He pushes the hood all the way off and reaches over for a breaker box on the wall. After the sharp crack of the switches snapping on, lights overhead flood the room. The oval doorway behind slams shut, steel bolts crashing into place.

  My teeth grind into each other. I try to control my breathing.

  “So, what do you really want?” The man turns and I’m finally able to see him. His clean-shaven jaw is sharply oval, and his dark eyes squint at me from underneath thick black eyebrows. His hair has been shaven off and his face is perfectly symmetrical.

  “Are you Israel?” I ask.

  All he does is stare at me.

  “If you have to ask, you’re not Public employees. Are you?” He pulls his hooded shirt off over his head, yanking his thin white Tee up with it. His torso is perfectly carved and tight—even more so than the fighters I used to face. I may be able to beat him under normal circumstances, but if he’s been run through the Nexis program, it guarantees I may not last ten seconds if this goes sour.

  “What’s wrong with her?” He nods toward Carmen and folds his arms.

  I don’t look back at her. Taking my eyes off him indicates I’m unsure. “Nothing. Well? Can you get us the drugs we need or not?”

  “Let me just . . .” he jerks his hand up, “. . . stop you right there. Who are you?”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  “You’re in my home. It is my business.” His eyes darken and he shifts toward me, reaching into his back pocket for something.

  My heart pounds out of control.

  “Wait,” I splay my hands out defensively, backing up into Carmen. Nate whips out the power-gun, aiming it at the man. “Fine.”

  “Don’t say a word,” Nate commands from behind me.

  “I’ve got this,” I glare at him and then give my full focus to Israel. “Obviously, you don’t trust us, and we don’t trust you. How can we change that?”

  “Start answering my questions first,” his voice growls, keeping a careful eye on Nate, gripping some kind of weapon behind his back.

  “Not ‘til you answer ours,” Nate responds. “If you can’t help us, giving up our identities will only put us at risk.”

  The man shifts his eyes between Nate, Carmen, and I. He’s nervous. Abruptly, he dives for me. My fist flies beneath his blocking forearm and stabs into his throat. He coughs and hoarsely breathes in. A knife clatters to the ground. My next five hits fl
y right by his blocks. One to his face, his gut, his ribs, a knee to his groin, and an elbow to his neck. With one final punch to his kidneys, he falls to the ground.

  It wasn’t even hard. I’ve faced more resistance from Nate’s lame comebacks than this fraud. I wipe at the hair in my face and step away from him.

  I catch my breath and glare at him. He’s not perfect. He’s not like Roy. “You didn’t go through the Nexis did you?” I manage to get out.

  Israel groans and pushes himself off the floor. “Yes,” he mutters. “I did. The program didn’t fully take. I didn’t let them know.”

  “How have they let you live?”

  He coughs more, trying to breathe.

  He’s not talking. I leap forward and shove him to the floor, pushing my heel into his throat. “How?” I yell.

  “They don’t know.” His voice is raspy. He claws at my foot, trying to push me off.

  “You better give us more than that!” I push harder. Not enough to choke him. Just cause intense pain.

  “Let . . .” his face turns red, “me go. I’ll . . . talk.”

  I lift up my foot and he coughs in harsh bellows. “They don't know.” He looks over at Carmen tracing the cracks in the wall with her gaze. “Or at least they shouldn’t. Or didn’t.”

  The color slowly fades from Israel’s face and he’s becoming paler. He pushes himself away from me and takes a deep gulp of air and talks with a grated voice. “I suppose it could have been last year. I work in the aid office. Sort of like the hospital. When an assignment comes in to file citizens, I hesitated. It was a pre-teen kid. I knew she wasn’t good enough for The Nexis. She didn’t have any of the desirable traits The Public looks for. Just normal. She crouched in the corner, wanting to find a way out. All I could see was the face of a child. Not the day’s garbage. I couldn’t do it. I hid her and released her that night. One of the higher ups,” Israel coughs more, “was watching me for a while. So I had to throw him off my trail. I thought I’d succeeded.”

  “Why keep you alive if they suspect you?” Nate asks.

  “They?” he eyes Nate through slits. “I guess that guard uniform is a fake.”

  “Real deal. The original owner no longer has a use for it.”

  “Sorry, that doesn’t make sense,” I step forward, rewording Nate’s question. “The Public could easily kill you, cut out the weak link, and still be on the winning end of the stick.”

  Israel pants and shakes his head. “No they wouldn’t. Not if I was good at covering my ass.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Israel’s feet shuffle across the floor and he reaches for a beer bottle, swigging down a liquid that looks more like diluted urine than beer. “The Public is thorough. They wouldn’t leave a loose end. So, a while later,” he pauses and takes another drink, “I framed a guard. Guards aren’t programmed like the others. Easier to lie. Who’d believe an imperfect guard over a Nexis result?”

  “And they believed you?” I squint.

  “I’m that good, girlie. You get that way after fighting a war.”

  “Military?” Nate’s weapon lowers and his muscles visibly relax a little.

  “Mexican Army. You?”

  “U.S. Marines.”

  I shake my head. “I hate to cut into this love connection. But why not leave?”

  He shakes his head and smiles. Bright white teeth and large pink gums peek out underneath his lips. “Why am I even talking to you, woman? I don’t know you. You still haven’t told me your name or why you’re here. You know, I should just turn you three in to gain a little more trust within the system.” He wipes off his mouth and sets the bottle down again with a hollow clink.

  “My name is Ransley Benitez. We’re breaking into the Nexis so we can shut it down,” I blurt.

  Nate glares at me. “You know,” he growls, “one of these days you’re going to learn to shut up.”

  Israel chuckles. He obviously thinks we’re way over our heads. “You can’t shut it down.”

  “Don’t pretend to know what we can’t do.” My voice hardens.

  Israel sits on the makeshift bed and cracks his neck. It sounds like bones in a vice. “What do you wanna go risking your hides like that for?”

  Nate grips my arm. “I don’t see why we need to tell you.”

  “Well, I don’t need to help you, then. Do I?” Israel takes another swig off the bottle. It clinks when he sets it back down again.

  Nate raises his gun again, aiming it at Israel’s head. “Listen. You’re going to help us, and I don’t give a shit whether it’s in your particular interest.”

  “I’m not loco. I’m not risking my life for a few strangers,” Israel’s voice rattles. “You know he’s going to get you, right?”

  My eyes jerk up to him and I feel cold. “What did you say?”

  He looks at me like I’m insane. “I said they’re going to get you. You don’t stand a chance.”

  “He’ll kill you all. Especially you, Ransley” he glares at me.

  “Why me?”

  Israel frowns at me. “I didn’t say nothin’ about you specifically. I’m sayin’ they’ll find all of you.”

  “And then Roy will end you.”

  My eyes widen. I growl, “He won’t do it. You don’t know him.”

  Israel looks to Nate in confusion. “What is this chick talkin’ about?”

  I know he said “he.” He’ll kill you all. Roy will end you. I swear he did. How could Israel know what Roy did to me? The image of Roy flashes in my mind again and I recoil. Maybe I only thought I heard it. It’s in my mind . . . I hope it is.

  That wasn’t him, after all. How could he have done those things? He knows who I am. I know he still remembers me. He nearly killed me. How could he?

  “Crazy lady.”

  Fire erupts in my chest and a screech fills my ears. It’s only when I shove my hands against Israel’s chest, that I realize it’s coming from me. Heat flows down my arm, and fire consumes my hand, his clothing.

  “It wasn’t him! He’s not going to kill me! You don’t know! You don’t know!”

  In the back of my mind, I hear a voice. Calling me to stop. I can’t stop.

  It’s not true. Roy’s not lost. I won’t let him kill me.

  Israel jerks, trying to pull away. Before he can get far, I plant my other hand directly against the side of his stubbled face and focus my thoughts through my touch. Heat radiates beneath my skin and Israel begins to roar, a groaning struggle coming from his throat.

  “I hope you feel that,” I whisper in his ear, fire building between us. The heat grows more, and a scream . . . no, not really a scream. A straggled bawl, like a cat shoved through a meat cleaver, escapes his mouth. “Because this pain is nothing compared to what you’ll feel if you don’t stop taunting me.”

  “Ransley! Stop it!” Nate’s voice finally breaks through.

  Israel yells.

  “And you’ll help us?” I hiss.

  Israel shakes, his head flying back, trying to get away from me. I dig my fingers into his skin, pressing his face into the wall. “What’s your answer?” I growl. A hand grabs me from behind and yanks me back. My body hits the floor, my arm pinned by my weight. I look back and Nate’s face twists with fury, looking down on me.

  Israel shakes. His lips move. “You’re like him,” he whispers. “You’re one of the group that broke in to see the new citizen. Aren’t you? You’re the same.”

  I feel like Roy’s foot has kicked into my stomach again.

  “And if she is?” Nate turns on him.

  I wipe my mouth off and look at them. Large beads of sweat trickle down Israel’s face and across the blistering handprint on his cheek, my fingernail marks are burned into his skin. His clothing is charred.

  He nods in pain. “Crazy bitch. They find you . . . with those powers, and they’ll make you like him,” he gasps for air.

  “If you say one word about her to The Public―” Nate aims at Israel.

  The ma
n lifts a hand defensively, panting like a dog. “They’ll change you if they find you. Hurt you. Although that would make me happier than anything, I want this over. I can’t keep hiding and I can’t stay under their radar for much longer,” he groans. “I hate them a hell of a lot more than I hate you, and that’s saying something.”

  Israel shakes, fingering his burned face and cusses, scowling at me. “Afterward, I’m done. I’m out. And that crazy bitch better hope we never cross paths again, or I’ll kill her.”

  ―CARMEN―

  Reggie finished the zipper at Carmen’s throat and stepped back. “Carmen, do you remember how to get into the Chrysalis building?”

  “My work?”

  Reggie nodded.

  “Yes. It’s coming back to me. I have to go through the west entrance. Then, because of heightened security, I’ll have to go through a checkpoint. There they will print, card, and tag me for the day. My modifying station is on the thirtieth floor, and Dr. Folland usually reports to me by eight thirty with my first subject.”

  Reggie nodded. “But . . .”

  “. . . but, they’ll also do a full evaluation on me today.”

  “Good. Well,” she looked Carmen up and down, “you sure look ready for work. And you think they’ll accept your excuse for why you’ve been missing?”

  Carmen nervously nodded. “Yes. Three years ago, another employee fell from a railing. The head trauma caused him to be out for three weeks. They’ll believe me.”

  The door to the bedroom opened up and Ransley stuck her head in. Ransley dressed in her Public Four employee uniform Israel had procured for her. “Are we ready?”

  “Are we, Carmen? And will they believe Ransley is a new employee?”

  Carmen nodded, even though she wasn't entirely sure. It must have showed on her face because Reggie took a deep worried breath, glancing at Ransley joined by Israel in the doorway. The two of them sidestepped from the other, glaring.

  “What’s the plan, then?” He walked up and folded his arms.

  “Once Ransley and I are inside and through security, I’ll get her access to Roy’s living quarters. He’ll have to be brought to the basement pod system. I’ll do what I can to keep eyes on me.”