Enigma

by Tonya Kuper

  Energy welled inside me, ready to break me apart. I closed my eyes, willing myself to calm down. Inhaling through my nose, I opened my eyes and shoved my shaking hands into my pockets. Reid’s hand around my waist tightened.

  I cleared my throat, trying to swallow the indignation. “One life should not cost another. An eye for an eye doesn’t work; it’s never ended well. Why didn’t you take this to the Council for help?”

  Dee stared at me, her brown eyes watery and her bottom lip trembling. Why couldn’t she go to her own leadership on this? The council should have backed her. Unless maybe she had been tapped or was being watched, like I had been. Which, the more I thought about it, was likely.

  She wasn’t answering and it just fueled my anger. “Answer me!” I didn’t even recognize my own voice. A primal scream, thick with fury. The lock on my temper busted open. “You’re disgusting.” The words came out violent and raw.

  Dee started sobbing. I’d need to address some of these things after we returned to the Hub. Right now, I had to keep a level head.

  I stood and turned away from Dee before she could see my own tears forming. Reid’s arms closed around me. “Look at me,” he whispered.

  His eyes sparkled in the morning sun as he wiped my cheek. “It’s over. We have the mole. It’s okay to be a little happy right now. I know it’s not a great situation, but we can celebrate this small victory. Okay?” He pressed his lips to my forehead.

  I attempted to smile, but my insides didn’t match. It felt wrong to celebrate catching the mole when the circumstances behind it were so grim. If I wasn’t handed over, did that mean Stella would be killed? And why wouldn’t Dee answer our questions? She had nothing to lose anymore, nothing to hide. Unless maybe she did.

  17.

  Reid

  Josie sat in the passenger seat next to me. I kept looking at her to make sure she was still there. After losing so many others, I couldn’t have lost her, too. And there were so many others who couldn’t lose her, either.

  We hit the dirt road that wound up the back side of the mountain to the garage. I reached my hand across the console to let it rest on Josie’s thigh. Zac was in the backseat, so I shouldn’t have touched her that way, but I didn’t care at the moment. I needed to reassure Josie that she was fine. And I needed to reassure myself of that, too.

  We pulled up in front of the mountainside, Cohen and Kat following in the other vehicle, ready to enter the garage as soon as the hangar door disappeared.

  I watched the wall of rock, thinking about what Josie had pointed out a couple of days previous—the mountains were layers of history. I’d never thought about rocks that way before. But that’s what Josie did; she made me view things differently; she challenged me.

  But why wasn’t the wall disappearing? Why wasn’t anyone opening the door for us? They would’ve seen us coming. I picked up my cell and dialed the code for the Hub, and then called my dad’s number. Nothing. I punched the number for the garage. Nothing.

  Josie already had her phone up to her ear. She twisted to me. “I can’t reach Mom.”

  This was shady. Nervousness wriggled its way through my gut.

  Josie and I sprang from the Jeep. I approached Cohen in the driver’s seat behind us, and she went to Kat. “It won’t open. No communication with the garage, my dad, or Josie’s mom.”

  Without saying a word, Cohen typed across the screen of his phone. Nothing. His fingers moved over his screen and we waited. Nothing.

  I ran behind my Jeep and stared at the mountainside, making sure to have the entire surface in my sights. I Retracted—or I tried to Retract. Nothing happened. “Josie!”

  She and Cohen were at my side in seconds. “I can’t Retract the door. Can you give it a go?”

  Josie widened her stance, her hands loose at her sides. She began trembling, a tangible heat radiating off her, but nothing was happening to the mountain in front of us.

  “Don’t hurt yourself.”

  She huffed and let her head sag. “What’s going on?”

  “I don’t know, but it’s not good.” I opened the back door of the Jeep. “Dee, do you know why the door won’t open? Was anyone in the Hub working with you?”

  Dee’s brown eyes dragged up to my face, but I wasn’t sure if she really saw me. She slumped in the seat, pale and sweaty, her bloody leg across Kat’s lap. She had to be in unbearable pain.

  Dee slow-blinked. Her lucidity was questionable.

  Kat glanced to me. “Let’s get some pain meds in her.”

  “Do you know what to give her?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I just went through the training.”

  Backing out of the vehicle, I turned to Josie and Cohen. “Dee’s no help right now.”

  Josie rubbed the back of her neck. “I, uh. I have a thought. We can’t get in and we’re assuming they aren’t letting us in. Right?”

  “Duh,” Cohen said.

  Josie rolled her eyes. “What if instead of the Hub not letting us in, they are keeping us out? Do you see the difference? Also, who is they? The entire Hub? I don’t think so.”

  My stomach dipped like I was riding a rollercoaster when the realization of what Josie was saying sunk in. “Oh God.”

  Cohen shook his head, totally lost.

  Josie smoothed her ponytail. “They want to keep us out, all of us. Why this particular group?”

  “Aw, shit.” Cohen rubbed both hands over his face. “We’re the youngest group with abilities, therefore the most powerful. We’re the strongest.”

  “You weren’t bait. I was,” Dee said from the backseat. Her eyes were closed, her head resting on the seat. “I was used, too.”

  “Used by whom?” Josie asked.

  Jared. Parts of his files were missing from the database, parts he didn’t want seen.

  Dee moaned, her hands in fists.

  “Max,” Josie said quickly, the word like poison on her lips. “Why did he want us out? What’s he doing in there?”

  “Not Jared?” I asked.

  Josie looked to me and shook her head. “For someone to control Santos, Dee, and Thor knows who else, it has to be someone with authority. Max is logical.”

  Without evidence, I wasn’t as sure as Josie seemed. “I guess we’ll see soon enough.”

  Kat came around the end of the Jeep. “Our families are in there.”

  “Let’s get the two injured troopers in the vehicle with Dee.” I waved two of my dad’s guys over to us. “Can you handle the three of them until we deal with whatever is going on and get this door opened?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Thanks, guys. Okay, everyone else, let’s go.”

  Zac moseyed up to the group, stopping behind Kat. “What are we doing if we’re locked out? We can’t just blast a hole in the side of the mountain and compromise the infrastructure. It could collapse.”

  Yeah, I was ahead of him. Forcing our way into the mountain where it wasn’t supported wouldn’t work. If we were locked out of this side, the mine shaft on the other side would be blocked, too. We had to find a way in that wouldn’t potentially hurt the interior structure. A natural entrance would work the best. “I know a way in.”

  It took us about twenty minutes to trek through the mountain terrain and find the natural hole that peeked into my private crystal cave.

  Once inside and past my secret place, I stopped where the path widened, making sure to have everyone’s attention. There was yelling and intermittent gunfire coming from inside the Hub. Cohen, Zac, Kat, and Josie watched me, waiting for instructions, but I didn’t have any. I wished I did. I wished I was the leader we all needed at that moment.

  I ran my hand through my hair. “I don’t know what is happening, so I can’t exactly give us a game plan, guys. All I know is that we need to find Max and the rest of the Council members. We also need to find Josie’s mom, her little brother, and my dad. They are the only Founders of the Resistance left. We’ll have to make decisions on the fly once we figure out what we
’re up against. Hub communications may not be operational. Everyone type number six before phone numbers to reach each other.”

  “I’ll look for my mom and Eli,” Josie said, the bluish glow from her phone lighting her face.

  “Cohen, you okay to help me with Max and the Council? Not sure how well that will go.” He gave a firm nod.

  Zac turned to Kat. “Want to help me look for Harrison, and we’ll keep an eye out for your mom?” Kat nodded quickly but didn’t speak.

  I wasn’t sure what we were walking into, but I did know that each of us, save Zac, had people inside that mattered to us in some way. I needed to give them as much inspiration as I could muster. “Listen, they aren’t expecting us. Whether it’s Max, the entire Council, or whomever. They wanted to keep us out because we’re the strongest in the Hub. We have the elements of surprise and power on our side. Just remember to be smart when Pushing and Retracting. We got this.”

  “We got this, yo,” Cohen whooped.

  Josie smiled. Her eyes met mine, then she said, “May the Force be with you.” Josie’s grin was all I needed to give me that extra incentive, that extra nudge of confidence going into the unknown.

  Cohen and Zac laughed. “Right on,” Kat said. I was probably smiling like one of those goofy heart-eyed emojis.

  I led the way down the path from my secret cavern into the main hall of the Hub. It became increasingly louder, along with the pounding of my heart. When we got to the entrance, I turned to the others behind me. The light coming from under the rocky lip shined upward on everyone’s faces. Deep contrast and rigid shadows made their faces seem like comic book illustrations. Dramatic and badass. “Let’s go.” I stepped past Cohen and kissed Josie’s forehead. At that point, I didn’t give two shits what anyone thought about me being with Josie.

  I ducked under the rough rock, straightened, and found myself standing in the center of absolute pandemonium. Most people were at the far end of the hallway, moving toward the living quarters, but there wasn’t an exit that way. Troopers dressed in blue fought with a group of Hub dwellers near the training rooms, the end of the hall closer to the garage. What the hell?

  Behind me, the others stepped into the hallway from the cave. “Max,” I yelled, pointing toward the garage. Josie pointed in the other direction then took off with Zac and Kat following.

  Cohen ran beside me to the small group of Resistance near the training rooms.

  “Coe, can you take care of the three in the back when I Retract their guns, and distract them with the big-shot trooper?” He nodded and we separated, both of us hugging our respective sides of the hallway.

  A trooper holding an assault rifle pointed at the three Resistance members and yelled, “Your choices are to unite behind Max or burn in the Hub.” The guy was only a few years older than me. Three troopers stood behind him, protecting the entrance to the garage.

  “Whoa, whoa. Buddy, what’s going on? That’s not how we do things around here,” I shouted as I turned, so his eyes would follow mine. Not always, but sometimes when we look at something, we’ll turn our bodies without realizing it. That’s what I was hoping for with this punk-ass.

  “It is now,” he said. “Directed by Max.” My stomach dropped. The trooper twisted toward me, his eyes momentarily off the innocent Resistance members.

  Dammit. Max.

  I Retracted all their guns. Cohen moved quickly, Retracting the ground under one trooper. Then he Pushed cuffs around the other girl’s wrists and ankles, causing her to break the other trooper’s fall to the ground with her face. He threw an impressive KO punch to the closest dude trooper. It all happened in a matter of seconds.

  I grabbed the clown-stick’s head in front of me, yanked down, and slammed it into my rising knee. He was out cold. I let him drop to the floor.

  I turned to the oldest of the Hub dwellers, seeing who it really was for the first time—Kat’s mom. “Kat?” she asked, her eyes wide with worry.

  “Go to the living quarters, there are good soldiers who will get you away from these guys. Kat is at that end.”

  Kat’s mother turned without another word, leading the two other Hub residents down the hallway.

  Cohen scooted around the corner into the garage, behind a crate of Hub supplies marked for the Caf, and I followed. Several groups of Oculi were being loaded by gunpoint into the back of army-type utility trucks by troopers.

  “We’re on schedule.” Max’s voice came from the stairs of the Eye in the Sky.

  I signaled to Cohen that I’d take care of Max and his few guards. He pointed to the door propped open to the Council corridor. Good call. We needed to know where the other Council members were and if they’d attack us.

  Max stepped onto the floor from the staircase with his phone to his ear and paused. “Ghost town. I’m leaving now.” A couple of troops stood guard around Max. “Consortium soldiers will be there soon to practice, to run a demo for you so we can decide what would be best to present to the President and the Secretary of Defense. It’s a remote location, so don’t bother to take much security with you. The Consortium will be there—we can be your security.”

  Adrenaline and horror spiked my blood.

  Consortium.

  We.

  Soldiers.

  Max was a part of the Consortium. So who was he talking to? I had to be sure. And I had to stop him.

  I blinked and Pushed zip ties around him, binding his arms to his sides, then stepped out from behind the crate. “Looks like you did some reorganization while I was out. Does that mean I’m out of a job?”

  One of his cronies came at me, but I stepped out of the way, Pushed a ten-foot-deep pit into the garage floor, and gave her a shove to help her on her trip.

  Movement in my periphery pulled my attention to my side where Max stood, no longer bound. I’d never actually seen him use his abilities. I’d assumed he’d used up his bank of energy. Crafty bastard.

  I stepped toward him but fell into another deep hole, landing on all fours. Dick move. I Pushed, filling the new hole, and was on ground level before Max was expecting. He’d walked around the hole toward the panicked mass of Resistance being prodded into the back of vehicles like animals.

  I grabbed his arm and kicked his feet out from under him. A fury, so deep that I’d never experienced anything like it before, exploded inside me. He fell then scrambled to his feet. I took the three steps to him in two, and my fist crunched against his cheek, whipping his head to the side.

  Pain streaked through my hand and his uniformed guards closed around me.

  “Kill him,” Max shouted, rubbing his face and straightening his clothes. Pulling my hand back over my shoulder, I Pushed a knife into my hand and flung it. The weapon zipped through the air, but some of his uniforms shielded him from my view so I couldn’t observe the outcome. The knife stuck out of a trooper’s shoulder.

  Instead of punching, I should’ve shot him. I hated thinking like that, but he’d deceived all of us. I should’ve ended him when I had the chance.

  Troopers continued to close around me. I Retracted the ground under two I’d noticed were only Retractors. They’d have a more difficult time thinking their way out of a hole.

  I threw a punch and flung another knife at one of the uniformed guy’s feet. These guys were just following orders. I didn’t want to kill them if I didn’t have to, I just needed to get them off my ass.

  More blue uniformed troops showed up and made a human shield around Max, leading him toward the chopper in front of the hanger door.

  No, he can’t leave.

  A gargantuan dude stepped in front of me, blocking my view of Max. “You’re going to burn in here with the rest of those who won’t follow.” Okay, he was the second trooper to say that. Not good. I wasn’t done with Max, but right now, I needed to find Josie and get everyone out of the Hub.

  I slugged the closest uniform and he went down, which left me with Mr. Muscles. He cracked his neck side to side as he approached me. No weapon be
sides his mind and muscle. Usually, I’d play along, but I had things to do. I Pushed Josie’s gun of choice into my hand, standard-issue Glock, and shot him in the leg. He dropped to his knees, screaming, and I ran.

  I ran closer to the helicopter Max was heading for and tried Retracting it, but he had too many people focused on protecting it. The propellers started with a whine and he stepped into the chopper with help from a trooper. I tried Retracting the entire aircraft again. Nothing.

  Cohen barreled down the Council corridor toward me. Something was wrong. Pain or sadness or something pulled his features downward as if he was going to cry or maybe get sick.

  “Dead,” Cohen yelled. “The Council. They’re all dead.”

  Tentacles of fear closed around my chest, making it difficult to breathe or swallow or think.

  That’s how Max had accomplished this take over. He was a Consortium agent on the inside. What about my dad and Josie’s mom? Where were they? We had to make sure they were alive.

  I snapped out of my stupor and tried to Retract the helicopter, or even just parts of it, but it lifted from the ground. Max peeked through the door of the helicopter at me then one of the troopers shot at me, hitting the wall and missing me by inches. Had to be a Retractor; Pushers had better aim.

  Cohen and I took off down the main hall. I told him what I’d just overheard Max say.

  Cohen slowed and cursed under his breath. “What do we do first?”

  “We need to get all these people out of the Hub, or we’ll all be burned alive.” Yeah, we needed to stop Max. Correction: we needed to kill Max. But we also needed to piece this all together. I needed Dad and Josie.