Enigma

by Tonya Kuper

  18.

  Josie

  I ran through the crevice in the rock, shining the light from my phone on the uneven ground beneath my feet. Something long and slender lay across the path up ahead. I knew it was Mom’s cane without using the light.

  I’d searched for Mom and Eli in all the obvious places with no luck. If Mom was not in the open, then she was hiding, and if she were hiding, it wouldn’t be in an obvious place. That’s how I ended up at the spring. The one Cohen showed Eli on his own special tour of the Hub.

  I needed her to be in here and okay. Then, when this was all over, we had to get Dad out of the Consortium headquarters. We needed to put our family back together. That wasn’t my thinking two weeks ago, but it was now. I didn’t have all the information before. Eli needed a family. I needed a family. We needed one another—maybe in a different capacity than we did even a few months ago—but still.

  I rounded the corner where the rock opened into the cavernous room housing the secret pool, my eyes skipping over everything that made the place beautiful, searching, instead, for anything out of place. My breath caught in my throat. Two feet—my mom’s shoes—stuck out from behind a large boulder.

  My legs moved faster than I thought possible. The adrenaline spike helped me move past the last lingering fogginess of the drug in my system. Mom lay on the ground, her head in Eli’s lap, and her eyes closed. Tears streaked Eli’s pink cheeks and his sweaty blond hair matted to his face. Blood soaked the side of Mom’s shirt. I crumpled to the ground and crawled to her side.

  “Mom. No, Mom.” I licked my lips, the saltiness surprising me. I hadn’t realized I was crying. I glanced to Eli. “You hurt?” His head shook, his hair exaggerating the motion.

  Leaning down, I studied my mom’s chest then laid my ear gently against her. Her heart thudded but her breaths seemed shallow. Sitting back on my feet, I watched her face. Quiet and calm.

  This scene, my mother lying there in crimson, was at odds with the breathtaking environment—like one of those pictures where something didn’t belong. If I had a big red marker, I would’ve circle the three of us.

  I texted Reid to let him know where we were and that Mom was hurt and immobile.

  I Pushed a first aid kit and a stack of clean cloths. Tugging my mom’s shirt up as gently as possible, I looked at her wound. I had no idea what I was looking at, though, because I only saw the blood. Not really knowing what I was doing, I poured hydrogen peroxide over the wound. Mom moaned, still not opening her eyes. “I have to, Mom. I’m sorry.” I carefully placed a clean cloth over the area and applied pressure.

  I knew it would be a miracle if my mom made it out of this cave alive. Two weeks ago I didn’t believe in miracles. I would’ve said there was no plausible way for my mother to survive. But now, a miracle was all I had, and I would’ve happily accepted one.

  Our differences, what I’d said, what Mom had said, none of it mattered if she didn’t live through this. So did those things matter if she did live? The thing that trumped any of this—my relationship with my mother, the ways I felt slighted or disadvantaged, my broken family, this messed up Oculi world—was love. My mother wasn’t perfect, but neither was I. It shouldn’t have taken her being on the brink of death for me to realize that I loved her and that in order for us to heal and grow, I would have to forgive her. And I did.

  I slipped my fingers into her cold hand. “You need to hold on, Mom. We’re going to get you out of here.” I slowly pulled my glance up to my brother. “What happened?” My words came out raspy.

  “We went to the garage like everybody else. Mom stood up to Max, and he told one of the soldiers to kill her. We ran, but she can’t run very fast.” He wiped his cheeks with the palm of his hand. “She was hit on the side and fell. The soldier thought she was dead and went back to the garage. Mom told me to help her stand and she made us come in here.”

  Poor kid. I couldn’t imagine being in his shoes. His world had been turned upside down, and then this. He deserved more. I shifted to wrap my arms around him, and he let his tired head rest on my shoulder. “It’s going to be okay, buddy. We’re going to get out of here.”

  An explosion made us both flinch and the earth around us quaked.

  Reid

  Cohen and I bobbed and weaved through bodies. Kat called saying my dad was in the Open. I needed to get to him ASAP. Everyone needed to get out of the Hub.

  As we turned at the intersection of halls, my phone vibrated in my pocket. Josie.

  She and her family were at the spring. Her mom severely injured. Shit.

  I spotted Dad across the Open, pointing him out to Cohen. It was no use yelling over the chaos.

  Beelining toward my dad, we were halted by a group of five people dressed in army-green jackets holding guns. People I didn’t recognize. But I did recognize the patch on the left breast pocket—the Dragon’s Eye symbol. They formed a circle in the middle of the Open, keeping people out of the middle.

  A boom resonated through the Hub. The system of small holes and mirrored windows crashed to the center of the green-jacketed troopers’ circle, replaced by a gaping hole, exposing the blue sky above. Dark forms fell from the place that was once our only source of natural light. They landed on the rubble of rock and shattered glass and mirrors.

  After assessing the area, the soldiers climbed down the mound of debris as more followed them, coming down through the former skylight. Several of them pulled off their safety goggles and approached the Hub residents with their hands up. “We’re with the Resistance. We’d like to get you to safety. Please come with us.”

  They wore the same jackets as the others. The Dragon’s Eye symbol adorned their left side.

  What the hell?

  “Hey!” I yelled, making my way to Dad.

  One of the soldiers jogged my way, but instead of answering me, he looked to my dad. “Sir. We already got several truckloads of Hub residents out via the new exit.”

  Dad nodded. “Continue.” He pivoted to me.

  My heart beat in my throat. “Who…” I could barely choke out the words. “What are you doing? Tell me what’s going on.”

  “Just a second. I’ll explain,” Dad waved me to follow. He ran to the back of the Caf to the intercom system.

  I jogged after him. “No, we don’t have a second. Max is planning on killing every Oculi left in here because we didn’t follow him.”

  “And he killed the Council,” Cohen yelled from behind me.

  “I know, son.”

  The ear-splitting sound of the intercom system turning on rang through the empty cafeteria and echoed in the Open.

  Dad watched me as he held his mouth to the wall com. “Attention Hub residents: This is Harrison Ross. The men and woman in green uniforms are here to help you evacuate. Please follow these soldiers to safety, and we’ll get you into temporary housing. The Council as a whole is no longer a governing force. Avoid Max and the Council troopers assisting him.” My jaw fell open. What was going on? Who was on whose side?

  Dad continued speaking into the wall. “Don’t bring personal items. Again, do not engage Max or the troopers assisting him. We will get you to safe transportation from the garage or the far end of the living quarters. End message.” His finger slid off the red button. “I’m sorry you had to find out this way. I kept it from you for your own good.”

  I grasped the edge of the counter. The air pressed in on me from every direction, threatening to suffocate me and squash me all at once. Everything seemed off kilter—in my head, inside my body, around me. It was like I was sliding and couldn’t grip anything to hold on to.

  My world was literally falling apart around me. My home wasn’t really home. The one place I thought was safe and certain, wasn’t. Identifying and neutralizing the mole should have made this place safe again, but it was quite the opposite. And my dad—I thought he was dead, but really he was some kind of double agent himself, or something. I gulped in air.

  Get your shit together. Wha
t matters? Save people. Josie.

  “I need to get Josie and her family to safety. Meg’s hurt.” I turned for the Open and was surprised Dad ran by my side.

  “Where is Meg?”

  “The spring.”

  Dad stopped, his phone to his ear already. Plugging his opposite ear, he shouted into the phone. “Emergency injury extraction. Spring.”

  Cohen stepped up to me, watching Dad with astonishment. “He’s like James Bond.”

  Dad continued yelling into his phone. “Meg Harper, co-founder of the Resistance and Eli Harper, her son. Josie Harper, Resistance operative, present. Out.” Pulling the phone away from his ear, his finger moved over his screen, and his mouth hardened into a line.

  Dad started jogging again toward the main hallway, movement now easier since the crowd was thinning. “Phones are up again. Dial six first. I just got the message that Max got out of the garage, but he left two truckloads of scared Oculi here. It was only him and two troopers.”

  Just the mention of Max made me want to punch something, mostly his face. Cohen and I ran next to my dad down the long hallway to the garage. “Yeah, I saw him leave. Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”

  “The less you knew, the safer you were. The Council got out of control. After your mom died, the Harpers and I wanted to undo what we’d done. We had to make sure other people were on the same page. Some were, some weren’t. The underground Resistance covers North America and now spans to Great Britain. Those showing allegiance to the Council, well, Max, are no longer considered a part of the Resistance.”

  “Dad, I heard him on the phone. He’s a Consortium agent. That means he’s been planted here for years, just waiting for the right time. He’s going to help demonstrate Consortium soldiers to the President and the Secretary of Defense. He told the person on the phone not to bring much security.”

  “Anything else? Location?”

  “Carlock or Garlock or something like that.”

  Dad’s thumbs moved over his phone screen. “Okay.” A mixture of fear and fury flooded my bloodstream, first cold then hot.

  We passed the training rooms. “Sir,” Cohen said. “Do you know where Kat and Zac are?”

  “They were escorted out of one of the new exits with Kat’s mom and will meet us in the garage, as will Josie and her family.”

  We entered the garage and it was a different scene than it had been just ten minutes before. The hangar door was open to the outside.

  The Oculi who’d been prodded into trucks like cattle were now being driven out of the mountain by soldiers in green. Medics got Dee onto a stretcher. Kat and Zac were escorted through the hangar door by two soldiers in green.

  We all moved toward the stretcher.

  “Dee.” Dad’s voice echoed through the Garage. “I need to know what you know. Your deal with the Consortium is already broken.”

  Dee’s eyes focused on my father, but she showed no indication that she’d heard anything he’d said.

  Josie ran up and wedged herself between me and Cohen, staring at Dee.

  “Fine.” Dad glanced to the medic behind Dee. “Take her.”

  Dee fisted the sheet on the gurney. “Max is working with Vice President Brown.” Dee’s voice was just above a whisper.

  My heart pole-vaulted into my throat. No.

  There were so many possible catastrophic outcomes of the Consortium and the government working together.

  All eyes turned to Zac. His eyes flittered around the room, and a deep crease had formed in his forehead. This was news to him, news he didn’t seem too happy to hear.

  “If Brown militarizes the Consortium, with Max as his right-hand man, they could work together to destroy Anomalies.” Dee winced, squeezing her eyes shut.

  “Ah, yes,” Dad said. “If the VP saves the Planck world, he’d have an easy in to the presidency. Hell, Brown would be the savior of all mankind, and Max would be by his side. If he commanded Oculi soldiers, he’d have incomparable power. He could manipulate humanity as he wanted.”

  Kat shook her head. “It could end up a global cataclysm.”

  I wanted to make sure I understood, but also that Zac understood, too. “So.” I crossed my arms, and blew a puff of air out of my lungs. “On the phone he said the President and the Secretary of Defense would be there to see a demonstration of the Consortium soldiers. Then he said something about having time before. For what exactly, I’m not sure.”

  Kat sighed. “We have to stop them. We have to cut off the two heads of the snake.”

  Zac pulled his focus from his shoes to me. “My dad doesn’t have the guts to out Oculi on his own. If we take out Max and whatever other Consortium officials are there, maybe…I don’t know.”

  I wasn’t the only one staring at Zac in disbelief.

  I weaved my fingers into Josie’s and leaned down to her ear. “Your mom? Eli?”

  Josie nodded. “They think she’ll make it. They lifted her out of a big hole in the Open ceiling.”

  I squeezed her fingers and reiterated everything we’d learned.

  “We have to stop this demonstration from happening,” Zac said.

  Josie nodded. “Yeah, you’re right, Zac. Plus, your dad has or had the enhancing serum that will amplify anyone’s abilities. It could possibly give regular Plancks the ability to Push or Retract. If that was the case, they could essentially make any Planck soldier a Pusher or Retractor. Who knows how he plans on using it, or if he already has.”

  Everyone in our little huddle broke into discussion. Dad silenced us. “A chunk of the Consortium population will all be at this one place. We should take advantage of that.”

  He was right—this was an opportunity. “Guys, we need to stop this demonstration from happening. But in order to do that, to ensure that a similar threat doesn’t arise again, we need to kill Max and as many of the Consortium as possible.” I looked to Dad. “Do we even have enough people who could fight against the Consortium with us, that would give us any chance of success?”

  “Not here, but yes. There are more of us than you think,” Dad announced. “I have two choppers ready to leave immediately for an abandoned town on the west side of the Rockies. Smart play on their part, a remote location. Reid, take your team, we’ll hash out details in transit. I’ll be right behind you with another team. Backup will meet us there. If anyone does not feel they can participate—” His eyes lingered on Zac. “Please do not feel obligated to complete this mission. Go.”

  Everyone ran for the helicopters besides me. I turned to my dad, unsure of what to say.

  The creases in Dad’s face smoothed. “I’m sorry about, well, you know, keeping this from you. It was all to keep you safe. After your mom died, I thought I owed you, and everyone in the Resistance, that. We mistakenly let the Council turn into something it wasn’t intended to become and I needed to try to right that mistake. I needed to get back to the root of what the Resistance was—it was for us, the people—the Anomalies and our Oculi friends—who just wanted to be free. I’m proud of you, Cal.” He shook his head. “Reid.”

  I hugged him. His arms closed around me and his chin rested on my shoulder. I was used to taking chances, of putting myself in danger, especially the last two years, but I was about to walk away from my father and seeing him again wasn’t a certainty. I needed to say something. “I’m sorry, about a lot of things, Dad.”

  One of the helicopter’s engines started with a high-pitched wail and the blades sliced through the air. Womp, womp.

  Dad paused with his hand on my shoulder. “I’ll be there soon. Don’t underestimate Max or Brown.”

  “You taught me better than that,” I said. The weighty truth of his warning wasn’t lost on me. With the Consortium, their latest chemical weapons, and possessing the enhancing serum, Brown and Max were the deadliest force the world had encountered in decades, possibly ever. Losing to them wasn’t an option.

  19.

  Josie

  Cohen leaned out of the helicopter to ex
tend a hand to Reid. Bracing himself against the inside of the chopper, Cohen tugged Reid aboard the second we lifted from the ground. Zac spotted both of them, helping them not fall, and closed the door.

  The chopper cleared the hangar then picked up speed as it swooped over the crest of the mountain. The rocky terrain of the mountaintop quickly disappeared under the blanket of evergreens. I wanted to see the beautiful area again someday, but we flew toward a potentially fatal battle. Nothing was certain at this point.

  Reid slapped Cohen on the shoulder and turned to me. In one swift motion, he wrenched me against him, his arms squeezing me in a hug so tight I could barely breathe. Burying my head in his chest, he nestled his face against my neck. His grip loosened, but his arms stayed coiled around me.

  Mom hadn’t opened her eyes before she was lifted out of the Hub through the skylight, but I promised her all the same that I’d try to fix things as much as I could. I asked that Eli be given a phone so he could correspond with me. I didn’t want him to feel alone, and that little phone was the thing that could maybe give him hope. I wanted to stay with them, but I was one of the few people in the world who had a chance at stopping Max and Vice President Brown.

  I wanted to tell Eli that I’d see him tomorrow, but I couldn’t bring myself to say the words. I didn’t know if our plan would work or if I’d even be alive the next day. This wasn’t an equation with a finite answer. It was a leap of faith with the hardest part yet to come.

  The helicopter ride was quick and loud. Transportation waited for us when we touched down, thanks to Harrison. We didn’t want to land too close to the abandoned town and give away our arrival. Our pilot stayed with the helicopter, waiting for further instructions from Harrison, but he gave Reid a way to reach him if something went south fast.

  We barreled down a dirt road in a bulletproof Infiniti QX56 to the site in the middle of the desert. Cohen drove, Reid rode shotgun, me and Kat sat in the second row, and Zac in the third.

  I watched out the window, the sun still high in the blue sky. Warm and bright. The landscape wasn’t as cheerful as the sky, though. There was little to nothing on the horizon besides mountains, dirt, and dust. Sparse, random grasses littered the roadside, along with a few trees. It was seriously the Old West.