A Dangerous Game

by Madeline Dyer

  “So Red really was an undercover Untamed at first?” Elf looks at me carefully.

  I nod, surprised that he picks out that bit to question. That he doesn’t ask more about Mila. But he wouldn’t, would he? She’s gone to us.

  Elf sighs. “Drive faster.”

  I grip the wheel tighter. “I’m going as fast as I can.”

  “We need to get back. If an attack hasn’t already been launched on Nbutai, then it will be soon.”

  My vision blurs, and I can barely see. It’s scorching in the cab, and sweat runs down my forehead, down my chest, and down my spine. I wind the windows down more. But there’s no breeze now. The air is hot and clammy and thick, like it’s trying to drag me down.

  I glance in the rear-view mirror; I can just about see Nico in truck bed, still tied up, smiling again now, all signs of previous pain gone, eyes still mirrors.

  How on earth do I explain to Rahn that on the mission I was forbidden from going on I let one of us get Enhanced?

  The whole time I drive back, I can’t believe I’ve been so stupid. All the signs were there with ‘Elf’. How hadn’t I worked out that it hadn’t been my brother? He wanted to come with me because he thought we were looking for other Untamed as well as Bea—he mentioned the other Untamed often enough. He wanted to convert them too. And he knew a lot about New Webbon and New Lija, and the methods they use to make sure no Untamed secretly infiltrate the cities. And he’d been on Red’s side when he wanted to join us…two Enhanced together? Or maybe he’d been suspicious of Red, an Enhanced One who supposedly wanted to join us…and then they started working together when they realized they both wanted the same thing? Us converted… And they were talking a lot, together…coming up with a plan?

  I shake my head, bewildered.

  And the imposter had been very against saving my parents—when I hadn’t actually said that was why I wanted to find them.

  I glance in my mirror again, see Nico. I try not to let the sight of him affect me. He hasn’t been Enhanced for long—not even properly, just had first taste—we can get him back easily. Well, we’ve already got him here.

  And suddenly I wonder if it’s just going to be me and Elf and Nico forever, if there really will be no one left at Nbutai.

  “What’s this?” Elf says suddenly.

  I glance over at him, see he’s holding something—a radio. “Where did you get that?”

  “It was down the back of the seat.” He taps the one between us.

  I swear loudly as I suddenly recognize it. It’s the same one that I saw Elf—no, the imposter—with back at Nbutai. I’d thought it was one of the decent radios that Corin had smashed, that he was trying to fix it, but as I take the radio from Elf in one hand I realize it’s different.

  It is a lot smaller. And it’s got smaller dials on it too. It’s a transmitter and receiver.

  “Hey, keep your hands on the wheel, Kee… What is it? You’ve gone white.”

  I drop the radio into his lap, grip the steering wheel, and tell Elf quickly. Then I look at him. “It’s all my fault. I should’ve realized when I saw him hiding it at Nbutai.”

  “It’s not your fault that an Enhanced infiltrated our group—and keep your eyes on the road.”

  I try to, but driving’s hard now. I’m too jumpy, too nervous. Next to me, Elf fiddles with the radio.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Seeing if it’s working.”

  “Why?” My voice is high-pitched. I’m close to panicking.

  “Because I’ve got to do something as you drive.”

  I don’t think messing about with an Enhanced One’s radio is a good idea, but I don’t say anything. I keep driving.

  We’re farther away than I’d thought. We’re not going to get back in time. There’s no way we can. Not when the imposter had this radio at Nbutai. The Enhanced would’ve known our village’s location before we’d even left there. They’d have known right away, the moment the imposter joined us.

  So why didn’t they convert us then?

  Suddenly, I’m filled with visions on the village being converted. A huge attack. Mass-scale. People shouting, running. Untamed trying to flee. And the Enhanced Ones are everywhere, chasing after us, slamming us into the ground, forcing us to open our mouths so they can drip their augmenters in.

  And I’m back there, back to when I was eleven. Back to that night.

  I look up and scream as the Enhanced man towers over me. An augmenter flashes.

  Run, run, run.

  I roll over, taste blood and mud, and twist around. A hand slams down onto my back, and I scream, kick out. My foot connects with something, and, out of the corner of my eye, I see Red’s body with the blood fanning around it. His eyes are still on me.

  Help me, help me, help me.

  A ragged hole opens up inside my heart.

  Something explodes to my right. A flash of bright light.

  The Enhanced looks up and freezes.

  I run.

  And I keep running, and, somehow, I’m getting away, away from the Enhanced who was rising over me with the augmenters. But I can’t see, the air’s all thick and hazy, and there’s so much dust and sharp, scratchy things in the air, and my eyes sting too much.

  I throw my weight to the right as I see Yuma’s body, narrowly avoid standing on her arm.

  Yuma. No….

  The ragged hole inside me deepens.

  Then I’m by more huts and—

  What about Red?

  I turn, but things happen too quickly, and I can’t process it. I’m running still, deep in the village. Mud splatters over my legs, and then I see my aunt ahead. Aunt Sara.

  Two Enhanced Ones grab her. They throw their weight against her, and she falls. Her head hits the ground, and her eyes roll, and then she is limp.

  The Enhanced Ones tip the contents of their vials down her throat, but she doesn’t react. No swallowing, no coughing, no choking…nothing… She just lies there. Dead? That blow to the head, when she fell? Another conversion death.

  My heart pounds.

  “Come on!” someone yells into my ear. Kacey, Caia-Lu’s niece.

  Then she’s gone.

  An Enhanced One looms up in front of one of the men, and he immediately raises his gun. His bullet misses, but the Enhanced backs away. And then everyone is shouting.

  I smell smoke, hear something screeching.

  “The trees! Get to the trees!”

  My mother’s voice.

  I turn, looking for her. See her figure. See her running, and Elf and Bea are ahead. I can see Mila in Bea’s arms. And my mother shouts the words over and over again. And she shouldn’t be shouting her plan out for the enemy to hear.

  “The trees! Get to the trees!”

  I try to run after them, try not to see the blood, the bodies.

  They’re too far away, my family.

  They’ve left me.

  No!

  I can do it. I can reach them.

  I can. I—

  Red. I see his body. I’ve run in a circle.

  A startled cry escapes me as I slam to a halt. As I stare at him. As I try to see life in my best friend, as I—

  “Keelie?” Elf’s voice pulls me back to the present.

  I jolt, see the land ahead—the potholed desert I’m pulling the truck over at a rapid speed—too rapid. I’ve been driving all this time? Pain inches into my spine, but it doesn’t feel like pain. It feels more like numbness, numbness spreading.

  “Stop,” Elf says, his voice loud, and I have a feeling he told me to stop a few minutes ago too. “Let me drive.”

  Nico’s screaming again in the back—earth-shattering sounds.

  I look across at Elf, then at the dusty land in front, lit by the headlights, as I catch a pothole. “How long has he been like that?”

  “Thirty minutes or so. Threatening to do stuff if we don’t get him more augmenters. Hell, sounds like it was Euphoria he was given. That’s a strong one too. He’s
desperate for it.”

  I swear under my breath, but the word gets swallowed by more of Nico’s screams and threats. All the hairs on the back of my neck lift up.

  “Come on, Kee. I’ll drive.”

  “No. You’re injured.”

  “You’re too tired. It’s dangerous.”

  I am tied to a wall, my hands above my head.

  I wait for them to come, with their augmenters and promises of happiness.

  But they don’t come.

  I wait for days and days.

  Weeks pass.

  I get thinner.

  Nothing to drink or eat.

  I know I shouldn’t be alive, a year later.

  But I am.

  Still standing there.

  Time has stopped. Everything has stopped. And there is nothing.

  “Do you see now?”

  The voice comes from behind me—behind the wall. I try to turn my head, but I haven’t used the muscles in my neck for so long, and I can’t. Maybe the muscles have gone.

  “Do you see now, Keelie?”

  “See what?” My voice is creaky, old. I am old.

  “What do you see?”

  “I see nothing.”

  “Exactly. That is what you’ve given both your sisters: nothing. And that is what you’ve given everyone. All the Untamed. Nothing.”

  I wake when Elf pulls over, near Nbutai. It’s dark, and I desperately try to see.

  “Be careful,” he says. “We need to be careful. If there are Enhanced here….”

  But it doesn’t look like there’s anyone here… It’s quiet. And it’s so dark. There’s no movement at all. It’s empty? They’ve taken everyone?

  The huts are in the distance.

  We get out slowly, and I leave Nico in the back. He’s sleeping, apparently calm now. I help Elf walk, and I keep the gun ready. With every step, I expect to be ambushed. I expect to see hundreds of Enhanced Ones marching toward us or see bodies or blood.

  But I don’t.

  We reach the huts. It’s still quiet.

  Rahn’s on fire duty, and he looks up. And…and it’s all so normal.

  Then Rahn’s face turns thunderous. “You think you can come back, join my group, after you’ve undermined my leadership, my authority, my ability to keep us safe?” He points outward. “Get out.”

  “No, wake everyone,” Elf says. “There could be a conversion attack coming.”

  For a second, Rahn doesn’t say anything. His expression doesn’t change—but, then again, we can’t see much of his face because of his glasses and the dark.

  “Attacked?” he says, takes a step back. “But Katya’s not seen anything—and… Where’s Nico?” His tone darkens. “And your sister? Did you find her?”

  “Nico’s tied up in the back of the truck. Should be running lean by now,” I say. “We had to abandon the search for Bea because we needed to warn you.”

  Rahn jolts. “Runnin’ lean? What the hell?”

  “Things went…wrong.”

  Rahn inhales sharply. “Explain everythin’ now.”

  “We haven’t got time,” I say. “You’ve got to wake everyone. We have to leave now. They could know where our village is.”

  Rahn flinches, then stands up, looks down at me. “I’ll decide whether we leave or not. Give me the short version, and explain everything now.”

  “We’re safe then,” Rahn says as soon as I’ve finished telling him the bare facts.

  I didn’t mention to him the exact details of my relationship with Red, such as how far we went or that I knew him from D’Elinous—luckily, Rahn didn’t recognize the name, probably never paid to much attention to my talk of him before. He thinks we just talked, flirted, and that I fancied him too much to bring him to Nbutai and risk Five or Seven getting together with him. And he’s furious I kept him a secret, that I didn’t tell him. Told me that Red was captured because he was on his own, that his conversion was my fault.

  There are other things I’ve held back from Rahn too, like how Red was linked to Mila’s capture and that Red had been an undercover agent, pretending to be Enhanced. I’ve got to be careful. If, by any chance, there are still some undercover agents out there, I can’t compromise them. And, if I told Rahn there was a possibility they were out there still, Rahn would want to look for them, and he wouldn’t treat the Enhanced with the usual animosity in case they were really on our side. And I can only see that ending one way: badly.

  Rahn nods. “The imposter is dead, and his radio messages weren’t gettin’ through—New Kimearo’s Enhanced Ones would’ve been here by now if they knew.”

  I shake my head, aghast. “We can’t take that risk—our location could’ve been compromised. We don’t know it hasn’t been. We need to leave now.”

  Rahn holds our map. “But we still have this. Not the Enhanced. We do. They can’t know where our village is. And you killed the imposter. He’s not going to be a problem. If his radio was a dud, he was effectively workin’ on his own.”

  “But what about Red?” Elf says, gruffly. “The imposter sent him back—to get backup. To have us all converted. Keelie says the imposter gave Red co-ordinates to pass on. Co-ordinates for our location.”

  Rahn tilts his head to the side. “You said he wanted to join us. If he was on our side, really believed that being Untamed is better, he wouldn’t betray us.”

  Especially if part of him is in love with you….

  I shake my head. It pounds. “That was a lie, weren’t you listening?”

  “Don’t question what I was or wasn’t doin’,” Rahn warns.

  “Red was just trying to get close to us.” I shake my head. “He had no intention of joining us. Too far gone in his conversion already. It was just a plot to….”

  “To what?” Rahn folds his arms, and the map ends up crumpled under his armpit.

  To get me to join them. “To get our location—so the Enhanced can get all of our village rather than just a few of us.”

  Rahn shrugs. “Either way. We’ve got the map. And he was runnin’ lean, that’s what you said. His mirrors were fadin’—a sure sign. When an Enhanced is runnin’ lean, he can’t concentrate on nothin’ but himself and his addiction. The need for augmenters is too strong. It’s all he’s goin’ to be thinkin’ about. He won’t remember the co-ordinates the imposter told him, and he’s got no map to remind him. He’ll just want augmenters—and, when he gets them, they’ll likely have a much stronger effect because of his desperation. So, no chance of a rescue for him, Keelie. You said he’s too far gone. Besides, we rescue Untamed from our group. And you made sure he wasn’t part of it.”

  He nods, triumphant, as if expecting me to insist that we try and rescue Red. But—but I don’t. I saw how converted Red was, both at Nbutai and when he left us out in the mountains. Red really is too far gone—cutting our losses is the only option.

  “So,” Rahn says, straightening up. “We’re safe, and we’re stayin’ here.”

  “What? Rahn, seriously?”

  “If Katya comes burstin’ in with a Seein’ dream, then we’ll move.”

  I turn to Elf, implore him to say something else. He looks back at me with worn eyes.

  “There’s no point in tellin’ the others about this,” Rahn says. “Frighten them, that’s all it would do. We don’t want people knowin’ we had an imposter in the heart of our village, else people are goin’ to think there’s another one too. We’ll have people killin’ one another, convinced some of us are Enhanced.” He folds his arms. “Or we’ll have a mutiny, some wantin’ to leave. If people are scared and start leavin’, then we’ve got more trouble. Handfuls of scared people travelin’ about ain’t goin’ to be travelin’ smart. Movin’ the village—even half of it—needs plannin’, and lots of it. Else we’re goin’ to draw attention to us. We ain’t even got enough trucks for all of us. We’re not doin’ an evacuation until we’ve got solid proof they’re after us, and we’ve got a Seer for that.”

  I feel the he
at rush to my face. “Rahn, that’s not right.”

  “I’m the leader. You’d do well to remember that. I decide when it’s safer for us to leave than stay, and, right now, we’re stayin’ until there’s better proof we’re in danger.”

  I shake my head. “Tell me you’re not arguing this way because you don’t want me to get one up on you?”

  “Why would I do that? The safety of my people is of the utmost importance to me.”

  I let out an exasperated sigh. “So we say nothing to anyone?” I shake my head. “This isn’t right. We’ve got to tell them—”

  Rahn unfolds his arms. “We find out who marked the village on the map, if it wasn’t that imposter. But we don’t hint or worry anyone. We’re safe, I’m tellin’ you. And you don’t say a word to anyone. Do you understand?”

  “And what about Nico?” Elf asks.

  My chest tightens; suddenly, the atmosphere seems heavier, stickier, like it has little fingers that prod me and try to stop me breathing. The fingers get stuck in my nose, my mouth, my throat, and I swallow frantically, trying to get them away.

  “How long ago did he have that augmenter?”

  I blink hard, trying to think. How long has it been? Time doesn’t seem to be working properly today. It’s going too fast, and then dragging on, and nothing seems right.

  Elf shrugs and then says something, but I miss his words because of the roaring in my ears. I watch him rub his eyes instead.

  “So it’ll be out of his system soon,” Rahn says. “He’s only had one, yeah? He’ll be fine.”

  He’ll be fine? I stare at Rahn. Nico won’t be fine. We all know that. Just one augmenter is enough to change someone permanently, even if it’s not as drastic a change as a full conversion would have been. But Nico will never be the same again.

  And it’s my fault. I should’ve realized that man wasn’t my brother. My twin.

  I stiffen.

  Rahn clears his throat. “Keep him in your hut, tied up for now. We’ll call a meetin’ in the mornin’, explain that you ran into two lone Enhanced Ones, that you killed ’em both, but not before they got an augmenter in Nico. But he’ll survive, be Untamed again. If he says anythin’ about the imposter, we’ll say it’s just delirium speakin’.”