Relapse (Breakers Book 7)

by Edward W. Robertson

  It was time to retake command of her self.

  She sat up. Hip pulsing, she swung her legs over the bed. She was wearing a white cotton gown, and by the moonlight, her bare legs looked like two dark, thin shadows. She put her feet to the cool hardwood floor.

  Her body told her it did not want to rise. She told her body to go to hell and dumped herself to the floor.

  Caught off guard, her legs had no choice but to stand. Before they could protest, she made them stagger to the window. The moon's white glow was a much different feeling from the warm yellow glow of the sun. It was not a welcoming embrace. It was cold and stark and wary.

  Yet that was a good thing. It kept the others at home. Allowing her to experience the deep stillness of the world as it was without the interruption of their busyness and babble. Only then could you hear its deepest whispers. She stayed at the window until her legs cried out for rest, then returned to bed.

  The next day, she was able to walk around. Mia fussed over her until Raina's annoyance swelled beyond her capacity to restrain it.

  "If I couldn't walk," Raina snapped, "I wouldn't be walking."

  "There's no need to press yourself. Tina has scouts on the mainland. They haven't heard a peep out of San Diego."

  "That's not my first concern. Our people need me. I have to do whatever it takes to get back to them."

  "You're the boss," Mia muttered. "Mauser's here, by the way. He wants to see you so bad it's a wonder he hasn't killed me."

  When Mauser arrived, Raina was sitting cross-legged on the floor. He quirked his mouth. "Let me guess. Beds separate you from your connection with the earth?"

  "It's hot in here. The floor's cool."

  "Want to move outside? If you're up for it?"

  "I'm fine," she said. "Whatever they tried to kill me with, it wasn't enough."

  "We've approached my question far more swiftly than I was comfortable doing, but now that we're here, I'll bravely soldier on."

  "How did I know it was Dashing?"

  "Yeah. That. During your slumber, Gates and I have been investigating. We learned the boy—Billy—recently came to the KBSD. Before that, he was with the People of the Stars."

  "Yes," Raina said. "Which Dashing made sure to mention to me before I was poisoned."

  Mauser contorted his lips into those of a fish. "Too conveniently, I gather?"

  She explained exactly how that information had been presented to her. "What do you think?"

  "I think it was deployed with such cunning that it is impossible to determine whether it was calculated or not. Especially because the only one this was told to—you—was supposed to die of poison."

  "Surely it was not in Dashing's plans to die. He would have explained to the rest of you himself."

  "Surely," Mauser said. "But now we'll never know, will we?"

  "Because I killed him."

  "Can I ask, like… why? Even if you're right, and he was behind it, there was no need to go all Red Wedding! He was trapped on the island with us. You could have told me your suspicions. We could have held a trial. Interrogated him."

  "That's why I had to kill him," Raina said. "I already knew the truth. I couldn't give him the chance to lie his way out."

  Mauser nodded slowly, then lowered himself to the floor and sat across from her. "You had more evidence, right? Something more than him telling you a story that was possibly a little too convenient?"

  "It was the way they looked at each other when I was about to cut into Billy's eye. Billy looked to the king for help, and the king looked terrified that Billy might ask for it out loud."

  "I was afraid that's what you were trying to tell me before you collapsed."

  "Their faces were more clear than any writing," Raina said. "Investigate further and you will see. In the meantime, you will have to trust my word."

  "It's not me you need to worry about."

  "I know our meeting was less than ideal. We went in expecting a new ally, and instead we came out with a new enemy. But it only looks bad because we didn't know the truth: that Dashing was already our enemy. Somehow, he'd been beguiled by Anson. If there is anything to learn from this mess, it's that we need to act more aggressively toward recruiting outsiders to our cause—if only to keep them out of Anson's sphere."

  "I'm genuinely glad to hear this growth in your geopolitical philosophy. But the matter of our new enemy isn't what I'm talking about. What has Mia told you about what's going on out there?"

  Raina glanced at him. "That it's been quiet. No peep of trouble from Anson or San Diego."

  "This is true. However, while I am concerned with what might be stirring outside our borders, it's what's going on inside them that concerns me more. Some of the others are… confused."

  "By what? That I would dare to strike down those who would kill me?"

  "Don't shoot the messenger. Step back and look at it from their point of view. In the middle of dinner, you claim you're poisoned. A claim that looks to be true. However, before there's any compelling proof—or any clear idea what's going on—you butcher our dinner guest. Who happens to run an entire kingdom."

  "So I'll tell them the same thing I told you."

  Mauser squinted, smiling unhappily. "Again, an investigation might have been more convincing than 'I saw it in their eyes.'"

  Raina folded her arms. "That's old world thinking. You talk like you still have your judges and your courts and your deeyenay to prove that one thing is true and another is false. If you had grown up in this world, you would know the only thing that can be trusted is your senses and your judgment."

  "Deeyeney? Do you mean—on second thought, forget it." He sighed. "Even if you're right, people continue to believe in the process of law. That's what they're used to. Evidence and procedure satisfies their sense of justice much better than 'Well just take my word for it.'"

  "Is it so irrational to think that King Dashing might have been involved in the poisoning of the person sitting next to him at dinner?"

  "If anything, the recklessness of such an idea makes his innocence more plausible!" Mauser held up his palms. "I'm not trying to put you on trial. I am merely advising you to the status of the people you rule."

  "Which is?"

  "Scared. Uncertain. Not only did someone try to assassinate their leader, but that leader then turned a potential ally into a guaranteed enemy. Meanwhile, they're already at war with someone who's already beaten them. Oh, and if that wasn't enough, their food's been rationed and they might be starving."

  "Why did you authorize food rationing?"

  "I didn't. The council did. Not that I disagree with them. We had to double the island's sentries and pull reserves in for training. That's depleted the available labor for farming and fishing."

  Raina rested her hands on her knees. "The council will wish to hear the same things I've told you, won't they?"

  Mauser snorted. "Are you kidding? They're so starving for answers I'm surprised they haven't assembled a fellowship to hunt down a palantir."

  "Then let us speak to them."

  "If you're up for that, it could do a great deal of good. When should I tell them to arrive here? Tomorrow afternoon?"

  "Right now." Raina braced her palms on her legs and pushed herself to her feet. "And we will go to meet them."

  He fussed at this, as did Mia, but Raina accepted no compromises beyond their offer to bring a wagon to bear her through the hills. While she waited for the vehicle to arrive, she scrubbed herself clean. The girl in the mirror appeared to be just that. She walked out back to the fire pit, retrieved a piece of charcoal, and used it to draw thick streaks around her eyes.

  Ready, she climbed in the wagon and was borne to the palace. Many warriors stood sentry on the walls and in the high wooden towers at its corners.

  "Stop!" a sentry called from the fortifications above the gates. "Identify yourselves."

  "It's an unusually polite Godzilla," Mauser said. "Who does it look like? It's the people who are going to fi
re you if you don't open this god damn gate."

  The warrior leaned over the wall's edge, gawping. "Is that Raina?"

  "I am awake," she said. "And I'm back."

  The warrior bellowed the news across the palace walls. His cry was repeated by several others. The gates creaked and opened. The wagon rolled through and parked before the palace doors. Mauser helped Raina down. A warrior ran to open the door for her, yet two others stood motionless by the sides of the step, watching her limp inside.

  At the great hall, Tina was already seated with Nolan, Raul, and Ophelia. Bullet holes marred the plaster walls, but the room had been cleaned well and you had to look close to spot the rusty stains in the grout between the stone tiles. Maps and paperwork covered the wide table. As Raina approached, the doors at the back of the hall opened and Wilson Gates hurried to join the rest of the council.

  "Raina." Tina stood and inclined her head. "What a welcome surprise. Please, be seated and conserve your strength."

  "You don't gain strength by sitting still." Raina walked to the edge of the table. "I've heard you have many questions about the Night of Almonds."

  Gates got a wry look on his face. "I got to admit, it was perplexing."

  "Did it not occur to you that King Dashing may have given Billy the order to poison me?"

  "Well, sure. One of our people overheard Dashing say Billy had come over from the People of the Stars. But the bone we've been picking at is that we didn't have any time to suss that lead out."

  "And everyone we might have asked is now deceased," Tina said. "Frankly, I'm not sure how we're even supposed to continue the investigation."

  "There's no need." Raina set her hand on the table, where she could rest some of her weight against it. "If it had not been Dashing, I wouldn't have killed him."

  She explained what she had told Mauser. How Dashing had made sure to let her know of Billy's questionable background. How, when she had readied to poke out Billy's eye, the boy and the king had looked to each other: the boy for aid, the king for the promise of silence.

  "Perhaps you don't think much of my evidence," Raina concluded. "But I know what I saw. Time will vindicate me."

  Her knee quavered. She pulled out a chair with a scrape and sat down.

  "I hope that it does," Tina said. "For now, though, this broaches another matter."

  She glanced across the table. Nolan nodded. Gates followed. Raul hesitated, then bobbed his head. Ophelia met Tina's eye, but remained still.

  "Raina," Tina said across the table. "You have served your people well, in San Pedro and here on Catalina. However, it is the sad duty of this council to ask you to step down."

  11

  "What do you mean, he's gone?" Greg said. "Like he's out for a walk?"

  Lionel shook his head. "His place is all torn up. The pirates must have beat us here."

  Sam unshouldered her rifle and gazed through the trees toward the home. "Let's give it a look."

  Weapons in hand, they moved forward. After securing the yard, they moved to the house, which more resembled a forest service cabin: unpainted plank walls, a wraparound wooden porch with rickety, splintering posts.

  "So," Tristan said. "You say Ranger Rick here can manufacture penicillin?"

  "Doesn't exactly take a WHO laboratory to grow a bit of fungus." Lionel thumped across the boards toward the front door. "Out here, he had to keep it simple. Hidden. At the colony, he'll have as much space as he needs to step up his operation."

  The interior consisted of a living room, a bedroom, a kitchen, a pantry, and a bathroom. All had been ransacked. Handwritten pages spilled across the living room. The drawers in the bedroom had been turned out, slacks and black socks rumpled on the floor, but it all looked incomplete and hasty, like the pirates had ignored anything that didn't sparkle.

  Sam and Greg went out back to check the yard and the shed set away from the house. Lionel kneeled in the living room, sifting through the pages for any frantic notes or secret messages. Ness and Tristan drifted into the kitchen. There, a dented aluminum tea kettle sat atop a wood stove.

  "Smells like smoke," Tristan said. "They can't have been gone long."

  Ness picked up the kettle, then the mug. A small, perforated metal ball sat on the bottom of the dry cup. "More like hours. He was making tea."

  She came over and touched the kettle with the back of her hand, then lifted it. "How do you figure? It's empty."

  "Check the mug—he had it all ready. But no tea. The water boiled off, then the fire burnt out. Stove's not even hot any more."

  "Nicely done, Nancy Drew. Shit. If they've got hours on us, we're not likely to catch them before dark."

  He picked up the mug and rattled the silver ball around. "So you're down to continue the search?"

  "Sure," she said. "We've come this far, haven't we?"

  "That was going to be my argument." He poked around the kitchen some more, then headed to the front room where Emma was helping Lionel sort through the papers. "Any luck?"

  Lionel shook his head over the sprawl, lips pressed tight. "Nothing yet."

  Tristan folded her arms, tapping her right elbow with her left hand. "The doors aren't broken in, are they?"

  "What's it matter?"

  "If they walked right in, or he opened the door for them, I doubt the doctor had time to leave a message. He probably didn't know what was happening until it was too late."

  Lionel finished examining another page and set it in the growing stack. "Reckon you're right. But it can't hurt to check, can it?"

  Ness watched them work a while longer, then started to feel guilty standing there like a fool. He took one of the stacks and started skimming. Most of it was musings about walking in the woods. Pretty boring. Even so, it had been so long since he read anything besides chemistry textbooks and instruction manuals that he found himself absorbed in the doctor's rambles.

  The back door slammed. Ness flinched and hopped to his feet.

  Sam strode into the room. "There's tracks out back. They're headed west."

  "West?" Lionel said. "That's further inland."

  "That jibes with my understanding of Australian geography, yes."

  "Well, I was thinking they're sailors. That they'd be taking him back to the coast somewhere."

  "Ness figured out they got here hours ago," Tristan said. "We've only got food and water for a day. If we're going after them, we'd better raid the pantry."

  Ness set down the remainder of his stack of papers. "While you guys handle that, I'm gonna run to the coast. If we're going to be gone a while, we better let the others know."

  "Going by yourself?" Tristan said.

  "That was my thinking."

  "I'll come with you. You can run off by yourself when we're not chasing pirates across a foreign land."

  Lionel creased his forehead. "Know the way, do you?"

  Ness tapped his temple. "I took down a few landmarks. I used to live on a mountain. Went hiking all the time. If I didn't know the way home, I'd wake up the next morning as a popsicle."

  Sam look a look out the window. "Move fast. I'd like to make a few hours before dark."

  Ness headed outside with Tristan. Whenever they were on dry land, she went on miles-long runs; her legs looked like those James Bond lady-spies who snapped dudes' necks with their thighs. She could probably run all the way to the sub without breathing hard.

  He set out at a light jog that he hoped to be able to maintain for at least a mile. Trees brushed by on both sides. For the first few minutes, he was deathly afraid he didn't know the way back after all, but then they found the trail Lionel had taken most of the way through the forest. The center of the math was muddy, but the turf along its edges made for good running.

  "So what changed your mind?" Ness said.

  "About what?"

  "Going after the doctor. I was expecting another brawl."

  "A few rational objections to risking our lives for no gain could hardly be classified as a 'brawl.'" Tristan wiped
the back of her hand across her sweaty eyebrows. "I'm happy to go after the doctor on one condition: that after we get our share of meds, we take some to Alden."

  "Your brother?" Ness said. He was panting but he thought he had another half mile in him before he'd need to drop back to a walk. "He still on the Big Island?"

  "I'd assume so. It's shameful, he never emails. He claims it's the whole 'the internet no longer exists' thing, but I think he's just heartless."

  "Getting to Hawaii shouldn't be a problem. The sub can have us there in a few days." Beside him, Tristan was wiping the corners of her eyes, an abrupt shift from her jokes seconds before. "Hey. What's the matter?"

  "Let's not fuck this up, okay? Something like this, and Ke might still be alive."

  It took him a second to place the name: a friend of hers—more than that, a boyfriend—she'd met shortly before Ness had bumped into her on Maui. He frowned, not sure how in the hell you were supposed to respond to a thing like that.

  "Well, it's a tough world these days," he said. "At least if you can get Alden some meds, you'll know he's better equipped to last than most."

  Tristan sniffed, then spat into the woods. "What about you? Why are you so into this? I always took you for the type who would rather stay as far away from other people as you can."

  "You would be right about that. I don't know what's different. I guess it's just getting to me. The unfairness of it all."

  "You mean of two extinction-level events striking humanity in the same year?"

  "For a while, I used to think the plague and the Swimmers was a sign there was no such thing as fairness. Not in this universe."

  "I'm sure what happened at Hanford didn't help, either."

  He laughed dryly. After he and Tristan had swapped war stories and learned they'd nearly run into each other years earlier, at the nuclear power plant in the Washington desert, he couldn't think about Hanford without wanting to giggle. It was crazy, the way things shook out, how people in this new life bounced around like ping pong balls in a lottery. He supposed that, with so few people left on the planet, you were bound to run into some of the same folks now and then.