James saw Cody and Kai over by the window and went to join them. They were staring down at the marshaling forces outside. It was clear the cops were moving around with more urgency.
“What are they doing?” James asked.
“Treating it like a hostage situation,” Kai said. “They think we might kill that lady, and since we’re not answering any of their calls, they have no choice but to storm the building.”
James nodded toward the office holding the adults. “They’re fine?”
“I checked, all good,” Cody said. “Margie seemed flattered to have a starring role. Mr. Oberlee offered to mediate for us. I feel bad that he was stuck here when we came in—he has little kids at home.”
“And Ms. Bixley?”
“Still a bitch.”
James watched as Kai patted Cody on the back. “All right, we should probably get going. You’ll be fine, Cody. Just stay cool and call me later,” Kai said.
“What the hell are you talking about?” James asked.
Kai laughed. “You think we’re just going to wait here until the cops bust in and then surrender? Come on, they can detain Ones forever now without charges. They’ll lock us up in a basement somewhere. You too. Let’s go, we’ve got to get out of here and mix in with everyone else in the library.”
“It’s just a student protest. The cops might put us in jail for the night, but we won’t be charged under the Equality Act,” James argued.
“Of course we will. Especially if they think we are the leaders,” Taryn said.
“So who’s going to take the fall, then?” James asked.
No one spoke for a moment. James realized they all knew the answer already. He finally caught on and looked at Cody.
“No.” He grabbed her arm. “You can’t do this. It’s not fair.”
“James—”
“I’m staying with you. I won’t let you go down for this.”
“James, just listen. If you all get caught here, you’re screwed. If it’s only me, sure I’ll be in trouble, but they can’t charge me as a One. I’ll just show them the List, right? And besides, we haven’t done anything serious. We just moved some furniture around in our school. I’ll be fine.”
James could barely believe what he was hearing. Kai must have talked her into this while James and Taryn were still in the library. Or Cody could have been leaning this way all along to prove herself to the Weathermen. And as for Kai and Taryn … of course they were too smart to not have an escape hatch.
Even worse for his pride, the idea actually made sense. Cody was the only person involved who might be treated fairly by the legal system. James knew there was no point in keeping her company just to look brave.
Taryn tapped the window. “They’re moving in. We gotta go.”
James stepped up to Cody and grabbed her by the shoulders. “I’m going to kill you for this. Promise me you’ll be smart and stay safe?”
“I promise. You too.”
James leaned in to give Cody a passionate kiss, not caring that Kai and Taryn were there. Or maybe he was happy that they were watching. When he finally pulled back, Cody give him a wink, and they let go of each other.
James saw that Kai looked a little pissed as he walked over to the barricaded door and started ushering the rest of the Ones out through the tiny crawl space. Cody would be able to fill it back in after they left and seal the entrance again. When it was just James and Kai left, James gestured grandly for Kai to go first. If he wasn’t going to stay with Cody, he would at least be the last person to leave her.
They made their way back to the library and joined the rest of the students. Everyone was pressed against the floor-to-ceiling windows, watching as a SWAT team approached the school, their phones held high to film it. James found the scene totally riveting as the cops charged ahead in formation, shields in front of them, assault rifles ready, their shiny black helmets making them look like a brigade of militarized bugs. He had to remind himself that what he was watching wasn’t just pure spectacle for his entertainment—these people were coming for him.
James was craning his neck and watching the SWAT team approach the front of the library when the first flash grenade went off. The explosion left him totally deaf, save for a ringing in his ears. And even though his eyes didn’t work temporarily, he knew it made no sense: The SWAT team was still outside, but the students in the library were already under attack.
When his sight and hearing began to return, James could sense that another SWAT team had come in through a back entrance and was now stampeding right through them. He could sense people screaming at him over and over again.
“Everybody down!”
“Hands on your head!”
“Don’t move!”
Across the room, James saw Andrew, obviously dazed, try to lift himself to stand. James tried to shout at him to stay down, but he was too late. A SWAT guy swung a rifle butt into the back of Andrew’s head and left him lying motionless. James tried to melt himself into the floor, hating himself for letting his friend get hurt.
Then the other SWAT team from out front emerged at the top of the staircase, and James saw them rush through the newly secured library and into the hallway connected to the administration building. He knew what awaited them there: a single doorway made almost impenetrable by Kai’s clever barricade. But they would find a way through somehow, James knew that. And then they’d find Cody. James just hoped she was in a mood to listen.
In the meantime, the cops in the library were starting to round up all the students and guide them outside. James fell into line near Kai and Taryn, and they were rushed down the stairs and out to the lawn in front of the school. The cops kept herding them toward the parking lot, where all the cars were parked, sirens flashing. And just beyond that, James saw the black school bus with steel bars over its windows—the police were directing them right into it. It felt like a fire drill to prison.
Then, as they were crossing the lawn, there was a tremendous explosion from behind them. James turned around and saw the last flashes blow out the windows from the second floor of the administration building. Exactly where Cody was trapped.
James felt the urge to break the line of students and rush back to the building, but the line no longer existed. Everyone was screaming and running in different directions. Sparks and smoke started to filter down. The cops kept trying to direct them, but it was of no use. The students were running away in pure chaos.
James turned around to go back, but Taryn grabbed his shoulder.
“Don’t,” Taryn said. “Now is our chance.” She gestured sideways to a narrow space between a classroom building and the gym. Kai was already sprinting toward it, fighting against the stream of all the other kids, his instincts attuned to act right away.
James took another look at the administration building. He could see from their headlamps that the SWAT team had infiltrated the offices. Cody was either blown to bits or in handcuffs. He wheeled around and started sprinting after Kai and Taryn.
They were fast, but James was faster. And he knew the school better, so when he caught up with them between buildings and they emerged at the rear boundary of the school, James took the lead and raced toward Tommy’s maintenance shed. It was a low building on the edge of campus. If they got on the roof, they could hop over the school’s back fence and slip into the woods. And James knew there would be a ladder lying around.
As they sprinted up to the shed, a flashlight illuminated them from behind.
“Don’t move, or I’ll shoot you!”
James ignored the command and lifted the ladder against the shed.
“Stop! Police!” A cop was running up to them, but all James could see was a bouncing beam of light.
“Go!” Kai said, and pushed James and Taryn up the ladder.
James pulled himself onto the roof and then helped Taryn up. He heard the sound of a brutal collision below. James looked over the edge and saw Kai and the cop rolling around on the ground. The cop w
as big, but Kai had pinned him down and was raining blows down on his head. He dazed him with a punch and had enough time to leap up and get away. But instead of climbing up the ladder, Kai took a heavy gardening shovel from the wall of the shed. He walked back to the cop and bashed him over the head with it. James, standing above, staggered back just from seeing the impact. The cop collapsed in a heap, totally still. James froze in shock. Had Kai just killed a police officer?
Without skipping a beat, Kai tossed the shovel, shimmied up the ladder, knocked it off the roof, and was the first one of them to scale down the fence and make it off the school grounds. James stared after him in horror, and Taryn had to shout in his ear and shove him before he followed. His flight response took over. Within seconds, they had concealed themselves in the thick trees. They jogged steadily for a while, away from the school and the confluence of the authorities.
After about thirty minutes, they reached an old logging road that led from the outskirts of town up the mountain. James recognized it from some of the summers he’d spent volunteering with the local wildfire-prevention crew. He had never minded the backbreaking work; it just felt great to be outdoors and do something important. The crew cleared brush, did some controlled burns, and tried to keep their beautiful tinderbox of a home as safe as possible. Now he was walking around the same woods like a fugitive.
Once they slowed down, James angled over to Kai and asked him something that had been gnawing at him while they ran. “Is that cop back there dead?”
“He’ll be fine. I saw him roll over before I jumped,” Kai said.
“It seemed like he was—”
“Send him some flowers, okay? We’ve got a long hike. Let’s just shut up.”
Kai walked away briskly, clearly done with their chat. James turned to Taryn. “Where are we going?” he asked.
“This road leads up to the mine quarry. We can lie low there for the night,” Taryn said.
“What about Cody?”
“There’s nothing we can do for her right now. Come on.”
“Why the quarry? We’re just gonna go up there, stop, and lie down where everyone in town goes to party?”
Taryn laughed at him. “Seriously?” She saw that James wasn’t joking. “Don’t worry, there are plenty of places to hide in those mines. I thought every Shasta kid knew that.”
James felt his cheeks burn with embarrassment. Not every kid, he thought, not the ones whose siblings had drowned there and then had been born to replace them. Granted, that was probably a pretty small group, but James resented her presumption. Even so, he wasn’t about to explain all of that to her.
James did, however, want to get something else off his chest. He was grateful that Taryn had forced him to sneak away during the stampede. And he knew he owed her an apology.
“Hey,” he said as they marched on together. “I’m sure it wasn’t easy being in that reform school. I shouldn’t have been so judgmental about it. Sometimes I forget that not every kid grew up like I did. Even other Ones.”
“Yeah, thanks,” Taryn mumbled without looking at him.
“If you ever want to tell me more about it, I’d be curious to hear. You obviously got quite an education in there.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked, combatively.
James hadn’t meant to insult her again, but damn was she prickly. “Look, you obviously know how to handle yourself in these situations. It’s a little bit newer to me. All I’m saying is, if you have any pointers for me, I’m all ears.”
“Oh. Okay,” she said in a gentler tone. “I guess I might as well start with lesson number one: Don’t keep your wallet in your back pocket, idiot.”
James immediately felt for his wallet, but he already knew it was gone. Thankfully, Taryn was holding it out for him. He took it back sheepishly and slid it into his front pocket.
“Sometimes I just can’t resist,” she said. But then she smiled to show no hard feelings.
Taryn seemed like she was about to proceed to lesson two, but she didn’t get the chance. Kai had come to a stop ahead of them. James and Taryn practically bumped into him as he stood perfectly still, staring at his phone. James could tell from his face that the news was horrible.
“What is it? Is she dead?” he yelled in a panic.
Kai looked up at him with eyes that burned with anger. “No. See for yourself.”
James took the phone and read the news story that Kai had clicked on. It was an article about the SWAT incursion of the school takeover. James scanned the text quickly, but the headline made it clear enough.
Margie was dead and the cops were calling it a murder.
CHAPTER 11
HOURS HAD PASSED since she’d been arrested, but Cody still couldn’t get the smell of gunpowder out of her nose. It wasn’t just her nose; it was all five senses, really. She could taste it in her mouth. Her eyes burned. Her ears were still ringing. And she swore that her body was still vibrating from the first big explosion. She hadn’t been injured in a conventional sense, but she had felt a wave of invisible force shake every cell in her body. That is what finally broke the office door down.
Cody had been so dazed from the SWAT team ordnance that she could barely remember what happened. She was pinned to the ground, a knee crushing her spine, and then handcuffed. Dragged out of the building. Thrown into a cop car and driven to the local police station. And now here she was, locked in an interrogation room by herself, having been ignored for what felt like several hours.
She rested her head on the cold metal table and tried to sleep. It was impossible, though; her mind was racing too fast. It wasn’t fear that gripped her. She had mentally prepared herself for a night in jail, for having the cops condescend to her, even for the inevitable misdemeanor charge and her mother completely freaking out. What kept her from sleeping was a nervous anxiety that Cody couldn’t really explain. She had the gnawing sense that something serious was happening on the other side of the locked steel door, that beyond the tiny bubble of her interrogation room, events were transpiring that had the power to change her life.
Cody hoped those events were positive. She engaged in some wishful thinking and imagined that their little stunt had gone viral across the country, that maybe they had inspired countless other schools to protest for the rights of Ones. Maybe one of the SWAT team members hit a student with his club, and it had been caught on camera. Maybe the Board of Education was firing Ms. Bixley at this very moment.
But Cody couldn’t know any of that for sure, stuck as she was in this barren room, devoid of all stimuli. She was desperate for any indication and going mad with the realization that everyone else in the world besides her knew what was going on. For the first time, she considered the intensely punishing power of being confined in utter isolation.
Her prayers, such as they were, were finally answered when the door swung open and a tall, elegant woman in a fancy suit entered. Cody could tell she wasn’t from Shasta and definitely had nothing to do with their local police force. She wore her short blond hair like any other government drone, but the expressiveness of her face indicated something else to Cody. This woman was clearly passionate about something, but in a scary, obsessive way. She had the look of a zealot.
“Cody, I am not here to bullshit you.”
The woman entered, dropped a closed folder on the table, sat down, and placed her long, bony fingers on top of it. “My name is Agent Norton, and we have to work quickly. I know you are a smart girl. Smarter, I’m sure, than me,” she said, and forced a laugh. “By now, you’ve probably realized the gravity of the situation that you’ve placed yourself in, and I hope you’ve come to the right conclusion.”
The agent stared at Cody, as if waiting for her to speak. Cody didn’t know what to say, so Agent Norton leaned in closer to her.
“We need your help, dear, and we need it now,” she said. “Does that sound like something you can do?”
Cody thought for a second. She didn’t really understand wh
at this lady was talking about, but she saw no benefit in antagonizing her. Cody’s only goal at this point was to leave as quickly as possible.
“How can I help?” she said.
Agent Norton smiled. “Good girl. I knew you were smart.” She took out a pad and a pen. “Let’s start with Kai Torres. Do you know where we can find him?”
Without having any intention of answering, Cody thought about where Kai might be at the moment. He surely didn’t just go home after the school takeover. In fact, Cody couldn’t even imagine that Kai had a home. He just seemed to appear and disappear on a whim. And wherever he was right now, there was a good chance James was with him. Of course, Cody wasn’t going to answer that question.
“I don’t know,” she was able to say truthfully.
Agent Norton looked at her sternly. “Cody, I just pulled your phone records. I read all the texts. They were cute. But if you want me to help you out of this jam, you have to work with me. Now, what can you tell me about Kai’s operation? What is he planning next? What do you know about the bombing?”
Cody pulled back, startled. She could believe that the authorities were interested in keeping tabs on the New Weathermen, but the way the agent was talking suggested something much more serious. It actually made sense, too. The more she thought about it, the more it seemed like Kai was a little more advanced than a college student who had taken up protesting just a few weeks prior. Still, if Kai had a secret life as some kind of super-spy, she hadn’t been made privy to it yet. And there had been no discussion of a bomb.
“I really don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m sorry.”
“All right, then. I can’t tell if you’re lying, but I guess we’ll find out later, won’t we? In the interest of time, though, I am going to offer you a get-out-of-jail-free card. It’s not often you hear that meant literally, but if you answer this one question, and I mean really answer this in a way that makes me happy, that’s how lucky I can make you. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
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