Shutdown

by Heather Anastasiu

  “What is this place?”

  “Used to be a tourist destination in the Old World. It was one of the few cities that actually got hit with a bomb on D-Day. Since it’s out in the middle of the desert, it never got rebuilt. It’s just been fallin’ to bits since. Makes for a good hiding place though. Look,” he said, and pointed to an area that was clear of debris. “Drop altitude and settle down in that flat bit o’ ground down there. You see it?”

  I nodded, then closed my eyes again. I needed to do more than see it.

  “I feel it.” I tried to decelerate the transport as gently as I could but still heard some oofs from behind me. I ignored them and set us down in the tall grasses that sprouted from the concrete.

  “No time for restin’,” Henk said. “We gotta get into the next transport fast or they’ll be on us. It’s not much roomier, but it’s got cloaking. We’ll be invisible as soon as we’re off.” He looked up into the sky as the others opened the back hatch. “Frankly I’m surprised we ain’t seen no one yet.”

  Almost as soon as he’d said it, I felt them coming. “Two more transports are headed this way.”

  “If they get one good blast at us, we’re all dead,” Henk said.

  That decided it then.

  I cast my telek out, latching onto the transports as they blasted nearer. I thought about the beating hearts inside of the Regulators who had once been men. And then I pushed that thought away and, using their own momentum, yanked them off course. Their transports flew straight into the ground at full speed and exploded with an earth-shaking boom. I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek, trying to ignore the rush of emotions flooding me.

  When Xona dropped the back hatch open, the air was warm and ashy from the exploded transports. Rand and Xona lifted Ginni down. Henk dropped after them, taking huge strides with his lanky legs and motioning us to follow. Simin hurried beside them, holding Ginni’s hand while I searched the rest of the sky. It was clear. No one else was coming. Yet.

  We ran down an alleyway between two teetering bombed-out buildings. The late-afternoon sun cast long shadows that covered the alley, and we had to be careful to avoid tripping over chunks of concrete and junk that had piled up on the ground.

  “Is the new transport close?” Cole asked. “Next time they won’t just send two investigative units. They’ll send an armada.”

  “We’ll be long gone by then,” Henk said. He pushed ahead of us and then banged open a rusty door with his shoulder.

  “Is this safe?” City asked.

  Henk didn’t respond, he just disappeared into the darkness beyond the door. I paused and let the others who were carrying Ginni pass.

  We all hurried after Henk. The windows on the opposite side of the building had been blown out. Henk ran across the debris-strewn floor and led us to an old stairwell, blackened by fire and covered in dust.

  “I’ve got Ginni,” I said, grabbing her body and lifting her with my telek so we could all get up the stairs faster. We ran up the four flights and Cole helped Henk kick open another door.

  And there it was. A pristine transport, perched on two slabs of concrete. The floor looked mostly solid, even though everything else in the room was demolished down to the steel girders. The walls were completely gone, open to the sky.

  As we all hurried out onto the floor, the whole building above us creaked loudly.

  “Shunting hell, Henk,” City said. “Is this building even stable for us to be in?”

  “’Course not,” he said with a grin. “That’s why it made such a good hiding place for my flier. So walk lightly. Whole bloomin’ thing’s like to fall on top of your heads.”

  “Ignore him,” I hissed. “Focus on the task at hand. Henk, get the rear door open.”

  The building overhead gave a long creeeeeeeak. Rand let out a high-pitched yelp of fear. If we weren’t in such a life or death situation, I was sure City would have teased him about it mercilessly. But then the structure around us shuddered. The girders began to visibly vibrate.

  “Everyone in,” I yelled. I didn’t know how Henk had managed to get a flier in through the narrow struts of the open wall, or if the floor was as steady as I’d first thought. Maybe when I’d crashed the incoming fliers, the vibrations had weakened the building more than it had been when Henk had first hidden the transport here.

  Now if we could just get out again before the building collapsed on top of us.

  Henk jumped to the front console. Adrien joined him since they both had the most experience flying. I helped everyone else in behind us, glad to relax into a hard metal seat for a moment. But I kept my telek split three ways between my mast cells, the building on top of us, and out into the air searching for more approaching fliers. I closed my eyes hard against the strain of trying to keep it all together in my head.

  Xona strapped herself in beside me, and I looked at Ginni, lying on the floor. For a second, I let my eyes travel down to her stump leg.

  “Is she gonna be okay?” I asked.

  Xona pursed her lips and looked at the ceiling. “The bleeding in her leg stopped, so that’s a good sign. And she’s been out ever since we gave her the meds.”

  “Good.” I leaned my head back against the hard wall of the transport. No lush comfort chairs here; this transport was all hard metal lines and chairs meant to efficiently pack in the greatest number of people.

  I spared a glance toward the front. Henk was hunched over the console intently. He pushed a button and it roared to life beneath us. “All right,” he said, raising the vehicle up off the ground.

  But the transport bumped into the ceiling overhead accidently, and the building that had been only previously creaking in disagreement suddenly began to crack. The girders in front of us buckled, and loud popping noises sounded on all sides.

  I tried to cast my telek out to hold it up, but the building was so huge.

  “It’s coming down on top of us!” City yelled, but Henk didn’t flinch. He leaned hard on the maneuvering stick. The next second we were in motion, shooting out the side of the building right as we heard the huge roar of steel beams breaking. As we zoomed out into the night sky, I glanced back and saw the building crumbling in on itself, throwing off huge pluming clouds of dust and debris as it sank.

  “Wow, Henk, you might as well have handed them a map and a written invitation,” City said tightly.

  “Won’t matter,” Henk said as the transport cut expertly through the sky. “Got the cloaking on, there’ll be no trail to track.”

  I breathed out and relaxed my body into the hard seat. A few moments of reprieve. I’d been barking off orders like I knew what I was doing, and maybe at the time, I had. I shook my head and blinked hard. Had it finally happened then? I’d finally turned into a leader? Everyone had listened to me, even City. It felt unreal. I pinched my hands around the bottom of the chair until the sharp edge cut into my skin.

  We were nowhere near safe. Would everyone keep looking to me now? Could I do it? Maybe after a good night’s rest, I’d feel more up to it—

  My eyes flew open. I hadn’t thought about it until now, but when that blast had hit the entrance to the compound, my med container had been destroyed too.

  There would be no night’s rest for me.

  “Adrien,” I called out. His head swiveled back from the front seat to look at me. I waved him over. “Come here, I need to ask you something.”

  He frowned and chewed on his lip a moment before unbuckling and making his way back to where I sat, stepping carefully over Ginni. He crouched in front of me since there were no open chairs nearby.

  “You asked Ginni if the Chancellor was still at the same location. You think it’s supposed to happen soon, don’t you?”

  He looked up at me, a tortured expression on his face. “Yes,” he finally whispered. “But the Chancellor’s always on the move. She could be gone by now.”

  I looked down at him sharply. “You don’t really think so. You know my sleep container was destroyed. You
know what that means.” I saw in his eyes he knew exactly what it meant: I had to try now, before I was weakened again by several days of sleep deprivation.

  “No.” He put a hand on my leg. “There’s every chance you’ll not die. I just found you again. I lost my mom, I can’t lose you too.” He leaned forward and pulled me into a hug. He spoke into my ear. “We’ll find another place to hide, find another oxy-safe med container. We’ll hide out and be together.” His voice was low and rough. “I don’t care if the whole world crumbles so long as I have you.”

  It was what I wanted too. All that I wanted. But then I remembered another boy who’d asked that of me. It was what Max had always said, that the problems in the world were too big for us, small as we were, to make any difference against.

  At the time, I’d been so sure that we still had to try and change it anyway, no matter what. The Chancellor had offered me something similar too—a place at her table with other glitchers in her employ, living safe with the people I loved while she ruled over all the drones.

  And I’d asked myself the same question I did now: How could we, when so many others were suffering? How could we live happy and free when the rest of the world was enslaved?

  But I’d been so young and naïve back in the beginning. I hadn’t seen the world, hadn’t yet experienced how crushingly difficult life could be. I hadn’t known what a lucky and precious thing it was to have someone who loved you by your side, or how quickly you could lose them.

  And now? The idea of going somewhere quiet, hiding out, having Adrien hold me every night …

  I was so, so tempted.

  But there was a chance I could make his first vision come true. I could kill the Chancellor and save my brother. It might not free everyone like I’d always hoped, but without her, the Rez could have a chance to rebuild. We could start rescuing glitchers again and try to come up with another plan to subvert the Link system that enslaved so many. If I survived.

  “Right, then,” I said. My throat felt suddenly dry. I looked around at all the faces of the people gathered around us. I knew what I had to do.

  “No, Zoe,” Adrien pleaded. “Don’t.”

  “What?” Xona asked, looking back and forth between us. “I don’t get it.”

  I clenched my jaw. “I’m going to go kill the Chancellor.”

  Chapter 24

  “JUST DROP DOWN ANYWHERE, HENK. I can fly myself there.”

  Adrien turned away, as if he couldn’t look at me. I steeled myself against all my riotous emotions. Surely he knew I wasn’t rejecting him. This was something I had to do. Something I was maybe even destined to do.

  “Zoe, we’re on the other side of the Sector right now,” Henk said. “At least let us fly you within a hundred miles so you can save your energy. We’ll drop you then.”

  “And we’ll stay nearby and wait for your signal,” Cole said. “If you take out the Chancellor and there’s no risk of us falling under her compulsion, the rest of us can move in. Ginni said the other glitchers are still there too, in the same compound.”

  I looked down at the unconscious girl. Ginni’s chest moved up and down steadily. The laser had partially cauterized as it cut. As we all spoke, Xona worked with Simin to apply the gel that would disinfect and stimulate skin regrowth. A necessary part of every med kit when you lived in the Rez.

  Cole continued. “If you’re successful, then we can join you and—”

  “But we voted,” City objected. “We all agreed we wouldn’t risk trying to rescue them.”

  “Well, I change my vote,” Cole said.

  Xona’s head snapped to look at him. He put a hand on her shoulder. “You feel bound by your promise, but I know it’s what you’ve wanted all along.”

  Xona stared at him a long moment. “That’s that then,” she said, taking his large hand in hers. “Now the vote is nine to eight in favor of rescuing the others.”

  “What?” City said, straightening in her seat. “There’s still a bunch of us who don’t want to. Rand.” City spun to where he sat, nearest the back door. “Tell them. They can’t do this.”

  Rand’s forehead was scrunched up in thought. “We’ve got a chance now, Citz. If the other vision comes true … you know, the one where Zoe doesn’t make it,” he avoided my gaze, “then we won’t move in. But if she does, then everything will be chaotic. And you and me can take on whatever security they got.”

  City’s jaw tensed as she looked back and forth at all of us watching her. “Fine!” She sat back and crossed her arms. After a few more seconds, she said, “Well, I guess I haven’t gotten to fry anyone in a while.”

  Simin finished wrapping up Ginni’s leg with soft bandage, then wound adhesive tape gently around the bandage to keep it in place. His eyebrows knit together in concern as he looked down at her.

  “Can someone give me the coordinates for where we’re heading?” Henk called back over his shoulder from the cockpit.

  Simin put a hand gently to Ginni’s face, then stood and headed down the aisle to the front of the transport. I followed him to the cockpit. He pulled out a tiny box from his console bag, slid out a chip, and plugged it into the dash console. A projection cube immediately popped out. He flipped through several screens and a map rose with a pulsing red dot indicating the Chancellor’s location. He zoomed in closer so I could see a Sat Image of the building.

  Adrien’s voice came from behind us, startling me. “That’s the building I saw in my vision.” I turned to look at him. His face was pale.

  “All right.” Henk swung the tip of the transport around and headed in the opposite direction. “The Chancellor’s all the way in the east-most part of the Sector, along the seaboard. Should take a couple hours to get there, so rest up.”

  I went back and sat down. Everyone around me fidgeted in their seats. I could tell they were scared, but there was also a palpable adrenaline rush at the thought of heading into battle. Adrien looked at me from several seats down across the aisle, his face drawn in worry.

  I forced myself to close my eyes so I couldn’t see him. It was the only way I’d be able to mentally prepare myself for what I was about to do.

  “Does anyone have a laser weapon?” I asked, opening my eyes ten minutes later. If the Chancellor was supposed to die by a laser weapon, I needed to have one.

  Adrien stayed silent but reached into the pack at his feet and pulled a small weapon out. He handed it Amara, gesturing for her to hand it to me.

  “Here,” Xona said, leaning over and unclipping the holster at her ankle. “Take this so you can conceal it.”

  I nodded and took the holster, wrapping it around my own ankle. I’d seen Xona do it enough times, but my fingers still stumbled as I tried to click the small clasps along the side closed. I finally got it and slipped the weapon into it.

  I sat back up, balling my hands anxiously into fists. There was nothing else to do but wait.

  Last time I’d seen the Chancellor six months ago, she’d crippled me with an allergy attack I’d barely survived and then she’d flown away in her transport before I could finish the job. Not this time. This time there would be no hesitation. She would die, and I would stand over her fallen body.

  I’d have thought such an image would make me feel powerful … but all it felt like was relief. If I could kill her, finally I could live again without fear for myself and for my loved ones. I’d get my brother back and the Rez could rebuild. We might have a real chance at trying to come up with an idea of how to free the drones without worrying about the Chancellor compelling Rez agents to tell her what we intended before we ever got a plan off the ground.

  After another half hour, I noticed Adrien riffling through the bag at his feet again. His back seemed oddly stiff as he bent over to look through it. I wondered if he was angry at me. He’d said he loved me and asked me to go away with him. I’d said no. I hadn’t meant it as a rebuff, but maybe that was how he’d taken it.

  I unbuckled myself and walked down the small aisle to wh
ere he sat at the back. The small twin telepath boy, Jare, watched me as I went. He must be wondering if I’d be able to do what I’d said. If I could kill the Chancellor and free his brother.

  “What’re you looking for?” I asked Adrien when I got to him. There was an empty seat beside him, so I sat.

  “Nothing,” he said, still not looking at me.

  “Oh.” I didn’t know what to say now that I was here. I took a deep breath. If I didn’t … survive, I couldn’t have our last words in this world be angry ones.

  “Adrien—”

  He surprised me by turning toward me and taking my hand. “I love you, Zoe,” he said. “All I want is for you to be safe. You know that, don’t you?”

  I nodded. “I know. And I know you might not believe it right now, Adrien, but I love you too. This is just something I have to do.”

  He smiled and lifted a hand to my face, caressing my cheek. Then, to my surprise, he dropped his lips to mine. I knew everyone was watching, but I didn’t care. I wrapped my arms up around his neck and his slipped around my waist, pulling me in tight. I wanted this one last moment with him.

  For those few seconds, I let every other care and worry fall away. The touch of his lips lit me up like a spark of electricity tracing up and down my body. It was enough to consume all other thought.

  But then I felt a sharp pain in my back. I gasped and pulled away from Adrien.

  His face wasn’t warm and loving anymore. It was completely blank. I twisted to look at what was wrong with my back, then screamed in pain. But not before I saw that there was a kitchen knife lodged hilt-deep below my kidney.

  I pulled it out, blinking and looking at the small bloody knife in shock.

  What—?

  I turned back around just in time to see City raising her hands toward me. I felt the buildup of her electricity crackle in the air the instant before she released it.