Worlds Collide: Sunset Rising, Book Two

by McEachern, S. M.

  “You little bi—”

  As soon as my arm was free, I punched the other Domer. He was ready for me and grabbed me by both my arms.

  I heard the ding of the elevator.

  Stiffening my legs, I dug both feet into the plush carpet in an attempt to hold my ground. He tried to twist my arm behind me.

  “What’s going on here?” Bron sounded brisk and official. “Where’s the president’s security team?”

  Desmond came to attention. Leisel swore. The Domer holding me let go.

  “We intercepted a message indicating Sunset O’Donnell is on this floor,” Bron said. She drew her gun and looked directly at me. “We have instructions to take her to President Holt.”

  “On whose authority?” Leisel demanded.

  “With all due respect, ma’am, she’s a wanted criminal,” Bron said. She stepped forward, grabbed my arm, and yanked me out of the grasp of the Domer. She marched me in the direction of Holt’s suites, my mother right behind us.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Leisel called after us.

  “Our duty, ma’am,” Bron answered.

  We were almost to the door. All we had to do was get in.

  “Wait a minute,” Leisel said. “You’re not officers. You’re not allowed on this floor.”

  Bron quickened her pace, reached the door and banged on it.

  I looked back. Desmond and the other two Domers reached for their weapons.

  The door opened and one of the president’s security officers stood there.

  “I’ve been instructed to deliver Sunset O’Donnell to the president,” Bron said, giving me a shove.

  “What the—” he said, looking at us. “Is that really Sunny O’Donnell?”

  “You can verify it,” Bron said.

  He pulled a tablet out from his pocket, manipulated the screen, looked at me, and looked back at the screen. “Holy…! Bring her in.” He looked past us to the armed Domers in the hallway. “Thanks for your assistance.”

  I knew it wasn’t yet time to celebrate, but our plan was going so well. If there was one thing Jack taught me about outsmarting the bourge, it was that the bourge weren’t very smart. They were creatures of habit. And right now that was working in our favor.

  “Wait!” Leisel called out. I heard her walk down the hall and slip inside the door behind us. Great. “Daddy will need me.”

  We stood in an antechamber with still another door to get through before we were in Holt’s suites. They scanned me for weapons. I didn’t have any. Mom and Bron weren’t scanned. They obviously carried a sidearm and, as Dome soldiers, had every right to carry one. When the scan was finished, the locks on the outer door were secured.

  We were led through the second door and ushered to a sofa in what looked to be a receiving area. I was made to sit on the sofa, with Bron and my mother flanking me and two burly security men, arms folded in front of them, staring at me. Leisel occupied a big, overstuffed chair, with one leg crossed over the other. The only indication of her impatience was the rapid swing of her leg.

  It seemed like an eternity, but finally a door opened and the president emerged. He was in a wheelchair. He looked gaunt. Sickly.

  Summer pushed the chair.

  It was all I could do not to run to her. How long had it been? I wished I could say she looked good, but she was thinner than the last time I’d seen her. And Summer had always been too skinny.

  Her big round eyes turned the size of saucers when they fell on me. I was dying to assure her that this wasn’t what it looked like—that I was here to rescue her. But I couldn’t take the chance of giving myself away to anyone else in the room.

  “Daddy!” Leisel exclaimed, jumping up to kiss her father. He patted her kindly on the shoulder. “I have the best news for you! I caught Sunny O’Donnell.” She stood up straight and proudly presented me to him.

  President Holt looked in my direction with tired, uninterested eyes. I had only ever seen the president up close once, at my infamous wedding. We posed together for pictures and even though it only took a few minutes, I remembered how intimidated I was by his powerful presence. This sickly creature sitting in a wheelchair didn’t look anything like that Holt.

  “Indeed?” he asked in a hoarse voice. He looked at my mom and Bron. “Well, what are you waiting for? Execute her.”

  My heart leaped into my throat. That was it? No negotiations about Jack’s whereabouts? No trying to get information out of me? I could tell her father’s response took Leisel by surprise too because the smug expression she had been wearing transformed into one of shocked disbelief.

  “What about Jack Kenner?” I blurted.

  “What about him?” Holt asked.

  “Don’t you want to know where he is?”

  He sighed heavily. “Yes. Are you going to tell me?”

  That was direct. I expected more of an interrogation process. “Maybe.”

  He tilted his head to one side and gave me a weary look. “There’s no maybe. Either you’re going to tell me or you’re not. In the meantime, he’s serving a greater purpose.”

  I opened my mouth to argue and then closed it. That was a point of view I hadn’t considered. As far as Holt knew, Jack was doing his part to provoke the Pit into war. Holt’s purposes were better served by keeping him alive. I had no leverage with this man, nothing to bargain with.

  We were in trouble.

  Holt waited a moment for my answer. None came. “Kill her,” he said.

  My mother stepped forward, took off her helmet, and glared at him. “Kill her and I’ll tell Leisel everything.”

  The president’s men drew their guns. Bron did too. I didn’t know what game my mother thought she was playing, but she was going to get herself killed. No one suspected she was anything but a soldier, here to escort a criminal. There was no need to blow that cover. She could still get out of here alive.

  “What’s it going to be, Mr. President?” my mother asked.

  He narrowed his eyes at her. “You!” he sneered.

  “Leisel, I can tell you the real history of your birth,” my mother said, her eyes never leaving Holt.

  Leisel looked from my mother to her father. Holt’s sickly lips were drawn into a tight line. “You wouldn’t dare,” he said.

  My mother glared back at him. “I wasn’t quite fourteen when I was sent up to the Dome the first time, and the president hand-picked me for himself.” My mother now had my full attention. I had already suspected that she had been a mistress, but she belonged to President Holt? “That’s when I met your father, Sunny,” she said with deliberate intent.

  “You shut your mouth,” Holt said in a threatening tone.

  “Because it isn’t just the men who are looking for companionship,” she scoffed. “The women in the Dome are every bit as bad.”

  Holt looked at his security team. “Take this urchin out of here. Kill her.”

  “I want to hear what she has to say,” Leisel said.

  “Leisel, my darling, she’s deranged.”

  “I’m deranged?” my mother echoed. “I was the one who watched you go insane when your wife—”

  “—you shut your goddamn mouth!”

  “—gave birth—”

  “—I’m warning you for the last time!”

  “—to an urchin!” she yelled.

  All eyes in the room went to my mother.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  “Kill her!” President Holt shrieked.

  Everything happened so fast. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Bron shoot one of the president’s men. My mother had a gun in her hand. She pulled the trigger. Twice. Summer dove out of the way. Gunfire came fr
om my left, where the security team was standing. My mother was falling to the floor. And I still wasn’t on my feet.

  The one security man still standing was moving toward my mother, gun pointed. I threw myself on top of her. He stood over us, pistol ready.

  ”We don’t have to do this,” Bron said. She had a gun pointed at him.

  Leisel was crouched in a corner, a hand over her mouth.

  “She killed the president!” he said.

  “And there doesn’t need to be any more killing,” Bron said.

  “That’s right, there won’t be,” he said in a threatening tone. “There’ll be a small army outside that door in about one minute.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “An alarm was triggered on the first shot. Every guard on this floor is on his way here.”

  Wide-eyed with terror, Leisel frantically shook her head. “I sent them all away! Oh God, what have I done?”

  “Then we have a few minutes to get out of here before the militia shows up,” Bron said.

  He kept his gun pointed at me. “Nobody is going anywhere.”

  My mother moaned underneath me.

  Bron cocked her head to one side. “How much trouble do you think you’re going to be in for failing to protect the president?” She shifted her gun and trained it on Leisel. “How much more for not protecting his daughter?”

  “What are you doing?” Leisel screamed. She looked at the security guard. “Kill her! Kill all of them!”

  “Wait!” I held up my hand as if that would stop him from carrying out Leisel’s plea. I looked at Bron. “Maybe we should tell him the truth.”

  “Tell me the truth about what?” he demanded.

  I saw the look of indecision on Bron’s face. We didn’t have much time left before armed soldiers would fill the hallway—certainly not enough time to escape, especially with my mother injured. If we were going to get out of here, we’d need this security guard on our side.

  Another thought also struck me. If we were able to keep the militia focused on us tonight, they would leave the Pit alone. No random searches.

  “That President Holt’s been lying to everyone,” I said.

  He gave me an oh come on look. “You’ll have to do better than that.”

  I picked up my mother’s right hand. “Scan her chip. Her name is Lilly O’Donnell, she’s thirty-five years old and she was Culled last spring.”

  “What’s that supposed to prove?” he asked.

  “That no one was killed in the Cull. They’re being used as slaves to build Holt’s city outside the Dome.”

  The room was silent.

  “You’re lying,” Leisel said. “Daddy would’ve told me about a city.”

  “Oh, I think your daddy keeps lots of secrets from you, Leisel,” I said. She had no idea he was the one who’d manipulated her into getting engaged to Jack. She had no idea she was just another pawn in his political games. “How is your plan to become the next president working out for you?” I asked. “I mean, weren’t you a little surprised when your father didn’t care if I knew where Jack was?” A look of doubt crossed her face. “He wants Jack loose in the Pit so he can lead the revolution against the bourge, giving your father the reason he needs to shut off our ventilation system.”

  “That doesn’t make sense,” the security guard said. “We need the Pit.”

  “You only need the Pit for as long as you live in the Dome,” I said.

  “The president wouldn’t kill everyone in the Pit. That’s insane,” he said.

  “He wants to repopulate the earth with his master race,” I said, looking at Leisel. “With a blonde-haired, blue-eyed race to be exact.”

  Leisel sneered at me. “Is that some vicious rumor the Kenners are starting?”

  “No. I heard it from General Powell. He’s overseeing the construction of the city.” I felt a small, victorious sense of satisfaction when I saw her eyes widen. She started a retort, but there was a scuffling noise in the hallway outside. The militia was here. We were running out of time.

  “I know where to find the proof about the master race,” Summer said. She was behind me somewhere. I hadn’t even looked at her, unable to take my eyes off the guard holding a gun at me. “I saw him write something about it in his journal one night.”

  Holt’s computer! Why hadn’t I thought of it before? If Jack was right, communications with the city outside were hardwired into that computer.

  I looked at the man holding the gun on me. “She can prove Holt’s plan, and I might be able to prove the existence of the city. Just take us to Holt’s computer.”

  Sound from his communicator filled the silence following my request.

  “That’s them,” he said. “They’ll want to know what’s going on in here. If I don’t answer them, they’ll bust their way in.”

  “Then you better answer them,” Bron said, cocking her gun at Leisel. “And be ready to explain why the entire presidential family is dead and you’re still alive.”

  His eyes shifted to Bron then quickly back at me. Sweat had broken out on his upper lip and he wiped it away with the back of his free hand.

  “Wouldn’t you rather live to see the sun?” I asked.

  “I swear if you’re lying to me, I’ll put a bullet in both your heads.” In one move, he unclipped his communicator and held it to his mouth. “Evans,” he said into it.

  “What is the situation in there?” asked a disembodied voice.

  “I have it under control,” he said.

  Silence. The voice came back on. “Several gunshots were registered and I have an eyewitness who says Sunny O’Donnell is in there.”

  A look of panic came over Evans’s face.

  “Tell them President Holt and Leisel are alive and we’re holding them hostage. We won’t hesitate to kill them. They have to back off until we’re ready to negotiate,” Bron said.

  He repeated it into the communicator.

  “How many are wounded?” the voice asked.

  “Just one security guard,” he said.

  “What do they want?”

  He looked at Bron. She shrugged.

  “Clemency,” I said. “Tell them I came here looking for all charges to be dropped against Jack Kenner.”

  Evans repeated it. They finally granted us an hour, although I wasn’t sure they’d stick to it. The only thing deterring them from breaking down the door was the threat of the president being killed.

  “Summer, can you turn on the television?” Bron asked.

  I looked at Summer for the first time since the shooting started. I remembered seeing her dive to the floor when the gunshots rang out, but now she stood at the far side of the room, well away from Holt’s lifeless body. She looked a little rattled, but she did as Bron asked.

  “What channel?” Bron asked Evans.

  “Twenty-three.”

  Summer set the monitor to that channel and we were given a view of the hallway outside. There were six armed soldiers, Desmond and the two Domers.

  “That’s just the frontline. There’ll be more in the stairwell and out by the elevator,” Evans said.

  Leisel stood up from her crouched position in the corner. She glared at Evans. “You’re not actually going along with this?”

  He ignored her.

  “Can you help me get Mom on the sofa?” I asked Summer.

  “We should check and see how badly she’s bleeding first,” Summer said.

  Summer was right, of course. It was basic first aid in the Pit. You never moved a victim after a beating because you never knew if something was broken. Gently, I rolled her onto her back. There wasn’t a lot of blood
. Her eyelids fluttered for a moment before she opened them.

  “Sunny?” she asked.

  Leisel stepped out of her corner. “Do something!” she screamed at Evans.

  “It’s okay, Mom. You’re not bleeding a lot. Try not to move,” I said. Instead of relocating her to the sofa, Summer took a cushion from the chair and put it under her head. “We need to go into the computer room, but I’ll keep a close eye on you.”

  “We should tie Leisel up,” Bron suggested.

  “What? You don’t touch me!”

  Bron looked at Evans. “If I have to shoot her, I will. She’s safer tied up.”

  Evans waved his gun at Summer. “Tie her up.”

  Summer left the room, and we all waited in silence. It gave me an opportunity to check my mother’s bullet wound. It looked to be lodged in her shoulder. I recalled how much Jack bled when I took the bullet out of his wound. It was better off staying in her shoulder for now.

  “Sunny,” Mom whispered. She motioned for me to come closer. “Don’t kill Leisel.”

  “I’m hoping we won’t have to,” I said.

  Mom grabbed my hand. “There are things you don’t know,” she whispered. It was a complete understatement, after her brief exchange with Holt before she shot him dead.

  Summer returned with a bunch of neckties.

  “Don’t you dare come near me with those!” Leisel said.

  “She might be your sister,” my mother said. “And if she is and you kill her, you’ll feel bad about it later. I know you.”

  It took a few moments to realize I had stopped breathing.

  “Did you hit your head when you fell on the floor?” I whispered. “Because I thought you just said Leisel might be my sister.”

  I heard them struggling behind me to tie Leisel up.

  “I thought about telling you before I left for the Cull. I hated leaving you with your father the way he was, because I knew you were going to stay with him and not marry Reyes. Even though I never cared for Reyes, he was still the better option for you over your father.”