My hair is still wet, and I’m headed to the common room when I hear heavy footsteps behind me — students running toward the fields. When I hear the word fight and Sam’s name, I start running too.
Oliver is trying to pull Sam off Brock when I get there, but Sam is strong, fueled by anger like I’ve never seen. I break through the circle of bystanders and help. Together, Oliver and I force Sam back against the shed door. His face is blotched and covered in tears and he’s still yelling incoherent threats at Brock.
Oliver answers my unasked questions without a word, jerking his head toward the sidewalk where I see one of Sam’s kittens. She might be sleeping except for the unnatural angle of her neck.
I let go of Sam and rush at Brock, grabbing him by the shirt. “You’re sadistic! You know that?”
“Let him go. He’s been through enough.” Kino’s voice is cold like her eyes, which are fixed on Sam. Haak stands behind her, ready to add muscle, like always.
“What kind of animal are you?” Kino glares at Sam. “Attacking a classmate for no reason?”
“No reason?” I point to the dead kitten. “He killed an animal just for fun! Just to make Sam suffer!”
Kino shrugs. “Good riddance. We can’t have vermin running around the school, carrying diseases.” She steps closer to Sam, looking him up and down with her lip curled in distaste. He’s not struggling against Oliver anymore, but watching her with wary eyes. “If I had my way, we would exterminate more often, with less…restraint.”
Brock is still on the ground, groaning even though he’s no worse than Sam has been time and time again. He’s clearly playing for the audience. At least two girls buy his act, detaching from the crowd to bend over him with noises of concern. Haak and Kino have their heads together now and are plotting quietly. Their deliberation doesn’t last long.
“Take him to the flagpole,” Kino says.
Oliver tightens his grip on Sam’s arm. “No!”
Kino’s lips curl in genuine pleasure. “Would you like to join him, Mr. Penn?”
Oliver doesn’t answer. His eyes pass Kino, drawn to the edge of the crowd where Middlebrooks appears, huffing from exertion.
“What is going on here?” Her eyes dart between Sam and Brock before coming to rest on the kitten.
“Your rules being enforced, Yvonne,” Kino says mildly. “Brock has been attacked. I’m simply punishing the culprit.”
“Samuel?” Middlebrook’s voice cracks. “No! No, no! This will not do!”
“Yes, it will.” Kino’s eyes flash like flint. She lowers her voice, but I can still hear every word. “I will not have you undermine my authority again, Yvonne. Not in front of the entire student body!”
Middlebrooks responds in a spitting whisper. “But he’s my draw! The son of celebrity traitors. Everyone wants to see him on their satellite feeds. I’ve been running teaser promos for weeks! We need them to witness his rehabilitation!”
“A bad scheme from the beginning,” Kino says. “I told the president as much — warned him you can’t expect anything from this kind of…human weed. No, I’m going to finish this — do what should have been done seventeen years ago.”
“You will not!” Middlebrooks stamps her foot.
Kino steps closer, lowering her voice so I can’t hear it. Whatever she whispers must carry weight. Middlebrooks looks away. For a split second, her eyes meet mine and I see her fear. She struggles for a moment then nods her head. “Do what you must, Wanda. It is your school, as you said. I only ask…please. Wait until after the president’s visit to mete out your punishment.”
“And until then? You can’t just expect me to let him move freely about the campus. He’s unhinged. What if he attacks another student?”
Middlebrooks lowers her voice again. “You must have some…disciplinary holding cells. Somewhere to keep him? But I have to film him during the president’s visit, Wanda, I must insist.”
Kino considers Middlebrooks while we all wait. My heart pounds as the seconds tick by. I don’t know what I’ll do if she refuses. All kinds of scenarios run through my head, but most of them involve grabbing Sam and running for one stretch of fence or another. That would only get us both killed immediately. I’m spared a suicide mission though — at least for the moment — when Kino nods and turns back to Haak.
“Lock him up,” she says.
“What are we going to do?”
“Break him out!”
Adam is driving me crazy — pacing, scowling. Bunching his hands into fists over and over again.
“Break him out?” I repeat. “From his little prison to this bigger one we all share? Then what?”
No one answers.
We’re in the laundry room — everyone but Oliver, who is keeping an eye on the Med Center door. Xu and Brock have been up there ever since Haak dragged Sam away. Xoey thinks he might be locked in the library closet where she spends her Sundays.
“It’s so dark and cramped in there.” She starts to cry.
Riley puts her arm around Xoey’s shoulders. “He’s strong. Stronger than we know.” But she locks eyes with me and I know what she’s thinking. We can’t let Kino kill Sam. We can’t watch him die like Zak.
“Got it.” Paisley sits across from me on a broken washing machine, ignoring our conversation while she frowns at Sam’s tablet. For the better part of an hour she’s been muttering random words, trying to figure out his passcodes.
“The Liberty Bell is on its way and—” She taps a few times, “—yep. Should be here late Monday. Sometime between eight and midnight. Hopefully after the dance.”
“It doesn’t matter now,” I say.
Everyone looks at me.
“It doesn’t matter?” Riley says.
I point toward the door. “Sam is locked up. Under a death sentence, which will probably be carried out as soon as the president’s helicopter leaves the ground. I don’t care about the Bell anymore.”
Paisley blinks. “But our plans—”
“Have been risky, full of holes, and dangerous.” I glance at Adam, knowing at least he agrees with me. “I’m not sure it was ever going to work anyway. And now?”
Paisley kicks off the washing machine, her face red and splotchy. “Now it matters more than ever. And you’re going to follow this through, Reed Paine! Like it or not!”
“But Sam—”
“Worked hard on this! Super hard. Do you know how many hours it takes to write these hacks? To make sure the backdoors stay open and undetectable? Do you know how complicated it was to access the UDR Rail system without getting caught? To mess with a secure delivery — to call off the Sentribots, to change the schedule without leading the SS right to our door?” She wiggles the tablet. “Right to Sam himself?”
I shake my head.
“Sam is the most honest person I know. He doesn’t lie, cheat, or steal. He hates breaking rules.” She stops for a minute. Her voice is thick when she finally continues. “But he has broken all kinds of rules for this plan.”
“For me.” I feel worse than ever. “He broke them because I asked him to.”
“It may have started with you, but it didn’t end there. I know Sam doesn’t talk much, but he believes in this — with or without you. He believes it’s the right thing to do. He wasn’t doing this for you; he was doing it for all of us. And now? We’re going to keep doing it for him.”
I’m so frustrated, my heart feels like it’s going to burn a hole through my uniform. “And how does that help Sam? How does that keep him alive?”
“I’m with Reed on this,” Adam says. “We need to focus on rescuing Sam. Forget the stupid Bell.”
We all start talking over each other then. Talking without listening. I don’t think any of us hear Oliver come in until his voice shuts us up.
“We can’t forget about the Bell,” Oliver says. “It’s the only chance we have of saving Sam’s life.”
Chapter 44
Riley
* * *
We all
just stare at Oliver. He clenches his jaw and rubs his eyes, tired but determined.
Adam speaks up first. “How could stealing the Liberty Bell help Sam?”
“Well, if we can sneak the Bell off the train, surely we can sneak Sam onto it.”
I shake my head. “You want to put Sam in a dark train car and send him off to the Sand?”
“Not exactly.” Oliver turns to Paisley. “Can you pull up the UDR Rail schedule? Find out where the train stops next, after the House?”
Paisley nods and begins tapping on Sam’s tablet.
“We get to the train yard through the tunnel, just like we planned,” Oliver says. “But when the Bell comes off, Sam gets on. We’ll forklift the Bell through the security gate in Warehouse Four, load it onto the old Red Cross truck, and Adam will drive it through the west gate, just like Brock and Xu have countless times before.” He turns to Paisley. “Do you think we can gain control of those gates? Mimic their exit plan?”
“I think so.” Paisley’s eyes are sparkling. “I can use the backdoor I attached to Kino’s server room.”
“How?” My heart is thumping. I want to save Sam so badly, but I’m scared. Scared we’re not thinking this through. “Don’t the Sentribots recognize Xu and Brock’s nanochips or something?”
Paisley nods. “That’s true, but it shouldn’t be complicated. If I can find the security clearance allowing them out once a month, I can just swap out Xu and Brock’s chip IDs to match Adam’s and, well, someone else’s. When the truck stops at the gate, the Sentribots scan it for infrared signatures. It needs to find two and compare them to their records.”
Oliver nods. “Okay, so Adam — plus one — will meet Sam at the next scheduled stop, which is…where?”
“A place called Battle Mountain.” Paisley examines the screen. “Another ghost town, but with a military outpost. Two guards, two Sentribots. Infrequent deliveries. It’s about two hours away by highway — if the road’s not blown to bits.”
“Piece of cake, right Adam?” Oliver says.
Adam shakes his head. “What about the truck’s hijack tracker?”
“Come on! You can remove one of those in your sleep. Am I right?”
“But we’re not staying in Battle Mountain. We’ll have to go somewhere else.”
“Let me worry about that,” says Oliver. “What does that old truck run on?”
“A hydrogen fuel cell.”
“How far can it go?”
Adam shrugs. “Pretty far. Even farther if I put a spare in the back.”
Oliver claps him on the back. “Perfect! With plenty of room left for the Liberty Bell, am I right?”
Adam frowns, but doesn’t argue.
“Then what are they supposed to do?”
Oliver shrugs. “I don’t know. We’ll have to figure that part out.”
“So a few of us escape, leaving the rest of you behind to take the blame.” Adam shakes his head. “I’m not okay with that.”
“Why can’t the rest of us escape with him?” Oliver’s eyes dance with the possibility. “We can ride the train with Sam. No infrared sensors there, right Paisley?”
“True. Each package has its own security so the cars don’t have to. I’ll need to mess with the weight sensors, but again — not difficult.”
This whole idea is both thrilling and terrifying. I can’t let myself believe it’s even possible. “We’re all just going to disappear from the dance? Someone will notice.”
“We’ll slip out one at a time while Xoey’s singing.” Oliver lifts his eyebrows. “I’m pretty sure she’ll keep everyone distracted.”
“You’re forgetting something,” Reed says. “Our Cit-Track links.”
Paisley shakes her head. “They’re blocked, remember? Localized only to the House. As soon as we leave…” She frowns. “Oh! You’re right. They could be a problem.”
“What?”
“As soon as we leave — as soon as we get back to civilization — we’re back online,” Reed says. “Back on the UDR’s master system where we’ll be flagged with all kinds of alerts.”
Adam nods. “Which means we’ll be arrested within hours of breaking out, or worse, targeted by drones. That’s a short-lived kind of freedom.”
Oliver frowns. “Okay, but we can’t let them stop us, can we? Not when Sam’s life is at risk. If our coms can be disabled in here, they can be disabled out there. We just need to figure out how.”
We break up just before curfew. As I leave the laundry room, I hear Reed ask Paisley to take him offline. “I need to bury Sam’s cat,” he says.
His eyes lock on mine, which are suddenly damp. “Thank you.”
Paisley, Xoey, and I head back to the girls’ dorm. Paisley tries to get Xoey to talk, but they both just end up crying. After Paisley goes to her room, Xoey and I sit side by side in the dark. After a while, I hear her take a deep breath ending in a sob.
“Xoey…”
“If I had never taken Sam to see the kittens…”
Her words dissolve into more tears, which I never know how to handle, so I don’t say anything. I just squeeze her hand. We sit there for a minute longer until Xoey climbs into bed and turns toward the wall.
I lay down on my own bunk but can’t sleep. I wasn’t there to see any of it, but I have a good imagination. I can see Brock killing the cat and enjoying it. I can see Sam’s face, and it breaks my heart.
I’m glad he hit Brock. I hope he broke his nose. I hope he hurts for weeks.
Mostly, I hope I’ll get the chance to talk to Sam again. To tell him I’m glad he stood up for himself. I’m glad he hit back.
I fall asleep, but it doesn’t last. I keep waking with a jerk and the feeling I’m about to fall off a cliff. At six o’clock I push back the covers and head to the showers. A few girls trail in after me. A few minutes later I see Xoey and Paisley, moving like robots, moving like me.
For the rest of the day it’s more of the same. I go through the motions of whatever job I’m assigned. In the morning it’s unpacking crates of party goods with two other girls. Middlebrooks comes and goes, clutching her tablet and exclaiming her joy at balloons, paper lanterns, ribbon and bunting, all in our country’s peaceful color scheme of sky blue and yellow. After lunch, I join all the other girls outside Middlebrooks’ office, lining up for our final dress fittings. The tailor keeps making happy noises, trying to get me to twirl or admire myself in the three-way mirror, but I can’t make myself be fake today. At dinner, I push my food around, which is disgraceful, I know, considering it may be one of the last decent meals I ever eat. Adam catches me on my way out of the cafeteria and steers me toward the fountain where Xoey and Paisley are waiting.
“Sam’s in the library,” he says.
Paisley nods in confirmation and spins Sam’s tablet so I can see for myself. “I should have checked last night, but I was too...anyway, the Cit-Track shows him in the closet, just like Xoey thought.”
“The door lock is secure,” Xoey says. “And it isn’t tied to the computer system.”
“Another problem to figure out,” I say.
“But it won’t matter if the train comes during the dance. Sam will be with us. Middlebrooks will insist—”
“That’s a big if,” I say. “This whole thing is…it’s crazy!”
Panic swells in my chest, threatening to choke me. I try and push it down so the others can’t see it, but Xoey does. She grabs my hand, squeezing it.
“Riley—”
I shake my head, cutting her off, walking away. I can’t hear anymore of her hopeful attitude. We can’t let Sam die. We can’t.
But so much can go wrong.
I go to bed early and fall asleep as soon as I close my eyes. Three hours later, someone is shaking me. I squint into the darkness.
“Paisley?”
She tugs on my sleeve and puts one finger to her lips.
I follow her to the hallway where she hands me Sam’s tablet. I wonder if she ever lets it out of her sight.
“Reed went into the tunnels tonight,” she whispers.
“What?” I shake my head. “He’s been going offline too often. He’ll get caught.”
“Or worse.” Paisley’s face is pale, stricken. “When we talked before curfew, he told me he and Oliver still haven’t found the route to the train yard. Locked gates, dead ends, and blocked passages are all over the place down there.”
“We need the tunnel open. Without it—”
“That’s what he said. He told me he was finding the way through tonight, no matter what it takes. I’m supposed to keep him offline for the duration. I’ll do my best to overlap his ID with other students, hiding it in a flood of data. I just hope it works.”
“How long has he been down there?”
“Two hours. But I can’t sleep. It’s all just…too much to worry about, you know? So I’ve been studying the school schematics. One thing led to another and I started reading about old tunnel systems in general. Lots of these old American colleges had them. They stopped using them centuries ago, but even when our great-grandparents were kids, students would try and find them.”
“Why?”
She shrugged. “To explore them. For fun.”
“There’s nothing fun about this.”
“The point is, some of them were engineered as steam tunnels. Closed up for decades with bad cross ventilation. Oxygen can be displaced, making it hard to breathe.”
My heart skips a beat. “So he could break through to a new section of tunnel and what? Pass out? Die?”
“It’s possible, yes.” She clutches Sam’s tablet. “And with him offline, I have no way of knowing where he is.”
I return to my room without comment and pull on my uniform and shoes. Paisley is still waiting for me in the hallway when I get back.
“Take me offline too,” I say. “I’m going after him.”
The tunnels are endless. At least they feel endless. I’m hoarse from calling Reed’s name but, so far, I haven’t felt any symptoms of low oxygen. I can’t help thinking about the novels I’ve read since we found the books. Lots of them are filled with murderers, ghosts, thieves, and revolutionaries. This would be a perfect place for them to hide. The idea makes me jump more than once when the blue light of my Readybeam falls on something unexpected.
Stealing Liberty Page 26