“I’m all for it,” I say softly. “But how will freeing all the criminals accomplish that? I’ll do anything to help them escape if it will work, but I don’t understand how we’re going to do anything but flee.”
“It took me years to figure out that part of the equation,” said the Elder. “And though I hate how this is the way it must be done, it is the only plan I’ve been able to engineer that could work the way we need it to. If you do as I have instructed, if you follow everything I say down to the last detail, then we have a chance to tell the world our story. It’s complicated, and it won’t happen without death trailing us at every turn, but I need you to trust me. We will have a chance to tell the world our story. We will have our shot at freedom.”
I’ve never heard such a cryptic answer, but I can tell I’m not going to receive further clarification, so I hold onto the only things I have left, a shred of hope and the sheer determination to get it done. My father always spoke so highly of the Elder, but now I realize he always spoke of him in mysteries and partial stories. If he had my father’s trust, then I’m going to have to give him mine as well.
“So it is settled,” I say as I look around at the others, who all appear to be handling their reservations. “Our lives and theirs are in your hands. None of us have the experience you do. None of us have a better plan in mind. If we’re going to do this, I still need to know one thing…is everyone all in?”
The room is silent for a moment. I’m not the only one with mixed feelings. Our lives are at stake. We could all be dead in two days. I’ve come to grips with that before, and so have they, but that doesn’t make it any easier the second time around.
“I don’t know anyone up there,” says Maia. “I couldn’t tell you any of their names. I hardly remember their faces. But as far as I’m concerned, those are our brothers and sisters. If we left them to die, then how will we live for the rest of our days, even if we were to escape and live to be a hundred and twenty years old?”
“I’m…” Felicity hesitates. “I’m scared. But you are all I have now. I will go.”
“Let’s blow some stuff up, shall we?” says Wiley. “Rafe?”
“If you’re all done with your little group chat over there…” Rafe answers with a swivel of his chair. “I’ve got some bad news. They’ve moved the executions up to tomorrow. And if you thought Independence Day was a dreadful time…I think President Shah is about to make some changes to make tomorrow even worse.”
I can feel every strand of hair stand up on my arms. My hands and feet are suddenly frigid. My eyes are wide open. Rafe has my full attention.
“Details,” the Elder orders.
“You’re not going to like it,” Rafe shakes his head. “But I think they’ve got something more gruesome in mind than the gallows. Every television crew in the world will be there. They want everyone to see the power of the State, their utter dominance, and the complete destruction of our people.”
“How does this affect what I’ve told you?” the Elder asks urgently.
“We’ve lost the rest of our prep time,” Rafe says. “We need to go tonight.”
“We’re not ready,” I said.
“A crash course will have to do,” the Elder says. “You can toss your plates aside. We’ve had our fill. If this goes according to plan, we’ll either be dead or eating real food again this time tomorrow.”
“Where do we start?” I ask, but the Elder isn’t listening as he runs over to Rafe and snags a notebook he had given him.
“I’ll bring it back,” he says bluntly and returns to us. “According to the clock, we have two hours to get ready, then we make our ascent.”
“It won’t even be dark outside yet,” I say.
“It’s not an easy trip,” he reminds us. “We have to go slow. We have to be careful. We need to keep our eyes open for surprises every step of the way. We’re going to need all the time we have to get there by morning.”
The Elder goes on for two hours, giving us intense, detailed instructions, making us repeat each step over and over again like children so we won’t forget a single move. This is an operation destined to fail if we make a single small mistake.
None of us lose focus. No one here is so foolish to think we can get away with making a single error. I know I couldn’t live with myself if I were the one who made it all go wrong. Then again, if that’s the case, I won’t have to.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Home
MY LEGS BOUNCE up and down as I stare into the recesses of my mind. My hands are folded over my eyes, but I’m too distracted by my thoughts to focus my prayers on the mission that awaits us.
We’re not prepared. Malnourished, sleep-deprived, and barely trained for the task at hand. At least the others seem to have some level of skill or expertise for their assignments. What am I? I’m nothing. I’m no one. Just the son of a great man, desperate to release him from his chains, to honor a true hero.
I spent years under his tutelage. He thought he was training me to take over his work, but I was little more than a shadow, never close to fulfilling all he had promised I would become. I wanted to be like him more than anything, but at the same time everything he was as a man scared me. Because it wasn’t me.
Now here I am, surrounded by a small remnant of the Faithful, and of what use to them am I?
“You got this far,” I hear a quiet voice. It’s Maia. She had been sitting next to me for the past half hour as we all sat silently and waited for the right time to begin our mission. “Do you really think a useless person could have made it here?”
“Are you talking to me?” I say. “Wait, have I been talking out loud this entire time?”
“Only a little bit,” she said. “Mumbling, mostly. I don’t know what’s going on in your mind, but I did hear you mutter something about being useless, and that can’t be true. You escaped. You found the Elder and the two of you found us. If it weren’t for that, we wouldn’t be here together. The rest of us would have been stuck with that coward, Sheffield.”
“We don’t know he’s a coward,” I say. “I mean, probably, but we don’t why he left for sure.”
“No,” she says. “But I’ve always been pretty good at reading people. At least I think so. Of course, the past couple of days have been the first I’ve been around people for a while.”
“Except the guards,” I remind her.
“Barely people,” she says. “Monsters, most of them.”
“No different than the rest of us,” I shake my head. “If it weren’t for the faith, anyway, we’d be no different than them. Even now, I have my moments. Sometimes I just want to…”
“I know,” she says. “But after a few months in those cells up there, it’s hard to remember better times. It’s hard to keep the faith when there’s no one around to remind you, to tell you to keep your head on straight. I could have been one of those traitors if it weren’t for…”
“Your heart,” I tell her. “My father always told me that the heart would always reveal its true self when faced with the greatest adversity. You had every opportunity, I’m sure, to recant.”
“True,” she said. “But so did Sheffield. And look at what he did. It took him longer than most, but he ran.”
“That’s why I still have hope for him,” I tell her. “Maybe it’s misguided, maybe he is a traitor like you said, but I hope he just had another plan in mind.”
Maia smirks. “So your mama was a cook and your papa was out in the field. Sounds like you had it pretty good before all this.”
“Everyone has their struggles,” I tell her. “How’d you get into this mess?”
Maia shakes her head. “The hard way,” she answers with a half-smile betrayed by downcast eyes. “I had a family too, once, but I was taken from them. The State said I was in trouble, or that I was trouble, I never did get the same answer twice. I had a little sister, not much older than Felicity, I guess that’s why I’m so protective of her. I don’t want to lose anyone else. T
he Faithful is the closest thing to a family I have these days.”
“Are they still out there, somewhere?” I ask her before putting my hand to my mouth, realizing it could be a touchy subject.
“I hope so,” she says. “But it’s not like any of us got visitors in those cells, you know. Maybe they saw me on the news. I hope so. Maybe they know I escaped. I hope I don’t disappoint them.”
“You won’t,” I tell her. “And I hope to meet them someday if this plan works the way the Elder says it will.”
“Ahem,” the Elder interrupts us. “It is almost time for us to go. I want you all to double-check your packs. Make sure you have everything on the list. Then take one more good look at the schematics of the prison I have drawn upon the table over there. We aren’t going to take that with us. If someone makes a mistake and gets caught, we don’t want them to discover what the rest of us are up to.”
“Five minutes until I need everyone lined up at the hatch,” Rafe instructs us. “I won’t have time for idle chat when you’re up there, but I want you to know that I expect to see you on the other side of this, and I’ll be in your ear the entire way. Listen to what I say and we have a better chance of pulling this off. Godspeed.”
“One more thing,” I say. “It’s time for you to be the leader I’ve always heard about.”
The Elder looks back at me with a grimace.
“No, I don’t mean as the wise man, or the political expert, or the tactician. No, my father spoke of you often, and never did he mention any of that. He told me about how you led the Faithful through thick and thin, when things were good and when things were bad. It’s time for you to remember what got you that reputation.”
The Elder stares back at me. I don’t know if he’s going to punch me or tackle me, but he doesn’t look happy about his choices.
“I know,” he finally confesses. “So if you have the ears for one more speech from an old man, please hear this one.”
“Time’s ticking,” Rafe reminds us.
“Go ahead,” says Maia.
“I’ve lived a long, terrible life,” says the Elder, his eyes tired and gray. “I spent many of those years in service to the Faithful, and it was a great joy to work alongside people like Niko’s father and mother. I’m sorry I haven’t gotten to know the five of you as well as I would have liked. If things go according to plan, perhaps there will still be time. I want you to remember one thing, no matter what happens. Keep your eyes on the King. The President will do whatever he can to tear us apart, but the Faithful will always be loyal to the King.”
“It’s time,” says Rafe. “Everyone to your positions!”
“Focus,” says the Elder. “The King will guide your path.”
Maia and Felicity line up first. There’s a ladder that goes twenty feet up before Maia has to open the hatch. She struggles, but it loosens, and they vanish without a goodbye. There’s no time for pleasantries. Everyone has their mission.
“Your turn,” the Elder says to Wiley and me. “The King will guide your path.”
It’s been a long time since I’ve heard that phrase. Saying it out loud would lead to the harshest beatings Justice Hall had to offer.
I nod my head and climb the ladder first, Wiley right behind me, each of us carrying a pack of various explosives for him to set off throughout the night and into the morning. But it’s a long, slow climb to get to where we’re going.
I turn on my flashlight. It’s dim, but it’s enough to get us where we’re going. Maia and Felicity take a right, and if things go according to plan, we won’t see them until the end. I lead Wiley to the left and begin our ascent.
“All this work,” I tell Wiley. “And we’re climbing through the sewers to get back to our cells.”
“Thought we’d be dead by now anyway,” Wiley says as we adjust to the smell of the catacombs. “But now we have a chance to do something for the Faithful that no one else can. And I get to make a few fireworks go off while we’re at it. If this is how we go, it’s gotta be better than Independence Day.”
I’m not sure I agree with him. Independence Day was supposed to be humiliating, but it would have been quick and relatively painless. I don’t know what tortures they might send our way if we are recaptured.
It isn’t long before we hit our first marker. I hand Wiley one of the explosives from my bag and he carefully wraps it around a pipe with a thin line of string. “Back up,” he tells me. “I’ve only got a few seconds to get to cover when this blows.”
I slide back down through the grimy soot we’d been creeping up and he soon follows. Bang! That should clear a path for us to the lower levels of the prison which are still operational. It will still take us a while to get there as we muck our way through the sludge that has built up over the years.
“Team Two is all clear,” says Rafe. I jump back and my reflexes make me slap the side of my face. I’d half-forgotten he was going to be in our ear until he finally broke his radio silence. No word on Maia and Felicity. The Elder told us not to expect progress on his part of the mission until the end. I don’t know why he keeps his secrets, but my father trusted him, so I’ve decided to trust him too.
“I’m sorry it’s not your brother on this mission with you,” I tell Wiley. “I’m sure it would have been easier.”
“Nah,” he says. “Rafe is better down there observing everything. He always slows me down anyway. He makes precise calculations, I just like to light things up. We have our own ways. Nice to have some different company for a change.”
“I don’t know who designed this place,” I say as we slink our way up step by step, “but they sure could’ve come up with an easier system to get to the first floor.”
“I’m not sure this is the path that was meant to be taken,” he laughs. “This is just the one that keeps us hidden.”
“Team One, abort! Team One, abort!”
“What’s that?” I ask Wiley. “What’s happening?”
“I don’t know!” he freezes. “These are one-way radios. We can’t communicate.”
“What do we do?” I shake him.
“Were they caught?” he asks.
“I don’t know,” I tell him. “I don’t know what to do. Let’s just keep going until…”
“Team One, you’re clear. Go to Plan B,” says Rafe. “I repeat, go to Plan B. I don’t think they saw you, but it doesn’t look to be a safe path.”
“Breathe,” I tell Wiley. “Breathe. They’re okay. We need to continue.”
Wiley looks back at me and nods, but he’s still recovering.
“Just got real, didn’t it?” I ask him, but he remains silent. “I know. I felt it too. But we need to gather all the courage we have to continue. We must act as though we are already dead, so we can live without fear, and act according to the knowledge the Faithful will be rewarded when all has come to the end.”
“You’re…you’re right,” he says, though his body is violently disagreeing with his words.
“Team Two, you are approaching your second target,” Rafe tells us. “Breathe easy, guys, everyone is still on schedule. I never said this would be easy, but I need you to stay focused.”
I take a deep breath and see Wiley do the same.
“Compose yourself,” I tell him as I put my arm on his shoulder. “We need you. We trust you. There’s the target right there, that green metal box on the wall.”
Wiley rubs his hands over his face and resets his mind. “You’re right,” he says, settling himself. “If we die, we die, but let’s try to live, huh?”
“That’s a good idea,” I tell him. “I prefer it that way, at least. What do we need to do here?”
“Won’t take much,” Wiley explains. “We’re not trying to blow it to smithereens, we just need the security system to go down long enough for Team One to get past their next checkpoint. Take care of this for me.”
Wiley hands me the explosive, and though I’m not an expert like he is, I know what to do with this one. I take a s
ticky, tar-like substance from my pack, slap it on the back of the bomb, and slam it up against the electrical panel.
“Run!” Wiley shouts as I slap a little red button. He doesn’t have to tell me twice. I shuffle as quickly as I can behind him and around a corner. I close my eyes and cover my ears until I feel a blast of air behind me. “That should do it, but we have to move fast to our next target.”
“Let’s roll,” I tell him, well remembering the Elder’s instructions. Funny thing, when my life is on the line, it’s easier to focus. Still, I hope to get out of this habit someday. “Over there, I see the next panel.”
We run up to the panel and Wiley shakes his head. “This isn’t it,” he says.
“What do you mean?” I ask him. “It looks the same as the one the Elder told us about, and it’s in the corner just like on the map.”
“No,” Wiley tells me. “Look, these wires aren’t even connected. I think someone must have changed the…”
“Team Two, Team Two, listen up!” Rafe shouts. “The next panel is a trap, don’t touch it!”
“A trap?” I ask, but Rafe can’t hear me.
“I knew something was fishy,” Wiley tells me. “But what now?”
“Team One, hold your position,” Rafe orders. “Elder, I need you to do the thing we discussed.”
“The thing?” Wiley and I say to each other.
“Team Two, the real wire should be through a door down the hall. Watch your step, but there shouldn’t be any guards present. I’m going to trigger a false alarm on the south side of the courtyard around the prison. This will give you ten minutes to get to your final waiting positions.”
“This is it, isn’t it?” Wiley asks as we walk side by side down a dark corridor to where we see a small, unremarkable box in the corner next to the door. “Once we get to the next mark, there’s no turning back.”
“There never was any turning back,” I tell him. “This isn’t the route we asked for, but it’s the life we chose, and all the freedom in the world isn’t worth the lie of security the State has sold to the people.”
The Treasure Map Page 16