“We are so close to getting out of danger’s way,” he says. “I can’t risk forgetting this.” He sits up, and I drop my head to the side, turning away from him.
“What if we die?”
“Really?”
“That was a little pathetic,” I admit as I sit up.
“As arguments go, you’ve had better.”
He half drags me out to the living room, where everyone appears to be ready to leave.
“I can’t believe everyone agreed to go out, what, thirty-two hours before doomsday,” I say to the room.
“What would you have us do?” asks Dixon.
“I don’t know, but it feels a little odd.”
“I like it! I want a good last memory of this place.” Krisalyn looks dazzling. The left side of her hair is pulled back to give a view of her fiery red and orange eyelids, while on her right side, the vibrant red locks swoop across her forehead before falling in elegant long curls. Her dark green dress hangs down off of her shoulders and sports dramatic ruffles. Her oversized purse makes me smirk, though. Dixon has made her his caddy, so he can keep an array of gadgets handy.
Frey cites the benefit of partying tonight so that we sleep all day tomorrow before having to be up all night again. “We’re going to Edge,” he says. “The drinks are amazing, and it has a great view of the city.”
“What more could we need?” My sarcasm goes ignored.
“Actually…” Dixon looks around, debating his word choice. “I was thinking we shouldn’t drink tonight.”
Frey and Vogue mirror each other’s confused looks. “Who are you?” Frey asks.
“I know, but you two are about to attempt your craziest hack yet, and since I don’t plan on being helpful in that endeavor, this idea is my way of helping.”
Krisalyn steps over to tap on an end table. “Dixon is right. We should behave tonight.” Six flutes rise up out of the coffee table, and she passes them out. “Just one toast.”
We each take a glass, and Vogue raises hers. “To the last night in the city for the Mirages.”
A chorus of groans and chuckles meet her.
“To Vogue being too busy soon to keep trying to give us a nickname,” Frey says.
Jase taps his glass to mine for that toast, and I nudge him with my shoulder.
Krisalyn raises her glass with a radiant smile. “To the challenges ahead, and facing them together.”
I couldn’t ask for a better team than the people I have in front of me. They’re the smartest, most dynamic people I’ve ever known, and I’m not sure how I deserve to count myself as one of them, but I’m so grateful to. I lean into Jase, letting his warm scent wrap around me like a blanket. Together. Yes, as long as we’re all together, let the games begin.
Six glasses are raised, and Krisalyn concludes her toast. “May the destination be worth the journey.”
Chapter Fifty
BRAM
“It looks like they were all transferred out of my system to the same code this evening.” Tori drums her fingers on the desk. “If they all went to the same place, there’s only one place they could have gone.”
“Leavenworth,” I say.
“Right, so that’s good news. We didn’t plan on taking Leavenworth yet anyway.” It’s better than having the marshals spread across the islands, but better still would have been leaving the marshals in Kaycie away from all of their tools of war. If we had seized control of the trains while the army was still here, they wouldn’t be able to take full advantage of Leavenworth’s resources.
“I guess, but why have they already moved them? That was supposed to be the emergency procedure, but nothing has happened yet.”
“This wasn’t how the evacuation was supposed to go. I was supposed to go too, and my trainees.”
I puff out a heavy breath. “It still feels like an emergency situation to me. What are they doing?”
“I don’t know, but the next part of the plan was to evacuate the council. Maybe that’s why Kemp and Sophos are both here—they’re waiting to be evacuated.”
“Except Sophos can’t evacuate with them,” I say, leaning over the side of the desk.
“That would be a little awkward, wouldn’t it?” We both jump as a voice comes from the opening door, and Watt Kemp walks in. Two marshals follow him with guns trained on us. Tori's knuckles turn white as she clenches the edge of the desk.
Kemp remains near the door as the marshals approach us. “He’s certainly taken full advantage of our distractions. I suppose the timing is clever, but it risks an awful lot, don’t you think?”
What distractions? What about our timing is either clever or particularly risky? I can’t get distracted by his words. I need to focus on the threat in front of me.
“Risks a lot for you, maybe,” Tori sneers.
“It risks everyone.” His hard eyes bear down on Tori in a grave look. “How are we supposed to protect anyone if we are fighting amongst ourselves?”
“The only thing people need to be protected from is the Establishment.” The shorter marshal steps over to me as I speak, his gun leveled at my chest.
Kemp’s brows furrow as he looks back and forth between Tori and me. “He didn’t even tell you? I can see why he wouldn’t be forthcoming with the lambs he herded, but I thought you two would have been involved with strategy.”
Without drugs handy to control minds, he uses words. But if Kemp thinks he can turn this around on us, he’s mistaken.
“We know everything we need to know,” Tori says. The taller marshal plants himself across the desk from her.
“Captain Foster,” Kemp says, “how very disappointing. You had so much promise, and after all of the opportunities you’ve been given…” He shakes his head. “I should have known better. Women really aren’t cut out for this line of work anyway.”
Her face twists into a sinister smile. Oh, that’s a mistake.
Simultaneously, the marshal in front of me drops his left hand to get wrist restraints, and Tori slams the desk forward, doubling the other marshal over its edge. In the moment that the gun in front of me is held only in one hand, I grab the barrel and strike the marshal’s hand from the grip. I flip the gun and catch it by the grip to fire a round into the marshal’s chest. The marshal who took the hit from the desk drops at the sound of Tori's gun firing before she swings her legs over the desk to hurdle it.
Killing marshals was what I dreaded most about all of this. In the moment, it’s easier than I thought it would be, though. As much as I’d prefer to disarm, we can’t guarantee that a shot to an extremity would stop them. Once we’re engaged in a fight, it’s kill or be killed. There’s no time to think about it, and I couldn’t be more grateful. Time will tell how it feels afterward when the dust settles.
Kemp, slow from lack of practice, reaches for his gun, but Tori tackles him to the floor. I crush the heel of my boot onto his hand and take the gun from his holster as he screams out in pain. Tori flips him over and throws her knee into his back as she tightens plastic restraints around his wrists.
“What was that you were saying about women?” she says close to his ear.
She gets off of him, and I pull him to his feet. “I told you I was ready for a fight.” I flash her a grin.
“You had a good trainer.”
“Now what?”
“Oh, this wasn’t all a part of the plan?” she huffs. “We need to get Sophos out of here.”
Kemp rolls his eyes. “He’ll be hard to retrieve from Leavenworth. He was being collected while I came to seize you.”
“We need to move fast,” I say.
Tori nods and pushes Kemp ahead of her by the wrist restraints as she walks out of the office. She turns into a room full of unrecognizable computer equipment, opens a closet door within it, and removes Kemp’s cuff before shoving him in. I wedge a chair under the doorknob as she smashes the cuff with her heel, and we depart.
We turn back the way we came, toward a stairway to go up to Sophos’ office.
“I guess it’s safe to say the timeline is moving up?” I say.
“Yep. Reschedule the train.” She pulls a fire grenade out of her belt.
“What’s that for?”
“I’m going to give them a place to look for Kemp.”
As I send out a message to the squad, Tori kicks open Kemp’s office door and throws the grenade in. The floor vibrates with the explosion as we hurry down the hall. The sound of crumbling stone fills the hallway, and a fire erupts behind us.
Chapter Fifty-One
SERENITY
Walking down the sidewalk among these beautiful people does feel glamorous and festive. I squeeze Jase’s hand. This could have been our whole life. I would grieve over it, but even though we can all enjoy the frivolous, fun parts of this reality, what brought us together was our desire to be more. And without that, this would be dull.
It does feel like the end of an era, and I decide I don’t want any distractions. I pull my cuff off and tuck it into my pocket. Most of the people I’d need to speak to are with me anyway.
At Edge, we dance, laugh, and let go for one last time. Jase and I step away from the dance floor, and I soak in the view of the city lights near the wall of windows. It is beautiful, if only on the outside. Maybe if we fix it on the inside, I could love it again someday.
Watching Vogue and Krisalyn twirling around on the dance floor brings a smile to my face. Frey is chatting with a girl at the bar, no doubt enjoying that he’ll have a solid excuse for not talking to her again after tonight. And Dixon… has to be around here somewhere.
Jase is still staring out at the city as I enjoy the scene inside. When I turn to face him, his eyes look glassy, and his lips are turned down in a pensive frown. His lips. The ones that say all of the sweetest things and smile at everything I say and do. The lips that make the world disappear when they meet mine.
I wrap my hand around the back of his neck to pull his gaze down to me. “Are you going to miss it?” I point to the city with my eyes.
His lips turn back up as he looks at me. “No, not if I have—” His gaze shoots up past my head. His smile vanishes, and his hands tighten on my hips.
I whip around to see what he’s looking at. Glass and stone fly away from a jagged hole in a wall half a mile away. A blaze erupts on the lower floors of a building—the Establishment Center.
My hand jumps to my mouth, covering a gasp. Someone else sees it and screams, drawing people over to the windows to watch the spectacle down the street. Vogue, Frey, Krisalyn, and Dixon all find their way to us. Everyone is a blur of shock and questions. Jase lifts his wrist to look at his cuff, as do the rest of our friends. The message on his screen says one word.
‘Now.’
People swirl around us like a biting winter wind. “Now?” we all murmur to each other. Everyone has gotten Bram’s message. Jase grips my hand and pulls me through the crowd as we all make our way to the elevator. My eyes can’t focus on anything in particular, and my feet are only moving to keep up with the current.
Why now? There was a plan, a schedule. What happened to that? And what was the explosion at the Establishment Center?
Inside the elevator, Frey expands a holoScreen from his cuff. Only a sprinkling of words are intelligible as everyone talks over each other. The whole scene could be taking place underwater—everything blurs, and sounds are muffled. Vogue clasps Krisalyn’s hand, looking solemn as they whisper together, Frey and Dixon work on the holoScreen. Then I’m brought back into focus.
“Serenity,” Jase says, taking my face between his hands. “We need to—”
“We own the trains,” Frey announces. “I’ve sent most of them to the islands, so they’ll have them after the tunnels to Kaycie are blocked off. We have one waiting for us at the station.”
As he speaks, I retrieve my cuff from my pocket and put it on.
“Well then, all aboard,” Vogue says, hastening out when the doors open.
We all start down the sidewalk toward the train station, but I stop short when my cuff buzzes and my mother’s picture appears on the screen. Oh no. I need to get them to the station. Everyone else is ahead of Jase and me and keeps moving, but Vogue sees me and turns back.
I pop my pod into my ear. “Mamá, where are you?”
“Serenity,” she sighs, “I’ve been calling you! You need to go to the Establishment Center immediately.”
“It’s on fire! Are you there?”
“Your father and I are on our way. You have to meet us there.”
Why would they need to go to the Establishment Center? “No! I need you to come with me—”
My father’s voice comes through. “Go to the top floor. Do it now.”
“But you—” The call ends.
I fold myself over, leaning my hands on my knees. I’m rolling madly down a steep hill, and here is a boulder to slam into on my way down.
“Serenity,” Vogue says, standing me up, “it’s time to go.”
“I have to get my parents.”
“No!” Jase and Vogue shout together.
“They’re going to evacuate with the council. I can’t leave them with those people!”
“We need to get away from those people,” Jase urges. “We can’t go running to them.”
“I have to get them.”
Jase groans.
“Okay then, let’s go,” Vogue snaps.
“No. You can’t be moving around. You need to work on taking out the power supply. Go to the station, I’ll be there soon.”
Potential arguments and negotiations must be running through her head as she looks at me, but she settles for a tight hug. This isn’t the time to argue about it. She knows I’m going to do it anyway, and fighting with me only costs us time, which is already moving too fast.
“Go,” I tell her, and she rushes away to catch up to the others.
“You have no reason that will get rid of me,” Jase says as he takes my hand and starts in the opposite direction.
“I know.”
My skirt billows behind me as we rush toward the Establishment Center. Now going all out seems like a horrendous misjudgment.
“This is not the direction I expected us to go when everything started,” Jase remarks.
I call each of my parents again, but there is no answer. Finally, we reach the building. The forecourt is buzzing with emergency personnel putting out the fire. How are we going to get to the doors?
“This way.” Jase takes me around the left side of the building. “There are emergency exit stairs that let out over here.”
Some people come out of a door at the far corner of the building. Luckily the building was mostly empty at this hour, so there isn’t a flood of people filling the stairway.
“Wait.” I stop as we enter the door and lean against a wall. One after the other, I kick my feet back to unbuckle my shoes and throw them into a corner. I can walk any distance in high heels, but not up twenty-three flights of stairs.
We take the first several floors at a run, but I can’t keep up that pace. I crane my neck over the railing to look up at the endless spiral of stairs. This is a terrible idea. I am in no shape to run up this many stairs. My legs are cramping, and my lungs are on fire.
“What floor are we on?” I wheeze.
“We just passed eleven.”
“We’re above that fire, and it’s on the other side of the building. Let’s see if an elevator is still on.”
We exit on the twelfth floor and head toward a service elevator. Gunshots sound off in the distance. It is such a bad idea to be here. I slam into Jase’s back when he stops short.
“What are you doing here?” he yells.
Chapter Fifty-Two
BRAM
Four marshals appear ahead of us, coming our way as we run down the hallway.
“We’re after a suspect. Go check for survivors!” Tori orders.
They continue past us toward Kemp’s blown up office. We race down the hall and burst through the door to a stair
way. Bounding up two steps at a time, we make short work of reaching the twelfth floor. Upon exiting into the hallway, Tori glances around and holsters her weapon. She gestures to me to do the same.
From the corner, Sophos’ open door is visible. We slow to a crawl as we listen.
“Yes, I’m coming,” Sophos says. “I wouldn’t want to keep the governor waiting.”
Tori raises a hand, gesturing to me to stay here as she struts into the office.
“There’s been a change of plans.” Authority colors her voice. “I’ll be taking Mr. Verity into custody.”
Standing out here waiting is agonizing.
“I have direct orders from Governor Martel.” The marshal’s voice is void of emotion.
“I have updated orders, and I am your superior.”
“I’ll have to check with—”
“Check with whomever you’d like. I’ll be taking Mr. Verity now, though.”
At the familiar sound of a gun cocking, I pull mine. The unknown voice says, “Captain, I’m going to have to insist that you—”
“Gun down!” I press the barrel of my gun to the temple of a marshal’s head. It’s a second marshal, a blond, who has a gun pointing toward Tori and Sophos. He doesn’t move it. In the time it would take Tori to pull her gun, he’d shoot her, but I can’t neutralize the threat until I get through this red-headed marshal.
“Stand down,” I say through clenched teeth.
Without even glancing my way, the red-headed marshal shoots his arm up, grabbing the underside of my right bicep and throwing it up as he twists toward me. I keep hold of my gun with my left hand as my right arm is pushed up toward my face. Slamming my gun down into his shoulder, I drop him to his knees. The sound of three rounds firing explodes through the office as Tori tackles Sophos to the floor.
I fire two rounds into the blond’s chest as a leg swings around from behind me, knocking my feet out from under me. I scarcely hit the floor before I roll away from the redhead and onto my knee. He’s got one foot planted on the floor, rising toward me when I put a bullet between his eyes. He crumples to the floor before me.
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