The Pursuit (The Permutation Archives Book 2)

by Kindra Sowder

  “If we wait until we are safe, it’ll never happen. We’re going to talk, and we’re going to talk now. If you refuse to tell me the truth I will leave, and I’ll do this without you.” I meant every single word as I said them and no one could sway me. “I mean it, Mom. No more lies. We’re going to lay it all out in the open, and it happens tonight, or I’m gone, and I’ll find a way to take care of King without you and the Paradigm.”

  Ajax made a show out of covering his eyes. “Can you two at least put something on? I’m getting tired of staring at Ryder’s ass.”

  A chuckle came from Famke then, and she cleared her throat. Ryder shot a glare toward both of them, and Famke’s tiny giggle melted away.

  “Let’s leave them be for a few minutes. I’m willing to give her the answers she needs and so should you, Horatia,” Caius said from beside my mother. His blue eyes were wide, and his blonde hair was disheveled. He had been sleeping and sleeping hard. He ran his hand through it and turned to my mother. Her lips pursed in irritation, and she was tapping her foot, one finger playing with the belt loop on her cargo pants.

  “Fine, but after that, we get moving. I’m not having you go off on your own without our resources.” With that, she turned and left the tent, followed hesitantly by the others.

  It wasn’t just what I had seen in my dream that I needed to talk to her about. I had remained silent about the sigil on the weapons we were all carrying, and now that would be out in the open too. I was not going to be left in the dark anymore and, if my mother didn’t like that, that didn’t matter to me. That may have seemed childish to anyone else, but when faced with the uncertainty of who to trust and who was truly on your side, I would do what it took to get to the bottom of it all. Even if I risked losing my mother and my little sister for good.

  Chapter

  NINE

  It didn’t take long before all of us were standing around one another, ready to talk about what I felt we needed to before we could move any further. The lies. The secrets of the Harvest and so many other things I felt they left me out of. I wouldn’t have it anymore, and my mother knew it. After I had been shown so much in my dream, even if it wasn’t given or sent by Cato, it all meant something and I was going to get to the bottom of it. And it was now or never. I meant it when I said I would leave and do this on my own, and I didn’t care who followed. But I did know that Ryder and Julius at least had my back, even if the others didn’t.

  I stood with Ryder at my side, decked out in all black cargo pants, t-shirt, and boots that were much more sturdy than the clothes I had left the compound in. Just like everyone else and a part of the team if I decided to stick around. The rain had stopped, leaving the ground soggy and difficult to walk on, but we had managed to congregate around the Humvee. My mother was leaning against it with her arms crossed over her chest, the rest of the group in a lot of the same stance littered in our little area. The only light in the clearing were the dim lights contained within the tents, so we left the flaps open so it could permeate the darkness around us.

  “So, what is it that you want to know?” my mother asked, her tone not the least bit amused at the drama I seemed to be causing. Yes, she had definitely changed. Sometimes I saw it and sometimes she hid it well, but not in this instance.

  “First, I want to know about these weapons. I had tried to ignore it, but I can’t anymore. Not after this,” I said as I tapped my temple with my index finger. I walked to the Humvee, opened the back, and removed one of the weapons’ cases. I had not actually seen them up close and personal before, but there it was. The symbol of the crown surrounded by thorns that I knew with absolute certainty Cato had seen before and shared with me somehow. That was a mystery I still had yet to unlock, but there would be a time and a place, and this wasn’t it. The image flashed into my mind again, but this time, it looked like I was looking at it from on the ground. A gun’s grip stuck out from within a holster as someone knelt down above him, the symbol popping out with glaring clarity. I shook the image away and opened the case, removing a couple of examples of what I had seen. What was on my own gun that I had on me.

  “What about them, Mila? There is nothing wrong with them.” My mother thought she had me fooled, but thanks to whatever Cato had done back in the compound I saw more than I would have otherwise and knew what this meant.

  I turned the gun over and there it was, staring at me as I looked at it. Crunching through the foliage, I approached my mother and held up the gun, making sure the symbol of King and his cause was visible. I watched as her eyes widened and her lips parted, her breathing picking up audibly. Yes, she didn’t think I would’ve noticed it and now that I had she had nothing to say.

  “What the Hell is this?” I probed, putting the thing directly in her line of sight. I knew she saw it, but her angered stare never left mine.

  She was silent, the rest of the crew looking to her for what to do next. Did they speak or remain quiet sentinels? Even Ryder didn’t know what to say or what to do.

  “This symbol. Cato showed it to me, and I know exactly what it is, so what is it doing on the weaponry that you all carry? That I’m carrying now. If you all are up to some…”

  Ajax interrupted as he took a step forward, “Look, Mila…”

  I stopped him with a hand in the air, not caring what he had to say. “Ajax, if you don’t mind, this is between my mother and me. Seeing as she’s the brains behind this entire thing.” My eyes met hers and she refused to look away, becoming more brazen as I angered her, pushing against her authority with every turn. “Now, Mom, why are you using King’s weapons?”

  A smile began to play at the corners of her mouth as if she knew something I didn’t, but there was a lot of that going around lately, and I wasn’t amused. “You’re just like your damn father.” She paused. “You really have no idea, do you? What it takes to do what we’ve done.”

  “Of course not.” My voice raised an octave. “How am I supposed to know anything when all you have done is hide things from me? Ever since you rescued us, you have been different. This is not the mother I knew. This is someone different. This is someone who is secretive and distrustful.”

  “I am no different than I was before. This is a part of me that I had to keep from you and keep from them,” she explained as she waved her arms to signify everything around her. “I am a daughter of a revolutionary, and so are you, but you have even more power than any of us did. Those guns, those weapons, are the ones that we had to steal from King’s forces. We have more people within his regime than he realizes and those within his armory helped us get these.” She stopped in front of me and gripped the gun in my hand. “This is a part of the vast resources we have had to steal to be able to do what we have done and will do.”

  “What do you mean by a daughter of revolutionary?” I breathed.

  “I mean that, when the wall was built, there were those that wanted freedom. Yes, we may have lived in peace for so long because of it, but sacrifices were made that you couldn’t understand. Your great-great-grandfather was a part of a minuscule and unknown revolution that began when the wall had risen. No one was allowed to leave the country. Those that tried were killed. That brought about the peace that you have known all your life. Now, we have found people like you that can help stop the further corruption of our government and not just because of what it stands for now, but what it stood for then. This isn’t just about your kind and the Harvest. This is about saving everyone. The compound and what happened to you barely scratches the surface.”

  “What do you mean?” Julius asked, finally finding his voice.

  “I mean that this army King wants to build isn’t just about power. It is about control, complete and total control over every aspect of life that he possibly can. And he wants to use people like you to gain it because he doesn’t possess the power to do it all by himself.” Her gazed turned back to me. “He needs y
ou, Mila. What you have inside of you and he won’t stop until he has it whether you join him willingly, or he takes it from you.”

  “King has been searching for someone with a unique and powerful gift once the discovery was made five years ago. It was announced at a party then, and he killed our current leader to take his place. He felt that in fear was the only way to govern the country, and your power gives him that. And he will do whatever it takes to get it. We’re not sure what he plans to do with it, but once it’s in his grasp he’ll be unstoppable,” Doctor Aserov explained further, taking a step toward me, her brown eyes meeting mine in earnest. “You’re what he wants. After he saw you use your power in the compound, he confided in me that your ability was the one he needed to achieve his goals.”

  “Oh my God,” Julius breathed into the night air.

  I felt all eyes on me, waiting for me to react to the news, but what was I supposed to do? Was I supposed to scream or cry? Was shock supposed to cause some sort of outward reaction besides the one I was having now? I could barely breathe. I could barely move or speak. So was there something else I was supposed to be doing to show that I was surprised? My mother took both of my hands in hers, still gripping the empty gun, and looked deep into my eyes as the warmth I had known her for finally made a reappearance.

  “Now you see, but you’ll see even more once we make it to headquarters. We need to get moving again right now before they find us again, but I believe you have at least one more question to ask so, before I change my mind, ask it.”

  I took a shaky breath in and let it out, trying to keep the anxiety from causing my power to peak and take down the entire forest around us.

  “Cato showed me something in my dream,” I began.

  “Cato? How?” my mother asked, her brows furrowing.

  I could see Julius off to the side wearing the same terrified and confused expression as she did, but I couldn’t stop now. I needed to get the words out and explain it later.

  “It’s made me question my entire life. It’s forced me question everything I knew not only about myself, but everyone.”

  “Mila, how…” she began to ask again, but Ryder and the good doctor already had the answer. They were there and saw the exchange. They probably had no idea that’s what was happening. Not until now.

  I raised my hand to stop all questions until I got to ask mine. “I saw Dad. And I saw King. Dad told me to keep fighting and to stay strong. To save the world.” I paused a moment, licking my lips in anticipation of the question I was about to ask, hoping I would get the truth. “How did Dad die?”

  I was answered by her silence first, tears filling her eyes as she stood there and stared at me, shaking her head. “Mila,” she began to protest.

  “I need to know,” I interjected. “Please. How did he die?”

  Her shoulders sagged in defeat. “I didn’t want you to know. Not now, not then, and not ever. It was long before King came to power.” She sighed and lowered her eyes to the ground between our feet before lifting her eyes back up to my own, using one hand to take a lock of my hair into her fingers and twirl the soft curl at the end of her fingertips. “King killed your father, Mila. I’m sorry.”

  I barely had time to process the confirmation of what I had seen in my own head before there was a magnetic snap in the air, followed by a wave of bright blue light that passed over all of us. We all crouched and covered our heads, unsure of what it was that had just been used against us. And then there was chaos. The gun I had held in my hands dropped to the ground, burying itself in the mud before I could catch it.

  “King,” Famke cried out into the night air as bullets began to shatter into the ground at our feet.

  When I stood, I felt my power begin to build inside of me as an inner strength took over, but then I felt something else. A sharp pain in my side, and then a spreading numbness outward that flowed through my entire body. I recognized this feeling all too well. Even though they had only used a tranquilizer dart filled with Paralisix on me only once, it was a feeling I would never forget. My mother’s eyes widened as she took in what had just happened, an undecipherable cry for help shattering the sound of the gunfire. My vision went black around the edges as I turned my gaze to the side I could no longer feel, spotting the dart amongst my dark clothes quickly. I pulled it out and dropped it to the ground, falling to my knees within seconds. I had built up somewhat of a resistance to the drug before leaving the compound, so they knew what they had to do and, from the look of it, they had included a stronger dose and the booster in this one shot. And they knew they only had one chance to do it and, if I were to become tolerant to this, there was nothing they could do medically to stop me.

  The drug pulled my power back in with a jolt, and I heard my mother scream, but couldn’t process what had happened as mud and plant life flew through the air with each missile strike and each bullet. My mind was beginning to turn fuzzy, thoughts running together as the drug took effect as I tried to fight it. It was no use. Then I was no longer on the ground and in someone’s arms as my eyes came to a close, shrouding me in darkness. I heard someone shout my name, recognizing the voice as it faded into the distance. That was when I knew Ryder wasn’t the one carrying me away. It was someone else. A stranger. Panic filled me as I began to fight the drug even harder, the coupling of my fear and the panic causing my power to flare up to combat it along with the adrenaline.

  I opened my eyes to see a strong man carrying me. Well, if you could even call him that. He looked more like a mixture of a man as well as a wolf, making him the only shapeshifter I had ever seen that could morph in such a way. I knew the man I had killed earlier in the day was a shifter of some kind, but had no clue there were different types at all. This man’s eyes were amber, glowing in the moonlight that filtered through the treetops. Brown fur had sprouted in patches, meaning he didn’t need a full shift to achieve his purpose or use his strength. To retrieve me without getting himself killed in the process. If that was even how it worked.

  “No,” I whimpered, knowing exactly where he was taking me. My arms felt like lead, but I forced them, willed them to move and to push against his broad chest. “Put me down.” I felt my body adjust to the medication as the sheer terror took over, rendering it useless in my system. I would not be in the clutches of King ever again, and I’d do whatever I had to to make sure of it. “No.”

  I placed one hand in the center of his furry chest as the world began to come back into view, pushing energy directly into the apex right above his heart. A yellow light emerged from the palm of my hand and forced me from his arms with a harsh push, spreading outward into the atmosphere. It sent me flying through the air, barely able to catch myself once I hit the ground. My feet barely grazed the plant covered forest floor, and I stumbled, falling to the ground and sliding on my belly until I came to a complete stop. The shifter was still on his feet and howled into the night, his body morphing back from the half man, half wolf to the man himself. The effects of the Paralisix were beginning to fade away even faster as I looked up at the man, his short cropped brown hair shining in the light and his eyes piercing within me even from the distance.

  He began to close the gap quickly with his long legs, moving toward me with that sly smoothness you saw in predators. Each and every man I had seen with this ability, no matter what form it took, moved this way, and it was unnerving. I rose to my hands and knees, my arms shaking with the effort because of the drugs, and raised one hand in his direction, pushing what little power I could feel toward him. His feet stopped moving, his whole body going rigid as he felt my invisible hands push him backward, his feet sliding through the foliage as he attempted to descend on me. With a grunt of effort, he was able to move one foot forward, and then another as my power waned because of the drug until I was weak and he pounced on me. His foot met the center of my back and pressed down until I was lying flat on the ground, unable to d
o much, but watch as destruction rained down on those I loved in the not too far off distance. Their cries shattered the night as another round of bullets flew.

  “King wants you alive, but I’m not above killing you right here and now,” he growled as he stood above me, pressing all of his weight into the center of my back until I cried out.

  The thought of giving up crossed my mind. It would be too easy to lay down and let him kill me or take me to King so my power could be collected and used in whatever way King deemed fit, but my father’s words crept into my mind.

  “Keep fighting.” I heard his voice as clear as the night sky above me, and that was when I felt my power flare to life within me, pulsating within my belly and chest. It spread quickly as heat flashed in my eyes.

  The shifter’s foot left my back and sent a mighty blow into my abdomen, causing me to fall back to the ground. I rolled onto my back and looked up at my assailant as he tried to beat me within an inch of my life to carry me away, back to King’s waiting lab and doctors. He lifted his massive foot, the tread on the underside of his boots caked with the mud from the rain not too long before. He prepared to ram it into my face, and I called on the power within me that I had been able to use to stop King from injecting me with the solution that would render me helpless so he could take my power from me. His foot began to come down, but stopped within an inch of the tip of my nose, my energy pushing against him as he strained against it. He screamed out as he tried, pain evident in his face as I rose both hands and put more force behind it. With a grunt of effort, I sent him flying, him landing on his feet like an agile cat as he nearly collided with a tree trunk.

  I rolled onto my stomach and pushed myself to my hands and knees again, watching the man as he rose to his full height. He was massive and, as I looked on trying to rise to my feet, he began to shift, his bones moving underneath his flesh to take shape into the creature I had seen not even seconds before in a grotesque show. A howl pierced the air as puffs of fur began to sprout over his flesh, leaving small patches of skin visible where I had a feeling hair should’ve been. Maybe these shifters only partially changed, leaving enough of their humanity so they could still think and rationalize. His clothes tore at the knees and elbows and across his broad chest even more than they already had been, exposing even more of the animal muscle that had formed there. I could see them in the moonlight, corded and defined to a sickening point underneath his flesh.