A heavy silence hangs over the room, made even more somber by the dark wooden walls and thick carpet. As if the room itself was eating the tiniest noise. I feel like I should say more, but what else is there to say? The deal has been offered. His army in exchange for the Machine. I hate what that might mean for the future of the Mexican people, but I can’t worry about that right now. If that makes me selfish, so be it. I’m already sitting here planning the death of a man. He’s not innocent, but we’re still plotting an assassination.
After an eternity of staring at the wall, President Tiroso puts his feet down and hits a tiny button on a built-in screen on his desk. “General Garcia, begin mobilizing the northern troops for deployment. You leave in three days.”
I scoot up to the edge of my plush chair. “Does that mean—”
“You’ll get your army, Ms. Whedon. Just don’t forget about the Machine. We’re a country that takes what it needs.”
I nod in understanding. There will be no double-cross or misdirection. “You’ll have it.”
“President Tiroso.” A voice breaks into the tension of the room from a speaker built into his desk. “A delegation has arrived from the Territories and are currently waiting for admittance.”
Another button pushed and Tiroso stands, motioning with his free hand for us to do the same. “Please let our guests know I will see them in just a moment.”
He rushes around the desk and moves to a panel of wood, just like all the others. With a push on the corner, a hidden door swings into the room. “I’m assuming you’d like to avoid running into the Cardinal’s representatives. This leads to my private bathroom. Take the hallway exit to your right and the elevator at the end to the third floor. I’ll send Hannah to meet you. Three days, Ms. Whedon. Be ready.”
The others scurry inside, and I bring up the rear. President Tiroso shuts the door behind me without another word. His bathroom is a testament to wealth and excess, but I don’t have time to take in the details. We need to get out of here before anyone associated with the Cardinal has a chance to realize we’re here. Even with a building this huge, the rumors probably fly faster than the wind.
Outside in the hall, we run to the right along the gold-gilded hallway with plush green carpet underfoot. It’s a long hall, but the elevator is visible at the end, its shiny, golden doors a beacon of safety. Elizabeth leads the way, but pulls up short when a door opens right in front of her. Large hands reach out, pulling her inside, and grab the rest of us before I have a second to react. The door slams behind us, and we’re cast into complete darkness.
A light flicks on, and it takes a minute for my eyes to adjust.
Daniel stiffens beside me, and his words come out strained. “Councilman Danforth?”
Twenty-Two
“Nice to see you, son.” An older man with only a speck of his original dark hair on display behind his temples steps forward.
I back up against Daniel’s chest, and Elizabeth and Ethan crowd around us. One of the men we were trying desperately to avoid has us pinned in a room, and no one else even knows we’re in here.
“What do you want?” My voice quivers with each word.
“There’s not much time, so listen carefully.” He leans forward with a walking stick and stares into me with sparkling green eyes that look so much younger than he is. “I know you have a plan to take out the Cardinal, and I’m telling you that is a disaster waiting to happen.”
“Says the man with the most to lose.”
“Says the man who has waited his whole life for an opportunity to upset the apple cart. I know you have no reason to believe me, but Daniel can tell you that I can be trusted.” He turns his attention to Daniel. “I’m sorry to hear about your father. He was a good man.”
Daniel nods above me, the tip of his chin brushing the top of my head.
“The council is prepared for the Cardinal’s death, even if the arrogant bastard thinks he’ll live forever. If you take him out, there is an ascension plan in place for the next leader, and a backup is planned for the backup.”
“Doesn’t the Assignment take care of that?”
“Rebecca.” Danforth stares at me from under his wrinkled brow. “I know you’re not that naive. Officially, the Assignment determines the next Cardinal, but since the Cardinal is in charge of the Assignment, it’s his pick. His father chose him, but the Cardinal doesn’t have an heir. His own design, of course. It’s widely believed that he had a hand in his father’s early death.”
“So who did he pick?”
“He didn’t, which is why the council went behind his back and created the list for those who will be next in line when the Cardinal dies or someone finally kills him.”
Ethan crosses his arms over his chest. “Let me guess. You’re at the top of the list.”
“I asked to be excluded from the list, but you would have to take out every other person in the Cardinal’s council in order to take over.”
Ethan takes a half of a step forward. “Maybe that’s the plan.”
Danforth nods slowly. “So you think President Tiroso’s brand of emancipation will be better than what you have now? Do you think he’ll simply oust the Cardinal, take the Machine, and leave you to come up with a new leadership for the vast amount of potentially profitable land that will sit unprotected from invasion? You think after they took over the southwestern sector all those years ago, they don’t have their eyes set further north?”
Daniel’s strong arms wrap around my chest, and I soak into his comfort for as long as I can have it. President Tiroso asked us what our plans are once the Cardinal is gone. I thought he was only curious to know if we had thought that far ahead. What if he was asking to figure out how much of a fight we’d put up if he installed himself in charge?
Danforth nods again as if weights were tied to his chin. His lids sit low over his eyes, and it’s clear he’s the kind of tired that can’t be fixed with a good night’s sleep.
“It’s not enough to take the Cardinal out, and President Tiroso is the last person you want near the capital when you do. If you want any chance at success, you have to take him down from the inside.”
I blink and try to reconcile the words I’m hearing with the man in front of me.
“Don’t look at me like that. You think I’m a fan of the Cardinal’s brand of perfection? You think I enjoyed hearing of the execution of a good man? I’d love to see a little of the freedom of our country restored before I die, but that won’t happen by taking him out. The people are too ingrained in the system. Even without the Cardinal, they want the rules and regulations. They want the Machine and the Assignment. It’s a giant safety blanket, and they aren’t going to let go of it that easily.”
“So what do we do?” I don’t know when my brain accepted that this man is on my side, but I believe him.
“You’ll have to convince the people that they don’t want the system.”
“I tried that already at the ceremony last spring.” My words come out too loud. I shake my head and drop my voice down so the other councilmen don’t come looking. “I tried that and I failed.”
He pounds his cane against the floor. “Then try again. Try harder. Now get out of here before they come looking for you. An old man can get away with a longer than usual bathroom break.”
No one moves in the space of time Daniel’s heart beats three times against my back. Ethan pushes the door open, and the others rush into the hallway behind him. I wait, meeting the eyes of the councilman who would risk his life to help me. “Why?”
He hangs his head until his chin touches his chest and rests both hands on the top of his walking stick. “Because I’m sorry I never did anything sooner.” He holds out a scrap of paper with tiny, barely legible words. “This is my private contact information. It’s secure. If I can help in any way, please reach out to me.”
I nod and duck out of the room. Ethan is already at the elevator pushing the glowing button by the door twice a second. I rush down the hall,
my colorful dress flowing behind me like some windswept princess in the fairytales I read as a kid. I might as well be in a fairytale. The ogre just turned into a prince.
The elevator door glides open, and we jump in, Ethan jabbing at the lighted “3.” The doors close just as a voice calls down the hallway. “There you are, Danforth. Come on, I’m ready to be done with this and get home.”
I slump against the back wall and count the number of times my heart bangs against my chest until the door slides open again. The same woman from this morning is waiting for us. “Hannah.”
She turns down the hall without waiting to see if we follow her. “Hurry up. We need you in your rooms now. Finding you here would cripple political relations between our countries, and they are tenuous enough as is.”
She has no idea.
Hannah pushes against a panel of wall that swings open. The other side is a plain metal door. We’re led into a staircase that is the exact opposite of the grandeur we just left. Metal railings run along plain concrete stairs, visible by harsh yellow lighting. I guess the servants don’t get to use the elevator. She takes us back up three flights of stairs to another wing of the same hallway we just left. “Silence until we reach your room.”
Practically jogging, we follow her halfway down the hall and move into the room when she opens a door that is identical to all the others on the hall. “You won’t be able to leave until nightfall. Meals will be brought to you. Don’t leave.”
The door closes in our faces, and a metallic click confirms we’ve been locked inside.
“Well, that’s just peachy.” Elizabeth flings her whole body down on one of the armchairs. “Anyone else feel like we just went backwards down a twisty slide and came out the bottom upside down?”
I kick off my shoes and collapse onto a love seat. Daniel sits next to me, and Ethan plops into the other chair. I don’t even know what to say. We came here to get help from the Mexican army. We got it, and then found out from someone who is supposed to be an enemy that our plan won’t accomplish a thing.
“Nothing has changed.” Ethan jumps up and pours a glass of juice left from breakfast. “That old man is a member of the Cardinal’s council. No offense, Daniel, but I wouldn’t trust those guys as far as I could throw them.”
“Daniel?” I stare at him, but his face is a statue of shock. He rubs his hands over his face, and my heart hurts for him and the father that is so much like him.
“Councilman Danforth was my father’s closest friend. I remember the two of them sitting up late into the night talking strategy and the future of the country. Nothing traitorous, but asking questions about what our government could and should do in the quest to protect its citizens.”
Daniel stops and looks at me. “He was there for my sixteenth birthday, and the suit I wore to the Acceptance ceremony was a gift from him. He was like a grandfather to me.”
He doesn’t say the words, but behind the constantly simmering anger, there is love for the man who could either help or destroy us.
“So he ate some birthday cake and now you want to trust him with everything?” Ethan slams the empty juice carafe down on the table.
“No,” Daniel runs his hands over his face again and sucks in a deep breath. “I’m just saying, he could have turned us in. All it would have taken was one shout to bring every guard traveling in their contingency barreling into that room. We could all be on a transporter back to the Cardinal right now, the last minutes of our lives ticking by. But he didn’t do that. Instead, he offered us advice, and unlike everyone else we’ve worked with, he didn’t ask for anything in return.”
Daniel turns and grabs my hands. “I’m saying we need to at least consider what he said.”
I nod.
“Okay, we need to figure out how we’re going to play this out, and we don’t have much time to do it.”
“So what do we do first?” Elizabeth swings her feet to the floor and sits up.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m changing back into my own clothes. Then we need to start coming up with a plan B.”
Twenty-Three
After three hours of no contact and no ideas, the door to our room opens, and Hannah waves in two servants with trays.
I don’t waste a second rushing to the door. Hannah throws out her arm, pushes me back inside, and shuts the door. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I need to speak with President Tiroso.”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible. He’ll be in meetings with the Territories delegation all day. I’ve been informed that he gave you all the information you need. You’ll stay here in this room, as our guests, until dark when you will be escorted back to your side of the border.”
“But—”
Hannah cuts me off with a flick of her wrist and hustles the two servers out of the room, leaving the four of us locked back inside.
“Well, that went well.” Elizabeth lifts a dome off one of the trays and grabs a doughy pouch of something.
I slump back onto the couch, no closer to finding a solution than I was three hours ago.
“So, President Tiroso is coming whether we want him to or not.” Ethan grabs a plate of tortillas, tosses one to Daniel, and grabs one for himself. “Even if he’s the best leader on the planet, we’d rather he not take over everything between here and Canada. We can’t just shoot the Cardinal in the head, because the council already has the next guy lined up, and the people aren’t ready to give up their security blanket yet. So why don’t we just get all the Freemen to fight off the Mexican army?”
“Real genius, because I’m sure a bunch of poorly armed, untrained Freemen can stop the entirety of the Mexican army. That won’t be a blood bath.” Elizabeth bites angrily into another dough pouch and throws a pillow at Ethan.
“Yeah, well I don’t see you coming up with any genius ideas. At least you can know the Cardinal didn’t toss you into the PIT for being an evil mastermind.”
“Enough.” I glare at both of them until they end their heated staring contest. “This isn’t helping. We’ve spent half the day coming up with every crazy idea under the sun, and we aren’t any closer to coming up with another way to defeat the Cardinal.”
“Maybe all of this is a waste of effort.” Daniel tears his tortilla in half but doesn’t eat either piece. “We don’t need a backup plan if Danforth is full of crap. If he’s just trying to distract us, then this is pointless.”
I place a hand on his arm. “But you don’t believe he is, do you?”
Daniel shakes his head and crams tortilla into his mouth.
“Okay, this is getting us nowhere.” I stand and stretch my back. “I say we take a break. Everyone eat and then maybe take a nap. We could use a refresher, and we’ll probably be up half the night flying out of here anyway.”
I sit and my eyes drift closed but pop back open after half a second. My Noteboard is ringing.
Daniel runs to the table by the bed where Ethan left it after contacting John David. He hits the answer button and rushes back over to the couch where Ethan and Elizabeth both wait with me.
“Well, aren’t you lot a sight for sore eyes.” The screen is dark, but there’s no mistaking Eric’s voice, even at a whisper.
“Eric, where are you? We can’t see a thing.”
“I’m hiding under the covers so no one knows I’m talking to you guys.”
“Hey, bro.” Elizabeth pushes her face closer to the screen. “Is everything okay?”
“I’m fine, but I think we’ve got a problem.” The shadows of the screen darken and all we can hear are muffled voices from Eric’s end of the connection.
We wait in tense silence, the four of us crowded together, staring at a black screen.
His Noteboard moves again, and the shadows shift around him. “Sorry, the nurse was checking my pain meds. I have to make this quick because she just gave me another dose, and I’ll be asleep in a few minutes.”
“Okay, just give us the overview.” I reach fo
r Daniel’s hand in anticipation of whatever bomb Eric is about to drop, and for once he doesn’t pull away.
“I overheard John David talking to someone in the hall. He’s waiting on President Tiroso to activate his chip. As soon as he does, he plans to reach out to the President and offer him assistance in taking out the Cardinal. He’s gunning for a position in the new government once Tiroso takes over.”
I squeeze Daniel’s fingers so tight, it hurts. “That conniving, lying, sack of horse manure.”
“I know.” Eric lets out a huge yawn. “He’s a serious piece of work.”
Daniel leans forward, his arms resting on his knees. “Is there anything else we should know about?”
We’re answered with silence for several seconds before Eric finally answers. “Not right now, but I’m listening, so long as I’m not sleeping.”
“Alright, get some sleep now.” I reach my free hand toward the screen as if Eric could feel my comforting touch. “You did good.”
Eric lets out another huge yawn, and the screen goes completely black.
I end the connection and toss the Noteboard on the couch next to me. “Well, that’s just fantastic.”
“I need food.” Elizabeth pushes away from the back of the couch and scouts the lunch trays, sampling the mix of mostly unrecognizable foods. I lean back against the couch and close my eyes.
“Eat.”
I open my eyes to a plate of food hovering under my nose.
“I’m not really hungry, Daniel.”
“Eat anyway.” Daniel sits down next to me and shoves the plate in my hands. “This is stressful enough without worrying that you’re going to make yourself sick.”
I pick up the tortilla stuffed with meat and veggies and take a deliberate bite. “Happy?”
Daniel scoots closer and rests a tentative arm around my shoulder. He rubs his free hand over his face, and the stress of the past few days etches deep lines around his eyes.
Rite of Redemption (Acceptance Book 3) Page 15