“Sterling’s my father,” he whispered to his shoes.
Christy would never have done it, but Misha pulled him into a hug. Not only because she wanted to comfort him, but because she could use his desire for her as a way to get out and stop his dad. He moved his face across mine and kissed me hard, our tears mingling, wetting our faces.
“Since I’m his son, he thinks I should be just as excited about this whole thing as he is. He wants to cleanse the world like God did with the flood. I think he loves the power, really.”
“You can pretend until you get me out of here. We could disappear together.”
“I don’t know that we will ever be free of him,” he said. “He’s too smart.”
“I think we could be,” I said. “We’re smart, too. I know you’ll find a way.”
We sat in comfortable silence for several moments. Then he let another bomb fall.
“I got the letter to your parents.”
I scooted away from him. “You did?”
“Yes.”
I tackled him, kissing him over and over again. Once I stopped, I said, “I knew you’d find a way.” Jeremy got my letter. I could send another.
“I hope my dad never finds out.”
“He won’t,” I said. “You’re too clever. I’m sure they were thrilled. Did you see them get it?”
“I didn’t. I didn’t dare chance them seeing me.”
“Thank you so much.” I hugged and kissed him. My tablet beeped. Time to go.
“I still have tomorrow night. Let’s meet out by the range around seven.”
“All right.”
Back in my room, I wrote my next letter. It included the information about Sterling, the assassination of the president, and that the location for the assassination was somewhere in DC. I slept well.
***
The next day, I was starting my day like I always did, on my knees in prayer, when Zoey walked in.
“You okay?”
“Yep,” I said, standing up. “Just praying.”
“Are you kidding me? I gave up on that crap a long time ago. How could a god allow this place to exist? No real god would allow such suffering. There is no god.”
“You know Zoey, God doesn’t control you. Aren’t you glad about that? How would you like to be forced to do everything?”
She looked thoughtful.
“You’d hate it. You and I have our own free agency to choose what we do, just as Sterling does. You don’t want to lose that agency. The other good thing is that while we get to choose how to live, we can’t choose the consequences. What Sterling makes us do here, the killing, the horror, we won’t be held accountable for it. He, on the other hand, will be. I would hate to be him when he dies. His judgment will be awful.”
She seemed to understand where I was coming from and nodded. “You know, there’s a group that meets early Sunday morning out in the English garden for church. You could go if you wanted.”
I wasn’t sure I would need that, but I nodded and said, “Maybe I will. Maybe I will.”
A sporting tournament was being held today. It was like intramurals at school. You could sign up for whatever events you wanted to do and as long as you kept winning, you’d keep playing. A lot of the popular girls rolled up their sleeves and pant legs and sunned themselves the whole day near where the jocks played.
I played in the volleyball and basketball tournaments. My teams were okay, and I made it to the third round on both teams. It was a lot of fun. Over dinner, Frankie told me about a guy she’d just discovered, Rakon, who she thought was “interesting.” This was usually the word she used to describe the next boy she would be crushing on.
After retrieving the letter I’d written, I jogged out to the firing range where Dakota was waiting for me.
We touched our foreheads together and held each other tight for several minutes. He felt warm and solid. I said, “You are going to help me get out of here, right?”
“Believe me, it kills me to see you in that jumpsuit. That you’re here. But I can’t do anything. If Sterling found out—it would be bad. Really bad. You have no clue how evil he can be.”
“But I do know. I lived through the Circus of Feats. That’s why you have to get me out of here so we can stop him. He’s one man.”
“One man with his own army. This isn’t his only facility. He has people all over. He has everything. We have zilch.” He turned away, stood up and started pacing. “I can’t right now. I might be able to help your time here be better. But until you’ve succeeded with a couple of kills, Sterling can’t know about us. Besides, don’t you want to be with me? If you’re gone, I’m nowhere. I need you. You are the sanity in my insane world. I love you and want to be with you forever.”
“If you love me,” I said, kissing him. “You’ll get me out of here. I’ll come back for you. I promise. I’ll save you. Someone will help me. We can put an end to all of this.”
“No,” he said, still kissing me. “He would find out. He always does. He would find you before you could ever turn on him. He has judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, police departments, jailers, politicians, and others paying him for his work. How do you think all this is possible? He’s the biggest giant David has ever had to kill.”
If what he was saying was true, this was bigger than I’d imagined. Maybe Sterling was untouchable and unstoppable. Jeremy would be able to figure it out though. I slid the letter I’d written last night into Dakota’s hand and smiled.
He shook his head slowly, then put it in his pocket.
I told Dakota stories of my childhood, trying to get him to relax and fall asleep. He finally did. I made sure my hand was on his other pocket when he fell asleep. I kept talking even after his breathing evened out, and I slipped my other hand under the one on his pocket and pulled out the phone. With one hand, and still telling stories, I texted a coded message to Jeremy.
PROSECUTORS, JUDGES, JAILERS, DEFENDERS, POLICE DEPARTMENTS, POLITICIANS HIRE HIM. BE CAREFUL WHOM YOU TELL. FORT KNOX.
Dakota sighed, so I hit send. I got into his phone memory and deleted my text before putting it carefully back into his pocket.
Heading off to bed, I felt jubilant. Everything was going great. Things were in motion to get us out of here. I’d be out of here before I knew it. I was nervous, wanting everything to go smoothly. The text would help them locate us. It would hit a cell tower nearby. It would also give Jeremy Dakota’s number. Maybe they could hack his phone somehow. I could only hope Sterling wasn’t monitoring his texts.
After classes, I played with Frankie and Zoey, who had both broken up with their boyfriends, in the lunchroom. I wondered if Frankie had been paying too much attention to that boy, Rakon. We would play video games and then discuss my findings and some of the things the subversives sent me. I had to be careful what I told Frankie. I didn’t completely trust her anymore. She vacillated between loving Sterling and hating him so often that I worried about her ability to keep secrets. I had to be careful with Duncan, too. I told Zoey everything. She seemed impervious to Sterling’s conditioning. I ran and lifted weights every day.
While out and about on a weekend evening, I noticed a group of kids sitting in the middle of the baseball field. I could see them because of the faint light emanating from their tablets. They sat in a circle. I made my way out to them, pretending I knew what I was doing. I didn’t feel a spike in my spidey senses, so I knew I was safe.
One of the boys facing me stood when I got within ten yards and said, “Stop right there.” Several boys came and frisked me from my shoes to the collar of my jumpsuit.
I laughed. “Why did you guys frisk me?”
“What do you want?” a boy asked, his back to me, still seated. “If you want TV, we’ve run into a snag. You can only get channel two. We’re trying to fix the problem. But you still have to pay the entire fee because once we figure it out, you’ll get all the stations and you won’t have to come back to us.” He said everything in rapid-fire senten
ces. He twisted his body to look at me.
“Wait. You don’t even have your tablet with you. How do you expect to get TV without it?”
“I don’t want TV,” I said.
“Whoa!” he said and stood up. “You weren’t referred?”
“No.”
They all shuffled a bit away from me.
“Look. I’m just looking for a way to get on the Internet. I figured you guys were the ones to come to.”
The same boy who’d been the spokesperson the whole time continued. “Sorry. No can do. It’s impossible. We’ve tried and tried. It’s not happening.”
“You’re kidding. I was told you guys are the bomb when it comes to technology.”
“We are. In fact, Rakon here,” he gestured to a boy sitting on the other side of the circle, “he got in, but only for about two seconds and it was gone. He was onto us. We stayed off for quite a while. We didn’t want to get busted, ya know? But if anyone can do it, it’ll be Rakon”
I nodded, forcing myself not to smirk at Rakon thinking about how Frankie liked him.
“We’ve been trying to build on his success but have nothing, yet.”
“I bet it won’t be long now,” I said with a cheeriness in my voice.
Rakon said, “You got it man. He can’t run from me forever.”
“If I left you with some information to send, when you do break in, would you send it for me?”
“Sure, after the other thousand messages we already have waiting in line.”
At that comment, all ten of them looked at me and grinned.
“What if what I had you send got us out of here?”
“Oh, well now that’s another story,” he said, sarcasm dripping from his every word. “We’ll move your message to the number one slot. Let me guess, is it to the FBI. CIA. NSA?”
They all laughed. Several snorted.
I took a deep breath, suppressing my rising anger. Why would they send my message first? Everyone probably claimed to know someone that could help or knew just who to email to get us saved. I had to remember that they didn’t know I was with Division and to them, I was just another assassin in training hoping to escape.
“What would it take to get to the top of the pile?” I asked.
“Something pretty darn big, that’s what.”
“Well, when you figure it out. Let me know.” I turned and walked away leaving them in silence. If I got them out, that would be payment enough. I’m sure they’d figure that one out.
When I was about five yards away, I turned back to them and said, “By the way, which one of you opened the door for the scholars?”
“None of us would ever do something like that. No way,” the leader said.
“Come on, who was responsible for that genius?” I persisted, making my way back to them.
The boy who’d cracked the Internet shifted slightly. I thought he was going to confess, but then the leader said, “No one here did that.” His voice was firm. He was scared. “In any case, I heard that it was an isolated event. It hasn’t been able to be duplicated.”
“So this person has given up on opening doors at any price?”
“No more doors can be opened. Don’t ask.”
“Boy, you guys are touchy.” I wondered why they were so afraid of opening doors. Had they been caught?
“Well, when you get asked a million times to do something you can’t do, it gets a bit irritating.”
“Did you happen to hear what made that particular door so special?” I asked.
“We heard there’s this unique mis-feed around it. It’s a mystery. But I heard it only took one ingenious line of code to break the lock.”
“So, everyone worships you guys?”
“Worships and hates us because we have all the power.”
“That I understand,” I gave them a quick nod and wave. “Don’t forget to discuss the price,” I called back to them.
Programmers amazed me. I’d learned about hacking and using computers to my best advantage, but I had yet to take a programming class. If only I had all the time in the world to learn everything that interested me.
When I got back to my room, after pondering what price I could possibly pay to the programmers to get my note to the top of the pile, it hit me. I might have something that would accomplish it.
I got on my hands and knees and felt around under my bed. At first, I didn’t find what I was looking for, then I felt around the far bed leg and my hand landed on something hard. I snatched it out from under the bed and held it up to the light. My index finger caressed the coded message Jeremy had left me. How could I have forgotten about the lip balm? It could have been a comfort to me so many times. Just knowing that Jeremy had cared enough for me to have it made for me sent a hopeful zing to my heart. I kissed the top before opening it and slathering my lips with its contents. I had my payment. But, for whom? The techies or the TV signal guys?
Over the next three weeks, Sterling was gone three Fridays in a row, so we only met on Mondays. We discussed a lot during those three hours, though.
“We need to cover the transportation of the president,” Sterling said. “We need access to his travel route. At the same time, it’s important that we take care of the guards and security.” Sterling’s cronies were making headway on picking a drug for the president. There were so many bad drugs, it was hard to choose.
It killed me that almost nothing happened during the week, but everything happened on weekends here. Occasionally, on my recon missions, I’d run into people making out or getting high, but a lot of the time, I was alone. I liked that. Zoey and Frankie hung out together when I was gone.
We came up with a few plans, carefully laying out everything, considering every contingency. While I was supplying Sterling with plans and ideas, my mind was going crazy trying to come up with counterplans and loopholes that might help me save the president. It was exhausting.
On Friday, my tablet beeped, showing I had a message. I groaned, thinking I must be in for another grueling planning session with Sterling, but to my delight the message wasn’t from Sterling at all. It was from Dakota. He was back earlier than expected.
I met him that evening, deep in the woods, past the firing range.
“I have something for you. It’s the reason I asked my dad to let me come back for a week.”
“You do?” I said.
“Yes. I’ve been carrying it around for the last few days looking for a chance to give it to you.”
He pulled a piece of paper out of his pants. I guess he saw the alarm on my face as I watched him pull it out. “Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t want to chance my dad getting a hold of it somehow.” The paper was folded and wrinkled and a bit damp, but I didn’t care. A heart sticker sealed the tri-fold together, and I carefully pried it open without tearing the heart. The letter was signed, Love Mom and Dad, but I’d know Jeremy’s handwriting anywhere. Even though my mind captured it instantly, I read the letter over and over again, tears falling freely onto the paper, making the black ink run.
Dear Misha,
We can’t tell you how comforting it was to get your letter. We are sorry for making you feel like you needed to run away from us to find happiness. We want you to know that we love you no matter what and we can’t wait for you to come back home. It’s not the same here without you. Stay safe. Do you need any money?
Please write us back as soon as possible. We miss you.
Love,
Mom and Dad
The coded text said,
Can’t locate you. Will find you. Be strong.
“I saw it taped to the door jamb of your front door. When I saw it had your name on it, I snatched it up. Your parents must have hoped that whoever was bringing the notes to them would take one back to you. I couldn’t resist. I knew you’d love it.”
“Thank you!” I said, jumping into his arms. He hugged me tight. It felt good. I imagined the hug was from Jeremy. He would be coming. I would send more clues as to our wherea
bouts in the next letter. I screamed out in joy. “I won’t forget this, Dakota. Never. I can’t tell you how much this means to me. You put yourself in danger for me. You put me first.”
“I’ve always put you first. You just couldn’t see it.”
“I was blind. I’m sorry.” I squeezed his hand.
“My dad does that to people. Don’t worry.”
“Are you sure he isn’t tracking you?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
“I have people check me for bugs before and after I come here. I’m clean.”
“How are my parents?” I asked. I thought that would be a question I should ask.
“Their lives used to seem to revolve around finding you. Now they seem okay. I think your letter really helped.”
“Then you won’t mind taking them another one?” I’d been worried about giving him another letter, but it just seemed natural that I would after he brought one back to me. I had coded the same message I’d sent by text in the letter I pulled it out to give to him just in case the text didn’t go through for whatever reason. I’d also added that the president was a target and named several insects, trees, and bushes on the compound. He took it from me without hesitation this time.
When I met with Sterling that week, he said, “You seem a bit giddier than usual. Why?”
“No reason.” Really, I was feeling pretty good that my plans for escaping this place were looking better and better. I had found the techies, and they could maybe get a message out to Jeremy. I might be able to talk the tunnelers into digging a separate tunnel somewhere to escape. And, I could get to the hospital, save the president, and then flee with Jeremy. Yes, things were looking up.
“I know there’s a reason, Misha. You can tell me.”
“It’s nothing really.”
“It couldn’t have anything to do with you finding the techies the other day, could it?”
My face flushed, and I was glad I was sitting down. My legs might have gone out from under me. He knew about the groups. I knew he knew about the main tunnelers, but everyone else?
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