by Rebecca Rode
“See you in two minutes,” I said as I ran back to my room.
Rather than humming along in the air as before, the transport descended some kind of chute, then made its way along the lower level of the city. Most transports down here had wheels, were all medium sized, and required a driver in the right front seat. Unlike the levels overhead, traffic seemed much more spontaneous down here—the vehicles sped up and stopped and weaved in and out of their lanes. I found myself gripping my seat, my shoulders tense despite the fact that this was more similar to NORA’s traffic system. And yet our technology seemed ancient in comparison. No wonder Prince Augustus saw us as savages.
“Where did you say we were headed next on this tour, Your Royal Highness?” Vance asked coolly. I wanted to kick him.
If the prince was irritated, he didn’t show it. “Considering your country’s war-torn history, I thought you might find a certain historical site interesting and informative. It’s an outdoor museum of sorts, a part of the city carefully preserved for forty years.”
I wasn’t sure what he meant by that. Vance didn’t seem to know either. He just sat back and frowned.
Another grueling ten minutes of traffic-weaving and we arrived. Or rather, the transport turned a corner and stopped.
The stone-and-brick structures on either side of us were old and narrow and extended high into the sky—four, five, six floors up. I saw more than a few faces peering down on us from the rooftops.
“This is a residential area,” Augustus said, calling out behind him so Vance and I could hear. “These homes are only about two hundred years old. Our city has origins as far back as 1190, but we’ve suffered more than our fair share of wars due to our port and location, as evidenced by what you’re about to see. We’ll walk from here.”
We climbed out of the transport. The prince was immediately flanked by his four guards, who barely gave me a second glance. So much for Vance’s security worries. I placed my hand in Vance’s. He gave it a squeeze and held tight.
We made our way along the road and turned onto a smaller street. The homes stood lower here, their stately appearance gradually lessening until their façades began to crumble. Several neatly dressed children playing ahead of us on the sidewalk stopped and moved aside as we approached. Their smiles were genuine. One of them reminded me of a girl I’d met once, a girl who had given me her precious potato. I smiled at her as we walked by. She giggled.
One more turn and we stopped cold.
“Oh,” I breathed.
Preserved behind giant panes of glass, the sight before us was identical to the images I’d seen in school, but this was real. This decimated road probably looked much as it had when the enemy had bombed it. Colored metal transports with round black wheels sat overturned and in pieces. Broken chunks of cement, splintered pieces of wood, and various pieces of garbage littered the street. The skeletons of buildings in various stages of ruin seemed to be holding each other up.
One building’s side had been blown completely off, causing its roof to collapse. But strangely, one room had been preserved. The corner of a crib was exposed, and I could see the tattered fibers of a blanket.
“It’s a shock, isn’t it?” Augustus asked, examining the building closest to us. “This battle occurred in 2047, when Russia left Nations for Peace in a violent way. We were among the first to pledge troops. They didn’t appreciate that.” The prince’s eyes had gone flat now. “That was the beginning of the East’s so-called rise to power.”
I perked up. “You mean the Eastern Continental Alliance?”
The prince frowned. “The Chinese invented that name to entice Russia to enter an alliance, but they only recently did so.”
China and Russia, allies. Two of the world’s largest nations. “When did this happen?”
“It’s been a few weeks, although I understand Russia had quite a few stipulations.”
“It seems like many nations are forming alliances,” I prodded. “It’s almost like they’re preparing for war.”
Prince Augustus blinked, the only indication my statement had taken him by surprise. He was acting so strangely today. “If such agreements occur, they’re likely a defensive tactic. Like I told you, tensions are high right now, especially with President Chiu in the city. The lower street levels have been quite outspoken about it.”
I gazed out upon the destroyed community again. It seemed removed from the noise of the busy city, set aside and held up as if for an example. “Why did they preserve this?” I asked softly.
Augustus turned back to the carnage on the other side of the glass. His face twisted into something unrecognizable, and I detected a hidden anger in his words. “It’s a humiliation, to be honest,” he said. “I wish they would build over it. No use in dwelling on such things, especially since Britain is no longer the weak nation it was.”
I nodded. “Your mother has formed alliances, become an international power.”
“I love my mother dearly, Ambassador, but she’s little more than a figurehead, a symbol. Tradition prevents her from holding any real power. It’s our military that fuel’s Britain’s strength. If only the prime minister would agree.”
A chill ran down my legs at the prince’s declaration, and I gripped Vance’s hand more tightly as I offered, “Our military may be small compared to others, but we’re ready to take our place in the world, as you say. Maybe we can meet sometime and discuss an alliance that would benefit both of us.”
The prince turned to look at me, his expression hard. The friendly third son of the king had just turned into a cold, calculating politician. I kicked myself mentally. Pushing the man too hard would only alienate our most likely ally.
“As the third son, I have little influence on politics,” he finally said. “Little influence on anything, actually. You’ll be better served meeting with the other embassies. When you’re finished here, please return to the transport.” He turned and left.
The ride back to the dome was quiet. The prince’s rigid posture told me he didn’t want to discuss politics anymore today. I kept my gaze outside to hide the heat in my cheeks. Occasionally I glanced at Vance, who hadn’t spoken since the ruins. He seemed unusually shaken by what we’d just seen. I wanted to take his hand and ask him to talk about it, but I knew he wasn’t ready.
When we returned to the dome, a fresh batch of guards stood at attention by the door.
“Be sure to get your rest,” Prince Augustus said as we climbed out of the transport. “Tomorrow night is the gala. You have suitable clothing?”
The man had gone so cold. I forced a smile and tried to lighten my tone. “Are you implying my cowhide leather trousers won’t suffice?”
He smirked. “That would certainly make for an entertaining evening.” He eyed Vance’s well-worn clothing in disapproval. “You’ll be permitted to bring one guest and one member of your security team, both of whom are expected to emit a certain level of status.”
He may as well have shouted it—we needed to step up our game. Other ambassadors probably invited other countries to fancy dinners and discussed trade agreements and stocks and topics I could never grasp. I’d brought up a possible alliance on an outdoor sidewalk surrounded by people. I was hopelessly in over my head here.
“Thanks for the tour today,” I said. “And I hope you’ll forgive my frankness. I just worry for my people, as I’m sure you do yours.”
Some of the hardness left his face, but the prince was still devoid of expression. “I’ll introduce you to a few important people tomorrow night. They may look upon your youth with disdain, but I think in time you will win them over, assuming you don’t come down with a serious case of the collywobbles.” He winked and sat back as his guard shut the door.
“Collywobbles?” I muttered.
Vance took my elbow and escorted me inside, eyeing the guards as we passed. There were more of them today. “I don’t like this.”
“Augustus is just being paranoid with Chiu in town. Don’t worry ab
out it.”
Vance hand jerked away from my arm. “Augustus? I didn’t realize you were on a first-name basis.”
“He told us to call him that, Vance. Both of us.”
“And I told him I’d handle your security. Yet his brawnies are surrounding the building. You can’t really think they’re here to protect you.”
“Why, then? To attack us?” I shoved past him. “I changed my mind. Augustus isn’t the paranoid one here.”
“Someone needs to be.” Vance grabbed my shoulder and roughly turned me around. “You need to listen to me, Treena. What kind of prince takes an ambassador to see a destroyed section of his city? That was no coincidence. He was feeling you out, trying to get you to spill information. Figuring out if you’re a threat. Don’t you get it? The prince is not on our side.”
“He’s been nothing but kind so far.” I thought of his guarded look when I discussed the possibility of an alliance and swallowed. “The air transport, the clothes, this huge building. The tour.”
“Because he wants to keep you close. Think about it. You show up from a practically unknown country. They don’t know anything about our military capabilities or our allegiances. He has to treat us diplomatically until they’ve gauged whether we’re a threat.”
“Is this about your little chat with Ju-Long? I think you’re taking him way too seriously.”
He held the back of his head with both hands, then growled in frustration. “Whether he was right or not, there’s something off about all this. Since when does a nation throw down the red carpet for a teenage girl who leads a tiny country nobody cares about? And the way these ambassadors act. It’s like they can’t stand each other.”
“I don’t lead NORA,” I snapped. “And you’ve never had a problem with my age before.”
“I don’t—” He paused, then seemed to reconsider his words. When he spoke again, he lowered his voice. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just want you to think about something. Prince Augustus has determined everything about your stay so far—transportation, housing, even your escorts. None of the other ambassadors are being treated like that. I think this whole ‘new security policy’ thing is a lie.”
I thought of the other international leaders and their assistants and guards and strained to remember how they’d left the building after introductions yesterday. Huge entourages of people, assistants, and guards. Had any of them been accompanied by British guards? I hadn’t noticed any. “Even if Augustus lied about having to escort us around, you don’t need to assign him the darkest possible motives. He might be feeling protective or something. There are worse things he could be doing.”
Vance sighed, then nodded. “I’ll tell you what. I’m meeting your dad and Chan tonight. They have news about Prince Augustus that Jasper doesn’t want any British guards to overhear. I want you to come along and listen to what they have to say, whether good or bad. Deal?”
I thought for a moment. “Tonight, then. But if Prince Augustus is innocent, you need to be nicer to him. Deal?”
He just smiled like he’d won a great victory. “Anything for you, Madam Ambassador.”
As I stood there, aiming my rifle at those people who weren’t all that different from us, that I began to understand what Biyu meant. Killing that deer hadn’t changed me. It was necessary and I’d do it again if I had to. But watching these people wait to be fed, knowing one movement of my finger would end another human’s life—it was kind of surreal. They weren’t tin cans. These were people who’d once been kids, gone to school, played sports, made plans and been blindsided by everything out there, just like me. They wanted the same thing I did—to eat and sleep and survive another day.
Dad must have seen it as well, because he set the giant gun down behind us and hoisted his pistol. Then he leaned over to me. “Richard, I think you’d better—”
I barely saw them move. One second they’d stood there, the next they had leaped toward us as one. The man who’d asked to join us whipped out a handgun and took aim while the rest of them lunged, obviously intent on disarming us.
Dad shoved me aside and sent off a few shots. The man with the handgun stumbled and fell, taking another down with him. The woman dove aside and swung around to the right, holding another knife. Blackbeard continued to barrel down on us, eyeing his gun on the ground. Any second now, he’d grab it and blast through us on his way to the cave.
My brain screamed at me to shoot him. Why shouldn’t I? We were being attacked. This was exactly what I’d trained for. All those tin cans—it was practice for this moment.
Dad fired at Blackbeard again but missed. The man had nearly reached his weapon now, his long legs eating up the rocky ground beneath him as he extended his arm. Almost there.
I stood there, frozen. The disconnect between my brain and my trigger finger might as well have been the Grand Canyon.
I think all life is valuable just because it exists, animals and people alike, Biyu had said. Who am I to say my life is more important than someone else’s?
Who am I?
Blackbeard’s head snapped back and he stumbled, rolling over onto his back. He clasped his ear and then pulled his hand away. It was drenched in blood. Someone had blown the guy’s ear clean off.
Dad stood there with his pistol aimed downward at the man’s face, his face twisted in rage. I’d never seen such an expression on his face. His voice shook when he spoke, as if strained to the point of snapping. “One twitch, and I will kill you.”
The fight drained from the big man’s eyes and he moaned and clutched what was left of his ear, still lying among the dirt and rocks.
The woman had made it to their weapon pile, but as she reached for the heaviest gun another shot rang out from inside the cave. She yelped and shrank back, cradling her arm.
Lyman stepped out from the darkness with the entrance guard, both armed and ready. Lyman held an assault rifle that made Blackbeard’s machine look like a toddler’s toy.
“Drop yer weapons,” Lyman said, “and put those hands in the air before I blow ‘em away.”
One by one, the black-clad visitors complied. Three of the men forced themselves to their feet and the woman stumbled backward, cradling her arm. Her shirt sleeve was dark with blood. Soon they were bunched together, shaking, staring at the ground.
Lyman could take the entire group out in two seconds with that machine. By the look on his face, the thought had occurred to him too.
“I knew yer type,” he said. “You never wanted to join us, just to take what wasn’t yours and run. Sure beats workin’ for it, wouldn’t you say?”
“Lyman,” the cave guard said in a warning tone. “Don’t do anything rash. People do stupid things when they get hungry.”
“They’ll wish they were only hungry when I’m done. All my guys best step back for this.”
Shortly after midnight, I donned a guard uniform Vance had stolen for me and we walked out the front door and into the darkness.
“Any pubs around here?” Vance asked the guards. “The ambassador’s asleep now.”
A woman with a long face shadowed in darkness cleared her throat. “Aye, but they don’t take kindly to foreigners roamin’ the city at night.”
“They don’t particularly like us during the day, either. But never mind, I’ll manage. Have a good night.”
“Don’t get your drunk rear hit by a transport,” she muttered.
Vance sent a wave over his shoulder. The guards just scowled after us as we headed for the lift. The moment the doors closed behind us, I relaxed, still not daring to believe our exit could be so simple.
“A pub?” I teased. “Don’t tell me we’re meeting my father at a bar.”
“Behind a library, actually. I try to break clichés whenever possible.”
That was one of the things I loved most about Vance. He was definitely unique. “Except when you’re trying to sneak past suspicious royal guards.”
He shrugged. “Okay, sometimes clichés work to your advan
tage. Pretend to be what they assume you are, and things go a lot more smoothly. They would never expect the ambassador they’re guarding to leave in a guard’s uniform, so they didn’t even check your identity. Worked well for us. Although I doubt it’ll work in a few days when the guards know you better.”
“True.”
When we reached the ground floor, I was surprised to see several guards stationed at the front doors as well. That made at least twenty. A small contingent of British soldiers, all stationed around this building for my sake, staying awake while I slept soundly in my soft bed.
Vance just threw them a wave as he left. They barely even noticed me.
The city around us was dark but still quite alive. Figures made their way along sidewalks, hands thrust deep into pockets. Occasionally a transport bumbled its way past. In NORA, curfew kept most citizens at home after sundown. Only Reds dared tread about our sleeping streets.
An elderly woman much like Ruby strode across the road in front of us, quickening her pace to avoid a transport. She nodded to us and continued down the road, a handbag swinging at her waist.
These were the Reds of Augustus’s society—the elderly, the poor. Those who had no fancy flying transports or colorful buildings to call home. And yet none of them seemed ashamed about it.
We reached the library twenty minutes later. This skyscraper appeared newer than most structures here—probably forty years old. It was likely a beautiful building in daylight. I longed to go inside. Did Britain still hold old books like Richard Peak’s diary? Or had they digitized their books like NORA? The wealth of knowledge this building had to contain.
“Around back,” Vance said, and grasped my hand, pulling me away from the front doors.
The back alley was even darker than the street. I slowed my step to allow my eyes to adjust. Vance flipped on his flashlight and swept the beam around. It settled on Jasper and his spy, Chan, who both shielded their eyes.
Vance clicked it off, plunging us into darkness once more. “Did anyone follow you?”