by M. G. Herron
Ari lifted the desk from its base and rotated an inch at a time, alternating sides, to avoid unnecessary noise while still managing to pull it out far enough to see behind it.
Sure enough, there it was—an air vent big enough to crawl through, covered by a grate fastened to the wall with rusty screws.
Ari peered into the drawers of the desk—empty—and scanned the room, looking for something to use as a screwdriver. The bare white walls presented no useful tools.
What am I thinking? Ari berated himself. Would it not be better to wait for a more opportune moment? He started to second-guess the whole crazy plan. Escaping through an air vent was suicide.
He went to shut the desk drawers, and caught his breath when he noticed one was shaky and crooked. One of the metal guides that allowed the drawer to slide in and out beneath the desk’s surface had come loose. Ari’s hands shook as he removed the drawer, and then the loose guide, twisting out the small screws with his fingertips.
He kept one eye on the door while he inserted the thin end of the metal guide in the flat end of one of the big, rusty screws on the vent grate. At first, it stuck, but with persistence it finally broke the rust and squealed out as he spun the guide like a screwdriver.
It took him several more eternities, but the four screws in the vent grate turned slowly, and fell into his outstretched hand. He hid them at the back of a bottom drawer.
Now the tricky part. He yanked the rusty old grate off, and backed into the air vent feet first, pulling the desk with him until it was flush against the wall. He slid the grate back into its approximate starting position, resting it on the floor since he was unable to screw it back together, praying the noise wouldn’t bring Dr. Neru or Felix running.
He didn’t wait to find out. Rotating his body in the shaft, his shoulders pressing against both aluminum walls, Ari searched for an exit on his hands and knees, going as quickly as his bruised body would allow, and as quietly as he was able.
At a bend in the shaft, voices echoed up. Ari froze. He feared the very beating of his heart would give him away.
“What news?” one voice said.
“Did they retreat?” asked another.
“Bet they did!” This voice had the lilting cadence of a British accent. “Like rats trapped in a maze, they were.” A few nervous laughs followed. Ari didn’t recognize any of those voices, but there was no doubt who the next one belonged to.
“Quiet,” Felix commanded. Though his voice was soft, reserved even, it cut through the chatter like a steel blade. The laughter died down. “Let Sasha speak.”
A woman’s voice drifted up, terse and still catching her breath, as if she’d hurried to get here. “Motor patrols range as far out as the eastern edge of Fields.” Ari recognized her voice, too. It was the redhead who had peered briefly into his room several days ago. “Engineers with armed escorts pulled up the barricades and are headed back into the downtown core.”
How many people had Felix convinced to fight for him? By the voices alone, Ari judged that few were present in the room. Six, eight, maybe a dozen people in total. Not nearly enough to fight an army, or hold any part of a city. So this was a meeting of the leadership, then. A war council.
The next question confirmed his suspicions, as Felix took the lead. “How far out are they still patrolling?” he asked.
“West to Fields, south to Factory. A couple miles north of Telerethon Square…and east all the way to the edge of the river.”
A half dozen voices rose up at once, fear tightening their tones. “The whole core…protecting Congress…practically walled themselves in…they can airlift supplies with the drones if they need to.”
“It gets worse,” Sasha interrupted them. “I tried to surface at the parking garage west of T Square. Found it sealed. Not collapsed, Felix—sealed. Detoured to see three other exits on my way back. All the exits inside the core I checked were like that.”
“General Greif has paid ten to one in bodies and blood,” Felix said thoughtfully. “He’s starting to feel it. Abandoning the edges of the city. Fortifying his position in the core. We knew this would happen.”
“Not so soon,” Sasha insisted.
“Whatever the reason, we should make the best of it,” Felix said. “We’re running low on supplies.” He paused. “We still have the Li girl to trade.”
“You said that was a last resort.” Sasha bit off each word of the accusation. No one else spoke up to voice their concern. A tense silence passed where everyone in the room seemed to hold their breath.
“This changes things,” Felix said levelly. “I don’t like it any more than you do, but now she’s just another mouth to feed. And we need ammo, too. I know an arms dealer who would pay richly to have a girl like that.”
Ari expected a retort. He heard nothing except a chilly silence.
“Pass on word to your people,” Felix went on. “Post double watches tonight. Tomorrow, we’ll start sneaking groups into the core, hidden among the protestors, to get a lay of the land.”
That seemed to end the meeting. Murmurs rose up and became indistinct as some whispered among themselves, presumably making plans or organizing communications. Ari heard footsteps and the squeaking of hinges as the group finally departed.
He crawled on, more eager than ever to escape. Felix’s willingness to barter the life of a young woman for weapons reinforced Ari’s certainty that he couldn’t trust the man.
After crawling for another fifteen minutes, Ari reached a second grate. Through the narrow slats, he saw an empty cement platform, a stripe along the far edge painted in a faded yellow, and a pair of train tracks set into a depression that emitted a soft orange glow. Ari hadn’t heard a single train the whole time he’d been here. If the trains no longer ran through this station, perhaps he could follow the tracks to safety.
Gathering his breath, he pulled both knees to his chest and kicked the grate from the inside. It bent and twisted, but held. He kicked again, and it fell open with a metallic clatter.
There was no time for caution. The noise was sure to attract others. Ari slid onto the cement platform. Just as he was standing up, something hot and sharp jabbed into his back. His muscles spasmed, and he fell.
“I came back to check on you, and you were gone,” Dr. Neru said matter-of-factly. The doctor stood between two other rebels that couldn’t be more different from each other, though they operated like a team—a wiry blonde woman, and a heavy-set African man with a square jaw. The woman hauled Ari roughly to his feet with a hand under each of his arms. An arc of blue energy leapt between two metal tongs—the man’s thick fingers were wrapped around an electric stunner.
Ari held very still, careful not to put up a struggle. “Nianzu, please.”
The doctor frowned. “It’s for your own good,” he said gruffly, avoiding Ari’s eyes as he pulled the jet injector from his pocket and stepped close to dose his patient.
“If you want to help me,” Ari whispered, “you’ll let me go.”
“I am helping you,” Dr. Neru said, raising his voice to be sure the others heard. “I need to monitor you to make sure your condition doesn’t worsen—especially after that seizure.”
Ari opened his mouth to object, to tell Dr. Neru that he’d woken up today with a new memory. To tell him that the seizure had rattled open a door in his mind. But he said nothing. Last time he’d confided in the doctor, the message made its way to Felix.
“Put him in with the girl,” Dr. Neru said, sighing. “Take turns standing watch. We can’t spare enough men to babysit the both of them.”
The two led Ari away. As they wound down into the belly of the tunnel system, the scent of sewage became ripe and overpowering. Ari recalled Felix smelling of sewage the night before and realized that these tunnels must be how Felix and his rebels were making the army and police force’s lives miserable. Ari had taken lectures about guerrilla warfare tactics in basic training. If they used the underground tunnels to harry the enemy in bursts, a
small, dedicated force could drag that kind of resistance out for weeks—as long as they had the supplies to last.
If that were true, Ari would be able to use the tunnels to find a way out of here as well. He made an effort to plot the turns they took, but each tunnel looked much like the last. In a short time, he lost his way. Ari contented himself with the knowledge that there were many paths to take. If he could lose himself, his pursuers could lose him, too.
His guards finally led Ari through an unmarked metal door. Inside the small room, they handcuffed him to a table leg that was bolted to the floor. An interrogation room, of sorts. A dark-haired young woman was handcuffed around the leg at the opposite corner—also bolted to the floor. Finally, the wiry blonde woman and the man with the stunner left, locking the metal door behind them.
Ari sighed with relief. He didn’t think his body could take any more punishment. Everything hurt—his back ached, his neck twinged, his calves throbbed. He hated to admit it, but the cold hard stone of the floor felt like a cushion beneath him. Exhausted, he lay down for some time.
A single electric light bulb against the far wall illuminated the dingy room. After a while, Ari forced himself to a sitting position and looked around as his sluggish thoughts caught up with his current predicament. Ari pulled on the handcuffs, tested the bolts in the cement floor, and kicked the legs of the table.
The girl watched him from under the veil of her dark bangs. She was dirty, but her eyes were sharp and clear. She absently snapped the chain of her own handcuffs against the metal leg of the table, once, twice in frustration, then exhaled through her noise. When Ari caught her gaze with his one good eye, she turned away.
Ari leaned down to examine his handcuffs more closely. They were the old, swinging bow ratchet-type handcuffs with simple mechanical locks, hailing from a previous century. The same kind they had used on him before. Ari’s father had used exactly this type of handcuffs to teach his sons the basics of locksmithing. Ari and his brother used to make bets to see who could pick the lock quicker.
If he could just find something around here, a pin or a thin stick, he might be able to get them loose.
He looked up and caught the girl’s eyes again. Greasy bangs fell into her face.
“Here,” she said. She held a bobby pin out between her thumb and forefinger. “Do you know how?”
Ari gasped. “Yes! Flick it over here.”
The bobby pin fell short. Ari used his shoe to slide it close enough to pick up with his hands.
He bent one end of the bobby pin into a hook using the keyhole in the cuffs. Then he inserted the pin beneath the lip of the keyhole on the right bracelet, pushed up, and turned counterclockwise to disengage the lock. The cuff opened smoothly.
“Nice trick,” the girl said, her eyebrows drawing up. Her expression highlighted how young she really was. Under the dirt, her skin was smooth and unlined. He guessed she was a couple years younger than he, eighteen, nineteen at the most—
He stopped short. Not any more, he reminded himself. She was ten or twelve years younger than him now.
“What are you waiting for?” the girl whispered, her voice thin and sharp. She held out her own bound wrists.
Ari scooted across the floor to her side.
“Do I know you?” she asked, cocking her head to one side and letting her lips part slightly.
Ari shook his head, knowing they didn’t have time to explain. “Felix is going to come down here as soon as he finds out I tried to escape. If I’ve learned anything about him, he’ll be furious.” One cuff swung from his wrist as he tried to fit the bobby pin into her handcuff. Her face paled and she clamped her mouth shut at the mention of Felix’s name.
Ari was probing for the latch inside her handcuff when voices rose outside and the doorknob turned.
Ari left the bobby pin in her handcuff and scrambled back to his own leg of the table. He pulled the dangling handcuff chain around the leg and fitted the unlocked cuff loosely around his wrist so it appeared closed without latching.
“How do you do it?” the girl whispered.
Ari shook his head once and pressed his lips tight, ignoring her.
The door opened and Felix stepped inside followed by the two rebels who had escorted him down here. The redheaded woman, Sasha, pushed into the room behind them and crossed her arms as her eyes searched the room. When her gaze fell upon the girl, some of the tension fell from her shoulders.
Felix took two strides across the room and looked down at Ari, who shifted his hands so they were out of Felix’s line of sight, blocked by the table.
“I knew I couldn’t trust you,” Felix said.
Ari made no reply, knowing that nothing he said at this point would make a difference.
Felix stepped forward and kicked Ari in the ribs. The breath exploded from his lungs, but he managed to keep his wrist from slipping out of the loose bracelet.
“That’s for making me risk everything to save your worthless life.”
Sasha pulled Felix back and whispered something fierce that Ari couldn’t hear. He sliced his hand through the air, and jerked his arm out of her grip.
“Three weeks ago you told me there was a cache of weapons and medical supplies by the river,” Felix told him. “That information is still hidden in your head somewhere.”
So what if it is? His resolve firmed. Ari tilted his chin up, staring his silent defiance at Felix.
Felix’s face hardened. “Perhaps it’s time we tried some more…direct methods.” He flicked his head at the other three. “Take the girl. Leave him with me.”
A chill swept through Ari’s body. He shifted his weight to his haunches, waiting for the right moment.
Sasha stepped forward quickly, and knelt at the girl’s side. Before she could get the keys fitted into the girl’s handcuffs, a deafening explosion rocked the room. Felix stumbled. Sasha fell to the floor. The other two braced with their hands against the wall. Ari’s hand fell out of the loose bracelet, but no one noticed. Felix and the other three exchanged panicked glances through a cloud of dust.
“I knew it was a trick,” Felix growled. “Leave her. There’s no time. Go. All of you! I’ll meet you at the junction.”
Sasha clenched her jaw, glanced between the girl, Felix, and Ari.
“Go!” Felix shouted.
“Damnit,” Sasha cursed. She finally rose and ran from the room. The other two followed on her heels.
Felix’s gaze turned back to Ari after the others were gone. Ari swallowed the urge to rip off Felix’s good ear so it matched the tattered one.
“Looks like the general came back for one last hurrah,” Ari said. “Caught you on your heels. Maybe he’ll do us all a favor and drop a bomb down the right tunnel for a change.”
Felix took a step toward him, rage smoldering in his eyes.
One step closer, you bastard.
“I should have known better than to think you’d be any different now,” Felix said. “You’re a reckless man who takes stupid chances. It’s a part of you that can’t be removed by a bullet to the brain. I already saved you once. I won’t waste my time again.”
Felix took another step and towered over Ari, just out of his reach—or so he thought.
“I didn’t ask you to,” Ari said. Without warning, he launched forward and slammed his shoulder into Felix’s groin. Felix yelled and staggered back, but he didn’t go down. Ari swung his bare fists at Felix. He connected twice, his shoulder socket throbbing with the impact.
Then Felix rallied. Ari feinted left, ducked right, and then his jaw erupted in pain. He went down, and Felix followed him eagerly to the ground. Ari anticipated him this time, and rolled away as Felix’s knuckles struck the cement floor.
He hissed in pain, expelling breath through his teeth as he pushed to his feet. Ari used the table to haul himself up, but Felix was faster. As Ari rose, Felix roared and charged.
Counting on his instinct, Ari dropped his weight, reached his hands inside Felix’s guard
, and pivoted, using the taller man’s momentum to throw him into a corner of the table on his way to the stone wall.
Felix cried out and sprawled on the floor, his hands reaching out for a leg of the table to use to haul himself up.
Felix’s head lay inches from where the young woman was tied. She reached out and got the chains of her handcuffs over Felix’s chin while he was distracted and yanked back. Felix’s head cracked into the metal leg of the table, but it didn’t knock him out. He thrashed and bucked. She held on tight, her lean arms going tense and shaking. Felix reached back and grabbed a fistful of the girl’s dark hair. She screamed, and yanked the chain tighter still.
Ari dove onto the floor, grabbed the girl’s wrists in his hands, and added his strength to hers. The two of them hauled back for a good thirty seconds, a minute, until the tall man quit kicking and his body went limp.
Ari let go, but the girl didn’t. Spittle burbled from between her gritted teeth, tendons in her neck stood out, and her face flushed a deep crimson in the dingy light. Ari grabbed the handcuffs around her wrist and pulled them away from Felix’s windpipe, lest she crush it like a cardboard tube.
“What are you doing?” she demanded, incredulous.
“You don’t want to kill him,” Ari said.
Her eyelids flared open, showing the stark, bloodshot whites of her eyes. “Yes, I do!” she insisted. “He killed my parents!”
Ari pulled his hands away, showed her his palms, pleading. “Killing him won’t bring them back,” Ari said slowly.
Her wide eyes glistened and a tear tracked down one dirty cheek. She let out a cry as her grip loosened. She finally jerked her hands away. Felix’s head thumped against the floor with a heavy, full sound. The girl opened her mouth in a wordless scream and rested her head against the metal leg of the table.
Ari sighed with relief. He had been many things these past several days—a young man, an older man, a prisoner, a rebel. Murderer was not a label he wanted to add to that list. Besides, now he and Felix were even. A life for a life.
Ari felt around for the bobby pin and found it on the floor nearby. He used the pin to spring the girl from her handcuffs. She sniffled as she stood and backed quickly away from Felix’s limp body, rubbing her wrists which were raw and red where the bracelets had chafed against her skin.