“And why was the Underground formed?” asked the redhead.
The boy shifted in his stool. I could practically hear the gears spinning in his head as he tried to come up with the right answer.
“Well ... there was the Third War after Mars was terraformed, where all the Earth countries fought over who got what land and which planets.”
“Then what?” asked Tess.
“Then they created the System of United Nations, and they took all the power because it was easier to control things that way.”
I smiled darkly. That is so not the history lesson I got at the Académie.
“You got it, kiddo,” said Tess. “Not just political power, either, huh?”
“Nope,” said Renny. “They created a ... um, a senate? And gave each planet a governor, but that was just to make people happy and stop asking questions and stuff. Then the electricity was rationed, at first to help save, um ... resources? Um, but then it became a way to control people and information and stuff. Now we only get so much power every day, and it makes it really hard to get news. Well, true news, anyway.”
“And a lack of information is a lack of power,” said Tess.
“But the SUN Plaza up the road, and President Forsythe’s house, and the cabinet’s houses in the Settlement, they always have power, even at night.” The boy fidgeted with the hem of his homespun shirt. “Oh! And they monitor everything online, and say it’s for keeping peace, but that’s not really true. Am I done?”
Tess smiled. “You’re in.”
Cheers and huzzahs erupted. It was like a pep rally. Heck of a lot of good it would do them, sitting and talking and ceremonializing instead of working together to actually accomplish something. I had never seen them accomplish anything worthwhile, and I had been sailing the System for more than a year.
“Are they serious?” I asked.
“What?”
“If these folks are so committed, why don’t they stop talking and do something about it?”
Suddenly, all eyes were on me. You could have heard a pin drop in spite of the sawdust, it was that quiet. Apparently, vomiting into the sawdust was far more commonplace than a teenage girl thinking out loud.
“So glad you’re feeling better,” said Tess, “but you have no idea what you’re saying.” She walked toward me one very intimidating step at a time. I sat up in my chair and clutched at my cold cloth, trying to look dignified and feeling like crap.
Tess continued. “Since you’re new, let me enlighten you. You want our help? Prove that you are worth your weight. We talk about things to get us through, but if it weren’t for that secret door hiding us from the outside world, most of us would be dead already simply for disagreeing with the SUN. The laws of the old States were overruled long ago, along with the right to dissent.”
I cleared my throat.
“So, let me see if I understand,” I said. The crackers were starting to stick as I stood up and looked Tess square in the face. “You’re okay just sitting here like a jackwagon, talking about freedom. Not actually doing anything about it, mind, just talking about it. Having Berrett here run letters for you, and starting a few risk-free fires here and there for the SUN to put out. And when you die, what then? Planning on handing this mess you didn’t have the guts to clean up over to your children?”
“Dix!” hissed Berrett.
“No, I’m not,” said Tess. “Which brings us to you. You want our protection? You give us something in return. Berrett tells us you have something that could change the future for our cause.”
My eyes flew open wide.
“You told them about the Eternigen?” I cried. “I trusted you!”
“I didn’t say anything, I swear!”
“Liar.”
“Berrett would never lie, and he really didn’t say anything about Eternigen,” said Tess. “You just did, though.”
My jaw dropped. “Flark,” I whispered.
I sank into my chair, exhaustion and shock riding through me. I had never let my secret slip. Not once in five years had I unintentionally told anyone what I guarded. All the strength from the crackers left me as I realized my terrible mistake.
“Well, now we know why the SUN wants you dead so badly,” said Tess. “So, here’s how this is going to work. I’ll give you two options. Option one. Berrett here is one of our best runners. He has an honest job at a SUN shipyard, a nice shiny record, never done anything sneaky or devious, and with that rocket pack of his, he’s a fast mover. He can hide you and help you get a ship.”
“And how does this benefit you, exactly?” I asked.
“First, let’s talk some more about you. Have you been sitting on that vial, or have you been trying to replicate it? What’s your game plan? I assume you have one.”
“I ....” There was nothing left to hide from them. I sighed. “We were tryin’ to break the formula. There’s only enough here to get one person out of the system and back.”
“We? You have good resources, then?” asked Tess. “Someone who knows what they’re doing?”
I nodded. “Hobs is the best scientist in the System. The SUN wanted him a full year before graduating from the Académie and courted him the whole time he was there. He’s a genius. It was a miracle the Eternigen was created in the first place, but if anyone can break the formula, he can. Not that he’ll do you much good, seeing as I had to launch him into space to save him.”
“Got any guesses as to where he might be?” asked Tess.
I nodded.
“Then get him back, break the Eternigen formula, and you bring it back to us. We use the Eternigen as leverage against the SUN, to show the whole of the System that we’re being governed by a bunch of liars. Then we tell them we’ll give it back if they’ll give us one planet, one place we can call our own. Option two is you give us the vial while we put you into hiding.”
“Yeah, ‘cause you all have advanced degrees in biochemical engineering. No! Besides, you think I’m just gonna hide in a corner and wait for you people to figure this out? You go to the SUN claiming to have this and they’ll blow you away before you have a chance to rally anybody. No way.” The thought of giving up the vial made my head spin. I wasn’t about to give up my chance at freedom so the Underground could corner themselves into a firing range.
I stepped right up to Tess. “If those are your best options, I’m out of here.” I turned toward the door, but two men stepped in front of it.
“Leaving’s no longer an option,” said Tess.
I whirled around. “You wanna take this outside?”
“I’m not keeping you in here to save my own skin. It’s your safety that concerns us now. Think about everyone in this room. You walk out of here, they find you, trace where you’ve been, and what do you think happens to every person here?”
I didn’t have a good response for that. My arms flailed at my side as I fell again into a chair.
“Let me try to help you understand my position a little better, Tabitha,” said Tess.
“It’s Dix to you, thankyouverymuch.”
“Okay, Dix. I grew up in the Settlements. I wanted for nothing. My parents were good people. Kind people. I believe they would have been generous, given the chance, but they thought the war was over and that the SUN was taking care of everything.”
Tess knelt down next to me, taking care to avoid the clumpy sawdust. I noticed a scar across her jaw, another near her temple.
“If you grew up in the Settlements, how’d you wind up with that?” I asked, pointing to her scars.
“I wandered outside the Settlements one day. It was an accident, but I saw things, terrible things. People living like dogs, eating filth, wearing filth. Suddenly I understood what was happening, what I was contributing to. My parents believed me, but didn’t think there was anything they could do. The SUN gave me these pretty scars to remind me to keep my mouth shut. Clearly that worked well.”
The others in the room laughed.
Berrett put a hand on mine as I tried to wra
p my brain around what Tess was saying. “You have a chance to change the course of the future, to give hundreds of thousands of people a shot at a world where they could find freedom. You could bring them hope, Dix.”
I crossed my arms. “Assuming the grand master plan works.”
Berrett nodded. “Yeah, assuming that the plan works. You say you want to do something instead of just talking. Here’s your chance.”
I pushed back from the table. “You want me to choose between two impossible options! I want to be free, more badly than I can possibly explain in words, and my choices are to hand over my only shot at it or hide? Your Underground cronies here are cozy and all, but that’s not how reclaiming freedom works. If you expect the situation to change, you have to be willing to give up your life for it. And what does freedom mean to you, anyway? Are you really going to trust the SUN to honor any arrangement they make with you? And who’s to say you jackwagons won’t set up a government that takes away freedom all over again?”
“Dix, you don’t know the whole story,” said Berrett quietly.
I pounded the table with my fist. “Neither do you!”
Tess just smiled at me. “You could be a valuable asset, Dix. Please, consider what helping us can do to make this System better.”
“I’m not interested in making this System better! I want to get away from all of it and find someplace else, someplace outside the ... ohhhhh ...” The world began to spin again and I sank down into my chair and put my head in my hands.
“Sorry, guys, she’s had a really hard day. I think she’s just tired,” said Berrett. “Now, if you all will excuse us, I’ll take her upstairs and be back down in a second.” Berrett reached down for my pack.
“You’ll what?” I cried. “I’m not your child, Berrett. You can’t tell me what to—”
Berrett pulled me up and put his face right next to mine. “Just cool it, turbo,” he whispered. “You need a break.”
He pulled me through a narrow side door and up a set of wooden steps, swiped his finger against a keypad, and stared into the retinal scanner.
The SUN can’t find the power to keep the city lit, but they can somehow manage to run it to anything security-related. Skuddy, flarking jackwagons.
The lock popped open and I stumbled forward into the room. A worn chair with a faded red cushion stood next to a dead floor lamp in one corner. A bed took up the majority of the room, facing a tiny red brick gas fireplace. A humble fire burned inside, and a candelabrum perched on the mantle, its small candles casting shadows on the walls around us.
The second the door swung shut, I let Berrett have it.
“What the flark, Berrett? You set me up—”
“I did not set you up.”
“—and then act like you’ve got to go put the flarking fussy baby to sleep before you can sneak back downstairs to the grownups and—”
“What? If you didn’t look like you were about to lose your lunch, this conversation would be going very differently,” Berrett growled. He leaned his rocket pack against the wall and threw my pack to the ground. “Lie down and give me your washcloth. I’ll go soak it again.”
“I don’t need a washcloth. I need my crew. I need my ship. I need to get out of here. Why won’t everyone just leave me alone?” I flopped face down onto the faded quilt and yelled, “I hate everything!”
I didn’t hear a sound from Berrett, not even his breath. I had a horrible feeling he was trying not to laugh.
“I’ll ... I’ll be right back.”
“Mmmmph.”
A few minutes later he returned. “Roll over, pitiful.”
“Make me.”
“You asked for it.”
He flipped me over with hardly any effort and placed the washcloth on my forehead. “Try to rest.”
“You try to rest.” He gave me a weird look, but I was too tired to care. “Oh, just go away, Berrett.”
“Right. I’ll do that. Night, Dix.”
“Mmm.”
GETTING BETTER 7
I WOKE UP WARM, STRANGELY COMFORTED BY THE SENSE THAT I wasn’t alone. My bleary eyes cracked slowly open, and my gaze settled on Berrett. He sat in the chair by the hearth, playing idly with the decorative iron poker. I ached all over and wasn’t ready to uncurl myself yet, so I stayed under the covers, watching him stare at the flames.
“Thought you left,” I mumbled.
“Left?” he asked.
“Last night, didn’t I tell you to go?”
The right corner of his lips turned up. “Yes, but I thought you meant go back downstairs.”
I fidgeted with my blanket and listened to the hiss of the gas fireplace, trying hard to remember anything more than fuzzy details after we came upstairs.
“Brought you breakfast,” he said. He leaned forward and nudged a plate of fruit and half a bagel toward me before settling back in the chair.
I was really touched—and starving—but I didn’t want to show it. I drew a hand slowly out from under the covers, inching the plate closer. I could feel my dry mouth begin to salivate in anticipation of an actual meal. Chunks of apple, honeydew, watermelon, and sliced banana were piled on top of each other, spilling over into the thick layer of cream cheese on top of the bagel.
“There’s some grape juice on your nightstand. When you polish that off, make sure you refill it with some water. You’re dehydrated.”
I looked at the nightstand and picked up the chipped plastic cup with a scratched-up bar logo on it. I gulped the juice down until the cup was drained. As the juice flooded my parched throat, I felt the cool relief flow through my entire body, bringing me back to life. I let my tongue run over my lips to catch any drops of juice I may have missed.
“Berrett?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
He cocked his head at me. “It’s just a bagel and fruit, Dix.”
That was not what I had meant, but the skewed grin on his face made it clear he understood. I sat up and started stuffing the food in my face. “Where’d you find all this, anyway?”
“It’s better if you don’t know.”
I stared at him. “Thief.”
“From the Settlements? Any day.” Berrett stretched out in the chair. He rocked back and forth as I made quick work of my breakfast.
“So, you’re famous,” he said.
My stomach flipped. I put what was left of my bagel down.
“What do you mean?” I asked. “More reports?”
“Tabitha Dixon, on the megatron in Times Square.”
I grimaced. Aside from reminding me of my unpleasant past, my first name was so old fashioned and awkward. Changing my name was the one part of living a lie that I didn’t mind.
“For future reference, Berrett, you call me by my first name again and I’ll use your face as a punching bag.”
“Yeah, you’re not nearly as threatening when you have melon juice running down the side of your face and cream cheese in your teeth.”
I stuck my tongue out at him and grabbed the corner of my blanket to wipe my face off.
“Your picture is everywhere. The SUN found no trace of human remains or the Eternigen you should have been carrying. Oddly, they left the Eternigen bit out of their report. You are officially a fugitive, Tabitha.”
I flopped back on my pillow and closed my eyes.
“Berrett?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you have a death wish?”
He laughed as he stood up and leaned the poker against the fireplace. He came over and sat down on the side of the bed. “So, my question to you is how did the SUN find out it was you? You were wearing tips, your prints would have been everywhere, but they would have all come up as Trudy Loveless.”
I closed my eyes. “Eira must have leaked the information to the SUN.”
“Well that’s not much of a stretch since her grandfather is President Forsythe. I get why he’d want it. No Eternigen, no deep space exploration, no escape from the System. But wha
t would the president of GSP do with it?” he asked.
I sat up and rested my chin on my fists. “I don’t know. I have some guesses. Maybe she wants to be young forever. Maybe she wants to own the galaxy. She seems like the type. Terrifying little psychopath.”
I fiddled with the blankets on the bed. I could be glib about it talking to Berrett, but it made me feel uncomfortable imagining what someone like Eira would want with the Eternigen. “Honestly, a small part of me wants to go into hiding, hope the SUN and Eira never find me, and that my crew can find a nice life for themselves. Maybe I could find a piece of happiness living that way.” I knew as soon as the words left my mouth it was too easy. And I knew it would never last. I knew I couldn’t live here, see the injustice, remember my family and somehow simply be okay with it. I liked to pretend that I didn’t care, but I didn’t have the stomach for inhumanity, any more than I could swallow the idea that I would have to give up on my own dreams.
Berrett’s eyes narrowed. I shifted uncomfortably, sensing that he could read my thoughts.
“I don’t think that’s how it’s gonna go down,” he said.
“No?”
“No. If I were the bad guys, I’d go find your crew. I’d torture them until they told me everything I needed to know, and then keep them just alive enough to use them as bait to trap you.”
“You’re kind of evil, aren’t you?”
He smiled. “Just trying to get inside the other guy’s head. I don’t think you can give up on yourself without giving up on your crew too. Are you willing to do that?”
No, I wasn’t.
Flark.
“That’s what I thought,” said Berrett. “You love your crew, and it’s admirable, but it’s also a point of vulnerability ... Tabitha.”
I glared at him and threw a half-hearted punch, but he dodged my fist and hopped off the bed. I finished my breakfast and dragged myself out of bed, walked into the bathroom, and turned on the faucets. The shock of the water hitting my face sent a shiver racing down my spine.
“Since when does Earth have cold water?” I asked.
“Since we’re so close to the Settlements. Clean water is expected for the people who live there,” said Berrett from the other room. “You ever been inside one?”
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