Infiltration (Infiltration Book 1)

by Susanna Rogers

  As we neared school, Lauren also gave me the latest about the proposed multi-story development site. Apparently they also wanted to get rid of the skate park next door and that had outraged everyone at school, so much so that they were planning on a sit-in.

  There was also the issue of a curfew for teens. Government officials seemed eager to keep teenagers under their thumbs and Principal Di Giorgio was supporting their proposal. I didn’t get it and never would.

  “What’s a sit-in?” I asked.

  “We go there and sit around to show they can’t introduce a curfew or bowl over our skate park.”

  “So we sit around to make a stand?”

  She nodded. “I guess so.”

  It made as much sense as anything else in Altabena.

  “I’m going to rally together a few of the troops for tomorrow afternoon,” she added.

  Troops? Was she talking about war? No, she wouldn’t have a clue about that.

  There was a twinkle in her eye. “Ben might be there. I’ll ask him to come along, how about that?”

  I felt a little sizzle inside at the thought of spending time with Ben. More like a volcano than a sizzle, really.

  I kept my voice even. “The more, the merrier.”

  “Sometimes I wonder where you get that stuff,” Lauren said. “You sound like somebody’s parent.”

  She was wrong. I wasn’t going to be somebody’s parent. I wasn’t going to live that long and, besides, that wasn’t my assigned role in New Nation.

  I was a soldier.

  And I was going to fight.

  “I’m behind you all the way,” I said. “You’ve got my full support.”

  “That’s great but there’s no need to get so serious on me. By the way, did you finish your English homework?”

  I whacked my hand on my forehead. “No, I forgot all about it.”

  Lauren chuckled. “See, that’s more like it.”

  Unfortunately we had English first period and I had a feeling there’d be no escaping the wrath of Ms. Swann. Near the end of class, the teacher asked us to upload our assignments onto the appropriate section of the school mainframe. It was just my luck that I was the only person in the class who hadn’t finished the assignment.

  Ms. Swann sauntered toward my desk, her eyes glued to mine. She might’ve been an English teacher who taught us to enjoy fine literature and poetry but if she was in the army, she’d have been a sergeant major.

  She towered over my desk, appearing much taller than she was. “Any reason you haven’t done your homework, Nicola?”

  “No, Ma’am,” I said.

  “How did you think you were going to get out of this one?” she asked. “Did you think there’d be no tomorrow?”

  How did she know?

  “You’re extremely perceptive, Ms. Swann,” I said. “I apologize for not finishing the assignment but that’s because I didn’t think tomorrow would come, not for me. I was a lost soul floating in a universe that had no place for me. Imagine my surprise when I awoke this morning to a fresh day with new hope. Now I’m ready for everything this world has to offer, ready to live life to the fullest, ready for a second chance.”

  The teacher stood in front of me, her eyes wide with surprise. Through the corner of my eye, I saw Lauren’s mouth fall open. I was half expecting sniggers around me since that was usually what happened when I spoke the truth, but there was only silence, a resounding silence, the sort that usually precedes a detention. Had I put my foot in it again?

  “Poetry,” the teacher said. “That was pure poetry and for that, you just earned yourself an extension.” A low rumble echoed through the class and Ms. Swann added, “By the way, that’s not going to work for anyone else so don’t bother trying it.”

  A buzzer went off, marking the end of the class.

  “That was cool,” Lauren said in the hallway.

  “What was?” I asked.

  “That stuff you came out with about ‘no tomorrow’.” She nodded knowingly. “I’ve got to hand it to you.”

  What was she handing to me? I was never going to understand these people.

  Ben was heading in our direction. A smile on his face, he looked so normal, so happy and healthy, so alive.

  If only he could stay this way. If only he could keep living and breathing. If only I could keep him safe from everything that was to come.

  Something inside me melted, just a little. It melted, then swelled like a wave building and gathering power. Damn it, I hated having all these feelings I couldn’t quite identify, especially when I didn’t know what to do with them.

  Still, they were mine and they were real.

  I’d always been told that only the weak succumbed to emotions, that we should know better. I’d been lied to about that, just like I’d been lied to about a lot of things so I could concentrate all my energy on serving New Nation.

  Well, those days were over.

  “I’ll leave you to it,” Lauren whispered, then walked off.

  “Ben,” I said. “It’s you.”

  We stopped in the middle of the hallway while the other students milled around us. I wanted to reach out and touch him, to make sure he was truly there, but stayed frozen to the spot instead. Whatever I said or did, it’d be the wrong thing, and I desperately wanted everything to be right.

  “Yep,” he said. “I’m here.”

  “It’s so good to see you again.”

  “I had a feeling we’d see each other again. You know, since we go to the same school.”

  “We don’t have a lot of time,” I said.

  “I know. We have to get to class.”

  I only had one week and there was no way of knowing how long Ben might have. I reached for his hand and gave it a quick squeeze. He was okay for now. I had to remember that.

  “I need to talk to you,” I said. “What about this afternoon after school?”

  He shook his head. “No can do. I’ve got training and a ton of homework.”

  “Tomorrow?”

  “We’ve got the sit-in after school. Lauren’s already got me signed up for it. Loads of kids will be there. We have to stick together and get behind the skaters. You’re coming too, aren’t you, Nicola?”

  I nodded. “Sure.”

  “Good, then there’s no problem.” He grinned, his green eyes sparkling, and I wished he didn’t look so damn gorgeous. “I can see you and remember you all over again.”

  I saw it in his eyes. He thought the things I’d said on Saturday night were cute. And had no idea it was a miracle I was here.

  Leaning across he pressed his lips against my cheek, just like that, in the middle of the hallway. And he was off.

  I stayed riveted to the spot while students brushed past me on their way to class. On my own again. But I couldn’t do this on my own.

  Ben had no idea what was going on, what he was up against, or what I’d planned when I first arrived in Altabena. What’s more, there was no reason he should have an inkling. The truth was so extreme he’d never believe me.

  So how could I make him understand?

  I had less than eight days. Ben had to learn what to look out for if he was going to protect himself, but he was so completely unaware. He was smarter than me, had a sharp mind and intelligence. Those things worked for him. But he didn’t have the awareness, that survival instinct or the training, that would keep him alive. I was far superior to him in those fields.

  I knew how to stay alive.

  Usually.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  At home, I set to work on my English assignment since I was fairly certain tomorrow would come and the excuse I’d used today wouldn’t work a second time. I still had to go to school, and that meant I had to do the work.

  I was finishing up on the laptop when there was a knock on my bedroom door and Mom walked in. She sat on the bed so I turned from the chair at my desk to face her. Would the novelty of having a mother wear off? Probably at some stage but I wouldn’t be here long enoug
h to find out.

  Mom sat on the edge of the bed, her face looked drawn, her smile tight. “I wanted to catch you on your own, Nicola.”

  Something was definitely wrong. I might not know much about emotions but even I could work out that much.

  “Sorry if I’ve been a pain lately,” I said. “Things will be much better from now on. I’m turning over a new leaf.”

  “It’s not that, honey.” She looked down at her hands. “Remember how I had several doctors’ appointments when we were living at our old house?”

  I knew nothing about our old house but recalled some recent talk about a doctor’s appointment and this morning there’d been something up with her and Dad at the breakfast table.

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “Well, I went to a different specialist today and he confirmed what I already knew.” She looked up at me and I saw it in her eyes. Bad news. “It’s about the lump I found in my breast.”

  “You found a lump?”

  “It’s cancer.”

  I couldn’t work it out. Mom clearly seemed disturbed by this, but a small cancerous lump was easy enough to remedy. Things could’ve been a lot worse.

  Except they couldn’t.

  Humans didn’t have a remedy for cancer yet. Before the cure, the disease had been a scourge on society, everyone’s greatest fear, a matter of life and death.

  No, it couldn’t be.

  The air left my body. My throat constricted and words wouldn’t come out. I was choking. This couldn’t be happening.

  No, not my beautiful mother.

  I flew across the room and wrapped my arms around her. If I held her tightly enough, perhaps everything would be all right and this would all go away. I wanted to console her, make her feel better, but it wasn’t working. I’d never felt so useless. And though I wanted to support her, it was really the other way round. She let me hold her. She squeezed my shoulders. Tried to take as much of the load as she could.

  She was my mom and that’s what mothers did. That much I knew instinctively.

  After a while, she held me at arm’s length and stroked my hair. “Don’t cry, honey.”

  “I’m not.”

  I wiped my cheeks, surprised to find they were wet. How had that happened? I had to be stronger than this.

  “The doctors can help you, can’t they?” I asked.

  “They think so,” she said. “But sometimes there’s only so much the doctors can do.”

  My heart rate rose and blood rushed through my veins. Something surged inside me, ready to explode, ready to lash out at this miserable situation that had let me down.

  “They think so?” I shouted. “That’s not good enough. They have to do something.”

  “Calm down, honey,” she said. “Getting angry isn’t going to help.”

  Was I angry now? Was that what was happening? I didn’t know how to cope with all these feelings. Life had been easier when I’d been an obedient soldier doing as I was told. I may not have had as many emotional highs, but I sure as hell hadn’t had these lows. I hadn’t felt like my world was falling apart.

  BUT THERE’S A CURE.

  My chest constricted. I wanted to speak but the words wouldn’t come out. I’d never felt like this before, this pain, this fear of what might happen. I’d never cared about anyone else before, not like this.

  I cleared my throat. Found I could speak after all.

  “What about Dad?” I asked.

  Mom reached for my hands, enveloping them in both of hers. “He’s not taking it very well.”

  “But you’re the one who’s sick.”

  “In some ways, I’m stronger than him, honey. They call women the weaker sex but that’s not true. It’s one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you on my own. Because it’d only be harder if I told you and then Dad fell apart too.”

  “Like me? Like I’m falling apart?”

  “It’s perfectly understandable.”

  Except it wasn’t, not from a citizen of New Nation where emotions were suppressed, not from a hardened soldier.

  But I was neither of those things any more.

  And I wasn’t going to fall apart more than I already had.

  “Is it treatable?” I asked.

  Mom nodded. “It might not even be that bad. They won’t know for sure until they remove the lump. The doctor said there’s a good chance I might not even need chemo or ray treatment. There’s no point getting too upset until we know exactly what’s going on, honey.”

  Mom wasn’t as calm underneath as the words that came out on the surface. She couldn’t be, but at least the prognosis wasn’t fatal.

  I’d only just found my mother. I couldn’t lose her. Dad couldn’t lose her either. What would he do without her? In a week, I’d be gone. The memory chip would still be in his head. He couldn’t lose both of us.

  The authorities would never let me stay either for my own good or to look after my parents. There was also no way they’d remove the memory chips from my parents. They wouldn’t even understand the request, heartless bastards that they were.

  Maybe I’d been like that before too.

  But not any more.

  I’d always had a brain.

  Now I had a heart to go with it.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  The sit in wasn’t so bad. A large group of us had lined up, several people deep, along the edge of the skate park across the entrance to the community center. Ben stood on one side of me, Lauren on the other.

  Some kids sat cross-legged on the ground while the rest of us stood. Home-made signs proclaimed ‘No curfew, no way’ and ‘Our skate park, our right’. Behind us, skaters did what they did best. They skated.

  In true teenage style we had Coke, donuts, large packets of chips as well as the Cheetos I’d been longing to try. Though I doubted much actual cheese had gone into the production of the Cheeto, it was delicious.

  Lauren pointed to a group of people crossing the road. “What’s she doing here?”

  Principal Di Giorgio never let her lack of height get in her way when it came to standing out. The small mountain of bleached hair piled on top of her head looked like a beacon and she was busting out of a tight red blazer.

  “I don’t believe it,” Lauren said. “That’s State Ruler Bartley behind her.”

  I couldn’t believe it either. I’d learnt all about the first Bartley at school. He’d died before his son had taken over the reigns of New Nation and his son after that, and now I was privileged enough to see him in real life.

  Maybe ‘privileged’ wasn’t the right word. Either way, this was history in the making even if it was just a small slice of the past.

  “You look like you’ve seen a ghost, Nicola,” Ben said. “Are you okay?”

  “Fine,” I said.

  Harrison Bartley was just a man. Sure, he was State Ruler of California and hadn’t yet become Supreme Ruler of the country, but he was still a man, albeit a very powerful one.

  Behind us, the swish of small wheels on concrete was replaced by silence as the skaters stopped what they were doing. A murmur went through the crowd.

  “This is typical of those dudes.” Lauren rolled her eyes. “It’s the adults on one side, kids on the other.”

  At that moment, Mr. Rodriguez cut in front of the group, brushed against one of the bodyguards and strode across the road, heading for the students. Was the science teacher joining us?

  He shook hands with a couple of kids at the far end and stepped in alongside them. Though he had more facial hair than the average teenage male, he fit in with our group just fine.

  “Maybe I spoke too soon,” Lauren said.

  Ben nodded toward the men gathered around the State Ruler. “Do you think they’re expecting trouble?”

  “They might be expecting it but I doubt they’ll get any,” I said.

  Bartley was surrounded by four or five bodyguards. There was no mistaking the big men with earpieces, dark glasses and even darker suits. ‘Inconspicuous’ w
as not a word I’d use to describe them. Police officers also dotted the surrounding area.

  The guy with badly bleached hair I’d met on my first day at school bumped into a policeman, then put his hands up as if apologizing. Funny I should keep seeing him.

  While the officer pointed and moved him on, Daniel and his friend Lorenzo slipped past the officials and made their way toward us. The two boys had their phones at the ready and were filming, just as they had at the party on the weekend. It seemed to be their role in life.

  Daniel turned to Ben. “If anything happens, we’ll make sure there’s a record of it.”

  Ben nodded.

  “We’re quicker than the media,” Lorenzo added. “I can get footage online in seconds. In minutes, hundreds of people can be looking at it. Newspapers take too long. They’re out of date.”

  Ben and I left them to it. Meanwhile, two men who I recognized as the current and previous mayors were speaking to Bartley though they were too far away for me to make out the words. Ms. Di Giorgio was nodding her head earnestly.

  Somehow Bartley seemed to command their attention when he responded. He smiled, his shoulders relaxing, and the men around him chuckled as if at a joke. Though I didn’t quite understand the concept of charisma, it was obvious Bartley had it in spades.

  I’d seen ancient footage of Hitler shaking hands and speaking to individuals who’d lined up for hours to see him and were mesmerized by his presence. The same thing was happening here. As much as I hated to admit it, Bartley was charismatic. People listened to him, only I wasn’t sure he listened back.

  Glancing across, I saw two women with camera equipment were almost upon us. I’d been so preoccupied with Bartley that I hadn’t seen them coming. I had to be more alert than this.

  “We’re from The Altabena Times,” one of them said.

  Ben leaned closer to me. “We might end up on the front page. That’d be cool.”

  No, that would absolutely not be cool. If he was going to survive, he’d have to keep a low profile to make it harder for the authorities from the future to track him down. This was all wrong.

  I couldn’t let Ben get his picture in the paper. No time to think, I cupped my hands around his jaw, pulled him closer and planted my lips on his.