I shrug, trying not to look overly concerned, but I’m beginning to wonder if Caldan might have lost it living out here alone for all these years. Who is he taking us to meet in a burrow?
“We’d better not have come all this way for nothing.” Phin sounds disgruntled as he slithers down into the burrow after Caldan. I follow after him, letting out a surprised yelp when I slide down several feet before my boots find a secure footing. I blink and look around. Caldan holds up a powerful flashlight lighting up the craggy tunnel we are in. A mildewy odor tickles my nostrils, and the slow, steady drip of water reaches my ears.
Ayma and Velkan slide down after me, the leery look on Ayma’s face saying more than she ever could with words.
“Wait a minute! Where are you taking us to, Caldan?” I demand.
“To the caves,” he replies, a defiant look in his eyes. “Do you want help, or not?”
I wet my lips and nod. “Lead the way.” I hope I’m making the right decision and he’s not leading us into a trap.
Caldan ducks beneath an overhang and begins walking down the tunnel, the beam of his light bouncing off moss-covered tunnel walls. After about thirty feet, the tunnel opens up into a yawning space strung with stalactites lined up like sharpened teeth, lanterns flickering in crevices throughout. My jaw drops. There are signs of life everywhere. Bedding rolled up into neat piles in a corner of the cave, pots, eating utensils, even a fire pit. Tools, crates and brooms are neatly stacked against one wall.
We follow Caldan through another short tunnel until the sound of tense voices drifts our way. This time the tunnel unfolds into an even larger cave. My eyes widen at the sight of an elaborate computer network built along the back of the cave. Close to fifty people are dotted about the space, some huddled over computers, others seated in a circle on a miscellaneous assortment of cushions in some sort of meeting.
The gathering is presided over by a lanky man with a black-brimmed hat perched on gray hair that juts out below it in stiff tufts. He stops talking mid-sentence and tilts his head toward us on our approach. Tiny lines spiral out from beneath his eyes and merge with the deep folds around his mouth. A rugged face, but not a hard one.
“Who’d you bring with you, Caldan?” he asks, his tone warm and wary all at once.
Caldan sniffs. “I don’t know who they are for sure, but they penetrated Mhakerta’s air space.”
The man pushes up the brim of his hat with the tip of his finger and gives us his full attention.
“I think … they could be the four,” Caldan adds, a note of awe in his voice.
The man rises in one lithe movement and walks over to us at a leisurely pace. He examines each of us in turn like he’s taking careful notes, but of what, I’m not sure. A smile tugs at the corner of his lips. “Are you … the four?”
I frown back at him. “Who are you?”
He tips his hat to me. “We’re the resistance.”
15
A lightning rod of hope electrifies my heart. The resistance. The words sing to me like a choir of Cwelt’s finest songbirds. Mhakerta has a resistance army. We’re not going to have to do this alone. Maybe they’ve already begun to dismantle Preeminence. Maybe our parents are working with the resistance, helping the cause. Of course that’s where they would be! I dart a hopeful glance around the circle of faces staring curiously at us. None look familiar, but then I don’t remember my parents and I’ve never seen a picture of them, so what am I even looking for? Flaming red hair, perhaps?
The man removes his hat and makes a sweeping gesture with it. “Please, sit down and join us.”
Caldan points to a stack of cushions behind us, and we each grab one and find a spot on the dirt floor.
“My name is Rennan,” the man says in a throaty drawl. He stares unabashedly at my hair. “And you are?”
“Trattora.” I turn to the others. “These are my friends, Phin, Velkan, and Ayma.”
Rennan gestures to the group to introduce themselves and one-by-one they state their names, some with less enthusiasm than others. Whatever conversation we interrupted was an important one.
“We came to Mhakerta to find our parents,” I say. “Can you help us?”
Rennan scratches the stubble on his chin for a long moment without saying anything.
“I see you have a computer network set up,” Ayma pipes up. “Were you able to penetrate the security architecture around Preeminence yet?”
Rennan quirks an odd smile. Several people in the circle exchange stupefied looks, a couple even snicker.
I shoot an angry look their way. “What’s so funny? You’re the resistance, right?”
Rennan leans forward in his chair, his hands resting on his thighs. “We help people escape from the collective. That’s all we do. We can access the collective’s databases, but Preeminence itself is impenetrable. There is no way to crack the secure neural network.”
I grimace as I digest the disheartening news. As personable as Rennan is, my initial euphoria is rapidly waning. The resistance amounts to little more than a token gesture. What I thought was an army with some clout turns out to be a group of wishful thinkers who hot-wired together a few computers. I wonder how many people they’ve actually saved.
Phin crosses brawny arms across his chest. “How do you help people escape from the collective?”
I notice several of the women’s eyes linger on him, no doubt approving of their new asset. I’m beginning to wish Caldan had never brought us here. The resistance might prove more of a hindrance to our mission than a help.
Rennan leans back on his chair and waves a hand dismissively through the air. “We utilize a handful of ploys. When the collective sends workers out in foraging parties, we sometimes stage an attack by a wild animal, a fatal fall into a crevasse, things of that nature.”
“Wild animals?” Ayma repeats, her eyes luminous in the yellowish light of the cave.
Rennan raises an amused brow. “We have one or two particularly dangerous species around here.”
“Can you smuggle us into the collective?” I blurt out, before he can elaborate.
Rennan eyes me with an air of regret. “We can get you in, but the only way you’ll come back out is as a corpse.”
“I can change those odds,” Ayma says.
Every head swings in her direction, their expressions coated with skepticism. I know what they’re thinking. How could this tiny, whip-thin, pale-faced, scared-of-the-wild teenager contribute anything to this situation? But they’re assessing only what they see, and not what lurks beneath her glossy dark ponytail.
“I’ve already breached the security architecture protecting Preeminence,” Ayma continues. “Now that we’re on Mhakerta, I can exploit the operating system from our ship and try to penetrate the secure neural network feeding Preeminence.”
The lines on Rennan’s face tighten. “How is that possible? Our brightest computer technicians have worked day and night for years to crack the security around Preeminence. There is no way in.”
“There is always a way in,” Ayma replies. “I designed an advanced, level nine spyware-scanning software program to counter the breach-proof security perimeter. Now I just need to worm my way through to the neural network.”
Several of the men and women in the circle exchange dubious glances. I’m guessing they’re part of the elite computer team Preeminence has stumped all these years.
Rennan gets to his feet. “These parents you’re searching for,” he says, pacing in the middle of the circle. “What are their names?”
“All we know is that they were government scientists who worked on classified projects,” Velkan replies. “They designed The Expulsion Project to evacuate us to a Syndicate planet before Preeminence took over. They feared the coming regime.”
“And for good reason.” Rennan twists his lips in a grimace. “Preeminence extracts and replicates the proteins in brain matter to fuel its knowledge base before replacing them in the subjects. They don’t all recover fr
om the procedure.”
I let out a horrified gasp. “How is it able to do this?”
“The robot military is under its control,” Rennan replies. “They enforce extensive blood sampling on every child born in the CentroZone. Every IQ is recorded and monitored. All tracer molecules in brain matter with an IQ of 110 or higher are extracted and assimilated into the comprehensive knowledge base through a 4-D replication process.” Rennan pauses to make sure we are following. “Preeminence employs a certain quota of scientists to run the program at a processing plant in a secret location. The rest of the population works in the CentroZone, and also oversees the collective that supplies it with produce.”
“Why bother with the collective?” Velkan asks. “Surely they could bioengineer food within the CentroZone.”
“They could, but Preeminence determined that bioengineered food doesn’t feed the brain in the same way free range protein does,” Rennan responds.
He stops pacing and stares across at us. “There were rumors four gifted children were evacuated.” A sad smile plays on his chapped lips. “It became a legend that gave us hope.” His eyes harden beneath the brim of his hat. “Now you have come back and shattered that hope. Instead of living out your lives under Syndicate protection as your parents dreamed of, you will die here with them.”
Bristling at the tone of defeat in his voice, I jump to my feet and face him. “You’re the leader of the resistance and that’s all you have to offer?” I take a step toward him and point to Ayma. “You’re looking at the most brilliant mind in the Syndicate. She’s already penetrated every security measure Preeminence devised. We can defeat this monstrous regime.”
Rennan eyes me with a mistrustful air. “So she told you.” He turns and fixes an icy gaze on Ayma. “Prove it! Show my technicians how you did it.”
Ayma lifts her chin. “I can only access it through the system on board our ship. Like I said, I built a codebreaker to crunch the defenses written into the barrier software shielding Preeminence.”
“Their ship is docked in Jackalape Valley,” Caldan pipes up from the other side of the circle. “I’ve been inside it.”
A deep trench forms on Rennan’s brow. “If the ship is picked up on radar, recon drones will be deployed to investigate. We could be discovered.”
“Our ship is equipped with advanced cloaking technology that renders it invisible,” Phin explains. “No one will be able to detect it, not even Preeminence. That’s how we got through the air space.”
His eyes meet mine, and I can tell he’s hoping the same thing I am, that Caldan doesn’t bring up the fact that the cloaking technology has been known to malfunction.
“The sooner we complete our mission, the sooner we can move the ship out of Jackalape Valley and away from your hideout,” I say to Rennan. “When can you smuggle me into the collective?”
Velkan lays a hand on my arm, but he addresses Rennan. “Both of us,” he says, his tone firm and decisive.
I flash him a grateful smile. Phin needs to stay with Ayma to guard her and the ship while she works, and I’d rather not have to infiltrate the collective alone.
“It’s a death wish,” Rennan says.
“When?” I repeat in a curt tone.
Rennan grips his chin between his fingers. “The next food transport from the collective to the CentroZone is two days from now.”
“Then there’s no time to waste,” I reply. “What’s your plan for getting us inside?”
A look of resignation settles into the grooves on Rennan’s face. “The collective sends out a foraging party every morning to check the animal traps outside the perimeter. We’ll switch you out for two of the workers who want to escape.” He snaps his fingers and a young man with shoulder-length, mousy-colored hair shoves a pair of glasses up his nose, jumps up and heads over to the computers.
“He’ll find a good match for both of you in the collective’s database,” Rennan says. “Once we’ve made our selections, we’ll send a message to our contact on the inside.”
“How do you do that?” Ayma asks.
“Some of the workers in the administrative department have access to computers,” Rennan explains.
“So how exactly are we going to switch places with the workers?” I press.
“These caves stretch for miles,” Rennan says. “We have several access points to the surface. We’ll hide out near where the foraging party set their traps.” The lines in his face deepen. “Are you sure you want to do this? I can’t guarantee we can get you back out.”
“Positive,” I reply, my voice holding steady despite the fear throbbing in my veins. Velkan and I are about to become one with the insidious system that ripped everything from us. This is the last place our parents wanted us to end up, but we need to get inside the collective if we have any hope of finding them.
Rennan is all business now the plan has been agreed upon. He details out the exact layout of the collective and goes over the daily routine with us, even practicing the two-fingered salute we will be required to give, until he is satisfied we will pass as workers. “Thankfully, your upbringing honed your survival skills and hardened your callouses,” he remarks, gesturing with a discreet tilt of his head toward Ayma. “Unlike your friend there. She looks like she’s never seen the inside of a cave before. What’s her story?”
I throw Velkan a quick warning glance. I’d rather not give away the fact that Ayma is the Syndicate Fleet Commander’s daughter. Rennan might put two and two together and realize we stole the ship from the fleet. And it might be enough to spook him into withdrawing his offer of help. For all he knows, half the fleet could be in pursuit of us. “She was raised on Aristozonex,” I say. “We came here in her ship.”
Rennan raises his brows. “She must come from an extremely wealthy family to own a ship with advanced technology unknown to Preeminence.”
I widen my eyes at him. “You wouldn’t believe the technology they have on Aristozonex.”
He merely grunts, but he throws another curious glance Ayma’s way before striding off to consult with some of his men.
Velkan turns to Phin. “Stay with Ayma and make sure she’s safe while she works on hacking into Preeminence. Trattora and I will keep in touch with the ship over the MicroComms.”
“Are you good with the plan?” I ask, looking from Ayma to Phin.
Ayma gives an unconvincing nod. “I’m worried about the two of you. It’s unlikely any of our parents are going to be on the collective. Their skills would have earmarked them to work on the protein extraction program, if they haven’t already been assimilated into it themselves.”
Her words chill me to the bone. We came to Mhakerta hoping to rescue our parents, but maybe the only recourse left to us will be revenge.
“You’ll be able to access the collective’s framework and databases,” I say. “Find a way to put us on the food transport. We need to get inside the CentroZone.”
“If the cloaking technology starts to fail, leave before it’s too late,” Velkan adds. He hesitates, his eyes clouding over. “We don’t all need to die for nothing.”
“From now on, we live and die as a team,” Ayma says softly.
Tears spring to my eyes. I squeeze her hand, too full of emotion to trust myself to say good-bye. I know she’ll do everything in her power to protect us.
I watch as she and Phin follow Caldan back down the tunnel leading out of the cave to make their way back to the ship. I may never see any of them again, and the thought terrifies me. If the cloaking technology fails and recon drones find the ship, Preeminence will obliterate it. I can’t bear the thought of anything happening to Phin and Ayma, or Velkan—and I don’t want to die either. I want to go back to Buir and Cwelt and everything I’ve left behind. I need to go back and lead my people one day. But we came here on a mission, and we have to see it through—even if it means sacrificing everything.
I turn my attention back to Rennan. “When do we make the switch?”
“T
omorrow morning,” he answers tersely. “We’ll wait in the woods near the traps. The foraging party will be sent out early to check them. There will be ten or twelve of them, accompanied by two sentinel drones and a guard. So long as the same number of workers return on the transport, no one will know anything’s amiss.”
Rennan draws his brows together tightly. “Once inside, you need to keep a low profile, don’t show any initiative, or exhibit above average problem-solving skills. You don’t want to be pulled out for retesting.” He runs his eyes over our jumpsuits. “Those will have to go. You’ll need to wear something more fitting to workers on a collective.”
He consults with a young brunette woman, and she disappears deeper into the cave. When she returns a few minutes later, her arms are piled high with neutral-colored loose-fitting pants and tunics.
“We can pull these on over our suits,” I say to Velkan.
Rennan frowns. “That would be foolish. If anyone sees them, questions will be asked.”
“We’ll only be there for a day,” I say. “Ayma will get us on that food transport.”
“If you’re lucky,” Rennan mutters.
I ignore him and pull on the ill-fitting collective clothes over my suit. They are rough spun and itchy, but with my suit next to my skin, they don’t bother me. “We’ll have to stash our BodPaks here,” I say to Velkan. “We can’t hide those.”
“There’s one more thing we need to take care of,” Rennan says. He walks over to a box by the back wall and pulls out a metal tool that looks like a large dart gun of some sort.
He straightens up, an apologetic look on his face. “I’ll need to tag you.”
16
Instinctively, I draw back, staring with loathing at the steel tagging gun in Rennan’s hand. It hits me now that this is real, that we’re going to have to become the property of Preeminence before we can overthrow it.
“Every worker on the collective is tagged,” Rennan explains. “You won’t get past security without an ear tag.”
Girl of Stone (The Expulsion Project Book 2) Page 12