Sketches

by Teyla Branton

  “Look,” he said, swallowing hard. “I know it wasn’t your fault, what happened to my mother. I know you’re a victim of your father’s greed. And I want to tell you I’m grateful you’ve identified the man responsible so I can avenge her death.”

  “But?” She heard it in his voice.

  “I’m still angry at what happened. At all of it.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I know.”

  She wasn’t surprised that he still blamed her. She blamed herself. No matter how many years it had been or how much the CORE had experimented on her, sketching Summers that day had caused Jaxon’s mother’s murder. The emotions encompassed by that event wouldn’t resolve easily with any amount of logic.

  “I was asleep the first time I saw you,” he said, his voice scarcely a whisper that glided over her skin like a touch. “I would have dismissed it as a dream, if it hadn’t repeated a half dozen times when I was awake. But it was a year before you walked into the Fountain plaza. I was beginning to think my gift was broken where you were concerned. I’m glad it wasn’t.”

  They were still close. She could feel the warmth of him along her thigh, and it both comforted and excited her. “I’m glad I’m here.”

  “Me too.”

  It wasn’t exactly the forgiveness she craved, but it was the first step, and maybe in time, he could forgive her. Then she might be able to forgive herself.

  LYSSA ARRIVED EARLY at Reese’s apartment, feeling the weight of the small pistol Brogan had given her to wear in an ankle holster. Coming here before Lyra was the only way to prevent her sister from taking her place. Lyra had given up enough for her and Tamsin. Now it was Lyssa’s turn to do the right thing. Lyra and Kansas deserved a chance for happiness.

  Reese opened the door almost immediately, dressed in civilian clothes and with a heavy-looking bag slung over her shoulder. No doubt it was full of weapons. “We were just going to grab some sandwiches from the deli to take with us. That’ll be far better than readymeals.”

  “Good thing I came early then.” Lyssa hoped they couldn’t hear the tension in her voice. “Now you won’t have to return here for me. Even if we arrive earlier than we planned at the rendezvous, it’ll just be more time for us to scope out the area.”

  Whatever happened, Lyssa needed to get them on the road before Lyra could stop her. She’d send a text when it was too late to back out. She hoped she lived long enough for Lyra to forgive her.

  And her sweet Tamsin—it was hard even to think her daughter’s name. At least after today Tamsin could be proud of who she was, and that was something Lyssa couldn’t say about herself lately.

  Today I take control of my life.

  JAXON AND THE women sat waiting in the scant shade of their all-terrain shuttle, backs against the warm metal. The large shuttle was perfect for rolling over the uneven ground, and it had brought them here with only a few deviations around Colony 5 and an empty zone with a mound of pre-Breakdown debris that might have once been a shopping mall. Remains of the sky train system were also apparent once they passed the colony, the lines having fallen to the ground, half buried now in the rich earth. Most disturbing were the huge scars cutting into the land at irregular intervals, seemingly unchanged by the eighty years since the bombs brought by Breakdown.

  They weren’t close enough to the North Desolation Zone to worry about radiation, but Jaxon couldn’t help thinking of Nova and her father. Brogan carried a huge weight that Jaxon understood only too well because of his mother’s death. What Jaxon didn’t know was if Brogan’s yearning for revenge would lead them into disaster. But if Brogan’s plans gave Jaxon a chance at Summers, maybe he didn’t care. Still, he was grateful that over the past few days, his unbridled anger at Summers had settled into a simmering heat that was tolerable, though it threatened at any moment to burst into flame.

  If only he’d known Summers had been responsible. He would have shot sooner. You would have dumped the kid to die alone and afraid? His thoughts mocked him. Maybe he would have, and what did that say about him?

  Only that he was going to murder Summers like the pus-licking dog he was. A grim smile of determination stretched over his face.

  First, he had to get through this meeting and discover what was happening to the scientists. The thought had barely finished when the nausea of a premonition hit him.

  Bodies litter the ground, dead and rotting under the hot sun.

  Jaxon felt a nudge and the vision vanished. He turned toward Reese, whose face was pale and distressed. With heavy movements, she reached into her bag for her sketchbook. He watched as the scene from his mind came to life under her hand, looking far too realistic. He was glad he had been so busy at her apartment trying not to think about his vision of them in bed together that he hadn’t been able to bring up the image of his friends’ bullet-mangled bodies.

  Lyssa glanced over at Reese’s sketchbook. “What’s that?”

  “Jaxon’s premonition.”

  “Who are they?”

  Jaxon shook his head. “No idea.”

  Their eyes were still fixed on her sketchbook when a low humming reached their ears. All of them came to their feet, shielding their eyes from the brightness of the sun. They could see nothing that would make that noise.

  “You hear that?” Lyssa said. Not to either of them, but to Lyra, who had connected with her shortly before they’d arrived. “Please, leave it alone,” she added half under her breath. “I’m doing this. You can yell at me later.”

  Jaxon had no idea what Lyssa and Lyra were arguing about, and since he’d already asked Lyssa twice in the past hour, without a response, he figured she wouldn’t tell him now.

  “There!” Reese pointed to the north, where a tiny dot had appeared and grew steadily bigger at a rate that made a shuttle at top speed look like it was standing still.

  “What is that?” Lyssa asked.

  Jaxon had no response for her, though as the vehicle—no, craft—grew closer, he recognized it from his premonition. This was the moment he’d seen: his arm brushing Reese’s, Lyssa on his other side.

  “It’s a hovercraft.” Reese’s hand was already sketching the lines on her paper: smooth sides shaped like two blunted cones placed with the large ends together, without apparent windows except one in the front. It had a slightly larger circumference than their all-terrain shuttle, and it was a good half meter longer.

  History taught that personal hovercrafts—ships, really—had been designed but never successfully launched before Breakdown, and the proposed tech, along with most aviation ability, had been lost. Apparently, that wasn’t true.

  “Don’t draw your weapons unless absolutely necessary,” he said. “Let’s not give people with this kind of tech any reason to shoot us down.”

  Reese removed a tiny backup pistol from her bag and tucked it inside the top of her shirt. It was only a .22, and probably wouldn’t do much good unless she was close and accurate, but he applauded the effort. He had brought a few of his own choice weapons inside his pack, but he doubted whoever they were meeting would let them keep any of it.

  The hovercraft came to a stop in front of them, settling gently to the earth like an ancient helicopter Jaxon had once seen the CORE Director use to visit the academy, except with a lot more finesse. He itched to pull a weapon. What if Summers was inside that machine? But if the CORE had the tech, wouldn’t the Elite use it?

  A door opened slowly, hinged at the bottom and forming a ramp to the earth. Boots appeared at the top, quickly becoming two men and a woman in cement-colored uniforms. The same uniforms worn by the men with Dani at the Coop transfer station.

  Fringers.

  None of them looked familiar. Before he could ask Reese if she recognized them, the fringers surrounded them. Two held assault rifles, not pointed at them, but obviously ready, while the third asked for their weapons. Jaxon had to give up his gun and brass knuckles, but he hung on to the knife in his boot. Reese turned over a knife and two guns from her a
nkle holsters. Giving a sigh, Lyssa placed her gun on the pile with obvious disappointment.

  “Probably would have missed if I shot it anyway,” she muttered.

  After a cursory body check that found nothing more, the soldier who’d taken their weapons gestured for them to enter the hovercraft, but Jaxon held back. “Where do you want to take us?”

  “Get in,” ordered one of the men. “It’s not safe here.”

  “Then why—” Jaxon began.

  The man smoothly pulled a gun and pointed at them. “Get in now!”

  Inside, their captors pushed them into a row of seats near the front of the hovercraft. The three soldiers sat opposite them in facing seats. At the hover control was a female pilot, dressed like the others but wearing a helmet with a blinking screen on one side. She touched a few controls on the panel in front of her, and the door shut. The hovercraft lifted, sending a sickening sensation through Jaxon’s stomach. No runway necessary like the old planes seen on the Teev, or spinning rotors like on a helicopter. Just pure engine power that both thrilled and awed him.

  The soldiers were putting on helmets similar to the pilot’s. There was one helmet left and no one stopped him as he reached for it. He put it on, but the visor showed nothing until one of the soldiers reached over and tapped the screen on the helmet’s side. Some kind of Teev, Jaxon guessed.

  All at once, the outside world came to life. For miles in every direction, he could see around the hovercraft as it glided northward over the countryside. No wonder they didn’t need windows. He was about to let Reese have a look when they approached an area that looked eerily familiar. Too late, he realized they had crossed into the North Desolation Zone.

  In the next second, bodies began to appear. Their faces were blistered and torn. Some were nearly skeletons and others looked as if they’d only lain down that day. One couple lay together, a child curled between them. To Jaxon’s horror, the hovercraft slowed and landed in the middle of the corpses. In the middle of his premonition.

  Jaxon ripped off the helmet, and when Reese tried to take it, he shook his head and kept hold of the device. “Why have you brought us here?” he said, standing abruptly. Immediately, three guns pointed in his direction.

  There could be only one reason. They would be joining the corpses outside.

  He waited, trying to signal Reese with his eyes to reach for her hidden gun. At least they would go down fighting. They might be able to take two of these pus-licking fringers with them. He bunched his muscles, debating when to go for his knife, as the pilot turned and slipped from her seat.

  “Relax, Jaxon,” she said, removing her helmet. “Please sit back down. I only brought you here to talk in safety. We’re not far enough into the desolation zone that radiation is a problem. At least, if we remain inside the hover.”

  “Dani!” Lyssa exclaimed. She started to stand but apparently thought better of it and remained in her seat. “Thank CORE you’re safe.”

  Dani gave her an ironic smile. “The CORE had nothing to do with it. But hello, Lyssa.”

  “You always hated that saying,” Lyssa said. “And you can still tell it’s me, and not Lyra. Good to know some things don’t change.”

  But Dani didn’t motion her men to put down their guns. “You’d better tell me what you’re doing here, and what happened to the family we came to rescue.”

  Jaxon’s heart rate was slowing now that he wasn’t facing an imminent threat of demise, though they clearly weren’t out of danger yet. He sat down, but only because it put him closer to the knife in his boot. “What I want to know is what you have to do with the missing scientists and programmers. Have the fringers taken them?”

  Dani laughed. “You can look at this hover and ask that? It flies, in case you hadn’t noticed. What do you think fringers have been doing with anyone who reaches out for rescue? We’ve been inventing, creating, and exploring. Building on pre-Breakdown tech, not controlling access.”

  But she hadn’t exactly answered the question. “We have six missing people and one dead,” he said. “What do you fringers know about that?”

  Dani swept her gaze over them, her dark eyes full of disdain. “There are no fringers, Jaxon. Regardless of what the CORE has told you. We are the same as you—we just weren’t willing to give the CORE control. We failed to stop them sixty years ago, but we haven’t given up. We’re a living, breathing, free nation called Newcali. For years, we’ve protected our borders from the CORE, from both physical and biological attacks. They have made it clear they want to encroach on our lands and enslave us as they did those in the colonies. But we’re finished waiting for the next attack—or for your citizens to fight back and protect their own.”

  “So you’ve been contacting programmers and scientists,” Reese said. “We found your site from a Teev used by one of our missing scientists.”

  Dani gave her an enigmatic smile. “Mostly they find us. These are men and women who work for the CORE. They’re tired of seeing their inventions ignored or used for purposes of control. They’ve seen friends enhanced beyond recognition, they’ve watched their rights grow more limited with each generation. They don’t want to stand by and watch until everyone they care about is in a colony.”

  “You still haven’t told us about our people,” Jaxon said. “Philo Henderson is dead. What about the others? Are they alive or aren’t they? What do you have to do with it?”

  “It’s not as easy as all that,” Dani said. “By the simple fact of offering rescue, we are responsible. But to answer your question, we always attempt to backtrace people after they ask for extraction, and if they don’t show up for the rendezvous, we go in for them. That happened three times in the past five months.” Her lips pressed together in a rigid line. “We got to them in time—except for Henderson. We were nearly too late for the other two, and we had to take them from CORE Special Forces, who apparently had them under surveillance. One man, we’re still not sure if he’ll make it. Name’s Bart Richey.”

  Pity rose in Jaxon’s chest. No wonder Richey hadn’t come back for or made contact with his wife. Though maybe not doing so had saved her life, and their child’s.

  “We thought it was Richey’s wife who might have been meeting us today,” she said. “He’d contacted us through that specific Teev before.”

  “And you wanted to reunite them?” Jaxon had his doubts about that.

  Dani’s bland expression didn’t change. “He has a brother who has engineering skills. He’d be useful in Newcali. We thought they might be coming together.”

  That sounded more like the Dani he’d glimpsed during their meeting in the Coop.

  “What about Henderson?” Reese asked. “It was you who dumped him, wasn’t it?” She was flexing her fingers at her side, and Jaxon figured she had seen the event in Dani’s mind and wanted to sketch it.

  Dani nodded. “Like I said, we arrived a little too late, but we overcame the Special Forces and borrowed their uniforms and shuttle. We thought leaving him at Freedom Fountain might wake up the local enforcers.” Her mouth parted in a smile that was more sinister than friendly. “Seems I was right.”

  “You’re not the only one working for change.” Jaxon motioned to the others. “We are too. And you’re going to work with us.”

  Dani snorted a laugh. “What makes you so sure?”

  “Because I’m from the Coop. I just know.”

  “I see.” Dani studied him for a minute, as if pondering how she could turn the knowledge to her advantage.

  “Dani.” Reese called her attention. “The bodies outside. Who . . . how did they get there?” There was a note in her voice that tore at something inside Jaxon. He hadn’t been able to shield her from that.

  Dani turned and pressed a few buttons on the hovercraft’s console, and immediately, the walls shimmered with Teev-type feed, showing the bodies scattered around them like so much litter.

  “This is a CORE dumping ground. At least for the Dallastar colonies. These are people who
don’t fit in or whose enhancing wasn’t successful. See those crates? They put food inside to keep them close. They dump them here and let the radiation do the job. Every so often, they broadcast images of the area and tell people it’s fringers, but we’re not stupid enough to come here unprotected. Some of the people make it to the edge of the desolation zone before they die, and those serve to make sure no one else enters.”

  “There’s nothing you can do for them?” Lyssa said.

  Dani slapped off the display. “By the time we find them, it’s always too late. Even those the CORE sends in with suits for protection to gather pre-Breakdown tech eventually die. The suits are practically useless against the levels registering where there is still tech to be found. You’d think—”

  Lyssa stood abruptly with a horrified gasp, an expression of utter dismay on her face. Jaxon thought she was having a delayed reaction to the corpses, but her eyes had a faraway stare that immediately had him concerned.

  “What is it?” he barked.

  “Lyra and the others. There’s shooting! Lyra’s afraid.”

  “What do you mean?” Reese touched her arm, and her face immediately changed. “Special Forces,” she muttered.

  “You were being watched,” Dani said. “That’s why we had to leave the rendezvous area so quickly.”

  “Those were our friends,” Jaxon said. “Our backup. But apparently they’re not the only ones here anymore.”

  “They’re fighting now.” Lyssa drew in a swift breath. “Lyra shot her gun! Oh, no. He bashed her with a rifle.” Lyssa was clinging to Reese now, her face a mask of terror.

  “They should be okay,” Jaxon said. “The captain’s with them. He’ll fix things soon enough.”

  Lyssa was choking back sobs. “No! The enforcers know about all of it. Captain Brogan’s been shot. They’re cuffing them all. They’re putting them into a shuttle.”

  “Give me my bag!” Reese shouted, startling everyone. “I need my sketchbook.”