Rogue
Book One: Convergence Series
By S.A. Stephenson
Copyright © 2017 Sally Annabelle Stephenson
All rights reserved.
Published by Franklin and Akaroa Publishing, 2017
Auckland, New Zealand
No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Under no circumstances may any part of this book be photocopied for resale.
This is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and co-incidental.
Cover by Andrei Bat (https://thebookcoverdesigner.com/designers/andrei-b/)
Formatting by Clare Davidson (http://www.smudged-ink.com)
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Dedicated to Ian Stephenson
I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart)
e.e cummings
For Shelly and Vero
Prologue
KIT VALLETTA WAS ASLEEP when the world erupted into sirens and blaring red lights. Her eyes flew open to see an empty bed above her. Gia Russo, the elite soldier who had a knack of knowing how the system worked. She knew what happened at each well-timed moment, the movement of guards and the few seconds that were exposed in their carefully orchestrated shifts. She had either managed to slip away as the rest of them had filed into the dorms, or she had been caught and was on the way to one of the camps in the Nevermore. Kit quickly dismissed that thought, Gia wasn’t someone who would let a guard capture her so easily. They had been preparing for tonight for too long for Gia to be stopped at the first part of their plan.
Kit needed to find her father, Edward. He and Gia had been preparing for this night for months and it couldn’t go wrong now.
The alarms were deafening as Kit swung her legs out of the bed, reluctantly leaving the brief comfort her blanket provided. The smell of her mother lingered in the fabric, a sweet perfume of motherly love. Kit dwelled in the moment for a fraction longer than she should, wishing Erin were there with them but shook the thought away as she filed out with the other residents and went to find her father. Erin had been killed, Kit knew that, but there was something in her subconscious that told her, her mother had to be alive. They hadn’t found a body, there had never been any proof.
The Shard Building was one of the hundreds of nondescript bunkers in Volt that housed soldiers and government workers, segregated by position and ability according to the great State of Volt's processing system. The men were located in the Z Quarter of the Shard, the women in the L Quarter. They had begun to file out of the building, undisturbed by the noise that deafened the air. Kit pushed her way against the crowd when she saw Gia ahead of her.
'Gia!’ She called.
‘Kit, what's going on, is it time?' She asked.
Kit nodded
'They'll be heading to the Domain,' Gia said.
'We need to get to my father,' Kit told her. Gia agreed and they continued in the opposite direction of the crowd. The women marched around them, their expressions blank as they fell into the well-trained response that they could not break free from.
Kit followed Gia down a flight of stairs as the sprinkler system kicked in. 'Great,' Gia said as they reached a door. She pushed against it and entered a back-passageway to the Z Quarter. The quarter was filled with the male soldiers, and like the women, they filed out of the bunker. Kit took a moment to survey the crowd. Her pupils widened as she tried to zoom in on the faces, looking for the one that was the most familiar. When she saw him, her heart slowed. Edward was a well-built man, prime material for a soldier in Volt. His silver hair flickered against his dark gray fatigues. The wrinkles on his forehead had deepened in the previous months as concern had found a way into their conversations. The planning, the secret meetings, had all led to this moment. Edward had never been built for the walls that Galen's presidency had created, having come here during the late days of the plague when there was nowhere else left to go. Kit had grown up with him telling her stories of the world and how it used to be. He told her about New York, how it had fallen and become known as the Spire, how the great Plains of America had become wastelands, the Nevermore, and how the once free United States, had fallen to become the Empire of America. Kit wondered how the world had ever been so different, but she had believed in her father’s passion for the world that once was and was determined to try and find it again.
'Dad!' Kit called over the noise of the crowd. He heard her and began to make his way over to them.
'Are you ready?' He asked.
Kit nodded. 'As I'll ever be.'
'The wire is a good 15 miles away,' Edward said. 'We need to be ready because they're not going to let a bunch of us mutants out so easily.'
'Then we'll show them what mutants can really do,' determination furrowing in Gia’s brow.
They headed out with the rest of the soldiers, and once they had made it to the courtyard Kit saw the extent of the evacuation.
'Oz really did a job on the security system,' Gia commented.
'He's a good kid,' Edward said and began to break away from the crowd who were heading to the Domain. Kit could see Armistice Guards high up on the brick wall that surrounded the government quarters. Their rifles were aimed down at the soldiers below.
'It's almost cute that they think bullets kill mutants,' Gia said.
‘They’re designed to slow us down, not kill us,’ Edward replied.
'Where's Logan?' Kit asked. ‘He was supposed to be here with-’
An explosion ripped through the wall. The Armistice Guards were flung from their positions and the wall crumpled as a large army truck drove through it. Kit smiled when she saw Logan James at the wheel.
'Run!' Edward ordered and they sprinted for the truck. Kit leapt high into the air and landed in the back as Gia and Edward scrambled into the passenger seats. Logan quickly began reversing the truck as Armistice guards began shooting at them. Kit felt their energy pulsating through the air, determination emanating from them in a way she had never felt before. Their intent was set to kill. She had become their prey. Through all her training she had been taught to be the hunter, the one who would track down any enemy who entered the Empire’s borders. Now she would have to use those skills to survive the men who had operated alongside her for so long.
A group of mutants broke out and followed the truck, fighting off the guards.
Kit looked back at the scene. 'How far to the wire?' She asked.
'7 miles,' Logan called back to her as jets began to fly overhead. 'Hold tight,' he said.
He turned the truck quickly as a plane flew down low and began firing at them. Kit dropped for cover as the bullets ricocheted off the bumper. She looked up at the plane and felt energy burn behind her eyes, their natural brown shone green and the plane quivered in the air before it came crashing down behind them. The impact caused the truck to rear up and Logan skidded it to a stop as the engine died.
'Great,' he said as he hit the wheel. 'They've cut the electric grid.'
'Which is why we learnt to love running,' Gia said as she climbed out of the truck.
More jets were approaching them as Kit climbed down from the back. She was weak, struggling to stand after her last attack. 'You gonna be okay?' Gia asked her.
'I’ll be fine,' Kit said. 'Come on, we gotta bail.' She took Gia's hand, its familiar warmth helping her run after Edward and Logan.
The ground outside the buildings was rough, dead earth filled with landmines. Edward guided them, his sonic vision allowing him to see what was underneath the surface. He guided them around a number of mines and Kit's chest tightened with hope when she saw the wire, she had heard so much about life beyond it. Stories of people trying to escape, but being killed before they had even made it this far. Life beyond the, wire fence was unknown. The concept of freedom, was something that had only been talked about in hushed whispers, Kit and Gia had talked late into the night about what there could possibly be beyond the world that they were confined to. The world they were created in. Edward had inspired and encouraged these conversations, he wanted his daughter to experience freedom outside of a compound that a totalitarian government had created.
'Remember how we're going to get through?' Edward asked her as the truck slowed. Kit nodded.
Gia went over to the edge of the fence and could feel the electricity vibrating from it. Felt it shake in her fingers and smiled. Armistice Guards were close behind them. Their voices blurred into one. 'We don't have time to hang around,' Edward said. 'Gia, time to shine.'
Gia smiled, her eyes golden, Kit leant against her father as dizziness swept over her, she could hear the guards getting closer.
Gia made a fist and punched the ground. Electric energy, that’s what she had always called magic when they were growing up, shook throughout the soil, Kit heard the blood of the Armistice Guards boil and the bodies drop to the floor. The fence was dead, the electricity had been cut. Logan grabbed a knife from his boot and quickly cut through the chinks. He made his way through as a group of Armistice Guards came out of the forest behind them. Gia hurried through the gap and turned back for Kit. Her nose was bleeding and she looked pale. Gia had seen this before and quickly grabbed for her. 'I got you,' she said. Kit pushed her way through the gap and turned back for her father, only to see him being held down by Armistice Guards.
'Run!' He yelled at her.
She paused as exhaustion began to take her. She couldn't leave him. They had planned this for too long. Their new life in a free world, where they could be like the other humans, the ones who hadn't been trained to be super soldiers for the Empire of America's new army. Where he could take her to school, before he went to work in an office somewhere. Edward had been her constant source of support in this world of uncertainty, he raised her with her mother. After her mother had been taken away Kit had clung to him tighter. Listened to him with more intent and believed in his ideology of how the world should be. He was born to be free, to set her free.
'We gotta blaze,' Logan said and pulled Kit to her feet as another wave of Guards came after them. They ran through the forest on the other side of the wire, Kit's heart raced against her chest as tears streamed down her face. She could hear her father screaming in the distance. Being dragged back to the world he had wanted to destroy
She ran for her freedom.
Chapter One
THE SPIRE WAS HIDEOUS in the rain. It was as though people suddenly stopped knowing how to function. Evie was running late, something that she wasn't used to, and the packed trains on the D Line wasn't helping her mood. She looked around at the other commuters, the black woman who she saw nearly every morning was staring into space like normal. Next to her was a young man in his twenties, bobbing his head to music from his headphones. In one of the seats was a woman on her tablet, she punched a few keys and Evie saw a hologram float up with an image of a handsome young man. She had headphones in as she spoke to him, Evie distantly listened to the conversation, in the otherwise quiet carriage.
'It's going to be a great lecture,' the woman said. The man must have replied as she scoffed. 'Just because you're stuck in the dark ages doesn't mean I have to be.'
Evie's interest peaked but the train stopped and the woman, and her conversation, filtered through the doors. Evie was jostled down to the other end of the train, she looked out the window to see a billboard with her face plastered on it.
Dr Evelyn Fox. Keynote lecture at The Spire's Institute of Genetic Research. She had heard of the posters, but hadn't actually seen one. It was a little surreal and she was grateful that no one in the train seemed to recognize her.
She got off at 81st Street and walked up the pavement where she was grateful for the cool breeze that brushed past her as the heavy rain began to lighten. She stepped out of the crowd for a moment to find her bearings. She widened her eyes and looked across the street and found where she needed to go. She made it to the crosswalk and saw that the lights were broken. She sighed, everything was broken since the Blast. The government weren't about to spend money on things that would make the lives better for their people. She followed the crowd who were dodging round cars and buses. They all looked the same, broken up and beaten. Since the formation of the Empire, Evie couldn't recall when new cars were last imported. People made do with what they could scrounge together. Somehow the city still managed to run, Evie had to remember that not every major city had been as fortunate.
She made it to the other side of the street and was thankful to have not been run over. She wound her way through the crowd till she made it to the Institute of Genetic Research. She walked into the foyer and took a moment to compose herself as she felt windswept and had become quickly drenched from the downpour. She looked up at the foyer, its massive entry way was made out of gray colored marble. There were two security check points, checking the bags of every person who tried to enter. Evie watched the guards go through the bags of the workers and then check the arm of each. On the forearm was the symbol that Evie saw every day. The EKG line that marked them as humans. She walked forward to join the queue and put her bag on the sorting belt and rolled up the sleeve of her jacket.
'Morning Dr. Fox,' the security guard said to her. Joshua Adams had been working as a guard for nearly twenty years. For as long as she had been there he was the first person she saw every day, and always greeted her with a smile.
'Morning Mr. Adams,' she said, and saw him hide a goofy grin at the title. 'Do we have to do this every time? Surely you know me by now.'
'I do,' he said. 'But you know the law, humans have to be processed. Don't want to be letting any mutants into these walls now do we?' He asked.
Evie was subdued as she answered. 'No,' she said. The conversation on mutant rights was one she was quickly learning to avoid.
'You ready for your big night tonight?' Joshua asked her. 'Pretty impressive poster they've got up there,' nodding over to the large hanging that was advertising her latest book. Genetic Interpretation and modern law reform for mutants. It was something she was proud of, something she believed could make a change but there was a knot of apprehension in her stomach.
'What if people hate me for it?' She stepped out of the line so he could process Emily Harker.
'You're already a controversial scientist,' Emi
ly said grabbing her bag. 'People would expect nothing less. Personally, I'm looking forward to it.'
Emily's comment was supposed to be kind, but Evie didn't feel comforted. Joshua noticed her concern. 'If anyone from that Volt place comes after you, they'll have me to get through first,' he said. Evie smiled at him as she shouldered her bag.
'Thank you, Mr. Adams,' she said. 'Best get to work. See you tonight?' She asked.
'Will do. Mom's coming in specially to see you,' he said. Evie smiled at the thought of getting to see Marianne. Secretly hoping that she would bring one of her delicious lasagna’s that she was given every time she went to visit the elderly widow.
Evie made her way to the large laboratory that was in the basement of the building. She traveled in the elevator alone, grateful that few people ever came down to this part of the Institute. The doors opened and Evie felt calmer at the sight of the workstations and the familiar faces of her team. Instead of going up to the table to see the latest body that had been brought in, Evie headed to the stairs for her office. She stopped when she looked over to the exam room that was nestled off to the side, to see Cara Fields bent over the gurney. If the lab made Evie feel settled, then seeing Cara made her feel at home. Her childhood friend always made her feel comforted, even in the most extreme times. Cara's red hair was braided and she was looking closely through her glasses at what she was examining. Evie had come to appreciate Cara's meticulous attention to detail, her care for those who came through their morgue and her compassion for those classified as mutants who are disregarded in both life and death. Evie knocked on the door before opening it.
'Hey,' Cara said, still half distracted by her task. Her blue eyes focused, but flickered over to Evie. 'You look like you had a fun commute.’
'You know what this city's like,' Evie said. 'Ever since the world got hit by the Blast the people lost their minds,' she said.
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