Lucas dropped his gaze and then he smiled. “Fine,” he gave in. “But I don’t think you’re talking that one out of going along.” He jerked his chin at Roomie, who had moved to stand next to me.
“You can’t go to Goodland,” I told the cat. “People are definitely going to notice a giant cat strolling through downtown.”
Roomie just narrowed his eyes and stared at me. I could feel his determination down to my bones.
“Seriously,” I tried again. “You would stand out way too much…”
I trailed off, disconcerted by the cat’s hard stare.
“You don’t even know Goodland,” I told him. “You’re a Denver cat. You would get lost.”
He growled at me.
“I can’t carry you around in that backpack the whole time. You barely fit and you weigh a ton.”
Roomie’s tail lashed, whipping against my leg with each pass. He continued to vibrate with that very low, irritated growl as he glared at me.
“Fine!” I threw my hands in the air. “Have it your way. But don’t you complain when you’re stuffed in that pack for hours each day. You asked for it.”
I huffed and turned back to the people at the table, who had watched my talk with Roomie in fascination.
“Did you just lose an argument with your cat?” Rivers asked.
“Shut up.”
4
Within an hour, we had the bones of a plan in place. Sharra and Roomie and I would leave for Goodland immediately. While we were traveling, Lucas would find a way to get a secure message to one of my old contacts, Martín de Silva, and set up a meet.
“Tell him to find us in the main marketplace in the Warren,” Sharra suggested. “It’s a neutral area, so we can set up there until we can connect with Martín.”
I felt a mingled thrill of fear and anticipation at the idea of heading into the Warren. The Warren was an extensive network of underground tunnels and culverts that had originally been built for use as a sewer system for the new city under construction. Before they were ever put to use, new advances in water treatment rendered the sewage system obsolete and unneeded, so the tunnels were simply sealed off and ignored.
Since there was no longer any official purpose for the tunnels, they were easily commandeered by the dissenting community that exists on the fringes of any society—not necessarily all criminals but often not particularly law-abiding either. Over time a second, more unsavory city had formed in the underground passages. The official districts occasionally advocated for the military to go in and sweep the tunnels clear, but my father had always opposed it.
Though the Warren was considered extremely dangerous, he stood firm in his insistence that not all residents of the Warren were criminals and should not be punished for the actions of others. Many people lived in the Warren simply for lack of other options, in spite of social programs that tried to eliminate such circumstances.
Nevertheless, the First Lady had certainly never been permitted to visit the Warren, and I was interested to see what it was really like after all the stories I’d heard.
“How well do you know the Warren?” I asked Sharra.
“Not very well,” she admitted. “But I know my way to a place where we can camp for the night. It’s kind of a neutral area; anyone can be there as long as they don’t bother anyone else. We’ll also be able to ask around about Mateo to try to track him down while we’re waiting for your friend Martín. There’s always somebody selling information.
“The main market covers a pretty large area, and the population is constantly shifting as people come and go,” she said. “If we circulate through the crowds there, we’re going to come into contact with new people all day.”
“That sounds good,” I agreed. “We can show the sketches of Mateo, and maybe someone will recognize him. If he’s been in Goodland plotting to destroy the city, the Warren seems like the place to find him, right?”
“It seems like a good bet,” Sharra agreed. “There are a few other marketplaces in the Warren. If nothing pans out in the main market or with your contact, we’ll move on to another market the next day.”
“It’s enough to get us started,” I stated. “We’ll have to play it by ear a lot once we get there, but at least this is a beginning.”
Lucas nodded in agreement and told Sharra, “Your wrist-com is pretty limited, but it’s secure enough if you keep it to short messages. Keep us updated and we’ll refine details as we go.”
With the basic decisions made, there was no reason to delay and every reason to move quickly. I left the room with a quick promise to Lucas to find him before we left and hurried to my room to grab my gear. I threw a few changes of clothes into a small pack and grabbed my battered, old backpack and slung it over my shoulder, empty. Roomie would climb in later, but for now he padded along beside me, his tail lashing with excitement as we hurried down the stairs to meet Sharra.
If I’d had a tail, it would have been whipping around with excitement, too. It was exhilarating to finally be on the move. I was going back to Goodland at last, and I was going to do everything I could to set things right. I would start by taking care of the situation with Mateo, but no matter what Lucas and the rest of the leadership thought, I wasn’t going to trot tamely back here afterward to continue cooling my heels and waiting for permission to act. I wasn’t leaving Goodland until I had taken out Cruz and his entire crew.
When I’d left Goodland, I’d had no idea who might be working with Cruz. As a result, I hadn’t dared to trust anyone. Thanks to Lucas and his team of hackers, now I knew which people were working with Cruz and who I could safely approach.
I wasn’t so absorbed in my plans that I could miss seeing Lucas waiting at the bottom of the stairs. I hurried down and leapt into his arms when I was still two stairs away. Lucas caught me easily, the wonderful, deep laugh that I loved so much echoing back up the stairs behind us.
“I wasn’t going to let you go without saying goodbye,” he told me. “Come here.”
He pulled me into the shadowed nook next to the stairs so we could say a very heated goodbye. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him hard. I was going to miss him so much. His love and support had been instrumental in helping me cope with all the crazy changes in my life since Cruz’s betrayal. I would have survived without him, but I would have been a lot less mentally stable. I wished he could come with us to Goodland, but I understood that as the pack leader, he had to be here to take care of our people.
Lucas broke our kiss and buried his face against my neck. I hugged him close. Tears pricked at my eyes. I tilted my face to the ceiling and blinked fast to hold them back. Saying goodbye was hard enough without embarrassing myself with tears. Lucas straightened to his full height again and drew me against his chest.
“Be careful,” he said, his voice hoarse with suppressed emotion. “I know you’re not going to just find Mateo and head home again. I’m not going to try and stop you from doing what you need to do … just be careful. Take care of yourself and come back to me.”
He pulled me in for one more kiss, and I poured all my intense, confused feelings into it. My fervor sparked an answering intensity in Lucas, and he held me even tighter as he deepened our passionate kiss. For a few moments we both forgot the rest of the world, completely wrapped up in each other. I vaguely registered the touch of Roomie’s big paw as he patted at my leg to get my attention, but I ignored him to continue kissing Lucas. When Roomie’s gentle pawing didn’t get my notice, he moved on to butting his head against our knees. His nudges became more forceful until a particularly hard shove almost knocked us both off our feet. We ended the kiss as we both staggered for balance.
I pulled a face at Roomie, both amused and annoyed at his interruption. He returned the look calmly and responded with a short, sharp yowl. He was clearly scolding me for the delay and telling me it was time to get moving. I couldn’t argue, so I resisted the temptation to return to kissing Lucas.
“Cha, he’s righ
t,” I told Lucas. “We need to head out.”
I smoothed my hand down the side of his face in a final caress. He pulled my hand to his mouth and dropped a kiss on the palm. I closed my fingers around the lingering warmth from his lips and stepped away. Squaring my shoulders in determination, I headed for the entry where Sharra had been waiting before Lucas pulled me over for a private goodbye.
I was stunned to see that Sharra was wrapped up in a passionate goodbye kiss of her own. With Rivers. When had that happened? I couldn’t believe Sharra had kept such a big secret from me. I’d had no idea she was in any kind of a relationship. Although this did explain why Sharra had been taking patrol shifts of her own recently instead of just coordinating from the guard room. She must have been meeting up with Rivers while out on patrol. I was definitely going to grill her later and get the details, but for now I would just try to disentangle her from Rivers and get on the road.
I strode across the lobby floor, Roomie on my heels, until I reached the couple who were oblivious to the world around them. I cleared my throat, but they didn’t even notice me. I exchanged a quick glance with Roomie; he was practically rolling his eyes at these humans and their emotional farewells.
“Oy, Rivers,” I snapped. “What are you doing to my partner? Turn her loose.”
Rivers and Sharra pulled apart and sent me annoyed looks that probably matched the frown I’d given Roomie just a few minutes ago. I responded with a cheery smile and slipped my arm around Sharra’s shoulders to tug her gently away from Rivers.
“Let’s go, my friend,” I told her. “We have a long trip ahead of us, and it’s already past noon. We don’t want to be traveling the mountains in the dark.”
“Too true,” she agreed with a little sigh. She picked up the backpack sitting at her feet and shrugged it over her shoulders. She gave Rivers a quick kiss on the cheek and slipped out of the hole in the side of the building that we used as our main entrance and exit. I waved to Lucas, who was still standing by the stairs, and murmured a goodbye to Rivers before following Sharra outside.
She was leaning against the wall waiting for me, and I saw her dash away a tear as I approached.
“Hey, none of that, or I’ll be crying right along with you, and that’s no way for two kick-ass heroines to begin an adventure,” I said.
Sharra laughed as I’d intended and straightened away from the wall. “You’ve got a point.” She struck a dramatically heroic pose, fisted hands propped on her hips and chin in the air. “Let’s go save the city!”
We were both giggling as we turned to walk to the lot where the mag-lev bikes were kept, which maybe wasn’t especially heroic, but made us both feel better after saying our goodbyes.
I bumped Sharra’s hip with mine. “What’s the story with Laughing Boy back there?” I asked “When? Where? Why? Details. I need the details!”
Sharra smiled. “It’s been going on for a few months now. Since June. You introduced me to Rivers when we were tracking those bears that kept wandering back and forth between Liberty territory and Wolf territory, and something sparked right away, you know?”
“I know,” I agreed, remembering the feelings I’d had for Lucas since our very first meeting. “But why didn’t you say anything to anyone? What’s the big secret?”
“We’re from different packs,” she pointed out. “And both of us are pretty involved in pack leadership. We figured as soon as word got out that we were seeing each other, people would start to worry about whether he was going to leave his pack or I was going to leave mine. It just seemed like too much pressure to deal with before we were even sure we could make a match of it. So we’ve done some sneaking around to keep things quiet. Lucas knew.”
I gasped in outrage that he would keep such a big secret from me and Sharra grinned.
“I made him swear up and down that he wouldn’t tell you,” she said. “I knew you would want to have all the details, and I wasn’t ready to share anything until I knew where it was going. I told Lucas because I needed him to cover for me a few times when I was meeting Rivers. I knew he wouldn’t ask questions. He’s a man after all.”
I nodded in agreement, but I wasn’t ready to let Lucas off the hook. I could understand Sharra’s reasons for staying quiet, but Lucas was my boyfriend. He should have realized that this was a case where his loyalty to me took precedence. I pressed my lips together as I thought about the conversation we needed to have when I got back.
Sharra laughed a little as she saw my expression. “We won’t see him again for weeks,” she pointed out. “Do you need to plan your revenge right this minute?”
“Well, if I’m planning my revenge against him, I’m not thinking about getting even with you for keeping secrets.”
Sharra was quiet for a moment. “I have a few suggestions for your revenge on Lucas,” she offered.
I smiled at her and abandoned my thoughts of revenge on either of them for the moment. “I’ll think about it later,” I told her as we reached the bike lot.
The guard on duty at the lot entrance knew both of us well and waved us in without any questions. Sharra peeled off to the right to find the bike she wanted while Roomie and I headed for the back of the lot where the bike I usually rode was parked against the fence.
I tucked my spare backpack into the small cargo compartment and dropped my sturdy, Army-issue pack onto the pavement by my feet. Roomie was a talented cat, but he had yet to master riding a mag-lev bike on his own, so he would ride in my pack. Roomie stepped gracefully into the big pack and curled into a tight ball. I braced myself for his weight before lifting the pack and pulling it over my shoulders. I tightened the waist strap to help take some of the load off my shoulders. I was used to the weight, but my back still tired quickly.
Once the pack was in place, Roomie assumed his favorite position, which was sitting up on his hind legs inside the pack with his front paws resting on my shoulder. This stance put his head at the same level as mine, letting him peer around the side of my head to observe the world around us. From the looks I always received when Roomie and I went out this way I knew we made a bizarre picture, but it worked for us.
I mounted the bike and pulled on my helmet, then pressed the button to turn on the small rollers that would move the bike until I could click onto a mag-lev rail. I backed out of the spot and rolled through the lot to join Sharra at the gate.
She signaled the guard to open the gate as I approached. By the time I reached the exit, she had moved onto the street to clear the way for my bike. I gave the guard a wave as I left, and he returned a snappy salute before moving to close the gate behind me. I rolled into the street until I reached one of several mag-lev rails embedded in the concrete. I flipped the switch to turn on the solar-powered magnets that coated the undercarriage of the bike. The powerful electromagnets pushed back against the magnetized metal rails in the streets and caused the bike to levitate a short distance above the rail. Additional magnets in the base created a push-pull effect to propel the bike along the track.
Sharra had clicked onto a rail as well and was ready to go, so I didn’t hesitate. With a twist of my wrist I sent the bike forward, Sharra following a heartbeat behind.
5
We had to keep a fairly sedate pace as we wound our way through the streets of downtown. Though our pack had cleared the main roads of debris, vegetation grew so fast that a previously clear path could be overrun by tangling vines in a matter of days. Added to that, many of the abandoned buildings were unstable and could slump new piles of rubble onto the streets at any time. Almost every roadway required some dodging and turning to avoid obstacles in our way.
It took almost an hour to travel just two miles northwest to reach the intact portion of the old freeway. The freeways in this area had been re-built only a couple of years before the war began. They had used some kind of material that resisted damage and kept the creeping vegetation at bay, leaving the roads clear in comparison to the city streets we had been crawling through. A few pl
aces had suffered enough bomb damage to punch holes in the road, but for the most part, traveling on the freeway was easy.
Knowing the roads would be clear, we both amped the acceleration as we reached the freeway entrance ramp. We were flying by the time we reached the top. I heard Sharra’s whoop of excitement and echoed it with a yell of my own. It was rare that we had a chance to get out to the freeways, so it was exhilarating to really open up and fly down the road at top speed. From the corner of my eye, I could see Roomie leaning eagerly over my shoulder, the wind blowing his fur and whiskers back and a clear glow of excitement in his eyes. I grinned. Roomie enjoyed a fast ride just as much as we did.
The freeway travel was so much faster that we covered twenty miles in half the time it had taken us to make our way through two miles of treacherous city streets. Almost before I knew it, we had reached the foothills where the freeway began climbing into the rugged Rocky Mountains. The material of the freeway still prevented plants from growing directly on or through the roads, but the higher we climbed, the thicker the trees and undergrowth became. Eventually, the branches of the trees on either side of the road met and intertwined above us to create a tunnel of sorts.
The light was dim under the trees, triggering the bikes’ headlights to flash into life. The bright beams of light made it much easier to see the road and follow its twists and turns as it ascended the mountain, but the woods on either side of us now seemed much more ominous. It was nerve-wracking wondering what might be lurking in the trees just out of sight. When I’d last traveled this stretch of road, I’d been so overwhelmed with the sudden changes to my life that I hadn’t realized that this section was anything different from the rest. Now, I knew enough about the area to recognize the unnatural silence that fell when large predators were around. Nothing in these woods would see humans as a threat, so there had to be something else in the dark shadows.
Into Light (Shadow and Light Book 2) Page 3