Captives

by Jill Williamson

  “The ark is in position,” Mason said.

  “Glad to hear it, Eagle Eyes.”

  “Saw Mother and four other Glenrock women on the liberation program. Think we can get them out too?” Please say yes. Please.

  “I’ll look into it right now. Jackrabbit over and out.”

  Mason dropped the radio on his lap and leaned back against the seat, hoping it wasn’t too late for Levi to help their mother. He had never been so thankful for a burned cake. Not only had it given him the opportunity to fulfill his part in the escape and possibly help Mother, but it also had gotten him out of Ciddah’s apartment before he’d done something he would’ve regretted. His feelings for Ciddah were only getting stronger, but she had the thin plague. To love her would mean his own death. He could just hear his father mocking such a choice.

  His father wasn’t here anymore, but Mason was leaving the Safe Lands soon and had a list of logical reasons against pursuing her, so despite his overactive imagination about the future, there really wasn’t anything to decide.

  CHAPTER

  35

  I don’t like it,” Zane said.

  “It’s not your problem,” Levi said as he carried the manhole hook toward the hole.

  “There’s no exit.” Zane gestured down the dark alley to the drive that circled the Mountaineer. Grass and a fence of trees met them on one side, the building on the other. “We come back up out of here and someone sees us—enforcers see us—we’re dead.”

  Levi leaned on the manhole hook like it was a cane. “Dead? Not liberated?”

  “Hey, not everyone goes in for that tenth life juice. I’m a rebel, aren’t I?”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Between Jemma being in the RC and his mother and the other women in the liberation ceremony, Levi found it almost impossible to stay focused on Zane’s words.

  “Look, I picked this alley because no one will see us,” Levi said. “And it’s closest to the dam. Stop criticizing and help me open this.”

  Levi inserted the hook into one of the slots in the manhole cover and lifted the edge. He’d made a point to clean it yesterday, so it came up easily. He pulled it toward him while Zane squatted on the other side and pushed, and together they slid the cover across the pavement and onto the grass. Levi traded the manhole hook for a road construction sign he’d nabbed from the Highlands Public Tasks. He set it up beside the manhole, and once they had both climbed through the opening, Levi pulled the sign over the hole.

  The stagnant odor of algae and mud brought him back to the day he’d come into the compound. It hadn’t been that long ago. As his feet lowered into the water, icy liquid sucked through his pants legs and onto his skin. He slowed until his foot felt the ground, then he let go of the rungs.

  The water at the bottom of the storm drain reached his knees. Almost twice as much water as there had been on the day he’d tested the route. He readjusted his rifle that he’d slung over his back, then dug his flashlight and Red’s makeup crayon out of his pants pocket and darkened the X on the tunnel wall before the exit chute split. He’d marked the exits on his test run but figured they could stand to be more visible.

  “What are you doing?” Zane’s face, barely illuminated by Levi’s flashlight, appeared to Levi’s right. Dressed in a gray maintenance uniform, Zane’s head looked like it was floating in the darkness.

  “Marking the way.” Levi waded past Zane. The water was too high to walk on the sides of the pipe and avoid getting wet. Yesterday, it had taken him twenty-two minutes from the road to the canal. They were already moving slower. At least it had stopped raining.

  Their footsteps sloshed through water as Levi led the way down the storm drain. He stopped to darken his hash marks at each exit shaft but tried to move as quickly as possible.

  “I’d like to have a look at that gun later,” Zane said. “It looks like you made it out of wood.”

  “I didn’t make it—it was my great grandfather’s. But parts of it are wood. It came from a place called Arizona, which is pretty far south of here.”

  Thinking of Papa Eli reminded him of home, which made him think of Jemma. Shaylinn had told him how they’d tried to reach him on the radio the night Kendall went into labor. If it hadn’t been for Red’s dance mission, Levi would have heard their distress calls.

  “Do you know if Red managed to get the information she needed from Nash?” Levi asked. “She said it was important to Bender for tonight.”

  “Nash!” Zane started to laugh. “Oh, you’re so dim. What’d she talk you into?”

  Levi turned and pointed his flashlight at Zane. “She took me to some dance place and said we had to make Nash jealous so he’d pick her up. That was the night Jemma got arrested.”

  Zane’s laugh dwindled. “Walls, I’m sorry. I told you to be careful.”

  Heat burned into Levi’s cheeks and chest. “She made it up?”

  “That flame is tricksy,” Zane said.

  Of all the insane … Levi spun around and splashed through the water. He breathed hard and fast and could almost taste rusty dirt on the air. Refrain from anger, and turn from wrath. Refrain from anger …

  They passed some graffiti that said Arris & Lonn: For all lives. The closer they got to the exit, the shallower the water became. By the time the tunnel’s opening appeared in the distance—a circle of night that swallowed his flashlight’s beam—the water was only a foot deep, gushing toward the main canal.

  Levi looked back at Zane. “How much time do we have?”

  Zane pulled out his Wyndo and glanced at the screen. “About twelve minutes ‘til Bender makes his move.”

  “Then we’d better make ours.” Levi waded the rest of the way out of the storm drain and up the canal. The moon was fuller than he’d have liked. Thankfully, numerous clouds in the sky dampened its glow. They reached the dam and the fish ladder that ran up the powerhouse wall. Levi stepped carefully in the sides of each pool, hoping his footing stayed sure.

  At the DPT office, Levi had discovered that unlike in Old cities, the Safe Lands electrical substations weren’t located in the center of town. Aesthetics mattered more than convenience to Safe Landers, so the substations were on the top of the wall, on appendages that shot off the roadway like Old scenic lookouts. There were eight substations for the Safe Lands: two for the Highlands, two for the Midlands, and four for the Lowlands. Levi had guessed that the eastern one fed power to the ColorCast studio, since it was closer, but he didn’t know for certain. He prayed his guess was truly an educated one.

  Halfway up the fishtrap, they climbed over the railing to a concrete ledge that separated the fish ladder and powerhouse from the roadway. The trill of the generators buzzed through the powerhouse walls, vibrating the ledge under Levi’s boots. They jogged along the ledge until it met the wall that surrounded the roadway and stopped to look out.

  Streetlamps lit the roadway, spaced about one hundred feet apart and alternating on each side of the road. Inside the walls, the city glittered. Outside, the land was pitch black, disrupted momentarily by a set of taillights that receded far out near the western wall. Levi could see no other vehicles.

  The distant substation was a tangle of gray metal on a field of black maybe three hundred yards out. The four gleaming spotlights that towered over the station didn’t cast their glow far.

  “Nowhere to hide,” Zane said.

  “We won’t be here long enough to need to hide.” Levi jumped down onto the roadway and crossed to the inner wall. It came up to his waist. He lifted the strap of his rifle over his head, set the rifle on the wall, and crouched to look through the scope, turning the zoom until the substation glowed in the lens. After locating the row of transformers, he tried to figure out which way they ran. If he could hit the first transformer in the series, everything else would go out.

  Levi pulled back the bolt and loaded a round into the chamber. “Keep an eye on the studio’s location, and let me know if it goes dark.” He flipped off the safety and took aim at the t
ransformer on the far left. One deep breath, and he pulled the trigger.

  The shot cracked around them, echoing off the concrete walls of the dam. Through the scope, Levi saw no sparks or evidence that he’d hit anything. He glanced up at Zane.

  “Prospector apartments went dark,” Zane said. “All the way to … Wow, that’s weird. The power went out in the Highlands all along the edge of the Highland–Midland wall.”

  “It’s an arch.” The first one must be the other end then. Levi chambered another round and aimed for the transformer on the right end. Just as he pulled the trigger, Zane spoke.

  “Someone’s coming.”

  The shot rang out, but Levi knew he’d missed. He cocked the gun and straightened, looking where Zane was pointing. Two sets of headlights were heading their way from the other side of the inner wall. They’d just passed the other Highland substation.

  Levi crouched and aimed for the transformer again. “Don’t talk.” He took in a deep breath and held it, then fired. He straightened to glance toward the city below.

  Zane yelled, “You got it!”

  Levi tucked the rifle strap over his head. “All I needed to hear. Let’s go.”

  As they sprinted across the road, the headlights from the approaching enforcer vehicle lit their way. Levi boosted Zane up onto the roadway wall, then Zane pulled up Levi.

  “Stop!” an enforcer yelled.

  Levi followed Zane along the wall to the ledge that separated the powerhouse, over the railing, and into the fish ladder. Zane flipped on a flashlight, and they splashed down through the fish ladder as carefully as they could. A door on the powerhouse above opened, but Levi didn’t look back.

  “They went downriver!” a man yelled.

  Zane tripped on the last step of the fish ladder and fell into the canal. Levi jumped over the last two steps and pulled Zane to his feet. They splashed downstream, staying against the inner wall. Above, enforcers’ flashlights roamed the water.

  Gunfire pelted water around them, urging them to move faster. Zane stopped in front of the storm drain and shone the light into the tunnel, waving at Levi to hurry.

  “Don’t wait for me!” Levi yelled.

  Zane hoisted himself into the tunnel and soon cried out and dropped his flashlight, which slid out of the pipe and plopped into the canal, dimly illuminating the brown water from below.

  Levi lunged up into the tunnel, took hold of Zane’s waist, and pulled him into the drain.

  Zane’s voice was a whisper. “I think I cut my leg.”

  “Hold on.” Levi helped Zane sit, then skidded back out the drain. He squatted down for the glowing beam of the submerged flashlight, grabbed it, and crawled back into the pipe. Zane was slumped along the curve of the tunnel, his waist submerged in the flow of water, his legs elevated on the other side. Levi shone the light on Zane’s face, turned the beam to his legs, and then to the water, which ran red from Zane’s legs and past Levi’s boots.

  Levi looked up to Zane’s welling eyes. “It’s no cut. They shot you.”

  CHAPTER

  36

  Only lights I see are headlights.” Charlz’s voice came from the darkness across the room, his form a black shadow before the pale outline of the window. “Power’s out everywhere.”

  Omar shifted on Charlz’s couch. Before the power had gone out, they’d been watching Lonn’s liberation and listening to Charlz’s enforcer scanner.

  The scanner crackled and a male voice said, “B46, 11–99. Highland Substation Beta, 11–99. Shots fired.”

  “Rebels, I bet,” Skottie said from Omar’s right. “They’re all worked up about this Lonn thing.”

  “That makes sense,” Omar said. “Think they’re trying to free him from liberation?”

  “Nah, the guy’s old,” Skottie said. “It’s the way of things.”

  Mad lot of sense that made. “Lonn’s a rebel. What if he doesn’t agree with liberation?”

  “Why would anyone disagree?” Skottie asked. “Liberation is the highest honor.”

  The radio buzzed again, and this time a woman spoke. “B46,

  11–99. Highland Substation Beta, 11–99. Shots fired. All wall units respond. Code 3.”

  “Too bad I’m not out there,” Charlz said. “I’d pop those prudes with my stunner and watch them twitch.” Charlz drew an imaginary gun and pretended to shoot it.

  “You’d miss,” Skottie said. “And Otley would use you for the next target practice.”

  “Shut it,” Charlz said, shooting Skottie with his nonexistent stunner.

  A fizzle of static. The female voice again. “Units responding to wall, suspects are two white males, wearing gray Department of Public Tasks uniforms, last seen near the powerhouse.”

  Omar slid to the edge of the couch.

  “It would be the cleaners,” Charlz said. “Hey, Omar, maybe it’s your outsider brother. He’s mad ‘cause you broke his nose, and he wants payback.”

  “Why wouldn’t he come shoot up Omar’s apartment, then?” Skottie asked.

  The radio crackled, and Omar yelled, “Quiet!”

  The female voice. “Units responding to wall, suspects entered a storm drain, pursue with caution.”

  Omar’s thoughts tumbled together, recalling Levi’s two Xs, his promise to free their people, and how he’d entered the Safe Lands through the storm drains. He stood up. “We need to find a DPT radio. Now.”

  “Why?” Charlz asked.

  “Because I’d bet you my PV that my brother is using them to make trouble. And I think I know how to locate him.”

  It took longer than Omar had liked to find a maintenance worker. None seemed to be working at this hour. Thankfully Skottie remembered that his friend Nash tasked for the DPT, so they went to Nash’s Mountaineer apartment and borrowed his radio. Not that they moved much faster once they got to Nash; Charlz kept complaining they were missing the rest of the liberation.

  “It’s not on anyway. The power is still out,” Omar said.

  “Still, we could be doing something better than chasing after your hunch. You’re not even in enforcement anymore, remember?”

  “At least I’m doing something.”

  When they were back inside the car, Skottie asked, “Where to?”

  “Just wait a minute.” In the back seat, Omar flipped through the channels on the radio, listening. One: nothing. Two: some guy at a malfunctioning fire hydrant. Three: nothing. Then he hit station four.

  “—to stop the blood flow. Then get moving. Over.”

  “10–4, Eagle Eyes,” Levi said. “Meet in the dead-end alley behind the Mountaineer.”

  “Negative,” the other voice said. “I’ve got to fill the ark and deliver the cargo. You’re on your own, Jackrabbit, so hurry. Over and out.”

  “Copy, Eagle Eyes,” Levi said. “Over and out.”

  Channel four went dead. Sweet mercy. “They’re coming here,” Omar said.

  “Who’s coming here?” Charlz asked from the passenger’s seat. “And what’s a Jackrabbit?”

  “A code name for my brother. We’ve got to stop them.” This was it: Omar’s chance to get back in with the task director general and Otley.

  “What’s that mean, cargo?” Charlz asked.

  “It means they’re stealing something,” Omar said. “You guys got your weapons? They took mine.”

  “I’ve got stunners at home,” Charlz said. “Been collecting them a while.”

  “Not enough time for a trip to your place,” Omar said.

  Skottie reached across the car and opened the glove compartment. “We’ve got one,” he said, removing a stunner.

  “One will have to do,” Omar said. “Now let’s find that alley.”

  CHAPTER

  37

  Shaylinn kept everyone in the downstairs sitting room watching Lonn’s liberation, so that when the power went out, they’d be close to the kitchen and the stairs to the garage. Seeing her mother’s face on the screen with the other women of Glenrock almost m
ade Shaylinn too frightened to lead the escape. But by the time the lights blacked out, her fear had turned to anger.

  They were getting out of here tonight. No more of this friendly imprisonment.

  They reached the garage without incident. Shaylinn saw a transport parked in the alley where Mason was supposed to be. She just needed to make sure. She lifted the two-way radio to her mouth. “Eagle Eyes, give me your signal. Over.”

  The lights on the transport flashed on and off.

  Shaylinn waved Naomi forward. “Go, go!”

  The transport had steps. Mason came down to help Naomi up the first one.

  Naomi hugged him. “Thank you, Mason.”

  Eliza hugged Mason as well. Aunt Mary pinched his cheeks. Chipeta, his aunt, wrung his hands and kissed his cheeks.

  And then there was Shaylinn.

  “Only five of you?” Mason asked.

  “Jemma is still in the RC. Mia went to watch the liberation with Rand at some fancy party. She said we were dim for trying to escape again and that she didn’t want an X. And Jennifer refused to leave without Mia.” Shaylinn still couldn’t believe she’d considered Mia a friend, even for a brief time.

  “Get in,” Mason said. “We have to keep moving.”

  Shaylinn climbed up the steps and sat in the first row of seats across from Aunt Mary. Mason got into the driver’s seat and started the transport.

  “So Mia wants to stay here?” Mason said. “Really?”

  “Oh!” Shaylinn clapped her hand over her mouth. She’d forgotten Mia and Mason were supposed to get married.

  “I’m sorry, Mason,” Chipeta said. “We couldn’t keep hold of her. The draw of so much glamour … She never looked back.”

  “Mia chooses the gilded cage,” Mason mumbled. “Fascinating.” He steered out onto the main road, and the transport started to pick up speed. Shaylinn looked out the window and could barely see the harem shrinking away in the moonlight. Good riddance.

  “What about the children?” Eliza asked.

  “We can’t leave the children here,” Aunt Mary said.