“That’s on our shortlist of priorities, among other things.”
“Then you have no reason to doubt my loyalty. I’m still trying to decide whether or not I believe in all your plans for a better future, but I do know you can’t make things any worse. That’s even more true now that Ryku has control of the entire Project. He needs to be stopped.”
Chase gave her that small, knowing smile again. “Not the most ideal motives, but given your history with the Project, I suppose that’s to be expected. I appreciate your candor. Tripp?”
Tripp angled the camera towards himself. “Yes?”
“Keep her on a short leash. I trust your judgment, but if any of this goes wrong, I’m holding you responsible.”
“I completely accept that.”
“I’ll have another job for the two of you soon. Stay safe.”
“You too,” Tripp said. He ended the call and unhooked the camera from the computer. “Well, that could have gone worse. You okay? You looked like you wanted to kill him there for a minute.”
“I don’t want Aubreigh getting mixed up in all this.”
“Why not? It was your idea. And he’s right—she’d be a good resource.”
“She’s not a resource—she’s my best friend, and what we’re doing is dangerous. We had an emergency and I knew she could help. I thought it would just be that one time. If I’d known it was going to be permanent, I never would have suggested contacting her. If Ryku finds out about this, he’ll kill her.”
“And if we don’t work to stop him and take down the Project, he’ll kill hundreds of people,” said Tripp. “You understand what happened last week, don’t you? He killed the other chairmen. They got in his way, so he killed them. And now he has all the power and all the Project’s resources at his disposal. It’s more important than ever that we stay one step ahead of him, and in order to do that, we need people who can help us from the inside. Neither of us would be here right now if it weren’t for Seth and others like him.”
Zira rolled her eyes. He was right, but she hated that one of those insiders had to be Aubreigh. “And what was with all those questions about Jared?” she asked. “Why does any of that even matter?”
“He’s just trying to be careful. He has to be. You could be incredibly dangerous to them.”
“Well I’m not.”
“I know that. He doesn’t—not yet—and he’s got a big responsibility to keep people safe.”
Zira sighed. “Right. I get it.”
Tripp shut the computer off and set it aside. “I’m sorry about Jared. I didn’t realize the person Ryku sent to kill you was a friend.”
“He wasn’t just my friend,” said Zira. “We worked together for a while, as partners. We were—we loved each other.”
“And Ryku knew that?”
She nodded. “I think it must have been some kind of test. Like he wanted to make sure Jared’s first loyalty was to the Project.”
“That’s terrible. I’m sorry.”
“I got lucky, and I guess I should be grateful for that. If it had been anyone else, I’d probably be dead. He let me go, so on some level, I guess he still cared. But I don’t think that was his original plan.”
Tripp shook his head. “I didn’t join the Project until I was eighteen, so I can’t imagine what it’s like to grow up in the compound, but I’m sure it messes with your head. You had a chance to experience the outside world and see through the Project’s lies. Jared didn’t. You don’t get to the position he’s in now without absolute loyalty.”
“So I should just forgive him?” Zira scoffed.
“No. But maybe you shouldn’t torture yourself about whether or not he really loved you. He’s been manipulated his entire life, just like you and everyone else who grew up inside those walls.”
She hadn’t thought about it like that before. She hadn’t thought about it much at all. Until Ryku’s broadcast last week, she’d done a good job of shutting out anything that came even remotely close to reminding her of Jared, throwing herself into her work with Tripp and trying to figure out more about the rebels’ operations. She pulled her knees into her chest. “I keep wondering if he had something to do with the other chairmen’s deaths,” she said. “Ryku may have ordered it, but he usually doesn’t get his hands dirty. What if Jared killed them?”
“Do you think he would do that?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re not responsible for his choices, Zira. You were a different person back then, and my guess is that he was, too. Whatever he’s done or hasn’t done now, it doesn’t mean you were wrong to care about him or trust him.”
“Yeah. I guess so.”
Tripp waited for her to say something else, but Zira was caught up in her own thoughts. After a few minutes of silence, he stood up and yawned. “It’s getting late. I’m off to bed. Are you going to be okay?”
“Yeah,” she said. “I’ll probably go to bed, too. Goodnight. And thanks.”
“Anytime, kid. See you in the morning.”
He rolled out the quilt he used as a mattress on the living room floor, and Zira headed to the bathroom. The house’s plumbing didn’t work, so she used water from one of their bottles to rinse her mouth after brushing her teeth. Her sleeping bag was waiting for her in the bedroom at the end of the hall, but even though she was tired, she lay awake for a long time trying not to think about her old life and what Jared might be doing now.
CHAPTER SEVEN
No one in the compound could stop talking about Revolver. Aubreigh had heard the same conversation on repeat for days, ever since the strange young man started following Ryku around almost everywhere he went. She was beginning to wonder when the novelty would wear off so they could all just ignore him instead of turning to whisper to each other every time he walked by.
“He gives me the creeps.”
“Me too. The way he moves—it’s just strange.”
“My friend in unit A told me he doesn’t have any emotions.”
“I believe it. Have you seen his eyes? They’re so…empty. And red.”
Aubreigh had gossiped with rest of them at first, and if she was completely honest with herself, Revolver did unsettle her a little. But one day, when she and some friends had been whispering to each other as he entered the cafeteria, he’d turned to look at them, as if he’d heard what they were saying. He was rumored to have superhuman speed and strength, so maybe he had superhuman hearing, too. Aubreigh met his gaze and saw the same emptiness there that people always talked about, but rather than scare her, it just made her sad. She had always made an effort to avoid listening to or spreading harmful rumors about people, but here she was, doing exactly that. They talked about him like he was some kind of monster. Revolver might have been different from the rest of them, but he was still human. She’d stopped whispering with the others after that.
Now, she walked a few paces behind her colleagues as they headed home for the night. The gossip died down as Revolver and the chairman disappeared around a corner, and another member of the group brought up a different subject. Aubreigh sensed someone behind her and turned to see Seth coming towards them. He caught her eye and lifted his head, gesturing for her to come speak to him. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” Aubreigh said to her friends. They waved to her and she hung back to wait for Seth.
“Do you have a few minutes?” he asked. “I need to talk to you about something.”
“Sure,” said Aubreigh. They hadn’t spoken since the night he’d asked her to help Natalie Steele, so she was curious about what might have prompted the sudden need for contact.
“Not here,” Seth said, glancing at some of the passersby. “We can talk at my place. Come on.”
They walked for a while without speaking, but Aubreigh felt an urge to fill the silence. “How’s work?” she asked.
Seth answered with a humorless smile and a question of his own. “How has your work been since Ryku took over?”
Aubreigh frowned. Not g
reat. In fact, it had been flat out depressing the past couple of days. In addition to standard abortion orders, the chairman had implemented harsh fines for women pregnant with their third child and longer labor camp sentences for anyone found harboring a third child. Aubreigh had delivered some of the notices for the extra penalties herself, and the looks of dismay on the recipients’ faces broke her heart. Most of them couldn’t afford to pay—not without making sacrifices elsewhere when they already had so little.
Her silence must have been an adequate answer, and Seth looked at her with knowing sympathy. “Yeah,” he said. “It’s been about the same in our unit, too.”
They reached his apartment, and he unlocked the door and ushered her inside. It looked like he hadn’t changed anything at all since he moved in. There were no pictures on the walls, and the pieces of white, Project-issued furniture stood in the exact same places they did in every apartment before someone moved in. Seth gestured for Aubreigh to sit on the couch along one wall and took a chair in the corner of the room. “So, I have a confession to make.”
“Okay.”
“Last time we talked, I may have implied that I was working alone. Or at least, that I was running everything myself.” He rubbed his hands together. “That’s not exactly true.”
“Oh,” said Aubreigh, unsure of what to expect next.
“I’m part of a much bigger group of rebels. Radicals, I guess you could say, but really we’re just people who value our freedom too much to see the Project rip it all away. And that’s exactly what’s happening right now.”
Radicals. Aubreigh shifted in her seat. A part of her wanted to stand up and leave right then and there. Radicals were lawless, dangerous individuals bent on destroying the Project and everything it stood for. Units E-1 and E-2 worked tirelessly to prevent them from succeeding, and if Seth was involved with radicals, Aubreigh wanted no association with him.
But somewhere in a quiet but much more reasonable part of her mind, she recognized the bias she’d grown up with. Everything she’d been taught about radicals had come from the Project, and with all she’d seen and done in her work with unit C, it wasn’t hard to imagine that some people thought the Project was infringing on their rights. Wasn’t that what she was starting to believe herself?
“How big is this group?” she asked.
“Big enough to take down the entire Project.”
Aubreigh’s eyes widened. “Is that what you’re going to do?”
“Eventually,” said Seth. “Once we’re a little stronger and a little more prepared to win public support, we plan to take this country back. Right now, our primary focus is on helping people like the Steeles. Our leader was very impressed with your efforts. I’m just one of several other Project members working with the rebellion, but we’ve never had anyone from population control before. Your unique position saved us a lot of trouble.”
“I’m glad I could help,” Aubreigh said. Her head was still swimming with all the new information. A rebellion—an actual, organized rebellion with the numbers to overthrow the Project. It was incredible. And once the initial shock wore off, Aubreigh began to feel something else—something warm and light that lifted some of the pressure she’d been feeling since Chairman Brynn’s death. Hope.
“Good,” said Seth. “Because we’d like to formally extend an invitation for you to join us. It’s dangerous, and if you get caught, you’ll be executed. But if you think it’s worth the risk, you’ll play a major role in changing this country for the better.”
Aubreigh didn’t hesitate. “Yes,” she said. “I’ll do it. Whatever you need. I want to be a part of this.”
“I like the enthusiasm. It’s usually not as exciting as it was last week. We rarely have to deal with emergencies like that unless the rebels on the outside get into a tight spot and need some help.”
“Then what do we do?”
“Mostly, we just keep our eyes and ears open for information the rebellion might find useful. Riots, news stories that get buried under propaganda, changes in the Project’s procedures that might affect the rebels, that sort of thing. We pass it along to our leader, and he uses it to organize the rebels’ activities.”
Aubreigh nodded. “And how do I reach him?”
“For now, just come to me if you find anything. When he’s ready to contact you, he has your information.” He glanced at his CL. “We can talk about this more tomorrow, if you’d like, but I have to take care of something else right now.”
“Of course,” Aubreigh said. She stood up and walked to the door. She had so many questions, but she was probably going to need the night to sort them all out. She turned to him before leaving and said, “Thank you.”
“Thank you,” Seth replied.
Aubreigh walked back to her own apartment. She already had an idea of where she might get information for the rebels. Revolver. He was with Ryku all day; he must know all kinds of things. If she could befriend him, maybe he would share some of those things with her.
She didn’t like the idea of using someone just to get information, but maybe it didn’t have to be that way. Maybe they really could be friends. She’d been thinking about talking to him anyway. It was starting to get a little sad, watching him eat all by himself in the cafeteria every evening.
She smiled to herself and skipped the last few steps to her apartment door. Despite Seth’s warning about the dangers involved, Aubreigh was excited. She now had a purpose that extended beyond just doing her job and trying not to draw attention to herself. She’d become part of something bigger, something she had chosen for herself, and that was empowering. This rebellion was what she’d been seeking for years without even knowing it—a chance to do what she believed was right instead of just what she was told. That was worth whatever risks were required of her.
CHAPTER EIGHT
In the weeks since they’d last spoken to Chase, Zira and Tripp laid low, waiting for a new transport job. Tripp didn’t seem to mind the long, idle hours, but Zira was growing restless. They’d never had to wait for a job this long before, and she couldn’t help but wonder if it had something to do with the fact that Chase now knew she was working with Tripp and didn’t completely trust her.
To pass the time, Tripp monitored alternative media sites on the Dark Net for unbiased news that couldn’t be found through the usual channels, where everything was closely monitored and presented with a pro-Project slant. A lot of what he found was nonsense—conspiracy theories and outlandish, unsupported claims created solely to attract attention. He filtered out the legitimate stories from the garbage, and whenever he found something particularly interesting, he shared it with Zira.
One afternoon as she was washing a shirt in the bathroom sink, Tripp called to her. “Come have a look at this.”
She rinsed the shirt out and laid it on the counter to dry, then went down the hall to the living room. He sat on the floor with his back against the wall and the computer perched on his outstretched legs. She lowered herself to sit beside him, and he passed the computer to her. “What is it?” she asked.
“An article from earlier this morning. People have been talking about it all over the Net. Read it for yourself.”
Zira adjusted the display a little and began reading.
November 26, 2123
Skeletons in the PEACE Project’s Closet: Chairman Ryku’s Insidious Plot to Control the Nation
On October 27th, Chairman Ryku shook the nation with an announcement that will be forever remembered in America’s history. Chairmen Collin, Ava, Leon, and Brynn were found dead, allegedly murdered within the walls of the PEACE Project compound by an unnamed radical. Chairman Ryku claimed that the individual responsible for this heinous crime was apprehended, but beyond that, few details about the incident have been made available to the public. The truth, however, may actually be much more sinister.
Unit E-2 presents itself as a protective intelligence organization dedicated to seeking out and eliminating threats, but beyond that
, little is known about the most mysterious sector of the Project. Some have gone so far as to speculate that E-2 operatives are no more than glorified hitmen trained to fight and kill anyone who stands in the way of the Project’s goals (see related links below). If this is the case, it is likely that Ryku has ordered the deaths of anywhere from dozens to thousands of people in the sixteen years since he became chairman. Furthermore, as a former active E-2 operative himself, he may have killed several people with his own hands. It is not such a stretch, then, to wonder if Ryku had something to do with the deaths of his colleagues, especially considering this may not have been the first time he used murder as a means to gain power.
In December of 2107, Ryku’s father, Chairman Mason (f.k.a. Mason Cross), disappeared without a trace one night after visiting the home of his estranged wife, Hana Cross. Investigators took both Ryku and Mrs. Cross in for questioning following the disappearance but released them shortly afterward due to a lack of evidence. With his father out of the way, 27-year-old Ryku was soon named chairman of unit E-2. Mason, a special forces military veteran and key founder of the PEACE Project, was never seen or heard from again and was legally declared dead in 2115. His son went on to become a forceful leader, nearly doubling the number of operatives under his command in just a few short years.
In light of recent events, one has to question whether or not Chairman Mason’s disappearance was as coincidental as it must have seemed at the time. The tragedy that befell the other four chairmen marks the second time Ryku has acquired greater power and influence through an untimely death, and it is noteworthy that he was the only chairman to survive the incident. While such speculations may seem outlandish to some, the chairman does not seem to be in any hurry to share his newfound power. In the weeks that have passed since his colleagues’ deaths, he has stepped in as chairman of all five units of the Project, giving no clear indication as to when or even if the positions will be permanently filled. This is cause for concern in and of itself. Whatever the truth may be, these are important questions that need to be addressed, and the public deserves answers.
Renegades of PEACE (Secrets of PEACE Book 2) Page 6