Embattlement: The Undergrounders Series Book Two (A Young Adult Science Fiction Dystopian Novel)

by Hinkens, Norma

  “Hand over the gun, Blade.” I stare at him until the sneer slides from his lips. He pulls the rifle strap from his shoulder and flings his gun toward the barricade. I ignore him and gesture to one of the guards to retrieve it. We don’t have time to waste on Blade’s stupid mind games. I need to find out what the Rogues are proposing.

  Blade swaggers along in our midst, loose-limbed and grinning brazenly, as we make our way to the courthouse. Whatever he has up his sleeve, he’s mistaken if he thinks there’s been any hint of a power shift between us. He’s not the one calling the shots, and I intend to make sure he knows it.

  Inside the main meeting room in the courthouse, Jerome’s men pull chairs up to a large wooden table. Blade helps himself to a seat and drapes his arm over the back of it. “What you all waiting for?”

  One by one, we line up our weapons and packs against the wall and take a seat. Two armed Undergrounders stand guard at the door. Jerome sends a couple of his men off to scrounge up some breakfast.

  “I wanna see my brother,” Blade says.

  “There’s no family reunion in the cards until you start talking,” I say.

  Blade leans back on his chair and peers at the faces around him through half-closed eyes. “Let me put you suckers outta your misery. Your little refuge center is under surveillance.”

  “We already know that,” Jerome says, with an impatient flick of his wrist. “How many subversives are out there?”

  Blade raises his scarred brow. “Sixty odd. All the Rogues. The Slicers split.”

  “Is The Ghost here too?” Trout asks.

  Blade runs his tongue over his lips. “Said all, didn’t I?”

  “Did you present our proposal?” I ask.

  Blade stretches out and rubs his belly again. “Where’s the dang food at? A man can’t talk on an empty belly.”

  Trout throws me a helpless look. I clench my fists beneath the table. It’s clear Blade has no intention of capitulating to our timetable. It won’t do any good to heckle him, not until his rotten belly’s full of eggs.

  “Why is The Ghost here?” I ask.

  Blade laughs. “You’d a found out soon enough, but lucky for you all, I talked him outta it.”

  “Talked him out of what?”

  “He figured the snitches were coming from the city.” Blade leans across the table and beams at me, an ugly twist to his mouth. “He was fixing to lay siege to your festering settlement and burn it to the ground.”

  An icy tingle runs down my spine.

  Jerome slams his fist on the table. “If he as much as strikes a match within a mile of here, I’ll hunt him down and fry him first!”

  I frown at Blade. “Did you tell him the snitches are bootlegged clones?”

  His lips spread wide. “Told him we had a prime specimen right here. Best o’ the best. He was real keen to meet him. He even—”

  He hesitates, looking over his shoulder at the sound of footsteps in the corridor. Several Undergrounders enter the room laden down with trays. Saliva pools beneath my tongue at the smell of scrambled eggs, fresh bread, and steaming mugs of tea.

  Blade instantly loses all interest in our conversation and attacks the food. For several minutes we shovel down slabs of bread and forkfuls of eggs, the only sound the scraping of knives on plates. Acid churns in my stomach, but I know better than to push Blade before he’s ready to talk.

  When he’s finally satisfied, he smacks his lips together and burps loudly. “That hit the spot.”

  I lay down my knife and fork and look across at him. “So where does The Ghost stand on our proposal?”

  Blade runs a fingertip over his half-missing brow. “He likes how you think. But he has to know you ain’t gonna double-cross him. He’s gonna need to strike that deal in person.”

  “Then why didn’t he come with you?”

  Blade picks at something between his teeth. “He wants to meet outside the city. Gets antsy, The Ghost does, on the wrong side of barbed wire and barricades, if you know what I mean.”

  Jerome shakes his head. “I won’t do this on his terms. If he wants to be a part of this, he needs to come here to us and negotiate.”

  Blade shoves his chair out from the table and belches again as he slides a glance in my direction. “What’s it gonna be? Dang rude of me to eat and run, but I gotta deliver your answer in person.”

  My heart pounds. “You’re going back out there? What about Rummy?”

  He grins. “The Ghost’s kinda prickly ’bout being kept waiting.”

  “We’re not on his clock,” I retort.

  A scowl twists across Blade’s face. “You are now. Midnight’s the deadline. Bring Sook and Rummy. Or the city burns.”

  26

  A heavy silence descends over us as Blade trudges back out through the rubble toward the tree line. Despite the ominous hush his departure brings, my heart thunders wildly in my chest. My entire plan has just blown up in my face. The Ghost has forced my hand. With the city at stake, I have no choice but to meet on his terms. But will the Undergrounders see it like that? I scuff my knuckles back and forth against my teeth. The Rogues have nothing to gain by killing us before we attack the Sweepers. I have to trust my instincts, and believe The Ghost needs me as much as I need him. At least until we’ve taken the Craniopolis.

  I take the binoculars Trout hands me and watch Blade’s retreating back until he disappears into a distant clump of trees. “I’ll head to the barn and alert the riders, and Sven, while you round up the Undergrounders, and Rummy,” I say to Jerome. “Have everyone meet in the courthouse in thirty minutes, packs and guns loaded. Don’t tell them anything, yet. Once they’re all assembled we’ll break the news to them.”

  Jerome gives a quick nod before striding off in the direction of the courthouse. He knows my hands are tied, but he’s not happy about the turn things have taken.

  “I’ll ready the horses,” Jody says in passing. “Don’t worry about alerting the riders. I’ll round them up and meet you back at the courthouse.”

  Trout rubs a hand across his jaw. “Do you think the Rogues would seriously burn the city down?”

  My chest tightens as Owen’s battered face flashes to mind. The memory still delivers a sickening punch. I grimace. “They were serious enough to waste everyone they could on their bunker rampages. They killed Izzy’s family and left her to fend for herself, didn’t they?”

  Trout shrugs. “It’s hard to believe Blade would let his own brother fry.”

  “He has no conscience,” Jakob interjects. “And no qualms about betraying his own flesh and blood.”

  I let out a heavy sigh. “We can’t take a chance and wait until midnight to find out.”

  “Torching the city is not Blade’s decision to make anyway,” Trout says. “He’s just the messenger boy. The Ghost makes the calls.”

  My pulse quickens. The Ghost. Ever since Rummy first mentioned the Rogues’ mysterious leader, I’ve tried to picture him in my mind. It’s hard to imagine a man you don’t see coming for you, as Rummy put it. A silent killer, so practiced in his craft he’d slit your throat faster than the blade flashes before your eyes. A man even a brute like Rummy fears.

  A shiver runs down my spine. He’s exactly the kind of killer I need to go up against the Sweepers with, but he doesn’t belong in the kind of world I want to live in after this is over. I gave Blade my word the Rogues would be free men if they swore allegiance to an elected council of survivors, but I have my doubts that The Ghost is the type of man to swear allegiance to anyone.

  When we reach the rider’s barn, I pull Jakob aside. “You don’t have to come with us. This could turn out to be an ambush. The Ghost might just be crazy enough to think he can take on the Sweepers without us. We might have to shoot our way out.”

  Jakob shakes his head. “I have as much at stake in this as you or anyone else. I’m not backing down now.”

  I stare back at his steel blue eyes smoldering with conviction. My stomach tightens with trepidat
ion. If something goes wrong, and he won’t retaliate with violence, there’s every chance we’ll lose him.

  “I want to be with you,” he says, his eyes clouding over. “Especially if this is the end.”

  I give a grim nod, and slip inside the barn before he can fold me in his arms and tell me how much he loves me.

  Fifteen minutes later, we convene in the courthouse foyer. Nikki makes a beeline for me, weapon in hand, her pack loaded. “We’re really leaving? This isn’t just a drill?”

  I shake my head. “We’re leaving, but there’s a complication. Jerome and I will fill everyone in shortly.”

  “What kind of complication?” She grabs my sleeve, her emerald eyes boring into me. “You let him down once already. I swear I’ll go without you if I have to.”

  “I promise you we’re leaving tonight, Nikki. One way or another.”

  She stares intently at me, as if trying to decide if she should probe for more, then stomps off inside.

  “Told you she hates me,” I say to Jakob.

  He shrugs. “She doesn’t like you keeping secrets from her when it comes to Owen. You can’t blame her if she doesn’t entirely trust your motives.”

  “I told her everything I knew.”

  “She doesn’t see it like that. She thinks you left Owen to die and then took control of the Undergrounders.”

  I groan. “I have a bad feeling about bringing her along. It’s that manic look in her eyes. She’s so bent on saving Owen, she’ll stop at nothing. What if she does something to endanger the entire mission?”

  “I’ll keep a close eye on her,” Jakob says.

  I throw him a grateful smile and follow him into the meeting hall.

  All around the room, Undergrounders stand in expectant silence, faces schooled to neutral. It’s mostly men, but a handful of women are dotted throughout the crowd, hair scraped back from their pinched faces. Loaded packs lie scattered around the floor and piled high against the back wall. The enormity of what I’m about to ask of them hits me when I notice one young couple in the front row clutching hands, fingers tightly intertwined. They’ll march to war together, but will they both return?

  I glance over at Trout and Nikki leaning against the wall just inside the door. Rummy and Sook are seated to their left between two guards. Sook’s arms are tied behind his back, and Rummy’s right arm is rigged up in a makeshift sling. My heart quickens when I spot Sven nearby, arms barred across his chest. He gives no indication that he has seen me, but it might be because Jakob is hovering at my side.

  “Do you want me to break it to them?” Jerome asks, when I join him at the front of the room.

  I shake my head. “It was my idea to send Blade out there to negotiate with the Rogues. I’ll tell them what the terms are.”

  I get to my feet and look around the crowded room. “I know you’re all wondering why the sudden hustle, and whether or not this is just a drill. Our plan was to leave the city in the next week or so, and head into the wilderness to recruit the Rogues.” I pause to snatch a quick breath. “The mission is still a go, but the deadline has changed, we leave tonight.”

  A tall Undergrounder at the back steps into the aisle. My heart sinks when I recognize him from the previous meeting. I can tell by the look on his face that he’s bent on stirring up trouble again. “It’s the Rogues outside trying to force our hand, isn’t it?” he yells up. “We don’t have to do what Blade tells us some scouting party’s demands are.”

  Several heads nod in agreement.

  “It’s not just a scouting party,” I say.

  An uneasy murmuring ripples around the room.

  “How many are we talking about?” a young man in the front asks.

  “Sixty or so, armed.”

  An angry shout goes up from somewhere at the back of the crowd. The Undergrounders cluster around and begin talking among themselves. I glance over at Jerome and he gestures for me to continue. I pound on the table to get their attention again. The heated dialogue gradually dies down to a low simmer.

  “It’s true the Rogues came here to attack us,” I say. “They thought the snitches were coming from the city. But Blade set them straight and told them about the bootlegged clones. They’ve agreed to help us attack the Craniopolis, as long as we meet with them before midnight tonight.”

  “So bring them in and let’s hear what they got to say for themselves,” the tall man shouts up. “Then we’ll decide if we can trust them or not.”

  “They won’t come into the city,” I say. “We have to go to them.”

  “Says who?” he yells back.

  The room falls silent. I open my mouth, thinking they’re waiting on me to say something, but then I realize they’re all looking at Rummy. He gets to his feet, his makeshift sling swaying ever so slightly out from his chest. “Says the man they call The Ghost.”

  27

  Rummy takes a step toward the front, his left fist balled at his side. The guards raise their guns and gesture angrily at him to sit back down. He ignores them, and Sven steps into the aisle to bar his way.

  Jerome throws me an uncertain look. I shrug in response. Unarmed, and surrounded, an injured Rummy hardly poses much of a threat, especially with Sven only a few feet away. “Let him come up here,” I say. “We’ll see what he has to say. He might give us something useful.”

  Jerome signals to the guards to back down, and I watch curiously, along with everyone else, as Rummy makes his way toward our table at the front of the room. He throws a quick glance at me, then turns to the sea of faces watching him intently. “The Ghost ain’t no ordinary man,” he says. He slides his tongue out over his bottom lip, and pans the room again. “He’s a devil.”

  I jump to my feet, my heart racing. This isn’t the direction I wanted this to go in. “Don’t listen to Rummy. He’s trying to scare you out of forging an alliance with the Rogues.”

  Rummy appraises me with a look that sends a chill through my veins. “You’re gonna get eaten alive, Butterface, you and all your little pals here.” He moves his jaw grimly from side to side. “Playing at target practice, like The Ghost’s some big game you all gonna bring down.”

  There’s an uncomfortable shuffling of feet around the room. Strained voices tickle the charged hairs in my ears. I was hoping Rummy would assure the Undergrounders and riders of his ability to sway The Ghost, but he’s making them even more uneasy than they already are, and the last thing I need is for them to start backing out now. I need to turn this around, and quickly. “You’re wasting your time trying to scare us,” I say, eyeballing Rummy hard.

  “I’m trying to help you,” he hisses back at me.

  “How can you help me?” I retort. “With a busted shoulder, you’re useless to the mission, hardly fit even to trade, although I’m sure The Ghost would like to get his right hand man back in some kind of deal.”

  A flicker of fear shoots across Rummy’s face. He wipes the sweat from his brow with his good hand, his face creased into a frown. “The Ghost might act like he’s willing to deal with you, but he’ll turn on you, faster than a rattler.” He waves a hand around the room. “You wanna risk all them homeboys’ lives?”

  “Hey!” the tall man at the back shouts up. “You said we were going to recruit the Rogues. We didn’t sign up to fight them.”

  Jerome tightens his lips, an expression of dread on his face. Things are about to fall apart unless I act fast. I rack my brains, trying to figure out what’s going on in Rummy’s head. It’s almost like he’s trying to talk me out of meeting up with the Rogues now that The Ghost is here. Like he’s afraid of something.

  Maybe he is.

  I stare at Rummy’s pinched face as it dawns on me. “The Ghost turned on you, didn’t he?” I say. “That’s why you set up camp in Fort Lewis. You, Blade, Diesel and the rest of them. You fled The Ghost’s gang. You’re deserters.”

  The grooves running down the sides of Rummy’s nose deepen. A deep flush spreads up from his neck. “I burned rubber out
of the wilderness for good reason. And if you’d any sense, you’d stay as far away from The Ghost as possible.”

  My heart races as it all clicks into place. “You never had any intention of negotiating with him on our behalf, did you? You weren’t going to take us to their hideout at all.”

  He lets out a snort. “You wouldn’t have got within a mile of the place. We’d all have been roadkill.”

  He scowls around the room at the wide-eyed faces. “The Ghost’s a psychopath,” he yells. “You ain’t got no business going out there to meet him. He’ll suck the lot o’ your insides out and skin your wuss hides faster than you can chamber a round.”

  The buzz of voices around the room rises. Several Undergrounders reach for their packs. A scuffle breaks out at the back of the room, and Jerome directs a couple of his men back there before addressing the crowd.

  “No one leaves this room until we give the order.” He gestures contemptuously at Rummy. “This mutt’s just trying to sabotage the mission to save his own skin. If he’s got some beef with The Ghost, that’s his problem.”

  The Undergrounders eye him with suspicion, still clutching their packs.

  “Jerome’s right,” I add. “It’s Rummy The Ghost wants, not us.”

  Rummy glares at me. “He might want my head on a stake, but you’d better believe he’ll take yours too if he can get it.”

  I grimace. I don’t doubt that Blade has already put in a request. “So if The Ghost’s trying to kill you, why is Blade cooperating with him,” I ask.

  Rummy makes a choking sound in his throat. “Blade may be my brother, but he’s got a brain the size of a monkey. Somehow The Ghost’s convinced him all’s forgiven and we’re all cool again, now that Diesel’s dead. He don’t know he’s being played for a dang fool.”

  Rummy leans in closer. His hot, foul breath washes over me. “The Ghost ain’t right in the head, but he’s a clever son of a gun. You go out there, and he’ll have you where he wants you, on his turf, in his time. You’re leading your flock of bleatin’ lambs to the slaughter.”