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

by Hinkens, Norma

  “We could if we lure him out by setting up a trade—Owen for Sook.”

  I frown. “If it didn’t work, we’d still have to fight. And we’d have lost the element of surprise.”

  “But if it does work, a lot of innocent lives will be spared.” He lets his gaze travel over my face. “There’s still time to give it a shot.”

  I suppress a sigh. “I can’t—”

  “We’re here!” Jerome calls out.

  A surge of clammy fear runs through me. I tear my eyes from Jakob’s pleading expression. We’re out of time to ponder the rights and wrongs of our mission. It’s time to act.

  I run ahead to a small hillock where Jerome has tossed aside his pack. “The tunnel entrance is here,” he says. He rams his shovel into the ground and begins digging in a patch of tangled fibrous roots. Sven and Trout pull out shovels and follows suit. Within minutes, the earth caves through. Jerome straightens up and stares at the hole for a moment, as if struggling with the idea of crawling back inside. I share the same sentiment, but time is of the essence.

  “I’ll go first,” I say, elbowing past Jerome and Sven.

  Sven grabs me by the arm. “No. I need to rig the security cameras before we enter the Biotik Sektor. I’ll lead the way with Jerome. Have Blackbeard and his men bring Rummy and Sook.”

  Jerome follows Sven into the tunnel. I gesture to Trout and the Undergrounders, and watch as they file past and disappear. Rummy and I exchange a knowing look when he walks by. I’ve done what I can for him. Once the attack is underway, it will be on his head to make an escape attempt. I’m not optimistic about his chances. I suspect the first thing on The Ghost’s agenda will be to finish Rummy off.

  “Sure you won’t change your mind?” I ask, turning to Jakob.

  He reaches for my hand, turns it over and brushes his lips to my palm. “I’ll be waiting for you,” he whispers. “Promise me you’ll think about what I said.”

  I take a step toward the tunnel. A bone-crushing grip locks around my arm. “Not so fast.” The Ghost glares at me. “You and I go last, just so there’s no double-crossing on the other end.”

  I shrug. “Suit yourself.”

  A cold smile snakes across his lips. “This mission’s under my command now.” He releases me with a subtle shove in Jakob’s direction. I watch with mounting trepidation as the Rogues file past. If The Ghost doesn’t cooperate with the evacuation of the deviations, we’ll be faced with a difficult choice: eliminate him, or give in to his demand to take control.

  “You’re up,” The Ghost says, prodding me in the side.

  I nod good-bye to Jakob and walk over to the mouth of the tunnel. “Just remember,” I say, turning to The Ghost, “when this is over, the survivors elect a leader. It’s a right they’ve earned.”

  He smiles, a hint of recklessness in his eyes. “Assuming there are survivors.”

  His eyes skewer into mine and I turn away. The nape of my neck prickles. Was that a threat? I place my palms on the sides of the tunnel opening, bend over and crawl inside. The walls close in around me, and a familiar composting odor slides up my nostrils. I breathe slowly, determined not to panic as I fumble in my pack for my flashlight. The sickly-orangish beam traces the hunched form of the Rogue in front of me. Behind me The Ghost’s breathing vibrates in my ear. A band of sweat forms across my forehead. I clench my teeth, and focus on putting a few more feet of dirt between us.

  The tunnel is wider than the one leading from the superconductor back in the city. Obviously, this one was built to accommodate clones the size of Sven. I can’t help but wonder how the deviations will cope with the darkness and the cramped space if we attempt to evacuate them. And where will we take them if the Undergrounders in the city don’t accept them? I smooth my hair back from my face, musing over Jakob’s idea. If we could find a way to capture Lyong, maybe we wouldn’t have to evacuate the Craniopolis after all. When we reach the Biotik Sektor, I’ll float the idea to Jerome and Sven.

  “Not very talkative all of a sudden, are you?” The Ghost says over my shoulder. “Something on your mind?”

  “Shut up and keep moving.”

  I hear a quick intake of breath and then The Ghost’s fingers bore into the back of my neck and squeeze my nerves like a vice. I let out a yelp.

  “I heard you and lover boy arguing about a trade. There’s still time to give it a shot. Give what a shot?”

  “Let go of me!” I gasp.

  The cold steel tip of a knife traces across my throat.

  “Planning on selling me out, are you?”

  37

  I throw a frantic glance down the tunnel, but the last Rogue has disappeared from sight. I’m all alone with this madman.

  The Ghost presses the flat side of the blade against my windpipe.

  Fear prickles my skin like icy dew. “It had nothing to do with you!” I say. “It was a trade to save my brother.”

  “Let the girl go!” a voice booms.

  The Ghost jumps back from me and spins around, knife poised.

  I shine my flashlight behind us.

  Big Ed’s familiar frame fills the tunnel, his silver stag rifle pointed at The Ghost’s chest.

  My fingers fly to my throat. “Big Ed,” I cry out, hoarse with equal measures of shock and relief.

  He gestures with the muzzle of his gun at the knife in The Ghost’s hand. “Sheath it.”

  The Ghost slowly replaces the knife in his belt without taking his eyes off Big Ed. “Who are you, old man?”

  “I’m your worst mountain-man nightmare. Now turn around and move before I make you into jerky!”

  The Ghost wets his lips. He throws me a dark look as he squeezes by me. When he’s disappeared into the darkness up ahead, I turn and throw myself into Big Ed’s arms. “How did you find us?” I ask.

  His face crinkles into a smile. “There’s no way to move this many people through the forest without a mountain man knowing about it. I picked up your trail on my way to the city. Didn’t realize them other Rogues weren’t with you until they took off after the fire.”

  I frown. “Any sign of anyone else following us? Nikki is out there somewhere on her own. She left without us.”

  Big Ed rubs his chin thoughtfully. “So Jakob said. I haven’t seen her.”

  “You saw Jakob outside?”

  Big Ed purses his lips. “I had a few thousand words with him for taking off after you all without telling me. But, we’ve made our peace.”

  I nod, blinking back tears. I’m overjoyed to see Big Ed, but I can’t help wishing Jakob was on board too. I don’t have a good feeling about leaving him behind.

  “We should catch up with the others,” I say.

  Big Ed adjusts the brim of his cowboy hat and holsters his gun. We venture forward into the semi-darkness, the wan beams of our flashlights lending a ghoulish tint to the tunnel walls.

  “I see you managed to recruit the Rogues,” Big Ed says. “Although judging by what I seen so far, the relationship’s a little prickly.”

  I grimace. “That’s their infamous leader The Ghost. We have major trust issues. Not a good way to go into battle.”

  Big Ed furrows his brow. “The battle will unite you. It’s afterward you need to watch your back.”

  “That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.”

  “First things first. What’s the plan once we reach the Craniopolis?” Big Ed asks.

  “We’ve agreed to evacuate the deviations first. Our plan is to lay explosives in some of the tunnels to block the Sweepers’ access and provide an escape route for the deviations to the Biotik Sektor. Then we launch the attack on the rest of the Craniopolis. Jakob thinks if we could capture Lyong, we could force the Sweepers to surrender without bloodshed. We’re holding Lyong’s son, Sook, hostage, so we might be able to lure Lyong out of hiding if we set up a deal to trade Sook for Owen.” I hesitate. “Sook confirmed that Owen's alive.”

  Big Ed’s bushy brows shoot up. “So Rummy wasn’t jerking your chain af
ter all. I like the idea of a hostage exchange to trap Lyong.”

  “I just don’t know if I can talk the Rogues into anything short of butchering the Sweepers,” I add.

  He scratches at his forehead. Maybe not. There’s some that love darkness more than light. But you’ve aligned yourself with them now.”

  “Not all the Rogues are a lost cause,” I say. “One of them helped a couple of kids escape the raids.”

  “So there’s one good hide worth saving among them,” Big Ed muses.

  I frown. “But how can I do that if I don’t even know who it is?”

  “You save them all. Set up the deal.” He fixes a rheumy-eyed gaze on me. “War is always an obstacle to be avoided in the path to freedom, as far as it depends on you.”

  “Now you sound like Jakob,” I grumble.

  He pushes his glasses up his nose and sets his lips.

  I have the sense he’s done talking so I focus on navigating my way through the rest of the tunnel. I can at least run the idea by the others. If there’s a way to avoid turning the Craniopolis into a kill zone, I need to make a good faith effort to find it. And I have no qualms about deceiving Lyong in the process. The lure of a trade may give us an opportunity to capture him.

  A shaft of light comes into view as we round a bend in the tunnel. “We’re here!” I call over my shoulder to Big Ed.

  I hustle over to the rope ladder dangling down into the tunnel and begin climbing. Sven reaches down and yanks me up the last few feet. “Welcome to the Biotik Sektor’s mechanical room,” he says, with a hesitant smile.

  “We were starting to get worried about you,” Trout says, slapping me awkwardly on the shoulder.

  “With good reason, as it turns out,” I say, sliding a glance through an open door at The Ghost. “I got stuck with that psychopath. He pulled a knife on me. Thankfully my guardian angel showed up just in time.”

  I turn my head in time to see Big Ed clamber out of the tunnel after me. He nods, throws a curious glance around and then slips through the door leading to the Biotik Sektor.

  Trout’s eyebrows shoot upwards. “How did he find us?”

  I give a wry grin. “Mountain man powers. He tracked us to the city, and then followed our trail here.”

  I brush myself off and accompany Sven and Trout into a gleaming communal seating area. The space is furnished with white pod chairs on flexible stems that look like they can be adjusted to various heights and to tilt in any direction. Oval-shaped tables on stems float at various heights among the chairs. I throw myself into one of the chairs and lean back. The armrests are outfitted with control panels similar to the ones in a Hovermedes. I restrain myself from playing with the options, and look around the room. Rogues and Undergrounders wander around, warily examining the sparse furnishings. Big Ed has already made himself comfortable in another pod chair, his cowboy hat nestled in his lap.

  The Ghost ventures over to us, his expression strained. “Is it safe here?”

  Sven nods. “The Sweepers never come into our living quarters.”

  “Not even after they discovered the tunnel?”

  “The Sweepers have no idea the tunnel the deviations worked on was ever completed, or that we built a connector tunnel from the Biotik Sektor,” Sven says. “Neither do the clones who live here. Mason and I weren’t sure we could trust them to keep it a secret until it was finished.”

  “Thought you said your contacts would help us.” The Ghost says. “Where are all the clones?”

  “Work duty,” Sven replies, glancing up at a hologram display on the back wall. “They won’t be released back to the Biotik Sektor until five-thirty this evening.”

  “So who answered the radio?” Trout asks.

  Sven hesitates. “I can’t say for sure. The clones monitor it as often as they’re able.”

  Trout frowns. “We still don’t know why the radio went down.”

  “Probably just lost the signal,” Sven says.

  A flicker of suspicion crosses The Ghost’s face. “So we hide out in here until nightfall,” he says. “Then what?”

  “Get Jerome over here and we’ll go over the plan together,” Sven says. “I need to grab some blueprints of the Craniopolis.”

  I signal to Jerome to join us, and then pull a nearby table over to our seating area. The Ghost slumps down in a chair opposite me, shooting daggers my way. Big Ed lumbers over and hefts himself into the chair next to me. The Ghost scowls at him too, but keeps his mouth shut; maybe the jerky threat unsettled him. Jerome pulls over another pod chair on an adjustable stem. The mood is tense, and not just because of what lies ahead of us. The unwelcome alliance between us is shaky at best, and everyone seated around the table can feel it.

  A few minutes later, Sven reappears with several large rolls under his arm.

  Trout raises his brows. “Those look archaic.”

  “All hand drawn,” Sven says, a hint of pride in his voice. “Pieced together by the deviations who clean and maintain every inch of this facility.”

  He spreads out a page in front of us and jabs his forefinger at it. “This is the tunnel we need to set the explosives in. That will give the deviations an opportunity to make their way unhampered to the Biotik Sektor.”

  The Ghost leans forward in his chair and stares intently at Sven. “We’re not a charity. We can’t waste time on evacuations. The deviations fight for their freedom like everyone else.”

  “That’s not an option,” Jerome replies. “They aren’t capable of fighting.”

  “You seem pretty capable,” The Ghost retorts.

  Jerome clenches his jaw. “Maybe it’s time you saw exactly who you’re talking about.” He turns to the control panel in his pod chair and keys in a sequence of numbers. Above us, a fuzzy hologram displays some kind of living facility within the Craniopolis. Not altogether dissimilar from the Biotik Sektor.

  “What is that place?” I ask, shrinking back as the hologram comes into focus. A handful of misshapen figures lope around in aimless circles, others sit hunched over, staring at the ground in front of them. A few engage in sporadic conversation.

  “This is the Terminus Sektor, where the deviations live,” Jerome explains. “These are the ones who can’t hold down even a menial job, due to extreme physical deformities, or mental incapacity. Their sole reason for existence is genetic research.” Jerome eyes The Ghost coldly. “Still want the deviations to fight?”

  “Fight? They don’t even look like they can walk straight!” The Ghost gives a twisted smile. “So how exactly are you planning to move this bunch of retards through the forest, if you can get them out of here in the first place?”

  I glare at him. “They’re human beings with hearts. One of them saved my life, which is more than you’d do.” I take a quick steadying breath. “We may not have to move them. There’s another option we haven’t fully explored.”

  Jerome frowns. “What are you talking about?”

  “If we can capture Lyong, the Schutz Clones will have to surrender the Craniopolis to us.”

  “It’s impossible,” Jerome says.

  “Difficult, but not impossible. We could lure Lyong outside the Craniopolis by setting up a trade. Sook for Owen.”

  I turn to The Ghost. “If we need to sweeten the pot to make him bite, we’ll throw Rummy in too.”

  An amused flicker crosses The Ghost’s face. “That’s a nice touch.”

  I’m thankful he can’t hear the pounding of my heart. The only reason I’d be taking Rummy with me would be to keep my word and give him a chance to escape from The Ghost.

  Sven nods and folds his arms over his chest. “Lyong doesn’t need to know we’ve already infiltrated the Craniopolis. We could send him a hologram message, detailing when and where to meet us for the exchange, somewhere on the edge of the forest. We can split into two groups, one to handle the exchange, and one to take control of the Craniopolis while Lyong is occupied with retrieving his son.”

  Trout rubs a hand over his bro
w. “What about Schutz Clones? He won’t come alone.”

  A hint of a smile spreads across Sven’s face. “I can hack into the rotation and replace the Schutz Clones on duty with clones I trust. Lyong won’t know who’s beneath the helmets.”

  “Once Lyong makes the trade, and Owen is safe,” I continue, “Sven can give the order and have the clones take Lyong hostage.”

  “We’ll still need to have everything in place for plan B in case we can’t pull this off,” Jerome says. “If something goes wrong, our only option then will be to evacuate the deviations and fight.”

  “Is there any way to help the scientists who want out too?” I ask.

  “There’s a scientist in the Research Sektor I trust,” Sven says. “If she can get whoever wants out to the Biotik Sektor before we blow the tunnels, they can leave with the deviations.”

  “Do you have any way to contact her?” I ask. “We need to give her a deadline.”

  “It’s got to be five o’clock,” Jerome says. “Everyone has to be here in the Biotik Sektor before the clones return from work duty.”

  “I can send her an encrypted message,” Sven says. “I have a dark network set up, but we can’t access it from the control panels on these chairs. Come with me.”

  We get up and follow Sven into a long, rectangular room that houses a conference table of sorts. He opens a closet door, reaches inside, and removes the panel at the back of the closet. He fumbles inside and pulls out a flexible transparent screen and keyboard. We gather around the conference table, eying each other warily as he begins tapping away on the keyboard. It’s the only sound I hear above our shallow breathing until a loud crash renders Sven’s fingers motionless.

  38

  Sven puts a finger to his lips, then reaches for his gun and treads silently across the room toward the large cabinet at the back. He hesitates for a moment, lines up his weapon and then yanks open the door.

  “Don’t shoot!”

  A small figure tumbles out and scrambles to his feet, his freckled face taut with fear.

  Brock!