New World Order

by S. M. McEachern

  “Take as long as you need.”

  Jack got up and sat beside me, taking one of my hands in his. I didn’t know how to begin. Maybe now wasn’t the best time to tell him he was going to be a father, but everyone but him knew I was pregnant and it was just a matter of time before someone blurted it out. But I had absolutely no idea how he was going to react.

  The ringing silence in the aircraft was almost deafening after the roar of the engines, and it stretched on as I wondered how to begin.

  “You and I have been through a lot together, Sunny,” Jack said, breaking the silence. “There’s nothing this world can throw at us that we can’t tackle together, right?”

  “I know,” I said. I hoped he still felt that way when I told him about Alex, but first things first. Squeezing his hand, I raised it to my lips, kissed his palm, and then rested it against my tummy. A tiny, almost nonexistent baby bump had sprouted two days ago and felt hard as a rock, but Jack’s face didn’t register the subtle difference in my body. “I’m pregnant, Jack. We’re going to have a baby.”

  His mouth opened, but no sound came out. His crystal-blue eyes opened wider as he stared at me, and then they trailed down to look at the hand he held against my belly. His fingers started to move, exploring my tiny baby bump. A smile spread across his face. “A lot of things went through my mind when you said you needed to talk...” He stopped, took my face in his hands, and kissed me.

  For a few precious moments the rest of the world receded, and I allowed myself to be immersed in our shared intimacy. I let go of the anxiety about the fighting back home and suspended my regret over what had happened with Alex. We were going to be parents, and that was a big deal; regardless of the trouble the universe was throwing at us, we deserved our moment to celebrate the life we had made together.

  He pulled away and smoothed my hair away from my face. “Why would you be afraid to tell me? Why did I see remorse in your eyes?”

  Our moment was over too soon. On to the other, less happy news I had to tell him. Resting my forehead against his, I took a deep breath to gather my strength. I told him everything, from the recruiters shooting me, to finding out I was pregnant, to Reyes coming with us, meeting up with Hayley and Alex, and my role in Alex’s death. Jack didn’t say anything. He just stared at me.

  “I didn’t mean to kill Alex.” I couldn’t find it in my heart to cry over him. Even though his death was accidental, he was a threat to Jack’s safety. “Jack, say something. Anything.”

  He hooked his arm around my waist and pulled me to him. I breathed a sigh of relief and wrapped my arms around his neck. “You don’t hate me?”

  “I love you way too much to ever hate you,” he said against my ear. “What happened to Alex isn’t your fault. He put you in a bad position, and you were just protecting Reyes.” He kissed my neck and then brought his face up to look at me. “I’m more upset about what’s going on back home. I thought we had made a lot of progress toward peace between the Dome and the Pit.”

  “Don’t blame everyone for the fault of a few. I hold Doc, West, Powell, and Leisel responsible. They’re the ones creating all the trouble.”

  “I don’t think it’s that easy, Sunny. There are still bourge and urchins, and until we bridge that gap, there will never be peace.”

  I put a hand over my baby bump. “A wise person told me that our child is the first of a new generation and glorious proof that there is no such thing as bourge and urchins—only people.”

  Jack laughed softly. It was the first time I’d seen him laugh since I had found him. A smile sprang to my own lips.

  “Would this wise person be Dena?” he asked.

  I nodded. “How’d you know?”

  “Who else uses a word like glorious,” he said fondly. “Give me a minute to get changed, and we’ll go out and talk to the others.”

  He opened the bag Ted had packed for him and pulled out a set of army fatigues and boots. He shed the clothing he was wearing, letting it fall in a heap on the floor. The amount of weight he’d lost was a little distressing, but I did my best to keep it from registering on my face.

  He raised his brows suggestively when he saw me looking at him. “Don’t get any ideas, Mrs. Kenner. There’s a child present.”

  I smiled. “I was just thinking that I’m going to have to make you a few good meals when we finally get home.”

  He pulled his pants on, zipped them, and did the belt up an extra notch. “You know I love you, right?”

  I nodded. He bent down and kissed me.

  “I’m going to make a confession: you can’t cook,” he said with a smirk. I opened my mouth in mock horror, and he smiled broadly. He sat down beside me to put on his boots. “I was thinking that maybe I can take over kitchen duties.”

  “I’m okay with that. Of course, as long as I have tomatoes, I’m good. I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed them.”

  He shook his head ruefully. “Tomatoes,” he repeated, looking at my tummy. “How did I not clue in?”

  The voices outside the Osprey suddenly got a lot louder, alerting us to an argument in progress. Jack pulled his shirt over his head, and we both went to the door.

  Ted had his hands on the copilot’s chest, restraining him. “Back off, Ayers!” he yelled in the man’s face.

  Reyes was glaring at the copilot, poised and ready to spring at him.

  “Reyes,” I said and hopped out of the plane. Wearing his suit, he could snap Ayers in two. “Don’t you dare.”

  “Dare what?” he retorted in disgust, never taking his eyes off Ayers. “To waste my energy on that idiot?”

  Hayley moved to stand in front of Reyes, blocking his way to Ayers. “I told you before, it was a different world back then. He just doesn’t know better.”

  Reyes dragged his eyes away from Ayers and looked at Hayley. “That’s no excuse.”

  “What is going on?” I asked and took a step forward.

  Jack pulled me back. “I don’t think so, Mrs. Kenner. Pregnant ladies don’t break up fights.”

  “They do when they’re wearing exoskeletons,” I said and pulled my arm away.

  “Sunny.” Something in his tone made me stop and look at him. His eyes bore into mine, as if to say, You’re carrying our child, and you should know better. Yeah, that was a lot of information to get out of one, short glare. But I knew Jack as well as I knew myself, and he knew me better. So the resulting guilt I experienced wasn’t entirely unexpected.

  “Are we good, Reyes?” I asked without advancing any closer.

  “I’m not gonna hurt him,” Reyes said. “He’s too pathetic.”

  Ayers balked at the comment and tried to push Ted out of the way to get to Reyes. Jack intervened, grabbing the man by one arm and twisting it behind his back. He wrenched it up higher, and Ayers grunted in pain.

  “Stand down, soldier,” Jack commanded.

  “I’m good. I’m good,” Ayers said.

  “I’ll let you go, but if you take a step toward him, I’ll shoot you,” Jack said. I didn’t believe he would since he didn’t have his gun. Ayers nodded. Jack let him go. “Over there, and cool off,” Jack said, thumbing behind him.

  “What happened, Reyes?” I asked.

  “That friggin’ idiot’s blaming us for the fighting. He said, and I’m quoting here, ‘If urchins would just shut up and mind their own business the world would be a better place.’”

  Jack pinched the skin on the bridge of his nose. “Ayers!” he said sharply and beckoned him over.

  Ayers jumped to attention. “Sir.”

  “You will apologize to our friends from the Pit for your stupidity,” Jack said.

  Ayers’ face fell into a look of uncertainty. “Sir?”

  “Did you hear me?” asked Jack impatiently.

  “Yes, sir!” Ayers stepped forward, rolled his eyes, and said, “My apologies.”

  “I feel so much better now,” Reyes said sarcastically. He drew his hand into a fist. “We need to get back and de
fend our people against the bourge.”

  “We don’t even know what’s going on yet,” I said. “When did you leave, Ted? And what was happening when you did?”

  Ted looked at Reyes. “Can we talk about this like adults?”

  Reyes curled his lip, and I took a step toward him, but Hayley moved and put her hands on Reyes’ chest and backed him up. “He can,” she said on his behalf.

  Jack cocked an eyebrow and looked at me. I shrugged. I still had no idea what, if anything, was going on between those two.

  Ted turned to Jack. “I don’t mean to be disrespectful or start another fight, but their army—I mean the ones wearing those suits—made a move to assassinate Powell, West, and Leisel Holt. Powell is dead. Leisel and Malcolm West have barricaded themselves in the Dome, and Leisel says she has the codes to the nuclear warheads and will set them off unless the urchins, er, I mean the Pit backs down.”

  “You think you’re leaving out a few pieces of information?” Reyes asked.

  “I told Jack about the conspiracy to get Leisel into his empty seat in the Senate,” I said to Reyes. I turned to Jack. “The assassination attempt on the three of them was Doc’s idea. He knew I wouldn’t be in favor of it, so he sent Reyes with me to make sure I didn’t return to the valley before the deed was done. Just like Powell sent Alex to prevent you from ever returning to reclaim your seat in the Senate.”

  “That’s not all your Doc has done,” Ted said. “He’s threatening to send a super virus into the Dome’s ventilation system and kill every bourge inside.”

  “What!” I blurted. Was Ted lying? Yet even as my mind posed the question, I knew the answer. Doc had told me a long time ago that he was working on a genetically designed virus to wipe out the bourge. Is that why he didn’t want me around? In case his science experiment, aka my child, got infected?

  “I take it you didn’t know about that,” Ted said.

  I shook my head and looked at Reyes. “Did you know?”

  “I promise I didn’t,” he said.

  Jack pushed both his hands through his hair. “I’m fed up with the whole nuclear threat and now we have viruses on top of it?”

  “You’re not the only one,” Naoki said. “Every time you fight, every time you threaten each other, my people hold their breath.” He stepped forward, his gaze scanning all of us. “This world can’t take another nuclear war. Grow up!”

  “Hey!” Hayley said. “This has nothing to do with you or your people. Stay out of it.”

  “It has everything to do with him and his people,” Jack said. “And he has every right to say something. We start setting off nuclear warheads or unleashing super viruses, we not only kill ourselves, we annihilate the entire valley.”

  Hayley ignored Jack and continued to stare down Naoki. “We’ll handle our own people; you handle yours.”

  Naoki’s face screwed up into an expression of scorn. “You mean by making slavers your leaders?” He looked at Jack. “Why, after so much fighting and bloodshed, did you let the slavers rule you again? We fought by your side. Our people died to help you!”

  Jack’s face flushed with guilt, and I moved to stand next to him. Naoki glared at him with a pained expression, waiting for Jack to respond.

  “You don’t understand,” Jack said. “We fought to be free of a dictatorship, so we couldn’t very well turn around and thrust a way of life onto everybody. We attempted to create peace between our races by allowing the people to choose their leaders and have a say over their own lives, and I stand by that. We just—” He paused and rubbed a hand over his eyes. “We just forgot to factor in all the lies, corruption, and betrayal.” He kicked at a tuft of dead grass, uprooting it and sending it flying.

  “Where I come from,” Naoki said. “You have to earn your place as a leader.”

  I looked behind him to where Jin-Sook, Eli, and Talon stood, bobbing their heads in agreement.

  Summer crossed her arms over her chest. “Or at the very least, don’t allow slavers to run for office.”

  If this argument kept going in the direction I thought it was going, we’d be squaring off against each other before we even made it back to the valley. Hayley’s words came back to me: At least until we get home, right? Then we’re back on opposite sides of the fight.

  I took a step toward the group. “We can’t change what’s already done, and arguing about who is right or wrong isn’t helpful. The real question now is where do we go from here?” I made a circular motion with my hand to include everyone in our group. “And by we, I mean all of us. Are we going to fly back to the valley, depart that aircraft, and take up arms against each other?”

  Jack moved next to me. “Sunny’s right. We are not each other’s enemy; the people threatening to blow us all up with nuclear weapons or use biowarfare are. It’s time to stop letting the Holts of the world win when we have the power to end them.”

  “End them?” Hayley echoed. “What are you suggesting, Jack?”

  He didn’t answer her. Instead he looked at me, seeking my approval. End them, he had said. The words rang in my ears, and their meaning seeped in. We had been fighting for freedom since our accidental marriage. Fighting for peace since the liberation of the Dome. Together we had created the Alliance, toppled the Holt regime, and reinstated democracy. And yet it wasn’t enough. We still walked a tightrope between urchin and bourge, and bourge and the Nation, trying to maintain peace and avoid bloodshed.

  I cupped the side of his face with my hand and gave him my approval. “It’s time to stop fighting for a better life and start living one.”

  “Jack?” Ted prompted.

  Jack held my hand as he turned toward the group. “I’m suggesting a coup. We work together to overthrow the government.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Jack

  Sometimes I missed the days when Sunny and I faced the world on our own. Not that I wanted to live under the threat of execution again, but she and I worked well together. She was the creative one, always coming up with ideas; I was the pragmatic one, always trying to figure out if they would work. But as we sat there with ten other people trying to make a viable plan to depose our government, I totally understood the old cliché of too many cooks in the kitchen.

  I took Sunny’s hand and said to the group, “We should check on Teegan.” I led her back onto the Osprey.

  “I gotta pee,” Sunny said. “Is there a toilet onboard, or do I have to go in the great outdoors again?”

  I had been on the Osprey a few times while it was being constructed and knew there was a tiny water closet. I went with her and moved the bikes out of the way so she could get the door open.

  Teegan was still sleeping, and I knew it wasn’t due to the acetaminophen tablet I had given her. She was emotionally and physically exhausted.

  Sunny came out of the washroom, found her backpack, fished around under the seats, and came up with bottles of water. “Do you want one?”

  I nodded, sat down, and patted the seat beside me. She sat next to me, perched her sunglasses on top of her head, opened one of the bottles, and took a few gulps. “Your child constantly wants water, and when I give it to him, he just makes me pee it back out.”

  She handed me the bottle and I drained it, still thirsty after being shot up with devil’s blood. “Him?” I asked with a smile. “I was thinking it was a her.”

  “But I’ve already named him ‘little guy.’”

  “That’s not a name, Sunny.”

  “Better than ‘it.’”

  “True.”

  She looked over at Teegan. “How is she doing?”

  “Her fever is down. She needs penicillin, though.”

  “Can I ask how you two ended up together?”

  I still wasn’t ready to go there, but I supposed I could tell her without going into a lot of details. “Ryder made her my responsibility to use her as a... kind of emotional control over me.” I huffed a disgusted laugh. “I guess it worked.”

  She ran a f
inger down the side of my face and along my jaw. “Of course it worked. You have a big heart.”

  I caught her hand and kissed her fingertips. “And I was there the night she was taken,” I said in a whisper, just in case Teegan woke up. “The men in our recruiting party came across a settlement and...” I couldn’t say anything else. I wasn’t ready.

  “A settlement? By a lake?”

  I looked at her. “Yeah. How do you know?”

  She reached for her backpack, rummaged through it, and pulled out a handmade doll. She gave it to me. “This might belong to her.”

  I stared down at the doll in my hands as the information that Sunny had been there—at the same settlement that haunted me—sank into my brain. “You were there?”

  She nodded, her face sad as she glanced at the doll. “I won’t soon forget it either.”

  I realized I didn’t need to come up with the words to describe that night. She already knew. I pulled her against me, and we held each other for a few moments until she kissed my cheek and pulled away.

  Swinging her legs onto my lap, she leaned her side against the seat so she was facing me. I wrapped both arms around her legs and hugged them to my chest.

  Smiling suggestively, she asked, “So, did you bring me in here to get me alone, Mr. Kenner?”

  “There’s that,” I said with a smile. “And you and I work better on our own.”

  She breathed out a laugh. “They might end up killing each other before we even get back to the Dome.”

  “How should we play this, Mrs. Kenner?”

  “You’re asking me?”

  “You always come up with the most creative ideas.”

  “Creative?” she repeated coyly. “That’s an interesting word to use.”

  “Mmhm.” I smiled and massaged her calf.

  “Since you asked, I have been giving it some thought.” She opened her food pack and poured some water into it.

  “I knew you would.”

  “Remember the tunnel we used to get everyone out of the Pit? We can get into the Dome through there.”

  “Leisel knows about the tunnel, though. She’s probably taken steps to close it off.”