The Girl Who Dared to Lead

by Bella Forrest

  “I think they were slowly gaining control in the background long before that point,” I replied. “Remember what Leo said about the ranking systems never being meant to last? That they were only supposed to monitor the people who survived the End, and a few generations afterward, for depression or suicide?”

  “Yeah, Lionel didn’t want people hurting themselves because they couldn’t cope with what they had lost,” Zoe shot back, a slight irritation in her voice. “But what does that have to do with this?”

  I realized that I was frustrating her with all of this supposition. I could only imagine what I looked like: a girl in the depths of sorrow trying to make connections between things without any evidence.

  And the problem was that there probably wouldn’t be any evidence. The lack of Selka’s death record proved that. The people who were behind this knew how to cover their tracks. They’d been doing so for who knew how many decades, if not centuries. So there wouldn’t be evidence, not like Zoe wanted.

  But half of what I was extrapolating was based on what I believed their goal to be: absolute mastery over Scipio and the citizens of the Tower so that they could run things as they saw fit, and not based on Scipio’s advice. If that were the case, they would need ways to exert their control, and the ranking system fit into that perfectly. They’d done it intelligently as well, first by making the rankings visible through the indicators around our wrists, and then by spreading fear by villainizing those who dropped too low on the spectrum, accusing them of shirking their duties to Scipio.

  Every step was a slow tightening of the noose that had become an ingrained part of our society. We’d become accustomed to it. Started to accept it. Even play into it. And it had made us their puppets, giving them absolute control of our lives.

  “There’s an easy way to check to see if Liana’s right,” Leo said, and I turned to see him coming down the stairs toward us, Quess right behind him.

  I arched an eyebrow at Quess, and he gave me a nod and a thumbs up, indicating that Cornelius was clean. Relieved that I could cross at least one thing off my worry list, I turned back to Leo, who was moving to stand next to me. “How do you propose we do that?”

  “We check the council records for the incident in question. If you’re right, Liana, then the two Knights who were there would also have died, probably in some sort of accident.”

  I closed my eyes, feeling like an idiot for not having figured that out sooner. I was a councilor now, which meant I had access to those records. “Cornelius, run a search on any instance of a person coming to the Tower involving Raevyn Hart, Devon Alexander, and a Medic named Selka twenty-five years ago.”

  “Searching.”

  I waited, my breath caught in my throat, hopeful. I knew this was a leap, but anything I could find out about that day could go a long way toward explaining why things had suddenly seemed to escalate. If I could figure that out, then it would be a piece—something that I could maybe use to find out who was behind it.

  “There are no records that match your inquiry,” he said a moment later, and I frowned.

  Was it possible that Roark had been wrong this entire time? Could it have all been a story? If that was the case, then my entire assumption that the visitor changed something for the legacy group fell apart, and I had just wasted everyone’s time.

  “Cornelius, is it possible that there are sealed records that Liana cannot access?” Leo asked, and I looked back up, hope rekindled. It was a good question, one that I hadn’t thought of but which made total sense. Of course the record of a visitor would be sealed. The council would never want that information getting out, no matter what side of the legacy war they were on.

  “Yes. There have been times when the council records have been sealed to prevent later councilors from accessing them, classified as need to know.”

  “How would I go about getting them?” I asked, excited all over again. There had to be a way, a precedent that would allow access to them after the fact.

  “You would have to petition the council and give adequate reason regarding what you hope to achieve or prove with such information. Scipio will make his recommendation, and they will vote accordingly based on that.”

  Well, that was not going to work. Whoever our enemy was had direct access to the council, whether it was because they were on it, or were working with someone who was on it, I did not know. But if I began poking around that incident, it would draw attention—something I was trying to avoid.

  “I’ll look into it,” Leo said, offering me a little smile that softened the serious lines of his face.

  “Thank you,” I said sincerely. I looked back at the timeline and sighed. On to the next matter at hand. “Astrid is sending over her notes—”

  “Has sent, ma’am,” Cornelius interjected, and I took a second to absorb that before continuing. She had gotten those to me fast, which I really appreciated, and I made a mental note to thank her for that.

  “And findings about Ambrose’s investigation,” I concluded. “But I think it might be a good idea to go even farther back than that to try to find these individuals. Quess, do you remember when we broke into the Medica to get Maddox out?”

  “You mean the day we killed Devon Alexander?” Quess asked, stepping closer to the table. “Yeah. Literally one of the most terrifying moments of my life. Who can forget it. Why?”

  “Remember that he was meeting with those Inquisition agents?” I asked. I hoped he did, because I was fairly certain those two were the ones we needed to focus on. Given the conversation they had been having with Devon at the time, they were legacies, and clearly had intimate knowledge of who was in charge. They—Baldy and Plain-Face, as I had named them—had been in the room and fought with us, meaning that they probably went into hiding shortly after to keep from being questioned too closely, but enough time had passed without anyone coming for them that they had to think the coast was clear. We had a better chance of finding them than the people who murdered Ambrose, because odds were they were still in hiding, and would be for a while.

  But if we could find Baldy or Plain-Face, well, then that would be a step toward something. The only problem was how to do it. The legacy group had proven to be adept at creating fake nets that allowed them to avoid detection by the scanners. They had to have nets, or the thermal sensors would pick their body heat up and send out an undoc alert, but if the nets had been fabricated…

  The only method we had left for tracking them was through facial recognition software. They had to be somewhere, and we knew for a fact they were working for the legacy group with which Devon was allied, which might be the same group that had infiltrated the Tourney.

  If we could locate them, and they could tell us where the infiltrators were hiding, we could turn them over to Lacey—and then I could get the name of the person in charge, and finally put an end to all of this.

  “Yeah, sure,” Quess said. “Why?”

  “I think we should run a facial recognition search on them,” I said. “They would’ve been lying low since the Medica, but with everything that’s happened with the Tourney, they might assume that people have forgotten about what happened there. Maybe they’ll be moving around freely. We’ve got to try. We should also pass their pictures on to Dinah, to see if she can find out who they are.”

  “We’d need the video of the attack, Liana,” Maddox said, folding her arms across her chest. “Do you have that?”

  “We should,” I replied. “It would’ve been part of the investigation for my trial. Cornelius, pull up the vid file from the Medica that shows the death of Devon Alexander.”

  “Searching.” Another long pause, followed by, “There are no records that match your inquiry.”

  “What?” I said, frowning. “How is that possible?”

  “No formal request was ever made to the Medica to turn over the vid files, and they did not voluntarily submit them,” Cornelius replied. “If you wish, I can submit a request on your behalf to Chief Surgeon Sage.”r />
  I considered the question. We needed that vid file if we were going to track down Baldy and Plain-Face, but asking for it might have the same repercussions as trying to get the council to unseal the record of the alien girl in the Tower. Going to Sage was risky, especially now that I knew he was upset about me having the shockers in the final challenge of the Tourney. But then again, I might not have any choice.

  “Ma’am, I would also like to remind you that your appointment in the Medica is in fifteen minutes. Would you like me to reschedule?”

  “Yes,” I said reluctantly. I really wanted to get the neural transmitter installed, but we had more left to talk about here. “Let’s just set it up for tomorrow after the council meeting.”

  “I will send them an update.”

  “You’re going to the Medica?” Zoe asked curiously. “What for?”

  “To get the special mouth-free talking device,” I said tiredly.

  “Oh,” she said, looking vaguely disappointed. “That’s too bad… I was kind of hoping you were going to maybe talk to someone about what happened.”

  My forehead wrinkled in surprise, and suddenly I felt very defensive. But I pushed it aside, recognizing it as a knee-jerk response to my childish behavior. “I’m not ready yet,” I told her. “But I’m coping.”

  Zoe gave me a doubtful look. “I’m not sure I believe that, Liana. You haven’t exactly been ‘coping’ the last few days. We were barely able to get a word out of you, or food into you. You were positively lifeless. So yeah… was kinda hoping that if you weren’t talking to us, you were at least talking to someone else.”

  I shifted my shoulders and looked away. She had a point, and I could understand why she didn’t believe me. I hadn’t exactly kept it together over the last few days, and she just wanted to make sure I was taking care of myself. Still, her implication that I would go to the Medica for this was a bit comical. The doctors there would barely care about someone who came in grieving, would prescribe a fistful of drugs, and call it a day. Talking things out was only reserved for special cases, where they’d almost died. I hadn’t, so I was expected to just be all right.

  I was suddenly reminded of Dr. Bordeaux, the man my parents had sent me to after my rank had dropped to three. He had given me pills to help my rank improve, but they’d sucked everything about my individuality right out, leaving some sort of mindless automaton blindly devoted to the Tower. I had hated it. Just like I had hated the appointment with Dr. Bordeaux.

  The only good thing to come out of that was meeting Jasper, and that had been…

  I stopped myself mid-thought and played it back in my head, making sure I had gotten it right. As soon as I confirmed it, I felt the urge to smile coming across my lips. If I could just get an appointment with Dr. Bordeaux, then maybe I could ask him a few questions about Jasper and see what he knew. Maybe he’d let something slip about why the council had put Jasper in the Medica in the first place, and who the driving force had been. I had dozens of questions, and this could be a way of getting them answered.

  “All right,” I said. “Cornelius, contact the Medica and make a special request for Dr. Bordeaux to be my physician.”

  Zoe wrinkled her nose. “Isn’t that the guy who gave you the drugs that turned you into a rank-obsessed idiot?”

  “He is,” I said. “Now, not to rush things, but we have other things we need to hash out.”

  “I agree,” said Maddox. “Because what I really want to know is what we’re doing about getting the heck out of here. That is still the plan, right?”

  “Of course it is,” Zoe said before I could formulate a response. “But you know Lacey wants us to find Ambrose’s murderers, and if we aren’t working toward that, she’s going to find out and have Liana and Leo arrested!”

  Sullen silence met her remark, telling us that it had hit home, but I ignored it, pressing onward. “The way I see it is we have two ultimate goals,” I said carefully. “Both of them equally important. One is getting Jasper out of Sadie’s hands. I have no idea where Sadie stands, but if she is with the legacies, then we have to get him out, or else risk him winding up like Jang-Mi. He’s a priority.” I paused and let that sink in for a second, and then continued. “We also need to track down the people who killed Ambrose and my mother. To that end, I suggest we divide and conquer. Maddox, I’m putting you in charge of hunting down the legacies. Work on finding the legacies we know, like Baldy and Plain-Face. Quess, you’re going to be helping both of us out where we need you.”

  “Does that mean I’m getting a special promotion?” Quess asked, his eyebrows waggling. “Because I would just like to point out that as a lowly Squire, I have no authority whatsoever.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You’ve got to finish the tests, but yes, you’ll be promoted. We’ll talk official titles later.”

  “We’ll do it now because it’s simple,” Quess said with a cocky smile. “I’m your new head of the Citadel’s internal server police.”

  I thought about it for a second, and then nodded. It was the perfect position for him, even if it was one he had just made up, because it was something the department desperately needed, given how easily our security systems had been overcome by the infiltrators. With him in charge of the few tech-savvy Knights we had, we’d be able to beef up our cyber-security. He could also help us in other ways, like developing algorithms that would help the Knights locate people faster, while secretly searching for our own mysterious enemies. It was a double win.

  “What about me?” Maddox asked. “How exactly am I supposed to hunt the legacies down without any resources?”

  I smiled for what felt like the first time, pleased to share this particular decision with her. “I already informed Astrid that you’re my new Lieutenant,” I told her.

  Her green eyes widened and her jaw dropped. “You want me?” she asked, incredulous. “After everything from before?”

  “Absolutely,” I told her in all seriousness. “You’re perfect for the position. It’s kind of in your blood.”

  She flushed with pleasure as I compared her with her mother, Camilla Kerrin, who had been Devon Alexander’s Lieutenant before Zale.

  “I don’t know what to say,” she managed thickly. “Thank you.”

  “Don’t thank me,” I said. “You earned it.”

  She continued to smile, clearly happy at my decision, and I felt a shadow of warmth slide through my ever-present grief. Fleeting though it was, it was a victory that proved that the tattered remains of my heart wouldn’t always be broken. I’d heal.

  It would just take time.

  Leo cleared his throat softly, and I looked at him. “Does that mean I’m going to be looking into recovering Jasper?” he asked.

  “Yes,” I said, remembering that I hadn’t finished handing out orders. I took a moment or two to ground myself, and then continued. “You and Zoe both. I want you looking for a way to hack into Sadie’s terminal remotely. I’d like to avoid entering if possible, but if we can’t avoid it, then Zoe will need to get hold of some blueprints of the Core to see if we can figure out where her quarters are. I don’t expect them to be obvious, but hopefully Zoe can figure out where they are in spite of that.”

  “Zoe hopes she can, too,” she said. “But yeah, I’ll get on the Cog server and see what I can find.”

  “Actually, you might not have to do that,” Leo said lightly. “I’m already quite confident I can breach their defenses.”

  “Really? How?” I asked, unable to stop myself.

  “By sending an AI to do it,” he said excitedly. “The terminal in which Cornelius is housed is the same size as the one in Lionel’s office, which means it has plenty of room for an AI to fit inside comfortably.”

  “You want to download yourself into my terminal?” I asked, unable to help myself. The idea seemed shocking for multiple reasons, but mostly because he was talking about leaving Grey before he was finished healing. Would that hurt him?

  “Not exactly,” he replied ca
refully. “If you’ll permit me to, I’ll download Jang-Mi from the hard drive onto the—”

  “No,” I said, a hot flash of blinding anger followed by a cold chill of fear pouring over me like a waterfall. I didn’t want Jang-Mi anywhere but in her own hard drive. She was crazy, and… oh yeah… she killed my mother. She may not have wanted to, but she had, and I hated her for it. I didn’t want her presence in my new home. I didn’t even want her alive.

  I tried to swallow it back, fumbling to remind myself that it wasn’t her fault. There were people who had turned her into what she was and then pointed her toward us.

  But it didn’t matter. The fact that she had personally robbed us of any chance for further reconciliation boiled inside of me, and I couldn’t seem to stop hating her for it.

  Leo looked at me expectantly, and I realized he was waiting for some sort of explanation as to why, and quickly found one. “There are automated defenses and weapons in here that she could hypothetically access if you put her in that terminal.”

  I was surprised at how reasonable that all sounded considering my heart was pounding so hard in my chest that I was certain I could taste blood in my mouth… but then looked at Leo to see what his reaction would be.

  “I can create a firewall that will prevent that from happening,” he said simply. “But getting her into the terminal is necessary. If I can get her to help me, then she can just go in and get Jasper for us.”

  I pressed my lips together. I recognized he was making a good point, and one that was far safer than the idea of actually going to Sadie Monroe’s office to get the other AI, but I couldn’t seem to make myself say that. All I knew was that Jang-Mi had to stay in that hard drive. She was too unstable, and I wasn’t about to risk my friends against the defenses in my new home if Jang-Mi up and decided to murder everyone.

  I convinced myself that was the one and only reason that I was refusing, even though I knew it was a lie. Knew that a small, twisted part of me was supremely gleeful at the prospect of keeping her trapped on the hard drive forever as a punishment for what she had taken from me. And that I was letting that feeling win.