The Ten Thousand

by Doug Felton

  Her newfound focus was just what Raisa needed to continue converting her grief into a need for vengeance. She only had two emotions left, helplessness and fury. Like standing on the apex of a steeply pitched roof, she knew she’d fall one way or another, and she didn’t want to be helpless, so she fed her fury. Moving forward helped her do that. Isolating herself helped too. Penly knew Raisa well enough to know when to help and when to get out of the way, and since she had found them again, she’d stayed out of the way, mostly.

  But not Josh. He seemed to miss her leave me alone signals, either out of ignorance or stubbornness. She wanted time to herself to brood and fantasize about everything she’d say to Zeke before ending it. Raisa had killed a man once, but that had been a spur-of-the-moment decision in self-defense. Alexander was in danger, and she had no other options. This was different. Thinking about it and planning it pulled at her soul in uncomfortable ways. Ratcheting up her anger allowed her to ignore the discomfort and focus on the mission.

  Interacting with Josh, who clucked around her like an overprotective hen, did not help. She didn’t want attention, or sympathy, or even moral support. Every act of kindness or decency felt as if a spotlight exposing her dark intentions, forcing her to see them for what they were. But Raisa chose not to see. She wanted to be alone in the dark to nurse her revenge until she was ready to unleash it.

  None of them slept much that night. They were too hyped by Penly’s intel and planning the next three days to think about closing their eyes. Ernest kept their cups refilled with coffee as they hashed out the details.

  “What about transportation?” Penly asked. “With all due respect, Ernest, but your grandfather’s Prius won’t get us far. The thing looks like it’s from 2015 or something.”

  “Two-thousand ten,” Ernest said. “And you’re right, it gets me around, but I don’t think you want to trust your lives to it.”

  They ruled out contacting anyone at the Palace or anywhere in the government for help. With Barrymore in charge, they could be certain communications were being monitored. Raisa didn’t even want to risk calling Jimbo. He would have no problem arranging something for them, but Zeke knew about Jimbo, which meant he was probably being surveilled.

  “Sergei,” Raisa blurted out. The name didn’t register with anyone but Penly. “Sergei Petrov, the Russian ambassador. They wouldn’t have any reason to monitor communications at the Russian embassy, and even if they suspected something, they wouldn’t dare.”

  “Will he help us?” Josh asked.

  “Well, he can, they’ve got enough transports to shuttle half the capital around. Will he? There’s only one way to find out.” Ernest had already offered his comm system to them, and it was almost as old as his Prius, but now that they had somebody to call, Raisa planned to take him up on it.

  “We need somebody on the inside with the Ten Thousand,” Josh said, downing the last bit of coffee in his cup.

  “Agreed,” Raisa said. “They probably don’t know that you’re gone. Why don’t you—”

  “I thought Sanders, Pinkerton, and Kaufman could handle it,” Josh said, interrupting her. “Lieutenant Penly and I can go with you to Pittsburgh. If that’s alright.”

  Raisa could sense he had added that last part only because he had too. “Anyone of you could go with Penly and me. Why you?” Josh didn’t answer, but his eyes told her he would only back down if she forced him to. Raisa didn’t appreciate the unspoken challenge, but she was in no mood to argue with him in front of the others, and she had no good reason to deny his request, so she nodded her agreement.

  “It’s about an hour’s walk to Raven Rock. You should leave in the morning,” Josh said, talking to the others. He laid out communication protocols for when they reached the facility, giving them one of the two linked comm units.

  They compiled a growing list of supplies for Ernest to get in Gettysburg the next morning. Around 2:00 AM, he had dropped out of the planning session and lay snoring on the couch.

  With the details falling into place, Penly stood and stretched, working out the kinks that had settled in her muscles during the long planning session. She followed Josh outside, and Raisa joined them.

  “I don’t appreciate being stared down, lieutenant,” Raisa said. “Why is it so important that you’re the one to go with me to Pittsburgh? Maybe you’d be more useful with the Ten Thousand.”

  Josh looked unwilling to answer, cutting his eyes to Penly.

  “Penly’s like a sister,” Raisa said. “If you have something to say, you can say it.”

  Josh spoke quietly. “I promised your husband I’d take care of you.”

  Raisa sucked in a breath as tears stung her eyes.

  “When I carried him through the fence, he asked me to protect you,” Josh said the words slowly as if verbalizing them was breaking an unspoken rule or betraying Alexander’s confidence. “I gave him my word.”

  Raisa lowered herself to the steps, not trusting her legs to hold her. Alexander used his dying breath to care for her. He couldn’t help himself. His love for her had shaped his life, and it had defined him in death. Raisa’s heart ached for him with a hunger she’d never known. How could she need somebody with such a painful intensity? It would have been less excruciating if someone had carved out a chunk of her body. She wanted to scream her pain, but she dug her fingernails into her palms to keep it locked in. The pain in her heart and in her hands sharpened her mind and focused her resolve.

  When she trusted herself to speak, she said in a soft voice laced with a hint of violence, “Did we bring the vials with us from the chapel?”

  Josh nodded. “They’re in the house.”

  “Good.” Raisa would use any advantage she could to hunt down Zeke Wellington and kill him. Her concern over using the drugs faded away. Revenge had a way of clarifying difficult choices.

  The next morning, Raisa rinsed the brown dye through her newly cut hair. Penly stood behind her as she surveyed the damage. “I like it,” she said with enthusiasm.

  Raisa didn’t care, “I can live with it.” She hadn’t changed her hairstyle in years, wearing it long and blond ever since she’d started caring about how she looked. Alexander told her often how much he liked her hair, and she’d promised she wouldn’t cut it. But Alexander was gone, and this wasn’t about fashion. It was about survival. Raisa’s blonde hair and blue-eyed face were the most recognizable in the New World, with the possible exception of Zeke Wellington’s. She picked up the cosmetic color drops that Ernest had purchased along with the other supplies and put a drop in each eye, turning them brown.

  Sergei had promised to help with transportation, but he couldn’t get them to Pittsburgh. The best he could do was get them to a Loop station in Baltimore. He explained that the embassy monitored transport vehicles, and he couldn’t justify a trip to Pittsburgh.

  “Your Majesty,” he said with alarm in his voice, “please let me give you shelter in the Russian embassy. If there is a coup underway in the New World, Russia stands ready to assist you.”

  “No, but thank you, Sergei,” Raisa said. “This has to stay between you and me for now. I am afraid that Russia’s involvement would only throw fuel on the fire.” Raisa waited while he thought through the idiom.

  “Yes. But, please, allow me to carry you to Baltimore.”

  Raisa smiled at his unconventional English phrasing, but she accepted the Russian’s offer to get her, Josh, and Penly to Baltimore. From there, they’d be able to take the Loop to Pittsburgh.

  The Loop was a high-speed pneumatic-tube transit system, and for years after the virus, it was non-operational in the New World, damaging commerce in the region and making recovery twice as hard. The government spent a small fortune getting it operational again, but they didn’t bother to update it. So, compared to the rest of the country, their transit system looked like something that belonged in a museum. But it was still the quickest and easiest way to get from one major city to another. The trip from Baltimore to Pitts
burgh would only take thirty minutes.

  But that came later after Raisa and Josh took Zeke’s serum. She had never experienced anything like what she felt as the liquid from the syringe spread through her body. There were two colored vials, one amber, one clear. Since Penly had only the vial with the amber serum, they left the other in the box. Raisa wasn’t sure what the second vile would do, but from what she’d seen with Penly, one would be enough. The burning sensation was less like being on fire and more like an extreme version of pins and needles, only everywhere, inside and out.

  “We’ve got to find out what’s in this,” she said as her grip tightened on the chair in front of her.

  Josh paced the living room, working to control his breathing. Kaufman, Pinkerton, and Sanders had already left for Raven Rock. Josh recommended that they not take a dose of the drug since they didn’t know what would happen once they got to Raven Rock. No one wanted them to O.D., so Josh bet on the fact that the rest of the Ten Thousand hadn’t got a dose yet. “They had plenty of vials there,” he said. “Worst-case scenario, they administer their own dose if they have to.”

  Penly told them that walking helped with the side effects, so Raisa and Josh had circled the block Ernest lived on more times than she could count. It seemed to help, but there was no getting around the change going on in her body. Waves of nausea and exhilaration traded off in her gut. Without realizing the grip she had on the chair, Raisa snapped the solid wood back. The loud crack drew everyone’s attention.

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s alright,” Ernest said, motioning to the rest of the chairs. “They don’t exactly match, and I don’t get much company.”

  He had a point but, still, she hated to ruin what little he had. She suspected that breaking things was a hazard when getting used to superhuman strength.

  An hour later, the sound of a transport pulling up to the house relieved Raisa’s fears that she’d break something else in the house. But the thought of sitting in a car for ninety minutes en route to Baltimore didn’t sound much better. Energy was building up in her like pressure in a volcano. At some point, she’d need to release it.

  “Time to go,” Penly said.

  Raisa turned to Ernest. “Mr. Lovelady, I can’t thank you enough for your hospitality and kindness.” Raisa stopped short of making grandiose promises only the queen could fulfill. She also refrained from hugging him, not sure how well she could regulate her strength. “I will do my best to repay your kindness in whatever way I can.”

  Ernest bowed his head. “No need, Your Majesty, although I would love to get a look at that Palace of yours someday.”

  Raisa waited as Penly and Josh left through the front door. She then made her way out back. Standing behind the house, as far back as she could get, she ran at full speed toward the one-story home and then leaped into the air. Clearing the roof, she stretched her body out as if she were sliding into second base as the house passed beneath her. Josh and Penly were walking toward the transport and hadn’t noticed she wasn’t with them. Raisa pulled herself into a ball as she cleared the front of the house and started angling toward the ground. She let herself tumble in the air, planning to stick the landing like a real superhero. Exhilaration rushed through her body as her feet rotated over her head, ready to hit the ground. Only they didn’t. Before she could get her feet all the way in front of her, she landed hard on her butt, rolling end over end and slamming into the side of the transport.

  That was stupid, Raisa thought as pain shot throughout her body. She lay still, afraid to move, listening to the exclamations of the others as they ran toward her. Almost at once, the pins and needles rushed through her body, repairing the damage, and the pain receded.

  “Not smart,” Penly said, kneeling next to her. “Can you stand?”

  “Give me a sec.” Raisa pushed herself up to a sitting position. “I just felt like I needed to fly.”

  “Well, baby bird, maybe you ought to wait until momma bird gives you the green light.”

  Raisa forced a smile as she got to her feet.

  Penly leaned in so that only Raisa could hear her and said, “So what was that really about? I don’t need you to develop a death wish.”

  Raisa didn’t know what that was about, except that she wanted to fly. Every loss she’d experienced weighed her down as if she were living on a planet with an increasing gravitational pull that threatened to crush her. She lost her mom at fifteen, her dad when she was eighteen, her brother ten days ago, and alexander just the day before. The thought of soaring above it all, even for a few seconds, was irresistible.

  Ambassador Sergei Petrov stepped out of the transport, a look of astonishment on his face. “That was remarkable.”

  “Sergei, I didn’t expect to see you here. I thought you’d just send a driver.”

  “You made quite an impression with His Excellency, and he wants to convey his support and deepest sympathies to you. I am here on his behalf.”

  Raisa choked back tears. “I can’t tell you how much that means to me.”

  Sergei bowed his head and said, “If you need anything, we stand ready to assist.”

  Raisa followed Sergei and Penly into the transport and sat next to Josh, who was flexing his hands into fists over and over. “You know you can’t do that in Baltimore if you expect to keep a low profile,” he said with a grin. “Stylish new hairdo or not, people might notice you if you start jumping over buildings.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  The Loop station in Baltimore was bustling with activity. The seats on all the pods for the next hour were sold out, so they’d have to wait. Josh wasn't happy to have Raisa exposed that long, but there was no way to do this without risk.

  The crowds energized Raisa, moving around her like one large living organism, each person a single cell contributing to the life of the whole. She closed her eyes and took in the sounds and smells of city life. It had been too long. The capital was lively enough, but there Raisa was isolated from the soul of it. Standing in the Loop station, she was a single cell in the organism, connected to all the other cells just by being there with them. She almost smiled. It was close to dusk, and the city would soon be lit with scores of lights. Raisa loved the city at night.

  Across from the station was a coffee shop that Josh directed them to. The three of them took a seat.

  “You need to relax,” Penly said to Josh.

  “I’ll relax when we’re safe, somewhere out of the public eye.”

  Penly enjoyed having the last word, and Raisa half expected a witty comeback. But the mood was too somber for that. With the revelation of Alexander’s dying request the night before, joking about Raisa’s protection was out of bounds, even for Penly.

  She must have felt uncomfortable, because she got up and said, “It would be good for one of us to take up a position over there. Gives a better view of the whole room.”

  Josh and Raisa sat in silence. Her mind jumped from one memory to another until she said, “My first date with Alexander was when he helped me sneak out of the White House and took me to dinner and dancing, with no security.” The memory brought a smile. “There’s this secret tunnel . . .” she decided it was too much to explain the whole story, “anyway, I can remember standing on the street for the first time after being cooped up for weeks. This reminds me of that.”

  Josh took his gaze off the window and looked at Raisa with listening eyes. “Why are you telling me this?”

  “Because I want to be at street level, where the people are, feeling them move around me, not looking down at them from on high, or from behind a protective barrier.” Raisa hadn’t shared these thoughts with anyone else, not even Alexander, not in so many words. Suddenly, she felt vulnerable. Alexander was wired for Palace life, he had political instincts Raisa never had. Without him by her side, she didn’t know how she’d go on. She hadn’t wanted to admit that, not even to him, because she always knew she’d lose him someday. Owning up to it made her feel weak. It scared
her.

  “I get that,” Josh said. “Being queen must suck sometimes.”

  “Not for the right person,” Raisa said in a voice just above a whisper. There, she’d done it. She’d admitted that she wasn’t the right person for the job, and that small feat had pushed Raisa to her limit. She could jump over a house, no problem, but she couldn’t expose her deepest insecurity without feeling as if she’d gone ten rounds with Elliot.

  If Josh were shocked by her revelation, he didn’t show it. Maybe it sounded less like a deep dark revelation to him and more like something grief would cause a person to say. The thing was, she’d felt this way for a long time, even before Alexander’s death. Grief had just forced it out of her. And for the second time since Creighton Ashwill had shown up at her house the night of the vote, Raisa found herself in the position to walk away from it all. But this time, she had no one to leave behind.

  A scene playing out on the wall-mounted monitor pulled Raisa from her ruminations. She pointed, and Josh turned to see Barrymore and Zeke approaching a bank of microphones set up in front of the Palace, looking grim. The volume was off as Barrymore spoke.

  “Can you turn that up?” Raisa called out to the girl behind the counter.

  Penly made her way over and stepped between Raisa and the girl, partially blocking her view. “What are you doing,” she whispered. “You’re supposed to be keeping a low profile.”

  The volume on the monitor increased to an audible level as President Barrymore was talking. “. . . and so I assure you we’re doing everything we can to find Queen Raisa. This has been a hell of a week, and we are still reeling from everything that’s happened, including the deaths of Prince Alexander and President Tate.” Raisa felt another piece of her die at the mention of Tate’s death. She hadn’t had time to think about it, much less mourn him. They had not been close on a personal level, but Tate was her best ally outside of her inner circle, and he had been kind to her. “Everyone in the Palace, and the Pentagon, is grieving right now, but we have a job to do for the people of the New World. That’s why I am asking Zeke Wellington to oversee the crisis with the Ten Thousand. I am giving him provisional authority to make whatever decisions are necessary to ensure a peaceful resolution.”