by Harper North
I unbuckle and lean forward. “We don’t want a part in your plan!” I shout.
Reinhart’s eyes begin to open. He shifts his head left and right, then focuses on us. “Where are we?”
“Getting out of here,” I say.
Emma takes the device. “So that was your plan,” she says. “All along you’ve just wanted to control the Earth. Take the power from the EHC and eliminate anyone who got in your way.”
Morris clicks back. “With the Enhanced Human Coalition gone, no one can stop our purification of the planet. Only those willing to dedicate their lives to the SNA can exist. When the rotation of the magnetic poles is complete, the planet will be reborn to those worthy of it.”
My stomach churns. His familiar tone reminds me of the EHC’s smug superiority.
“You’re just another version of the EHC,” Elias says, as if in tune with my thoughts.
Reinhart straightens himself. “Cut communication,” he orders.
Emma ignores him. “How are you different from the EHC?”
“It’s nothing about wealth or status,” Morris replies. “It’s about those who honor the chosen and dedicate their lives to the coming new world.”
It feels the same to me. Whether fighting for money, status, or honor, someone is going to suffer.
The hovercraft shifts left to avoid a missile spinning in circles toward us.
“We’re nearly there,” Elias says.
I glance behind us at Ethos, nothing but a black, burning city. Structures collapse beneath plumes of dust and smoke. Slowly, I turn back, forcing myself to look ahead.
“Ambassador Morris, you must call off your attack!” Emma shouts. There’s no response. “He’s gone,” she says, dropping the hand that holds the comm into her lap.
“What are we going to do?” I ask. “They’ve already decided the fate of everyone here and within EHC territory.”
Reinhart shifts up in his seat. “Apparently, we now have a common enemy. Not that I want to work with common Slags and defectors—”
My chest tightens as I realize what he’s saying. “How can we stop them?”
Reinhart leans forward. “There’s a covert comm channel connecting the EHC and Aura Op units. With access, I can mobilize a sizable army to take on the SNA.”
I chew on my lip. My eyes flash to each of my friends. There’s so few of us left to take on another fight.
The hovercraft clears out of the city and into the desert.
“Hand Reinhart the comm,” I say to Emma. “He’s joining our band of rats.”
The End of Book Three
BOOK FOUR: SCORCHED
CHAPTER 1
One month later…
THE COOL AIR hits my face, sending a sudden shiver down my spine. My room is on one of the lowest underground levels, making it extra chilly this early in the morning. The intense heat during the day outside won’t warm the place up for several more hours but having most of our operations underground prevents any heat signatures from giving away our location.
“Way too early,” a muffled voice grumbles.
A smile fills my face as I roll over and curl up into Sky’s warm arms. “We have responsibilities, you know.”
Sky wraps his arm around my waist, pulling me closer to his core. “Five minutes, please.”
“Fine, but if Emma needs you for another scouting run, you’d better be ready. I’m not taking the blame this time.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
These last few weeks with Sky have been amazing. Even with the world crumbling around us, I have someone to go to each night—someone to remind me there can be something better.
My eyes grow heavy, but an intense pounding on the metal door jolts me awake. Two more thuds echo through our small quarters.
“Give me a second!” I shout.
I swing my legs over the edge of the bed, goose bumps instantly crawling over every inch of exposed skin. My body tightens as I quickly throw on a fresh pair of dark jeans and a tank top. I almost grab Sky’s sweatshirt and pull it over my head but decide against it. The thicker fleece will be too hot for up top. Instead, I wad it up and chuck it at Sky’s head. Bullseye.
“Hey,” he mumbles, rustling in the bed. Instead of getting up, he only pulls the blanket over his head, letting the sweatshirt fall to the floor.
I let out a scoff he doesn’t respond to and walk over to the small sink and mirror in the corner of the room. My reflection makes me do a double take. The dark bags under my eyes and wild hair circling my head make me cringe. I splash water on my face and reach for the small towel hanging off the sink, drying away the fatigue, then grab the brush from the small shelf next to the mirror to do something about my hair. The knots are tough to work through, but I grit my teeth and manage to tear through them. When I’m done, I pull it all into a simple ponytail and head toward the door.
Unlocking the latch, I pull the heavy door in and take a few steps out. Elias, along with a couple of the EHC ops under his command, lean up against the back wall in the common area. He avoids my gaze, keeping his head down and his arms folded.
“What is it?” I ask, looking back and forth at them.
Elias straightens and finally looks at me. “Reinhart is having Talen, Lacy, and the rest of the Aura ops take out a checkpoint near the perimeter breach. He and Emma thought it would be smart if we take a team and give them support.”
It still digs at me that Reinhart is giving orders, but he has the fighter’s and tactical insight on his side. At least Emma’s shadowing him at Command. We’re one big happy family, I guess.
“I’m going with you,” Sky says, appearing shirtless behind me and leaning up against the door frame.
Elias rolls his eyes. “Whatever, but we need to head out in an hour. Meeting in twenty.”
Ever since Sky and I got together, Elias’s been pulling away from me. I know Elias and I have a connection, but I didn’t know how strong his feelings for me were.
Okay, maybe I did, but it’s not fair that he’s been shutting us out the last couple of weeks.
Elias orders his team down the hall. I turn to Sky and shrug. “What was that?”
He returns the shrug. “What?”
“You know very well what I’m talking about. Give Elias a break. He has a lot on his plate and he doesn’t need you rubbing us in his face.”
Sky heads back into the room. “He needs to get over it.”
“Just behave on this mission, okay?”
“I will, I promise,” Sky tells me as he gets dressed.
A minute later we head out of our room and down the corridor. We need something to eat. Heading toward the mess hall, we pass the rec area where several of the former Dwellers from my underground mine are sitting and playing games. Even though this bunker takes up nearly half of this side of the mountain, ever since we liberated the Dwellers that were hiding in the Slack we’re getting pretty packed in here
“Sky!” a young voice calls from behind us.
Turning, I see Cia run and jump into Sky’s arms. Their mother trails close behind Cia, her warm smile lighting up the room.
“Hey, sis, how’d you sleep?” Sky asks Cia, then reaches out to embrace his mother.
“Pretty good,” Cia tells him. “They moved in an extra cot, so mom and I don’t have to share a bed anymore.”
“That’s great.”
Since Sky and I have been together, I’ve been getting closer to his family, and it’s been nice. It’s something I’ve never known outside of my connection with Drape and Lacy.
Sadness washes over me. Drape would’ve loved this place. Sure, we’re still at war and fighting for our lives, but there’s a sense of unity and freedom that we never had underground.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Lacy and Talen enter the mess hall, laughing. I turn in time to catch Lacy playfully jab him in his side. They’ve bonded over their Aura connection. Lacy’s really changed since we’ve been here. It’s like she has a sense of purpose now.
She makes eye contact with me and nods before turning her eyes down and smiling. She turned eighteen last week, and she’s been using that as motivation for a new start in life. I guess Talen might be part of that new start—at least for now. Lacy’s never been a relationship type of girl.
I gesture to Sky that I’m going to grab some food. He smiles and turns back to his mother. As I head to the food table, a tall EHC op bumps into me, hard.
“Oh, sorry, slag, I didn’t see you.”
“You’d better be careful who you bump into,” I snarl.
“Or what, you’ll open another section of the no-fly perimeter and let more enemies in to kill us?”
Not everyone is a fan of this new arrangement. So far, there haven’t been too many incidents between our people and the EHC, but there are occasional flare ups.
“Just stay out of my way,” I say.
“Will do, slag.”
I grit my teeth and my right hand forms a fist. I’m just about to let it meet this jerk’s face when a hand catches my upper arm and pulls me away from him.
“So this is where you got away to,” Sky says to me through his teeth.
My nostrils flare and I twist back to the op, who’s already gone.
“You should have let me punch him,” I mutter.
Sky shakes his head. “Save it for the real people we need to fight. Let’s get our breakfast.”
Breakfast consists of some bland oatmeal and reconstituted powdered eggs. No fruit today. The meal’s not great, but it’s no worse than anything I had in the mines. I get two bowls and an extra helping of eggs, then proceed to work on the meal at a table far away from my new nemesis.
About halfway through my second bowl of watery oats I check the time and realize we’re going to be late to meet up with Reinhart.
“We need to get moving,” I tell Sky before I scarf down the last of my food.
Sky shovels in the rest of his own meal while he stands. When he’s done, the two of us make our way to headquarters, but not before I throw a scowl at the op I wanted to give a beating to a few minutes ago.
Sky smirks as he pulls me through the exit. “Take a rest, my little warrior.”
I punch him in the arm and he winces and rubs at it. Sometimes I still forget about my modified strength.
“You’d better toughen up if you’re going to be with me,” I tease and sprint ahead of him.
Sky chases me down the hall, and I laugh as he tries to catch me. The two of us race up the stairs a couple of floors with him still in my dust. I exit on the floor with our destination and—finally—Sky catches me in the hall. I let out a laugh as he spins me around and plants a kiss on my lips, and for a tiny second I melt into his arms, forgetting all the crap around us.
A female clears her throat.
My eyes flick open to see Emma standing against the doorframe of the headquarters room, one eyebrow raised. Sky and I jump back from each other. I instinctively straighten my shirt and cross my arms over my chest.
“Sorry, Emma,” I say.
She chuckles, and her eyes twinkle a bit. “Get inside.” She gestures inside the room and turns to enter it.
Sky stifles a laugh and leans into me. “We’ll continue that later,” he whispers in my ear.
Heat rushes up my chest and neck at his words and I slip my hand into his.
Apparently, everyone’s on time except for us, because inside the room waits not only Emma and Reinhart, but Lacy, Talen, Elias, a handful of EHC ops, and a female Aura with dark skin and a short pixie cut. I think her name’s Tessie. Reinhart’s dressed in camo and works at a computer display with the others looking over his shoulder.
“This is the location we are targeting.” Reinhart points to a large map on the display. “It’s an SNA checkpoint near the outskirts of Ethos.”
Emma waves us over. “The SNA has still not been able to open the perimeter fully, so only a few ships can get in at one time. They’ve lost the element of surprise, and the entry point is heavily guarded, but in time they will most likely be able to open a larger section. We need to keep that from happening.”
“So, what is it you need us to do?” I ask.
Reinhart turns to us. “If you were here on time, you might have known the answer to that question.”
My lips press into a thin line, but I don’t look away from him.
“You’ll need to weaken any efforts by the SNA to take Ethos and get access to the EHC network fully,” he finally says. “They don’t have Aura tech, and it’s time to take advantage of that fact.” He looks to Lacy and Talen.
Talen nods. “Understood, sir." Sky and I return to our quarters and gather a few supplies as well as check our weapons. We don’t say much. There’s nervous energy bouncing from the walls.
“You ready?” Sky asks, holstering his pistol.
I nod. “I have to be.”
We make our way deep inside the mountain fortress to the north side, where the others wait. There’s a bustling of activity inside the large hanger. Thick, riveted metal walls reach up at least thirty feet high. Near the hanger doors, everyone from the meeting except Emma and Reinhart sits silently in a medium-sized hover with Talen at the helm.
We load into the hover and get settled. Once we do, I catch Elias glancing over at Sky and me at least twice. No matter how many times I remind myself I have nothing to be ashamed about in my relationship with Sky, I still get a pit in my stomach when he looks at us.
“Location ahead,” Talen says from the pilot chair. “Ready your weapons.”
I place my hand on the pistol on my lap and pick it up. With a sigh, I check the weapon over again before laying it back down. I stretch up in my seat to get a view out the front window. In the distance, a charred, hard-hit compound sits on the horizon. A fleet of SNA ships patrol through the air, and there are countless soldiers on the ground looking like extremely well-organized ants from above.
We’re heading straight for an SNA army, and we’re heavily outgunned. If we get any closer, we’re dead.
CHAPTER 2
FOUR BLOCKS OF SNA soldiers, all wearing green uniforms, stand before a large, low complex near the perimeter breach. They wait at attention outside the breach, where two makeshift guard towers have been constructed on either side of an opening into the city. Beyond the perimeter, a few buildings remain collapsed into rubble. Much of the destruction centers around the former command center deeper in Ethos, but it seems the SNA has also taken out the EHC operatives and the police throughout the metropolis. Ethos has gone from a network of plain buildings to a mixture of wreckage and crumbling foundations.
Running the calculations in my mind, I estimate there are fifty soldiers per block. The Sovereign Nerics Alliance has its fighters stand at attention in tight formation. Even the EHC never had its operatives act like pieces in a machine. The conglomerate below likes a different type of evil. The EHC and the SNA are the same, but different.
Talen turns the hover away from the soldiers below. Elias leans forward in his seat, but at least he’s no longer looking at Sky and me.
“Pull back,” he orders. “A frontal assault will never get us anywhere near the perimeter breach.”
Talen obeys, flying us away from the outskirts of Ethos. Sky holds my free hand and keeps his pistol in the other.
“It will be okay,” he whispers.
Frustrated, I pull from his grasp. “Not without more death, it won’t,” I mutter. Anger seizes me. I want to kill the SNA for taking away what should have been a victory.
“Fin,” Sky says. “We just need to find another way. Maybe we need to back off for a little while and think of what to do next.”
“We don’t have a choice,” I admit through gritted teeth. As I speak, Elias keeps his eyes on Talen, almost as if he’s shutting us out now. I’m not sure if his new coping mechanism is better or worse than the staring.
“There’s an abandoned water plant straight ahead,” Elias says. “Land behind it. The SNA might have seen us
, so we want to get away from whatever tracking technology their military might use.”
I shudder and clench my free hand.
We opened part of the perimeter. The SNA can only get ships in and out of a small area, but the breach did enough damage. Why didn’t Bellaton just tell us this would happen? Telling us about the true evil of the SNA wouldn’t have killed her. We probably wouldn’t have believed her, but that’s not the point.
Talen lands the hover a few miles away in the desert beside a water plant with a large, rusty tank. The facility may not have been in use since the start of the Flip, it’s so ancient. Lacy leans over and whispers something into his ear. Talen faces her and nods.
“Do you two have any ideas on how to get past all the guards?” I ask Lacy. My mind cranks through the odds, and even with three Aura ops on our side, I calculate our chances of reaching the guard towers to be far less than one percent. But Talen and Elias may know Ethos better.
“I think the SNA is showing force at the perimeter to keep anyone from getting in or out,” Elias says to the entire crew, ignoring me. “Or it could be to distract attackers. I’m guessing there’s something the soldiers are guarding inside.” He looks to Talen.
“You could be right,” Talen replies. “But I don’t know what’s inside that particular complex.”
“A power center?” I guess. “The SNA has to get their energy from somewhere.”
Elias looks out the window and chews his lip.
“If we take out wherever the SNA’s drawing power from, we can hit them where it hurts,” I say, looking around. “We do have three Aura ops on our side.”
The female Aura op remains silent. Her eyes maintain a blank, heartless stare. Emma hasn’t had the chance to reprogram her nanos yet. Reinhart wanted to maintain complete command over the remaining Auras, so he and Emma have basically been arguing nonstop for the past few weeks.
Talen picks up the radio. “Emma? Reinhart?” he barks. “There are hundreds of SNA soldiers standing at attention where the perimeter’s come down. A ground invasion of Ethos may happen soon.”