Liberty (23 page)

“Dix inside the ship, Morgan Fey anywhere else. Berrett changed my name.”

Bell giggled as she picked up a sailboard. “
Morgana
? Really? Oh, Berrett, you’re ‘eelarious.”

I frowned. “Yeah. Eel-arious.”

“I like Cap better. I’m gonna keep calling you that,” said CiCi.

I laughed. “Whatever flies your ship, Ceese.”

I used my Cuff to open the loading door, and the five of us flew out into the waning afternoon. The humid air hung thickly around us, making it seem as though we were flying through water. I glanced back at my crew. Hobs’s sailboard was looking a little wobbly.

“How you doin’ back there, Hobs?” I yelled.

“I’ve been better!” he yelled back. I slowed to sail beside him and laughed as his curls wrapped themselves around his face.

“You’re doing great!”

I patted him on the back and sped up again, pulling up a little so I could do a barrel roll.

“Captain,” yelled Bell. “We’ll have to split up to avoid suspicion once we reach the city.”

I nodded. “You know where you’re going?”

“Don’t I always?”

I laughed. “Right. Forgot who I was talking to for a second. Fine, you take Hobson. Berrett and I will take CiCi.”

Bell nodded and fell back to collect Hobson. As we approached the city, I leveled out and slowed to avoid attracting attention.

“Berrett, Ceese, you’re with me,” I yelled.

The city hadn’t changed, but my perspective had. New York and Paris felt like sister cities to me. Except that one sister had retained her youth and beauty due to the constant affections of the System of United Nations, and the other had aged prematurely. Still, there were advantages in flying through dingy old New York—it was easier to sneak around in the dark, foul alleys than it ever was in Paris.

We slowed down as we closed in on the familiar old brick building.

“Ugh, I did not miss that smell,” I said, kicking off my sailboard.

Berrett laughed. “I did.”

“Yes, well, you always were somewhat bizarre.”

“I’m not the one who leapt to certain death from an exploding ship.”

“You don’t have to keep bringing that up, you know.”

“Yeah! Lay off,” said CiCi.

“Thank you, Ceese. Come on,” I said. We walked into the bar, arm in arm.

There, sitting at a bar stool with her small hands wrapped around a big glass of water, was Mama B.

I
GASPED AND MOVED FOR THE BAR, BUT BERRETT SLAMMED
his foot down on mine and held me back.

“Say one word and I’ll wring your annoying little neck myself,” he said.

“What
?”

“Just wait. We’ll get a room and go upstairs. She’ll figure it out.”

“Cap?” asked CiCi.

“Yeah?”

“I don’t think this place is meeting the health codes.”

“Me either, Ceese. Come on.”

CiCi and I moved through the crowds and huddled in a corner while Berrett got a room. We watched the doors and windows, paranoid that someone would recognize us. After what seemed like an eternity, Berrett motioned for us to follow him through the hidden door and up the staircase. Just as we were about to move, CiCi pulled on my shirt sleeve and nodded to the door. Bell and Hobson walked in. I caught their gaze and nodded them over to the secret door. One by one, the five of us slid through the door and up the stairs.

Berrett punched in our bedroom door code and the door popped open. We piled inside, letting out a collective sigh of relief. Berrett paced, Bell and CiCi flopped onto the bed, and Hobson and I huddled in a corner by the fireplace.

“So, you said to ask you later,” said Hobs.

“What?” I asked.

“Ask you later. If you are okay.”

“Oh, right.” I had completely forgotten. Of course the answer was no. I was totally on edge, practically drunk on my own misery.

“I’m okay,” I said.

Hobson’s eyes narrowed. “Uh-huh. You just go ahead and keep all of this bottled up inside. I have some ulcer pills I can share with you.”

I laughed. “Nothing I can do, Hobs. Just gotta keep swinging.”

He nodded. “You’re doing a good job, Dix. I’m proud of you.”

His words reverberated through me, calling up a memory.

“Look, Hirum! I got it!” I cried.

He laughed. “Not bad, T. For a girl.”

I dropped my fishing line, fish still attached, in order to punch Hirum in the shoulder.

He dodged my fist. “Smooth, Ishmael.” He reached over and grabbed my pole before it could disappear into the water.

“Huh?”

“Haven’t you read Moby Dick?” he asked.

“No, it’s not required until next term.”

“You’ll love it. Mrs. Ford is such a good teacher she could make reading tax files fun.”

I idolized Hirum. He teased me, but he really was a great big brother. I helped him reel in the fish on the line and we packed it in.

He tousled my hair. “Nice catch. I’m proud of you, T.”

Nothing warms you to the core quite as much as your hero telling you he’s proud of you.

I took a deep breath, pushed the memory away, and smiled at Hobs. Before I could exhale, a short series of knocks on our door made me jump out of my skin. Berrett stopped pacing and smiled. It was at that particular moment that I realized it had been a while since I had seen him smile. The sight of his pure, unadulterated grin sent shivers up my spine.

Without even looking through the peephole, Berrett ran to the door and threw back the locks. He pulled Mama B. into the room, and between Berrett and me she was nearly knocked down with affection.

She wrapped her arms around us. “I’m so glad you’re safe.”

I pushed Berrett out of her arms and hugged her tighter. “I was worried you were dead.”

“You know she’s
my
mom, right?” asked Berrett.

“I don’t care. I’m stealing her. She’s mine now, go find your own.”

“You have my own, you weirdsmobile.”

Mama B. just laughed. She kept one arm around me and put the other around her son as she walked toward the fireplace.

“Who are your friends?” she asked.

“That’s Bell, my first mate, and Hobson, and this is Chiu Chin.”

“They all call her CiCi,” said Berrett.

She let go of us to shake everyone’s hands. “It’s so nice to meet you all.”

“Captain, listen to this,” said Bell, looking up from her Cuff. “GSP was President Forsythe’s largest campaign contributor in the last election.”

“Well, that would explain a few things,” I said.

“Like how she has unlimited access to the SUN’s resources,” said Hobs. “Makes sense to support your family, I guess, even if they are the scum of the universe.”

“Speaking of Eira,” Mama B. said as she turned to me and pulled a small piece of paper out of her back pocket. “I have a letter for you.”

My eyes widened as I took the beautiful, thick stationary from her hands. “How did she get this to you?”

“The usual channels for letters like this.”

“Merchants. Sneaky little underground postal service.” I tore open the letter.

Tabitha,

I know. I get it. I understand, I really do. You and I are more alike than you realize. Like you, I want to make a difference in the world. Like you, I feel that my way of doing things is the best way, the only way, in fact, to guarantee safety for our society. See? We are not so dissimilar. Now, if you would just give me the vial, I could stop hunting you and hurting your former clients. If you don’t, I promise you will beg for your own death before I am done. I will find you, and when I do, you will watch everyone you love die slowly and painfully if you don’t hand over the Eternigen.

“I’m really starting to hate this woman.”

“What’d she say?” asked Hobs.

“She says she is going to kill all of you if I don’t give her the vial.”

“What?” yelled Hobs.

“Don’t give it to her, Cap!”

“What a ‘orrible woman!”

Mama B. quieted the others down. “So, what’s your plan? I saw your sailboards. Is that your method of escape? It won’t get us off-world.”

“No, ma’am,” said Bell. “But the sailboards will get us back to our ship. She is docked outside the city.”

Mama B. nodded. “Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve been sailboarding. I used to be pretty good at it, but—”

Just then, a loud bang sounded against the door.

“System Police! Open up!”

“What?” I whispered. “How’d they find us so fast?”

“Gotta be a tracking dot,” said Hobs.

“How?”

“Now
can I check the shuttle?” whined CiCi.

I grimaced.
We could have been spared all of this if I had just listened to CiCi.

Flarkety-flark-flark.

“The more relevant question is how we get to the sailboards.” Hobs said. “They’re all parked outside the front door.”

There was more insistent pounding on the door.

“Open up or we will force the door down!”

Mama B. nodded to the back of the room. “This place is more maze than malt shop. Come with me.” She opened a closet door, and then kicked the back plaster walls until they crumbled.

On the other side was a narrow tunnel, moist and drippy and covered with rust and cobwebs. I climbed into the shaft after Mama B., the dampness of the air filling my lungs and the cold on my skin drawing up goose bumps.

“Where does this lead?” I whispered.

“Out the front, I think,” said Mama B. “Hopefully we’ll have time to get a head start on those sailboards of yours. Jordan, am I flying or are you?”

Even in the darkness I could hear the grin in Berrett’s voice.

“It’s all yours, Mama.”

I used my Cuff for a little illumination and pressed forward into the passage. I tried not to think about the cobwebs that danced playfully against my skin as I walked. At last we came to the end of the passage. I pushed on the door in front of me, opening it just enough to see out the crack and into the busy street. “Nothing shady,” I whispered.

“Go for it,” said Mama B.

We crept from our alternate exit and mounted the sailboards one by one. We rode as calmly and slowly as we could through the city streets. About five minutes into the ride, I felt the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. I turned around and saw another sailboard—SUN standard issue. It was tailing us, slowly gaining ground. I swore under my breath.

“We’ve got company,” I said. “Split up until we hit the outskirts of the city.”

I turned my sailboard hard to the left and bolted down an alley. I looked behind me in time to see my crew sail past as the SUN agent turned to follow close behind me. I wove in and out of the crates and piles of rubble, trying to lose the skudbucket who was still hanging on my tail. At last I reached the city limits. I saw Bell and CiCi flying between buildings to my right, and Mama B. and Berrett just ahead of them.

I couldn’t help but notice how Mama B. was flying her sailboard. It wasn’t flying so much as it was art, like she was dancing, weaving a tapestry of air that no one else could see. I was impressed, and at that particular point in my life, that was no small thing. I looked around for the last missing member of my crew.

“Where the flark is Hobson?” I muttered to myself.

I turned back and saw him wobbling away, bringing up the rear.

Along with three SUN agents.

“Hobson, hustle!” I yelled. “Everyone, pull in and speed up!”

We flocked together and sped up. I stayed back, grabbed my knife, and flung it into the gears of the lead sailboard. It went flying into the earth and threw the rider into the dust.

A sharp sting clawed up my arm and into my shoulder. I looked down to see the sleeve of my shirt staining red.

“Skud. Berrett, Bell, we’re under fire!” I looked back, and instead of seeing the two SUN sailboards I was expecting, I saw five.

“Flarking skud. Berrett, tell me you built a magic death ray into these things,” I yelled.

“No such luck!” Berrett and Mama B. pulled their sailboard hard to the right, barely dodging a bullet.

“Oh, no you did not!” I yelled. I pulled my gun from my thigh rig and fired over my shoulder.

Hobs gave me a look of alarm. “Dix, what are you—”