Numbers Game (13 page)

My fists clenched so tightly they shook. My instincts screamed to take over, to leap onto Denoux and pummel him. With a flick of the wrist and a word, this man toppled civilizations and destroyed lives. There was nothing—
nothing
—I wanted more than to take his life, as he’d taken my father’s. The guards on either side of him raised their stunners. One clicked his into fatal mode.

“Vance,” Treena said softly.

I let out a slow breath, fighting for control. This was not the time. “They’ll do fine without me.”

A satisfied smile crossed his face. “I must decline, young Hawking. Your day of freedom is not today. The dynamics of our military are changing, and apparently your sad little band is an integral part of the empress’s latest plan.”

“Sir,” a full-figured woman said, coming up behind him. “The empress has given preliminary orders for the next mission. She demands an immediate response.”

Treena began pulling me toward the lift.

“You’ll obey orders, Hawking,” Denoux said as the doors opened. “Or I’ll take you out, empress or not.” Then, more quietly, “Revoke his security privileges immediately.”

I stepped inside. The doors clanged shut.

Silence.

“I can’t believe you talked to him that way,” Treena finally said, her voice shaking, “and got away with it.”

I leaned my head back against the wall and drew in a long, slow breath. She was right. That conversation hadn’t gone as expected, but at least I’d escaped without arrest. I was still free to figure out a new solution. I would have to find my mother and sisters on my own. Once I found them, we would bust out of NORA forever.

When we stepped out, the main floor was packed with students headed for their classes. I started to push forward, but with a shake of her head, Treena eased me gently against the hallway wall. We stepped back to wait.

“So you’re an Integrant,” she said with a nonchalant air.

Before I could reply, an unfamiliar voice spoke up. “Treena?”

“Dresden!” she gasped.

A guy walked toward us, moving with the typical overconfidence of an academy student. A silver pin was clipped to his shoulder above a double-striped arm rank. His Rating actually was that high.

Bike Boy.

“It is you!” Dresden said, his voice registering disbelief. “What are you doing here?” A group of students, probably his friends, pulled up behind him. They stared at Treena’s forehead.

Treena wrapped her arms around his waist. The guy made Treena look even smaller. “It’s good to see you, Dres,” she said.

“How are you? And what happened to your face?” Dresden looked at me as if unsure what he was allowed to say. “Is it—you know, the assignment?”

Treena dodged the question and nodded toward me. “This is Vance, my trainer.”

Dresden gave my Rating a long look. “Interesting.”

“Congrats on the ad board, Wynn,” I said. “Although I think you need to lay off the tooth polish. Those shiners were two shades short of psychedelic.”

“Speaking of which,” Treena said, glaring at me, “you’re a celebrity now, huh?”

He grinned. “I have four sponsors. One of them is for a khel supply store, even. Not exactly what I pictured for my future, but I’ll take it.”

“I’m so glad you’re happy.”

The friends behind him started to whisper to each other, eyeing my Rating, and then Treena’s. They turned away in disgust. A crowd was starting to gather. I knew from experience that this wouldn’t end well. “We should get going, Treena.”

“You’d better keep her safe,” Wynn said in a deeper voice.

“She’s safe with me,” I said.

“Oh, and Treena,” he said, grabbing her elbow. He lowered his voice to a whisper, but I could hear every word. “Be careful. You don’t want to ruin your face for good, in case you get reconsidered. Appearance points count for a lot, you know?”

She had a funny look on her face when he pulled away. “Thanks. See you soon.”

19

W
hen
we stepped outside, the heat slammed into my face. I adjusted my too-big uniform again, wishing it was any color but black. Luckily the buildings created long shadows in the streets, which meant a little shade on our walk home.

Home?
I shook my head. That dungeon where I slept was not home.

“So,” Vance began as we walked. “That was the boyfriend. Bike Boy, love of your life.”

“I told you before. It’s none of your business.”

“You have secrets.”

“You have more, apparently.”

We passed a stout little man unlocking his shop. His gaze latched onto us as we approached, and I noticed a Greens Only sign in the window. His eyes narrowed when he saw our numbers. If Vance noticed, he didn’t react. How did he live like this—spending day and night protecting people who treated him this way? Not a citizen, not a soldier, but an outsider.

I fell into step beside him. “Do you often subject yourself to humiliation in front of your female trainees?”

Vance gave me a sideways look. “Only the prettiest ones.”

I felt the heat rush to my cheeks. “Not the most effective way to get a girl, you know.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Especially when they’re already taken.” I opened my mouth to reply, but he was grinning. His smile turned mischievous. “Bike Boy seems very . . . athletic.”

“He is. His team won the central khel championship the last three years. He taught me how to play better, and I tutored him in math and science. We evened each other out, you know? I thought our scores would be—I, uh, thought things would be different.”

He looked up at the sky. “You owe me an apology, then.”

“What?”

“I was right about him. Perfect grades, perfect attendance, perfect volunteer hours—”

“He’s more than that,” I said quickly.

“Blonde hair, blue eyes, blinding white teeth—”

“You never mentioned the teeth, so I owe you nothing. Besides, you saw him for, what, a minute? Other than appearance, you don’t know him at all.”

“Don’t need to. One of you is pretty much the same as the next.”

I stopped and glared at him. “Okay, you’d better explain yourself now, because I’m sick of taking the brunt of your problems. I wasn’t there
that night
,
and neither was Dresden, or any other citizen you glare at on the street. Yet you act like we had something to do with it, whatever
it
was.”

“Don’t worry about it, Treena. Just live your life.” He started walking again. “Enjoy your little rainbow world full of happy people and order and numbers and forget about those of us who see it for what it really is.”

With a growl of frustration, I trotted after him. “What do you think it is? Because in case you haven’t noticed, we’re both reds. I have just as much right to complain as you.”

He barked a bitter laugh. “Oh? So NORA killed your father, burned down your home, and forced you into slavery too? Then I apologize.”

I froze. I thought about what the commander had said, and then it all started to come together. I caught up just as he turned a corner and startled a pair of high-heeled ladies as they tapped their way to work. They gaped at his Rating, then hurried past.

“I want to hear the story,” I said.

“No. You don’t.”

A monitor patrol car went slowly by in the vehicle lane. A sour-faced monitor, a woman, caught a glimpse of our Ratings and glared at us through the glass. The vehicle slowed nearly to a stop, and I could almost see her brain straining for a reason to stop us. Which group had higher jurisdiction, EPIC or law enforcement? They served the city, but we served the empress. Our two goals didn’t necessarily conflict with each other, but the anger in her expression proved that our two groups didn’t mesh well. After a moment, the vehicle finally sped up and disappeared into the growing mass of bicyclists.

A week ago, he would’ve been right about me not wanting to know. I’d walked through Konnor’s integration camp several times without being curious about the people I passed. They were outsiders who had escaped the dismal outside world and come to NORA for a better life. Weren’t they?

“You said NORA attacked you and made you a slave?” I asked.

“Seriously, Treena. Don’t pretend like you care.”

“Fine, then, don’t tell me everything. Just tell me about your dad.”

His gaze grew distant, and it was nearly a block before he spoke. “He was clan leader over almost a thousand people. The Hawking clan was the largest and most powerful in the outlands.”

“Impressive. Where did they come from?”

“We accepted anyone who wanted protection. Our fortress was supposed to be impenetrable, and people traveled for weeks to join us.”

“But it wasn’t.”

“It was—for the first two NORA attacks. But the third time we were taken completely by surprise. They destroyed our surveillance cameras and killed the guards, so nobody knew they were there until they’d lit the fires. My dad stayed behind to hold them off and ordered me to organize our people for an escape.”

His eyes met mine, and the depth of emotion they held made me instantly guilty for having brought it up. “He didn’t make it, then?”

“No.”

“And you didn’t escape, obviously.”

He didn’t answer, but it was enough of a reply.

“And you didn’t cooperate, which would explain the Rating.” I couldn’t believe it. NORA attacked settlements? “I thought Integrants came on their own, to escape the violence of the outlands.”

“Some do, but most of us are prisoners. We’re not allowed to talk about our past. It’s part of the integration process—pretend you’re happy to be here, and you get out of the compound faster. Only I skipped the integration part.”

“How’s that?”

He snorted in disgust. “There I was, fighting desperately for my life and trying to help my people escape, and the Demander thought, ‘Hmm. There’s one who can fight. I should add him to my collection.’ He brought me in, held a knife to my mother’s throat, and threatened to kill my family, one by one, if I didn’t cooperate.”

A knife? Those were illegal in NORA. Knives were tools of the Old America, tools of the violent and uncivilized societies of the past. But then, threatening peoples’ lives was illegal too. The commander was the councilman over our entire nation’s military, and he was breaking our own laws.

“I refused, but he insisted it would only be for two years.” He chuckled bitterly. “What kind of idiot would believe that?”

“I didn’t know your family’s lives depended on your job here. I bet they see you as a hero.”

He shrugged. “I promised my dad to keep my family safe. I’ll do anything to fulfill that, even if it means playing their stupid numbers game.”

“Game. That’s a good way to put it.” I paused for a pedestrian to shuffle by. “What did you think about the Rating system when you came here?”

“When I was dragged here, more like. I didn’t get it, and I still don’t. I mean, why do you let yourselves be controlled by some stranger’s opinion of what you’re worth? Why can’t everyone be valuable for who they are and not just how well they conform to some random ideal?”

My face burned. “I don’t know.”

He sighed. “Sorry, but you asked.”

I had, and I deserved every word. Even stranger, I agreed with him. It sounded ridiculous when he put it that way. “What are you going to do now?”

“No idea. Just don’t tell anyone. Poly’s the only one who knows about all this, and I’ll tell him we failed to reach an agreement.”

“Sure.” I pushed a wayward hair behind my ear—I’d left it down today, and it hung past my shoulders—and smoothed it down, staring at the ground. “Keep my secrets, and I’ll keep yours.”

“You’ve got a deal.”

20

W
hen
we got back, the guys were awake and using the washroom. I curled up in the training room and closed my eyes, which were suddenly heavy from lack of sleep. As uncomfortable as I was, it didn’t take long for my mind to drift into slumber.

The end-of-summer air was growing cooler. I was five years old, just weeks away from Level Two school, and I had just told Konnor about my first failed exam. I’d only missed six questions, I reasoned, but he wore a thunderous expression. I winced, ready for the blow I knew would come, but he simply grabbed my wrist and yanked me out the door.

Minutes later, his neck glistened with sweat as he pulled me toward the tower’s front doors. He held my hand tightly, roughly. I asked why we were here. He mumbled something about showing me the view.

It was early evening, the building empty, the hard floors and blank walls echoing the sound of our footsteps. We entered the lift, and Konnor pushed the highest button. Number 82.

My stomach felt tingly for a while, and then the doors slid open, exposing us to a hot, heavy wind. The roof. He pulled me immediately toward the rail.

“Look down,” he said. I shook my head. He yanked on my wrist, but I clung to his leg with my other arm. He reached down and grabbed my jaw, forcing me to look down over the city. “Eighty-two floors up. You won’t learn physics for another three years, so I’ll translate: that’s about six seconds of air time before you hit.”

I didn’t understand, but I hugged his leg with renewed strength. He peeled me off with a grunt and lifted me off my feet. Whimpering, I reached for him, but he lifted me slowly over the rail. I stood right on the ledge now, held up only by his arms. My whimpering turned into sobbing.

“As a kid, I always wanted to fly.” His voice was soft, distant. “I hoped to be a pilot. I even volunteered at the plant where they assemble military choppers. I’m not complaining. My current assignment has much more stature. But my position is precarious, Ametrine. My position is as precarious as yours is right now.”

I shook so badly that I thought he might drop me on accident. I felt the hard ledge under my feet, firm, but Konnor still had full control of my fate. With a flick of his wrist, I would fall. My eyes dropped to the ground, which seemed a hundred kilometers away. The bicyclists on the street below looked like tiny moving toys.

“P-p-please,” I said. “I’ll never fail again! I’ll get perfect scores, and I’ll be your good girl.”

“My good girl?” His voice hardened. “You were never mine. You’re another man’s child, and yet I support you and pay the consequences of your failures. Ametrine, your actions affect your entire family. Six missed questions seem small now, but failing a class—or even one test—can mean an entire Rating point. Understand?” He let my right hand slip a little and I gasped in horror, squirming to grab the rail with my free hand.

“Yes, sir!”

“I’m not convinced. Show me that every time you think about falling short, or letting up, or giving up, you’ll picture this scene right now. Look down, child, and memorize it. Let me help you get a better view.” I let out a wail as he lifted my feet over the ledge. He lowered me then, feet dangling, alive only by his grip on my arms. My body shook violently, and my cheeks were wet with tears. I looked down once more, wishing that someone would look up and see us. Wishing they would help me, that they’d lift me into their arms and take me far away.

“Whether I like it or not, you are a Dowell,” he said. “Dowells do not fail. If such a thing were to happen, I expect you to make the right choice.” He nodded toward the ground. “We all make sacrifices for those we love, and sometimes this, right here, is the noblest choice a person can make.”

He began to lift me toward safety, but his grip loosened and slid toward my sweaty hands. So slippery. Just before my feet made it over the rail, my tiny fingers slid out of his grip.

I woke up gasping. It was the same nightmare I’d had for years, and I always woke up right before hitting the ground. The training room was still empty. I was alone. My lungs sucked in air, and I forced myself to focus on breathing. In. Out.
You didn’t fall.
In. Out.
That was a long time ago.

After a moment, I stood and made my way down the hall. It was strangely quiet. The bedroom was empty as well. Where had they gone? I flicked open my techband and noticed that I had a text message. It was from Vance. Apparently we were allowed to communicate with each other, at least.

Went for a run. You were sleeping so soundly. I didn’t want to wake you. Train on your own, and we’ll see you in an hour. Sorry to lock you in. Orders.

I gave a frustrated sigh. The guys had watched me sleep and then excluded me. No, not all of them. Vance had used the word “I.” He had decided to protect me, to set me apart from them once again. Noble but irritating. The guy could’ve just woken me up.

I read the message again, stopping on the reference to the locked door. Just to test it, I stood and yanked on it. It was locked tight. Who had ordered me locked in? Didn’t the empress trust me to fulfill her mission? My head throbbed with the beginnings of another headache. I decided to take advantage of my solitude by taking a shower.

I’d barely had time to strip down and climb into the shower when my techband started vibrating.

EPIC TEAM: TO CHOPPER PAD IMMEDIATELY
.

“So much for that,” I muttered and turned off the water. I toweled off quickly and slipped into a clean uniform.

A banging sound on the door made me jump. “I know. I’m coming.”

“Treena, let me in,” Vance’s voice said in an urgent tone. “I need to talk to you.”

The second I unlocked the door, he pushed it open and strode inside, locking it firmly behind him. It was so unexpected that I stared at him. “What?”

“I just read the details of the mission.”

“What’s wrong?”

He looked at me, searching my face. I felt a warm blush creep across my cheeks. “Our next mission isn’t chasing smugglers,” he said. “Tonight, for the first time, we’re heading up an integration mission.”

“What does that mean?”

“We’re capturing an entire settlement.”

I had to force myself to breathe normally. He nodded at my reaction and leaned his shoulder against the shiny tile wall.

I thought about the girl with the potato, and my heart sped up. “But I thought yours was the largest settlement. You mean there are others still out there?”

He let out a heavy breath. “After they took my clan out, the smaller groups got scared and started to combine into one big settlement for protection. It was a good idea, and they would’ve been pretty safe, except for one thing—their location, high in the Himmel Mountains. They planted themselves right next to the Peak River.”

The Peak River was the main artery of Aiguille’s water supply. I nodded. No wonder the commander was concerned. “I know it’ll be hard for you and probably bring back some horrible memories, but in some ways it may not be so bad, right? If we’re heading up the mission—”

“It means that we’re on the front lines, doing all the work. Taking the losses.”

I rocked back, stunned.

“There’s something else. The orders mentioned you specifically.”

“Me?” A sick feeling swelled inside me.

Vance turned to face me head-on. “You know all about me, but I know nothing about you. What did you do?” He looked angry now. “Why is your Rating so low? I’m sure you know more than you’re telling.”

“I didn’t do anything,” I said, my mind whirling at the sudden change of subject.

“Right. A girl like you, with a boyfriend like Bike Boy, doesn’t just become a red. Start talking.”

“I really don’t know! It must be my biological father. He’s in prison.”

He considered that. “No. Your score might take a little hit because of him, but nothing like this, and you know it.”

“I’m not lying.” Vance was acting so strange—almost obsessive. I tried to change the subject. “What did the orders say?”

“There are only two reasons they’d send you here,” he grumbled, almost to himself. “One, there’s something about you that our team needs. Since you have no combat training or military experience, I have to assume it’s because you’re a girl. But that doesn’t explain the Rating. Second, whatever you did to earn a 440 was so bad they’re throwing you intentionally into harm’s way. There’s something I’m not seeing here.”

“Vance.”

“What?”

“What exactly is my part in the settlement mission?”

He looked at me, his face drawn in resignation. “They want you to be the bait.”

><><><><><><><

The flying part was getting easier at least. Or maybe I was just too distracted by the impending doom to worry about falling out of the sky. As terrifying as a crash would be, at least there was a tiny chance of survival. But me, alone, at the hands of an entire outlander settlement? It was suicide.

We flew east toward the mountains, far outside NORA’s borders. Below us somewhere were the ruined cities of what had once been the United States before the two government parties had declared war and nearly killed each other off. Supposedly my grandparents’ generation had salvaged what they could and left the rest to waste away.

The vibration of the metal beneath my feet was a little more familiar this time but I still wished it wasn’t so dark. In other circumstances, I’d be thrilled to finally see what a real forest looked like.

I glanced down at my clothing. This time we wore horrid brown coats and combat boots. Mine were way too big. It seemed that destiny wanted me to drown in men’s clothing for the remainder of my two weeks in EPIC. Assuming I survived that long.

When the chopper landed, we filed out quietly. The cold wind literally took my breath away, whipping my hair into my face and stinging my eyes. The coat did little to keep out the cold. Poly’s chopper landed in the next clearing over, then both the machines rose together. They’d deposited us on the opposite side of the mountain from our destination to avoid detection, which meant we got to hike for several hours before arriving. That was fine with me. If we had to navigate the entire continent before arriving, I’d be perfectly content.

“Don’t forget what I told you,” Vance whispered as we started after our guide. I’d clung to every word of his instruction on the way here, knowing it was my lifeline. “Any questions?”

“What if they don’t buy it?”

“I’ll be right behind you, hidden in the trees.”

I shot him a look, and he shook his head. I’ll cover you this time, I swear.”

Another gust of wind pulled a sharp smell into my senses. I leaned forward and took in a deep breath. It was the trees. Even in the darkness I could see their branches outstretched like fingers guarding the frozen earth. NORA trees stood straight and tall, each with the same number of carefully spaced branches, but the twisted trunks out here were raw and beautifully asymmetrical.

The ground wasn’t flat like at home either. It was uneven and covered in debris, sometimes turning sharply upward and other times rocky, sloped, and slippery. I focused intently on the ground so I didn’t fall. We had hand lights, but they barely lit up two meters at a time.

“Step onto your heel first,” Vance said, “and rock toward your toe. It’ll help you step quieter.”

I glanced at him, but he was already looking away. Looking up, actually. A peaceful calm had settled over his features. He looked almost reverent.

“This isn’t exactly the way I imagined it,” I said. “It’s so cold. Why isn’t there any snow?”

He shook his head. “We only get snow on the peaks. And even then it’s only for a month or two in the winter.”

“Oh. Well, have you ever seen it? I mean, what does it feel like?”

He scanned the forest, stepping confidently as he considered my question. “Only twice, on hunting expeditions, and I’ve only seen it fall out of the sky once. It was . . .” He gave a sideways smile. “Cold.”

I rolled my eyes. “Thanks for that.”

“Anytime.”

We’d hoped the exercise would warm us, but I was numb by the time we reached the clearing. I checked my techband for the time before remembering that it didn’t work out here. According to Poly, punishment mode could still be activated if the techband was tampered with, but it had no network signal. It felt strange to be off the radar.