Outcasts (43 page)

“I don’t know.” Omar didn’t know anything. He just wanted to make sure Shay was okay. Then he wanted to visit Skottie and vape the sweet stuff. But there was no point holding back what he did know. “Okay, listen. Levi wants you guys to get in the truck and drive to Zane’s. He doesn’t like that Rewl, and therefore Bender, knows where we are. So you may as well pack up and go while it’s still dark.”

Aunt Chipeta stepped into the archway and handed Mason a bowl of something steamy. “Move tonight?”

“Do you want to lose Hazel again? Yes, move tonight.” Omar felt like a jerk, but there was no point trying to be nice if everyone wanted to argue. “Mason, before she died, Kendall said Ciddah and Renzor were lifers. I’m sorry. I’d still like your help going after Shaylinn, but if you’d rather drive the truck to Zane’s, that would be fine.”

Mason eyes widened and he frowned slightly. “I – I don’t …”

“But Naomi just gave birth,” Aunt Chipeta said.

“She’ll be okay as long as she doesn’t have to walk,” Jemma said. “Did you tell Levi about the baby, Omar? Now that they’re back, Jordan should know.”

“Would anyone else like something to eat?” Aunt Chipeta asked. “Omar? You other men? Forgive me, I don’t know your names.”

“Sorry,” Omar said. “This is Mukwiv and Tupi from Jack’s Peak.”

“Nice to meet you,” Aunt Chipeta said. “Would you like something to eat?”

“Yes, thank you,” Mukwiv said. Tupi nodded.

“Omar?” Aunt Chipeta said.

“No, thanks.” Omar didn’t think he could keep anything down.

Aunt Chipeta passed out bowls of noodles and beef. Jemma told them about Naomi’s labor and more about Shaylinn’s kidnapping, then she asked Mason to tell which kids he saw at the boarding school.

The question seemed to surprise Mason, like he hadn’t been listening. Omar felt bad for upsetting him with what Kendall had said.

“Um … I saw all the boys. And quite a few mentioned the Owl,” Mason said with a glance at Omar. “You’re a legend with the kids, brother.”

“Really?” The fact that the kids liked the Owl made him smile despite his pain.

“You. Have a. SimTalk tap. From … Zane.”

Omar stood and walked out of the room toward the front door so he could hear Zane better. “Answer.”

“Okay, peer. We’ve got the makings of a plan here. Why don’t you put me on speaker, if you still have your Wyndo watch, that is.”

“Oh, yeah, hold on.” Omar walked back into the living room and tapped “speaker” on the watch. “Listen up, everyone. Zane wants to talk.” When the room quieted, Omar said, “You’re on speaker, Zane.”

“First, I’m supposed to say that everyone not going after Shaylinn needs to pack up and move down here. Also, Levi says Jemma is not to go after Shaylinn.”

Jemma scoffed and folded her arms. “Tell Levi that I said — ”

“That Naomi had the baby,” Omar said, hoping to prevent a fight. “It’s a boy, and they’re both fine.” Right? He looked to Jemma, who nodded, though she was still scowling.

“I’ll do that,” Zane said. “Now, here’s what I learned. There’s a big enforcer bust scheduled for six this morning at Champion House. Several teams have already been deployed. They’re armed with dual-action pistols.”

Omar looked at Mason. They both knew what that meant: guns that could both stun and kill.

“You think they’re going to bust Lawten for something?” Omar asked. “Can they do that? Isn’t that like the sheriff arresting the president?”

“The enforcer general runs the enforcers but also heads investigations to protect the Safe Lands. If he found the right dirt on Renzor, he could arrest him,” Zane said. “It’s pretty intriguing. As I see it, you have two options: Go in now, or wait until it’s over and see where they take Shaylinn, then plan to get her from there. My guess is they’ll take her back to the harem, and that’s our next target anyway.”

“Yes,” Mukwiv said. “Do not risk exposure and capture when we could take more time and make a safe rescue of all the women.”

“But they’re going in with real guns,” Mason said. “Anyone can get killed in the cross fire. I saw it happen in Glenrock. And I don’t trust Otley not to shoot Shaylinn just to make us mad.”

“Otley’s a psychotic maggot,” Omar said. “I’m not leaving her there, knowing he’s involved.”

“I agree,” Jemma said.

“Do you have any way of helping us, Zane?” Omar asked.

“I had nothing until you suggested the SimArt and my dad reminded me of TRO.”

“What’s that?” Omar asked.

“Hold on,” Zane said. “Ruston is tapping in.”

“Omar, you hear me?” Ruston asked.

“Yeah, we hear you. Go ahead.”

“The Technology Research Organization was originally called Technology Research Teams. It was founded just after the Great Pandemic. Its job was to go out into the world and rescue technology. If the Safe Lands were to keep moving forward, they needed to learn how to create things. Teams were sent out on assignment to bring back the knowledge of creating everything from industrial machines to pharmaceuticals.”

“That’s how the Safe Lands were able to keep so much technology from the Old world?” Mason asked.

“Yes. And to keep creating new technologies. Over time, there was no more need to rescue Old technology, and the Safe Lands changed TRT to TRO. Now they work on new inventions.”

“And this will help us rescue Shay?” Omar asked.

“I know a guy,” Ruston said.

Omar smiled at Mason. Zane and his father were a lot alike.

“He owes me,” Ruston went on, “and a while back he showed me what he was working on. You’ve seen WyndoFlex screen, yeah?”

“Like my watch?” Omar said.

“Exactly. Well, my contact, he’s got a couple full suits of it.”

“Why would anyone want their body to look like a TV?” Jemma asked.

“That’s not the goal,” Ruston said. “If you have a screen on fabric, it can reflect whatever you want it to reflect.”

“It can reflect its surroundings,” Mason said, eyes wide.

“Exactly,” Ruston said. “These suits use cameras to record what’s behind them and project that onto their fronts.”

“You think he’ll let us borrow them?” Omar asked.

“No. But like I said, he owes me a favor. How many in your rescue team?”

Omar took a deep breath and met Mason’s gaze.

“Two,” Mason said.

“Two. Fine. Nash will pick you up in twenty minutes.”

“We’ll be ready.” Omar disconnected from Zane, eager to do something more than sit around feeling useless and guilty and sad. “Finish eating, brother. We’re going to visit Champion House.”

I
need to be there,” Jordan said. “Hogs teeth, I should have been there already!”

Levi and Jordan were in the nest with Ruston and Zane. “Just wait, Jordan. Until I figure out what I’m doing. Please.” Levi looked back to Ruston, who’d forbidden anyone to leave until the enforcer chatter on the boarding school escape had died down. “I’m elder of Glenrock. I’m their brother. And I know more about this sort of thing than they do. I should be going with them.”

Ruston stood and stepped into the tunnel. “Come with me.”

Levi sighed and followed the man out into Zane’s basement.

Ruston gestured at the ratty old couch. “Have a seat.”

Levi didn’t like feeling as though he was about to be manipulated. He sat down.

“A good leader has sense enough to pick good men to do what needs done and enough self-restraint not to meddle,” Ruston said. “Trust your men.”

“And if Mason and Omar were skilled at breaking into fortresses — if I’d assigned them to such a chore — I might trust them with it. But Mason’s a doctor, and Omar is … Omar.”

“Omar has shown himself to be clever and persistent. With Zane’s eyes and my connections, I don’t see why they can’t succeed.”

Maybe. “At least let me and Jordan go help move the women and babies over here.”

“Again, there are two men to help, and the women are also quite capable. There is no reason for you to leave.”

Levi rubbed his eyes. He didn’t like how Ruston was treating him like a prisoner, even if he made sense. “I can’t just sit here and wait.”

“Then don’t. You and I need to make plans on how to divide the children. I can’t do this without you. Only you know your people.”

“I gave you Jemma’s list.” What else did the man want?

“A list of children’s names. I need to know the families so I can place them together. Haven’t they been separated long enough?”

“More than,” Levi said.

“Make a new list while I’m gone.”

Levi stood up. “Wait, where are
you
going?”

“I can’t get your brothers the help they need without going out. I’ll be back long before they start their mission. Then I’ll want to see your list.”

“Take Jordan, then. Drop him at the cabin when you pick up Mason and Omar. He’s going to drive us all crazy if you don’t.”

“Agreed. I will have him go with Nash.”

“And what will I do while my brothers risk their lives?”

“You could sleep. It
is
the middle of the night. Or you can sit with Zane and watch your brothers. We’ll be able to see most everything on the cameras.”

That was some consolation. “Then that’s where I want to be.”

Ruston nodded once, as if Levi had passed some sort of test. “When I return, we’ll figure out where to place the families. And after that, I want to talk to you about something … special.”

Levi narrowed his eyes. “Are you going to start asking favors of me like Bender did?” Because Levi didn’t think he could take much more of that. He was elder of Glenrock. That might be only two dozen
people, but they were his responsibility. No one else’s. And he didn’t want them made into slaves, himself included.

“No, nothing like that,” Ruston said. “See, I have a theory, though my son thinks I’m dimmer than a dead Wyndo screen. But I think that you and I are kin.”

C
iddah couldn’t possibly be Lawten Renzor’s lifer. Mason told himself this for what must have been the one hundredth time since Omar had passed on Kendall’s message. The mere idea made him sick. Kendall had had the tendency to exaggerate. She must have misunderstood. She must have.

Aunt Chipeta and Jemma were well into directing the packing up of the cabin when Nash arrived with Jordan, then drove Omar and Mason to the TRO, which was a warehouse ten blocks away that said “Safe Lands Industries” on a sign out front. It was still dark out. According to the display on the windshield, it was 4:07 a.m.

“What’s Safe Lands Industries?” Mason asked Nash as they made their way to the building’s entrance.

“Nothing,” Nash said. “The TRO has always kept a secret location for their research facility. Trying to keep the technology away from thieves and rebels and Luella Flynn.”

Omar snorted a derisive laugh. “I understand the need. That woman’s persistent.”

His little brother was still wearing one of the baby harnesses. It looked funny on him, but Omar had left it on, saying he might need it
if they found Kendall’s baby. Mason had wrapped a scalpel, three alcohol swabs, and three bandages in a strip of denim and shoved them into his pocket. If they were going to rescue Ciddah and the baby, he’d need to remove their SimTags. And he didn’t want to risk not having supplies in case Shaylinn had been re-tagged.

Nash opened the door at the front corner of the warehouse, and they stepped inside a small reception area. Two hallways stretched out on each exterior wall, white walls and thin gray carpeting. The place was dark and appeared to be deserted. Nash paused, looking both ways as if he wasn’t certain where to go.

“Ever been here before?” Mason asked.

“Nope. SimTalk: tap: Zane.” Nash peeked down the hallway on the left. “Hay-o, bro. We’re at the TRO. Where am I going? … Gotcha, thanks. SimTalk: end tap.” He walked down the right hallway. “We go this way.”

They followed Nash down the hall until they came to an open area. A two-story wall ran perpendicular, enclosing the office portion of the building on the front end of the warehouse. The rest of the warehouse spread out before them. Only a quarter of the ceiling lights were lit up. On the right perimeter wall, shelves stuck out like the teeth of a comb, holding small objects Mason couldn’t identify. The rest of the space held strange vehicles and machinery, each in its own squared-off section of floor.

“I’d love to walk around here sometime,” Mason said.

“Dream it,” Nash said. “If they find out we were here, they’ll probably move the place.”

Nash led them along the office wall toward a long gash of light that spilled across the dark cement floor. An open doorway. As they approached, Mason heard voices.

“B – But … but why the suits?” a man asked. “Anything else, I … I wouldn’t flinch to let you b – borrow.”

“We need to be invisible.” Ruston’s voice. “This is the fastest way.”

“Do you have a … a slower way of b – being invisible?”

“Maybe,” Ruston said. “I’ll tell you that when we return the suits.”

They reached the doorway and entered a laboratory. Not a medical one, though. This one was filled with GlassTop computers and Wyndo screens, tables covered in stacks of fabric, and racks of white jumpsuits. Ruston stood beside a man sitting at a GlassTop computer console that had six screens.

The man turned his attention to where they walked through the doorway. He was in his mid-thirties, with flaking white skin, a cropped brown beard, and a thatch of messy hair. His eyes were wild, like a cornered animal.

“This is Mason and Omar, and you know Nash. Boys, this is Lhogan Rayscott,” Ruston said. “He’s a TRO engineer.”

“I’m not comfortable with … with this, Ruston,” Lhogan said. “If anything hap – happens to these suits, you’ll see me p – premie lib – libbed.”

Mason and Omar stopped just inside the door, but Nash walked over to the computer where Ruston stood. “We could set it up as a break-in,” Nash suggested.

“No one is sup – posed to know where TRO research takes p – place,” Lhogan said. “If it b – became known that the facility had b – been compromised, they’d likely liberate us and train new … new researchers.”

Mason saw no logic in such fears. “Surely they wouldn’t kill the people who know the technology.”