Parched (40 page)

I frown. “The cell branding?”

“When I found out what the Trust intended to do, I created a code that would unlock a hidden backup of my memories and entered it into the cell security system under your name. I knew you'd end up there, and I knew Gyan would let me see you again, to see for himself that the memory erasing worked.”

“So Shanice was in on it?” I ask in disbelief.

“No.” Hunter smiles. “She had no idea.”

“That's why Rockwood's was different from ours,” Naz pipes up. “I knew something was up.”

“That is so totally amazetown.” Achilles sighs. “You're like a superhero for nerds.”

We approach one of the busier loops that circles above the southern part of the Hive. “But what if I'd been wearing something long-sleeved?” I ask Hunter. “What if you didn't see it?”

“Then you wouldn't be here now.” Noticing my look of horror, he adds, “The odds were in my favor. It was a calculated risk.”

My stomach drops as we shoot into a loop. In the buzzcars around us, I glimpse Edenites talking animatedly to each other or flicking through the streams, no longer having to pay attention to flying. Hunter relaxes a little and turns around to face us. Clearly, we're all thinking the same thing. What now?

Ling leans forward confidently, looking every bit a leader even though her wrists are braceleted with handlocks. “There's only one thing we can do.” She pauses to meet each of our gazes individually. “Fly to the nearest border crossing and rip it apart.”

Naz exhales in triumph and pumps her fist. “Yes! I'm ready. Right now.”

I start in alarm, and say, “Wait a second,” but Ling barrels over me, eyes burning with excitement.

“Hunter can serf the Quicks and take out the Tranqs. We go now, right now, hit them before they know what's happening.”

Naz whoops ecstatically, just as excited as Ling. “Let's do it! Let's go!”

“Can you really do that?” Achilles, sandwiched between the two electrified girls, blinks at Hunter nervously. “Serf more Quicks—do you have enough power?”

“I could,” Hunter says calmly. “But I won't.”

Silence fills the car. We reach the end of the loop and start to take it again.

“What?” Ling's question drips acid.

Hunter looks unfazed at her anger. “I don't believe opening Eden's borders will create a hospitable living environment for the people of the Badlands.”

“What, and
murdering
everyone will?” Naz spits. “Let's not forget who we're dealing with here!”

Ling's body turns rigid. “He never said he's not going to do Project Aevum,” she says, voice suddenly tight. “He never said that.” For a moment, she reels back, anger meeting fear. “Is that what you're going to do?”

“No!” Hunter and I chorus the word at the exact same time.

“No,” Hunter repeats firmly. “That's why we're all here.”

“Yeah, chill out,” I snap. “And don't talk to him like that. Hunter
just saved our lives.” I run my teeth over my lower lip before adding, “And I happen to agree with him.”

“You do?” Ling's mouth drops open in surprise.

“Yes, I do.” I twist to face Kudzu fully. “Guys, we just saw what happened when Hunter opened a border, back on the flight deck. Chaos.
Dangerous
chaos. It'd be the same in Eden.”

Achilles nods. “I think she's right.”

“So, we just run and hide for the rest of our freakin' lives?” Naz asks incredulously. “You saw what he did back there. We have to
use
him—”

“He is not yours to use!” I exclaim furiously.

Ling finds her voice. “And you're not in a position to decide what Kudzu does! This is what we've been been working for, and this is what we're going to do. I don't care if you don't like it, Tess. I don't care if you're too chicken.” Her voice reaches a fever pitch, hands balled into fists. “We're going to open a border now!”

The words tumble out of my mouth before I have time to stop them. “Opening a border won't get Sanako back!”

Ling freezes, stunned, as if I just sucker-punched the entire car. Ling's face looks as if it's burning hot and icy cold, all at once. Her voice is a low, predatory growl. “How dare you say that to me.”

“I know you want her back,” I say, my voice full of desperate passion. “And I know you blame yourself for her leaving. I know what it's like to lose someone.” I reach for her hands but she flinches, yanking them back. Her eyes are on fire. “But you're a leader, Ling,” I continue. “You have to make decisions that are best for everyone, not for one girl who may or may not be out there. A girl who made her own decision about her own life and has to face the consequences herself. You can't save her.”

The world whirls by our little car as we reach the end of the loop and start it again. Below us, Eden glitters like a treasure chest. Ling hisses roughly, “It's not about her.”

I can't make Ling see what I see. My voice is quiet, but not weak. “Isn't it?”

A tear spills from Ling's lower lid and streaks down her cheek. Her voice is cracked and hard. “I want to help the Badlands. Not just her.”

“I know. And so do I,” I tell her. “But we're not ready to open a border now. We've no backup, no weapons, and no plan for how to make sure a lot of people don't end up dead.”

Ling blows her bangs out of eyes and exhales loudly. Naz and Achilles stare at her, waiting for her decision. I'm sure I'm right. I recognize
the crazed look in her eye and the impossibility of her plan. That was me fleeing Eden for the Badlands.

After what seems like an age, she turns her head to meet my gaze. “You're right,” she says evenly. “This isn't the right time.”

I sag in relief.

Naz sniffs, disgusted. “So we do nothing?”

“We're escaping,” Achilles points out. “That's not nothing.”

My eyes flicker to Hunter, then back to Ling. “We can't stay in Eden, can we?” I'm framing it as a question, but I already know the answer.

“No,” Ling says flatly. “Whatever happens, we'll have to leave for the Badlands. Tonight. We'll have to be gone by dawn.”

Achilles looks as if he's just licked something sour. “Really?” he asks. “All of us?”

Ling nods curtly. “What other option do we have? Stay at Milkwood and never leave? It's not completely self-sufficient, and I bet the Trust would find us eventually, even if it were.”

Silence settles into the car for a moment as we absorb what this means. Leaving Eden. Returning to the Badlands. “I know we escaped,” I say slowly. “And I know we stopped Project Aevum. But somehow . . .”

“Scurrying over the border with our tail between our legs totally sucks?” Achilles suggests.

I wince. “Exactly,” I mutter.

Ling sighs angrily. “I just wish there was something we could do.”

So do I. I glance at Hunter. He cocks his head a quarter-inch, eyes serious and, somehow, committed. He nods, just slightly. He's up for something. My heart swells—of course he is. Of course he'll help. My mind begins whirring frantically.

Ling continues, “Something that means Benji and Lana didn't die for nothing.”

“Something badass,” grunts Naz.

“Something involving Hunter,” Achilles chimes in, sounding smitten. “I mean, c'mon, the guy's six kinds of awesome.” He raises his shackled hands, offering one palm to Hunter for a high five.

Hunter frowns at Achilles, unsure.

“He wants you to hit it,” Naz explains.

Hunter blinks, just once. Achilles grins and nods encouragingly. Hunter slaps Achilles' open palm. Hard. Achilles flinches, emitting a tiny yelp of pain.

“Too hard?” Hunter asks in concern.

“No,” Achilles replies hoarsely, dropping his hands into his lap to rub his palm against his pants. “You got it, buddy. You got it.”

My loose idea finally solidifies into something whole. “Actually, there is something we could do.”

Ling, who'd been staring morosely out the window, jolts to attention. “What?”

I face everyone in the car, feeling excited, nervous, and almost incredulous that I'm actually going to suggest this. “Just before Ling brought me back from the Badlands, the Trust built a dam. A thick concrete dam, one hundred feet tall and fifty feet wide. The dam that stops Moon Lake from flowing through an aqueduct to become Lunalac in the Badlands.” I pause, glancing around at the four sets of eyes that are glued on me. “We're going to blow up that dam.”

Ling's expression slowly transforms. “The aqueduct,” she whispers. “We can blow up the dam.”

Naz whistles, low and long. “Damn, Rockwood. You're hard-core.” She nods in approval. “I like it.”

“Blowing up the dam will flush the Badlands with thousands of gallons of fresh water,” I continue. “It'd change lives,
save
lives.” I picture the little kids who used to crowd outside Zhukov's bar, and the looks on their faces when fresh water starts to flow from the taps again. “We could never do it on our own,” I add. “But if Hunter agrees to help . . .” I trail off, glancing over at him, knowing he'll say yes.

“It won't fix the problem in the long-term,” Hunter points out. “But it's far more achievable and less dangerous than opening a border. You can count me in.”

A giddy wave of adrenaline bubbles up inside me, making my heart beat faster. I tell Hunter, “There's about a hundred Quicks on guard—”

“How do you know all this?” Ling demands.

“Remember the off-cycle scratch you gave me?” I ask. “I didn't have much to do after my ‘tutoring' sessions.” I put air quotes around the word
tutoring
, and Hunter flicks me a wry smile. “I was curious. But I could only see what was on the streams, nothing that official.”

“Bo can help with explosives,” Ling begins, before catching herself. “Assuming . . .”

Assuming Milkwood is still standing. Assuming the Trust hasn't killed our friends.

“We have to go back to Milkwood.” I say it, but I know I'm also speaking for Ling, Achilles, and Naz.

“Milkwood?” Hunter asks.

“Kudzu's base,” I explain.

“Our home,” Ling adds.

Hunter shakes his head firmly. “No. It's too dangerous. The Trust could be waiting for us.”

Ling opens her mouth in immediate protest, but I stop her with a quick glance. Instead, I turn to Hunter. His face is set in a look of resolve. “Tess,” he says, “you can't go back. I can't put you in danger like that. I want to . . .” He pauses, and glances furtively at the others in the backseat. The look strikes me as odd, and a second later, I realize why. He's nervous about them overhearing. It's so unexpectedly vulnerable and impossibly human that a little shiver of something electric and warm races through me.

“You want to what?” I ask quietly.

He looks back at me, and the expression on his face reminds me of when he told me in the florist shop he was scared for me, asking me in that soft, embarrassed way if that was normal. “I want to protect you,” he finishes in a low voice.

Ling makes a noise from the backseat that could be a scoff or an
aw
.

I reach out to take his hand. Our fingers intertwine. Even though I initiated it, I have to suppress a gasp. Every nerve ending sings and sparks and shoots pulses of energy up my arm. I try to focus. “Hunter, our friends are there. People we care about. We have to see if they're okay.” I squeeze his hand, and another flurry of that feeling, that strange, electric feeling, floods through my veins. “Can you understand that?”

He glances down at our fingers, lips parted. I wonder if he's feeling what I am. He nods. I squeeze his hand again, then pull away.

Hunter straightens in his seat and asks, “Should I access the official schematics on the dam now?”

“You can you do that without going on-cycle, right?” Achilles asks, awestruck.

“Yes. Trust schematics are never on-cycle,” he replies. “They're not for the public to see. I can't go on-cycle at all now,” he adds. “Not unless we want the Trust to know where we are.”

“Yes, stay off-cycle,” Ling says, a little imperiously. “Don't let them find us through you.”

“Don't worry,” he says. “I know what they're looking for. I will remain”—he shoots me a sly, sideways look—“impotent.”

We hold each other's gaze for a second longer than necessary, long enough to feel my cheeks buzz with color. Someone in the backseat laughs.

“Hey.” I frown, reaching for the mirror matter. “This isn't full, it's maybe ninety percent.” I glance back at Hunter. “I don't want to”—I purse my lips, searching for the phrase—“run you down. How does this recharge?”

He smiles unevenly, taking the silver tube from me. “Sun works,” he says, putting it back on the light-filled dashboard. “Not as quickly as the recharging stations at Simutech and in the Towers, but sun works.”

“Solar.” Achilles nods approvingly. “A classic for a reason. You can recharge yourself wherever you are.”

“How long will it take to fully recharge?” I ask. Hunter's involvement in anything we do from now on is key.

“A day,” he replies.

“We won't have a day,” I say, alarmed.

“Right,” adds Ling. “We can only risk blowing up the dam tonight. Any longer and the Trust will track us down. We have to leave Eden before dawn.”

I glance at the sun and do some quick math, remembering that we lose the sun earlier at Milkwood because of the high city walls. “We probably have only six hours of direct sunlight left.”

Hunter doesn't look bothered by this. “I'm okay for now. I just need to keep this in the sun for as long as possible.”

I nod. The silver mirror matter glints and shimmers on the dashboard: a life force in a tube.