Quake (26 page)

Did they know Hawk and Aslan were the same person? Somehow Faith thought they probably did. Hawk was undoubtedly smart enough to sever the connection between the two, technically speaking, but the evidence was hard to ignore.

Faith knew, finally, why it was that she could never let herself enter the world of the States. The president hadn't said the words, not exactly. He didn't need to. It was plain as day.
An ignorant society is a safe society. Better they not know they were seconds away from total annihilation.

“We agree to your terms,” Faith said. “We comply.”

Faith and Dylan shared what they knew about the care and feeding of two second pulses, including what their weakness was. Four of the larger hovercraft connected to the ropes, holding the ivy cage aloft, taking control of the prison Clay had so expertly created. A hundred flying infantry, with weapons at the ready, surrounded the cage.

“Don't they know all that firepower is useless against our kind?” Jade asked.

Faith had never heard it said that way—
our kind
—and it made her feel closer to Dylan, Hawk, and Jade than she had before.

“Nope,” Dylan said, throwing an arm around Faith as they drifted toward the ground. “They have a lot of faith in conventional weaponry. It's a hard habit to break.”

As they landed on the barren, cleared land outside the Western State, the sky began to clear. They watched from a few miles outside the wall as the ivy-covered cage was covered with a camouflage tarp, hiding the strange and dangerous things inside so prying eyes couldn't see it. The glowing wall of the Western State was so big around they couldn't see either end. It vanished on the horizon line, who knew how many miles in either direction.

“God, that thing is getting big,” Dylan said. “It'll eat the whole world someday.”

“And to think everyone inside could have been killed in an instant. It would have been the biggest graveyard in human history.”

“Either that or Zombieland,” Jade said in a half whisper.

Dylan and Faith laughed, letting off some of the pressure of the day, and then everything went eerily quiet. The Quinns were gone. The army was gone. They were alone in what was left of the world outside. Three little souls in the barren world outside the States.

“I've been meaning to ask you,” Dylan said, looking down at Jade. “How'd you find your second pulse? Or your first? And why'd you keep the second pulse a secret so long?”

Jade kicked the dirt at her feet and acted as if she didn't know what he was talking about. She'd been holding on to the secret forever and she was still trying to keep it, even after it had escaped into the open. She looked up at him, squinting into the sun, and Faith could see she had found someone she could count on.

“Our mom taught me,” Jade said, and Faith was reminded once more:
These two people have the same mom
. “She told me it was a secret, especially the second pulse. She said it was very rare and very powerful.” She paused, watching the entry point for the Western State. “She said there would come a day and that I would know. She used to tell me all about it before I fell asleep, when I was little and she came to the lodge more often. She told me I would know it was time to tell for three reasons.”

Faith imagined Jade when she was four or five, Meredith telling fairy-tale stories that were all too real.

“The first reason I would know it was time was that you would appear,” Jade said. She had shifted her gaze onto Faith. “My mom said you would save the world.” This struck Faith as a strange thing to say, and yet in some ways she did feel like a sacrifice, an open wound the whole world had fallen into.

“What else did she say?” Faith asked, her heart in her throat.

“She said that my brother would be here.” Jade looked at Dylan. “She said I could follow him anywhere and he would take care of me. But he wouldn't come for me for a long time.”

“You are sort of followable,” Faith said, laughing away a tear as she looked at Dylan. “She's right about that. What was the third thing?”

Jade took a deep breath and her brow narrowed, crunching up the soft skin above her eyes.

“She said to keep the secret safe until it could be used on the one man,” she said. “He could never know. Not until it was too late.”

“Hotspur Chance,” Dylan said softly.

Jade's face softened and tears began to pool around her eyes.

“When they took Carl and Clooger, I almost told you both. But I kept hearing my mom's voice.
Not until you can use it on the one man. No matter what
. And before I knew it, it was too late.”

“You did a very fine job keeping that secret,” Dylan said.

Jade nodded quickly a few times and smiled. “I kept it safe, didn't I?”

Dylan looked at her as big brothers should. “And you saved a hundred and fifty million people. That's what Clooger and Carl worked for all their lives. They didn't die in vain. Not even close.”

“We did it together,” Jade said.

Faith smiled wistfully, and then she was crying, too. The ache of so much loss, the relief of being finished, these people who were her family—they all mixed together and took her heart to places it had never been, full and broken wide open.

“Sometimes I feel like my heart doesn't fit inside my chest anymore,” Faith said.

“Mine, too,” Jade agreed.

The entry point for the Western State opened far off in the distance and the HumGee was released into the world. Hawk gunned it, but the HumGee hovered a few inches off the ground, so there was no fishtailing or sliding. His aim was straight and true like an arrow and Jade began walking toward it. She didn't fly or run to Hawk; she just walked.

Faith leaned into Dylan and put her head on his broad shoulder. They watched until the HumGee stopped fifty feet away and Hawk stepped out.

“I guess we're the old couple now,” Faith said, looking contentedly into Dylan's eyes. “Must be nice. I'm worth like a billion dollars.”

“Uh-huh.”

Hawk and Jade hugged and she planted a serious kiss on his lips that nearly knocked Hawk off his feet. They laughed and smiled and hugged and cried until Faith and Dylan cut the distance between them.

“If you're going to be dating my sister, we're going to need to lay some ground rules,” Dylan said.

Hawk came in for a full-on man hug. “Half sister,” he corrected.

Faith put an arm around Hawk's shoulder and pulled him in close.

“Aslan? Don't go getting a God complex on me.”

Hawk shrugged. “Nah, just needed an alias.”

Hawk took Jade gently by the hand and squeezed. She looked at him and wiped her delicate hand under her eyes.

“He likes to hold hands,” Jade said.

“Yeah, I know about that.” Faith smiled.

Hawk guided Jade to the backseat of the HumGee and glanced at Faith and Dylan. “One of you can drive. I need to spend some time telling Jade about her dad.”

Faith wouldn't have thought of it so soon, but Hawk had thought of it. No one knew Clooger better than Hawk. He would tell Jade about how much courage Clooger had, but he would also make him into something more than the military man she knew. It was the most romantic gesture Faith had seen in a long time, and she marveled at Hawk's big heart.

“He's a goof, but he'll put her first,” Faith said to Dylan. “She's a lucky girl, your little sister.”

“So am I,” Dylan said, wrapping his arms around Faith and giving her a long, breathless kiss.

The four of them returned to Timberline Lodge by way of Portland, Oregon. Hawk got his chance to meet some real urban cowboys and listen to Clay tell stories about Carl. They got to have that barbecue by the water, and promised to invite them up to the mountain before the winter set in.

In time Faith Daniels would open each of the locked rooms in her heart, the ones she'd carefully hidden away until a time when she had the strength to open them up and look inside. There was a room for her parents, another for Glory, one for Clooger, one for Liz, one for Dr. Seuss and her lost childhood. So many rooms full of sadness. She would have to open them carefully, slowly, and learn to hold them in a way that wouldn't destroy her. She would need to let the tears come and let the information knock her to her knees and take her breath away.

And hopefully, over time, she would be able to see that the sacrifices made were worth it. She and Dylan and Jade and Hawk would never enter the safety of the States, but they would watch over these things of terrible beauty. They served a purpose she now understood, both symbolic and real. People in the States would hear legend of what they'd done. The story would find its way in; it would live on. It had to, because stories always find the secret way into the hearts and minds of people. And if Wade and Clara ever figured out a way to escape, Faith and Dylan would be waiting; Hawk and Jade, too. They had a place in the broken world they lived in. All that was lost had been worth it.

It had to be.

“If you could go back to the beginning, would you rather I never awakened this thing inside you?” Dylan asked one starry evening.

It was a question not unlike being asked to marry. If she waited too long to answer, the waiting
was
the answer. Dylan was asking Faith many things with that question. Did she trust him? Did she love him? Did she forgive him for changing her into something new without asking her first?

“I would never want to go back,” she said, and she meant it. “This is who I am. It's who I always was. I just didn't know it until you showed me.”

She felt as she always had for Dylan, but with the darkness that had overshadowed it pushed away on the wind. Dylan threw an arm around her the way he liked to and drew her into a slow walk into the woods.

“Movie night?” he asked. “A little sci-fi action, maybe?”

They'd been back at the lodge for only a few weeks and already Faith had endured a dozen space movies, some of them twice.

“Throw in a romantic comedy and you got a deal,” Faith said, looking off into the trees.

Dylan's laugh drifted up into the tree branches overhead.

“Let's get Hawk and Jade in on this, double feature.”

It was hard to imagine a time wasn't coming when the Quinns would escape and they'd be drawn back into a conflict they hadn't signed up for. But Faith was finally starting to understand how life worked. You didn't get to choose what the world would require of you. You got to choose only how you responded.

For now, and hopefully for a long time to come, the four of them would make a home at the lodge, way up on the mountain where trouble couldn't find them. Faith and Dylan would explore the woods in the summer, read away the winter with real books from the lodge while the fire roared. They'd watch a lot of old movies and fall asleep in each other's arms.

And that would be more than enough.

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Starting a trilogy is easy, finishing is hard. Many people to thank!

At the top of my list is Katherine Tegen, who deserves many flowers and glasses of champagne for lending her formidable skills to this series. World-class editing, check! Patience, calmness, humor, and grace—check times four! All caps HUG, I can't thank you enough.

For the pro team at HarperCollins. The talent! The passion! The incredible work that puts these books on the map: Lauren Flower, Katie Bignell, Casey McIntire, and Kelsey Horton.

Amy Ryan and Joel Tippie—of all my books these are my favorite covers, and that's saying something.

For Peter Rubie, agent extraordinaire and friend for life. Thank you, buddy.

Lucy Podmore and Rose Brock—Texas is so lucky! Thank you for your incredible encouragement; it means a lot more than you realize.

Squire, Jeremy, and Skip: during the writing of these books we traveled some hard roads together—and hey, we're still kickin'! Thanks, guys.

For Walt, Michael, and Tony. You arrived at a time when I was alone and it made all the difference. GBFL.

And in the end these books are always for Karen, Sierra, and Reece, who make everything possible.

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PATRICK CARMAN
is the
New York Times
bestselling author of such acclaimed series as the Land of Elyon and Atherton and the teen superhero novel
Thirteen Days to Midnight
. A multimedia pioneer, Patrick authored
The Black Circle
, the fifth title in the 39 Clues series, and the groundbreaking Dark Eden, Skeleton Creek, and Trackers books. You can visit him online at www.patrickcarman.com.

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PULSE

TREMOR

DARK EDEN

DARK EDEN:
PHANTOM FILE

DARK EDEN:
EVE OF DESTRUCTION

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Katherine Tegen Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

QUAKE
. Copyright © 2015 by Patrick Carman. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.