Rebellion (19 page)

My mind races, throwing answers randomly at my mouth before my lips finally spit out, “I thought I did, but when I got here she was gone.”

“Mother will be displeased,” the girl says, but disappears into the crowd again without saying anything else.

It was a risk answering her. I don't know how many Enforcers are left or how close they are. When I was one we considered each other sisters, but it's been so long since then.

My heart still ramming against my rib cage, I patrol the area I'm in before melting into the shadows to find the nearest maintenance tunnel. The paper burns a hole in my hand. I'm dying to read it, but I've already almost been caught once today. I don't want to press my luck any further.

The door swishes open the minute I finish the signaling knock, and I'm yanked into the dark tunnel before my brain catches up.

“Are you all right?” Asher demands, his hands holding me in place by my shoulders. “Did she find you?”

“I'm fine,” I say. “She did find me, but I already had my cloak on. She just thought I was one of them.”

“That was too close. What the hell happened? Why weren't you paying attention?” He yanks me into a hug.

“Trust me. I didn't like it either.” I hug him back, before pushing him away. “Someone grabbed me. It startled me so much I almost lost control of myself. By the time I pulled myself back together he was gone, there was a paper in my hand and you were warning me about the Enforcer.”

“A paper?” Asher asks. “Is there anything on it?”

“I don't know. I didn't get a chance to look at it.”

“It is dangerous to continue this conversation here,” Nadia says in her stern voice. “I suggest if you are not injured we continue this conversation in the Caverns.”

“Of course.”

We make the long trek down the pitch-black tunnels. While I still trail my hand along the wall, I've come and gone so much in the last few days I don't think I actually need to do it anymore.

When we enter the light of the Caverns, I immediately look at the paper. I frown at it. Written in an almost illegible hand are the words “Evie Lives.” I flip it over and see, in the same hand, a short note.

“We believe you. We wish to help.”

I read it a few times, not sure I'm seeing what it's actually saying.

“What is it?” Asher demands.

“I think someone wants to join us.”

“What?” He rips the paper from my hand and I hiss when it slices into the webbing between my finger and thumb. “Sorry,” he mumbles, already reading the paper.

“What do we do?” I ask.

“More is better, right?” He doesn't sound very confident in his answer.

Nadia watches the two of us, her face as emotionless as usual, but she's obviously waiting for me to do or say something. “Shall I get Evangeline?”

I nod absently. “Please. We'll be in the artifact room.” I walk in that direction, with Asher following a few paces behind.

We sit at the table and stare at each other, both at a loss for words.

“This is what we wanted,” Asher finally says.

“Yes.” But I personally didn't expect a response so soon. Sure, it was just one, but every journey and all that.

Evangeline walks in then. She's flushed and out of breath. She obviously ran here. Her eyes are excited and she beams at us. “So we got one!”

“Theoretically,” I say. Why oh why does her bubbly nature always set my teeth on edge?

“Why theoretically?” She gestures toward the paper. “It's a request to join, right?”

I look at Asher, not sure what I'm trying to say. Thankfully, he knows exactly what I'm feeling. “We don't really know what to do about it.” He splays his hands out in front of him. “We didn't expect it to happen this fast.”

The room is silent. Then Evangeline asks, “Who was it?”

I shrug. “I don't know. It happened too fast. I just know it was a man.”

“How?” Asher demands.

“His hand was definitely male.”

“If it's just the one, we could bring him here,” Evangeline suggests.

“No,” Nadia says instantly. “That is not a good idea. There's no way to tell if he is working for Mother or not. I will not risk my people.”

“I agree.” I take the paper from Asher and study the handwriting. “It's too high of a risk.”

“There's nothing stating he
has
to be here to help out. Kara and Tate aren't. Right now we're just planning on more information drops, right? Just give them the papers like we did with Kara and Tate.”

“But we don't know who it was.”

“Another pamphlet drop.” Evangeline folds her hands on the table and leans forward. “Instead of information about Mother and her atrocities, we give them a place and time to meet.”

“And then Mother ambushes us.” I scowl at the paper.

“There's no reason for us to be there to give it to them,” Asher says. “Just leave the papers for them to grab. If we're suggesting they do it at a certain time and place, then one of us can drop it off and wait to see who shows up. If it's an Enforcer, then we know it's a trap and we continue as we have. If not, then we've just added another member to the roster.”

“If we're just handing out pamphlets with a place and time to meet, how do we control how many show up? How do we make sure the people who show up are ones that want to join our side?”

“I do not believe,” Nadia pipes up, “that you will get a lot of people to join your cause. Even if you asked straight out, which I highly recommend against doing. I would just leave the bare essentials in a simple format. Such as time in just numerals and maybe a coded location. Those waiting for a response from you will guess to its meaning. Those who are not, will not understand it.”

“But how will they know where to look? They won't know our code,” I ask.

“What about a symbol? We can put it on the paper and, like Nadia said, no one but those specifically looking for the answers will understand. They'll look for the symbol at the appointed time.”

I nod my understanding and agreement. “It shouldn't be either of us who are waiting, though,” I say. “It's already risky, us going out there with all the cameras to do the drops in the first place.”

“Kara and Tate,” Evangeline says. “I'd consider it a safe bet that she doesn't know about Kara or Tate.”

“Maybe,” I say, but I don't see where we have a choice. There is nothing unusual about them wandering around Sector Two, but every time I leave here, I put forty people at risk. It's a chance, but less of one than if I go.

“Well, then,” I decide, crumbling up the paper. “I guess we better get to work. We've only got until tomorrow.”

We spend the next few hours hashing out the details. We decide to have the meeting during the dinner hour, when Sector Two is busiest. The papers—ten of them—will be hidden slightly behind the sign for the theater near the Residential Sector. There are plenty of hiding spots there for Kara and Tate to watch and see who shows up. We're not going to leave masks. They're too hard to hide and I don't want to give Mother anything easily. Once we determine this person is really on our side, then it'll be easy enough to make sure he or she gets one. Asher draws up a simple lotus flower to use as our symbol. He says it means freedom and rebirth in a few ancient cultures, which is good. Elysium will have both by the time I'm finished.

*   *   *

The next day we do our drop. Again only Asher and I. Kara and Tate will have enough to do later. No reason to double their risk. I slip from our secret door first, dressed once again as an Enforcer, and make my way through the maintenance tunnels to an exit close to the Palace Wing, where the Enforcers are kept. However, the minute I step foot into the Sector, I want to turn right back around. Apparently yesterday's near miss has made Mother up the ante. I spot four Enforcers and ten Guards off the bat.

A sense of déjà vu settles over me again. I feel like I've done this exact thing before, and I almost turn around. My body tells me to, but the last few times I listened to what my body said to do, people died. This time, I keep going and the sense of foreboding flits away, like a bumblebee from a flower.

I straighten my shoulders and make sure the hood is pulled all the way up to cover my face as much as possible. I push forward and try to keep my breathing even and my pulse steady. Not an easy feat when every few meters there's a Guard or an Enforcer. I don't know how we're going to pull this one off, but we're going to have to.

Ten minutes pass before mumblings begin to make their way to my ears of the latest pamphlet. The excitement is even more than it has been and it has all the Enforcers near me migrating toward where Asher should have started and finished his drop. I follow just long enough to make sure he's gone and not raise suspicion. From what I can tell, Asher left and his papers are nowhere to be seen. I hope that's a good thing.

This time, I don't even bother removing the Enforcer garb before I slip the mask on. It's too much of a risk with so many Enforcers around. Plus, who knows, it could be another blow to Mother to think one of her precious Enforcers could be helping the Underground. That gives me an idea, but I shelve it for later.

My heart lodged in my throat, I start handing papers to the nearest people. I want them in actual hands this time. Not just on the floor for anyone, including an Enforcer, to grab. I've just handed out my last one when someone grabs my shoulder and spins me around. I have just enough time to rip the mask from my face, but not enough time to hide it in my pocket. I just keep it crumpled in my fist.

“Was that a paper in your hand?” a Guard asks me.

I shake his hand from my shoulders and glare at him. “It was.” I try to project the same amount of coldness as I was Conditioned to do. “I took it from a Citizen. It was the same from yesterday.”

“You gave it back?”

“Mother already has the lies. She will not wish to see it again.”

“Are you sure?” the Guard asks.

I narrow my eyes into slits. “Are you questioning me?”

It's at that point something appears to click in the Guard. He backs up. “No, ma'am. Not at all.”

“Do not grab me again.”

“Yes, ma'am. Of course. I'm so sorry.” He stumbles over the words as much as he does his own feet in his hurry to get away.

A real Enforcer probably wouldn't have let him go. That part of me urges me to follow him, but I resist and turn away.

The buzz is still there from my drops, but no one looks at me as I pass them. I wander around another few minutes before I once again disappear into the shadows of the buildings and make my way back to the Caverns.

Asher is waiting as before and he seems to sense immediately the waves of energy I'm producing. “Are you all right?”

“I'm fine,” comes my clipped response.

He doesn't push for an answer and for that I'm grateful.

For the next several hours we wait—silently—for the word to come, and when it does, I still don't know how to feel.

Several people had come to the spot marked by the lotus according to the missive. Each one had come separately or, at the most, in a pair. None seemed the least surprised to find only a tiny stack of papers. They'd only paused long enough to grab one, pretend to read the sign they were hidden behind, and go on their way.

Six people came in total. Not many, but it's a start. And I'll take what I can get.

Kara also stated that the Enforcers this evening were nowhere near what they had been at the earlier drop, which tells me Mother has been watching patterns and we need to change them up.

For the next few days, with the help of our newest members, we continue to chip away at Mother's pedestal. We change around the times we pass out the information on what this city really was, what Dr. Friar has done, and what Mother really is. Twice we run out of what Evangeline is calling membership packets because of the people wanting to join. Especially since Enforcers have stepped up their patrols. Mother has made the curfew even earlier, and twice now a Guard has attacked an innocent person for no reason other than they were in a place longer than they should have been.

It's also becoming extremely clear that Mother's defectors are expecting an experienced leader out of me. And, at first I was sure I could do it, but I find myself second-guessing every decision I make and every request I ask of them. I'm so unconfident in my leadership skills that I've started going to Asher first so he can help me make the right choice. I remember from the Surface how well he knows his way around a political power play, having lived in one his entire life.

The one thing I'm sure of, even though Asher and Father don't agree with me, is that I can't stop getting my hands dirty just because we're gaining members. I can't just sit around and do nothing.

So I go out into the crowds of Citizens with my mask on to extend some kindness to whomever I can. People are still disappearing. Still dying. The Enforcers are still out in full force. I can't tell if Mother is bringing more into the fold or if it just appears that way. But either way, I can't let her scare tactics work. So, despite the risk, I go out of my way to show the Citizens that the Underground is there to help anyone who needs it. And that while Mother is something to fear, I'm not, and I'm not afraid of her.

Even though my efforts are small—bandaging and kissing the knees of a little girl, pressing credits into hands of people I know need it, distracting Enforcers so the Citizens can breathe a little easier when they're out and about—the mixed looks of shock, relief, joy, and gratitude on their faces when they realize it's really me, is giving me faith that I'm offering them hope that things can be different. If they want them to be.

 

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HAPTER
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