Rebellion (23 page)

So I escort them personally, while Tate and Asher distract the Enforcers by leading a masking. They meet me in the maintenance tunnel by their apartment. Kara's standing with them.

She smiles when I take off my mask and they both gasp. The woman says, her voice slightly breathless, “It
is
you. We'd been hearing rumors…” She glances to her husband, who's staring at me in awe.

“And the masks,” he continues for her.

“But we didn't think they were true,” they say together.

“Evelyn, this is Beca and Adam. Beca and Adam? Evelyn.”

An uncomfortable smile tugs on the corners of my lips when the woman curtsies. “It's a pleasure to meet you,” I say.

“No,” Adam says. “It's our pleasure.”

“We're just so excited to meet you! It means so much that you're willing to let us into the Underground.” Beca pats her belly. “Considering.”

Guilt tugs at me. They're risking so much for me. I hope I don't let them down. Or worse, get them killed. But … I have to admit it's probably safer for them to be there than here if they're going to insist on helping me. Which I have no doubts that they will.

Apologizing, I blindfold them. Shame and regret pull at my heart as I tie the black cloth around Beca's eyes, but she assures me she understands.

When they're both blind, I take Beca's hand and she takes her husband's. I lead them through the tunnels. When we get to the Caverns, it's Nadia who does the security check. I think Kara must have told them how different the people are here, because they don't do more than hesitate for a second when Nadia starts talking to them.

Evangeline takes them from there. Her naturally bubbly and welcoming nature is a huge help and I take a moment to watch the woman who birthed me talking to Beca about the baby and when it's due until their voices fade.

Over the next two weeks, we do six more transfers, using the chaos of the ‘malfunctioning' alarm systems and the random masking to help divert attention and keep them away from the maintenance tunnels. People are a lot more willing to leave than I expected. The groups grow exponentially. Mostly families. It shouldn't surprise me, but it does. I thought for sure the bravest would be the ones with nothing to lose if things go wrong, but that apparently isn't the case.

The group I'm escorting now is the biggest yet at ten people. At this rate, we're going to reach our maximum way before I thought. But it keeps me so busy between maskings and these transfers that I can't think about how Gavin should be here by now.

I'm just about to turn down the corridor leading to the door to the Caverns when I hear the telltale sound of an Enforcer's shoes against the concrete.

My heart jumps into my throat. I glance around, looking for anything, and see a small maintenance closet. I don't think it'll hold all of us, but I don't have a choice. I slide as quietly as I can to the door and pull it open and gently push them into it. As the Enforcer gets closer, my heart slams harder against my chest. I squeeze in last and pull the door shut. My thumb searches frantically for a lock to turn to no avail.

“What's going on?” someone asks too loudly.

“Shh,” I hiss. “Enforcer.”

Instantly the word has the effect of everyone holding their collective breaths.

The Enforcer pauses at the door and I grip the doorknob like it's my lifeline. I bite my lip to keep from crying out in shock when the knob tries to twist in my hand. But I hold it as tightly as I can, hoping she'll just think it's locked.

The pressure on the doorknob fades, but I don't hear the Enforcer walk away. I listen carefully, as my training taught me, and barely hear the swish of her clothes as she, I assume, kneels to the ground. The swatch of light leaking underneath the door becomes dark in the middle and I have the worst feeling she's trying to peer under the door.

Please don't move, I think to the group with me. Stay as still as statues. I keep my death grip on the door handle. My muscles are so tense they're screaming at me. Sweat drips down the middle of my back and I take the shallowest breath I can manage. Finally, the light returns, but I still don't budge. Even when she walks away and I'm sure she's gone, I wait for a long time. My hands cramp around the doorknob and my leg muscles are as taut as violin strings.

Eventually, when I know I can't stay any longer, I slowly twist the knob and peer into the corridor. “Stay here,” I tell the group and venture a few more meters away to double- and triple-check the Enforcer's gone before I risk letting my group out of the closet.

I hurry them faster than I should to the door to the Caverns and then to the security checkpoint. I don't take a deep breath or relax until every single one of them is settled and Asher makes it back from the masking.

But the horrible feeling in my gut continues the rest of the day and into the next morning. I find out the reason why when Asher and I, on our way to do another masking, pass the broom closet I hid in … and see the Enforcer. She's propped up against the door as if sitting and waiting for us. Blood seeps from the hole in the dead center of her forehead.

 

C
HAPTER
N
INETEEN

I dreamed of him again last night. Gavin. He came back to see me, but twenty years had passed for me, while none had passed for him. He didn't recognize me when he saw me. He passed right by without saying a word.

—
E
VIE'S JOURNAL

Evie

Six weeks. It's been six weeks of maskings and infiltrations into Elysium to move Citizens from there to the Caverns. Six weeks of sneaking around like thieves, worrying about the almost two hundred and fifty people now under my authority and protection in the Caverns, and six weeks of learning from Nadia and her people and trying to get the Citizens from Elysium to work
with
the people from the Caverns instead of being afraid of them. Not to mention six weeks without even a word of what happened to Gavin.

I stare at the Slate I snatched from Elysium. There is no extra space here. We can take on no more people. I've already pushed Nadia's limits by fifty people, but there's still so many people left on the other side. So many more that need to be free of Mother's tyranny.

But the food supply is not enough to sustain the people already here. The top priority on my to-do list is to secure more rations from the Agricultural Sector and the Fishery. And to figure out how much of a problem Sector Three really is. Or, more precisely, the anthropomorphic substrate affectionately known as the green goo. It's now causing structural integrity issues with the building. I can't spare any of my people to fix it and Mother doesn't seem to care one way or the other about it. The only thing she cares about in that section is the ooze.

And that's what Father has been working on to no avail. He's only managed to come up with a theory that the seawater seems to damage/kill them. Because in all the areas that have flooded, the green goo has lost all of it's viscosity and no longer consumes anything. He even touched it and nothing happened. I'm not sure how that'll help our situation with Three, but I've filed it away for later.

But my mind isn't on any of that. It's crept over, unbidden, as it has so many times in the last six weeks, to the image seared into my brain of the fallen Enforcer.

My mind slides over the details of the hours before we found her. Of the one wound. Of the way she was placed. An obvious assassination. One by another Enforcer. One more than likely ordered by Mother, because of her failure to find us. It didn't escape my notice then, or now, that that was an extreme move. One that makes me question how far I've pushed her, if she was willing to kill one of her most important weapons. Especially since Enforcers are an endangered species.

But, so far my plan is working. More and more people are carrying the masks. Each time something new pops up on a vid screen or a wall, or people wear the masks, Mother loses it more. And I'm not just talking about losing her place in Elysium. I'm talking everything.

She gets a little more unpredictable. A little more unstable. Unfortunately that means innocents suffering and dying. Two people died last week when a Guard came out at a masking and started firing into the crowd. But it's also showing the people who she really is, and every time one of them defects and turns to our side, that makes her even less sure of her position. Or at least that's what Father reports. But she's been keeping Father at arm's length, so his intel is increasingly unreliable.

It's been slow going since we took over the control of the main computer system and the cameras and turrets. Mother's had to resort to using her version of a town crier to try and mediate some of the damage we've done. It isn't working.

Gavin was right about the masks. It's taken off so much more than I think even he expected. I think even Father, whose only wish for the longest time
was
just to kill Mother, is quite pleased with our current progress and sees that staging deliberate and purposeful, yet veiled acts of protest against Mother will make her regime fall.

Gavin was definitely right. I wish there was a way I could tell him that his plan is working. And that, because of him, we're closer than ever to getting our people freedom.

“I miss you,” I whisper into the air, wishing he could somehow hear, but knowing he can't.

A knock sounds and the door opens behind me. I turn and look to see Asher step in quietly. He's been nothing but a blessing during all of this. He's helped keep my feet under me with his unwavering support and willingness to share his political knowledge.

He smiles at me and takes a giant flourishing bow, before offering me a bouquet of flowers. The colors of every single one of my favorite flowers shine like a kaleidoscope.

“Happy birthday!”

My lips curve into a wobbly smile and tears spring into my eyes. Hopefully he'll see just the surface and not the fear—and most recently, hurt—that's filled me, thinking of Gavin. But I know better. No one's better at seeing the fake than Asher.

I take the proffered flowers and bury my face in the blooms, breathing in their sweet scents, and using these few moments to collect myself. I gather the memories of Gavin and lock them away.

When I pull my face from the flowers, I'm not forcing my smile any longer and the tears are safely tucked away.

“Thank you. These are lovely. I didn't even know it was my birthday.”

But even as I say it, bits and pieces of old memories burst into my mind's eye. Most of the time there was no celebration. Pretty presents wrapped in even prettier paper sat on my vanity and Mother and I would have cake with our tea, but that was the extent of it.

Asher clears his throat, and smiles back. “Evangeline was talking about it with Eli a few weeks ago. I didn't think you remembered, so I was hoping to surprise you.”

I crinkle my nose in another smile. “I'm very surprised.”

“Liar,” he says softly and taps my nose. “But I'll forgive you.” He turns to my dresser and fiddles with my perfume bottles. Father snuck them out of the Palace Wing to try to fill in any remaining holes in my memory. So far it hasn't worked.

“So, what's on the agenda for today? More meetings? Vandalism? Random alarms and a carefully planned trip into the Palace Wing for more psychological warfare against Mother?” His voice sounds purposely bored, like he's checking things off my schedule and it's all old hat to him.

Suppressing a laugh, I press my face into the flowers again, looking over the blooms at him. He's trying to appear nonchalant, but his eyes are a storm of emotion. He's so much easier to read than Gavin was. He's scared I'll say yes to any of those things. But mostly he's worried because of my worry about Gavin.

Because of that last thought, because I don't want my best friend/maybe brother sad because I am, I force an even brighter smile. I walk over to him, putting a bounce in my step before threading my arm through his. I lay my head on his shoulder and look up at him.

“Did you know it's apparently my birthday?”

He meets my eyes in the mirror. “I'd heard something like that.”

“I think we've worked hard up until now. One day off won't hurt things. Maybe the break will lull Mother into a false sense of security. I think we should make this a day of celebration. What do you think?”

A smile slowly spreads across his face as he watches me. “That sounds like an awesome idea.”

He kisses the top of my head. Then we leave my room as I mentally cancel my plans for the day.

*   *   *

Slowly and carefully I cross the Cavern toward the cutout in the rock wall and the stone passageway that leads to the bathing area. I flip the
OCCUPIED
sign nailed to the rock outside of the bathing cavern, then remove my clothes and carelessly toss them aside. I slide into the pool of hot water with a hiss.

Sometime during the course of the day, the fact that Gavin isn't here hit me square in the chest. Something's wrong. It's been too long. He wouldn't have left me here this long by myself. I actually hope it's that he decided not to come back; that I, and my foolhardy decision to save my city from Mother, was just too much. But a worry is lodged deep in my heart that that's not what happened at all, and the reason he's not here is because something stopped him from returning. Endless possibilities of his horrible demise flash through my mind in a flood of unwanted thoughts. A sob escapes me and I press a hand to my mouth to push it and the blasted tears back in.

I slip farther into the pool, letting the water close over my head.

Asher has hinted that maybe something happened to Gavin, but I refuse to believe that. I'd feel it if he died. The string I've always felt tethering us together would have been snipped in half and I'd no longer feel him … but I do. I refuse to believe that he's dead. I want to go back up there, to find him, to see if anyone knows what's happened to him.