Redeemer (16 page)

He shrugs but agrees. “I'll set something up.”

I trust him. He hasn't let me down yet, even though I've sure made a mess of things for him.

Keegan spots me with Fischer and turns away.

Again, the look on his face isn't jealousy or anger. It's hurt. Confusion. He isn't sure what his place in my life is.

My stomach twists as I realize I don't know what his role is, either.

 

 

 

 

22

 

“We'll start by circling the next six to seven blocks and making our way back here.” Fischer stands in front of us, outside the skyscraper. “Once we meet back up, we're going to make our way to the second floor without being spotted. Third door on the right once we're there.”

Everyone nods, and we prepare to move. Keegan takes my right side, and Isabel takes my left. I hold in my eye roll at their overprotectiveness. As if I haven't been sneaking around on my own for months.

Libee and Tye group up, and Fischer doesn't even hesitate to join their group. It's a strange move on his part, and I can't help questioning his motives. Did he plan to move with them so he wouldn't have to see me choose Keegan over him?

Would I have chosen Keegan over him?

I don't have time to consider it as we creep through the city. As we move, it's obvious the other group is a block over from us. We see them every time we bolt across a street. After the fourth time, I grin and wave. Libee waves back.

“Hana,” Keegan chides. “Wasn't this your idea?”

Someone obviously reprimands Libee, too, distracting her, because she trips over a chunk of broken concrete in the street and falls on her face. She rolls over and grabs her ankle, crying out in pain.

My group slows for a moment, trying to figure out what to do.

Fischer cups his mouth and shouts. “Keep going. If this was real time, we'd be getting caught right about now.”

He's right, so we keep moving.

We approach the skyscraper at the same time Fischer and Tye do. Libee isn't with them.

“What happened?” Trepidation creeps up my back. Libee must not be able to walk if she's not with them.

“He made me leave her behind.” Tye practically growls at Fischer.

“If this happened in the city walls, we would have to. We need everyone to carry supplies.”

Once again, he's right, but Tye obviously doesn't like it.

We begin up the stairwell but at the first landing, just under the second floor, the structure gives way and three steps collapse under our feet. Keegan hits the ground and comes up with a bloody lip, but he doesn't even pause, just keeps climbing.

“Guess we'll be using the back entrance,” I mumble.

Fischer glances at me. “Back entrance?”

“There's another stair well on the back side of the building. Haven't you seen it?”

Fischer and Keegan glance at each other, but both shake their heads.

We push onto the second floor. Isabel moves quietly through the halls. Whatever this space was used for, it wasn't one large office like the eighteenth floor. We weave behind her until we reach the third door on the right, and we push inside.

Someone grabs Isabel. I scream and back away. Has Frost Moon found us? The guards? Something is wrong.

Keegan grabs me and pushes me behind him as he surges inside. Fischer and Tye rush in behind him. Someone gets thrown against a wall and I gasp.

This is a training exercise. Things aren't supposed to go so wrong.

Taking a deep breath, I gather my courage and step inside.

Guard Rok, Les, and his two rats have Isabel, Keegan, Tye, and Fischer pinned against the wall.

Les grins at me. “Always be prepared. Rule number one.”

Guard Rok lets Isabel go—who looks like she put up a good fight judging by the blood trickling from Rok's nose—and steps forward. “Les is right. We knew you were doing this training exercise and we wanted to prove a point. You don't know what could go wrong in that building. You must be prepared for anything.”

Les and his men still haven't let Fischer, Keegan, and Tye go. Keegan shoves against Les and scowls at him. “We done now?”

The grin on Les's face begs to be knocked off, but I'm sure I'm not the right person to do that.

Guard Rok nods at the other two rats and they let Fischer and Tye loose.

“Guard Rok is right,” Fischer says. “Just like today with Libee's ankle. Anything could go wrong once we're in there. We have to decide whether or not it's worth it. Can we risk our lives to take food?”

Guard Rok's face changes immediately. Seriousness drips from him like rain. “It's absolutely a worthy risk. You must go, and you must take whatever you can find. I only want you to be prepared, but if you don't go then we will.”

Fischer nods. “We'll go, then.”

My heart has finally calmed down. Guard Rok's little test may have angered Keegan and made Fischer want to quit, but it made me want to vomit.

I step out of the room and take a deep breath. Isabel moves out behind me. “You OK, sugar?”

A sound between a laugh and a cry comes from my throat. “Yeah, I guess. I should be asking you that question, though. You're the one who got attacked.”

She grins, and the Isabel I first met comes through. “The excitement is what I live for.”

I do laugh this time, and she puts her arm around my shoulders. We're both short, and we fit together perfectly.

Warmth surges through me, and something clogs the back of my throat. For a moment, for a single, solitary moment, it feels like Mom is here with me. She isn't dead. She didn't get the mutation and wither away. She wasn't taken from me by Frost Moon's cruelty.

She is here, and her arm is draped across my shoulders just like when I was little.

“You OK?” Isabel's smile is gone, and she frowns at me.

I swallow back the lump in my throat and manage a nod. I want to tell her how I feel—how I hope she'll stick by my side. I
want
a mother.

She watches me another second but lets it go as we begin the long walk to the eighteenth floor.

We've gone several flights when I remember Libee. “We have to go get her!”

Isabel smiles and shakes her head. “There is no way that love sick boy of hers hasn't already gone after her. In fact, I think he left before we did.”

Isabel is right. It only takes a few more minutes and we hear a commotion in the stairwell below. We lean over the railing and see Libee and Tye limping up the stairs. Keegan helps Tye haul her over the broken places.

Keegan's gaze meets mine across the distance and I give him a small smile. He smiles back and my heart flips.

He isn't mad. He doesn't hate me for my confusion about my feelings.

That is good, because right now I need all the friends I can get.

We practice the run two more times before storming day arrives. Tye and Libee go home each afternoon and return every morning. This way no one suspects what they're up to, though I don't know how Libee keeps her sprained ankle a secret.

Guard Rok doesn't bother us anymore, but Les and his men try to ambush us once in the city streets. Keegan and Tye are ready for them, and we move on without incident.

By Wednesday morning we are ready to go. Nerves twist my stomach, and when Fischer offers me breakfast, I shake my head.

Instead of eating, I pull on the small pack Isabel fixed for me to carry. I'm ready to get out of here and get this mission completed.

Isabel pats my shoulder and smiles. “Nervous?”

Am I? “I don't think so. More like anxious to be done with it.”

The newcomers stick in a group near the back of the large room, but those of us going on the mission cluster together. All except Keegan. He stands at the windows alone, staring down at something and nothing.

I want to move to him. Say something.

But if he wanted to be around me, he wouldn't be alone at the windows.

Finally, the group is ready to go. My heart rate picks up, and I jog down the stairs ahead of everyone else. We meet Libee and Tye at the specified hole in the fences, on the north side of the city. They beat us there, and they're eager and ready to begin.

My anxiety picks up as we move into the city. But it's more than that. Almost an excitement. It's surreal how easy it is to move in and out of the city. Were there places like this in Middle City 3? Places to sneak out, and I never knew it?

I never dreamed of escaping and making a life somewhere else, at least not before, so maybe I overlooked them.

We dart through the streets and into the closest alley.

“The dome is eight blocks in,” Libee says. “I took one of my dad's entry cards, so we should be able to get in without any trouble, even if we get separated from Keegan.”

Her plan makes good sense, but she says it so casually. There's nothing casual about what we're doing. We're stealing food at the risk of our lives.

It's not casual
or
smart.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath. Keegan reminded me earlier of a saying from the Early Days.
All is fair in love and war.

This is war, but it doesn't mean I have to like it.

As we move, my mind drifts back to Middle City 3. If there are ways in and out, maybe there is a way to get in. To see Dad, even if he doesn't want to see me. Keegan could see Mrs. Clem.

It's something to think about. To plan for.

We move through the next few alleys, each one taking us closer to the goal. Tye and Libee run hand in hand. Even after all this time—all the lies and deception within our society—it still shocks my system when I see anyone blatantly breaking the rules.

We reach the last alley and Keegan peeks out. “There it is.”

Isabel moves behind him and glances at the dome. “That place is huge.”

Curiosity gets me, and I push between them. “Oh my…” I can't even finish the sentence.

The dome rises from the earth like the sun, but it's so tall it blocks the giant star in the sky. It's all white, from every door to every windowsill to the domed roof that gives it its name. It's like a giant white wave, a hundred times bigger than the training dome in Greater City.

“How are we supposed to get in there?” I ask.

Fischer steps behind me and smiles. “Oh ye of little faith.”

I remember his words from something I read in the Bible once. The Bible I no longer possess. The one Frost Moon took from me when he captured me in Greater City.

My resolve strengthens and I stand taller. “Let's get in and out.”

Keegan smiles. “That's my girl.”

His words sound stilted. Performed. On purpose.

I glance between him and Fischer, but neither looks at the other.

I let it go and nod to Isabel. She's our front runner. It's a role she has insisted on since we first met. I'm not sure why she likes it so much, except she's always telling me she's expendable. That word bothers me, and I tell her she's not expendable to me, but she doesn't listen.

Glancing up and down the streets, she makes her way across. Guards dot the area—they're here to protect the dome and whatever we're about to find inside—but she doesn't look out of place. In fact, she looks Greater.

I smile and shake my head. She never lost it. In her mind, she is Greater. In fact, she treats us all the same, and I can tell in her mind we are all Greater.

She makes it to the other side, and we continue our plan. The goal is to get everyone across the street and to the hidden staircase. Once we're inside, everyone will work on gathering whatever supplies they can find while Libee and Tye find a transport truck. We'll load up our supplies and drive away from the dome.

The tricky part will come when we get closer to the hole in the wall where we came in through. We've got to get the supplies outside the city fast, and then Tye and Libee will dump the truck somewhere else so no one finds the hole in the fence.

All this without anyone getting caught.

We take separate routes around the dome, planning to meet up at the staircase. Isabel walks with Fischer and me. There is no tension between Fischer and me—there never has been. He doesn't expect anything from me the way Keegan does.

In fact, I'm not sure it would bother him all that much if I chose Keegan.

I don't have time to fully consider that possibility, or what it means to me, because we reach the meeting spot. Libee moves to the front of the group quickly and runs her hands along the stucco walls of the dome.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“There's a hidden slot for my card,” she says. She gasps and smiles, and we know she's found it. She slides the key and we wait. I'm afraid to even breathe.

After a moment, something hisses, and stairs appear from the side of the building. They inch their way out then form into a shape was can use to get to the second floor.

I glance around to make sure the coast is clear, and then we race up the stairs to the second floor.

“Is that a cam disk?” I nod to a small silver disk mounted on the wall far above us.

“Cam disk?” Libee keeps moving.

I forget not everyone is familiar with the technology the Greaters use to keep tabs on the people.

“It looks like it to me,” Keegan says as we reach the top.

Great. That means they can see us. And they're probably waiting for us already.

 

 

 

 

23

 

We have gotten this far without incident, but uneasiness hangs over the group. I glance at Keegan as Libee searches for a card entry.

“Do you think they're waiting for us in there?”

“I don't,” Libee says. “It's my father's card. It wouldn't flag anything in the system to make them suspicious. Like I said, this entrance isn't heavily guarded.” She says it so matter-of-factly, all while running her hands up and down the wall, that it's impossible to doubt her.