Resistance (The Institute Series Book 2) (2 page)

“Well this is a little anti-climactic,” I say when I realise Licia is nowhere to be found. One of the chefs is near the walk in fridge, maybe she knows where she is.  “Hey Jo, have you seen Licia?” I ask casually.

“She’s called in sick. Her and one of the dishies. You’re going to have a pretty busy shift,” Jo scoffs, clearly pissed that we’re understaffed.

She’s going to be even angrier in a minute, when I tell her I can’t stay either. I would feel bad, but it’s not like this is my actual job, or that I even get paid. As a field agent, we aren’t allowed to keep the money we earn. Everything we need is provided and any wages earned from undercover jobs goes straight to the Institute. I guess they figure if we’re given the chance to financially support ourselves, we might be inclined to try and leave. Just another way to make sure we don’t to escape.

I don’t know how to tell Jo I’m going to have to leave, too. Should I start faking a coughing fit? Tell her I’m leaving? Should I just walk out?

“Hey honey,” Drew’s voice comes from behind me. I still shudder at the notion that we’re meant to be married, according to everyone in this town anyway – that was the brilliant cover story our bosses at the Institute came up with. I turn to see Drew rushing towards me without his protective gear, seeming panicked. “There’s been a horrible accident. You need to come to the hospital with me, right now. It’s your father.”

Dad?
My eyes widen in a brief moment of fear, before narrowing in confusion. That can’t be true, we don’t know where Dad is. The Institute lost track of him after I was arrested and… Oh. Duh, this is my out. Drew heard Licia isn’t here in his earpiece and is giving me an excuse to leave. It’s a horrible excuse, usually one that’s saved for terrible dates. I remember having to do it for my friend Ebbodine – a couple of times, actually.

“I’m so sorry Jo, I have to leave,” I say, matching Drew’s panicked tone. We don’t wait for Jo to respond before we leave the restaurant and start heading back to where we met up with the team a few streets over.

“You’re welcome,” Drew says.

“I’m sorry, am I meant to thank you? I was about to tell her I was sick so I could leave. I didn’t need you.”

“Oh please, you and I both know you would’ve stayed out of guilt from leaving them understaffed. You’re too nice.”

“I am not.” He’s actually probably right, but I’m not going to admit that and give him the satisfaction.

We get back to Costello and the van and climb in the back. “So, I’m guessing the arrest didn’t go well then?” Costello asks as he starts up the engine.

“No, it didn’t go at all,” Lynch replies, crossing her arms over her chest, annoyed at our failure.

“So that’s it?” I ask. “What do we do now?”

“We’ll have to get her from her home,” Lynch answers. “The same plan will work. You can use some story about hearing she was sick and you wanted to see if she was alright.”

I try to protest but Drew beats me to it, “You want to send in an unarmed, unprotected newbie, by herself? No. I won’t allow that – it’s too dangerous.”

I really want to yell at him for standing up for me – I don’t
need
him to do that – I can do it myself. But I agree with him, and if I dispute that, I may end up unwittingly volunteering to go in.

“Well you aren’t the one in charge, are you, Jacobs? She’ll be fine. It’s not like the target has an aggressive ability,” Lynch replies.

“There has to be another way,” Drew argues.

“We can take them by surprise,” Bek chimes in. “We surround the house, Eugene can break down the front door, forcing the target and her parents to take the only escape route out the back where the rest of us will be waiting.”

Lynch thinks about it for a moment. “Okay. Leo, Allira, and Eugene, you take the front, the rest of us will wait out the back.  Allira, we can give you a protection vest, but you haven’t had any special weapons training so we can’t give you a gun. You’ll just have to stay behind Leo and follow his lead.”

I’m fitted into a vest as we pull up just short of Licia’s street. This all seems to be happening so fast.
Why do I even have to go in at all?

“Are we ready?” Costello asks. Lynch looks to all of us, and takes our silence as agreement.

“Let’s do this,” she replies. “Move silently and move quickly.”

The van takes off again slowly, and continues to creep along the street until coming to a stop in front of Licia’s neighbour’s house. We file out, Lynch, Bek and Drew run swiftly, with light footing; it’s almost elegant to watch. They disappear around the back of the house while Jack, Leo, and I cautiously approach the stoop to the front porch. 

Jack takes out the door with one swift kick. He raises his gun and checks the first room, before moving onto the second as Leo and I enter and double check the first room. It’s awkward, I’m pushed up against his back, kind of using him as a human shield. I hope he doesn’t know that’s my intention.

Jack clears the living room, and then moves onto the bedrooms. We follow, double checking all of them, moving on to the bathrooms, the laundry, and finally the kitchen. There’s no one here. They’ve left – in a hurry too by the look of it. Nearly everything is still here, an untrained eye would simply think they’re out for the day. Not us, we’re trained to notice things like the missing family photos.

There’s no doubt that they’ve fled again, and I have to remind myself that smiling would be a really inappropriate thing to do right now.

***

We spend the remainder of the afternoon and most of the evening asking around the neighbourhood about the Johns’ last known whereabouts and searching their house for any indication of where they might be headed. By the time Drew and I are back home in our shared house, I’m exhausted and starving.

At least this house has two separate bedrooms, unlike the first one they gave us which had one bedroom and one bathroom. I feel like I have my own space here and I need that.

“So we’re not going back to the Institute anytime soon, are we?” I ask Drew as we sit at the dining table for a late dinner.

“I never thought I’d see the day where you were hoping to go back to that place.”

“You know why I want to go back.”

Drew nods. “Yeah. I do. We’ll be back soon enough.”

“We both know that’s not true. We have no idea when this assignment will end.”

We continue eating, in silence. I don’t have anything to say and I can sense he doesn’t know what to say.

I haven’t seen Shilah in three months. I don’t know if he’s still in the training program, I don’t even know if he’s okay. While I couldn’t help smirking at the fact our targets fled, it means we won’t be returning to the Institute. I’ll have to continue to wonder about Shilah until we finally catch Licia or are called back for a new assignment.

“So, where are we meant to go from here?” I ask Drew.

“We start again. We ask those who knew them, try and find out if they had anywhere to go.”

“The last time they tried to evade us, they moved to a town only thirty minutes away before they thought they would be safe. Maybe they’re still close?” I speculate.

“Maybe. Or maybe they’ve learnt from their last attempt.”

I sigh. “I think I’m going to go to bed.” Even though no arrest ended up happening today, it was still an exhausting day; physically and mentally draining. I’d love nothing more than to go to my room, climb into bed and close my eyes. But that’s not why I’m going to bed.

Closing my bedroom door behind me, I get the wooden chair that sits in the corner and place the back rest under my door handle, preventing Drew from being able to open it. I go to my bed, lift the fitted sheet and slide my fingers into the hidden slot that I cut into my mattress. It’s where I keep my key, the key that was given to me by Paxton, the head of the agent training department of the Institute. I unlock my Institute-issued tracking bracelet and place it under my pillow. Slipping my feet into my boots and making my way over to the window, I slide it open as silently as possible and grab my jacket before climbing outside and sneaking away into the night.

I half walk, half jog the few blocks to where I need to go. My breath puffs in white clouds in the crisp air, and I put my hands in my pockets to keep them warm.

Walking past an old children’s playground behind an abandoned apartment block, the neglected swing set and broken monkey bars catch my eye. I think back to a time when I used to be able to play, carefree. Then we discovered Shilah was Defective and we never visited a playground again.

My thoughts are disrupted by the rustling of leaves behind me. I’m quick to turn around, but with my hands in my pockets, I’m not quick enough to react and I’m knocked to the ground by someone. Trying to break my fall with my hands but failing, my head smacks the pavement.
That’s going to hurt later.
I’m fast to get back up on my feet though, fast to stand poised, and ready to face my attacker.

My heart starts racing and I take in a deep breath, telling myself to concentrate on him, on the way he moves. He raises an eyebrow cockily before making his move. I block his hit, punch back, and push my way forward, all the while dodging his hits and blocking him from advancing on me. He’s ready for my punches, though, and evades every one of them. I keep lunging forward, attacking with my fists, making him retreat backwards. I don’t give him a chance to come at me. A look of realisation and defeat crosses his face when I corner him against an old oak tree. He can’t go back any farther; he can only come at me or go sideways. He’s mine. From here, I can take him out no matter which direction he goes.

I grin, relaxing my stance. “Oh Chad. I’m so disappointed in you.”

“Not as disappointed as I am in you,” he says.

“What? What did I do wrong this time?”

“You weren’t ready for me. I should never have been able to get you on the ground. You’re lucky I didn’t knock you unconscious.” He steps forward, touching his hand to the back of my head where it slammed onto the ground. “How’s the head?” he says with a slight smile on his lips.

I sigh, and move away from him. He’s right. I wasn’t ready for him. I was too distracted by the playground, reminiscing about my childhood, and unarming myself by putting my hands in my pockets. My head hurts from my fall but I’m not going to admit that.

“I still had you.” I smirk.

“You got lucky,” Chad replies in his serious, ‘I am your trainer’ voice. “So how did today go anyway?”

“Funny thing happened. The Johns family have seemed to have disappeared.”

“Well, that’s a shame. I wonder what could’ve happened to them,” Chad says, a knowing smirk crossing his face.

Chapter Two

“So, they arrived safely?” I ask.

“Setting up house at the compound, as we speak,” Chad replies with a triumphant smile. I can’t help but return it. I saved them,
we
saved them.

“I wish I could’ve taken a photo of everyone’s faces when they realised Licia and her family were gone.” I laugh.

“I would’ve paid to see that.”

“Well it’s not like you didn’t have the opportunity. You could have, had you stayed working as an agent for the Institute,” I say, trying to hide my annoyance with him.

“And leave you, with
him
? That wasn’t going to happen,” Chad says, sitting down at the base of the oak tree next to us. Anyone from the outside would misconstrue what Chad just said as jealousy. It’s not. Anytime he’s come close to admitting any sort of feelings for me, he covers it up by blaming it on his cousin. “I promised Tate I’d protect you.”
Yup, right on cue.

I don’t want to have this conversation
again
. Chad decided to disappear from the Institute and is annoyed that I chose to stay.

When Chad turned himself over to them after Tate was arrested, his plan was to get Tate out. They were going to train as agents and then disappear together to the Resistance compound out west, but Tate wasn’t okay with that plan. He decided to stay where he was. After all, he found me in the Crypt, maybe there would be others he could find. Others he could help escape.

From what I’ve learnt over the last three months, the Resistance is an activist group fighting for equal rights and the disbanding of the Institute. Chad and Tate were recruiters for them, that was, until Tate was arrested. Chad successfully recruited my best friend Ebbodine, not long before I was sent to the Institute. Everyone thought she was dead. She’d disappeared without a trace and no one had any idea where she could’ve gone. I didn’t know she was Defective. Then again, I didn’t even know
I
was Defective. I’ve only seen her once since I joined the cause. Actually, I’ve only seen everyone who was there that night once, except Chad.

That whole night is still a bit of a blur, starting from when I first woke up on the hard ground in the middle of a forest.

Trees surrounded me, only giving partial view to the stars and sky above me. Cicadas chirped loudly in my ears.

My mother leaned down, gently brushing my cheek with her hand. She said… something, but I couldn’t make it out.

“What?” I croaked, my voice hoarse.

“Welcome to the Resistance,” she said, her voice calm and soothing.

“The what?” I said, confused.

I tried to stand, pushing my mother out of my way, but I was wobbly on my feet.

Chad was suddenly at my side. “Sorry about that. I didn’t want to drug you but we knew you’d put up a fight, scream, and probably wake up Drew,” he said, wrapping his arm around my waist and holding me close.

“You drugged me?”

He winced. “Not my idea.” He glared at Paxton.

My vision started to blur. “What is this?” I asked as Chad lowered me back down to the ground.

“There’s so much to say,” my mother said. My mother. I couldn’t believe I was sitting just a few feet away from the woman who died eight years ago.

I was in too much shock to feel anything. Numbness took over my body and it was like I was slipping into a haze.

The only thing I could focus on was Paxton’s tone of voice when he said, “We don’t have enough time to explain everything.” He was strictly business.

What is Paxton even doing here?
I thought to myself.
He’s one of them.
He’s the guy who “tested” my amplification ability by making me blow up a car battery alongside another Institute resident. He’s the one who deemed me good enough to be recommended for the agent program. He showed me around the training centre, inducted me into the program. He’s one of them!

Ignoring his words, I glared at my mother, wanting answers. “You’ve been alive this whole time? You walked out on us, abandoned us, for what?”

“It’s not as simple as that, Lia.” Her voice was small. “If you come with us, we’ll have all the time in the world to discuss it.”

“Go with you, where?”

They all started talking at me, cutting each other off, trying to explain what was happening. Whether it was the drugs or the lingering shock, I don’t know, but my brain wasn’t in comprehension mode. All I could gather was they wanted to take me somewhere, over the small mountain range that has been the backdrop of my horizon for my entire life. They were all expecting me to make this momentous decision on spur of the moment. To go with them or to stay? I sat there, watching the five of them talking and arguing over what would be best for me like I wasn’t even there.

It didn’t help that Paxton kept saying over and over again, “We don’t have time for this. She needs to decide now, before it’s too late.”

That’s when I snapped.

“Everyone shut up!” I yelled. They all turned to look at me, stunned at my outburst. “Stop talking about me like I’m not here. I need to get this straight. You’re saying the Resistance have a compound out west, close to the radiation perimeter, completely secure from the outside world. And you want me to go there?”

They all nodded.

“Okay, so what about Shilah? I can’t just leave him at the Institute.” I shake my head, my decision made. “No way. It’s not going to happen. You don’t think Brookfield will punish him if I go missing?” I turned to Chad. “How did you get away?” I looked down at my wrist but my tracker was gone.

“It was always the plan to get out,” Chad said with little emotion.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

He ran a hand through his hair. “I wanted to. Tate wouldn’t let me.”

“So Tate’s in on it, too?”

“He’s kind of our leader,” Ebb added.

“Leader?!”

“There’s eight of us, actually,” my mother said.

“Total?” I asked, which received a few chuckles.

“Eight leaders,” Paxton clarified. “Tate, your mum, me, Chad’s mother, and four others you’ll meet when you come with us.”

I shook my head. “No. I’m not leaving Shilah.”

“He’ll be safe, I’ll make sure of it,” Aunt Kenna said.

“How could you make sure of it?”

She came to sit beside me on the hard ground. When I turned to look at her, I was no longer looking at my Aunt, but at the doctor who treated me at the hospital when I hurt my ankle at the Institute.

“You!” I screamed.

“I wanted to tell you. So badly.”

I reached over to touch her face and she let out a small laugh. Her face contorted slightly, making my hand flinch away from her. When I looked back at her face, she was Aunt Kenna again.

“I can shape shift. But it’s not all that impressive considering I only have the two faces to change into.”

In the middle of a forest, surrounded by these people who were meant to be my family and friends, I realised I truly knew nothing about any of them.

“Is there anyone who hasn’t lied to me?” I asked no one in particular.

“It was too risky to tell you, Lia,” Aunt Kenna said. “I’m not Kenna to the Institute. They only know me as Kandice Randall. They don’t know I’m your aunt, they don’t know I’m Defective. I’ve been working for them for years and they’re none the wiser about my true identity. I couldn’t risk exposing myself.”

Ebb suddenly appeared at my other side. She didn’t walk over to me, it was like she blinked and was suddenly there. I stared at her, wide eyed. “I can teleport,” she said nonchalantly, wrapping her arm around me.

With each new reveal, it was like a wire in my tiny, naïve brain short-circuited. I furrowed my brows in confusion and pain.

“I know how you’re feeling. I felt the same when Chad approached me to join them,” Ebb said, like it was meant to reassure me.

“I—”

“I’m really sorry, Allira. You need to make a decision,” Paxton cut in.

“What happens if I say no?”

“You won’t remember this ever happened,” Paxton replied.

“How?”

Paxton gestured to my mother.

“I tamper with memories,” she simply stated.

“What if I don’t want to forget? If what you’re offering me is real, I want it. I want it more than almost anything.
Almost.
But Shilah’s safety comes first.”

Chad asked for a moment alone.

“Two minutes,” Paxton said, gesturing for the others to leave us.

Chad took Ebb’s spot next to me. “I wanted to tell you.”

I didn’t respond. I didn’t know how to.

“Come with me.”

“Just like that? Leave and don’t worry about the consequences? You’re not scared about what will happen to Tate with you gone?”

“He told me to leave. He also told me to drag you with me – kicking and screaming.” He took a piece of paper out of his pocket. “This is from him.”

I was hesitant at first, but reluctantly reached for it. Placing it on my lap, I stared at it, willing myself to build the courage to open it. It didn’t come. “I want to. I want to go with you, be with you… and my family,” I added, suddenly aware of the words that were falling out of my mouth.

“Then come with me,” he repeated. He reached over and tucked my hair behind my ear. With that one simple gesture, I was so close to saying yes.

“Get Shilah out, and I will,” I whispered as a lump formed in my throat.

That was it. I’d made up my mind.

After that, there was little discussion. The others came back and I stated what I wanted. Paxton reluctantly agreed to leave my memory intact, assigned Chad as my handler, and I was home and tucked up in bed at my Institute house just before sunrise.

***

As creepy as it is – knowing I have Chad watching me a lot of the day – it also gives me slight comfort that if I ever need him, he’s there. He’s made it pretty clear that he isn’t exactly pleased that I’m still connected to the Institute and to my ex-boyfriend, Drew.

My head really begins to pound from where I hit the pavement during our scuffle earlier. Chad and I are silent as tension fills the air, not looking at one another. He’s fidgeting, and I’m standing unnaturally still. It has been pretty awkward between us lately. More so than usual. Chad and I have always had a bit of an odd friendship. We went from practically despising each other, to tolerating each other for the sake of our mutual relationship with Tate, to almost kissing during a training session one day, to what we are now… which I don’t exactly know what that is.

“Maybe we should just stick to business talk tonight,” I say as I sit down next to him, leaning up against the tree. “I don’t know where they’re going to take the investigation from here. Licia’s gone and she’s untraceable, but they don’t know that. They know she’s left, but I think they’ll send us on a wild goose chase for a few more months before reassigning us.”

“Maybe that’s not such a bad thing,” Chad replies.

“Yeah, well you’re not the one who has to put up with Drew twenty-four hours a day. I want to get reassigned, I want a new partner. Actually, if I’m demanding things, I want Shilah to be out of there so I don’t have to work for them anymore.”

“You know you don’t have to now, right? Paxton and your aunt said they’ll get Shilah out,” Chad asserts.

“Yeah, well, you’ll have to excuse my lack of trust in people these days,” I retort.

He sighs. “Do we really need to have this conversation again? You said you understood.”

“I do understand, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have the right to be angry about it. You lied to me. Tate lied to me. My whole family lied to me for most of my life. I understand why you all did it, but that doesn’t make it any less hurtful.”

We’ve had this conversation many times over the last three months and I know I don’t have the right to be angry. They lied to protect me, I get that. I just… I don’t know. I feel betrayed. What they did is not much different to what Drew did to me. Except they gave me a choice to join them, Drew and the Institute gave me no such choice. I don’t want to be upset by it, but for some reason it still bugs me.

I’m not really angry at Chad though. He just has to bear the brunt of it because he’s the only one I see.

“I’m sorr—”

I interrupt Chad before he gives me yet another apology. I’m sick of hearing them. “Don’t apologise again. You don’t need to. None of this was your fault. I know that.”

“I think maybe you’re right – we should just stick to business talk tonight.”

“Fine,” I say with a sigh. “Drew says we’ll be staying where we are until we get a lead off someone who knows the Johns family, but they haven’t been here all that long. I don’t know if we’ll be able to find anyone helpful.”

“So I guess we won’t need to meet up again for a while.”

“I guess not.”

“It’s probably best. The less you sneak out, the less chance of
Drew
finding out.” He practically spits Drew’s name at me. It annoys me because it’s not like that between Drew and me, not anymore.