Revolution (38 page)

             
Rylee and Miguel glared at each other from opposite ends of the van so nothing had changed there. Jeff must've felt the tension when he turned onto the highway,
because he flicked on the CD player
. Some song I had never heard before and frankly, never wanted to again was playing.

             
The words said something about a tear in his beer and he was crying for her, dear. I grimaced and tried to tune it out.

             
"So," Ryan started and I was grateful to him for taking some initiative. "
What exactly are we going to find at the station?"

             
I explained, "We're looking for something to justify what Chesser said about being able to organize a statewide broadcast. That way we can break the Lighter's compulsion on everyone. It would only be the state, but it's a start."

             
"I see," he said and I saw in his mind that he knew, he was just trying to get some conversation flowing.

             
"If we could get the compulsion broken," Miguel continued, "then people would fight back. We wouldn't be alone anymore in trying to take them out. And once the compulsion is broken, they can't be under it again right?" I nodded.

             
Rylee spoke loud and clear, "Maybe we could find a way to link the state stations and take this thing continental. And then Global."

             
"Maybe," I mused. "Let's just call that
the plan
." I smiled at her and she softened a little until she looked over at Miguel.

             
"Pretty smart, ginger."

             
"Die, pig."'
             

             
He laughed. "You're never going to give me a fighting chance, are you
,
love?"

             
"Nope," she spouted sweetly and smiled. "Besides, since Cain's gone, you can just move in on Lillian."

             
"That's not what I'm doing," he answered calmly. "Don't you just need a hug sometimes?"

             
"No," she said and gulped. "I don't. I can take care of myself."

             
"That's not what I asked," he told her softly.

             
"Whatever," she eventually said. "I don't need anything from you. Or anybody."

             
"Maybe not," he ventured. "Maybe not."

             
Billings just rolled his eyes and groaned as he scratched at the bandage on his arm.

             
The club was jumping, as they say. There were cars and people everywhere and I knew we'd made the right decision to come at nighttime. No one was going to be paying attention to us and what we were doing.

             
We parked the van on the outskirts of the parking lot and Jeff put it in park. We all sat,
as if waiting for a
clue that it was time to go.

             
"All right," I drawled. "Whoever's going, let's go. Jeff," I put my hand on his shoulder, "we'll be back soon."

             
"Guard you, brother."

             
"And you, brother." He clasped my fist in a grip. I heard him and Ryan doing the same behind me before I opened the door slowly.
I felt Sherry at my back and knew she was eager and anxious about this. She always wanted to help in any way she could, but I almost felt like we were using her.

             
We heard hear the music from the club out where we were. The van's windows rattled a little from it. I got out and helped Sherry down with a hand. Ryan and Ellie came, then Miguel and Rylee. He tried to help her, but she snubbed his hand and went to the front of us. "How about you guys go stake out the station and I'll
going into the club and see what's
bouncing
in
there."

             
"No," I said and immediately changed my tone at seeing her face. "We
need to stay together if we can
. This is a delicate situation, Rylee."
             

             
She laughed and shook her head. "No offense, Keeper, but I am anything but delicate."

             
She turned to go toward the club. "Rylee!" I hissed as loud as I dared, but she didn't even look back.

             
Miguel ran and turned to say, "I'll get her. You do what we came to do. Don’t worry!" And then he turned back to catch up. She had already weaseled her way in the door.

             
I cursed and banged my fist on the van window. "I knew it was bad to bring those two."

             
"Just go," Jeff said, leaning
protectively
over Marissa.
I guessed she had changed his mind about letting her come on missions.
"We'll keep an eye out. She's just being dramatic, I'm sure they're fine. You don't need them to do the station
mission
anyway."

             
I growled and huffed before feeling Sherry's palm on my cheek. "Hey," she said softly. "
Let's not freak out. We'll go and see the station and then if they still aren't out, then we'll freak and see what we need to do. Ok?"

             
I sighed and pulled her close. "Ok." I kissed her forehead and then took her hand. I nodded my head for them to follow us and we lead the way.

             
It was
beautifully strange the normal
and simplistic way we walked across the parking lot amongst all the other people from the town.
I never thought we'd have a moment like this.

             
She must've gotten the same feeling as me because she looked up at me and smiled this gorgeous
l
y happy smile.
"Do
n't
you feel utterly normal right now?"

             
"It does feel weird," I agreed and laughed. I put my arm over shoulder and kissed her temple. "Weird in the best way."

             
And it was hard to not look around constantly for an enemy. Ellie, I knew, was keeping us safe from detection. I looked back at her for a second. She was still pretty shy with everyone except Ryan, but right then, she looked…giggly. She smiled and bobbed her head to the music we could hear from the club and bumped Ryan's shoulder as she did so, trying to goad him into playing. He bumped back and they both laughed.

             
When we reached the end of the lot and the back of the cars I casually kept going as if I knew right where I was headed. Ryan and Ellie followed and we reached the back door to the station. I looked up and followed the long line of the tower way into the sky. This had to work.

             
I remembered what Marissa had said about Lily being the key…
N
o. This had to work.

             
The door was locked, of course, so I used my strength to take the door knob off. They'd know someone had messed with it, but that couldn't be helped. I towed Sherry up the stairs to the main hall. I had absolutely no idea which way to go, so we split up. Well
,
we split from Ryan and Ellie who took the left and we took the right. I wasn't ab
out to let Sherry from my sight, and Billings followed us.

             
"Let's just try not to
touch anything if we can," Ryan
explained in a whisper. "I don't want them to think we're onto them."

             
I nodded. "Fifteen minutes and we need to get out."
             

             
He nodded, too, and then they were gone.

             
The building was dark except for security lights that paved the hallways. Just enough light for us to see. I wasn't sure what we were looking for. Some security panel or control room, I guessed.

             
"There," Sherry said and pointed to a door with a wide window. There was a wall of screens and a control board inside. I tried the k
nob and when it turned easily, we
went inside.

             
"Ohh, looky, looky," Billings stated happily. "Gadgets."

             
"You know what these things do?" I asked.

             
"Course!" he scoffed. "If you can run a DVR, you can figure this stuff out."

             
I had no idea what he was talking about, but watched as he sat in the chair and began pressing a few buttons. There was a loud whirring, ringing sound and then every screen on the wall lit up…

             
And Cain's face was staring back at us.

             
He grinned and said, "Remind me to give Mar
issa a big kiss right on the li
p
s
when I get back."

             
She
rry
gasped belatedly, shocked, and then hissed. "Cain! What…where are you?
Are you ok?
"

             
"We're at the stat
e line. We've got a map here." H
is head moved off screen a little. Daniel was beside him and said something before Cain's face appeared again. "There's only three stations that span the state that'll run all the broadcasts. If we got all the stations going and online together, we could make a broadcast
,
easy."

             
"But there's no internet or cell service," Sherry argued. Ryan and Ellie came in behind
us and gawked at the screens; t
wenty pictures of Cain's mug. "How will we get the stations to link with each other?"

             
"The stations are ru
n on frequencies to each other, but they're also run by landlines for back-up. All we have to do
is
turn back on the connection of those cables to each station. They turned them off to keep word from spreading."

             
I frowned. "But what about the third station?"

             
"We'
re headed the
r
e
now." He looked at his watch. "We've already accessed this station
'
s panel and turned it back online. You do that there and we'll be at the other station by tomorrow night." He leaned closer. "Be back at the radio station tomorrow night with something to broadcast."

             
"But it's almost midnight?" Sherry argued. "Hardly anyone would see what we broadcasted
at
midnight anyway."