Spark Rising (18 page)

“The Sparks.”

“Exactly. They were chosen because of the strength of their brain waves, the ability to control things. And then the scientists manipulated their bodies to make it stronger. Their minds could contact and control nanobots. But by the time they were sent out, it was too late. When the explosions began—the refineries, the pipelines—the nanobots were sent into the atmosphere. It was already over. It took five days, roughly, for the nanobots to circle the Earth, a little longer for them to reach the Southern Hemisphere. Everywhere they settled, wherever they came into contact with pure fossil fuels, nightmarish fire. Even synthesized forms smoldered. And the nanites reproduced. It was over. They were everywhere. In the air, in the water, in us. Everywhere. The world was in flames.”

“They were the Dust.”

He sighed and ran his hand over his lips a few times. “They
are
the Dust.”

“And the soldiers? What happened to the first Sparks?”

Erwin nodded. “They tried to stop it. They imposed their will over the adaptations. But it wasn’t perfect. They couldn’t stop only explosions, they had to stop all reactions above a certain threshold. When the bots finally responded, that’s what they did. They stopped the combustion, and
every other large-scale reaction
. The nanobots muted every reaction wherever they were. Over the next year, the soldier Sparks were able to get the nanobots to adjust; they were able to get some energy back. External combustion mostly. They got us fire. But life as they knew it was done. The entire world paid the price for the anger of a handful of people.”

“But, really, this is all guesses, right?” She held the map steady with her left hand, but she gestured her disbelief with her right. “I mean, we call it history, but there’s no way we can really know any of this?”

“We do know, because we were told.” His voice was steady.

“Told? By whom?”

“By those who were there.”

Disbelief flared. “How is that possible?”

Erwin held up a finger for patience. “As you said, some fifty-five years after the world went dark, a government was formed. And its foundation was built upon the backs of those very soldiers. Peller had worked in the government as a young man, knew something of the program. He gathered together the soldiers he could find and convinced them to use their unique skills to work with the nanobots again. They handed out the first of the Spark-powered batteries. They handed out hope to the few masses remaining in exchange for the power to rule over them.”

She shook her head. “How many soldiers were there? I may not know all of the details, but I can do math. How could there be so many of us now? Where did all of the Sparks come from?”

Erwin glanced down. He ran his teeth over his lower lip. “They came from the breeding programs, which of course necessitated the mandatory education programs that you know—”

Lena scoffed. “Breeding programs!” She let a burst of laughter erupt from her throat. “Those men had to be seventy-five, eighty years old!”

“Chronologically, yes.” Erwin told her. “But the manipulation of the scientists did something to them. Their lives are very much extended, as are the lives of their descendants.” His stare bored into hers. “You must have noticed how quickly you heal from injury, how rarely you’re sick? It depends upon the strength of the Spark, of course. The lives of weak Sparks run only slightly longer than an unpowered human, perhaps merely a few decades, although they are hardier. The strongest Sparks….” The man shrugged.

She leaned away from him, brow furrowed.
She
was one of the strongest Sparks. It wasn’t ego. It was fact. What did this mean?

“The strongest…what?” She sat up straight again, back rigid, right hand clenched in her lap. “Guardian Erwin…how long—” She stopped and licked her lips. “How long did they live? The soldiers?”

“The oldest of them began dying sixty years ago.”

She sat still, but her eyes wandered as she tried to run the calculations in her head. Almost two hundred years? When she spoke her voice shook. “Guardian. Will I…?” She huffed her dismay. “So, in addition to all the lovely things that make me special enough to kidnap and torture and lock away, I get to look forward to two hundred years of existence as what? Some desiccated old husk?”

Erwin laughed, his mouth wide. He did resemble a lion. “No, Lena. Your strength, your health, your vitality are all extended. You will not be what we consider old for a very long time.”

She gave Erwin a long look. He had a very faint aura. “How old are you?”

“Well, for all I am a giant among the very few historians left in our world, I am not a powerful Spark. And I am eighty-two years old.”

Lena gasped. She would have said he was not a day older than fifty, possibly younger.

He nodded, accepting her disbelief. “And this is why you find yourself the center of so much attention.” His smile became rueful. “The strongest among us find your ability to keep pace attractive. If they were to be fortunate enough to win you, they wouldn’t have to watch you wither. They won’t outlive you.”

“No,” she ventured, her mouth twisting as she stared down at nothing, “they’ll just have to put up with me.”

Erwin laughed again.

She flashed him a sickly smile.

Erwin leaned back, the chair creaking long and low. His attention flicked over her shoulder. “There’s more you need to know. More that explains—” he released his breath in a long sigh “—everything that has happened to you. When you’re ready, ask. We know you’re confused, but we are here to help you. And I think once you understand, some of your impatience and uncertainty will subside.”

She looked up from the map. She blinked. Information swirled in her head. “Oh. Am I…? Are you dismissing me?”

Erwin raised his hand up in a grand gesture at the entry behind her.

Lena twisted in her seat. Reyes leaned against the jamb of the opened door, hands buried deep in his pockets. His face was as relaxed as his posture.

“Where’s Jackson?” she asked automatically. She gritted her teeth at herself.

Something flitted over the calm mask, gone before she could name it. “He volunteered to go out on field exercises until tomorrow evening. He was worried he might lose his…” Reyes paused and smiled briefly. “Particular skills. Thomas agreed.”

“Oh.” She couldn’t think of anything else to say. She couldn’t think of anything at all, even though her mind raced.

He cocked his head slightly in the direction of the hall behind him. “C’mon. I actually have a surprise for you.”

Lena looked back at Erwin. “Thank you. You’ve given me a lot to think about.” She stood and shook the man’s hand. A part of her watched with incredulous detachment.

She joined Reyes and walked with him back down the halls to the elevator, and then off the elevator to her room. She said nothing. She was aware of Reyes studying her. He even managed to look concerned.

When they reached her door, Reyes leaned to key the lockbox. She grabbed his arm. He waited, staring back at her while her fingers held tight to his arm. She had to know….

“How old are you?” Her voice was low and hoarse and tense. She didn’t know why it mattered, but it did. For all of his experience and authority, he seemed young and handsome and strong. He didn’t look a day over thirty. And yet, all of the stories of his exploits she’d heard since she’d been here—if he was only thirty, how could he have packed so much into the five years since graduation? She answered herself now: he couldn’t. “How old are you, Reyes?”

His head cocked to the side, and he searched her face. Bit by bit, he let the mask go. He let her see the pinched lines around his brown eyes, the lines of worry between his brows. He let her see his chin work as he chewed the inside of his lower lip. He took a deep breath and gave her the truth that she needed.

“I’m forty-eight years old, Lena.” He nodded, acknowledging the shock that must be obvious on her face. “I’m forty-eight.”

Chapter 14

Alex held her shocked gaze. Her shock wouldn’t merely be over his age, or the confirmation of what Erwin had told her, but must be born from the implications of what all of this meant for her. This wasn’t simply news about her probable lifespan. It required a total reexamination of what she believed to be true, even of her own parents. Would she ever question if her mother had been older than Lena thought? She had been, by a couple of decades.

He waited for the explosion of denial, or more anger, even. He didn’t expect the wobble as her knees let go. If she hadn’t been holding onto his arm with her death grip, she might have gone down.

He wrapped his free arm around her, giving her support, and pulled her to him.

No, no. Danger.

He had no business holding her in his arms. For someone who gave such an overwhelming impression of fire and strength, she curved slight and soft against his chest and stomach. She even smelled good. The voice shouting in his head for his attention was absolutely correct: he didn’t need the kind of trouble she could bring into his life, regardless of how much the rest of him was interested in exploring the idea. He’d spent the last month and a half avoiding her for precisely that reason.

Alex maneuvered her around and leaned her against the wall and put several inches of space between them. “Breathe,” he told her, voice low. “Just breathe. And try not to think of it all right now.”

She gasped out a laugh. “Don’t think of it. Excellent suggestion. Tell me how.”

He leaned away, and her hand tightened again on his arm. Okay, she needed the connection. Not a big deal. “I mean take it in pieces. Don’t try to see all of it at once.”

“Pieces, huh?”

He nodded. Her fingers were moving as she thought, back and forth as she gripped and released his arm through the sleeve of his shirt.

“I’m strong? I know I am, but…I’m really strong, right?”

He nodded.

“So that means…?” She must know what it meant, but she moved on, as if the concept was too big to apply to herself. “How is this possible? How does everyone not know?”

He shrugged. “The strongest, the longest-lived, they all become Wards, who all become agents. The mid-ranges, their life spans vary enough that it isn’t that obvious to most people.”

“But the Council knows?”

He nodded. Her nails were scraping through his thin shirt and against his skin. It was a thoughtless, automatic movement. It meant nothing to her, he was sure. But it felt like a caress on his skin. He swallowed. “The Council knows. And their policy until recently has been to ignore and exploit the differences.”

“Until recently? How recently? What changed?”

The spasmodic movement of her fingers slowed as she calmed, allowing herself to be distracted away from shock and fear. The slowing movement should have been a relief. It wasn’t. The intensity of his nerve response grew.

“Well. We don’t know when it officially changed, or if it was even official at first. We started noticing it about twenty-five years ago.”

“You were young then, right?”

Alex felt his eyes crinkling. “In the grand scheme of things, I’m still young.” It was time to divorce himself from the sensations coursing up his arm. He took a deep breath.

“Oh. Right. I meant…you were a young agent then. I mean, you were new.”

“Yes. And sometimes when you’re new, you see more. Or maybe you accept less. Reassignments of older, powerful agents away from the top tiers of power. Whispers. Disappearances. A group of us were already watching, waiting. So when it started—we looked into it. And what we found made us decide to move, and move hard. We made a plan. We put it into motion.” He shrugged.

She took a deep breath. Her fingers stilled. “Because if it comes down to them or us….”

“We choose us.” He tilted his head, watching her face to make sure she fully understood. “
And
all of the people who depend upon us. We don’t want more suffering. We’re not about withholding power, but we won’t be slaves to those who are weaker than we are. Do you understand?”

She stared sightlessly at his chest. She’d have to reorder everything in her head, line it up with her own experiences. It would make sense to her. Maybe she’d start trusting them.

Finally, she looked up at him and nodded. “So, all of this time, everything you’ve told me has been true?”

Alex nodded. “It has, yes.”

“And everything you’ve done has all been for a reason? And that’s what you’ve all been trying to teach me?”

He nodded. “Right.”

She gusted out a breath. When she spoke, her voice was nearly back to normal. “So he was wrong? My Dad. You’re not the bad guys.”

“Right.”

“And you’re not actually a brutal, heartless bastard?”

He blinked. Her final question had been quieter, but her lips were curved. She was almost herself again.

He couldn’t resist. One side of his mouth drew up in answer. “Well,” he drawled, “I wouldn’t go that far.”

She laughed, the last of her tension releasing with the burst of sound. He laughed with her, his first genuine laugh in a long time. It felt good. He felt light.

She straightened, rubbing his arm almost affectionately before letting it go.

He stepped away, still grinning. “Ready for your surprise?”

“Ha. Are you?” At his questioning look she continued, “The last time you surprised me, I threw you out.”

He laughed, again, at the memory. “So you did. It’s a good thing I don’t hold grudges. For long.” He keyed the lockbox.

“In the grand scheme of things?” she asked archly.

He grinned at her as he pushed the door open. “That’s what I like about you. You’re a quick study.”

She opened her mouth to reply, but her gaze shifted into the room. Her mouth fell open.

“Ace!” She ran inside.

Alex followed her. He closed them in as Ace swept her up into his arms with a laugh and swung her around.

“You’re here!”

Was that laugh almost a giggle? Alex had never heard her sound young.

“What are you doing here? How did you get here?” Before Ace could answer, she whirled to Alex. “You brought him!”

He shrugged. “I figured you could use a friendly face.”

Lena launched herself at him. Before he could even get his arms up, she had her own wrapped tight around his back.

She squeezed herself tight against him for a moment before leaning back and grinning up at him. “Thank you for this.”

Alex worked hard to keep his smile in place as he extricated himself from her spontaneous hug before his Dust could start dancing inside for her again. “It wasn’t a big deal. And he’s kind of a pain in the ass, anyway. Two birds. One stone.”

“It’s a big deal to me,” Ace said, his voice solemn.

She nodded at them both. “It’s a big deal. It’s—I needed this, especially today. Thank you.”

He shrugged again. “Lena, you do need to know…you have to be discreet. Ace can’t know where he is.” He raised his brows at her. “It could potentially endanger too many people, including you.”

“Wait. He doesn’t know?” She looked between the two of them.

Ace grimaced. “All I know is we walked for a long time. And then we rode.” Her brows furrowed as he continued: “I came in with a sack over my head. Agent Reyes does paranoid very, very well.”

She digested that for a moment. She turned back to Alex. Would the new understanding between them hold? Had he earned her trust back?

Alex held his breath. He hoped he hadn’t made a mistake. Thomas had been adamantly opposed to the idea. He thought Lena needed a clean break with everything and everyone in her past. Alex had argued that she’d had a couple too many involuntary clean breaks in her life. Thomas should have understood. His childhood had been just as traumatic, but he’d put it behind him. Alex remembered what it felt like to be torn from people he loved, even forty-three years later. It wasn’t something one should forget.

She was suddenly subdued. Did she suspect how hard he’d had to fight for this brief reunion? She searched his face. He didn’t know what she found, but she nodded at him.

“I’ll be discreet.”

He returned her nod. “Good.” He turned to Ace with a sardonic smile. “Looks like you get to go home, after all.”

Ace squinted at him, and then he turned to Lena. “He’s joking, right?”

She gave him a small smile. “Sure. Reyes is the comedian of the place.”

“I’m a laugh-a-minute.” He put his hands on his hips. “We know the rules, kids?”

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “No going outside? No talking about where we are or anything related to where we are? And like that?”

“Exactly.” He crossed to the door. “Unless Ace already ate it all while he was waiting for you to be done with your lesson, there’s food in the basket by the table. Enjoy your lunch. I’ll be back in an hour.”

“Wait. You’re leaving us?”

Ace crossed his arms and raised his brows. “You’re going to trust us to be good? Funny, I kind of figured you’d be sitting here with us the whole time, holding our hands, and leading us in campfire songs.” That earned a smile from Lena. “I wouldn’t have guessed you were the trusting type, Alex.”

The excitement and gratitude playing over Lena’s face made it worth the hassle.

“I’m not. But everyone has to start sometime.”

# # #

Alex left them and headed straight for his little-used office. After the frenzy of activity at the Council offices in Azcon following Lena’s disappearance from the collapsed Council building six weeks before, he had earned an hour of quiet. He also had no desire to rehash this decision with Thomas. He had as much a right to make it as his partner did. That was a simple fact.

They had originally envisioned themselves running things together from this end. As soon as it was practical, Alex had taken a large step back. He’d reassured Thomas that he wasn’t relinquishing his founding role, merely using his strengths in the best way he could to further their cause. He belonged out in the trenches. Thomas didn’t always understand the decision.

Maybe Thomas needed help? He had to manage a zone, a school, and a quiet revolution’s worth of reports on the Council’s actions. Alex had only himself, the plan, and the people on the ground. It hardly seemed a fair division of labor. Perhaps it was time to find a replacement Alex, someone with the skills and the tenacity and the drive to bring their ideas to fruition on the outside.

Which brought him around to Jackson Lee.

Alex had a moment’s warning when he heard the lock click over. Other than himself, only his partner had access to this office. He sighed.

Thomas leaned against the jamb. “Thought I might find you here. Left them alone, did you?”

Alex pursed his lips and nodded, unrepentant. He’d made his views clear. That Thomas had thought he’d talked him out of them was irrelevant.

Thomas came into the room and closed the door. He sat heavily on a chair placed at an angle to the desk. Alex leaned back in his own chair and hiked his feet up onto the desk, crossing them at the ankles. His friend was gathering his thoughts. He let him gather.

“My objections to this friend of hers, and to this visit, are not rooted in a desire to keep her isolated.” Thomas raised his pale regard to Alex. “She is both young and volatile—”

Alex’s mind flashed back to the scene he’d walked in on: Lena grinning up at Jackson, green eyes shining and full of mischief, legs wrapped around his waist. He forced the memory away. “Do you think I haven’t taken that into consideration?”

“Let me finish, please.” Thomas’s stare bored into him. He waited until Alex had settled back in the chair, fingers laced across his stomach, staring up at the ceiling as he listened. “I manage things here. I read, I listen, I balance and weigh, and then I make decisions. You make them happen. You cannot be reckless, even if someone else must suffer a little. The price to everyone is simply too high. You go down, we all go down. You can’t be replaced.”

The silence stretched between them.

“Are you done?” Alex asked the ceiling. He took Thomas’s silence as confirmation. He turned to look at his friend, shaking his head. “That’s bullshit. What we’ve done in the last twenty years is bigger than both of us. We’ve talked about this, Thom. Neither of us is irreplaceable. Give Lee half a year, and he can handle most of what I do.”

The kid had the skills. Short of Thomas and Alex, and now Lena, Jackson was the strongest Spark the Ward School had seen and a gifted young agent. He was also pretty compromised when it came to Lena. He said all the right things, but Alex would be shocked if he could extricate himself from their dalliance.

Like you’d be able to?
He gritted his teeth at the taunting thought.

Perhaps it would be best for everyone to separate Lena and Jackson, train him, and let him take over Fort Nevada’s interests in Zone Three. He’d already made the offer to Jackson earlier in the corridor. In a moment of frustration that admittedly had little to do with the kid, he’d asked the kid why he was so comfortable remaining behind and babysitting at the Fort. What had happened to the kid he’d met in the cafeteria, the one chomping at the bit for a chance to prove himself out in the world?