Tether (19 page)

Sophie straightened her shoulders and smiled unconvincingly. “Daddy says we should live among the people we serve.”

As long as you’re separated from them by a three-foot-thick wall,
Juliana thought. What had Congressman Halliday been doing all these years if it wasn’t helping the people who’d elected him? How could anyone who claimed to serve the people have allowed things to get so bad?

“Can I use your telecom?” She was starving and tired—all she wanted to do was sleep—but there was a call she had to make first.

Sophie led them down the hall to a sitting room, where there was an old-fashioned-looking telecom sitting on a table in the corner. She hovered as Juliana picked up the receiver.

“Would you mind giving me some privacy?” Juliana asked. Callum shot her a questioning look, but Juliana shook her head. She wanted him to stay.

When Sophie was gone, Callum asked, “Are you going to call Thomas?”

For a second, Juliana panicked, thinking he suspected something, but that was crazy. He knew Thomas was her bodyguard from the time he’d spent in the Castle with Sasha.

“No,” she said. He seemed relieved. She dialed a number she knew by heart. It rang twice, and then came the telltale click of connection.

“Gloria Beach.”

Juliana sighed in relief. All the tension bled from her muscles, and she sank into a nearby chair. “Oh, Gloria, thank God.”

“Who is this?” Gloria demanded.

“It’s—it’s Juliana.” How could Gloria not recognize her voice? They had known each other since she was twelve. Then she realized—Gloria thought she might be Sasha.

“Juli! Where are you? Are you okay?” Juliana couldn’t hold it in any longer. She burst into tears. Callum appeared at her side; he put a hand on her shoulder and kissed her head softly. She leaned into his side. She never cried, hardly ever, especially since she’d stopped being a child. It had never occurred to her to wonder why, but now she knew: it felt so good to let go, she was afraid she’d never stop.

“I’m in the Tattered City, at Sophie Halliday’s house.” Juliana told Gloria the basics, leaving out any mention of the part she’d played in her own kidnapping, or of Sasha. “Please,” she begged. “Come and get me.”

“I will,” Gloria said. “Can you stay at Sophie’s for now? I’m not sure I can get out of the Castle unnoticed until tomorrow or the day after. The KES has the entire Citadel on lockdown, but I promise you, Juli, I will come for you.”

Juliana swallowed hard. “Why is the Citadel on lockdown?”

“Oh, Juli,” Gloria said. She sounded near tears herself. “Your father is dying.”

The first thing I heard when I woke up was a buzzing noise, like a bee hovering somewhere nearby. I thought about it vaguely as I checked to make sure all my limbs were still attached, that I wasn’t burned over ninety percent of my body, or in pain. It took me a few seconds to figure out that it wasn’t an insect; it was music. Somebody was humming.

I only had to listen to a couple bars to realize it was Thomas. Nobody else in this universe would know that song. It was one Thomas and I had danced to at prom.

“Cut it out,” Rocko griped. “You’re giving me a headache.”

I was lying down, my head in Selene’s lap and my legs draped over Cora’s knees. We were in the car I’d jump-started with my new power. To say I was freaked out would be a massive understatement, but Selene put her hand on my forehead as if feeling for a fever and poured reassurance through the tether.

“Look who’s awake!” Tim crowed, leaning over the seat in front of me to peer at my face. “I thought Mayhew was going to have an aneurysm when you collapsed back there.”

Selene helped me sit up. Cora smiled and offered me a
plastic canteen of water. I gulped it down, draining the entire canteen. “Thanks,” I said gratefully.

“No problem,” she said. “How are you feeling?”

I caught Thomas appraising me in the rearview mirror. He looked relieved, and to be honest, so was I. The power was such a scary thing; it could very well have gone another way. “Okay,” I said. “A little sore.”

“Good,” Sergei said. “We were pretty worried about you.”

“What happened?”

“Well,” Navin said, “you started to shake, and then your eyes rolled all the way back in your head like this”—his face transformed from normal to ghoulish—“then you just dropped like someone had cut your strings.” He smacked his hands together for emphasis.

“If you haven’t noticed, Patel has a flair for dramatic storytelling,” Thomas said with a soft laugh. I fought the urge to climb over the seats and put my arms around him, for no other reason than that we were finally together and I wanted to be near him. The temptation was even stronger because I knew I couldn’t, that it would raise questions and suspicions. From the way he was looking at me, I could tell he felt the same way. That was comforting, at least.

“Yikes,” I said, trying to play it off as if it weren’t a big deal. No wonder Thomas had been worried. If I’d seen that happen to him, I would’ve gone into a complete panic. Watching him almost die once was quite enough, thank you very much.

“You didn’t use a lot of power,” Selene said, patting my shoulder. “I told them you would be all right. You just needed to rest.”

“Yeah, all you did was turn yourself into a human battery,” Navin said with a sarcastic shrug. “I’m asleep. Wake me when
something weird happens.” He closed his eyes and fell against Tim, who shoved him.

“I completely forgot,” I said, gripping the seat in front of me so hard my nails dug half-moon shapes into the fabric. “Juliana and Callum—they’re in the Tattered City.”

Thomas’s eyes widened. “Really? How do you know that?”

“I saw it, too,” Selene explained. “But I couldn’t tell where they were.”

“The last time I was there, I saw this giant campanile in the distance,” I began.

“Thirteen Bells,” Adele said, perking up in the front seat. “City Center.”

“It was in the vision, too,” I continued. “They’re at the house of some girl named Sophie.”

“Sophie Halliday,” Thomas said. “She’s a friend of Juliana’s from school.”

“Congressman Halliday’s kid?” Rocko asked. It was the first time he’d acted interested in our search for Juliana.

“Yeah,” Thomas said. “I don’t know where she lives, but it shouldn’t be too hard to find out. Is Juliana hurt at all? How does she seem?”

A cold stream of jealousy trickled down my back at the sound of real concern in his voice. After how she’d betrayed him, did he seriously still care what happened to her?

Of course he does,
I reminded myself.
Protecting her used to be his job.
If I were a better person, I would care what happened to Juliana, too, and to be honest, I had to admit that I did, deep down. It was impossible not to worry about her or not to want her to be all right. She was my analog; it was that simple. But I still resented her for everything she’d done. Part of me kind of thought she deserved what she was getting.

“She’s scared. And tired. But she’s safe, for now. She called
Gloria, though. We have to get to Juliana before she does, or we’ll lose her.”

“How long do we have?” Adele asked.

“A day or two, maybe. Gloria said the Citadel’s on lockdown.” I hesitated. “The king is dying.”

The KES agents nodded somberly. “There was an announcement on the radio,” Cora said. “It’s so sad. He was a good king.”

“Are you on drugs?” Navin snapped. “The positions the king took on health care, foreign policy, and immigration alone are enough to earn him the title of the
worst
king in the history of the UCC!”

“That’s ridiculous,” Rocko scoffed. “Just because you’re a crazy socialist doesn’t mean the man deserves to die.”

“I didn’t say he deserved to die,” Navin seethed. He and Rocko launched into a full-on argument, one that I couldn’t have followed even if I’d wanted to.

“Whoa,” I said, exchanging a look with Selene. Navin and Rocko could debate whether or not Juliana’s father had been an effective king until the end of the world, but I had a soft spot for him. I’d read to him and followed the clues he’d tried so desperately to communicate to me; the thought of him losing what was left of his life was heartbreaking.

“That’s enough,” Thomas said, interrupting them before they came to actual blows.

Adele glared at Navin and Rocko. “Yeah, cool it, both of you. It’s going to be a long drive if you’re constantly at each other’s throats.”

“Where are we?” I asked.

“Just about to pass over the border into Pennsylvania Dominion,” Thomas said. “We’re headed to a place called Gorman’s Gate.”

“Gorman’s Gate?” Rocko narrowed his eyes. “Why are we going there?”

“What’s Gorman’s Gate?” I whispered to Cora.

She shrugged. “Just some old battlefield, I think.”

“There’s someone there I think can help us,” Thomas said. “The only question is whether she will.”

By the time we reached Gorman’s Gate, the sun was close to setting. Darkness spread across the sky like ink, and everyone in the car was growing restless, even Selene, so you could feel the collective relief when Thomas pulled off a lonely country highway onto an even lonelier private dirt road.

“Okay,” Thomas said, parking. “You all wait here. I’m going to go talk to her.”

“Who’s her?” Tim asked.

“Philomena Dryden,” Thomas told us. “Or, well, that was her name when she was an active KES agent. I don’t know what she goes by now. But this is where she lives. She’s friendly.”

“To whom?” Cora asked.

“To our cause,” he said. Cora and Navin exchanged a look, and I could imagine what they were thinking: Thomas didn’t seem to know very much about this woman at all. “Sasha, come with me?”

“Why?” Selene demanded. She was reluctant to be separated from me, even for a second; she was a stranger in a strange land, and I was the only person in Aurora she trusted. Thomas made a frustrated noise.

“I think it will go a long way toward getting Agent Dryden to hear us out,” Thomas said, but he didn’t explain further. As I climbed out of the car, Selene’s mind poked at mine inquisitively, but there wasn’t anything I could tell her. Maybe
Thomas didn’t really need me. Maybe he just wanted me close.

Thomas and I walked in silence down the dirt road—actually,
road
was a bit generous. It was more of an overgrown path. As soon as we were out of sight of the car, I grabbed him by the hand and pushed him up against a nearby tree. He started to laugh, but I silenced him with a long, hard kiss. He wrapped his arms around me and lifted me onto the tips of my toes.

“I’ve been wanting to do that since Almond,” I whispered when we came up for air.

“
I’ve
been wanting to do that since the Labyrinth,” he whispered back. “Where have you been?”

I laughed. “Distracted.”

He kissed me again. “What about now?”

“Now I’m perfectly focused.” I snaked my arms around his neck and trailed a line of kisses down the length of his jaw.

He leaned his head back against the tree trunk and sighed. “I think we’d better keep moving.” I groaned. “I know. But they’re going to wonder if we’re not back soon.”

“Let’s just run,” I suggested. I was only half-joking. I would’ve given anything in that moment to take off with him and never look back. Forget the tether. Forget Selene and Juliana and the KES. Let them fight their own wars. Let the tether remain, no matter what it might do to me. If it meant being with him, alone and safe, then screw everything else. “They can’t see us. By the time they notice we’re gone, it’ll be too late.”

“Good idea,” he said, playing along. “Where should we go?”

And just like that, my whole escape fantasy crumbled. There was nowhere to go. “I don’t know,” I said, feeling deflated. I disentangled myself and started up the road. “You’re right. We should get moving.”

“Sasha,” Thomas said, pulling me back. “I wish we could do that, too. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize; it’s not your fault.”

“It kind of is—”

I cut him off. “Thomas, forget it. I don’t want to talk about blame. I just want to figure this out so we can move on with our lives.”

“Okay,” he said, but the look he was giving me made me sad. We held hands as we walked up the path, but there was a distance between us in the shape of a whole universe. I never would’ve admitted this to him, but I was afraid that we would never get to have what we wanted. Every time we got close, something was always going to be standing in our way.

“It’s nice to be alone,” Thomas said with a sigh. He seemed tired all of a sudden, and nervous, too. He was doing a good job keeping up appearances in front of the other KES agents, but now that we were alone, he let everything show. “Are you in any pain? They were just teasing me back there, but that was scary, Sasha. You looked so … lifeless, lying there after you fell.”

“I’m okay,” I assured him. Even the soreness in my muscles was starting to abate. Pretty soon it would be like nothing had happened—until the next time I had to use the power. “Selene wouldn’t have let me do it if she thought it would hurt me.”