I’d find out when I arrived.
About ten minutes from shore, Jag motioned with his hand, and I sent the chat out to everyone. Maintenance teams veer north-northwest toward Rise Twelve. Rescue teams stall and hover. Tech teams veer southwest toward the orchards. Circle the barrier and rendezvous at the Tech Rise.
As the group split into four, thirteen people remained in the lead group. Me, Jag, Vi, Gunn, Thane, Saffediene, Indy, two technopaths from Baybridge, an empath from Northepointe, and three people to run communication between our group and the others.
Our target: Rise One. Our goal: capture and detain Director Hightower. It sounded easy in my head. I knew it wouldn’t be.
Water met land, and I nudged my board north, following Jag. Just when I thought we’d successfully executed the element of surprise, bright white tech lights blinded me.
I automatically slowed my board to a stop. Next to me, Gunn did the same. To my left, the Confinement Rise strobed from ground to roof. The door gaped open, and out marched two men, shoulder to shoulder.
They split as soon as they left the building, creating a space for the two men who followed them. And the two who followed them. And the two who followed them.
I hovered, stunned, as clone after clone after clone filled the street in front of the Confinement Rise.
“Thane,” Jag said. “I think you can handle them by yourself. Let’s continue, guys.” He maneuvered his hoverboard away as Thane descended toward the Confinement Rise. I paused, waiting to see just how many clones there were.
They kept coming and coming and coming. “Ja-ag,” I said, but he was too far away, and the hoser didn’t wear an implant. Saffediene heard me, and she settled by my side to observe.
Thane had reached the clones. Nothing happened. I waited, expecting him to put them to sleep, the same way he had in Grande. Saffediene had cached me the report, and while I knew she’d wanted to talk about the clones, I hadn’t engaged her because I didn’t want to “use her” the way Jag had accused.
What’s he doing? Saffediene asked over my cache.
Thane gestured wildly at us. Without another chat, Saffediene and I took off to help him. The frontward clones pulled out tasers. The motion rippled back through the crowd until every single one was armed.
“Whoa,” I said out loud, forgetting completely about being stealthy. They obviously already knew we were here.
Thane shot straight up as at least twelve tasers fired in his direction.
Evasive maneuvers, I chatted to Saffediene. Thane! What did you say to them?
My heart beat double time, my body vibrated with crazy-adrenaline as I flew in close to the clones who had already discharged their tasers. I had a three-second window before their weapons would be ready to fire again.
“Sleep,” I said in my most powerful voice. The clones didn’t move. They didn’t so much as blink.
I ducked as taser barbs arced toward me. Saffediene cried out behind me. She didn’t have a voice; she couldn’t do anything but get killed. Retreat, I commanded her.
Thane! I called again. I couldn’t find him in the night sky. The lights surrounding the Confinement Rise were too bright.
I twisted back and flew in front of the clones who’d just fired at me. “Deactivate your weapons,” I said. I’d never achieved this level of control in my voice. It should have worked. They should have pocketed their tasers.
They didn’t.
Another wave of taser fire caught my board. The hovercraft lurched under my feet and went right while I continued left. I couldn’t help it. I screamed.
I was falling, falling into an army of clones that wouldn’t respond to my voice. I hit the ground hard. Four clones stood over me. I reached for the taser at my belt. If my voice wouldn’t work, maybe I could at least fight my way into the orchards.
Zenn! Thane’s voice over my cache could barely be heard over the pounding of my heart.
I fell! I chatted, sprinting down the line of clones. If I could just make it to through the fray . . .
I’ll pick you up on the beach, Saffediene said. Can you make it there?
I dodged a clone as he stepped out of line. I plowed into another clone, and we both fell to the ground. My legs and arms tangled with his, but I scrambled to my feet just as a taser discharged. Techtricity struck where I had stood a moment ago.
I ran. I don’t think so.
“Stop! Stand down! Drop your weapons!” I shouted as I ran.
They don’t respond to voice control, Thane said.
What gives? I asked. They’re just clones.
They’re deaf, he said.
Horror struck me, and I tripped over my own feet. I slapped away the reaching hands of a clone even as the whine of a taser filled my world. I pulled myself to my knees, desperate to get away and reach the safety of the orchards.
We’re screwed, I thought just before the techtricity entered my body.
Jag
33. A jolt of fear struck me as Vi’s voice sounded in my head. I didn’t wear an implant, but when she screamed, Jag! I heard it reverberate in every cell.
I twisted to find her several yards behind me, hovering in the air, pointing back the way we’d come. Below me, where the ground was once black and forbidding, it was now streaked with light.
Curses flew through my mind. I zoomed toward Vi, but I didn’t need her to tell me the problem. Zillions of tech lights chased every shadow into the orchards.
Thane hovered near the roof of the Confinement Rise, but I couldn’t see anyone else. Anyone besides the hundreds and hundreds of clones.
Deaf, Vi said inside my head. Her voice rattled around in there, as if it didn’t quite know where to settle.
I cocked my eyebrow at her. Deaf?
Meaning they can’t hear, she said. Your voice won’t work. A tremor shook her body. Zenn fell.
Should I have been worried? Yes. Was I? Absolutely. I’d seen the naked fear in Zenn’s eyes when he’d spoken about Hightower. I’d heard him say, You don’t know what he’s like. I could not abandon Zenn here.
Where? I asked.
I don’t know. I can’t find his mind, either. It’s like he’s . . . She didn’t finish the thought, but she didn’t need to.
A rocking boom! shook my attention from Vi’s escalating worry about Zenn. We faced the direction of the noise. Rise One wasn’t hard to spot, what with it being the tallest building in the city. Smoke wafted from it, illuminated by a pulsing blue light.
Can you communicate with Thane? I asked Vi.
Yeah.
Tell him to stick with Saffediene and try to find Zenn. We have to get to Rise One.
She looked at me, and her accusation didn’t need to be said—or thought. I could read it in the way she stiffened.
Are you coming? I asked, unwilling to apologize for what needed to be done. Did she think Zenn didn’t know the risks? That he wouldn’t leave us all behind to finish the job? He knew this was bigger than one person—even bigger than him.
“It’s Zenn,” she said out loud, which was somehow worse than her infiltrating my mind.
I couldn’t leave her there, but I couldn’t waste any more time stalled in the sky. “I know, babe,” I said, and that would have to be enough.
I swung my board around and held my hand out to Vi. She took it, and our group advanced toward the smoking Rise One.
Because of the other Rises, I didn’t see the swarm of Enforcement Officers until we crested the last building. The square mile of green area surrounding Rise One was completely filled with Officers. Armed and dangerous Officers.
They wore standard-issue uniforms and held tasers at the ready. They didn’t move, not even a twitch. Normal people couldn’t stand that still. My breath stuck in my throat.
The Enforcement Officers were either clones or—
“Jag Barque.” The voice belonged to Van Hightower, and it echoed through the empty streets, rattling off the tech buildings and coating my nerves in fear.
&
nbsp; What was I supposed to say in return? Hello? I’m here to burn your city to the ground? That didn’t seem quite right. So I said nothing. I nodded to Gunner, who flew in closer to the Officer-clones. He spoke, and nothing happened.
“Deaf,” I said. Despite all my careful planning, I honestly hadn’t anticipated that my greatest weapon—my voice—would be useless.
“Vi,” I said. “Can you read their minds?”
A strangled cry escaped her throat. “I’ve been trying. I can’t find their minds.”
“Maybe . . .” I didn’t finish, because I couldn’t think of a single reason why Vi wouldn’t be able to find and read their minds.
I watched Gunner fly along the perimeter, still attempting to use his voice to coerce the Officers. The seconds ticked by, but a battle raged in my head. Deep inside, I knew I’d never get another chance at this. I’d been working toward this takedown of Freedom for years.
In all my planning, I’d never imagined I’d be fighting clones. It was always Hightower, and he always fell.
Suddenly every Officer-clone stretched out his left arm as if they were one unit. Three of them hit Gunner’s hoverboard. One of them grabbed Gunner. A yell surged from my mouth. Anger pounded through my head.
“He’s controlling them,” I said to no one, really. “Indy, get everyone out of the city. Alert the rescue team that we’ve got two down here. Runners, go warn our tech team. Vi and I will get the maintenance crew.” That would put me at Rise Twelve, and maybe I could get my Insiders out. Maybe this mission wouldn’t be a complete loss.
“Nothing?” I asked Vi, just to make sure.
“I think he programmed them,” she said. “And he’s the only one who can get in their heads. Like he’s got the frequency, and we can’t communicate with them without it.”
In the crowd, each clone completed the same movement. I watched, helpless, as Gunn was shunted toward the entrance of Rise One. His body was limp; his eyes were closed.
“I’m going to try something,” Vi said.
I felt the triumph emitting from Vi. I didn’t know exactly what she might do, but I had a feeling that whatever it was, it would be successful.
And extremely dangerous.
“Don’t,” I said, far too quietly for her to hear with her ears.
She flew in close and stepped onto my board. “Tether my board to yours,” she said, wrapping her arms around my waist. “Don’t drop me.”
She looked right into my face, her teal-turquoise eyes swirling with fear and power and a million other emotions I couldn’t read before she said, “Don’t let me die.”
Her body became deadweight as she closed her eyes. I stumbled to my knees on the hoverboard; Vi’s head lolled to the side.
“Vi?”
She looked dead.
“Vi!” I shook her. Adrenaline rushed through my veins, and I looked around for help. But I’d sent everyone away.
Taser fire erupted on the ground. I ducked, shielding Vi with my body. But none of the techtricity swept by us.
Instead the cries came from the ground. I straightened and watched the scene below me unfold into utter revolution as one of the frontal guards unleashed blast after blast on his unit.
In a matter of seconds the clones became a smoldering heap of bodies. Rancid smoke rose up to meet us.
“Stop!” I cried. “Violet, stop.” I volleyed my gaze back and forth between Vi’s still-limp form, and the very angry guard on the ground. She was inside him, controlling him. And as soon as Hightower found out, the guard Vi possessed would become the target.
When one taser ran out of charge, she simply pried another from the grip of a fallen clone and kept firing. And firing. And firing.
My stomach clenched in a knot of pride and horror. She was winning. But at what cost? Worry seethed through me as she continued tasing clones. Will she be able to find her way back to her own mind?
Before, when she’d coerced the scouts into killing themselves, she’d maintained consciousness, probably because she could find their minds. Probably? Who was I kidding? I had no idea about the extent of Vi’s abilities.
Violet Schoenfeld was more than dangerous. More than powerful. More than deadly.
She was a deity.
As the taser fire continued, I stroked Vi’s hair off her forehead, whispering, “Please wake up.”
Zenn
34. Somewhere far away a taser buzzed. The high-pitched whine made my head ache and set my teeth on edge.
It shouldn’t be this dark, I thought. I hate the dark. It makes me examine things I’d rather not see. It reminds me that I’ll never hold Violet again. Never kiss her or have her look at me like I’m the most wonderful person in the world.
In the dark, I can’t outrun the pain.
And this time the agony existed in my body as well as my mind. My back felt broken. My fingertips tingled with techtricity. I couldn’t move my arms or legs.
Something cool and wet swept over my face. At last the blackness lightened to charcoal, and then gray. And then blue, and finally white.
I opened my eyes, crazy-surprised to find they still functioned. I was even more shocked to find myself staring at a sterling silver ceiling. A fan whirred behind the duct, and voices floated nearby.
I couldn’t understand their meaning. I still couldn’t feel my arms or legs. Blinking seemed to be the only movement in my repertoire.
For the longest time I lay staring at the ceiling. No one came to check on me.
The light faded again, and Director Hightower came into view. “Ah, there you are, Mr. Bower.” He smiled, and his scarred cheeks stretched into wicked curves.
“You’re recovering from a nasty burn,” he said pleasantly, as if we were discussing my homework.
I struggled to move my mouth, but couldn’t.
Director Hightower waved a needle across my line of sight, but I didn’t feel him inject me. “This will help.”
I wasn’t so sure of that, but I wasn’t in a position to argue.
“Now, Zenn, let’s chat, shall we?” The Director pressed a button and the bed brought me to a seated position. I found myself in a small room, a p-screen broadcasting my prognosis on the wall. A narrow window in the door showed a much larger lab outside my room.
Director Hightower sat across from me, his legs crossed and one hand stroking his beard.
I didn’t remember him having a beard. For some reason it struck me as funny. I laughed, though no sound came out. I didn’t see how I could “chat” while silenced. Director Hightower didn’t seem concerned. In fact, he smiled again. “Here’s how this is going to go,” he said.
* * *
I flew toward the beach, because that’s where Saffediene had said she’d wait. I didn’t know how long I’d been unconscious, or how long the “chat” with Director Hightower had lasted. I did know the sun was halfway through the sky, and I did see three jagged lines had been carved into the sand on the beach. If connected, they’d make a Z. I believed Saffediene had drawn them. Sure enough, within seconds of landing, she launched herself at me, crying and talking and hugging.
I held on to her, afraid I might collapse if I didn’t. My throat hurt from the silencer. My brain hurt from the talk with Director Hightower.
But nothing hurt when Saffediene formed her mouth to mine. Nothing at all. For once I didn’t think. I just let my body do what it wanted.
And it wanted to kiss Saffediene Brown.
* * *
We arrived at the safe house in Grande to find it empty. It appeared the hideout had been evacuated in a hurry.
“How long was I gone?” I asked.
“A day and a half,” Saffediene said. “I told Thane I’d wait for you. He didn’t say they’d be going anywhere else.” She frowned as she released my hand and moved into the abandoned room. “Why would they leave us behind?”
“Jag doesn’t operate that way. He’s forever forging ahead.” I followed her into the hideout, closing the door behind me. We m
ade our way to the war room, where Saffediene trailed her fingers over the table.
“We lost a lot of people,” she said. “Thane said our rescue teams were annihilated. The maintenance crew met resistance, but Jag managed to get some of the Insiders out of Twelve. The tech team didn’t even make it out of the orchards.”
“Pace?” I asked.
She shook her head, tears falling. “Indy,” she said, her voice shaking. “They didn’t make it out of the city. We don’t know where they are.”
My chest tightened. I swallowed back the emotion, wondering if I had the strength to carry on. To do what needed to be done. Director Hightower’s words rang in my ears: You have two choices, Zenn.
Pace didn’t have two choices. Not anymore.
“Gunner?” I asked.
Again, Saffediene shook her head. “Not sure.”
“Thane?”
“He made it out. He waited with me the longest. Said he’d do what he could for us.”
Which was nothing. Director Hightower had been clear on his feelings for Thane. Don’t let him trick you, Zenn. The man hasn’t spoken the truth in a decade.
But I hadn’t either.
“Vi?” I asked next, scared of the answer but needing to know.
“She took control of someone’s body and brought down an entire army before Hightower could retaliate.”
My mouth went dry. “Is she—?”
“She was unconscious last time I saw her, but she was breathing.”
I sighed with relief, even though taking control of someone else’s body was crazy-talented in a crazy-creepy way.
I crashed into a chair and hung my head in my hands. With my eyes closed, the world felt heavier. Director Hightower’s words looped through my head. You could be Director, Zenn. Big things are happening here. Are you sure you’re on the right side?
The right side, the right side, the right side.
“Saffediene, what’s the right side?” I asked.
The chair next to me squeaked as she sat down. She didn’t answer immediately, and I didn’t move my head from my hands, but somehow, being with her relaxed me.