“Well, I’ll be damned,” Merick says as he leads the others through the doorway. He pats me hard on the back. “I should have recognized your old man’s attitude when you gave it to me,” he jests.
Decklin smiles and Cy squeezes my shoulder. The two youngest seeksmen choose chairs on either side of me.
“I’m Cheng,” says the Asian-American man in his late twenties. Apparently I merit an introduction from him now, but his partner still makes no move toward one.
“Sydney,” I say, shaking his hand.
“I know,” he says absently. That suffices for him as he moves away to take a seat.
Crewe enters somberly and shuffles around a few others without acknowledging me. I wonder if he is avoiding me because of the kiss we shared in the alleyway, or because what is best for Evvie may not be best for the town, who he will undoubtedly side with in our planning, no matter what his relationship is to me.
He lowers himself into a chair next to Merick, who sits on my father’s right. I stare at him, waiting for him to risk a glance in my direction. Just before it seems the proceedings will begin, Crewe finally looks my way. With purpose, I release a small, side smile to him. If he weren’t too tanned to tell, I think he might be blushing. He returns a heartfelt smile. I allot his eyes’ diversion from me to boyish bashfulness, which is also becoming on him.
Even if he hadn’t kissed me, I still don’t think I would be cross with him for keeping to himself the information that the captain is my father.
Within moments of him learning my last name, he and I also learned that Evvie had been taken from under us. Since we would need to wait for the captain to arrive before any decisions about going after her could be made, deciding to forego telling me for that short time was an acceptable move. Forcing sleep on me instead of allowing me to be kept up all night with worry over my sister and questions about my living father was probably for the better.
All of us look expectantly at my father, who gets right to it. “Here’s what I know—Miles County sent at least one black-operation team into Sheridan last night and took Evelette Harter, my daughter,” he says, scanning the eyes of the listeners. “Whether any harm has been done to her, I don’t know. But regardless, they came onto our soil and took one of our own. To me, that is a direct action of hostility.
“Now let’s talk numbers. Last I knew of, Miles County employed six black-operations teams, with four to five members on each team. Now we know that they were planning this. We know that they put the names of Braves’ little girls on my wife’s account to taunt the towns of Sheridan and Braves. We can assume, then, that they’ve been gearing up for an assault. I wouldn’t be surprised if Miles has fifty or more highly trained men and women between their teams. Look around the room. That’s not very favorable odds.”
“There are plenty of others here who are willing to fight for our families,” Jerus advocates.
“Not who are trained,” my dad counters. “We don’t take anyone who isn’t capable.”
“So we train them,” Jerus suggests.
“We don’t have the time,” my dad shoots back. He’s right. The more time we waste, the less chance my sister has to survive. “Not only do we lack the experience and the manpower that their teams have, we also haven’t found a secure way to interrupt their superior technology, which will also be hunting us.”
“You’re not making this sound too good, Captain,” Cy points out. “Tell us what we do have and when we leave.” He chuckles a little about the second part, but no one else so much as moves their eyes in Cy’s direction. They’ve already lost faith with the captain’s opening statements. I can see it in their eyes. They’re calculating. They want to cut Sheridan’s losses. They don’t want to go. They want my sister to be left behind.
“We have love for our families, our friends, and our freedom, and love is a lot more powerful than the simple sense of duty that compels them to fight us,” my father says.
“No disrespect, sir, but love isn’t going to protect us from bullets or bombs,” Cheng says.
“Secondly,” my father glares impatiently in Cheng’s direction, “I have a plan that will outsmart their technology just enough to get us inside without being detected.”
“We’re sneaking in to take her back?” Jerus asks. “You said abducting her was a direct act of hostility, so we should be retaliating directly—with everyone and everything that we can muster.”
“No.” I sense that my father has only begun to speak again, but Jerus continues his rant.
“Captain, you can’t think so personally. Firing should be our response to them taking the girl.”
“The girl is my daughter,” my father scowls. “Taking her was personal, but you better believe it wasn’t that personal. I want to stand up to them for all of us and for our whole town as much as anyone else, but not to an idiotic end,” he throws at Jerus. “If we march in there screaming a battle hymn, we won’t march out, and you know that. That’s what they want. They took Evvie to create a catalyst that would ignite nineteen years of tension, since the day of the decree.”
“Besides the fact that they would annihilate us and then our town, Jerus,” he says sourly, “we would be made out to be the barbarians, and the county civilians would gain a new respect for and trust in the government that defended them against us. That counters everything we’ve been working toward. Whether the abduction is a personal matter to me or not does not change the fact that penetrating the county secretively is the best move.”
“For how long?” Jerus continues his uprising. “How long do we allow them to continue to oppress people on the inside without doing something about it? You said it yourself—they want to spark a battle. Who’s to say they won’t just kidnap someone else, looking for the same result?” He looks around the room, and I do as well. His position is contemplated by a few.
“He’s got a point,” Crewe affirms. “If we win her back, it’ll infuriate them. They could bomb us.”
“They won’t bomb us,” my father says.
“How do you know?” Cheng asks.
“If civilians inside found out that the Miles government blew up two hundred and fifty people without a more justifiable reason than having broken the law by being out here, they may end up with a civil war on their hands. The people would be outraged by the lack of due process. Also, we have become a lot more than protestors, and the people will acknowledge that. They’ll understand that we’ve governed our territory and people for almost two decades without oppression. Masses will try to join us if the truth seeps out. They won’t risk bombing us to highlight their terrorist ways and the fact that escape, freedom,” he accentuates, “is achievable. They don’t want a divided nation with all that’s happening in the world, and frankly, neither do we.”
Cy shifts in his chair next to me. “Captain, you said that taking Evvie was a catalyst to spark the tension. What is the spark for if not for wiping us out?”
“What I believe they aim to do is put an end to movement from inside. They want us to think that our annihilation is around the corner so that we stop seeking.”
“So, Captain, say after we get Evvie back, they take another citizen of Sheridan, I mean they came right in and did it pretty easily, what’s our move then?” Crewe asks.
“I’m sure we’d figure it out if that happened, right Captain?” Cy says, cautioning his older brother on my behalf. But Crewe is right. What I’m thinking is—what if they take her again? Or worse, what if they come in and simply leave her dead for us to find?
“It’s more likely we’ll need you and Rico to figure it out. We’ll either need a technological security like they’ve got with thermal energy, or we’ll need a sounder way to infiltrate their systems to broadcast our existence. If we can threaten them with that, maybe we can convince them to stay away from our people.”
“We’re working on it,” Cy tells my dad.
“I know you are, Cy, and we’re all thankful for it. I know you guys will ge
t there.”
“No offense,” Cheng looks to Cy and then back at the captain, “but those two have been working on that forever. It’s a tight system to break. I don’t think we can bank on it.”
“Cheng’s right,” provides his equally dissenting partner. “Letting them pick us off slowly would give us the time to train more of our own and form a coalition between Sheridan, Braves, and Idaho, a force that could—”
“Let them pick us off?” my dad questions. “Are you suggesting we let them capture, maybe kill our people, my daughter, to focus on our end game?” Cheng’s partner folds his arms, disgruntled.
“If all the refugee towns in Region Two join forces—don’t you think all the counties will do the same? Use your head.” Merick’s intolerance for Cheng and his partner has grown to match that of his despise for Jerus.
“I promised Sydney that we’d get Evvie back, alive,” the captain shoots across the table.
“And so did I,” both Davids brothers say in unison.
“And I promised my sister that I would never let anything bad happen to her,” I add, needing to be part of the group advocating for the mission to save her.
“We don’t know whether your promises are even possible anymore,” Jerus leaks. At this, Crewe uncontrollably bursts from his chair, toppling it over. Although Jerus is across the table, and adamantly professes himself as an experienced war veteran, he recoils and cowers from Crewe.
“Crewe, cool it,” Merick warns. “And Jerus—just shut the hell up.”
“I can see where this is leading so we might as well get to it,” my father says, releasing his glare from Jerus. “Before I tell you the plan, I want to tell you that we’re obviously not all going. If something were to happen out there, we can’t have our town left without anyone to lead and protect it. Merick, you have no choice, you’re staying.”
“Demetri,” he protests.
“I can’t leave the town in Jerus’ hands, now can I?” my dad reasons. “Jerus, that means you’re coming with me. I need someone else with experience out there, but don’t even think about screwing it up. That leaves four more spots which I’ll ask for at the—”
“I’m in,” Cy interrupts. “I don’t care what the plan is, Captain. I’m in.”
“Three more spots,” my father sighs. “And will the rest of you let me speak before you go weighing in?” He waits a beat, and we all wait for him. “Sydney,” he looks at me intently. “I’m sorry, but you’re not going unless we don’t have enough volunteers.”
“But I—”
“You don’t have the training,” he says sternly. “It’s as simple as that. I know you want to be there, but I can’t risk—”
“I’ll follow my orders,” I stand and interject. “I’ll do everything you say. You have to let me go!” I assert.
“No, I don’t,” he says, “but we’ll see.” The captain lifts his hands to suggest that the others in the room will determine whether or not I go. He’s not going back on what he’s already told me.
“So let’s hear it, Captain,” Alix says. She shifts her eyes to Crewe, and they share an interesting moment. “How are we maintaining the element of surprise despite their technology?”
“We’re taking the bikes, off-road,” he clarifies. “We’ll also go at night. That should cover satellite imaging. The maneuverability and speed of the bikes will make for a quick getaway.”
“We’re not riding them through the barrier, are we?” Crewe asks. He doesn’t allow anyone time to answer before he reasons with my father. “They won’t survive the shocks for any kind of getaway, and we may not either. If we don’t explode right along with them, we’ll surely be debilitated.”
“The shocks are only administered if a chip comes within the barrier that the underground line projects,” I tell Crewe.
“Not if they flip the switch,” he says nonchalantly.
“What?”
“It’s not just routine maintenance they’ve been doing on those lines,” Merick explains to me. “But I thought you said you hadn’t seen any indication of this in Miles,” he says to Crewe.
“We didn’t, but better to be cautionary,” Crewe responds.
“I don’t understand,” I say. “What have they been doing to the lines?”
“They’re being transformed to serve as an invisible wall protecting the county,” Merick says. “The entire outside world is warring. An attack from a neighboring or even a far-off nation is always in the realm of possibilities. The project is much underway in Billings, where it likely begun. I doubt we have to worry about that in Miles.”
“We’ll have to take a gamble on this one, Crewe,” my father concludes. Once again, everyone around me knows more about the counties than I do, and they’ve been removed from them for many years.
“How will we diffuse our infrared energy?” Crewe asks. I appreciate that he brings the discussion back to the matter at hand. I’m both mystified and intrigued by the barrier upgrade, but I don’t want to be sidetracked for another moment.
“This part is pretty rudimentary, but we don’t have the time to get inventive. We’re going to wear the neoprene suits. It’ll also be nighttime, so that will help.”
“That won’t be enough,” Cheng appeals.
“Let him finish, Cheng,” Decklin respectfully advises.
“I had thought of constructing some kind of wiring around the bikes to frame up acetate like in the cellar, but I don’t know how durable it would be on the ride in. I suppose if Miles did pilot the new barrier system beyond our knowledge, wiring would only extend and intensify the electricity through our bodies, obliterating any chance of making it across alive.”
“Increasing the size of the whole unit would make it harder to maneuver the weave of trees anyway,” Merick says.
“I wish we had a way to get our hands on some of the technology the United States military had developed,” Cy says. “Remember what Galv told us about, Crewe? Jets and tanks alike had plates that adapted to the heat signatures of their surrounding.” I can see him wondering what such a thing would look like. I can see him try to bring his daydream to life.
“The best we can do to mask the heat signature of the engines is to mold some kind of acrylic-glass covering. Those that aren’t going tonight will spend today engineering something shatter-resistant and just thick enough to emit an inconsistent infrared wave on the opposite side of the engine.”
“What else will be used to mask body heat besides the suits?” Alix asks. I notice that she doesn’t ask what we will use to mask our body heat. Alix doesn’t envision herself as part of this mission. I’m fine with that.
My father hesitates to answer this question that Cheng originally asked. Even I know that the neoprene won’t be enough from the night we stayed in the wine cellar built with dense, clay brick. We were further protected by the acetate sheets inside the cellar arc and panes of glass that rested on the dirt packed above it.
“Adding acetate sheets with duct tape is all I’ve concocted,” my father answers. Alix’s eyebrows rise dramatically. “I know it’s haphazard, but those of us not planning the invasion with me will have all day to develop the idea.”
Everyone nods skeptically. To me, it doesn’t seem that this is the weakest piece of the plan. How will they have any idea where to go once they’re inside the county? Most of them have never been inside. “How do we find her?” I ask, willfully including myself in the operation.
“I’ll lead them. They will prep their weapons and follow me,” my father says. I don’t like that he answered my question with they will and not you will. “I have our entry point decided as well as a place to store the bikes. All of that can be talked about with the task force today while the others get the equipment ready.”
“I’m in,” Crewe says.
“Me too,” Decklin is quick to follow. He surprises me. He’s younger than me, scrawnier than all the others, and less than three months ago he lost his partner to a BOT attack outs
ide of Billings County where he seeks. He also doesn’t talk much, but when he does, he makes it count. I nod my head in thanks to him. I doubt I’ll do the same to anyone else who pipes in, because they’ll be taking my spot.
“There’s room for one more,” the captain says. He doesn’t look at me, but prods deep into the psyche of the others in the room who are not stepping up. Merick can’t volunteer and Cheng and his partner have backed Jerus’ viewpoint during the whole discussion. I don’t anticipate a little intimidation from my father will shake them. That just leaves Alix, the wildcard. She isn’t expressing any interest.
I look to my father, who mourns that I’ve gotten my way. I don’t think he will know how to accept the exchange of one daughter’s life for the other, especially when I’m the only daughter he’s known. But he’ll understand my decision when he meets her. Evvie has my mother’s features, including the smile he remembers her with, and God willing, she’ll still maintain a freer spirit than I’ve known.
“I’ll go.” I spin my chair around to Alix in time to see Crewe looking at her the same way my father was. For some reason, Crewe’s imploring of her has more weight than the captain’s did.
“No!” I protest. “You’re not volunteering of your own volition,” I say to her. Some of the others begin to stand and disassemble. I look to Crewe, who looks guilty and fearful of the backlash from me, despite his head being held high as he stands too. Turns out it won’t be the last one to volunteer who’ll receive heat from me.
How could Crewe rip this away from me? I think I know why he did this, and that infuriates me even more. If he cared about me, he would let me go. I hurry around to him, driven by rage. He holds himself lucidly, although he knows what’s coming. I latch onto the lapels of his jacket like I did on the gravely roadside. I shove him into the wall. Hard.
“Why?” I demand. “You know me. You should understand that I have to go—I need to go,” I try to persuade him, but it’s of no use. He won’t release Alix from whatever obligation she has to him. “Look at me!” I scream, pressing harder into him. Crewe doesn’t look, nor does he make any attempt to break free from my hold.
My father begins to pull me off him. I don’t fight my father, though he’s the one who has the real power to change this. But Crewe is the one I feel betrayed by now. “I hate you,” I tell him, but the comment isn’t filled with the spite such a remark should hold. Instead, it comes out emptily.
Crewe says nothing in his defense, but he does look me in the eye. He knows there’s no worth in his reason for sabotaging my right to be a part of this fight. He knows that the love I have for my sister is the only love I possess and far outweighs anything he could feel for me. His desire to protect me from harm is futile and enraging. I slide loose from my father’s grasp and stomp down the stairs behind the others. I don’t need anyone to protect me.