“No. Keep us in,” he said, flashing that heart-stopping smirk of his at me.
“Okay, I will.” I pulled the USB from the computer. “We should head back to the dome before someone wakes up and comes looking for us.” I didn’t give a flying fuck about that. The truth was, if he smiled at me like that again, I was going to reach out and touch him, maybe even kiss him. So, I needed to get the hell out of there.
“Wait.” He reached down, fumbling at the waistband of his sweat pants, and pulled out a folded piece of paper. “I wanted to show you this.” He held it out to me.
“Um, that was in your pants,” I said, not reaching for it.
“So, I don’t have any pockets. Besides, girls keep stuff in their bras all the time.”
He had a point. I reached out and took the thick paper, realizing it was an old photo as I unfolded it. It was a picture of a bunch of young hippies, and I recognized my dad immediately. I also recognized a very young Alexander James, and was that a young Mike Palmer dressed like a serial killer?
“Where did you get this?” I asked.
“Reiny’s Uncle Gordon gave it to me,” he said. “That’s him standing in the back, the older one. That is a group of young Native American Movement radicals he led when he was a college art professor.”
“My dad knew your mom and your uncle in college?” I couldn’t even process the rest of it. My dad hadn’t been a radical anything. He’d been an unassuming painter.
“Yeah,” Marcus said. “And that’s not all. That group—they made a raid on Umatilla back when it had chemicals, and there was an accident, a leak of some kind, and it changed them. Gordon manifested a PSS foot shortly afterwards. I saw it myself. And the rest of them, at least the ones we know, all had children with external PSS.”
I looked down at the photo again, scanning the faces. The beautiful, defiant-looking native woman standing next to Alexander James had to be Marcus’s mother. I could see the resemblance as plain as day. My eyes stopped on the man of Asian heritage, then flicked to the African American guy. I knew those eyes. I’d seen them before.
I flipped the picture over. Just as I’d hoped, there was a list of names scrawled in faded pencil on the back. Amidst the names I already knew would be there, and a few I didn’t recognize at all, I found Bertrum Faison and Sie Ling.
I turned the photo back over and stared at the only white woman in the group. She could be Jason’s mom. It was hard to tell. She would have been using her maiden name back then, and I had no idea what that was.
“Did Jason see this photo?” I asked Marcus.
“No. He was always off running errands for Palmer. Why?”
“I think this is his mom.” I pointed to the woman. “Because this is Nose’s dad, and that is Yale’s. All of our parents were in this group. That’s what ties us together. It’s why we were on the CAMFer list. It’s why they were after us.”
“Yeah, okay,” Marcus said, sounding impatient. “But you do understand the full implications of that photo, right? The accident our parents caused at Umatilla released a chemical reaction into the atmosphere that could be seen for days. It was distributed like a volcanic cloud across the globe, likely within weeks.”
I looked at Marcus, finally comprehending the weight of what he was telling me. “They were ground zero,” I whispered, looking down at the photo again. “They started it all right here.”
“Exactly.” Marcus nodded. “And now they expect us to finish it. Gordon and Palmer, they think we can fix what they fucked up. My uncle is part of it too. They’ve been manipulating us this whole time toward a specific outcome.”
“Maybe,” I admitted. “But what choice do we have? Leave the world fucked up just to spite them?”
“I’ll admit, it’s tempting,” he said, grinning wickedly. “But no. Your plan is better. The crowd out there is receptive. They were actually curious about Kaylee, instead of hostile. Maybe the world is finally ready for this.”
“Be careful,” I said. “Your optimism is showing.”
“Ha ha. Very funny. So, what do we do now?”
“We go back to the dome and get some sleep,” I said, yawning. “Because my mom is throwing me an annoying-ass birthday party tomorrow—no, actually today—and she’s going to expect me to stay awake for it.”
“Today’s your birthday?” Marcus asked. “How old are you?”
“Eighteen.” We’d been chatting so well, bantering back and forth, I’d almost forgotten he didn’t remember my birthday, or how old I was, or how I liked to be kissed on the back of the neck. By him.
“Okay then, lead the way, birthday girl.” He got up, waving me toward the door.
I tried to hand the picture back, but he told me to keep it, suggesting Chase scan it and do an internet search to see if we could identify Jason’s mom for sure.
Then, we made our way back down the hallway toward the dome.
As I reached for the security door keypad, I realized it was flashing green. The door was already open, hanging slightly ajar.
“You left the door to the dome unlocked,” I said.
“Sorry,” Marcus said, looking properly chagrined. “I was in a hurry, but I really thought I’d closed it.”
“It’s okay.” I slipped through, making sure he locked it behind us this time. “No harm done.”
29
ANTHONY
Seeing Olivia cross over to the CAMFer side alone in the middle of the night was more than I ever could have hoped for. At first, I thought I was having a fucking wet dream. What were the chances? From my new favorite hiding spot in the CAMFer security room, which Olivia’s people had kindly unlocked for me, I watched her go into the computer lab and sit down at one of the monitors, her back to the door.
I stood up and grabbed my knives, tucking them into place. Too bad her friends hadn’t opened the CAMFer armory too, but the knives would do the job.
I took one last look at the camera feed, marveling at my good fortune.
And that’s when it occurred to me it must be a trap.
That was the only explanation. Just hours before, I’d seen two of her people cross over into my side, hurry toward one of the smaller entrances, and let five more people in, including Fineman’s PSS pet and Mike-fucking-Palmer.
I won’t lie, that had shaken me up. I couldn’t understand why Palmer was here with her, acting like he was on their side? At first, I’d thought he might be a CAMFer plant. Then it had hit me that maybe he’d been playing both sides all along, but I couldn’t believe it. He hated minus freaks as much as I did. He’d been the one who’d encouraged me to cut off Olivia’s hand.
The hand she had back.
That’s when I’d realized he’d set me up to take the fall for him. Olivia’s hand, and mine, had all been part of his plan. Mike Palmer was a traitor to our cause. He’d been one of them all along. I’d gone into a fit of rage then, breaking things, smashing them, almost slamming my stump into a wall like an idiot.
But I’d calmed down, and kept watch, and then Olivia had come on screen into the CAMFer side like a dream. It had to be Palmer baiting me. Somehow, he knew I was here. Still, a trap could be outsmarted and used to my advantage, as long as I was aware of it.
I took a deep breath, sat back down, and scanned the other feeds. I didn’t see anything, but her people could be dodging the cameras just like I’d been. Of course, the area right outside the dome door was a bottleneck that couldn’t be avoided. I could backtrack that camera’s footage to make sure no one else had come through, but I had no idea how far back to look.
Olivia was still in the computer lab, watching some kind of movie. What if this wasn’t a trap? What if she was just a fool and this was my one chance to take her out?
I stood up and slipped out of the security room. It was a five-minute walk to the lab, a little longer if I dodged cameras along the way. I moved cautiously, searching the hallway and surrounding area before approaching the door.
When I peered through
its little window, I almost expected her not to be there, for it to have been a mirage fueled only by my wishful thinking and need for revenge.
But it was really her.
Alone.
Oblivious.
Vulnerable.
I must have made a noise, because she suddenly turned and I ducked, crouching below the window frame.
Maybe she’d get up and come to the door. Maybe she’d open it and I’d grab that bitch and cut her throat from ear to ear. Let’s see her come back from that.
But then I heard a sound from down the hall, and I saw the green flash of the security pad indicating someone was coming through.
I bolted, darting back around the corner, but I made myself stop there. If it was a trap and they were coming in force, I was already screwed. But, if it was just one of the others come to find Olivia, I might be able to take both of them.
I peered around the edge of the wall and saw a guy my age—one of the ones who’d come in with Palmer. He was barefoot in a t-shirt and sweats, standing and looking in the window just like I’d been a minute ago. As I watched, he reached out, opened the door, and stepped inside, saying “What are you doing over here in the middle of the night?”
Olivia said something in return, but I could barely hear it.
Then the guy stepped inside, pulling the door closed behind him.
They were both in there now, unarmed. It would have been so much easier just to take her. A guy would put up a fight, especially to impress a girl, and he had two hands.
But it had to be done. This was my chance and I had to take it.
I crept around the corner, staying low as I approached the door. About halfway there, I noticed the green light still flashing at the end of the hallway.
Olivia’s friend had left the door to the dome wide open.
I stopped for a moment, weighing my options just like my old man taught me.
I could go for the two in the lab, maybe kill them now, but the rest, including Mike Palmer, would know for sure they had an enemy. They would hunt me, and find me, and kill me. And Olivia would still win. I’d seen her army of followers outside on the exterior camera feeds. This was bigger than taking her out. I had to stop whatever she was doing.
If I snuck into the dome now, if I infiltrated their side without them knowing it, I might be able to take them all out, or totally fuck their plans. It would be difficult to remain unseen in the dome area, once daylight hit. But If I could get into the Hold side before daybreak, it should be similar enough to the CAMFer side for me to hide.
I heard music coming through the door of the lab.
She was showing him what she’d been watching, and they’d both be distracted.
I moved, ducking under the window in the door, and made my way down the hall, slipping into the dark, star-studded dome.
30
JASON
“For Christ’s sake, admit it,” I said. “You have no idea where we are.” Allie had been leading us for hours through the maze of tunnels under Umatilla. Every time we came to a junction, she’d peer intently at some piece of graffiti before confidently heading off in a new direction. But I was pretty sure we were lost, and my shoulders were numb from lugging around Palmer’s bag of guns. Not to mention, I was pretty sure Allie’s lantern was fading.
“No, I know exactly where we are,” she insisted. “Trust me, we’re almost there. Just three more tunnels and this empties out into the eastern most bunker on the depot. Of course, after that, it’s a long walk back to—”
“Shhhh,” I hissed, grabbing her arm. “I heard something.”
“Don’t grab me,” she said, “I don’t—” and then she clamped her mouth shut because she heard it too.
First voices. Deep and rumbly. Men talking to men.
Then heavy footfalls, lots of them, echoing down the corridor toward us.
“They’re coming straight at us,” I whispered. “We have to hide.”
“Hide where?” she asked. “There’s nowhere to hide in a freakin’ tunnel.”
“Then we have to backtrack,” I said softly. “We can take one of the intersections we passed and hope they don’t follow.”
“Okay,” she whispered, turning and hurrying back the way we’d come. I followed, trying to position my body so it would block the lantern light from the group behind us. Whoever they were, I really didn’t want to meet them in a dark tunnel underground.
Allie stopped at the next junction, holding the lantern up to the wall.
“Just go,” I said. “We’re not trying to get anywhere. We just need to get out of their path.”
“No, I have an idea. A place we can hide.” She took the right-hand passage. “It’s really hard to find.”
I followed, hating that I was at her mercy. If she panicked and took off on me, I’d never get out of here. Fuck. Maybe we’d gotten completely turned around and the guys following us were her friends with the bats. But they’d sounded older. I was torn between my need to be quiet and my need to know what the hell we might be up against.
We were running now, Allie taking junctions with renewed confidence. The sound of the guys behind us was fading, so I dared to ask another question.
“Who else knows about these tunnels?”
“Just locals, people our age, mostly,” she said, taking a quick left. “This guy named Rhino grows pot in some of the bunkers. He’s the one who originally made the hole in the fence so he could truck his stuff in and out.”
It hadn’t sounded like a pothead following us, or a bunch of local teens. It had sounded like an army.
“This way.” Allie headed right down another tunnel with a door at the end of it. That was a good sign. We hadn’t seen many doors. Most of the tunnels just had open connections to each other. And this door wasn’t just any door. It was a hatch with a turning wheel like they have on submarines—a sealed hatch. We might even be able to lock it from the other side.
Allie ran up and gripped the wheel, spinning it loose with only a little effort. She pulled the heavy door open and stepped over the threshold into a much larger space, not a tunnel and not a bunker, but some kind of large circular room.
I stepped in after her.
At the far back of the room was a giant, round, metal tank, so big it reached from floor to ceiling and it was radiating a soft blue light.
“Close the hatch,” she said, turning off the lantern to save the battery. “It doesn’t lock anymore. Someone broke the mechanism, but I doubt whoever is down here will come this way. There’s only one tunnel that leads here.”
“Only one tunnel?” I stared at her. “You mean there’s no way out? What the fuck? If they come after us, we’re trapped.”
“They won’t come this way,” she insisted.
Every instinct in my body was screaming that this was a very bad idea, but I pulled the hatch closed behind me anyway. “What the hell is this place?” I asked, setting down the bag of guns to give my shoulders some relief. I really didn’t like how this was all going down. As soon as I’d placed my foot inside that room, something had felt off. If I’d been on my own, I would have gotten the hell out of there. But Allie wasn’t afraid, so I held my ground.
“It’s just a tank for chemicals,” she said. “But don’t worry. It’s empty. They got rid of all that stuff years ago.”
“Then why is it glowing?” I asked. “What if that shit is residual radiation or something?”
“I’ve been down here lots of times and it’s never—” she stopped, cocking her head to listen.
I heard them too. Fuck! They were coming straight down the tunnel toward us.
And we had nowhere to run.
“Get into the shadows,” I said, pointing to the darkest part of the room, and shoving Allie toward it. As I turned to pick up the gun bag, I heard her run into something with a muffled oomf. “There are pipes here,” she said, “but I think we can crawl between them.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me down, guiding me after her through a seri
es of giant metal pipes. I dragged the gun bag over and under, trying to make as little noise as possible. And then we were at the wall, huddled against it and jammed together in what felt like a very tight space.
Strangely, there was rubble on the floor, broken chunks of cement and gritty dust as if someone had been doing construction recently in our little hidey-hole. I put my hand on the wall behind us. It was jagged and broken, crumbling under my touch. Hopefully, it wouldn’t collapse on us while we hid. I scooted forward a little to avoid putting pressure on it with my back and pulled the gun bag up against us for further camouflage. Then, I removed my gun from its holster and held it ready.
As my eyes adjusted, I could see we’d crawled up next to the holding tank. We were wedged in a corner between it and the wall. Thankfully, the pipes created a pocket of shadow for us that blocked most of its glow. From my position next to the tank, I could actually see a small section of the hatch door.
It was a good hiding spot. We might get out of this yet, despite Allie’s stupidity in leading us to a dead end.
The men’s voices grew louder. They were right outside the hatch. The wheel on the door squeaked and began to turn. When it opened, the first thing I thought was fuck my luck. They weren’t teenagers with bats. Based on their uniforms and gear, they were US military. There were five of them, accompanied by two civilians, a man and a woman.
The man I recognized immediately. It was Dr. Fineman.
The woman was older, in her sixties maybe, but strong and wiry-looking.
Of course, the first thing the soldiers did was secure the room.
Allie and I plastered ourselves even further back in our dark corner, as one of them came our direction, shining a light across the pipes. If he saw me holding a gun, he would shoot us. But if I put it away, he’d hear me and shoot anyway. And honestly, I preferred getting shot to ending up in Fineman’s hands, so if it came right down to it—