arbitrate (daynight) (42 page)

I stormed out of the room, wondering why the hell I was helping people who gave me no gratitude for my efforts.

Present

My eyes feel glued
shut and I’m groggy—unusually so. I rub my hands across them until I’m able to pry them open.
 

Something’s not right.

It’s quiet. Dead quiet. Not once since I’ve been stationed in Art City has it ever been quiet. People are tripping all over each other here. I pull back the shade next to my bed, and the high sun blinds me. No wonder I’m so tired. It is middle of the day.

My limbs feel like lead. I collapse as I try to get out of bed and have to pull myself back up using the bunk bed post.

Where are my roommates?
 

All the single people sleep in a common bunkroom. The beds are empty. It’s not unusual to have one or two out at late hours of the day—but all of them? I robotically pad out towards the kitchen to get a drink of water and see if I can find any sign of life.

The stench hits me first.

Death.

I see a body in a pool of blood as I round the corner into the communal living area. My stomach sinks.
This is bad.
As I scan the room, I do a rough count. Thirty.
 

Thirty dead.

I cover my nose and mouth with my hand and carefully step over and around the dead bodies. They appear to have died from bullet wounds. Flies are buzzing around the bodies like locusts.

How did I sleep through a massacre? And why am I still alive?

The front door is wide open. I leave the commune wearing my pajama bottoms, t-shirt, and no shoes. The cement burns the soles of my feet, but I have to know what happened. I run to the commune next door and find their door wide open too. The place is deserted, but there’s still lukewarm coffee on the table, so they couldn’t have been absent long.
 

Is everyone gone? Did the Exilers leave early?

I panic and go from door to door. Abandoned shoes. Partially eaten breakfasts. Trash fluttering in the breeze. And the
smell
. I lean over the side rail and dry heave. There are gators feasting on more corpses below. I empty the contents of my stomach, and I can see the fish bubbling below the surface fighting for the new bounty.

I am alone.

It looks like my “friends” on the Exiler Board decided to go ahead without me, and they killed anyone who…what? Refused to go? Was connected to the SCI? Why did they leave me behind? Together, we had spent hundreds of hours perfecting the plan down to every last detail.
 

They left me.

I re-check my watch and realize that I have almost an entire night missing. The last thing I remember was being with the Exilers in a final strategy meeting. Doc had offered me a hot chocolate.

I was drugged.

Someone didn’t want me involved in the plan. Maybe the Exilers didn’t actually trust me…thought I really was Brad’s spy. Or maybe a certain someone wanted to punish me.

Bailey.

Whatever the reason, I’m not going to waste any more time. If they haven’t blown the mega-portal yet, I should still be able to get through.

I return to my commune and enter in through the back door. After I slip into some shoes and grab my pack, I run towards the portal as fast as I can. My pack feels lighter, so I stop long enough to check my pack for the gun Doc issued me, but it is missing.

How stupid am I?

Jax told me I was an idiot. Did he know what awaited me?

What will be waiting for me on the other side?

I definitely don’t want to be stuck here alone in Art City, so I decide to go, swiftly walking to the end of the tube. I pause before fully exiting. Where I am now, no one can enter. If I go a couple more feet, I’ll be exposed—and will have to descend the ramp to the lower level to be able to leave through an outgoing portal. I peer out and see a couple bodies sprawled out on the floor in SCI uniforms, but they are not moving. Their weapons are missing.

Is that why the Exilers went without me? I’d been very vocal about my opposition to killing people. Perhaps, they didn’t want me around as their conscience.
 

The coast looks clear, so I take my chance and step out. Blinking lights catch my eye. There are explosive devices circling the platform as planned. The timer reads seven minutes. I set my watch to match the time. Somehow, it feels too short.

I know my way out from my visit with Jax, so I don’t hesitate to run down the ramp. The lower platform is also littered with the devices and bodies. Time to exit the premises. Since there aren’t swarms of people in the city models, I have to assume they’ve already left and ambushed the Headquarters building.

A familiar voice floats through the air—one I best avoid. Bailey. If she drugged me and has some sort of vendetta going on, then I’d prefer to delay our reunion indefinitely.
 

I hear another distant voice. This one I can’t ignore.
Kira.

What is happening? Why is she here? I follow the sounds, and finally I see the most horrifying sight that I could possibly imagine about a hundred yards in front of me. My past, present, and future have all collided. Blonde hair, strawberry-blonde hair, and dark-brown hair—all in close proximity. I ditch my backpack and sprint towards them.

As I get closer, I can see better what is happening. In the center of a large, tiled platform—a foot or so off the ground—are Kira (who is holding a baby), Madison, and
dozens more babies.
Behind them is a glass cage containing our former classmates from Garden City High. The ones who had Kira and my babies implanted in them.
Oh Gads, half those kids are mine.
The one in Kira’s arms looks like Aiden.

Bailey is about twenty feet away from them. A body is down next to her. And beside the body is a bag and another blinking light.

Madison, Kira, and those kids are right next to a bomb.
 

They appear to be far enough from the mega-portal to avoid a direct hit. Each individual explosive device is small and not very powerful. The way they set up the devices, if done right, should cause the entire structure to implode rather than explode. But the bomb by Bailey is too close.
 

I can see them, but they haven’t seen me. They are concentrating on their standoff. How much time until the place blows? I look at my watch.
A little over five minutes.
My heart thumps against my chest, and I try to steady my breathing.

Bailey is shouting at Kira. “What’s it going to be? You or the babies? If you agree to strap this bomb to yourself, I’ll let you walk far enough away that your precious little kiddos may make it.”

Don’t do it, Kira. She’s lying.

Kira doesn’t hesitate. She kisses the baby in her arms and then sets him down. Then she gives Madison a hug. She braces her shoulders and steps forward. “Strap it on. I’ll happily sacrifice my life to save the lives of the others.”

I can’t get there in time.
But I have to do something.

Bailey straps the bomb to Kira’s chest and locks it in place. She winks at Kira and says, “I’m hoping there are no second chances for you…but if there are, please remember every last minute of this—particularly this next part where I have you watch your children die. Think of this like a late baby shower gift. One with a really short fuse.”
 

She reaches into a bag near her feet.

There’s another device.

She tosses it towards the babies. Mid-air, I see the blinking time of :25 on the bomb’s display.

Madison and I reach the bomb at the same time. “Run,” I yell at her.

Then I pounce on top of the blinking device.

Madison collapses onto me, wrapping her arms tight around me. “Where you go, I go.”

The bomb ticks below us. So many thoughts flutter through my mind in rapid succession. I always thought I’d die for the Exiler’s cause, but I’m glad it will be to save my children. The Exilers betrayed me after I gave up Kira, gave up a normal life for them. I hope that the Exilers can take their fresh start and do something good with it, though I fear that they will create a society just as frightening as the SCI. Different doesn’t guarantee better.

My children can be my legacy. Even if I couldn’t love Aiden the way I should have, I want him to have the life I didn’t. I want Kira to live and Bailey to die in her stead. My son needs her. She is amazing with him, with all of them. I know that if she doesn’t make it that Jax will take good care of Aiden.
 

Please Jax. Come save Kira. She needs you.

My face is soaked with my tears, my hair wet with Madison’s.

I look up at Bailey and see a wicked grin on her face as she pulls a third device from her bag. “Later, you traitorous bastards.”

“Nooooooo…” Kira, Madison, and I shout simultaneously as we see it flying through the air.

Tick. Tock.

Tick. Tock.

Tick.

“The law of sacrifice is uniform throughout the world. To be effective it demands the sacrifice of the bravest and the most spotless.”

—Mahatma Gandhi
 

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Kira

Earlier that evening

Jax pulls me tight against his chest.
“Don’t go, love,” he whispers into my ear. Then he drags his lips from my ear, across my cheek, and then brushes them against my lips. My nerve endings go haywire, from lips to toes.

I pull back and gaze into his gold-centered blue eyes. “I have to.”

“Even if it is a trap? Even if it will end badly?”

I look up at him and study his face. He looks absolutely tortured.
What do you know?

The room fills with light, and we are no longer alone. The entire Arbiter council surrounds us.

“Jax.” His father grabs onto one of his arms, and Eli grabs his other arm. They pull him away from me. “You are constrained from involving yourself in this. You know this is not our business. Let her go. She can and must do this without intervention.”

What’s going on? Jax can’t come with me?
I don’t understand.

Jax struggles against them, but they hold him firm. “I believe in you, Kira—more than anything, I believe in you. You are the strongest person I know. Stronger than you think you are.”

The desperation in his voice kills a little piece of me. Why do I have to go alone? And why are they keeping him from helping? I do feel strong. Stronger than I have in years. If Jax believes in me, everything will work out. His instincts are always spot on. “It will be okay, Jax. I’ve got this.”

His face is soaked with tears. “I love you, Kira. Always have. I’m sorry I waited to tell you…I’m sorry for a lot of things.” The instant the words leave his mouth, the Arbiters all disappear.

I stare at the empty space where Jax was a moment ago.
They took him away…forcefully. If anything happens to him…

“What was that?” I turn to see Madison. Her eyes are blinking rapidly, and she looks scared to death. She walks over and picks up the picture of the babies that I had set on the kitchen table and stares at it.

I gently pull the picture away from her and hold it to my chest. “Long story and one I don’t have time to explain. I have to go…to Garden City.”

“Take me with you. Please. Don’t leave me here alone.”

“Madison, I don’t think that’s a good idea. You’re safe here. And I can’t promise you would be safe in Garden City. The guy who invited me there, Brad Darcton, is crazy…an honest-to-goodness madman. He runs the SCI, and you don’t want to be on his radar.”

She grabs onto my hand and looks up at me with her big, brown eyes. “Then you need me there. I know it. I’m coming, and I won’t take no for an answer.”

The lights in the room flicker and Dr. Christo reappears.
 

“What? Why are you back? Where did you take Jax?” I ask the white-haired man.

“Jackson is safe. He is being detained. That’s all you need to know. He did, however, make me promise that I’d take you and Madison to the portal. You have five minutes to prepare. Time is of the essence. Do not dilly-dally.”

Madison and I step through
the portal onto a large, circular platform. There are dozens of tubes, just like the one we exited, emanating from the platform. There’s a man in a security uniform holding a placard with my name on it. Funny, Brad. How many girls did he honestly expect to come through from Military City?

“Follow me,” the man says. He leads us down a long ramp. I can see the lower platform, but we turn left instead of right and onto a pathway leading past one of the tubes. In the distance, I can only see a couple of the model cities. The rest are closed off.

We walk past the end of the tube for a while, and I can see a large glass wall with people behind it. In front of the wall is a flat area about a foot off the ground, with…oh my Gads, is that the babies? There are tiny wriggling forms all over the platform.

I break out into a run. As I get closer, the glass wall becomes a glass cage, and there are dozens of unattended babies in front of it. Their adoptive parents—my former friends and classmates—are pounding on the glass. I can’t hear their screams, but I can see them. I stop when I reach the platform and immediately pick up a crying baby boy who looks like Ethan. He’s not the only baby who is upset, and there is no way I can tend to all of them.

This is worse than the baby assembly line daymare.
It is real.

Madison and our escort catch up with me. The escort pulls out a gun, points it at me, and instructs, “Wait here. Mr. Darcton will be with you when he can. And that is bulletproof glass, so any effort to let those people out will be fruitless.”

He walks off and disappears behind a door. I put the boy down and scoop up a dark-haired girl with my green eyes. I study her face but honestly can’t tell which one is her father.
 

“Help me move them all away from the edge and towards the glass so their parents can see them.” I beg Madison. We do our best to divide and conquer, but most of the babies are mobile. As soon as they are set down, they crawl, scoot, or roll away. It’s like baby bumper cars. They keep running into each other, screeching at the contact.