Authors: Norma Hinkens
A
heavy silence
descends over us as Blade trudges back out through the rubble toward the tree line. Despite the ominous hush his departure brings, my heart thunders wildly in my chest. My entire plan has just blown up in my face. The Ghost has forced my hand. With the city at stake, I have no choice but to meet on his terms. But will the Undergrounders see it like that? I scuff my knuckles back and forth against my teeth. The Rogues have nothing to gain by killing us before we attack the Sweepers. I have to trust my instincts, and believe The Ghost needs me as much as I need him. At least until we’ve taken the Craniopolis.
I take the binoculars Trout hands me and watch Blade’s retreating back until he disappears into a distant clump of trees. “I’ll head to the barn and alert the riders, and Sven, while you round up the Undergrounders, and Rummy,” I say to Jerome. “Have everyone meet in the courthouse in thirty minutes, packs and guns loaded. Don’t tell them anything, yet. Once they’re all assembled we’ll break the news to them.”
Jerome gives a quick nod before striding off in the direction of the courthouse. He knows my hands are tied, but he’s not happy about the turn things have taken.
“I’ll ready the horses,” Jody says in passing. “Don’t worry about alerting the riders. I’ll round them up and meet you back at the courthouse.”
Trout rubs a hand across his jaw. “Do you think the Rogues would seriously burn the city down?”
My chest tightens as Owen’s battered face flashes to mind. The memory still delivers a sickening punch. I grimace. “They were serious enough to waste everyone they could on their bunker rampages. They killed Izzy’s family and left her to fend for herself, didn’t they?”
Trout shrugs. “It’s hard to believe Blade would let his own brother fry.”
“He has no conscience,” Jakob interjects. “And no qualms about betraying his own flesh and blood.”
I let out a heavy sigh. “We can’t take a chance and wait until midnight to find out.”
“Torching the city is not Blade’s decision to make anyway,” Trout says. “He’s just the messenger boy. The Ghost makes the calls.”
My pulse quickens.
The Ghost.
Ever since Rummy first mentioned the Rogues’ mysterious leader, I’ve tried to picture him in my mind. It’s hard to imagine a man
you don’t see coming for you
, as Rummy put it. A silent killer, so practiced in his craft he’d slit your throat faster than the blade flashes before your eyes. A man even a brute like Rummy fears.
A shiver runs down my spine. He’s exactly the kind of killer I need to go up against the Sweepers with, but he doesn’t belong in the kind of world I want to live in after this is over. I gave Blade my word the Rogues would be free men if they swore allegiance to an elected council of survivors, but I have my doubts that The Ghost is the type of man to swear allegiance to anyone.
When we reach the rider’s barn, I pull Jakob aside. “You don’t have to come with us. This could turn out to be an ambush. The Ghost might just be crazy enough to think he can take on the Sweepers without us. We might have to shoot our way out.”
Jakob shakes his head. “I have as much at stake in this as you or anyone else. I’m not backing down now.”
I stare back at his steel blue eyes smoldering with conviction. My stomach tightens with trepidation. If something goes wrong, and he won’t retaliate with violence, there’s every chance we’ll lose him.
“I want to be with you,” he says, his eyes clouding over. “
Especially
if this is the end.”
I give a grim nod, and slip inside the barn before he can fold me in his arms and tell me how much he loves me.
F
ifteen minutes later
, we convene in the courthouse foyer. Nikki makes a beeline for me, weapon in hand, her pack loaded. “We’re really leaving? This isn’t just a drill?”
I shake my head. “We’re leaving, but there’s a complication. Jerome and I will fill everyone in shortly.”
“What kind of complication?” She grabs my sleeve, her emerald eyes boring into me. “You let him down once already. I swear I’ll go without you if I have to.”
“I promise you we’re leaving tonight, Nikki. One way or another.”
She stares intently at me, as if trying to decide if she should probe for more, then stomps off inside.
“Told you she hates me,” I say to Jakob.
He shrugs. “She doesn’t like you keeping secrets from her when it comes to Owen. You can’t blame her if she doesn’t entirely trust your motives.”
“I told her everything I knew.”
“She doesn’t see it like that. She thinks you left Owen to die and then took control of the Undergrounders.”
I groan. “I have a bad feeling about bringing her along. It’s that manic look in her eyes. She’s so bent on saving Owen, she’ll stop at nothing. What if she does something to endanger the entire mission?”
“I’ll keep a close eye on her,” Jakob says.
I throw him a grateful smile and follow him into the meeting hall.
All around the room, Undergrounders stand in expectant silence, faces schooled to neutral. It’s mostly men, but a handful of women are dotted throughout the crowd, hair scraped back from their pinched faces. Loaded packs lie scattered around the floor and piled high against the back wall. The enormity of what I’m about to ask of them hits me when I notice one young couple in the front row clutching hands, fingers tightly intertwined. They’ll march to war together, but will they both return?
I glance over at Trout and Nikki leaning against the wall just inside the door. Rummy and Sook are seated to their left between two guards. Sook’s arms are tied behind his back, and Rummy’s right arm is rigged up in a makeshift sling. My heart quickens when I spot Sven nearby, arms barred across his chest. He gives no indication that he has seen me, but it might be because Jakob is hovering at my side.
“Do you want me to break it to them?” Jerome asks, when I join him at the front of the room.
I shake my head. “It was my idea to send Blade out there to negotiate with the Rogues. I’ll tell them what the terms are.”
I get to my feet and look around the crowded room. “I know you’re all wondering why the sudden hustle, and whether or not this is just a drill. Our plan was to leave the city in the next week or so, and head into the wilderness to recruit the Rogues.” I pause to snatch a quick breath. “The mission is still a go, but the deadline has changed, we leave tonight.”
A tall Undergrounder at the back steps into the aisle. My heart sinks when I recognize him from the previous meeting. I can tell by the look on his face that he’s bent on stirring up trouble again. “It’s the Rogues outside trying to force our hand, isn’t it?” he yells up. “We don’t have to do what Blade tells us some scouting party’s demands are.”
Several heads nod in agreement.
“It’s not just a scouting party,” I say.
An uneasy murmuring ripples around the room.
“How many are we talking about?” a young man in the front asks.
“Sixty or so, armed.”
An angry shout goes up from somewhere at the back of the crowd. The Undergrounders cluster around and begin talking among themselves. I glance over at Jerome and he gestures for me to continue. I pound on the table to get their attention again. The heated dialogue gradually dies down to a low simmer.
“It’s true the Rogues came here to attack us,” I say. “They thought the snitches were coming from the city. But Blade set them straight and told them about the bootlegged clones. They’ve agreed to help us attack the Craniopolis, as long as we meet with them before midnight tonight.”
“So bring them in and let’s hear what they got to say for themselves,” the tall man shouts up. “Then we’ll decide if we can trust them or not.”
“They won’t come into the city,” I say. “We have to go to them.”
“Says who?” he yells back.
The room falls silent. I open my mouth, thinking they’re waiting on me to say something, but then I realize they’re all looking at Rummy. He gets to his feet, his makeshift sling swaying ever so slightly out from his chest. “Says the man they call The Ghost.”
R
ummy takes
a step toward the front, his left fist balled at his side. The guards raise their guns and gesture angrily at him to sit back down. He ignores them, and Sven steps into the aisle to bar his way.
Jerome throws me an uncertain look. I shrug in response. Unarmed, and surrounded, an injured Rummy hardly poses much of a threat, especially with Sven only a few feet away. “Let him come up here,” I say. “We’ll see what he has to say. He might give us something useful.”
Jerome signals to the guards to back down, and I watch curiously, along with everyone else, as Rummy makes his way toward our table at the front of the room. He throws a quick glance at me, then turns to the sea of faces watching him intently. “The Ghost ain’t no ordinary man,” he says. He slides his tongue out over his bottom lip, and pans the room again. “He’s a devil.”
I jump to my feet, my heart racing. This isn’t the direction I wanted this to go in. “Don’t listen to Rummy. He’s trying to scare you out of forging an alliance with the Rogues.”
Rummy appraises me with a look that sends a chill through my veins. “You’re gonna get eaten alive, Butterface, you and all your little pals here.” He moves his jaw grimly from side to side. “Playing at target practice, like The Ghost’s some big game you all gonna bring down.”
There’s an uncomfortable shuffling of feet around the room. Strained voices tickle the charged hairs in my ears. I was hoping Rummy would assure the Undergrounders and riders of his ability to sway The Ghost, but he’s making them even more uneasy than they already are, and the last thing I need is for them to start backing out now. I need to turn this around, and quickly. “You’re wasting your time trying to scare us,” I say, eyeballing Rummy hard.
“I’m trying to help you,” he hisses back at me.
“How can
you
help me?” I retort. “With a busted shoulder, you’re useless to the mission, hardly fit even to trade, although I’m sure The Ghost would like to get his right hand man back in some kind of deal.”
A flicker of fear shoots across Rummy’s face. He wipes the sweat from his brow with his good hand, his face creased into a frown. “The Ghost might act like he’s willing to deal with you, but he’ll turn on you, faster than a rattler.” He waves a hand around the room. “You wanna risk all them homeboys’ lives?”
“Hey!” the tall man at the back shouts up. “You said we were going to recruit the Rogues. We didn’t sign up to fight them.”
Jerome tightens his lips, an expression of dread on his face. Things are about to fall apart unless I act fast. I rack my brains, trying to figure out what’s going on in Rummy’s head. It’s almost like he’s trying to talk me out of meeting up with the Rogues now that The Ghost is here. Like he’s afraid of something.
Maybe he is.
I stare at Rummy’s pinched face as it dawns on me. “The Ghost turned on
you
, didn’t he?” I say. “That’s why you set up camp in Fort Lewis. You, Blade, Diesel and the rest of them. You fled The Ghost’s gang. You’re deserters.”
The grooves running down the sides of Rummy’s nose deepen. A deep flush spreads up from his neck. “I burned rubber out of the wilderness for good reason. And if you’d any sense, you’d stay as far away from The Ghost as possible.”
My heart races as it all clicks into place. “You never had any intention of negotiating with him on our behalf, did you? You weren’t going to take us to their hideout at all.”
He lets out a snort. “You wouldn’t have got within a mile of the place. We’d all have been roadkill.”
He scowls around the room at the wide-eyed faces. “The Ghost’s a psychopath,” he yells. “You ain’t got no business going out there to meet him. He’ll suck the lot o’ your insides out and skin your wuss hides faster than you can chamber a round.”
The buzz of voices around the room rises. Several Undergrounders reach for their packs. A scuffle breaks out at the back of the room, and Jerome directs a couple of his men back there before addressing the crowd.
“No one leaves this room until we give the order.” He gestures contemptuously at Rummy. “This mutt’s just trying to sabotage the mission to save his own skin. If he’s got some beef with The Ghost, that’s his problem.”
The Undergrounders eye him with suspicion, still clutching their packs.
“Jerome’s right,” I add. “It’s Rummy The Ghost wants, not us.”
Rummy glares at me. “He might want my head on a stake, but you’d better believe he’ll take yours too if he can get it.”
I grimace. I don’t doubt that Blade has already put in a request. “So if The Ghost’s trying to kill you, why is Blade cooperating with him,” I ask.
Rummy makes a choking sound in his throat. “Blade may be my brother, but he’s got a brain the size of a monkey. Somehow The Ghost’s convinced him all’s forgiven and we’re all cool again, now that Diesel’s dead. He don’t know he’s being played for a dang fool.”
Rummy leans in closer. His hot, foul breath washes over me. “The Ghost ain’t right in the head, but he’s a clever son of a gun. You go out there, and he’ll have you where he wants you, on his turf, in his time. You’re leading your flock of bleatin’ lambs to the slaughter.”
“We’ll have the advantage if we stay inside the city,” the tall man at the back yells up. “I say we stand our ground.”
Several Undergrounders nod in approval.
“We don’t have that option.” I rub my hand briskly over my throbbing brow.
“Why not?” the man demands.
I hesitate, squeezing my fingers into a fist. Blood pounds my temples. “Because if we’re not there by midnight, the Rogues will torch the city.”
The room falls deathly silent once more. Even Rummy pales, which tells me it’s no idle threat on The Ghost’s part.
“We either risk the lives of everyone in this room by going out there, or we risk the lives of everyone in the city by staying put,” I say.
“That’s the best you’ve got?” the tall man calls out. A few more disgruntled voices chip in.
“I say we give The Ghost what he’s really after,” the man adds. “Tie up the deserter and send him out there. Express delivery.”
“No!” A voice calls out.
I look up, startled to see Nikki elbowing her way out from the middle of the crowd. She marches up to the front of the room, and then turns and faces the Undergrounders. “If The Ghost wants Rummy, he can have him, but not until he helps us defeat the Sweepers. If we keep Rummy as collateral, we have a better chance of persuading The Ghost to join us. We’ll hand Rummy over to him after we’ve taken down the Sweepers. He can do what he wants with his trophy head after that.”
I gasp, shaken by the callous tone in Nikki’s voice. “We’re not promising anyone’s head to The Ghost when this is over,” I say. “We’re not murderers.”
Nikki glares at me. “
You’re
wasting time worrying about a Rogue, when the clock’s ticking on Owen’s life. This is an opportunity to save your own flesh and blood. Don’t you think Owen would do whatever it took to save you?”
I step toward her. “Murder’s not an opportunity, it’s a crime.”
She leans into my face, twitching with rage. “Rummy’s a murderer
and
a criminal. So in my book, the shoe fits.”
“Except you don’t get to make those kind of decisions.”
“Why not?” She turns and faces the room once again. “I say we take a vote. Why should Derry Connolly make the decision for all of us? I’m game for trading Rummy in return for The Ghost’s help. Who’s with me?”
The Undergrounders exchange uncertain looks. The tall man at the back leans a shoulder against the wall and folds his arms, a strange smirk stretched across his face.
“Well, what’s it to be?” Nikki yells out over the flock of faces, her eyes flashing with emotion.
Voices ebb and flow across the room. A crowd is already gathering around the tall Undergrounder at the back of the room. I discreetly signal to Jerome to send a couple of his men over.
“That’s enough, Nikki,” I say, laying a hand on her shoulder.
She spins and flings me off, spittle flying from her lip. “
Don’t
tell me what to do. You’re a
nobody
, just Owen’s little sister.”
“I lead the Undergrounders in his absence, and I won’t hand Rummy over to The Ghost to have his throat slit, even to save Owen. There’ll be enough lives lost in the fight for freedom as it is.”
“And what about Owen?” Nikki makes a choking sound and flails at me with her fists. “You don’t care what happens to him, do you? You
left
him behind to die!”
I flinch beneath the weight of her words that sting far more than her thrashing fists.
Jerome’s men step forward and pull her off me. She sinks to her knees, shaking, tears tracking down her cheeks. They escort her, half-walking, half-carrying her to the door. Jakob gives me a subtle nod and slips out after her. A surge of gratitude goes through me, True to his word, Jakob’s stepping up to keep an eye on Nikki, and hopefully relieve me of the burden of breaking it to her that she won’t be going with us after all. She’s part emotional wreck, part wrecking ball, and more than I can handle with everything else unraveling around me.
“So what’s your grand plan if you don’t want to give up the Rogue?” the tall Undergrounder shouts out. “If that’s who The Ghost’s after, he won’t rest until we give him what he wants.”
I blow out a long breath. “We’ll play along with The Ghost for now, act like we’re willing to turn Rummy over to him after we defeat the Sweepers.”
The man throws out his hands in a gesture of disgust. “We’ll end up fighting the Rogues too once The Ghost realizes we’ve screwed him over.”
I fold my arms in front of me. “Not if Rummy
escapes
during the attack on the Craniopolis.” I slide a knowing glance in Rummy’s direction. “It’s the best I can offer him—a chance to save his own stinkin’ skin.”
He glances furtively around, as if seeking the approval of the crowd.
The Undergrounders stare at him, their expressions strained as they wait for his response.
His inked face relaxes and he gives me a guarded smile. “I accept the offer, and I ain’t gonna forget such generosity.”
I throw him a scathing look in return. “This isn’t about you, Rummy. It’s about us being able to live with ourselves.”
“No matter. That’s twice you saved my hide now.”
I eye him curiously. “Why does The Ghost want you dead so badly anyway?”
Rummy scrunches his eyes into slits. “That’s just it, ain’t it? You never know what sets him off. One day you’re a shoo-in, and then he gets bored, starts looking around for some sucker to snuff out. And you don’t know why, but you know you’re next. And that’s when you beat a trail outta there.”
“Maybe you became too strong a rival,” I suggest.
Rummy’s face darkens. “And maybe Blade’s the sucker he’s picked to bring him my head on a platter.”