Finding Sage (The Rogue Book 1) (26 page)

“Eli—” Silas started.

“Wasn’t me, bro,” Eli said.  “Damage was done when I got here.”

Silas nodded his head.  He walked to the center of the room and pulled back the sleeves on his shirt.

“Where are the others?”

“Should be on their way,” Eli responded.  “Alice already knocked out the defense system, so should be anytime now.”

Silas nodded.  He looked at the prisoners, and glanced over their faces.  As he came to the Prime Minister, something caught his eye.  A pendant hanging from her neck.  The head of an orange bird.  Flashes returned, images of his nightmares.  He lifted it from her chest and looked at it carefully.  He lifted his gaze to her.

“What is this?”

She didn’t speak.

“Silas,” Eli said, gesturing to the door.

Alaric opened the door.  Tariq, Alice, and Lilly came through the door.  Eli handed Tariq the third gun after he came in the door.  Silas hugged Lilly briefly, then turned to Alice, his mind now back on the task at hand.

“Did it work?”

Alice nodded.

“All automatic security protocols are down,” she said.  “There’s nothing to stop soldiers from coming to this room, but I doubt they will without an alarm.  The server I took down won’t have affected any others, if we’re lucky.”

There was a knock at the door.  Silas and Eli looked at each other with concern, then back to the door.

“State your business!” Silas said.

“We have direct orders from Agent Coleman to bring a prisoner here.”

“PROTOCOL SEVEN!!!”

There are benefits to biding your time, as Rodge knew.  Eli struck him in the side of the head with the gun, but the damage was done.  Silas did a quick assessment, and more soldiers than the ones outside the door had heard Rodge’s scream. 

“We need to start immediately,” he said.  “Alaric, get the broadcast set up.”

“I can’t guarantee you more than five minutes, Sir,” Alaric responded.

“I don’t care how long you can guarantee me,” Silas said.  “All we’ve got is now.”

Tariq tore off strips of his shirt, tied up all five of the prisoners, and moved them to the corner of the room.  Alaric directed Silas to the middle of the room and pulled out the teleglass panel.  It was a touchscreen on the glass itself, and Alaric moved through it with ease.  In other circumstances, Silas would have been curious as to his knowledge of the machine, but right now, all he could think about was his speech.  He was speaking to the world.  One way or another, everything would change tonight.

“You’re live in three…”

He pulled the hood on his sweatshirt up.

“Two…”

He exhaled deeply.  No turning back now.

“One…”

He joined his hands.  This was it.

“Now.”

48.

Sweat underneath his gloves.  His pulse ringing in his ears.  His knees shaking, his struggle to hide it.  This is what it was like to address the world. 

He swallowed the lump in his throat and began.

“Peace and security.  That is the motto of the United Nations.  Ironic, really, considering no one has really known what peace feels like for decades.  Oh sure, we have the illusion of peace.  There are no wars, right?  Well actually, there are.”

Silas removed his hood.

“My name is Silas Knight and I am a rogue.  How did I become this way?  How did I become a vagabond, fearing for my life in every waking moment, my very existence illegal?  It’s simple.  I was born.  One of my last memories of my father,   is of him telling me about when I was born and reflecting on the simplicity of the times before they knew.  He said ‘Being ordinary makes you tolerated.  Being extraordinary makes you hunted.’  That’s what I’ve been for as long as I can remember.  Hunted.  Shortly after, my father and I were separated running from a band of soldiers.  I was ten then.  I found hope in my friend Grayson.  We looked out for each other, Grayson and I.  Both of them sacrificed life and limb for me.  Neither one of them were rogues. 

And what was my crime?  I asked this over and over again, trying, struggling to come up with an answer.  I heard that we were terrorists, destined biologically to kill others as well as ourselves.  A virus that had to be put down.  But I had never killed until I was captured.  Even then, it was an accident, one that still haunts me to this day.  Even though he was torturing me.  I still can’t quite figure out why I’m guilty, but still there it is every single day, gnawing at my core.  Some terrorist, eh?

But sure, they’ll tell you about the ones that go south, but never the ones that are good.  The fathers.  The mothers.  The brothers.  The sisters.  The sons.  The daughters.  The factory workers.  The nurses.  The doctors.  The lawyers.  The cashiers.  The bus drivers.  No one notices when we’re gone.  No one cares that we are innocent.  ‘Caught before they went south,’ they say. 

Let me tell you something.  I’ve been tortured.  Starved.  Drowned till nearly dead.  Why, you ask?  Because I exist.  Because I’m different.  Everyone knows it happens.  We aren’t stupid.  But we play along.  We pretend not to notice when little Johnny doesn’t come around for candy anymore.  When Anna doesn’t show up for work, or when Linda doesn’t come into the bank anymore.  Because we all know, don’t we?  We just pretend not to notice, because it’s easier to ignore it than to let the idea of murder seep into our brains.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.  Not all of you like it.  I know that for a fact.  You’re just scared, and rightfully so.  These aren’t kind people.  These soldiers, they’re trained to kill, to wipe out any presence of resistance, and every question is painted broadly as violent insurrection, and thrown under the War on Terror.  So I challenge you.  Don’t let them see us as terrorists.  I offer one action.  One tiny, simple word.

“Speak.”

49.

He finished just in time.  The door flew off of the hinges into the telecom, sending a spider-web crack across the entire glass wall.  Five hooded figures walked in briskly.  Alaric ran for Lilly, Alice, and Tariq, but one of the hooded figures flicked his hand, which sent him flying back into the broken glass wall.  He hit the floor with a thud, and struggled to pick himself back up.  One of the figures, shorter than the others, disappeared. 

Silas reached out with his mind and immediately hit some kind of block.  He tried pushing against it, but the harder he tried to find a mind to enter, the more mentally tired he grew.  As he was pushing, one of the hooded figures sent a small red ball of energy into him, causing a small explosion.  He flew back about thirty feet, and landed next to Alaric. 

It was chaos.  The invisible figure was slashing into Eli with his sword, the fiery balls were still landing at Silas and Alaric’s feet, and Silas didn’t even know where the other three were.  His senses became fuzzy, and he knew he was slipping into unconsciousness.  He caught himself, and energy returned to him.  Lilly.  Alice.  Eli.  Tariq.  They were all he had left.  His family, his friends.  They would not harm his loved ones.  What followed was confidence.  Not anger.  Not rage.  Confidence.  He couldn’t explain it, but he had been told by Sage that his loved ones would make it out alive. And he believed that he was the one through whom that would happen.

He reached out again and bypassed the block with ease, and forced them into one simple action. 

Freeze.

All five of them froze in their tracks.  Silas slowly stood, shaking as he rose.  He saw all of them.  Their minds, their memories, their emotions, their beliefs.  He also saw information.  Information about a particular rogue.  A boy named Teddy. 

Without turning his head, he spoke to Alaric.

“Take them and go.”

His friends looked at him and realized what he was doing.

“Bro, what are you doing?”

“I’m not leaving,” said Lilly.

“Lilly—” said Silas.

“I SAID I’M NOT LEAVING!!!”

“AND I SAID TO GO!!!” Silas responded.

“Silas, what do you think you’re doing?!” Alice asked.

“I can’t hold them forever,” Silas said.  “And I’ve seen inside their minds.  They have a way to find me.  If I go with you, they will find me.  And they will kill you when they do.  As long as I am with you, you will never be safe.”

“I can’t let you die!” Alice insisted.

“I won’t die,” Silas said.

“What do you mean?” Alice asked.

“Trust me, I know what I’m doing.  I will be here, waiting.  Sage told me I would be gone for a long time, but that someone would come to save me.  I will survive, and you will be safe.”

Lilly ran to him and embraced him.  He shakily hugged her, and a tear escaped his eye. 

“This is not goodbye, Lilly,” he said.  “I will see you again.  I promise you that.”

“I love you,” she sobbed through her tears.

“I love you too.”

Alice looked at him with tears in her eyes.  Like Lilly, she ran and embraced him.  She hugged him as tightly as she could, and managed to choke out a few words between her sobs.

“I don’t want you to go.”

“I know,” he responded.

He held their foreheads together and began crying himself.  He stroked her cheek as a tear fell down his own.  He then did something he’d been wanting to do for quite a long time.

He kissed her.

Alaric pulled her away, and she was too emotional, too weak to resist.

“We have to go now,” Alaric said.  “He won’t last much longer.”

Eli, Lilly, and Alice joined hands with Alaric, and prepared to go.  They looked at Tariq, but he didn’t budge.

“I’m staying.”

“Tariq—” Silas said.

“This is my choice.  I’ve done a lot that I regret,” he said.  “I’m going to stay with you.”

“There’s no way we’ll be able to stay together,” Silas said.

“Hey, you trust Sage right?”

“Yes, but—”

“And he told you we’d live, right?  This is something that I have to do, and even if I don’t remain safe, I have to do this.  For you.  For Ishmael.  For Salah.  For all of you.”

“Silas?” Alaric asked.

Silas looked into his eyes with mercy.  He nodded, giving his approval.

“I want to come with you.”

They looked to the blue-haired boy.

“A soldier?  In your dreams, kid,” said Eli.

“I’m not a soldier!” said the boy.  “My name is Jax.”

Silas’ eyes lit up at the name of Jax. 

“Jax what?” asked Silas.

“Knight.”

“Take him,” said Silas.

“But—” started Eli.

“I said take him.  As my last request.”

Eli nodded.

“Now GO!!!”

They joined hands and closed their eyes.  In the blink of an eye, they were gone.  Silas took a deep breath and released his hold on their enemies.  The effort brought him to his knees.  He lifted his head as Rodge approached him, the hooded figures behind him.

“Now this, this is beautiful,” Rodge said.  “In giving yourself up, you have condemned you and your friends to death, total and complete.”

Silas smiled.

“But you haven’t won yet.”

“What do you mean?”

Silas smiled again. 

“This.”

As he spoke that iconic last word, he collapsed in front of Rodge. 

“No!” Rodge yelled.  “NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

He felt Silas’ pulse, not believing what he was seeing.  He felt a pulse.  He could hear him breathing shallowly.  But there was no other sign of life.  Rodge did not know it, but Silas had rendered himself completely useless to Rodge.  He was locked inside of his own mind, in a voluntary coma, out of which there was no visible end.

The Prime Minister stood next to Rodge, smiling smugly, despite the plethora of priority one rogues that had just been lost.

“He has won, Coleman,” she said.  “It would appear that you are not as invincible as you believe.”

“No,” he agreed.

The Prime Minister released a gasp of disbelief.  Rodge had lodged a knife in her chest.

“Neither are you.”

She gasped and grabbed Rodge’s shoulders in an attempt to preserve her own life.  It was useless.  She was approaching death quicker by the minute, helpless to stop her own demise.

“You have acted in complacency and passivity for far too long.”

Members of Parliament walked into the room solemnly, hands behind their backs, and stood proudly behind Rodge.

“This is my world now,” he said.  “And I will bring about equality.  And that can only be accomplished when every one of those cursed beasts are lying in pools of their own blood.”

She started hyperventilating and she struggled to hang on to her last few moments of life.  Soldiers came in.  They knocked out Tariq and dragged their two prisoners to their respective cells.  Rodge laid the Prime Minister on the ground and looked down at her as he spoke.

“And the first one I’m going after,” he said, “is your daughter.”