Authors: S.M. McEachern
I raised an eyebrow at that. “Doc hates the bourge. Why would he care about our child?”
She took
a deep breath. “Because he’s interested in Jack Kenner’s baby. He said there’s a chance the nanobots could become a genetic trait and be passed on to offspring.”
I looked into her eyes to see if she was joking. “Are you being serious?” She nodded. “Did he say if they could hurt the baby or not?”
“He seems to think it will be a good thing.” She laced her fingers through mine. “You’re still
alive, so I have to agree with him. In fact, he said if he can perfect the technology, then mortality rates will be greatly reduced.”
“So it’s not really
my
baby he’s protecting, it’s his science experiment.” That made sense. Doc wasn’t exactly a touchy-feely kind of guy. Just the opposite, in fact. If I weren’t so confident that Sunny could handle herself, I wouldn’t want her anywhere near
him.
“He said he only had two test subjects for the technology, you and your offspring.”
“So we have something to negotiate with.”
“But Doc is also a senator and one of the people we’re trying to overthrow. He may not want to negotiate.”
“Doc doesn’t want to be a senator, so he’s not going to care if we kick him out,” I said. I remembered how disengaged he always was when he had to attend
Senate meetings. He rarely contributed to the conversation. Seemed bored most of the time. “We know the only reason he ran for election was to get you to agree to head up his militia. What if one of the reasons he wanted to keep you close was so that he could have access to me?”
“That seems a bit extreme, Jack. Why wouldn’t he just make another cocktail and try it on someone else?”
And just
like that, the pieces suddenly fell into place. “He probably has, and it hasn’t worked. I’m willing to bet I’m his only success story and he wants to find out why.”
Sunny studied me for a moment. “Think of all those patients he had access to in the hospital.”
I nodded. “That’s right. A guy like Doc wouldn’t let an opportunity like that slip by.”
“So what are we going to do?”
“I’m going
to volunteer to be his guinea pig in exchange for a metamaterial suit,” I said. “And then I’m going to slip into the Dome and put an end to this nuclear threat.”
“What about the virus?”
“Do you really think he’ll use it and risk killing me and my offspring?”
Sunny looked scared. “I pray he won’t.”
It was truly amazing that it only took us a few hours to return to the valley after having
spent almost two weeks tied up in the back of a wagon to reach Ryder’s city. The short trip didn’t give us a whole lot of time to work out the details of how to orchestrate the coup, but since we’d planned a strategic strike, we didn’t need a lot of people involved. Where we needed our armed personnel the most was in securing the city by enforcing a curfew, shutting down communications, and
securing military inventories, equipment, buildings, and communications. We determined the Senate House was most likely empty. My dad and Malcolm West were both in the Dome; Powell was dead; the Doc was holed up in his subterranean lab; and I was here. The only senator who was a wild card was David Chavez, but Ted said rumor had it that he and his family had gone into hiding when they received death
threats after Powell’s assassination.
Our first stop was the Nation. As much as Naoki and Jin-Sook wanted to help, Sunny and I didn’t want them involved in a decades-old fight between the Dome and the Pit. Their people had suffered too much and helped enough already. What I wanted Naoki and Jin to do now was take the message to Dena and the other Elders that the fighting was about to come to
an end, regardless of the outcome. If they wanted to pack up and get out of the range of a possible nuclear explosion, then they should have the opportunity to do so. If we were actually successful in our attempt to overthrow the government, then things in the valley were about to change for the better. We owed the Nation a lot yet couldn’t promise them anything.
It was tough to say goodbye
to Naoki. I didn’t envy him the task of breaking the news about Ryan to Ryan’s family and friends. But what weighed most heavily on me was how Naoki was doing mentally. I still didn’t know what had happened to him at Ryder’s city. I knew where he’d spent his nights, which was troubling enough. I had no idea where he’d been forced to spend his days. As we said our goodbyes, I heard myself say, “One
day soon we’ll finish what we started in that city we attempted to explore,” and he looked at me gravely and said, “Yes, we will, Jack.”
The Osprey rose in the air, and I watched them walk home to the Nation.
Sunny never left my side, and I noticed she was always touching me. Her eyes constantly probed me, searching, asking silent questions. I tried to put on a brave face, but the effort was
becoming exhausting. I knew if our roles were reversed, if
she
was the one who had been captured, I would behave the same way. We didn’t keep secrets, and we had been through far too much together to start. Silently I promised myself that I would talk to her when this was all over. When we could finally go home, free from the threat of war or dying from a virus or a nuclear bomb, and curl up together
in our bed, door closed to the outside world, holding each other, I would tell her everything.
But between now and that eventuality, we had a bit of work to do.
Teegan was still asleep, despite the noise of the rotors and the gravity-defying sensations of landing and taking off. I checked her breathing a few times, just to make sure, but it was even and her heartbeat strong. The acetaminophen
had taken down her fever, and a quick check under the bandage showed me the antibiotic ointment was helping. She still needed penicillin.
“We’re coming up on the city now,” Sunny yelled above the noise of the aircraft.
We crowded around the entrance to the cockpit, trying to see out of the front window. After weeks of seeing nothing but rocks, trees, and earth, the clean lines of the pitched
roofs with solar panels, grid-like city blocks, and buildings crafted with replicated materials looked shockingly out of place. Yet it was also comfortingly familiar. I was finally home.
Ted steered the Osprey toward the main street of our city, swooping low to get a look. I’m not sure what I expected, but it wasn’t the scene in the street below. The main intersection in town was congested
with a sea of people engaged in a fight. Fists were raised, people were beating one another, and fallen bodies were being trampled.
“Coalmine hiring again?” Reyes asked dryly.
Hayley screwed her mouth to one side and shot him a look. “This time try to stay out of my way.”
I braced myself to break up an argument, but Reyes didn’t say anything. His lips just curved into a half smile. I
looked from one to the other.
Were they flirting?
I shook my head and concentrated on what needed to be done. Ted swooped low and did a flyby over the riot. People scattered, startled by the noise and the appearance of the aircraft.
“We have to break up that fight before we can invoke a curfew,” Hayley said.
Reyes rubbed his hands together. “I’ll go.”
“Ted, do you think you can set her
down on the street?” I asked.
“No way,” he said. “I’m not that good yet.”
“Is there any way to get us down into the thick of it?”
Ted shook his head. “The hoist isn’t hooked up yet. I kind of commandeered this bird before she was completely finished. I’ll set her down on the field at the end of the street.”
“The three of us can make an impression,” Sunny said, pointing to herself, Summer,
and Reyes. “Hover over the riot, and we’ll jump. How do you open the back hatch?”
I grabbed my wife’s arm before she could go any farther. “You are
not
jumping out of this plane.”
Ayers unstrapped himself from his seat, came into the back, and opened the back hatch.
“It’s okay, Jack,” Sunny said. “We’ve already done some gliding in these suits. It’s easy.” She turned her attention to Ayers.
“Do you have any rifles onboard?”
“Weapons locker,” Ayers said and moved toward it. He took out three rifles and handed them to us. “Safety is on.”
The back hatch was open, and the air in the cabin was sucked out and then rushed back in. The ground below us moved by in a blur until we came up on the main street, and Ted slowed, eventually bringing the Osprey into a hover. The wind generated
by the rotors whipped up anything not nailed down in the street, and people ran for cover. The aircraft was breaking up the riot for us.
“See you on the ground,” Reyes said, and without so much as a hint of fear, he ran down the ramp and jumped.
I grimaced, drawing a breath through my teeth, preparing myself to see him go splat. But he didn’t. He dropped clear of the plane, spread his arms
in an arc, and glided to the ground.
“I really want one of those,” Hayley said.
“Me too,” I said.
She looked at me, smiling. “I wasn’t talking about the suit.”
That caught me off guard. I looked at Sunny. “
I
was.”
Sunny smirked. “I know.”
Summer was getting ready go, looking a little nervous. Sunny put a hand on her shoulder. “You don’t have to jump.”
She brushed off Sunny’s hand.
“I’m okay.” She took a deep breath, blew it out, and then ran down the ramp. Her exit wasn’t very graceful, but the suit took the impact when she hit the ground. She jumped to her feet and gave us a thumbs-up.
Sunny hugged me. “Get Teegan to the hospital, and I’ll meet you there as soon as I can,” she said. Then she looked at Hayley. “I’m glad we’re fighting on the same side.”
“Me too,” Hayley
said.
And then my wife jumped out of the plane.
Sunny
The Osprey had pretty much taken care of crowd control for us. The few who were still brawling were already being pulled apart by Reyes; the rest of the people remaining were in military uniform. A short distance away, someone was shouting orders for soldiers to escort rioters back to their homes.
It took me a moment to recognize it was Bron. Next to Jack and me, Bron was one of the head organizers of the Alliance. I was willing to bet that most of the soldiers here were Alliance and under her command.
Summer was heading toward Reyes, who was putting a quick end to the fighting, and I followed after her. I was surprised to see Mica, Raine, and the other six members of our elite militia
emerge from the sea of Dome uniforms. Bron waved and walked in our direction, a few soldiers trailing behind her.
“Welcome home, Commander,” Raine said to me.
Heat crept into my cheeks and I tried my best not to look awkward about being called that. It was the title Doc had bestowed on me as the head of the militia, and I still wasn’t comfortable with it.
“I see you’re out in the open,”
I said, motioning toward his suit. “Doc’s finally okay with that?”
Raine nodded. “More than okay.”
“Is Doc still in hiding?” I asked.
Raine shrugged. “He’s where he usually is—down in his lab with the door locked. I’m not sure you’d call that hiding.”
“That was quite an entrance,” Bron said. She looked in the direction of the retreating Osprey. “Were you able to find the men?”
I nodded.
“Everyone except Ryan.”
She gave me an affectionate hug. “Your mom’s been worried sick about you.”
Bron and my mom had always been friends in the Pit, but since our liberation they had become best friends. Bron was a regular visitor in our home.
I hugged her back. “How is Mom?”
“She’s doing okay. We’re all a little tense lately.”
“So I hear. What’s happened since we left?”
“Leisel
Holt and Malcolm West are in the Dome, and it’s completely locked down,” she said. “No one is allowed in, and no one is allowed out. She says she has the codes for the nuclear warheads, and she’s going to set them off unless everyone from the Pit is rounded up and put in the corrals.”
“Yeah, like
that’s
going to happen,” Reyes said.
“My parents are in the Pit,” Summer said quietly.
I squeezed
her hand, wishing I could give her some assurances they were fine, but I couldn’t. I turned to Bron. “Is that what started the riot?”
Bron nodded. “There are folks who think if they do what Leisel Holt wants, she won’t set off the warheads.”
Summer snorted in disbelief. “You mean the bourge actually tried to put us in the corrals?”
“Someone called a town meeting to try to
persuade
everyone
from the Pit to go peacefully to the corrals to avoid being nuked. Tempers flared, accusations were exchanged, and it soon digressed into a fistfight.”
Mica crossed his arms over his chest. “How much you want to bet that the Pit is going to be blamed for the riot.”
One of the soldiers with Bron stepped forward. “Like you’re faultless in all of this? You people assassinated General Powell!”
“Stand down,” Bron told him.
Mica took a threatening step closer to the soldier. “That man used to hunt ‘us people’ on the range for
sport
. And now you want to round up ‘us people’ and put us all back in the corrals? How long before
you people
start hunting us for sport again?”
I positioned myself between the two men. “Mica, back off,” I said. “No one is going into the corrals.” He eyed me
warily, gave the soldier one last threatening look, and walked away. I turned back to Bron, who was pointing for the soldier to leave. He did.
“And that’s how things got heated up today,” Bron said. “It’s bad, Sunny. Between the threat of the nukes and Doc’s super virus, everyone is ready to snap. And if that happens, a lot of people are going to get hurt.”
“Not if we can help it,” I said,
motioning in the direction the Osprey had gone. “We made a pact on the way here to relieve every senator of his duty to the government, but since there doesn’t seem to be a government left, that’ll be the easy part. The hard part is going to be neutralizing Doc and Leisel Holt.”