Numbers Ignite (32 page)

With a look of forced patience, the man retrieved something from his sleeve and swiped it against my cell door. The lock clicked. He swung open the door and stepped inside. “What kind of weapons and technology do they have? How many are there in total? What are their intentions here? Tell me now,
nuhai
, or you will lose your life before Vance does.”

Nuhai? I couldn’t tell what language that was. He spoke it liltingly, choppily, almost like the soldiers in the desert—

The realization hit just before the blow came. Ju-Long swung so fast I barely saw it coming. Pain exploded into the side of my face, and I flew across the cell and landed in a heap. Black stars flashed around me, and I struggled to keep a grasp on consciousness.

“Answer,” he said simply. “Tell me of the people.”

“They’re peaceful,” I gasped. “Don’t hurt them. They come unarmed. NORA attacked them and bombed their homes.”

“Yes, I know,” he snapped. “Who is their leader?”

Ruby’s face came to mind, and a determination filled my body along with the pain. I had destroyed so many lives. But I refused to hurt Ruby. She had already been through enough. “I am.”

The blow came again, this time on the other side. I slammed into the concrete wall and fell to the floor, dazed.

“You lie,” Ju-Long said.

“They sent me—” The room spun, and my head and mouth felt disconnected. Pain filled my head so that I could barely think. “They sent me ahead to negotiate for accommodations. Their leader was killed in the attack.”

His arm rose again, and I scrambled backward against the wall, huddling sideways, one arm up to protect myself. Something small and hard pushed against my hip uncomfortably. The guards had removed all my belongings from my pockets. Had they left the stone? It wasn’t much of a weapon, but it was all I had at the moment. As Ju-Long approached, I reached around and closed my fingers around something long and smooth. Definitely not my stone. I glanced behind me.

A pocketknife.

One of the clan members I had left NORA with had owned one. She’d demonstrated it to me. I had no idea how it had ended up in my pocket, but that didn’t really matter at the moment. I stuck one dirty fingernail into the groove and flipped the knife open, still hiding it from view.

“What are you doing?” Ju-Long demanded, raising his arm even higher.

“So you’ve taken over this settlement,” I said, thinking quickly, “and you’ve managed to do it without a fight. Vance got in the way, and you figured out how take him out of the equation. Let me guess—you also launched a missile recently.”

His eyes narrowed even more. “We could defeat NORA in a matter of hours if we wanted to. Now stand.” He looked relaxed, but I recognized his stance. The moment I stood up, he would hit me again.

I exaggerated my dizziness and stood as slowly as I could, hiding the pocketknife in my folded palm and resting it against the wall as if to steady myself. “If you’re going to kill me, just do it.”

“Not until you cease being useful.” He stepped forward. “Now, tell me more about the settlers.”

“No.”

His hand moved to strike, but I’d anticipated it. I leaped as his arm moved and buried the knife in his chest. He stared at the knife in shock, then shoved me away, clutching at his chest. I’d aimed poorly, hitting the fleshy area just above his heart. I wasn’t out of danger yet.

I sprinted out the cell door, then closed it behind me. The lock clicked into place.

He grunted at the sound, then headed for the door I’d just closed. With a start, I remembered he had the key. He reached up to release the lock again. “You have sealed your death,
nuhai
.”

I caught sight of the tub of water Vance had left behind, then ran into his cell and tried to pick it up. It was far too heavy. I pulled it over to the bars and then, with a mighty heave, swung the water at him. He dropped the unlocking device, sputtering, standing there just long enough for me to whack the sensor on the door with the hard corner of the tub. One hit. Two. Three, four, five. He reached through the bars for me, but then the red light on the lock finally went out.

With an angry growl, Ju-Long flung his arms through the bars at me, but I jumped back just in time and ran for the door. He pounded on the lock, then began yelling something in his language as I burst through the door and outside.

Two surprised guards greeted me, but I shoved my way past them. A group of people were making their way slowly up a trail. Hoping they were headed where I needed to go, I sprinted toward the small road, the thundering footsteps of the guards propelling me forward.

They would never catch me. I knew it down to my toes. I would run forever, if that’s what it took to get to Vance. And get to him I would—because I’d come too far to let that awful man in the jail win. He was positioned to take everyone I loved from me, and his plans had worked so far.

He would not succeed again.

“Citizens of Blackfell,” Mills said. The amplifier chopped up his voice and sent it hurling across the valley. “Vance Hawking stands before you, murderer and traitor, ready to receive punishment. It gives me great sorrow to carry this through, but as your governor, I will do what must be done.”

The crowd, so familiar to me now, was relatively quiet today. Even the children sensed the somber mood, and they looked around with wide eyes. One boy near the front, about four or five, had brown hair and sharp eyes. His father held him on his shoulders, and the boy’s eyes darted away when I looked at him. He leaned down to ask his father a question.

“Amazing how many lies you can fit into one sentence, Mills,” I said loudly.

Eight men stood next to me, all holding some part of my arm or shoulder. Mills was taking no chances today. One of the guards behind me elbowed me in the back. I tensed and turned to see who it was, but they shoved my head forward again.

“The prisoner will not speak,” Mills snapped. “Your opportunity to talk is over.”

“I’d say I have a few minutes left.”

“Shut up,” a guard murmured beside me.

“Guards!” Mills shouted. “Line up.”

Across the way, there was movement in the crowd. People moved aside as another ten guards took their positions, facing me in a straight line. They gave a sharp salute, weapons resting at their sides. They were all Chinese.

“He’s not guilty!” someone in the crowd shouted, but they were quickly hushed. I nodded respectfully to the audience.

Mills smiled. “Vance, your guards will now step aside. If you move, you will only be shot a few seconds early. For your own sake, I suggest you not do anything stupid.” Then he motioned for my captors to step aside. The pressure on my arms and shoulders lessened, and cooler air replaced the space where they’d been. I was now alone on the platform, facing a silent crowd. Apparently there would be no blindfold today.

Most of the adults in the crowd glanced away then, covering their children’s eyes. A few people looked on, dread or sorrow in their expressions. The couple I’d pronounced the blessing upon stood near the back. The woman buried her face in her husband’s shoulder.

One face drew my attention immediately, a sobbing woman who covered her mouth with her hands, a devastating realization in her eyes. My mother. She couldn’t understand why I hadn’t fought my way free when I had the chance. She didn’t know that I’d given away her knife to someone it could actually help.

I stood straighter and raised my jaw defiantly at the shooters. My mother was about to lose a son, but I would keep our family pride until the end.

“You can’t do this!” Selia shrieked from the crowd. “It wasn’t Vance. Mills is the murderer!”

“The audience will please be silent,” Mills droned. “Guards, take aim.”

The line of shooters raised their weapons, aiming at my chest. A series of soft clicks sounded as the safeties on the rifles were removed.

“You’ve silenced everyone who knows the truth,” I said to Mills. “But someday they’ll figure out who their true enemy is, and then you’ll lose everything.”

“He hasn’t silenced everyone,” a feminine voice called out.

Hundreds of heads turned at the sound of the voice. Even the shooters faltered for a moment, glancing over their shoulders. I followed their line of sight to a figure that had just arrived over the crest, breathing hard. Two guards sprinted up behind her.

Treena.

“I know the truth, Mills,” Treena shouted. “Aren’t you going to kill me, too?”

Mills stood to the side of the platform, but I could see his bright red face from here. “Guards, bring her to me.”

“No need.” Treena pushed through the crowd and climbed the platform to stand next to me. “If you want me to shut up, you’d better shoot me, too. Has anyone else figured it out? Let’s have a party up here.”

The guards who had brought me here stood on the ground, looking at her with uncertainty. Mills wanted her subdued, but the guards had no desire to be standing next to me when Mills gave the order to fire—which he would do any second.

“Is this some kind of noble suicide attempt?” I whispered to her. A dark bruise had begun to form on her cheek, but she seemed fine otherwise. Had she fought her way free from the guards?

Treena ignored my comment and addressed the crowd. “I think you should know that your settlement has been taken over right under your noses. Mills tried to take out the entire NORA government, but he had help from his Asian friends.”

Trembling with anger, she turned to stare Mills down.

“You took everything from me,” she told him. “And now I’m going to take everything from you. They know the truth. They’ll never let you lie to them again.”

I felt my eyes widen at her words, realizing that she was exactly right. The audience murmured. Mills’s face had turned purple. He struggled for control, then pointed at the shooters still lined up in the crowd. “Fire!” he shouted. “Shoot them both.”

The shooters, who had lowered their weapons in the confusion, raised them again.

“No!” the head of the assembly snapped. She stood at the back of the audience, and the crowd parted so she could make her way to the front. When the woman reached the platform, she turned to face the crowd. “Guards, disregard that order. The assembly requires a stay in this matter. Mills, come forward, please.”

Mills stared at the woman, expressionless, and then nodded to the shooters.

I leaped for Treena. She stiffened in surprise. The shots echoed across the valley like a clap of thunder, but not a single bullet entered my back.

The audience gasped, and someone screamed. I turned just in time to see the elderly woman slump to the ground, her face twisted in shock, blood blossoming across her peach-colored blouse in several places.

Mills turned to Ju-Long, who had just trotted up. The Chinese man’s gray uniform was darker than usual in the front. With a start, I realized he was wet. And injured, by the blood on the front of his shoulder. He scanned the crowd and pulled something out of his pocket. He brought it to his lips, then blew. A whistle.

Suddenly, hundreds of men and women who had casually surrounded the crowd before now closed in with weapons at the ready. But these weren’t rifles—they looked more like stunners, shaped differently from NORA’s, and probably much more powerful. I had no doubt they were deadly.

I quickly scanned the new arrivals. Most wore the same plain clothing as the settlers. Undercover soldiers. Mills and Ju-Long had hidden their numbers well.

My mom was right. I would have guessed that there were a few dozen of them here, but from what I could tell, there were hundreds, all armed.

Ju-Long whistled again, three long blasts. The soldiers on the perimeter began pushing the crowd together, even more tightly than they already were. A few people tried to escape. They fell to the silent weapons and thrashed about on the ground, then went still. Treena wrapped her arms around me, her eyes wide in horror.

Mills glared at Ju-Long, eyeing the whistle. “What are you doing?” he hissed. “This was not part of the agreement.”

“You’ve lost control,” Ju-Long said, still watching the soldiers herd the audience.

Mills gave a low growl, then climbed onto the platform and pulled a pistol out of his belt. “We tried to do this the easy way,” he shouted to the crowd as they were herded into a tight circle. “You’ve trusted me to keep you safe. Sometimes that involves alliances you may not understand. Believe me when I say that I’ve kept your best interests in mind in everything I’ve done. Vance, face me.”