Pace didn’t have two choices. Not anymore.
“Gunner?” I asked.
Again, Saffediene shook her head. “Not sure.”
“Thane?”
“He made it out. He waited with me the longest. Said he’d do what he could for us.”
Which was nothing. Director Hightower had been clear on his feelings for Thane. Don’t let him trick you, Zenn. The man hasn’t spoken the truth in a decade.
But I hadn’t either.
“Vi?” I asked next, scared of the answer but needing to know.
“She took control of someone’s body and brought down an entire army before Hightower could retaliate.”
My mouth went dry. “Is she—?”
“She was unconscious last time I saw her, but she was breathing.”
I sighed with relief, even though taking control of someone else’s body was crazy-talented in a crazy-creepy way.
I crashed into a chair and hung my head in my hands. With my eyes closed, the world felt heavier. Director Hightower’s words looped through my head. You could be Director, Zenn. Big things are happening here. Are you sure you’re on the right side?
The right side, the right side, the right side.
“Saffediene, what’s the right side?” I asked.
The chair next to me squeaked as she sat down. She didn’t answer immediately, and I didn’t move my head from my hands, but somehow, being with her relaxed me.
“I think the right side is the one that feels like home,” she said. “Like you’d be welcomed back no matter what you’ve done, no matter when you show up.”
I scrubbed my hands through my hair. “Should I let Director Hightower recruit me?”
“I don’t know, Zenn. You said you couldn’t go undercover again.” She sighed. “Besides, what will you do? Live it up in Rise One, eating stacks of toast and waiting for the end?”
I pressed my palms to the tabletop. “It’s better than waiting for the end in a cave, eating rations from a pouch.”
“Is it?” She stood up and paced over to the window. I watched her unbraid her hair and cross her arms. Tension knotted her muscles, and I wanted nothing more than to erase it.
I joined her at the window. “I don’t know what to do,” I whispered.
She turned toward me, her mouth set into an angry line. “That’s not what you told me when you recruited me.”
“Remind me what I said.”
“You said we could win. You said that a functioning government wasn’t necessarily better than living freely. That there was a better way to live than being brainwashed. You said I could choose. Everyone could choose. You said—” Her voice cracked.
I stood there, not sure what to do.
“Saffediene, don’t cry,” I finally said. I reached for her and drew her close. She buried her face in my chest and sobbed.
I did the same thing I’d done when Vi had had her mini-breakdowns. I simply held her and stroked her hair. Words weren’t needed. Only the physical presence of someone who cared.
Saffediene finally composed herself, wrapping her arms around me and holding on tight. Just as I started thinking about kissing her again, a crackling sound emanated behind me. Saffediene and I turned to find the table wavering with light.
Static confused the words coming over the transmission. The entire surface blazed with an image of a man. A fire burned behind him on the right, and smoke obscured everything on the left.
I tapped the table to open the communication portal. “Repeat, please.”
The man in the destroyed city threw a panicked look over his shoulder. He leaned closer and his mouth moved. All that came through the feed was, “. . . demolished . . . Baybridge is in . . . evacuate to . . . Darke.”
“Baybridge,” Saffediene whispered.
“One of our strongest cities,” I said. “Starr was there.” Had I lost another friend?
“I’m checking Castledale,” she said, pressing her fingers to the table. Another of our major cities, with an ultra-sympathetic Director. Had General Darke destroyed it too?
The feed switched from the smoky, chaotic city of Baybridge to the absolute stillness of Castledale. Not a soul moved in the street. No one flew in the skies; the train sat dormant. The buildings were various shades of blue and gray that didn’t seem natural.
“Weird,” Saffediene said. “It’s midafternoon. Where is everyone?”
“Can you rotate the feed? The buildings don’t look right.”
She flipped the image, and we both sucked in a breath.
The shadows on the buildings spelled “RESIST AND DIE.”
Jag
35.
I didn’t leave Vi’s side until she woke up. Even then, she only said three words, “Did we win?” before falling back into unconsciousness.
“Win” was such a relative term. She’d taken out an entire army, but not before they’d hauled Gunn into Rise One. We’d gotten Trek out of Rise Twelve, but our tech team didn’t even make it to the Technology Rise. I’d sent Pace on that route and hadn’t heard from him since.
I didn’t know for sure that Indy was gone, but she hadn’t escaped with us. Over half my people hadn’t made it out of Freedom.
My head hurt. Just thinking that Freedom had claimed another one of my brothers drove me to fury. My throat narrowed, and those cracking tears filled my eyes again.
“Jag,” Starr said from the doorway. She’d flown in from Baybridge last night. She put one hand on my shoulder. “How’s she holding up?”
I didn’t know, so I shrugged. Starr dropped her hand. “I can feel her mind. She’s a fighter. She’ll be awake before you know it.”
I turned and looked at Starr. “Thank you,” I said. “That means—” I cleared my throat. “Thanks.”
Starr waved away my gratitude. “They need you out there. Incoming transmission from Grande. It’s Zenn and Saffediene.”
“Will you get Laurel?” I stroked two fingers over Vi’s cheek, relieved I wouldn’t have to tell her that Zenn was dead. I never wanted to be the one to tell her that, even if I didn’t like the thought of them together. “I don’t want her to wake up alone.”
“Sure.” Starr left, and I felt that familiar itch under my skin. I wasn’t doing enough. I needed to find a hoverboard and visit every Director within three hundred miles.
“I have to go talk to Zenn,” I whispered to Vi. “Your mom is going to sit with you. I love you.” I pressed a kiss to her forehead as Laurel entered the room.
“Thanks.” I stood up. “Where’s Thane?”
She put her hand on my shoulder, and a strange understanding passed between us. “They’re all waiting on you.”
The bunker where we’d crashed had twisty-turny halls that radiated from one large, circular room. We’d converted the smaller rooms into a dining hall, a kitchen, food storage, and sleeping quarters. Any tech we had here we’d taken from our safe house in Grande.
After Vi had incapacitated the Officer-clones, we’d taken as many tasers as we could carry. We had three food-generating cubes, a handful of scramblers, a half dozen teleporter rings, and enough tech to broadcast a transmission over a specific frequency.
Gunner had given his father’s journal to Zenn, and then Zenn had been tased and taken. I’d had to make another hard decision and evacuate the safe house before he’d returned. I hated that Resistance information could’ve fallen into Hightower’s hands, but I couldn’t do anything about it. And now Zenn had returned.
I entered the room to whispered conversations and the sight of Zenn and Saffediene broadcasting onto the wall. Thane stood at the front of the group, talking about Vi and her expected recovery. Zenn visibly relaxed, and some of the tension seeped from his shoulders. Next to Thane, Trek manned the gadgets to keep the transmission open. My chest tightened. Pace should be doing that. Pace was my tech—