“I’m spontaneous,” I argued, remembering how Gunner had said I didn’t argue when I was right.
General Darke stood up. “Prove it.” He took several steps toward me. “Come with me. Escape this oppression. Live how you want, wherever you want. I’ll give you any city in the Association.”
I swallowed as he stopped directly in front of me. “I’ve been working against people like you for years.”
“I know.” The General smiled. “And it’s not doing you any good. Why not give the other side a try? You might just find that we’re right.”
Time stretched itself into seconds that became minutes. I wanted to argue with the General. Sure, his government functioned. And I had seen the effects of free choice. Riots. Death. Inequality. But that society was free. Which was better?
I felt like I was arguing a losing debate. That deep, buried part of me that had responded when Director Hightower had said, You know I’m right, surged upward.
“Any city?” I asked, hating the weakness in my voice.
“Any city.”
“My friends go free.” I forced some measure of control into my voice.
General Darke put his hand on my shoulder. “Oh, Zenn. They’re not your friends.”
I opened my mouth to protest, to tell him I’d go with him if Vi could go free, if he’d let Saffediene out of that net. He cut me off. “And they will die. Sadly, war has casualties.”
“But—”
He squeezed my shoulder a little too hard. “But nothing, Zenn. Either you’re all in—or all out.” He stepped back. “Your choice.”
I replayed my convo with Saffediene about enacting change from within. I thought about the riot in Harvest, the fires in Baybridge, the relative ease with which General Darke had emptied a city of millions in only a day.
I felt a tear ripping down the middle of my body.
I saw myself helping Jag. I saw him win. I saw myself helping General Director Darke. I saw him win.
I remembered the things I’d said to Vi to keep her out of trouble with the Association. I remembered doing nothing to get Vi out of her brainwashed state in Freedom.
I’d recruited Saffediene. I’d escaped Freedom. I’d flown to city after city, implementing the changes from Gunn’s journal.
And for what? For the opportunity to wear rags and eat expired cans of stew? To watch an Insider-friendly city burn?
How much had I contributed to that? I gave intel to both sides; my reports inspired action on both sides.
I’d played the Informant-Insider for far too long. It was time to choose.
I took a deep breath as Saffediene’s words sounded in my mind. You could always go back undercover. You could make the necessary changes we need—from within.
“I want Freedom.”
Jag
39.
No one stood guard outside the Security Department, but that didn’t make me feel any less nervous. My reports said General Darke had a dozen bodyguards, and who knew what equipment or which talents.
We met no resistance. Vi’s tension infiltrated my senses. I turned toward her, only to find determination etched on her face.
“We’re here,” Vi said, and it sounded so loud in the sleeping city. We touched down in the street and entered the Security Department through a glass door.
I wondered if the monitoring systems in Castledale were still functioning, and if my picture had just been taken, or if our entrance had been logged.
It didn’t matter. Darke was in this building, and I didn’t wait to see who followed me or where they went afterward. I strode forward, my boots making heavy thuds against the metal floor.
I ascended to the top floor with Vi, and we placed our charges down the hall and around the only door. After descending to the lobby, I pressed the button on my belt and my world exploded.
When I woke up, I smelled wet cement and smoke. I wasn’t in the building anymore, and someone crouched nearby, backlit by a flickering orange glow.
I moaned, and the figure turned, scrambling back to me. “Stay down, Jag,” he said. “You took a piece of metal right to the head.”
Jag? I thought. Is that really my name?
The man turned, looking back down the alley. “Vi! He’s awake.”
I didn’t know who Vi was, so I asked, “Who are you?”
Zenn
40.
When General Darke and I left the tunnel, the Security Department still burned brightly against the midnight sky. He didn’t spare it a glance, but I flew backward and watched until I couldn’t see it anymore.
I never saw anyone else flying nearby. I never heard anyone call my name. I’d never felt so alone, not even when I’d left Vi to begin training with the Special Forces or when my father stopped responding to my messages.
We flew all night, using two spare packs to keep the boards going. We arrived in Freedom just as the sun crested the ocean waves.
The city lay in silence, broken and smoldering, the techtric barrier ruined.
Jag
41.
The girl kneeling in front of me stared, her eyes flashing with blue and turquoise and purple. The color purple really freaked me out for some reason, like I’d seen it recently and it meant something bad was about to happen.
She’d come running when the man had called her name. When she spoke, her mouth didn’t move, but her voice echoed in my head.
I’m Violet Schoenfeld, she said. And you’re Jag Barque. Don’t you dare forget.
Easy enough for her to say. Before I could respond, Look, I have forgotten, she whipped around.
“No,” she said, dashing to the corner of the building again. The still-nameless man joined her. “No, no, no.” She watched the sky. Somewhere around that corner, a fire burned. The flames reflected off the tears flowing down Violet Schoenfeld’s face.
When she turned, the look in her eye scared me, scared me, scared me. I flinched away and bumped into a soft body lying next to me.
The girl slept peacefully. Her chest rose and fell in an even rhythm, and her bright yellow hair fell in jagged lines to the dark ground. I felt something for her. Friendship?
I recognized this girl. I’d seen her sleep before. I’d seen another guy keep his hand possessively on her back, showing everyone that they were together.
I took a deep breath, trying to reason through these weird feelings, and trying to place this beautiful Violet girl who seemed to want to punch me and kiss me at the same time.
“Vi?” I said, testing the name the man had called her just after I’d woken up.
She left the corner and strode toward me. “Don’t ‘Vi’ me.” With her words, another vision barged into my mind. One in which this girl shoved me backward. Told me I shouldn’t have left her to cross the border alone. After she forgave me for leaving her in the Goodgrounds, we watched the sunset together, content in the silence that followed.
I loved this girl. “I think I love you,” I said out loud, trying those words in my mouth. They seemed to fit.
Vi sighed, awakening more memories within me. She reached out and pulled me to a standing position. “Come look at this.”
She led me to the corner. I hobbled from the shooting pain in my ankle and the dull pain in my head. Sure enough, a building burned beyond the alley. “The Security Department,” I said, more and more pieces of my life coming to my remembrance. I looked at Vi. My Vi. “We did it.”