“Are you okay?” I asked.
He pressed his lips together tighter. He looked almost angry. For a second, I thought he wasn’t going to answer me, but he finally said, “I should have been there earlier. I was so stupid. I should have found a way to get an encoded message out. I could have warned Milton not to come into work today and gotten you out another way. Now he’s gone, and I almost lost you—” He stopped and clenched his jaw like he was physically holding words back. “I should have done things differently.”
“It’s not your fault, Adrien.” I tried to reach out to touch his shoulder, but my strap held me back.
“I can see the future,” he said, his voice hard. “Whose fault is it but mine?”
“Without you that Inspector would have captured me. You saved me.”
His jaw stayed just as tight. I couldn’t tell if he believed me.
“We’re not safe yet,” he finally said. “Those Regs will be calling for an armada to find us,” he said. “The duo’s cloaking mechanism isn’t built for long runs, but the beta site’s nearby. I should be able to get us there before it wears off.” His voice dropped. “At least I can do this one thing right.”
I stared at him a moment longer in the mirror. My eyes traced the line of his cheekbone down to his strong jaw, clenched in frustration. I took a breath, determined to find the right words to comfort him, but nothing came.
My stomach churned from the speed and sudden drops as we flew on. I squeezed my eyes shut and put a hand on my stomach to try to settle it. I hated the sky. I’d grown up in an underground city in the Community and didn’t think I’d ever get used to the empty expanse above. It was unnatural—all that space. And now we were suspended in it, with only the duo’s whirring engine keeping us from crashing back to earth.
Adrien was quiet for the next half hour as we flew, but he kept running scans for the attack transports who could find us if our cloak wore off. I had time to finally think and process everything that had just happened. I shivered with the realization that Chancellor Bright was enacting her plan. She was the Underchancellor of Defense now. I knew she’d never intended to remain the Chancellor of the Academy for long, but I hadn’t expected her to move so fast. She’d already begun her quiet takeover, and, with her glitcher Gift of compulsion, none of the Uppers in power would see her coming.
I remembered the forced sincerity on her face when she’d offered for me to join her. She promised a utopia with glitchers in charge instead of the corrupt Uppers. I’d even been tempted, until I realized her plan only replaced one oppressive government with another, never changing anything about the Link system that enslaved millions. I’d rejected her offer. And barely escaped with my life.
“Hold on,” Adrien said, breaking into my thoughts. “We’re gonna make our descent now.”
I gripped the black armrests hard as we dropped again, but it wasn’t a quick dive this time. We kept falling and falling until I was sure the engine had failed. I opened my eyes just as the duo slowed suddenly, jerking me forward in my harness strap.
We’d dropped down into a forest. Green surrounded us on all sides, and Adrien slowly navigated the duo through the trees. Leaves slapped at the windows. It was as if the very air sprouted green. Leafy bushes and gigantic trees surrounded us, from above and on every side and the ground below.
I leaned away from the window, remembering the last time I’d been in a forest. It was when I had first met Adrien, six months ago. He’d tried to rescue me from the Community, only to discover once we left the underground city that I was deadly allergic to almost everything on the Surface. I looked down at the rip in my suit, then back out the window. I could only imagine all the billions of allergen particulates surrounding us. If something happened to the last underlayer of my suit here and I was exposed …
“The trees,” I whispered, leaning closer to the glass in spite of my bad memories. “They’re huge.” The trunks were gigantic, several times wider than a person. I’d never seen anything like it.
“It’s old-growth forest,” Adrien said. “This area’s been pretty much left alone over the last two hundred years. Look, you can barely see the sky, the canopy’s so thick overhead.”
I looked up through the top of the windshield, and he was right. Occasionally I’d catch a glimpse of blue, but for the most part the tops of the trees spread a dense canopy. I swallowed hard. I wasn’t sure which was worse—being in the duo up in the open sky or being here surrounded on all sides by deadly greenery.
“But they’re so much bigger than last time.”
“Different forest,” he said. “We’re on the other side of the Sector.”
That meant my home, and my brother, were thousands of miles away. My stomach dropped. Markan was safe for now. I had to focus on that. He was only thirteen, young enough that he’d still be a drone in the underground Community, numb to all thought and emotion. He wouldn’t have felt anything about my disappearance. And if he did become a glitcher like me and wake up, it wouldn’t happen for a couple of years. Most importantly, he was still five years away from getting the adult V-chip, the device that would silence his emotions forever. I had to get him out before then, or he’d be lost.
But I wasn’t sure how I’d be able to rescue him. The Chancellor was hunting me, and even if she weren’t, how was I going to be able to infiltrate the tightly guarded Community? Especially since I couldn’t even count on my power to help me.
Another branch smacked into the window, right near where the Reg had smashed his face. Several long spider cracks spread out from the site.
“Sorry,” Adrien said, gripping the control stick harder and pulling back on it. Our speed slowed more. “There we are.” He slowly came to a stop with the duo hovering over an open spot of ground. A woman appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, carrying a heavy green cloth with her.
She made wide gesturing motions. Adrien popped the lid.
“Out, out, out. I need to cover it so they can’t catch its heat signature.”
Adrien jumped nimbly over the side of the duo to the ground, then held up a hand for me. I took it and hurled myself over. I landed much less gracefully, my thick boots thudding into the ground and sinking a few inches in.
Adrien quickly grabbed the thick cloth in the woman’s hands and they spread it over the vehicle.
“Were you tracked?” she asked.
“No. I think our cloak held just long enough.”
“There,” the woman smiled and let out a breath. Her brown hair was pulled up in a loose bun and she had warm brown eyes. “You took a long time. You don’t know how relieved I was to see the duo’s beacon light. Though I’m surprised it still works, this thing looks so mangled.” She gestured to the ripped-up hood.
“We barely got away.” Adrien’s said, his voice quiet. “And Milton didn’t make it.”
Jilia’s eyebrows furrowed together. “I didn’t know him, but I’m sorry.” She pulled Adrien into a loose hug. “It’s so good to see you.” She was so short, the top of her head only reached the middle of his chest. She pulled back and turned to me. “And you must be Zoe. I’m Jilia, but everyone calls me Doc.”
“Hi.” I tried to take a step toward her, but my boot was stuck. I tugged a little harder and heard a slight suction noise as the ground released it. The bottom half of my boot was covered in a mixture of green and brown sludge. “Ugh,” I muttered, just as I heard a gentle tap, tap, tap on the rounded top of my helmet. I looked up and several drops of water landed on my face mask.