Marcus came first, nodding to Kira in silence and slowly sweeping her with a digital stethoscope; she looked at it quizzically, but he motioned for her to be patient. Xochi and Isolde came a few minutes later, and Kira kept them silent while they watched Marcus search the rest of the room. The scope beeped softly as he ran it past the speaker hub, and he spoke loudly and clearly.
“Hey, Xochi, is it okay if I listen to some music?”
“Sure,” said Xochi, just as clearly. She glanced at Kira, and Kira could see from the gleam in her eyes that she’d figured out what Marcus was doing. They turned to watch him work.
Marcus went to the hub, pulled out a monogrammed pod — KAYLEIGH, 2052—scanned it fruitlessly, then unplugged the hub unit itself and pulled it from the shelf, turning it over and around and examining it from every angle. He paused, looking at the back of it and motioned for the girls to come and see. He pointed through the black metal grille to a small object hidden inside, and they nodded and stepped back.
“Be careful with that drink,” said Xochi. “Last time you almost ruined my player.”
Kira filled a bucket of water in the kitchen and set it in front of Marcus. He crouched over it with the stereo.
“Thanks. Oh, crap—!” He plunged the stereo into the bucket, bugged speaker first, and held it under for a few seconds. He tried the scope again, found no signal, and smiled. He ran a quick scan of both Xochi and Isolde, found nothing, and nodded to Kira. She connected KAYLEIGH, 2052 to a smaller speaker, cranked it as loud as it would go, and set it in the center of the room.
Marcus held up the digital scope. “I was one of the on-call medics when the bomb went off this morning, and I happened to get this thing a little too close to one of Mkele’s listening devices in your lab. Looks like it makes a pretty good detector.” He dropped it on the couch. “The room’s clear, and anyone listening from outside will have a hard time hearing over this.”
Kira looked at each of her friends in turn. “We’re about to commit treason, so if anyone wants to back out, now’s a really good time to do it.”
Xochi looked at Kira. “Is this what I think it is?”
Kira shrugged. “Do you think it’s a plan to attack the hospital, free the Partial, take him home, and conspire with his people to save the world?”
Xochi’s eyes went wide. “Actually no, I wasn’t really thinking that at all.” She shook her head, a quick jerk as if she was shaking water from her face. “Rescue the Partial? Are you serious?”
“They’ve offered a truce, and the Senate has rejected it.” Kira took a deep breath. “If I can work with them I can cure RM — I know I can. But you’ve got to trust me.”
Xochi’s jaw worked up and down, lost for words. Finally she nodded. “I trust you, Kira. Let’s commit some treason.”
“Rock on,” said Marcus. Isolde nodded as well, but looked pale and nervous.
Kira sat down, speaking softly even with the music blaring, just in case. “The Senate has lost it. They blew up the hospital so they could frame Samm, and now they’re going to kill him in a political power play. Madison’s baby is coming any day now, and we still don’t have a cure, and the Voice is practically champing at the bit to stage a coup.”
Xochi grimaced. “What’s the plan?”
“We’ve got to get Samm out of the hospital and off the island,” said Kira. “Start by packing clothes, camping gear, and weapons, and meet me at the corner of Turnpike and Prospect in an hour. Isolde,” she said, unbuckling the pistol holster, “I’ve still got your gun—”
“I can’t go with you.”
“You said you were in,” said Xochi.
“I’ll do everything I can from here,” said Isolde. “I just can’t leave.”
“We’ll need everyone we can get if things go bad out there,” said Kira.
“I can’t go,” Isolde insisted. “If it were just me, I’d be with you, but I’m…” She paused. “I’m pregnant.”
Kira’s jaw fell open. “You’re what?”
“I’m pregnant,” said Isolde. “I found out this morning. You know I’ll help you, but I… I can’t risk it.” She looked Kira in the eyes. “I’m sorry.”
Kira shook her head, still trying to parse the information. She looked at Isolde’s belly, still supermodel flat, then up at her face. “Was it … artificial?”
Isolde shook her head. “Senator Hobb.”
Kira gasped.
“Was it consensual?” snarled Xochi. “Because if it wasn’t, I’m going to take a detour to the Senate chambers on my way out of town, and I’m going to shoot him first.”
“No,” said Isolde quickly, “there was nothing improper — well, I guess he’s my boss, which is improper, but he didn’t force me. I wanted him to. We were working late, and I—”
“Were you drunk?” asked Marcus.
“That’s Isolde’s business,” said Kira. “She said it was her choice.” She flashed Xochi a hard look. “We can shoot him when we get back. Isolde will stay behind and cover our trail. She did it perfectly last time.”
“What is our trail?” asked Marcus. “Even if we can get him out of the hospital, what then? Down through Brooklyn, like you did before?”
Kira shook her head. “They’ll be watching that route as soon as they figure out what we’re doing. We need to head north, and cross the sound.”
The room fell silent; the very idea was terrifying. None of them knew how to pilot a boat, and Xochi was the only strong swimmer in the group. Plus, the land between here and there was riddled with the Voice.
“She’s right,” said Xochi slowly. “There’s too much Defense Grid between us and Manhattan; north is the best way.” She drummed her fingers on the table. “How helpful is this Partial going to be? Does he know where to find a boat?”
“There are boats all along the North Shore,” said Kira. “We see them all the time on salvage runs. All we have to do is find one with a full tank of gas — the gas’ll be old, so it’ll destroy the engine, but it should get us across before the engine dies.”
“If we can make it there,” said Marcus. “The way things are these days, the Voice are more likely than ever to attack a group from East Meadow.”
“They’re not going to go after a bunch of unarmed kids,” said Xochi.
Kira shook her head. “Oh, we’ll be armed.”
“Still,” said Xochi, “they’re revolutionaries, not murderers.”
“You’re planning too far in advance,” said Isolde. “None of this will matter if you can’t get Samm out of the hospital. Or if you can’t even get into the hospital.”
“That’s the hard part,” Kira admitted. “They’re holding him in a reinforced room on the first floor — I saw it on my way out. It’s swarming with guards. If we can find a way to surprise them—”
“He’s actually not there,” said Marcus. Kira raised her eyebrows, and Marcus leaned forward to whisper. “Mkele’s set up the first-floor room as a decoy. Samm’s being held upstairs in the conference room, with just two guards on the door.”
“How do you know?” asked Xochi.
Marcus smiled and looked at Kira. “You know that new fish guy who works the hospital parking lot? I got one of the guards hooked on his oysters, and he asked me to bring him some for dinner tonight. There’s just two of them up there.” He grinned. “It pays to be nice.”
“That’ll help us get in,” said Xochi, “but as soon as we hit that room they’ll call for backup, and we’ll never get out again.”
“How about a diversion?” asked Isolde. “I won’t be with you, so what if I do something to pull all the soldiers’ attention somewhere else?”
“A diversion might work,” said Marcus, “but it’s going to have to be huge — we can’t just distract the guards, we have to put them onto something else and hope to get out in the commotion. But it has to be epic.”
Kira nodded, staring coldly at the floor. If she was in, she needed to be all in.
She spoke slowly. “How about a citywide riot?”
